Apple Inc on Thursday sent out invitations to a Sept. 9 media event, hinting that the Siri virtual assistant software in its mobile devices is to play a role.
In trademark enigmatic style, the e-mailed invitations provided little more than the time and place of the event. Beneath graphics based on the Apple logo was written “Hey Siri, give us a hint.”
The timing of the Apple event did not come as a surprise since the California-based company is known to host September events to announce iPhone updates.
Photo: AP
Rumors about the coming event included the possibility of new iPhone models and news about Apple TV set-top boxes.
Industry trackers expect Apple to unveil new-generation big-screen iPhone 6 models.
The large-screen iPhone 6 has ridden the popularity of “phablets” that blend features of smartphones and tablet computers.
Improvements are likely to include faster processing power and improved camera capabilities along with screens that can distinguish light touches from hard presses for more nuanced controls.
Apple could also use the media event to showcase milestones, such as product sales.
International Data Corp (IDC) on Thursday said that Apple’s freshly launched smartwatch was a hot commodity in the second quarter of this year.
Apple Watch was hot on the heels of activity tracker Fitbit Inc, the top device in the “wearable computing” market, according to IDC estimates. Apple has not released official smartwatch sales figures.
Apple shipped 3.6 million smartwatches to rank second behind Fitbit, which shipped 4.4 million units during the second quarter of this year, according to IDC.
Overall shipments of wearable computing devices increased 223 percent to 18.1 million from the 5.6 million units shipped in the second quarter last year, IDC calculated.
“Anytime Apple enters a new market, not only does it draw attention to itself, but to the market as a whole,” IDC wearables team manager Ramon Llamas said in a note released with the figures.
“Fairly or not, Apple will become the stick against which other wearables are measured, and competing vendors need to stay current or ahead of Apple,” he said.
IDC senior research analyst Jitesh Ubrani said Apple was poised to become the leader of the wearable computing market, with basic devices such as Fitbit activity trackers that do not run third-party applications eventually losing ground.
“In the short history of the wearable market, a clear divide has formed between smart wearables and basic wearables,” IDC said in a release.
“Price and functionality are the main differences between the two categories and that gap is expected to widen over time,” it said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day