Apple Appears Set to Lose Bid for iPhone Display Chip Maker to Synaptics [iOS Blog]
Back in April, rumors indicated Apple was in talks with chipmaker Renesas Electronics over the potential acquisition of its Renesas SP Drivers division, which produces chips for smartphone displays including for the iPhone.
As it turns out, Renesas Electronics appears set to sell its stake in Renesas SP Drivers to Synaptics, another chip manufacturer, instead of Apple. According to Reuters, the talks between Apple and Renesas “failed to make progress”, leading Renesas to move forward with Synaptics. Apple was originally offering 50 billion yen or $479 million for Renasas’ 55 percent stake in the company, which is also partially owned by Sharp and Powerchip.
Apple Inc had also been in talks about a possible purchase of the stake in Renesas SP Driver in what was seen as a potential move to shore up its global supply chain, but the sources said those talks failed to make progress and Renesas had narrowed its consideration to Synaptics.
Apple currently uses chips from Renesas Electronics in its iPhone displays, improving both image sharpness and battery life. It is unclear how a failed acquisition would affect the ongoing relationship between the two companies.
While Reuters suggests that the deal between Renesas and Synaptics is all but certain, Nikkei claims that Apple is still interested but that pricing was a major obstacle.
Apple still seems interested in acquiring the unit. Renesas “hopes to reach an agreement with Synaptics on the sale and will continue to try to persuade Apple to give in,” a person familiar with Renesas’ plans said.
Renesas was also reportedly convinced by some of its non-Apple customers that their access to the company’s components could be cut off if Apple were to acquire the division, driving Renesas to give an edge to Synaptics.
Despite the possible failure to purchase Renesas SP Drivers, Apple’s effort is part of a trend that has seen the company take a keen interest in controlling its own production supplies and core technologies in recent years. Apple recently signed a deal with sapphire producer GT Advanced Technologies and has also purchased several chip firms in the past, including P.A. Semi and Passif Semiconductor.
WWDC Banners Begin Going Up at Moscone Center Ahead of Monday’s Keynote
Ahead of next Monday’s keynote kicking off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple has begun preparations at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. As part of the preparations, banners are beginning to go up in the lobby of Moscone West, including one with the event’s tagline of “Write the Code. Change the World.”
More banners will undoubtedly continue to appear inside the lobby, some of which may tease hints of Apple’s announcement plans. Banners advertising specific details on keynote announcements will remain covered until after the keynote.
Apple’s WWDC keynote kicks off on Monday at 10:00 AM Pacific Time, and the company will be providing a live video stream of the event.
Thanks @KielO
WWDC 2014: What to Expect
WWDC 2014 will kick off on June 2nd with a keynote address from Apple CEO Tim Cook, which Apple will broadcast live. OS X 10.10 and iOS 8 will likely be the focus of the event, but there are a number of other possible topics that may be discussed, including a home automation platform and news on the Beats Electronics acquisition.
Read full article for more details.
Get the LG G3 look with these 10 wallpapers
LG’s hot new flagship smartphone, the G3, might not be available in your neck of the woods for a few more weeks but that doesn’t mean you can’t copy its look on your Android. Somehow, some way, the G3 wallpapers have already been extracted and posted online. These 10 images should be the pre-loaded wallpapers for the upcoming G3. See anything you like?
The post Get the LG G3 look with these 10 wallpapers appeared first on AndroidGuys.
The hacker who helped the FBI stop cyberattacks is now a free man
Lead LulzSec hacker Sabu (aka Hector Xavier Monsegur) was no doubt hoping for leniency when he turned informant, and it looks like his gamble has paid off. A federal court has sentenced him to the time he served in 2012, letting him walk away a free man. As prosecutors explain, Monsegur was a very “productive cooperator” — he provided complete, detailed information that helped the FBI take down LulzSec and stop a string of cyberattacks against both corporate and government targets, including Sony.
The sentence isn’t going to please those who supported LulzSec’s activities, which highlighted both dangerous security holes and questionable government policies. The US relocated Monsegur to help him avoid threats. However, it’s not hard to see why he would help out. Guidelines dictated a prison sentence of between 21 to 26 years, and fellow hacker Jeremy Hammond is serving 10 years for his role — if Monsegur didn’t share info, he was going to spend a large portion of his life behind bars.
[Image credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Internet
Source: New York Times
Comixology is giving away free comics for 20 days
If you’re an iOS user, you’re no doubt unhappy that Amazon made Comixology pull in-app purchases on your platform of choice. However, the service is offering a nice consolation prize: it’s giving away 20 free comics over 20 days, regardless of what technology you’re using. You only need to “buy” a freebie within 24 hours to add it to your collection. You’ll have already missed out on the first offer as we write this (sorry!), but there’s 19 more to be had through June 14th — that should be enough reading to keep you busy on your big vacation.
Via: The eBook Reader
Source: Comixology
#NowPlaying: Twitter and Billboard flip the switch on real-time music charts
Back in March, Billboard and Twitter announced plans to bring real-time tune-tracking charts to the masses. Well, today a couple of those charts went live. The Trending 140 keeps tabs on shared songs in the US, calculated by increased action in the last 60 minutes. As you might expect, you can filter the results for the last 24 hours and stats will get posted weekly as the Billboard Twitter Top Tracks chart. There’s an Emerging Artists ranking too, and it’ll work and be published in the same way. In case you’re wondering what lights up the ticker, tweets containing links to streaming services like Spotify or iTunes, music-specific hashtags (like #nowplaying or a song title) and words like “music,” “song,” or “listen” all weigh into the minute-by-minute tally. In the few minutes it took to write this post, John Mayer, Demi Lovato and Austin Mahone have all spent a moment in the number one spot.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Billboard
The LG G3 has a keyboard that grows, shrinks and learns
Despite an occasionally groan-inducing press conference in London, there’s little denying that LG’s new G3 has plenty going for it (personal aside: I’ve never been more smitten by an LG phone). It’s usually the little things that make the biggest difference, though, and the G3′s thoughtful Smart Keyboard seems to fall right into that category. Why? Because it pays attention.
The keyboard will slowly shift the way it interprets your touches as it learns how you type, though it won’t actually look any different. Do you always type S’s when you want A’s? The G3 will try to discern your meaning and expand the sensing area for the A key if it “thinks” you’re having trouble. That’ll sound more than a little familiar if you’re a BlackBerry buff: a very similar feature is baked into BlackBerry 10′s soft keyboard. You can also manually change the size of the G3′s keyboard, too, a real boon for those of us suffering with sausage fingers or bum eyes. You’ll only be able to stretch and compress the keyboard so much though — at their largest (see above), the keys are spacious and plenty accommodating for my gorilla thumbs, and the smallest is well-suited for preserving precious screen real estate. Throw in the ability to change the symbol keys that appear on either side of the spacebar and you’ve got yourself a pretty flexible way to jot down your innermost ruminations. On some level, it seems a little silly to get worked up over a keyboard (especially when LG has spent the better part of our morning/evening lauding other technical achievements), but it’s always nice to see companies shape our user experiences in subtle, smart ways.
Filed under: Mobile
Facebook will no longer share all of your activity by default
Facebook revoked Instagram’s auto-posting credentials recently, and it looks like the social network is going a lot further than it’s own properties. After noticing that links and other activity shared by knowingly tapping the blue “F” button garner more interest, Zuckerberg & Co. are scaling back the amount of automatically-posted content that shows up in the News Feed. Facebook will give preference to those items in its regularly updated rundown, which means less stuff from third-party apps will pop up in the days to come. However, as The Verge reports, those auto-posts will still populate areas of your profile dedicated to them — such as track-by-track Spotify activity and the like — and will still be used for targeted ads. The move follows last month’s announcement that the folks in Menlo Park were cracking down on spam in its News Feed, but we’d surmise sponsored posts are staying put.
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Via: The Verge
Source: Facebook
Watch the LG G3 launch event live
With the LG event underway, we’ve embedded the live stream below for you to watch the company unveil their flagship LG G3 device.
Watch the company go into great detail about how they have achieved the specs with the LG G3, including what is expected to be a device powered by Android 4.4.2 KitKat, a 5.5-inch 1440×2560 pixel display and a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor. Other specs include 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, and a 3000mAh battery.
The post Watch the LG G3 launch event live appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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