Share Prices Surge for iPhone Chip Maker TSMC Following Record Profits

Shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) have climbed to their highest level on record, bucking a global slowdown in the smartphone market.

Bloomberg reports that TSMC’s profits are attracting investors as demand for Apple’s new iPhones fuels orders for its A10 processor on the back of a broader rally in technology companies over this year.

The world’s largest contract chipmaker has surged 32 percent, and the $156 billion company now accounts for 16 percent of Taiwan’s entire equity market value, which is said to be the biggest proportion according to data stretching back 13 years.

Analysts are said to be unanimous in their recommendation that investors keep hold of their TSMC shares, and with Samsung Electronics faltering after discontinuing the Galaxy Note 7, market watchers predict the stock has room to rise further.

“Samsung’s issues and the perceived benefit for Apple is surely creating some optimism,” said Sandy Mehta, chief executive officer of Value Investment. “TSMC is the best in class. Valuations are not very high for TSMC, and rising estimates have led to investor optimism. The shares could still have upside.”

Analysts predict the company’s net income will increase 30 percent this quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit reportedly climbed 28 percent in the previous three months to $3.1 billion from a year earlier.

TSMC has reportedly secured exclusive orders for the A11 processor expected to power Apple’s 2017 “iPhone 8”. A TSMC spokesperson told Bloomberg the company will “soon” start mass production of chips using 10-nanometer processors, which will be used to build the A11 chip.

Readers interested in how TSMC won exclusivity with Apple for the A10 chip in the iPhone 7 can read MacRumors’ article on the story here.

Related Roundups: iPhone 7, iPhone 8 (2017)
Tags: TSMC, A11 chip
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Samsung runs full-page apology ads in U.S. newspapers over Note 7 recall

Samsung apologizes for botched Note 7 recall.

Samsung took out full-page ads in the The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post to apologize to its customers over the Note 7 recall. Samsung had to issue two recalls before permanently discontinuing the phone last month, and is now in the process of conducting a “careful” investigation of the Note 7 that includes calling in “some of the best independent technical experts in the world” to validate its findings.

The letter pledges the company’s commitment to safety, and is signed by Gregory Lee, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America:

An important tenet of our mission is to offer best-in-class safety and quality. Recently, we fell short on this promise. For this we are truly sorry.

We will re-examine every aspect of the device, including all hardware, software, manufacturing and the overall battery structure. We will move as quickly as possible, but will take the time needed to get the right answers.

Most importantly, safety remains our top priority. We will listen to you, learn from this and act in a way that allows us to earn back your trust. We are grateful for your ongoing support and again, we are truly sorry.

The ad also mentions the 2.8 million top-loading washing machines that Samsung had to recall in the U.S. after it found that the lids were detaching from the chassis during use. Overall, not a great quarter for Samsung, but the company is looking to turn things around with next year’s Galaxy S8, which will see the introduction of its own AI assistant.

The stunning Blue Coral Galaxy S7 edge is now up for pre-order at AT&T

Samsung announced last week that it would offer a Blue Coral color option for the Galaxy S7 edge, and the variant is now up for pre-order at AT&T. You’ll be able to pick one up for $794 outright, $26 per month for 30 months, or $33 monthly via AT&T’s Next plans.

The retailer will ship the color option between November 18 and November 22, with in-store availability likely to kick off after that. The Blue Coral option will be making its way to “select markets” around the globe, so we should be hearing more about its availability in other regions in the coming weeks.

See at AT&T

LG G5 will soon get the sweet taste of Nougat

LG has announced it has begun rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat to the G5 smartphone in its home country of South Korea. The G5 is now the first phone after Google’s own devices that will receive the Nougat update over-the-air. While it’s not surprising that LG is giving its home fans the update first, the good news is the Americas, Asia and “other markets”, which we presume includes the UK, will get the update in the coming weeks.

If you’re an LG G5 owner, you’ll receive a notification telling you when you’re able to download the Nougat OS, which will usher in a wealth of new features and updates to the UI, as well making the phone that bit quicker and smoother.

LG says the update will let you carry out searches from within practically any app and a multi-window mode will let you switch to the most recent app by double tapping on the back button.

Kim Hyung-jung, senior VP of LG’s Mobile’s R&D said” At LG, we know our customers want the best, most up-to-date mobile experiences”.

“Getting software updates to our users faster than the competition is our way of demonstrating that LG is committed to supporting our products and customers to ensure they have a positive ownership experience”.

It’s not the first time LG has offered Nougat on a phone though, as the V20 was the first device to launch with the latest OS out-of-the-box, surpassing even Google’s Pixel devices. The Pixel phones then launched with Android 7.1 Nougat instead.

Sony could launch 4K Xperia smartphone at CES 2017

Two Sony Xperia smartphones recently passed through the European Economics Commission with the model numbers G3112 and G3121. The phones are expected to be the first of a new flagship series and have been tipped to launch at MWC 2017, but now a user on Chinese site Weibo has different ideas.

• Sony will unveil a new series of flagship Xperia phones at MWC 2017

The user, called “Reviewer” has been correct on some leaks and rumours in the past and now says the two phones in question will come with a 5-inch or 5.2-inch full HD and a larger 5.5-inch 4K screen and will launch at CES 2017. The user also says “it will be equipped with 4GB RAM”. It’s not clear if they’re referring to both phones, or just one of them.

Sony was the first manufacturer to put a 4K screen on a phone with the Xperia Z5 Premium while most rival manufacturers offer 2K displays on their devices.

In our tests, we found the Xperia Z5 Premium did perform better than its rivals but for most of the time it was just upscaling content as there’s currently no native 4K content to view on smartphones, unless you make it yourself.

With regards to the CES 2017 unveiling, Sony has usually unveiled new devices at either IFA or MWC, so we’d be surprised if the company launched its new devices in Las Vegas.

There’s no official backing to the rumour on Weibo and Sony hasn’t made any comment, so for now we have to take this with a pinch of salt.

Qualcomm all but confirms OnePlus 3T with Snapdragon 821 processor

Rumours have been circling for some time suggesting OnePlus will release an updated version of the OnePlus 3 smartphone with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor. The OnePlus 3 launched with the Snapdragon 820, just missing out on the launch of the 821.

Adding the 821 processor will not only make the OnePlus 3T faster, but will make it Daydream ready.

• OnePlus 3T: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know

Qualcomm has now sent a tweet from its Twitter account saying “Something from @OnePlus is on the way…and it’s powered by our #Snapdragon 821 processor. Stay tuned.”

Something new from @OnePlus is on the way…and it’s powered by our #Snapdragon 821 processor. Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/3jOyZFRQ5t

— Qualcomm (@Qualcomm) 7 November 2016

 You couldn’t get much more confirmation other than seeing the new phone itself.

• OnePlus 3 review: The flagship killer we’ve been waiting for

It’s likely the new phone will just be a processor update rather than a completely new device, as the OnePlus 3 already has flagship-matching specs. Fingers are pointing to a 14 November launch date, which will make the OnePlus 3T available just in time for Christmas and the perfect partner to a Google Daydream VR headset.

How to solve Sick Building Syndrome at home and work

Sick Building Syndrome is a condition caused by volatile organic compounds (VOC) in large quantities. People and pets release VOCs when they breathe, perspire or digest, but they are also released from other common items, such as carpet, paint, furniture and even printers.

Symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome include headaches and dizziness, nausea, aches and pains, fatigue, poor concentration, shortness of breath, eye or throat irritation and skin irritation. No specific cause is known, but the syndrome is thought to be linked to spending time in a certain building, such as a workplace or your home.

Anyone can be affected by Sick Building Syndrome, and although office workers in modern buildings with mechanical ventilation are most at risk, along with those who do routine work that involves display screen equipment, there have been anecdotal reports of people experiencing symptoms at home too, according to the NHS.

How to measure air quality

There are ways measure VOCs to see whether the air quality in your home or workplace is up to standard, which is the first step in changing it. Elegato’s Eve system includes a device called Eve Room that goes beyond measuring CO2.

Eve Room features MEMS sensors to measure VOCs in addition to humidity and temperature sensors. The MEMS sensor will detect and measure VOCs including alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, organic acids, amines, as well as aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, many of which would remain hidden to a simple CO2 sensor.

After analysing the substances that directly affect your well-being, the Eve Room will convert the measured gas concentration into an equivalent CO2 concentration that is easy to understand. You will be presented with a ppm measurement through the Eve app on an iOS device, which will fall into one of five categories: Excellent, Good, Acceptable, Moderate and Poor. Air quality should be Excellent or Good, which means ppm below 1100.

What to do if the air quality in your building not good

The air quality result will depend on the number of people in the room and the ventilation offered.

If you get a good or acceptable result from Eve Room for your building or home when it is unoccupied, it might be worth considering the cleaning products that are used, as well as the materials of the furniture, wall paint or where any printers or copiers are situated.

It may just be a case of moving a printer into another room, replacing plastic furniture or changing cleaning products in order to improve the air quality.

Changes can be made where necessary, whether that requires you talking to your line manager at work or you making the changes yourself at home but it all starts with first gaining the insight, which Eve Room can offer.

Pebble 2 review: Smart, but not fancy

Before the plethora of Android watches and, eventually, the Apple Watch hit the market, there was Pebble. It wasn’t the first ever smartwatch, but it was the first to excite the tech community with its ping-from-phone alerts and apps and was, for a while, the most successful Kickstarter project ever launched. 

Since those early days we’ve seen several new versions, but none of those models was a true sequel to the original. Models like the Pebble Steel and the Pebble Time family were launched as more premium devices alongside the base plastic model.

Now, finally, we have the Pebble 2 and, at £100, it’s one of the most affordable smartwatches available. But is it any good, or is Pebble’s day done?

Pebble 2 review: Design

• Quick-release 22mm watch strap
• Waterproof to 30m

Just like the first Pebble, the Pebble 2 isn’t exactly an example of fine craftsmanship and elegance. But it is better looking than the first-generation model.

The case is still built almost exclusively from a lightweight and sturdy polycarbonate. It’s waterproof down to 30-metres, so you can take it swimming, or forget to take it off before hopping in the shower, and it’ll survive it just fine.

One improvement for the new model is that the standard three buttons on the right edge are sealed behind a single piece of resistant silicone, rather than by three individual hard buttons as before. The back button on the left sits behind a similar coating.

There are some rather unrefined elements of the design that raise more questions than answers though. There’s the glass surface above the display which protrudes from the rest of the case, instead of being flush with it. Likewise, the heart-rate monitor on the underside is built into its own tiny hump, which never fails to leave a square imprint in your skin.

It’s not uncomfortable to wear, though. Its light build and soft, flexible strap mean you barely notice that it’s on your arm. It does need to be worn fairly snugly for the heart-rate monitor to work, so it isn’t suitable for those who prefer a looser-fitting watch.

One of the added benefits of the Pebble 2 is its quick-release 22mm watch strap. It’s easy to take off, but more importantly it’s easy to find an alternative strap if you’re not besotted with the out-of-box offering.

Pebble 2 review: Display

• Always-on ePaper greyscale display, 114 x 168 pixel resolution
• Manual backlight button to see in the dark

In a world full of AMOLED touchscreens with bright colours and smooth animations, Pebble’s monochromatic square non-touch ePaper display looks decidedly old-fashioned. But it has its plus points.

While other smartwatch displays might be seen as miniaturised versions of what you see on a smartphone, the Pebble 2’s screen is more like a high-tech digital watch screen.

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One of ePaper’s biggest benefits is that it can be on all the time without draining the battery to excess – unlike a colour display with ongoing refresh rate. ePaper doesn’t really consume any power when it’s not animated. And – depending on which watch face you choose – that means it only refreshes once a minute, or once a second.

Its other benefit is that it’s high contrast, which means you can see what’s on the display clearly from any angle. Providing you’re not sitting in a dark room. In those instances where you need a backlight, you can press the back button, which delivers a subtle blue backlight. Just like the digital watches of old.

Because of the way ePaper technology works, it’s actually easier to see the display in bright daylight, since it’s not reflective. So you can head out into sunlight without worrying about having to cover your watch screen to shade it when it gets bright outside.

At 114 x 168 pixels, it’s hardly the sharpest display around – but with the new and improved refresh rate this ePaper screen’s animations look quicker and snappier than before, more fluid than they did on older devices. But they’re nowhere near what a true high refresh rate colour screen is capable. And we can’t help but wish there was a splash of colour for this Pebble – it would liven things up no end, but would also mean an increase in price.

Pebble 2 review: Software

• Android and iOS apps to sync with phone
• Four core control buttons, no touchscreen control

There are a few key elements of Pebble’s software that make it one of the best smartwatch OS’s around, and all of it controlled by four physical buttons.

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The top button on the right edge launches the fitness tracking elements. You press once to to view your steps, press it again to view your current heart rate and again to view your sleeping stats from the night before.

Getting to the main menu is as simple as pressing the middle button. Here you can scroll through your apps and get in to the settings menu.

Pressing the down button from the main watch face takes you to the timeline view – which was first launched on last year’s Pebble Time series. Here you get a quick glance at your upcoming calendar events and weather.

If you want you can assign quick launch functions to each of the four buttons. Long-pressing each of the four will could launch any apps you use frequently. This is particularly useful for functions like the Workout feature (that tracks your running or physical activities), or anything other app you like to use a lot.

When a notification does pop-up on the screen it fills the screen and can be dismissed. If you have anything on your timeline coming up it shows up in a small rectangular window at the bottom of the display. It doesn’t take over, or obscure the screen in the same way Android Wear pop-ups do, and – importantly – it doesn’t come back again once they’ve been dismissed.

In all, Pebble’s operating system is incredibly easy to navigate and uncomplicated, helped mostly by Pebble’s resistance to touchscreens. As smartwatch user interfaces go, there aren’t many that have the level of customisation or lack of clutter like Pebble’s.

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Part of the software experience, of course, is the smartphone app. There’s a version for both Android and iOS, with screens for health and activity tracking, customising and adding watch faces, downloading, customising and installing apps, and a screen for switching off notifications for individual apps. This level of control means you never get a wrist alert for anything you don’t want to see (after some initial tinkering).

Pebble 2 review: Performance

• Voice-control via microphone (Android only)
• Mere 8MB on-board storage

Zipping in and out of options and menus is pretty fast and delay-free on the Pebble 2. But installing new apps, setting new watch faces or customising them can take time – mostly because there’s very little storage space on the watch. There’s a grand total of 8MB of space, so you can’t store music, even if you can control any music app currently playing on your phone.

One of Pebble’s new arsenal of features is the voice action tool. With this you can reply to messages on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Hangouts or SMS by just speaking into the built-in microphone.

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Sadly, in this instance, you’re hard-done by if you have an iPhone: it’s a feature that only works with Android phones, and works well generally, if you have clear speech. It sometimes mistakes similar sounding words, but works pretty much as well as any other dictation available.

Pebble 2 review: Fitness first?

• Built-in heart-rate monitor
• No built-in GPS

As fitness trackers go, the Pebble 2 works just as well as most sub-£100 trackers we’ve ever tested.

Even without built-in GPS, the Pebble has accurately tracked our various three 3-5k runs to within 100 meters. That’s pretty impressive for a device which doesn’t use any location tracking hardware or software. Likewise, its heart-rate monitor does a good job of measuring reliably and consistently.

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The one area that needs work is the sleep-tracking technology. Some nights it accurately tracks sleep awake time and can split between light and heavy sleep. Other nights, it showed bizarre results, like waking up in the middle of the night for an hour, then going back to sleep again – despite the reality of a long, uninterrupted sleep.

The fitness-tracking feature’s biggest issue isn’t the hardware capability, but what Pebble’s health feature does with the information. Or rather, that it doesn’t really do anything with it, except show it in a chart and show you averages for each day of the week. It doesn’t tell you what you need to do to improve, or help in anyway. It’s just data collecting. 

Thankfully, you can opt to have Pebble hook-up with your Up or Misfit accounts to get a better handle on your fitness and health regime, with much better actionable information.

Pebble 2 review: Battery life

• Week of life from a single charge

One of the main benefits of Pebble – and one that’s existed ever since its first generation – is its battery life. While most other smartwatches barely make it to the end of one or two days, the Pebble 2 can make it through an entire week on a single charge. 

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Even after tracking several running sessions, constantly tracking heart-rate and sleep tracking through the night (as well as all the usual notification mirroring), the Pebble took five full days to get down to 20 per cent capacity in our use.

That kind of battery performance offers incredible peace of mind. It means you don’t have to take another charging cable with you when you go away for a long weekend, or even if you’re away for a full week. It means one less power outlet or USB port being used frequently.

Verdict

For a £100 device, the Pebble 2 has a lot going for it. It’s truly cross-platform so that you can use it with an Android phone or iPhone. It has amazing battery life and a user interface that’s very simple to use and understand.

The lack of a colour screen, on-board GPS tracking and its less-than-wonderful hardware design are all downers, sure, but the Pebble 2 is still great value for money – even if it can’t impress the eyes as much as some better finished and higher-end competition.

Notably it even has some of the features seen on popular high-end fitness trackers – such as a heart-rate monitor – most of which cost even more than a Pebble 2. Think of it in that way and the Pebble 2, with few notifications synched to your phone, could be an ideal tracker purchase.

Overall, at this price point you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything as feature-rich and reliable as the Pebble 2. That’s why, in our view, Pebble hasn’t yet had its day.

Electric Jukebox’s £169 TV dongle for music is finally ready

Remember the Electric Jukebox, the two-part music gadget designed for non-Spotify types? If your answer is a resounding no, nobody would blame you; the company unveiled the product over a year ago and stayed almost silent, at least until today. With Christmas fast approaching, Electric Jukebox finally has some good news to share: the eponymous streaming device with its wand-like controller and one-year premium music subscription will officially go on sale for £169 from midnight today.

Backed by Robbie Williams, Stephen Fry, Alesha Dixon and Sheryl Crow, the Electric Jukebox is designed around your TV. Seriously, it won’t work on anything else. The streaming device plugs directly into the HDMI port, which can then be navigated using the wireless controller. The peripheral is home to a motion sensor and microphone — allowing for gesture control and voice searches — and there are four buttons on the front: at the top is a large OK, a back and pause in the middle and at the bottom button invokes voice commands.

“I’m not after the Spotify customer,” says Rob Lewis, co-creator of the Electric Jukebox, told Engadget last year. “I’m after everyone else.” That suggests Electric Jukebox is after the older customer, who wants to listen to music but not trawl through endless lists of tracks or pull out their smartphone. Voice searches remove some of those headaches, as does the simplistic Neon Broadway UI that puts artist hubs and curated playlists at the forefront. Because it all happens on your TV, Electric Jukebox hopes that listening to music will become more collaborative, with friends and family gathering to sing along to any one of 29 million available tracks.

The Electric Jukebox comes with a one-year music subscription right out of the box, but when that runs out, the company needs a way to ensure owners remain invested in the platform. In a bid to keep music “affordable and easy to access,” its pricing additional music passes at £52 a year (£1 per week). That’s less than the half the price of Spotify, Apple Music and Google Music.

To begin with, Selfridges, Argos, Amazon and “a major TV network” are on board to sell the Electric Jukebox when it goes on sale tomorrow. We’ll have to wait until later this month to find out which network that is, but QVC would be a logical guess. We hope to put it through its paces in the coming weeks, just in case you need some real feedback before pulling the trigger.

Source: Electric Jukebox