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Volkswagen AG’s Škoda subsidiary claims it’s interested in bringing the value-packed Czech brand to the U.S., even going as far as copyrighting model names, but the powers that be in Wolfsburg couldn’t hate the idea more.
According to comments published by Automobile Magazine, Volkswagen execs want nothing to do with the idea of a stateside Škoda. It looks like the surging brand’s parent company is prepared to kill the dream for good. (Read More…)
You want a Škoda Kodiaq. Your neighbor wants a Škoda Kodiaq. I want a Škoda Kodiaq. Naturally, we all want Škoda Kodiaqs, because the grass is always greener on the other side.
But what if the Kodiaq wasn’t only available on the other side of the Atlantic? What if persistent talk of a potential North American Škoda return resulted in a Kodiaq on sale at a dealer near you? How inexpensive would the Kodiaq need to be in order for your persistent desire for unobtanium turn in to a real purchasing decision?
Škoda would likely charge in the neighborhood of USD $24,995 if the Kodiaq, set to go on sale across the pond in April 2017, made its way to the United States. (Read More…)
A Czech SUV that borrows its name from an Alaskan town, island and bear has been revealed ahead of its launch later today.
The Škoda Kodiaq has been teased by the surging automaker throughout its lengthy development, but here it is in the flesh. The low-resolution images leaked on the Serbian enthusiast forum Skodaforum.rs earlier today. Will it show up in America, or is a corporate cousin too close? (Read More…)
North American motorists with a hunger for foreign badges will have to wait a little longer for a yes/no answer from Škoda.
The Czech subsidiary of Volkswagen Group will make up its mind on a possible entry into the North American market by next year, CEO Bernhard Maier said to German newspaper Handelsblatt (via Wards Auto). (Read More…)
The hints keep piling up that the Škoda brand could one day arrive on our shores.
Volkswagen Group’s Czech subsidiary keeps dropping clues that it wants to enter the U.S. market, but the surging automaker’s CEO recently added his own voice to the rumor mill, according to Autocar. Company head Bernhard Maier said if the automaker does head to America, it already has the vehicle U.S. buyers want. (Read More…)
Czech vehicle names and badging are piling up at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, adding fuel to the rumors of a stateside Škoda launch.
On July 14, Škoda Auto filed a trademark application for VRS, which is the performance variant of the brand’s Octavia lineup. If the Czechs do invade the American marketplace, they might bring something fun with them. (Read More…)
There’s been much talk lately about the possibility of Czech automaker Škoda entering the American market, spurred by news of the brand trademarking some model names in the USA.
The idea is that Škoda could complement or even replace Volkswagen on American soil with its larger, cheaper cars. But can it make sense? Can Škoda offer something that VW can’t? Is it better suited to American tastes? And, is it cheap enough? Let’s look at all these question with the eyes of someone who’s familiar both with Škodas and with American cars and consumer tastes.
America — would you buy a modern Škoda?
According to AutoGuide, Škoda submitted four separate trademark applications for “Skoda Superb”, “Superb”, “Octavia”, and “Yeti” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on May 24 and May 25, 2016. USPTO has yet to publish them for opposition.
While this is nothing new for Škoda (the company has continually filed trademarks in America since the 1920s), it’s worth noting what the company applied to trademark compared to what it usually trademarks.
Call it a friendly occupation.
The Czech Škoda brand chose a tough-sounding name for its upcoming Kodiaq SUV, but the Alaskan town (and bear, and island) that inspired its name was left with one “k” too many.
Something had to change. So, the townsfolk went to work bringing the two names into line for one day only, as Škoda’s cameras rolled. (Read More…)
Volkswagen’s slow roll-out of fixes for recalled diesel vehicles in Europe has hit a snag.
Authorities in Europe have put the brakes on a series of Volkswagen recalls after greater fuel consumption was allegedly recorded in models that have undergone the diesel emissions fix, Automotive News Europe is reporting.
Reports say that fuel economy suffered after the fix, forcing Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) to halt the repairs of 2.0-liter Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda models.
Volkswagen will officially recall all of its illegally polluting diesel engines in Germany, German newspaper Die Welt reported Monday (via Reuters), the first step in a wave of recalls to fix 11 million cars worldwide.
Roughly 2.5 million cars in Germany will be recalled — 1.5 million Volkswagens, 500,000 Audi and 500,000 Skoda- and Seat-branded cars — with work beginning in January. Last week, the German transportation authority approved Volkswagen’s fix for 1.6-liter cars, which included an “air calming” pipe ahead of the intake’s air sensor. The company’s 1.2- and 2-liter cars may only need software fixes.
Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board will review Volkswagen’s proposal submitted earlier this month for fixing 482,000 cars in the U.S. It’s unclear what those fixes may be. During congressional testimony in October, Volkswagen of America chief Michael Horn said it would be a combination of hardware and software fixes.
Volkswagen in Germany announced Wednesday its fix for millions of its 1.6- and 2-liter diesel engines in Europe that are illegally spewing nitrogen oxides and have cost the company billions in a massive worldwide scandal.
According to the automaker, a small “flow transformer” would be fitted in front of the air mass sensor in 1.6-liter, EA189 engines. The small transformer will calm air leaving the air filter before reaching the sensor. Volkswagen says the calmer air will allow the sensor to more accurately measure airflow for combustion. The fix would take less than an hour. For 2-liter engines, the proposed fix would be a software update and would take 30 minutes. Both plans have been approved by the German transportation authority.
Both fixes may be headed to cars in the U.S. However, the announced plan was in Germany for engines only on sale in most of Europe. Volkswagen submitted its U.S. plan last week to the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board, but details of that plan haven’t been released.
Update: A spokesman for Volkswagen of America said U.S. cars aren’t affected.
Volkswagen announced Friday that more than 400,000 of its cars with “irregularities” in reported carbon dioxide emissions were new cars, which could shed new light on how many more cars the beleaguered automaker would have to pay for.
This month, Volkswagen announced 800,000 cars emitted more carbon dioxide than reported to regulators. Of those cars, Volkswagen announced Friday that 430,000 were 2016 models across many of the automaker’s brands including Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Seat. It’s unclear how many older models may be added to the list of cars that emit more carbon dioxide. (Read More…)
Volkswagen on Monday said that internal testing revealed 800,000 Volkswagen cars may emit more carbon dioxide than reported and could cost the company $2.1 billion more in penalties.
New CEO Matthias Müller apologized for the deception.
“The Board of Management of Volkswagen AG deeply regrets this situation and wishes to underscore its determination to systematically continue along the present path of clarification and transparency,” he said in a statement. (Read More…)
Volkswagen Group will recall 8.5 million vehicles in the European Union’s 28 member states, including the 2.4 million vehicles it is already being forced to recall by the KBA, Germany’s transportation authority, the automaker announced Thursday.
Vehicles from the Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda brands are included in the recall. The latest EA 288 diesel engine is not part of the recall.
Volkswagen said it will begin to rollout fixes in January 2016.


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The Windows 10 Weibo app has updated with added support for Microsoft’s Xbox One video game console. Weibo is a hugely popular social network in China and kind of works like a combination of Twitter and Facebook. Microsoft even runs ... Read more
Companies often tease their upcoming products, but rarely do they tease unintentionally. Recently, Microsoft in China inadvertently posted a teaser of Windows 9, asking them about their predictions about the return of the legendary Start Menu. Microsoft China posted on Weibo, ""Microsoft’s latest ... Read more
Bing is apparently suffering widespread outages in China, starting late Wednesday local time. A VentureBeat report says that Microsoft is aware of the reports and are investigating. The post points to Reddit's r/China, where numerous posters from across the country ... Read more
An image of a newly discovered Chinese tomb, which bears a remarkable resemblance to Microsoft's Xbox logo, was posted on Twitter by user, Xbao, earlier this week. The image quickly garnered a lot of attention from gamers and even received ... Read more
Microsoft is sending out emails to Skype users notifying them that Google, LinkedIn or Yahoo connections will no longer auto-populate in Skype, but this change will also affect Outlook.com accounts.
The Windows 10 Video 360 app is expected to get an update sometime this week that will bring it to Xbox One consoles according to a tweet from one of its developers. “May the #XboxOne could have a 360 degrees ... Read more
Take a look at the top news surrounding Microsoft this week, from the LinkedIn acquisition looking likely in the EU, to great Black Friday deals and more.
In a post on NeoGAF (originally posted on Weibo), there appears to be more evidence that Microsoft has a second iteration of Xbox One on the way. According to the leaked screenshot and rough translation, the production notes point to Microsoft ... Read more
MediaFire is the latest Universal Windows 10 app now available in the Windows Store. MediaFire lets you access your files, photos, videos, music, or documents from any Windows 10 device. MediaFire offers users file hosting, file synchronization, and cloud storage. ... Read more
Microsoft is adding another prototype dream device to its list of canceled projects. The Nokia ‘Moonraker’ has surfaced in images as a potential smartwatch that Microsoft saw fit to keep shelved rather than release it to the masses. Twitter user ... Read more

domain: news


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Pixar has just revealed the first trailer for Lightyear, its upcoming adventure romp that takes the classic Toy Story character to new heights. However, this isn't about the Tim Allen-voiced action figure. Instead, it's about the "real" human astronaut who served as inspiration for the iconic toy line in the movie universe. Clever.
Due out next year, Chris Evans (Captain America) lends his voice to the legendary space explorer. The vibe of the trailer feels right — plus, David Bowie’s “Starman" never hurts — and we are all for some Top Gun-inspired action sequences.


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The VAT and Corporation Tax saga
The Ins and Outs
In light of recent talks about the International Monetary Fund’s recommendation to the UAE to introduce Value Added Tax (VAT) as well as federal-wide corporate taxation, both qualms and concerns have been expressed from investors and expats residing in the country. In this sector study, Capital Business takes a look into this topic and presents different views from experts at key firms in the country in order to better understand this issue and its implications.
The UAE has long been a safe haven for investors and a great place to do business due to its tax free environment. However, the country is slowly moving towards introducing new taxes that could change the economic scene. “The introduction of corporate tax and VAT in the UAE has always been a question of when, not if. For government spending on infrastructure and services to be maintained and increased in the future, sustainable revenues based on business success and economic growth must be established for the long term,” states Edward Mainwaring Burton, Senior Financial Planner, deVere Acuma.
The IMF believes that the UAE should consider raising non-hydrocarbon revenues by introducing a VAT, in coordination with the GCC countries, and broadening corporate income and excise taxes.
“The introduction of VAT or Corporate Tax (or both), which are considered as broad based tax systems, would help the Government to achieve its social and economic policy goals in notably reducing its high reliance on hydrocarbon revenues, and would ensure alternative sustainable sources of revenues to the Federal Government,” says Jeanine Daou, Partner, PwC.
She continues, “Successful implementation of any taxation will require the Government to consider several factors as a measure of ensuring its readiness for the new system, including the UAE’s global competitiveness’ position, legislation currently applied in the free trade zones, and the preparedness of business in complying with the new taxation.”
However, this step has its own set of pros and cons says Dr. Reyadh Al Kabban, Founder and Managing Director, Al Kabban & Associates. “While the addition of VAT and corporate tax would add a further source of government revenue that could be put towards improving an already impressive infrastructure, it would also increase the UAE resident’s cost of living as businesses would look to compensate for tax payments by recovering it from the consumer.”
Commenting on the same, Cathryn Vanderspar, Partner, Head of Tax, Eversheds notes that “At a governmental level it is hoped that the introduction of a tax base in the UAE will reduce dependency on subsidy and exposure to the oil price and the dollar. However, the economic and social impact of a corporation tax and a value added tax (VAT) implications will depend on exactly what and who the taxes apply to and the rates imposed.”
The UAE’s ministry of finance affirmed that once a final agreement on imposing a VAT law is reached, there will be an 18 month grace period for concerned sectors and entities to implement and fulfill the requirements of their tax obligations. “It has been suggested that VAT would be set at a rate not exceeding 5%, which may not hamper consumer spending to a large extent. However, any reduction in consumer spending would impact businesses negatively given that their expenses would be increased by the introduction of corporate taxes,” affirms Dr. Reyadh.
Elaborating further on this, Jameel Ahmad, Chief Market Analyst, FXTM says, “The introduction of corporate tax might weigh on investors’ minds, the UAE will remain attractive to employers when you consider that the country has other benefits such as lower labor costs and that the implementation of a minimum wage has not yet been discussed.”
The IMF has told the country’s economists that the taxes could generate an additional 7.4 percent of non-hydrocarbon domestic product, replacing some of the $42 billion the UAE is expected to lose from oil export revenues this year, compared to 2014.
Talking about the influence these reforms will have on the economy, Jeanine sees that one of the main objectives of tax reforms is to finance public expenditures. “The expected inflows from the new revenue streams will enhance Federal Government budget, granting it additional leverage to invest in growth enhancing sectors hence stimulating the economy. The IMF has recently estimated that adopting a corporate tax at a rate of 10 percent applicable on a broad base would raise Government revenue by 4.1 percent of non-hydrocarbon GDP, whereas the implementation of a VAT system at a 5 percent rate would increase Government revenue by 2.7 percent of non-hydrocarbon GDP.”
In their comments, participants in this study agree that the impact of VAT will not be significant, however the compliance burden and the impact of corporate taxes will be noteworthy. “Experience shows that, even if the tax itself is not a significant cost, the compliance burden may be significant indeed. For individuals it will mean higher prices for the goods and services it applies to. Clearly, the choice of goods and services will matter,” says Cathryn.
Supporting this point, Akber Naqvi, Executive Director & Head of Asset Management, Al Masah Capital affirms that the introduction of VAT will have a limited and most importantly, controlled impact on the overall economy, while corporate tax is more likely to discourage businesses considering investment in the region and will more negatively impact GDP growth. He continues, “The corporate tax does not sit well with long-term tax exemptions that have been promised to free-zones or the tax-free economic planning strategies that have been developed over time. Therefore, while the introduction of VAT at this point will be much more easier and acceptable and will pave the way for full suite of taxes in the future, corporate taxes will be slightly stressful for the business community and consumers.”
Elaborating furthermore, he says, “The impact of corporate taxes will be much more dramatic, especially when UAE offers the most benign corporate taxation regime of any GCC country at this time. Therefore, corporate taxes will not only diminish the ‘tax-free’ image that the country has so very well leveraged in the past but will also adversely impact the regional competitiveness. Further, decrease in shareholders’ returns will put off future investments in the region while businesses will look to optimize operating costs by scaling back annual salary increases, which will negatively affect the overall domestic consumption.”
The UAE is already considered as a relatively expensive place to live in. On this note, Fathi Ben Grira, CEO, Menacorp says, “VAT will automatically increase living costs for residents. However, if we can expect that consumers will adjust their spending level accordingly, I don’t believe that it will result in an expat exodus as the country offers unparalleled opportunities compared to most of other places in the world.”
Moreover, a comprehensive and well-structured tax regime is a common trait among developed and well-managed economies and is useful for building national economic stability and funding public services explains Edward.
Yet, the introduction of VAT in the UAE, which would make goods and services more expensive will eventually drive people to reduce their savings. On this note, Dr. Reyadh declares, “Once introduced, we would expect a decrease in consumer spending, the extent of which will depend on the rate of VAT. Businesses may slow down initially depending on the manner in which the VAT is introduced, however their employees would be facing increased cost of living and could start demanding an increase in salary which the businesses might not be able to provide for. The above represents speculation which cannot be confirmed until further details of the legislation is provided and the manner in which it will be introduced is explained.”
Commenting on the same matter, Marcus Gent, Managing Director, Friends Provident International says, “The introduction of VAT would inevitably mean that people’s disposable income is reduced to an extent, but this will largely depend on their lifestyle. Some may be forced to economize in certain areas as they adjust to the new tax and this could mean that some are tempted to reduce – or to stop paying altogether – premiums on their savings and protection plans. I would urge anyone considering this to think long and hard before making such a decision, and to take appropriate financial advice before doing so.” He further explains that in the absence of a pension system for expatriates, individuals have to make adequate provision for a comfortable retirement – or for whatever they want from life – and to protect themselves and their families against the consequences of dying prematurely or falling seriously ill.
Talking about the impacts corporate taxations will have on businesses, Jameel says, “Starting with the corporate tax, we might see entities attempt to downscale on employee pay and bonuses to offset the additional costs of operating in the UAE but this is unlikely to limit consumer spending on a domestic level. I would not expect the implementation of a corporate tax to lead to major corporations leaving the UAE, however it would likely impact some of the attraction for companies who were possibly considering entering the Emirates.”
Moreover, he adds, “In regards to the added sales tax, it is currently expected that the VAT will only be added to luxury goods meaning that it would only impact the wealthiest of residents in the UAE. If this was an income tax introduction, then there would be a larger threat of this impacting the UAE’s pulling power when it comes to attracting top talent. With it currently being suggested that an income tax introduction is not currently on the table, I would not expect expatriates to consider leaving the Emirates.”
From a business perspective, VAT should not constitute an additional cost for businesses reads Jeanine. “Nonetheless, businesses should look into their commercial strategies in light of a potential shift in demand and consumers’ spending, as an approach to properly anticipate the changes and ensure a smooth transition. Moreover, businesses should have in place appropriate systems, processes and knowledge to efficiently and accurately fulfil compliance requirements.”
Will the UAE lose its competitive advantage?
Residents in the UAE voiced their concerns loudly about the possibility that this new regime might compel the country to lessen its competitive advantage, yet some people would argue that.
“The UAE will be less competitive than it is today”, says Fathi. “But, it will remain competitive enough if compared to other countries as these new taxes will be moderate.”
“Competitiveness needs to be measured according to various indicators and tax is only one of them,” notes Jeanine. “The World Economic Forum’s 2014-2015 annual Global Competitiveness Report placed the UAE 12th globally and in pole position in the Middle East, indicating a highly attractive business environment.”
She continues by stressing the fact that the introduction of new taxes would certainly impact investment attractiveness but the way the new tax system is designed is as important as the level of taxes levied. “There is also a need to compare the taxes introduced with other countries in the region and globally knowing that very few countries do not levy currently Corporate Tax and that recent trends show an increase in VAT rate in a large number of economies. The envisaged VAT rate in the UAE at a relatively low level and that is levied on an unburdened economy should not affect significantly the UAE’s global competitiveness.”
On the other hand, and given that all GCC nations will be introducing VAT and corporate taxes with the UAE, Dr. Reyadh declares, “We don’t believe that the UAE will lose its appeal for those wishing to reside and work in the GCC as they will be compensated for rising costs by the businesses that adapt to the changing economic environment. However, we do believe that it will have a negative impact on business men and international corporations looking to invest and establish themselves in the UAE or GCC until further clarity on the new laws is provided.”
Supporting this point, Akber confirms that the implementation of indirect taxes will certainly increase the cost of living. “However, UAE’s competitiveness as an employment market is no longer limited to low-tax image but also involves other factors such as economic and political stability, world class infrastructure and cultural leniency. The UAE will continue to rank very highly on these factors and therefore, despite the implementation of taxes, will likely remain the most attractive destination for foreigners to work and live in amongst the GCC countries.”
Elaborating furthermore, Akber sees that one key consideration would be the status of free trade zones under the new tax regime. “UAE’s free zones are a huge attraction amongst foreign investors and keeping them exempt from taxes will be a good way to ensure that investor interest remains high going forward. Further, this will also negate any regional competition from countries such as Iran (especially with removal of UN sanctions), which may try to leverage this opportunity by offering ‘tax breaks’ to foreign businesses.”
Also expressing great confidence in the UAE, Fathi proclaims that the UAE will remain a success story for the foreseeable future. “The world’s economy is not in a great shape and the UAE is one of the very few pockets of growth. It’s also the safe haven of the region and the center of the new world (at the intersection of CIS countries, Africa and the Indian sub-continent). It’s much more than a tax free environment. As long as the new taxes are moderate and simple, international investors will keep on investing in the UAE.”
Nevertheless, these taxes will certainly translate into optimistic opportunities in the long run. Jeanineconsiders that “From a macro perspective, the expected revenue streams to be generated from these taxes could be positively utilized to create an environment that allows for long-term sustainable growth, along with the expected jobs creation.”
Furthermore, Edward strongly believes that although foreign investors may see a short-term reduction in their potential gains due to taxes being imposed, the new structure will actually attract more investment. “As the country begins to show a further reduced dependence on oil and more developed fiscal and financial frameworks, perceived security for the long term will be greatly increased.”
He also adds, “Interestingly enough, of the top ten most competitive economies in the world according to the World Economic Forum, none are free of corporation tax and most are also among the harshest tax regimes in the world. The fact is that tax-free jurisdictions are often attractive for established foreign companies that wish to take advantage of that system to reduce overheads and expand but are not as conducive to home-grown innovation and fresh ideas.”
Accordingly, after having revealed various opinions on the VAT and Corporation Tax in the UAE, it is clear to note that there is nothing alarming about the country’s situation at the moment. This reform, if and once implemented, will change the economic landscape adding more obligations on residents and increasing the cost of doing business for corporates. But clearly, this will not subtract from the country’s fortunes, as revenues gained from these taxes could help develop business conditions further.


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Samsung unveils double-sided LCDs
Breakthrough display technology to showcase at CES
Samsung Electronics has announced two technology breakthroughs on the eve of the Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The company is promising the first double-sided LCD display, and a broadcast digital television system for cars and mobile devices.
Samsung’s new double-sided LCD can show two entirely different pictures simultaneously on the front and back of the same 2.22in screen.
Yun Jin-hyuk, executive vice president at Samsung’s Mobile Display Division, is predicting high demand when the company begins mass production in the first half of 2007.
Full story: vnunet.com


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The average media age of an American worker is 42.3, but for some in the tech industry, it's much lower. The youngest in Silicon Valley were found at Facebook and Zynga, where both median ages are a youthful 28, according to a report.
The news comes from PayScale, a company that provides industry income information online, reported that tech companies tended to have the youngest workers. Google's median age was 29, while AOL, Blizzard Entertainment and Infosys's median age was 30. Hewlett-Packard came at the end of the pack with an average age of 41, the New York Times reported. (According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics only retail clothing and shoe stores and restaurants have workers under 30, so tech workers have something in common there.)


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Apple unveils new IPads amid crowded market for holidays
|Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new iPad Air on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)|
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Apple Inc. on Tuesday introduced new iPads in time for holiday shoppers, as it battles to stay ahead of rivals in the increasingly crowded market for tablet computers.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook debuted a new iPad mini with a high-definition screen, as well as a thinner and lighter design for the larger iPad named the iPad Air. The iPad Air goes on sale on Nov. 1, starting at $499. The iPad mini will be available later in November starting at $399, higher than the previous model's starting price of $329.
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- Amazon unveils Kindle Fire HDX with 24/7 live help
- State to lend Kayak $2.5m to help it renovate Stamford building
- State regulators cut Aquarion's proposed rate hike in half
- Biotech firm Arvinas to get $4.25M in state aid
- Conn. lawmakers pitch expansion of video gambling
- Foxwoods breaks ground on $115M outlet shops
- Naugatuck Savings Bank's name change to Ion Bank set for Oct. 21
- Report: Conn. housing units OK'd most for August since 2007
- Maximum state unemployment benefit falls for first time in decades
- 'Nomorobo' software writer explains his solution to annoying robocalls


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We've been hearing about a certain 5-inch HTC phablet for Verizon since July, but it looks like its Japanese counterpart may actually hit the market first. Unveiled by KDDI as the HTC J Butterfly (HTL21), this Android 4.1 device is the first announced phone to feature a 5-inch, 440ppi full-HD "Super LCD 3" panel, and it's fittingly complemented by a 1.5GHz quad-core APQ8064 underneath, making this the latest member in the small family of Snapdragon S4 Pro phones. There's an eight-megapixel camera that naturally handles 1080p video at the back, accompanied by a 2.1-megapixel front-facing imager. Other details include 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, microSDHC expansion, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 (LE), NFC, LTE and CDMA/GSM/UMTS/GPRS radios -- that's right, it's a global device. Not bad for a 140g package, and it's waterproof as well, rated at IPX5. But the question is how well will the 2,020mAh battery last under that super dense LCD and high-end processor? Only time will tell -- even KDDI has yet to finalize this part of the specs. Folks on the KDDI network can grab hold of this powerful phone in early December, with a choice of red, white or black.
Update: HTC confirmed to us that this phablet will use panels supplied by Sharp and JDI.


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Unlike a number of other nations – especially some countries in Europe – the US is currently not dealing with general price declines. However, the risks of such an occurrence have increased materially. This for example can be seen in the intermediate-term market-based inflation expectations, which have fallen to 2009 levels – when deflation was a serious concern.
There has been a bit of confusion about what today’s FOMC announcement means with respect to Quantitative Easing. The statement says that ” the Committee decided to conclude its asset purchase program this month”. It’s important to point out that while this is the end of the Fed’s bond purchases (for now), the US monetary expansion has ended this past summer. The outcome is visible in the the banking system’s excess reserves, which flattened out around July.
As discussed here back in April, US labor markets continue to heal, with Friday’s payrolls gains putting 2014 on track to be the best year for job growth since the late 90s. Now many are asking just how far is the employment situation from “normalizing”. Of course it all depends on the metrics used….
Economists and central bankers tend to be less focused on what consumers pay at the grocery store because food and energy prices have historically been more volatile – remember, it’s just “noise”. However what they can’t ignore is how shoppers view inflation – i.e. inflation expectations. And food prices have a significant impact on households’ views on future inflation.


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Paint sheds water and dirt like a duck
One of the more irritating aspects of owning a car is having to wash it frequently. You don’t necessarily have to wash a car, but if you want it to last you really need to. Nissan is talking up a new paint coating that it has invented and is testing that helps eliminate the need to wash your car reports Mashable.
The special paint is a super-hydrophobic paint called Ultra-Ever Dry. The paint has been made by UltraTech international to be very water and oil resistant.
“By creating a protective layer of air between the paint and environment, it effectively stops standing water and road spray from creating dirty marks on the car’s surface,” the carmaker said in a statement.
The paint is currently being tested on a Nissan Note and has reportedly “responded well” to normal weather conditions. it has been tested in sleet, frost, snow, and standing water and come out unscathed far. Nissan plans to continue testing the paint in the next few months.
And four out of five cars being washed belong to black people. Audis, Benzes, BMWs. And a dog-hair choked Nissan.
— lpolgreen 1 year 36 weeks ago.
For now, Nissan says it has no plans to offer the special paint as a factory feature, but it is considering offering it as an aftermarket product. That would seem to imply that the special paint could be applied to any car sort of like a paint protectant. Check out the video here to see the special paint in action. It appears to work very well with mud and water simply falling off the surface of the body panels.
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7 out of 10 consumers would give up personal details for a discount code
May 2022 by Atlas VPN
Online privacy has come into the spotlight in recent years like never before.
According to the recent findings by the Atlas VPN team, 73% of consumers would provide at least one personal detail to an app or a website in exchange for a $20 discount code. Furthermore, 52% of people believe there is no such thing as online privacy.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of consumers would willingly share their email address to an app or website to get a $20 coupon code. If the email address does not contain your personal information, providing it to a website might not corrupt your privacy.
About one in three (31%) customers would voluntarily submit their full name to get a discount code. If the website were to be hacked, people who entered their names would leak their sensitive information to cybercriminals.
Almost one out of four (23%) consumers would exchange their phone number for a $20 coupon code. Cybercriminals could target the person’s leaked phone number with smishing attacks and scam calls.
On the other hand, 27% would not provide any of their personal details for the $20 coupon.
Cybersecurity writer at Atlas VPN Vilius Kardelis shares his thoughts on online privacy:
“While online privacy depends a lot on big tech companies’ approach to it, people can take action to control privacy in their own hands. Using a VPN and ad blockers can help reduce your digital footprint significantly. Being mindful of where you give out your personal information and its handling is essential when protecting your online privacy.”
Online privacy does not exist
Consumers believe the government should go beyond crime prevention to regulate digital advertising.
One out of five (20%) consumers believes that they have control of their digital data. At the same time, 29% of people like it when the digital ads they see are relevant to them. However, more than half, 52%, of customers think there is no such thing as online privacy.
Many people believe that other institutions should do more to protect their online privacy. For example, 43% of consumers feel that government should step up to ensure more digital privacy, while 55% wish private companies would do more for their anonymity.
Interestingly enough, 38% of customers think their mobile phone listens to their conversations and suggests buying products based on what it hears.


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Microsoft Corporation has admitted earlier this week that Red Hat and Canonical are competitors of the Windows Client business. The acknowledgment was revealed in the annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Including Red Hat’s Linux in the filing was influenced by the open source operating system’s growth in market share driven by netbooks.
“Netbooks opened Microsoft to the possibility that some other OS could get its grip on the desktop, however briefly,” stated Microsoft Director of Research for Directions Rob Helm. “Now it’s alert to that possibility going forward.” The acknowledgment was made in the 10-K report for the fiscal year ended June 30. Before Red Hat was only listed as a competitor in the Microsoft Server and Tools business.
“Client faces strong competition from well-established companies with differing approaches to the PC market,” wrote Microsoft in the 10-K. “Competing commercial software products, including variants of Unix, are supplied by competitors such as Apple, Canonical, and Red Hat.”
Microsoft is looking for ways to discourage consumers to go after netbooks and focus on finding lightweight laptops that have the hardware necessary to run Windows operating systems even though several netbook companies still use Windows XP.


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According to Square, the amount of restaurants using Square Register as their main point of sale system has tripled in the past year. Not only that, but the amount of money that they have processed has quadrupled.
“There are already tens of thousands of merchants in the food industry are increasingly adopting Square for its simple interface, smart analytics, continuous updates, and low processing fees,” says Square.
And with that, the’ve just launched an update to Square Register that helps “quick-serve” restaurants better run their kitchens.
First off, food merchants can now utilize new order modifiers. “Orders are recorded more accurately and communication with the kitchen is faster, creating a seamless experience on both sides of the counter,” says Square.
Plus, custom tickets are now available, giving kitchens a better way to make sure special orders are being processed correctly.
“In an industry where speed, accuracy, and a great customer experience are essential to success, Square Register gives quick serve restaurants tools that are powerful, intuitive, and affordable,” said Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. “Square is focused on connecting businesses with customers and now, more than ever, merchants can concentrate on providing great food for their customers.”
Back in February, Square unveiled a new “business in a box” package deal point of sale system. For $299, you can get two Square Readers, an iPad stand, and a cash drawer. Of course, Square Register has the ability to wirelessly print receipts and tickets, but that hardware will cost you extra.


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Peppered with lawsuits over its collection of Web traffic data from wireless networks, Google wants all the cases consolidated into one, and for that single case to be heard by a court near its Mountain View, California, headquarters.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is asking Google to answer questions about how the company's widespread wireless-network sniffing activities may have affected local residents.
Google's secret Wi-Fi snooping was powered by new sniffing technology that the company wants to patent, court documents filed Wednesday alleged.
Chip maker Atheros Wednesday released samples of its powerful new 802.11n Wi-Fi chipset, which tops out with a maximum data rate of 450Mbps for access points and routers, and a signal that's more consistent and resilient.
NetComm today launched 'MyZone', a mobile 3G Wi-Fi router that will initially be sold exclusively through official Apple retail stores.
Global shipments of Wi-Fi ICs have experienced an extraordinary growth in recent years, due to the increasing demands for wireless-enabled devices and enterprise level applications.
Meru Networks is adding new features to its enterprise Wi-Fi diagnostics, monitoring and security software, along with a new radio frequency scanner for spectrum analysis. The goal is to improve wireless reliability to the point where it can work as ...
Galaxy Internet Services, an ISP for homes and businesses in Massachusetts, has filed a class-action lawsuit against Google over the search company's admitted blunder that it sniffed and stored data from Wi-Fi networks.
Google said that it has secured the data it obtained through its Street View Wi-Fi snooping, but will fight a class-action lawsuit's demand that it turn over more information, court documents showed today.
A consumer group has called on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google after the search company revealed that it had been collecting people's Internet communications from open wireless networks.
Google has decided to stop its Street View cars from sniffing wireless networking data after an embarrassing privacy gaffe.
A new pocket-sized camera from Samsung will come with not just a Wi-Fi radio, but also Boingo software for getting online and three months of free access to that company's hotspots.
Apple Inc.'s iPad had a "tremendous" impact on Wi-Fi networks in airports, cafes and hotels in its first month, according to measurements of network activity at 30,000 public hot spots in North America.
The group developing a super-fast wireless data technology that can transmit data up to 10 times as fast as today's fastest Wi-Fi published its initial specification on Monday and named Cisco as the latest backer of the technology.
The Wireless Gigabit Alliance may be on its way to dominating the market for multi-gigabit in-room wireless networks after the powerful Wi-Fi Alliance said it would study the group's specification as part of Wi-Fi certification and a key rival announ...
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First impression on unpacking the Q702 test unit was the solid feel and clean, minimalist styling.
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Beef Demand Continues to Grow
After decades of decline, USDA reports demand for U.S. beef is on the way up.
"We've gone through a major change in beef demand from where we were back in the early 1980s from where we are currently today,” said CattleFax executive vice president Randy Blach. “From 1980 to 1998, beef demand was cut in half, that means half the people were not enjoying their eating experience, that's not acceptable."
Since then, Blach said the quality began to improve, and as beef got better, consumer income levels increased, along with their desire and ability to buy higher quality beef.
"The spreads have held together very well,” said Randy Blach. “The choice-select spread is at $10 again this year, that's where it's averaged over the last ten years. So, even though the grade has improved 25%, again going from 55% choice and prime to 80% choice and prime, the spreads tell us that's what the market wanted and people are willing to pay more for that type of eating experience."
Blach added that increased demand goes beyond our borders, adding value to beef exports and more profit for all sectors of the beef industry.
If you have a story idea for the Washington Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail email@example.com


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After being at World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur for 16 years, the Malaysia Intl Dive Expo (MIDE) 2023 will take place at Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) in Kuala Lumpur.
Connecting you with the underwater world since 2006 for expeditions, exploration and education
The 17th edition of the Expo is scheduled for 26 to 28 May 2023 and will occupy Hall 6 at Level 2 of the new venue, MITEC. The organisers of MIDE shared that not only will the event be bigger than in previous years, but it would also cater the space needed to feature the latest products and services from both local and international exhibitors from 14 countries.
Organised by AsiaEvents Exsic Sdn Bhd, MIDE is an annual event aimed at growing and strengthening the Malaysian dive community and businesses. It remains the most well-attended event in Malaysia, and well-reputed for its trademark resilience and a wide variety of top dive gear suppliers and international diving packages.
Attended by visitors from Australia, Brunei, China, Denmark, Estonia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, United Kingdom, the expo will feature more than 172 companies from Malaysia and internationally. On show are the latest and greatest in scuba-diving related products and services, new lines including sailing expeditions and various watersports.
Founder and organizer, Ms Ness Puvanes said it is evident the dive industry is resilient, having bounced back since 2021. Since then, the dive industry has been enjoying more
interest with the community growing. She further added that the demand for boating and watersports has never been stronger.
Ms Ness also shared that this year is breaking records with the number of exhibitors – there will be 222 booths set up for the expo.
The expo will be officiated by YBhg. Datuk Hajah Saraya binti Arbi, Secretary General of Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia on 26th May 2023 at 11.00 am at Main Stage, Level 2, Hall 6 of MITEC KL.
This year, the expo will be welcoming 69 new exhibitors, including associations such as the Malaysian Sub-Aqua and Malaysian Underwater Hockey Association. Also new is Langkawi Development Authority (LADA), who will be introducing the watersports activities. More and more manufacturers and distributors of sail boats, dive boats, car topper boats, rescue boat & kayaks at the show have also widen the interests of water enthusiasts visit the
This year, the expo is expecting to welcome more than 15,000 water enthusiasts including 10,000s professional; and to generate approximately RM25million in sales over the 3-day
WHATS ON MIDE?
20% off MAS flight
As the official airline partner for MIDE, Malaysia Airlines offering visitors travelling to KL for the expo a 20% discount on their flights booked by 26 May.
Dive Safety Partner
DAN World is MIDE’s official Diving Safety Partner. DAN World offers not only diving accident coverage for divers but is committed to helping enhance diving safety in Malaysia.
MIDE 2023 is set to welcome a host of business entrepreneurs, tourism boards, dive agencies, brand manufacturers and distributors who will utilize the platform to network and create new business opportunities and partnerships.
Staying Connected with the Ocean
Themed “Let’s Stay Connected with the Ocean” this year, there will be a major focus on the ongoing conservation efforts to keep the oceans healthy. This includes shining some light on the non-profitable organisations that are creating awareness on standard operating procedures for Dive Centres, as well as educating the community on single-use plastic and pollution, the impacts of climate change on the ocean, protected marine life and many more projects.
Visitors will be hearing from the experts including TV personalities, who will take the stage to share their knowledge and experiences in the water. There will be 10 forum discussions on topics include underwater archaeology, women in technical diving, finding the balance between work and diving, sailing expedition, underwater photography, cave diving, marine conservation, health, dive insurance, and more.
The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, License department will be talking about a Special License for Dive Operators on Friday.
Dr Wirdati Mohd. Radzi a leading Malaysian Sport Law and Governance expert will share the insight of Regulating the Malaysian Diving Industry.
Jabatan Standards Malaysia will also be presenting on MS ISO on Recreational Diving services which is an essential tool in diving activities.
Stakeholders can also look forward to discuss with the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE), on member benefits through grants for business events locally & internationally.
Dive Education: By Teens for Teens
There will also be teens taking to the stage to inspire others in the sport and their personal conservation efforts in improving the environment.
Deals & Promotions
Visitors will have a chance to chat with dive operators and tourism representatives; and can take advantage of the wide range of products and services including many exclusive deals on dive holidays; dive gear, remote operating vehicle (ROV), kayaks, boats, packages for watersports, live-aboard packages, courses for freediving, various types of diving fins, dive computers, and the latest technologies available.
Prizes to be won
Visitors who spend at least RM300 will be entered into the Purchaser’s Lucky Draw. Collectively, 40 prizes valued at RM75, 000 including a grand prize on a live-aboard worth RM22,000 are all up for grabs over the 3-day event.
Unwavering Support - MIDE’s heartfelt thank you for the endorsement and support of:
Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE)
Ministry of Tourism Arts, Culture Malaysia (MOTAC)
Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB)
Sabah Tourism Board (STB)
Tourism Promotions Board Philippines (TPBP)
Langkawi Development Authority (LADA)Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAS)
DAN World (Asia-Pacific)
X-RAY Mag (Denmark)
AmLeisure Media Sdn Bhd
Malaysia Scuba Diving Association (MSDA)
Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCeb)
Malaysia Association Conference Exhibition Of Suppliers (MACEOS)
All exhibitors, suppliers and partners, Dive agencies and Media partners.
The expo will open from 10am to 7pm, Friday 26 May to Sunday 28 May 2023 at MITEC KL.
To book your tickets, visit www.mide.com.my.
Follow us on FB, IG & Twitter at hashtag of MIDEEXPO for latest update of the expo.
For further information, call us at +603 79809902 or email us at: firstname.lastname@example.org
ABOUT THE ORGANIZER
About the Organizer
AsiaEvents Exsic (AEE) was established in Malaysia and Australia to provide end-to-end services and expertise in event management, exhibitions, media services and project management. The team at AEE has a combination of 25 years’ of experience as consultants in planning, technical support, management of leisure and hospitality projects as well as in the organizing of international and local exhibitions, seminars and conferences. As a strategic advisor for exhibition management, AEE also supports bridging businesses in the marketplace and new partnership ventures.
AsiaEvents Exsic (AEE) has won awards for “Exhibition Excellence” in 2018 for continuously organizing Malaysia International Dive Expo (MIDE), a niche market expo for 13years in a row and another award in 2021 for “Above & Beyond Recognition” for commendable effort and achievement in organizing the Malaysia Intl Dive Expo during the pandemic (Dec 2021) to not only regain confidence in travel, but to boost the domestic dive travel market.


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LG Electronics will later this year launch a 60-inch flat-panel TV that is just 45 millimeters thick, the company announced Sunday at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Samsung Electronics unveiled Sunday two ultra-thin TVs and a prototype LCD (liquid crystal display) TV with four times the definition of today's most advanced high-definition sets.
Mobile printing has never been easier. For a busy office, reliable and easy-to-use tools are essential. Samsung's latest smart printers are equipped for wireless printing from mobile devices. Find out more about what is all about.
Two days after it lost an important ally in the high-definition format battle, Toshiba put on a defiant face at the Consumer Electronics Show and declared the HD DVD format is a long way from being dead.
Warner Bros., the only major movie studio to release titles on both of the rival high-definition video disc formats, has decided to drop HD DVD and exclusively back Blu-ray Disc, it said Friday.
People who received MP3 players as holiday gifts may want to steer clear of some Web sites that claim to offer legal music but don't have licensing agreements with major music labels, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) said.
Online music store Soundbuzz is offering customers in Singapore the ability to purchase lossless audio files.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has won a lawsuit against the operators of TorrentSpy.com, with the judge ruling in favor of the MPAA because the Web site operators tampered with evidence.
In the foreseeable future, all the world's content will fit in the palm of your hand, according to Google, which made some fascinating IT predictions at the 2007 Captains of Industry Conference held in Singapore in November.
YouTube's technology for finding videos posted without the copyright holder's permission may be useless to identify footage posted to the site from Led Zeppelin's reunion concert on Monday.
A little bit of chutzpah has gone a long way for one musician. Concert goers at last weekend's Homebake music festival in Sydney were the latest to find out why, as they heard the sounds of award winning producer and vocal artist, Gotye.
Attack code threatens popular media players from Microsoft and AOL, said a security expert who told Windows users to remove a buggy coder/decoder (codec) or disable the player programs.
A concurrent raid on two adult stores in Sydney has lead to the discovery of a large scale adult movie piracy operation, and has resulted in a payment of $1.35 million in damages and costs.
The battle for HD supremacy notched up another gear this week with the Blu-ray camp claiming to have near-domination of local hardware and software sales, while the HD DVD Consortium claims momentum in the high definition market is shifting towards i...
The U.S. Department of Justice says a US$222,000 damage award in a music copyright infringement case won recently by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is constitutional.
MTV Games said on Monday that Metallica is considering the premier of their new single as a playable Rock Band download.
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GGG Evaluation Team
First impression on unpacking the Q702 test unit was the solid feel and clean, minimalist styling.
For work use, Microsoft Word and Excel programs pre-installed on the device are adequate for preparing short documents.
The Fujitsu LifeBook UH574 allowed for great mobility without being obnoxiously heavy or clunky. Its twelve hours of battery life did not disappoint.
The screen was particularly good. It is bright and visible from most angles, however heat is an issue, particularly around the Windows button on the front, and on the back where the battery housing is located.
My first impression after unboxing the Q702 is that it is a nice looking unit. Styling is somewhat minimalist but very effective. The tablet part, once detached, has a nice weight, and no buttons or switches are located in awkward or intrusive positions.


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After much speculation Nintendo has confirmed on twitter that Pac Man will be playable in the new Smash Bros. game fro Wii U and 3DS.
Pac-Man joins the battle! #SmashBros
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 11, 2014
Pac-Man was then show on Nintendo’s stream in which he fought Mario, Mega Man and Sonic. He abilities include eating power pellets and throwing fruit.
Update: Now with trailer.


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The better-than-expected results come despite a slew of disappointing results from traditional retailers. » Read More
The widespread deterioration from last year's dismal results underscores the challenges facing legacy retailers. » Read More
A last-minute push in orders through Prime Now helped Amazon recover the ground it had lost to bricks-and-mortar competitors. » Read More
The season's sales came in $115 million ahead of expectations, after getting off to a slow start following the election.
From RealReal to Raise and Reverb, there are a number of ways to hawk holiday presents online.
Retail promotions remained rampant in November and December, but they held steady in the days after Christmas.
When retailers' sales reports trickle out in the new year, they'll be hard-pressed to find an excuse if their results fall short.
If you hate that holiday sweater, you may be in luck.
One well-known retail analyst is raising his forecast for the season.
Amazon recruited more shoppers to its subscription Prime program than it has during any other Christmas season, the company said Tuesday.
The least desirable gifts under the tree are clothing and accessories, followed by household items, cosmetics and fragrances.
Spin Master and Mattel were inundated with customer service calls after Hatchimals, Barbie's Hello Dreamhouse disappointed on Christmas.
If you found a new iPad waiting for you this holiday season, here are some apps you should absolutely consider downloading immediately.
Perhaps more than any other retailer, Amazon is benefiting from the surge in online shopping this holiday season.
The holidays are barreling down on all of us, but don't fret. Here are some hassle-free gift ideas for everyone on your list.
If you're stuck on what to get someone this holiday season, it's hard to go wrong with a gadget.
The Consumer Technology Association predicts 700,000 units will be sold before the end of the year.
There are plenty of top-tier software titles available in 2016. Here are some can't-miss suggestions.
Here's a look at some of the hottest toys to hit shelves for the 2016 holiday season.
Jim Cramer revealed which company could have Wall Street talking next week.
Jim Cramer looks into Bed Bath & Beyond's business troubles in light of a shocking earnings miss and a tanking stock.
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CNBC's annual study measures all 50 states on more than 60 different metrics.
The International Paris Air Show is celebrating its 52nd anniversary this year with the big movers and shakers in the aerospace and defense industry all attending the event.
International business and political leaders gather in Dalian, China for the 2017 instalment of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions.


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SEMI and Foxconn Envision Prosperous Future for Compound Semiconductors
The global chip shortage and related uncertainty in the automotive electronics supply chain have countries around the world focused on semiconductors as critical enablers to the future of high tech. In addition to the silicon-based semiconductor industry chain, compound semiconductors and power semiconductor devices have become driving forces for the development of next-generation technology.
Taiwan serves as a leading hub for the silicon wafer semiconductor supply chain and third-generation wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors, making SEMICON Taiwan a key annual event for the industry. Before the physical exhibition of SEMICON Taiwan 2021 in December, SEMI will kick off the event with online forums from September 7 through November 30 on five key technology areas: Compound Semiconductors, Smart Manufacturing, ESG and Sustainability, Smart MedTech, and Cybersecurity.
Terry Tsao, Global Chief Marketing Officer at SEMI and President of SEMI Taiwan, recently discussed technology trends with Young Liu, Chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), as a prelude to SEMICON Taiwan’s five online forums.
Liu: What is the future development of compound semiconductors? As many countries in the world are also trying to deploy in this area, what are Taiwan’s competitive advantages and opportunities?
Tsao: With the arrival of the era of 5G, electric vehicles (EVs), and smart Internet of Things (IoT), as well as the growing demand for radio frequency (RF), optoelectronics and related technologies, components and applications really have taken the global market and investments of power and compound semiconductors to the next level.
According to the SEMI Power and Compound Fab Report to 2024, worldwide fab data for power and compound semiconductors are on the rise driven by growing demand for 5G, electric vehicles, green energy, data centers, biomedical, and both industrial and consumer IoT applications. The report projects that power and compound semiconductor revenue will increase by approximately 20% to a record high of US$7 billion in 2021 and to continue growing in 2022 to reach US$8.5 billion.
Taiwan has a very good foundation and growth momentum in the silicon-based semiconductor industry, and the world recognizes Taiwan’s vital role. It is fair to say that Taiwan has a complete semiconductor industry supply chain and has stepped up from a follower to a leader in the global semiconductor community.
Tsao: How important do you think Taiwan’s compound semiconductor industry is? How can Taiwanese companies build a comprehensive ecosystem?
Liu: As the global electric vehicle industry takes off, Taiwan can actually try to replicate its success in silicon semiconductors to WBG semiconductors in the process of building an EV industry chain. Considering that the demand for WBG semiconductors in the EV industry will definitely go far beyond what we can supply, this will be an excellent opportunity for Taiwan. I believe Taiwan will have another sacred mountain in terms of its experience with WBG semiconductors.
Tsao: How does the government connect with the industry in Taiwan?
Liu: The government’s support for the semiconductor industry is widely recognized, but when it comes to talent development in the semiconductor field, there is still so much left to be done. Given the government’s close relationship with the semiconductor community, more measures can be taken to consolidate Taiwan’s key position in the global semiconductor industry chain, such as regular exchanges with the industry, talent cultivation programs, and labor policies to more practically meet the needs of the professionals.
Liu: How will SEMI, as an international association, help Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain and ecosystem grasp future growth?
Tsao: This is a global industry, and Taiwan absolutely cannot stay on the sideline. We have been leveraging SEMI as a platform to engage in global exchanges. SEMI has closely watched the technological trends and market demands of compound semiconductors since early 2017, and we set up a committee as a platform to bridge the communication between the front end and back end of power compound semiconductors.
SEMI hosts our anticipated SEMICON Taiwan exposition every year, which includes a Power & Opto Semiconductor Forum. The forum brings together representatives from industry, government, and academia to discuss market opportunities and challenges. In addition, SEMI has long been an advocate for talent development and formulation of industry standards. SEMI strives to promote the industry to help it become more prosperous.
Tsao: Foxconn has also been proactively involved in the field of WBG semiconductors recently. What are its plans for the future?
Liu: Foxconn has bought a six-inch wafer fab this year and this is just the beginning. Foxconn will step-by-step carry out the plan and integrate cross-department R&D and production capacities within the group, and also start working with various manufacturers on semiconductor-related cooperation projects.
Watch the full SEMI video interview with Young Liu from Foxconn for additional details. (Note, the video is in Mandarin with English subtitles.)
SEMICON Taiwan 2021 Virtual Programs | Available On-demand Until Nov. 30!
SEMICON Taiwan 2021 kicks off in September with online forums on five key technology focuses: Compound Semiconductors, Smart Manufacturing, ESG and Sustainability, Smart MedTech, and Cybersecurity. Don’t miss the opportunity to explore the in-depth analyses of prominent speakers from various fields on the key competitiveness of Taiwan’s next-generation semiconductors. Go to the SEMICON Taiwan website for more information on the programs.
Virtual Platform Link: Opened September 6th and will remain on-demand until November 30th.
Connie Lin is a marketing and public relations manager and Ashley Huang is a senior marketing specialist at SEMI Taiwan.


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Coverage of our 24th annual ranking of the largest dairy processors in North America is available here. Nestle USA once again heads the list and Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery holds down the No. 100 spot.
With Danone acquiring WhiteWave, the new dairy processing company lands at No. 4 on our 24th annual Dairy 100. This detailed dossier includes brands, products made and plant locations for the largest processors of fluid milk, ice cream, cheese, butter, cultured dairy products, dairy ingredients and other dairy-derived foods and beverages.
The state of North America’s dairy industry is constantly in motion. Since our last report, dairies have been on an acquisition spree. And the deals kept happening even after we finished tabulating the 2016 revenues of the 100 largest dairy processing companies based in Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Though some dairies saw sales fall last year, others reported increases. As they looked at the long-term prospects of the industry, businesses opened their checkbooks to acquire companies and to expand their processing capabilities.
Just as Dairy Foods was wrapping up its research into the 100 largest dairy processors in North America, the French dairy giant Danone announced it was buying Colorado-based WhiteWave Foods, a processor of organic dairy and plant-based beverages.
Clicking on the company name takes you to that dairy processor’s website. Annual reports and financial information for public companies are one click away.
August 15, 2014
Dairy Foods has enhanced its 2014 report of the largest dairy processors. Visitors to the 2014 Dairy 100 can link to company websites directly from the listing. We have also provided links to annual reports and other financial information for publicly held dairy processors.
Land O'Lakes Inc., Arden Hills, Minn., said that its Dairy Foods business segment in 2013 generated record pretax earnings of $75 million on sales of $4.5 billion, up 8% from 2012. The results were driven by improved margins on milk powders and butter in Global Dairy Ingredients along with records in sales volume and earnings in the Retail Foods and Foodservice businesses.
In the company's Cheese Segment, revenues increased from a combination of higher prices, volume gains and improved product mix with significant gains in Kraft natural cheeses and Velveeta
August 1, 2013
Kraft Foods Group, Inc. Northfield, Ill., reported today that net revenues in the second quarter declined 1.1% to $4.7 billion and that operating income increased 53.5% to $1.4 billion in the period. In the company's Cheese Segment, revenues increased from a combination of higher prices, volume gains and improved product mix with significant gains in Kraft natural cheeses and Velveeta.


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NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) , in collaboration with ASUS, announced that it will showcase new gaming displays — the ASUS ROG Swift 360 — at the Consumer Electronics Show, which is scheduled to be held on Jan 7-10.
The new displays are based on NVIDIA’s G-SYNC technology and will be available later this year.
Notably, in the new displays, game frames are displayed once every 2.8 milliseconds, which makes it six times faster than traditional displays. This is important for e-sports enthusiasts and professional gamers as victory is largely dependent on lower latency.
These displays will complement NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX gaming GPUS to enhance the competitive gaming experience.
Rising Demand for E-sports
While e-sports is currently a small part of the huge video-game industry, it is growing exponentially. Competitive video game advertising revenues in the United States are expected to surpass $200 million by 2020, per an eMarketer report.
Moreover, per a Mordor Intelligence report, players will spend $4.5 billion on immersive gaming by 2020.
Further, every month, more than 60% of GeForce gamers worldwide play competitive games. About $211 million was awarded as e-sports prize money last year, up 29% year over year.
Efforts to Boost Gaming Business
The strong line-up of advanced graphics cards has made NVIDIA a favorite graphics card provider among the PC makers. A strong uptick in PC gamers and eSports players, and higher spending on the gaming GPUs are key catalysts.
Further, NVIDIA’s Turing GPU and real-time ray tracing technology are witnessing a massive adoption. To propel wider embracement, the company is enabling ray tracing backup in several GeForce GTX GPUs, which is likely to lend developers a massive installed base of gamers. In fact, the GeForce RTX SUPER GPUs' launch is expected to further cement its leadership in the higher end of the market.
The company noted earlier that the increasing number of blockbuster AAA titles has pledged support for NVIDIA RTX ray tracing technology. To this end, recently, Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) teamed up with NVIDIA to add the technology to Minecraft. Moreover, per the company, Activision Blizzard's (ATVI - Free Report) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Ubisoft Toronto's Watch Dogs: Legion and Tencent NExT Studios' Synced: Off Planet have adopted RTX.
Recently, NVIDIA also announced SUPER versions of GeForce GTX GPUs. Additionally, it launched the RTX Broadcast Engine, which uses the AI capabilities of GeForce RTX GPUs to enable virtual greenscreens, filters and AR effects in live streaming.
Notably, in the third quarter of fiscal 2020, NVIDIA’s gaming revenues grew 26.4% sequentially, backed by strong growth in GeForce desktop and notebook GPUs.
This well-timed move is likely to strengthen the company’s competitive edge against its major competitor, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD - Free Report) , which rolled out the Radeon RX 5500 GPU last year to provide mainstream gamers with an enhanced gaming experience. Notably, Lenovo, Acer, HP and MSI are set to adopt the latest AMD GPU in their respective PCs.
NVIDIA currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!
It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.
Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020.
Click here for the 6 trades >>


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Valve do like their user-generated content. They’ve updated Steam with Steam Reviews, Steam Greenlight and now Steam Tags, which let players label Steam games with keywords. Those tags are then made searchable and used to recommend game-types you might like based on your playing history.
Unfortunately, much like previous additions, it turns out the internet can’t be trusted. The system is already being used to mark games with insults, and even though it’s still in beta, labels are already appearing on game’s store pages.
Read the rest of this entry »


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Date: Friday, November 18th, 2016, 05:43
Category: iOS, iPhone, privacy, security, Software
This definitely qualifies as a mess between privacy, security and law enforcement.
While Apple emerged as a guardian of privacy earlier this year, fighting the FBI’s demands to help crack San Bernadino shooter Syed Farouk’s iPhone, implementing improved encryption for all its handsets and refusing to undermine that encryption, it appears that private data is being sent to the iCloud without user consent.
Russian digital forensics firm Elcomsoft has found that Apple’s mobile devices automatically send a user’s call history to the company’s servers if iCloud is enabled — but the data gets uploaded in many instances without user choice or notification.
“You only need to have iCloud itself enabled” for the data to be sent, said Vladimir Katalov, CEO of Elcomsoft.
The logs sent along to Apple apparently contain a list of all calls made and received on an iOS device, complete with phone numbers, dates and times, and duration. They also include missed and bypassed calls. Elcomsoft has stated that Apple retains the data in a user’s iCloud account for up to four months, which offers a window for law enforcement to obtain it if necessary. Although large carriers in the U.S. retain call logs for a year or more, this may not be the case with carrier outside the US.
Other data is also sent to the iCloud, including FaceTime and regular call logs. The call logs appear to go back to at least iOS 8.2, which Apple released in March 2015.
Following the release of iOS 10, incoming missed calls that are made through third-party VoIP applications like Skype, WhatsApp, and Viber, and that use Apple CallKit to make the calls, also get logged to the cloud according to a representative from Elcomsoft.
Because Apple possesses the keys to unlock iCloud accounts, U.S. law enforcement agencies can obtain direct access to the logs with a court order. But they still need a tool to extract and parse it.
Apple’s collection of call logs potentially puts sensitive information at the disposal of people other than law enforcement and other Elcomsoft customers. Anyone else who might be able to obtain the user’s iCloud credentials, like hackers, could potentially get at it too. In 2014, more than 100 celebrities fell victim to a phishing attack that allowed a hacker to obtain their iCloud credentials and steal nude photos of them from their iCloud accounts. The perpetrator reportedly used Elcomsoft’s software to harvest the celebrity photos once the accounts were unlocked.
Apple has acknowledged that the call logs are being synced and said it’s intentional.
“We offer call history syncing as a convenience to our customers so that they can return calls from any of their devices,” an Apple spokesperson said in an email. “Device data is encrypted with a user’s passcode, and access to iCloud data including backups requires the user’s Apple ID and password. Apple recommends all customers select strong passwords and use two-factor authentication.”
The syncing of iCloud call logs would not be the first time Apple has been found collecting data secretly.
As of now, Apple offers no clear way to either opt in or opt out of this arrangement, which makes it it that much more controversial.
According to Apple’s recently updated white paper on the topic, the company backs up the following data to iCloud:
Information about purchased music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books, but not the purchased content itself
Photos and videos in Camera Roll
Contacts, calendar events, reminders, and notes
PDFs and books added to iBooks but not purchased
Home screen and app organization
iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available and please let us know what you think in the comments.


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Do you consume a lot of media? Are you a Netflix connoisseur? Do you perhaps you have a constant audio stream filling your house as you do daily tasks? Mayne you upload a lot of pictures to Instagram, you know, for your up and coming influencer lifestyle? No matter what you do, you are most assuredly not alone. Thanks to a new infographic, we now know that Data Never Sleeps.
Domo, a company specialising in cloud software, has released their annual Data Never Sleeps infographic. Apart from being surprisingly enlightening, the infographic is easy to understand. In a circular pattern, the infographic lists the most prominent services and internet practices. These include how many hours of YouTube content is uploaded every minute, and how much hard-earned money is being spent at any given time. Naturally, these stats are all based on averages, and only factual insofar as what Domo could track without risking trading any personal data. Needless to say, it is eye opening to see how 56.1 percent of the world’s population has constant access to the Internet. For the longest time I assumed this number to be much higher!
According to Domo, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic meant the world was forced into a “new era where technology and data have taken more significant roles in our daily lives”. The pandemic and all of the subsequent nationwide lockdowns that took place across the globe also meant people had to adapt to much more technological surroundings. Suddenly everyone had to get some sort of audio or camera in order to take part in online meetings. It also means constant internet access for important tasks that would otherwise have been done at the office. Thanks to this, data generation skyrocketed in the last year, with a sharp and noticeable increase in the last few months.
Domo’s Data Never Sleeps infographic is the eighth of its kind, with a new one curated and designed every year. It sheds light on all kinds of data, including in-home entertainment consumption, Mobile App microtransaction spending, and much more. Naturally, the popularity of certain apps will always rise and fall as time rolls on. Domo concludes that technology, regardless of what kind it is and how people interact with it, is constantly improving our lives. This just begs the question: will my life really be better after I spend money on this item on Amazon? I suppose the answer is irrelevant knowing more than a million dollars have been spent on ecommerce since I started typing the previous sentence!
Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.


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Brunello Cucinelli was the recipient of the Neiman Marcus Awards during a gathering in Paris on the occasion of the Paris Fashion Week. The retailer gathered industry leaders and creative forces, alongside global brand partners, past Award recipients and top customers. More than 50 fashion brands were in the room.
Brunello Cucinelli awarded the Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion
The award with a history of honoring more than 150 fashion luminaries over 85 years. Inaugural awards were given to Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director of LOEWE, who received the new Neiman Marcus Award for Creative Impact in the Field of Fashion, and accessories designer Amina Muaddi, who received the new Neiman Marcus Award for Innovation in the Field of Fashion. The Neiman Marcus Award statue was designed by William King in 1961, symbolizing the unfettered spirit of freedom so essential to the fashion creator.
“I greatly admire the 20 years of collaboration with Neiman Marcus, one of the highest expressions of fashion and luxury in the world and an icon of lifestyle and elegance. Thank you [Neiman Marcus] for this gift, because it pays tribute and honor to our Italy, to our Umbria region, to our Solomeo, and to all those human beings who, with their skilled hands, are able to design special things.”Brunello Cucinelli
Brunello Cucinelli to launch new collection in April
Brunello Cucinelli will launch the Icon Collection this April, with exclusive pieces and a personal appearance for customers in Dallas. Jonathan Anderson and Amina Muaddi will each design exclusive collections and celebrate with Neiman Marcus customers at select stores across the country. Neiman Marcus will expand into new categories by honoring different industry creatives each year.
About Neiman Marcus Awards
Neiman Marcus Awards is a new platform to recognize and amplify breakthrough luminaries in fashion globally. It includes the return of the prestigious Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion, a legacy accolade established by Carrie Marcus Neiman and Stanley Marcus 85 years ago, as well as two expanded categories: the Neiman Marcus Award for Creative Impact in the Field of Fashion and the Neiman Marcus Award for Innovation in the Field of Fashion.


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What’s New for 2019 at Garden City Center, Cranston, Rhode Island
Published: March 9, 2019
Cranston, Rhode Island—Garden City Center is excited to announce the openings of new dining selections to give customers even more delicious choices. New additions Asia Grille, Chaska, and Sydney Garden City will all be open this summer. In addition to these openings, visitors can also look forward to the summer concerts Garden City Center will be hosting.
From the restaurant group responsible for Kabob and Curry, Rasoi and Rasa, comes new restaurant Chaska. The restaurant promises opportunities to eat, drink and socialize over flavorful Indian cuisine. Enjoy freshly baked Naan, chicken tikka masala, lamb kebab and vegetarian options including spiced curry dishes. Chaska will be located next to Bistro 22.
Australian-inspired café Sydney Garden City will offer sophisticated, healthy ingredients. Much like its sister location Sydney-Providence, the all-day café will serve up its famed avocado toast, an array of baked goods, a selection of Illy coffee drinks, loose leaf teas and on-tap kombucha. Sydney Garden City will be located adjacent to Anthropologie.
Asia Grille will be opening their second location in Rhode Island this summer, which will provide fresh and authentic Chinese cuisine. Customers are encouraged to try their Lo Mein, General’s chicken, and shrimp lobster sauce. Asia Grille will open next to Sephora.
For live jazz on Friday nights in June, Garden City invites customers to stop by the Courtyard, located near Bistro 22 from 6-8pm. This year is also the 30th anniversary of the summer concert series. The summer concert series will be July 10th through September 1st from 6:30-8:30pm. In order to officially celebrate the 30th anniversary of the summer concert series, there will be two special Sunday night concerts. See GardenCityCenter.com for details.
About Garden City Center: Managed by Wilder and located on Route 2 in Cranston, Garden City Center has 500,000 square feet of retail and office space. It was one of the first centers of its kind in the country and generations have fond memories of GCC shopping excursions. The center is currently home to over 70 shops, services, and eateries including L.L. Bean, J. Crew, Sephora, Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, The Container Store, Avvio, Bistro 22, Legal Sea Bar, Whole Foods Market and more.


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Update: We now have a good idea of what the Huawei P20, Huawei P20 Pro and Huawei P20 Lite might cost, and what they might look like. A hands-on video has also emerged of the P20 Lite.
It won't replace the Mate duo though, rather it will be the next iteration of the Huawei P10, which has a smaller form factor and will likely slide in to the price bracket below the Mate 10 and 10 Pro.
While a lot of the rumors and leaks surrounding the phone have called it the Huawei P11, we've now seen confirmation that it will actually be called the Huawei P20.
We're expecting the phone to launch soon, likely alongside a P20 Pro and P20 Lite, but until then, we've collated everything you need to know from the latest leaks and rumors to what we want to see from the handset, right here.
- Read our full Huawei P10 review
Cut to the chase
- What is it? Huawei's next flagship phone
- When is it out? Tipped to land on March 27
- What will it cost? Possibly around $840/£605/AU$1,080
Huawei P20 release date
The Huawei P20 is likely to be announced an March 27, as TechRadar has received an invitation for an event on that date, though the P20 isn't mentioned by name.
We've also heard reports that came out of Huawei's Christmas event in Germany, where WinFuture says it was told by representatives that we'll see the new P11 flagship during the first quarter of 2018.
Another report out of Korea suggests the Huawei P20 launch could happen as late as April, but we're not convinced by this.
Huawei P20 price
In terms of price, the one rumor so far puts the Huawei P20 at 679 euros (around $840/£605/AU$1,080), the Huawei P20 Pro at 899 euros (roughly $1,110/£800/AU$1,430) and the Huawei P20 Lite at 369 euros (around $455/£330/AU$585).
The Huawei P10 costs around £570 (roughly $710/AU$945), so if these prices are accurate then the new phones could be a bit more expensive.
We've also previously seen the P20 Lite's price leaked and it lines up with the rumor above, so this could well be accurate.
Watch the video below to see what has changed on the Huawei P10
Huawei P20 name
As Huawei's next flagship follows on from the Huawei P10 it's logical to assume that it would be called the Huawei P11, but it's now been confirmed that it will actually be called the Huawei P20.
The Huawei P20 Pro has also been confirmed, and it's widely rumored that we'll see a Huawei P20 Lite too.
Huawei P20 design and display
- iPhone X-style screen 'notch'
- Almost bezel-less premium design
One image of the Huawei P20 comes from reputable leaker Evan Blass, and shows it sporting a notch in the screen and a dual-lens camera on the back, along with a surprisingly large bezel (and seemingly a fingerprint scanner) below the screen.
The same leaker also shared a shot of the Huawei P20 Lite, which seems to sport a similar design, but with the fingerprint scanner moved to the back. The P20 Lite apparently has a 5.6-inch 1080 x 2250 screen, but no details were provided for the standard P20.
Since then we've seen some better-looking shots of the Huawei P20 phones leak out: these press renders seem to confirm three cameras on the back of the P20 Pro and a cool-looking new "twilight" color.
And if you want a proper close-up look at the Huawei P20 Lite, take a look at this hands-on video of a unit in an Italian retail store.
With these now out in the wild, we can probably dismiss previous leaks, such as the pictures below, which show the camera in a different orientation and no obvious fingerprint scanner.
Another clear look at the possible Huawei P20 (or likely P20 Pro) design is a case render showing the phone packing a three-lens camera.
We've also seen a series of renders, showing the phone with what's likely a glass back and a metal frame.
You can see that there are tiny bezels above and below the edge-to-edge display, with a home button in the bottom bezel, while around the back there's a camera with three lenses.
The camera layout here is different to the case render above, but the images look a lot like - and may well be based on - an earlier sketch of the phone, which also shows tiny bezels, a fingerprint scanner below the screen and three cameras on the back.
The same Weibo source also shared images apparently showing the Huawei P20 Plus, which sports a similar design but vertical rather than horizontal cameras, and of the Huawei P20 Pro, which has a notch above the screen, moves the fingerprint scanner to the back and moves the cameras to the middle.
However, these images could easily have been faked, so we wouldn't count on their accuracy - or the phone being called the Huawei P20.
We've also seen newer renders supposedly showing the Huawei P20 Plus, this time with a notch above the screen (absent in the image above) and three cameras vertically running along one edge.
The renders came accompanied by dimensions, claiming the phone will have a roughly 6-inch screen and be around 155.3 x 74.2 x 7.7mm (rising to 9.8mm at the camera bump).
And we've also seen a leaked image of a notch-laden Huawei Phone, which could be the P20, P20 Plus or P20 Pro, though notably only has two camera lenses.
This somewhat lines up with other leaks, such as one from XDA Developers, which was provided with firmware files that suggest the P20 will have an almost bezel-less design with a notch at the top of the screen that will look similar to the iPhone X.
The cutout at the top of the Huawei P20 screen is referenced as a 'notch' within the system build and an example of how it's set to look suggests it may just house the front-facing camera.
There's also word from that source which suggests the Huawei P20 will ship with a 4K display. That's unlikely considering Huawei has continued to use Full HD panels in its phones up until now, but it would be interesting to see the company make a device to keep pace with the Sony Xperia XZ Premium.
Huawei P20 colors will likely be limited too with the only source we've seen so far referring to both a ceramic black and twilight version of the phone. We may see further colors at the announcement though.
It's worth noting that the assortment of P20 leaks we've seen is a little confusing, as while many of the same elements keep appearing, such as a notch and a triple-lens camera, they're not always present in the same combination.
Some leaks just have two lenses, some lack a notch, some position the camera differently, and even accounting for the likely three variations of the P20 that will launch there seem to be too many different combinations appearing, suggesting that some of these leaks are wrong or based on prototypes which may never see the light of day.
Huawei P20 Face ID
- Face unlock that's better than Apple's Face ID
The iPhone X made a splash in 2017 for a number of reasons, and one of those was the introduction of Face ID. Apple ditched the Touch ID fingerprint scanner in favor of a facing-scanning system - and Huawei is tipped to follow suit.
A report from Notebook Italia suggests the upcoming device may have its own Face ID-style unlocking technology that takes inspiration from Apple's TrueDepth sensors and possibly improves on them.
Huawei P20 camera
- Rear camera could be as high as 40MP
- Likely to made in partnership with Lecia again
- Could have three rear lenses
The latest information on the Huawei P20's camera comes from Huawei itself, which in an event invite has hinted at there being three lenses, with the use of three circles.
The invite also hints that the camera will use AI, perhaps giving it additional processing power. That could be a big feature of the camera, as AI of some kind has since been teased again.
Elsewhere, we've heard that the Lecia partnership is set to continue and there will be some big changes to both the front and rear snappers.
Images from a digital artist that works with Huawei - and spotted by Evleaks - suggest the phone is set to come with 3 lenses on the rear camera for the first time and one of those may be as high as 40MP. That also looks like it will be capable of 5x hybrid zoom.
Is the next Huawei P-series going to be an imaging powerhouse? A digital artist at one of the company's creative agencies added these "PCE Series" ads to their portfolio -- claiming 40MP, 3 lens rear (5x hybrid zoom) + 24MP selfie, all Leica-co-developed. pic.twitter.com/t8w3VlL55LDecember 6, 2017
The leak also suggests the front camera will be a 24MP sensor, which would be a big upgrade over the 8MP one on the Huawei P10.
We've since seen leaked sketches (above) which also point to a trio of camera lenses on the phone.
The Huawei P20 Lite meanwhile is rumored to have a 16MP dual-lens camera with hybrid zoom capabilites.
Would you like to see some photo samples from the upcoming Huawei P20? Of course you would, so check out the snaps above, which have recently trickled out online. Looks like the camera will once again be the focus (ho ho ho) of attention when the P20 gets unveiled.
Huawei P20 power
- Latest Kirin 970 chipset
- 8GB of RAM
Usually Huawei debuts the new chipset tech on the Mate line and brings it to the P device later, so we expect that to happen again for the Huawei P11.
The same source also suggests the phone will ship with 8GB of RAM onboard, in a similar move to this year's OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T. We are constantly updating this piece on the latest Huawei P11 rumors, so be sure to check back for more soon.
We've also heard some rumors about the Huawei P20 Lite, which will apparently have a mid-range Kirin 659 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a 3,520mAh battery.
One disappointment to brace yourself for: Huawei might be ditching the microSD card on the P20 and P20 Pro models.
Huawei P20: what we want to see
Although rumors and leaks are thin on the ground at the moment, we've put together a list of the things we'd like to see Huawei improved for the 20. Here's everything we have our fingers crossed to see on the Huawei P20.
1. A voice assistant
The Huawei P10 didn't come with an easy to use voice assistant. Amazon Alexa is available on the Huawei Mate 9 in the US, but not on the P10, and currently Google Assistant isn't available for the Huawei P10 either.
The lack of Google Assistant is a shame, but Huawei is aiming to get Google's helper onto the phone at a later date. We hope Huawei settles on what voice assistant should be used on the Huawei P11, and that it launches with one on day one.
2. Better battery life
One of our main criticisms of the Huawei P10 was the poor battery life.
We found it to be a touch worse than the Huawei P9 that went before it, so we hope that Huawei puts a lot of effort in to increase the battery life on the Huawei P11.
3. A better USP
Perhaps the biggest problem with the Huawei P10 was the lack of a big selling point. There's no particular reason to buy this phone - it's just all round a good handset, and we'd like to see an improved USP ready for the P11.
What exactly that should be, we're not entirely certain. Hopefully Huawei has something up its sleeve to help tackle the big selling features that other companies such as Samsung and Apple offer.
4. Lower price
Huawei has been steadily increasing its prices for the past few years and the P10 is one of the most expensive phones the company has made.
We hope that for the Huawei P11 the company decides to drop the price down a little, to make it a more appetizing buy compared to the other flagship devices on the market.
5. Google Daydream support
The Huawei P10 doesn't work with a virtual reality headset, so we hope the next phone from Huawei will be a part of Google's Daydream program and connect with the Google Daydream View headset.
Huawei has previously confirmed it's working on a virtual reality headset too, but there's been no official announcement so far on where the headset is in production.
6. A US release
That's a pretty simple one, but it's a big shame the Huawei P10 never officially launched in the US and we'd like to see that be a priority for the P11. We know there are many people in the US looking forward to using a Huawei phone, so why not supply the flagship to them?
- Check out our Huawei Mate 10 Pro review