CUPERTINO, United States (AFP) – Apple launched new smartphones Wednesday at prices similar to recent models despite inflation and supply chain woes, while unveiling a premium digital watch with a price tag to match. While a 90-minute presentation at the company’s California headquarters did not include any surprise reveals, the tech giant did unveil new digital identification system to obviate the need for a physical sim card. The company’s newest smartphone, the iPhone 14, costs […]
Tag: Smartphone
Apple and Google team up on virus ‘contact tracing’ by smartphone
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Google and Apple unveiled a joint initiative Friday to use smartphones to trace coronavirus contacts to battle the pandemic. The move brings together the largest mobile operating systems in an effort to use smartphone technology to track and potentially contain the global COVID-19 outbreak. Smartphones powered by Apple software and Google-backed Android operating system would be able to exchange information with a joint “opt in system.” The tech giants […]
Foldable phone outlook hinges on price
by Daniel SILVA Agence France-Presse BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Handset makers are racing to launch their first smartphones with folding screens but analysts warn the technology is still too rudimentary — and expensive — to woo consumers in large numbers for now. Samsung, the world’s biggest seller of smartphones, unveiled a handset that folds open like a book to be a tablet at an event in San Francisco on Wednesday, becoming the first major manufacturer […]
Samsung bends over backwards to rev smartphone desire
by Glenn CHAPMAN Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Samsung on Wednesday is expected to unveil new flagship smartphones including one with a screen that can fold closed like a book as it seeks to boost the moribund market. Much of what is in store at a Galaxy Unpacked event that the South Korean consumer electronics giant is hosting in San Francisco has been revealed in leaks, including a Galaxy 10 television commercial […]
Samsung Electronics enjoys record Q3 despite smartphone struggles
by Jung Hawon Agence France-Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Samsung Electronics on Wednesday posted record quarterly operating and net profits as solid demand for its memory chips cushioned the fallout from slowing smartphone sales — but warned of tougher times ahead. The South Korean tech giant — the world’s top maker of smartphones and memory chips — has recovered from a series of setbacks, including a humiliating recall and the jailing of its de […]
Facebook simplifies Messenger app
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook on Tuesday announced an overhaul of its Messenger smartphone app in an effort to simplify the service for its 1.3 billion monthly global users. The social network began rolling out a redesigned version featuring three tabs instead of nine, saying it was “going back to its roots” seven years after the standalone app’s launch. “We build one feature after another; they’re piling up,” Messenger chief Stan Chudnovsky said […]
Chinese tech ‘wolf’ Huawei stalks Apple and Samsung
by Dan Martin Agence France-Presse Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Chinese telecoms behemoth Huawei, likens the company to a ruthless “wolf” tirelessly running down its prey, an ethos that could soon make it the apex predator of the smartphone world. Despite being essentially barred from the critical US market, Huawei surpassed Apple to become the world’s number two smartphone maker in the second quarter of this year and has market leader Samsung in its sights. […]
Taiwan smartphone maker HTC to lay off 1,500 workers
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP)–Taiwan’s struggling smartphone maker HTC announced Tuesday it would slash 1,500 jobs, around a fifth of its total workforce, in the biggest staff cull for three years following heavy losses. The announcement of the cuts to its manufacturing workforce comes despite a new deal with Google, completed in January, which boosted HTC’s first quarter performance after a dismal 2017. Once a star of the intensely competitive smartphone sector, HTC has been struggling in […]
Sony profits soar nearly seven-fold to $4.5 billion
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Sony on Friday reported profits worth $4.5 billion, extending a roaring recovery supported by better sales of smartphone image sensors and movies, and improvement in its finance businesses. The firm said its net yearly profit reached 490.8 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the year to March, compared with 73.3 billion yen a year earlier, thanks to increased sales across the board and favorable foreign exchange rates. Annual operating profit more than doubled […]
Taiwan’s HTC to get Google boost as it posts biggest loss
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan’s struggling smartphone maker HTC posted its worst-ever quarterly loss on Monday, but said it expects a boost from the $1.1 billion deal with Google sealed earlier this year. The deal, completed in January, saw Google buy part of HTC’s smartphone business as the US giant looks to take greater control of its hardware business. HTC has suffered consecutive losses due to stiff competition in the smartphone sector from Apple, […]
Apple overtakes Samsung in shrinking smartphone market: survey
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Apple overtook Samsung in the fourth quarter as the largest smartphone producer in a declining global market for handsets, research firm IDC said Friday. A survey by IDC showed Apple — which reported its quarterly data Thursday — led all vendors with 77.3 million iPhones sold, giving it a 19.2 percent market share. Even though Apple’s fourth-quarter unit sales were down 1.3 percent from a year earlier, it was able to move ahead of […]
How a Taipei school for the visually impaired is helping make Microsoft Windows even more accessible
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP-Services) — Shen Yan-lin can mix music by computer. His fingers whip across the panel of a smartphone from app to app, changing settings at the same high speed. The faithful Windows user who studied PCs mostly by himself just wants more precision when using Narrator, a built-in Microsoft tool that literally reads things aloud, voicing text and describing notifications or calendar appointments. Shen, 18, is in his third year at Taipei School […]





