Today, Bose announces the next generation of its iconic QuietComfort line: the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, and the QuietComfort Headphones, all featuring the world-renowned hallmarks that the QuietComfort name has become synonymous with—world-class noise cancellation, high-quality audio, and legendary comfort and stability. And now, the QC Ultra Headphones and Earbuds both feature an all-new premium design and debut Bose Immersive Audio, taking audio performance to an entirely new level.

The QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds will be available beginning early October for $429 and $299 respectively. Both are available in Black and White Smoke. The QuietComfort Headphones will be available on September 21st for $349 also available in Black and White Smoke, plus a limited-edition Cypress Green. Pre-orders for all products begin today in the U.S. on Bose.com.

Industry experts were expecting Apple to rely on their own in-house 5G modem tech once a previous deal with a development partner expired, but the big A has returned to pastures of old—Qualcomm Technologies yesterday announced: "that it has entered into an agreement with Apple Inc. to supply Snapdragon 5G Modem‑RF Systems for smartphone launches in 2024, 2025 and 2026. This agreement reinforces Qualcomm's track record of sustained leadership across 5G technologies and products."

Reports suggest that multiple issues have plagued development of Apple's proprietary 5G modem, with 2024's iPhone 16 lineup already rumored to rely on Qualcomm's RF system. Apple has invested heavily in its custom modem operation—the "majority" of Intel's smartphone modem business was acquired back in 2019, while 2021 insider talk had TSMC lined up as a manufacturing partner for 5G chips. According to their latest investment relations material, Qualcomm anticipates that it will supply around 20% of modem chips in Apple iPhones.

DEEPX, a leading AI semiconductor technology company makes significant advancements towards creating an expansive Edge AI ecosystem by introducing innovative Edge AI Development Kits that transcend the limitations of GPUs. The company, known for its pioneering work in artificial intelligence semiconductors for Edge devices, is gearing up to participate in the AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit in Silicon Valley, set to run from September 12th to 14th.

At this prestigious event, DEEPX's CEO Lokwon Kim will share the stage with luminaries like Professor Andrew Ng of Landing AI and Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller. More than 100 major tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, will converge to discuss the latest trends and insights in AI hardware and edge AI.

Today, Shure introduced its highly anticipated AONIC 50 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones Gen 2. Drawing on decades of stage and studio expertise, the AONIC 50 Gen 2 Headphones break new ground with a revolutionary spatialized audio experience, designed to captivate music enthusiasts and discerning audiophiles alike. Building on the success of the AONIC 50 Headphones, this second generation sets a new standard for premium, high-fidelity audio, enhanced active noise cancellation, and more than double the battery life of the first generation, with up to 45 hours of runtime.

Meticulously crafted with premium materials and studio-quality sound through custom-engineered 50 mm dynamic drivers, AONIC 50 Gen 2 Headphones are an embodiment of comfort and style that take listening to the next level. They have been designed by leveraging Shure's experience designing headphones for studio professionals with long hours in mind. With customizable EQ features and new hybrid active noise cancellation technology, users can tailor their unique preferences using the free ShurePlus Play App for a personalized audio experience.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced the all-new Snapdragon G Series handheld gaming portfolio, built to meet the unique performance and feature demands of dedicated gaming devices. The new Snapdragon G Series unlocks a range of options for playing the most sought-after games, offering boundless ways to play virtually any game, anywhere.

"Dedicated handheld gaming devices are the best way to experience mobile games. But gamers want to be able to play all their favorite games across devices and ecosystems, be it their console, PC, or on a cloud service" said Mithun Chandrasekhar, senior director of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "The new generation of Snapdragon G Series powered devices will be the best place for gamers to play their favorite titles, offering them the ability to choose from the cloud, console, Android, or PC while on-the-go."

Semiconductor industry players Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., have come together to jointly invest in a company aimed at advancing the adoption of RISC-V globally by enabling next-generation hardware development.

Formed in Germany, this company will aim to accelerate the commercialization of future products based on the open-source RISC-V architecture. The company will be a single source to enable compatible RISC-V based products, provide reference architectures, and help establish solutions widely used in the industry. Initial application focus will be automotive, but with an eventual expansion to include mobile and IoT.

The escalating challenges in acquiring high-performance x86 servers have prompted Chinese data center companies to accelerate the shift to Arm-based system-on-chips (SoCs). Investment banking firm Bernstein reports that approximately 40% of all Arm-powered servers globally are currently being used in China. While most servers operate on x86 processors from AMD and Intel, there's a growing preference for Arm-based SoCs, especially in the Chinese market. Several global tech giants, including AWS, Ampere, Google, Fujitsu, Microsoft, and Nvidia, have already adopted or developed Arm-powered SoCs. However, Arm-based SoCs are increasingly favorable for Chinese firms, given the difficulty in consistently sourcing Intel's Xeon or AMD's EPYC. Chinese companies like Alibaba, Huawei, and Phytium are pioneering the development of these Arm-based SoCs for client and data center processors.

However, the US government's restrictions present some challenges. Both Huawei and Phytium, blacklisted by the US, cannot access TSMC's cutting-edge process technologies, limiting their ability to produce competitive processors. Although Alibaba's T-Head can leverage TSMC's latest innovations, it can't license Arm's high-performance computing Neoverse V-series CPU cores due to various export control rules. Despite these challenges, many chip designers are considering alternatives such as RISC-V, an unrestricted, rapidly evolving open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) suitable for designing highly customized general-purpose cores for specific workloads. Still, with the backing of influential firms like AWS, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Samsung, the Armv8 and Armv9 instruction set architectures continue to hold an edge over RISC-V. These companies' support ensures that the software ecosystem remains compatible with their CPUs, which will likely continue to drive the adoption of Arm in the data center space.

REDMAGIC, the gaming brand known for its iconic flagship professional gaming smartphones, continues to expand its gaming line with the new REDMAGIC Cyberbuds DAO TWS for international markets. The wireless earphones offer seamless connectivity with a futuristic design and RGB effects to offer comfort, and durability for gamers. Powered by Qualcomm's latest Bluetooth 5.3, Qualcomm S5, it offers a minimum delay of 28 ms when connected with the matching dongle. Capable of running as long as seven hours at a single charge, the new Cyberbuds DAO TWS are compatible with PC, PS4, PS5, Switch and android smartphones.

For a better gaming experience in various scenarios, users can modify the RGB light effects and sound modes. The earphones and charging base have a modern transparent design, showcasing cyber technology with cool RGB light effects and sci-fi vibes. An application called "Goper" is also available in PlayStore and soon in App Store, that allows users to manage functions such as codec format (SBC, AAC, LE Audio, aptX, and LHDC 5.0), audio EQ modes, game modes, lighting effects, and even pop-up window pairing when connected to a smartphone.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced its fifth generation of Galaxy foldables: Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5. The industry-leading form factors offer unique experiences for every user with sleek and compact designs, countless customization options, and powerful performance. The new Flex Hinge makes the foldable experience possible, while offering an aesthetically balanced and solid design. These unrivalled foldable devices unlock extraordinary camera capabilities such as FlexCam to take photos from creative angles. With strong performance and an optimized battery powered by the latest processor, the Samsung Galaxy Z series transforms what is possible with a smartphone - open or closed.

"Samsung is revolutionizing the mobile industry with foldables by setting the standard and continually refining the experience," said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "Every day, more people choose our foldables because they offer an experience people want that they can't get on any other device. Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5 are the latest devices that prove our commitment to meeting the needs of our customers through innovative technology."

According to various news sources, CEOs from Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm have been holding meetings with representatives of the US government—with the topic of discussion reportedly being the escalation of semiconductor import restrictions placed on China. AMD was notably absent from Monday's proceedings, due to Dr. Lisa Su attending to business matters in Taiwan. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, National Economic Council director Lael Brainard and National Security Council director Jake Sullivan were alleged to have met with industry leaders.

Chipmakers have expressed worry about new restrictions coming into effect within the next couple of week—the latest negotiations could have touched on some sort of provision for leading silicon manufacturers. The US government believes that by limiting China's access to cutting-edge technology, it will bolster national security interests—with the Chinese military not being able to develop competitive defense systems. The Semiconductor Industry Association stated on Monday that: "overly broad, ambiguous and at times unilateral restrictions risk diminishing the US semiconductor industry's competitiveness, disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China." Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm did not provide any comments to press outlets following the conclusion of their meetings with senior government officials. It is speculated that Qualcomm is set to lose the most trade following the implementation of stricter rules—Bloomberg proposes that 60% of the firm's business revenue comes from Chinese territories.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Meta are working to optimize the execution of Meta's Llama 2 large language models directly on-device - without relying on the sole use of cloud services. The ability to run generative AI models like Llama 2 on devices such as smartphones, PCs, VR/AR headsets, and vehicles allows developers to save on cloud costs, and to provide users with private, more reliable, and personalized experiences.

As a result, Qualcomm Technologies plans to make available on-device Llama 2-based AI implementations to enable the creation of new and exciting AI applications. This will allow customers, partners, and developers to build use cases, such as intelligent virtual assistants, productivity applications, content creation tools, entertainment, and more. These new on-device AI experiences, powered by Snapdragon, can work in areas with no connectivity or even in airplane mode.

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With its Qualcomm advanced octa-core CPU and enhanced configuration of 3 GB RAM + 32 GB ROM, the all-new Page guarantees an incredibly smooth experience while reading ebooks, browsing websites, or using third-party apps, which is made possible by the open Android 11 system it operates on. The 7-inch ePaper screen comes with the E Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen technology, replicating the sensation of reading on traditional paper. With a 300 PPI high definition, each word is presented with extra sharpness and more distinct contrast, resulting in a gentler visual effect and diminished strain on the eyes.

Luxury brands and consumer electronics don't tend to be a good mix, largely due to the luxury brands either not caring or not being knowledgeable enough about the product they're making. Montblanc has taken a very different route with its new MTB 03 ANC earbuds, as the company has cooperated with Axel Grell, who used to work for Sennheiser before setting up his own brand of audio products. In all fairness, Montblanc did a similar team-up for its MTB 01 headphones where they worked with the founder of Audeze. The MTB 03's feature 7 mm beryllium drivers and are built around a Qualcomm Bluetooth 5.2 chipset which Montblanc is leveraging by adding aptX Adaptive support.

Furthermore, Montblanc has added support for Mimi Hearing Technologies sound personalisation software, on top of the tuning provided by Axel Grell. Sadly these luxury buds aren't without shortcomings, as the battery life is said to be good for only six hours of listening time, with another two full charges in the charging case. That's far less than most competing products on the market today. The charging case can be charged wirelessly or via USB-C and a 15 minute charge of the earbuds is said to be good enough for 100 minutes of playback time, while a full charge takes 90 minutes. For those still interested, a pair of the MTB 03's will set you back £345 or around US$439, although that price includes 20 percent VAT.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. has announced the new Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 Mobile Platform, which has been creatively engineered to make incredible mobile experiences accessible to more consumers globally. Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 provides effortless, all-day use with fast CPU speeds, sharp photography and videography, plus speedy 5G and Wi-Fi for reliable connections.

"Snapdragon - at its core - is driving innovation while meeting the demands of OEMs and the broader industry," said Matthew Lopatka, director of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "With this generational advancement in the Snapdragon 4-series, consumers will have greater access to the most popular and relevant mobile features and capabilities. We optimized every aspect of the platform in order to maximize the experiences for users."

Linksys, a global innovator in WiFi technology, today announces the latest addition to its WiFi 6E product portfolio - the Linksys Velop Pro 6E, first of its new Designer Series using the "nature inspired" droplet design, along with advanced features that provide the ultimate WiFi 6E experience at an affordable price point.

WiFi 6E offers an extra 6 GHz band connection that helps cut down on interference and improves speeds to your connected devices. Powered by the Qualcomm Immersive Home 316 Platform, the Linksys Velop Pro 6E brings incredible range and coverage with WiFi 6E, enabling users to stream, download, or work with a faster and wider connection, and more devices on their network. Each tri-band node has one 1 Gbps Ethernet LAN port for connecting wired devices to wireless networks. With the latest Linksys Mobile App, the Velop Pro 6E is easily set up in under 10 minutes, and managed remotely with security and other useful features such as guest access, parental controls, and more.

New research from Omdia reveals that the semiconductor market declined in revenue for a fifth straight quarter in the first quarter of 2023. This is the longest recorded period of decline since Omdia began tracking the market in 2002. Revenue in 1Q23 settled at $120.5B, down 9% from 4Q22. The semiconductor market is cyclical, and this prolonged decline follows the upsurge as the market grew to record revenues in each quarter between 4Q20 through 4Q21 following increased demand from the global pandemic.

The memory and MPU market are major areas of the semiconductor market that are contributing to the decline. The MPU market in 1Q23 was $13.1B, just 65% of its size in 1Q22 when it was $20B. The memory market fared worse, with 1Q23 coming in at $19.3B, just 44% of the market in 1Q22 when it was $43.6B. The combined MPU and memory markets declined 19% in 1Q23, dragging the market down to the 9% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) decline.

Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. today unveiled an addition to the Qualcomm S3 Gen 2 Sound platform portfolio. This newly enhanced solution is optimized for gaming. It combines Snapdragon Sound and LE Audio to deliver ultra-low latency of less than 20 ms for lag-free wireless audio with voice back-channel for in-game chat. When delivering game audio only, the latency is further reduced.

The solution will also support the latest LE Audio Auracast broadcast capabilities for dongles and adapters, which can transform devices such as TVs, phones, laptops, PCs, consoles and a wide range of other audio equipment into premium broadcast platforms. For music listening, 24-bit 96 kHz high-resolution Bluetooth streaming is supported using Snapdragon Sound and Qualcomm aptX Adaptive audio technology. Snapdragon Sound allows for premium music playback, so listeners can hear every detail of their music just as the artist intended it to be heard.

Zebra Technologies Corporation, a leading digital solution provider enabling businesses to intelligently connect data, assets, and people, today announced the launch of the ET6x series of rugged Android tablets. Designed to help front-line workers in warehouses, manufacturing plants, ports, yards, field service and emergency medical environments be more productive and efficient, the ET6x series debuts the industry's only heated touch screen and vehicle dock for forklifts and other material handling vehicles.

The ET60 and ET65 are Zebra's first 2-in-1 Android tablets with a friction-hinge keyboard that transforms the tablets into a laptop to make heavy data entry easy in the office and in the field. The products feature consumer styling that can handle harsh indoor and outdoor environments from sub-zero cold to extreme heat. The tablets are dustproof, corrosion proof and tested for vibration, thermal shock, and solar radiation. Two of the most vulnerable tablet elements - the display and optional scanner exit window - are protected with shatter-and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass.

TrendForce reports that inventory reduction in Q1 fell short of expectations and coincided with the industry's traditional off-season, leading to overall subdued demand. However, due to new product release and a surge in urgent orders for specialized specifications, Q1 revenue of the global top ten IC design houses remained on par with 4Q22, with a modest QoQ increase of 0.1% for a total revenue of US$33.86 billion. Changes in ranking included Cirrus Logic slipping from the top ten as well as the ninth and tenth positions being replaced by WillSemi and MPS, respectively. The rest of the rankings remained unchanged.

The smartphone supply continues to grapple with overstock, but AI applications are entering a period of rapid growth
Qualcomm witnessed an uptick in its revenue, largely attributed to the launch and subsequent shipments of its latest flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8Gen2. The company saw 6.1% in QoQ growth in its smartphone business, which effectively offset the downturn from its automotive and IoT sectors. As a result, Qualcomm's Q1 revenue increased marginally by 0.6%, cementing its position at the top of the pack with a market share of 23.5%.

NETGEAR, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR), the leading provider of award-winning connected products designed to simplify and improve people's lives, today launched a powerful addition to its unlocked 5G mobile hotspot lineup. At a time when access to fast, secure and reliable internet is more important than ever, the NETGEAR Nighthawk M6 Mobile Hotspot Router (MR6150) raises the mobile broadband experience to new heights by upping the maximum 5G speed that can be supported and adding 160 MHz capability to connect with the latest WiFi 6 client devices.

NETGEAR launched the world's first unlocked 5G hotspot in 2021 with the award-winning Nighthawk M5. Now the company is building on that achievement with the M6, which is 20 percent faster than the M5 at 2.5 Gbps over 5G and has the capacity to hit a maximum combined WiFi speed of up to 3.6 Gbps when connecting to 160 MHz WiFi 6 devices. Additionally, the M6 comes with In-Home Performance Mode which boosts WiFi coverage up to 1,000 square feet when the device is plugged in, and the battery is removed.

Mark Zuckerberg just announced Meta Quest 3, our next-generation virtual and mixed reality headset, which launches later this year. It features higher resolution, stronger performance, breakthrough Meta Reality technology, and a slimmer, more comfortable form factor. Quest 3 will ship in all countries where Meta Quest is currently supported this fall. The 128 GB headset starts at $499.99 USD, and we'll offer an additional storage option for those who want some extra space. Mark your calendars because we'll have lots more to share at Meta Connect, which returns this year on September 27.

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Ethernovia, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based startup, today announced that it has completed its A-round financing of $64 million. The funding round consists of multiple investors, including Porsche Automobile Holding SE (Porsche SE), Qualcomm Ventures, VentureTech Alliance, AMD Ventures, Western Digital Capital, Fall Line Capital, Taiwania Capital, ENEA Capital and others.

As vehicle architectures evolve from domain-centric controllers, networking solutions must concurrently evolve to support higher data rates of advanced vehicle applications while meeting demand for improved reliability and security. Such advanced applications include Advanced Driver-Assisted Systems (ADAS), autonomous driving (AD) and a rich ecosystem of customer software delivered Over the Air (OTA).

According to Tom's Hardware, Microsoft is busy hiring engineers to help the company design its own Arm based SoC for Windows 12. Based on job listings, Microsoft is adding people to its "Silicon team," which is currently involved in designing products for Microsoft's Azure, Xbox Surface and HoloLens products. That said, the specific job listings mentioned by Tom's Hardware mentions "optimizing Windows 12 for Silicon-ARM architecture" suggesting we're looking at a custom Arm SoC, with others mentioning "internally developed silicon components" and "building complex, state-of-the-art SOCs using leading silicon technology nodes and will collaborate closely with internal customers and partners."

That said, Microsoft is currently working with Qualcomm and the Microsoft SQ3 found in the Surface Pro 9 is the latest result of that partnership. This brings the question if Microsoft has decided to make its own chip to compete with the Apple M-series of silicon, or if Microsoft is simply looking at working closer with Qualcomm by hiring inhouse talent that can help tweak the Qualcomm silicon to better suit its needs. With Windows 12 scheduled for a 2024 release, it looks like we'll have to wait a while longer to find out what Microsoft is cooking up, but regardless of what it is, it looks like Windows on Arm isn't going anywhere.

It appears it's not only AMD that is eyeing a move to Samsung, when it comes to fabricating upcoming chips, as reports are now suggesting that Qualcomm is considering a second attempt at making flagship mobile SoCs at Samsung's foundry. However, in this case, we're talking 3 nm chips in the shape of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which is expected to launch in devices sometime in 2024. This is said to be Qualcomm's first chip based on cores built by Nuvia, a company that Qualcomm acquired in 2021.

That said, Qualcomm will apparently not rely on Samsung alone, but will also be making the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 at TSMC. This might be because of past experience with Samsung, but the report out of Taiwan, suggests that the chips made by Samsung's foundry business will be used in Samsung branded phones, whereas the TSMC made chips might end up in devices by Qualcomm's other customers. It could also be a bet for Qualcomm to try and get better pricing by both foundries or a means of hedging their bets, to see which foundry produces the better chips. Then there's the situation between the PRC and the ROC, which could potentially put Qualcomm in a situation where it has no chips, so going with Samsung could be a means of covering for all potential risk scenarios.

Boox is happy to introduce the Tab Ultra C: a 10.3" ePaper Tablet PC endowed with pastel colors. We are excited to announce the launch of Tab Ultra C, our latest color E Ink device in 2023, following the successful release of our iF Design Award winning Tab Ultra last year. In this article, you will discover the unique features that make Tab Ultra C a standout device for work and productivity.

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Tab Ultra C represents a significant milestone as our first device with the cutting-edge Kaleido 3 color E Ink screen technology, delivering a high resolution of 300 PPI for black and white, and 150 PPI for displaying an extensive palette of 4,096 colors. The screen also features the innovative E Ink ComfortGaze front light technology, designed to optimize viewing comfort during both daytime and nighttime use.