Voice has been at the forefront of interpersonal communication in the digital age since traditional mobile phones, and now video is growing even further through services like Hangouts, Skype and Facetime. Our reliance on video and voice will only grow stronger through the proliferation of faster and more reliable internet connections.
Google realizes the importance of voice quality in such communication scenarios. And rightfully so too, as two of their products, Google Hangouts and Google Duo, incorporate audio-video communication as their main product features. To improve the online voice communication systems, Google has announced that it has acquired Limes Audio.
Limes Audio focuses on solutions that aid in voice communications. The goal is for the person you are talking with to hear you as clearly as possible, and to make it so that you can hear them clearly as well. Audio quality is of paramount importance in video communications and conferencing, so seeing Google focus on a great audio experience makes a lot of sense.
One of the biggest challenges that Google faces in many of its products like Google Hangouts, Google Duo and YouTube Live is audio quality. The variable nature of the presenter, the audience and their accompanying environments hamper the acoustics and echo scenarios. Further, poor internet connections can add in additional lag and interruptions in the audio experience. The team behind Limes Audio has been working on building solutions that remove the distracting noise, distortion and echoes that affect online video and telephony meetings.
While Google has not specifically stated which products will benefit directly with this acquisition, there is no doubt that the underlying technologies will creep out to many of their audio and video services. Whether Android gains something out of this on the OS level is something that will have to wait for Google to announce.
The Honor Magic is one of the most exciting phones coming from Huawei right now. This phone was out on display at CES 2017 and TK did a hands on video. This video demos some of the many sensors that are used in the facial recognition system on this phone.
Facial recognition has been in a primitive state on Android for a while and it never took off as a security feature. The Honor Magic hopes to change this by actually having a fast and useful recognition system. This phone will be able to change your notification information based on who's looking at your device. A stranger picks up the Honor Magic and will see that you have a new text. The owner picks up the Honor Magic and will see the new text notification, who it's from and a preview of the content.
Watch the video to see it in action.
Thanks to Honor for sponsoring our CES coverage. Be sure to check out the new Honor 6X.
LG Electronics has announced preliminary earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2016. The revenue table below showcases consolidated revenues for Q4 2016, but still offers us insight into what to expect on the year-end balance sheet.
| Estimated Q4 2016 (in kRw Bn) | Estimated Q4 2016 (in USD Mn) | Q3 2016 (in kRw Bn) | Q3 2016 (in USD Mn) | QoQ | Q4 2015 (in kRw Bn) | Q4 2015 (in USD Mn) | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | 14,781.9 | 12,356.1 | 13,224.3 | 11,054.1 | 11.8% | 14,560.1 | 12,170.7 | 1.5% |
| Operating Profit / (Loss) | (35.3) | (29.5) | 283.2 | 236 | – | 349.0 | 291 | – |
(South Korean Won to USD conversion at current exchange rates)
Revenue for Q4 2016 is estimated to be higher not only month-on-month, but year-on-year as well. The sales for LG Electronics for Q4 2016 is estimated at $12.3 Billion, which is an increase from the $11 Billion in sales from the previous quarter, and the $12.2 Billion from the previous year.
The catch here is that the figures indicated are consolidated revenues, including all sales from all divisions within LG Electronics. This does not immediately put the smartphone division in the red, but the Operating Loss of $29.5 Million despite the increase in sales indicates that there has been sizeable expenditure by the company.
From previous earning reports, like the report from Q3 2016, we know that most of the profits of that quarter originated from the Home Appliances and Air Solution division. The mobile division had an operating loss of $389.4 Million despite the $2.3 Billion contribution to revenue. So even though the division could bring in sales, they were not sizeable enough to set off the expenditure incurred in product development and marketing and advertisement.
With the LG V20 released in September, it will be interesting to see how the figures play out. Will the V20 have sizeable sales to cover the R&D and promotional expenditure? Or will it managed to disappointment despite the monumental failure of the competing Note 7 in the phablet segment? Only time and Q4 reports will tell.
What are your thoughts on LG's tentative earnings for Q4 2016? Let us know in the comments below!
Samsung may have stumbled during the second half of 2016 with the battery issues that plagued the Galaxy Note 7. Interestingly enough though, it didn't seem to have much of an effect on the company's profits for the last quarter of the year.
Naturally, they could have made more if the Note 7 didn't have its issues, but Samsung's recent earnings guidance said they were able to bring in $7.8 billion in operating profit for the quarter (which is up by around 50% YoY).
Samsung was able to keep things going thanks to their other divisions, on top of a refreshed focus on the Galaxy S7. We saw the Galaxy S7 take part in multiple promotions throughout the year, and Samsung even released the device in new colors as well. So to help keep the momentum going, Samsung is going to be betting heavy on the upcoming Galaxy S8. A recent report claims they're going to start with an initial output of 10 million units.
The report says 5 million units will be produced in March, followed by another 5 million units in April. They believe that once Samsung has finished with this second batch, the company will launch both of them simultaneously around the world. This might sound like a lot for some companies, but etnews says that Samsung's initial output of the Galaxy S7 was also 10 million units, so it shouldn't be hard for the South Korean tech giant to produce, distribute and sell this many.
The big question is whether or not Samsung will be able to win back customers they lost thanks to the Note 7 issues. The company tells us that the majority of the devices they recalled were simply swapped out with another Samsung device, but there has to be a segment of the community that is worried about safety with the Galaxy S8. Another report said Samsung SDI will be producing batteries for the S8, and that the company has put a bigger emphasis on safety this year.
There's been a number of companies going back and forth with Android Wear lately, and it has had many people worried about the future of the platform… Especially since Google has been very slow to release the highly anticipated Android Wear 2.0 update.
This led to people assuming OEMs would be preparing to release a new smartwatch to coincide with the new update, but it seemed like Google will be the only company doing that.
The Android Wear platform is still being used by a number of companies though. Motorola and Huawei are saying they might not be releasing new devices every year, but still say that they will refresh their hardware when they feel the time is right. Swarovski says they'll be releasing an Android Wear smartwatch in March, Casio just announced a new WSD-F series watch, and New Balance just revealed some details about the device they've been working with Intel on too.
Then at CES this week, ZTE has confirmed they are working on an Android Wear smartwatch as well, and says it should be released sometime in 2017. ZTE's chief executive officer, Lixin Cheng, spoke with CNET this week and told them the company has already partnered with a wireless carrier in the United States, and that the wearable will have its own LTE connectivity so it doesn't have to be paired with a phone all the time.
Cheng didn't reveal any additional details about the device though, other than saying they appreciate the work previous Android Wear OEMs have done for the market. Cheng feels that they've done the experimenting for them, and that this will help them not make the same mistakes others made. ZTE is known for manufacturing budget-friendly smartphones, so it will be interesting to see if they follow in the footsteps of companies like ASUS, and produce a device that offers a lot of value for the consumer.
We haven't really heard many credible rumors about HTC's upcoming flagship, but we have heard rumblings of the Ocean codename. This week, while many are focusing on the products being announced at CES in Las Vegas, Evan Blass revealed some alleged details about the HTC One X10.
If his sources are true, this phone will have a 5.5″ 1080p display and be the successor of the company's One X9 phablet.
We generally see successors to an older phone come out with better, or at least more powerful, hardware than the device that came before it. However, Evan's sources are telling him that the HTC One X10 will be shipping with the MediaTek MT6755V/C SoC. This chip has an eight core CPU clocked at 1.9GHz (while the X9 had eight cores clocked at 2.2GHz), and it is being paired with the Mali T860 GPU.
The CPU seems to be the only area that is slacking when compared to the One X10's predecessor. The rumor says the upcoming phone will have 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, which are at least on par with what HTC released last year in the One X9. Instead of improving the processing package, HTC has chosen to focus on the camera with this phone. The HTC One X10 is said to come with a 16.3MP rear-facing camera and a 7.9MP front-facing camera.
Evan says HTC is currently working to get the One X10 released sometime this month.
