Important announcements
Huawei and Vodafone have completed the world’s first 5G outdoor field test
Huawei and Vodafone hit 20Gbps peak rate following the completion of a 5G e-band outdoor field test at Vodafone Emerald House in Newbury, United Kingdom
Huawei has claimed it is world’s first 5G outdoor field test using e-band to reach 20Gbps peak rate for a single user device with high spectrum efficiency, believing it can enable new applications and act as self-backhaul for 5G mobile service traffic, particularly due to soaring mobile broadband communications traffic and the emergence of 5G network.
More info are available here.
LG Display will invest $1.75 Billion for flexible OLED screens
OLED is widely expected to replace liquid crystal displays (LCD) for smartphones as the standard technology in a few years, and flexible displays can be curved or folded. LG, in a regulatory filing, said it was building a new production line for small-to-medium sized flexible OLED screens in South Korea to address growing demand. The new production line, E6, is scheduled to begin mass production in the second half of 2018 and is set to produce 15,000 inupt sheets per month.
You can read about it here.
Apple confirms it is investing heavily in augmented reality
Apple CEO Tim Cook has finally confirmed what many in the tech industry have suspected all along. Apple has likely been involved with augmented reality way before the Pokémon craze grew legs. Indeed, most major tech players have been toying with the concept of AR for at least the past decade. Above all others, Apple has the perfect platform in place to support augmented reality. Its last few iPhones have come equipped with powerful 64-bit processors which are only going to become more powerful in future revisions.
Considering that Apple is now willing to talk publicly about its involvement in AR could signal that a consumer product is nearing completion (or maybe Cook just wants to reassure investors that they have forward-looking products in the pipeline).
More info here.
Top new products
BlackBerry DTEK50 Android Smartphone Launched
Calling the DTEK50 “the world’s most secure Android smartphone,” BlackBerry said it will alert users if someone is making remote use of its camera or microphone, or accessing the phone’s location information. The 5.2-inch touchscreen-only DTEK50 is available from Tuesday for pre-order from BlackBerry’s online shop in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and The Netherlands for $299 , and it plans to begin shipping the device on August 8.
You can see full specs here.
The PC 373D headset is Sennheiser’s newest flagship
The headset features an open-back design, and despite packing only two speakers, it promises 7.1-channel surround sound. In order to offer 7.1-channel surround sound, the PC 373D headset features a dongle that plugs into your PC, as well as custom software. Different modes for immersive and competitive gaming are offered including a dedicated eSports mode, though a music mode and more neutral “off” setting are also available, making these usable as general purpose headphones in addition to gaming.
The Sennheiser PC 373D gaming headset is available beginning this month, and retails for $260. More info are available here.
Sony Unveils “Z Series” Flagship Line of 4K HDR TVs
The Z Series will be available in three sizes: 65-inch, 75-inch, and 100-inch models, with the 65- and 75-inch sizes available now for pre-order.
According to Sony, the new Z Series wields the “Backlight Master Drive,” a newly engineered full-array LED backlight system that Sony first demonstrated as a prototype during CES in January. The Z Series would appear to be the fruit of that labor, and may be Sony’s most technologically advanced TV ever.
Detailed info can be found here.
Top interesting info
How the Yahoo deal affects its services
Verizon’s announcement that it is acquiring Yahoo’s operations is a turning point for an internet pioneer that claims a billion users visit its services each month.In addition to Yahoo’s popular email service, Verizon is taking over content sites like Yahoo Sports and Yahoo News, as well as Yahoo-owned services that operate separately under their own brands, including the Tumblr social network and the Flickr photo-sharing service.
Here you can find answers to some common questions about the impact of the deal.
Newly discovered HTTPS flaw can expose supposedly secure URLs to wireless evesdropping
If you’re connected to an insecure wireless network, especially one that isn’t vouched for, HTTPS alone won’t protect you, security researchers Itzik Kotler and Amit Klein said this week in a talk at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. With the right configuration, a malicious network could discover every supposedly protected URL you visited. The vulnerability potentially affects Windows, Linux, and Mac computers regardless of browser: IE, Safari, and Chrome.
You can read more here.
Vulnerabilities in unencrypted wireless keyboards lets hackers see keystrokes, inject malware
The issue is with those wireless keyboards that transmit to a PC using an unencrypted, radio-based communications protocol rather than a Bluetooth connection. These cheaper transceiver chips (and other non-Bluetooth chips), which operate in the 2.4GHz ISM radio band, don’t recieve Bluetooth’s security updates that could fix the problem.
The unencrypted transmissions mean that anyone within a 250-foot line-of-sight radius could grab your passwords, credit card details, and any other personal information you type using a cheap dongle bought online.
You can read more here and here.
