TikTok beta tests premium only streaming service
TikTok is attempting to penetrate the already saturated digital music streaming market. The news recently comes as an expansion to beta testing offered in Brazil and Indonesia. According to the news, “TikTok says it’s inviting users in Australia, Mexico and Singapore to participate in the TikTok Music closed beta test starting today.”This is very significant as […]
Stellantis Implements Multifaceted Semiconductor Strategy to Ensure Supply Security, Drive Innovation
In a bid to stave off further automotive supply chain issues, automotive group Stellantis has entered into agreements with leading semiconductor vendors such as Infineon, NXP, onsemi and Qualcomm to purchase more than €10 billion worth of products through 2030. Stellantis cites SiC MOSFETS, MCUs and SoCs as some vital products included in the deal. It’s linked to […]
Sony and Honda’s “Afeela” car showcases automotive’s high-tech future
This release highlights several high-level trends in automotive. Traditional car makers are coming up against more competition from consumer electronics brands. The smart ones will seek partnerships to remain relevant and to help them catapult ahead of the competition. These partnerships will involve multiple different types of company car OEMs, consumer electronics brands and semiconductor […]
Shokz enter the TWS market
Shokz has just announced its first TWS products with a twist. In a similar vein to how they have attempted to offer a safer solution to earbuds in the past without using audio transparency, their new earbuds offer what they are calling Air Conduction, which seems to be either Beamforming or something very similar. The […]
Qualcomm S3 Gen 2 Sound Platform Portfolio
Qualcomm has announced an update to the Qualcomm S3 Gen 2 Sound platform portfolio, which is optimised for gaming. Latency is perhaps the biggest issue that is holding back widespread adoption of Bluetooth for gaming, many vendors continue to rely on proprietary RF to ensure latency is minimised. SAR Insight has talked about this many times. […]
Knowles Balanced Armatures Pack High-Fidelity Punch into 21-Driver UE PREMIER IEM
Ultimate Ears’ recent UE Premier in-ear monitor (IEM) headphones boast an impressive 21 drivers per earpiece, “to deliver a signature sound with unparalleled fidelity, control and precision”. It is the trend to add more and more drivers (speakers) to IEM earbuds, but SAR has not seen anything quite so dramatic as 21 per earbud before. On closer inspection […]
Apple Vision Pro
As expected, Apple has just announced their first entry into the Extended Reality market. The Apple Vision Pro. Set to release in early 2024 and selling at a base price of $3,499, the new device will spark new life into the mixed reality market. Currently, the only large-scale device that uses mixed reality (a combination […]
AI in Consumer Devices
It has been announced that Wimbledon will team up with IBM to produce AI-generated commentary. Within the last year, AI has been at the forefront of the news with new stories out every week on the latest developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence which has been driven by the introduction of Transformer neural networks […]
Qualcomm Open to Working With PlayStation on Handheld System
While this news story isn’t very enlightening it does lead to some more interesting thoughts on the handheld gaming market. The announcement of Sony’s Project Q, which is a handheld device “for playing games installed on your PS5 and streamed over WiFi”. Project Q is Sony’s answer to compete in the growing handheld gaming market, dominated […]