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Prior to an Anticipated Market Recovery, China’s Honor is Placing Bets on AI Devices for Worldwide Expansion

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Prior to an Anticipated Market Recovery, China's Honor is Placing Bets on AI Devices for Worldwide Expansion

As the global rivalry heats up, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor, a spin-off of Huawei Technologies, is depending on artificial intelligence (AI) to transform the way people use its devices and give it an advantage.

At a launch event in Barcelona on Sunday, Honor CEO George Zhao Ming outlined the company’s new AI strategy, which entails developing a “intent-based user interface” that would aid in enabling a seamless experience across various systems and devices. He was giving a speech prior to MWC Barcelona, formerly known as the Mobile World Congress, a trade exhibition for the mobile communications sector.

Zhao showed off Honor’s new Magic Portal feature during an interface showcase. This enables users to quickly open the location in Google Maps by tapping and dragging a text message that contains the name of a restaurant, for example. The concept is that AI can foresee user needs to provide a better experience.

The Magic 6 Pro, Honor’s most recent flagship smartphone, made its world debut at the event. It has AI-powered features including Magic Portal and MagicLM, the company’s 7-billion-parameter large language model (LLM). In Europe, prices begin at €1,299 (US$1,405).

Zhao stated at the event that Honor is interested in collaborating with business partners to advance its AI capabilities. He cited Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, as an example, noting that Honor employs the open-source Llama 2 model from the US tech giant to create text and respond to user inquiries on the Magic 6 Pro.

As part of the larger Magic 6 series, the new flagship smartphone made its debut in mainland China last month. It was Honor’s first 5G phone to come equipped with MagicLM.

As competition in the area heats up, Honor is not the only company attempting to include AI capabilities into its phones. As AI is viewed as a key factor in the anticipated market recovery this year following a protracted decline, numerous smartphone manufacturers have made their commitment to implementing it on their own products known.

Oppo, which according to research firm IDC will rank as the fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world in 2023, declared earlier this month that the “AI phone era” had begun and that it will be allocating more resources in this direction. The company’s own AndesGPT AI is included in the Find X7 series smartphones, which were released last month.

For its well-known Galaxy devices, Samsung Electronics uses third parties to provide generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). As part of a multi-year cooperation, the company’s 5G devices will employ Google’s Gemini model globally. But as Samsung revealed this month, the South Korean tech behemoth has teamed up with Baidu to use its LLM in the Galaxy S24 in mainland China.

Global shipments of GenAI-enabled smartphones are expected to surpass 100 million units this year, up from roughly 47 million in 2023, and then quickly increase to 552 million by 2027, according to tech research firm Counterpoint.

According to Counterpoint, GenAI handsets, a subclass of AI smartphones, employ similar models to produce original content as opposed to only responding preprogrammed or carrying out predetermined tasks. Since AI models are frequently built into chipsets and come with specified hardware requirements, these devices execute AI models natively.

According to IDC, worldwide smartphone shipments decreased 3.2% year over year to 1.17 billion devices in 2023. The research group stated that although the number of shipments for the entire year was the lowest in ten years, “growth in the second half of the year has cemented the expected recovery for 2024.”

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Apple has revealed a revamped Mac Mini with an M4 chip

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A smaller but no less powerful Mac Mini was recently unveiled by Apple as part of the company’s week of Mac-focused announcements. It now has Apple’s most recent M4 silicon, enables ray tracing for the first time, and comes pre-installed with 16GB of RAM, which seems to be the new standard in the age of Apple Intelligence. While the more potent M4 Pro model starts at $1,399, the machine still starts at $599 with the standard M4 CPU. The Mac Mini is available for preorder right now and will be in stores on November 8th, just like the updated iMac that was revealed yesterday.

The new design will be the first thing you notice. The Mini has reportedly been significantly reduced in size, although it was already a comparatively small desktop computer. It is now incredibly small, with dimensions of five inches for both length and width. Apple claims that “an innovative thermal architecture, which guides air to different levels of the system, while all venting is done through the foot” and the M4’s efficiency are the reasons it keeps things cool.

Nevertheless, Apple has packed this device with a ton of input/output, including a 3.5mm audio jack and two USB-C connections on the front. Three USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, Ethernet, and HDMI are located around the back. Although the USB-A ports are outdated, it’s important to remember that the base M2 Mini only featured two USB-A connectors and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. You get a total of five ports with the M4. You get an additional Thunderbolt port but lose native USB-A.

Depending on the M4 processor you select, those Thunderbolt connectors will have varying speeds. While the M4 Pro offers the most recent Thunderbolt 5 throughput, the standard M4 processor comes with Thunderbolt 4.

With its 14 CPU and 20 GPU cores, the M4 Pro Mac Mini also offers better overall performance. The standard M4 can have up to 32GB of RAM, while the M4 Pro can have up to 64GB. The maximum storage capacity is an astounding 8TB. Therefore, even though the Mini is rather little, if you have the money, you can make it really powerful. For those who desire it, 10 gigabit Ethernet is still an optional upgrade.

Apple has a big week ahead of it. On Monday, the company released the M4 iMac and its first Apple Intelligence software features for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. (More AI functionality will be available in December, such as ChatGPT integration and image production.) As Apple completes its new hardware, those updated MacBook Pros might make their appearance tomorrow. The business will undoubtedly highlight its newest fleet of Macs when it releases its quarterly profits on Thursday.

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Apple Intelligence may face competition from a new Qualcomm processor

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The new chip from Qualcomm (QCOM) may increase competition between Apple’s (AAPL) iOS and Android.

During its Snapdragon Summit on Monday, the firm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform, which includes a new, second-generation Oryon CPU that it claims is the “fastest mobile CPU in the world.” According to Qualcomm, multimodal generative artificial intelligence characteristics can be supported by the upcoming Snapdragon platform.

Qualcomm, which primarily creates chips for mobile devices running Android, claims that the new Oryon CPU is 44% more power efficient and 45% faster. As the iPhone manufacturer releases its Apple Intelligence capabilities, the new Snapdragon 8 platform may allow smartphone firms compete with Apple on the AI frontier. Additionally, Apple has an agreement with OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT, to incorporate ChatGPT-4o into the upcoming iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.

According to a September Wall Street Journal (NWSA) story, Qualcomm is apparently interested in purchasing Intel (INTC) in a deal that could be valued up to $90 billion. According to Bloomberg, Apollo Global Management (APO), an alternative asset manager, had also proposed an equity-like investment in Intel with a potential value of up to $5 billion.

According to reports, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the situation, Qualcomm may postpone its decision to acquire Intel until after the U.S. presidential election next month. According to the persons who spoke with Bloomberg, Qualcomm is waiting to make a decision on the transaction because of the possible effects on antitrust laws and tensions with China after the election results.

According to a report from analysts at Bank of America Global Research (BAC), Qualcomm could expand, take the lead in the market for core processor units, or CPUs, for servers, PCs, and mobile devices, and get access to Intel’s extensive chip fabrication facilities by acquiring Intel. They went on to say that Qualcomm would become the world’s largest semiconductor company if its $33 billion in chip revenue were combined with Intel’s $52 billion.

The experts claimed that those advantages would be outweighed by the financial and regulatory obstacles posed by a possible transaction. They are dubious about a prospective takeover and think that Intel’s competitors may gain from the ambiguity surrounding the agreement.

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iPhone 16 Pro Users Report Screen Responsiveness Issues, Hope for Software Fix

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Many iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max users are experiencing significant touchscreen responsiveness problems. Complaints about lagging screens and unresponsive taps and swipes are particularly frustrating for customers who have invested $999 and up in these devices.

The good news is that initial assessments suggest the issue may be software-related rather than a hardware defect. This means that Apple likely won’t need to issue recalls or replacement units; instead, a simple software update could resolve the problem.

The root of the issue might lie in the iOS touch rejection algorithm, which is designed to prevent accidental touches. If this feature is overly sensitive, it could ignore intentional inputs, especially when users’ fingers are near the new Camera Control on the right side of the display. Some users have reported that their intended touches are being dismissed, particularly when their fingers are close to this area.

Additionally, the new, thinner bezels on the iPhone 16 Pro compared to the iPhone 15 Pro could contribute to the problem. With less protection against accidental touches, the device may misinterpret valid taps as mistakes, leading to ignored inputs.

This isn’t the first time Apple has faced challenges with new iPhone models. For instance, the iPhone 4 experienced “Antennagate,” where signal loss occurred depending on how the device was held, prompting Steve Jobs to famously suggest users hold their phones differently. Apple eventually provided free rubber bumpers to mitigate the issue.

To alleviate the touchscreen problem, using a case might help by covering parts of the display and reducing the chances of accidental touches triggering the rejection algorithm. The issue appears on devices running iOS 18 and the iOS 18.1 beta and does not occur when the phone is locked. Users may notice difficulties when swiping through home screens and apps.

Many are hopeful that an upcoming iOS 18 update will address these issues, restoring responsiveness to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max displays.

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