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Qualcomm, one of the largest microchip manufacturers globally, is scaling back its workforce. The San Diego, California-based company will be laying off about 1258 roles in California, according to a filing with the California Employment Development Department. Impacted employees include those based out of San Diego and Santa Clara in multiple roles, from engineers to legal counsel to human resources, with job reductions coming around December 13th. The layoff news comes about a month after the company announced a deal with Apple to provide 5G chips through at least 2026. Qualcomm is also the chip supplier for the newly announced...

Samsung and TSMC are facing an investigation by the US International Trade Commission (USITC) over allegations of patent infringement involving chips and mobile devices containing those chips. The USITC said that it will begin an investigation based on a complaint filed by Daedalus Prime LLC of Bronxville, New York, in September. The complaint alleges violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the import into the US of semiconductor devices, and mobile devices containing those chips, which allegedly infringe patents claimed by the company. According to the USITC's notice of investigation [PDF], the patent infringement claims cover...

If you have a smartphone, you probably use its front-facing camera for selfies and the occasional video call. Perhaps, if you’re lucky, you’ll shoot the next viral TikTok masterpiece. You might use your next smartphone’s front camera for the same things, but there’s a chance that camera won’t completely turn off once you’re done with it. This week, chipmaker Qualcomm revealed its latest Snapdragon processor, which will power many of the high-end Android smartphones you’ll see in stores in 2022, including models from Motorola, Sony, OnePlus. And a new feature built into that chip could allow smartphone makers to keep...

Apple's newest iPhone will offer technology that lets it connect to satellites, allowing users to make calls and send messages when they're out of range from a 4G or 5G network, according to a new analyst report. TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the new device will feature a customized Qualcomm chip that allows for low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite communications, effectively making the next iPhone a satellite phone, according to a report seen by MacRumors. The analyst said Qualcomm is teaming up with Globalstar on the chip, a customized version of Qualcomm X60 baseband chip. In this case, a customer...

According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and reported by MacRumors, the iPhone 13 may come with a feature which will allow you to place satellite calls using the smartphone. If this is true, users will be able to make calls and send messages in areas lacking connectivity.Traditionally, satellite phones allow you to place calls by radio through orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do.One of the main advantages of using a satellite phone is its ability to place calls in most geographic locations on the Earth’s surface as the device is not limited to areas covered by...

We just had some Major Announcements about ARM Development that changes Intels X86 future! Here's what we found out! (spoiler alert -- they have met the enemy and it is them)

Apple just launched its first custom processor for computers. The M1 chip is similar to the A-series processors inside the iPhone and iPad, and it powers just two devices: The late 2020 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. And yet, Intel is still terrified, having mounted a massive ad campaign in an attempt to convince the world that the M1 MacBooks can’t stand up to Windows 10 laptops running on Intel hardware. The campaign was somewhat half-baked, and has since drawn criticism and ridicule for its missteps. The M1 MacBooks offer formidable performance and excellent battery life, with M1 being built...

The Committee on Liberatory Information Technology has announced a long-standing Chromebook bug that could reveal user location history. Evidently already on the radar of Google, the platform has a feature allowing anyone with physical access to your device to connect as a guest and view your Wi-Fi logs. Of course, once said intruder has accessed these logs, they would then need the technical knowhow to make sense of them. However, if they are skilled enough, they may be able to track your place history by viewing your Wi-Fi network access over the past seven days. It turns out the bug...

China was once very dependent on US chips for its phones. The latest Chinese phones have no US parts. The Wall Street Journal reports Huawei Manages to Make Smartphones Without American Chips. American tech companies are getting the go-ahead to resume business with Chinese smartphone giant Huawei Technologies Co., but it may be too late: It is now building smartphones without U.S. chips. Huawei’s latest phone, which it unveiled in September—the Mate 30 with a curved display and wide-angle cameras that competes with Apple Inc.’s iPhone 11—contained no U.S. parts, according to an analysis by UBS and Fomalhaut Techno Solutions,...

(Reuters) - Intel Corp sold its smartphone modem chip business to Apple Inc at “a multi-billion dollar loss,” the U.S. chipmaker said in a court filing on Friday, alleging that rival Qualcomm Inc forced it out of the market. Intel made the claims in a brief filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where Qualcomm is seeking to overturn a sweeping antitrust decision against it after losing a lawsuit by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Intel, whose executives testified at the trial, argued on Friday that the ruling should stand. Appeal proceedings are expected to begin in January....

Now, a story in the Sunday Telegraph is just the latest to pose serious questions. The newspaper reports that China has been "rigging" 5G equipment testing to discredit Huawei's rivals, including Nokia and Ericsson. According to government and industry sources, "Beijing is feeding secret details of security vulnerabilities" to the testers to tip the balance in Huawei's favor. The testing encompasses "hacking techniques used to check for weak spots... vulnerabilities discovered by China’s secret state hackers have been passed to the 5G testers to ensure Nokia and Ericsson’s equipment is found to be insecure." Huawei's security issues have always been...

China has deployed an unlikely voice in its trade war with the U.S.: Trevor Noah of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. A brief clip from the comedian’s “If You Don’t Know, Now You Know” segment on Chinese equipment maker Huawei’s dominance in next-generation 5G mobile technology ran on state broadcaster CCTV’s national lunchtime news on Monday. It was part of a barrage of stories and commentaries attacking the U.S. stance in the standoff between the world’s two largest economies. Washington says Huawei, the leading supplier of telecom gear and No. 2 smartphone maker, is a security threat and is obliged...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States has won the first round of litigation against Qualcomm. Judge Lucy H. Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has just found that the San Diego-based chipset maker violated the FTC Act, and has ordered the following remedies: (1) Qualcomm must not condition the supply of modem chips on a customer’s patent license status and Qualcomm must negotiate or renegotiate license terms with customers in good faith under conditions free from the threat of lack of access to or discriminatory provision of modem chip supply...

The long-term vision is that 5G will lead to the invention of thousands of new products, technologies and services, increase productivity and allow for new industries to emerge. A global 5G network would unify mobile communication and connect individuals or devices to everything through the Internet of Things (IoT). 5G technology can connect vehicles, ships, buildings, meters, machines and other items with electronics, software, sensors and the Cloud, while embedded 5G technology would allow machines to exchange information and integrate computer-based systems in the physical world. In recent years 3G and 4G patent owners have controlled the way in which...

iPhone and iPad have long been subjected to bend tests to see how they hold up to abuse. But what about if your iPad Pro arrived with a bend in the casing? You'd send it back and ask for a replacement or a refund, right? But Apple does not believe that an iPad Pro that arrives bent is defective. The company has confirmed that a number of 2018 iPad Pro tablets have a "slight bend" in their aluminum casing, blaming the defect on the manufacturing process. Only it's not a defect, remember? See also: Apple releases iOS 12.1.2 with eSIM...

When the Trump administration blocked the merger of Qualcomm and Broadcom it singled out the risk that the deal would give Huawei an advantage in developing 5G technology. Bloomberg quoted an analyst in China who sees the arrest as the result of the national security White House staff pushing back against the Wall Street-friendly China doves in the White House, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who pushed for the trade truce.

China is demanding the release of telecoms giant Huawei's chief financial officer, who has been detained in Canada. Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the company's founder, could face extradition to the US. She was arrested in Vancouver on 1 December, but the news was not made public at her request. The charges remain unknown but the US has been probing Huawei over possible violation of sanctions against Iran. China says her detention is possibly a rights abuse. Ms Meng has sought a publication ban on the details of the arrest, which has been granted by the courts. Huawei said it...

Trump Administration Preemptively Blocks $177 Billion Qualcomm-Broadcom Deal The Trump administration has blocked the biggest tech deal in history earlier this week. The proposed deal would see Broadcom acquiring Qualcomm for a whopping $117 billion. In the unprecedented move by the White House, they expressed concerns about giving China a technological advantage over the United States through this deal and said that blocking the deal was “necessary to protect the national security of the United States.” For some background, Qualcomm is an industry leader for manufacturing wireless chips for LTE networks. They are an American company that will be at...

Upon review of a recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and consideration, as appropriate, of the factors set forth in the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, the President has made relevant findings and issued the following Order: ORDER REGARDING THE PROPOSED TAKEOVER OF QUALCOMM INCORPORATED BY BROADCOM LIMITED By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 721 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (section 721), 50 U.S.C. 4565, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1....

Speaking on television last week, Trump's Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross made an unusual statement about the White House tariff plans, specifically about carve-outs for Mexico and Canada. Ross called the administration's definition of national security something new and unusual itself. "It's not the conventional definition of national security," Ross said. It's clear from Trump's post-tax-cut shift to correcting imbalances in global trade — something Trump has cared about for a lot longer and with a lot more passion than tax policy — that an evolving definition of national security is a geopolitical and stock market risk. Panic, on either front,...