We take a look at the rumors surrounding Samsung’s upcoming Note 7 phablet

Samsung Electronics Co. (NASDAQ:SSNLF) is expected to reveal its next generation flagship phablet. the Galaxy Note 7, later this year, and there have been plenty of rumors of the changes that the company will bring to its upcoming device. According to reports, production for the Galaxy Note 7 will start in July and consumers will be available to buy the device in August. Samsung, with its latest phablet, will look to compete against Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) upcoming iPhone 7 Plus, which is also expected to be released later this fall.

The new device is expected to feature a 5.8 inch super AMOLED Display panel with a 1440 x 2560 resolution, and will be protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The phablet is also expected to feature a 16MP back camera and 8MP front camera. The Galaxy Note 7 is to feature the upcoming Snapdragon 823 Chipset alongside 7GB of RAM and will come preinstalled with the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Reports also indicate that the device will come with 128GB of internal memory and will also support expandable storage up to 256GB via a MicroSD card slot. The device will only support a Single Sim card and will come with a refined stylus.

The Galaxy Note 7 will also be the first device to feature the Samsung Focus App. Samsung Focus is the new productivity app from the company that allows users to easily manage their emails, messages and calls through one platform. There are also reports that the camera quality on the Note 7 will be close to “professional photos” and the camera will come equipped with OIS, laser autofocus and a dual LED flash.

According to reports, Samsung is hoping that the device will be a hit and has lined up five million units for its initial release. The Note 5 had five million units sold by quarter, so the same number of units for an initial release is quite a high number. However, if rumors about the specs are true, Samsung could easily sell all devices from the initial release. 

Digitimes reported that Apple demands price cut from its upstream component suppliers ahead of iPhone 7 launch

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) demands price cuts from Taiwan IT players. Due to smartphone shipment growth slowing down globally, Apple cuts back on its current suppliers quotes of upstream components, and now look for new component suppliers to maintain its high gross margins.

According to sources of Upstream supply chain in Taiwan, several IT players have already been affected, including Foxconn Electronics, Largan Precision, and Pegatron Technology. Digitimes quoted, “Currently, Largan is facing strong competition from Japan-based Kantatsu over camera module orders, while Foxconn and Pegatron are seeing Apple adding new ODM partners such as Wistron for the production of its new iPhone.”

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) players from Taiwan also face the heat and compete aggressively on Apple’s orders by cutting back on prices. Digitimes mentioned that until now, only Flexium Interconnect and Zhen Ding Tech are able to enjoy lucrative profits.

In order to minimize the possible impact, IT players from Taiwan aggressively expand their orders from several other clients and also look forward to improve their technologies, product quality and yield rates in order to widen the prevalent gaps with its competitors.

Apple’s demand to cut its price is affecting component suppliers based in Japan because their quotes are usually on the higher side. Although, Chinese suppliers do enjoy an advantage related to pricing, but prevalent instability in their finance, yield rate and product quality provides an unwanted advantage to Taiwan-based suppliers, and present them the opportunity to lead the competition.

The news comes ahead of Apple iPhone 7 launch, which is scheduled to release in September this year. Only time would be a better judge to decide whether the investors would react to the news.

Serious implications will follow if the industry dynamics change for the chip maker

QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) has been slapped with a fine of 852.9 million by South Korea on allegations of antitrust violations. The Regulator’s slapped the fine which is the highest ever penalty for an individual company. The chip maker faces scrutiny for its patent-licensing business globally.

It was stated by the Korea Fair Trade Commission that the chipmaker had breached the antitrust laws by preventing access of its competitors to its patents. Qualcomm had forced mobile phone manufacturers into agreements which were unfair to them. It refused to supply important mobile chips to those players who disagreed with their terms.

The secretary general of the commission, Shin Young said that the California based chip manufacturer used its market position in order to force mobile manufacturers to accept its conditions which were unfair. The market position was used as a leveraging tool in agreement negotiations.

In response to this development, the general counsel of Qualcomm, Don Rosenberg said that they have not hindered in any other competitors ability to sell their products. He further said that the licensing practice is an industry wide norm.

The fine will not take effect until the commission issues a written formal ruling which can take months. The chip maker can file an appeal in South Korea’s High court after the written ruling is passed. A massive 30% chunk of the company’s revenue of $25 billion last year was accounted by its patent-licensing business.

Analysts have started commenting on the implications the fine will have on the chip maker. Stacy Rasgon, analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein said “The worry is not the fine—Qualcomm has deep pockets. The worry is about potential changes to the business model, if any.”

The technology giant will be highly effected if the business model changes which can result in a decline in its market position. The stock closed at a price of $67.25 in the last session, gaining 0.58%. It is changing hands in the after-market hours at $67.15 depicting a decline of 0.15% in its price.

Russia became the tenth country to gain access to Apple Pay on Apple devices along with partners MasterCard and Moscow based Sberbank to use the service with participating retailers

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced that after launching Apple Pay successfully in 2014 all over USA as well as penetrating into UK, Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Switzerland; it is now expanding to Russian consumer markets and joining hands with MasterCard and the capital-based Sberbank.

Complete launch details were surprisingly not shared by Apple this time, however, Apple usually grants access to other credit card operators and financial institutions soon after the launch. Sberbank customers with Mastercard will be the first to gain access to this new, hyped technology by Apple.

Apple Pay will not only offer touch-less payments, but can also be used for in-app purchases as well as web payments compatible with macOS 12.12. It is still not entirely clear how many Russian apps and Russian online stores will be compatible with such features.

The launch was held this Tuesday, with the participating retailers ATAK, Auchan, Azbuka Vkusa, bp, Magnit, Media Markt, M.Video, TsUM & authorized Apple products reseller stores. Eldorado and Burger King are expected to be a part of the retailers in the near future.

New Zealand and Japan are also in line to join the Apple Pay later this year bringing the tally to twelve countries. Apple is also looking into Taiwan and Kenya to introduce Apple Pay there.

Reuters reported that Apple Pay was launched in Switzerland for payment services in July. In June, a month earlier, Apple extended backend integration in Canada’s five biggest institutions. Also, in May, it gained support from the five major banks of Singapore.

According to the Chief of Apple Pay, Jennifer Bailey, the company is planning to target its sale of Apple Pay to every market where Apple products are being sold.

Nowadays, with an estimated active user of more than tens of millions per month, the count is exceeding and touched up to more than 450% by June for this technology. In USA alone, Apple Pay is providing services to 3 million, and 11 million locations worldwide.

Apple Pay is spreading worldwide which means Apple Inc. is set to revolutionize the world yet again with its innovative technology and soaring sale of their products. With Apple being a pioneer in almost all ground-breaking technologies, it is no mystery why it is the leading tech giant of today’s world!

“That was unintentional and we are sorry”, reads Facebook’s statement to The Star

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has apologized for the flag gaffe on Philippines’ independence day, as the social network took to wishing Philippines citizens but with an inverted flag on their News Feeds. Usually, an inverted flag wouldn’t mean anything more than a minor mistake, but in Philippines’ case, if the flag is portrayed with the red part at the top instead of the blue part, it indicates that the country is in a state of war.

In non-state affairs, the blue part is at the top of the flag and the red part is at the bottom, which is how the flag should have been displayed on Facebook on the independence day of country. The stipulation is enforced by Philippine law which is not something you would want to break, especially on the independence day.

Instead, the social network with over a billion users declared that Philippines was in the middle of a war on its birthday by messing up the color scheme. Once users from the country started logging in to Facebook and received the greeting for the occasion, more and more users noticed the gaffe in the flag’s color and took to other social network sites to point out the error. Users specifically took to Twitter to complain about the gaffe, and also to demand an apology from Facebook if the service was nodding towards a dispute for territories in the West Philippine Sea.

 Gaffes of this type are not very uncommon, and certainly don’t escalate to a declaration of a state of war for a country. In any case, Facebook issued an apology for the mistake with the flag to The Philippine Star, which read that it was an unintentional mistake made in an attempt to form a connection with the Philippine community on their independence day. In all honesty, Facebook might be thinking that of all countries to make a flag gaffe with, it had to happen with a country that indicates a state of war by representation of its flag.

But in the end, it was all laughed off by the majority of the users from the country. The Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines might not be too happy with Facebook initially, but once the post was deleted, there wouldn’t remain an issue there,

This is the coolest looking variant you will see

After multiple leaks, PowerColor has officially unveiled a new DEVIL edition for Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AMD) Radeon RX-480. You can read the official press release here.

With a red and black theme, this is probably the coolest looking RX-480 variant out there. The box and the graphics card itself speaks about the unique design language of the DEVIL series which has always been premium variant for Radeon GPUs. The variant features 8GB GDDR5 memory and with a core clock of 1330Mhz and memory clock speed of 2000MHz.

On the back we have 1x DVI-D port, 1x HDMI and 3x DisplayPort. The 8-pin PCI-e power connector requirement ensures you will have able to squeeze higher clockspeed. It employs Double Blade III fan technology and three 80mm fans for better airflow and prevents the fans from collecting dust. It comes with a back plate with an occult hexagon.

We are not sure if buying the DEVIL series will enlist you in some satanic occult but PowerColor has introduced a Devil Club membership for customers who purchase any of the DEVIL series graphics card. The perks of the membership include best technical support, exclusive downloads, competitions and more.

The GPU will be available starting July 29 at $269. It is $40 more than the reference design but you get better cooling, better cooling and better overclocking ability. The price tag has brought it in the bracket of GeForce GTX 1060. So now it’s a neck-to-neck value battle between the two GPUs..

It seems that Facebook is working on developing a censorship tool for the Chinese markets

It seems that Facebook Inc.’s (NASDAQ:FB) absence since the past seven years in China might be changing. Speculations suggest that the social network is currently working on developing a censorship tool, which could help it to function in Chinese markets in compliance with their strict laws.

Previously, the country has also been extremely resistant to let reputable companies like Google and Twitter enter its markets. Since Mark Zuckerberg’s company continues to thrive in markets thanks to its extensive usage around the world, it’s hardly any surprise that the company wants to begin infiltrating Chinese markets.

However, considering that the platform was recently criticized for allowing fake news to circulate on its watch, we believe the company may take some time to put these plans into action. Even though Facebook took action as soon as it could to control the issue, such an incident has the potential to tarnish its reputation for a long time.

With fake news on the platform, it is possible that many Facebook users will have a problem with the lack of tools available on the platform to determine the authenticity of each post or news. This puts the company in hot waters in China, who could use the misfortunate incident as leverage to decline the platform from functioning in the country.

For now, IB Times claims that in order to successfully operate, Facebook will have to be very careful about keeping Chinese laws in mind, and in making sure they comply with the laws directed to foreign agencies. The company has still not confirmed its plans for the China re-entry after a Facebook official declined to offer any insight into the matter.