Russia's Yandex Takes on Android Phones

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Russian internet giant Yandex announces a first smartphone-- the Yandex.Phone, an entry-level Android 8.1 handset for for release in, well, Russia, based around a suite of mobile services from the Yandex ecosystem.

Yandex PhoneWhile the Yandex.Phone is an Android device, it is sold as being "Google free" since it replaces all Google services with Yandex equivalents. These include the voice assistant, since instead of Google Assistant it features Alice, the Yandex Russian-speaking smart assistant complete with voice call, calendar, music, weather and maps control.

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CES 2019 Launch for VOIZ AiRadio

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VOIZ, the audio startup co-founded earlier this year by product innovator Hiro Ogura and ex-Onkyo and Harman exec Mark Friedman, announces a "smart radio"-- the AiRadio, an Alexa-enabled radio set for a CES 2019 release.

AiRadioAccording to the company, the AiRadio is a first-of-a-kind product, being a voice-controlled radio bringing together premium components and luxury stylings in a high-fidelity streaming audio product. CES 2019 will see the showcase of 3 AiRadio models, the vertically oriented AiRadio Poco (VR-60) and the horizontally-oriented AiRadio Uno and Duo. The Poco and Uno are mono units with an output for an optional second speaker (VR-62 and VR-72 respectively), while the Duo is a stereo device with two speakers and a 2-channel amp.

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Qualcomm Intros Snapdragon 855 Platform

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Qualcomm presents the 2019 update on the flagship Snapdragon 845 System-on-a-Chip (SoC)-- the predictably named Snapdragon 855, a chip promising a 45% faster CPU, 20% faster GPU and initial steps towards a future of 5G connectivity.

Snapdragon 855Aimed for use in just about every flagship Android smartphone set for release next year, the Snapdragon 855 is built using the TSMC 7nm process (as opposed to the Samsung 10nm process used for the 845), bringing about both smaller chips and lower power consumption. It consists of a Kryo 485 CPU featuring a 4+4 core layout. The "big" cluster has four Cortex A76-based cores, with three clocked at 2.42GHz and a boosted "Prime Core" running at 2.84GHz, while the "small" cluster has four 1.4GHz Cortex A55-based cores.

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IDC: AR/VR Spending to Exceed $20bn in 2019

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IDC expects global spending on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) to reach "nearly" $20.4 billion in 2019-- a 68.8% increase over the $12.1bn of 2018, before achieving a CAGR of 69.6% over the 2017-2022 forecast period.

"Early market developments indicate adoption of AR/VR technologies on a worldwide basis will expand for a decade or longer," the analyst says. "The innovators that serve a broad base of industries support dynamic end user needs through the growing options in hardware and software solutions. We believe services will play a more prominent role in enterprise investments as the market matures."

IDC AR VR Market

The commercial sectors lead in global AR/VR solution spending, holding 64.5% share in 2019, a total set to reach 80% in 2022. The industries expected to spend most on AR/VR in 2019 are personal and consumer services ($1.6bn), retail ($1.56bn), and discrete manufacturing ($1.54bn). IDC also lists 10 industries expected to deliver CAGRs of over 100% over the 5-year forecast period, including state/local government (123.7% CAGR), resource industries (120.9% CAGR) and wholesale (120.9% CAGR). Consumer spending on AR/VR remains greater than any single industry ($7.2bn), but such growth takes place at a much slower pace (36.6% CAGR).

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Better Batteries Via... Fluoride?

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It's been long know that fluoride is good for the teeth, but the humble mineral might soon find an application more relevant to our industry-- batteries, specifically as a replacement to the commonly used lithium.

Fluoride batteryThe breakthrough comes through a collaboration by scientists from Honda, Caltech and NASA. You see, fluoride is actually the polar opposite of lithium. Whereas lithium is the most electro-positive element in the periodic table, fluoride is the most electro-negative. In fact, fluoride is so electro-negative it can theoretically store more energy than lithium. However, to do so it needs to be in liquid form, something that happens at temperatures over 150 degrees Celsius!

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