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A US freeway may get self-driving car lanes thanks to Foxconn
Wisconsin highway planners are studying the possibility of placing driverless vehicle lanes on I-94 to serve Foxconn's mega factory in Racine County. The Taiwanese company -- supplier to tech firms including Apple, Microsoft, and Nintendo -- reportedly made the suggestion at a meeting with regional officials, according to USA Today's Journal Sentinel.
Samsung, Foxconn back 'Kiss' high-speed wireless transfer tech
Samsung, Foxconn and other smartphone industry firms are backing a new standard that would let you wirelessly download large files in seconds. Called "Kiss," it was developed by a company called Keyssa, which has investors like former Apple and Google exec Tony Fadell, along with Samsung, Dolby, Intel and other companies. By placing two devices equipped with the tech close to each other, you can do "gigabit-sized" transfers in seconds, Keyssa says.
Sharp's edge-to-edge AQUOS S2 is a glimpse at your next phone
Andy Rubin's Essential Phone may have wowed us with its edge-to-edge display recently, but let's not forget that Sharp has been driving this design with many of its previous Android phones -- 28 of them, to be precise. Today, the Japanese brand unveiled its 29th release dubbed AQUOS S2 which, funnily enough, looks rather familiar. From afar, the S2's screen and the Essential Phone's screen share the same front-camera notch at the top, except the former is a smaller 5.5-inch panel with a slightly lower 2,040 x 1,080 resolution. The more notable difference here is how the corners at the top appear to be hastily trimmed, which is a bit of a letdown, but at least you're still getting a nice 135-percent sRGB gamut plus a handy 550-nit brightness.
Apple supplier Foxconn announces plan for Wisconsin display factory
Foxconn, supplier to companies like Apple, BlackBerry, Nintendo and Microsoft, formally announced its plans to open a factory in Wisconsin, which is part of a $10 billion investment in production in America. The Taiwanese company's upcoming facility in the American Midwest is expected to employ at least 3,000 people and potentially increase to 13,000 total jobs, a win for Trump's agenda to return manufacturing jobs to the US.
Sharp will reportedly start building OLED TV panels next year
Now that Sharp is under new ownership by Foxconn, it may have big plans for a return to TV prominence. In a move that could explain a sudden push to recover the use of its name from Hisense, the Japanese company apparently has a plan to add OLED TV production lines at one of its plants next year. The Japan Times reports that at a cost of 57.4 billion yen ($515 million US), it could have production operation at two plants in the spring of 2018. While one would work on small and medium screens for phones (like, maybe a new iPhone?) and laptops, the other would focus on TVs, where LG dominates the segment, producing OLED panels for its own TVs as well as other brands.
Sharp says its US TVs are 'shoddily manufactured'
Sharp has been selling TVs in the US since 1970s, so it was pretty shocking when it sold its US name rights to Chinese manufacturer Hisense for a mere $27.8 million. That seemed like an especially pitiful sum after Foxconn purchased Sharp for $3.5 billion, but the company's new parent has decided to take action. It's suing Hisense to get back US rights to the name, claiming the firm is sullying the brand with "shoddily manufactured" TVs and misleading advertising, according to the WSJ.
Apple and Amazon want a stake in Toshiba's memory business
Apple and Amazon are joining a Foxconn bid to purchase Japanese chip giant Toshiba's NAND manufacturing division, according to Nikkei. The deal could make it easier for the companies, particularly Apple, to access all-important flash memory more cheaply for iPhones and Kindles. Foxconn has at least five other bidding rivals, including two backed by the Japanese government, which is reportedly loathe to let Toshiba's chips fall into foreign hands.
SoftBank and Saudi Arabia tout the world's largest tech fund
It's normally not a big deal if a tech investment fund scores a lot of money (unless you're a startup CEO eager for cash), but the latest windfall is definitely an exception to the rule. After no shortage of hype, Sprint owner SoftBank and the Saudi Arabian government have secured their first major round for the Vision Fund, a tech investment group hoping to back "transformative technologies" ranging from biotech to communications. How major? About $93 billion dollars -- while that's not quite the $100 billion the creators are aiming for, that easily makes it the world's largest tech investment fund, not to mention the largest private equity fund. The remaining $7 billion should come by the time the Vision Fund finishes its money-raising efforts in about 6 months.
'Complicit' is an undercover look at the dangers of making gadgets
Even though Apple and Foxconn vowed to improve factory worker conditions back in 2012, life is still pretty rough for the people building the gadgets we use every day. Complicit, a new documentary from Heather White and Lynn Zhang, hopes to shine a light on what it's really like for Foxconn factory workers, who produce devices for Apple and other companies.
Foxconn exec faces 10 years for stealing 5,700 iPhones
A senior manager at Foxconn, the company that makes Apple's iPhone handsets, is facing 10 years incarceration after being charged with the theft of 5,700 iPhones valued at nearly $1.5 million. According to AsiaOne, the Taiwanese testing department manager, identified only by his family name Tsai, coerced eight of his subordinates to smuggle iPhone 5 and 5Ses out of the Foxconn Shenzhen plant between 2013 and 2014.
Apple will build an R&D center in China's Silicon Valley
Apple needs China a little more than China needs Apple, which is why the company is bending over backwards to show some love to the Middle Kingdom. VentureBeat is reporting that the iPhone maker will open a research and development center in Shenzen, the Silicon Valley of Hardware. The site quotes Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock saying that the facility will help Apple's engineers work "even more closely and collaboratively with our manufacturing partners." Given that Shenzen is home to Foxconn City, the site where several Apple products are assembled, it makes sense that Apple would push for an official presence in the region.
This might be the last Microsoft Nokia phone
Microsoft's association with the Nokia brand has been especially turbulent, but it appears the company has one last hurrah for its feature phone business. Today, it announced the Nokia 216, a Series 30+ handset that can browse the web and lasts up to a month on standby. It's as basic as Nokia feature phones get, but it's notable in that it's probably the very last Nokia-branded handset Microsoft will ever produce.
The After Math: Potpourri
It's been a mixed week for news with few clear winners and losers -- outside of Chewbacca Mom of course, who has been killing it. Let's see, Takata had to recall 12 million more airbags because they keep killing people. On the other hand, MIT managed to double the efficiency of solar cell technology. Foxconn announced that 60,000 people would get the sack in favor of automated assembly machines but Cornell doctors discovered a better way to predict your chances of coming out of a coma -- just like Steven Seagal. Best of all, Florida Man strikes again! Numbers, because everything is shit except for the half of it that isn't.
Foxconn replaces 60,000 human workers with robots
According to reports, the world's largest electronics manufacturer Foxconn has replaced around 60,000 human factory workers with machines. Or, as a government publicist for the city of Kunshan told the South China Morning Post, the factory "reduced employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000 thanks to the introduction of robots. It has tasted success in reduction of labour costs."
Nokia will return to mobile with Android phones and tablets
The Nokia brand will return to the smartphone market. Just as Microsoft announced it's offloading Nokia's old feature phone business to a Foxconn subsidiary and a mysterious Finnish company called HMD Global Oy, Nokia has revealed that HMD is also acquiring the relevant rights to use the Nokia name on smartphones and and tablets for the next ten years. That means we'll start seeing "Nokia-branded" phones and tablets very soon. And they'll be running Android.
Microsoft sells Nokia's feature phone business to Foxconn
Microsoft has signed a deal with FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn to sell what used to be Nokia's old feature phone business. The outfit, that still produces low-end handsets like the 222 and 230, has been sold to FIH Mobile for $350 million. It'll now come under the control of the manufacturing giant that produces (pretty much) every device you can think of. Microsoft is also handing over a manufacturing plant in Hanoi, Vietnam, as part of the deal. In addition, 4,500 employees responsible for producing the devices will be given the opportunity to join the Foxconn family.
Foxconn and Sharp reportedly sign takeover deal on March 31st (update: official)
All the fuss over Foxconn's protracted acquisition of Sharp might come to a close soon. Reuters tipsters understand that the two tech giants will finally sign the takeover deal on March 31st, a day after they hold board meetings to approve it. Sharp may not be so happy with the end result, mind you. Foxconn is supposedly slashing its offer for Sharp's shares by ¥100 billion (about $884 million), possibly owing to the liabilities it discovered at Sharp last month. Neither side has commented on the apparent leak, but it won't take long to learn whether or not there's any truth to the story.
Sharp accepts Foxconn's $6.2 billion takeover offer
According to reports from Japanese business journal Nikkei and Reuters, Sharp has decided to accept a takeover offer from Foxconn. Taiwan's Foxconn is a massive electronics manufacturer best known for being the main assembler of Apple's iPhone, and Nikkei sources say its 700 billion yen ($6.2 billion) offer closed the deal, winning over a bid from an investment group backed by the Japanese government. Last we heard, this move could put Foxconn in position to start making and releasing its own hardware under the Sharp brand, but since no details have been officially announced, we can only speculate.
Foxconn likely to become Sharp's new owner
Foxconn is now the clear favorite to buy Sharp after offering $5.5 billion for the moribund electronics firm. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Foxconn's bid was so large that it's now entering "exclusive talks" to seal the deal. Previously, the firm was running a close-second to INCJ, an investment fund backed by the Japanese government. It was hoped that INCJ would win in order to keep one of Japan's oldest electronics firms out of the hands of foreign owners. Unfortunately, it's believed that the fund offered around $2.5 billion for the loss-making maker of displays, home entertainment equipment and appliances.
Foxconn trumps Japanese rival in $5.2 billion bid for Sharp
Sharp may have mounds of debt and falling sales, but it has one thing that China's Foxconn doesn't -- display technology used by Apple and others. That's reportedly why Foxconn has bid 625 billion yen ($5.4 billion) to buy the troubled company, according to the WSJ. That bid is over double the 300 billion yen ($2.6 billion) offered by an Japanese investment fund called Innovation Network Corp. In addition, Foxconn will absorb all of Sharp's considerable debt -- the company has a 510 billion yen ($4.4 billion) payment due soon on a series of loans to Japanese banks, for example.
