Qualcomm has branded its next flagship chip for Android smartphones with a number lucky in Chinese tradition.
It says the Snapdragon 888 will let handsets take high-resolution photos faster than before and perform AI-related tasks more efficiently.
Devices powered by the chip should be on sale by March.
If the firm had followed its previous naming convention, it would have been numbered the 875. One expert suggested the decision had significance.
"It may point to Qualcomm extending an olive branch to those in the industry caught up in the ongoing China-US trade war," suggested Deborah Petrara from ABI Research.
"888 is regarded by the Chinese as a symbol of fortune and prosperity, which will also undoubtedly chime well with Qualcomm's expectations of success."
Over recent months, Huawei has been blocked from getting its own Kirin smartphone chips produced as a result of US restrictions.
California-based Qualcomm was recently given permission to sell its 4G-based chips to Huawei as an alternative.
This would not cover the new chip - which contains an integrated 5G modem. But in time the export rules may be reduced further under the incoming Biden administration.
Qualcomm said other Chinese vendors - including Xiaomi, Oppo, One Plus, Meizu, Nubia, Vivo and ZTE - had already shown "support" for the Snapdragon 888 ahead of announcements of their own.
Qualcomm shows logos of a whole bunch of partners developing phones with the Snapdragon 888 #SnapdragonSummit - all but two are Chinese. So that '888, lucky in China' thing is important! pic.twitter.com/qKMR3WSPtU
— Sascha Segan (@saschasegan) December 1, 2020
One concern for Qualcomm is that if anti-US sentiment grows, handset manufacturers might switch to alternative chip designers.
Taiwan's MediaTek and its Dimensity chips and South Korea's Samsung and its Exynos processors would be the main options.
The Snapdragon 888 is Qualcomm's first chip to be made using a five nanometre process. This is a reference to the fact its transistors are smaller than before and can therefore be packed more densely together to offer performance gains.
Apple's iPhones recently launched with processors based on a similar technology manufactured by Taiwan's TSMC.
But Qualcomm has opted to have its chips made by Samsung's semiconductor division despite the fact that TSMC produced its earlier flagship 865 and 855 ranges.
"Snapdragon 888 will... transform smartphones into professional cameras," said Qualcomm in a press release.
"[The chip can capture] roughly 120 photos at 12 megapixels resolution - up to 35% faster than the previous generation."
Another advance is that the 5G modem is now built into the chip rather than being a separate component, as was the case last time round.
This should make more room for other parts inside smartphones, where space is at a premium.
"Consumers will see significant improvement in coverage and performance given the blend of technologies that Qualcomm is integrating," added Geoff Blaber from the CCS Insight consultancy.
Qualcomm said the chip's "AI engine" had also been completely re-engineered.
This refers to parts of the processor designed to specialise in mathematical tasks useful for pattern recognition and other tasks that help software make sense of the external world.
The firm suggested this would help software developers make improvements to:
It's unfortunate that we had so much #AIwashing a couple of years ago turning some to ignore how critical #AI has become in delivering a superior experience whether it is your camera, audio or gamimg. This is why @Qualcomm is underlying the AI engine in the #Snapdragon #888 pic.twitter.com/tsTvuukewU
— Carolina Milanesi (@caro_milanesi) December 1, 2020
"These features matter because they help smartphone vendors compete in the premium price tier and set the base for new features that trickle down to more price tiers over time," commented Ben Bajarin from the Creative Strategies consultancy.
5 photos
At the time of writing, there are four versions of the SUV: Select, Premium, California Route 1, and the mighty GT. It is this last one we’re interested in, with its impressive specs. Now, it seems, Ford has something even better up its sleeve.
The GT is listed on the carmaker’s website with a 0-60 mph (0-96 kph) acceleration time of under 4 seconds. Since no one got to test it properly, no one really knows what under 4 seconds actually means. But it should be somewhere above 3.5 seconds, because this is how long the newest addition to the range, the GT Performance Edition, needs to reach the same speed.
Now, for the regular GT, Ford does not list horsepower numbers yet, but you can get a sense of that by looking at the 480 hp advertised for the Performance Edition, and that should give you an idea.
“We already pushed the envelope by creating an electric vehicle with the pony badge, so it’s only natural that we push it even further,” said in a statement Darren Palmer, global director, battery electric vehicles, Ford Motor Company.
“Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition not only gives you the added performance you expect from the GT name, but accentuates the thrill with the responsiveness of an all-electric powertrain.”
The Performance Edition is not currently available on the carmaker’s website, so we have no idea on pricing. The Blue Oval says it will also be offered as a package for those who have reserved the GT, when ordering starts in spring 2021. Both of them should hit the roads in the summer of next year.
Every December for the last few years, Qualcomm has unveiled its next-generation high-end CPU that ends up powering many flagship smartphones for the first half of the following year. Though 2020 might be different than previous years, the tech product cycle is not letting up. The company is announcing today that its latest premium mobile chipset is the Snapdragon 888, and it’ll be in Xiaomi’s upcoming Mi 11 flagship. Other companies like LG, OnePlus, Motorola, ASUS, Lenovo and Oppo have “provided their support for Snapdragon 888,” Qualcomm said.
Though its predecessor is the Snapdragon 865, Qualcomm’s latest model number is a departure from sequential increments and an auspicious name in Chinese culture. The company didn’t share many details about the Snapdragon 888’s technical upgrades today, saying that it uses a third-generation X60 5G modem and a sixth-generation AI engine.
Qualcomm also said that the Snapdragon 888 features the third generation of its Elite Gaming platform, which delivers its “most significant upgrade in Qualcomm Adreno GPU performance.” It also promised that the new chipset “will triple down on the future of computational photography and transform smartphones into professional quality cameras.” Phones with the Snapdragon 888 will be able to capture photos at 2.7 gigapixels per second, the company said, which should translate to 120 photos that are 12-megapixels sharp per second. That’s up to 35 percent faster than the last Snapdragon processor.
More details about the Snapdragon 888 will be unveiled tomorrow on the second day of Qualcomm’s annual Tech Summit event, so be sure to come back for the full breakdown.
Before building a console like the PlayStation 5, manufacturers like Sony do a lot of research. And one thing it realised while designing the console is that, contrary to common opinion, single player games are thriving in its ecosystem. In fact, the manufacturer realised that more people are playing PlayStation 4 games offline than online – a surprising statistic when you consider the most popular titles are all multiplayer focused.
According to a Vice report, referencing an internal presentation that the platform holder shared with game developers last year, it then looked to learn the problems that people have playing single player campaigns. And they were many: some felt that the titles didn’t communicate how long tasks would take, while others fell off releases and forgot what they were doing in them, subsequently never coming back.
It’s a problem that the manufacturer sought to solve, and its solution was Activity Cards. For those of you who don’t know, these decks effectively allow you to jump into specific sections of a game. In Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, it means you can pick a quest and start it in under five seconds; you don’t need to travel to the specific location, and you can launch directly into the side-quest from the console’s main menu.
Interestingly, all of these activities come with an estimated time. So, the console will tell you if the quest will take five minutes, 10 minutes, or more. It’s all part of the organisation’s attempt to provide more feedback about the game you’re playing, and get you to the good stuff quicker. “In an ideal world, every player has the time to spend hours per day, every day, playing games,” the company’s presentation explained. “In reality, most people have jobs. Or kids. Or school. Or all of the above.”
And it’s true! If you’re reading this site, then gaming is probably your primary hobby, but even people like us – who specifically make time to play – will have found ourselves falling off certain titles, forgetting what we’re doing, or just outright questioning whether we have enough free time to play a specific game. The idea with the PS5, and we’re sure it’s an evolving concept, is to help you to find things to do – and get you to them quicker than before.
And adds an annoying Switch Online icon to your home screen.
Nintendo has today dropped a Switch system software update with a couple of nice features, and an ugly new home screen icon you can't get rid of.
First off, there's the ability to transfer captured screenshots and videos from your Switch to your smartphone. You'll need to scan a QR code using your phone when selecting this option, because Nintendo, but otherwise it's a painless process. You can transfer up to 10 images and one video at once.
Alternatively, you can also now connect a USB cable to copy screenshots and video to a PC. Handy!
Cloud saves will be automatically downloaded, useful if you play using the same Nintendo Account on multiple systems.
Meanwhile, if you're downloading multiple games at once, you can now pick one game to prioritise and download first.
There's a new "trending" game page to see what your friends have been playing, plus 12 new user icons showing various older Mario games, and Brazilian Portuguese language support.
Finally, there's this. This monstrosity. Shoving all the other home icons along and looking completely out of place, this red Nintendo Switch Online eyesore will take you to a screen showing current benefits and membership status.
i hate this NSO icon, its basically an advertisemen, the application serves no purpose pic.twitter.com/wBrZKVOpy2
— RNG (@RNGTime64) December 1, 2020
I hate it.
Now that it has launched disappearing messages, WhatsApp is trying to make regular ones more memorable. It has not only launched a selection of new wallpapers and stickers, but made it possible to customize chats for groups and individuals. The latter feature lets you choose a specific wallpaper for each chat or individual contact, creating the mood you want and helping you remember who you’re talking too.
The Facebook-owned chat app improved the wallpaper selection by adding new colors for the default “doodle” wallpapers. It also introduced “new, diverse and iconic images of nature and architecture” from around the world to better reflect its 2 billion strong global user base. Finally, it introduced new graphic designs in both bright and dark albums.
If you like Stickers, WhatsApp made them easier to find by letting you search with text or emoji, or browse by category. It’s encouraging stickers creators to make this process easier by tagging them with emoji and text. WhatsApp also introduced an animated version of its popular World Health Organization (WHO) “Together at Home” sticker pack. The new features will start rolling out this week.
