Qualcomm will not supply chips for the 2018 iPhone

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It isn’t a secret that Apple and Qualcomm are locked in a long-term legal dispute and now that seems to have affected who will be supplying the chips for this year’s iPhones. George Davis, Qualcomm’s financial chief, announced at an earnings call with industry analysts that, “We believe Apple intends to solely use our competitor’s modems rather than our modems in its next iPhone release.” But according to Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm’s head for its chip division, this doesn’t mean Qualcomm and Apple are done doing business together. Qualcomm believes it can still supply chips for Apple in the future.

Apple has been using both Intel and Qualcomm modems for different iPhone models over the years. And if Apple intends to use Intel this time around, expect the devices to have slower speeds. Different online testimonies have already said they’ve experienced stronger signal and LTE speeds on the iPhone models that use Qualcomm’s modems. A couple of days ago, Qualcomm and Ookla’s Speedtest.com released results showed that Qualcomm-powered Android devices were faster than Apple devices that used Intel’s modems (53 percent faster on T-Mobile and 40 percent faster on AT&T).

Source: GSMArena

The ‘OnePlus 6’ powered by Snapdragon 845 set to make June debut

Late in 2017, a rumoured list showing the upcoming devices that will come out with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor got leaked. One of the devices included there is the “OnePlus 6,” which was said to be launching in June. Now, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirms the news. Lau said they have “no other choice” when it comes to picking what processor to use for the upcoming device. While he hasn’t called the device the OnePlus 6, logic dictates that will be what the company will call its upcoming device. The launch is supposedly happening late in the second quarter, which ends on June 30. We can’t also confirm if a “6T” version is coming, but judging from what the company has done in the past couple of years, the possibility is there.

Source: GSMArena

CES 2018: Qualcomm claims its newest SoC fixes issues plaguing wireless earbuds

Wireless earbuds makes things easier for users but it isn’t without fault. Qualcomm hopes to fix the issues plaguing these tiny wearables have. The new QCC5100 chipset claims to offer three times the battery life of previous devices and it comes with more wireless transmitting power, meaning it’ll most likely not cut out as much even when it encounters interference.

When compared to its predecessor, it’s said to have twice the processing power. This means, manufacturers can introduce better noise cancelling as well as integrate smart assistants and other smart features. The possibility of getting zero-delay fast translation like those in the Pixel Bud might head your way. We can’t say yet though when we might see manufacturers integrate this chip into their audio accessories.

Source: Engadget

Chromebooks to get Snapdragon 845?

While we expect the next batch of premium smartphones to carry the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, the company has also been talking up the “Always Connected PCs” idea of having Windows 10 run on the ARM architecture. And it looks like Microsoft’s operating system won’t be the only one possibly running on the Snapdragon 845. According to the Chromium commits spotted by XDA Developers, there is a possibility of Chromebooks being able to run these. The first of these commits reference a new board called “chezea,” while the following one defines “chezea” as a new board overlay for a reference device that runs the Snapdragon 845. We won’t be surprised if this is the case, though, as Chrome OS is considered a lighter operating system than Windows 10.

Source: GSMArena