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Category: Electronics

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest Electronics news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Apple AR headset being tested with HTC Vive-like controller

    Apple AR headset being tested with HTC Vive-like controller

    Apple may be one of the most valuable companies in the world but it very rarely enters new product categories. Yet on the odd occasion that it chooses to do so, the company often shakes up the entire industry in the process. Examples of this include the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch which transformed the smartphone, tablet, and smartwatch segments respectively. Soon, the growing AR/VR industry could join the list.

    As reported several times in the past, Apple is developing a headset, possibly called Apple Glasses, that combines both AR and VR technologies for release in either 2021 or 2022. The controller in question, which is probably being used solely for internal testing purposes, resembles those shipped with HTC Vive Focus headsets. In fact, it seems to be a modified version of the HTC controller.

    This isn’t that surprising considering Bloomberg reported back in 2017 that Apple engineers were using HTC Vive headsets for internal testing, but the striking resemblance between the two controllers does suggest the two companies could be working closely together on AR & VR technology.

    Regardless of whether Apple and HTC are collaborating, though, it’s safe to say the final controller will probably boast a more polished design that is the better adapter to Apple’s headset software.

    In terms of functionality, the iOS 14 evidence uncovered by MacRumors strongly suggests Apple is using a dedicated augmented reality app codenamed “Gobi” and QR codes to test the extensive range of headset features.

    Apparently, each QR code triggers a different experience for the users. Some of these include experiences related to the Apple Watch, Mac Pro, Apple Store, Starbucks, and even a random movie poster.

    One of the more interesting experiences is QR code that triggers a “crosswalk bowling game.” This presumably allows Apple engineers to roll a virtual bowling ball across the crosswalk to knock down the virtual bowling pins on the other side.

    It likely acts as a pastime while waiting for the pedestrian light to change from stop to go. If ever released to public, users would probably be able to continue the game at different crosswalks and perhaps even play with friends.

    The version Apple is currently testing seems to be limited to one intersection near an Apple office known as “Mathilda 3” at 555 N Mathilda Ave in Sunnyvale, California. That could be where internal testing for the headset is taking place. As revealed in a patent application published today, everything mentioned above could be accompanied by virtual assistants that highlight useful information or offer tips to users during certain events or after a particular trigger.

    In the patent, which is titled “Contextual Computer-Generated Reality (CGR) Digital Assistants,” Apple gives a few examples based on what the user is seeing. One of these includes the possibility of a virtual dog being used to run over to a restaurant and fetch the relevant information for the user in question.

    Other ideas described include a pod of dolphins being used for AR navigation or a cat that guides users to an interesting place. A balloon could be used to show users where an AR-leveraging AirTag is too.

    The possibility of experiencing other virtual assistants through other senses, such as hearing, was also mentioned.

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  • Huawei says China has recovered enough to buy new 5G flagship phones

    Huawei says China has recovered enough to buy new 5G flagship phones

    Huawei unveiled its new camera-based P40 series (P40, P40 Pro, and P40 Pro+) today and the phones will be available starting next month priced at the equivalent of $878 USD and up. Each of the three new models supports the next generation of wireless connectivity, 5G. Yu says that he thinks that this will be the first year that 5G will “take off” which is why all of the P40 handsets available have a 5G modem which is integrated into the Kirin 990 5G chipset that drives these phones.

    The new phones are still offered without Google Mobile Service (GMS) due to the manufacturers continued placement on the U.S. Commerce Department’s entity list. Due to the company’s perceived ties with the communist Chinese government, the U.S. considers Huawei to be a national security threat; last May the Trump administration placed the company on the list which bans it from accessing its U.S. supply chain. While Huawei has discovered some ways around the ban, it is not allowed to license the Google ecosystem including the latter’s version of Android and its core Android apps. That means that Huawei phones cannot run the Google Play Store, Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Drive, and others. Inside China, this means nothing since most Google apps are banned there anyway. But Huawei’s international sales have been hurt by the inability of Huawei’s phones to run these apps.

    With the P40 line, Huawei debuts its own ecosystem and Huawei Mobile Service. This includes the company’s AppGallery storefront and a brand new digital assistant called Celia. Google Assistant is not available on the open-source version of Android used by the manufacturer. Yu says that he hopes something can be worked out with the U.S. government that would allow his company to partner once again with Google. “We want to continue our partnership with Google,” he said, revealing that Huawei is in discussions with the company. “We hope this issue can be solved, but we’re not the government so we can’t make the decision. They’re a smart government, and I hope they can give a license.”

    The Huawei executive also commented about the second generation of the foldable Mate X that it released last month powered by a more powerful chipset with an integrated 5G modem. Yu said that the firm is not making any money on the device but demand is outstripping supply. Talking about the Mate Xs, Yu states that “With time and more production we can bring the cost down and make it more competitive.”

    Talking about today’s unveiling of the new P40 line, Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, said that although “arguably there could not be a worse time to launch a set of premium smartphones, Huawei may be in a better position than some rivals.” Wood notes that China appears to be on the mend and added that “given that Huawei has been shipping over 40 million units a quarter in China in recent times, this provides a strong foundation for the business.”

    Meanwhile, Huawei’s Yu wished the rest of the world a rapid recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, “I hope the U.K. and the world recovers soon from coronavirus. The experience from China was that the government very strictly limited the mobility of people, and quickly everything came under control. I think governments in the rest of the world are taking action like China and will quickly control it too.”

  • Apple iPhone production grinds to a halt in India

    Apple iPhone production grinds to a halt in India

    China is the world’s largest market for smartphones, although thanks to COVID-19, that market is shrinking. Can you guess which country represents the second-largest smartphone market? Hint: it is not the U.S. Actually, it is India; but as a developing country, Indian consumers don’t have much money to spend on top-shelf models. This explains why value for money manufacturers like Xiaomi are ripping it up in the country. It also explains why the mid-range Samsung Galaxy A series does so well in this market.

    Apple did a brisk business in India with its budget-priced iPhone SE. But an import tax (yes, a tariff) was adding $100 to the retail price of the iPhone in the country, so Apple decided to start producing the iPhone SE in India. By doing this, Apple was able to avoid the import tax in a country where every dollar counts. It also helped Apple qualify for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make In India initiative designed to make India a manufacturing center and a magnet for investors.

    The iPhone SE, priced at the dollar equivalent of $250, started to get outsold by a 2-1 margin in India by the iPhone 6s. Apple stopped making the former in the country and started production of the latter; by last year, Apple was advertising “The Incredible iPhone 6s” (at the equivalent of $383 USD) even though it was then four years old. And last year, Apple added the iPhone XR to the phones it makes in India.

    Still, premium smartphones do sell in India and these sales are growing at an annual rate of 29%. A premium phone is considered to be one that sells for the equivalent of $500 or higher in the country and Apple had 75.6% of this market in India during the fourth quarter of 2019.

    What brings all of this up is the news today from the BBC that Prime Minister Modi has instituted a 21-day nationwide lockdown in India. This action is due to the continued spread of the coronavirus. The prime minister urged Indians not to panic and said, “There will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes.” And that means the production of the iPhone models made in India will come to a complete stop for three weeks.

    Bloomberg reports that both of Apple’s contract manufacturers producing the iPhone in India, Foxconn and Wistron, have followed the Prime Minister’s announcement by suspending production. In a text message it sent to Bloomberg News, Foxconn wrote that it is awaiting permission from the Indian government to resume running its assembly lines. Wistron is adhering to the Prime Minister’s lockdown, according to a company representative who wouldn’t reveal which products were affected by the shutdown.

    Besides the production of the iPhone in India, Apple has thousands of employees working out of an office in Hyderabad. These workers spend their time on Apple Maps. The office opened in 2016 and when it opened, the company said that it supported 640,000 developer jobs across the country.

    While several analysts figured that Apple would move some iPhone production out of China and into India to avoid the tariffs charged to U.S. companies and consumers on products imported from China, the fact is that the company’s production facilities in the country are too small and a supply chain would take years to build. Due to Apple’s size and the products it makes, suppliers need to deliver parts and components in the quantity and quality that Apple needs. Despite this, a supply chain source said that Apple is revving up its plans to move production outside of China with the company shifting some iPhone manufacturing to India. Assembly of AirPods and the HomePod are being moved to Vietnam, the country that many believe will eventually replace China as the center of Apple’s manufacturing universe.

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  • Apple reverses bulk-order ban and updates on opening plans

    Apple reverses bulk-order ban and updates on opening plans

    US tech giant Apple has reversed restrictions on buying multiple iPhones from its online store imposed last week.

    The restrictions placed a ban on purchasing more than two devices of the same model in multiple international territories, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. That restriction has now been lifted on the purchase of iPhones, although some iPads and Macbooks are still subject to limits.

    A 9to5Mac report conjectured that the ban may have been lifted quickly due to a supply-chain problem caused by the coronavirus epidemic being resolved since, or otherwise that iPhone sales dropped more sharply than the company anticipated.

    International Apple store locations remain shuttered during the pandemic in all areas except China. Some stores may be reopened on a staggered basis next month, according to reporting by Bloomberg.

    “At this time, we anticipate some stores may be able to open in the first half of April depending on the conditions in their community,” said the firm’s senior VP of people and retail Deirdre O’Brien.

    “We will provide updates for each store as soon as specific dates are established.”

    Apple was one of the first retailers to shutter stores in the early days of the outbreak.

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  • Apple’s App Store is coming to 20 new countries

    Apple’s App Store is coming to 20 new countries

    Apple announced that the App Store will be expanding to 20 new countries this year, making it available to 175 countries or regions in total. According to Apple’s Developer Agreement those countries are:

    Afghanistan, Gabon, Cote d’lvoire, Georgia, Maldives, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nauru, Rwanda, Tonga, Zambia and Vanuatu.

    In its announcement, Apple also informed developers on how to get their apps available in the new countries by completing steps with a recommended deadline of April 10, suggesting that the expansion may happen sometime around that date.

    The App Store – iOS users’ only Marketplace for apps and games – is now getting over half a billion visits per week. To date, developer earnings from sales and in-app purchases are over $155 billion. Between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve of 2019, App Store customers spent a record-breaking $1.42 billion.

    In contrast, even though Android has the vast majority of the mobile market, Google has paid only $80 billion to Android developers since the launch of its app marketplace, according to Google’s quarterly earnings reports. This reconfirms the fact that there is much more money to be made by developers on Apple’s ecosystem.

  • Samsung temporary closing its smartphone and home appliance factory in Brazil

    Samsung temporary closing its smartphone and home appliance factory in Brazil

    Another factory falls victim to a global pandemic. As the coronavirus begins spreading rapidly in Latin America, Samsung has decided to shut down its factory in Manaus, Brazil. The measure is temporary and comes after the Brazilian government called out for help in containing the spread of the virus.

    Manaus is situated in the northern part of the country, and the Samsung facility near the city is producing smartphones and home appliances for the local market. The factory will remain closed until Sunday, while the other facility in Campinas, Sao Paulo state, will remain operational, at least for the moment

    There are 1960 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections in Brazil with 24 deaths. Europe is now at the peak of the pandemic with hundreds of people dying in Italy each day. Researchers think that in countries with warmer climates the virus will slow its spread, but that won’t halt the pandemic.

    The situation in India and Latin America shows some correlation to that prediction. However, governments use the welcomed delay to apply preventive measures. Samsung already closed its biggest smartphone factory in India and it will remain closed until May 25 in response to a request from the Indian government. COVID-19 cases in the country are still under 1000, but officials expect numbers to ramp up fast in the following weeks.

  • Apple limits online sales of iPhone as stocks go down

    Apple limits online sales of iPhone as stocks go down

    Apple has placed restrictions on bulk purchases of its iPhones in some Asian territories after the coronavirus outbreak caused interruptions to supply.

    Customers in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore are limited to buying two devices of the same model per order. While similar limitations are in place in many other regions, customers in those territories are not being notified of the limitations until check-out.

    The firm issued a warning to investors last month that the coronavirus outbreak had significantly affected its supply chain, stating that it may not meet its quarterly revenue expectations. Apple shut down all of its retail stores outside China 10 days ago, including 52 outlets in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

    Apple suffered a 61-per-cent year-on-year drop in iPhone sales last month, at a time when Chinese factories were largely closed. Many have since reopened as demand for iPhones drops globally with the spread of social distancing and closed retail outlets.

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  • Smartphone shipments suffer a record breaking decline

    Smartphone shipments suffer a record breaking decline

    Thanks to the coronavirus, February was the worst month in the history of the smartphone industry as global shipments plunged 38% year-over-year. Strategy Analytics says that this was the biggest year-over-year decline in the history of the worldwide smartphone market. The number of smartphones delivered globally last month plunged to 61.8 million units from 99.2 million handsets during the same month last year. On a sequential basis, the 61.8 million phones shipped in February represented a 39% drop from January’s total. The COVID-19 outbreak forced manufacturers in China to shut down assembly lines and retail stores in the world’s largest smartphone market.
    “February 2020 saw the biggest fall ever in the history of the worldwide smartphone market,” according to Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics. He added that “Supply and demand of smartphones plunged in China, slumped across Asia, and slowed in the rest of the world. It is a period the smartphone industry will want to forget.”
    During February, Samsung led the way in global smartphone shipments and sales. During the month, the manufacturer unveiled the new Galaxy S20 line and released the foldable Galaxy Z Flip. Following Samsung in both shipments and sales were Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO and Vivo. And the research firm expects the numbers for this month to show weakness as well. Yiwen Wu, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, says, “Despite tentative signs of recovery in China, we expect global smartphone shipments overall to remain weak throughout March 2020. The coronavirus scare has spread to Europe, North America and elsewhere, and hundreds of millions of affluent consumers are in lockdown, unable or unwilling to shop for new devices. The smartphone industry will have to work harder than ever to lift sales in the coming weeks, such as online flash sales or generous discounts on bundling with hot products like smartwatches.”
    It’s ironic that just as assembly lines are ramping up in China and Apple has reopened all 42 Apple Stores in the country, it shuts down its stores throughout the rest of the world. It obviously is going to be sometime before we return to some semblance of normalcy. As a result, we can expect further weakness for the industry not only for the current month but perhaps throughout the spring and summer.
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  • Xiaomi reopens its 1,800 stores across China

    Xiaomi reopens its 1,800 stores across China

    As Mainland China registered no new cases of coronavirus for the first day since the disease emerged late last year, Chinese tech retailer Xiaomi says it has reopened more than 1800 retail stores across the mainland.

    The company also says the majority of its component suppliers – about 80 percent – had resumed operations.

    In a telephone conference call yesterday, Xiaomi president Wang Xiang said the company was working with its suppliers and service providers both upstream and downstream to achieve a stable supply line of products during the coronavirus crisis.

    Many other retail groups are steadily reopening stores across China. Some, including Apple and Lego, have closed their entire global store networks until at least late this month, with the exception of China.

  • Samsung is looking into its own cloud service, likely to ditch its current provider

    Samsung is looking into its own cloud service, likely to ditch its current provider

    Samsung has decided upon self-reliance and is trying to substitute its cloud service provider. Samsung’s cloud currently relies 60% on Amazon Web Services, reports SamMobile, while the remaining 40% is outsourced to other providers. The cloud platform supports its smartphones, IoT devices and other products.

    Basically, Samsung is planning to first conduct several tests, bringing its cloud infrastructure to some of its departments in order to slowly limit its dependence on Amazon Web Services (AWS), and eventually stop using it altogether.

    So, why has Samsung decided to do this? First of all, of course, there are cost-related reasons. According to SamMobile, the company has been paying hundreds of millions of dollars every year for the service. Last year, more than $483 million, for Samsung Electronics alone, was paid to AWS. Additionally, as the number of users grows, the company has to pay even more for cloud computing solutions. If Samsung would rely on its own cloud, reportedly this could save a lot of money for the company.

    Secondly, there is the reason for security. The South-Korean-based firm wants to maintain its cloud by itself and thus ensure a secure environment, dependent on Samsung’s own efforts. However, it is not clear which organization will support Samsung’s cloud yet. It’s said that the company may choose Joyent, a cloud service that Samsung bought in 2016, as Amazon Web Services’ replacement.

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  • Samsung expects 5G demand to drive chip sales higher in 2020

    Samsung expects 5G demand to drive chip sales higher in 2020

    Thanks to the coronavirus, most of the world’s tech manufacturers are facing a situation that they’ve never had to deal with before. Navigating a global economy that has been turned upside down because of the disease, Samsung Chief Executive Kim Ki-nam cited the pandemic and the U.S.-China trade dispute for continued weakness in the global smartphone market. While Kim is negative on the outlook for smartphones this year, he is positive about the company’s chip business; he expects a rebound in 2020 after weak global demand and the U.S.-China trade war ate into Sammy’s chip business last year. The unit accounts for half of the company’s operating profit.

    Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s mobile and network business, told the annual general meeting in Seoul that “The global smartphone market was expected to turn to growth this year, but with virus showing signs of being prolonged, the smartphone market is contracting. But 5G smartphone demand is expected to rise.” Samsung just released its first-half flagship phones and the early word is that sales of the Galaxy S20 line are well below the pace seen after the release of previous Galaxy S models.

    The coronavirus surely has a lot to do with that and while the Space Zoom feature with a 100x hybrid zoom sounds enticing, the $1,400 price tag on the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G is quite daunting in a world where a small bottle of hand sanitizer now costs over $100-if you can find one. For global consumers with no idea whether they will still have a job a few weeks from now, making the purchase of an expensive new phone seems unnecessary when the mortgage is due and the children need to be fed.

    Still, Samsung’s consumer electronics chief Kim Hyun-suk said that it is too early to figure out how COVID-19 will affect the company’s consumer business. Kim said, “We had expected the consumer electronics market to rise slightly this year, but with the coronavirus fast-spreading, uncertainties are growing faster than ever, and it is very difficult to predict the future.”

    But then it comes to chips, Samsung feels positive about 2020, unlike rival chipmakers who have been chipping away at their sales forecast. Samsung sees strong demand for chips used in 5G wireless networks, data centers, and automobiles. While demand for chips will rise, supply will shrink according to Kim as foundries (including Samsung’s) move to 5nm chip production instead of increasing capacity. At 5nm, Samsung’s chips will carry 127 million transistors per square mm making them more powerful and energy-efficient than current chips made using the 7nm node.

    The report helped Samsung’s shares rise .6% earlier today against a broader market decline in South Korea of .5%. The number of people attending Samsung’s stockholders’ meeting dropped from 1,000 last year to 400 this year because of the coronavirus outbreak. Those showing up at the gathering were scanned with a thermal camera and had their temperature taken when they first arrived at the venue. They also were seated two seats away from each other to help prevent attendees from spreading the virus. The company also instituted electronic voting for the meeting and suggested that stockholders vote online.

    It has been a busy first quarter for Samsung with the release of the Galaxy Z Flip foldable phone and the launch of the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G. Later this year, we should see Samsung release the Galaxy Fold 2, and the Galaxy Note 20. Last year Samsung remained the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world followed by Huawei and Apple.

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  • Tencent costs surge as competition Bytes

    Tencent costs surge as competition Bytes

    Soaring costs saw Tencent Holdings report a net income of US$13 billion for last year, after a slow fourth quarter, which concerned analysts given the subsequent impact of the coronavirus crisis since January.

    Costs rose 20 percent last year as the social media and digital company spent money buying new content and securing new users to its WeChat and other platforms to protect itself from fast-growing rival ByteDance, parent of TikTok.

    Group revenue topped US$53.3 billion for the year but its cost of sales reached $29.7 billion.

    Tencent said its online gaming revenue grew by 25 percent, the fastest rate since the first quarter of 2018 and sales of smartphone games soared 37 percent.

    The company said more gamers signed up to its services in January as the coronavirus crisis forced people to stay home, with schools, universities and workplaces closed for an extended period.

    Net fourth-quarter income was $3.1 billion.

  • Apple fined €1.2 billion for price fixing in Europe

    Apple fined €1.2 billion for price fixing in Europe

    US tech firm Apple has been found guilty of anti-competitive behavior by a French antitrust body and fined €1.1 billion (US$1.32 billion).

    The firm was found to have fixed costs for its French wholesalers to force them to set retail prices aligned with Apple’s own, both in-store and online.

    The fine is the largest ever imposed by the French antitrust body and addresses Apple’s actions to prevent the wholesalers from freely setting their own business policies. The two wholesalers were also hit with large fines.

    “Apple and its two wholesalers agreed not to compete with each other and to prevent distributors from competing with each other,” read a statement from the French regulator, “thereby sterilizing the wholesale market for Apple products”.

    Apple will appeal the ruling, claiming the ruling “relates to practices from over a decade ago and discards 30 years of legal precedent that all companies in France rely on with an order that will cause chaos for companies across all industries”.

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  • Apple closing all stores worldwide outside China

    Apple closing all stores worldwide outside China

    Apple has closed all its stores outside of Greater China in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

    According to a company statement, all of Apple’s retail stores outside China will be closed until March 27 however, its online store and “Apple store” app remain open.

    Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company’s experiences while trading in China earlier this year drove the decision.

    “One of those lessons is that the most effective way to minimize risk of the virus’s transmission is to reduce density and maximize social distance,” the company said in the statement.

    Apple said in all its offices outside Greater China, it is moving to a “flexible work arrangement”, which means team members will work remotely if their job allows. All hourly workers will continue to be paid “in alignment with business-as-usual operations”.

    Apple shut down all its stores in Mainland China in early February when the country was heavily affected by the outbreak. Recently, it has progressively reopened stores and all 42 outlets in Mainland China have now resumed normal business.

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  • Patent applications reveal how Apple Glasses will charge

    Patent applications reveal how Apple Glasses will charge

    A new series of patent applications filed by Apple with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reveals some of the features that Apple might include with its upcoming AR or mixed reality (augmented and virtual reality) headset. While some analysts had called for this device to launch as soon as this year, it is more likely that the device will see the light of day in 2022 or 2023.

    The first of the patent applications published today is simply called “Display System.” The patent envisions the use of coils placed inside the headband of the Glasses that go around the back of the wearer’s head. A power storage device would be placed near the display and between uses, the headset would be placed in a dock that aligns with the coils to wirelessly charge the device. The headset band could use magnets to help align the coils with the charger. Another possibility is the use of a stand that the headset could hang on. The part of the Apple Glasses that contains the coils connects with the part of the stand that allows the inductive charging to take place.

    Since different people have different face shapes and sizes, Apple applied for another Apple Glasses related patent. Titled “Electronic Device with Adjustable Support Structures,” this reveals an adjustable structure that rests against a user’s forehead with second and third portions that rest against the user’s cheeks or temples. The adjustable structures can use telescopic layers of material, inflatable structures, posts with adjustable lengths, or elastic material that expands or retracts depending on the shape and size of the wearer’s face. A cable system could be used so that if the user adjusts the device to better fit his forehead, the cable tightens around both temples.

    Another patent application titled “Electronic Device With A Display Attached to a Lens Element” suggests that Apple could attach lens elements to the headset’s display by using a layer of optically clear adhesive or the lens element may be formed from gel that directly contacts the display. Attaching the lens directly to the display could help prevent dust and dirt from blurring images. Most VR headsets include lenses that can be found between the user’s eye and the display. The patent would help Apple align these lenses with the headset’s display. “Ultimate Sensor” is another patent application filed by Apple that discusses a system that transmits pulses and measures any echo coming from that pulse. If a sensor on the headset detects the presence of an object, a second pulse is sent out to help identify it. The technology could be used in combination with a camera to show the headset wearer a view of the real-world to prevent accidents.

    Apple has kept mum about its Apple Glasses although it is known that CEO Tim Cook loves AR. He has said in the past that “I regard it (AR) as a big idea like the smartphone. The smartphone is for everyone, we don’t have to think the iPhone is about a certain demographic, or country or vertical market: it’s for everyone. I think AR is that big, it’s huge. I get excited because of the things that could be done that could improve a lot of lives. And be entertaining.”

    Last September, hidden code discovered in iOS 13 revealed that Apple’s upcoming headset has a code name of T288 and is known as “Garta.” It reportedly will use the “reality Operating System (rOS)” and an app called “”STARTester” will recreate on an iPhone display exactly what the Apple Glasses wearer is seeing on his headset. A 5nm chip long has been rumored to be used on Apple Glasses and the very first chip that meets this standard will soon roll off of TSMC’s assembly line.