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Synaptics Combines Touch and Display Driver

Synaptics has developed the Clearpad 4191 and Clearpad 4291: the world’s first touch and display driver integration (TDDI) solutions for smartphones and tablets, according to the company. These new solutions combine the touch controller and display driver into a single chip, simplifying design. The Clearpad 4291, which is available now, supports hybrid in-cell touch designs. … Read more

Toshiba Produces Tiny Convertible PC

The Satellite Click Mini L9W-B-102 is a new convertible tablet from Toshiba, offering up to 13 hours of battery life in notebook mode. The device is a very small “Windows 8.1 With Bing” model – just 8.9″ – with minimal (32GB) local storage, although there is an SD slot for up to 128GB of extra … Read more

Power Transfer Moves Towards Space-Based Energy Harvesting

Japan is resource-poor, so for many years has been investing in research for alternative energy sources other than fossil fuels. The latest breakthrough comes from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which hopes to capture solar energy in space and beam it to Earth. Microwave-transmitting satellites, orbiting 22,300 miles from the Earth, would have solar … Read more

Fujitsu Aims to Liquid-Cool Mobile Devices

Fujitsu uses liquid cooling in its SPARC servers, and is preparing a similar system for mobile devices. Liquid Loop Cooling is a closed system using pumps to move coolant around a motherboard, although pumps would not be viable in the smaller form factors of smartphones, tablets and laptops. Instead, Fujitsu has developed a loop heat … Read more

Swiss Manufacturer Enters ‘Smartwatch’ Market

Swiss watch maker Breitling has taken the step to produce a ‘smartwatch’ (of sorts) called the B55 Connected. It is an analogue chronograph with a digital display, able to connect to a mobile phone through a dedicated app. It is targeted at pilots, with features such as the ability to easily time flights and backing … Read more

Slight Increase in Long-Term PC Forecast, Says IDC

PC shipments worldwide will fall by 4.9% YoY in 2015, says IDC, which has revised its previous forecast down from a 3.3% fall. At the same time, growth predictions for 2016 and 2017 were raised slightly. In Q4’14, PC results were 1.7% ahead of IDC’s forecast. Total 2015 volume is expected to reach 293.1 million … Read more

FCC Postpones Review of US TV Mergers

A review of Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable and AT&T’s of DirecTV has been postponed by the FCC, says the Wall Street Journal. The delay is dependent on a court decision related to the disclosure of video-programming contracts between the merging companies and channel owners; the channel owners are fighting the disclosure, as it … Read more