New Rugged and Reliable Devices in Miniature DFN Packaging with Side-Wettable Flanks
Nexperia has announced its latest product additions to a growing range of discrete devices which are available in leadless DFN packages with side-wettable flanks (SWF). These space-saving and rugged components help satisfy the needs of next generation applications in smart and electric vehicles. Leadless DFN packages are up to 90% smaller than SOT23 packages and this helps to reduce the amount of board space required for the rapidly increasing number of electronic components being used in the latest vehicles.
Apple's Self Service Repair program is now available in the US. If you have an iPhone 12, iPhone 13 or third-generation iPhone SE, you can buy replacement batteries, cameras and displays from a dedicated store and use the company’s official repair manuals to fix it yourself. You can even spend $49 to rent a toolkit for a week if you'd rather not buy tools.
The program will expand to other regions later this year, starting in Europe. If you’re looking to repair your Mac, you’ll have to wait a little longer. Like iPhones, currently only the very latest models — powered by Apple Silicon — will be self-repair friendly.
Conveniently, for Apple, it timed the launch alongside a new white paper, which says the company has "nearly doubled" the size of its repair network, and eight out of 10 of its American customers live within 20 minutes of an authorized repair provider. The company also outlined the rationales, again, behind its design and repair decisions, including its emphasis on using official parts — to protect your privacy and security.
It’s not a flawless repair scheme. To buy a part, you need to enter your iPhone’s serial number at checkout and get that part activated through a pairing software tool.
As iFixit points out, other parts will come with an "unable to verify" warning, which could limit (or put off) people thinking of repairing their device.
Talking of preservation, Sony is trying to ensure games from decades ago will live on. When Sony's expanded PlayStation Plus service starts rolling out next month, it’ll fold in PlayStation Now, which offers access to hundreds of games from older console generations. Sony has hired at least one engineer to work on a new game preservation team.
Sony has struggled to preserve games over console iterations. Many PS1 games worked on PS2, and the original PS3 models could run many PS1 and PS2 games, but you were unable to play discs from older generations on PS4.
It's still facing multiple lawsuits and a House Oversight committee probe.
CNBC reports Amazon won't face fines and other penalties following the collapse of an Illinois warehouse that killed six workers during a tornado. However, the US Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) asked Amazon to review its procedures after discovering issues with its Emergency Action Plan. Despite tornado warnings from the National Weather Service 36 hours ahead of the event, Amazon continued to operate the Edwardsville, Illinois, warehouse. It was in the middle of a shift change when the tornado touched down with wind speeds up to 150 MPH, destroying the south side of the building.
While Amazon avoided penalties from OSHA, it's facing a separate probe in Congress and multiple lawsuits.
Bloombergsources say Twitch is considering multiple proposals to rethink payment structures, including one that would cut top streamers' share of subscriptions from 70 percent to the usual 50 percent. Another would establish multiple pay tiers with different requirements.
The reported proposals come after Twitch implemented multiple efforts to boost long-term profits and satisfy its parent company, Amazon. The service recently introduced a program that motivates frequent streamers to run more ads.
Disney’s latest video game,Dreamlight Valley, appears to be a blend of a life sim and an adventure game packed with Disney and Pixar characters. In metaverse style, you'll be able to customize your character with T-shirts, dresses, hats and other gear you design yourself. There's also the option of kitting them out with Mickey Mouse streetwear or a ballgown inspired by a Disney princess. (Why not both?)
Disney Dreamlight Valley will be available on PC, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. It’ll formally launch in 2023 as a free-to-play game.
For anyone building a PC or looking for accessories like monitors, storage or keyboards, Amazon is having a one-day sale that might be of strong interest. A host of desirable items are significantly marked down, including keyboards, headsets, power supplies, displays, cases and storage, with discounts as high as 48 percent.
There are a few standout deals, but lots of other choice as well. First on the list is the 31.5-inch 2,560 x 1,440 Acer Nitro XV322QU IPS gaming display, with features like DisplayHDR 400, AMD FreeSync, up to a 170Hz refresh rate, 0.5 millisecond lag and 90 percent DCI-P3 color accuracy. With a large size and extreme speed, it's a highly desirable model and is at or near an all-time low of $299, for a savings of 45 percent or $250.
Razer
Speaking of speed, Razer's Huntsman V2 TKS Tenkeyless gaming keyboard (above) offers that in spades, with the "fastest linear optical switches with sound dampeners and an 8,000Hz polling rate," the company says. In other words, it's fast and quiet while offering great durability thanks to the Doubleshot PBT keycaps. It's now on sale for $100, saving you $60 or 38 percent over the regular price.
Finally, you'll appreciate this deal if you're a PC builder. Corsair's HX850 platinum-certified, fully modular power supply is on sale for $120, for a savings of 35 percent of $65. That 850-watt category is the sweet spot for most enthusiasts, and the $65 savings might let you upgrade your CPU or RAM.
CNN is pulling the plug on its streaming service today, April 28th, instead of on April 30th like previously reported. The company has sent out emails to subscribers, and as Digital Trends reports, it clearly states that CNN+ streaming "will come to an end on April 28th." The service launched just a month ago on March 29th, but it was only pulling in 10,000 daily users who were willing to pay $6 a month for live and on-demand news programming, according to CNBC. New CNN president Chris Licht was reportedly the one who recommended its closure, which might come with hundreds of job cuts.
CNN invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the project and recruited talent from other networks to host shows for the platform. While the service was short-lived, CNN itself reported that the network is committed to finding new roles for the hosts of its shows.
Discovery CEO Jean-Briac Perrette informed employees about the closure in a meeting where he said that the situation was avoidable, but that "prior leadership decided to just keep going" with its planned March debut despite the impending merger between his company and CNN owner WarnerMedia. The merged company, Warner Bros. Discovery, had a different strategy in mind — it's also billions in debt as a result of the merging process.
In addition to informing subscribers in an email about the earlier-than-expected closure, CNN has also updated the service's help page. The company stated in the page that all subscribers will receive a full refund. It didn't say why CNN+ is shutting down a couple of days earlier than announced, but Digital Trends notes that it might be because subscriptions are about to renew. Some early adopters were able to sign up on March 28th, a day before the service's official launch date. Whatever the reason is, subscribers can say goodbye to CNN+ today and expect to get their refund on May 28th.
Elon Musk won't be able to get out of his agreement requiring oversight of his tweets about the company, Bloomberg reported. A judge has rejected his request to drop the 2018 deal made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that required a company lawyer approve any Tesla-related tweets. The judge also denied Musk's request to block an SEC subpoena related to possible insider trading.
"Musk cannot now seek to retract the agreement he knowingly and willingly entered by simply bemoaning that he felt like he had to agree to it at the time but now — once the specter of the litigation is a distant memory and his company has become, in his estimation, all but invincible — wishes that he had not," US District Judge Lewis Liman wrote.
Musk may wish it were otherwise, but he remains subject to the same enforcement authority — and has the same means to challenge the exercise of that authority — as any other citizen.
After Musk tweeted in 2018 that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420, the SEC sued saying that Musk had misled investors. The parties eventually settled, with Musk and Tesla agreeing to pay $20 million each and require lawyers to review Musk's Tesla-related tweets.
However, last month Musk asked a federal court to terminate the deal, saying he felt "forced" to sign the consent decree during a period when Tesla's financial health was at risk. A self-described "free speech absolutist," he also claimed through his lawyer that the deal impinged on his his First Amendment rights.
The judge also denied Musk's request to quash an SEC subpoena related to a Twitter poll he conducted asking users whether he should sell Tesla shares or not. Officials were concerned he might have told his brother Kimbal about the poll, leading the brother to sell 88,500 shares just a day before the November 6th, 2021 tweet. In response, Musk said that the Twitter poll in question was just meant to gather input and not a disclosure of information he'd have to report to the SEC.
"Musk may wish it were otherwise, but he remains subject to the same enforcement authority — and has the same means to challenge the exercise of that authority — as any other citizen," Liman wrote. "Indeed, to conclude otherwise would be to hold that a serial violator of the securities laws or a recidivist would enjoy greater protection against SEC enforcement than a person who had never even been accused of a securities law violation."
In response, Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro said that the court's ruling still means he can address SEC subpoenas on a case-by-case basis. "The court is simply saying we can move to quash these subpoenas when they are compelled," he told Bloomberg. "Nothing will ever change the truth, which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have — all that’s left some half decade later is remnant litigation which will make that truth clearer and clearer."
How Does the BMP280 Digital Pressure Sensor Work and how to Interface it with Arduino?
In many of our previous articles we have used many different types of temperature and humidity sensors like DHT22, DHT11, DS18b20 and LM35 to measure environmental parameters. In every one of those articles there's one thing common, none of those sensors can measure barometric pressure. So in today's article we wanted to interface the BMP280 with an Arduino and measure barometric pressure. Why BMP280 you ask?
What Experts Feel About Taiwan’s Dominance in Global Semiconductor Manufacturing
As the semiconductor crisis began during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the Taiwanese firms have shown interest in making more fabs in the US, China, and in Taiwan
Will TSMC, Intel, and GlobalFoundries Begin their Manufacturing Units in India this Year?
Prime Minister Modi already held discussions with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and a delegation spearheaded by John Neuffer, the CEO of US based Semiconductor Industry Association
Dell's latest flagship ultraportable is now available for purchase. The Dell XPS 13 Plus is powered by Intel's 28-watt 12th-gen processors and features a clean, minimalist design. Its keyboard has no borders and no space in between its large keys that makes it ideal for touch-typing. The laptop's haptic touchpad blends into its palm rest and the function buttons at the top of the keyboard aren't buttons at all — they're displayed on a touch panel similar to Mac's Touch Bar.
It's a beautiful device that gives the illusion of being carved out of a single piece of metal, but it doesn't come without drawbacks. The biggest one of all? It doesn't have a headphone jack. You'd have to use Bluetooth headsets with it, and the process of connecting a pair to a Windows laptop isn't quite as seamless as connecting one to a phone. In addition, we had some trouble using the touchpad when we tested the laptop at CES earlier this year, because the lack of borders means you can't see its edges. That said, it might be something you get used to the more time you spend with the notebook.
The XPS 13 Plus will set you back at least $1,299 and comes with either an OLED touch or an LCD display. You can also get the Developer Edition, which ships pre-installed with Ubuntu instead of Windows, for at least $1,249. It's still showing on Dell's site as coming soon, but it should be available shortly.
Samsung has reported a massive rise in operating profit for the first three months of 2022, thanks in part to the robust demand for its memory chips and the strong sales of its new Galaxy flagship devices. The Korean tech giant has posted an operating profit of KRW 14.12 trillion ($11.12 billion), which is 51 percent higher than the same period last year, and a record consolidated revenue of KRW 77.78 trillion ($61.2 billion).
As usual, Samsung's memory division was a standout performer, exceeding market forecasts because memory prices didn't drop as much as analysts had expected. It posted a consolidated revenue of KRW 26.87 trillion ($21.14 billion), and while it saw a slight decline in profit due to incentives and seasonality, demand for PC and server chips remained solid. The company's foundry business also contributed to the division's performance by achieving its highest ever first quarter sales. Samsung is optimistic for the division's prospects going forward, but it also expects component shortages to persist through the second half of the year and will constantly monitor the situation.
While overall demand for mobile was down due to seasonality and "geopolitical uncertainties," Samsung posted higher profit (KRW 3.82 trillion or $3 billion) and revenue (KRW 32.37 trillion or $25.5 billion) for the division this quarter compared to the last. The strong sales of its new flagship phones, particularly the Galaxy S22 Ultra, as well as of its mass market 5G phones contributed to both profit and revenue growth. Despite the allegations that a preinstalled app on S22 phones is throttling the performance of several applications, the company previously said that demand for the flagship is 20 percent higher than of its predecessor's. Samsung expects component shortages for mobile to continue, as well, but it also expects the availability of component supplies for the S22 to improve. That's why it plans to focus on maintaining strong sales for its flagships in the next quarter.
The tech giant reports a rise in mobile display earnings due to solid demand for premium products, as well. For larger displays, it says its QD monitors were well-received. It debuted its QD-OLED technology, which differs from standard OLED in that it only uses blue organic light-emitting diodes for a brighter output, at CES earlier this year. Samsung's TV business lagged behind its other divisions, though, and saw a decline in demand following strong sales in the end of 2021 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In early March, Samsung halted its product shipments to Russia, where it has a TV plant and where it's known as the top smartphone brand.
