Around the web
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ASML's forecast for its first-quarter profitability has topped analysts' estimates, as Europe's largest semiconductor-equipment maker won orders for six more of its newest lithography machines in the fourth quarter.
Bloomberg
Google is expanding its "Android One" program for low-cost smartphones to the US in coming months, promising phone makers major new promotional dollars if they play by its rules, say three people briefed on the plan.
The Information
Qualcomm used anticompetitive tactics to maintain a monopoly over semiconductor supply, the Federal Trade Commission alleged in a complaint on Tuesday.
ZDNet
Toshiba is looking to sell a minority stake in its core semiconductor business to Western Digital, a source said, in a bid to dull the blow from a looming multi-billion-dollar writedown on a US nuclear acquisition.
Reuters
The Crossbar ReRAM for embedded non-volatile memory applications is in production at partner foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) using a 40nm CMOS process and is sampling to SMIC customers, according to Sylvain Dubois, Crossbar's VP of strategic marketing and business development.
EE Times
Samsung's Galaxy S7 is currently the only smartphone with a device boasting a IP68 rating, but Apple allegedly plans to catch up this year with an iPhone that can can be submerged just as deep.
Cult of Mac
China's push to develop its domestic semiconductor technology threatens to harm US chipmakers and put America's national security at risk, the Obama administration warned in a report that called for greater scrutiny of Chinese industrial policy.
Bloomberg
The results of the investigation will likely be announced on Jan. 23, a day before it announces detailed fourth-quarter earnings results, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and declined to be identified.
Reuters
A non-volatile memory technology based on carbon nanotubes that's poised for commercialization in 2018 is expected to be more disruptive to enterprise storage, servers and consumer electronics than flash memory, according to a new report from BCC Research.
Computerworld
Momentum behind the push to transition the semiconductor industry to 450mm wafers - which seemed substantial just a few short years ago - now appears all but dead, at least for now.
EE Times
Rosenblatt Securities's Jun Zhang today reiterates a Buy rating on shares of Qualcomm, and raises his price target to $75 from $70, writing that the company's set to ride the wave of smartphone sales by Chinese phone makers Vive and Oppo.
Barron's
It looks like we missed out on an Nvidia SHIELD Portable 2. The unreleased device was submitted to the FCC for regulatory certification last year with a 180-day confidentiality request. Those 180 days are now up, so the device has surfaced on the FCC website - but is unlikely to ever surface in stores.
Digital Trends
Google has shuttered its plan to use massive solar-powered drones to deliver internet to rural and remote parts of the world.
CNNMoney
It's fun to mock image-processing impossibilities where "Blade Runner" or CSI investigators zoom into photos to see far more detail than a photo could possibly have recorded. But guess what? Not only does Google have technology that can do something like that kind of photo enhancement, it's also using it to keep you from gobbling through your mobile phone data plan.
CNET
Two senior China executives defended the country's big bet on its semiconductor industry here a week after a White House report called for international action against practices it called unfair. Executives from fab and capital equipment companies said the China government is not being unfair in the way it supports its still-infant industry.
EE Times
Nintendo will release its long-awaited new console, the Nintendo Switch, on 3 March. It will cost US$299.99 in the US and JPY29,980 yen in Japan.
BBC News
Corephotonics, an Israeli maker of dual camera technologies for smartphones, said on Wednesday it raised $15 million in a funding round that included Samsung Ventures, iPhone manufacturer Foxconn and chipmaker MediaTek.
Reuters
Hard-disk drive maker Seagate Technology said it would cut more than 2,000 jobs as it shuts down its Suzhou factory in China.
Reuters
HTC is officially hosting a press event later this week, on January 12, when it's likely going to announce (at least) two new smartphones.
PhoneArena
Recently Qualcomm claimed that it'll be the only ARM partner that will support x86 apps on its platform. Now, ARM executives clarify that not only Qualcomm, but any other manufacturer out there will be able to run x86 apps on its platform - whether its Samsung, Apple, Huawei or others.
WCCF Tech
Panasonic, Qualcomm team up for next-generation Android-based in-vehicle infotainment system (Jan 5)
Using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820A processor, this concept system is based on the latest version of the Android OS (7.0 Nougat), which is designed to provide automakers with a superior, high-performing platform to quickly develop cloud-connected infotainment systems.
Company release
Business Insider
Ma said he would help US businesses create a million new jobs by using his website to sell to China.
BBC News
Two prototype models of a highly-anticipated gaming laptop have been stolen at the 2017 CES tech show in Las Vegas.
BBC News
Apple is planning to open its first retail store in South Korea, moving onto the home turf of smartphone rival Samsung Electronics.
Wall Street Journal
Samsung Electronics has reported a 50% profit surge in its guidance for the fourth quarter despite the fiasco with its flagship Note 7 phone. The earnings estimate is higher than analysts predicted and would mark its highest quarterly profit since 2013.
BBC News
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