Atmel AvantCar Brings Disruptive Design to Center Stacks

Modern automobile industries have been rapidly growing in fuel efficiency, security performance, etc., but have never broken through in human-vehicle interfaces. Nowadays cars have been lighter, faster, more environmental friendly. Zero-to-sixty time, streamlined design, and XXX have been some of the most popular topics in automobile market, while the center-stack design has not move a bit in the past years: square form, low-resolution screen, and buttons that closely XXXX. When comparing center stacks of the 1963 models with the 2013 ones, you’ll find out that this part has rarely changed in more than 50 years.

What happened to those designers? XXX. However, we can still see a sliver line behind the cloud. Touchscreen has become a popular function in common models instead of a privilege of luxury cars. The announcement of Tesla indicates that large-format touchscreen center-stack is the future trend. Cars are no longer commuting tools, and they will become mobile smart information hub combined with entertainment, security, and other functions. But even Tesla has not get the right idea of future central stack. Will futuristic car equip with a stiff iPad-like screen as the one Tesla has now? Not necessary. Automotive designers need more disruptive imaginations, to make the center-stack more aesthetic, even sexier.

Atmel’s AvantCar concept design, which was showcased at CES 2014, may bring some inspirations to the automobile designers. This demo is to showcase a flexible screen along with highly sensitive touch functions, and provide a streamlined interior design reference, making larger cargo space and wider passenger room. Curved screen has become a popular concept in consumer electronics markets, but is relatively rare in industrial applications. So far I haven’t seen any curved screen product, which might bring a radical change to the car industry.

Just imagine a car with smooth curved touchscreen center-stack, with accurate voice control or gesture control. How disruptive can it be?

Samsung’s Announcements at MWC2014 are not Completely Disappointing

Samsung just updated its mobile product pipeline in Barcelona. Without a break, the company revealed the Galaxy S5, Gear 2, Gear Nano and Gear Fit. The Galaxy S5 has a slightly larger-but-still 5.1-inch screen with the same resolution (1902x1080) as its predecessors, a never-changed plastic body but featuring dust and water resistance.

S5 also comes bundled with some new technologies like the fingerprint scan and heart rate monitor: the finger print sensor not only unlocks the phone screen, but also links up with the Paypal app so you can make online transactions with your fingerprint (way ahead of Apple!).

The flashlight-like thing under the camera is actually a heart rate sensor. Hmmm, who doesn’t want that! Samsung didn’t give us a compelling reason for why it might be important; it just simply said “it’s the industry-first.” Well, at least it’s trying to shake off the “SAMESUNG” nickname.

Samsung’s smart watch is slightly different however, or maybe a bit less disappointing. Samsung launched 3 upgraded smart watches: Gear 2, Gear Nano and Gear Fit. And the biggest improvement is that Samsung ran its entire wearable product line on Tizen OS, not Android anymore.

The winning product from this batch of releases could be the Gear Fit. You can tell the usage from its name, but the sleek outlines and UI could make it the next gen flagship smart watch, not just a fitness wristband.

It is believed that the Gear Fit could cut off a serious piece of cake from the smart watch market dominated by Pebble and Jawbone, but it all depends on the price, and that’s probably the reason why Samsung didn’t announce the price along with the product announcement.

If there’s one thing that Samsung should copy from Apple, it is to announce the product, showcase the features, then tell us how much it is and when can we get it. So how much would you pay for a Gear Fit?

Crowdfunding’s Bumpy Ride in China

If Martin Luther King was alive today, he might find it much easier to realize his dream without delivering that famous speech—— all he’d need to do is post a project proposal on Kickstarter and call for donations. These days, crowdfunding is the ubiquitous and all-powerful funding method used by everybody from startups to music fans, political campaigners to software developers. It can even—if the show 2 Broke Girls is to be believed—raise money for a pair of expensive pants at the bargain price of 3 slaps. That’s a pretty good deal, isn’t it? 

There are always good deals to be found on crowdfunding websites. The biggest crowdfunded project in China drew 5,534 donors and raised more than $200,000 in support of an online cartoon series called “One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes” on DemoHour, China’s first crowdfunding site. This is a paltry sum compared to projects in the US, for example the Pebble Watch, which reached up to $10 million.

By 2025, crowdfunding in China could explode to a $46 -$50 billion industry—about half the amount expected to be channeled to startups and businesses throughout the world. While crowdfunding is already a billion dollar business in over 45 countries, it’s still a tiny niche in China, raising only a few million dollars a year. Despite all the startups booming in this market, there’s only one crowdfunding site operating in China, plus another one in Hong Kong. Compare this to 17 in Brazil, 87 in the UK and 344 in the US. Entrepreneurial activities are limited by cultural norms and unsound intellectual property laws here in China, and the same issues could be holding back large-scale adoption of the crowdfunding model.

DemoHour, the one and only Chinese crowdfunding site, limits projects to design, film, music, publishing, games, photography and technology, with film and video as its top categories. Due to lack of support, Chinese entrepreneurs, especially in the tech sector, sometimes have to go abroad for crowdfunding.

4k Roundup of CES Showcase

It’s all about 4k this year. TV, projector, monitor, smartphone, tablet, camera, cable, chip and video websites are all jumping into this utopian resolution feast in this year’s CES. Hardware manufacturers, especially TV makers have made a radical progress, trying to pull people back from their smartphones and tablets.

For those who may not be familiar with this concept, let’s get started with the definition of 4k.

4k is short for “4K resolution”, which is a generic term for display devices or content having horizontal resolution on the order of 4,000 pixels. Several 4K resolutions exist in the fields of digital television and digital cinematography. Below is a comparisons picture that could give you an intuitive impression of 4k and other resolutions.

Source: University of Groningen

As you can see from the picture, 4k screen is basically four times as big as a normal HDTV, so it’s no surprise that TV manufactures are busy kicking asses by introducing astoundingly large televisions that could not fit in our living rooms or budgets: LG brought a giant 105-inch curved, ultra-widescreen UHD television, along with some other flat LCD televisions in 65-, 79-, 84- and 98-inch sizes (all fairly big ones).

Of course Samsung couldn't possibly let its rival LG jump ahead in the race to produce big-ass large super high res televisions, and as such unveiled its own 105-inch, ultrawide, IMAX-style TV.

Both of these mammoth sets support 5,120 x 2,160 resolution (it's already been marketed as 5K), which is truly stunning. If you had the means and space, you’d absolutely want to own one.

  

But for a truly ultra-HD experience, we still need a wealth of native content available -- not just displays. That is why YouTube has demoed its new 4K streaming-tech at CES, while Netflix has already been a step ahead -- the company has confirmed at LG’s press conference that it will offer the second season of House of Cards in 4K.

All these shining devices and technologies are quite appealing for sure, but unfortunately, the vast majority of us can meet neither of the requirements of living room size or wallet size, which is why I am particularly interested in this upconversion HDMI cable Seki. It claims to squeeze 4K upconversion out of 1080p video, and sells for only 40 US dollars. This may give us a good opportunity to experience 4k by ourselves, no matter it is genuine or not.  

iOS7 Embracing Social Media in a Brand New Way

(June 24) WWDC is shaking things up again —— recently, Apple unveiled its brand new iOS7, which features deeper integration with social media than its predecessors. iOS7 will feature new social media sharing services, including Tencent Weibo. Tencent’s biggest competitor, Sina Weibo was integrated into iOS with the release of iOS6. Weibo integration isn’t as useful as Twitter or Facebook since far fewer services use Weibo as a default log in account, but users are able to share photos directly to both Sina and Tencent Weibo and the field is set for developers to utilize this greater integration with China’s largest social networks.

The second social feature is that iOS7 has enabled users to access social shared links more easily.In the Safari browser, the Shared Links feature will let users see all the URLs in their social media timelines, who posted them and what they say about them. This feature is just one example of the deeper integration of social media in iOS.

Another example is the new Siri, which is great news for social addicts. With iOS7, Siri has the ability to show related tweets when users ask “her” (or now “him”) about certain topics. But since this spec doesn’t currently support social media in China, it is expected that the Chinese Siri could be optimized further in due course and more closely integrated with social services in the domestic market. 

Speaking of integration, it’s clear that photos and videos are what people want to engage with most on social networks and Apple has put photos at the forefront in the new iOS. Users will be able to easily access all shooting formats, including photo, video, panorama and — seemingly made for conveniently effective social posting — square. With iCloud Photo Sharing, users can also create a shared photo stream – making the iOS platform itself another kind of social network. 

p.s: This is a blog I wrote for RaceTech China, oringinal blog link: http://racetechchina.racepointgroup.com/post/53808912113/ios7-embracing-social-media-in-a-brand-new-way

See more: http://racetechchina.racepointgroup.com/

Apple Repeated its U.S. Event in China, Literally

(Sep 7, 2013)After seemingly endless speculation and months of waiting, it was finally time for Apple to announce their mysterious (or not) new products, which tech media worldwide have been looking forward to for a while. 

from Bloomberg reporter at the scene

What was even more exciting for Chinese reporters was that, prior to this official announcement, Apple also announced a launch event in China, the first ever. Of course, it generated a crazy amount of buzz. Everyone was speculating whether Apple would announce a customized product tailored to the China market, or introduce a groundbreaking cooperation with China Mobile – China’s largest telecom operator, which does not sell the iPhone yet.

Since Steve Jobs never formally visited China in his life time, the media also wondered which Apple executive would show up to become the first spokesperson for the China market (Apple must find this idea so cute).

from Sina reporter at the scene

With great anticipation, top tech journalists were all gathered up in the meeting room of Apple’s Beijing office, with high hopes and colorful imaginations. There were more than 30 journalists waiting outside Apple’s office since this Beijing event was “invitation only”. These journalists won’t regret having missed the “event”, since it turned out to be a video replay of Apple’s official event in Cupertino — held just hours earlier — which introduced the new iPhone5S and iPhone5C.       

Just as the old proverb has it, with greater hope comes greater disappointment, after watching the whole announcement (for some journalists, it was the second time) and a brief session of product demo, the expectant journalists left with nothing but disappointment, added to the fact that prices for the new 5C in China are even higher than Americans will pay for the high-end 5S, but that’s another story.

At last, let me just finish this blog with this famous invitation, while sometimes it just doesn't brighten anyone's day.

p.s: This is a blog I wrote for RaceTech China, oringinal blog link: http://racetechchina.racepointgroup.com/post/61485704681/apple-repeated-its-u-s-event-in-china-literally

See more: http://racetechchina.racepointgroup.com/