iPhone Screens With 120Hz Refresh Rate Enters Production

Rumours of an iPhone generation featuring a display with 120Hz refresh rate started with the iPhone 12. That didn’t happen, as all four variants sport the standard 60Hz refresh rate displays. But that didn’t stop the rumour from resurfacing for this year’s model. Such displays have reportedly entered their production stage.

South Korean news outlet The Elec reports that Samsung and LG have both started the production of said display. The outlet’s sources claim that the former started production in the middle of the month. The latter, on the other hand, began production more recently.

Also included in the report is the fact that this production run started a month early compared to last year. Apple itself made the request to start production earlier. This could suggest that the iPhone maker intends to introduce this year’s phones a month earlier than it did in 2020, which was in October.

While the 120Hz display is the more recent of rumours surrounding this year’s iPhones, they are not the only one. Others, some dating all the way back to 2019, include the lack of a Lightning connector port, or just ports in general. Then there’s the alleged design leaks of a mini variant, which contradicts the one on portless design.

Foxconn Enters Into Chipmaking Joint Venture With Yageo

Taiwanese contract manufacturing giant Foxconn has entered into a joint venture with fellow Taiwanese company Yageo, forming a new firm called XSemi that will be churning out semiconductor chips.

Chip supplies have been strained due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as growing US-China tensions. According to Reuters, Foxconn chairman Liu Young-way said that the semiconductor industry was facing its biggest upheaval in three decades, making strategic partnerships particularly timely now.

Foxconn announced that XSemi would focus on producing semiconductor chips or “small IC” with average selling prices lower than US$2 (~RM8.24). The former claimed that both it and Yageo were holding talks with several global semiconductor firms and would announce more collaborative plans in the industry soon.

Relatedly, the US government is pushing Taiwanese chipmakers to meet the demands of US automakers, which have seen worker layoffs and production delays because of the chip shortage.

“We’re working hard to see if we can get the Taiwanese and TSMC, which is a big company there, to, you know, prioritize the needs of our auto companies since there’s so many American jobs on the line,” said US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo at a Tuesday event, Reuters reported.

Raimondo said that the US government was continuously working on that issue, but also noted that the medium- and long-term solution would be to simply make more chips in America.

Apple M2 Chip Enters Production; Could Launch In July

The Apple M1 chip has been put into a fair number of the company’s new products. But it looks like the iPhone maker is already gearing up for the chip’s successor, likely to be known as the M2. A new report indicates that the chip has entered production this month.

Sources to Nikkei say that these new M2 chips will power Macs that will be launched as soon as July. This may mean that Apple will be officially announcing these M2 chips, as well as the new Macs, during WWDC in June. As we’ve seen with the inclusion of the M1 in the iPad Pro, the new M2 will likely also make its way to the company’s other devices down the line.

The chip itself is currently being made by TSMC, using what is called the 5nm plus. While it’s a very new process, the company is already taking things further, currently working on 3nm and 2nm processes.

But back to Apple. Having two chips could see quite the clear separation of tiers, for lack of a better term, between products. Top-of-the-line models in the future may sport the newer, presumably more powerful M2 chip. Meanwhile, the M1 will go instead into refreshes of other devices like the iPad Air.

TSMC 2nm Chips Reportedly Enters Development; 3nm, 4nm Due In 2022

While the chip shortage is expected to rage on till next year, Taiwanese foundry, TSMC, has no intentions of slowing down the development of new and thinner fabrications of its products. To that end, reports suggest that the foundry has already entered development of a 2nm process node.

According to Anandtech, TSMC seems to be developing both 3nm and 2nm at the same time. Unsurprisingly, the Taiwanese foundry isn’t sharing a lot of detail, only that development for the die lithography is progressing nicely under its “advanced CMOS logic”.

As for its 3nm and 4nm process, Anandtech says that both process nodes are still on track with its development, with 4nm expected to enter mass production by early 2022, while the 3nm – part of the company’s N3 roadmap – should enter risk production this year, with mass production expected to begin during the second half of 2022.

TSMC has long dominated the semiconductor market and has virtually cornered half the market, the other half having been bagged by Samsung. Earlier this month, the company also announced that it would spend US$100 billion (~RM410 billion) over the next three years to ramp up its production capacity.

Aya Neo Enters Crowdfunding Via Indiegogo

The Aya Neo is a handheld PC that’s powerful enough to run Crysis Remastered. The AMD Ryzen-powered handheld was first announced back in November last year in its Founder’s edition. At the time, the company mentioned making the device available internationally via Indiegogo. And it finally happened over the weekend.

The international version of the Aya Neo is also actually slightly improved over the Founder’s edition. On its Indiegogo page, the company says that the new model features an improved operating system, rumble motors, screen quality, and buttons. And despite the many improvements, it also manages to be lighter than the original, which is pretty amazing.

But to quickly go over its specs, the Aya Neo packs an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U processor with onboard Vega graphics, 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM, a 47Wh battery, and an option of either 500GB or 1TB SSD for storage. You won’t be able to play the latest games on max settings, naturally. But you should be able to play some older titles at a comfortable-ish 30fps – 60fps.

As for the price, the Indiegogo campaign is asking for HK$6750 (~RM3569) for the 1TB model, or HK$7446 (~RM3937) for some extra accessories thrown in. If you want the model with less storage space, then you’re out of luck, as they have all been claimed.

Pokemon Unite Mobile MOBA Enters Beta; Only In Canada

Last year, we saw the announcement of Pokemon Unite, a mobile MOBA title. We’ve heard nothing about the game since, until now. The Pokemon Company has announced that the title is entering its beta stage, with a few catches.

One is that the Pokemon Unite beta is only open to Canadians starting March. Second is that it is only available on Android. It’s strange, since the game is also made for iOS and the Nintendo Switch.

If this flavour of weird is a familiar one to you, then you probably remember the initial announcement for Diablo Immortal’s alpha. It was also an Android only affair, but it was only open to Australians at the time.

There’s also a lot less detail available here with the Pokemon Unite beta compared to the Diablo Immortal alpha. For one, there’s not much in terms of minimum specs. All that is mentioned is that the game is compatible with Android devices with 3GB or more RAM, and running Android 5 or later. For what it’s worth, there’s also a mention of the game being optimised for phones and not tablets.

But as before, there is no mention as to when this beta will be open to iOS users, or even Nintendo Switch owners. No mention either of when the Pokemon Unite beta will be open to regions other than Canada.