News

Apple has unveiled its new iPad which comes with a high-definition screen offering a resolution of 2048 by 1536 pixels. The tablet is also powered by a new A5X chip with improved graphics performance. While Apple currently dominates the market for tablets the company is facing increased competition and is expected to see that competition intensify later this year with the launch of several tablets running the full Windows 8 system.

A new study from IMS Research suggests that in the next five years, over £2.4 billion will be spent in the UK on smart home energy management devices – ranging from smart meters themselves, to in-home devices that can ‘talk’ to them.

Laird Technologies, a specialist in the design and supply of customised performance-critical components and systems for advanced electronics and wireless products, and Nextreme Thermal Solutions, a company that focuses on developing micro-scale thermal management and power generation solutions, are forming a world-wide strategic distribution and design partnership. Laird Technologies will become the exclusive global reseller for Nextreme thermal management and power generation products.

The global market for automotive infotainment systems is set to expand by another 3 percent in 2012 driven by rising car production and increasing electronic content in vehicles. This growth follows a strong performance in 2011 when the market grew by 3.4 per cent with revenues amounting to $32.5 billion,  according to a report from IHS iSuppli. This was on top of a 4.6 percent rise in 2010.

The illegal use of Global Positioning System (GPS) jammers in the UK has been revealed in a groundbreaking study led by a consortium of organisations including Acpo and the National Physical Laboratories.  The Sentinel research study was conducted in response to growing fears that jammers could be interfering with critical systems which rely on GPS.

Apple has announced that the working conditions in factories which produce its products are to be inspected by the Fair Labor Association (FLA) which will audit several suppliers, including Foxconn in China, at the company’s request. Working conditions and safety at numerous factories have come into question following a series of fatal accidents and suicides in the past few years.

The Microsemi Corporation has announced that it is participating in a multi-disciplinary consortium funded by the European Union (Seventh Framework Programme, FP7) tasked with developing standardised Electro Mechanical Actuators (EMA) for aerospace applications to eliminate hydraulic circuits, pumps and reservoirs. The project aims to improve the overall actuator lifecycle cost including higher reliability, lower cost and reduced aircraft weight. The integrated project spans three years and comprises more than 50 partners representing the European stakeholders of the actuation and airframe industry from 12 countries.

Samsung Electronics has announced that it is considering spinning off its loss-making LCD flat-screen business as it looks to focus the business towards OLED displays, seen as the next-generation technology that will replace LCD TVs. The surprise news comes as the LCD industry struggles to emerge from a slump that enveloped it in the second half of 2010 and at a time when it could be set to become a low-growth commodity type technology with greater competition from low-cost Chinese manufacturers.

While hard disk drive (HDD) supplies began to recover in the first quarter from the floods that struck Thailand in late 2011, a full recovery of production is still months away, with unit shipments not expected to return to annual growth until the third quarter, according to new research from IHS iSuppli. Due to production disruptions at HDD suppliers and at component makers, global hard drive shipments in the fourth quarter of 2011 fell by 26 percent compared to the same period in 2010, and shipments are set to decline by another 13 percent in the first quarter and by 5 percent in the second quarter on an annual basis.

Howard Lin, European managing director for Advantech, talks to Steve Rogerson in our series of interviews for CIEonline.

A graduate from the National Taiwan University with a master degree in electronic engineering Lin joined Hewlett Packard Taiwan in 1989 as a salesperson for measurement equipment. At HP, he had been an engineer, a project manager and regional sales manager. He transferred to Agilent Taiwan in 1998 as the head of sales and later became the vice president in 2000.