Tech
First supposed case designs of iPhone 12 hit the web, shows flat sides like iPhone 4 – 9to5Mac
The supposed first looks at the iPhone 12 exterior design are surfacing, with this dummy mockup found on Alibaba pictured this weekend by Macotakara.
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Now, it is not necessarily ‘too soon’ for iPhone 12 leaks (the 2020 flagship iPhone expected next fall). The iPhone 11 design was perfectly rendered by Onleaks last year on January 6th 2019.
However, whereas Onleaks has a solid track record of accuracy behind him, ‘Alibaba’ does not. All sorts of nonsense appear on the Chinese shopping website, and it is most likely that what is seen in these pictures is based off previous descriptions from Ming-Chi Kuo rather than independent sourcing.
(Note: Macotakara has a pretty good provenance on their own reporting, but they are pretty clearly not backing up this design with their own sources. They just found the model and wanted to share.)
So, with that huge disclaimer in mind, let’s look at what they have. Face onwards, the design largely resembles the iPhone 11 Pro Max. However, the sides are straight, harkening back to the iPhone 4/4S/5 look rather than the curved edges that have been a staple of the iPhone since 2014.
There is also a strange mark on the side of the device, which could be a new kind of Smart Connector. That being said, smart connectors have shown up on various low-credibility iPhone design mockups for years and have never come to fruition in the final product.
Note the screen diagonal of this 3D-printed item is 6.5-inches, smaller than the rumored 6.7-inches size. This leads even more credence to the idea that it is based on a slightly tweaked schematics of the existing iPhone 11 Pro Max. You can see it, for what it’s worth, in Macotakara’s hands-on video:
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Britain is in talks with six companies about building gigafactories to produce batteries for electric vehicles (EV), the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people briefed on the discussions.
Car makers Ford Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co Ltd, conglomerates LG Corp and Samsung, and start-ups Britishvolt and InoBat Auto are in talks with the British government or local authorities about locations for potential factories and financial support, the report added .
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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EBay will sell its South Korean business to retailer Shinsegae Group and e-commerce firm Naver for about 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion), local newspapers reported on Wednesday.
EBay Korea is the country’s third-largest e-commerce firm with market share of about 12.8% in 2020, according to Euromonitor. It operates the platforms Gmarket, Auction and G9.
Shinsegae, Naver and eBay Korea declined to comment.
Lotte Shopping had also been in the running, the Korea Economic Daily and other newspapers said, citing unnamed investment banking sources.
South Korea represents the world’s fourth largest e-commerce market. Driven by the coronavirus pandemic, e-commerce has soared to account for 35.8% of the retail market in 2020 compared with 28.6% in 2019, according to Euromonitor data.
Shinsegae and Naver formed a retail and e-commerce partnership in March by taking stakes worth 250 billion won in each other’s affiliates.
($1 = 1,117.7000 won)
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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Canada is set to begin a hotly anticipated auction of the mobile telecommunications bandwidth necessary for 5G rollout, one that was delayed more than a year by the pandemic.
The 3,500 MHz is a spectrum companies need to provide 5G, which requires more bandwidth to expand internet capabilities.The auction, initially scheduled for June 2020, is expected to take several weeks with Canadian government selling off 1,504 licenses in 172 service areas.
Smaller operators are going into the auction complaining that recent regulatory rulings have further tilted the scales in the favour of the country’s three biggest telecoms companies – BCE, Telus and Rogers Communications Inc – which together control around 90% of the market as a share of revenue.
Canadian mobile and internet consumers, meanwhile, have complained for years that their bills are among the world’s steepest. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has threatened to take action if the providers did not cut bills by 25%.
The last auction of the 600 MHz spectrum raised C$3.5 billion ($2.87 billion) for the government.
The companies have defended themselves, saying the prices they charge are falling.
Some 23 bidders including regional players such as Cogeco and Quebec’s Videotron are participating in the process. Shaw Communications did not apply to participate due to a $16 billion takeover bid from Rogers. Lawmakers and analysts have warned that market concentration will intensify if that acquisition proceeds.
In May, after Canada‘s telecoms regulator issued a ruling largely in favour of the big three on pricing for smaller companies’ access to broadband networks, internet service provider TekSavvy Inc withdrew from the auction, citing the decision.
Some experts say the government has been trying to level the playing field with its decision to set aside a proportion of spectrum in certain areas for smaller companies.
Gregory Taylor, a spectrum expert and associate professor at the University of Calgary, said he was pleased the government was auctioning off smaller geographic areas of coverage.
In previous auctions where the license covered whole provinces, “small providers could not participate because they could not hope to cover the range that was required in the license,” Taylor said.
Smaller geographic areas mean they have a better chance of fulfilling the requirements for the license, such as providing service to 90% of the population within five years of the issuance date.
The auction has no scheduled end date, although the federal ministry in charge of the spectrum auction has said winners would be announced within five days of bidding completion.
($1 = 1.2181 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Vancouver; Editing by David Gregorio)
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