BlackBerry makes China push as the OS for Xpeng smart cars

The once-pioneering BlackBerry is pretty much out of the smartphone manufacturing game, but the Canadian company has been busy transitioning to providing software for connected devices, including smart cars. Now it’s brought that section of its business to China.

This week, BlackBerry announced that it will be powering the Level 3 driving domain controller of Xpeng, one of the most-funded electric vehicle startups in China and Tesla’s local challenger. Baked in Xpeng’s intelligent cockpit is BlackBerry’s operating system called QNX, which competes with the likes of Android and Linux to enter automakers’ next-gen models.

Sitting between BlackBerry and Xpeng’s tie-up is middleman Desay SV, which specializes in automotive system integrators like Aptiv. Desay SV, founded in 1986, has an illustrious past as a previously Sino-German joint venture that involved Siemens. The Huizhou-based company today supplies to Tier 1 automotive brands and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in China and around the world.

The kernel of Xpeng’s domain controller is NVIDIA’s Xavier cockpit chip for automated cars, so a good amount of software and hardware in Xpeng’s new car is based on foreign technologies.

The mass-produced Xpeng model in the spotlight is an electric sports sedan numbered P7. It features a processing unit that can calculate “the vehicle’s driving status and provides 360-degree omnidirectional perception with real-time monitoring of the surrounding environment to make safe driving decisions,” according to the announcement.

“Desay SV Automotive has extensive experience in intelligent cockpits, smart driving and connected services. Augmented with the safety expertise of BlackBerry QNX, together we can address the diverse needs of an auto industry that is undergoing meaningful transformation,” said John Wall, senior vice president and co-head of BlackBerry Technology Solutions, in a statement.

“To that end, it’s a real privilege to have BlackBerry technology powering the intelligent driving system within Xpeng Motors innovative new P7 system.”

The partnership arrives as Alibaba and Xiaomi backed-Xpeng is looking to raise up to $1.1 billion from its initial public offering in New York. Its Chinese rivals Li Auto and NIO raised similar amounts from their U.S. IPOs.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro Max with Android 10 and Snapdragon 720G to go on sale today via Amazon

Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro Max has three RAM and storage variants- The base model packs 6GB RAM and 64GB ROM. It is priced at Rs 16,999 https://ift.tt/3gtzsCs

Nintendo could release an upgraded Switch in 2021: Report

According to a Bloomberg report, we could see an upgrade to the Nintendo Switch in 2021. Nintendo first launched the Switch in 2017 and it still is a great choice for those that want to play on the big screen and carry their console for a portable experience. The current Switch is powered by the NVIDIA Tegra X1 chip accompanied by 4GB of RAM. In 2019, Nintendo updated the Switch with a slightly better calibrated display and longer battery life and also introduced a handheld only version of the switch called the Nintendo Switch Lite. During the launch of the Nintendo Switch Lite, it was rumoured that the company is working on a more powerful version of the Switch console. 

The upcoming Switch will be more powerful than the current one and will be capable of 4K graphics, according to the rumours. Does this mean we will see a more powerful docking station to enable 4K graphics while keeping the handheld graphics lower, remains to be seen. It also looks like the release of some key games is being held back for the new console to give it a strong line-up of games at launch. 

Nintendo launching its console in 2021 makes a lot of sense especially when you consider the fact that the Switch Lite is only a year old. Microsoft and Sony are launching their 4K capable gaming consoles, the Xbox Series X and PS5 towards the end of 2020 and it looks like after the initial dust of the two consoles settles, we will Nintendo grab eyeballs. 

It’s safe to say that the Nintendo Switch is a very popular console especially when you consider that as of June 2020, the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite have sold more than 61 million units worldwide. Nintendo does not have any official presence in India, but the Switch and its games are quite popular in the country. 

Speaking of the next-gen consoles, it looks like the price of the PS5 and Series X has leaked yet again and you can read more about that here.

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In a letter included in Palantir's S-1, CEO Alex Karp says the "engineering elite" of SV do not know "how society should be organized or what justice requires" (Ari Levy/CNBC)

Ari Levy / CNBC:
In a letter included in Palantir's S-1, CEO Alex Karp says the “engineering elite” of SV do not know “how society should be organized or what justice requires”  —  KEY POINTS  — In Palantir's filing to go public on Tuesday, CEO Alex Karp said Silicon Valley engineers …

5 biggest smartphone companies in the world

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Lenskart to invest Rs 380cr in 2nd plant, sales go past Titan Eyeplus

Lenskart sees at least a 20% growth in business in the ongoing financial year with plans to open 200-300 more stores, despite the pandemic that is forcing most speciality retailers to shut down outlets. https://ift.tt/32nGmo0 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Asus ZenFone 7 Series Launching Today: How to Watch Live Stream

Asus ZenFone 7 is set to launch today. Asus is hosting the global debut event for ZenFone 7 series that will be livestreamed. It is set to begin at 2pm local time (11.30am IST). https://ift.tt/31vphJz

Redmi Note 9 Pro Max to Go on Sale in India Today

Redmi Note 9 Pro Max is all set to go on sale in India today. The Redmi smartphone that was launched in the country in March is one of the popular options in sub-Rs. 20,000 price segment. https://ift.tt/2EDDtqY

Tony Hsieh is stepping down as Zappos CEO after 21 years at the helm; COO Kedar Deshpande will succeed him at the Amazon-owned company (Katie Abel/Footwear News)

Katie Abel / Footwear News:
Tony Hsieh is stepping down as Zappos CEO after 21 years at the helm; COO Kedar Deshpande will succeed him at the Amazon-owned company  —  Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is stepping down after 21 years at the helm.  —  Kedar Deshpande, COO at the company, has assumed the role of CEO, according to an internal email obtained by FN.

An overview of 94 companies that launched at Y Combinator's Summer 2020 Demo Day 2; the Summer 2020 batch of companies was YC's first fully remote startup batch (TechCrunch)

TechCrunch:
An overview of 94 companies that launched at Y Combinator's Summer 2020 Demo Day 2; the Summer 2020 batch of companies was YC's first fully remote startup batch  —  And we're back!  Today was part two of Y Combinator's absolutely massive Demo Day(s) event for its Summer 2020 class.

To fight Apple's and Google's grip, Fortnite creator mounts a crusade

Tim Sweeney is preparing for a protracted legal battle after Apple and Google banned Fortnite, which is played by more than 350 million people, from their stores this month for trying to get around its payment systems. https://ift.tt/31suwJH https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Facebook News to soon pay Indian publishers for their content

Facebook News, that was launched in the US last year, will soon arrive in the UK, Germany, France, India and Brazil within the next six months to a year, the company announced. https://ift.tt/3llYiHY https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The pandemic has probably killed VR arcades for good

A lagging trend of the past few months has been witnessing startups that COVID seemed poised to kill end up scaling back some of those deep cuts and taking off again. Not all spaces have been quite so lucky, in particular, lately we’ve seen a host of location-based virtual reality startups shut their doors.

Virtual reality arcades weren’t exactly crushing it pre-pandemic, the small industry was already a bit of a Hail Mary for the virtual reality market which has failed to push consumers to adopt headsets on their own and saw arcades as a way to warm up the general public to VR’s role in entertainment. Lackluster consumer interest and the throughput difficulties associated with quickly moving users through experiences were among their biggest challenges facing VR arcades.

Virtual reality scales back its real world presence

This week following a report from Protocol, Apple confirmed its acquisition of Spaces, a virtual reality arcade startup which had been forced to close its in-person arcades amid COVID and had attempted a pivot to creating virtual environments for video chat software. An Apple acquisition is hardly a mark of failure, but it is unlikely that the company has any interest in reviving the startup’s arcade business.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US subsidiary of Sandbox VR had filed for bankruptcy. Sandbox VR has raised quite a bit of money on the promise that they could revamp several industries at once. The idea was that mall operators on the decline would give great deals to some of these startups to set up physical storefronts as a loss leader to bring in a younger generation of consumers, while they could capitalize on mixed reality social media video to bring a level of viral growth to their VR offerings.

In July, UploadVR discovered documents that suggested Disney had terminated the lease of virtual reality startup The Void’s Downtown Disney location following months of COVID-related closures.

It was impossible to forecast the current pandemic when many of these investments were being made, but virtual reality arcades had already shown they were far from a sure bet. In late 2018, IMAX shut the doors of the last of its seven virtual reality arcades after investing tens of millions into its VR efforts.

IMAX pulls the plug on its dream of VR arcades

With the future of in-person entertainment unclear, the question is whether virtual reality arcades have any chance of a rebound.

The fact is many of these startups were pushing up against current realities on multiple fronts and were attempting to seriously shift the landscape of 21st century digital entertainment, attempts that seemed daunting from the start.

As massive movie theater chains struggle to see how the pandemic will affect their industries in the long-term, it isn’t surprising that many of these startups have failed to see a light at the end of the tunnel and have shut down operations or been sold off. I suspect investors will be reluctant to back new efforts in this space and that the time horizon of COVID-19 will force current entrants towards pivots that look dramatically different from pre-COVID era business models. (One caveat is that the VR arcade market certainly looks differently in the United States compared to markets in countries like China and Japan where virtual reality arcades seem to fit a bit more snugly into popular gaming culture.)

If VR arcades survive or are reborn, it will be due to some pretty massive shifts in consumer behavior and VR adoption.

Virtual reality, as an industry, is in a tough spot. In the United States, it’s essentially only Facebook keeping the space alive in a meaningful way and while the company seems to be barreling ahead in its efforts to build a mainstream future for the technology on its own terms. Earlier this summer, Facebook announced that it was pulling its top-selling title Beat Saber from arcades for good by August. Since the acquisition of Oculus back in 2014, the ecosystem that sprang up around Facebook’s VR efforts has receded meaningfully leaving the company in a lonely position once again.

A Chromium feature is responsible for nearly half of the traffic load on root DNS servers by issuing DNS lookups that often propagate up to root nameservers (Jim Salter/Ars Technica)

Jim Salter / Ars Technica:
A Chromium feature is responsible for nearly half of the traffic load on root DNS servers by issuing DNS lookups that often propagate up to root nameservers  —  Google is doing to DNS what D-Link once did to NTP.  —  The Chromium browser—open source, upstream parent to both Google Chrome …

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX acquires portfolio tracker Blockfolio

FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that offers derivatives, options and other sophisticated products, is acquiring a popular portfolio tracking app, Blockfolio.

FTX is spending $150 million for the acquisition. But take that price with a grain of salt as it’s a combination of cash, cryptocurrency and stock. Cryptocurrency (and stock) in particular might not be perfectly liquid.

While an exchange buying a portfolio tracking app seems to be a right fit, they don’t necessarily have the same audience right now. FTX is better positioned for professional traders as it lets you trade on futures markets and it even offers ERC-20 tokens that track the volatility of bitcoin.

Blockfolio is a consumer app and it has been downloaded over 6 million times on iOS and Android. The startup had previously raised $17 million from Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Dan Matuszewski, DCM Ventures, Hashkey Digital Asset Group and others.

As the name suggests, Blockfolio lets you add your portfolio of cryptocurrencies and track their value over time. The app also lets you view market moves by searching for a token in the app. You can also automate portfolio tracking by connecting the app with your exchange accounts.

With today’s move, FTX wants to launch a simpler trading experience for retail customers. The teams behind FTX and Blockfolio are already working together on a Blockfolio-branded trading product.

And if FTX takes advantage of Blockfolio’s user base, it’s certainly going to be a big advantage when it comes to liquidity.