Qualcomm unveils new reference AR glasses

Qualcomm has a new version of its augmented reality glasses. It hopes they can help hardware partners build their immersive eyewear. The Wireless AR Smart Viewer Reference Design can now tether wirelessly to a host PC, phone, or puck. It's also 40% thinner than the previous generation and should have a better-balanced weight distribution.

It runs on a slightly older Snapdragon XR2 platform. Each eye features a 1080p, 90Hz micro-OLED display that prevents motion blur. You get an entire six-degrees-of-freedom movement with the help of three cameras (two monochrome, one colour) and hand tracking and gesture recognition. It has both Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth to keep lag under 3ms between the glasses and host device. Many manufacturers already have access to them, and more should get their turn within the "coming months." 

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Qualcomm launches new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip

Qualcomm

Qualcomm recently unveiled its latest SoC, which sports a new name and is expected to arrive on new devices before the year ends. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 focuses on six essential technology you'd expect a mobile chipmaker to concentrate on in 2021. That includes 5G connectivity, camera sensors, AI, gaming, audio, and security.

Its 5G modem-RF can hit up to 10-gigabit download speeds with FastConnect 6900 Mobile Connectivity System, which Qualcomm says surpasses WiFi 6 speeds. For imaging, it gets an 18-bit ISP with better dynamic range, colour, and speeds. It also supports 8K HDR video, a new Bokeh Engine for Portrait Mode-style in videos, and Always-ON ISP that offers low power consumption for tasks like face unlock.

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Qualcomm debuts Snapdragon 888 Plus chipset with better CPU, AI performance

At this year's MWC, Qualcomm has just upgraded its best processor with an even better one. The Snapdragon 888 Plus gets a better clock speed, bumping up the Kryo 680 CPU from 2.84GHz to 2.995GHz. Its sixth-gen AI engine also gets upgraded from being able to perform 26 trillion operations per second (TOPS) for AI tasks on the Snapdragon 888 to around 20% more power on the 888 Plus at 32 TOPS. According to Qualcomm, we should be seeing the first phones sporting this new chip in Q3 2021. 

Source: The Verge

Upcoming Snapdragon-powered Android phones can get up to four years of security updates

Google's Project Treble is a modular redesign of Android's low-level system architecture to make it easier for phone manufacturers to update their devices with the mobile operating system's newest version. This program, which launched back in 2017, gets an update with a new partnership between Google and Qualcomm. The two companies will collaborate to improve Project Treble while simplifying the update process for Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered devices.

Google and Qualcomm say that by working together, they can reduce the time and resources manufacturers need to invest when updating their smartphones to the latest Google software, which will extend the lifespan of their products. So, future Snapdragon-equipped smartphones will get up to four major Android platform upgrades and four years of security patches. This upgrade will include the version of Android your phone comes with, so the high-end phones get an extra year of security updates while receiving the same amount of OS upgrades as Pixel phones.

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