At Friday they lost instantly 50% of valuation and now it is close to 60%.

Even last year they had been in red, and now already lost 84 millions euros, around 5x compared to year ago.

Drone market overall in tightly regulated developed countries has big issues. As now you have almost no places to fly your drone. And one you can use are of little interest for causal consumer.

Company will go through optimization process.

Check https://corporate.parrot.com/fr/publicationsfinancieres/activiteetresultatsdu3emetrimestre2018

Bye humans, wellcome ultimate deception if AI before natures disaster.

I'm not quite sure whether the use of the new analytical solution (in comparison to a numeric approximation) will make a significant difference for the practical process of designing lenses, but the article "Goodbye Aberration: Physicist Solves 2,000-Year-Old Optical Problem" at petapixel.com on this is definitely an interesting read.

Broadcom Inc. is in advanced talks to buy cybersecurity firm Symantec Corp., according to people familiar with the matter, seeking a further expansion into the more profitable software business.

Broadcom could reach an agreement to buy the Mountain View, California-based company within weeks, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. No deal has been finalized and the talks could fall through, the people said.

A representative for Symantec declined to comment. A representative for Broadcom didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Symantec’s shares rose as much as 16% Wednesday in New York, their biggest intraday gain in almost eight months. They closed Tuesday at $22.10, giving the company a market value of about $13.7 billion. Broadcom shares slipped about 3.5%. They closed at $295.33 Tuesday, giving the semiconductor maker a market value of about $118 billion.

KKR, a leading global investment firm, and Corel Corporation (“Corel”), one of the world's top software platforms, announced today that KKR has completed its acquisition of Corel from Vector Capital, a leading technology-focused private equity firm. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Uniquely positioned at the intersection of several large and growing end-markets totaling almost $25 billion across its key verticals, Corel offers a wide portfolio of software solutions that deliver best-in-class capabilities to over 90 million knowledge workers worldwide. Comprised of some of the industry’s best-known brands Corel’s products empower professionals across industries in three main verticals: Creativity, Productivity, and Desktop-as-a-Service.

Corel has a consistent track record of organic growth and product innovation, as well as a proven history of accretive acquisitions, the most recent of which include the products Parallels®, ClearSlide®, and MindManager®. Combining top-rated operational capabilities with a focused product portfolio addressing attractive niche industries, Corel has accelerated its growth profile in recent years. KKR is committed to furthering that growth trajectory by enhancing internal capabilities and building on the company’s established track record of successful acquisitions.

“Corel has differentiated itself by offering an impressive portfolio of essential tools and services for connected knowledge workers – across devices, operating systems, and a range of fast-growing industries. KKR looks forward to working together with management to drive continued growth across its existing platforms while leveraging the team’s extensive experience in M&A to deliver a new chapter of innovation and growth on a global scale,” said John Park, Member at KKR.

“KKR recognizes the value of our people and their impressive achievements, especially in terms of our commitment to customers, technology innovation, and our highly successful acquisition strategy. With KKR’s support and shared vision, our management team is excited by the opportunities ahead for our company, products, and users,” said Patrick Nichols, CEO of Corel.

“Corel has been an important part of the Vector Capital family for many years and we are pleased to have achieved a fantastic outcome for our investors with the sale to KKR,” said Alex Slusky, Vector Capital’s Founder and Chief Investment Officer. “Under Vector’s ownership, Corel completed multiple transformative acquisitions, grew revenue and meaningfully improved profitability, highlighting Vector’s proven strategy of partnering with management teams to position companies for long-term success. We are confident the company has found a great partner with KKR and wish them continued success together.”

For KKR, the investment in Corel is primarily being made from KKR’s Americas XII Fund.

Corel and Vector Capital were represented by Sidley Austin LLP during this transaction, with Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Deloitte representing KKR.

Corel lately is loosing customers at staggering speeds.

The company's flagship iPhone models have been impacted by some of the steepest cuts in smartphone history.

• Cheaper iPhone XR model now costs 3299 yuan, around 52% lower than March 29
• High-end iPhone XS and XS Max models each reduced by 48%

The cuts are hardly a surprise: CEO Tim Cook said back in January that the notoriously discount-resistant Apple would lower prices for some of its products in markets that had been impacted by a strengthening dollar and sharply lowering smartphone sale.

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced that it has released version 2.0 of the DisplayPort™ (DP) audio/video standard. DP 2.0 is the first major update to the DisplayPort standard since March 2016, and provides up to a 3X increase in data bandwidth performance compared to the previous version of DisplayPort (DP 1.4a), as well as new capabilities to address the future performance requirements of traditional displays. These include beyond 8K resolutions, higher refresh rates and high dynamic range (HDR) support at higher resolutions, improved support for multiple display configurations, as well as improved user experience with augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) displays, including support for 4K-and-beyond VR resolutions.

The advantages of DP 2.0 are enjoyed across both the native DP connector as well as the USB Type-C connector, which carries the DP audio/video signal through DisplayPort Alt Mode. DP 2.0 is backward compatible with previous versions of DisplayPort and incorporates all of the key features of DP 1.4a, including support for visually lossless Display Stream Compression (DSC) with Forward Error Correction (FEC), HDR metadata transport, and other advanced features. The increased video bandwidth performance of DP 2.0 carried over the USB-C connector enables simultaneous higher-speed USB data transfer without compromising display performance. DP 2.0 leverages the Thunderbolt™ 3 physical interface (PHY) layer while maintaining the flexibility of DP protocol in order to boost the data bandwidth and promote convergence across industry-leading IO standards.

In addition, the new data rates of DP 2.0 come with a display stream data mapping protocol common to both single-stream transport and multi-stream transport. This common mapping further facilitates multi-stream transport support of DP 2.0 devices for a single DP port on the source device to drive multiple displays either via a docking station or daisy-chainable displays. First products incorporating DP 2.0 are projected to appear on the market by late 2020.

"DP 2.0 offers differentiated end-to-end user experiences, across a multitude of market segments, such as productivity and gaming, as well as wider end-to-end interoperability with various connectivity options. It sets a new paradigm for display interface specifications by providing scalability from power-efficient small form-factor displays, to high-resolution and high-refresh-rate large form-factor displays," said Syed Athar Hussain, VESA Board Vice Chairman and Display Domain Senior Fellow, AMD.

"Intel's contribution of the Thunderbolt™ PHY layer specification to VESA for use in DP 2.0 is a significant milestone making today's simplest and most versatile port also the highest performing for display," said Jason Ziller, General Manager, Client Connectivity Division at Intel. "By collaborating with VESA, we're enabling common building block technologies to come together across a wide range of devices and increasing compatibility to deliver better experiences to consumers."

Higher-resolution Demands Mandate New Developments in Display Interfaces

Industry efforts are underway to push video broadcasting beyond 4K/Ultra HD resolutions, while 8K televisions and PC monitors are already beginning to hit the market. For example, the Japan Broadcasting Company (NHK) has announced plans to broadcast the 2020 Summer Olympics in 8K, and has already begun to broadcast 8K content to viewers.

At the same time, gaming platforms are pushing the envelope on immersive gameplay, driving demand for higher resolutions and video frame rates across PC, laptop, and mobile platforms, including smart phones and VR headsets. Further developments in display interfaces are needed to address these developments.

Tripling Data Bandwidth Performance

The previous version of DisplayPort, v1.4a, provided a maximum link bandwidth of 32.4 Gbps, with each of the four lanes running at a link rate of 8.1 Gbps/lane. With 8b/10b channel coding, that equates to a maximum payload of 25.92 Gbps. DP 2.0 increases the maximum link rate to up to 20 Gbps/lane and features more efficient 128b/132b channel coding, delivering a maximum payload of 77.37 Gbps -- up to a three-fold increase compared to DP 1.4a. This means that DP 2.0 is the first standard to support 8K resolution (7680 x 4320) at 60 Hz refresh rate with full-color 4:4:4 resolution, including with 30 bits per pixel (bpp) for HDR-10 support.

Maximizing Gains on USB-C connector

The performance increases enabled by DP 2.0 are through both native DP connectors and the USB-C connector via DP Alt Mode. USB-C allows a single connector for USB data, video data and power. If simultaneous support of SuperSpeed USB data and video is needed, the significantly increased data rates enabled by DP 2.0 give users the ability to have power and SuperSpeed USB data at the same time as super-high-resolution video.

DP 2.0 Configuration Examples

With the increased bandwidth enabled by DP 2.0, VESA offers a high degree of versatility and configurations for higher display resolutions and refresh rates. In addition to the above-mentioned 8K resolution at 60 Hz with HDR support, DP 2.0 across the native DP connector or through USB-C as DisplayPort Alt Mode enables a variety of high-performance configurations:

Single display resolutions

• One 16K (15360×8460) display @60Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
• One 10K (10240×4320) display @60Hz and 24 bpp 4:4:4 (no compression)

Dual display resolutions

• Two 8K (7680×4320) displays @120Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
• Two 4K (3840×2160) displays @144Hz and 24 bpp 4:4:4 (no compression)

Triple display resolutions

• Three 10K (10240×4320) displays @60Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
• Three 4K (3840×2160) displays @90Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (no compression)

When using only two lanes on the USB-C connector via DP Alt Mode to allow for simultaneous SuperSpeed USB data and video, DP 2.0 can enable such configurations as:

• Three 4K (3840×2160) displays @144Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
• Two 4Kx4K (4096×4096) displays (for AR/VR headsets) @120Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
• Three QHD (2560×1440) @120Hz and 24 bpp 4:4:4 (no compression)
• One 8K (7680×4320) display @30Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (no compression)

"Being an open standards body comprising more than 280 member companies across the electronics value chain gives VESA a unique vantage point to anticipate the needs of the display market several years out and add new capabilities to our standards ahead of demand," stated Alan Kobayashi, VESA Board Chair and VESA DisplayPort Task Group Chair. "DP 2.0 represents one of our most significant milestones in the history of DisplayPort, and is the culmination of several years' effort and major enhancements to this ubiquitous standard. Like the previous versions of DisplayPort that helped pave the way for major inflection points in video technology such as UHD, 4K, 5K, video over USB-C and HDR, DP 2.0 will help take the industry to the next level -- enabling even higher frame rates and resolutions up to and beyond 8K, greater flexibility in display configurations including multiple monitor setups, as well as improved power efficiency."

Improving Power Efficiency

DP 2.0 also supports VESA's new Panel Replay capability, which is designed to optimize the power envelope and thermal performance of smaller end devices, such as all-in-one PCs and laptops, with higher resolution displays. Similar to the Panel Self Refresh capability in Embedded DisplayPort (eDP), Panel Replay incorporates a partial update feature that enables the system video processor, or GPU, to update only the portion of the display that has changed since the video frame update, thus saving system power. Advantages include the ability to recharge a device more quickly while at the same time using it.

Seems like Olympus is having a 3 day event in Austin, Texas on August 10th. My guess is a camera announcement.

Contrary to 43rumors idea it can be actually merger announcement and some plans sharing.

Olympus camera division is still in anemic state without any clear guidance how to survive or become profitable.

We can see it merging with either Sony or may be even Nikon.

If you remember previous PV leaked rumor - https://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/21715/strange-rumor-panasonic-to-transfer-all-consumer-imaging-to-be-under-leica-brand/p1 this can also be big case. As Leica can soon become solely marketing venue of Panasonic.

Via https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/mittelstand/familienunternehmer/matthias-harsch-so-will-der-leica-chef-den-firmenumbau-meistern-/24461078.html?ticket=ST-1463380-I1AkaeWDaAodvVecSJ3F-ap2

As image sensors are a driving force in innovating industries, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is pleased to announce two new CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductors) sensor products, the ultra-high resolution 120MXSI and ultra-high sensitivity 35MMFHDXSMA. These sensors help expand the company’s lineup of industrial vision products, and offer integrators and end users additional capabilities when developing solutions in a variety of applications1.

“As a result of Canon’s success in developing and manufacturing advanced CMOS sensors for our own purposes, we expanded to create a business platform offering select sensor capabilities for use in industrial vision applications,” said Kazuto Ogawa, president and chief operating officer, Canon U.S.A., Inc. “These two new CMOS sensors reflect Canon’s dedication to this new business, and reinforce our commitment to developing high-quality imaging solutions.”

120MXSI

The 120MXSI sensor is built with the ability to produce clear, high-quality images, making it a great fit for integrators and end users developing applications such as machine vision, security, robotics, precision agriculture and healthcare. This 120-megapixel sensor is capable of simultaneous and discrete image capture in both the visible and near-infrared spectrums2 at a maximum frame rate of 9.4 frames per second.

35MMFHDXSMA

The 35MMFHDXSMA sensor is capable of capturing monochrome imagery in extreme low-light environments where subjects would be near impossible to recognize with the naked eye. Removal of the color filter array doubles the sensitivity of the previously announced 35MMFHDXSCA sensor, providing even greater low-light capabilities. This sensor can meet a wide range of ultra-high-sensitivity needs when used as a component to support a multitude of applications developed by integrators and end users, including astrological observation, natural disaster monitoring, security and object detection, molecular and cell biology, and industrial vision.

The 120MXSI and 35MMFHDXSMA CMOS sensors will be showcased in the Canon Booth #1611 at the Sensors Expo & Conference, which, according to its organizer, is the industry’s largest event dedicated to sensors, connectivity and IoT, taking place from June 26-27, 2019 at the San Jose McEnergy Convention Center in San Jose, California.

For more information on Canon sensors, please visit canon-cmos-sensors.com

U.S. activist investor Daniel Loeb has called on Sony to spin off its "crown jewel" image sensor business to unlock the Japanese group's true worth as a global entertainment powerhouse.

In a letter to investors on Thursday, Third Point publicly acknowledged for the first time that it had reinvested in Sony through a $1.5 billion stake. The move launches its second campaign since the hedge fund failed in 2013 to persuade the Japanese conglomerate to sell a part of its entertainment business.

Loeb urged Sony to focus on being a global entertainment company, redeploying cash from its TV and cameras business to focus on gaming, music, and film and television. He also called for the sale of its shareholdings in Sony Financial, M3 Inc., Olympus and Spotify.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Daniel-Loeb-calls-on-Sony-to-spin-off-sensor-business

Of course it does not mean anything for now. But something tells me that leading US companies and Samsung are behind this early warning.

Smartphone companies will find a way to not pay big money for extremely high marginal top sensors. Samsung having lot of tech and knowledge also looking on how to break secret agreement.

Specs

• Accepts INSTAX Mini Instant Film
• Produces Credit Card-Sized Prints
• 1/5" CMOS Sensor, 2560x1920 Resolution
• Fixed 28mm f/2 Lens (35mm Equivalent)
• 2.7" 230k-Dot LCD Monitor
• Bluetooth for Smartphone Operation
• App for Printing & Adding Filters/Frames
• Integrated Flash & Selfie Mirror
• Audio Recording with QR Code Playback
• Preorder for $160
  • https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/items/ci/43341/N/0

Right now we have LTO-8 as a format, we have the drives, and… we don’t have any tapes. Between 2000 and 2015, the first seven generations of LTO improved from 100GB to 6TB per tape, and were released in orderly sequence. LTO-8 was released in December 2017, promising 12TB of capacity and a healthy 360MB per second of performance, and there’s an enticing roadmap all the way to 480 terabyte tapes, with even LTO-10, at 48TB per tape, projected to achieve over a gigabyte per second. Filling twelve terabytes of LTO-8 at 360 megs a second would take over nine hours, ignoring any sort of filesystem or other administrative overheads, but it’s a pretty attractive idea in the 8K, HDR future.

Or rather it would be if it were actually available. The technical details are too dense to go into, but essentially, despite the fact that there are three participants in the LTO program (HP, IBM and Quantum,) the principal organizations making tape are Fujifilm and Sony, and those two organizations are currently engaged in a multi-year court battle over some very complex issues of patentability on the tape media. As a result, nobody is currently selling LTO-8 tape, and no solution is expected before the latter half of the year.

https://www.redsharknews.com/production/item/6415-there-s-a-shortage-of-lto-tape-and-that-s-a-big-problem

On July 2010, 21, Fujifilm introduced the F300EXR with a then new kind of AF, called "Hybrid AF" by Fuji. It makes use of the fact that the microlens which modern cameras have in front of every pixel on the sensor, creates a directional dependency of brightness distribution on the light sensitive pixel surface.

So, Fuji masked one half in some, the other half in some other of the pixels (but modified only a few pixels in total). It could therefore create two signals (low resolution images) from the modified pixels which are used to determine a phase shift between the two. The modified pixels aren't used to take the image itself.

Canon took this idea, sat down for a few hours and thought: "well, what if we didn't mask one half of a pixel but split it into two and only reading one at a time?" Here is what it looks like:

Obviously, Canon pays better graphics designers than Fuji. Other than that, the two illustrations look pretty similiar. So maybe, it is no surprise that it took them exactly 12 working days to write this idea down and file another patent on 2010, August 9, a Monday ... 2 busy weeks. The idea is obvious. But only Canon reacted quick enough to make it a patent. And only Canon was brave enough to actually double the pixel count in a real product. It took them 3 years to do. I applaud Canon for what I think is a business master piece.

Yes, it really is a new type of AF. The idea is quite simple and is the same as with the Hybrid AF. But executed with brute force. And what you get in return, wow!

Unlike PDAF and Hybrid AF, CDAF can make use of all available light falling into the lens. This is a massive advantage. Sadly, it is offset by a large number of measurements it must take in order to maximize contrast. Especially as many vendors don't apply sophisticated algorithms to minimize the number of measurement steps. On the other hand, PDAF and even more Hybrid AF, only use a fraction of available light for their measurement.

The new MPAF is the first kind of AF which does both: use all light and minimize the number of measurements. Canon's first installation with its focus on continuous movie focusing may not tell the full story yet, but I am convinced that eventually, MPAF will blow all other kinds of AF out of the water. In terms of speed, tracking ability, accuracy, and low light capabilities.

The MPAF is a breakthrough here: it eventually allows the high end cameras to drive innovation rather than play the conservative watcher. This redefines the rules and will transform the industry.

http://falklumo.blogspot.ru/2013/07/comment-why-new-dual-pixel-af-will.html

Badge registration is now open for Cine Gear 2019. All attendees must complete this FREE registration process to obtain their credentials. Registration is free until 11:59 p.m. PDT, May 25th 2019.

Location: Paramount Studios, Hollywood, CA

Exhibits & Seminars

• Friday, May 31 Hours: 12:00 noon - 8:00 p.m.
• Saturday, June 1 Hours: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Film Competition Screenings

• Thursday, May 30 Finalist Screenings 12:00 noon - 5:30 p.m.
• Friday, May 31 Winners Announced at Awards Party

Master Classes

• Sunday, June 2 Lighting Workshop 1:45 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.

Alan is covering exhibition for us, huge prizes for him:

Alphabet Inc’s Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware and software products except those covered by open source licenses, a source close to the matter told Reuters on Sunday, in a blow to the Chinese technology company that the U.S. government has sought to blacklist around the world.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd will immediately lose access to updates to the Android operating system, and the next version of its smartphones outside of China will also lose access to popular applications and services including the Google Play Store and Gmail app.

Details of the specific services were still being discussed internally at Google, according to the source. Huawei attorneys are also studying the impact of the U.S. Commerce Department’s actions, a Huawei spokesman said on Friday. Huawei was not immediately reachable for further comment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-alphabet-exclusive/exclusive-google-suspends-some-business-with-huawei-after-trump-blacklist-source-idUSKCN1SP0NB

This means that all Google apps won't work as well as no testing and such will be performed, also expect many US applications (like all Facebook owned) to start checking your smartphone manufacturers and telling that they won't run.

US started to use their big cards, trying to stop Huawei that eats US companies at smartphones market.

Xiaomi can soon also join the company.

Both companies have their own LSI for smartphones (Xiaomi soon will show theirs), as well as special adapted version of Android that will drift far apart with time. We will soon see really big global app stores being alternative to Google Play.

We’re announcing a strategic deal with Ultrahaptics that combines the two companies and solidifies our collective role as the world’s leading spatial interaction company.

Ultrahaptics is a long-time Leap Motion developer and the two companies have been working together for nearly six years. Their haptic technology creates tactile sensations in mid-air using ultrasonic waves. This deal will create a vertically integrated technology company that brings us that much closer to fully immersive, rich and physically intuitive virtual interfaces.

This will not in any way affect the unwavering support for the incredible Leap Motion community.

In fact, joining forces will not only lead to new and exciting products, but entirely new categories of technologies that could only come from deep collaboration between these teams.

Our two companies together will be more than the sum of their parts. At Leap Motion we’ve always been about breaking down the barriers between people and technology to reach the true potential of both. This announcement represents the next step in this quest, and we are honored to have you continue with us on this journey.

Ricoh is shrinking its money-losing camera business to concentrate resources on commercial applications as smartphones continue to crowd out long-established names in photography.

Asian Review.

Ricoh response is mixed

"Although we will pursue high value-added products by focusing on product lineups, we are not planning on withdrawing from products made for individuals, and we plan to expand high value-added models for individuals in the future"

So it'll be some cut, but not complete ala Samsung. Focus will be on FF things.

Also we can also see 1-2 new lenses.

And it will be end of the system.

Next year Canon will move all APS-C cameras to their new mount, as well as introduce even cheaper FF cameras.

Lenses production will stop in 2020 already (but stock will be sold for much longer time).

Most probably we will see only big photo lenses.

Also we can get announcement of some consumer camcorder with 1" sensor, but it is low probability.

The FTC ruling against Qualcomm confirms in writing what we assumed for years: MediaTek, Samsung, HiSilicon, Intel all couldn't sell modems to OEMs because Qualcomm refused them licenses. The MediaTek exhibit is particularly damning as QC was ought to "destroy" them.

Say thanks for patents :-) People paid tens of billions more due to only this one issue, if you count other patents owned by parasites in the smartphone business you will realize that up to 25% and in case of top smartphones - up to 40% of smartphone cost goes to them.

Fiat Chrysler and Renault are in talks on a comprehensive global tie-up.

The talks are at an advanced stage, the sources said.

FCA and Renault have a combined market capitalization approaching 33 billion euros ($37 billion) and total global sales of 8.7 million vehicles. Besides bringing greater scale, a tie-up could help patch flaws on both sides.

Now it becomes clear why they put Carlos Ghosn in jail.

Huawei is removed from Association members and had been noted to stop using or adding to new products any of SD Association standards.

It is expected that few more Chinese companies will follow in next two weeks. In case of lack of progress and any further delays all major Chinese manufacturers will follow in around 45 days.

This is very useful as will allow to fully reject imports of Chinese smartphones and notebooks due to infringement.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has warned U.S. firms of the risks to company data from Chinese-made drones, according to a notice reviewed by Reuters on Monday.

The notice, titled “Chinese Manufactured Unmanned Aircraft Systems,” warned that U.S. officials have “strong concerns about any technology product that takes American data into the territory of an authoritarian state that permits its intelligence services to have unfettered access to that data or otherwise abuses that access.”

A spokeswoman for DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed that it “recently released an industry alert providing organizations with information related to the inherit risks associated with using UAS technology manufactured in China and measures to reduce such risk.”

China’s SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd, the world’s largest maker of consumer drones, said in a statement on Monday that “the security of our technology has been independently verified by the U.S. government and leading U.S. businesses.”

Most fun thing here is that system where software controls and record drone data and send it to company had been implemented due to demands of EU and US :-)

US now do not have much strong competitors for DJI but it does not mean that US won't ban DJI consumer drones import.

Another most interesting thing is possible ban of all DJI servers by US and EU providers that can render drones partially useless.

Expect that we will see at least strong threats during summer times.