South Korea works with the private sector to invest in a domestic chip supply chain, lossless music streaming comes to Apple music at no extra cost, and Sharp announces a new smartphone with a super camera.
It’s all the tech news that’s got people buzzing right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Tuesday, May 18 and I’m your host Alex Coop.
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The raging semiconductor shortage has nations scrambling to secure chips all the while trying to increase their own manufacturing strength. South Korea, home to Samsung and SK Hynix, announced that it will work with the private sector to invest a whopping US$452 billion into its semiconductor supply chain. Like many nations, South Korea is looking to sever its reliance on foreign manufacturers like Taiwan’s TSMC. The rest of the world isn’t sitting still either, however. Intel, TSMC, and China’s SMIC all have announced multi-billion dollar investments in new production facilities.
Apple Music can now stream music in lossless quality and good news! It’s a freebie add-on. Anyone with an Apple Music subscription can now enjoy their favourite tracks at their best. The playback quality ranges between CD level to audio engineering grade. Although it’s tantalizing to turn the quality knob to maximum, streaming at high bitrates consumes massive amounts of data. Also, you’ll need extremely accurate audio gear and ears of gold to actually be able to hear the difference between high and pro quality. If you aren’t on Apple Music, worry not. Lossless music quality will be coming to Spotify and Amazon Music soon, too.
Sharp, a maker of printers and monitors, has just released a smartphone with a massive camera. The Sharp Aquos R6 has just one camera, but it uses an absolutely enormous 1-inch camera sensor and premium Leica lens. Although it doesn’t sport the highest resolution at 20MP, it will likely have exceptional low-light shooting performance due to its huge pixel size. In addition to a baller camera, the Aquos R6 also comes with top-tier specs including the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, 12GB of RAM, and a 5,000mAh [milliamp] battery. And did we mention that it has an ultra-bright 2,000 nits high-refresh display? The phone is expected to hit Japanese shelves in June. No word on Canadian availability. [Twitter]
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