Rumors have been flying for some time now about what we can expect with Apple's redesigned "iPhone 8" sometime this year or in 2018, and one of the oft-reported features coming to the device is wireless charging. The latest news on the topic is that Apple is working with chip manufacturer Broadcom on a solution, according to JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur.
Four years after the launch of the original Raspberry Pi, the new Raspberry Pi 3 has appeared with several very important new features. This version of the device - the $35 computer, that is to say - comes with two essential features that've been relegated to accessories until now. Both Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi are now built-in with this Raspberry Pi 3, freeing up room for more ports for more projects and more freedom for the device on its own!
Looks like things are heating up at home. Apple's smart home, that is. Joining a relatively few number of companies, Broadcom has just announced that its WICED platform, which stands for Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices, has been certified to comply with Apple's stringent requirements for HomeKit compatibility. Now anyone who wants to get into the Internet of Things business will be able to easily integrate with Apple's devices. All they need is to make use of Broadcom's wireless chips and its WICED SDK.
Today we took the Raspberry Pi 2 out of the box and the static shielding bag to give it a first start-up and go. As you'd expect, loading software to an SD card is much the same as it was in the past - except here you're using a much smaller microSD card instead. After that, you've got a more powerful processor and 1GB of RAM to work, so it's time to get quick. Today we're checking in on the basics - getting an operating system running and heading to boot.
If you want the really fast internet speeds in the gigabit range, you may think you need to be in an area served by fiber optic service of one flavor or another. That may not be true this year with Comcast and Broadcom teaming up to roll out gigabit cable internet service in some parts of the country. Broadcom announced at CES 2015 that it has started to sample its first DOCSIS 3.1 chip.
The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) is really becoming a thing now that a consortium has been formed around it. The Open Interconnect Consortium is spearheaded by a literal few of the players in that nascent smart industry, like Samsung and Intel, but perhaps more interesting are the names that are not on the founders list.
![Wireless charging standards destroyed by Broadcom’s one chip [UPDATE]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/broad-820x420.png)
Broadcom is a company that creates chips for computers of all kinds, including smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices. This week they’ve decided to play a new hand in the wireless charging business by bringing on the "BCM59350 wireless power receiver chip." This chip allows whatever device its planted in to use any wireless charging pad it likes.
Apple is reportedly poaching Broadcom engineers as it develops its own baseband processors, the complex chips responsible for the wireless connectivity in iPhones and iPads, as the iOS company tries to take further control of the future of its hardware. Two high-profile hires this year, most recently former Broadcom principle engineer and chip lead Paul Chang, join a roughly 30-strong Apple team made up of ex-Broadcom and Qualcomm experts, insiders claim.
Android Wear aims to bring a Google revolution to wearables, and among them a variety of hardware partners are already lined up: Samsung, HTC, LG, ASUS, Motorola, and more. Among those, LG and Motorola have both already announced their upcoming entrants into the Android Wear market with two smartwatches: an LG G Watch and Moto 360 smartwatch.
Raspberry Pi has claimed itself an early birthday present today (technically it was launched on the 29th, but there's no such day this year), praising a newly announced move by Broadcom after hearing the long-lamented plight of developers: it has released the full source for its VideoCore IV graphics, opening it up to bug fixes and more. In light of this, Raspberry Pi is offering hefty monetary bounty in a competition.
Location-based services and contextual augmented-reality on your smartglasses is fun, but not if they drain power so fast you only get a couple of hours of use from them. Broadcom believes it has the answer with its new BCM4771 GNSS SoC, a super-low-power chip to add location and health tracking to wearables while cutting battery consumption by 75-percent compared to existing positioning chips. It's a system that not only should make fitness trackers and smartwatches run for longer, but open the door to true augmented-reality headsets.
Broadcom, a name one immediately associates with routers or networking components, is now trying to leave its mark in the automobile industry. With this new software stack for in-vehicle systems, the company hopes to become the go to guy for car makers who are planning to include Android integration into their next models.
