DECEMBER 17, 2018 – JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry, today announced the publication of an update to JESD235 High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) DRAM standard. HBM DRAM is used in Graphics, High Performance Computing, Server, Networking and Client applications where peak bandwidth, bandwidth per watt, and capacity per area are valued metrics to a solution’s success in the market. The standard was developed and updated with support from leading GPU and CPU developers to extend the system bandwidth growth curve beyond levels supported by traditional discrete packaged memory. JESD235B is available for download from the JEDEC website.

JEDEC standard JESD235B for HBM leverages Wide I/O and TSV technologies to support densities up to 24 GB per device at speeds up to 307 GB/s. This bandwidth is delivered across a 1024-bit wide device interface that is divided into 8 independent channels on each DRAM stack. The standard can support 2-high, 4-high, 8-high, and 12-high TSV stacks of DRAM at full bandwidth to allow systems flexibility on capacity requirements from 1 GB – 24 GB per stack.

This update extends the per pin bandwidth to 2.4 Gbps, adds a new footprint option to accommodate the 16 Gb-layer and 12-high configurations for higher density components, and updates the MISR polynomial options for these new configurations. Additional clarifications are provided throughout the document to address test features and compatibility across generations of HBM components.

GoPro, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) today announced that it plans to move most of its US-bound camera production out of China by the summer of 2019 to mitigate the potential impact of inclusion on any new tariff lists. International-bound camera production will remain in China.

"Today's geopolitical business environment requires agility, and we're proactively addressing tariff concerns by moving most of our US-bound camera production out of China," said Brian McGee, Executive Vice President and CFO of GoPro. "We believe this diversified approach to production can benefit our business regardless of tariff implications."

McGee added, "It's important to note that we own our own production equipment while our manufacturing partner provides the facilities, so we expect to make this move at a relatively low cost."

GoPro will be showcasing its HERO7 line of cameras, including the best-selling $399 HERO7 Black camera, at CES in Las Vegas from January 8 – 11, 2019.

Adobe Stock ‘s giveaway program rewards successful contributors and encourages you to take your work to the next level using Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps. You don’t have to apply to benefit from this offer. We will notify you if you qualify by sending a redemption code for Creative Cloud via email. There are two different software plans you can be awarded:

• To receive a 1- year subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan, be among the first 20,000 Adobe Stock Contributors to upload at least 300 accepted assets or earn $500 (USD) in royalties for the period Jan 1-Dec 31, 2018. To qualify, you must maintain at least a 50% acceptance rate of your submitted content.
• To receive a 1- year subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan, be among the first 2,000 Adobe Stock Contributors to upload at least 300 accepted video assets or earn $500 (USD) in royalties from videos for the period Jan 1- Dec 31, 2018. To qualify, you must maintain at least a 50% acceptance rate of your submitted content.

https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/creative-cloud-giveaway-FAQ.html

The 8K format will host a resolution of 7,680 by 4,320 pixels, which is 16 times as sharp as current HD TVs and offers resolutions of around 2MP. This is approximately the equivalent of a 32 megapixel photo. A new high-resolution tv format that is 16x sharper than today's HDTV has been approved. A new high-resolution tv format that is 16x sharper than today's HDTV has been approved.

Japanese broadcaster NHK has developed three cameras able to film in this Super Hi-Vision resolution at 120 frames per second.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19370582

• company filed for bankruptcy
• their CEO had some strange car accident after that he just left with nice compensation
• company shares are delisted from German stock exchange

For me it looks like big organized scam, perfectly executed with support (and may be sponsorship!) of all major photo media.

Legacy media files are compatible with macOS Mojave, but they won't be with future macOS releases. Legacy media can include footage recorded with cameras like Sony HDCAM-SR cameras, footage from GoPro cameras recorded in the CineForm format, video files in the Avid DNxHD/DNxHR format created with software, footage shot with many other older cameras, or files modified with older software.

While your Mac is running macOS High Sierra or macOS Mojave, follow the steps in this article to back up your Final Cut Pro libraries, and complete and update projects that contain legacy media.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT209000

As OS being ported to proprietary and closed ARM64 LSIs Apple need to drop support for most codecs as well as minimize support for existing and new codecs for their software.

Big move is expected to happen in next 2-3 years with most professionals abandoning Mac OS X ecosystem and Apple focusing on premium segment of the market with 3-4 waves of 20-35% price increases that will follow each 6 months.

• Exhibition topic - https://show.ibc.org/

• Our channel with much more detailed coverage - https://t.me/personal_view

Canon will have a few cinema and broadcast announcements ahead of the show.

Apple ProRes is a codec technology developed by Apple for high-quality, high-performance editing. It is one of the most popular codecs in professional post-production and is widely used for acquisition, production, delivery, and archive. Adobe has worked with Apple to provide ProRes export to post-production professionals using Premiere Pro and After Effects. Support for ProRes on macOS and Windows helps streamline video production and simplifies final output, including server-based remote rendering with Adobe Media Encoder.

The Photography Show returns to the NEC for its sixth year from 16-19 March 2019, alongside The Video Show.

Aimed at everyone from enthusiastic amateurs to seasoned professionals, The Photography Show puts the latest kit from the leading brands under the spotlight alongside demonstrations and inspirational talks and masterclasses from experts. There are also numerous opportunities for show visitors to practice skills and put the tech through its paces, whatever their age, gender or ability.

The Photography Show is endorsed by a number of key associations, including the Association of Photographers, the Master Photographers Association, the Royal Photographic Society, the British Institute of Professional Photography, the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain, The Societies and the Disabled Photographers' Society.

The GMAX4651 is a really unique addition to our GMAX series, outperforming existing CCD solutions on all performance levels,” commented Wim Wuyts, Chief Commercial Officer of Gpixel. “It combines the dual gain HDR used in our successful GSENSE sensors, with excellent global shutter pixel technology and unprecedented frame rates. All together this will set a new industry standard for high-end industrial inspection and the video industry

The accurate exposure is the key of capturing high-quality photos in computational photography, especially for mobile phones that are limited by sizes of camera modules. Inspired by luminosity masks usually applied by professional photographers, in this paper, we develop a novel algorithm for learning local exposures with deep reinforcement adversarial learning. To be specific, we segment an image into sub-images that can reflect variations of dynamic range exposures according to raw low-level features. Based on these sub-images, a local exposure for each sub-image is automatically learned by virtue of policy network sequentially while the reward of learning is globally designed for striking a balance of overall exposures. The aesthetic evaluation function is approximated by discriminator in generative adversarial networks. The reinforcement learning and the adversarial learning are trained collaboratively by asynchronous deterministic policy gradient and generative loss approximation. To further simply the algorithmic architecture, we also prove the feasibility of leveraging the discriminator as the value function. Further more, we employ each local exposure to retouch the raw input image respectively, thus delivering multiple retouched images under different exposures which are fused with exposure blending. The extensive experiments verify that our algorithms are superior to state-of-the-art methods in terms of quantitative accuracy and visual illustration.

Paper https://papers.nips.cc/paper/7484-deepexposure-learning-to-expose-photos-with-asynchronously-reinforced-adversarial-learning.pdf

Will post all details on weekend.

New stuff

• Official presentation of Panasonic L mount bodies
• New L mount lenses
• Cheaper Nikon mirrorless camera
• Photo oriented mirrorless canon FF camera
• New Canon lenses - RF 16-35mm f/2.8L, RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS and RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
• Few entry cheap DSLRs or one-two top DSLRs

https://ibv.vdma.org/documents/256550/27019077/2018-11-07_Stage2_0930_Photoneo.pdf/

Shipments and sales for 4K Ultra HDTVs continue to push higher in the critical fourth-quarter selling period, as average retail prices reach parity with older 1080p HDTV sets.

“This year, we’re expecting annual 4K UHD TV shipments to power past 100 million units,” said Tristan Veale, market analyst at Futuresource in latest market tracking study, “and the market will continue to grow with double-digit CAGR throughout our forecasting period to 2022".

“What’s more, high dynamic range – HDR – is beginning to make its presence felt and will be included in over half of all 4K UHD TVs sold worldwide in 2018, though consumer understanding remains limited,”

Specs

• 5K S35 sensor optimized for low-light performance
• 15.4 Megapixel Dual Sensitivity CMOS Sensor
• 30.72 mm x 18 mm (Diagonal: 35.61 mm)
• Seamless switching between Standard and Low Light modes
• 5K up to 96 fps Full Format
• 16.5 stops of DR
• 4K upto 30fps and 2K upto 120fps using ProRes or Avid
• Simultaneously record REDCODE plus ProRes or Avid
• Up to 275 MB/s write speeds
• Interchangeable lens mount

Collective action is underway in the United States, accusing the brand of having set up an illegal monopoly on the sale of mobile apps. Indeed, unlike Android where third-party app stores are allowed next to the Play Store, on iOS no application directory is allowed. This allows the firm to earn 30% commission on (almost) all transactions made via its platform. In 2017 the App Store generated almost 10 billion revenue for Apple. A situation that complainants denounce by explaining that "in a competitive environment" users would not necessarily have to pay so much. It is neither more nor less than the very structure of the software distribution on iOS that is questioned through this legal action.

https://www.lesnumeriques.com/telephone-portable/apple-recours-collectif-concernant-monopole-app-store-n81079.html

Destruction of both Apple Store and Play Store are necessary steps for both mobile OS universes.

We present a new algorithm for video coding, learned end-to-end for the low-latency mode. In this setting, our approach outperforms all existing video codecs across nearly the entire bitrate range. To our knowledge, this is the first ML-based method to do so.

We evaluate our approach on standard video compression test sets of varying resolutions, and benchmark against all mainstream commercial codecs, in the low-latency mode. On standard-definition videos, relative to our algorithm, HEVC/H.265, AVC/H.264 and VP9 typically produce codes up to 60% larger.

On high-definition 1080p videos, H.265 and VP9 typically produce codes up to 20% larger, and H.264 up to 35% larger. Furthermore, our approach does not suffer from blocking artifacts and pixelation, and thus produces videos that are more visually pleasing.

Via https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.06981

Due to transition to proprietary ARM64 multicore chips with integrated GPU Apple want to cut amount of authorized service centers and pair it with big service cost increase (to keep demand in balance). Idea here is to decrease number of different hardware going to service centers and especially try to hurt repairs of older hardware (to stop delivering parts). Apple is analyzing market looking for most profitable cuts.

Note - it is just unproved rumors from one of authorized repair guys (who is scared as hell to lose his work) :-)

Deutsche Messe restructures event portfolio: CEBIT Hannover to be cancelled. CEBIT’s industry-related topics will integrate into HANNOVER MESSE while also developing additional CEBIT topics into specialist events for decision-makers from vertical industries.

https://www.cebit.de/en/

Flickr’s free accounts now are limited to 1,000 photos and videos.

Prior to this change, Flickr users on the free plan were given 1 terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes, of free storage space at full resolution. Since 1 terabyte can hold 20,000 files weighing 50MB each (which is way more than most photos), this new limit of 1,000 files is clearly a downgrade for photo-happy Flickr photographers.

After February 5th, 2019, Flickr will begin deleting files that are over your 1,000 photo/video limit, starting from oldest to newest, until your account contains only 1,000 files.

Actually, service is performing suicide.

Service popularity is going down fast and we can see here exactly same actions Vimeo tried.

Owners want to trade long term survival for short term savings.

It is expected that service can hang next 10-12 month or so.

Amazon today announced that Cyber Monday was once again the single biggest shopping day in the company’s history with more products ordered worldwide than any other day. Additionally, the Turkey 5, those five popular shopping days starting with Thanksgiving and continuing through Cyber Monday, broke records as customers in the U.S. purchased millions more products over the five day period vs. the same period last year. In fact, Amazon customers worldwide ordered more than 18 million toys and more than 13 million fashion items on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, combined.

“Black Friday and Cyber Monday continue to break records on Amazon year over year, which tells us that customers love shopping for deals to kick off the holiday shopping season,” stated Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer. “With curated gift guides, convenient shopping experiences, incredible product selection, and free shipping with no minimum purchase amount, Amazon offers customers tremendous value—sure to deliver smiles all season long.”

Throughout the Turkey 5, Amazon.com customers ordered more than 180 million items.

And people again bough for their own money lot of spy devices:

• Biggest holiday shopping weekend ever for Echo devices, with millions sold worldwide—all-new Echo Dot was the #1 selling product on Amazon globally, from any manufacturer, in any category.
• The best-selling products across all categories on Amazon.com included all-new Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K with all-new Alexa Voice Remote, and Fire 7 tablet with Alexa.

• 3 x Kryo Gold cores with 2.419 GHz top speed, 256KB L2 cache per core
• 1 x Kryo Gold prime core with 2.842 GHz top speed, 512KB L2 cache
• 4 x Kryo Silver low-power cores with 1.786 GHz top speed, 128KB L2 cache per core

Some benchmarks

• Apple iPad Pro 12.9 w/Apple A12X Bionic – 18,217
• Apple iPhone XS w/Apple A12 Bionic – 11,472
• Apple iPhone X w/Apple A11 Bionic – 10,215
• Snapdragon 8150 – 10,084
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro w/Kirin 980 – 9,712
• Google Pixel 3 XL w/Snapdragon 845 – 8,088

Place - Makuhari Messe 2-1, Nakase, Mihama-ku, Chiba-City, Chiba Prefecture 261-0023, Japan

• Nov. 14th (Wed.) 10:00 AM - 5:30 PM
• Nov. 15th (Thu.) 10:00 AM - 5:30 PM
• Nov. 16th (Fri.) 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Site - https://www.inter-bee.com/en/about/outline/

Temporary bus service info - https://www.m-messe.co.jp/saved/files/news/33/40/607f31dd99112a5327dc99d6ec2e7ba5cb163340.pdf

Coverage by new PV Japan member - Takashi Nanjo

Inter BEE is an international exhibition that brings the latest innovations relating to the content business from Japan and overseas together under one roof as the greatest professional exhibition for audio, video and communications in Japan as backed up by our history and results.

Logitech has offered more than $2.2 billion to acquire Plantronics, one of the sources said. As of the end of trading on Friday, Plantronics had a market capitalization of about $2 billion.

If the negotiations prove successful, a deal between Logitech and Plantronics could come as early as next week, the sources said, cautioning that it was also possible that no agreement would be reached.

It fully matches with direction Logitech top management choose - making cheap plastic things with branding and top margins. I am not even talking about bad switches quality in all of their mice.

Most fun thing is that they fully ignored and not picked up division of Gibson that had been axed - former Philips Fidelio line engineers and designers. At least this guys really cared about stuff they do.

November 20, 2018 TOKYO - Nikon Corporation (Nikon) is pleased to announce that the total production of NIKKOR lenses for Nikon interchangeable lens cameras has reached 110 million* as of October, 2018.

By providing NIKKOR F lenses for SLR cameras, produced since 1959, as well as NIKKOR Z lenses for mirrorless cameras, newly introduced in 2018, Nikon continues to further enrich the NIKKOR lens lineup.

Nikon will continue to lead imaging culture by providing products that stimulate the creative intent of photographers around the world, while responding to the latest advances in imaging technologies.

Total number of interchangeable lenses for SLR and mirrorless cameras produced by Nikon.

The NIKKOR brand

NIKKOR is Nikon's brand of photographic lenses. The NIKKOR name arose from taking "Nikko", the Romanized abbreviation for Nippon Kogaku K.K., Nikon's original name from when the company was first established, and adding "r" — a common practice in the naming of photographic lenses at the time. The NIKKOR trademark was registered in 1932, and in 1933, the large-format lens for aerial photography was introduced with the name Aero-Nikkor.

In 1959, Nikon released the Nikon F SLR camera, as well as the first NIKKOR lenses for Nikon SLR cameras, including the NIKKOR-S Auto 5cm f/2.

Currently, Nikon offers NIKKOR F lenses for digital SLR cameras, and NIKKOR Z lenses for mirrorless cameras. The total lineup currently consists of approximately 100 types of lenses that support a wide variety of applications, including fixed focal length (prime) lenses and zoom lenses that cover ultra-wide-angle to super-telephoto angles of view, fisheye lenses, and Micro lenses.

NIKKOR F lenses, since their initial introduction in 1959, have throughout their legacy of more than half a century incorporated the cutting-edge technologies of the time, for features such as aperture control, autofocus, and vibration reduction (VR). NIKKOR Z lenses are designed for Nikon mirrorless cameras for which a new, larger-diameter mount has been adopted. Further possibilities in lens design have been unlocked with the adoption of this new mount, greatly increasing capabilities in optical performance. This has allowed us to offer a variety of high-performance lenses, including the fastest lens in Nikon history*, with f/0.95.

From the initial design and development to the production and final inspection, the entire process leading to the release of a NIKKOR lens is managed in accordance with Nikon's own strict quality standards, ensuring every NIKKOR lens is of the highest quality.

This include their smartphones, notebooks, smart TV boxes, TVs, Aqara smart home products, Yeelight led lights, action cameras etc.

Especially huge rise in popularity is in EU for marketplaces and sellers who have EU warehouses.

Situation with Apple products on Asia markets is very bad with sales plummeting last two months including big issues with new phones and computers. This also helps Xiaomi as lot, as people become more rational with recent Apple price rises and preferXiaomi much better smartphones to old iPhone models.

SEAS researchers have developed a so-called metacorrector, a single-layer surface of nanostructures that can correct chromatic aberrations across the visible spectrum and can be incorporated into commercial optical systems, from simple lenses to high-end microscopes. The metacorrector eliminated chromatic aberrations in a commercial lens across the entire visible light spectrum. The device also works for the super-complex objectives with as many as 14 conventional lenses, used in high-resolution microscopes.

https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2018/11/meta-surface-corrects-for-chromatic-aberrations-across-all-kinds-of-lenses