US based Noble is happy to announce the latest addition to its wide range of high-end true wireless earbuds. Introducing the FoKus Rex5 hybrid five-driver TWS with Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), Noble's most advanced product to date and first collaboration with Audiodo's sound personalisation software.

Boasting a hybrid five driver configuration consisting of 1x dynamic, 1x planar, and 3x balanced armature drivers - the FoKus Rex5 has been under development for some time now, and the final result is a feature rich TWS implementing new technology rarely seen in the competition. The Noble FoKus Rex5 will be available to pre-order on 26th November and shipping on 29th November from selected retailers worldwide for $449/£419/€499.

We know that out of our Framework Laptop 16 Deep Dive series, this is some of the information you're most eager to hear. We read every Framework Laptop review, browse the Community and subreddit, and run regular post-purchase feedback surveys to learn what you want, and we use that to inform how we build products. Some of the most frequent asks on the Framework Laptop 13 were around improving speaker loudness and extending battery life, both of which we've delivered on this year. With the increased space we have inside the Framework Laptop 16, we advanced these areas even further, with a new high capacity 85Wh battery and excellent quad speakers powered by a smart amp.

We custom designed both the battery pack and cell, working with ATL, one of the biggest battery makers in the world and the maker of the 55Wh and 61Wh packs for Framework Laptop 13. The pack has a 4S1P architecture, meaning there are four lithium ion cells placed in series to reach the 15.48 V nominal pack voltage. A major improvement we've made based on feedback from the Framework Laptop 13 is on the battery connector. A connector on a short cable was one of the more finicky parts to handle, so we've switched to an integrated blade-type connector that makes battery swaps much easier. Finally, we've made sure that the battery has a long usage lifetime, supporting 80% capacity typically after 1,000 cycles.

One of the biggest issues with TWS and any other kind of wireless headphones for that matter, is limited support for various audio codecs, where many rely on the not so great SBC codec or AAC, simply because these are two codes that are supported by most of the devices that the headphones would be connected to. When it comes to smartphones, Qualcomm is by far the biggest chipset provider and as it happens, Qualcomm is also the owner of the various aptX audio codecs that many headphones support. Up until very recently, the phone makers had to pay a royalty fee to include support for the aptX codecs even if they used Qualcomm's chips in their phones and thus some companies—Samsung for example—decided not to include support for aptX.

Now it has come to light that just like Sony with its LDAC codec, Qualcomm has decided to add support for aptX to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which means all Android devices can support aptX as well as aptX HD without paying any royalty fees. However, more advanced versions of aptX, such as aptX Adaptive and the rarely used low latency version of aptX are not included. That said, headphone makers will still have to pay a royalty fee to Qualcomm, although there doesn't appear to be any headphones on the market that support aptX that aren't based on a Qualcomm or one of the older CSR chipsets from the time before Qualcomm acquired them. On the other hand, Sony's LDAC codec is used by a wide range of headphones, of which none rely on a Sony chipset. Regardless, this should be good news for consumers, who will be the ones reaping the benefits from this change in the long term.

In April 2021, the Vulkan Working Group at Khronos released a set of provisional extensions, collectively called "Vulkan Video," for seamlessly integrating hardware-accelerated video compression and decompression into the Vulkan API. Today, Khronos is releasing finalized extensions that incorporate industry feedback and expose core and decode Vulkan Video functionality to provide fully accelerated H.264 and H.265 decode.

Khronos will release an ongoing series of Vulkan Video extensions to enable additional codecs and accelerated encode as well as decode. This blog is a general overview of the Vulkan Video architecture and also provides details about the finalized extensions and links to important resources to help you create your first Vulkan Video applications.

MPEG LA, LLC today announced measures to bring its pool license for Versatile Video Coding, or VVC (introduced to the market on January 27, 2022), into conformity with market realities that will free implementers to invest in VVC adoption. First, a waiver of royalties for standalone (not in or with hardware) VVC software products Sold (with or without compensation or consideration) to an End User is available to any VVC Licensee that commits to becoming a Licensor to MPEG LA's VVC License if they or their Affiliates presently or in the future have the right to license or sublicense VVC Essential Patents. Products to which the waiver applies will still benefit from coverage as licensed products under the VVC License.

Second, a 25% VVC royalty discount is available to any VVC Licensee that enters into and is compliant with MPEG LA's AVC Patent Portfolio License, HEVC Patent Portfolio License and VVC Patent Portfolio License.

From 2020 to 2025, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12-inch equivalent wafer capacity at the world's top ten foundries will be approximately 10% with the majority of these companies focusing on 12-inch capacity expansion, which will see a CAGR of approximately 13.2%, according to TrendForce's research. In terms of 8-inch wafers, due to factors such as difficult to obtain equipment and whether capacity expansion is cost-effective, most fabs can only expand production slightly by means of capacity optimization, equating to a CAGR of only 3.3%. In terms of demand, the products primarily derived from 8-inch wafers, PMIC and Power Discrete, are driven by demand for electric vehicles, 5G smartphones, and servers. Stocking momentum has not fallen off, resulting in a serious shortage of 8-inch wafer production capacity that has festered since 2H19. Therefore, in order to mitigate competition for 8-inch capacity, a trend of shifting certain products to 12-inch production has gradually emerged. However, if shortages in overall 8-inch capacity is to be effectively alleviated, it is still necessary to wait for a large number of mainstream products to migrate to 12-inch production. The timeframe for this migration is estimated to be close to 2H23 into 2024.

Access Advance today announced that twenty-eight (28) companies, which together are estimated to account for a substantial percentage of the expected VVC standard essential patent ("SEP") landscape, have joined as Licensors of the VVC Advance Patent Pool. VVC ("Versatile Video Coding") is the next generation video codec standard finalized less than eighteen (18) months ago, which provides significant improvements in video compression of up to 50% over HEVC, enabling a new generation of products, ever more beautiful video, faster downloads, lower latency, and improved savings on storage.

"This is a tremendous endorsement of the VVC Advance Patent Pool and our Video Codec Platform Initiative, and we thank each of the patent owners that have placed their trust in Access Advance to license their VVC SEP patent assets," stated Pete Moller, CEO of Access Advance. "Launching a patent pool for a ground-breaking technology like VVC is a long and multi-stage process. We worked with over fifty (50) patent owners for well over 18 months to establish the structure of the program and launched the VVC Advance Patent Pool on schedule July 1, 2021. We are excited that a significant majority of these patent owners have now officially joined the program as Licensors. These Licensors provide a critical mass of VVC SEPs, and an important assurance to the market that VVC Advance, just like HEVC Advance, will provide long-term value through a balanced and successful program."
"We look forward to working with the remaining patent owners who are still going through their decision-making process and expect that many of them will make the decision to join VVC Advance over the next six (6) months," continued Mr. Moller. "There are significant incentives for patent owners and patent implementers who join the program by June 30, 2022. These include bonus patent points for Licensors, and very significant early signing cap incentives for Licensees."

Fraunhofer HHI today revealed their latest video compression standard H.266/Versatile Video Codec (VVC), which is set to eventually replace the current H.265/HEVC standard. The new standard was developed by Fraunhofer HHI in partnership with industry partners including Apple, Ericsson, Intel, Huawei, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Sony. The standard follows previous iterations promising a 50% reduction in bit-rate while maintaining the same quality.

Fraunhofer HHI claims that the new standard will play a major role in video transmission and storage however it is unknown if companies and consumers will adopt the standard. HEVC was released back in 2013 but is only now seven years later starting to see significant support, Fraunhofer plans to release the first software encoder/decoder this spring while hardware chips will likely take much longer. The major streaming giants such as Google and Netflix will likely determine when or if the standard becomes mainstream.

MediaTek has announced it will enable YouTube video streams using the cutting-edge AV1 video codec on the MediaTek Dimensity 1000 5G SoC. The MediaTek Dimensity 1000 is the world's first smartphone SoC to integrate an AV1 hardware video decoder, enabling it to play back AV1 video streams up to 4K resolution at 60 fps. With its improved compression efficiency, AV1 gives users incredible visual quality and smoother video experiences, while using less data.

Video streaming is the number one activity in smartphone use, so by using the Dimensity 1000's more power efficient hardware-based AV1 video decoder, users can enjoy longer battery life while still streaming at the best quality settings. Combined with its ultra-fast 5G connectivity in a single chip, the Dimensity 1000 leads the industry in design and capability.

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA ) today formally introduced the VESA Display Compression-M (VDC-M) standard, a new display interface compression standard designed for embedded mobile display applications, including smart phones and other hand-held devices. Developed in collaboration with the MIPI Alliance, VDC-M provides a higher level of compression ratio (up to 5:1) at the same visually lossless quality level as VESA's Display Stream Compression (DSC) standard (which offers up to 3:1 compression), with the trade-off of higher circuit complexity. VDC-M is the third compression standard in VESA's family of compression codecs, which include DSC 1.1 (introduced in 2014) and DSC 1.2 (introduced in 2017).

"VESA was a pioneer in the area of low-latency data compression specifically targeting the display interface," according to Bill Lempesis, executive director of VESA. "The initial application for VESA's effort in this area was the Embedded DisplayPort Standard (eDP) and MIPI DSI, both which currently use DSC 1.1, with the specific intent to increase battery life and reduce form factor. The success of this spearheaded our effort on DSC 1.2 for external displays, primarily focusing on increasing display resolution. Working again with MIPI through their liaison with VESA, we returned our focus on mobile displays with VDC-M, developing a display compression standard more optimized for smaller mobile devices such as smart phones."

Consumers' video expectations are being shaped by the brilliant images promised by 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) video and beyond. However, the technical-based hurdles and data demands of higher quality video mean that the majority of users only have access to full HD or lower video technology. For nearly three years, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) has been working in lock-step with its members, the world's best-known leaders in video, to develop a better quality internet video technology that benefits all consumers. Today, the Alliance is proud to announce the public release of the AOMedia Video Codec 1.0 (AV1) specification, which delivers cross-platform, 4K UHD or higher online video, royalty-free - all while lowering data usage.

Whether watching live sports, video chatting with loved ones, or binging on a favorite show, online video is becoming a bigger part of consumers' daily lives. In fact, video is so important to users that by 2021, 82 percent of all the world's internet traffic will be video, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index , 2016-2021. To remove many of the hurdles required by older, optical disc-era, video technologies, AOMedia developed AV1 specifically for the internet video-era, paving the way for companies to make more of the royalty-free, 4K UHD and higher video devices, products, and services that consumers love.

Synaptics Incorporated, the leading developer of human interface solutions, today announced its AudioSmart CX21988-THX is the industry's first USB-C audio codec solution to achieve THX Approval. By offering a THX Approved USB-C audio codec, Synaptics can supply OEMs with an important building block that affords a significant head start in the development of THX Certified headphones and headsets, mobile gaming devices and other personal audio devices. THX, founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1983, is a globally recognized assurance of uncompromising quality, consistency and performance.

"The key to developing a great sounding set of headphones, especially ones capable of accurately reproducing the engineered sound field of a mix, is utilizing a winning combination of professional-grade components," said Peter Vasay, Senior Vice President, Technology and Operations, THX. "The Synaptics AudioSmart CX21988-THX USB-C codec impressed us, as it supports high-resolution audio with best-in-class headphone performance, and boasts ultra-low distortion, and tuning options to greatly improve the performance of connected transducers. We believe it to be the ideal foundation for the development of THX Certified headphones."