LG has released a new version of its utility for owners of the company's UltraFine displays for High Sierra, bringing improvements to USB connectivity, the built-in web camera, and the integrated speakers.
Following revelations that Samsung could be the sole supplier of OLED displays for a next-generation "iPhone 8" handset, a report late Wednesday reaffirms previous claims that Apple's effort to diversify its supply chain with panels from LG is unlikely to bear fruit before 2019.
With rumors swirling about an Apple investment in LG Displays to crank out OLED screens, an analyst report suggests that the iPhone maker is seeking to make LG a secondary supplier of iPhone screens in 2019 and 2020 to cut back on the need for Samsung screens.
In an effort to expand availability of OLED displays for future iPhones, Apple has reportedly sunk 3 trillion won, or $2.7 billion U.S., into partner LG's manufacturing capabilities.
LG blamed a "challenging quarter for mobiles" for the $117.27 million quarterly loss posted by its mobile unit, even as the company posted slightly higher year-over-year revenues across its other businesses. Samsung similarly reported strong overall earnings—primarily from its semiconductor segment—while its mobile unit turned in revenues and profits better than last year but still below its Galaxy heyday back in 2014.
LG has announced that it will pour more than half of its capital expenditure budget into manufacturing plants to increase production of large panels suitable for televisions, as well as small ones for devices like the forthcoming "iPhone 8."
Apple appears to be widening supply options for future OLED screen deliveries, with multiple media reports claiming that it is on the cusp of a deal with LG to expand manufacturing capacity.
LG Innotek is in the process of setting up flexible printed circuit board (PCB) production, with the goal of becoming a primary supplier for the Apple iPhone, according to a report out of LG's home country, South Korea.
In yet another likely reason that external graphics card support for Mac will not exit beta until 2018, there are not any external monitors currently on the market, compatible with macOS High Sierra's eGPU feature, that match the pixel density of Apple's own Retina displays.
Six months after it launched, how does LG's UltraFine 5K Thunderbolt 3 display hold up? AppleInsider revisits the premium monitor intended for Apple's USB-C MacBook Pros in this video review.
With LG Innotek's new Apple-specific facility pegged as the supplier for the front-facing cameras on the "iPhone 8," speculation has turned to what exactly is mounted to facilitate the rumored facial recognition feature said to be in the device.
LG Innotek is supplying facial recognition camera modules for Apple's "iPhone 8," according to reports out of South Korea, using a new facility dedicated to Apple products.
Later this year, Apple is expected to begin production of its advanced new power-efficient display technology known as micro-LED, which is expected to initially be used to replace OLED in Apple Watch Series 3. The shift is part of a series of moves that is concerning Samsung, LG and other South Korean suppliers.
Apple's lead in mobile performance—powered by the efficiency of iOS 10 and the computational speed of its custom A10 Fusion Application Processor—beats the newest, leading premium Androids in a wide range of tests from processor and 3D benchmarks to real-world device startup and app launching and multitasking. Not even 6GB of RAM and the extra cores of Qualcomm's fastest Snapdragon 835 can prop up the laggard, inefficient Android OS.
In an apparent bid to diversify its supply chain and reduce reliance on rival Samsung, Apple is said to be pushing LG Display to enter the small- to medium-sized OLED business, potentially in time for a 2018 iPhone update.
While Apple and the iPhone ranked first in a survey of U.S. customer satisfaction with smartphones, the company's chief rival — Samsung — came second by only the slimmest of margins, according to a J.D. Power report published on Thursday.
Continued testing of the LG UltraFine 5K displays has discovered that while the new monitors are very slightly sensitive to high-powered RF emissions like from a very close cell tower or military radar like any monitor, the interference problems are rectified, with older monitors retrofitted by authorized third parties even less sensitive to the same emissions.
A multitude of reports claim that a LG UltraFine 5K order placed as recently as a week ago will be shipped much earlier than expected, with some people expecting the order as soon as this afternoon.
The LG UltraFine 5K display is beginning its slow march back to availability, with shipments of the improved model leaving Apple warehouses on March 7 — but some users with the monitor now are still hitting roadblocks in trying to get the situation rectified.
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Mike Wuerthele
Mikey Campbell
Neil Hughes
Daniel Eran Dilger
Roger Fingas
AppleInsider Staff
