The huge popularity of hyper-mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, is giving a major boost to online advertising revenues, now that users are increasingly going online via mobile, rather than on desktop PCs – a platform that is symptomatically in decline.

It’s tempting to think smartwatches could borrow a term from current cellular telecoms – Long-Term Evolution (LTE). In terms of both solutions and applications, it’s a product category that is still basically undefined.

Now saddled with the gimmicky but meaningless name of “Wi-Fi”, Wireless LAN (WLAN) at the IEEE 802.11 standard has steadily extended and expanded its capabilities – adopting MIMO techniques to combat multipath, the breakup of signals within buildings, for example.

With AMD struggling for survival and PC sales continuing their decline, a China deal could give AMD a much needed shot in the arm. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) recently disclosed an agreed joint venture with China’s THATIC (Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co., Ltd.), an investment arm of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.  

Drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), to use the more technically favoured term, first hit the headlines as a military application, but commercial and consumer categories of ‘small drones’ have now come to prominence. Models targeted at consumers are now frequently seen on store shelves, and a significant ‘enthusiast’ following is now driving drone “first-person view” or FPV racing into sports media coverage. The website arstechnica.com reports that drone races are coming to ESPN thanks to “unprecedented” popularity, and the 2016 US National Drone Racing Championships will be the first event streamed live.

Graphene, isolated in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester, England, consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. It possesses some remarkable properties: it is the thinnest and strongest material yet made or discovered, and it is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity.

In late October 2015, the Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee of China’s Communist Party provided a broad preview or “proposal” of what would be contained in the 13th Five-Year Plan (13FYP) for 2016-2020, which was presented in its final form at the People’s National Congress in March 2016.

Action cameras, or simply ‘action cams’, are in the process of creating a mini revolution within the world of videography. We look at some market figures and analyse what the major players are up to in this fast-growth sector.

This is the second part of a two-part article that takes a look at some recent developments in the use of ultrasonics in plastics processing, where the technology can provide tantalizingly precise and cost-effective alternatives to more traditional welding, trimming and sealing techniques.