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Top Product Development Firm Reports Record-Breaking Year Helping Companies Develop AI-Powered and Connected Hardware

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OTTAWA, ON, Jan. 30, 2025 /CNW/ – How one of the largest end-to-end product development firms in North America accelerated go-to-market for 100+ physical products last year, from AI-powered medical diagnostics to sensor-enabled cobots and connected industrial equipment.

Last year, the product design and development experts at Design 1st helped 104 physical products across 12 industries go to market faster than ever. This record-breaking year included the full range of the product lifecycle, from launching 14 first-to-market products to redesigning legacy equipment with modern capabilities. These projects reflect the major trends shaping the future of physical products, including the rapid adoption of AI, edge computing, and wireless connectivity.

With over 25 years of experience helping clients design, develop, and engineer products, Design 1st knows that companies face mounting pressure to deliver smarter physical devices faster than ever. In 2024, Design 1st’s end-to-end product development expertise enabled its clients to seamlessly achieve the integration of physical products with customized intelligent electronics and software while outperforming competitors. Here are key insights from some of these breakthrough products from 2024, offered to help decision-makers confidently plan and execute their next product strategy.

Trends and Takeaways for 2025

The 100+ projects completed by Design 1st last year reveal the trends driving physical product innovation right now. Forging ahead in 2025, we see product businesses focusing on three key areas to stay competitive and meet evolving market demands:

AI-Driven Hardware: The AI revolution extends to hardware with the integration of AI thinking into all new electronic device designs. From medical diagnostics to collaborative robots, embedding AI at the edge enables smarter devices that reduce costs and improve hardware performance in real time.Seamless Connectivity: Today’s products require flawless communication across multiple protocols like Matter, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. Seamless connectivity in 2025 means meeting user expectations as well as passing critical certification requirements.Legacy Product Redesign: More and more every year, longstanding businesses understand the need to update proven products to meet modern demands, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge. From industrial diagnostic tools to consumer devices, product companies are adding new features and streamlining production without starting from scratch.

Client Success Highlights Smarter Development

A new infographic visualizes the scope of Design 1st’s work across various industries, showcasing the diversity of projects and breadth of innovation delivered in our record-breaking 2024.

But Design 1st’s year wasn’t just about the numbers—it was about delivering real results for clients at all stages of development. Here are a few examples of how our integrated design and engineering approach made the difference:

Collaborative Robotics with Swabbot: A complex “cobot” (collaborative robot) designed for industrial cleaning, Swabbot came to us requiring seamless integration of sensors, AI, and mechanical systems. Design 1st’s expertise ensured the product met stringent performance requirements while staying on schedule.A Dozen Projects in Reliable Wireless Connectivity: Smarter products need to operate flawlessly in demanding environments. Design 1st delivered reliable wireless connectivity for a dozen projects spanning consumer, medical, and industrial applications with multiple integrated protocols.Redesigning Mining Capabilities: A mining company tasked Design 1st with upgrading diagnostic equipment to include new sensors and edge computing capabilities. The result was a modernized product with enhanced functionality, reduced costs, and faster time to market.

These examples underscore why businesses—from startups to established enterprises—choose Design 1st: they need smarter solutions, faster timelines, and products that work right the first time.

Action Plan for Smarter Product Development in 2025

In this new year, businesses should take three key lessons from Design 1st’s proven approach:

Integrate early to eliminate silos. Fragmentation across multiple skill sets and development vendors creates delays and risks. Design 1st aligns industrial design, mechanical engineering, electronics, and embedded software from the outset, preventing costly missteps and ensuring a faster, more integrated, and more reliable path to market.Prioritize scalability to hit market timelines. In today’s competitive landscape, startups and SMBs need to hit tight timelines, whether for funding milestones or market entry. Our streamlined process eliminates inefficiencies, enabling clients to scale faster without compromising quality.Align technology trends with real-world functionality. The latest technologies—AI, edge computing, and connectivity—are only valuable when they solve real problems. The right expertise ensures products are not just innovative but practical, delivering measurable results for both businesses and users.

As businesses forge ahead in 2025, they know the need for smarter, faster product development has never been greater. Design 1st’s record-breaking year proves that integrating expertise across design, engineering, and software isn’t just a differentiator—it’s a necessity for delivering physical products that align with market trends and meet business needs.

For more on how our end-to-end approach helps companies reduce risks and shorten timelines while delivering innovative products, explore Design 1st’s portfolio. To learn how we can help accelerate your project, schedule a consultation today.

About Design 1st
Design 1st is one of North America’s most trusted full-service product design firms, with over 25 years of experience, 1,000 products developed, and 130 client patents secured. From startups to enterprises, Design 1st specializes in transforming ideas into commercialized hardware products, offering expertise in industrial design, mechanical engineering, electronics, embedded firmware, and manufacturing setup. Learn more at www.design1st.com.

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SOURCE Design 1st

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Pillsbury Notice of Data Breach

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NEW YORK, July 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP (“Pillsbury”) was among many law firms targeted by sophisticated social engineering attempts in an incident last year. While the firm quickly detected and blocked the activity, an unauthorized actor was able to access some of the firm’s documents during a short window of time. Pillsbury notified any impacted clients last year and undertook a detailed process to review the accessed documents for personal information. Pillsbury then began notifying individuals whose personal information was affected. That process is now complete, and today, Pillsbury is publishing substitute notice as a final step.

For more information, please visit the substitute notice on our website at https://www.pillsburylaw.com/en/breach-notice.html

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pillsbury-notice-of-data-breach-302828892.html

SOURCE Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

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From Remote Racing to Embodied AI: Fibocom and Intedigo Bring 5G Bidirectional Data Transmission into Real-World Applications

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SHANGHAI, July 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — From July 17 to 20, Fibocom and Intedigo will jointly present a cross-regional, beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) teleoperation demonstration at Booth H3-C408 during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2026. Visitors will be able to enter a remote driving cockpit and control a real race car located at HURA PARK in Jiading, Shanghai, steering, accelerating, and braking in real time while experiencing how 5G connectivity enables remote operation.

More than an immersive driving experience, the demonstration provides a live validation of 5G bidirectional data transmission for embodied AI teleoperation. The vehicle continuously sends live track video, vehicle status, and operating data to the remote cockpit, while control commands are transmitted back to the vehicle, creating a closed-loop teleoperation system. Stable, low-latency, and highly reliable connectivity is essential for high-dynamic maneuvers such as high-speed cornering, precision braking, and continuous lane changes.

Developed by Intedigo, the remote driving system connects a real race car with an immersive remote driving cockpit. It supports 1080p@60Hz video transmission, glass-to-glass (G2G) video latency of less than 80 ms, and control latency of less than 10 ms. The demanding racing environment magnifies differences in video continuity and control responsiveness, making communications performance directly perceptible, measurable, and verifiable.

At the joint demonstration, Fibocom’s FM160 5G module provides cellular connectivity for the system. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon™ X62 5G Modem-RF System, the FM160 supports SA and NSA network architectures as well as 3GPP Release 16. On the downlink, it supports NR Carrier Aggregation (NR CA) with bandwidth of up to 120 MHz, delivering peak speeds of up to 3.5 Gbps in NSA mode and 2.5 Gbps in SA mode. On the uplink, it supports UL MIMO and delivers peak speeds of up to 900 Mbps in SA mode. These capabilities support the continuous transmission of HD video and vehicle status data, along with reliable delivery of control commands.

As embodied AI moves into factories, data centers, logistics operations, and industrial parks, robots are becoming increasingly capable of performing tasks autonomously. Yet complex environments, unexpected events, and edge cases still require Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) remote intervention to help ensure safe and reliable operation.

Daniel Liu, CEO of Intedigo, said:

“5G represents the pinnacle of human communications and the starting point of machine communications. In the past, communications connected people to people; in the future, they will connect people to robots and robots to robots. Remote racing is simply the easiest entry point for people to understand this concept. What we are truly validating is a communications system capable of supporting remote collaboration for embodied AI. HURA makes low-latency remote driving a tangible experience, while RoBOX extends this capability to robots and a broader range of intelligent terminals. Together with Fibocom, we hope to enable more machines to receive remote assistance whenever needed while remaining continuously connected and operating reliably.”

Simon Tao, VP of Wireless Solutions Business Group and General Manager of MBB BU at Fibocom, said:

“As embodied AI enters real-world industrial environments, reliable connectivity will become the foundation for telemetry feedback, remote control and operational management. Fibocom’s 5G solutions, represented by FM160, provide the cellular connectivity required for continuous on-site data transmission and reliable control command delivery. Fibocom will continue collaborating with ecosystem partners such as Intedigo to bring cellular connectivity to more robots, autonomous machines and mobile intelligent terminals, enabling embodied AI systems to stay continuously connected and respond reliably in real-world applications.”

From remote race cars to robots, unmanned equipment, and mobile intelligent terminals, 5G is evolving from connecting people to connecting machines. This joint demonstration makes the capabilities of 5G bidirectional data transmission directly perceptible, experiential, and verifiable, helping pave the way for embodied AI to scale across real-world applications.
 

About Fibocom

Fibocom, founded in 1999, is China’s first wireless communication module company listed on both the A-share and H-share markets (300638.SZ, 0638.HK). As a global leading provider of wireless communication modules and AI solutions, Fibocom leverages wireless communication and artificial intelligence as its core technologies to provide integrated hardware and software solutions that empower industry applications. These solutions accelerate the transformation from “Connect Everything” to “Intelligent Connectivity” across diverse industries.

Fibocom’s one-stop solutions encompass cellular communication, AI, automotive, and GNSS modules, as well as AI toolchains, supporting industry-side and mainstream large model integration, and providing AI Agent, global connectivity, and cloud services, driving the digital intelligence upgrades in industries such as robotics, consumer electronics, low-altitude economy, intelligent transportation, smart retail, and smart energy.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/from-remote-racing-to-embodied-ai-fibocom-and-intedigo-bring-5g-bidirectional-data-transmission-into-real-world-applications-302828996.html

SOURCE Fibocom Wireless Inc.

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DR. PHONE FIX ANNOUNCES SECOND TRANCHE CLOSING OF NON-BROKERED CONVERTIBLE DEBENTURE UNIT FINANCING

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/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/

EDMONTON, AB, July 18, 2026 /CNW/ — Dr. Phone Fix Canada Corporation (“Dr. Phone Fix” or the “Company”) (TSXV: DPF) is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated May 19, 2026 and June 24, 2026 (the “Prior News Releases”), it has closed the second tranche of its non-brokered private placement (the “Offering”) of convertible debenture units of the Company (each, a “Unit”). The Company issued 726 Units, at a price of $1,000 per Unit, for aggregate gross proceeds of $726,000. Each Unit is comprised of (i) one $1,000 principal amount unsecured convertible debenture of the Company (a “Convertible Debenture”) and (ii) 3,125 common share (“Common Share”) purchase warrants of the Company (each, a “Warrant”). Additional detail on the Offering, including terms of the Convertible Debentures and Warrants, is set out in the Prior News Releases.

In connection with the Offering, the Company paid a finder’s fee consisting of an aggregate cash fee of $50,820 and issued an aggregate of 317,625 common share purchase warrants of the Company (each, a “Finder’s Warrant”) to certain qualified arm’s length parties. Each Finder’s Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Common Share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.22 prior to the date that is 24 months from the date of issuance.

All securities issued pursuant to the Offering, including any Common Shares issuable upon conversion of the Convertible Debentures or exercise of the Warrants and Finder’s Warrants, are subject to a statutory hold period of four months and one day from the closing of the Offering, in accordance with applicable securities laws and TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”) policies. 

The Offering remains subject to final acceptance of the TSXV.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described in this news release in the United States. Such securities have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act, or any state securities laws, and, accordingly, may not be offered or sold within the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of persons in the United States or “U.S. Persons”, as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act, unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from such registration requirements.

About Dr. Phone Fix

Dr. Phone Fix is a national, award-winning, eco-friendly, and customer-centric leader in Canada’s cell phone and electronics repair and certified pre-owned device industry. Founded in 2019, the Company now operates 44 retail locations nationwide through a standardized and scalable operating platform designed to support consistent execution across multiple markets, delivering fast, reliable, and environmentally conscious repair services alongside a curated selection of certified pre-owned devices and premium accessories. Dr. Phone Fix maintains strong partnerships with OEMs and certified suppliers, ensuring consistently high-quality standards across its national footprint. With a focus on responsible device lifecycle management, customer service, and operational discipline, Dr. Phone Fix continues to set the benchmark for device care and resale in Canada.

www.docphonefix.com

NEITHER THE TSXV NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSXV) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.

Forward-Looking Information and Cautionary Statements

Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as “may”, “should”, “anticipate”, “expect”, “potential”, “believe”, “intend” or the negative of these terms and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements relating to: the final acceptance of the Offering by the TSXV; and the expected use of proceeds following the closing of the Offering. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on certain assumptions and expected future events, namely: the Company’s financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events; the TSXV will provide its final acceptance of the Offering; and the Company will be able to obtain the financing required in order to develop and continue its business and operations. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements, including but not limited to: the Company’s inability to obtain TSXV final acceptance for the Offering; the potential failure to complete the balance of the Offering or to raise the full anticipated gross proceeds; market conditions and investor demand for the Company’s securities; the Company’s inability to deploy the proceeds as currently intended; and general economic and market conditions. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and reflect the Company’s expectations as of the date hereof and are subject to change thereafter. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

 

SOURCE Dr. Phone Fix

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