Business Articles

Millions of people search for news on Google or Facebook; therefore, those tech behemoths should pay media outlets for their content. At least, this is the Australian government's position in a dispute with the companies in question. Google has responded by threatening to deprive the country of its Search service.

A lot of Intel’s hopes for 2021 are pinned on Tiger Lake-H. After all, Intel has to put something up against the Ryzen 5000 CPUs. The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 comes with only a Tiger Lake-UP3 chip. However, it can draw up to 35 watts of power for a significant period of time, showing the world what a Tiger Lake chip can achieve with such a high TDP.

Lenovo's ThinkPad L13 Gen 2 is a well-made ultrabook with up-to-date hardware and a first-class keyboard.

As TSMC pushes ahead with their plans for 3nm FinFET lithography, Samsung's reportedly investing over US$10 billion in an Austin, TX facility to take their own 3nm manufacturing strategy forward.

The days of LCD-only iPhones are numbered; however, a handful of these models are still in production. However, it now seems they will have to do without screens from LG for the rest of their manufacturing runs. The company has dropped Apple as a customer for mobile LCD panels, leaving it scrambling for other suppliers to complete new SE (2020) units.

The Vingroup has reputedly offered to buy LG's smartphone business, with LG retaining control over the designs and R&D of future smartphones. However, the company is considering cancelling the Rollable, which is thought to be its second Explorer Project smartphone.

Sony is on the verge of releasing the Xperia PRO, according to the publication of firmware for the device in the US. Sony announced the smartphone eleven months ago with HDMI, 5G mmWave and 5G Sub-6 connectivity, and a Snapdragon 865 chipset. The Xperia PRO will probably only be available in the US, though.

Philips and its partner MMD have presented a 28-inch and 4K monitor. The 288E2UAE offers decent colour accuracy, a USB 3.2 four-port hub and an adjustable stand.

A Chinese news outlet has recently broken the story that OPPO and OnePlus - two heretofore independent brands under the BBK Electronics umbrella - will "merge" their research and development efforts. This leak, which might mean the 2 OEMs start producing much more similar products soon, has been confirmed to some extent by OnePlus.

Shuttle's latest mini-PC has a 1.35 litre case, but it can still accommodate 65 W Socket AM4 processors. The XPC DA320 has dual-channel SODIMM RAM too and can power three displays at 4K.

It has not been long since NVIDIA proclaimed that crypto miners were not a driving force behind stock shortages of the new GeForce RTX 30 series. However, it seems that MSI plans to launch GPU-mini specific cards under a MINER sub-brand. Currently, only MINER versions of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti have been certified with the EEC in Russia.

Samsung has announced the latest in its EVO series of SSDs. The OEM is pitching the 870 at users with network-attached servers (NASs) as well as consumer PCs. It is rated for top SATA read and write speeds and for 30% performance improvements over its predecessor.

LG is considering exiting the smartphone business despite teasing new devices as recently as CES 2021 last week. The company’s CEO Kwon Bong-seok has informed staff that all options are currently on the table including exiting the market, a potential sale or downsizing.

Users who don't update might get a fancy 10th gen Xeon or Core i9 CPU running slower than a cheaper 9th gen Core i7-9750H. Luckily, all it takes is a quick download from HP to fix the issue.

You can't call something "the best laptop in show" when you never actually went hands-on with any of them. These "awards" for CES 2021 are nothing more than lists and opinions based entirely off of manufacturer pictures and videos rather than the editors' hands-on experiences that they are supposed to represent.

The first Galaxy S21 disassembly video has arrived on YouTube, courtesy of the channel P3K. It suggests that repairing this base-model smartphone might not be too difficult, even though Samsung makes it look that way with its new rear panel. The device's thermal management system is also on show in this post.

The X60 Pro+ is a Snapdragon 888-powered variant of Vivo's latest flagship smartphone series. The OEM has confirmed that it will debut tomorrow (January 21, 2021) in China. A tech blog in the same country now claims that its first-ever tablet might be unveiled alongside it.

Apple's TV+ is its answer to other streaming platforms such as Netflix. One year's worth of free access to the service was bundled with compatible hardware bought at its September 2019 launch. That offer was then extended so as to end in February 2021 - however, the OEM has now prolonged it again until July.

The High Court of Seoul, South Korea has sentenced Lee Jae-yong, who had held a key role at the electronics giant Samsung, to 2.5 years in jail. The court has ruled that the executive has been involved in leveraging political influence to lock down power within the company. Its decision will reportedly be appealed at a later date.

The OPPO Band is a 2020 fitness tracker with a blood-oxygen sensor that launched in China for about US$31. Now, it has reportedly acquired an EEC certification, which suggests that it may go on sale in Russia soon. Therefore, this could this be the first of further global releases for the device.

Not many rugged phones come in main colors other than black or have horizontally-oriented quad rear cameras. However, the F150 B2021 offers both. Its OEM has set it at a regular price of US200; however, it is down to $110 for its debut on Banggood or AliExpress.

Following the release of the Samsung Galaxy S21 release, information about the phones' hardware has now been revealed, detailing camera models and other important bits, with one notable takeaway being the incremental nature of the S21 and S21+.

AV1 is a video codec rated to enhance file compression compared to its current alternatives. Google has become its a major proponent, to the extent that it is now reportedly insisting that manufacturers need to have it enabled in devices with compatible SoCs if they want to use the Android 10 for TV interface.

WhatsApp has taken to social media channels to try to allay deep concerns that users have been voicing about data sharing and privacy. The company has decided to extend the deadline for its terms update acceptance from February 8 to May 15. However, millions have already decided to move to rival messenger services such as Signal and Telegram.

Realme is a brand that has built its appeal on affordable mobile and personal audio devices. Initial leaks suggest it is going to keep this going in 2021 with the launch of the C21 smartphone and the Buds Wireless 2 Neo. They are slated to be the successor to the cost-effective C11 and to be neckbuds rather than TWS earbuds respectively.

The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling game console in the USA, Japan, UK, and Australia in 2020. With the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S only arriving at the end of the year and then suffering from severe supply issues, sales of the Nintendo Switch ended on a high in December. Switch devices grabbed 87% of console sales in Japan in 2020.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra launched with a new 108MP main shooter, even though the OEM did not introduce it by name exactly during the show. However, it is apparent that it is called the ISOCELL HM3, the first of its kind to debut with nine-pixel binning and a 0.8 micron pixel size. Samsung asserts that it can enhance dynamic range, clarity and detail compared to its predecessors.

The new LG UltraWide 40WP95C is a monster of a monitor, with a 40-inch curved screen that operates natively at 5K. The nano IPS panel has a 21:9 aspect ratio, covers 98% of the DCI-P3 colour space and offers a peak refresh rate of 72 Hz. The 40WP95C supports Thunderbolt 4, too.

Escobar Inc has gone dark, just two months after it claimed to be suing Klarna for withholding funds from its smartphone sales. The company may be planning to release another device, but it has removed practically all evidence that it ever sold skinned smartphones produced by legitimate companies.

With Bob Swan gone, new Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has set out a bold aim for the chipmaker ahead of the beginning of his reign next month. Apparently, he wants Intel to build better chips than the Apple M1, which has impressed with its custom ARM cores' performance. Naturally, Gelsinger belittled Apple as a 'lifestyle company in Cupertino'.

The iQOO 7 is the world's second Snapdragon 888-based phone in the world, although it is only available to order in China at present. These sales kicked off today (January 15, 2021), an event its OEM now claims made it 200 million yuan (~US$30.86 million). Its new OS update also upgrades its touch-sampling rate to no less than 1000Hz.

A recent video from WindowsCentral's YouTube channel purports to demo the Windows 10X interface. The latest word on this version of the OS is that it will first arrive on devices that are single-screen, touchscreen-oriented or both. Its new leak seems to bear that impression out in detail.

Without warning, the US government has now slammed Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi with an American investment ban supposedly due to ties with the Chinese military. Xiaomi, in return, refutes those claims but that's unlikely to count for much.

An AMD EPYC 7543 server processor from the Zen 3-based Milan family has been unearthed on Geekbench where it amassed a huge multi-core score of 25,909 points with the help of its 32 cores. This result places the EPYC 7543 at a similar level as the average result for the 64-core monster that is the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X.

Eve has delayed the release of its Spectrum monitors in what is the least shocking news of 2021, and probably 2020. The company had originally planned to begin shipping its latest product on February 26, but now will not until April 20 at the earliest. The 144 Hz QHD model will not arrive until the 'end of Q2', too.

After launching the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra today, Samsung has also opened its trade-in program for the series. It's pretty good, actually, with Galaxy S10 series owners being able to trade in their phones for a massive US$550, for example.

HP introduces some of the first business laptops powered by AMD's Ryzen Pro 5000 APUs. The new EliteBook 805 G8 series comes with lightweight chassis and three sizes to choose from, including 13.3-inch, 14-inch and 15.6-inch. These models can be equipped with up to 64 GB of RAM and up to 2 TB NVMe SSD storage, plus quite a few display options.

CDPR CEO Marcin Iwiński has apologised to fans for the ongoing mess of Cyberpunk 2077. Iwiński has shared insights into the launch of the company's latest game and an update roadmap for Cyberpunk 2077 throughout 2021. The first patch is due this month, with another patch and free DLC to follow later this year. Iwiński has teased the arrival of the update for next-generation consoles, too.

The LG UltraFine OLED Pro 32EP950 may be intended for professional users, but it is also the first device with a 32-inch, 4K, and OLED screen. The 32EP950 promises exceptional colour accuracy with over 99% coverage of the AdobeRGB and DCI-P3 colour spaces.

Asus has upgraded its ultralight ExpertBook B9 line of business laptops. The new ExpertBook B9450CEA features Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake Core i7 CPUs, Intel vPro, and are Intel Evo certified.

Asus is clearly pitching its new ExpertCenter D700 and D500 machines at the IT professionals who would maintain them as well as the employers that would buy them. Their cases can go down to 9 liters (L) in size, and are made to US MIL-STD-810G durability standards. Furthermore, they have a tool-less design and have legacy serial and parallel ports.

Asus announced two new ProArt displays, one of which is a portable 14-inch touchscreen monitor. This little display also has hotkeys and a physical dial for use with Adobe software. Asus also released a 15.6-inch portable monitor for business users.

The new ChromeBook CX9 and Flip CX5 models from Asus powered by the latest Intel Tiger Lake-U CPUs show that the Chrome OS laptops can easily match the performance of the traditionally more powerful Windows-based systems. The new premium-grade CX9 business laptop comes with enhanced security features and two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, while the Flip CX5 focuses on an expanded cloud-connected gaming experience.

Both powered by 11th gen Intel Core processors with Irix Xe graphics, the Asus ExpertBook B1400 and B1500 feature up to 48 GB of memory, optional NVIDIA dedicated graphics, dual storage combinations that can provide up to 1 TB SSD + 2 TB HDD of space, as well as multiple connectivity options, and much more.

Qualcomm has revealed that it has bought the CPU-design team NUVIA for approximately US$1.4 billion. The OEM asserts that the move will make it more competitive in the future, and will enhance the development of Snapdragon mobile chipsets, as well as platforms for AI-powered vehicles, XR and infrastructure. Its hardware partners, including Microsoft and Samsung, have welcomed the acquisition.