Business Articles

Smart thermostats play an increasingly important role in home energy use these days. (Source: eBay)

New research finds nearly 30% of US high-speed internet households would buy a smart thermostat

Thermostats are just another household items that have been made smart over the last number of years. They have developed to the point that they can implement automatic usage plans, including those remotely set or sent by an energ...

Deirdre O Donnell, 05 Feb 2020 22:14

Ricoh announces the WG-70, a new rugged camera with a "microscope" function

Ricoh - which currently markets the cameras formerly known under the PENTAX brand - has launched a new camera with a durable, waterproof casing. The WG-70 also has a "digital microscope mode", which enables effective close-ups tha...

Deirdre O Donnell, 05 Feb 2020 21:34

An up-to-date Galaxy Home Mini render. (Source: TizenHelp)

Samsung reportedly sows confusion over the Galaxy Home Mini and its launch date

Samsung has been linked to an upcoming budget smart speaker since 2018. More recent reports appear to confirm that this device will be called the Galaxy Home Mini and that it would launch on February 12, 2020. An even newer leak a...

Deirdre O Donnell, 05 Feb 2020 19:08

Disney+ hits over 28.6 million subscribers

Disney+, Disney's incredibly popular streaming service, now boasts over 28.6 million paid subscribers. Other streaming services offered by Disney, including ESPN+ and Hulu, also saw impressive year-over-year growth.

Sam Medley, 05 Feb 2020 14:53

Samsung has new 16GB HBM2E memory. (Source: Samsung)

Samsung debuts Flashbolt, its latest and highest-capacity generation of HBM2E memory

Today (February 4, 2020) Samsung has unveiled its latest memory solution for the high-performance computing (HPC) market. It is a form of state-of-the-art high bandwidth memory 2E (HBM2E) with 16GB of capacity per chip. This doubl...

Deirdre O Donnell, 04 Feb 2020 19:19

The Escobar Fold 2, unmistakably a Samsung Galaxy Fold. (Image source: Escobar Inc)

Pablo Escobar's brother announces the Escobar Fold 2 amid claims that Escobar Inc is scamming buyers of the Fold 1

Following on from the Escobar Fold 1, Pablo Escobar's brother has unveiled the Fold 2, another inexpensive foldable smartphone by Escobar Inc. The Fold 2 starts at US$399 for a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC and up to 512 GB of stora...

Alex Alderson, 04 Feb 2020 19:15

New Galaxy S20 series US pricing leak makes for some hard reading

The Galaxy S20 phones are billed to be unveiled in a week. A new leak has given us pricing information for the phones across US carriers, and, well, it doesn't sound too good. The base S20 could potentially start at US$999, making...

Ricci Rox, 04 Feb 2020 09:25

Production of the iPhone SE 2 has apparently already started. (Image source: @OnLeaks & @iGeeksblog)

Rumour | iPhone SE 2: Apple's next budget smartphone expected to sell over 30 million units as trial production run begins

The iPhone SE 2 will arrive as soon as next month, according to the latest round of rumours. Analysts predict that the budget smartphone, expected to retail for around US$399, will sell over 30 million units too. The SE 2, which A...

Alex Alderson, 03 Feb 2020 21:01

Realme will unveil its first TV at MWC 2020

A Realme executive has revealed that this brand is working on its own smart TV, and that more details will be available at the next Mobile World Congress (MWC). To date, no specs or features for this upcoming product are known for...

Deirdre O Donnell, 03 Feb 2020 18:27

Lenovo ThinkPad T480s with Core i5, 8 GB RAM, and 256 GB SSD is only $670 right now (Source: Lenovo)

Deal | Lenovo ThinkPad T480s with Core i5, 8 GB RAM, Thunderbolt 3, and 256 GB SSD is only $670 right now

The ThinkPad T480s is the lighter and slimmer version of the standard ThinkPad T480 to strike a better balance between a traditional lightweight Ultrabook and a full-on business laptop. The Core i5-8250U may not be the newest, but...

Allen Ngo, 02 Feb 2020 19:55

Motorola has sold over 100 million Moto G units in the US. (Source: Motorola)

Deal | Get US$100 off a Moto G7 - or a free Moto G6 - in this sales event

Motorola has marked its 100,000,000th unit of the Moto G series sold with a special event. It offers up to US$320 off a new phone, depending on the model. Alternatively, a shopper can choose a free accessory, money off, or even a ...

Deirdre O Donnell, 02 Feb 2020 18:04

The Asus ROG Phone II. (Source: Flipkart)

Indian mobile gaming fans will face ROG Phone II shortages soon

Asus ROG India has issued an open letter to its fans expressing regret that they may face difficulty in buying this OEM's latest gaming phone. This "temporary shortage" is associated with the coronavirus outbreak in Asia, which is...

Deirdre O Donnell, 02 Feb 2020 17:03

The GTC will take place in late March 2020. (Source: NVIDIA)

NVIDIA announces details on its GTC 2020 conference

The GPU Technology Conference (or GTC) 2020 has been set to begin on March 23 of this year. It will open with a keynote from NVIDIA's CEO and founder, Jensen Huang. The company also claims there will be over 1000 other speakers fr...

Deirdre O Donnell, 02 Feb 2020 15:11

No one seems to really care about Intel Project Athena

Project Athena was supposed to usher in the next generation of Intel-powered Ultrabooks with Thunderbolt 3, super-long runtimes, and thinner designs. But in reality, Athena is barely on anyone's radar as even OEMs seem to be avoid...

Allen Ngo, 01 Feb 2020 22:38

The HyperJuice GaN charger. (Source: HYPER)

The HyperJuice is the "world's first" 100W USB type C charger with GaN

HYPER has put its new charger up for crowdfunding on Indiegogo. Despite packing a maximum rate of 100 watts (W), it is described as even smaller than the MacBook Pro brick with the same kind of port. This is due to its gallium nit...

Deirdre O Donnell, 01 Feb 2020 18:43

Nintendo has confirmed that there will be no new Switch console, at least for the time being. (Image source: Nintendo)

Bad news about that Nintendo Switch Pro, folks

Nintendo has dealt a blow for those who were hoping to see the company release a new Nintendo Switch this year. While it does not preclude Nintendo from bringing a Pro SKU of the console to market in the near future, you can rule ...

Alex Alderson, 31 Jan 2020 20:31

The tech market is found to have some of the most valuable brands on Earth in 2020

The UK company Brand Finance releases a yearly report on the top 500 most valuable brands. Its 2020 edition concludes that the tech sector is the most valuable, with a combined worth of nearly US$967 billion. 5 of its brands, incl...

Deirdre O Donnell, 31 Jan 2020 20:01

Intel Core i7-10810U: ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8 listing reveals new Comet Lake hexa-core CPU with vPro

Intel is getting ready to release another package of Comet Lake U processors for laptops. More specifically: For business laptops, as these new processors feature the manageability feature vPro. The most powerful of Comet Lake chi...

Benjamin Herzig, 31 Jan 2020 00:21

This is the first 2020 SEGA physical game to launch in 100% recyclable packaging. (Source: SEGA Europe)

SEGA Europe announces a switch to 100% recyclable packaging for its physical games

SEGA Europe has pledged to use nothing but recyclables in the original packaging for its hard-copy products in the future. This will take effect with the release of its new PC title, Total War: ROME II. The material in question wi...

Deirdre O Donnell, 30 Jan 2020 22:31

4G LTE-enabled Samsung Galaxy Book S launching on Valentine's Day for $999

The 13.3-inch WoA laptop comes with a special 7 nm Snapdragon SoC for a thickness and weight of just 11.8 mm and 0.96 kg, respectively. LTE Cat.18 Nano SIM, touchscreen, Windows Hello, and a keyboard backlight all come standard.

Allen Ngo, 30 Jan 2020 20:10

Huawei may have split with Google for good. (Source: Notebookcheck)

It's over(?): Huawei phones may never use the Google mobile ecosystem again

Huawei's Austrian regional manager has reportedly indicated that the OEM's phones will use its own in-house version of Google Mobile Services going forward, never returning to the use of the Play Store and its apps as normal. The ...

Deirdre O Donnell, 30 Jan 2020 20:00

The Japanese carrier KDDI picks up Qualcomm's latest LTE IoT modem

Qualcomm has announced that it has broken into the Japanese IoT market. The carrier KDDI has approved the 9205 modem for this platform. Therefore, its network for high-volume, low-power electronics can now transfer data at 4G/LTE ...

Deirdre O Donnell, 30 Jan 2020 19:10

There may be new Tremont-based chipsets on the way. (Source: Intel)

GitHub hints at new Intel Tremont-based micro-server and mobile chipsets

What is Jasper Lake? This has been a valid question since a leak referenced it alongside Rocket Lake in July 2019. Now, new evidence suggests that it is a mobile SoC based on the new Tremont microarchitecture. The same also nods t...

Deirdre O Donnell, 30 Jan 2020 18:33

Transparent displays may become more of a feature of lfe in the future. (Source: YouTube)

The transparent display market may be worth billions by 2024

Transparent displays may become a commonplace backdrop for the future of technology. They can show colored images and videos, while allowing whatever's behind them to remain visible. A new research report indicates that their mark...

Deirdre O Donnell, 30 Jan 2020 17:30

Smart speakers will continue to be big business in the near future. (Source: Google)

The smart speaker market may be worth nearly US$20 billion by 2024

Smart speakers are increasingly popular household items. Their market is now thought to be capable of growing until it is worth US$19.91 billion in 4 years. This success may be driven by the rise of 5G, urbanization, consumer inte...

Deirdre O Donnell, 29 Jan 2020 19:41

The S20 Ultra will use an entirely different telephoto sensor—the 48 MP Sony IMX586. (Source: 91Mobiles)

Samsung will do something interesting with the telephoto cameras of the Galaxy S20 and S20+

A new leak has thrown more light on the sensor Samsung will use on the telephoto shooters of the Galaxy S20 and S20+. Sadly, all it manages to do is raise more questions, as it potentially implies terrible low-light performance wh...

Ricci Rox, 29 Jan 2020 18:58

AMD announces record-breaking revenues for 4Q 2019, RDNA GPU refresh confirmed for 2020

2019 brought the highest revenues in six years for AMD and the red team expects increased 7 nm CPU adoption for 2020 together with increased demand for custom embedded solutions via the release of the next gen consoles. CEO Lisa S...

Bogdan Solca, 29 Jan 2020 16:24

Intel rumored to launch Comet Lake-H and Comet Lake-S as early as March this year. (Image Source: Livemint)

Rumor | Fear of AMD Renoir Ryzen 4000 could prompt Intel to launch Comet Lake-H and Comet Lake-S earlier than anticipated

Intel could be accelerating the launch of Comet Lake-H and Comet Lake-S CPUs to March this year to counter AMD's launch of Renoir Ryzen 4000 APUs around the same time. As per reports, a reduced pricing is also on the cards. The qu...

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 29 Jan 2020 15:47

The Samsung Galaxy XCover 4s. (Source: Notebookcheck)

The Samsung Galaxy XCover 4s could be headed for an Android 10 update

The Galaxy XCover 4s is one of the latest in Samsung's line of rugged smartphones. It currently runs Android 9.0 (Pie). Now, however, devices with its model number have appeared on a benchmarking site running a major upgrade to th...

Deirdre O Donnell, 29 Jan 2020 15:38

The P40 Pro Premium is expected to start at €1,000. (Source: WaqarKhanHD)

New leak brings some good news for expectant Huawei P40 fans

A new leak on the Huawei P40 series' pricing will likely excite fans of the series. The P40 is expected to be launched sometime in March, and will build on the groundbreaking camera performance that its predecessors offered.

Ricci Rox, 29 Jan 2020 10:35

MSI Modern 14 foregoes features in favor of GeForce MX250 graphics, a well-calibrated display, and a low price (Image source: Xotic PC)

MSI Modern 14 vs. Prestige 14: What's the difference?

The Modern 14 may be a lot cheaper, but it actually has a few advantages over the more expensive Prestige 14 including additional ports and expandable RAM.

Allen Ngo, 29 Jan 2020 05:55

Buy a Gigabyte Aero RTX laptop and get 3 months of Adobe Creative Cloud free (Source: Gigabyte)

Buy a Gigabyte Aero GeForce RTX laptop and get 3 months of Adobe Creative Cloud free

Get Adobe Photoshop, Color, Exchange, Lightroom, Illustrator, Camera, Premiere Pro, and more at no additional charge if you purchase a Gigabyte Aero RTX laptop between now and May 2020.

Allen Ngo, 29 Jan 2020 00:15

The Huawei Y9 (2019) will receive Android 10, but what about other phones that should be eligible? (Source: Huawei)

Huawei finally promises Android 10 for the Huawei Y9 (2019), but what about the Nova 3 and Honor Play?

Owners of the Huawei Y9 (2019) mounted a campaign against the company after it was revealed that their phones would not get the Android 10 update. That move appears to have been effective, as Huawei has now backtracked and promise...

Ricci Rox, 28 Jan 2020 18:44

With the help of other major foundries, Intel may finally stabilize its chip production issues by early 2021. (Image Source: VR Zone)

Intel CPU shortages still real, select low-power chips could be offloaded to GlobalFoundries

Rumor has it that GlobalFoundries could offload some of the low-power Intel CPUs, including Celeron Pentium and possibly Core i3 models in order to help with the ever-increasing demand for mid-range and high-end Intel CPUs. Furthe...

Bogdan Solca, 28 Jan 2020 15:33

Apple now owes WiLAN US$85 million

The Canadian tech patent development group WiLAN has won a court case against Apple in which the former asserted that the latter had used its intellectual property without permission. However, the actual damages involved were to b...

Deirdre O Donnell, 27 Jan 2020 23:20

Xiaomi is doing its bit to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus. (Source: YouTube)

Xiaomi shutters its Chinese physical stores in response to the coronavirus crisis

Xiaomi has announced that it will keep its brick-and-mortar stores in China closed for several days from January 28, 2020. The OEM has stated that this is to co-operate with governmental efforts to contain the spread of a novel co...

Deirdre O Donnell, 27 Jan 2020 22:40

Eve says the Spectrum’s reservation price is a time-sensitive discount

Today, (January 28, 2020) Eve has finally launched the Spectrum, its crowd-developed 27-inch monitor which, as it turns out, has a 240Hz/QHD option. The company has also announced that its current pricing online applies to the fir...

Deirdre O Donnell, 27 Jan 2020 16:47

Ultra-short videos have returned to the mobile device world. (Source: Byte)

Vine regenerates as Byte, a new 6-second video app

Byte has emerged from beta onto the Play Store and the App Store. It, much like its predecessor Vine, allows the user to make videos of 6 seconds in length. Both apps also have a creator in common, who hopes to bring a form of rev...

Deirdre O Donnell, 26 Jan 2020 22:03

The "Redmi fitness tracker" image. (Source: Weibo)

New leaks suggest Redmi will break into wearables soon

According to a new leak, Redmi - which is usually known as a smartphone brand - will launch a fitness tracker soon. It may be of the kind that fits into a silicone wrist-band, and may also have a front-facing capacitive button. Th...

Deirdre O Donnell, 26 Jan 2020 18:28

Lenovo statement: Thunderbolt firmware responsible for ThinkPad USB C failures

We have asked Lenovo some questions about the Thunderbolt controller failures in recent ThinkPads. Their answers confirm the suspicion that a problematic firmware version is the reason for the problems.

Benjamin Herzig, 25 Jan 2020 20:08

Intel Rocket Lake-S allegedly has a motherboard in the works. (Source: Intel)

The first evidence of boards for Rocket Lake may have arisen in a recent leak

Comet Lake is the code-name for a possibly imminent series of upcoming Intel CPUs. Accord to some leaks, they will then be followed by Rocket Lake. A leaker claims to have uncovered a reference to a new ATX motherboard that may pe...

Deirdre O Donnell, 25 Jan 2020 19:35

No luck for S20 buyers? (Source: Evan Blass)

Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S20+ or S20 Ultra and get a free pair of Galaxy Buds+

What appears to be official promotional material for the Samsung Galaxy S20 phones has surfaced, confirming the names and designs of the S20+, S20 Ultra, and Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Buds+ TWS earphones. Those will pre-order the ...

Ricci Rox, 25 Jan 2020 09:29

The Samsung Galaxy S20 series will be unveiled on February 11. (Source: 91Mobiles)

New leak reveals massive price tags for the Samsung Galaxy S20 series

For the first time, pricing details of the Samsung Galaxy S20 phones have been revealed. Going by the leak, the Galaxy S20 could share a base price tag with its predecessor, the S10, but things go downhill from there, with the mos...

Ricci Rox, 25 Jan 2020 08:58

Smart TVs will continue to grow as a market until 2025. (Source: Wikipedia)

Smart TV shipments may grow by about 57 million until 2025

Smart TVs are already popular purchases, and may become more so in the future due to their role as smart-home hubs. The latest analysis of their market has found that their shipments may number about 266 million over the next 5 ye...

Deirdre O Donnell, 24 Jan 2020 20:36

Wearables may play more of a role in health and medicine over the next 5 years. (Source: Pigsback)

The fitness tracker market may reach US$5 billion in 5 years

The latest report on the health- and fitness-tracker market shows that it may achieve a valuation of as much as US$5 billion by 2025. This may be driven by the increasing number of applications and functions for these devices. The...

Deirdre O Donnell, 24 Jan 2020 19:50

The unlikely alliance between Matrox and Nvidia is bringing a custom embedded Quadro GPU supporting four 4K commercial wall displays. (Image source: Matrox)

Matrox is back... collaborating with Nvidia?

Is Matrox going to follow Intel's example to rise against Nvidia and AMD in the gaming GPU market? Probably not, as the Canadians are still focusing on professional and enterprise GPU solutions, but it is interesting to see the Ca...

Bogdan Solca, 24 Jan 2020 16:22

The new PNY NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 Passive. (Source: PNY)

PNY releases a passively-cooled version of its Quadro RTX 8000 card

PNY has launched a new version of its 48GB NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 graphics card. This one, however, lacks a fan of any kind. Nevertheless, the OEM asserts that it is still capable of a memory bandwidth of 624 gigabytes per second ...

Deirdre O Donnell, 23 Jan 2020 22:23

Intel is looking to cut prices of its CPUs to counter AMD's aggressive pricing. (Image Source: Digital Trends)

Intel mulling a phased price reduction strategy to counter AMD, but all that could be in vain once Zen 3 hits the market

Industry sources report that Intel could be implementing a phased price reduction strategy this year starting with OEMs in H2 2020 to counter AMD's aggressive pricing strategy and market share increase of Ryzen CPUs. How far will ...

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 23 Jan 2020 21:53