Business Articles

Microsoft has issued a document outlining the dates on which its own-brand convertibles or laptops run out of software updates. It shows that the Surface Pro 3, despite launching in 2014, will get them until November 2021. Oddly, the Pro 4 will also see the end of its service on the same day.

The processors that power our phones have become so powerful that they are now designed with the kind of cooling historically only expected from high-end PCs. This involves heatsinks, thermal paste and even vapor-chambers on a mobile scale these days - to such an extent there are now signs that insulation might also start to play a role in next-gen phones.

The Realme X7 and X7 Pro are phones based on 5G MediaTek Dimensity chipsets that aren't often seen in international markets. However, this may change soon as their release to the Indian market has just been announced. Unfortunately, this will not take place until 2021.

Brydge has announced that its 12.3 Pro+ keyboard is now exclusively available at Best Buy. This accessory is rated to turn a Surface Pro tablet into a laptop-like device. It is compatible with the 4 to 7 generations of this Microsoft device.

Nokia has introduced some old familiar names as new KaiOS devices. These versions of the 6300 and 8000 have 4G/LTE in 2020, although they look much the same as old-school button phones. There are also features such as FM radios, WhatsApp support and headphone jacks in evidence with these new devices.

Given that consumers may be gearing up for their 2020 holiday shopping, Mozilla has expanded its Privacy Not Included initiative by ranking various popular devices and/or gift ideas by how "creepy" they are. It is based on the organization's research into how they or their OEMs handle and respect user personal data, and has thrown up what may be unpleasant surprises in some cases.

Rumour has it that Apple plans to release up to five Apple Silicon-backed Mac devices within the next year. Apparently, a 24-inch iMac, 12-inch MacBook, 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro will debut before the end of 2021, with a new Mac Pro set for release in either late 2021 or 2022. Apple is thought to be releasing a new Intel 16-inch MacBook Pro and the long-rumoured AirTags within the next 2-3 weeks, too.

Xiaomi's Mi Mix series has typically provided some of the most impressive smartphone designs, but the company doesn't appear set to offer a Mi Mix 4 anytime soon. Samsung may be about to ride to the rescue, however, as the South Korean company has filed a patent for a rather...interesting smartphone design.

The Lenovo ThinkPad L15 is an affordable office laptop based on AMD's new Renoir architecture that impresses with its good workmanship and keyboard in particular.

If satellites and atmospheric balloons are simply too expensive to boost Internet signals across the world, Google now plans to use light beams to connect underdeveloped areas. The first country to benefit from wireless optical networks is Kenya, and the connections can reach 20 Gbps speeds, but are limited to a 20 Km radius.

After beating Apple in the US in terms of smartphone sales after many years, Samsung also managed to grab the leading place in India. Now, we find out in a new report that five devices out of the top ten best-selling smartphones worldwide are made by Samsung. In the third quarter, Samsung shipped over 10 million Galaxy A21s handsets.

DISH, the company behind Sling TV, has announced that it will soon offer 5G services in the US. Furthermore, its network will be the first to be compatible with Open Radio Access Network (RAN) technology, so as to make the integration of individual vendor equipment easier. This will be achieved thanks to a partnership with Qualcomm.

Google is ending its free unlimited photo storage on Google Photos. The change will take effect from June 1, 2021, and will affect all but owners of Pixel smartphones. From that date, Google will count all photos backed up to Google Photos against a 15 GB data limit.

Without any formal announcement, Lenovo releases two new ThinkPad laptops onto the market: The ThinkPad L13 Gen 2 and the convertible brother ThinkPad L13 Yoga Gen 2 are the first business models with Intel Tiger Lake. At the same time, they also are the first L series ThinkPad with Thunderbolt 4.

Honor has introduced a phone called the 10X Lite to the European market. With its 6.67-inch FHD+ display, Kirin 710A SoC, 4GB of RAM and 5000 mAh battery, it is distinctly pitched at the low- to mid-tier market in this region. Its normal price is €265 (~US$311), although this has been reduced to €229.90 (~$270) as one of the brand's new 2020 holiday deals.

PlayStation 5 launch dates for nations in South America and Southeast Asia have started appearing on the official country-specific websites. Key markets such as Brazil and Singapore can still expect a PS5 launch on November 19, and there are a few countries that will have to wait until December, but there is a 2021 launch for Indonesia.

At just 989 grams, the Tiger Lake-powered Dynabook X30W-J is over 300 grams lighter than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 or 200 grams lighter than the LG Gram 14 convertible.

The PlayStation 5 may be a huge console, but it could have been even larger, had its design had his way. There may be some Easter eggs hidden within the next-generation console too, and not just the pattern of the DualSense controller that has already been discovered.

AOC's latest gaming monitor has been developed in partnership with Porsche Design, and it certainly looks the part. However, the Agon PD27 also packs a 27-inch panel that has a WQHD native resolution and a 240 Hz refresh rate. The Agon PD27 is VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified too and will be available from this month for US$799.99.

Huawei is on the verge of selling Honor for US$15.2 billion, according to Reuters. Due to be sold by as early as Sunday to a consortium, the sale would free Honor of the hindrance of the sanctions that the US government currently imposes on Huawei.

A well-known Weibo leaker now claims that OPPO - an OEM mostly known for its smartphones and wearables - is planning to also move into the tablet space. Similarly, it is also now said to start making its own laptops, much as Xiaomi and Huawei do now. Examples of these new product categories for the company might emerge as soon as 2021.

Recent leaks have pointed to a "new" Nokia 8000 that may launch soon. The reliable tips site WinFuture has now posted what looks like a real-life promo for this device. The possible marketing image paints the device as a high-end feature phone that might not use Android.

Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi have taken up all 10 places in the Q3 2020 table for most shipped smartphones of the quarter. While Samsung has five different Galaxy A-branded devices in the charts and Xiaomi has great results with the Redmi Note 9 and Redmi 9, it’s the Apple iPhone 11 that rules the roost once again.

The Nemeio keyboard is highly customisable, thanks to its ePaper display. The 81-key keyboard supports Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, while it can also operate in multiple languages and configurations. The Nemeio will not ship until September 2021, but it has received over 200% over its funding goal.

Sony has announced the creation of the Airpeak brand, which is to be applied to a new series of drones developed by this OEM. However, it seems these devices are to be pitched at professional content creators and enterprise customers rather than take on products like the DJI Mavic series. Their first examples may be launched in the spring of 2021.

The iPhone 12 mini is here, and Apple is copping some flack for the device's underwhelming battery life. The 5.4-inch iPhone has a 2,227 mAh battery, so it should come as no surprise to see it barely lasting a full working day between charges.

Recently, reports of a fire breaking out at MSI's plant in Bao'an, Shenzhen arose on social media and on news sites. Now, the OEM has officially stated that these reports were true, although the incident in question was immediately met with appropriate action. No harm to workers at the factory was reported.

LG recently added 4K or 4K/UHD LED and laser variants to its high-end CineBeam projector line-up. Now, the OEM has announced that they can now access the Disney+ app directly from their smart-TV-like interface. This means it will now be much easier for them to show The Mandalorian in the home-theater setting they can achieve.

Nokia has just completed its latest product unveiling, and it's a new version of the 8.3 5G. This smartphone is a variant optimized for the Verizon network in the United States. To this end, it has much the same specs as the original mid-ranger on which it is based, but also has 3 "powerful" antennae for its carrier's mmWave 5G.

Square Enix has published its earnings report for the last 6 months (ending on September 30, 2020). It claims to have made 172.7 billion yen (~US$1.7 billion), or 46% more in sales year-on-year (YoY), for this period. This was attributed to strong performance in areas of its business such as its games (mobile titles including) and merchandising arms.

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X has already shown its overclocking potential with an all-core boost clock of 6.362 GHz. The Vermeer processor has pushed past the 15,000 mark in Cinebench R20 too, albeit at 1.692 V and on LN2 cooling.

GoPro has released its first quarterly financial report since the launch of its 2020 flagship, the HERO9 Black action-camera. It has revealed that the company now has a figure for total revenues that is over 100% what it was for the same quarter of 2019 (3Q2019). It also now has 35% more subscribers compared to 2Q2020, as well as a net profit for its latest quarter.

Qualcomm concluded its latest fiscal year (FY) on September 27, 2020. As a result, it has now revealed that it made approximately US$23.5 billion in this year, about $8.4 billion of which came from its fourth quarter. The company attributed this success to its focus on 5G hardware and expertise.

Smartphone shipments in India - one of the top 3 markets worldwide - shrank by a worrying 48% in the second quarter of 2020 (2Q2020). However, three months later, the story has changed: the same market had posted year-on-year (YoY) gains of 17%, whereas the US and China failed to show any growth for the same quarter at all.

Apple had left its biggest and smallest versions of the iPhone 12 for last in terms of making them available to buy. Now, however, both the successor to the 11 Pro Max and the completely new 5.4-inch Mini variant can be pre-ordered from their maker's website. However, these devices, as with the rest of their series, may not be compatible with a user's old wireless chargers.

The Mi 10 Pro will go down as Xiaomi's first actual flagship phone on par with the regular juggernauts of the segment but the company is already phasing the device out, likely in preparation for the release of the Mi 11. The Mi 10 Ultra remains available, however, but not for much longer.

Sony may boast that 'Play Has No Limits', but there will be a limit to the PlayStation 5 if you try to game at 1440p later this month. According to IGN Italia, Sony has confirmed that its next-generation console will not support the resolution that is popular with PC gamers, for some reason.

Sony bills its XH90 range of TVs as being next-gen ready, thanks to their support for 4K and 120 Hz gaming. However, multiple reports have demonstrated that the TVs do not support high refresh rate gaming at 4K natively.

LG's CX and C9 OLED TVs may look exquisite, but they have a serious issue with displaying content with variable refresh rate (VRR) enabled. From washed-out dark areas to image flickering and instability, VRR is currently a no-go on some of LG's expensive OLED TV series. A firmware update may not be able to resolve the issues, either.

With the Ryzen 5000 desktop CPUs already dominating the consumer market in terms of both raw performance and value, AMD is now working on the next-gen EPYC Milan lineup that will target the server market. An early sample of the 64-core EPYC 7713 processor has recently surfaced online with twice the performance of the Intel Xeon Platinum.

After struggling around the US$10,000 line for most of the year and with the lowest point of 2020 at US$4,887.52, Bitcoin is now above US$15,000. Earlier today, the world's most popular cryptocurrency has reached the highest value of the year — US$15,561.39 — but it would not be surprising to see it hit US$16,000 in the coming days.

Today, (November 5, 2020) Google has released the 5G variant of the Pixel 4a for pre-orders in Germany, France, the UK and Ireland. As with its flagship sibling, the 5, they come with an offer of free Bose wireless headphones with each order (while stocks last). The same phone is also now live in Taiwan and Australia.

Motorola has unveiled the Moto G 5G, its latest mid-range smartphone. Paired with a Snapdragon 750G, the Moto G 5G has a 6.7-inch punch-hole display, a 5,000 mAh battery and up to 6 GB of RAM. The Moto G 5G is available with either 64 GB or 128 GB of storage too and starts at €299.