Business Articles

The lens specialist Sigma has released the new f/1.4 DG DN Art attachment for Leica L-mount and Sony E-mount full-frame cameras. With its new arrangement of aspherical, high-refraction and special low dispersion (SLD) elements, it may be well-equipped indeed for portrait shooting. It also has a button that either allows or denies the option of audible clicking in the aperture ring.

If it's important for your mobile workstation to be as portable and sexy as possible, then go ahead and get the Precision 5550. Otherwise, the older Precision 5540 will be cheaper and perform almost exactly the same.

Huawei has lost access to new mobile processors as normal, thanks to the mandatory end of partnerships with crucial suppliers such as TSMC. Now, the CEO of its consumer-facing unit, Yu Chendong, has acknowledged that the company will soon see its last shipments of these vital components in 2020. He has admitted this is "a very big loss" for the company.

The Pixel 4a may have unsurprising specifications, but it is proving popular on websites like Amazon and Best Buy. The device is so popular, in fact, that is currently one of the best-selling smartphones on the two eCommerce platforms in the US. The Pixel 4a retails for US$349.

QNAP has announced that it will no longer officially support vQTS-built virtual machines (VMs) on its servers. This means that, while users can still operate the VMs they have previously constructed on this platform, they will no longer be supported or updated by the company. Machines set up using the newer QuTSCloud will, however.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 has secured the top place in AnTuTu’s Android smartphone SoC chart for the first half of 2020; however, MediaTek has made a strong showing with three entrants, including the Dimensity 1000+ in second. The Taiwanese company has also pipped its American rival in mobile chip shipment market share in China for Q2 2020.

The well-regarded analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has reportedly issued a new research note that may help explain why Apple may have to put off launching its iPhone 12 line until later in the year than usual. It seems the OEM is having trouble sourcing good-quality wide-angle lenses for the cheaper variants of this series.

Days after Canon, Intel is the next major company to face a massive data breach. Over 20GB of confidential design data including SDKs, flash tools, marketing templates, debug tools, and more were stolen and subsequently leaked online.

NVIDIA is reportedly in advanced talks with SoftBank to buy ARM for about US$32 billion. However, this is not set in stone, as the seller may have other options. One, according to Nikkei Asian Review, is other firms in this business such as Foxconn and TSMC clubbing together to buy the pivotal architecture IP-holder instead.

Xiaomi is set to launch the Mi 10 Pro+ on August 11. The phone has now also been referred to as the Mi 10 Ultra, and is tipped to "shock the world". As expected, this should see it take on the new Galaxy Note 20 Ultra while being quite a bit cheaper too.

MediaTek and Intel had previously announced a partnership to ultimately result in 5G-capable laptops powered by the latter's CPUs. Now, this collaboration has reached a stage at which the modem necessary has been tested and validated for these purposes. It is thus now rated for standalone- and non-standalone sub-6GHz connectivity.

Barely ten months after the launch of the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, Google has now discontinued the two phones. Typically, Google's offerings stay on the market for about eighteen months, so this is something of a surprise.

Sony has finally released the WH-1000XM4, almost two years after it released its last edition in the WH-1000XM series. Little has changed from the WH-1000XM3 and WH-1000XM4 save for a few new features. Battery life remains at 30 hours with NC on and the new model has the same 40 mm neodymium drivers. Bluetooth 5.0 is now supported, but aptX and aptX HD have been dropped.

The CAT S62 Pro is a compact and rugged smartphone with a professional-grade thermal imaging camera. The CAT S62 Pro also has 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, a 4,000 mAh battery and a Snapdragon 660 SoC. Caterpillar Inc will begin shipping its latest rugged smartphone from August 17.

A large number of Canon domains were recently targeted by the Maze ransomware attack, resulting in the theft of over 10TB of sensitive user data. While Canon claims that photo images weren’t compromised, other sensitive user information is currently at risk.

Yesterday at Unpacked, Samsung announced that it would improve its software support lifespan to three generations of major OS updates, starting with the Galaxy S10 series which will now receive Android 12 when it's available.

AMD stock prices increased by almost US$30 in the past week, while Intel prices took a dive of around US$11. As of now, AMD's market cap is just shy of US$100 billion, whereas Intel's market cap dropped to US$208.95 billion. Stock prices are expected to increase for team red over the next year, and its CPU market share could reach 50%.

Apple’s slow changing of the guard continues with the announcement today that long-time head of marketing, Phil Schiller, is stepping down from the role. In his place, another veteran of the company, Greg Joswiak, has been promoted to the role of senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Lenovo is expanding its ThinkPad T series portfolio with a new 15 inch model. The new Lenovo ThinkPad T15p comes in a thicker chassis than the regular ThinkPad T15. It features faster Comet-Lake-H processors, an additional RAM slot and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, marking the first time a GTX chip is used in a T series ThinkPad.

It's been over a year since the release of the Mi A3 and there's been little to no news about a Mi A4. New reports, however, claim that Xiaomi—along with Motorola—has ditched the Android One program and will no longer release any Mi A-series phones, starting with the Mi A4.

PlayStation has finally announced the State of Play event for August but it might not be exactly what PS5 fans were hoping for. The DualShock 4 will work on the PlayStation 5 but only under certain conditions. More price placeholders have appeared and a tenuous source claims hardware revisions and SOCOM revival.

We have reviewed the Intel-based Lenovo ThinkPad T14s, which is the latest laptop in Lenovo’s ThinkPad T series. Our review reveals that AMD is far ahead and deserves to be in the premium segment.

Qualcomm has published the results of a study conducted by Ookla on 5G speeds in the US and UK for the first and second quarters of 2020 (1-2Q2020). It apparently concludes that the fastest phones in this regard had chipsets and modems made by this prominent chipmaker. Specifically, they were the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 855+ mobile platforms.

Samsung has announced to staff at its last remaining PC making factory in China that it will be ceasing operations. This follows the closure of its last smartphone factory in China last year leaving its only remaining Chinese exposure are two chip fabrication factories as it seeks to reset itself following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Realme has now launched its latest device, the Realme V5. The Realme V5 offers a slew of features including five cameras in total, a MediaTek Dimensity 720, and a 90 Hz display. All of that can be had for just over US$200.

Apricorn’s Aegis Secure Key 3NXC is reportedly the world’s first USB Type-C pen drive featuring hardware encryption. With a number of laptops and Android smartphones now leveraging USB Type-C, the 3NXC is increasingly relevant. The 4GB based model cost just US$59, but users will have to pay more for higher storage variants.

We all know AMD is having a field day against Intel with its latest family of Zen 2 CPUs, but we didn't think it could get this bad.

A month ago, Xiaomi raised the regular retail price of the Redmi Note 8 by Rs 500 in India—the fifth such time this year alone. Well, that wasn't enough, apparently, and the Redmi Note 8 has now seen yet another price hike in that market; continuing the trend of anti-consumer behavior by Xiaomi.

The Analogue Pocket will be available to pre-order from next week for US$199.99. The luxury Game Boy supports original cartridges from consoles like the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance. The device has a 615 PPI display too and can be outputted to TVs or external monitors.

A new survey has revealed that 4/5 of people plan to purchase the PS5 over the Xbox Series X, with almost 2/5 hoping to purchase a next-generation console "at launch". Cyberpunk 2077 is the most-anticipated next-generation game too, despite its release on current-gen consoles.

Erstwhile GPU maker Matrox released a new 4K-capable graphics card for enterprise users called the Matrox D1450. The new Matrox card will be built by NVIDIA and is designed to power multiple high-resolution displays, supporting up to four 4K monitors via HDMI.

Qualcomm has announced that its third fiscal quarter of 2020 (3FQ2020, which ended on June 28 of this year) ended with a total of US$4.89 billion in revenue. It also reported $848 million in pre-tax profits, and paying $0.74 per share in dividends. However, it also already projects that, thanks to a new deal with Huawei, 4FQ2020 will turn out much better.

Huawei will be celebrating the news that it managed to overtake Samsung in the second quarter of 2020 to become the world’s largest smartphone company in terms of number of units shipped. China’s impressive recovery from the effects of COVID-19 and Huawei’s huge popularity in its domestic market have helped the P40 Pro maker hit the top spot.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has announced that there will be a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) scheduled for January 2021. However, it will not be held in Las Vegas as usual: instead, an "all-digital" experience is planned to replace the usual physical event. However, the Association is still confident it will be worthwhile for exhibitors and e-attendees alike.

Intel is apparently seeking external assistance and it seems like a deal has already been struck with TSMC. With the latest leadership changes taking place at Intel, the chip giant is now looking to outsource part of its 10 nm and 7 nm chip production to TSMC in the next few years, but this will require some redesigning and node repurposing.

The PS5 game Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales might come with a remaster of the PS4 Spider-Man smash hit. Optimistic commentator offers up a price tag of US$299 for the Digital Edition console as Sony potentially takes big losses. At least 120 million PlayStation 5 units are expected to be shipped in a five-year life cycle.

A report states that Micromax is working on three new smartphones for the Indian market. The devices will be unveiled sometime in September and will come with MediaTek chips. Prices will range between INR 7,000 (US$93) and INR 15,000 (US$200).

Rumors surfaced a few days ago claiming Sony would release the much-anticipated God of War sequel for the PlayStation 5 in 2021. Those rumors have turned out to be completely false, though, after being soundly debunked by the man behind God of War himself, Cory Barlog.

Xiaomi is preparing another flash sale for the giant 98-inch Redmi Smart TV Max while also celebrating the news that the company shipped more TVs in China in the first half of 2020 than any other company. The Xiaomi Mi TV range is immensely popular, and with a price tag of 19,999 yuan (US$2,856), the Redmi Max 98 has also been selling well.

The Indian Government is looking at banning even more Chinese-origin apps. Over 200 apps are on the list, with the most prominent one being PUBG Mobile. Games like Call of Duty: Mobile, Clash of Clans, and Clash Royale are likely on the list as well, due to their deep-rooted affiliation with Tencent.

Xiaomi has now released two of its phones, the Redmi K30 Pro 5G and the Redmi 10X Pro 5G, in new, striking color options. The Redmi K30 Pro now comes in a stunning "Aqua Sky", while the Redmi 10X Pro is available in an even more eye-catching "Liquid Silver".

For some reason, Huawei has suddenly started selling its phones for cheaper in China. The company is currently discounting most of its current lineup—including the P40 Pro Plus—by up to US$150. This also means the P30 Pro can now be had for under US$500.

The optional 4K display for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2020 improves the picture quality, but it has massive problems with PWM flickering. The screen also reduces the battery runtime of the mobile business notebook.

The volume of sales completed in the US smartphone market fell by 25% year-on-year (YoY) in 2020's second quarter (2Q2020). This was attributed to the effect of Covid-19-related lockdowns, and on a tendency to buy phones through carriers in the country. All major OEMs in this space saw reductions in their sales, with Samsung seeing the least adversity in this respect.

Following an Intel earnings call where the CPU maker admitted that its 7nm process still wasn’t ready, competitor AMD saw a massive boost to its share value, with AMD shares having gained 16 percent on NASDAQ.

Some new PS5 price target predictions have been posted online, with the source positing that the Blu-ray version of the console could cost as little as US$399, although this could still be much more than the Xbox Series S. However, gamers shouldn’t expect backwards compatibility with the PS3 too soon nor an appearance of a PlayStation 5 Pro in the near future.