Business Articles

OnePlus has now confirmed that it will disable the color filter camera on the OnePlus 8 Pro in an upcoming software update. The company acknowledges the privacy-violating implications of the feature and will work on it further before relaunching it.

Announced today, HiHonor UK will begin trading on May 21. To celebrate the arrival of its eCommerce platform to the UK, Honor is offering discounts on multiple devices, including the Honor 20 Pro, Honor 20 Lite, Honor 9X Pro and MagicBook 14.

A report has estimated that the Epic Games Store has given out more than US$2,000 worth of free games to subscribers since December 2018. Over 100 titles have been offered gratis, with GTA V being the latest. Fortunately for Epic, the company can subsidize this loss with the US$1 billion made by the mobile version of Fortnite alone.

A month ago, YouTube decided to limit Indian mobile users to a maximum of 480p, citing bandwidth constraints. However, with 85 percent of YouTube users residing outside India, completely unaffected, the decision prompts questions about discrimination and equal access to the digital commons.

Fitbit has announced that its own-brand ventilator has been sent to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for testing. Despite being known for wearables, this company has also recently devoted some of its resources to the production of this new item, which is to be used in the treatment of Covid-19-affected patients.

The LG V40 had it all: three versatile rear cameras, five cameras in total, an excellent display, and competitive pricing. And yet, it never quite managed to hit the heights attained by its contemporaries; why?

The Google Pixel 4 had a number of significant flaws but the most fatal of all was pricing, as the phones didn't offer value analogous to their launch prices. Things could change with the Pixel 5, however, as a new report claims Google will focus on the essentials with its upcoming flagship.

The Microsoft Surface Duo is on the way and months after Microsoft's teaser, technical specifications of the foldable phone have now been revealed. Notable talking points include the choice of a last-gen SoC and a disappointing battery unit.

Forbes has just released its Global 2000 annual ranking list for the top public companies in the world. Apple is the highest-ranked tech company, residing in a very respectable ninth position. Meanwhile, Xiaomi has celebrated moving upwards through the ranks by 42 places from last year to reach 384th position in 2020.

The Huawei Mate X and Mate Xs are incredible pieces of hardware but carry an equally heavy price tag, with the Mate Xs costing almost US$2700. That's a bit too much for the average consumer, though, so Huawei is reportedly working on a more affordable foldable offering that could launch alongside the Mate 40 Pro later this year.

The Google Pixel 4a was initially expected to start at US$399, but a new leak claims the phone could be US$50 cheaper. This would make it cheaper than the iPhone SE, the biggest challenger to the Pixel 4a in the mid-range segment.

Nokia's ultra-budget 1.3 is a phone with a 5.71-inch HD+ display. Despite this, it runs an up-to-date ROM thanks to Android Go, as well as Google's Camera Go. It is now available on the American market for US$99.

The Mate 30 Pro was Huawei's first flagship to be released without Google Services support, and it seems that will continue with the upcoming Mate 40 Pro, as President Trump has now extended the trade ban by an extra year.

In the shadows of the ThinkPad T series and the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, Lenovo sells the ThinkPad P43s and ThinkPad P53s workstations with more power efficient CPUs. Lenovo is updating this series now with Comet-Lake and the new naming-scheme – accordingly, the new models are named Lenovo ThinkPad P14s and ThinkPad P15s.

Both Tim Sweeney and Lisa Su have been praising the PlayStation 5 lately, with the former expressing his positive opinion of the next-gen console’s SSD while the latter, understandably, wanted to mention the presence of AMD’s RDNA2 GPU architecture. Sweeney commented that the PS5’s SSD is “not only the best in class in consoles but the best in any platform.”

Going by reports floating around, CEO of Xiaomi, Lei Jun, has been caught using an iPhone on social media. The fact that this is news in the first place is a tad amusing, but it does play right into the joke of Xiaomi aping everything Apple does.

Intel has announced the vPro variants of Comet Lake processors across mobile, desktop, and workstation. The new vPro processors offer enhanced Hardware Shield security features, a modern lifecycle management, and will even be available in Project Athena-based designs. The intriguing aspect, however, is the inclusion of K-series unlocked processors that are capable of overclocking, whose exact purpose in a business environment seems unclear at the moment.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been linked to the depression of the mobile-device market worldwide over the first quarter of 2020 (1Q2020). However, new official figures from China show that this sector of the same had recovered to a degree by April.

AMD has taken wraps off the Radeon Pro VII workstation GPU aimed at industrial applications such as broadcasting, 8K video editing, and computer-aided engineering. The Radeon Pro VII is based on the same 7nm Vega 20 GPU as the Radeon VII and is being positioned as a cost-effective alternative for the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000, with two such Radeon Pro VII cards being comparable to the Quadro GV100 at a price of US$1,899.

A tweet from GameStop Italia has PlayStation fans wondering if a next-gen console reveal is on the cards. Apparently, the COVID-19 pandemic has not adversely affected production plans in regard to both the PlayStation 5 and games. A Sony executive has been offering up cautious words about potential PS5 success and sales.

For months, a problem has been lingering around Lenovo's expensive ThinkPad multimedia-flagship: The keyboard of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 does not recognize keyboard inputs reliably. For a ThinkPad laptop, a brand known for great keyboards, an especially frustrating problem. Now, Lenovo might have solved the bug with a firmware update.

The Motorola One Vision launched as this OEM's first smartphone with a punch-hole display. Now, it seems it is getting a new variant. Known as the Plus, it has the same size screen as the original, but may not be the same on the inside.

An advert on a Japanese website has stated that the PlayStation 5 is scheduled for release in October 2020. The job listing is for a role within SIE’s materials department and would see the successful applicant undoubtedly working with the PS5. However, Sony has stated that the published launch date is a mistake.

Lenovo introduced the latest ThinkPad X1 Carbons with up to 10th-gen Intel Core i7s at CES 2020; however, they have not been available in some regions thus far, Germany included. This has now been addressed on the OEM's webstore.

A currently unproven rumor on social media has claimed that there will be two starter pack variants of the PlayStation 5, with a premium pack offering a larger capacity SSD than the basic console pack. The same post also includes prices for the two PS5 options, at €499 (US$540) for the basic choice and €599 (US$648) for the premium package.

A price prediction from a noted gaming analyst for the Microsoft Xbox Series X next-gen console could seriously upset the cart for Sony and its PlayStation 5 if it ends up being accurate. While many have guessed at a price of US$500-US$600 for the Xbox Series X, this could be drastically lower if Microsoft decides to undercut the PS5.

Redmi is currently linked to the launch of a phone called the 10X. Despite the novelty of this name, recent leaks have suggested that this device has the same specs as the Note 9 from the same brand. However, a new tip contradicts this idea with a different spec-list.

A new report from a Taiwanese media outlet claims that some major PC- and PC component-makers are planning to withdraw from the annual Computex event this year. They may cite the current public health crisis as their reason for doing so, despite the fact the show has been postponed for this very reason.

The Snapdragon 855-powered Mi Mix 3 5G was launched about a year ago. Since then, it hasn't received a major OS update, and remains stuck on Android Pie with no hope for a change of status anytime soon. Even worse, the Mi Mix 3 5G hasn't gotten the MIUI 11 update either, and owners of the phone refuse to take that sitting down.

Chinese manufacturer Meizu has now launched its flagship phones for the year: the Meizu 17 and Meizu 17 Pro. The phones pack in an assortment of current-gen technology including 90 Hz AMOLED displays, LPDDR5 RAM, UFS 3.1 storage, 30 W fast wired charge, and 27 W wireless charge in a bid to compete against the Mi 10 and OnePlus 8 series.

Canalys has tweeted a graph showing the global top 10 smartphones in Q1 2020 and all of the positions are taken up by devices from just three OEMs: Apple, Xiaomi, and Samsung. The big winner for the quarter was the iPhone 11 with over 18 million units shipped. There were strong figures for the Redmi Note 8 & 8T and the Galaxy A51 too.

The prices for Xiaomi Mi 10 smartphones for the Indian market have been revealed and have shocked fans expecting something more affordable. For example, the Xiaomi Mi 10 with 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage will cost ₹49,999 (US$662). This has led to many comments that smartphone users will be considering a OnePlus 8 Pro purchase instead.

LG has now unveiled its newest device. The LG Velvet is a replacement for the company's long-running G-series, and seeks to move downmarket, keeping the V line as LG's only premium series. Sadly, though, the Velvet is looking more like a miss than a hit.

With the new Ryzen 4000 ThinkPads edging closer to availability, Lenovo adds two new models to the roster: The affordable ThinkPad E14 and ThinkPad E15 have been available with Intel CPUs for a few months already.

Business laptops sporting AMD Ryzen Pro CPUs have always been hard to come by and even when they appear, most are of the budget variety. The new Zen 2 Ryzen PRO 4000U series is looking to change that by offering much faster performance than before on higher-end laptop models.

An analyst with the ARK Investing group has reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) now has a market cap that exceeds that of Intel. Therefore, the former may now be more valuable than the latter. This is mainly attributed to the Company's smartphone SoC business.

Gole Technology has introduced the Gole11 all-in-one PC, which is also known as the HiGole F11APL. According to the company, the Gole11 is “the world’s cheapest all-in-one”, and it features an Intel Celeron N3450 processor and an 11.6-inch touchscreen with a 1920x1080 resolution. The device has been offered for as little as US$99 to early-bird crowdfunding backers.

Xiaomi has been celebrating the sales of over 30 million smartphones from the Redmi Note 8 series, which was launched in August 2019. Redmi general manager Lu Weibing has been talking about the success of the Redmi Note 8 and also delivering news of temporary price cuts for certain models. Apparently, a focus on young users has contributed to the amazing sales record.

The Xperia 10 II is now available for pre-order in Europe, and Sony has also confirmed its pricing in the UK. Camera samples from the phone have also surfaced, showing off the capabilities of the phone's versatile triple camera setup.

The flagship Chromebook is essentially a retrofitted HP EliteBook convertible running on Google Chrome OS. It'll launch this August for a yet-to-be-announced price point, but it'll definitely cost more than your average Chromebook based on specifications alone.

The Beanque is a bean-to-cup coffee maker advertised as being ultra-portable and delivering "superior coffee". With USB Type-C charging, a conical ceramic burr grinder, a double-wallled filter, a measuring jug and a travel mug, then Beanque should represent good value for money at US$49. Its ergonomics let it down, in our opinion.

The sale date for the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 ultrabook featuring an AMD Ryzen 7 4800U APU has been announced. Apparently, public sales will begin on May 16 with a pre-sale starting on May 11. The AMD-based Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 was originally expected to be released in April but was delayed, possibly due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mindfactory’s sales data for March 2019 to April 2020 has been released and the CPU charts make for extremely grim viewing for Intel. In March of last year, Intel had a reasonable 31% of the sales share but that has now plummeted to just 9% by April this year. Clearly, the Zen 2-based Matisse range has been a runaway hit for AMD.

The brand Schenker is well known for its Schenker XMG laptops. Office and business laptops are not necessarily associated with it, which Schenker wants to change with the VIA 14 – a pretty successful endeavor.

Some OnePlus 8 Pro units suffer from well-documented green tint and black crush display issues. OnePlus is now acknowledging the latter to be a hardware defect, and is offering to repair, refund, or replace affected units.

AMD's earnings per share grew by a mammoth 1300 percent since Q1 2019. The growth in share value is largely due to consistently high sales of Ryzen 3000 processors, together with growth in the enterprise segment with EPYC and the recent launch of Ryzen 4000 Renoir APUs.

E-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart will now be allowed to resume operations in orange and green zones in the Indian subcontinent. People residing in red zones will have to wait till their region is upgraded to green/yellow or until the nationwide lockdown measures are lifted on May 17th.

Ubisoft is giving three games away for free until May 5: Assassin’s Creed II, Rayman Legends, and Child of Light. The company’s store also has a number of titles that are free to try as demos, including Tom Clancy’s The Division. Four versions of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla can be pre-ordered for the PC, with the Collector’s Edition priced at US$199.99.

Apple has published a consolidated report of its financial performance in the second quarter of 2020 (2Q2020). It shows an overall increase in revenue of about 1% compared to the same quarter of 2019; however, when these figures are divided into the categories of products and services, one has made a loss.