Business Articles

Imaging sensors are used in a huge variety of electronics, which include digital cameras and smartphones. Their market was worth US$15.93 billion in 2018, but is now projected to be worth $29.99 billion in 6 years. This is thought to be related to their emerging relevance to autonomous vehicles.

As the latest Qualcomm flagship processor, the Snapdragon 865 may be expected to gain a Plus variant (or 865+) later this year, in accordance with very recent tradition. A Weibo tipster now asserts that this will occur some time in the third quarter of 2020. This new version may power late-year versions of phones such as the OnePlus 8 and Nubia Red Magic 5G.

The T8i is the latest in the EOS Rebel series made by Canon. It has a 24MP APS-C CMOS sensor with a 45-point all-cross form of auto-focus (AF) with Face Detect. This Rebel is also the first of its line to feature vertical video for consumption on mobile devices.

A Chinese e-tailer site briefly carried a listing of the upcoming Intel 10th gen Comet Lake-S desktop CPUs qualifying samples (QS) for sale indicating that we may not have to wait much longer before retail units become available. Another site managed to get their hands on a Core i9-10900, but the base clock seems to be lower than what was expected.

Huawei has been slapped with a trade ban from the US Administration that prevents it from selling to companies based in that country. However, the nation's Department of Justice (DoJ) had postponed it for 90 days by way of a new licensing system. Now, the same body has issued a further extension to the same.

The sub-$1000 ceiling seems to be a sweet spot for Ice Lake laptops. The Surface Laptop 3 joins the HP Spectre 13, Lenovo Yoga C940, and Razer Blade Stealth as some of the least expensive laptops you can find with Intel's latest 10 nm 10th gen Core i5 to Core i7 CPUs.

NVIDIA has now completed its fiscal 2020, which ended on January 26 this year. It has reported revenues of just over US$3 billion for its last quarter (4FQ2020), or 41% greater compared to 4FQ2019. The company's CEO has attributed this success to its "accelerated computing" concerns.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020 has been cancelled in an effort to help control the spread of the novel coronavirus worldwide. Now, a prominent imaging hardware show, CP+ (or the Camera and Photo Imaging Show) 2020, has followed suit. It was to take place in Yokohama, Japan, and may have attracted about 70000 visitors.

Earlier (on February 13, 2020), Android Police spotted a page for a new Android Developer Preview on this OEM's website. However, its download links never went live. Now, this page is back to its old Android 10 self, suggesting that the new version is still not here in any form after all.

After four titles made by Ghost Games, the Need for Speed franchise is returning to Criterion Games. The UK-based studio, widely known for the Burnout series, developed Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010) and Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012). The recent titles that involved Criterion include Battlefield V (2018) and Star Wars: Battlefront (2016-2017).

With the MWC 2020 event officially called off, Realme has decided to launch its flagship, the Realme X50 Pro 5G, in an online event on February 24. The Realme X50 Pro 5G will be powered by the Snapdragon 865 SoC, will feature 65W SuperDart fast charging, and will run on the new Realme UI OS based on Android 10.

Roh Tae-moon, the president of Mobile at Samsung, has claimed that the OEM has developed devices with "even more" hinges than the new Galaxy Z Flip. However, these multi-folding phones are apparently not ready for prime-time yet. This is due to the idea that consumers will want much more UX polish in such products.

Instead of ending production of the Galaxy S10 series, Samsung will keep making them and selling them officially with a US$150 permanent price drop. That could have an interesting effect on the support lifespan of the phones, and their resale value.

Olympus has released the third generation of the OM-D E-M1, its popular lightweight professional camera. The company is making big promises too, with the OM-D E-M1 Mark III apparently offering world's best image stabilisation. The camera can stabilise up to 7.5 stops and includes a 20.4 MP 4/3" Live MOS sensor, along with fast autofocus and more.

Even after the introduction of the Z series, Nikon continues to improve its SLR cameras. The company's latest attempt is the D6, a camera that it promises sets new performance standards. The Nikon D6 comes with a range of features that should please professional photographers, too.

Samsung's next-gen 108 MP ISOCELL image sensor can deliver brighter and more detailed still images and 24 fps 8K videos even in the most difficult lighting conditions. The list of technologies used by the Bright HM1 image sensor includes Nonacell, Smart-ISO, real-time HDR, and more.

Samsung has opened up its Galaxy S20 series trade-in program for reservers and there looks to be a few issues with it. For one, owners of the Galaxy S10e get the short end of the stick.

After meeting earlier this week to discuss the viability of Mobile World Congress 2020, the GSMA has decided to cancel MWC 2020 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. Multiple companies have stated they would not be in attendance due to the epidemic earlier this month. In response, the GSMA has outright cancelled MWC in its entirety.

The popular online messaging service WhatsApp has reported that it has passed an important milestone: 2 billion users. It emphasized its simple, convenient and private interface in its statement on this matter. Furthermore, it asserted its ongoing commitment to protecting the (doubtless huges amounts of) data sent through it daily.

HMD Global, an OEM that makes Nokia phones, is one of the latest companies to announce the cancellation of its showcase at MWC 2020. Like the others, it has done so to keep its staff and audience safe from the spread of the novel coronavirus. To date, there is no new date for its upcoming launches.

Liquidated in 2018, Swiss firm Crypto AG seems to have been involved in helping the US and German governments spy on no less than 120 countries for decades. The story has just surfaced thanks to an investigation carried out by The Washington Post, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), and Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF).

Xiaomi will still be attending MWC 2020 in Barcelona at the end of the month, where it will globally unveil the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro. The company has promised to take precautions against the proliferation of the coronavirus, the reason for the likes of Sony bowing out of this year's conference. CEO Lei Jun has been showing off some official camera samples for the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro ahead of their Chinese launch this Thursday, too.

The stylish result of the collaboration between Samsung Electronics and New York-based fashion brand Thom Browne "was created for those who are not afraid to make a statement—and who want their technology to be as iconic as their wardrobe" and will arrive in March. The pre-orders will kick off later this week — on February 14, to be more specific.

The latest Huawei-related security issue is huge and it's enough to describe it in a few words for everyone to figure out: for over a decade, the Chinese behemoth has been using backdoors intended for law enforcement to access mobile networks — and the sensitive/private information they carry — all over the world.

The Galaxy S20/Z Flip launch event also saw the announcement of a new level of collaboration between Microsoft and Samsung. It involves porting PC games to this OEM’s phones, starting with Forza Street. It will be exclusive to Samsung's own app store for a while after its release, as may others in the future.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) has been inexorably rocked by a series of cancellations and withdrawals from the show. They have been made by an ever-growing list of companies, to which Intel and Vivo have most recently been added. The show's runners, the GSMA, will now meet on February 14, 2020 in order to determine the event's fate.

Although recent rumors claimed otherwise, it has just been confirmed that ZTE will push aside all the fears regarding the virus that is currently troubling the Chinese mainland and will attend the Mobile World Congress trade show that is scheduled to take place in Barcelona later this month.

Sony has announced that it must withdraw its entire presence from the Mobile World Congress this year. This includes its scheduled press conference and its product showcases on the floor during the event. Meanwhile, TCL has announced that its own conference is cancelled, but that it will still display products.

Samsung has announced that the business-grade versions of its bezel-free and ultra-thin Wall TV series now go up to 583 inches diagonally. This latest word in large-scale displays - which also has an 8K resolution - has been launched at the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2020 conference.

WhatsApp has secured approval to roll out a new facet of its service in India. It is a new payment platform that has just been approved by the relevant authories. This may help the Facebook-owned app compete effectively with others such as Google Pay/Tez and Paytm in the country.

The telecomms equipment maker Ericsson has become one of the latest in a growing group of companies that have decided against an appearance at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) this year. Like those others, it has cited prevention measures against the spread of the novel coronavirus to its employees or public as its reason for quitting the show.

The smartphone maker OPPO has announced the launch of the Reno2 and Reno2 Z in Germany. This series distinguishes itself through its high digital and hybrid camera zoom specs and its pop-up selfie modules. These aspects of the phones may make up for the fact that they are not the latest generations of their line.

Owners of the Honor Play are campaigning for their much-deserved EMUI 10 update. The Honor Play was ignored on all of Huawei's roadmaps so far even though its powered by the same Kirin 970 on flagships like the Mate 10 Pro and P20 Pro—both of which will receive Android 10. A new update has now hit the Honor Play but is unlikely to do anything but piss owners off even more.

Counterpoint Research now believes that the upcoming Galaxy S20 flagships will maintain an upward trend in Samsung sales that began with their S10-series predecessors. Furthermore, the new phones' performance in the market could re-energise the uptake of their category in general. This may be based on the strength of the S20s' price and specs.

A retailer has posted preliminary listings for some upcoming Asus laptops. They do not contain product images, however, based on their model numbers and listed specs, they are clearly destined for the high-end gaming markets. For example, one of them appears to be for a Ryzen 9 4900H-powered Zephyrus G14.

The Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA) is a kind of one-stop pipeline for developers, by which their apps can be uploaded to the in-house software ecosystems of 3 different OEMs simultaneously. However, these companies have asserted that they are not gunning for Google's Play Store with this new initiative.

Apple's Smartwatch outsold all Swiss watchmaker brands combined by 3 to 2 in 2019. Younger consumers prefer smartwatches, a shift that has continually driven sales away from Swiss watchmakers over the past five years. Still, considering their luxury status, it's unlikely that Swiss watchmakers will disappear overnight.

The Modern 15 is more than just an enlarged version of the Modern 14. Though they may share similar chassis styles and materials, their motherboards are completely different for some notable changes in port options, expansion options, and overall performance between them.

Don't let the bright amiable color fool you. The pink MSI laptop will be faster than most 14-inch and 15.6-inch Ultrabooks in the market because of its 6-core Core i7-10710U Comet Lake-U CPU and GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics.

Qualcomm has released its first earnings report for the year 2020. The quarter (1Q2020) saw no less than US$5.1 billion in revenue for the chipmaking giant. This is a 5% improvement compared to 1Q2019. In addition, the company's latest pre-tax earnings saw a year-on-year increase of 69%.

Going by all available information, the Galaxy S20 phones will be more expensive than their predecessors—in the US at least. While that may sound like a thoughtless move by Samsung, some context is necessary.

Compal has won an IF Design Award 2020 for its latest notebook, and for good reason. The PivoBook has a 14-inch OLED display that can be tilted into portrait mode without being removed from the rest of its form-factor, making it ideal for coders, writers or designers that also like content-consumption.

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 energy company, in order to save money. A new study shows that more US households are interested in these functions.

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 that is further enhanced with its ring of 6 LEDs that are also intended for macro photography.

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 asserts that this date has in fact been pushed up a bit.

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.

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 doubles the specification of its previous generation, and is owed to its new DRAM die layout.

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 storage, although Escobar Inc has admitted that the device is a Samsung Galaxy Fold replica. The announcement coincides with reports of Escobar Inc failing to deliver Escobar Fold 1 units and refusing to issue refunds among other red flags, though.

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 it US$300 more expensive than Apple's cheapest iPhone this year, the iPhone 11.