Business Articles

Facial recognition is projected to continue to grow as an industry into the next decade. Its market is estimated at being worth US$3.2 billion now. However, this value is projected to grow to $7 billion by 2024.

The Redmi 7A boasts an improved camera, processor and SKU choices compared to its predecessor, the 6A. It will go on sale in India at a special starting price of INR 5799 (~US$85). However, even its "normal" price translates to about $95: the Redmi 6A's price when it launched.

The Pixel C was released back in 2015 and received two major updates and about four years of software support in total. Starting this month, July 2019, though, Google will stop sending out security updates to the tablet. This comes after reports a few weeks ago that Google is planning to kill off its tablet business completely.

The Redmi Note 7 Pro was launched a few months ago and has been hailed as the indubitable best-value mid-range option in the markets in which it's sold. Huawei's sub-brand, Honor, is a rival to Xiaomi on many counts and the company's upcoming Honor 9X may finally dethrone the Redmi Note 7 Pro as king of the mid-range.

The latest report from SensorTower shows that app purchases generated a revenue of US$39.7 billion in the 1st 6 months of 2019. This impressive figure also represents a 15% year-on-year increase in the same kind of spending. The Apple App Store accounted for 64% of these takings.

Wearables are currently projected to influence the way personal electronics are used more and more in the future. This technology now covers both devices that can double as accessories and as clothing. Their market is estimated to be worth up to US$51.6 billion in the next 3 years.

The new entry-level card will be replacing the WX3100 launched 2 years ago. It comes with the same low-profile, single slot design and a 50 W TDP, but the updated 14 nm Polaris core coupled with 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM is able to crunch 104 GFLOPs in double precision workloads. It also features four DisplayPort 1.4 connectors which enables support for quad 4K monitor setups.

Wireless charging is already appreciably popular today. Its market is thought to be capable of attaining a US$27 billion value over the next 6 years, according to the latest research. Its results show the most prominent application of this technology is in (surprise surprise) smartphones.

Vuzix has filed a new patent with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). It will inform future smart glasses made by this OEM, particularly regarding their use in augmented reality (AR) applications. Vuzix also claims that it will help the company use the latest materials in the spectacle-making industry, as well as the most up-to-date AR sensors.

Synopsys has announced the successful implementation of its Yield Explorer platform at Samsung's fabricators. This reportedly results in a ramping-up of production in terms of 7 (as well as 10 and 8) nanometer (nm) architectures for this OEM. The 2 companies also now claim that this move will also inform 5-3nm platform manufacture.

India now joins China and the European Union in the race to break away from U.S. hardware reliance. Developed since early 2016, the Shakti CPU family based on the open-source RISC-V microarchitecture offers multiple classes of chips designed for specific markets like embedded / IoT, mobile, HTPC and workstation / server, promising performance similar to existing Intel, AMD and ARM chips.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has lashed out at a Wall Street Journal article that reported Jony Ive decided to leave the company because Cook wasn't interested in design. In an email to sent to NBC's Dylan Byers, Cook refutes the story's claims as 'absurd' and that the article didn't align with the reality of the situation.

Redmi's K20 phones were always going to be best-sellers. The devices, in about a month since they went on sale, have done impressively on the market, with the company confirming sales of a million units. This is even more astonishing when one considers that the K20 Pro is currently exclusive to China, and the regular K20 has been rebranded as the Mi 9T in Europe.

Although tablets were expected to go extinct, a new study by Future Market Insights predicts that the demand for such pieces of hardware "will surge extensively in the upcoming years" thanks to multiple reasons. This report claims that global tablet sales for the decade ending in 2026 will bring in no less than US$600 billion.

In an interview with a small group of media outlet, Samsung CEO D.J. Koh stated that the Galaxy Fold's flubbed launch was "embarrassing." However, Koh still sees foldable devices as the next logical step in the evolution of personal computing. Koh also stated that he envisions a future of connected devices that will replace even foldable phones in a few years time.

According to Canalys mobile VP Nicole Peng, 5G smartphones will see a rapid adoption in China thanks to the strong government roadmap and the financial capabilities of the local operators. Global 5G phone shipments are expected to hit 800 million units in 2023 — more than 51 percent of the entire market, reveals the research firm.

Samsung's first phablet without a notch and/or cutout — thanks to the sliding camera assembly — is finally going on sale both online and offline in select markets across the globe about three months since its debut. The Galaxy A80 is priced at more than US$730 and comes in Angel Gold, Ghost White, and Phantom Black.

The trade restrictions that Japan has just announced will make it harder for companies such as Samsung and LG to buy various materials used in both chips and smartphones. The list of these materials includes resist, hydrogen fluoride, and fluorinated polyimide. Starting July 4, local companies will need the government's approval to export such materials to South Korea.

Samsung's answer to Google Play replaces apps with capsules, aiming to lay the foundation "for an open ecosystem of useful services that developers will continuously enrich, and users will be able to make their mobile experience more personal and intuitive." Sadly, this service is only available in the US and South Korea for now.

OnePlus has just instituted a CA$100 (US$78) discount for its latest flagship, the 7 Pro, in Canada. However, those who bought their phones at the device's initial higher price in the country need not fret: the OEM has sent them an email assuring them that they will receive cash-back for the same amount via their respective payment method.

Until now, under-display fingerprint readers have come with the prerequisite of AMOLED displays. Chinese display maker BOE is set to break the wheel, though, as it has confirmed the production of LCD panels that support the under-display sensors.

The US and Chinese presidents have met at the latest G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. As a result, a ceasefire in the trade war between the two nations has been called. Accordingly, it has been agreed that Huawei can conduct certain amounts of business with US companies again.

Mobile payments are now thought of as a market capable of vast growth over the next 3 years. The latest figures put its worth at US$348 billion now; however, this is thought to grow to $1.3 trillion in 2022. It is projected to grow at this rate in the developed and developing world, and is thought to benefit from the presence of mobile network operators.

Apple fans were shocked by news that legendary design guru Jony Ive is leaving the company. While Ive has undoubtedly contributed significantly to numerous iconic Apple designs in the past, he is not, however, leaving Apple on a design high.

The carrier T-Mobile has released the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G for sale today (June 28, 2019). This coincides with its inaugural 5G service debut. However, it currently only covers 6 cities in the US, and not much of any of them at that.

The FCC has given Ossia the green light to begin installing Cota in industrial and commercials sites. Devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops can be recharged without any AC adapters much like how Wi-Fi has replaced RJ-45 in certain applications.

In a major blow to the Apple its fabled Chief Design Officer Jony Ive has announced he is leaving the company. As the hand behind Apple’s most iconic designs, the news immediately triggered a negative reaction on Wall Street stripping US$9 from the value of its shares in after-market trading.

Intel has lifted the lid on its Xe GPUs, revealing what could be one of its consumer desktop cards, along with specifications and proposed release dates. Hardware raytracing on 7 nm chipsets by 2021, anyone?

Apple recently hired Mike Filippo, who formerly served as ARM's lead CPU architect. While this move may mean that Apple will begin developing an ARM-based MacBook (as so many have hoped the past few years), it is more likely that Filippo will fill the role of Gerard Williams III, Apple's former lead mobile CPU architect who left the company earlier this year.

Back in January, Lenovo announced their newest generation of high end ThinkPad X1 laptops for a summer release. As promised back then, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga 2019 and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2019 are now available.

Qualcomm has partnered with ZTE at MWC Shanghai to expound on 5G and what it means for the future of mobile gaming. To that end, it has demonstrated cloud gaming - which is powered by Tencent Instant Play in China - on phones with Snapdragon X50 modems. They are sold by ZTE itself, OnePlus, Vivo and Xiaomi.

Don't count your chickens yet, AMD fans. Frank Azor, the outgoing VP and General Manager of Alienware and XPS at Dell, has cast doubts on his seemingly impending move to AMD. He appears to have made a subtle dig at the company too.

Qualcomm has announced that its latest flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 855, is the first CPU for mobile devices to attain the Smart Card Equivalent Security Certification. This means the processor can handle applications normally confined to the realm of dedicated security chips. It does this through its integrated Secure Processing Unit.

Canon is attending the 2019 Sensors Expo & Conference in San Jose, California to showcase its new 120MXSI sensor. This CMOS is rated for 120MP imaging, and can operate in visible and near-infra-red (NIR) light spectra at a maximal 9.4 frames per second.

AMD tends to undercut Intel on price, but the blue corner is looking to turn the tide with a series of price cuts for its 9th generation processors.

Edge computing is a rapidly emerging industry that may become closely associated with others such as machine learning in the future. Its market is now projected to be worth US$6.9 billion in the next 5 years. This is thought to be driven by its use in 5G and smart-city applications.

Huawei has refuted reports that the volume of its orders for new smartphone units from the manufacturer Foxconn have been downsized. This allegation is linked to the OEM's recent ban from working with US companies. On that note, it has also been claimed that one of these businesses, FedEx, refused to complete a shipment because it contained Huawei hardware.

The crowdfunding campaign for the Chuwi MiniBook has exceeded all expectations, having achieved over 1,000% of its funding goal. This would be an impressive feat in a full campaign period, let alone 2 days. The Chuwi MiniBook is an 8.0-inch ultra-mobile convertible laptop that starts at US$430 for the Celeron N4100 model and US$530 for the Core m3-8100Y model on Indiegogo. The MiniBook will ship worldwide in September.

The performance of the 16 nm KX-6000 octa-core CPU might not impress too much, as it only manages to be as fast as Intel's 14 nm i5-7400 quad-core model launched in early 2017, but this is no mere feat for the Chinese industry, especially now when the country is looking to be less and less reliant on the U.S.

Google is reportedly pulling the plug on making its own tablets and a successor to the Pixel Slate. The company is looking to channelize its development efforts towards laptops and we may very well see a new Pixelbook by the end of this year. The development of Pixel phones and Google Home products will continue as usual and so will the software development of Chrome OS to cater to all OEM form-factors.

One-Netbook seems to be constantly updating its product portfolio and now the One Mix 1S Yoga mini laptop can join that list. The pocket-sized computer with a 7-inch 1920x1200 resolution display is joining a growing and competitive market thanks to rival products from manufacturers such as GPD and Chuwi. The One Mix 1S Yoga comes with an Intel Celeron 3965Y processor.

Microsoft 365 for Campaigns is a new service intended to safeguard election campaigns from bad actors of various kinds. It is part of the Redmond company's Defending Democracy Program, and offers enterprise-level security to those covered by its subscriptions. Currently, it is available for US$5 per user per month.

Xiaomi, the Chinese industry giant, sells practically every product imaginable in its home market from smartphones and fitness bands to e-scooters and home appliances. It also has a successful TV business, which surpassed all expectations recently during the JD.com's 618 sales campaign on June 18 with over 100,000 units flying off the shelves in just a few minutes.

We are reviewing the Lenovo ThinkPad T590 at the moment. Having just reviewed the Lenovo ThinkPad T490, we used this opportunity to compare both in terms of design & size.

The Tesla Models S or 3 have a feature called Navigate on Autopilot feature, which can allow one of these vehicles to follow a certain route while driving autonomously. The security firm Regulus Cyber has claimed that they are susceptible to GPS-spoofing interventions, which allegedly caused a test car to enact auto-turning behaviors while still 3 miles from an actual exit.