Business Articles

Beats has unveiled its new Powerbeats Pro on its website. These new earbuds are of the 'sports' variety, and thus have over-the-ear loops built into a completely wireless design. Like the new AirPods, they can activate Siri hands-free and have the new H1 chip for wearables.

A recent post made on Dell’s blog has revealed that the manufacturer has started to incorporate AMD’s Picasso range of mobile APUs into its Inspiron lineup. The Inspiron 15 5000 (5585) with a second-generation Ryzen CPU is now available to select on Dell’s online configurator, with shoppers being able to choose from three processor options.

A rather cryptic Twitter message by popular leakster Evan Blass reveals that Verizon Wireless will add the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G to its portfolio on May 16. Sadly, there is no information about the price, but since this handset retails in its home market for the equivalent of around US$1,220, Verizon customers can figure out what to expect.

HMD Global, a few days ago, unveiled its newest device. The Nokia X71 features a Snapdragon 660, a triple rear camera setup that includes a 48 MP sensor and a wide-angle lens, a 16 MP selfie camera, and a 3500 mAh battery.

The concept of a whole new brand for OPPO could have been a major reveal for the company at its next launch event. However, this possibility has been disrupted by a multitude of leaks on the subject. Now, the OEM is said to have to be threatening a store with legal action over one of them.

AMD is threatening to consolidate its position on the server market with the latest 7 nm EPYC 64-core CPUs, forcing Intel's hand to launch the Xeon Platinum 9200-series CPUs with up to 56 cores and 112 threads. These top-of-the-line chips feature a dual-die design wrapped in a BGA package, TDPs of up to 400 W, support for 1.5 TB of DDR4-2933 RAM and 4.5 TB Optane storage per chip, plus hardware-level fixes for the most Meltdown/Spectre vulnerabilities.

Huawei has big plans for its sub-brand Honor, which has achieved an impressive YoY growth in international shipments of 170 percent last year. While Honor is still far behind, Huawei is planning to make it the fourth-largest global smartphone maker as soon as possible, although it might take a while.

The e-reparability authority iFixit had nothing but criticism for the first-gen AirPods when they came out. The wireless earbuds received a rare "repairability score" of zero from the company. Now, the new 2019 versions of these products have received the same rating.

Yesterday, the Redmond-based giant has suddenly removed the Books category from the Microsoft Store. Those who purchased ebooks from Microsoft Store can still enjoy them, but they will lose access to the books in July. Thankfully, Microsoft will provide full refunds for any purchased books.

A start-up called Nebra has included its AnyBeam portable projector as a reward on its current Kickstarted campaign. It claims that, as this product uses lasers rather than bulbs, it avoids many of the drawbacks of other similar projectors. This new product comes either in a housing or as a Raspberry Pi-mountable module.

Effective immediately, the Toshiba America Client Solutions group (TACS) will become Dynabook Americas. The company will continue to develop and produce the familiar Portege, Tecra, and DynaEdge PCs for the U.S. market under the Sharp Corporation.

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) has announced that AMD’s CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, will be delivering the opening keynote at Computex 2019. The keynote has been scheduled for May 27, and it seems like this could be the ideal setting for Su to show off AMD’s anticipated Radeon Navi GPU series. It’s also been speculated that she could launch the Ryzen 3000 series at the same time.

Eighteen months after Google launched the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, the company has now pulled the old flagships off from its store shelves. Both devices saw massive discounts over the past three months, but it would appear that Google is getting set for its upcoming releases, the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL.

Chinese OEM Xiaomi released the Mi 9 and MI 9 SE about a month ago. Since then, the company has shipped a million units of the Mi 9 worldwide, and half-a-million units of the Mi 9 SE—a device that's currently exclusive to the Chinese market.

Ting Mobile, a North American mobile service provider, recently conducted a survey of just over 1.400 smartphone users. It found that 64% of these respondents reported cracks in their screens, most of which (62%) did so through dropping their devices. The survey also found that only 11% repaired their own phones, whereas 64% would be interested in a DIY repair kit to help them do so.

The MacBook accessory company Hyper has posted a page on its website for something it calls the "mother of all USB hubs". It has a total of 18 USB ports, 4 SD card slots, a range of legacy monitor ports and, best of all, a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. If this method of expanding on limited ports in your ultrabook sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Please note this was a joke article posted on April Fools' Day in 2019.
In an incredible leak, it has been discovered that a secretive Chinese technology startup called Wánxiào has invented a product called FOS Rapid Alloy that according to some industry insiders will turn the worldwide smartphone market upside down. Full-Organic-Surface (FOS) technology could make its way into the construction of the upcoming Samsung Neat 10, Huawei Mute 30, or even the rumored Apple fitness band iPhat.

UMIDIGI unveiled the F1 in December 2018. This phone shook up the US$200-300 bracket with a 5000mAh battery and other decent specs such as an FHD display and 4GB RAM. Now, a new version of the same adds a 48MP camera sensor, even more battery and a new, even lower price.

Huawei broke records in terms of DxOMark camera ratings when it released the P30 Pro. The OEM has been touting it as a major point of the phone's appeal ever since. Its rival Samsung has pointed out that this situation is not the whole picture.

There’s a great deal of anticipation in the gaming community for the PlayStation 5, or whatever name Sony gives its next-generation console. It seems that some can’t wait for the real thing though, and an increasing number of “leaks” of PlayStation-related hardware are starting to appear on social media.

The liquid cooling specialist EK Water Blocks has revealed a new product for owners of Nvidia Titan RTX graphics cards. The EK Vector RTX Titan is a special edition water block that features an acetal top cover, RGB lighting compatibility, and gold-plated screws. For the pièce de résistance, the EK Vector RTX Titan brandishes a gold-plated cold plate.

Xiaomi launched the Mi A2 last year and could be set to follow it with this year's iteration, the Mi A3. The Mi A3, an Android One device, is expected to be based on a regular MIUI phone, and details of that device have now surfaced.

The FlexPai by the start-up Royole can be thought of as the first flexible phone. This achievement has been rewarded by a Design Award from Red Dot. The company has also won a second such prize for another of its products: a flexible, portable keyboard.

Xiaomi's Black Shark 2 is powered by the Snapdragon 855 SoC and comes with up to 12GB of RAM. It was released earlier this month, albeit to the Chinese market only. Now, however, the OEM has released it for sale on its EU sales site.

A new rumored release date for the upcoming Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 desktop graphics card has been offered: April 22. A previous report had suggested a launch date of April 30 for the latest entry to the GeForce 16 series, but apparently the new date has been provided by AIBs. A Ti variant of the GTX 1650 is also expected at some point.

Google has accidentally leaked a new product in its Google Home range. The Nest Hub Max, which was spotted by Android Police, was featured in the Connected Home section of the tech giant’s website. The information about the Nest Hub Max has now been taken down, but not before it was shared online.

Nvidia will offer at least 45 different Max-Q laptops or configurations this year up from 19 in the previous year. The fast-growing gaming laptop market stands in contrast to the contracting Ultrabook market.

The 5G variant of the Samsung Galaxy S10 will be released in South Korea on April 5, 2019. A news outlet in that country has claimed to have uncovered pricing details on this flagship option. It will start at the equivalent of about US$1285.

Apple's original AirPods snatched the majority of the true wireless earphone market at the end of 2018, according to Counterpoint Research. Its latest report on the subject put the earbuds' share at 60%. Jabra, Samsung, JLabs and Bose provided the remainder of the top 5 during the time studied.

Lyft has successfully completed its IPO in the US, and is trading on the Nasdaq platform as of today (March 29, 2019). It had been estimated to start at US$72 per share; however, this value is now closer to $88. This, then, is the most successful tech offering since Snap - but Uber is hot on its heels.

Apple puts the maximum RAM of its new 27-inch iMac at 64GB. However, the memory kit-maker OWC has confirmed that the PC is indeed compatible with twice this value. Therefore, it now sells upgrade kits for this PC that may allow a user to add 120GB of RAM to an iMac base model.

Sony has announced a “realignment” that involves Sony Mobile, the Imaging Products & Solutions Business, and the Home Entertainment & Sound Business. The merger will create Sony’s Electronics Products & Solutions Business. Some see it as Sony’s attempt to hide the massive failure of Sony Mobile to compete with rivals such as Samsung, Huawei, and Apple.

The Galaxy S10+ is at the top end of Samsung's latest flagship smartphone line. Despite the early point in the year, Consumer Reports has named it the best device in its category. This assessment was made based on the S10+'s cameras, battery life and durability.

TCO Certified is a body that assesses the durability, recyclability and upgradability of desktops and laptops. The goal of this process is to improve sustainability in the IT industry. TCO claims that its 8th-generation criteria are the most stringent yet, and that 3 OEMs in particular have beaten them.

The G8 ThinQ is LG's latest flagship, and introduces its Crystal Sound technology among other features. This smartphone will become available in the United States from April 11, 2019. However, those who want it on Sprint can pre-order it from tomorrow (March 29).

Targus, a name in the travel and laptop-carrying accessory space, has developed the Mobile ViP+ Backpack. It integrates Qi wireless charging, so that a phone such as the Samsung Galaxy S10+ can have a dedicated pocket within the new bag that secures and charges it at the same time. This new backpack also has RFID shielding and airport-cart compatibility.

Jabra has released its latest generation of neckbuds, the Evolve 65e. The audio company claims that this wireless set of earphones has consumer-grade comfort with professional levels of audio. This product has attained Skype for Business and UC certification, which may appeal to the business customer in need of mobile connectivity.

Sony's RX0 line is the company's take on the compact camera. Its latest version, the RX0 II, crams 4K recording, advanced image processing and electronic stabilization into "the world's smallest and lightest premium compact camera". This device is also fit for outdoors videography, and it comes with water, dust and shock resistance.

The new, ultra-compact Vnopn K1 does without a fan and has no moving parts, which helps keep its form factor down. Vnopn has equipped the K1 with an AMD processor too unlike many other PCs of its size.

HMD Global has confirmed that it will launch its next device, the egregiously-named Nokia X71, on April 2, at an event in Taiwan. The X71 will be positioned directly below the Nokia 9 Pureview and will feature a punch-hole display and, perhaps, a triple rear camera setup with one of the sensors being a 48 MP unit.

At MWC, Lenovo announced their new 2019 ThinkPad business lineup. Roughly a month later, the majority of the new ThinkPad laptops are now available, though all of the new models still miss some hardware options.

Office Depot, Inc. and Support.com, Inc. have agreed to pay a combined total of US$35 million to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after being accused of tricking customers into paying for unnecessary computer repair services. Support.com has been involved in a similar scareware scandal before, in conjunction with AOL’s Computer Checkup service.

A recent video leaked onto YouTube showed off a Samsung Galaxy Fold smartphone with a rather worrying visible crease running down the center of the display. However, a communications manager for Samsung has offered reassurance that buyers of the Galaxy Fold will not encounter the issue faced by the device in the controversial clip.

2019 may be the year of the first-generation foldable smartphones from familiar brands. They are likely to be linked to extra-large price-tags; however, a prominent industry figure has predicted that they may shrink steadily as time goes on. Unfortunately, a new report may have put the kibosh on that idea.

A recent legal ruling gave Qualcomm the right to force iPhones off its OEM's own shelves in China. Now, the chip-maker may get the chance to do the same in the US. A judge from the country's International Trade Commission has ruled that the Apple infringed on a patent that applies to its most recent mobile SoCs, leading to a recommendation that their use should be prevented.

There is a rumor that AMD has been working on its own version of ray-tracing technology that could be incorporated into the red team’s expected Navi 20 series. The same source speculates that this high-end lineup could challenge or even surpass the ray-tracing capabilities of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards.

Huawei also introduced some new products to complement its latest flagships, the P30 and P30 Pro. They include the FreeLaces, a pair of 'neckbuds' with an innovative design. The OEM also now offers a power bank with its SuperCharge technology, which can charge at 40 watts: enough for laptops as well as smartphones.

Huawei also revealed the existence of some new wearables at its early-2019 launch event in Paris. The least expected of these are the new 'smart' glasses the OEM has developed with the eyewear company Gentle Monster. Their main function is in fact to deliver audio via Bluetooth, and also charge via a new and interesting route.