Business Articles

Cricket Wireless can now offer the Nokia 3.1 Plus as a result of a new deal made with HMD Global. The budget smartphone will be sold at US$159.99 in its stores. However, it will have competition from the Alcatel Onyx, an equally budget device available at $119.99 through the same carrier.

Chinese underdogs Meizu are set to launch a high-value budget device next month. The Meizu M9 Note will feature a 48 MP Samsung sensor and will be powered by a Snapdragon 675. These, coupled with a US$150 price tag, ensure that it competes effectively against the Redmi Note 7.

Since early last year, there have been rumors of HMD Global's plans to launch a flagship phone with five rear cameras. The rumor mills may finally stop grinding, though, as the company is set to unveil the device next month in Barcelona.

Lenovo's lineup of ThinkPad laptops has not been updated at CES as in the last years. Thanks to a leak coming from China, we now know Lenovo's plans for 2019. The ThinkPad roadmap 2019 includes informations on when which models are to be released and which models will merely receive CPU updates.

The well-regarded leaker Steve Troughton-Smith claims to have found references to unfamiliar iPads while diving into the code for the iOS 12.2 update. It suggests that new 11-inch iPads, as well as an iPad Mini, are on their way. The code also specifies an iPod Touch that could be of the rumored upcoming 7th generation.

The next Google I/O event is scheduled for May 7 to 9 2019, at the Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, California. These details were uncovered as part of some code relating to a cryptic Tweet on the subject. This conference may focus on the release of Android 10 (Q).

Intel’s current interim CEO, Bob Swan, has stated in an earnings call that he expects the company’s chip shortage to ease by the middle of the year. However, focus is expected to be on producing high-performance processors whilst the supply of “value end” silicon will remain limited. Intel also reported revenue of US$70.8 billion for 2018, up by 13% from 2017.

HMD Global has announced new collaborations with North American carriers to bring Nokia phones to users in that continent. The Finnish company has made deals with Verizon and Cricket Wireless in the US and Rogers Communications in Canada so that the carriers will start offering their customers products from the Nokia range. The Nokia 3.1 Plus and the Nokia 2 V will be the first offerings from HMD.

Unveiled back in 2018, the QNAP TR-004 is finally available for purchase. This storage accessory is a 4-bay hardware RAID storage expansion device that sports USB 3.0 Type-C connectivity and can be attached to a PC or a NAS. When connected to a NAS, the TR-004 can be used as external storage or as an expansion storage device.

A WCCFTech correspondent claims to have exclusive news from various sources confirming that some laptop manufacturers are prepared to pick up AMD's new 7nm mobility line-up when it comes out - and that others are not. According to this report, ASUS, HP and Acer are open to adopting these new chipsets.

Huawei held a press conference in Beijing yesterday, in order to familiarize its attendants with its plans for MWC and the roll-out of its 5G technology. The company's consumer business CEO, Yu Chengdong, announced that the company's long-awaited foldable phone would be unveiled at the international tech show. He also reported that Honor, Huawei's popular sub-brand, had exhibited a year-on-year growth of 170%.

Notorious financier and philanthropist George Soros thinks that China's push in the AI field — which involves the plan to overtake the US by 2030 — is a severe threat to open societies. He also said that the social credit system "would give Xi Jinping total control over the people" if it became operational.

Thanks to its arrival on the Mac App Store, Microsoft Office 365 can now be downloaded and installed by Mac users with a single click. This cloud-connected office suite includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive. Office 365 for macOS supports Dark Mode, Continuity Camera, OneDrive Files on Demand, and more.

Samsung Korea has announced that it will release the phone formerly known as the Galaxy A8s for sale in the country in February. To date, this punch-hole display phone has only been available in China. It will be re-named the Galaxy A9 Pro (2019) for its new market, and cost approximately US$535 on its South Korean debut.

Citus Data was founded eight years ago, and now this Turkish company that focuses on building upon PostgreSQL and its open and extensible ecosystem is joining Microsoft. Unsurprisingly, neither of the two parties involved bothered to reveal the financial terms of the deal to the public.

There has been a report published stating that the American consumer electronics manufacturer Sonos is planning a foray into the headphones market. The company is probably best known for its work with smart speakers and other home-based sound equipment. Rumor has it that Sonos will be targeting the top end of the market where headphones can cost hundreds of dollars.

The ProBook 445 G6 and 455 G6 are the AMD versions of the Intel-powered ProBook 440 G6 and 450 G6. Aside from the swap in processors, these AMD SKUs will also sport less RAM with no LTE, discrete graphics, or touchscreen options to keep prices at more affordable levels.

The new Intel RealSense Tracking Camera T265 was designed for applications such as robotics, drones, and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR). This US$199 piece of hardware uses proprietary visual inertial odometry simultaneous localization and mapping, can be already pre-ordered, and shipments will begin at the end of February.

The professional DK30C2HAGPD and DK30C2DAGPD docks are able to make the most of USB Type-C Gen. 1 by switching between two different modes depending on user application.

GPD has started one successfully financed Indiegogo campaign after another. They are already preparing another project, and it’s already waiting in the wings. The GPD MicroPC has numerous ports, and it’s tough.

Yesterday, Intel announced that a major milestone in global inclusion has been reached: gender pay equity across the company's worldwide workforce. The equity analysis that came up with this conclusion has also taken into account stock-based compensation. Intel currently employs 107,000 people in over 50 countries.

Although the 20 MP resolution is no longer a high-end specification for a modern single-sensor smartphone camera, the ISOCELL Slim 3T2 by Samsung focuses on other attributes instead. Advertised by Samsung as the industry's most compact image sensor, this piece of hardware was designed with full-screen display smartphones in mind.

Reuters has reported that the United States plans to formally petition Canada for the extradition of Meng Wanzhou. The Huawei executive had been detained in the latter country at the request of the former in connection with suspected breaches of US sanctions on Iran. The US authority in question has until January 30 to make its request.

Recently, Meizu hinted at the release of something they called the "holeless phone". This led to speculation that the OEM were about to launch a new device with a 'punch-hole' camera, or some kind of novel alternative to it. It turns out that what Meizu meant was a 100% unibody phone without conventional methods of input at all.

Apple released 3 iPhone models last year; however, the 2 more premium, OLED-equipped variants appear to have done better in some estimates. This impression was recently reinforced when the company's traditional LCD supplier, Japan Display, was reported as having entered talks to sell a stake in its company to investor groups with the cash to keep it going.

The Core i5 configuration is hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Core i7 option and yet it performs faster in multi-threaded workloads. We highly recommend skipping over the i7 upgrade in favor of other options such as Sure View, WAN, or the brighter Outdoor Mode backlight.

A new leak has named the rumored AMD APU that will power the next generation consoles as Gonzalo. Many speculate that the Gonzalo APU will be used in both the PlayStation 5 (PS5) and next-generation Xbox (Xbox Scarlett). The APU will be built on a 7 nm Zen 2 CPU and a Navi-based GPU. These rumors fortify the belief that AMD will once again be the sole CPU and GPU manufacturer for the major players of the next console generation. As such, AMD stands to enjoy continued financial success from the console market.

Honor, today at an event in Paris, launched its new flagship. The Honor View 20 comes equipped with ample memory and storage, a Kirin 980, a 48 MP sensor with impressive photographic performance, and a brilliant design.

Android Q is the hotly-anticipated next generation of the widely-distributed mobile device platform. Tech correspondents have found a potentially unwelcome piece of code in this new OS. It would allow the SIMs of one carrier to block those of a specific counterpart from operating on a locked phone.

Images of the Sony Xperia XZ4 have been revealed, showing the device with an incredibly long 21:9 display ratio that ensures that users with smaller hands will have a hard time using the phone one-handed. The XZ4 will also run on Android Pie out of the box.

Samsung is set to unveil its Galaxy S10 phones on February 20. For the first time yet, information on the pricing of the phones has surfaced, revealing massive increases in prices across the board, with the fully-specced S10 Plus set to ship with an MSRP in the region of US$1500.

Samsung is billed to release its new Galaxy M phones on January 28. Images and more concrete details of the device have now been revealed, with touted pricing information giving the impression of devices offering excellent value for money.

The Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL) has imposed a fine of €50 million (~US$56.8 million) on Google for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The huge penalty has been justified by the regulatory body based on the severity of the violations, Google’s popularity with French users, and the fact that the infringements were ongoing.

A few recent bad decisions by the Indian government might force Samsung to stop the local manufacturing of Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9 flagships. Even worse, the company might drop its plans to increase the exports of mobile phones made in India, which were supposed to hit 40 percent of the production for 2019.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is one of the best business Ultrabooks you can buy. Lenovo offers a total of four different displays for its flagship device, and we tested them all.

A new report on the worldwide wearable device market by Allied Market Research indicates that its value could grow to US$31 billion in the next 6 years. This is likely to be driven by the increasing uptake of its products in the healthcare and educational sectors. Apple had the greatest share of the smartwatch-specific market in 2017

Although Xiaomi is present in most African markets via third-party distributors, the Chinese brand is now ready to take a more direct approach by launching a dedicated department for this part of the world. Xiaomi's African Regional Department will bring official launches and after-sales support in the area, as well as better prices.

Ren Zhengfei, the CEO of Huawei, has written an email warning his colleagues of the possibility of "hard times" in the future. They may include reductions in the size of the company's various regional subsidiaries. These comments may be related to Huawei's recent loss of business in the 5G infrastructure area.

The Exynos 7 Series 7904 is a new mobile processor by Samsung Electronics that aims to bring high-end features to the mid-range sector of the market. This chip was customized for the needs of the Indian consumer and sports support for single camera resolutions of up to 32 MP, but can also handle triple-camera setups.

Although some customers received protection from spam and robocalling in the past, now Verizon is ready to provide these useful security features to all its customers. These two treats will be offered for free starting in March, revealed Joe Russo, senior vice president of network operations for Verizon.

In a world where some believe innovation in the smartphone industry to have plateaued, 2018 managed to give us a number of brilliant smartphones. Here we take a close look at the devices we just cannot wait to see in 2019, with a focus on what makes them so interesting.

Apple’s stock price has been experiencing an upturn over the last couple of weeks. After reaching a 52-week low of US$142, the Apple empire struck back, and the latest price for the Cupertino company currently stands at US$156.82. In terms of market capitalization value, Amazon has now overtaken Microsoft.

Popular tipster OnLeaks revealed renders of what was said to be the upcoming LG G8. LG has come out to deny those claims, however, and it's a lot more likely that those images are of another premium LG phone.

Jensen Huang is trying to divert attention from stock prices and investor troubles with an optimistic outlook over the inventory troubles that the green team has been having since early 2H 2018. Nvidia's CEO was happy to announce that the entire Pascal GPU inventory is almost gone, but this might not actually be good for end users who will be stuck with overpriced RTX 2000 cards.

The worldwide market for wireless charging products was worth just over US$2 billion in 2017. However, this figure is projected to grow by about $19 billion in the next 4 years. The market research group BIS Research concludes that this is due to the increased uptake of global standards (e.g. Qi) and the integration of wireless chargers into everyday objects such as cars.

It has been reported that Sony Mobile is considering departing several key markets in the Middle East and Southeast Asian regions. The telecommunications arm of the Japanese tech giant has struggled to keep up with rivals such as Samsung, Apple, and Huawei, and there has been speculation Sony would exit the smartphone market entirely. But Sony fans can relax, the Xperia XZ4 isn’t doomed.

AMD has issued a statement in regard to the recent rumor that only 5,000 Radeon VII GPUs were going to be made available for sale at release time. However, the statement has not explicitly confirmed or refuted the claim of a limited run of units. It simply mentions that the company expects to be able to meet initial demand for the much-heralded chip.

Fossil Group has issued a press release to announce a US$40 million deal with Google. The search engine giant will be purchasing intellectual property (IP) from the well-known American designer label in regard to smartwatch technology. There has been speculation that Google is preparing to mount a challenge to Apple’s current dominance of the smartwatch market.