Business Articles

Apple has posted sales pages for new Smart Battery Cases. These products have been designed for the iPhone XS, XS Max or XR, and are available in white or black. Apple claims that they can deliver up to 9 hours of additional active screen use.

A few weeks ago, a leak rumored that the S10 phones could feature new fast-charging technology. New information, however, indicates that the reality of the matter could be different, and S10 owner may have to put up with Samsung's good old 15W fast charge.

Xiaomi is set to build on the success of the Redmi Note 7 with an improved, more powerful Pro version. The Redmi Note 7 Pro is said to feature Sony's 48 MP IMX586 sensor and the new Snapdragon 675. Prices could start at just over US$200.

YouTube has amended its policies in regard to content that depicts dangerous challenges and pranks. Videos that encourage or show activities that could lead to physical harm, make people think they are in danger, or show pranks that could be upsetting to children, have all been banned. The recent popularity of the so-called “Bird Box Challenge” is believed to have been a contributing factor to the updated policy.

The Moto Razr 2019 seems to be ready to take on the mobile world by storm with its foldable display and other new technologies. The only problem could be the value this handset can provide, as it is expected to hit Verizon with a price tag that reads no less than US$1,500.

Even we at Notebookcheck are sometimes surprised by test samples. The entry-level CPU of the ThinkPad X1 Tablet is about 25% faster than the more expensive Core i7 under sustained workloads. How is that possible?

Netflix has announced plans to inflate its prices by up to 18%. However, this will only affect new and existing customers who use US dollars to pay for their subscriptions. This move resulted in a 6.5% increase in its stock price yesterday (January 15, 2019).

Apple has not refreshed or updated the iPod Touch since 2015. That year saw the 6th generation of the device, which was not heard of much since. However, that fact did not stop a Japanese outlet posting claims that a supplier had told it that this product would indeed make a come-back, one equipped with USB type C no less.

MediaTek's Helio P10 SoC is allegedly infringing on graphics technologies developed by AMD. The complaints were filed with the ITC as early as 2017, but the two companies apparently were not able to reach any agreement out of court in the meantime so now AMD is looking to obtain a court order that would force MediaTek to pay up for past, present and current infringements.

AMD could make 5000 - or less - Radeon VII GPUs for sale for their February release, according to sources cited in a new TweakTown report. This may be because the new 7nm cards are Radeon Instinct cut-downs. In addition, this report indicates that there will be a dearth of Radeon VII custom cards.

Anandtech claims to have obtained access to some materials that indicate Intel is planning to release a new, extremely high-end desktop CPU. This processor, the i9-9990XE, is described as having a base clock of 4.0 GHz, 14 cores, 28 threads and a TDP of 225 watts. However, it will be open to OEM bids only.

Analytics platform has revealed its projected shipment figures for the big players in the smartphone market this year. Samsung and Apple are expected to see declines in sales, while Huawei and Xiaomi could see even more growth.

Samsung is set to unveil its new line of devices, the Galaxy M series. The company is expected to kick off the series with three devices, and specifications and official renders of the devices have surfaced.

The Lenovo Z5 Pro GT is a long name to say (or type out), but for the Snapdragon 855, a triple camera and as much as 12GB of RAM it may be worth it. It had been launched in December 2018, with a general release planned for January 24. However, this date has now been put back by 5 days.

Although mainstream support for Windows 7 SP1 ended on January 13, 2015, those still using this operating system have one year of free support and updates ahead. Unfortunately, once the extended support period will end, they have to upgrade, use a system that is no longer secure, or purchase extended security updates.

The Realme 3 will be announced in the first quarter of 2019 and will probably come without a punch-hole selfie shooter and/or a triple camera setup on the back. The handset should arrive with a dual camera setup and a notch in two variants — regular and Pro. A Realme phone with a 48 MP camera is also expected to hit the market this year.

Although it might struggle in some markets like India — where it lost the crown to Xiaomi — Samsung remains the leader of the global smartphone market. On the other hand, the smartphone production drop of 3.3 percent expected for 2019 could help Chinese brand Huawei to finally beat Apple and to become the world's second smartphone maker.

Samsung India's online store and Amazon India will be the first to sell the lower-priced Galaxy M handsets, which will debut locally before becoming available worldwide. The Galaxy M lineup will consist of three handsets at launch, namely the Galaxy M10, Galaxy M20, and Galaxy M30.

Although Apple has recently asked its suppliers to cut the iPhone production by 10 percent in the second quarter, it looks like the brand's handsets are not doing well in China. In an unprecedented move, Apple authorized mid-cycle price cuts that go as high as 22 percent for the iPhone 8 and 20 percent for the iPhone 8 Plus handsets on JD.com.

Apple has been teasing the release of the AirPower since 2017. However, the company has let numerous subsequent relevant launches go by without mentioning it again. Nevertheless, a credible source now claims that a known supplier to the OEM has started to manufacture these products.

The new version of MIUI, Xiaomi's skin for Android, is officially open for development, according to an OEM executive. This announcement was made recently at the Xiaomi MIUI Core Experience Annual Meeting. Therefore, this new OS, MIUI 11, is likely to be installed on new Xiaomi flagships when they are released later this year.

OPPO is capable of producing some streamlined, appealing premium handsets. However, they all have one main drawback as expensive flagships: they lack wireless charging. Now that the OEM has joined the Wireless Power Consortium, this situation may change soon.

The CAT S48c can be acquired by Verizon Business and Enterprise customers at US$249.99 with a two-year contract or for a full retail price of US$599.99. This rugged 5-inch smartphone can be used with gloves or wet hands and can survive extreme temperatures and drops onto concrete from up to 6 feet.

An article posted to the online outlet Motherboard has alleged that the carriers T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T have been selling their US customers' geolocation data to private companies, who then went on to sell it to other parties such as those who issue bail bonds. The carriers in question have subsequently committed to put an end to these practices.

A new article in the Wall Street Journal has lent further weight to speculation that Apple will jump on the triple-rear-camera bandwagon this year. According to the report, this feature will be found in the most premium model the company will release this year. It may be accompanied by two additional SKUs with dual rear cameras.

Amazon's subsidiary has just released a free video streaming service that offers a rich collection of ad-supported TV shows like Fringe and Heroes, as well as various Hollywood movies like The Last Samurai, True Romance, Run Lola Run, and so on. IMDb Freedrive content can be enjoyed on mobiles, laptops/desktop PCs, as well as on big screens via Amazon Fire TV devices.

Last December, Notebookcheck reported on the ThinkPad E490s, a new model that is part of Lenovo's affordable ThinkPad E series. At CES, Lenovo has announced that this model will not be released in the UK and the rest of Europe.

The Redmi Note 7 was launched yesterday but word on the grapevine claims the company is set to release another phone, but this time with a more impressive camera sensor and SoC.

According to preliminary estimates by Gartner, Lenovo was the world’s largest PC vendor in 2018 in terms of units shipped. The Chinese company was at the top of the pile for the last quarter of the year (4Q18) and beat out HP and Dell for the year overall. However, Lenovo only came third for 4Q18 shipments in the US, behind HP and Dell.

With dozens of configurations to choose from across the whole lineup, Zotac has provided a useful table comparing and contrasting some of the major features between all the latest SKUs. It makes for an excellent starting point for users considering a mini PC.

The developer studio Bungie has announced that it will publish its flagship series, Destiny, independently, thus ending its partnership with Activision. This eventuality has been anticipated by industry insiders and observers for some time. However, this is the first time that Bungie has made an official statement on the subject.

The outspoken CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has been offering some choice comments about AMD’s exciting new GPU, the Radeon VII. It seems Huang isn’t too worried about competition from the revolutionary new release, labeling it “underwhelming” whilst claiming that Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 will “crush it.” The AMD Radeon VII is based on a 7 nm manufacturing process.

Redmi's CEO, Lei Jun, has indicated that it will release a phone powered by the latest premium Snapdragon chipset. The executive made remarks to this effect when asked if the newly-release Redmi Note 7 is the new Xiaomi sub-brand's flagship on Weibo. Coincidentally, the brand has also announced that it will be making another device with the Sony IMX586 48MP sensor.

A few months after launching the Redmi Note 6 Pro, Xiaomi has now launched the Redmi Note 7, although this new device will carry the Redmi crest instead of a Xiaomi one. The mid-ranger features a Snapdragon 660, a massive 48 MP rear camera, and a Type-C USB port. Price begin at US$150.

Three months after it was released in China, Xiaomi has finally brought the Mi Mix 3 to Europe. The device features a capable dual rear camera setup, an AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 845 and a bunch of interesting specifications. MSRP is €549.

The MXM form factor preceding DGFF never took off even though it was marketed for its versatility and ability to support future GPUs. If Dell isn't careful, they may repeat the same mistakes and run into a wall with DGFF once Nvidia launches a Turing successor.

The AMD keynote for this year mainly revolved around the announcement of the Radeon VII GPUs. However, the company's CEO also revealed that the third generation of Ryzen desktop processors would become available soon. There was not much additional detail given on this new CPU line, besides that it is definitely of a 7-nanometer architecture.

The CEO of AMD, Dr. Lisa Su, devoted much of the company’s CES 2019 keynote to unveiling and detailing the Radeon VII GPU. However, the presentation also turned to CPUs thereafter, whereupon the second-generation EPYC chipset for servers was discussed. AMD is clearly upbeat about the capabilities of these new processors.

The smart TV market was worth US$143 billion by the end of 2017. However, a new report has indicated that this value will grow by $110 billion in the next four years. This rate will be driven by a sustained downward trend in smart TV prices and the increased uptake of 4K, according to a new report.

Apple's hardware suppliers have been hit by a 10% decrease in the volume of new iPhone production requests for the first quarter of 2019. These claims have emanated from sources cited by a new report on Nikkei. It suggests that Apple's recent financial woes have translated into an anticipated negative effect on sales for the first 3 months of this year.

The Toshiba MG08 hard drive uses a 9-disk helium design and comes with a 2.5 million-hour MTTF and a 550 TB per year workload rating. In addition to the increased capacity and data density, the 16 TB storage capacity also comes with improved power efficiency over the existing widely adopted 12 TB drives.

Frank Azor cites low interest in gaming subnotebooks like the Alienware 13 as a big reason for skipping additional GPU options for the XPS 13 family. A few competing 13-inch Ultrabooks like the HP Envy 13, Huawei MateBook X Pro, and Razer Blade Stealth all offer optional GeForce MX150 graphics for superior graphics performance over the XPS 13.

MediaTek has unveiled its new silicon for connectivity at CES 2019. This chipset is compatible with next-generation WiFi (Wi-Fi 6, or 802.11ax) and also delivers Bluetooth access points. It supports 2x2, 4x4 and multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). It is also flexible enough to adapt to any changes in the new WiFi standard before it becomes official later this year.

Intel and Alibaba are now working together on AI-driven athlete tracking solutions for the Olympic Games 2020 and beyond. The technology uses both existing and upcoming Intel hardware and the Alibaba Cloud infrastructure and will improve both the training process and the audience experience during the actual events.

Previously used for a secret satellite internet project and a BlackBerry phone, Athena returns as the name of an innovation program by Intel "that defines and aims to help bring to market a new class of advanced laptops that are purpose-built to help people focus, adapt to life’s roles and always be ready."

LG released its "new" LG Q9 yesterday. The device packs in a number of premium features including IP68 water resistance, a QHD+ display, and LG's Boombox speakers. Of course, in typical LG fashion, it also makes a few surprising hardware choices.

Meizu's CEO, Jack Wong, has teased the pending launch of a new device, the Meizu Note 9. The Note 9 will be powered by the yet unreleased Snapdragon 6150—likely to be called the Snapdragon 655—and will feature a 48 MP camera sensor.

Lenovo brings a new version of its ThinkPad X1 Carbon to the CES. The new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 includes a revamped chassis with a Carbon-Fiber coating as well as the newest Intel CPUs and a brighter FHD screen option.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 4 convertible gets revamped for 2019 with a completely new chassis. For the first time ever on a ThinkPad X1 laptop, its completely made out of CNC-machined aluminium and not available in black.