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Without any fanfare, Google Play Movies has started to offer US$0.99 movie rentals, down from a previous US$5.99. However, this deal does not apply to B-rated movies as one would expect. The list of US$0.99 Google Play Movie rentals includes blockbusters like "A Star Is Born," "Bohemian Rhapsody," and more.

For those parents desperate to find a new catchy song to entertain children bored of watching “Baby Shark”, look no further. Not only is “Huawei Beauty” sung by a bunch of cute kids, the video also features a nifty dance routine and gives some handy advice about what brand smartphone you should own. Just try to ignore the unsubtle propaganda and occasional iffy imagery.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will make an appearance at Star Wars Celebration Chicago on April 13. The story for the game, which is being developed by Respawn Entertainment and will be published by Electronic Arts, is based on a Padawan who manages to escape the infamous Order 66. The title is expected to be released in fall this year.

The 16 Gb DDR5-6400 memory chips from SK Hynix could be first to hit the market in late 2019, but the launch prices will be quite high, more appropriate for enterprise environments. On the other hand, the 8 Gb chips should be more cost-effective, thus more appropriate for consumer modules, which are expected in 2020.

RAVPower, the well-known accessory-maker, has a stand at MWC this year. It showcases a new PD charger, an ultra-thin (14mm) 'wall wart' based on gallium nitride (GaN) technology. RAVPower also has a new wireless charging stand that is also a power bank.

We already know about WhatsApp Business for Android, and as of today it’s available to Apple users in a beta version for iOS. The main functions of the app are three messaging features.

Energizer, a brand known better for disposable lithium-ion batteries, has brought new smartphones made under its name to MWC. One is an extremely typical mobile device, although it has a dual pop-up camera. Another is a foldable prototype with specs to challenge Samsung or Huawei in the same regard.

Skybound Games has announced that it has terminated its contract with Starbreeze Studios for Overkill’s The Walking Dead, effectively cancelling further progress on the first-person shooter. Skybound Games is part of Skybound Entertainment, which was cofounded by the creator of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman.

Nvidia has added two new members to the MX product family: The GeForce MX230 and the GeForce MX250. Both GPUs are based on Pascal architecture, offer DirectX 12 support, and they both utilize Nvidia’s Optimus graphics-switching technology. The MX230 and MX250 also support Vulkan 1.1, OpenGL 4.6, and OpenCL 1.2 APIs.

The Swiss watchmaker group Swatch has filed a complaint with US legal authorities to the effect that Samsung has impinged on its trademarks. This is connected to the design of some downloadable watchfaces for Gear-line smartwatches. The company will look for hundreds of millions of US dollars in compensation for this breach.

The trade war between the U.S. and China may soon end, as president Trump believes that the negotiations are going well and is now determined to delay the increased tariffs for China as a gesture of good will. As a direct consequence, the Chinese Shanghai Composite index spiked by 5% and we could be looking at a price reset for the overpriced computer hardware in the next few months.

Guo Ping, Hauwei's current chairperson, has appeared on stage as part of a conference at MWC19. He asserted that the company is not involved in activities that amount to cyber-spying on behalf of the Chinese govermment, as the U.S. has alleged. Guo also called for improved regulation and assignation of responsibility in the coming global 5G infrastructure roll-out.

Sony has unveiled its own foray into 5G tech at the Mobile World Congress (2019). It is a phone that, with its 21:9 aspect ratio, resembles the new Xperia 1 closely. The OEM did not offer much detail on this device, besides that it is powered by the Snapdragon 855 and runs the X50 modem.

It seems Samsung is doing more in Barcelona than MWC. The OEM has opened a Bixby Studio in the city's Plaza de Catalunya. This installation gives visitors a sense of what life would be like with Bixby-powered applicances and devices in it.

A report quoting “industry sources” has offered the prices and launch dates for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics cards. The GTX 1660 will apparently be released on March 15 with a minimum price tag of US$229. The even cheaper GTX 1650 will purportedly be launched on April 30 at a price starting at US$179.

At MWC 2019, Lenovo has announced five new ThinkPads. The three new T series models ThinkPad T490, T490s & T590 are supposed to win over business-customers with new designs, thinner bezels and better displays.

Real-world photos of the upcoming Huawei P30 Pro have been printed online by Digital Trends. The intriguing collection of images unfortunately does not include a shot of the front of the flagship smartphone as the device in question was an incomplete prototype. The P30 Pro in the photographs has a rear triple camera setup and there is no sign of a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

HTC has taken the wraps off its 5G Hub. The Taiwanese company claims that this new device can deliver the speed and poiwer of the new radio bands to homes or businesses. It is powered by the Snapdragon 855, as well as Qualcomm's 60GHz 802.11ad Wi-Fi and 2x2 Wi-Fi 6-ready chipsets.

Aside from the larger ThinkPads of the T series, Lenovo has announced two compact models of the X series as well. The Thinkpad X390 has a bigger display with a much smaller screen bezel than its predecessor, while the ThinkPad X390 Yoga has been redesigned with a much thinner chassis.

Jim Harris, an author and speaker on disruptive innovations, has released a new report on consumer tech ahead of MWC 2019. In it, he claims that 59% of all the money spent in the same market in 2018 was expended on smartphones. Harris also asserts that Android is now the most popular software platform.

OnePlus' first 5G phone will be released in partnership with the carriers EE and Elisa in the second quarter of the year. They are located in the UK and Finland respectively, and are the only companies to be associated with the release of this phone so far. OnePlus' CEO has indicated that the device will cost under US$1000.

Huawei maintains a number of physical stores for its devices in China. Reuters has reported that it now plans to open its first international bricks-and-mortar establishment in Vienna. This outlet will reportedly be open by summer 2019.

Microsoft and its CEO, Satya Nadella, will be in attendance at MWC19 in Barcelona, and it is rumored that the company’s new HoloLens 2 AR smartglasses will be revealed. However, at least 50 Microsoft employees have publicly objected to the tech giant’s US$480 million contract with the U.S. Army that involves the augmented-reality headset.

The discrete GPU market is about to get busy in 2020, as Intel is planning a triumphant return. To ensure its success, the company is now launching "The Odyssey" initiative which aims at involving gamers in the GPU development process. Intel is willing to listen to what end users have to say in order to create the best possible gaming GPUs.

KaiOS powers feature phones such as the Nokia 8110. MediaTek has prepared new 3G and 4G SoCs for this platform. One of these, the MT6731, can also support 4G in dual SIM slots. They are intended to bring new, affordable phones with these connectivity options in 2019

STT-MRAM is one of the alternatives for current SRAM and NAND flash memory / storage solutions. Intel's current implementation is manufactured on the 22 nm node and promises faster read/write speeds, better endurance, and long-term data storage at higher temperatures. Its hybrid nature should allow Intel to include it in future Optane products.

A YouTuber has asserted that Microsoft will port some games and features to the Nintendo Switch later this year. The indie title Ori has been specifically named in relation to this new purported deal to link the two platforms. This development will also apparently bring Xbox Game Passes to the Switch.

Adobe is offering a discount on the prices of all-app Creative Cloud (CC) plans. This offer applies to monthly-paid prices for CC and CC plus Adobe Stock plans only, and drops them to US$39.99 and $69.98 respectively. It is valid from now until March 1, 2019.

Reggie Fils-Aime, President and COO of Nintendo of America, announced that he will retire from the company on April 15. Doug Bowser, currently the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, will step up as the new President upon Fils-Aime's retirement. Fils-Aime oversaw one of the most successful periods of Nintendo's life and managed the launches of the Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii, and Switch.

It took TSMC a little over two weeks to fully assess the consequences of the Fab 14B incident. Apparently, the chemical contamination was triggered by an abnormal reaction in the photoresistant material that led to a polymer residue compromising up to 30,000 of 12 nm and 16 nm wafers. Total losses are estimated around US$550 million, but TSMC intends to ramp up production in Q2 to mitigate part of the losses.

Reuters has reported that the South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix is planning on investing 120 trillion won (~US$106.6 billion) on chip manufacturing plants. The company will also spend an additional 55 trillion won (US$49 billion) on two existing factories over the next 10 years. SK Hynix is the world’s third-largest semiconductor vendor by revenue.

Lenovo's ThinkPad division gets hit by another leak, as a reddit user has published data-sheets for most of the upcoming ThinkPad business laptops. Though there is no way to verify the specs at this point, the specs of the T490 do line up with the already announced special T490 Healthcare Edition.

Samsung also devoted some of its latest launch event to 5G and its potential in the future of telecommunicatons and online life in general. This led to the unveiling of the Galaxy S10 5G. It has an extra 3D-sensing module on its rear panel, in addition to the three cameras also found in the S10 and S10+.

Ever since the Chinese government started to investigate memory chip suppliers over suspicious price fixing schemes, DRAM module prices started to slowly decline, and it looks like prices could get reduced by 30% in Q2 2019. By the end of 2019 DDR4 DRAM modules may end up costing up to 50% less, and prices may flatten as the DDR5 standard becomes more popular.

Razer has had to cut around 2% of its workforce due to “realignment.” It’s believed many of the staff that have been let go were involved with the company’s smartphone products. The cuts could mean that any progress on the Razer Phone 3 device has been halted while the manufacturer streamlines its operations.

Today, (February 19, 2019) Qualcomm has launched its second modem for use with 5G-New Radio (5G-NR): the Snapdragon X55. It is rated to support download speeds of up to 7 gigabits per second (Gb/s) and upload speeds of up to 3 Gb/s. Unlike its predecessor, the X50, this modem is also compatible with 2G, 3G and 4G.

PlusUs has introduced its Xpad, a charging pad that measures only 2.2 millimeters in depth. This spec leads the start-up to assert that it is the thinnest product of its kind worldwide. It is available as a reward as part of an Indiegogo campaign, which aims to raise US$20,000.

The latest corporate acquisition in the AI field for Apple is San Francisco-based PullString, a company that was founded in 2011 by former Pixar executives and has been working on "shaping the future of voice applications" ever since. The value of the deal is rumored to be around US$30 million.

Xiaomi is set to unveil its newest flagship, the Mi 9, in a few days. The Mi 9 is said to feature wireless charging—the first time a Mi flagship will have that honor—and will further take things up a notch with 20 W wireless charging support. Wired fast charge comes in at a massive 27 W.

The Redmi Note 7 Pro is expected to feature a Snapdragon 675 and Sony's 48 MP IMX586 sensor, the same module used on the Honor View 20. Initial reports claimed the Note 7 Pro would be launched in February but that's looking increasingly unlikely, and new information touts a March release instead.

Polish e-retailer X-Kom ran a promotion this past weekend that offered a free copy of Fallout 76 with four sets of PlayStation 4 thumbstick covers, all for POL 19 zl (~US $5). This discount is not out of the norm for retailers selling Fallout 76, a title that has had trouble selling copies and satisfying gamers.

MyDrivers has reported that Xiaomi intends to announce a crowdfunding project for a new product: a smart sports watch. This device will apparently support real-time GPS tracking, so that a user can generate and maintain maps of their fitness-related activities (e.g. runing routes and so on).

The Realme 2 Pro is a phone directed at the younger market in a number of countries, including India. Here, the 2 Pro is available at Rs. 1000 (about US$14) less than usual. However, its better-spec'd SKUs are currently out of stock.

Watch a quick 5-minute video following the production, assembly, and diagnostics of the Gigabyte laptop from start to finish.

Razer is shutting down the Razer Game Store, its own online retail space for PC games. The store will close in the early morning of February 28th. Any games purchased through the Razer Game Store will continue to work, though keys purchased via the store will need to be redeemed before the end of February. Additionally, Razer will honor any pre-orders made through the Game Store and will continue its Razer Gold and Razer Silver rewards programs.

Apple does not quite match up to some other major software companies in terms of smart-home products. It has only one product dedicated to this market: the HomePod. The company may by trying to change this by hiring Sam Jadallah, an ex-Microsoft executive with experience in the smart-home space.

The Pocophone F1 has been lauded for the high price to performance ratio it brings to the table. Sadly, Xiaomi's high-value magnum opus isn't sold officially in the US. ZTE's Nubia is now offering something almost as good, and it's actually available in the US.

According to new reports, Huawei's upcoming flagships, the P30 and P30 Pro will feature 1080p displays. Both devices are expected to have some impressive specifications sheets, and the listed display resolutions are somewhat disappointing.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation opened its first shop earlier this month, at the Grand Arcade shopping center in Cambridge, England. The move to a brick-and-mortar presence for the previously online-only Raspberry Pi gives enthusiasts a chance to physically browse through the products the charity has been working on, including the Pi 3A+ and Pi 3B+.