Business Articles

US President Donald Trump has been giving his opinion about Apple’s recent rollercoaster ride at the stock market. The POTUS stated that he had told Tim Cook, who is apparently one of Trump’s friends, that Apple should bring production of the iPhone and its other hardware to the US. The Chinese-US trade war is believed to have affected the Cupertino company’s revenue.

Called Dell ExpressSign-in, the laptop will be the first to feature a proximity sensor that can automatically detect when a user is nearby and enable Windows Hello for a hands-free log-in experience.

In an interview with The Verge, Amazon’s SVP of devices and services, David Limp, has revealed how many devices have been sold that have Alexa built into them. Apparently, over 100 million speakers, smartphones, gadgets and other pieces of hardware have been sold around the world featuring Amazon’s virtual assistant.

It is no mystery that 27 year old Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is renowned as one of the most popular streamers of all time but have you ever wondered how much this media sensation earned in 2018? Not only did Tyler reveal this information in a recent interview with CNN, he also claimed that 2018 was his best year so far in terms of earnings.

Right now, the only way to benefit from OLED displays as a gamer is to buy a TV that has at least a 55-inch diagonal. This could prove to be quite the investment, and gamers have been looking forward to OLED monitors in the 20/30-inch range for several years now. 2019 might just be the year for such monitors, as Sony and Panasonic recently showcased 21.6-inch FHD and 4K OLEDs plus a 27-inch display for smart home applications.

Yesterday, Xiaomi announced that its Redmi series of phones would no longer just be a line of phones and will now be a sub-brand of its own, a move that mirrors the relationship between Huawei and Honor, or OPPO and Realme.

Catch the event as it happens on January 6 at 8 PM Pacific Time. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will take the stage to kick start CES 2019 and possibly reveal a few surprises along the way.

Apple’s stock price plummeted on the NASDAQ today. The previous close for the Cupertino company stood at US$157.92. However, at the time of writing, the stock price had fallen to US$142.19, leaving the iPhone maker with a market capitalization value of around US$674.7 billion. Apple’s stock price hasn’t been this low since the first half of 2017.

Tim Cook has had to start his year by sending an open letter to Apple's investors, telling them the company's revenues for the first fiscal quarter of 2019 had been revised downwards. Cook noted that this decision had been influenced by factors such as the increased strength of the US dollar and reduced iPhone revenues. However, the letter also also highlighted areas in which Apple performed well in 2018.

Despite the steep losses in the GPU sector suffered by both AMD and Nvidia, the red team managed to see stock appreciation thanks to the CPU division. Nvidia was not that fortunate and took a hard dive in Q3 and Q4, but things should get better once the RTX 2000 GPUs see more adoption in 2019. Last, but not least, Intel virtually flat-lined throughout the entire 2018 because of the 14 nm CPU shortages.

Acer's newest business laptop, the TravelMate X3410, is now available. Starting at US $900, the TravelMate X3410 is a thin-and-light business notebook powered by Intel's 8th generation U-series CPUs. As is the norm for business laptops, there are a bevy of ports and configuration options.

E-Katalog, a Russian retailer, has put the entire line of Ryzen 3000 desktop CPUs (the 'Matisse' series) on its website. These listings may indeed just be placeholders; on the other hand, they contain detailed information on processors such as the Ryzen 9 3800X. It suggests that the new generation has seriously outpaced its predecessor, especially at the higher end.

Do you still enjoy Steam on your Windows XP machine? Seems that's just too bad for you, then. Valve's prior announcement that it will cease support for Windows XP and Vista comes into effect today. Users still on these platforms were still able to play games, but lost access to all other Steam features, in 2018; now, they are losing access to the client as a whole.

Apple retained a majority in the premium smartphone market in the third quarter of 2018, as iPhones made up 47% of all phones sold in it. Samsung achieved second place in this arena, with 22% of the market share. On the other hand, the growth of this market was driven by increased brand diversity; for example, Huawei captured a share of over 10% for the first time this year.

The second-generation Vivo Nex was received with a distinct amount of interest, particularly due to the way in which its dual-screen design addressed the need to use its single compound camera module for selfies. Now, a new TENAA page for the OEM suggests that a version of the phone with the mid-tier Snapdragon 710 processor is on the way.

A new leak has surfaced, giving us our closest look so far at the Nokia 9 Pureview. Notable features include a massive penta-lens setup at the back, what appears to be a dual selfie setup at the front, an under-display fingerprint sensor, and the absence of a notch.

After Essential officially declared that it would no longer be selling the PH-1, a cryptic tweet by the company's Head of Research and Development has once again stoked the flames, and fans of the company may now share a lingering hope in the existence of an Essential PH-2.

Listings on Newegg, Data-Systems.fi, and Synnex (now taken down) detailed new Coffee Lake Refresh CPUs. Intel has yet to officially announce any new 9th-gen CPUs, but these listings give a good idea of what to expect from the Core i9-9900KF, Core i7-9700KF, Core i5-9600KF, and Core i5-9400F.

Citing predictions that the 2018 iPhone line may soon enter a destocking phase, Citi Research cut production estimates for the iPhone XR, iPhone Xs, and iPhone Xs Max by a collective 10% (50 million to 45 million). Most of this cut was driven by lowered expectations of the iPhone Xs Max; Citi Research estimates Apple will produce only half as many iPhone Xs Max units as previously predicted.

The Android One program is becoming increasingly popular due to the apparent certainty of two years' worth of regular updates for the phones sold under it. Recently, however, Google has removed the text to this effect from the Android website, leading to user fears that this pledge was being rescinded. However, the company has asserted that this is not the case.

Competition in the smartphone industry has led to sketchy advertising practices, especially in China where such shenanigans are almost encouraged. Fake camera samples, technically correct claims, and a circus of intentional crookery.

Sony has released a new wall charger. The brick is USB-PD-compliant and supplies just under 40 W at its peak, and a total power output of 46.5 W. The fast charger will work on all devices with USB-PD support, which makes for a rather long list.

More renders of the upcoming Nokia 9 have surfaced, revealing a device without a notch on its front, and with a massive penta-lens array on its back. The Nokia 9 is expected to be unveiled next month.

Essential Products has revealed that there are no plans to add “new inventory” to its stock of Essential Phones, which basically means the device is being discontinued. The smartphone was released in August 2017 and was widely commended for its design and performance. It’s believed around 150,000 of the PH-1 devices were sold.

A new variant of the AMD Radeon RX 590 has been spotted by HEXUS. The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 8GD5 OC has been listed on the Sapphire Technologies website. However, it seems the only difference between the latest addition and the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 8GD5 Special Edition is the color. The new version of the GPU comes in a black shroud.

Epic Games is now sitting on US$3 billion in gross profits this year. According to a new article in TechCrunch based on the claims of a 'knowledgeable' source. This level of success is (somewhat obviously) made off the back of Epic's flagship, Fortnite. It is a particularly impressive claim, considering that this title's revenue is largely derived from in-game purchases.

Michael Gartenberg describes himself as "Former Sr. Marketing Director @Apple, ex Jupiter Research, Gartner & other stuff" on his Twitter bio. He also now implies that he is unhappy with the iPad Pro 2018's build quality on this platform, as he documented his return of this product in a Tweet.

George Zhao, President of Huawei’s Honor sub-brand has revealed that the company saw a 27% year-on-year rise in shipment numbers across the first three quarters of the year, a figure that was likely helped along by the releases of popular devices like the Honor 7X and Honor 10 this year.

Reuters has reported that President Donald Trump might issue an executive order that would effectively ban US companies from using telecommunications hardware from either Huawei or ZTE. Both Chinese companies have faced accusations of sanction-breaking and national concerns over privacy and the possibility of being utilized for state-sponsored espionage. ZTE recently paid a huge fine of US$1.4 billion for not complying with US trade restrictions.

A test feature rolled-out by Instagram has been met with the apparent universal disapproval of the social network’s army of fans. The updated software meant Instagram users had to swipe through feeds in a horizontal manner rather than via the tried and tested vertical scrolling method. Unsurprisingly, the update was rapidly rolled back.

Amazon has revealed in a press release that the company has had a record-breaking holiday season, with products such as the updated Echo Dot and the Fire TV Stick 4K helping drive sales. The press release also described how Alexa has been utilized hundreds of millions of times during the festive period. The major American tech giants have finally had a reprieve at the stock market, making gains as consumer spending turns positive.

Some retailers have started offering Sony’s PlayStation Classic console at a much reduced price. In the USA, potential buyers can find the device for US$59.99, whilst those interested in the UK can get their hands on the mini console for £49.99. Sony released the PlayStation Classic on December 3, and it has been met with a generally lukewarm response.

Fallout 76 has been lambasted by users and critics over its significant bugs and lack of playability at launch. Its developers, Bethesda, has attempted to make restitution for these shortcomings through an offer of free access to older Fallout titles on PC to all who logged into '76, regardless of platform.

The small MXM form factor is getting its time in the spotlight now that gaming laptops are expected to make the transition from Nvidia Pascal to Turing soon. Eurocom is taking a jab at the “planned obsolescence” of most laptops whereas the CPU and GPU in many Eurocom laptops are easily upgradeable by the end user.

POCO India, a division of Xiaomi's popular sub-brand, has sent a tweet suggesting that a so-called '#NewPoco' is to be released tomorrow (December 25). Any excitement around such an announcement may be tempered by speculation that this "reveal" is not much more than a new color or RAM SKU of the pre-existing POCO F1, however.

The Zanco smart pen is a stylus with (nearly) all the features of a smartphone crammed into it. It has physical buttons, a click-pad, front and rear cameras and even a teeny tiny screen. It is intended as a smartphone replacement or companion (much like the Palm phone) and can also function as a Bluetooth remote for screens for purposes such as presentation. So far, it has raised just over US$50,000 on Kickstarter.

Honor's upcoming premium phone, the View 20, has been spotted on popular benchmark platform Geekbench, with it achieving scores consistent with other Kirin 980-powered phones. The phone is also touted to come equipped with a new liquid cooling technology.

AMD has launched two more entries to its Athlon range: the 220GE and the 240GE. Both processors come with Radeon Vega 3 graphics and offer base clocks of 3.4 GHz (220GE) and 3.5 GHz (240GE), respectively. The 220GE has been priced at US$65 and the 240GE has a price of US$75. The California-based company already announced the 200GE CPU back in September.

HP is currently holding a red tag sale and there are plenty of discounted laptops on offer for potential buyers. The sale includes high-end devices such as the HP Spectre X360 laptop with an i7-8705G and Radeon RX Vega M Graphics (4 GB) and the 15.6-inch Omen that comes with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060. At the other end of the scale, bargain-hunters can find the basic HP 14Z with 4 GB RAM for a price starting at US$199.99.

Matt Thorson, the director and designer of the platform game Celeste, has revealed on Twitter that the title has sold over 500,000 copies in 2018. The game was released on January 25 and has been met with critical praise and has won several awards. To celebrate the achievement, the developers intend on releasing some new levels.

Even the best speakers in smartphones struggle to produce even a relatively small amount of bass. Dirac, a rapidly-growing name in device audio, wants to change that with its new Dirac Bass feature. This tweak, which boosts the bass synthetically, is to be unveiled at CES 2019.

More renders of all four of Motorola’s upcoming Moto G7 phones have surfaced, giving us a clearer image of what to expect from the next set of the devices in one of the best-value midrange smartphones lines available in the US.

Some AT&T customers may start seeing a “5G E” label appearing on their Android smartphones soon. It might initially seem to some that the telecommunications company is already offering 5G network connection to its subscribers, but the truth is the label stands for “5G Evolution”, which is still classed as 4G technology.

According to new reports, the Honor V20 will ship for just over US$400. Honor phones have become synonymous with offering incredible bang for the buck, but the Honor V20 may very well push that to the absolute limit. It's expected to feature a triple rear camera setup, a camera hole, a 4000 mAh battery, and a Kirin 980.

Remember the touted Snapdragon 675-powered Xiaomi phone? Well, rumors say it could be the Redmi Pro 2, a direct successor to 2016's Redmi Pro. The Redmi Pro 2, if released, would be the top of the line Redmi phone.

Chinese company Gionee has finally filed for bankruptcy and is set for liquidation. The company is said to owe over US$3 billion to banks and suppliers, a situation compounded by reports of CEO Liu Lirong squandering over US$140 million at a casino last month.

Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google (Alphabet Inc.) have been experiencing further depressions in the stock market, according to recent NASDAQ data. Apple has seen its stock price fall under US$160 as Microsoft continues to lead in terms of market capitalization value. The Cupertino-based iPhone maker also has had bad news in regard to “Bendgate 2.0” and a legal battle against Qualcomm.

Qualcomm's patent war against Apple has escalated this December following bans in China and now Germany on the sale of iPhones. Intel has now accused Qualcomm of "stifling competition" in a scathing Intel Newsroom article that alleges Qualcomm's actions will only serve to "reduce innovation and increase prices."

The 2018 MacBook Air may be a good option for those who want the Apple-ultrabook looks for a more moderated price. B&H Is currently holding a sales event for this device, which takes between US$100 and $150 off most of its SKUs. However, these offers are only valid until December 22.