Business Articles

Although the new XPS 15 2-in-1 (9575) was supposed to begin shipping more than a week ago, Frank Azor has just confirmed that many early adopters still have to receive their machines due to a delay that has been caused by "a small bad batch of the Mag lev keyboard." Even more, the i9 processor upgrade for the XPS 15 9570 is not available yet but will be added on May 10.

The company behind the development of Frostpunk has announced that 250,000 copies of the game have already been sold in just 66 hours. 11 bit studios posted a message on the game's official Twitter account to share the impressive achievement. The game developer has already announced plans for additional content and bug fixes for the snowy steampunk-inspired city-building title.

It has been reported that Huawei is working on a possible replacement of the ubiquitous Android OS. Anonymous sources talking to the South China Morning Post have commented that the Chinese tech giant is developing the alternative operating system in case the company ends up receiving a similar US-imposed ban to the one that ZTE is currently facing.

An impressive reveal trailer has been released for the upcoming game Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The latest title in the famous franchise is scheduled for September 14 and will be available on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One platforms. The action adventure has been developed by Eidos-Montréal and Crystal Dynamics and will be published by Square Enix.

American technology company Essential has opened up its online store to customers from a number of other countries. Previously, only US residents could get their hands on the Essential Phone (PH-1), but now the company’s products will be available to people in the UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan. The California-based firm is believed to be currently working on the PH-1’s successor.

Although there are supposed to be no Samsung phones in North Korea and the country is well-known as a totalitarian dictatorship, smuggled Samsung smartphones are very popular in the country. According to a South Korean news outlet, the number of mobile subscribers in North Korea reached 5 million this year.

Although it was initially supposed to become available via the Microsoft Store before the end of 2017, Apple needed some additional to make iTunes ready for the Windows platform. When installing from the Microsoft Store, the iTunes app removes its desktop variant — if installed already — and uses its settings.

The annual Amazon Prime fee will rise to US$119 in two weeks. The annual subscription cost for this service of US$99 has been around since 2014 when Amazon had increased it from the initial value of US$79. However, the benefits of a Prime membership now include ad-free movies, Kindle eBook loans, and even in-car delivery.

Nintendo has announced a partnership with Cygames, Inc. to develop a new game for smart devices. The jointly developed title will be called Dragalia Lost and is scheduled for release in the summer of this year. The Japanese video-game giant held out on introducing its popular franchises to iOS or Android for many years because of concerns about losing unique gameplay elements.

Amazon, Intel, and Microsoft have all published quarterly financial reports showing better than expected results. Microsoft revealed revenue of US$26.8 billion while fellow tech giant Intel managed revenue of US$16.1 billion for the quarter. However, Amazon trumped both of the other companies thanks to recorded sales of US$51.0 billion.

According to research by SuperData, Fortnite managed to earn an incredible US$223 million in March. The smash hit from Epic Games was already a success even before the battle royale mode was introduced. Far Cry 5 was also a winner in March, with the Ubisoft title apparently racking up digital sales in the region of 2.5 million units.

The graphics card demand drop is certainly a serious profitability issue for the Taiwanese suppliers, but this also means that gamers can now get the graphics cards they need for prices close to the original MSRP. Crypto miners are waiting to see if Bitmain's Ethereum ASICs are indeed worth it over GPU cards, however, if the upcoming GTX 11xx and AMD Navi cards would prove even better, we might see the price inflation scenario all over again.

Intel is putting together a team of industry visionaries to help counterattack AMD's Ryzen offensive. Ironically, most of the industry veterans recently coopted by Intel include veterans who used to work for AMD. Raja Koduri and possibly Chris Hook could focus on the development of discrete GPUs, while the latest addition, Jim Keller - one of AMD's prominent CPU engineers, would work his magic on upcoming innovative microprocessors.

Prices for the Galaxy S9 series continue to fall to as low as 600 Euros in some regions like Spain. An independent study from a market analytical firm has revealed that Samsung's latest flagship is tracking slower than the Galaxy S7 but faster than the Galaxy S8 due to more aggressive pricing and promotional deals. The Galaxy S9 has been widely available for over a month in most markets around the world.

A launch event date for the OnePlus 6 flagship smartphone has finally been announced. The new device will be unveiled at a large arena in London, UK, on May 16. The Shenzhen-based manufacturer has also revealed another launch event that will take place in Beijing, China, on May 17. Tickets for the London launch event went on sale today.

The question “What is Fire TV Cube?” has been posted on a splash page on the Amazon website. Amazon Fire TV is a digital media player and microconsole created by the Seattle-based online shopping giant. Rumors of a cube-shaped device appeared before Amazon released the third-generation “pendant-style” Fire TV, and now it seems the Fire TV Cube is soon going to be a reality.

Fans of the strategy genre will be pleased to learn that the games BattleTech and Frostpunk have been released today. The former, developed by Harebrained Schemes, gives the player the opportunity to control enormous BattleMechs on a futuristic battlefield. The latter is a city-building title from 11 bit studios and is based in the past where civilization has been devastated by the extreme cold weather.

A report by Canalys has disclosed the current standings in the Indian smartphone market. The world's second-largest smartphone market belongs to Xiaomi, with the company boosting its stock over the first quarter of 2018 to reach an outstanding 31% market share.

Meizu, a while ago, launched its new 15-series devices. The devices offer fine hardware while sticking with some of the traditional features of Android phones—16:9 display, 3.5mm headphone jack, and no notch.

A press release from research company Gartner has stated that Samsung has overtaken Intel as the world’s largest semiconductor vendor. The figures for 2017 show the South Korean company gaining 14.2% of the global market share whilst their rivals in California managed 14.0%. Samsung’s top place has been partly attributed to revenue growth in the memory market.

Unveiled back at MWC 2018, the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 is now available in Europe starting at the equivalent of over US$2,500 (without taxes). The highlights of this rugged Windows 10 Pro tablet with a fanless design include a sunlight readable display, FLIR and 3D imaging, and many hardware options to choose from.

The Tremont ultra-low voltage SoCs will presumably be manufactured using the 10 nm process and will feature most of the instruction sets that will be integrated in the upcoming Ice Lake desktop CPUs. Intel is making sure that the low budget/embedded PC market, together with the IoT one will be getting all the features found on the higher-end Core CPUs.

A member survey of IT professionals done by Spiceworks has found Cortana to be the most widely implemented virtual assistant in North American and European businesses. Siri follows closely behind with Google Assistant and Alexa having significantly lower market shares. These results are an interesting contrast to consumer usage.

Vesta is a more advanced Alexa that can go about houses thanks to advanced cameras and computer vision systems that are currently featured in self-driving cars. Additionally, the domestic robot could come with a pair of robotic arms so it may be able to carry things around the house. The appearance may be humanoid in order to instill a sense of friendliness.

The 5491 and 5591 will target power users who need more performance than what Intel's U-Series of CPUs can offer. Both models will cram in 45 W Coffee Lake-H processors into a chassis design originally meant for 15 W Kaby Lake-R CPUs. The 5491 now also gains the TrackPoint nub that the 5490 omits, but nearly everything else remains the same.

Today, Dell announced the newest generation of the Precision mobile workstation line. The core of that lineup are the two traditional workstation-models Precision 7530 and Precision 7730, which are being updated with the lastest GPUs, CPUs, more RAM and also a new chassis-design.

Today Dell has announced three new models in their business and corporate orientated OptiPlex line of desktop computers, which are currently in their 25th year of production. These new models include two All-in-one (AIO) and a micro (ultra-small form factor) designs for more discrete office setups.

Dell has been number one in monitor sales for 17 straight quarters, and they are looking to continue this trend with the announcement of seven new and refreshed monitors. Three of the new models stand out because of their USB-C connections, giving us an indication of future trends as we move towards possible universal usage of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 replacing various other non-compatible data and display standards.

Available in Platinum Silver and Brushed Onyx, the 15.6-inch Dell Precision 5530 is the brand's smallest mobile workstation. Its comprehensive list of hardware options includes 8th generation Intel Core i5, i7, and i9 processors, two IGZO 4 displays, NVIDIA Quadro P2000 graphics, as well as up to 32 GB of 2,666 MHz memory.

The new Dell Precision 5530 2-in-1 is a less powerful — but convertible — sibling of the 15.6-inch Precision 5530 mobile workstation. Its specs are similar to those of the Dell XPS 9575, but this mobile workstation features Radeon Pro WX Vega M GL graphics and is scheduled to hit the market in July/August.

YouTube has released a Community Guidelines enforcement report that states the video-sharing website removed over 8.28 million videos from the platform during the last quarter of 2017. The majority of these videos, 6.68 million of them, were flagged by automatic processes rather than human flaggers. The company’s official blog states that almost 76% of the machine-flagged videos were taken down before receiving a single view.

The esports industry is enjoying further rapid growth according to a report produced by The Esports Observer. Apparently, nearly US$2 billion has been invested in this gaming sector for the first quarter of 2018, with Tencent contributing over half of the funds. PUBG Corp has also offered a boost to esports by announcing a battle royale tournament with a prize pool worth over US$2 million.

A new listing for the IdeaPad 530s has just appeared on Lenovo's European site. The mid-range device can be configured with up to an 8th gen Intel Core i7, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of NVMe storage. The 530s can also pack up to an Nvidia MX150 GPU in a slightly smaller and lighter shell than the 520s.

In an email to the users, Flickr unveiled that it was acquired by the photography platform for visual storytellers SmugMug. Those who choose not to delete their accounts by May 25, 2018, will have all their content transferred to SmugMug. The others must download their photos/videos and delete their accounts by then.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has confirmed that the company will launch Android One Redmi devices in the near future. The company's Redmi line is widely regarded as offering excellent value for money, and the allure of stock Android on its devices would make them no-brainers in their price brackets.

The Razer Phone is now available for slightly cheaper than it cost at launch. The device launched with an MSRP of US$700 but potential buyers can now get it for $100 less. The deal has been on for the past two days but will end on April 24.

Reuters has recently published an article stating that China will be ramping up efforts to greatly enhance its chip-making industry. The hefty seven-year ban on buying parts from US manufacturers that has been placed on Chinese tech firm ZTE by the US Department of Commerce has provided fresh impetus for the Asian state’s efforts in the semiconductor industry.

The last two Windows 10 Mobile handset available in the Microsoft Store, namely the HP Elite x3 and the Alcatel Idol 4S, are no longer in stock. This can be considered the final nail in the coffin of Windows for smartphones and phablets since no other such devices are expected to launch anytime soon.

The PH-1 is currently available on Amazon for US$400. This is the lowest the device has been officially sold at since it was launched but it's already a last-gen flagship for the most part, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise. The deal is available on both Amazon and Best Buy. Update: The device is now listed for $350. A mid-range price tag for arguably the best-looking device in the world is quite the decent deal.

Daisy can dismantle up to 200 handsets per hour while salvaging a variety of materials that can be reused in future devices. This is part of Apple's GiveBack program that incentivizes users to turn in their old models for dismantling, which, in turn, contributes to a donation fund for the Conservation International non-profit organization.

The cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP) has been performing well lately and may hit a price of US$1.00 in the near future. Like many virtual currencies, it has dropped in value over the last few weeks, reaching a low of US$0.48 as recently as the second week of April. But now the Ripple network's native cryptocurrency seems to be bouncing back.

A message on the official Twitter account for Fortnite has shown an image of a passport with a stamp for China on it. The words “The Battle Bus is taking off! Destination, China” are also part of the mysterious tweet. While many commentators have taken this to mean the game is due to launch in China soon, others have speculated it could be related to a new map or location.

The E485 model will feature a 14-inch 1366 x 768 IPS screen, while the E585 will come with a 15.6-inch FHD display. Hardware configurations for both variants are identical and include AMD Ryzen Mobile CPUs all the way up to Ryzen 7 2700U coupled with up to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM and up to 1 TB HDDs, plus up to 512 GB NVMe SSDs on select SKUs.

AMD has finally taken wraps off its 2nd generation Ryzen chips. The 2700X and the 2600X are at the helm of the Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 series respectively and are made to offer great multi-core and gaming performance in comparison with equivalent processors from Intel. AMD touts great and consistent overclocking potential and advanced capabilities of the AM4 socket and the X470 chipset to offer great performance for the buck.

Thanks to the optimizations done in the last few months, the Microsoft Translator app can now use AI-powered offline translation packs without the need of a processor with hardware-accelerated AI capabilities. The new packs are 23 percent better and 50 percent smaller than their non-AI predecessors.

According to a report, Intel is planning on closing down its New Devices Group. This particular division of the chip-making giant was involved in developing wearable projects. One of these projects was called “Superlight” but was better known to the outside world as the Vaunt smart glasses. It seems the state of the smart-glasses market prompted Intel’s withdrawal.

A report from Bloomberg has stated that Facebook is creating a chip-making team. Job listings have appeared on the social-networking site’s careers section that seem to point toward this eventuality. Other tech giants, such as Apple and Google, have already started producing their own processors. Facebook-produced chips could be used in hardware or for AI-improvement purposes.