Business Articles

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.

It has been reported that EA Dice is working on a prototype battle royale mode for the upcoming title Battlefield V. The Battlefield series has been a massive success over the years for Electronic Arts, and it makes good business sense for the game developer to work on a battle royale mode and try to capture some of the market before it inevitably becomes saturated.

At an event in Shenzhen, China, Huawei has announced that it will not be selling its Kirin SoCs to any third-party OEMs. This comes as bad news for ZTE after the latter was hit with a ban that will see it unable to use components made by American companies, Qualcomm included.

ZTE's poor fortunes continue, as a British government agency claims the use of ZTE manufactured equipment would cause a national security risk and mitigate measures currently in place to allow the use of equipment from Huawei.

The New York Times has published an article detailing Cambridge Analytica’s plans to create its own virtual currency (VC). The British consulting firm is now deeply embroiled in the Facebook data breach. In other cryptocurrency news, a VC known as Verge has agreed on a potentially lucrative partnership with one of the world’s most popular websites.

The Dell XPS 15 9570 could be available by the end of April according to Dell's Frank Azor. Pre-orders seem to be live at the moment but they require a purchase of a pre-order gift card via Cashstar, which has caused quite a flutter among prospective buyers.

According to a report from Reuters, ZTE may lose its Android license. As the current seventh-largest Android-based smartphone manufacturer, this would be a massive blow against the Shenzhen-based corporation. Even just losing access to the Google Play Store application would be incredibly detrimental to the beleaguered telecommunications-equipment maker.

There is a rumor that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will not feature a single-player campaign. This may come as a surprise to the series’ legions of fans as the games have always featured a variety of campaigns for a lone player to battle their way through. Another report suggests that the latest CoD title may offer a battle royale mode.

Market analysts are predicting that the slight oversupply of NAND flash for eMMC/UFS and SSD storage seen in the first few months of 2018 will continue through to the middle of the year. Due to a delay in production expansion, this could result in higher prices in the last half of 2018.

In the wake of AMD making its Ryzen 2 platform official, MSI has released new motherboards based on the new X470 chipset. Features common to all these boards include support for two M.2 slots with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs, four DIMM slots, MSI Mystic Light RGB LED control software, and proprietary hardware utilities.

Dell has launched the new Inspiron 13 7000 convertible and Inspiron 15 5000 notebooks powered by AMD Ryzen APUs without much fanfare. Both notebooks come with options of either the Ryzen 5 2500U or the Ryzen 7 2700U APU and are available in a range of price options. However, initial user reviews on Reddit have criticized Dell for reusing a 2016 Inspiron 13 7368 chassis.

Three “clues” have been unearthed that all seemingly point toward the development of Watch Dogs 3. Watch Dogs was released by Ubisoft in 2014 and was a huge commercial success. The sequel landed in 2016 and also received favorable reviews. Unsurprisingly, Ubisoft has not commented on the rumors in regard to a possible third title in the series.

A study by Tech.pinion has shown Facebook's ever-dwindling fortunes in the eyes of the public. According to the study, 17% of the population has deleted the app from their smartphones since the details of the recent privacy violation case were brought to light a few weeks ago. A further 9% has deactivated their accounts altogether.

Although there is no official announcement yet and last year's Galaxy Xcover 4 was only released in Europe and Canada, a Galaxy Xcover 5 was recently discovered on Samsung New Zealand's website. Since the webpage was taken down in the meantime, it is rather safe to assume that it was all an accident and this rugged phone will be unveiled soon.

OnePlus' official store in North America ended sales of the OnePlus 5T a few weeks ago, citing a depletion of stock intended for the region. The company's web stores in Europe and India are also saying the same, which could be evidence of just how well the device has done commercially.

The United States Department of Commerce has banned all American companies from selling components to Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE. This includes Qualcomm and Dolby, both of whom have made major contributions to previous ZTE phones. The loss of Qualcomm-made SoCs is sure to damage the salability of ZTE phones.

The upcoming Gmail design update aims to bring the desktop user experience closer to that provided by the email service on mobile devices. The list of features currently being tested includes smart replies, snooze, a new sidebar, as well as a special mode that stops email recipients from forwarding certain emails.

With the 2018 EliteBooks, HP has put a focus on premium-features such as a Unibody-design and higher-quality displays – which of course also raises the costs. To bridge the gap compared with its older EliteBooks, HP has released a refresh of its older EliteBook 840 G4, which brings the newest CPUs to the older design.

Sega has announced its classic adventure games Shenmue and Shenmue II will be made available for the PC sometime this year. Shenmue was originally released for the Dreamcast console in 1999, with a sequel coming out shortly afterwards, in 2001. A further sequel, which received over US$6 million in funding through a Kickstarter project, is also expected later on this year.

The Japanese video-game developer Sega has unveiled a Mega Drive Mini console at the recent Sega Fes 2018 event. The original Sega Mega Drive (known as the Genesis in North America) was released in Japan in 1988, and it ended up being immensely popular with over 30 million consoles sold worldwide. The micro-console is expected to be released later this year.