Business Articles

Ford has cut the price of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, citing a drop in raw materials prices and improvements in scale production. The new starting price of the F-150 Lightning Pro is US$49,995. The timing of the price cuts is suspiciously close to the launch of the upcoming Tesla Cybertruck, as is the new pricing, which shines the F-150 Lightning in a positive light compared to its competition.

JLab has augmented its Epic series of products with an accessory that can connect to smartphones, tablets or PCs - however, it is for typing on them rather than listening to their audio in this case. The Epic Wireless Keyboard aims for a premium experience with a metallic build that incorporates a physical media dial and "soft touch" keys (that can be shared between up to 3 user devices), yet has been priced at well under US$100.

Sustainability is a big trend topic in tech. For laptops, one of the most interesting aspects is the repairability and modularity. The Framework laptop has proven that even a slim laptop can be modular, and Dell's Concept Luna has showcased that the big mainstream manufacturers are also exploring this topic. Lenovo's Project Aurora seems to be a similar effort.

A new report says TSMC's 3 nm node has yields of just 55%. On the other hand, Samsung Foundry is faring much better at 60%. AMD is rumoured to use Samsung Foundry for some of its upcoming parts.

One of Tesla's biggest victories has been its high safety ratings across the board. Now, NIO has achieved the same feat, scoring five-star Euro NCAP ratings with both the ET5 and EL7 electric sedan and SUV. Crucially, NIO is the first carmaker to get a five-star rating since the safety organisation updated its testing standards for 2023.

According to a well-respected and typically accurate source, Apple will launch a second generation of the Watch Ultra later in 2023. This top-end wearable will still have parts made of titanium - however, they may be manufactured in a whole new way. The cutting-edge technique is said to make it cheaper and easier for the Cupertino giant to make its latest flagship smartwatch.

Microsoft has had some things to say about the so-called Nintendo Switch 2 in recent Federal Trade Commission vs. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard court filings. There have been at least two intriguing references made to the next-generation Nintendo console, which appear to offer some credibility to the latest Switch 2 rumors.

Reports of a future Tesla India manufacturing plant have resurfaced, stating, with some credibility, that the US EV maker is in talks with the Indian government to build a new plant in the country. This new facility would largely be dedicated to production of the upcoming Model 2 compact car, which is slated to be announced sometime in 2024 or 2025 as a ~US$24,000 affordable EV for the masses.

Broadcom is now awaiting approval from the US FTC and the UK CMA, after receiving the green light from the European Commission. In the event of a successful acquisition, VMware would boost Broadcom's software side to account for 50% of its sales.

Intel has confirmed plans to end 'direct investment' in its Next Unit of Compute (NUC) business. While Intel will continue to support NUC 13 systems, it has no plans to offer any new NUC mini-PCs or white-label laptops directly.

Business Korea has heard from industry insiders that Samsung Foundry has massively improved yields on its 4 nm and 3 nm nodes. AMD supposedly plans to use the former for some of its AI hardware.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been denied an injunction against Microsoft’s proposed US$68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The district judge dealing with the case appeared to be satisfied with the commitments offered especially in regard to the Call of Duty franchise. The UK’s Competition and Markets Agency (CMA) has now made a new agreement with Microsoft.

MediaTek has introduced the Dimensity 6100 Plus (or 6100+) as the latest option in processors to help mobile device OEMs "democratize" historically high-end features such as up to 120Hz displays. It also purports to bring power drain on 5G down compared to its competitors - then again, it seems MediaTek has decided that the actual SoC specs needed for these potential advantages are hardly brand-new.

Thanks to the in-house developed Copilot, Canary Mail now provides AI-powered email writing capabilities to its users across the supported platforms, which include Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS. Those who need pinned emails, a built-in calendar, end-to-end encryption, and other premium features can get them starting at US$20 per year.

Featuring a curved 1500R 4K UHD display with an accurate size of 31.5 inches and a set of features that includes a blue light filter and 3D capabilities, the Samsung ViewFinity UR59 office monitor is now down by 22% on Amazon. Thanks to this discount, its list price of US$449.99 is now down to a more affordable $349.99.

Introduced over a decade ago as a free way to upload recent photos, My Photo Stream lost the ability to upload content at the end of last month as Apple will shut it down on July 26th. Thankfully, all users can easily switch to iCloud Photos or even various third-party alternatives.

Featuring 512 MB cache memory, the gargantuan 22 TB WD Red Pro mechanical hard drive was designed with NAS and server use scenarios in mind. Its highlights include a yearly workload rate of 300 TB and NASware 3.0 error recovery. Thanks to a 23% discount, it is now down from US$599.99 to US$459.99.

The latest predictions on Apple's switch to OLED technology purports to confirm that it will indeed start with the iPad Pro - albeit not until 2024. The top-end slate tends to come in 2 display size options, both of which are slated to upgrade to this new screen type next year. Both the 11-inch and 12.9-inch variants might be capable of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max' latest screen-saving features, as might the inaugural OLED MacBook.

The Vision Pro is Apple's first-ever extended reality (XR) headset. As such, it will also be one of the OEM's most expensive products on its 2024 release. Now, the Cupertino giant is said to try and rationalize that expense by offering a premium, in-person buying experience that will take place in its physical US stores next year.

BenQ has launched its LH730 LED projector, designed for business use. The light source delivers up to 4,000 ANSI lumens brightness and the model covers 98% of the Rec.709 color gamut. Other features of the projector include specific modes for displaying infographics, presentations and spreadsheets.

Meta announced that it had 'invented' a "new way to communicate with text" about 3 days ago (on July 5, 2023) - which has resulted in millions of users' worth of uptake already. However, as it turns out, the fact that many of them were able to register with their existing Instagram handle implies a potentially crucial drawback of the new social media option. The links between the two accounts means that one cannot be deleted without also dumping the other.

Infinix' latest additions to its ZERO BOOK series of laptops takes its name from the fact that it upgrades to 13th-gen Intel processors. It also ships with up to 32GB of RAM, PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs and a 100% sRGB display. The ZERO BOOK 13 is currently being previewed ahead of its release to the Indian market via Flipkart.

With a 60 Hz refresh rate and 1,920 X 1,080 pixels, the 24-inch Dell P2422HE comes with adjustable height, pivot, swivel, tilt, as well as multiple connectivity options, including one USB-C 3.1 Gen 1/DP 1.2 port with 65 W Power Delivery. Amazon currently has it discounted by 30%, so it goes for US$299.99 instead of US$429.99.

A class action lawsuit has been filed in the US against Samsung and Best Buy over 4K OLED TVs. The filing alleges that some TVs sold were missing advertised features like the Motion Xcelerator Turbo+ gaming tool. It remains to be seen precisely how many customers have been affected.

Expected to become available to order in the coming weeks, the Umidigi Active T1 is a rugged Android tablet with a generous battery capacity of 15,000 mAh, support for wireless, POGO and USB-C fast charging, 8/128 GB of memory/storage space, an 11-inch display with 2,000 X 1,200 pixels, and more.

The vast confines of Down Under will get satellite Internet and phone service via an official partnership between Telstra - Australia's largest carrier - and Elon Musk's Starlink. The SpaceX provider will deliver satellite Internet to remote rural areas via the official Telstra sales channels.

Released in late June 2000, the Voodoo 5 5500 is now a prized item for hardware collectors, so finding one in a sealed box is extremely rare. Thankfully, such a diamond has recently surfaced on eBay, but the London-based seller decided to set a fixed price of £2,300 (over US$2,900) instead of starting a bidding war.

Although Apple's market cap managed to break the US$3 trillion barrier back in January 2022, it never managed to close a trading day at that value until last Friday. The event took place after the shares of the tech giant headquartered in Cupertino climbed 2.31%, reaching a new high of US$193.97.

Valve has started rejecting games with generative AI content. The company claims that developers need to demonstrate they have the necessary copyright clearances to use the material.

Sony asserts that its new mocopi system condenses all the motion-capture hardware aspiring virtual reality (VR) content creators might need into 6 simple, wearable sensors. They even have their own app (for iOS or Android), so that the user can simply save the resulting full-body avatars to their mobile devices. mocopi is also compatible with developer resources such as Unreal Engine or Unity.

The Pixel Fold may have encountered an early stumbling block with a high-profile durability fail in review already. However, all hope for the new ~US$1,800 device's long-term viability may not be lost, with the announcement of upcoming “genuine spare parts” sold through iFixit. Their availability will be one of various repair options for the new flagship smartphone.

Sometimes, it can be worth it to buy last year's hardware. There is no reason to call something bad, just because it is a few months old. The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 AMD is such a case.

Much to the chagrin of fans of small cars, on July 7, Ford will retire the production line that has been manufacturing its Fiesta compact hatchback. Ford will instead repurpose this production capacity to manufacture the upcoming electric Ford Explorer SUV. This leaves Ford with a vehicle line-up basically devoid of anything that isn't an SUV, pickup truck, van, or Mustang.

MSI asserts that its entry-level lifestyle/business laptops are as 'Modern' in terms of finish options as they are in terms of either Intel or AMD processors in 2023. The series' single Ryzen 7 7730U-powered variant can be had in Classic Black, whereas some of its Core i5-1335U-based siblings move on to Star Blue or Beige Rose. They have been released to markets such as Germany, starting for less than US$1,000.

We praised the 2022 Latitude 9430 2-in-1 for its thinness and selection of ports. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for its successor the Latitude 9440 2-in-1.

Car and Driver has recognised the Hyundai Ioniq 6 electric sedan as its 2023 EV of the year, with much of the credit for the win supposedly going to its unorthodox looks. The victory marks a winning streak for Hyundai's Ioniq line-up, with the Ioniq 5 taking home the same award for 2022. Despite this win, the looks of the Ioniq 6 still seem rather polarising.

It appears as if the dream of an electric Volkswagen Beetle will only live on in DIY custom conversions, if a recent statement by VW CEO is to be believed. Despite the brand revisiting the VW Bus in the form of the ID Buzz, VW CEO, Thomas Schäfer, has said in an interview that there are some historic models that have had their time in the sun, and that there is no real justification for reviving the Beetle. This news comes hot on the heels of a recent appearance of an electric Beetle in a Netflix animated film that caused quite a bit of excitement over the prospect of an electrified Beetle.

Serpent Canyon mini PCs are those based on Intel's 14-core Core i7-12700H processor, often with the distinctive 'skull' logo on the side. GEEKNUC has announced that it now stocks desktops of this nature. They also boast a HDMI 2.1 output, a full-sized SD card reader and Thunderbolt 4 ports to the front and rear.

BenQ is now selling the PhotoVue SW272U and PhotoVue SW272Q, a pair of high-end professional monitors. Both should impress with excellent colour accuracy, factory hardware calibration, Calman verification and Pantone validation, among other features.

Ford has announced plans to cut upwards of 1,000 jobs in the US in the coming months, citing, among other reasons, high costs of pivoting its production to electric vehicles and the lack of profitability in the electric vehicle market as reasons for the lay-offs. The lay-offs are expected to affect both salaried and contract engineers in its internal-combustion-engine division and software developers in its EV business. Ford also expects to continue losing money, to the tune of US$3 billion, on its electric vehicle division in 2023.

As more electric vehicle makers have joined the Tesla NACS bandwagon, the Society of Automotive Engineers International has seen fit to standardise Tesla's formerly-proprietary charging standard. While this step may seem insignificant, it goes a long way to legitimising the NACS connector as an open standard and alleviating some of the complaints levelled at the design by opponents to its widespread adoption. As part of the standardisation process, the SAE will develop the SAE NACS standard.

After similar moves from the likes of Ford, General Motors, and Rivian, among others, Volvo has announced that it will adopt Tesla's North American Charging Standard charging hardware in its electric vehicles from 2025. This will give Volvo owners access to the immense Tesla Supercharger network, as well as a wealth of third-party fast charging providers that have recently also committed to using NACS.

The next-generation Nintendo console, commonly called the Switch 2, appears to be a long way off yet but that hasn’t stopped company president Shuntaro Furukawa from dropping some tiny hints about future hardware. At the very least, wannabe Nintendo Switch 2 scalpers will be in for a fight and backwards compatibility has been hinted at via Nintendo Accounts.