Business Articles

Are you holding off on getting your Android smartphone fixed for fear of the personal data on it going to the repair shop with it? Samsung has come up with a new way to allay such fears with its new Repair Mode, a new option for Galaxy-series smartphones that locks all potentially sensitive information behind an unlocking method.

After debuting the Nothing Phone (1) earlier in the month, it appears Carl Pei's Nothing may be set to bring another device to the market this year. This phone is supposedly referred to as a "Lite" version of the Nothing Phone (1), although it retains most of the hardware of the Snapdragon 778G+ device.

The President & Managing Director of General Motors Europe has provided details about the company's plans to offer EVs on the continent. In an interview with Autocar, Samara said that high demand in Europe had prompted the move. GM has not announced which models will be available; we know they will be from American brands, which could include Cadillac and Chevrolet.

Xiaomi's very public dream of being a company that makes electric vehicles (EVs) as well as most popular consumer devices and gadgets has reportedly lost its initial momentum as of late. The current breakneck speed of the Chinese automotive industry has thrown a regulatory roadblock in the leading OEM's path to officially becoming an auto-maker in its own country.

Honor has unveiled plans for its IFA 2022 showcase with assertions that it will help consumers "embrace the connected future". Going by the OEM's new promos, this can be done with one of its new, appropriately networkable devices, which might include new mobile devices, PCs and the personal audio equipment to pair with them.

A Polestar survey found that the primary reason American drivers switched from combustion engines to electric vehicles was not the environment. Instead, most respondents cited technology and image as the reason they would buy an EV. Polestar also recently announced its H1 2022 results, including a record 50,000 orders taken globally.

The Spotify Car Thing has been killed off, just five months into its public release. Still available at a steep discount, the remaining Car Thing units will sell for US$49.99 until Spotify exhausts its supplies.

Intel has announced that its Foundry Services have been chosen by MediaTek as a new chip supplier. The decision help the latter expand its portfolio of processors for the internet of things (IoT) market, as well as make sure it has stock of those new chips to sell. This, according to MediaTek, will help it stay in its current industry-leading position in general.

A new type of Best Buy store has launched in North Carolina to offer consumers a "new" and possibly much more 2022 way to shop. The space, while nearly a tenth of the size of the average store associated with the chain, is rated to offer in-person consultations as well as a range of the latest or most popular products, in a way that might better adapt to the trend of consumers to shop and order online instead.

ORICO is a USB hub and storage accessory OEM that has just launched a new line of portable SSDs. Its MTQ-40G flagships have Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports with an up to 40 gigabit per second (Gbps) data-transmission rate, and are up to 2TB in capacity. However, they also stand out due to "durable" multi-colored exteriors styled after one of Piet Mondrian's most famous paintings.

The Redmi K50 Ultra has made another appearance in the wild ahead of its launch. It's joined this time out by the Mix Fold 2, which is listed with up to 1 TB of storage, showing off its place as one of Xiaomi's most premium offerings for the year.

Realme's inaugural monitor is set to launch formally during the OEM's main IoT ecosystem product launch of tomorrow (July 26, 2022). However, the full gamut of details on the inaugural external display - price included - are now out there due to its appearance on Flipkart in advance. The official leak reveals some specs that might prove gratifyingly up to date, whereas others may be less so.

SG Micro is a company that has reportedly just secured an order from Apple for the upcoming iPhone 14 series, possibly even its top-end Pro and Pro Max variants. It is a major coup for the components OEM, particularly as it can now say it is a "tier-1" supplier to a top global hardware corporation. Accordingly, its parts will be a part of devices from the new flagship line that are made in the second half of 2022.

Samsung, last week, filed a new trademark in Korea that provides hints as to the company's plans for an upcoming camera sensor. This sensor could be a 450 MP one, with a post-binning pixel size matching that of the 1-inch Sony IMX989 on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra.

The prices of EVs made by the Texas-based automaker have risen sharply due to the rampant inflation, and they have now hit an embarrassingly high level according to its CEO. Musk therefore hopes that a waning inflation towards the end of the year could pave the way for potential price reductions of popular electric cars like the Tesla Model Y.

It seems the Motorola Edge 20 Fusion is due a successor. A device, sometimes referenced overtly as a next-gen member of its line, has now registered on the databases of the FCC and 3C regulators, among others. These leaks hint at a considerable charging upgrade in the upcoming 2022 Android smartphone.

Samsung has shot to the top of the market for foldable mobile devices since its initial Galaxy Fold launch in 2019. Now, its president Dr. TM Roh has announced that shipments in this space have grown at least 3x in 2021 compared to 2020. The executive may have also alluded to plans for a slight foldable rebrand to be formally unveiled during the imminent Unpacked 2022 showcase.

Razer has bought all shares of the French company responsible for Interhaptics, described as a "leading development platform" for feedback in gaming, PC and extended-reality (XR) hardware. The move is slated to underpin the former's interest in the overall haptics market, although it could also allow the OEM to improve and leverage its in-house HyperSense technology to compete with similar products such as Sony DualSense going forward.

Anker has announced that it will launch the latest generation of its high-speed chargers during an upcoming July 2022 event. The OEM has already alluded to the "cutting-edge" gallium nitride (GaN) technology to come in these new accessories. They will be pitched at both in-place and on-the-go use-cases, and will come in a variety of wattages, some of which will exceed the 100 watt (W) mark.

Gateway has just announced an inaugural all-in-one (AiO) desktop as its latest addition to its new Walmart-based line-up. It hits the sub-US$400 mark with its specs, which include Intel Pentium silicon and a ~24-inch IPS FHD display. Then again, it comes with its own mouse and keyboard in the box, as well as a year's worth of Microsoft 365 Personal access for free.

Arcfox has announced that it is finally ready to "deliver" its alphaS, the world's first car to ship with Huawei Inside, a full smart car solution from the eponymous hardware and software OEM. The solution is rated to run the vehicle's comprehensive array of sensors, and also involves a cabin that runs HarmonyOS. The car starts at around US$60,000 on the Chinese market.

The availability of the new Lenovo workstation flagship, the ThinkPad P16, is getting closer. Now, Lenovo has published detailed specifications and manuals, which reveal additional information about the powerful work-laptop.

A United States credit union has taken Apple to court over the Cupertino giant's Pay service. The plaintiff in this case has taken issue with what it sees as the imposition of the app as a default option on users, and with the extra fees financial institutions incur as a result. Therefore, Apple is now at risk of losing this apparently happy state of affairs in its home country soon.

Huawei has confirmed that it will introduce the latest upgrade to its product ecosystem's HarmonyOS toward the end of July 2022. Now, it has also teased one of the first devices to launch with the same new 3.0 version. The latest addition to the MatePad Pro series may also introduce a new screen size to its line.

The Huawei Mate 50 series is set to debut shortly. Word from China has now revealed some important details of the flagship phones, with two notable takeaways being the reported presence of a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 4G and a Mate 50 X that will finally succeed the popular Mate 20X from 2018.

Ulefone has introduced Android 12 to its Armor series of rugged smartphones with the new X6 Pro. Then again, one could say that the OEM has made an odd choice in which to debut this software upgrade, as the new rugged handset has a compact build with a 5-inch IPS display driven by an aging MediaTek Helio chipset. Its price is quite reasonable as a result, although its availability could be better.

Xiaomi Automotive is one of the OEM's latest divisions, and has been backed to reveal its inaugural prototype some time in the third quarter of 2022. Now, the latest leak on the subject purports to confirm that this event will take place in August of this year. The OEM is also now said to have picked up a new design partner to help it target specific price-tiers once it is in the car market.

The HP ProBook 445 G8 is a budget office laptop with many strengths, such as the performance it delivers thanks to AMD's Zen 3. The battery life and emissions also benefit enormously from this.

The 12S Ultra can be described as Xiaomi's new camera behemoth in more ways than one. The OEM has also sourced the highest-end display for its latest flagship, driven by the fastest processor Qualcomm can provide. Now, the cost of packing all of this and more into the same device at the factory has been revealed.

Microsoft had announced its intention to release one new Feature Update for its main PC OS per year, which could have meant Windows 12 could arrive as soon as 2023. However, according to the latest reports, the Redmond giant has been obliged to scrap these plans, thereby pushing the major upgrade back to 2024 with new features arriving via a new, update-independent initiative instead.

The Indian Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has ruled that the mobile device OEM OPPO is liable for fines equating to ~US$550 million for practices that allegedly amount to the evasion of custom duties in the country. OPPO does not completely agree with the findings, yet states it is committed to acknowledging and rectifying the situation.

In our review process, the PrimeBook Circular made a decent impression with very good battery life and solid performance overall. However, the fundamentals are a little different than in conventional devices, for Prime Computer has installed an Intel NUC Compute Element. This houses the CPU, RAM and the Wi-Fi adapter. A successful combination, in our opinion.

China has become a market in which Apple's iPhones are prominent in terms of premium mobile devices. Therefore, new predictions of how well the rumored upcoming 14 series will do in the country might prove an indicator of how its sales will perform worldwide. The latest leak on the subject suggests that they will encounter demand that remains strong in 2022.

The product design relationship between Apple and Jony Ive has finally come to an end. The former executive at Cupertino was responsible for the distinctive looks of the MacBook line, but has only been a consultant to the OEM since 2019. Ive's contract for this role has now expired, and his former employer has declined to renew it.

Volkswagen has unveiled its new "charging park", located at one of the company's plants in Saxony, Germany. It is made of electrical storage units, each made of 96 batteries reclaimed from pre-production ID. 3 and ID. 4 cars. Therefore, Volkswagen asserts that its new "PSC" car-charging infrastructure is sustainable as well as practical and forward-looking.

According to word on the grapevine, Qualcomm is set to abandon Samsung entirely for the manufacturing of its flagship 5G chipsets in the mid-term. Supposedly, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could all be built by TSMC, after Qualcomm switched to the Taiwanese company's fabs for the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.

Panasonic’s Chief Technology Officer, Shoichiro Watanabe, has told Reuters that the company is planning to increase the energy density of its batteries by 20% by 2030. The Tesla supplier explained that new additives would help it to achieve enhanced performance. This technology could add over 100 km (~62 miles) range to a Tesla Model Y.

After a marketing video revealed most details of the Asus Zenfone 9 last week, the Taiwanese company has now officially confirmed the imminent launch of the compact flagship. The Zenfone 8's successor will debut on July 28, as perhaps the smallest widely available premium Android phone.

Anker's Nebula brand has put its flagship Cosmos 4K laser projector with Android TV up for sale for Amazon's ongoing 2022 Prime Day event. For those looking for something more portable, the ultra-thin Wemax Go Advanced is also part of its OEM's campaign. There are also offers from LG and ViewSonic on various up-to-4K models.

Nokia's European feature-phone launch event of today (July 12, 2022) has re-imagined the 8210 for the 2020s. This updated model's design matches that of the 1999 original closely - then again, that phone never had 4G/LTE, Bluetooth 5.0 or a 0.3MP rear camera. It will be available from August 2022 in its first few markets.

The affordable HP ZBook Power 15 G8 is a high-performance workstation with at most an Intel Core i7, an Nvidia T600, and a 400-nits FHD display. It is particularly interesting for students, engineers, architects, and product developers.

The display OEM BOE's status as a maker of iPhone 14 displays is said to have been in jeopardy following a disagreement with Apple over the manufacture of the flagship smartphones' predecessors. However, it seems BOE has secured its repeat business from the Cupertino giant after all, albeit for a relatively small proportion of 14-series OLED screens.

Vivo's division and subsidiaries in India have been subject to raids by the country's financial Enforcement Directorate. The governmental body has confiscated balances - some gold bars included - totalling about US$59 million from a vast array of accounts held by the company. The move is reportedly linked to alleged tax evasion related to all Vivo sales made in India thus far.