Business Articles

After less than a decade since its release for iOS, which took place in September 2014, the Microsoft-owned virtual keyboard app SwiftKey (originally developed by TouchType) will be removed from the Apple App Store on October 5. This move comes after over a year without updates, but there is no official reason yet.

With the ThinkPad Z series, for the first time there is a dedicated high-end series from Lenovo for the AMD Ryzen chips. Even if the Z16 unfortunately had a few problems in our review, our test again showed the potential of the AMD CPUs.

With Leica switching allegiances to Xiaomi, it should come as no surprise to see Huawei revise the P50 Pro and remove any references to the German camera company. Reportedly, Huawei has also ditched the power supply from its latest flagship smartphone too.

LG has announced US-market pricing and availability for some of its most unique new TVs at CEDIA Expo 2022. They include the OLED Flex, the first 42-inch display that can convert between flat and curved modes. It is joined by the Posé and StanbyME screens with their super-unusual "Lifestyle" stands, not to mention the newest and biggest member of the OLED Gallery series.

DJI has introduced the Mavic 3E and Mavic 3T, the sole members of the new Mavic 3 Enterprise series. Building on the regular Mavic 3 series, the Mavic 3E and Mavic 3T offer up to 45-minute flight times and even a thermal camera in the case of the Mavic 3T.

Five years ago, Lenovo celebrated the 25th anniversary of its ThinkPad brand with the ThinkPad 25, a special edition ThinkPad that featured the classic IBM style keyboard. Lenovo appears to be launching another commemorative ThinkPad, although the new 30th Anniversary Edition of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon G10 skips the retro keyboard.

A few months after its announcement, the PlayStation Stars loyalty program for PlayStation users is now rolling out. Japan gets it today (alongside the rest of Asia), the Americas will follow on October 5, while Europe and Australia are scheduled to gain access on October 13 (local time, in all cases).

Available with both Intel and AMD processors, the StarFighter Linux laptop from Star Labs will be up for pre-orders in less than three weeks. Sadly, with prices from US$900 to US$3,000, interesting hardware specs overall, and quite a few configurations, this laptop comes with non-upgradeable memory.

Apple iPhone 14 series starts at US$799 for the non-Pro iPhone 14. Even though the phone costs a lot less than the iPhone 14 Pro (US$999) it reportedly isn’t selling as well as its more expensive sibling in China. Per a report by the South China Morning Post, iPhone 14’s demand has nosedived by 71% in the 11 days from the start of the pre-orders compared to the iPhone 13 in the same timeframe.

Apple continues to dominate DisplayMate's smartphone display rankings, as the brand's iPhone 14 Pro Max has just grabbed the crown from its predecessor, receiving the A+ rating. The highlights of this Samsung-made display include a peak brightness of over 2,300 nits, infinite contrast ratio, and more.

Xiaomi has now officially confirmed a date for its next major global launch event. The company will debut a host of devices on October 4, with the Xiaomi 12T series expected to be the stars of the show—other potential debutants including the Redmi Pad and Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Pro.

Although it launched with a price tag of US$1,599, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is often spotted for prices of around US$2,000, although still two weeks away from the official market launch. The latest price record? The equivalent of over US$2,500, for a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 GAMING OC sold in Hong Kong.

Xiaomi has claimed that it can have its first electric car on the market by 2024. Now, one of its latest patents hint at the latest step in achieving this goal. The OEM's dedicated EV division has invented what could be its answer to systems such as Tesla's Supercharger facilities.

Lots of new features in Lenovo's ThinkPad T16 G1: a 16-inch 16:10 low-power display, a large 86 Wh battery and carbon fiber like in the ThinkPad T14s, to name a few. In contrast, the keyboard now has a travel of 1.5 mm.

Stellantis has confirmed its plans to double the number of Fiat New 500 electric vehicle units it produces this year compared to last year. However, CEO Carlos Tavares has also stated that the company is facing parts shortages, which has put this target at risk. The electric 500 remains popular in Europe, second only to Tesla vehicles.

The household wearables brand Fitbit has updated its support pages with new information that might point to greater integration with its new owner. The company now advises customers that some functions and uses of its devices will start to require that they are linked to a Google account. However, it assures users that this will result in no loss of privacy or control over how their data is used.

Samsung touts its Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro and XCover6 Pro as the most reliable and versatile rugged tablet and smartphone respectively it has made to date. Now, the OEM has announced official availability for the two new Android devices in the US, in terms of commercial channels and vendors. One can be ordered from now, whereas the other cannot.

Huawei's latest range of premium phablets launched with 4G/LTE-only versions of their flagship-grade chipsets due to the US governmental embargoes under which the OEM operates. However, according to an eminent leaker, a Mate 50 customer may now buy a new third-party accessory that confers sub-6GHz connectivity to the device. The cases are even equipped with their own chipset for this purpose.

The average Starlink Internet download speeds have diminished across the globe as more users sign up for the service and it becomes available in more places. In fact, Elon Musk just boasted with Starlink service availability on all 7 continents, including Antarctica.

The Consumer Technology Assocation (CTA) has announced that it has a keynote speaker for its major CES 2023 event already: Lisa Su. AMD's chair and CEO is slated to hold forth on how her company's most cutting-edge and relevant computing technology helps solve the world's most pressing problems during the speech. This event is, as always, scheduled for early January 2023 and will take place live in Las Vegas.

The American GPU maker refers to disrespectful behavior from Nvidia's side as the reason for its decision to abandon the graphics card market entirely just weeks before the highly anticipated reveal and eventual release of the GeForce RTX 4000 series.

Ulefone asserts that it will break smartphone speaker limits in 2022 with the upcoming Power Armor 16 Pro, a smartphone that will also run Android 12 using a battery of over 9,000mAh in capacity. The OEM claims that it will achieve "the highest volume" with 3.5 watts (W) of audio power using an 11.5 cubic centimeter (cc) "sound cavity".

The OneOdio Monitor 60s have been announced at a price of well under US$100; nevertheless, the OEM asserts that they are ideal for work such as DJing and even recording songs. They have a "professional monitor" build with faux-leather "memory" ear-cushions for noise isolation and comfort, and is compatible with the 1/4-inch and 3.5mm interfaces.

Honor has just debuted the MagicBook V 14 2022 laptop in accordance with its Autumn Product Event teasers directed at its native Chinese market. However, it has landed alongside much less expected new MagicBook X-series PCs. They pack the same Alder Lake platforms that drives a 2.2K display in the new 14 2022 model.

While phones like the Sharp Aquos R7 and Xperia Pro-I already launched with 1-inch (or 1-inch type) camera sensors, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra was the first the utilize it properly and receive the adequate media attention. The list of phones with such a sensor is set to lengthen next year, too, it appears with the Xiaomi 13 Pro tipped to be joined by phones from OPPO, Vivo, and Honor

5G is touted as capable of delivering multi-gigabit per second (Gb/s) downloads; however, some proponents of its next generation assert that it will scale mobile data speeds up to terabit (Tb) speeds. LG purports to have gotten even closer to this kind of future with the latest demo of what is known as "6G THz (or terahertz) data" at Berlin's Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI). Furthermore, the partners assert that it has worked over the longest distance outdoors recorded to date.

UGREEN has launched a new, up-to-140 watt (W) version of its Nexode-series power brick. This variant has 1 USB type-A port and 2 type-C ports, one of which is rated for its new maximum output. The OEM asserts that it can charge a new MacBook Pro 14 by 80% in an hour, while being 22% smaller than the first-party accessory for the same purpose.

Ubisoft has dedicated part of its September 2022 Forward press conference to the revelation that Assassin's Creed is getting the Netflix treatment. In fact, this is happening twice over, as it will be one of the studio's titles to get a new version compatible with the streaming service's Games division as well as an almost obligatory TV re-make.

SoC.one and Imagination Technologies assert that RISC-V, the emerging alternative to ARM, is ideal for inclusion in the automotive industry and its spiraling need for advanced computing and networking. The two companies have agreed to collaborate on solutions to make RISC-V hardware compatible with the potential software demands of next-gen vehicles, their use of extended-reality, IoT and safety solutions included.

Xiaomi's CEO, Lei Jun, is still backing his company to become as big in the automotive industry as it currently is in the consumer-tech space. It is now said to get started with a 4-door vehicle equipped with the OEM's very own autonomous driving technology. The potentially affordable car is to be made in an equally first-party factory in China.

The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max apparently already show signs of outstripping their vanilla counterparts in terms of pre-order volumes. According to the widely-regarded analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the higher-end new models from Apple have captured the vast majority of offline reservations in the Chinese market thus far, leaving the other 2 variants - the 14 Plus in particular - in the dust.

Brydge has announced the SP MAX Plus (or MAX+) as a keyboard dock for the Surface Pro 8 with a considerable price-hike compared to the OEM's first-gen SP+ predecessor that does the same thing. Then again, this newer model incorporates a tablet cover with "military-grade" durability as well as handy touches such as a new auto-connect feature and a pen silo.

The X-H2 is a new mirrorless APS-C camera that upgrades to the latest Fujifilm sensor and processor available to it, giving it the highest resolution and possibly the greatest performance of its line to date. It also packs the OEM's latest sensor-shift technology and in-body image stabilization (IBIS) for "robust" 8K/30fps recording with the option of internal Pro-Res - although it does also boast a full-sized HDMI port.

Amazfit has announced that it now supports trade-ins via the web-store it operates for US consumers. The new program may thus offer a way to sort out what to do with their old smartwatch (not necessarily from the same brand) while getting the GTR 4 or GTS 4 of their dreams at the same time. Then again, the initiative comes with caveats, not the least of which is the time-limit on its availability.

When it comes to new hardware, it is often wise to wait a bit with a purchase, as some firmware issues may still be present in a new product. Sometimes there are devices that are more problematic than others - for the expensive Lenovo ThinkPad Z16, frequent random restarts are the reason why our review is not finished yet.

Only available in Australia for the time being, the PlayStation 5 1200 model features a full internal redesign. In addition to the different internal layout, the new game console is also lighter and draws less power than its predecessors, namely the PlayStation 5 models 1000 and 1100.

The kind of communication possibilities normally exclusive to dedicated satellite phones are thought to become the next big thing for the consumer-grade smartphones of the future. Apple just might get there first as of tomorrow (September 7, 2022); however, a Google executive indicates that Android will not be far behind, with satellite use just a major software upgrade away.

The latest MateBook E variant from Huawei is a Go today (September 6, 2022). The convertible has a 12.35-inch display with 120Hz SKUs and a 2.5K display compatible with the OEM's latest stylus. It runs Windows 11 using the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor and, as such, starts much cheaper than its flagship sibling in China.

Two top-notch AMD configurations of the fairly new Lenovo ThinkPad T16 can now be ordered at respectable discounts of more than 50%, which is why this deal constitutes a good opportunity to pick up one of the most popular business laptops on the market.