Business Articles

Samsung has now made the Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro official as the latest addition to its "extreme" (and extremely business-like) line of slates. It has launched with an upgrade to sub-6GHz 5G connectivity and Wi-Fi 6E, and even supports "private 4G/LTE" bands on top of that. Its 10-inch display runs off a battery that is user-replaceable and supports fast-charging via a POGO-pin interface.

The HP ProBook 450 G9 is a quiet, 15-inch business laptop with long battery runtimes. This review explores the Core i7's potential, whether it is put to good use in the ProBook, and whether the AMD-based model is a better choice.

NVIDIA's monstrous Hopper N100 and A100 AI chips, as well as AMD's MI250 have gotten on the White House's export ban list on national security grounds. The loss of this particular Chinese server market may amount to a US$400 million lower revenue for NVIDIA.

Lenovo touts its latest Chromebox for Enterprise as the mini-workstation for nearly every conceivable 2022 use-case with up-to-date specs, support for business-grade cloud management and streamlined, even remote, installation options crammed into a chassis of just about 1 liter (l) in volume. It also features security and support features from both Google and Lenovo.

The ThinkVision S25e-30 is Lenovo's latest 24.5-inch FHD monitor. It has a starting price in line with its HDMI 1.4 spec; nevertheless, it has launched with the same new, red-accented design of its higher-end siblings that integrates its own joystick for easier physical control. It also benefits from potentially realistic color reproduction and a faster-than-average refresh rate.

At IFA 2022, Lenovo is unveiling a product that has surfaced already a few months ago: The Lenovo ThinkBook 16p G3 is supposed to take the multimedia segment by storm with the combination of AMD Ryzen-H and a Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU.

The Dragonfly G3 is one of the best-looking business subnotebooks in the market. However, the 12th gen processor runs slower than expected in order to fit into such a thin and light design.

Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, and Silver Sea cruise ships will be first in the industry to be equipped with fast satellite Internet courtesy of Elon Musk's Starlink Maritime option. SpaceX recently announced the Starlink Maritime price tier for ships and yachts, priced at US$5,000 a month.

Asus has unveiled the ExpertBook B6 Flip at IFA 2022. It features an Intel Core i9-12950HX, up to 128 GB of ECC RAM, 4 TB of storage, a 16-inch WQXGA 16:10 screen, and a litany of ports. Pricing and availability details will be available later.

At IFA, Asus is introducing a few new laptops. One of those is the ExpertBook B5 B5602C. The target market for this 16 inch device are business customers. To convince them, Asus is betting on the low weight, the numpad, expandable RAM and an optionally large battery.

The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are heavily rumored to be equipped with 48 MP main cameras. In addition to that, the two Pro models will feature significantly improved ultra-wide-angle cameras, with a rumored sensor change that would see them outperform even the iPhone 12 Pro's main camera.

Samsung's registration of a new device with the FCC has led to speculation that the tablet in question is the next in the rugged Galaxy Tab Active line. It is slated to launch with choices of Wi-Fi 6E-only or 5G connectivity. It has also been certified to use NFC and Bluetooth 5.2, and might charge at 25W.

Huawei has scheduled the launch of its Mate 50 series of mobile devices just ahead of that for Apple's iPhone 14 line in 2022. Despite this, the OEM has already opened reservations for the smartphones via an official website. It claims to have amassed well over a million of these expressions of interest in the 4G/LTE-only hardware so far.

GoPro is set to release its newest action camera, the GoPro Hero 11 Black. Considering the launch dates of the Hero 9 Black and Hero 10 Black, the Hero 11 Black can be expected to debut in September but will do so with a mostly unchanged design from its predecessor.

A new PlayStation 5 console has been spotted on the shelves in Australia, with this 2022 variant apparently being lighter than both the revised PS5 from 2021 and the original launch model. Sony has also been busy in the mobile space as its new PlayStation Studios Mobile Division has acquired Savage Game Studios.

Samsung has unveiled a new UI based on Android 12L for the Galaxy Tab S8, S8 Ultra and S8 Plus. Therefore, the flagship tablets will have access to many of the same new features found on the new Galaxy Z Fold4 premium foldable device, its Taskbar included. The new firmware also contains an up-to-date security patch.

Apple is said to have plans to dive into the mixed-reality (MR; which might involve augmented or virtual reality (AR/VR) use-cases) arena with its first-gen headset in the near future. Now, Bloomberg contributors claim to have found out how the Cupertino giant intends to brand this new product line on its launch. The new leak hints at additional, health-related applications for the possibly upcoming Apple hardware.

Poco has now officially confirmed a launch date for its next smartphones. The company will launch the Poco M5 and Poco M5s on September 5 globally, with the Poco M5s potentially set to be absent from the Indian launch.

Asus now looks to have officially announced a launch date for its next smartphone, the ROG Phone 6D. The gaming phone slots into the ROG Phone 6 series, and is heavily rumored to be powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ instead of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 on the ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro.

Xiaomi's well-publicized plan to become an EV company by 2024 as well as a global electronics giant have recently hit a stumbling block. However, the company might be back on track with its ambitions, as it is reportedly discussing methods for the production of its first-gen car with the major manufacturer BAIC.

The Google Pixel 8 is expected to make its debut in late 2023 but appears to already be in the works. Word on the grapevine indicates that the chipset for the Pixel 8 series, the third-gen Tensor, is in development. Sadly, though, it will seemingly be built by Samsung in spite of TSMC's rightful, recent dominance.

Zepp Health is the fitness-tech ODM responsible for the popular Amazfit brand, and that also makes fitness trackers for Xiaomi. The company has reported that its second-quarter 2022 (2Q2022) revenues increased by 46.4% compared to 1Q2022 - however, they also shrank by 39.6% compared to 2Q2021. This decline was linked to a disruption in its normal product cycle due to the chip shortage, as well as prevailing socio-political upheaval.

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra debuted in China early last month as the world's first Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 device with its 1-inch 50 MP camera also receiving plaudits. That phone will sadly never make its way out of China, but Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has now confirmed things will be different next time out.

Alder Lake processor, dedicated graphics card, IPS display - the new Samsung Galaxy Book2 15 looks good on the spec sheet. In reality, though, the laptop disappoints in most respects. The new Arc A350M GPU from Intel in particular delivered lacklustre performance during the review, much like the display.

Netflix has just confirmed that the upcoming BioShock movie adaptation will be directed by Francis Lawrence, the man behind titles such as I Am Legend and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Michael Green (Logan, American Gods, Blade Runner 2049) will be in charge of the script, while the movie will be co-produced by 2K and Vertigo Entertainment.

Sony has now announced an imminent product announcement event scheduled for September 1. While Sony does not specify, by most indications, the Japanese company will unveil its compact flagship for the year, the Xperia 5 IV, at that event.

SpaceX is lowering the monthly subscription price for its Starlink satellite Internet service citing 'improved market conditions.' The Stalink price cuts sometimes reach 50% for select users.

Sony has announced that the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition will cost a smidgen more in many places, but not the United States. The price changes are effective immediately in all locations except for Japan.

TCL concedes that the economic climate was not kind to the global TV market, one of the areas in which the OEM is best known, throughout 2022 thus far. Nevertheless, the company has now reported very healthy revenues and profits for the first half of this year (1H2022). It attributes much of this success to its growing reputation for mid- to upper-tier smart screen sales, as well as improving supply-chain conditions

The very first generations of Apple computers often do quite well when offered at high-end auctions. However, the latest such deal may outshine the rest, with a final bid of well over US$650,000. This is because it is the Apple-1 prototype Steve Jobs brought to a pitch at one of the world first PC retail stores.

Nothing promises to provide its inaugural smartphone, the Nothing Phone (1), with three Android OS upgrades. Following the debut on Android 13 last week, fans of the phone have quizzed CEO Carl Pei on the company's update plans. His reply? Well, not promising.

The Indian smartwatch market is now reported to have grown by an unprecedented 312% in the second quarter of 2022 (2Q2022) compared to 2Q2021. Local brands continued to dominate the space, with Fire-Boltt in particular increasing its share of the market by nearly 20% to shoot into first place in the quarter. Then again, Dizo was able to maintain its position, while Apple nearly doubled its growth thanks to the Watch Series 7.

Twitter and Elon Musk will come face to face in court on October 17. Twitter brought the lawsuit against Musk for walking away from the US$44 billion deal because the social site allegedly underreported the number of spam accounts. In his search for answers, the Tesla CEO is now going after two New York-based ad tech companies.

LG Display has showcased transparent OLED panels, another step in the advancement of the technology. Additionally, the display manufacturer has exhibited the world's largest OLED panel, which also has a 5.1 channel sound system built directly into the display.

ZTE has introduced the AX3000 Pro as its latest dual-band router that is available on Amazon. The device supports up to Wi-Fi 6 speeds over up to 160MHz channels thanks to a "winning" Qualcomm processor. Its new and award-winning design is touted to maximise its surface-area coverage and ability to form a house-wide mesh.

Lenovo has tried to integrate the functionality of the TrackPoint buttons into the touchpad in the new ThinkPad Z series. This kind of attempt has already failed once. But this time, the innovative design could be a success.

Polestar has noted that its recently-unveiled concept of an open-top electric roadster met with immense "positive reception" - so much so, in fact, that the brand is going to turn it as a commercial car. It will launch as the Polestar 6 LA Concept edition and is projected to achieve 150+ mph speeds - however, it will also be available in limited numbers and at a potentially shocking price.

MediaTek has unveiled the T830 as a new platform for the router-, Mi-Fi-, or CPE-type devices of the future. It is Wi-Fi 7 capable, and can handle 4G, 5G, up-to-10Gb/s Ethernet or Wi-Fi 6/6E inputs as well. The SoC is also compatible with battery power, and is touted as light on power use in these cases.

OmniVision claims to have built on its initial 200MP image sensor breakthrough with a new product of the same class-leading resolution, yet potentially improved auto-focus and low-light performance. The new OVB0A also features pixels that the OEM touts as the world's smallest, so as to maximise light absorption in the new ultra-high-res CMOS.

The new Prestige 16 features a Mini-LED Display HDR1000 QHD+ screen as well as an RTX 3050 Ti dGPU, while the Prestige 16 EVO only comes with a regular FHD+ IPS screen and integrated graphics. Both variants are powered by the Intel Core i7-1280P CPU with 32 GB of soldered LPDDR5 and a PCIe 4.0 SSD. Business features include 2x Thunderbolt 4 connectors, FHD webcam and fingerprint sensor.

According to a revised forecast for the third quarter of 2022, consumer prices for widely-used DDR3 and DDR4 RAM modules could fall by up to 18%, while prices for the more modern DDR5 memory are likely to remain more stable.

Nokia has had its suit that the competing Android OEM OPPO has persisted in using its IP without permission upheld by a court in Germany. Accordingly, the latter has removed all of its sales listings for mobile devices and wearables from the same market, as has its subsidiary OnePlus. The company has stated that it still hopes for an amicable resolution of the matter.

Motorola launched the Moto Razr 2022 a few days ago in China, as a direct rival to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip4. The premium foldable went on sale shortly after, and the company has now revealed an initial sales milestone that indicates demand for the Moto Razr 2022 in its home market.