Business Articles

The ID. Buzz is the long-awaited conversion of Volkswagen's iconic minibus to a 2022 electric vehicle. However, the auto OEM has now hinted that it could also be something else in the future. It consists of something that looks like a Buzz from the front and a pick-up truck from the back. This, then, could be a nod to a new upcoming genre of VW e-vehicle.

The latest iOS beta of Telegram mentions a new subscription service called Telegram Premium. Among other things, it could offer exclusive stickers and reaction emojis. Users will require an active subscription even to view said elements.

A well-known leaker has made some extraordinary claims about the future of AMD’s server chips, EPYC. Apparently, there is a generation coming within a few years, codenamed “Venice”, that will offer well over 200 cores per part and may even include an astonishing 384-core SKU. The Zen 6-based chips will also apparently feature custom memory upgrades.

Wemax' success with its ~1-inch high Go portable projector allowed the brand to take it off Indiegogo and onto 'normal' sales channels earlier in 2022. Now, it has been able to do the same with the device's Advanced Edition. This model is the one capable of the series' highest-end specs, which include an estimated max brightness of 600 ANSI lumens.

Apple has only just announced its new initiative to facilitate iPhone users who want or need to fix their own devices, touting it as a new, right-to-repair-friendly way to increase access to this option. However, as some detractors point out, some aspects of the service may prove to be inadequate, expensive and even invasive in some respects.

Counterpoint Research has now released a report providing insight into global 5G Android smartphone sales in February. Samsung utterly dominates with five entries in the top ten, thanks to stellar Galaxy A52s, Galaxy S22 Ultra, and Galaxy S21 FE sales.

Impatient EV buyers apparently have to brace themselves for even higher car prices as the unwavering demand for electric trucks like the enormous GMC Hummer EV has now led to a ridiculously competitive auction at a car dealership in Texas.

At a launch event, Ford announced that it had started to produce its electric F-150 Lightning pickup trucks. The vehicles are being built at a new facility in Michigan, with customers expected to receive their pre-ordered trucks in the “coming days”. The 2022 production volume for the model is currently unknown.

According to reports, Samsung is developing 49-inch and 77-inch QD-OLED panels. Currently only available at 55-inch and 65-inches, these 49-inch and 77-inch QD-OLED panels could make their way to Samsung-branded TVs within a year's time as the company attempts to best LG's excellent OLED TV range.

The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 G5 has been announced without a big show. Considering the scope of the update, a more opulent announcement probably was not necessary. since the new model is basically the P1 G4 with updated internals.

Gamers Nexus has torn down the Xbox Series X Developer Kit, known as XDK. Sporting a more traditional design, the XDK also has a built-in display and 40 GB GDDR6 of GDDR6 VRAM, among other features.

The executive 13.3-inch model will be even more compact than the existing 15-inch Latitude 9520 2-in-1 or 14-inch Latitude 9420 2-in-1. Expect availability by this June.

Dell promises it to be the world's most powerful 17.3-inch mobile workstation when it becomes available worldwide by the second half of 2022. It will be one of the few laptops to come with Nvidia RTX A5500 or GeForce RTX 3080 Ti options.

Meta is opening a dedicated physical retail space in California on May 9th. Customers will be able to participate in interactive demonstrations of a range of Meta’s products, including Quest VR headsets, Portal and Rayban Stories. You will also be able to buy some of the company’s hardware onsite.

The emerging microLED sector is now tipped to gain ground now that the effects of the pandemic are abating. It was worth only US$56 million in 2020; however, this value is now though to reach the multi-billion level at the start of the next decade. This growth might be driven by demands for devices such as TVs as well as large-scale displays with the technology.

According to a South Korean industry blog, Apple has greatly increased its orders for new iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max units. Demand for these higher-end models has escalated, whereas that for the SE 2022, freshly released as the OEM's latest sub-premium alternative, has not. Therefore, the Pros are getting a production spike, whereas that of the new SE is being cut back.

NAB Show is an annual trade conference for content professionals going on right now in Las Vegas. Asus is one OEM with a booth there for its most relevant products, its latest ProArt Studiobook-series laptop with an Intel Xeon W-11955M processor and RTX A5000 graphics included. The newest OLED-equipped Vivobook Pro 16X and Zenbook Pro Duo have been set out alongside it.

The Schenker Work 17 is a large office laptop with high processing power. The Intel Core i7 is supported by up to 32 GB of RAM. With many configuration options, the Leipzig laptop can also be customized to individual requirements.

Framework mainboards with 12th gen Intel CPUs have yet to become available. For repairing or replacement purposes, however, these 11th gen CPU mainboards are now on sale complete with CAD and electrical documentation for tinkerers.

Elon Musk has announced that Tesla plans to be mass-producing robotaxis by 2024. The self-driving vehicles are expected not to have steering wheels or pedals. The cars are being optimized for cost efficiency, with Musk claiming that a robotaxi ride would be cheaper than a subsidized bus or subway ticket.

AMD’s new Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U and Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U have turned up on PassMark and have produced impressive results that shine a very positive light on the latest Zen 3+ offerings. Both Ryzen 6000 chips, built for use in thin and light laptops, outpaced the Intel Core i7-1260P, with the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U looking particularly strong.

The respected securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has just posted a new prediction as to how the "iPhone 14 series" might improve in terms of selfie cameras compared to the existing 13 series. This new rumor does not so much discuss a notch or lack thereof this time, however, and concerns the actual shooters to be found in the putative iPhones' front panels.

Microsoft offers two flavours of its infamous Office software: Microsoft 365 for US$69.99 per year or US$149.99 for a perpetual licence. If neither of those options sound ideal, you're not alone in thinking that. Fortunately, there is a whole host of free, open-source alternatives to choose from.

AMD officially launched Ryzen Pro 6000 series today. The Ryzen Pro 6000 series is targeted at commercial users and is based on the 6 nm Zen 3+ architecture with RDNA 2 integrated graphics. AMD claims significant performance and battery life numbers, particularly with the Ryzen 7 Pro 6860Z in comparison with the Alder Lake Core i7-1260P.

NVIDIA has heralded that its RTX 30 series graphics cards are finally available, some 18 months after early models debuted. The campaign points towards the end of NVIDIA's graphics card shortage, although many SKUs remain wildly above MSRP.

The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max have three main rear cameras, one of which is a telephoto unit with optical image stabilization (or OIS). Now, their 2024 successors are said to have the same spec, although it may be a new module from a different source in this case. The supplier in question also currently makes OIS tech for Samsung's Galaxy S22 flagship smartphone series.

One of the most prominent whistleblowers who highlighted Facebook's potential for detrimental effects on human society has voiced concerns of similar ramifications arising from the company's new focus: the metaverse. On that note, Meta is also now linked to plans for sales levies within a relevant platform, Horizon Worlds, that outdo even those found on the Apple App Store.

Volkswagen has announced that there is a new, fully-online way to lease its vehicles. This new kind of sales channel has been rolled out to the firm's native market of Germany to start off with, and will work for its ID.4 and ID.5 electric vehicles to start off with. Therefore, consumers in this country will be able to order a new VW right from their PC, phone or tablet soon.

After refusing to join Twitter's board and immediately facing a class action suit for not disclosing the exact stake in a timely manner, Elon Musk now comes with a US$42 billion company buyout offer that shareholders might find hard to refuse.

Honda will invest more than US$64 billion in R&D and development of new vehicles and services over the next decade, US$40 billion of which will go directly into electric car development. Honda plans to have a solid-state battery production batch ready in two years, and launch 30 new EV models by 2030.

Sony and the investment company behind LEGO have each invested US$1 billion in Epic Games for the creation of a kid-focused metaverse. These injections come hot on the heels of a partnership between LEGO and Epic announced last week.

Hyundai is developing Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology to transfer power from an electric car's battery to a local grid, reducing load at peak times and decreasing our use of fossil fuels. Currently, the company is testing this technology in some Ioniq 5 vehicles in Germany and the Netherlands.

OnePlus has now officially announced a launch event scheduled for April 28 in India. The company only claims an "array of OnePlus devices" will debut at the event, but all available information points towards those being the Nord Buds, OnePlus 10R, and Nord CE 2 Lite.

The Xiaomi 12 Ultra is almost definitely on the way. The Xiaomi Mix 5 series, however, may have been ditched, as a new report appears to indicate that Xiaomi has now cancelled plans to release the phones.

A new leak now reports that Samsung is set to equip the Galaxy Z Fold4 with the same 108 MP camera on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. This comes after reports earlier in the week touted the phone to also adopt the 3x zoom lens on the Galaxy S22 phones.

Mojo Vision is one of a handful of companies that operates on the hypothesis that the glasses for the augmented-reality (AR) experiences of today will eventually evolve into contact lenses capable of roughly the same thing. To this end, it has presented the latest version of its own futuristic lens that, while apparently functional, isn't fit to put on your eyeball just yet.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will power next-gen flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy S23 and OnePlus 11 Pro. A new leak now indicates that Qualcomm is fast-tracking its release plans for the premium chipset this year, and it could debut earlier than is typical.

Mercedes-Benz has revealed that the cost system for its Mercedes me Charge scheme will change in Europe from June 2022. The updated tariff system will have three rungs to choose from based on how far and frequently you travel in your electric vehicle. The scheme will also standardize costs across the network of over 300,000 charging points.

The CNIPA in China has published a patent approval for a vehicle produced by Xiaomi. Reputedly, Xiaomi will showcase a prototype EV this year before it begins mass-producing EVs in Beijing.

Days after the rumor mill for the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 first fired up, a new leak has now revealed even more details of the upcoming chipset which is expected to rival the MediaTek Dimensity 8100.

The technology in the impressively efficient Lucid Air, which supposedly provides estimated EPA ranges of up to 520 miles per charge, is apparently worth a closer look, even for the leading EV manufacturer in the world.

Dynabook has unveiled the Portégé X40-K, a 14-inch laptop powered by 28 W processors. The Portégé X40-K also has more upgrade and configuration options than most laptops, in part thanks to its SO-DIMM RAM. The Portégé X40-K has other tricks up its sleeve too, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports.

Although Bitcoin struggles to hit US$50,000 once again, a recent prediction claims that last year's highs of nearly US$70,000 will become a mere joke compared to the US$1,300,000 ATH expected to arrive in the coming months. "The upside for gold and bitcoin is potentially dramatic" due to the sanctions on Russia's central bank, claim the analysts.

Hertz will be diversifying its EV rental fleet options with 65,000 Polestar 2 electric cars, after signing up with Tesla to lease 100,000 of its Model 3 sedans. The first Polestar 2 EVs will be available to rent at Hertz locations in Europe, the US, and Australia, starting this spring.

Yamaha has presented the TY-E 2.0, an electric trial bike that offers up to twice the battery life of its predecessor. The Yamaha TY-E 2.0 is expected to be used this summer at the FIM Trial World Championship 2022.

Toyota has announced that it has sold over 20 million electrified vehicles, including hybrid and battery electric cars. Included in the figure are subsidiary brands Daihatsu and Hino. Other record figures in the February 2022 statement include the greatest number of Toyota vehicles produced and sold outside of Japan in a month.

Elon Musk has become Twitter's largest shareholder as he bought at least a 9.2% ownership via the acquisition of 73,486,938 common shares, effecting rumors of a buyout and sending Twitter stock 25% up in premarket trading. Tesla's CEO recently mentioned that a 'new platform' is needed about the state of free speech on Twitter.