Business Articles

Asus has emerged victorious as a result of 2021's Interbrand Best Taiwan Global Brands survey, making it the country's "most valuable" brand that operates worldwide - and for the eighth year running, too. The OEM has attained this accolade due to its fame, resilience to the pandemic and ability to forge partnerships with other groups.

Fans of Samsung's Galaxy S series in India have strongly opined that getting the Exynos variants of the phones put them at a disadvantage. It appears, however, that there'll be no cause for such complaints next year, as a new leak indicates that the Indian models of the Galaxy S22 series will be equipped with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

Ubisoft will be making Anno 1404 History Edition free to download and keep forever, but only for a short time. The giveaway falls within Ubisoft's 35th anniversary and includes the Anno 1404: Venice expansion pack.

Sony is working on "Spartacus," a competitor to Xbox Game Pass, that will reportedly combine its PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus services. "Spartacus" will feature a three-tier subscription plan, bundling in PS Plus benefits, free PS4 and PS5 games, and game streaming.

Members of Congress recently introduced the Stopping Grinch Bots Act. If it passes through, this piece of legislation could make it illegal for scalpers to use bots and scripts to hoard electronics for resale.

The new "visual update" of Office is now becoming official. This cosmetic adjustment makes the productivity suite match the new Windows 11 look, although some users still on 10 might also see the update. It mostly functions to add the new rounded corners and dark themes to 4 of Microsoft's classic work-focused apps.

A new report from Digitimes tells us that Intel and TSMC are close to negotiating a deal for the latter's 3nm capacity. Pilot production for the node has already kicked off, and it is expected to churn out 40,000 wafers per month starting in H2, 2022.

Nvidia’s plans to acquire fabless chip designer Arm look to be on increasingly shaky ground. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing to block the deal on concerns that it will undermine competition and innovation following complaints raised by Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm.

Pininfarina has exhibited the Foxconn Model E at the Hong Kong MotorXpo. The 750 hp saloon also has up to a 750 km range and is being showcased under Foxconn's vehicle division, Foxtron.

Maxine Waters (D-CA), the Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, has scheduled a December 8 Congressional hearing titled the "Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: Understanding the Challenges and Benefits of Financial Innovation in the United States." The hearing will see crypto platform execs testify before Congress for the first time. Witnessed include the Coinbase CFO and five others who will appear amidst a regulatory oversight push by SEC's Chair Gensler. He again demands that cryptocurrency exchanges register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Thanksgiving weekend has been transformed into a full-blown crisis over at SpaceX by an Elon Musk "all hands on deck" email. The production snags for the new Starship Raptor engines turned out to be more severe than previously thought, putting the launch of the new Starlink satellites in jeopardy. These are the ones that are supposed to make Starlink profitable, and Elon Musk warns that the Starship has to fly at least twice a month next year to keep SpaceX afloat.

Q421 transaction volume for BTC is projected to be the highest ever, but it would still be 260% lower than Mastercard's and 560% lower than Visa's. Reports are estimating that the BTC network could grow to support 800 million users by 2030.

Increasing component prices could mean that laptops in 2022 may retail for higher prices. While other OEMs are yet to comment on the same, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan confirmed on Twitter that all Razer gaming laptops across the board, including the Razer Blade series, will see price hikes.

Samsung has launched the Exynos Auto V7 SoC, a new processor specifically for cars, alongside the Exynos Auto T5123, which might ensure the same vehicles are connected. This is because it is the OEM's first 5G-capable modem made for the automotive industry. They have been joined in their debut by the S2VPS01, an extra-safe PMIC for cars.

Spanish outlet El Chapuzas Informaticos recently discovered that Sapphire was selling RDNA2-based GPUs under its GPRO brand off retail channels. These are sold exclusively to high-volume crypto mining clients at a time when consumer GPU prices remain sky.

A new report has claimed that the English Premier League (EPL) is investigating connections between its member clubs and crypto businesses. In addition, it seems the Premier League is forging ahead with a potential partnership with an NFT platform that would provide extra income by producing digital player cards for fans to collect.

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X availability may still be poor globally, but Microsoft has produced an abundance of Xbox Series S consoles. As a result, the budget and compact console has outsold all its contemporaries, including the Nintendo Switch.

Nissan announced an electrification program of its own called "Ambition 2030" that will see it introduce 23 new EV models across the Nissan and Infinity brands this decade alone. The company already takes reservations for its first electric SUV, the Ariya, but it introduced more EV concepts, including a MAX-OUT convertible and a Tesla Cybertruck competitor. Besides electric car production, Ambition 2030 includes a plan to develop a proprietary solid-state battery and expand its 4R Energy battery recycling and repurposing program.

The value of the Turkish Lira continues to slide, but Apple has resumed selling AirPods, iPads, iPhones, Macs and Watch Series smartwatches in Turkey. Unsurprisingly, Apple has increased prices across the board, with many now costing over 23% more than they did previously.

After months of delay and red tape compliance, the first Tesla Gigafactory in Europe may begin Model Y production in a matter of days. The Brandenburg State Environment Office will reportedly be signing off on the Berlin Gigafactory opening, allowing up to 30,000 units to be built there in the first half of 2022. That's in addition to the large capacity for Tesla 4680 battery cells production, for which CEO Elon Musk just declined a billion worth of EU subsidies.

An obscure cryptocurrency named Omicron is now surging for obvious reasons, all the while Bitcoin and Ethereum experienced a Black Friday market crash. The Omicron crypto is gaining attention for the simple fact that it shares a name with the latest World Health Organization COVID-19 "variant of concern" designation for the B.1.1.529 mutation first found in Africa. The aptly named OMIC coin price has surged 700% on historically high volume ever since B.1.1.529 became Omicron.

Macy’s is auctioning off NFTs to commemorate its 95th Thanksgiving Day Parade. The art pieces in the collection represent parade balloons from previous decades, going back to the 1920s. A portion of the proceeds from the auction will go to Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Dyson has released an Oculus app to allow customers to experience its products in virtual reality. The VR experience gives you the chance to understand how the products work and try them out in a virtual environment. Dyson's virtual store currently contains beauty tools such as the Supersonic hairdryer and the Airwrap, plus the Dyson cordless V15 Detect vacuum cleaner.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 is the first ThinkPad laptop with AMD CPUs and a 16:10 monitor. This makes it one of the most interesting business ThinkPads of this year.

Samsung has confirmed that one of its latest factories is to be built in the US state of Texas. The OEM may invest a total of U$17 billion to complete this new facility, which should be capable of producing components for use in HPC, 5G and mobile devices once operational.

The Life360 has announced that it will acquire Tile, buying the company out for just over $205 million. The acquisition has the potential to expand and streamline the location-tracking features involved in the services offered by both companies. For example, it might expand the current Tile network by about 10x.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have issued a joint statement clarifying the next steps in the US cryptocurrency regulations. After the infrastructure bill was signed into law with crypto taxation provisions, the agencies are now outlining a roadmap for their digital assets regulation guidance that stretches through 2022.

LG has released the 34CN650N, a thin-client with a 34-inch monitor. The LG 34CN650N is passively cooled and has a 1080p panel, among other features.

The sharp devaluation of the Turkish Lira and high inflation in the country has resulted in Apple pulling all sales from its Turkish website. The company has not confirmed when it will begin selling in Turkey again, either.

Deliveries of the Hummer Edition 1 will begin next month, 14 months after it was announced. The truck will use GM’s Ultium battery, giving it up to 329 miles (~529 km) of range. The Edition 1 will be the first all-electric vehicle released by Hummer.

Iris Xe performance is much faster on average than with the older UHD Graphics 620. Unfortunately, GPU clock rates cycle heavily over time for unsteady frame rates and performance.

Italy's anti-competition watchdog AGCM has ruled against Apple and Amazon in a case concerning the sale of Beats-series products on the latter's website for the country. The authority has concluded that the 2 OEMs formulated sales agreements for the audio accessories that amounted to an anti-trust practice. The companies may now have to pay a combined ~US$236 million in penalties as a result.

Samsung Display's new micro-site contains a raft of teasers that might make sense of earlier leaks and rumors concerning the OEM's plans for its OLED technology and the devices based on it. They hint at an upcoming product line replete with foldable laptops, rollable TVs and collapsible tablets.

Software developer Niantic and bank card company Fold have built an AR experience that allows you to find and win bitcoin. The game is currently being rolled out in a limited beta, with more features, such as bitcoin trading, to be released in the coming months.

Hyundai has reimagined the Grandeur, a car that it released in 1986. The car has undergone an EV restoration and has been available to view at two motor studios in South Korea.

Tesla's Cybertruck reservations beat the market capitalization of BMW or Ford with no deliveries in sight, just a tentative Q4 2022 release timeframe. The electric pickup reservations surpassed 1.2 million, potentially bringing Tesla a US$80 billion windfall in pre-sales. While investors are cautious about the EV stock bubble that is now worth more than storied legacy automakers, the Cybertruck sales success story indicates that the bubble may not pop any time soon.

When China banned Bitcoin mining, panicked local firms went into a fire sale mode for their rigs. The bulk of the crypto miners went to Russia, followed by Kazakhstan, the US, Canada, Paraguay, and even Venezuela. The more expensive rig models ended up in more developed countries, whereas mining in Caracas seems to be a poverty alleviation strategy, made profitable on older power-hungry Chinese miner models by cheap electricity.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has approved Sony's patent for PS5 faceplates. The patent became active almost a year after Sony filed it, which allowed Dbrand to produce the original Darkplates in the interim.

Plans for “Bitcoin City” have been unveiled by El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele. The build would be financed by bitcoin-backed funds, covering public infrastructure, like an airport and local services.

The bleeding edge of DRAM technology is now officially known as DDR5, rated for twice the data-transfer rates of its predecessor DDR4. However, its own next generation, DDR6, is now slated to launch with double these new speeds - or less than half those of DDR7 again. Both upcoming upgrades are said to be in the works at Samsung already.

Gamers and tech enthusiasts are already coping with a shortage of PC components like graphics cards and processors, and thanks to a certain kind of chip the new DDR5 generation of memory for Intel's Alder Lake CPUs is now also in short supply and therefore barely available.

After successfully launching its G3 electric SUV and P7 sedan in Norway, XPeng just unveiled a mid-size G9 SUV designed for international markets from the onset. Fully compliant with the European crash safety and certification standards, the XPeng G9 will feature ultrafast 800V charging, an autonomous driving system, and Gigabit connectivity that allows it to get OTA firmware updates in as little as 30 minutes.

HTC VIVE has unveiled an update for Focus 3 headsets, which were released earlier this year. The improved features include increased play area and map sharing abilities.