Business Articles

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.

Apple appears to be receiving preferential treatment from TSMC as of late, so AMD and Qualcomm are not really content now that chip shortages are still a thing. Starting with next year, AMD and Qualcomm may choose to partner with Samsung and use its 3 nm GAAFET production nodes.

Amazon has released the Prime Video app for Mac devices. The app includes a mix of Apple and Amazon features, such as Picture-in-Picture and X-Ray. You can also download content to your device, allowing you to watch TV and movies offline.

Chinese servers of the popular game Fortnite stopped working on November 15 after the game failed to get approval from the Chinese government. This marks the end of Fortnite's three-year limited trial run in the country. Fortnite's failure to get approval is a byproduct of the Chinese government's tightened regulations of the games industry.

A bipartisan group of Senators has reintroduced a last-ditch amendment bill to exempt entities like miners or wallet developers from being considered crypto transaction brokers, stifling digital asset innovation. Under the new crypto taxation bill that President Biden just signed into law, they may have to report transactions to the IRS just like exchanges; analysts are worried it'd be impossible for them to comply, pending Treasury Department guidance on the new law.

After adding in a kernel-level anti-cheat solution to Call of Duty: Vanguard, Activision revised its enforcement policy, highlighting that severe infractions could result in players getting banned in past, present, and future Call of Duty titles.

A new leak has now revealed the purported pricing of Samsung's upcoming premium phone, the Galaxy S21 FE. As it appears, the Galaxy phone could be a bit more expensive than its closest rival, the vanilla Google Pixel 6, when equipped with the same memory and storage configuration.

One of the FBI's email systems has been compromised, allowing bad actors to send thousands of messages falsely warning of a possible cybersecurity attack. The FBI has confirmed that it has now patched the software vulnerability which allowed the hack and that the attackers accessed no data.

In addition to the rubberized grips and metallic finishes that are returning to Xbox Design Lab, the list of customization options available for Xbox controllers and their parts also includes a few new color options and designs inspired by Skyrim, Battlefield 2042, Forza Horizon 5, and Riders Republic.

Just as Tesla's CEO Elon Musk promised earlier this year, the company has started outfitting select Superchargers with satellite internet connectivity. Thanks to a Starlink service dish, those in line for Superchargers in Florida and other places can now use Tesla's Starlink connectivity for free instead of paying US$10 a month for the electric car maker's premium cellular service.

The White House has ardently denied Intel's plan to boost semiconductor manufacturing in China as it may be detrimental to national security. Intel wishes to help resolve the chip supply problems that are affecting the US. However, the Biden administration aims to revitalise local manufacturing.

According to the heirs of one David Kleiman, he co-created the Bitcoin protocol together with another programmer, Craig Wright, and is entitled to half of the one million bitcoins their partnership created. They have filed a lawsuit against Mr. Wright in Florida to prove the collective is behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto that allegedly has access to the bitcoins in question, now worth north of US$60 billion.

Sotheby's will hold The Now Evening Auction, to include some works by Banksy, on November 18, 2021 in New York. The house has announced that it will accept bids in ether (ETH) during this event. This is not the first time it has done so, but will be the first time it will take bids in the cryptocurrency in real-time.

Costco has alerted customers who recently shopped at one of its locations to a data breach that may have stolen their card payment details. The company sent letters to its members who were probable victims and urged them to observe their recent card transactions closely. The police are currently investigating the incident.

One of Lenovo's most well-rounded prosumer laptops is now more affordable than ever with excellent specifications and features considering the price.

Chrome OS devices can be the path of least resistance to productivity on a budget or within space constraints. However, those potential advantages are not a lot of good to those who still need Windows apps such as those of MS Office for work. CTL may have solved this problem with a new SKU of its Chromebox CBx2 with Parallels Desktop.

Tencent Cloud, the Chinese giant's cloud services subsidiary, recently unveiled three new AI chips its working on that reportedly deliver significantly faster results than existing systems.

Rivian, an electric car maker touted as a competitor to Tesla and supported by the likes of Facebook and Amazon, recently hit a US$100 billion valuation on the stock market, despite the fact that the company has only ever manufactured and delivered 150 vehicles to customers so far.

Xiaomi has reported that it turned over CNY 19.3 billion (~US$3.02 billion) during 11.11 day sales, also known as Singles Day in China. The Redmi K40 even outsold the iPhone 13, with Apple generating slightly less turnover than Xiaomi.

Netflix has launched better quality streaming through AV1 for selected TVs and the PlayStation 4 Pro. Benefits for Netflix subscribers include using less bandwidth at higher resolutions and fewer noticeable drops in streaming quality.

It's 11.11, and Xiaomi has been having a bumper sales event via its JD.com store in its native China. It claims to have taken only a half-hour during this event to sell 2 million of its fitness trackers and wearables. The OEM has also now revealed that its smartphones, the latest Mi 11-series units and the top-end Mix Fold included, are also doing well.

Although YouTube users can still dislike videos, the count of dislikes received is no longer visible to anyone but the creator of the content. However, this feature is rolling out gradually and it might take at least a few more days for it to be up and running on a global scale.

As recently revealed by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Kazakhstan is now the world's second-biggest bitcoin mining location, mostly due to the cheap power available and the crypto miners relocating from China. However, this weighs heavily on the country's power grid, which relies heavily on coal-generated electricity.

A research project by scientists at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute indicates that lithium-ion batteries made from recycled and recovered components could last up to 50 percent longer than those made from "new" materials, potentially encouraging manufacturers to focus more on greener battery options.

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke briefly about his personal interest in cryptocurrency at a New York Times press event, stating that he personally owns crypto as part of his investment portfolio. However, he confirmed that Apple would not be accepting crypto as a payment method anytime soon.