Business Articles

GoPro has reported that it made a total of US$204 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2021 (1Q2021), or 71% more than it did in 1Q2020. Of this, 40% (or $82 million) came from its website's sales, a 224% increase year-on-year (YoY). The action-cam company also celebrated selling its first millionth subscription in this quarter.

Sony has just added new variants of its Mobile Elevated Standard (ES) audio equipment for cars. They consist of 4 kinds of speaker and 1 subwoofer equipped with the latest generation of the OEM's MRC-reinforced diaphragms, combined with Separated Notch Edge Surround technology for increased clarity and an "audiophile-grade crossover" in certain units. They are available to pre-order from now.

Dell has issued numerous patches as part of its latest Security Advisory (DSA-2021-088) in response to findings of a "severe" CVE consisting of five different privilege-exploit bugs that have apparently been in effect for the last 12 years. Fortunately, they have never been acted upon, which, as they could have allowed unauthorized users to write data or manipulate memory.

Lenovo's new ThinkPad X1 Yoga is a very good business convertible, which got a major update with Tiger-Lake CPUs and 16:10 screens. However, there are still problems with the BIOS and the performance utilization when you stress CPU and iGPU simultaneously.

Sony is now said to have an upgrade for the Alpha 7R IV in the works. This alleged fifth-gen model will still have a 61MP sensor and a 26MP APS-C crop; however, it is also projected to come with the BIONZ XR processor, improved PDAF and a potentially enhanced ISO range. Nevertheless, it is rumored to start at the same price as its predecessor.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Quantum 2 in its native South Korea recently, and is thought to rebrand it as the Galaxy A82 5G for the rest of the world. Despite its status as a new launch, a blog has dug up evidence that it will get just 4 new security patches per year. This may have something to do with its Snapdragon 855+ SoC.

Four years after release, Samsung has finally turned off the hall lights for owners of the Galaxy S8 and S8+. The two smartphones are now to be considered legacy devices and will no longer receive any scheduled security updates from Samsung. The Galaxy Note 8 and S8 Active are next in line for a similar treatment.

Huawei has reportedly patented an in-house controller for virtual reality (VR) applications such as gaming. It is depicted as having a fairly standard form-factor, and possibly as coming in blue or black, in its new CNIPA documentation. Therefore, the OEM might be about to unveil products for this market.

MediaTek has been forecast to finish 2021 as the leading mobile chipset maker according to a report by Counterpoint Research. It will be the second consecutive year that it has beaten out Qualcomm, although Qualcomm edges out Apple as the leading maker of 5G-capable SoCs.

The president and CEO of Sony's PlayStation division Jim Ryan has announced that users will soon be able to connect their Discord accounts via the social aspects of the console's Network. The OEM has also just bought a minority stake in the chat-app company, as a result of its current capital-raising drive. The exact nature of the new Sony/Discord integration is now slated to be revealed in the next few months.

The market for laptops has arguably remained relatively unscathed in the pandemic era, largely thanks to the demand for educational or gaming machines still going strong in 2021. Now, new research indicates that shipments for these devices will total 62 million at least in this year's second quarter (2Q2021). Acer, Asus and HP are thought to be the biggest winners in the 3 months in question.

Verizon announced today that it will sell multiple media properties, including those that once made up AOL and Yahoo, to Apollo Global Management for US$5 billion. This marks a roughly $4 billion loss for the telecom giant, which purchased AOL for $4.4 billion in 2015 and Yahoo for $4.5 billion in 2017.

Barely on the market, already in for review: The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon at the forefront of the ThinkPad brand since 2012. With the X1 Carbon Gen 9, Lenovo adopts a new design, making the ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2021 the biggest redesign of the X1 Carbon series since 2017.

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has led to some speculation that a future Apple wearable, possibly even the expected Apple Watch Series 7, could be fitted with a non-invasive glucose indicator. On top of that, an Apple Watch 7 may even sport an alcohol monitor, thanks to Rockley Photonics’ expertise.

According to Nikkei Asia, Nintendo may be producing as many as 30 million Switch consoles this fiscal year. If all these units sell, the Nintendo Switch will be the fifth best-selling game console of all time with 110 million total units.

The Spin 713 offers a 3:2 touchscreen, very good battery life and support for Power Delivery over USB-C. With an 800-Euro price tag, it is not one of the cheapest Chromebooks on the market.

Intel had recently outlined plans to establish new plants in Europe, possibly in a bid to address the prevailing chipset-supply crisis. However, a new report suggest that the OEM expects something in return for the potential economic boost for the regions in question: namely, that European governments contribute up to €8 billion (US$9.7 billion) to the project in question.

Research firm Counterpoint has published a report about global smartphone market share by quarter, including the first quarter of 2021. Apple has shrunk a little but still remains strong and Samsung looks solid as ever. However, Huawei’s situation seems perilous as the Chinese OEM has slipped from 20% share to just 4% in under a year.

Death, taxes, and Xiaomi phones going up in flames—the three certainties of life. Or so it seems recently, anyway. Another Xiaomi phone has now blown up, just two weeks after a similar case with a Poco X3. The device in this case was a Redmi Note 9 Pro, however.

The European Commission (EC) has issued a preliminary verdict as a result of its anti-trust investigation against Apple. It concerns the treatment of third-party music apps on its App Store. The Commission has ruled that the OEM leverages its "dominant position" in this market to subvert competition and consumer choice, particularly when it comes to payment methods and rates.

MSI's first stab at a luxurious subnotebook convertible is already good enough to rival the best from Dell. It's not perfect, but it offers enough extras to make it worth considering on your list.

Cyberpunk 2077's notoriously troubled launch has apparently not had an impact on the major bonuses cleared by CD Projekt Red's senior executives this year. CDPR heads received over $US28 million, thanks in large part to Cyberpunk's hype-driven sales success.

Xiaomi has developed a penchant for raising the prices of its devices in India without warning, after launch. The latest victim is the Redmi Note 10 that was launched a few months ago, with the company raising prices by Rs 500 across all configurations of the device.

Samsung is reportedly developing the new "Armor" frame for the smartphones of the immediate future. Now, a new tip suggests the OEM might combine it with another new feature called Pro-Shield. It is apparently destined for various device categories, and might thus benefit the potential tri-folding tablets hinted at in another new leak.

Qualcomm has now released its fiscal performance report for the second quarter of 2021 (2FQ2021). The OEM claims to have made a total of US$7.9 billion in terms of revenue, ~$1.8 billion of which is its net income. Most of this has come from its semiconductor-producing arm, which has posted a 137% growth in pre-tax earnings year-on-year (YoY).

Sony's pricing for the Xperia 1 III has emerged, and it is a lot higher than what the company charged for previous models. While the Xperia 1 launched at CNY 6,299 (~US$973), the Xperia 1 III starts at CNY 8,499 (~US$1,313). The Xperia 1 II currently costs CNY 7,499 (~US$1,159) in China too.

The Galaxy Tab S7+ (or Plus) is a 2020 premium Samsung device with an AMOLED display. Unfortunately, as such, it has reportedly run afoul of the "green tint" issue. Some customers claim to have faced this on-screen blemish for months, and that the OEM has yet to push a definitive solution of any kind as yet.

Gamers looking to get their hands on a PS5 anytime soon will be disappointed to know that the console will continue to remain scarce in 2021. Despite the supply issues, Sony is optimistic that it will move at least 14 million PS5 units this year.

The new iPad Pros and iMac will be pre-orderable from tomorrow, but Apple has hinted that it will not have many units available. Apple expects shortages to continue into Q3 2021, although primarily for iPad and Macs.

Schenker's latest 17.3-inch laptop is the DTR 17 E21, powered by Intel Core i9-10900K to i9-11900K CPUs and up to 16GB of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics. The OEM has also packed it with anti-glare IPS panel options of 60 or 300 hertz (Hz) and 2 Thunderbolt 4/USB type-C 4.0 ports with G-SYNC and DisplayPort 1.4a functions.

Trust has announced that its latest Taxon webcam has a QHD (2560x1440) sensor. It also features auto-focus for its high-res lens, as well as dual mics and a USB plug-and-play nature. It has been released to Amazon in the UK for £69.99 (~US$97), or £48.99 (~$68) for a limited time.

Although it lacks Wi-Fi 6, the rock space AC2100 wireless router features a dual-core processor, a maximum speed of 2033 Mbps, and 1300 square feet coverage thanks to 4x4 MU-MIMO and Beamforming+. Only available in the US, this product is now on sale with a 40 percent discount that takes the price below US$40.

Apple continues to shift huge numbers of iPhones as well as Macs according to its latest quarterly results. Not only that, its Services business, which includes its App Store and subscriptions services like Apple Music, Apple News+ and Apple Arcade.

The Samsung Galaxy family is about to get a lot bigger. The new Galaxy Book Pro models will be one of the first Windows laptops to ship with FHD AMOLED screens for superior response times and contrast ratios than most laptops in the market today.

If it's got "Galaxy" in the name, then you know it's going to have a lot to live up to. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 looks set to be Samsung's premier Windows convertible with features that rival the best prosumer laptops from Dell, HP, or Lenovo.

Update: Data sheet added | Lenovo is preparing to launch a new ThinkPad: The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 of the affordable ThinkPad E series updates the established design of the E14 Gen 2 with newer internals, a bigger battery and a new chassis color option.

The new 512 GB option is only $100 USD more than the original 256 GB option. The highest-end configuration with 512 GB of storage and a 4K UHD touchscreen is also finally shipping for the promised launch price of $2000 USD.

The new Surface-like device from Dell comes with a detachable keyboard + stylus and enterprise-grade features. It is powered by Intel's Tiger Lake-U CPUs with vPro technology coupled with up to 16 GB of LPDDR4x-4266 RAM and up to 1 TB NVMe SSD or 256 NVMe SED storage. It also integrates a 13-inch touchscreen with 3:2 aspect ratio, 1080p resolution and 500 nit brightness.

Lenovo equips the second generation of the ThinkPad L13 Yoga compact business convertible with an up-to-date Tiger Lake CPU and faster connections including a Thunderbolt 4 port. The convertible's major advantage is still its extensive range of connectivity options.