Business Articles

Russian PhD student Ildar Rakhmatulin devised a terrifying mosquito-killing solution that pairs a Raspberry Pi, a 1W laser, and an AI neural network capable of identifying and eliminating mosquitos.

Motorola has launched the G10 Power, a 6,000mAh Android 11 smartphone, in India. Its 6.5-inch HD+ Max Vision display is driven by a Snapdragon 460 SoC, paired to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It will be available via Flipkart from March 16, 2021, and will start at INR 9,999 (~US$137) on that date.

Carl Pei asserts that his new Nothing brand can disrupt the consumer tech space with innovative, unique products. The company has just given the world the first hint of their design in its new Concept 1 TWS earbuds. However, they are also what they say on the tin, and apparently won't actually resemble Nothing's actual inaugural buds.

AMD has revealed that its third-gen line of processors for data-centers and similar professional use-cases, also commonly known as EPYC Milan, will launch on March 15, 2021. It is thought to offer multiple variants that go up to 64 cores, some of which have been seen on benchmarks tearing through their Intel competition and closest Threadripper analogs.

Microsoft has purchased ZeniMax Media for US$7.5 billion, bringing popular game development studios like Bethesda and id Software under the Xbox umbrella. This may mark the beginning of Xbox exclusivity for series like The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Fallout, and more.

The Xperia PRO may have arrived a year late, but it remains the only smartphone that could actually be used in a professional workflow. Sony's most expensive smartphone can take a beating too, even though it has a plastic body.

The latest analysis of the flexible display market indicates that the sales of smartphones with foldable or rollable displays in 2021 are capable of far exceeding those of 2020. Their shipments are projected to grow to a total of 5.1 million, or 128% year-on-year (YoY), thanks to an influx of new models from new OEMs this year. Then again, most of these predictions may not pan out for at least 3 months.

SK Hynix has just launched its latest LPDDR5 RAM product: a ground-breaking 18GB module for smartphones. The OEM claims that it has a superior data-transfer rate compared to existing memory chips of the same generation. This latest and greatest iteration is now in mass production, although it has already been deployed in the top-end SKUs of 1 upcoming device: the Asus ROG Phone 5.

Industry analyst Ming Chi-Kuo offered up an eyebrow-raising prediction in a recent research note. Kuo believes that Apple will release augmented reality contact lenses by the mid 2030s, potentially transforming the way people engage with technology and the world around them.

Sony may have only just released the PS5, but the company is already making moves for what would appear to be a new console. According to a report, Sony has signed on with TSMC for its 5 nm node for what could be the PS5 Slim.

A new report has found that Samsung sold just under 600,000 units of the Galaxy S21 series in the first 4 weeks since its launch in this OEM's home country. The flagships have not done so well in this respect since the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus debuted in 2017. Furthermore, the Galaxy A31 was found to be the best-selling Android phone in South Korea for 2020.

Despite its designation, the ThinkPad T15g is a full-fledged mobile workstation and shares the chassis construction with the ThinkPad P15. The design was refreshed, but the device still appears pretty outdated due to massive bezels. There is also an issue with the keyboard and coil whine is a problem as well.

In addition to replacing the battery, the usual maintenance tasks of a laptop also includes cleaning the fan - or fans in the case of models with a dual fan design. This was not an easy task in the ThinkPad laptops of the P series until now. But this is changing with the new Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 1.

Apple has abruptly updated its current iMac Pro sales page to reflect the fact that apparently only its base model is in stock. This has led to speculation that a new version of this PC, perhaps even with an in-house chipset instead of the last remaining unit's 10-core Intel Xeon W-series processor, is on the way. However, the OEM might be wrapping its product cycle up for some other reason.

Oppo has taken the top spot in the Chinese smartphone market for the first time. The latest data from Counterpoint Research shows that Oppo claimed a 21 percent share of the market to take the lead with Huawei and Vivo tied for second with a 20 percent share of the market each.

The Apple Watch, Huawei Watch GT and Galaxy Watch lines helped their respective OEMs maintain their leading positions in the smartwatch space in 2020. This was a year in which the market showed relatively little growth, although its premium segment enjoyed a "significant" uptick.

Razer partnered with Conservation International for the Sneki Snek plushie, the sales of which go toward protecting forestry in various locations worldwide. The mascot has now achieved its initial goal of saving 100,000 trees in this manner, which means the OEM has new merch based on the character to launch at its upcoming RazerStore Live event.

The Lenovo Yoga Tabs are Android slates marked by unique rolling grips at one end that may also house speakers and USB type C ports. Now, it looks like the OEM has a new member of this series in the works. The "Yoga Tab 13" has appeared on Google and Geekbench databases with 8GB of RAM and Android 11.

Originally slated for release in February, Lenovo has released their new 2021 X1 ThinkPad now in early March. Both the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 and ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 6 feature new 14 inch 16:10 screens. As usual with Lenovo, their starting prices are sky high at the moment.

The first television sets with the new MediaTek SoC are expected to become available by the second quarter of this year. MediaTek already powers most smart speakers and smart home products unbeknownst to most users.

Realme has announced that it will launch its first 108MP camera phone in 2021. Not only that, but the top-end sensor in question is Samsung's latest CMOS of this resolution: the ISOCELL HM2. It has features such as 3x lossless zoom, nonapixel binning. The OEM has developed "Starry", tilt-shift and Neon Portrait modes for it in the 8 Pro.

A new report from a Taiwanese news outlet tells us that TSMC plans on opening six new manufacturing plants in the U.S. The first plant will be based in Arizona. Construction is expected to begin later this year, and the facility will supposedly manufacture 12-inch (300mm) wafers.

Razer DevCon is a new event set to debut in 2021 via Twitch. It is slated to present discussions on the up-to-date innovation and technology that might most benefit the future of gaming across multiple platforms. Therefore, it might interest developers involved in mobile, console or PC ecosystems.

The new luxury foldable that carries the Vertu banner, namely the Ayxta Fold 5G, is actually a Royole FlexPai 2 with a back cover dressed in leather and with a few other minor visual touches. Hardware-wise, there is nothing mindblowing, but the price for China (via JD.com) exceeds the equivalent of US$7,000.

Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of China with an economy best known for cheap power. It has thus reportedly become a magnet for cryptocurrency miners. Apparently, the region does not appreciate this attention, having just outlawed the practice.

Laser TVs are devices much more like ultra-short-throw projectors than conventional big screens. Therefore, they can deliver larger display sizes with less harmful blue light, which is what customers want these days - according to Hisense, at least. This OEM claims that it sold over three times more laser TVs in 2020 internationally compared to 2019.

AXLE has announced the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 Classic Editions, which are seemingly the first customised Founders Edition cards. Unfortunately for AXLE, there are several signs that neither of these cards actually exist, not least because it claims that the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 have DVI ports.

A new research note allegedly issued by the legendary analyst Ming-Chi Kuo states that the iPhones launched in 2022 will have punch-hole displays in place of the notches that have come to define these flagships. The third-gen SE is now also thought to launch in that year, and just might come with the same new kind of screen.

More details about AMD’s EPYC Genoa series, which is apparently scheduled for a 2022 launch, have been leaked. It is believed the Zen 4 server chips will support AVX3-512, BFLOAT16, and have a squarer overall package shape. If the rumors are true, then Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids may struggle to compete against EPYC Genoa.

Although only the front is no longer a secret, it is obvious that the Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 is not a huge step forward in terms of design when compared to its predecessor. One can easily notice the thick borders and bezels, a red button on the left side, as well as the power and volume buttons on the right.

AIBs including Gigabyte and ASUS have removed a number of GeForce RTX 3090 models with a blower-style fan from their websites. A Videocardz report hints that this could be in order to make way for cryptocurrency mining cards with blower fans. Whatever the reason may be, this is good news for gamers, on account of the inefficiency of blower fan tech.

One part of the AMD Ryzen 5000 lineup for 2021 is still not officially announced: The Ryzen Pro CPUs for business laptops. We have already seen the flagship AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U in action through some leaked benchmarks. The spec-sheet of a recently announced Lenovo ThinkPad reveals specifications of both the 5850U and the six-core Ryzen 5 Pro 5650U.

Nothing is the name of Carl Pei's new tech start-up, his first since leaving OnePlus in 2020. It has been introduced as based in London; however, it also now has an Indian presence. It is to be led by Manu Sharma, formerly a Samsung executive. Pei projects that he will "play a pivotal role for our growth in India".

The tech blog MySmartPrice claims to have found a new page on Samsung India's support website for a device called the "SM-E025F/DS". A quick decoding of Samsung's model number convention does seem to suggest a new phone that, moreover, belongs to a whole new Galaxy E series. Then again, this leak has yet to be officially confirmed.

Honor is a popular smartphone brand recently cut loose from the OEM Huawei in an ostensible bid to free it from that company's ongoing trade restrictions. Since then, Honor has completely rebuilt its business and is preparing to be a contender in 2021, according to the latest leaks. This will apparently involve lots of in-demand tech, the development of this brand's first foldable included.

Details about AMD’s Zen 4 5nm EPYC server CPU series, codenamed “Genoa”, have been apparently leaked. It appears core count will go right up to 96, allowing the potential of 192-thread processing. Along with that, the incredibly powerful EPYC Genoa chips will support 12-channel DDR5 and up to 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes.

The market for tablets in India had shrunk for 4 years straight - until 2020. That year saw a resurgence in demand for that form-factor, as users felt they were necessary for learning or working from home. Therefore, it exhibited a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 14.7%, although Lenovo retained it status as its leading brand.

Huami is a wearables OEM that has built a market leadership worldwide, mainly through the popularity of its Amazfit devices. Now, the company has announced that it will be known as Zepp Health from now on. This wholesale re-brand is intended to consolidate its position across all its businesses going forward

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is a super-flagship smartphone rumored to launch later in 2021. It is touted to improve on the existing Mi 11 in a number of ways, one of which is a step up to blazing fast 120W charging. A new leak suggests it might have a new, first-party gallium nitride (GaN) power brick with which to do so.

Foldable-display phones are slowly becoming more prevalent; however, they are still at a point at which they can only do so in one way per device: inward or outward. However, a new leaked video suggests a concept device that can bend in both directions is out there now. This possible breakthrough in the technology has allegedly been achieved by the panel-maker BOE.

All is not well at CDPR, with the company having announced a delay to the release of Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2. Originally due before the end of February, the second patch for the maligned game will now arrive in the 'second half of March' at the earliest. CDPR has blamed its recent hack and the scope of Patch 1.2 for its postponement.

The Huawei P40 flagship smartphone launched with the Kirin 990 5G chipset in 2020. This CPU also has a 4G/LTE-only variant, which features in new units of the P40 now on sale on JD.com. Otherwise, the device still has its 6.1-inch OLED display, 50MP main camera and 8GB of RAM.

ULV Intel CPUs are getting better and better every year even if their performance differences can be marginal. However, those small gains are inching closer to Core H-levels of performance where we think Core U CPUs can have a place in entry-level to mid-range gaming laptops.

A retailer has published US pricing for the Rocket Lake-S series, Intel's upcoming 11th Gen desktop processors. Not only are Rocket Lake-S processors more expensive than their Comet Lake-S predecessors, but they are also more expensive than the Ryzen 5 5600X, Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 9 5900X from AMD.

Sony is reportedly going to activate the PS5’s SSD expansion slot at some point this summer, allowing owners to store more games onto an additional drive. At the same time, the firmware update for the PlayStation 5 will also enable higher speeds for the cooling fan to help deal with the extra heat brought by potentially pricey third-party SSDs.

The new Satellite C50 models come with Intel Ice Lake CPU options including the Core i3-1005G1, i5-1035G1, and i7-1065G7, up to 16 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, up to 512 GB of SATA SSD storage and 15.6-inch HD or FHD displays. Prices start at $519.

Apple has re-worked the MagSafe brand as a new type of ultra-thin and (theoretically) extra-strong wireless charger that enables a user to hold up and use an iPhone 12 as normal while juicing it back up. Now, ESR has "re-imagined" this technology, mainly through the inclusion of a useful flip-out stand.