Latest Tech News

Amazon is discounting both the Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite for kids by up to US$50. While the units are marketed toward children, there is no discernable difference between the kids' version and the standard variants. On the contrary, the Kindle Kids and Kindle Paperwhite Kids include a cover and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+.

MSI and its retail partners have started selling the Cubi 5 12M, an Intel Alder Lake-U series based mini-PC. The MSI Cubi 5 12M starts at US$449 and rises to US$929 for its most expensive configuration.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the best-selling video games in history, with more than 40 million copies sold. Now "enhanced with numerous visual and technical improvements," the Complete Edition of this title that arrived back in 2015 brings together the base game and its two expansions for 80% off.

The Beelink GTR5 has dropped below US$600 with 32 GB of RAM and 500 GB of M.2 2280 storage. Also equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX APU, the Beelink GTR5 is a particularly potent mini-PC, particularly with a 25% discount.

The RTX 4060 Ti is rumored to pack an AD106 Lovelace GPU, 4352 CUDA cores, 8 GB of GDDR6, and a TDP of 160 W. Latest reports from leaker kopite7kimi and MyDrivers suggest that the board will only bring a conservative performance uplift over the RTX 3060 Ti while costing less than US$500.

In Germany, Audi's court case against the aspiring EV manufacturer from China has now ended in a victory for the luxury automaker with the famous four rings. In addition to the ES7, Nio will have to rename the ES6 and ES8 so German buyers won’t confuse the all-electric SUV with the sporty Audi S6, S7 or S8.

Tecno has shared its take on the foldable smartphone, although its version also finds a way to turn into a 10-inch tablet on command. It does so by integrating the emerging rollable display type. The OEM touts the Phantom Vision V as part of its commitment to "innovation", although others such as Samsung and TCL might not agree.

Anker has discounted its Nebula Cosmos series of DLP projectors. Available on Amazon from US$500 to US$700 reductions, the pair can create between 60-inch and 150-inch projections while running Android TV 10.0.

Amazon US has reduced the price of the LG Gram 16T90Q, a 16-inch 2-in-1 laptop that LG released last year. Currently available at a 33% discount, the model combines a 2.5K display with an Intel Core i7-1260P processor, 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 2 TB SSD.

Acer now has the Predator Helios 300 PH317-55-59J9 on sale for 28% off. The config on offer rocks a Core i5-11400H, an RTX 3060 laptop GPU, 16 GB of RAM, and 1 TB SSD. Both the RAM and the storage are user-replaceable as the Predator Helios 300 has two SO-DIMM and two M.2 slots. There is also a slot for a 2.5-inch SATA SSD for which Acer provides the required hardware in the box.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 laptop GPU has been compared against the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, highlighting the difference between the two graphics cards. While the GeForce RTX 4090 offers a health performance uplift in most cases, DLSS 3 technology also does plenty of heavy lifting to help NVIDIA's latest flagship laptop GPU.

Google is now allowing people to enable Bluetooth on their Google Stadia Controllers. Unfortunately, there are a few catches, including a time limit for updating your Google Stadia Controllers.

OnePlus has debuted the China-only version of its new flagship Android smartphone with faster charging compared to its 10 Pro predecessor. However, according to the latest leaks, this is not to be the case for all regions on the 11's upcoming global launch. The spec downgrade is, yet again, projected to affect potential buyers in the US and Canada.

Honor is now confirmed to hold an exhibition at the upcoming MWC 2023 event. This news has led to speculation that the OEM will debut its latest Magic5 series of Android flagship smartphones during the event. The potentially premium devices allegedly have a new launch teaser with wording that indicates their intention to go toe-to-toe with Samsung's Galaxy S23 line-up.

Philips is finally ready to start selling the Evnia 27M2C5500W, one of its first Evnia series gaming monitors. The Evnia 27M2C5500W outputs natively at 2.5K and 240 Hz with 1 ms response times, among other features.

A CD Projekt Red spokesperson has said Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty will be the company's largest expansion to date, suggesting it could eclipse The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion. The expansion does not have a release date, but should ideally be ready before 2023 ends.

AMD's latest Adrenalin drivers for the RX 6000 series were ruled out from the list of possible suspects after more than a week of testing with brand new GPUs. Digging even deeper into the root of the problem, the German GPU repair service discovered that most customers had no original invoices, having bought the defective cards at around the same time from online third parties.

The green EV credentials are under threat from a new MIT study that calculates future greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles with computers dedicated to autonomous driving tasks. Self-driving kits like Tesla's upcoming Hardware 4 upgrade could produce climate change emissions equal to or surpassing those of all current data centers combined if their power draw is not kept in check.

Samsung has revealed plans to further improve functionality across the Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch5 series. Soon, the Galaxy Watch4, Galaxy Watch4 Classic, Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Watch5 Pro will be able to monitor and control devices via the Samsung SmartThings ecosystem, including Nest and Ring doorbells.

Confirming a series of leaks and rumors, GTA: The Trilogy Definitive Edition is finally available on Steam and also playable on Steam Deck. Although this buggy remasters bundle that arrived in November 2021 hasn't received any fixes for roughly a year, at least it can be acquired for half the price until February 2.

The POCO X5 is moving closer to release, with the upcoming handset seen being used by an Indian international cricketer. Due for release in multiple markets, the POCO X5 is expected to be a re-branded Redmi Note 12 Pro Speed Edition with a Snapdragon 778G chipset, a 120 Hz OLED display and three rear-facing cameras, among other features.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will come equipped with a new 200 MP camera. This sensor, the ISOCELL HP2, has a physical size of 1/1.3", falling short of a type 1-inch sensor like the IMX989 on phones like the Vivo X90 Pro and Xiaomi 13 Pro. Apparently, Samsung has a reason for that decision.

Unveiled in 2020 as the first gaming laptop to feature a 300 Hz refresh rate option on a 17.3-inch display, the Razer Blade Pro 17 with Intel Core i7-10875H and GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q is no longer a high-end gaming laptop. However, it remains a worthy desktop replacement thanks to the ongoing US$1,000 discount for the two display options available.

AYA NEO has showcased the Pocket AIR, its first Android-based gaming handheld. Available later this year, the Pocket AIR will feature a 5.5-inch OLED display and an ARM-based chipset, among other features.

AMD’s EPYC 9654 “Genoa” server processor has turned up on PassMark and has soared straight to the top of the High End CPU Mark chart. This was previously headed by the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX chip, but its 64 cores had no chance against the 96 cores of the EPYC 9654. The Zen 4 Genoa CPU has an asking price of US$11,805.

Unveiled earlier this month at CES 2023, the latest Asus TUF Gaming A17 gaming laptops are not available for purchase yet. However, last year's model with AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, and 16/512 GB is now 20% off on Amazon. Thus, it can be acquired for US$1,115 (down from US$1,399.99).

AYA NEO has updated the processors its plans to offer for the AIR Plus gaming handheld series. While the Intel Core i3-1215U remains, AYA NEO appears to have stopped developing a Pentium Gold 8505 version. Instead, AYA NEO will offer two AMD APU options, with the Ryzen 5 7520U and Ryzen 7 6800U representing the Mendocino and Rembrandt architecture.

Graphite is often hailed as the ideal anode and, as such, may become one of the hottest manufactured commodities in the battery industry going forward. However, a Finnish company asserts that its new alternative compound is comparable, if not superior, and can be made using less energy. Furthermore, it can apparently be made using an abundant by-product of the forestry industry.

AYA NEO has refreshed the SLIDE, a Windows gaming handheld that it announced nearly a year ago. Initially presented with the Ryzen 7 6800U, the AYA NEO SLIDE will eventually come to market with a Ryzen 7000 APU instead. The gaming handheld will also contain a 6-inch display and a physical keyboard, among other features.

RedMagic touts its latest premium smartphone as a serious device for serious Android gamers. It is also now the first 2023 flagship to undergo the famous JerryRigEverything durability test on YouTube. Can it keep its under-display selfie camera, active fan-powered cooling and iPhone-esque chassis together under this onslaught?

Wyze has launched the Cam OG in the US, starting from US$19.99. The 1080p smart home camera has HD color night vision and comes in two models, which can be stacked and mounted together. The standard edition has a 120° FOV and an integrated spotlight, while the Wyze Cam OG Telephoto has a 3X lens.

Volkswagen has unveiled a new smart air conditioning system, which it will use in the ID.7 electric saloon. The climate controls can be automatically triggered as you approach the car and will adapt based on weather conditions. The company also confirmed that the EV would arrive in China and Europe later this year and in North America in 2024.

The new AirJet chips integrate technology that is used to cool aircraft jet engines. Even though it is only 2.8 mm thick, one AirJet chip can be 10 times more efficient compared to conventional fan-based laptop cooling systems. Furthermore, these cooling chips are essentially silent at 21 dBA and also allow for a dustproof design.

AYANEO is ditching the Alder Lake or Ryzen 6000 processor options for the more advanced Ryzen 7000 chips with Zen 4 cores and RDNA3 iGPU. A discrete GPU will also be included, possibly from the Radeon RX 7000S series, and the handheld will feature a larger 8-inch+ screen.

Apple's surprise launches this week keep coming, with the company having already introduced new MacBook Pro 14, MacBook Pro 16 and Mac mini models this week. The trio are now joined by the HomePod 2, which Apple claims offers 'breakthrough sound'. The HomePod 2 does not necessarily contain upgrades over the original HomePod across the board, though.

A Mac Mini powered by Apple's shiny new M2 Pro SoC has shown up on Geekbench. It scores 1,952 and 15,013 points on the single and multi-core benchmark, outperforming its last-gen counterpart by a significant margin and even punches above its weight class by besting the M1 Max.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has issued a blog post detailing the company's plans to reduce its personnel numbers by 10,000 in 2023. These layoffs have reportedly already begun, affecting one of the Redmond giant's US centers. Then again, some of those whose jobs are terminated are slated to benefit from enhanced post-employment support.

A recent rumour of Samsung showing a new prototype foldable smartphone during CES 2023 has fired up speculation about the state of the Galaxy Z Fold5. Sadly, the prototype shown is actually the Flex In N Out, a work of Samsung Display, not the Samsung Galaxy division.

The 'flying' but expensive Roadster 2 may have been put on the back burner as Tesla is now focused on winning back market share with 'mass electrification' instead. In the face of increased competition, Tesla may be planning to release its cheaper Model 2 first and then move to premium projects like the new Roadster.

The Proscenic T31 Air Fryer Oven has been launched in the UK. The gadget has a 15 L (~500 fl. oz) capacity, enough space for a whole chicken. The device comes with twelve preset cooking modes, and you can control the oven using an accompanying app. Plus, the T31 comes with accessories and a rotisserie cooking setting.

The latest Garmin Public Beta for Forerunner 255 and Forerunner 955 smartwatches, version 14.08, has been released. Updates in the latest software include improvements to graphs and the Auto Rest feature. However, users have flagged in the Garmin Forum various issues in the release, including a bug which causes the wearable to restart.

Heisenberg Robotics has revealed the LawnMeister H1, a modular autonomous lawn mower. The gadget can mow, water and fertilize your lawn, and collect or blow leaves. Smart features include automatic scheduling based on the weather and cutting height adjustments. The device is expected to launch via a crowdfunding campaign in February.

Once known as Samsung Pay and available as Samsung Wallet since June 2022, the digital wallet platform of the South Korean tech giant continues its expansion. After reaching 13 new markets at the end of 2022, Samsung Wallet is now heading for 8 new ones, including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and more.

The LG PF50KA CineBeam Projector is now discounted. You can buy the gadget at a reduced price at Best Buy, the LG store and Amazon in the US, with price cuts of up to 24%. The device is also discounted at the LG store in the UK. The portable projector has up to 600 ANSI lumens brightness, and a built-in battery provides up to 2.5 hours of playback on a single charge.

The Jackery Explorer 1500 Pro portable power station has launched in the US with a 15% discount. The gadget has 1,800 W AC ports, 100 W PD USB-C ports, and a 1,512 Wh lithium-ion battery. The portable device weighs 37.5 lbs (~17 kg), which the company claims makes it 20% lighter than competitor products.

The TCL 98-in Class XL Collection 4K UHD QLED Dolby Vision HDR Smart Google TV is currently reduced by US$3,500 in the US at Amazon and Best Buy. The gadget has contrast and color-enhancing technology, supporting HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. Plus, built-in Google TV enables features like Chromecast and Google Assistant voice commands.

A supposed Samsung Galaxy S23 spec sheet from Verizon has been shared on social media, with details such as prices, pre-order date, launch date, and “key selling points” revealed. If genuine, the Galaxy S23 will have a starting price of US$799.99, while the prices for the Galaxy S23+ and Galaxy S23 Ultra also match those of the Galaxy S22 series.

The LG UltraGear 27GL83A-B 1440p 27-inch monitor is now available on Amazon with a US$50 discount. Among other niceties, the display boasts a 144 Hz refresh rate, 1 ms Gray-to-Gray response time, and support for VRR. The monitor is extremely well-reviewed on Amazon with more than 9,900 reviews resulting in an average rating of 4.7/5 stars.

While the US market is yet to receive phones with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the flagship chipset can be expected to be something of a monster, with class-leading GPU performance over even Apple's A16 Bionic on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max being confirmed by both synthetic benchmarks and real-world gaming tests.

The first generation of Lenovo's ultra-sleek and portable ThinkPad X1 Nano has become quite affordable as a reputable retailer now offers a well-equipped configuration of the 13-inch business laptop with a considerable discount on eBay.