Latest Tech News

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.

JD.com has the Asus VivoBook Pro 14 with Ryzen 5 5600H or Ryzen 7 5800H APU options and 2.8K OLED displays for pre-order at under $800. Great prices, no doubt, especially when factoring in the OLED specs with 90 Hz refresh rate, 600 nits peak brightness and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. However, the port selection is limited, offering no USB-C.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5G is said to be succeeded by a device called the Z Flip3 in 2021. Its latest leak seems to confirm that it will still be a clamshell foldable smartphone, albeit one with a larger, potentially more useful secondary display. Its latest renders also show this putative feature alongside its main Dynamic AMOLED screen.

The Chia mining craze is in full effect and SSD / HDD shortages could be right around the corner. TeamGroup is now jumping to the rescue by providing the first NVMe SSDs specifically designed to mine Chia. The new T-Create Expert PCIe SSD models come with greatly improved durability and an impressive 12-year warranty.

Most likely set to arrive before the end of the month, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite should hit the market with a full HD display and Android 11-based firmware. Both variants (WiFi only and WiFi + cellular) will use a MediaTek processor, and multiple country-specific models are also in the cards.

Google has revealed the Pixel Buds A, although seemingly ahead of schedule. The budget earbuds will support Bluetooth Fast Pair and retain the Pixel Buds' design. The Pixel Buds A will be available in multiple colours, too.

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.

Leaked technical specifications of an Alder Lake-S Core-1800 16-core 24-thread engineering sample (ES) indicate a TDP of 125 W and a PL2 of 228 W that lasts for just 2.44 ms. We also get to know that this Core-1800 ES sample can boost up to 4.6 GHz on two Golden Cove cores and up to 3.4 GHz on four Gracemont Atom cores at 1.3147 V.

AMD’s top-end Zen 3 Cezanne desktop APU, the Ryzen 7 5700G, has been discovered being put through its paces in a couple of synthetic benchmarks. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G delivered the expected improvements over the Ryzen 7 4700G in terms of CPU performance and even the uninspiring integrated Radeon Vega 8 5000 iGPU offered a very positive outcome.

A new report published today by the Me2B Alliance found that as many as 60% of apps used by schools in the United States share student data with third parties. This data is typically shared immediately upon launching affected apps. Some data is shared with what Me2BA labels "very high-risk third parties" that share data they receive with other networks of vendors and organizations.

Lewis Hilsenteger of the famous Unbox Therapy YouTube channel has been sent what is described as an authentic dummy unit of the hotly-anticipated iPhone 13 Pro Max. Should this be the case, the purported top-end device has not changed much compared to its predecessor - except that it might be slightly thicker, have larger rear cameras and rock the rumored smaller notch.

The OnePlus 9 Pro is a 2021 flagship Android phone launched in 3 color choices, one of which evinced the brand's signature Sandstone Black. However, according to the reliable leaker Max J., the OEM once considered a very different new option: Matte White. It also apparently mulled other, glossy finishes for its latest premium devices that ended up never seeing the light of day.

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 Blade 15 Advanced scores some major points with its powerful hardware and great battery life. What is more, the Blade 15 Advanced now features a second M.2-2280 slot.

A new Apple AirTag teardown video reveals that each one is packed with drivers, coils and (of course) button batteries. However, and possibly more importantly, it may also show that their clearly keenly developed appearance might degrade quickly over time with use. On the other hand, they can theoretically be torn down for repair (should the user want to do so) at least.

HP has a new OMEN 17 up its sleeve, complete with Intel Tiger Lake-H45 processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs. One of the top-tier models is seemingly one with a Core i9-11900H, GeForce RTX 3070 and 32 GB of RAM.

The Acer Nitro XV252QF is a 24.5-inch gaming monitor with an exceptionally high refresh rate. According to Acer, the Nitro XV252QF can reach 390 Hz, dwarfing the refresh rates of most gaming monitors.

Intel's upcoming Atlas Canyon NUC will reportedly use 10 Watt Jasper Lake CPUs. Atlas Canyon will also mark the first low-powered NUCs that will use only PCIe NVMe drives rather than slower 2.5 SATA drives. Unfortunately, the NUCs may be delayed until early 2022 because of the global chip shortage.

A YouTube content creator successfully managed to install an entire Royal Kludge RK61 mechanical keyboard into a 2008 MacBook Pro. While the keyboard and MacBook Pro work without any issues, it is impossible to close the lid given the keyboard's size.

NVIDIA recently unveiled its 2021-2025 roadmap for the datacenter segment. The roadmap indicates that an Ampere successor, likely Lovelace, could arrive next year, with a new GPU architecture beyond that set to arrive before 2024.

University of Virginia cybersecurity researchers published a paper in which they claimed that a variant of the Spectre vulnerability could potentially impact "billions" of devices, and require patches that severely hinder performance. Intel, however, refuted the claim in a statement.

Apple’s AirTag location trackers have been a long time coming but their launch isn’t going as smoothly as the company would like. Australian retailer Officeworks has pulled the product from its store shelves over child safety concerns that its user replaceable battery could be too easily removed.

Although it allegedly surfaced on the launch page for Heroes of the Storm, the piece of news regarding the launch of World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic is no longer available. Was it posted by mistake or will this anticipated title arrive in less than a month as revealed in the aforementioned article?

The tentative Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti launch date has been pushed back once again. Nvidia is expected to unveil both SKUs on May 31. The RTX 3080 Ti is likely to remain under embargo until June 2, and the RTX 3070 Ti until June 9. There is no word about when either model will go on sale, though.

A new rumor about the Xiaomi MIUI 13 release date has started making the rounds, presumably with the specific day pointing to a domestic China release first before the Android overlay is rolled out around the world. Joining this MIUI 13 launch rumor is a speculative list of 80 Xiaomi, Redmi, Poco, and Black Shark smartphones that could be eligible for this update.

Intel is yet to unveil the Tiger Lake-H45 series, but the flagship Core i9-11950H has appeared on Geekbench. Paired with an HP ZBook Studio G8, the Core i9-11950H will be Intel's answer to AMD's Ryzen 9 5980HX and Ryzen 9 5900HX.

A key supplier in Apple's mini-LED supply chain has stated that it will significantly increase its mini-LED production in preparation for "two upcoming mini-LED-backlit MacBook Pro models." This news gives legs to long-standing rumors of mini-LED 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

One of the best things about USB-C Power Delivery is you can use just about any USB-C charger should you happen to lose the ones that shipped from the original manufacturers. This third-party solution can output up to 100 W to quick charge most smartphones and laptops.

ROCCAT has announced the Magma and Pyro as its latest gaming keyboard. They both feature their brand's AIMO lighting system, which shines uniquely through the Magma's semi-transparent top plate. That new unit has membrane keys, whereas the Pyro has mechanical switches and an aluminium top plate.

Modders have managed to tweak the Resident Evil Village demo on PC to run well past its nominal 1-hour time limit. While the demo doesn't feature all areas in the game, this gives gamers the opportunity to explore the game's Romanian environs at a more sedate pace.

An anonymous user submitted a GPU-Z validation report for what seems to be a Clevo laptop sporting the as-yet unannounced Ampere NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti. The GPU report offers details about the mobile GPU, including that it'll have 2560 CUDA core count and a boost clock of over 1485 MHz.

With its up-to-Ryzen 9 5980HS processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics, Asus has designed the ROG Flow X13 to bring gaming to the 2-in-1 category. Now, a new report asserts the OEM is about to introduce this machine to India on May 12, 2021. Whether the PC's matching XG Mobile eGPU will be joining it in its putative new market is less clear at this point.

Oppo's new mid-range smartphone lineup is now available for sale across Europe, which include the A94 5G, A74, A74 5G, and the A54 5G. The Oppo A94 5G, also known as the Reno5 5G, is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 800U chipset with a 60 Hz refresh rate AMOLED display and a 48 MP quad-camera setup. The Oppo A74, on the other hand, features a Snapdragon 662 SoC, 60 Hz AMOLED display, and a 48 MP triple-camera setup.

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.

The prolific leaker Ice Universe has made new predictions concerning the Galaxy S22 series' Ultra variant. Not only does the tipster believe that it will introduce the mythical Samsung/AMD mobile GPU, it will also debut with a potential breakthrough in optical zoom for smartphones. The putative flagship may also drop the current central punch-hole selfie shooter for one that hides under the display.

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.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 has seemingly appeared in numerous screenshots possibly taken from an official promo video. The leaked images reveal that the Galaxy Z Fold 3, which will apparently go into production in July, has an under display camera and restrained look to it. Buyers will get to select from four colors for the foldable phone.
Update: Designer Ben Geskin has created a clear render based on the current leaked images.

Metro Exodus will be available in a fully ray traced version called the Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition on May 6, which will take advantage of ray tracing and DLSS capabilities of NVIDIA RTX cards. Though 4A Games said that the title wouldn't support AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), the developer later clarified that it actually meant the FidelityFX toolkit and not FSR as such.

Oppo fans in Europe will be delighted to know that the Oppo A54 5G is now official in the region for EUR 269 (US$324). The smartphone comes with exciting specs, such as a 6.5-inch LCD screen clocked at 90Hz, four rear cameras, and a Snapdragon 480 chipset and a 5,000mAh battery.

The Oppo A74 5G has officially been launched in Europe. Some of its key specifications include a 6.5-inch 90Hz LCD screen, Snapdragon 480 chipset, 6GB RAM, four rear camera modules, and a 5,000mAh battery that supports 18W fast charging. It comes in two colour variants, Fluid Black and Space Silver, and costs EUR 299.

Apple is set to launch its rumored iPhone foldable in 2023 according to a new note from respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The foldable will feature a Samsung Display-sourced 8-inch flexible OLED panel suggesting that it will adopt a Galaxy Fold-like approach to foldables.

Images of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 have appeared online seemingly taken from an official promo video for the upcoming foldable phone. The screenshots show the Galaxy Z Flip 3 sporting at least four different colors; however, a noted industry source has stated that the Samsung flip phone will come in eight colors. Production of the device will apparently begin in July.

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.

Apple has now released its latest iPad Pro for pre-order in the US, and asks at least US$1,099 for its 12.9-inch variant. Prospective buyers should be aware that they may now have to pay even more for repairs should their brand-new premium slate incur damage in a way the OEM deems to be out of warranty.

The ZTE brand Nubia has reportedly registered a new device called the NX667J. This new leak has led to speculation that it is a premium-grade phone called the Z30, not the least because it has been certified to use top-end 120 watt (W) charging. It might thus be combined with under-display camera technology in this potential upcoming flagship.