Latest Tech News

We recommend upgrading to 16 GB of RAM down the line to improve the gaming performance and multi-tasking capabilities of the laptop. The GTX 1660 Ti continues to be a respectable GPU especially in the mobile space.

A couple of Apple Watch-related patents could give an indication of the direction Apple is taking in regard to a potential Apple Watch Series 7 device. One of the patents details a Touch ID button for the smartwatch while the other reveals an under-display camera solution that would make an Apple Watch 7 ideal for quick FaceTime video calls.

Google's game streaming platform Stadia is now available on iOS. It is not on the App Store, however, having taken NVIDIA GeForce NOW's route as a web app onto iPhones. Therefore, users with these devices can now log into the sevice on its latest compatible hardware, should they want to.

Qualcomm has unveiled the new QCC305x series of chipsets for TWS earbuds. The OEM claims it can be used to make new products in this category that are cost-effective yet have some current or upcoming premium specs. They include audio-sharing between multiple earbud sets, Adaptive ANC and Bluetooth LE Audio

An Acer Swift SF314-43 laptop has been discovered on Geekbench being tested for its graphics prowess with the help of an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U, which is from the upcoming Zen 2-based Lucienne family. It seems the Radeon iGPU component is capable of hitting a maximum clock of 1.80 GHz, which will be handy for some casual gaming on the Ryzen 5000 laptop.

The Galaxy A32 is predicted to be Samsung's cheapest 5G phone of 2021. It is also said to have a design rather different from other rumored devices from this OEM. A product that might match its description has been certified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), suggesting that it will launch in the US at least.

Epic Games has released a new alpha for Fortnite on PCs. It may lower the flagshi title's demand on memory and hard-drive space in order to increase FPS on devices with less powerful CPUs. Then again, it may also reduce detail and visual effects in-game.

The 98-inch Redmi Smart TV Max from Xiaomi has apparently taken China by storm. Xiaomi has revealed some statistics about the giant television, including that its monthly sales are 30 times higher than its rivals in the same-size segment. The Redmi Max 98 has been incredibly popular since launching at a bargain price of 19,999 yuan (US$3,061).

Many details about the Surface Pro 8 have already been revealed, and now memory configurations can be added to the list. Microsoft's next 2-in-1 will support LTE connectivity too, rather than the newer 5G standard.

Qualcomm and Google are now collaborating to extend Project Treble support to offer four Android OS versions and four years of security updates starting with devices powered by the Snapdragon 888. With this move, Qualcomm hopes to give users a more predictable software lifecycle and ensure most of them are on the latest OS release. The onus of actually releasing these updates, however, still rests on OEMs.

Samsung's highly-awaited Exynos 1080 SoC has made its first appearance on Geekbench. It manages to outperform the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 with a single and multi-core score of 888 and 3,244, respectively. The chipset is expected to make its debut alongside the Vivo X60 series on December 28.

Intel has introduced new updates to its Optane family of storage solutions. The Optane SSD P5800X is being touted as the world's fastest datacenter SSD with class-leading IOPS performance. The Optane H20 is an upgrade to last year's H20 and will be available in capacities up to 1 TB exclusively for 11th gen Tiger Lake laptops.

The ZimaBoard is an unusual-looking machine, and one that serves as a mini-PC, a server and a single-board computer. The ZimaBoard features an Intel processor and is passively cooled.

LG has unveiled three new Gram laptops featuring Intel Tiger Lake processors. The South Korean company has brought Thunderbolt 4 support to the Gram series and three colour options, among other changes. A 16-inch model will replace the existing LG Gram 15 too, bringing with it a much larger trackpad.

The Hackboard 2 is an Intel-based single-board computer that is also compatible with the Raspberry Pi. The machine runs Windows 10 or Ubuntu natively and retails for US$99. The Hackboard 2 features 4 GB up DDR4 RAM and 64 GB of eMMC flash storage too, along with plenty of I/O.

The first official press image of the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G has leaked, courtesy of Evan Blass. The usually-reliable leaker has shown the front of the device so far, along with confirming details about the trio of Galaxy S21 devices. You may have a hard time distinguishing the Galaxy S21 from the Galaxy S20 and the Galaxy S20 FE, though.

Today was a very interesting day for Bitcoin, which jumped from an early minimum of US$19,321.08 (reached at 2:30 AM) to the day's — and all-time — highest value of US$20,735.61. With two weeks left until the end of the year, remains to see how high the world's most popular cryptocurrency can go.

Industry insiders reveal that Intel's current 10 nm yields are nowhere near viable for “full production” and even with the SuperFin tech, 10 nm production may never match that of the 14 nm nodes. Plus we get more details about the performance issues with the upcoming server-grade CPUs, even more delays for the 7 nm nodes and new details about the product outsourcing plans.

Described as "the largest and most ambitious Grand Theft Auto Online adventure to date," The Cayo Perico Heist is also the first of its kind that can be played without any companions from start to finish, although the player can also choose to team up with one or two companions.

Samsung has officially confirmed that the Galaxy Note 21 launch is not in question, dismissing earlier rumours about the series' discontinuation in 2021. However, industry insiders are of the impression that there will be only one variant of the phablet this time around.

Just like on the Ryzen 7 5800U ultra-low voltage APUs, the performance improvements recorded by the Ryzen 7 5800H model over the Renoir processors are not at all bad. The new Zen 3 cores clocked at 3.2 GHz base and 4.45 GHz boost perform 30% faster in single-core tests and 15% faster in multi-core tests compared to the default results for the Ryzen 7 4800H.

FinalWire has added support for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in the latest stable update of AIDA64 Extreme. However, the utility also now supports the GeForce RTX 3050, GeForce RTX 3060, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, all of which NVIDIA is yet to announce.

Although still not confirmed by Intel, it looks like the company's partners are ready to introduce the 500-series motherboards on the 11th of January 2021. A month or two after the introduction of these boards, Intel is expected to launch compatible Rocket Lake desktop processors as well.

Intel's next flagship desktop processor, the Core i9-11900K, may only have eight cores, but it is already comparing well against the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X in gaming benchmarks. The Core i9-11900K holds upwards of an 8% advantage over AMD's 16-core Vermeer chip, even with essentially the same boost clock as its Comet Lake-S predecessor.

Only Apple currently sells a compact flagship smartphone, but new research suggests that the iPhone 12 mini has not been a success so far. Based on the initial uptake of the iPhone 12 mini, it seems that spending US$100 more on an iPhone 12 is a more attractive proposition for people in the US.

Google has confirmed that it has acquired Neverware, a company that specializes in turning old laptops and desktop computers into Chromebook-like devices. The acquisition follows a previous investment by Google into the company’s operations and offers Google a strategic opportunity in both enterprise and education.

Don't settle for Celeron or Atom laptops when you can get a "proper" Core i5 processor with both decent RAM and an FHD IPS display for the same price.

The Google Pixel 5 Pro is a real device, according to a new report. While probably not the device that someone claimed to have photos of last week, suppliers are reputedly already developing panels for something called a Pixel 5 Pro.

Desalvo Systems has introduced a new version of its Maker Block Raspberry Pi 4 case, which it has machined from a solid block of copper. Appropriately called the Solid Copper Maker Block Case, the case is likely to draw attention with its striking design. However, the use of a copper block is also practical as it supposedly delivers superior passive cooling than many other cases for the Raspberry Pi 4.

The Exynos 2100 will power the Galaxy S21 series in Europe and South Korea, according to a new report. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 will be making its way to the USA, possibly heading the American variants a performance advantage over their European and South Korean siblings. The Galaxy S21 Ultra will be available with up to 16 GB of RAM too, unlike the Galaxy S21 or Galaxy S21+.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is expected to launch in just 2 colors, as its predecessor did before it. However, the latest leaks suggest that Samsung will add further options throughout the year. Meanwhile, other new tips purport to provide more evidence that it will be compatible with a new S Pen in 2021.

Team Group, the OEM behind the gaming-oriented T-Force memory products, has announced it is working on consumer-grade DDR5 memory. They are to be 16GB in capacity per module and to have a high 4800MHz clock-speed. This project is at a stage at which it is working with companies such as Asus and Gigabyte to see if it can work with their motherboards.

Acer's 15.6-inch Chromebook offers a touchscreen display (FHD, IPS), silent operation, and very good battery life. The integration of Google's Play Store enables the use of numerous Android apps.

Word on the grapevine from last week teased the possibility of Xiaomi launching a Mi 11 Mini as the third device in the Mi 11 series. That appears to be unlikely now, however, as a new report claims that the third device will be the Mi 11 Pro+. Or, perhaps, the Mi 11 Ultra? The Galaxy S21 Ultra will have its work cut out for it in any case.

Xiaomi has released a new firmware update for the Mi Band 5 activity tracker. The software has been pushed out to deal with problems with the accuracy of the sleep-tracking function, with a few other minor additions such as extra language support included. It’s likely the update will eventually make it to the international Mi Smart Band 5 variant.

Previously uncovered as the OneGX Pro, the Intel Core i7-1160G7-driven sibling of the Intel Core i5-10210Y-powered OneGX1 handheld gaming PC is now available for purchase as the OneGX1 Pro. Sadly, this 7-inch gaming machine does not come cheap as the starting price tag reads almost US$1,400.

LG is slated to launch its next-gen Gram laptop series in South Korea on December 16, 2020. A leak allegedly originating from the same country purports to spill details on the 16-inch SKU from this series. It points to an 11th-gen core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 65W charging and a price that might come as a surprise considering these specs.

The innovative features coming with the 2021 Galaxy smartphones are supposed to make the upcoming devices the most desirable upgrades in quite a while. Some of these features include outstanding video capabilities, improved AI integration, ultra-wideband compatibility, and even S Pen support for devices other than the galaxy Note. Samsung also plans to introduce more affordable foldables.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 has made two separate appearances on Geekbench running an Exynos 2100 chipset. In the first instance, it manages to score 828 and 2,897 in the single and multi-core test, respectively. The second time around, those numbers increase to 1,006 and 3,059.

Xiaomi has launched the Mi EBook Reader Pro as expected and has revealed the e-reader’s specifications. Naturally, the Mi EBook Reader Pro is a step up from the non-Pro variant, but at a regular price of 1,299 yuan (US$198) the new Xiaomi device also holds up quite well against the more-expensive Kindle Oasis from Amazon.

High-end processor? Check. 50MP main camera? Check. HDR10+ display? Check. Electrochromic back?...Maybe. A new OPPO phone that is almost certainly the impending Reno5 Pro+ has appeared on TENAA, Geekbench and the HDR certification website, seeming to confirm the device's best rumored attributes in the process.

Despite the production problems and shortages, Nvidia is planning for new RTX 3000 releases in early 2021. Previously believed to launch in January, the RTX 3080 20 GB version that is essentially an RTX 3090 with 4 less GB of VRAM should land in mid to late February, according to new reports. Nvidia is instead pushing the lower-mid-range RTX 3060 cards with 12 GB for an early January release.

Korean rag ETNews is reporting that Samsung has four foldable models coming in 2021. The rumor solidifies rumors that Samsung is planning to drop the Note model from its line next year in order to shift focus to its flexible screened devices.

HMD Global has officially launched its latest mid-range phone, the Nokia 5.4. As rumored, the new smartphone will be powered by a Snapdragon 662 and features a 48 MP main camera with zero shutter lag, according to the company.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 series, and the AMD Ryzen 5000 range have all fallen victim to scalping activities, with an analysis report detailing just how much profit scalpers are making from these new GPUs and CPUs. Sales of just the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 have raked in over US$8 million profit for scalpers and eBay.

The ongoing Holiday price drops may be indicating that gaming laptops with next generation GPUs might be just around the corner.

Apple has now issued iOS and iPadOS updates to version 14.3. It contains some previously-promised features, which include ProRAW support in the Pro iPhone 12 variants, not to mention Apple Fitness+. It also reportedly fixes some issues, including one in which a user's new messages failed to appear in their Notifications.

PlayStation 5 scalpers have made over US$34 million in sales via eBay resulting in profits of over US$19 million according to research carried out by a data engineer. The Digital Edition of the PS5 has been particularly exploited in regard to scalping, with the console being sold at over 350% of its MSRP at various points during the research period.

The 15-inch Acer Predator Triton 300 is now also available with Comet Lake processor. The price remains low, which is reflected in some of its connectivity.

Gigabyte has just held a launch event for its AORUS brand of products where the prices for its AMD Radeon RX 6800 Series-based boards were revealed. Unfortunately for gamers, there seems to be a high premium between Gigabyte’s prices and the MSRPs offered up by AMD, with the AORUS Radeon RX 6800 XT Master board costing a hefty US$899.