Over the course of the past couple of years, HMD Global has been launching refreshed variants of iconic Nokia mobile phones. Now, the company might be launching a new device, with a new report pointing at the Nokia 3650 being the latest one to get a reboot.
According to a GSMArenareport, the company is aiming at now refreshing the controversial 3650 mobile phone. For those unaware, the device was launched back in 2003, and was a part of the vendor’s Symbian Series 60 powered Candybar devices. It featured a unique circular keyboard layout, which, back then, set it apart from almost every other mobile phone at the time. In other words, the handset was easily recognizable but it remains to be seen if HMD brings back its iconic design in the new reboot or would the firm launch it with some tweaks.
Talking about the old model’s specifications, the device features a 2.1 inch display that had a resolution of 176×208 pixels. On the rear, a single rear VGA camera can be found, while the phone was powered by an 850mAh battery pack. Although we don’t know when the company would launch the device, we can expect HMD to launch it with improvements.
One of the improvements could have the handset arrive with the KaiOS interface. Similarly, an improved keyboard and a larger display could also be offered by the company. Unfortunately, this is just speculation at this point and we will have to wait for an official company announcement to know for sure. So stay tuned for more, as we will be providing more updates when additional information is available.
After teasing for quite a white, realme has finally launched the realme X7 series in India. The series consists of two devices, namely realme X7 and realme X7 Pro. Interestingly, the brand did not bring the original X7 to India. Instead, it rebranded the recently released realme V15 5G as realme X7 for the country. With that being said, let us take a look at the specs, features, price, and availability of these handsets.
realme X7 Pro Fantasy
realme X7/X7 Pro Specifications and Features
Design
The realme X7 series looks like any other realme smartphone with a vertically aligned camera setup on the back and colorful gradient finishes. The duo also features the brand’s slogan (DARE TO LEAP) on their real panel. However, the panel of the regular realme X7 is made of polycarbonate instead of glass as on the realme X7 Pro.
As for colors, the realme X7 can be bought in either Nebula or Space Silver, whereas the realme X7 Pro is sold in Fantasy and Mystic Black versions.
Display
The vanilla realme X7 sports a 6.4-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) Super AMOLED display with a punch-hole at the top left corner. This panel comes with a 60Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, 600 nits peak brightness, in-screen fingerprint sensor, 20:9 aspect ratio, 90.8% screen-to-body ratio, and 1000000:1 contrast ratio.
On the other hand, the realme X7 Pro flaunts a 6.55-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels (FHD+), 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate, and 1200 nits peak brightness. Other parameters of this screen include an in-display fingerprint sensor, punch-hole on the top left side, 20:9 aspect ratio, 91.6% screen-to-body ratio, a 6000000:1 contrast ratio, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, 103% NTSC color gamut, and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection.
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realme X7 Nebula
realme X7 Space Silver
Internals
Although both The realme X7 and realme X7 Pro come with LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.1 internal storage, the chipsets are different on the two. The Pro model is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ SoC paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, whereas the regular model has a less powerful MediaTek Dimensity 800U chipset and it maxes out at 128GB internal storage but the maximum amount of RAM is 8GB.
Further, both of them feature a similar set of sensors, such as a compass, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, proximity sensor, and accelerometer. However, although the duo runs the same Android 10-based realme UI operating system, the realme X7 is backed by a smaller 4,310mAh battery with support for 50W fast charging as opposed to a larger 4,500mAh battery in the realme X7 Pro that can charge at a rate of 65W.
Camera
Talking about optics, the realme X7 Pro houses a quad-camera setup on the back consisting of a 64MP Sony IMX686 primary sensor, an 8MP secondary sensor with a 119° ultra-wide-angle lens, a 2MP tertiary sensor with a macro lens (4cm), and a 2MP quaternary monochrome sensor for portrait shots. Whereas, selfies and video calls are taken care of by a 32MP front-facing shooter.
The realme X7, on the other hand, sports a triple camera setup on the back that includes a 64MP primary sensor paired with an 8MP ultra-wide unit (119°) and a 2MP macro snapper. Further, on the front, it features a 16MP camera for video calls and selfies.
As far as video recording is concerned, the cheaper model maxes out at 4K 30fps and 720 240fps slow-motion from the rear camera and 1080p 30fps and 1010 120fps slow-motion from the front camera. However, the costlier model can also record at 4K 60fps from the back camera.
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realme X7 Pro Mystic Black
realme X7 Pro
Connectivity and Ports
The realme X7 series support 5G although the networks are not live in India. Both the devices come with a dual-SIM card slot, dual-band WiFi, and GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, GALILEO, QZSS).
However, the realme X7 Pro not only has WiFi 6 but also NFC as compared to only WiFi 5 on the realme X7. But the former comes with Bluetooth 5.0 instead of Bluetooth 5.1 as found in the latter.
Anyway, both of them sport a USB Type-C port and lack a 3.5mm headphone jack as well as a microSD card slot. Additionally, the Pro model also comes with dual stereo speakers.
realme X7/X7 Pro Pricing and Availability
The realme X7 series will retail for the following price tags in India.
realme X7
6GB + 128GB – ₹19,999 ($274)
8GB + 128GB – ₹21,999 ($302)
realme X7 Pro
8GB + 128GB – ₹29,999 ($411)
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realme X7
realme X7 Pro
The first sales of realme X7 and realme X7 Pro are scheduled for February 12 and February 10 respectively at 12PM. They can be purchased from either Flipkart or realme online store. The duo will be also available in offline stores in the coming days.
Last but not least, these smartphones are also part of Flipkart’s Upgrade program in collaboration with the realme Upgrade Plan. Hence, interested customers can get these phones for 70% of their cost and upgrade to a newer realme X series smartphone a year later by paying 70% of its price.
Amazon has announced that the company will start using its new electric delivery trucks in about 16 cities in the United States later this year. The new delivery vans, designed and built by electric vehicle startup Rivian, is already operational in Los Angeles.
The company is now planning to expand its testing to 15 more cities this year but it has not revealed the name of these cities yet. With this, Amazon seems to be on its way to having a fleet of 10,000 electric vans by the end of 2022.
For those who are unaware, Amazon had earlier announced the purchase of 100,000 delivery vans which will be produced by Rivian, in which Amazon is one of the major investors. This is a part of the online retail giant’s ‘Climate Pledge.’
The electric vans can travel up to 150 miles on a single charge. Amazon has already started prepping its facilities for the vans and adding thousands of charging stations at delivery centers throughout North America and Europe.
Rivian is an electric vehicle startup which was operating in stealth mode since 2009 and launched its pickup truck and SUV in November 2018. The company was started with the aim of launching Tesla Roadster competitor, it pivoted to making SUVs and pickup trucks.
The company has received a significant amount of funding, including a $700 million round led by Amazon in 2019 and $500 million from Ford in April 2019. Recently, the company managed to get another $2.65 billion from T. Rowe and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.
While 2020 proved to a difficult year for the overall smartphone market and a few OEMs as well, there were still those that managed to see growth despite the pandemic and its impacts. OnePlus is one such company, which saw a bump in market share in the US.
According to a Counterpoint Research report, the Chinese smartphone maker saw a great boost in the US market, despite most other vendors seeing a decline. Only be the second half of last year did the market recover, but it OnePlus apparently flew past its competition in terms of growth in channel presence and overall market size. In 2020, the company saw a market growth of 163 percent year on year over 2019, which is notable considering every other major OEM like Samsung and Apple saw a decline during the same period.
As per the report, OnePlus managed to achieve this by being an appealing alternative to customers that had become “disenfranchised with current premium smartphone offerings.” This was primarily due to two particular OEMs and their new offerings, namely Apple and Samsung. The former’s iPhone 12 series and the latter’s Galaxy S20 lineup saw an increase in pricing, due to the addition of 5G support. With the average price of smartphones rising with each passing year, consumers were reluctant to this trend, especially during the pandemic.
Furthermore, OnePlus is a relatively small OEM in comparison to these aforementioned brands. But despite its size, the company saw strong growth last year and is expecting positive results this year as well. The launch of the company’s OnePlus Nord N10 5G also helped the company in the US market as it is a sub 300 US Dollar handset that offered a 90Hz refresh rate display, with 5G support.
Earlier this week, a new report surfaced that claimed that Samsung and BOE will be responsible for supplying the display for the Huawei Mate X2, while another report also revealed the camera lens supplier of the upcoming foldable smartphone.
According to a ChinaStarMarketreport, the Chinese tech giant had initially only contracted exclusively with BOE to support the domestic supply chain. Both companies are based in China, thus, it is understood that the exclusive deal was to benefit their home country’s industry. Although now, it seems that Huawei is planning on including Samsung within its supply chain to supply flexible screens for its second gen Mate X foldable handset as well.
As per sources close to the matter, the Mate X2’s display will be supplied by Samsung. However, a separate report from known tipster Ross Young, the founder and lead analyst DisplaySearch and DSCC, claims that Samsung Display was initially planned to supply the flexible panels along with BOE. But now, Huawei will only place orders for the Mate X2’s displays with just BOE. Unfortunately, we have no way of confirming either reports at the moment.
It was originally going to have a Samsung Display and BOE display. Now just BOE.
Furthermore, the ChinaStarMarket report also added that the Mate X2’s camera lenses will be supplied by Sunny Optical and O-film Tech. The former is a known camera lens supplier, which is even rumored to supply Apple with camera lenses for its 2021 iPhone and iPad models as well. Currently, a lot of these reports are still unconfirmed and we will have to wait for additional information to surface to know for sure, so stay tuned for more updates.
Last month, Samsung had unveiled the Galaxy A32 5G smartphone in the European market and now a couple of weeks after that, the company has launched this budget 5G smartphone in Thailand.
The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, which packs 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, is priced at 9,999 baht in Thailand, which roughly converts to $333. It is being offered in four color options — Black, Blue, Violet, and White.
Coming to the specifications, the smartphone features a 6.5-inch HD+ display with 1600 x 720 pixels screen resolution. Under the hood, the device is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 720 chipset.
In the camera department, the phone features a quad-camera setup on the back that includes a 48-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens, a 5-megapixel macro lens, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor.
On the front side, the device has a 13-megapixel snapper housed inside the Infinity-V notch. The phone comes with support for features like a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and Dolby Atmos surround sound.
It is running the latest Android 11 operating system out-of-the-box with the company’s own One UI 3.0 custom user interface on top. The device is powered by a 5,000mAh battery that supports 15W charging.
In related news, the Samsung Galaxy A32 4G has passed through the FCC certification process, which hints that the device could soon get launched. We expect more information about that surface online in the coming days or weeks.
According to the latest report coming from Gartner, the worldwide sale of smartphones to end-users could total around 1.5 billion units by the end of this year. This indicates a growth of about 11.4 percent over the last year.
Smartphone sales declined by 10.5 percent in 2020, mainly because of the COVID-19 pandemic but now they are forecast to rebound. The report adds that markets like Western Europe, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific are expected to exhibit the strongest growth.
The combination of delayed smartphone replacements and the availability of lower end 5G smartphones are poised to increase smartphone sales in 2021, claims Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner.
With 5G communication technology going mainstream, 5G smartphones with a starting price of $200 are expected to steer demand in mature markets and China. While in developing nations, the primary focus of buyers will be the specifications and the 5G network support will be optional and lack of it won’t be a dealbreaker.
Further, Gartner forecasts sales of 5G smartphones will total 539 million units worldwide in 2021, which will represent around 35 percent of total smartphone sales in the year. This is mostly because 5G has become a standard feature for premium phones in countries like U.S., China, Japan, and South Korea.
Xiaomi recently launched its flagship smartphone in the form of Mi 11 and the company is expected to launch a couple of more devices in the lineup, including the upcoming Mi 11 Pro which could be announced later this month.
Now, Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, has confirmed that the company is gearing up to launch the highly-anticipated Mi MIX series smartphone, after a gap of about two years. It is also touted to be the most expensive phone from the Chinese company.
Recently, Xiaomi’s founder and CEO Lei Jun had asked users on Weibo if they would be willing to buy a smartphone worth 10,000 yuan and what would they expect from it. In response, users said they expect super quality at such a high price as well as enough stockpile to be able to purchase the phone.
Reports indicate that the smartphone Lei Jun is talking about is the Mi MIX series smartphone, expected to launch this year. Unlike the Mi MIX Alpha smartphone, this won’t be a concept phone and will be mass-produced and sold commercially.
While not much is known about the upcoming Mi MIX smartphone at this time, reports say that the company could be opting for a foldable design that can be opened and closed like a book. In that case, it will be the first foldable smartphone from Xiaomi. Given that Mi MIX is an experimental lineup, it seems totally possible.
Qualcomm, which is one of the largest smartphone chipset makers in the world, has now warned that the company is failing to meet the demand. This hints that the semiconductor shortage is spreading.
The auto chips sector was facing a similar issue but now Qualcomm has shared this news which confirms that the problem has been expanded from just automobile chips and could make the situation worse, reports Bloomberg.
Similar to most chipset makers, Qualcomm outsources manufacturing to third-party companies like TSMC and Samsung. Now, with increased demand for chips, the facilities of manufacturers aren’t able to meet the rebounded demand.
Currently, it seems quite difficult for Qualcomm to quickly solve this issue of meeting demand. However, industry reports indicate that the situation is expected to be normal in the second half of this year.
Steve Mollenkopf, who is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Qualcomm, said that the company’s performance was curbed by supply constraints. He will be replaced by Cristiano Amon in June, later this year.
The company recently revealed its financial data. In its fiscal first quarter, Qualcomm reported revenue of $8.24 billion, a gain of 62% compared to last year. Net income was $2.12 a share. Excluding certain items, profit was $2.17 a share, compared with Wall Street’s average estimate of $2.09.
OPPO is expected to announce the Find X3 Pro flagship phone in March. Last year, the company announced the Find X2 and Find X2 Pro smartphones together in the same month. Several leaks have revealed details of the Find X3 Pro, but there is no clear information on whether vanilla Find X3 will launch alongside it. Instead, the Find X3 Neo and Find X3 Lite are expected to launch with the Find X3 Pro. Yesterday, well-known tipster Evan Blass shared a render to reveal the front design of all three phones.
As can be seen in the new render, the Find X3 Pro, Find X3 Neo, and Find X3 Lite has a selfie camera hole-punch at the upper left corner of their displays. The screens of the Find X3 Pro and Neo have curved edges, but the Lite model has a flat screen.
OPPO Find X3 Neo, Find X3 Pro and Find X3 Lite
As is known, the Find X3 Pro is a Snapdragon 888 SoC powered flagship phone. It is expected to arrive with a 6.7-inch AMOLED with up to 120Hz refresh rate support, Quad HD+ resolution, and 10-bit color support. It may come with a 4,500mAh battery that supports 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging and 30W VOOC Air wireless charging.
The tipster has already revealed that the Find X3 Lite will be a rebranded edition of China’s Reno5 5G. The Chinese model has “Reno Glow” branding on its back. This branding will be replaced by a regular OPPO logo on the Find X3 Lite. It is likely to borrow all its specs from its Chinese version.
Blass is yet to reveal the specs of the Find X3 Neo. It is speculated that it will be a rebranded version of the Reno5 Pro 5G.
Vivo is reportedly working on a new selfie-focused phone called Vivo S9 5G. It is speculated that the V2072A phone that was recently seen at the Google Play Console could be the forthcoming Vivo S9 5G smartphone. Today, the handset received certification from the 3C authority of China. The 3C listing (via) is a good hint that the smartphone will debut soon in the home market.
The 3C certification of the purported Vivo S9 5G revealed that it could be coming with a V339K9V90-CN charger that produces up to 33W charging speeds. The listing also states that it is a 5G phone.
The Google Play Console listing of the V2072A carried an image of the device. It revealed that its screen has a wide notch, which indicated that it could be equipped with two front-facing cameras like the Vivo S7 5G. The listing further revealed that the screen supports a 1080 x 2400 pixels Full HD+ resolution and a 408ppi pixel density.
The Dimensity 1100 chipset which went official last month may drive the alleged Vivo S9 5G. It may come with 12 GB of RAM and Android 11 OS. The other specs of the phone are under wraps.
Vivo V2072A phone is expected to debut as teh Vivo S9 in China next month
A recent leak revealed that the Vivo S9 5G has a 6.4-inch screen and its dual selfie camera setup has a 44-megapixel primary camera. The handset may break cover on March 6. At present, there is no word on the pricing of the Vivo S9 5G.
Last month, Samsung launched the Galaxy A32 5G as its cheapest 5G phone in Europe. Recent reports have revealed that some markets like India will be treated with the 4G edition of the Galaxy A32. It appears that the launch date of the Galaxy A32 4G may not be far away as it has received approval from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in the U.S.
The FCC certification of the Galaxy A32 4G has revealed only a few details about it. The handset is mentioned with its SM-A325F model number in the FCC documents. The filings reveal that the device has a 5,000mAh battery and it carries support for 15W charging.
Except for featuring a different chipset, the other specs of the Galaxy A32 4G could be identical to the Galaxy A32 5G. In the previous month, the handset was seen with MediaTek Helio G85 chipset and 6 GB of RAM at the Geekbench benchmarking platform. Leakster Sudhanshu revealed that the Galaxy A32 4G will be available in four colors like black, blue, white, and lavender. The tipster also revealed that Samsung will be offering an S-view wall cover in black and white colors and Soft Clear Cover in black and transparent editions for the buyers of the Galaxy A32 4G.
The Galaxy A32 5G features a 6.5-inch HD+ Infinity-V screen and it is said to be powered by Dimensity 720 chipset. The phone ships with up to 8 GB of RAM and up to 128 GB of native storage. It has a 5,000mAh battery with 15W charging support. It has a 13-megapixel front camera and a 48-megapixel + 8-megapixel (superwide) + 2-megapixel (depth) + 5-megapixel (macro) quad-camera system. It is priced at 279 euros in Europe.
The images of the Vivo S7t 5G reveal that its design is identical to last year’s Vivo S7 5G phone. At the front, it features a wide notch display, and its rear has a squarish camera housing with three cameras and an LED flash in it. The Vivo S7 5G was powered by the Snapdragon 765G, whereas the Vivo S7t 5G is equipped with Dimensity 820 chipset. The rumor mill claimed that apart from this difference, their other specs are identical.
The Vivo S7t 5G’s China Telecom has revealed that it has a 6.44-inch display that supports a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels. The glass-bodied smartphone measures 158.82 x 74.2 x 7.495mm and it weighs 169 grams.
The wide notch on the display has a 44-megapixel primary selfie camera and an 8-megapixel lens. The screen seems to be integrated with a fingerprint scanner. Its rear camera housing has a 64-megapixel main lens, an 8-megapixel secondary lens, and a 2-megapixel snapper.
The Vivo S7t 5G has 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage it has a rated battery of 3,920mAh capacity. This handset was spotted with a 33W fast charger in the previous month at the 3C certification site. The China Telecom listing has revealed that the model number of Vivo S7t 5G is V2080A. It further states that the device has a price tag of 2898 Yuan (~$449). and it will sell in colors like Jazz Black and Monet.
A Vivo phone with a V2048A model number was previously seen at Geekbench, Google Play Console, and 3C certification. It was previously believed to be the Vivo S7t 5G phone. Now that China Telecom confirms that the Vivo S7t 5G has a V2080A model number, it appears that the Vivo V2048A is another Vivo phone powered by Dimensity 820 chipset.
Xiaomi is expected to announce a couple of new phones within the first quarter of 2021 in China. Today, three new handsets with model numbers M2102J2SC, M2012K11AC, and M2012K11C appeared in the database of the 3C authority of China. These could be the upcoming Mi 11/10 series and the Redmi K40 series of smartphones.
The 3C certification reveals that the M2102J2SC, M2012K11AC, and M2012K11C are 5G-ready handsets. Also, their listings show that they are likely to ship with an MDY-11-EX 33W fast charger. These smartphones have not received approval from the TENAA telecom authority yet.
There is no information available on the other specifications of the M2012J2SC. Recent reports have claimed that Xiaomi is working on a Snapdragon 870 SoC powered Xiaomi Mi 10 series handset for China. There is a possibility that the M2012J2SC model number may belong to this handset.
The M2012K11C phone was previously seen at the CMIIT certification and Geekbench last year. The Geekbench listing revealed that the device could be coming with specs like Snapdragon 888 mobile platform, 6 GB of RAM, and Android 11 OS. Rumors suggest that this phone could be the Redmi K40 Pro handset. The_Tech_Guy revealed last month that the M2012K11C phone is codenamed as “haydn” and he also revealed the existence of an Indian variant.
The M2012K11AC phone appears to be a variant of the M2012K11C – the alleged Redmi K40 Pro. It remains to be seen whether the M2012K11AC arrives in the Chinese market as the Redmi K40.
Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy F62 mid-range phone in India at some point this month. Yesterday, well-known tipster Mukul Sharma hinted at the processor that will be powering the upcoming F-series phone. He also revealed that the device will be costing less than Rs 25,0000 (~$343). Now, reliable tipster Ishan Agarwal has come up with an interesting leak to reveal more information about the Galaxy F62 smartphone.
My Smart Pricethat has teamed up with Agarwal has revealed that the next F-series phone for India will be called Galaxy F62. It will be the second F-series smartphone from the company after the Galaxy F41 that debuted last year. The model number of the F62 is SM-E625F.
The Galaxy F62 will arrive with a massive AMOLED display of 6.7 inches and it will be drawing from a huge battery of 7,000mAh capacity. It is unclear what kind of charging speeds will be supported by the handset. The leak has no information on the processor of the device. There are numerous listings of the phone at Geekbench, which reveal that it is powered by the Exynos 9825 chipset.
The Galaxy F62 will ship with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of built-in storage. It will come preloaded with One UI 3.1 based Android 11 OS. For snapping selfies, the device will possess a 32-megapixel front camera. Its rear shell will have a square-shaped camera for a 64-megapixel quad-camera system. The details of the other three cameras of the Galaxy F62 are not known yet. The new leak does not mention whether it has an in-screen fingerprint reader or a traditional rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.
It is likely that Samsung may soon start teasing the arrival of the Galaxy F62 in India.
TikTok is one of the most popular apps these days and it is not unusual to see folks spend several hours in the app. Now, TikTok has upped its game and doesn’t just want to compete for your attention on your phone but also on your TV. The company has announced an Android TV version of the popular app.
The TikTok for Android TV app is available on the Play Store for the Chromecast with Google TV. At the moment, the app is available not only on Google’s device but also in select regions. I checked the Play Store on my Mi TV Box and didn’t find the app.
According to Android Police, you can jump right in to watch videos or sign in to your account to watch your curated list. Signing in is also pretty easy as all you have to do is press the up navigation button to bring up the sign-in option and enter a code or scan a QR code, rather than try to remember what your password is. Also, just because you are watching on TV doesn’t mean that the videos fill your screen. No, videos are still in portrait mode.
The app controls are pretty straightforward. The right and left navigation buttons skip the video forward and backward respectively. Pressing the ”More” button reveals other options.
If you don’t want to wait until the app is available for your device, you can grab the APK from APKMirror and sideload it onto your device.
Sony recently published its latest earnings report and it contained an interesting detail about the elusive PlayStation 5 console. According to the report, the company sold a total of 4.5 million PlayStation 5 consoles in 2020. This is an indication that the company has been able to mass-produce the console which has been extremely difficult to buy since its launch in November. However, we believe the figure would have be way higher if there was availability of the console. The report also shows that the demand for the PlayStation 4 witnessed a sharp drop year-on-year, with 1.4 million units shipped in the October-December quarter. This represents a 77 percent decrease from the previous year. Sony actually managed to sell fewer PS4s in the holiday quarter than it did from July to September.
Overall, Sony’s gaming business witnessed a much improved performed which surpassed the brand’s result a year ago. Analyst Daniel Ahmad noted that the fourth quarter of 2020 was in fact, the best quarter in PlayStation history. Sony gaming division raked in an increased revenue of 40 percent, to peak at 883.2 billion yen ($8.4 billion). The revenue is partly driven by sales of the new PlayStation 5. The division also recorded a surge in operating profit by 50 percent, reaching 80.2 billion yen ($763.3 million). This is as a result of higher game sales, PlayStation Plus subscriptions, and better margins on PS4 hardware.
Sony does note, however, that expenses related to the PS5 launch offset some of its profit gains, and also confirms that the PS5 hardware itself is being sold for less than what it costs to make. A loss was incurred due to “strategic price points for PS5 hardware that were set lower than the manufacturing costs,” the company disclosed.
Microsoft didn’t release specific sales figures for the Xbox Series X or Series S with its earnings report last week, but the company did say that Xbox hardware revenue was up 86 percent year-on-year.
BlitzWolf is a brand that’s popular for its wearables, chargers, and various other accessories. Today, Banggood is offering a discount on one of its hot products — the BlitzWolf BW-SHP13 Zigbee 3.0 Smart Socket. It is a smart device with advanced functions like electricity rating, timing function, voice assistant compatibility, and much more. This socket is usually priced at $15 – $17 but can now be purchased at a discounted rate for only $13.99.
BlitzWolf BW-SHP13 Zigbee 3.0 Smart Socket is compatible with various Zigbee sensors that detect hot temperature and automatically turn on the AC at your space. It can be programmed according to your schedule by setting charging timers and countdowns. This BlitzWolf socket can support Alexa and Google voice command to offer hands-free use. It can also monitor power consumption in real-time, even if the user isn’t home. The indicator light on the top notifies the user when the device is pairing or paired. The ABS and PC construction protects it against flames.
Samsung has really stepped up its software support game and is now one of the best in the industry. The manufacturer has a list of supported devices that informs users of how frequently supported devices will receive updates. It has done so again now and the latest update reveals that the 2017 Galaxy A series will no longer be updated.
Galaxy A7 2017
The devices that are no longer supported are the Galaxy A7 2017, the Galaxy A5 2017, the Galaxy A3 2017, and the Galaxy J3 Pop.
Samsung’s flagships, starting from the Galaxy S9 series till present are supported for monthly security updates. Surprisingly, the Galaxy W20 and Galaxy W21 which are the Chinese equivalents of the Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 2 are scheduled to receive quarterly updates. The page also shows that the Galaxy Tab S7 and Galaxy Tab S7+ will also receive quarterly updates and not monthly updates eve though they are flagship tablets that launched less than a year ago.
The bulk of Samsung’s mid-range phones released in the past year and in 2019 fall under the quarterly updates category. So if you own a Galaxy M or Galaxy A phone released between 2019 and now, you are eligible for quarterly updates. However, Samsung tells users to note that the frequency of updates will change as the support period expires. This means that older devices will eventually get pushed down until they are no longer supported.
Amazon has begun testing its electric vehicles which are the product of its partnership with Rivian Automotive for delivery services in Los Angeles. Both companies released a joint statement on the event. Amazon had announced in 2019 that it will buy a hundred thousand Rivian vans in pursuit of its plans to accomplish zero carbon emissions within two decades.
The EV company Rivian has been able to mass up close to $8 billion from its investors since 2019 via its $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund. Amazon has now begun testing some of the Rivian electric delivery vans on routes in Los Angeles. In October 2020, Amazon had begun a test run of delivery vans and says the LA pilot program is expected to also roll out in16 other cities this year.
Ross Rachey, director of Amazon’s global fleet and products, in a statement, said that the company is proud of efforts at reducing its carbon footprint through the electrification of its logistics architecture. It has led to the installation of thousands of electric vehicle chargers and the realignment of the layout of delivery facilities in parts of North America and Europe.
Rivian produced the Amazon test delivery fleet at its headquarters in Plymouth, Michigan. Each van can drive up to 150 miles on a single charge and are still in a test phase, but production is slated for Q4 of 2021.
Rivian on its own part is set to bring an all-electric pickup vehicle to the logistics market this year.
Rivian already has its gaze fixed at the top of the crowd in the EV manufacturing market. It hopes to be a serious challenger to Tesla. Light-duty trucks including delivery vans have been projected to be in demand in the U.S. in the after of the new policy direction of the Biden administration to embrace clean energy and replace the federal government’s fleet of internal combustion engine vehicles with EVs.
The huge demand outlay expected in the coming years has led many companies to ramp up their investment in EV technology.
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