Lords Mobile partners with Dreamworks' Shrek as part of a festive Apple giveaway

Vivo's real success with its premium X series of smartphones took off with the X70 Pro+, in 2021. Back then, I compared it with Xiaomi's mega Mi 11 Ultra and the X70 Pro+ made good use of its unique gimbal stabilisation system (it also introduced its V1 imaging chip), which provided good stability while shooting video in all types of lighting conditions. Next up was the Vivo X80 Pro, which was a worthy successor to the same, it introduced features like a hand-held astrophotography mode and excelled at low light imaging using all 4 of its rear cameras. The Vivo X90 Pro which followed saw Vivo losing its focus missing some hardware essentials and struggling to deliver on the camera and performance front as well.

Apple Inc. got itself a new bear as expectations of soft demand for its latest iPhone prompted analysts at Barclays Plc to downgrade the stock. Shares fell 3.6% on Tuesday, their biggest one-day percentage drop since September, and the decline erased more than $107 billion in market value. Barclays analysts led by Tim Long cut their rating on Apple to underweight and price target by $1 to $160, compared with the stock's Tuesday closing price of $185.64.  “We expect reversion after a year when most quarters were missed and the stock outperformed,” the analysts wrote in a note on Tuesday. “Our checks remain negative on volumes and mix for iPhone 15, and we see no features or upgrades that are likely to make the iPhone 16 more compelling.”

For the rest of the year, more Android flagships with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 9300 will be found in a plethora of premium smartphones, but according to one tipster, companies are shifting towards a different strategy, which is equipping its less expensive handsets with the same SoCs. While this will hurt the manufacturer’s margins, it shows how eager these companies are to increase their global market share, even if the outcome negligibly rewards them.

A new dawn breaks across hallowed ground, adventurer.

Blizzard is reportedly back to working with Netease again to bring their video games to China.

India's ISRO launched its first satellite, XPoSat, on Monday to study black holes as it seeks to deepen its space exploration efforts ahead of an ambitious crewed mission next year. The spacecraft, named X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, was propelled into an orbit of 350 kilometers from an island near India's main spaceport of Sriharikota, off the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, according to S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. The XPoSat satellite, weighing about 470 kilograms, will carry out research on X-rays emanating from around 50 celestial objects with the help of two payloads built by ISRO and a Bengaluru-based research institute.

A large majority of handheld console makers are updating their designs with AMD's Ryzen 8040U "Hawk Point" APUs.

Apple may have crossed the $3 trillion valuation mark this year, making it the most valuable company in the world, but that does not mean the California-based firm had the most successful run in 2023 because other technology giants outperformed it by quite a fair margin. In fact, according to the latest report, Apple suffered its longest revenue slide in 22 years, with several challenges expected to make attempts at its growth in 2024.

With few exceptions, the open-world game has largely been the preserve of Western studios – those with deep enough pockets to fund the development of large-scale sandboxes, rich in scope and detail alike. But with publisher NetEase evidently prepared to splash the cash, Hangzhou-based Everstone is plotting to put China at the very heart of the genre with the forthcoming Where Winds Meet. 

Chinese regulators could ban to some of the mobile gacha industry’s most well-known tactics, including login and purchase rewards if a new set of proposals goes through. 

Barring a last minute (and unlikely) presidential veto, the Apple Watch is largely coming off US shelves. Starting Thursday, Apple Inc. will stop selling the latest versions of the device though its online store and then in its physical stores, too, by Christmas Eve. Other sellers like Best Buy can continue to sell them until they are out of stock. It's a miserable end to a lackluster year for America's most valuable company and its chief executive officer, Tim Cook.

After its debut in Vivo's home market, the company's camera-centric flagships have now been announced for the global market. This would mainly include Europe and Southeast Asian markets, where the company has a noticeable presence. Vivo has announced both its X100 Pro and the X100 for global markets, and they both pack in some interesting specifications. Both smartphones will compete with the likes of Samsung's Galaxy S23 series and the upcoming Galaxy S24 series, which is set to debut in January 2024.