Omar Sohail

The Snapdragon X Elite was previously benchmarked in an unnamed Lenovo laptop, and it received less than stellar scores, though those figures were still impressive compared to what Qualcomm had previously released, which was the highly disappointing Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3. However, newly published results reveal up to a 49 percent bump in the latest Geekbench 6 leak, and we will discuss the potential reasons for this massive score difference.

Apple’s App Store is said to have a guardian in the form of former Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, who, despite transitioning from his senior executive role to an ‘Apple Fellow,’ an honorary position, holds tremendous influence in the firm. According to the latest profile shared by The Wall Street Journal, Schiller is said to be working 80 hours a week, becoming a shield for the App Store, and standing vigil to guard it at all times from external threats such as antitrust watchdogs and other entities.

Apple’s iPhone SE 4 OLED orders were previously said to be fought over by suppliers Samsung and BOE. Given that this is the company’s low-cost offering slated to launch sometime in 2025, procuring cheaper displays would be Apple’s top priority since this component is largely dependent on how expensive a smartphone gets. On this occasion, a new report claims that BOE has apparently won the skirmish against Samsung on the pricing front and will likely be the exclusive panel supplier for the iPhone SE 4.

Samsung is rumored to be laser-focused on continuing a dual-chipset approach with the Galaxy S25 launch next year by introducing both the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and Exynos 2500 variants in several markets. According to the latest rumor, the company has supposedly commenced testing of its upcoming SoC, and according to the latest development, it is faster than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in both the CPU and GPU categories. However, that leaves us with more questions than answers, which we will discuss here.

Samsung has apparently started work on its Galaxy S25 series early, with the latest information surrounding its next year’s top-end model, the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Based on the newest renders that are now being compared with one another, it appears that four prototypes are being tested, with each version sporting a different dimension than the other, which we will dive into immediately.

The A18 Pro is said to be found in the upcoming iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max later this year, and according to an alleged Geekbench 6 benchmark run, Apple’s upcoming SoC delivers impressive performance results when compared to the A17 Pro, with the difference reaching double-digits. However, regarding the rest of the competition, we have some thoughts we would like to share with you.

A new MacBook Pro sporting Apple’s M4 chipset was previously reported to have entered formal development,’ but that does not mean that the new SoC or the portable Mac would launch this early, with an unveiling said to happen sometime in 2025. Now, a fresh roadmap has outlined when the new silicon could materialize, and assuming Apple experiences fewer obstacles in its path, it could launch the M4 in the first quarter of 2025.

Samsung’s struggles in bringing up the yields of its 3nm GAA process were well-known, but there is a positive update that a tipster provided, claiming that the Korean giant’s foundry has managed to increase that number to three times the original figure. This means that the previous 10-20 percent yields of the 3nm process is now hovering between 30-60 percent. While these are improvements, the company continues to trail behind TSMC, and there are rumors claiming that Samsung placed more stock in its second-generation 3nm GAA process.

Samsung continues to make strides with microLED technology, but for the moment, the company has limited these displays to its mammoth-sized TVs, and as you can tell, these units cost a small fortune. The Korean giant is rumored to bring the same technology to a Galaxy Watch variant, with a tipster stating that its intended launch target is 2025. Unfortunately, with Apple previously reported to be experiencing its own struggles and withdrawing development altogether, a shadow of doubt may be cast on Samsung’s own plans, irrespective of the fact that the firm has immense experience with developing multiple display forms.

Apple established its business relationship with Chinese suppliers around 30 years ago, and while the company has formed alternatives in other regions, it will be a difficult task to sever ties with a region that has remained a reliable partner for all these years. In the latest interview with Tim Cook, the company’s Chief Executive highlighted how critical China’s supply chain is to Apple, likely hinting that both will be working with each other for the foreseeable future despite the U.S. government making trade relations difficult.

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max already impressed with their design, and Apple’s engineering feat of reducing the two flagships’ bezels down to just 1.55mm would be regarded as truly extraordinary, but the company reportedly wants to raise the bar with the iPhone 16 lineup too and incorporate displays with even slimmer bezels. It plans to accomplish this Herculean task using what the latest report calls ‘Border Reduction Structure’ technology, and we will discuss what it does and what its potential drawbacks can be.

Switching to just the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for its Galaxy S23 family meant that Samsung had to bear a chipset expenditure that was in the billions, so it is unsurprising to learn that the Korean giant invested heavily in launching the Exynos 2400 that powers several Galaxy S24 variants. According to the latest report, Samsung will pursue a higher adoption of its own silicon as it aims to reduce these costs substantially.

One major advantage for productivity buffs wanting the 13-inch or 15-inch M3 MacBook Air as their daily driver was that they could attach two external monitors instead of one, but that is only possible when any one of these models was being used in clamshell mode, or in other words, with the lid closed. However, a recent stress test shows that you can lose nearly half of the portable Mac’s original performance in this mode, which will make everyone wonder if the trade-off is worth the extra monitor support.

The past few Galaxy S series launches have likely made consumers feel that Samsung lacks the motivation to bring any drastic design changes to its flagship family. Fortunately, one tipster notes that after several generations, the company is finally bringing an aesthetic shift to the Galaxy S25, starting with the base model, whose display size is said to be increased compared to the current-generation Galaxy S24.

A short while after Qualcomm had officially unveiled the Snapdragon X Elite, the company claimed that its latest ARM-based silicon is up to 21 percent faster than Apple’s M3 in multi-core performance. When it comes to being the fastest SoC between the two, Qualcomm was correct in its claims, but not that much regarding accuracy, as you will find out shortly after we take a deeper dive into the latest performance comparison.

LPDDR6 will reportedly be finalized later this year, hinting that several phone manufacturers, including the likes of Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Apple, will integrate this technology in their future handsets. However, a rumor doing the rounds states that the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be ahead of all its competitors as it will obtain support for this next-generation memory. In contrast, Apple’s A18 Pro, which will exclusively be mass produced for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, could miss out on this opportunity.

Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ was the company’s self-driving car ambition that had an estimated $10 billion invested in the venture. After a decade of rash decisions, delays, and frequent leadership changes, the autonomous vehicle development was axed entirely. In addition to the ludicrous expenditure, the efforts of various teams, including the Apple Silicon, went up in smoke, as these individuals were nearly finished with a custom chipset that was equal to not one, but a whopping four M2 Ultra SoCs, which is Apple’s most powerful in-house silicon to date.

The Dimensity 9300 has set the stage for MediaTek, howling that it is back in the premium Android smartphone segment, and it intends to make its rivals nervous with the Dimensity 9400 launch. With the exception of Google and Apple, the Taiwanese firm has signed on every other phone maker as its customer, but Vivo is rumored to want a first crack at the company’s flagship silicon, and it may have already secured the first batch for itself. A new report also compares the performance differences of the Dimensity 9400 with the Dimensity 9300, claiming a 20 percent improvement.

After SMIC was reportedly setting up chip production for Huawei to start mass production of 5nm wafers later this year, China’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer is now rumored to be assembling a team dedicated to 3nm chip development. For obvious reasons, the company will seek aid to help achieve this monumental goal and, in the process, obtain complete autonomy from foreign companies and the tight grip that the U.S. has on them.

Apple continues to employ a fan-less cooling design for 13-inch and 15-inch M3 MacBook Air models, and while that means users will be pleased about the completely silent operation, they will lose out on a ton of performance. The M3 MacBook Pro, which sports a single fan, can offer significantly improved sustained performance while touting the same SoC, as demonstrated in a series of tests. It is also worth mentioning that the M3 MacBook Air gets uncomfortably toasty, which we hope Apple can address in future iterations.

There was a slight chance that Samsung would have partnered with MediaTek to bring its Dimensity 9000 to its flagship Galaxy S series in the past. Given that the Taiwanese company took the premium Android SoC market by surprise with this release, competitors started taking note of MediaTek and where it could be headed. Unfortunately, the deal between the two firms could not materialize, with a tipster sharing that there was a scarce supply of the chipset, amongst other reasons.

The M3 MacBook Air offers little internal changes compared to its direct predecessor, but now, Apple’s latest chip is not only mass produced on TSMC’s cutting-edge 3nm architecture but also supports technologies such as hardware-accelerated ray tracing. However, how do all of these improvements translate into gaming performance? The short story is that while the newest MacBook Air can become somewhat of a portable gaming machine, it is best to keep expectations realistic, according to the latest framerate numbers shared.

A Samsung SSD guarantees that you will not just receive a quality product, but the software support and the seamless transition of data from one drive to another make the company’s products a ‘must buy.’ Today, we have not one, but two high-capacity PCIe NVMe Gen 4 drives, the 990 PRO and the 990 EVO, that are not just discounted on Amazon, but one of them also comes with a $20 discount that can be applied before checkout to help you out with the storage upgrade financially.

Samsung is regarded as a major smartphone chipset customer for Qualcomm, which is likely why the latter recently renewed a multi-year agreement with the Korean giant to use its Snapdragon silicon. However, it can become worrisome if one company depends on just one client to bring in 40 percent of the total revenue for a specific quarter, but according to the data shared for Q4 2023, Qualcomm appears to be too dependent on Samsung in this regard. We have witnessed on previous occasions that things can go from bad to worse if companies cannot diversify.

A few years ago, MediaTek garnered its popularity through its Helio lineup of chipsets that were found in mid-range and affordable smartphones. The Taiwanese firm had cemented its position firmly in this category, but it was believed that the company could not match the likes of Qualcomm in the flagship silicon space.

The AI arms race between the U.S. and China has escalated to a new level, and there will be some defectors in the mix intending to steal highly secretive files to give the other region an edge. As it happens, one Google engineer, Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly stealing trade secrets revolving around Google’s AI chip software and hardware on March 5. In a statement, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that Ding had 500 confidential files containing AI trade secrets and was secretly colluding with China-based firms attempting to seek an upper hand in the AI race.

Apple has a decent foldable product portfolio in the works, but when it comes to an actual launch, many reports talk about varying timelines. However, one analyst believes that a 20.3-inch foldable MacBook is the only one that has a clear development schedule in sight, and while that is a positive sign, the drawback is that consumers who are waiting for such a product have to wait an exceptionally long time.

Google continues to cover some ground with its Pixel smartphone shipments, and though its rivals are miles ahead as they ship millions of units every year, Japan is one of those regions where the advertising giant can hold its head high thanks to a 527 percent year-over-year growth. Where every other company, including Apple, suffered a decline, Google overcame all odds, according to the latest report.

The affordable variant of the Apple Vision Pro is not expected until 2025, but that does not mean that the company is not aggressively pursuing its launch through some consistent R&D. According to one report, one objective of this launch is reducing the cost of the display, with recent estimates claiming that the component price can drop by as much as 50 percent.

The Tensor G4 will likely be powering the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro later this year, and while Google’s chipsets have historically delivered poorer performance and efficiency metrics compared to the competition, the upcoming chipset is rumored to receive a few upgrades. Going on the path of the Exynos 2400, a new report says that the Tensor G4 will be treated to FOWLP or ‘Fan out Wafer Level Packaging.’ While we have discussed the advantages of using this technology, let us inform readers who are hearing about it for the first time as its benefits might compel them to upgrade to the Pixel 9 or Pixel 9 Pro later this year.

Samsung has been reported on a few occasions to be struggling with its 3nm GAA yields, and while the logical move might have been to find ways to improve that percentage, the Korean foundry is making a monumental leap towards mass producing its 2nm node. However, according to one update, the company is not actually pursuing the production of 2nm wafers but has labeled its second-generation 3nm technology with the same name. Naturally, this can cause confusion for Samsung’s clients and mislead them into thinking that they are receiving wafers on a cutting-edge manufacturing process.

For the past three years, we have been greeted with the Pixel design that always somehow manages to light a smile on our faces, with the exterior shell being a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, that air turns rancid in a snap as the pleasing aesthetics of Google’s flagship or mid-ranged smartphone family are not aligned with the company’s silicon vision. With the Tensor G3 being yet another disappointment compared to the competition, will we finally see the Tensor G4 turn over a new leaf when powering the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro? Our rumor roundup discusses the upcoming SoC’s specifications, potential features, and everything else you might want to learn, so let us get started.

Adding a faster, high-capacity 4TB SSD gives you a ton of cushion for installing heaps of programs and games that have become storage gobblers these days, but it is not the most affordable path for anyone, regardless of whether you are inserting one in your PS5, a desktop or laptop computer. However, we have compiled six options that we believe will go easy on your wallet and provide adequate performance for getting things done quickly that and, of course, firing up your games and applications quicker. Here are all the 4TB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSDs you can get for March without burning a hole through your balance sheet.

Apple’s iron grip on the ARM notebook and desktop space might be coming to an end, starting with Qualcomm and its Snapdragon X Elite. However, one rumor claims that Huawei is another player to enter this space, and there are claims that the former Chinese giant has already developed a competitor to the M1. Then again, the company might have obtained dependency from a slew of foreign companies in a bid to jumpstart its smartphone business, starting with the Kirin 9000S, but that does not mean that there are no other hurdles that need to be scaled.

Qualcomm is apparently on track to supply its phone partners with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 just in time for the company to make the flagship chipset’s announcement in October. The latest rumor doing the rounds claims that the SoC will be finalized in April, with samples expected to be shipped to OEMs by June. This should give companies sufficient time to ready their high-end smartphones for next year with Qualcomm’s first 3nm silicon. The rumor also dives into the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 specifications, which we will discuss at length here.

It recently came to light that Apple had canceled its car project, which was internally referred to as ‘Project Titan,’ and with the abandonment, the company has re-assigned the 2,000 employees formerly stationed at the self-driving vehicle division to proceed with work on generative AI.

It typically takes Qualcomm several months before announcing the Snapdragon Summit, where it will unveil its top-tier chipset that will power the premium smartphones that will arrive the following year. However, things were outright different on this occasion, as the company CMO put out a video stating that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which will be the San Diego firm’s first silicon to launch with proper in-house Oryon cores, will be announced in October.

News has reached Chinese EV makers that Apple has shuttered its self-driving car development that was internally called ‘Project Titan.’ Xiaomi, the world’s third-largest smartphone brand, recently entered this category, and it, plus other players, have expressed their thoughts on the latest development. While some companies are shocked at this revelation, others agree with Apple’s decision, stating that there are other areas in which the technology giant can thrive in.

A few hours after it was revealed that Apple had severed all work being done on its autonomous car project, Tesla CEO Elon Musk decided to take advantage of the platform that he acquired and renamed to X as he responded to the latest news. However, Musk’s reaction was thoroughly subtle and included just two emojis, opening a wave of speculation on what exactly he meant.

Samsung may not have much success with its 3nm GAA process, but it intends to make amends with its next-generation 2nm technology, which is said to enter mass production next year. To gain an edge against its foundry rival TSMC, a new report states that the Korean giant is introducing Backside Power Supply (BSPDN) technology, which aims to offer several benefits, which we will discuss here.

Apple was secretly working on an autonomous car that multiple reports and people close to the matter dubbed it as ‘Project Titan.’ Sadly, after years of pooling resources and talent on the development of this unnamed vehicle, the latest update states that the company is canceling all development, with teams working on this project said to be assigned elsewhere. In short, millions of dollars have gone up in smoke as Apple likely attempted to take on the EV industry but fell short miserably.

The Snapdragon X Elite is slated to power a slew of notebooks in mid-2024, but before the first products materialize, Qualcomm decided to show off a bit when it comes to image generation. The company placed its flagship SoC tailor-made for portable machines and put it up against Intel’s Core Ultra 7 155H, which offers a 16-core configuration and is designed to excel in multi-threaded workloads. However, when both chips are running Stable Diffusion 1.5, the Snapdragon X Elite does not just obtain the upper hand but also runs circles around its newest competitor regarding AI image generation.

A smartphone operating system’s popularity stems from its large app ecosystem, providing a massive repository of programs that can run on mobile devices seamlessly, but suppose all of that work was done by AI instead of applications that had to be downloaded through a dedicated store? Deutsche Telekom believes that in the future, smartphones will rely on artificial intelligence instead of apps for task completion and has collaborated with T-Mobile and Qualcomm to showcase a concept smartphone that runs just AI.

An opportunity went up in smoke for Apple when Microsoft pitched it to acquire its Bing search engine in 2018, according to court documents from Google’s antitrust lawsuit. However, the Cupertino giant passed on the chance to have its own search engine, reportedly believing that Bing was riddled with search quality issues. Microsoft has also attempted to persuade Apple to make its search engine default in the Safari web browser, but the company has been met with a similar response.

Succeeding the Snapdragon X75, Qualcomm today announced the new Snapdragon X80 5G modem, which the company labels as being the first AI-powered gigabit modem in the world. During the unveiling, the San Diego mentioned the use of AI and how the Snapdragon X80 would leverage this feature to not only increase reception quality and accuracy but also lower power consumption. Here are all the details you should know.

Thousands of AT&T customers were without service for several hours across the U.S. carrier as the carrier suffered a massive disruption. The company has stated that it will make things right with its subscribers and has put out a statement mentioning that it will offer a bill credit to the impacted individuals and businesses. Now, that is one way of retaining your subscriber base.

Apple will typically test out multiple iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max design prototypes before selecting one that enters the mass production phase. However, according to one tipster, unnamed sources have shared the most absurd rear camera bump choices from the technology giant, with one of them apparently being triangular in shape and resembling an electric razor. This information arrived shortly after we reported that the aforementioned models were being tested with a rear camera bump that resembles a fidget spinner.

The Tensor G3, like its predecessors, has likely disappointed potential buyers who eyed the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro as their next daily driver, but its sub-par performance and frequent throttling are attributes that Google has yet to address. However, as much as people like to talk about this chipset’s shortcomings, one feature is yet to be supported by any other smartphone SoC; AV1 encoding at 4K 60FPS. While this is an impressive addition to have, there is still one drawback that we have to discuss.

Apple’s iMessage is one of the most popular communications services in the world, with more than one billion users interacting with each other through various regions. However, that also makes it a paramount target against security threats, and even though quantum computers are several years away from materializing any kind of virtual offense, Apple likely wants to be ready before an event like this occurs. This is why the security layer of iMessage has been upgraded to post-quantum cryptography, and it will be available in iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, macOS 14.4, and watchOS 10.4.

The Apple Vision Pro is a sturdy piece of glass and aluminum, but at the front, a previous scratch test revealed that the company used plastic, so getting permanent marks on it would take little effort. However, multiple owners are reporting that the front side of their AR headset are showing a crack while the device is just being stored and doing nothing else. This kind of occurrence would make anyone livid who has to fork $3,499 for a head-mounted wearable, and that too, for the measly base storage of 256GB.

Eluktronics is a relatively small player in a cluttered gaming laptop market, but it has managed to carve out a small chunk for itself by releasing various models at different price ranges. Its RP-15 G2 occupies the middle of the pack, but what is exceptional about this machine is that on Amazon, you are getting 2TB SSD and 64GB RAM as the bare minimum upgrade options, with the choice to configure your portable powerhouse with either an RTX 4060 or RTX 4070, and all of starts from just $1,299.

Samsung appears to have failed in its quest to secure large customers for its 3nm GAA process, with TSMC having the upper hand as it reportedly aims to reach production of its next-generation node to 100,000 monthly wafers by the end of 2024. To combat its biggest foundry rival, instead of finding a way to increase its 3nm yields. Samsung is apparently focusing on its 2nm technology, and according to the latest report, the next Exynos SoC is supposedly being tested on this lithography.

A smartphone’s battery is the least durable component out of the hundreds present inside that compact chassis, and its age will start to show after just a couple of years. Apple’s iPhone 15 series is no stranger to these degrading batteries, but thankfully, the company states that these cells are now more durable than previously estimated, thanks to the latest information provided.

The new Cortex-X5 design from ARM appears to be running into problems, with a new rumor stating that the super core is experiencing severely high power consumption at raised clock speeds and offering diminished multi-core performance when that maximum power limit is reduced. While this may not be an issue for Qualcomm as its Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is said to adopt custom CPU designs, MediaTek may be sweating profusely as it has to eventually announce the Dimensity 9400, which is said to adopt the same Cortex-X5 in its CPU cluster.

The Galaxy Ring might officially take shape during the second half of 2024, assuming the latest report’s information turns out to be legit. Typically, Samsung hosts a second Galaxy Unpacked event in July or August, but the new rumor also says that the wearable will not just be unveiled early but also come in different sizes to accommodate a bigger customer base. In short, Samsung appears to be going ‘all in’ in this new category, with earlier reports stating that various health features will be integrated into this device to make it a more appealing purchase.

An earlier rumor was disseminating information that Apple had halted work on its foldable iPhone because there were durability concerns regarding the display. Now, a new update claims that the technology giant is actively developing the device and has actually reassigned some key personnel hailing from the Apple Vision Pro team to work on this new form factor.

6G connectivity is far from commercialization, but that is not stopping nations from carrying out a series of tests to gain an edge against other competing regions. Samsung, for instance, has been conducting tests of a similar nature, but this standard is not expected to go mainstream until 2030. Similarly, China Mobile does not see a 6G launch anytime soon, but that has not stopped the carrier from performing its own benchmarks through a satellite launch.

It was discovered by Wyze co-founder David Crosby that the company was able to identify 14 people who were able to see another person’s home where the security cameras were set up. Unfortunately, the problem is much deeper than previously anticipated, with a new report stating that 13,000 users were able to see each other’s video feeds briefly. This incident will undoubtedly wreak Wyze’s reputation, but it is also valuable insight for future buyers on what potential risk they are getting themselves into when purchasing a product hailing from this particular category.

The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU are a lethal pairing when found in a gaming laptop, delivering incredible single-core, multi-core, and increased graphical performance in a wide variety of tasks, benchmarks, and, of course, games. When these cutting-edge parts are found in the ASUS TUF Gaming A15, which is now $300 off on Amazon, you should consider it the deal of a lifetime if you are looking for a capable machine that you can take with you for long periods away from the wall.

Samsung today received a new accolade, as its current-generation 7-inch foldable display has successfully passed the highly stringent military standard ‘MIL-STD 810G’ test that the U.S. Department of Defense recognizes. Also known as the American ‘Military Specification’ (MilSpec), several parts are evaluated and then taken through a series of tests to see if they qualify for this certification. Despite a foldable panel being less durable than a flat counterpart, it is impressive to see that this rating has been officially awarded to the Samsung camp.

Samsung announced its Galaxy S24 slightly earlier on January 17, with pre-orders commencing on the same day. A slew of effective strategies has allowed the Korean giant to garner more shipments from its latest flagship series than the previous Galaxy S23 family. According to the latest data, for the 5 months that started in November, the newer models have witnessed a 13 percent uptick in panel shipments, signaling that these handsets are more coveted by customers worldwide.

In Apple’s latest Q1 2024 earnings call, it was revealed that nearly 30 percent of the technology giant’s iPhone revenue for the quarter was thanks to its presence in one market, China, and given its recent 13 percent shipments decline in the region, the company stands to lose out on a ton if its market share continues to be threatened. Unfortunately, that looks to be the case here, with analysts believing that Huawei’s comeback is creating a torrent of problems and other reasons for that sales slump.

The Kirin 9000S chipset was the first stepping stone that would enable Huawei to stop relying on foreign technologies, but it has been a tough road, especially with the U.S. trade sanctions breathing down on the former Chinese giant’s neck. The company is rumored to want to make its Mate 60 series more accessible to customers from a pricing perspective, and with the P70 launch in tow, that would be the ideal move to make. However, a tipster states that unless Kirin 9000S production picks up, that will not be possible.

The OnePlus 12R recently launched at an attractive price of $599.99 in the U.S., offering impressive hardware for the money that buyers were being charged for. The company also marketed the 256GB ‘price to performance’ handset as sporting the faster UFS 4.0 standard, but thanks to a series of tests, it was found that OnePlus was lying to its customers, as it was using the slower UFS 3.1 memory. To make up for its false advertising, the smartphone maker is now issuing refunds to anyone who picked up the 256GB storage variant.

The iPhone SE 4 will be Apple’s first low-cost offering to transition from an LCD to an OLED, matching the company’s other high-end devices, but buyers will have to muster up sufficient patience because this particular model is slated to launch sometime in 2025. Thankfully, the company will not have to fret over the display cost of the iPhone SE 4 since Samsung and BOE are reportedly fighting over orders.

TSMC has prepared its enhanced 3nm node for multiple partners this year, a couple of whom are Apple’s competitors, but the semiconductor giant will receive the biggest revenue push from the latter, with a new report talking about a 50 percent boost in orders. This is likely because several SoCs from Apple this year will be mass produced on the cutting-edge manufacturing process.

Samsung and TSMC have locked horns in the 2nm chip race, with both foundry giants earlier said to be preparing samples for Qualcomm on the next-generation lithography. However, when it comes to securing actual orders, the Korean giant obtains a win in that column by bringing a Japanese startup into the fold. It is said that this research firm decided to skip TSMC for its 2nm technology, and we have a few reasons why it would make this decision.

The Snapdragon X Elite is closer to its official release, as Qualcomm CEO Christiano Amon stated during the San Diego firm’s earnings call that its new chipset is tailor-made for Windows laptops and will arrive in mid-2024. This essentially means that Apple and its M-series of custom silicon will have a new competitor to worry about, and according to earlier benchmarks, we have seen some impressive performance numbers.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 launch is yet to start, and we have already started stumbling across Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 rumors. Earlier, we reported that Qualcomm requested TSMC and Samsung for their 2nm chip samples, presumably for vetting purposes to see if one or both can be a fit for future cutting-edge chipset orders. Now, we have learned that while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 may share the same CPU cluster, the latter is said to feature new ‘Pegasus’ CPU cores.

The Apple Vision Pro can turn into your best friend onboard a boring flight, as demonstrated by a Microsoft executive. During an excruciatingly long journey lasting 16 hours from Seattle to Dubai, the AR headset owner revealed that you can transform your entire cabin into an entertainment hub. However, the software giant’s executive does point out some caveats of using the bulky contraption for extended periods, with additional details discussed here.

Google’s previous Tensor chipsets powering the company’s Pixel lineup of smartphones and, just recently, a tablet, are, in one way or another, based on Samsung’s previous Exynos SoC launches. The Tensor G3’s unique 9-core CPU cluster was likely based on the Korean giant’s unreleased Exynos 2300, so it would be completely fine to assume that the upcoming Tensor G4 would have some relation with the Exynos 2400. Unfortunately, the specification differences do not give us confidence in this claim, even though one tipster believes it.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will exclusively be mass produced on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, but its successor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, might switch to a dual-foundry approach as Qualcomm reportedly looks to secure orders from both Samsung and its Taiwanese semiconductor rival. The San Diego chipset maker has apparently requested both companies to provide 2nm samples, which can be evaluated further.

ASUS completely revamped the internal cooling system of the 2023 ROG Strix G16 by adding three fans to tame the powerful RTX 4060 GPU and the 14-core Intel Core i7-13650HX. Adding another fan always helps to improve thermals, but what is impressive about this configuration is that ASUS incorporated this solution without compromising the storage and RAM upgrades of the ROG Strix G16.

Qualcomm will be shifting away from the traditional ARM CPU designs later this year when it announces the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in the fourth quarter. There is immense significance surrounding this smartphone chipset for two primary reasons. One is that it will be the first silicon to adopt the company’s custom Oryon cores that Qualcomm announced back in 2022, and these designs would not have been possible without the Nuvia acquisition.

The mixed-reality headset market is rumored to add another member to the list called the Huawei Vision, as the former Chinese giant is said to take on the Apple Vision Pro with a future launch. To raise the bar and get more customers interested in picking up this head-mounted wearable, the rumor claims that there will be some similarities between the two products, but the Huawei Vision is not only said to be significantly lighter but sport half the price of the Apple Vision Pro.

In 2023, TSMC only had one 3nm customer, which was Apple, but as it takes on more clients this year, it needs to address its production capabilities to cater to additional orders. According to one report, the Taiwanese giant intends to increase production to 100,000 monthly wafers in 2024 while also focusing on increasing yields by 3nm.

Currently, only Samsung and Google offer the longest software support for their flagships, which is seven years. OnePlus might receive praise for the clean UI it brings to its handsets, but it will likely be questioned as to why it does not follow the same approach as the two other companies, to which the Chinese firm’s President has an adequate reply. He believes rolling out software updates for seven years is pointless if the hardware cannot deliver the same experience.

Google has so far disappointed us with its Tensor series that powers the company’s Pixel lineup of smartphones, and according to the latest benchmark leak, which has added the Tensor G4, it appears that history may repeat itself. Fortunately, one can quickly assume that these results represent the chipset’s early testing phases, suggesting that the latest single-core and multi-core figures might improve in the coming months. Regardless, we look closer at the CPU cluster and how the latest numbers stack up against the Tensor G3.

Qualcomm and its phone partners could be working in overdrive mode to bring flagships sporting the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 much earlier to the market, with one tipster commenting that the first handset may undergo mass production by September. For the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Qualcomm held its launch event in October, so it is possible that its successor could be unveiled earlier.

As solid state drive prices continue to creep higher, MOVE SPEED’s HB7450 maintains its stance of providing a high-performance product to customers without burning a hole in their wallets. Its 4TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD is available for only $209.99 on Amazon, making it one of the cheapest NVMe solid state drives with a throughput of 7,000MB/s or higher. The brand is slowly gaining traction in the U.S. market, and with the latest price cut, it is difficult not to believe that the HB7450 will become a popular pick on the online retailer.