Car salesmen haven't had much action in China lately due to coronavirus. In fact, sales of automobiles has gone down 80 or even 90 percent, manufacturers and industry sources report.
However, cars isn't the only business, by a long shot, that has been affected by the widespread virus. Sales of smartphones has been hugely impacted by coronavirus, Reuters reports.
China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) has released sales figures for smartphone sales in February, and the numbers are dramatically down.
In February, only 6.34 million smartphones were sold compared to 14 million previous year. This means a decline of 54.7 percent.
Apple sold less that half a million iPhones in China in February, and was down more than 60 percent. Android phone sales went down just over 50 percent with 5.85 million sold.
This isn't exactly news to Apple who released a warning to investors in mid-February that the company won't be able to meet previous revenue estimates due to production and sales slowdown amid coronavirus.
Google Photos is one of the company's more important consumer products. You've probably witnessed the importance in their Pixel ads – I'm sure you remember the one with iPhone running out of storage for photos.
It's obviously one of the most popular photo apps as it comes with many Android phones, and even when it doesn't people flock to download it. Popularity dictates that Google doesn't really want to try and fix something that isn't broken.
Quite like in it's core search engine, not much has changed, but now Google is ready to give Photos some new flare, Android Police reports.
One of the more meaningful changes is the removal of the hamburger menu on the top left. Some of the hamburger menu items find a new home in the bottom bar.
The bottom of the UI transitions from having Photos, Albums, For You, and Sharing into having Photos, Search, For you, Sharing, and Library. This also means that the second big change is the replacement of the search function. Currently the app has a search box at the top of the interface.
A similar change was implemented in Google Maps earlier, so this definitely seems like a portfolio-wide design change. Google is clearly trying to made the interfaces more friendly with one-handed use, even with today's massive screens.
Microsoft has already unveiled their upcoming Xbox Series X console that will be battling against PlayStation 5 starting later this year. However, rumors suggest there might be another Xbox console in the works.
In fact, it is an age old rumor that Xbox is working on a cheaper gaming console to accompany Xbox Series X (pictured). This codename Lockhart, perhaps called Xbox Series S, was said to be cancelled but new information has surfaced and says unveiling might be imminent.
Dealer Gaming on Twitter is suggesting that Microsoft is preparing to reveal the cheaper system. It uses that same architecture as Xbox Series X in terms of GPU and CPU, but has significantly less performance.
According to the leak, the AMD-built Zen CPU and Navi GPU of the Series X only manage 4 teraflops compared to Xbox Series X that can crank out up to 8 teraflops. Nevertheless, the Series X console is still more powerful than any of the current generation Xbox consoles.
Another source claims that not only is Series S less powerful than its bigger sibling but it can't achieve the same resolution. Xbox Series X is confirmed to run games at 4K resolution but Series S is said to max out at 1440p.
Samsung's this years TV portfolio includes many new high-end 8K TVs and 4K is now distinctly mid-range. The lineup includes the top model, Q950TS series, which tops at way over $10,000, although prices are yet unconfirmed.
Samsung's best QLED TV, Q950TS, comes in 65-, 75- and 85-inch sizes and features full array local dimming (FALD) with 20% better peak brightness. It supports HDR10, HLG and HDR10+, but there's still no Dolby Vision support.
Both AMD's Free Sync and Nvidia's G-Sync are supported and latency in gaming mode should be around 10 milliseconds. You can also watch TV or YouTube in picture-in-picture with Multi-View while gaming.
The TV is only 15 mm thick and has a bezel-less Infinity Display framing. To get everything out of the painting-like build, the TV comes with OneConnect box which allows you to place wires out of the way.
Twitter revealed yesterday that it has started a new beta test in Brazil. The company is testing a new features called fleets, which are disappearing tweets.
Fleets, named after fleeting tweet, are similar to features on other platforms, including Snapchat's and Facebook's stories. They automatically disappear after 24 hours of posting the content.
Unlike tweets, fleets do not appear on the timeline. Instead, you can access person's latest fleet by clicking on the profile picture.
Twitter spokesperson told Reuters that one can use the new fleet feature when a thought doesn't quite manifest as a tweet but just a, well, fleeting thought.
There's no word on when fleets could become a worldwide feature, and it is certainly still a possibility that it might not land on your app at all.
Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has been spreading for months now, and it has dominated the news for at least a month, as reports from countries around the world update on the most recent statistics on infected and dead.
While the epidemic hasn't advanced to a pandemic stage, and hopefully never will, the threat is real and serious. This has been noted by technology companies too, as most of early 2020's conferences have been called off, including Mobile World Congress, Google I/O and Microsoft Build.
However, technology might also bring the solution to the problem, perhaps even in a very entertaining way. Instead of just washing your hands and hoping for the best, you can actually help stop coronavirus – while playing a game.
Researchers from University of Washington in Seattle have updated a game called Foldit from 2008 to help the cause. The puzzle game was created to help solve scientific problems with the help of the larger public, perhaps inspired by Folding@Home application on the PS3.
Google has decided to cancel their developer conference that was meant to be held in Mountain View, CA in May. As expected, Google has cited coronavirus threat as the single reason for canceling Google I/O.
Many of the conferences that are held in early 2020 have been cancelled due to coronavirus. This includes the world's largest mobile conference, Mobile World Congress, as well a Facebook's F8.
Google I/O was set to be held at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, just like on previous years, on May 12 to 14. Instead of the developer gathering, there will likely be just streams, videos and articles shared about the advancements in Google's software.
It remains to be seen whether Google will still present keynote speeches via stream as they normally do live to an audience.
Microsoft's developer conference, Build, is also slated for May, and they've cancelled their event as well. Now all eyes are on Apple, whose developer conference WWDC is organized in early June.
Smartphones have been improving massively over the years, and even though some might argue that we've hit a plateau, they are still developing at a much faster pace than, say, desktop and laptop computers.
The latest smartphones can have up to terabyte of storage and even as much as 16 gigabytes of RAM. That sounds like laptop-like specs, doesn't it?
Samsung's new 16 GB LPDDR5 chip is the one that is enabling the top of the line Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G to have record-breaking 16 gigabytes of RAM. Soon, other manufacturers will be able to follow in suit.
Just under a year ago Samsung announced first-ever 12 GB mobile DRAM chip, and now we've advanced to 16 GB era.
Not only does the new chip offer twice the capacity of the most high-spec Android phones, or four times what Apple has in their top tier iPhone 11 Pro Max, but it also promises faster speeds and better power efficiency.
The chip is built with Samsung's 2nd gen 10 nm process providing smaller footprint and better efficiency. According to Samsung it means that it uses up to 20 percent less power compared to previous generation chips.
It also maxes out at 5500 Mbps transfer speeds, moving data at up to 687.5 megabytes every second.
For the past few years, in the end game form that Apple seems to be in, the company is focusing on reducing all kinds of unnecessary and perhaps bottom line damaging partnerships.
So far probably to the most known examples of this are the development of their own graphics chips and getting away with Imagination Technologies PowerVR GPUs as well as buying off Intel's failed 5G business. This way there are no external issues with either GPU or 5G.
The company is clearly trying to remove all such problems, and rumors have had it for a while, that the next massive step is to get rid of Intel CPUs in their Mac computers.
The rumors is that Apple is going to develop their own ARM-based chips for Macs, just like they've done with iPhones with quite a bit of success. However, desktop and laptop computers are a different beast altogether, which is probably why the rumors haven't so far been realized.
According to famed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, though, this might start happening as soon as in a year from now. Kuo says that the first ARM-based Mac could be announced within 12 to 18 months from now.
Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has been causing problems in China, and as it has spread in dozens of other countries, it might become an issue elsewhere too.
Recently, the world's largest mobile conference, Mobile World Congress, had to cancel first time ever due to contagion issues. Even technology companies have issued warnings that the production is stalling a little bit in China, where offially over 80 000 people have been infected.
One of the companies issuing warnings was Apple. Their statement said that the production hadn't returned to normal capacity in a timely manner, and that is likely going to affect bottom line.
However, this might not be the entire scope of the issues Apple is facing due to coronavirus. According to Reuters' sources, Apple engineers haven't been able to visit Foxconn due to the contagion scare and travel bans.
This means that the production samples of upcoming iPhones haven't been evaluated in a way they usually are, and could mean a delay in component orders.
Fortunately Apple still might have some time to fix this issue, since the assembly of new iPhones doesn't start before some time next summer.
After their usual comprehensive testing of a new feature, Netflix is planning to introduce new top 10 lists worldwide. Previously the company has been very secretive about their shows and their viewerships. This is far from all-encompassing viewership data but it's something.
Netflix tells us that the top 10 lists are going to be region specific, which means that soon we'll have global data on each regions most popular shows and movies.
You'll find the list from the Netflix app in a traditional horizontal list, just like the other categories, but it also has a stylized placement number on top of the thumbnail.
Netflix is also adding top shows and movies to other categories and you can distinguish them in those lists in a similar way, from a red sticker on the picture. However, it doesn't specify the placement, just that they are among the top 10.
Microsoft is upgrading the icons in Windows 10 and other products with the first changes rolling out in Preview Builds already.
It has been almost five years since Microsoft released Windows 10 to the public. In the meantime, there has been plenty of feature changes and improvements made through periodic updates to the operating system, but much of its icons remain the same as they were initially. Microsoft admits that user feedback shows a desire for its core products to get a new lick of paint.
Microsoft did update the icons for its Office products in the meantime, and will now more onto other products. Updates to built-in apps like Alarms & Clock, Calculator, Mail, and Calendar will be the first. In fact, Mail and Calendar icon updates have rolled out with the latest Release Preview for those in the Fast ring.
"Research shows that people want consistency in design and connection to brand, with enough differences to aid in recognition," writes Christina Koehn on a Medium.com blog post about Microsoft's approach to updating and modernizing icons in Windows and its other products.
Google has booted more than 600 apps from the Play Store that it accuses of violating its policies by prompting users with disruptive ads that are a detriment to experience.
The 600 apps has reportedly been installed more than 4.5 billion times before their removal this week. In addition to the expulsion from the Play Store, Google has also banned them from Google's monetization platform. Google defines disruptive ads as ads that are displayed to users in unexpected ways, including impairing or interfering with the usability of device functions.
For example, apps that displays "out of context" ads were targeted for removal. An out-of-context ad is one that pops up on a device even when the user is not actually active in the app itself.
Another practice highlighted by Google are full screen ads that pop up when users are trying to make a phone call, unlock a device, or carrying out other essential functions. These ads generate unintentional clicks which are both an annoyance for users, and a fraudulent drain on the resources of the advertiser. Google will refund advertisers who were impacted by removed apps.
"As we move forward, we will continue to invest in new technologies to detect and prevent emerging threats that can generate invalid traffic, including disruptive ads, and to find more ways to adapt and evolve our platform and ecosystem policies to ensure that users and advertisers are protected from bad behavior," a Google blog post reads.
Google's YouTube TV service has been boosted by a deal with WarnerMedia to bring new channels to the service, and retain pre-existing popular channels added in 2018.
While HBO and CineMax are on other platforms such as Amazon Prime, YouTube TV is first to get HBO Max as well. YouTube TV will also continue to retain other cable networks from WarnerMedia, such as TBS, TNT, CNN, Adult Swin, Cartoon Network, HLN, and others. Those channels have been available since 2018 through a deal with WarnerMedia.
Google's YouTube TV service provides programming from more 70 networks, along with live sports.
We're feeling pret-tay, pret-tay good about this news we have to share with you...@HBO is coming to YouTube TV this spring. Welcome to the family!
"Our commitment at YouTube TV is to deliver TV to our members how and when they want it," said Lori Conkling, global head of partnerships at YouTube TV, reports Variety.
As the world's largest mobile conference Mobile World Congress had to cancel first time ever due to coronavirus issues, companies are announcing their new products in separate and mostly online fashion.
One of the more influential mobile companies is that chip company Qualcomm. The company provides huge amount of system-on-chips for Andoid phones, and this year there's one big difference maker.
It is of course 5G. Qualcomm has announced that it will be releasing the new Snapdragon X60 5G modem soon. This next-generation 5G chip is bringing big improvements over its predecessors Snapdragon X55 and X50.
Qualcomm isn't still ready to reveal all the facts about their new modem but they've shared with us some key features. The new modem, accompanied by a new RF front-end chip and a new more compact QTM535 mmWave antenna, can aggregate connections between mmWave (high speeds) and sub-6 Ghz (better penetration).
All this while being their first 5G modem produced with 5 nm process. This means that it is very versatile, nearly universal in fact, more energy efficient, has smaller footprint, and provides great performance.
The chip can max out at 7.5 Gbps over mmWave and 5 Gbps over Sub-6. Upload speeds are going to be up to 3 Gbps.
Car salesmen haven't had much action in China lately due to coronavirus. In fact, sales of automobiles has gone down 80 or even 90 percent, manufacturers and industry sources report.
Google Photos is one of the company's more important consumer products. You've probably witnessed the importance in their Pixel ads – I'm sure you remember the one with iPhone running out of storage for photos.
Microsoft has already unveiled their upcoming Xbox Series X console that will be battling against PlayStation 5 starting later this year. However, rumors suggest there might be another Xbox console in the works.
