Qualcomm confirms Snapdragon launch event for May 20
Qualcomm confirmed its Snapdragon Night event is set to take place on May 20 in China from 8PM local time. The two big announcements expected at the event are the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ and Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 platforms.
The former is touted to offer slight improvements over the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with a minor GPU upgrade while still using the same CPU structure – one Cortex X2 prime core at 3Ghz, three Cortex A710 performance units and four Cortex A510 efficiency cores.
From Gsmarena
Oppo Reno8 series launching on May 23
Oppo is gearing up to announce its Reno8 series in China next week on May 23. We’re expecting at least three models with a Reno8 SE, Reno8 and Reno8 Pro. Reno8 is expected to debut Qualcomm’s yet to be announced Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset while Reno8 Pro should bring MediaTek’s Dimensity 8100 chipset instead.
In related news IceUniverse shared a leaked render of the Reno8 Pro’s front revealing a flat display with a centered punch-hole cutout for its selfie cam. The panel does appear to have slightly slimmer bezels than the outgoing Reno7 Pro.
Reno8 Pro is rumored to bring a 6.62-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate alongside a 4,500 mAh battery with 80W charging. The back will likely bring a 50MP Sony IMX 766 main cam with OIS alongside an 8MP ultrawide module and 2MP macro lens.
From Gsmarena
The OnePlus Nord 2T will be the first phone with the Dimensity 1300
Despite several leaks, the OnePlus Nord 2T is still not official – that will change on May 19 (Thursday). In the run-up to the event the company is confirming one new detail about the phone per day.
Yesterday, it confirmed support for 80W SuperVOOC charging, which can pump a day’s worth of power into the battery in just 15 minutes. The battery capacity wasn’t mentioned, but the leaks have it pegged at 4,500 mAh.
Anyway, today’s announcement confirms the use of the Dimensity 1300 chipset. Considering that the chip was unveiled a month ago and no one has called dibs yet, the Nord 2T will be the first to use it.
From Gsmarena
Google Play Store to get rid of nearly 900,000 abandoned apps
The days of outdated apps on the Google Play Store are coming to an end as Google looks to remove apps that have not been updated in two years.
This potential consequence is the result of Google Play’s recent policy change aimed at ridding the app marketplace of abandoned apps or those that haven’t received a single update in two years. According to CNET, which cites a report from analyst firm Pixalate, this amounts to around 869,000 apps in the case of the Play Store.
Android Central could not immediately reach Google for comment.
Apple unveiled similar measures in April, warning developers that it would remove apps that haven’t been “updated in a significant amount of time” from the App Store (via The Verge). Developers were given 30 days to update their apps for compliance.
There are approximately 650,000 outdated apps on the App Store. When combined, those numbers account for a third of the total number of apps available on both platforms.
From Android Central
WhatsApp’s next update could make your status bar actually worth using
A new WhatsApp update is in the works that could greatly improve the presence of your status updates on the popular messaging app by adding rich link previews to any link you post in your status bar.
A report from WABetaInfo shows that WhatsApp is working on what looks like a pretty significant update in regards to your profile’s status bar. The feature, which has yet to be rolled out to WhatsApp beta testers, is set to upgrade the appearance of links posted in your status bar on Android, iOS, and the desktop app.
Currently, links are displayed in your status updates as plainly as possible, with no preview window to offer any kind of insight as to what the link contains. That’s set to change with this upcoming update, which will flesh out links posted in your status updates with a rich link preview showing a thumbnail and a greater amount of info pertaining to where the link will take you.
WABetaInfo created a mock-up image showing the difference between the current appearance of links in your status updates, paired against what they’ll look like in the future update.
From Techradar
Intel Arc desktop GPUs spotted in beta driver
Arecent beta driver from Intel mentions a handful of upcoming Arc desktop GPUs. The graphics from Intel are expected to compete with the best GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD, and they could be officially unveiled at Computex next week. Specifically, the beta driver mentions the Intel Arc A770, A750, A580, A380, and A310.
From Windows Central
Nvidia could beat AMD in battle of next-gen GPUs going by latest leak
Nvidia’s RTX 4090 won’t be nearly as power-hungry as feared, according to fresh speculation which also insists that AMD’s next-gen GPUs are ‘disappointing’ compared to Lovelace from Team Green.
This is the latest word from one of the regular hardware leakers on Twitter, Kopite7kimi, who summarized some of the purported specs of the RTX 4090, with a notable change in the power usage.
As you can see, the claim is that the RTX 4090 will run with 126 streaming multiprocessors, meaning 16,128 CUDA cores, with a 450W power usage. Kopite7kimi also repeated recent claims that the Lovelace flagship will offer around double the performance of the RTX 3090, and will come with 24GB of GDDR6X VRAM (running at 21Gbps).
The final part of the tweet will make bleak reading for AMD, and simply states: “I am disappointed with RDNA3. That’s all.”
From Techradar
Apple might soon ditch the Lightning port on all of its products
The Lightning port has become one of the most hated aspects of Apple products. It’s outdated when compared to today’s standards — as it has been around for almost a decade now. That’s not to mention that it’s a proprietary solution that lacks universal compatibility with gadgets outside the company’s ecosystem. We’ve recently heard that Apple could already be testing iPhones with USB Type-C ports. However, a new report states that the company could also be ditching Lightning on other products, including AirPods, Magic accessories, and MagSafe Battery Packs. This shift could be happening in the foreseeable future — making all Apple products compatible with the universal standard: USB Type-C.
From XDA
Samsung falls a few places on the list of the top global tech companies
Samsung Electronics lost a couple of places on Forbes’ ranking for the World’s Largest Tech Companies in 2022 and came out in 4th place, down from the 2nd place in 2021.
Samsung Electronics was led by three companies based in the United States, namely Apple, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), and Microsoft. (via BusinessKorea).
The Korean tech giant recorded $244.2 billion in sales and was estimated to have a market value of $367 billion. Nevertheless, market values for the top-three leading companies on Forbes’ list are in the trillions of dollars.
Forbes reveals that Samsung Electronics’ market cap shrank by a whopping $143.2 billion. In 2021, the company recorded $510.5 billion in market value. Thankfully, sales for Samsung increased by roughly $44 billion since last year.
In 5th place, Samsung was followed by the only Chinese company in Forbes’ top 10 list, i.e., Tencent Holdings. Meanwhile, Meta Platforms, Intel Corporation, TSMC, Cisco Systems, and IBM captured places 6th through 10th, respectively.
Apple remained the largest tech company in the world, according to Forbes. For the 2022 ranking, Apple recorded sales worth $378.7 billion and topped a staggering market value of $2.6 trillion.
From Sammobile
McDonald’s To Exit from Russia
After more than 30 years of operations in the country, McDonald’s Corporation announced it will exit the Russian market and has initiated a process to sell its Russian business. This follows McDonald’s announcement on March 8, 2022, that it had temporarily closed restaurants in Russia and paused operations in the market.
The humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the precipitating unpredictable operating environment, have led McDonald’s to conclude that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values.
From Macdonalds
