Although Microsoft Corp. has rights to use the Nokia name for several years, it cannot use it forever. According to a leaked image, Microsoft will start to prepare its smartphones for transition to its own brand shortly. Initially the firm will introduce the “Nokia by Microsoft” trademark, but eventually the …

Intel Corp. on Monday announced that it has entered into a manufacturing agreement with Panasonic Corp. The world’s largest chipmaker will produce Panasonic’s next-generation system-on-chips using 14nm low-power manufacturing process. Panasonic's future SoCs will target audio visual-based equipment markets (TVs, Blu-ray players, media players, etc.), and will enable higher levels of …

Apple’s iWatch device is expected to revolutionize the market of wearable electronics, just like the iPhone transformed the market of smartphones. Apparently, that is not all. At least one high-ranking executive from a Swiss watch maker believes that tech smart-watches have to be taken seriously and they may be a …

Nvidia Corp.’s Shield gaming device has not become popular after about a year on the market. Apparently, neither Google Android games with dedicated controls nor streamed PC titles could attract attention of core gamers. While it was expected that the company would introduce a new, sleeker, version of Shield this …

The market of solid-state drives is probably one of the fastest growing IT markets nowadays and the competition is pretty tough. While the war on the SSD market will probably oust many companies, including significant ones, several leaders of the market are already clear and they will likely continue to …

Although the price of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) remained rather stable in the recent months, it will increase by 5 – 10 per cent in the third quarter, according to Mark Newman, an analyst with Bernstein Research. Nonetheless, a good news is that the industry will likely move to …

Apple has hired yet another executive from the fashion world to boost its team responsible for development, sales and marketing of the iWatch device due to be released later this year. The hire once again confirms that the iWatch will not be just a health and fitness tracker, but likely …

Samsung Display said Thursday that it received approval to build a $1 billion display module assembly plant in Vietnam. The company already makes some of its smartphones in the country, so the addition of a display assembly facility will allow the company to boost its manufacturing efficiency. Samsung intends to …

Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple who foresaw the emergence of the upcoming iWatch several years ago, claims that smart-watches have too limited functionality and too small displays. At the same time, he praises Google Glass. While the former partner of Steve Jobs does not really admire wearable computing devices …

Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday introduced a new accelerated processing unit (APU) based on the code-named “Kaveri” design that is aimed at mainstream desktops with limited power consumption. The new APU comes without unlocked multiplier and thus cannot be easily overclocked, however, it has user-selectable thermal design power (TDP), which …

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), a China-based contract maker of chips, and Qualcomm on Thursday announced that SMIC will produce Qualcomm’s Snapdragon system-on-chips for mobile devices using 28nm process technology in China. The move will help Qualcomm to boost production of its advanced SoCs and lower their manufacturing costs. As …

A Chinese web-site on Wednesday published images of an unknown Nvidia graphics card that carries a chip that is only several weeks old. It is believed that the graphics adapter is based on the code-named GM104/GM204 graphics processing unit powered by the Maxwell architecture. The graphics board is expected to become commercially …

Qualcomm Inc. on Wednesday said that it has completed acquisition of Wilocity, a leading developer of chipsets supporting the WiGig technology with multi-gigabit transfer rates. The company also said that it will offer platforms for various devices that will support the 60GHz wireless tech based on the IEEE 802.11ad standard. The …

In a bid to better compete against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Samsung Semiconductor and GlobalFoundries earlier this year agreed to unify one of their 14nm process technologies and offer their foundry services collaboratively. Apparently, the tactics has worked out and the two companies recently landed orders to make chips using the …

GlobalFoundries, one of the world’s top contract makers of semiconductors, said this week it will upgrade one of its 200mm semiconductor production facilities in Singapore. The move will help the company to expand production capacities and increase output of chips made using advanced fabrication technologies. Although GlobalFoundries is one of …

Asetek, one of the world’s largest producers of sealed liquid-cooling solutions, has announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted a patent on the company’s thermal interposer liquid cooling system designed for cooling graphic processing units (GPUs). Thanks to the patent the company will be able to …

Microsoft Corp. and Canon on Wednesday said that they have signed a broad patent cross-licensing agreement. Thanks to the new pact the two companies gain licenses to each other’s highly valued and growing patent portfolios. Theoretically, Canon’s licensing of Microsoft patents may indicate that the company is preparing a family …

Advanced Micro Devices is reportedly proceeding with the plan to release its new graphics processing unit (GPU) code-named Tonga already in August. The new GPU will reportedly offer performance similar to that of the Radeon R9 280-series graphics cards, but it is completely unclear whether it will actually replace the …

Availability of content in 4K ultra-high-definition resolution is very limited these days. Nonetheless, availability of inexpensive TVs with 3840*2160 resolution seems to be getting broader and the prices are getting lower. Walmart and Seiki Digital on Tuesday lowered the prices of select UHDTVs and it is now possible to get …

Intel Corp.’s Tick-Tock strategy has never let the company and its partners down throughout its eight years in place. Every year Intel released new chips that were either made using all-new process technology or featured brand-new micro-architecture. However, everything will be different next year when Intel releases both Broadwell and …

Earlier this year Sony Corp. decided to sell off its money-losing Vaio personal computer business to Japan Industrial Partners, an investment fund. As expected, on the 1st of July Vaio Inc. began its operations as an independent PC company. Initially the firm will only operate in Japan, but it hopes …

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday unveiled its new flagship solid-state drive for high-performance desktops that is based on the company’s 3D V-NAND memory. The manufacturer claims that the new 850 Pro-series SSDs offer the highest level of performance among solid-state drives that use the SATA III (6Gb/s) interface. The Samsung 850 …

Although Hewlett-Packard acquired VoodooPC, a boutique PC maker, to compete for the market of high-end gaming PCs in 2006, by now the company has completely withdrawn from this market. According to a media report, HP plans to re-enter the market of gaming PCs with a brand-new laptop later this year. …

Early this year Razer unveiled project Christine, a design of modular PC that can be upgraded by users who have no experience with PC hardware. In a bid to release Christine to the market Razer either needs to become a supplier of computer parts itself or team up with other …

Microsoft Corp. has reportedly called off its plans to introduce Surface Mini media tablet. The company decided not to enter the market of smaller slates because it is already very crowded. Nonetheless, the software giant may reconsider its plans regarding smaller tablets if market conditions change. Microsoft was expected to …

In the recent years Intel Corp. has been consistently reducing power consumption of its chips using different methods. The company not only developed very efficient low-power micro-architectures (such as the Silvermont), but it also managed to design special versions of its processors based on high-performance micro-architectures with extremely low power …

While Google and its partners introduced several attractive smartwatches powered by the Android Wear operating system at Google IO this week, this does not mean that they are going to revolutionize the market shortly. Apparently, less than a quarter of all Android-based smartphones are compatible with Android Wear devices. Android …

Thomas M. Kilroy, executive vice president and general manager of the sales and marketing group (SMG) at Intel Corp., has announced that he would step down from his position. After returning to the company after his leave of absence on the 17th of July, he will be responsible for the …

Apple plans to start sales of its eighth-generation iPhone smartphones on Friday, the 19th of September, according to reports from China and Germany. Since Apple traditionally starts to sell new iPhones on the largest markets in September, the information looks rather trustworthy. Starting from late May this year Deutsche Telekom …

Foxconn Electronics, the world’s largest contract maker of consumer electronics and the main manufacturing partner of Apple, plans to make wearable computing devices, robots and even electric cars, the company’s chief executive officer said this week. Foxconn has been trying to expand and diversify its business for years and now …