MANILA -- With the look and feel of a Macbook, Huawei is making the case for a notebook that performs as well as it looks, and as is typical for the Chinese tech giant, at a much lower price point.
Unveiled in Manila on Wednesday, the 15-inch Matebook D is billed as a productivity machine (typing, graphic design) and a productivity killer (read: Netflix).
The Matebook D is "is the most balanced between design and cost," said George Li, Philippines country manager for Huawei consumer business group. "It will be an affordable but premium product."
Huawei is working to increase connectivity between devices under one ecosystem, he said.
The 15.6-inch IPS display, with its 87-percent screen-to-body ratio is immersive and big enough to place spreadsheets and documents side-by-side or streaming video in full screen. It maxes out at Full HD (1920×1080).
The Matebook D is powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 3500U chip and Radeon Vega 8 Graphics. It has 8GB memory and a 256GB solid state hard drive with the option to add up to 1TB hard drive.
The Matebook D booted up fast and switching between windows was easy. Huawei claims it can handle multiple open tabs up to "double digits," but we'll have to test that in our full review.
Coming from a 13-inch Macbook Pro (and sometimes, a similar sized HP Pavilion), the Matebook felt big and heavy. The near bezel-less screen however, helped limit the notebook's footprint.
The upside to huge laptops: the keyboard and trackpad are also big, which I require for long hours of typing. The keys felt more tactile compared to the Macbook, which feels a little limp (especially the 12-inch model from a couple of years back).
The spaces beside the keyboards, however, are bare unlike the Macbook which houses speakers. Sound comes from the rear of the machine, which could get muffled if you use it on your bed or on your couch.
What I liked about the Matebook D, which other notebooks don't have, is Huawei Share, the Airdrop of this ecosystem. For the Matebook to Mate or P Series link, users can tap to transfer files and mirror the phone screen on the laptop screen.
Beyond mirroring the phone screen, users can drag and drop files between laptop and smartphone by simply navigating the laptop display. Imagine shooting hundreds of photos on your P30 or Mate 30 in a day and reviewing your shots on a 15-inch screen without cables or a WiFi connection.
The bundled charger is also slim and light and works with Huawei phones with USB-C ports. That's one less charger in the traveling electronics bag.
The power button also doubles as a fingerprint sensor for added convenience. Huawei says users can turn on the device and log into the device with just one press.
See the full specifications of the Huawei Matebook D 15" below. We will be posting a full review in the coming weeks.
The Matebook D 15" will retail for P37,990 and will be available on Feb. 15. Pre-orders start on Feb. 8.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
We are living in an era of “hearables” — earphones embedded with special sensors that talk to our phones. And Apple’s AirPods, those tiny white earbuds that live in a case the size of a Tic Tac box, are leading the trend.
For several years, I have found AirPods to be as convenient as they are useful. When Apple introduced them in 2016, it popularized wireless earphones with a special chip that connected them to an iPhone. When I popped them in my ears, they seamlessly connected with my device. And when I put them back in their case, their batteries replenished.
Now the AirPods are getting smarter — and costlier. The earlier-generation AirPods cost around $150. The latest model, AirPods Pro, is more expensive at $249.
But the new earphones, released about a month ago, offer noise-canceling technology. They use microphones to listen for ambient sound and to generate the opposite sound in your ears to reduce noise, like the roaring engines of an airplane and background chatter in an office.
The AirPods Pro also have a neat new feature known as transparency mode, which you activate by holding down a button on an earbud stem. The earphones then use their microphones to amplify the sounds around you, so you can hear your surroundings more clearly while listening to a podcast or music. This turned out to be my favorite new feature.
How good are the new AirPods for that much money? Compared with other high-end headphones, the AirPods aren’t the best at canceling noise. Yet they are competent and a good overall value, and so far, no one can beat the convenience of their compact design.
For several weeks, I compared the AirPods Pro with Bose headphones and a pair of older AirPods in various situations, including my daily commutes and on an international flight. Here’s how that went.
ON A PLANE
For me, noise-canceling headphones are most useful on a plane. The noises from the engines combined with the conversations of loquacious seat neighbors make it difficult to sleep.
So I wore the new AirPods on a recent 14-hour flight. I found several downsides. For one, the noise-canceling somewhat muffled the noise of the plane engines, but not enough to allow me to sleep. And because the AirPods are wireless, I couldn’t plug them into the screen in front of my seat to watch movies.
On the flight, I preferred Bose’s $350 QuietComfort 35, which are large wireless headphones worn over the ears. They significantly cut down on the engine noise, and they have a cord that could be plugged in to my seat’s audio jack to watch in-flight entertainment. But the Bose headphones are bulkier, though they have always fit fine in my carry-on bag.
As for the older AirPods, I never felt they were adequate to hear music or podcasts amid the engine noise. In the past, I left AirPods at home whenever I traveled.
VERDICT: For frequent travelers, I recommend bigger, more effective noise-canceling headphones like those from Bose.
ON A TRAIN
I wore the new AirPods Pro on several trains on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. With noise-canceling turned on, the earbuds sounded good and did a fine job drowning out the conversations around me. But when the train came to a screeching halt, the earbuds were ineffective at muffling the earsplitting noise.
In similar tests, my Bose headphones sounded great on the train, but they, too, couldn’t muffle loud braking. This is to be expected: In general, noise-canceling technology reduces low-frequency sounds, not high-frequency noises likes screeches or babies screaming.
On BART, when I wore normal AirPods, I could barely hear anything playing from the earbuds. I often didn’t bother to use them on the train.
VERDICT: On noisy trains, the AirPods Pro are just as good as other noise-canceling earphones, and they are much better than normal AirPods.
ON THE STREETS
The new AirPods were great to use outdoors. By turning on transparency mode, I was able to listen for cars while crossing the street and remain attentive while walking around less safe neighborhoods.
In contrast, the Bose headphones lacked a transparency mode (though some other Bose models have the feature). I often just took them off outdoors for safety purposes.
VERDICT: The AirPods Pro became my go-to earphones for running errands like going out to the grocery store and walking my dogs. A bonus: They were easier to grab on the go because of their smaller size.
ON THE PHONE
After some experimentation, I learned that transparency mode was the best for taking phone conversations on the new AirPods. People’s voices sounded loud and clear in the earphones, but just as important, I was able to hear myself better, which helped me be more mindful about enunciating words and made me feel more confident overall.
Whenever I took calls on the Bose headphones, I could hear the person I was calling very clearly, but I sounded muffled to myself, which was jarring.
I also enjoyed taking calls on older AirPods, partly because they connected with my phone quickly when a call came in. But being able to hear myself better in transparency mode on the Pro model made a big difference.
VERDICT: If you talk on the phone frequently, the AirPods Pro make an excellent headset.
BOTTOM LINE
While there are bulkier headphones on the market that do a better job at noise-canceling, the AirPods Pro are adequate in most situations, and their compact size makes them more convenient. They are a major improvement; I hesitate to recommend older versions because the new model is far superior.
Unfortunately, there’s one big thing that hasn’t changed. In my review of the previous AirPods, I noted that after about two years, my first-generation AirPods started dying because their batteries had worn out. They could not be revived because the batteries could not be replaced.
Apple confirmed the batteries could also not be replaced on the AirPods Pro. That’s because, in part, their design involves embedding the batteries, circuit boards, microphones and antennas directly into a tightly sealed, tiny package.
So if you buy the AirPods Pro, be warned: You will most likely have to pay up all over again in two years.
2019 The New York Times Company
source: news.abs-cbn.com
True to its heritage of making instant memories, the American company recently came up with Polaroid Lab, which brings out the photos in your phone bank into the real world instantly.
“Unlimited cloud storage can actually be your memories’ worst enemy, causing your digital photos to skyrocket in numbers and end up falling into a void of oblivion," says Polaroid BV CEO Oskar Smolokowski.
To address this problem, the 82-year-old American company introduced Polaroid Lab, a new instant camera product that turns digital into analog, was released in the country. The three-lens developing system functions as a miniature table top darkroom, transforming smartphone photos into their signature-style photos. By doing so, Smolokowski says that this will dec-lutter your phones of your photos, "bringing them into the world as something you can hold in your hand and store on the fridge door rather than in the cloud."
Users select an image from their smartphone via the Polaroid Originals app, before placing their phone facing downward on the platform. When the red button is pressed, the picture is projected onto the film and then, using a combination of mirrors, light, and chemistry, it is recast as an instant photo that ejects from the Polaroid Lab. After development, the digital image is now a fully-fledged Polaroid.
The Polaroid Originals app lets you experiment with image collages and augmented reality features - giving you unprecedented creative control over your pictures before turning them into Polaroid pictures.
Polaroid Lab will be available in selected Bratpack stores and The Travel Club Trinoma for PHP 8,890. For more information, follow Polaroid Originals on Facebook.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Over more than a decade of writing about technology, reviewing a new iPhone has long been one of my simplest assignments.
Year after year, the formula was this: I tested the most important new features of Apple’s latest smartphone and assessed whether they were useful. Assuming the newest iPhone worked well, my advice was generally the same — I recommended upgrading if you had owned your existing smartphone for two years.
But with this review of the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max — the newest models that Apple unveiled last week and which will become available Friday — I’m encouraging a different approach. The bottom line? It’s time to reset our upgrade criteria.
That’s because we are now living in the golden age of smartphones, where the gadgets’ improvements each year are far from seismic. Devices that debuted three years ago remain zippy and more than capable. Those with the iPhone 7 from 2016, for example, still have a very good phone with a stellar camera and fast speeds.
So now is the moment to ask: Do we really need to upgrade our iPhones every two years?
Based on my tests of the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, the answer is no. Don’t get me wrong: The newest models are nice. Apple has made them speedier, improved the cameras and lengthened their battery life. The new lineup also starts at a lower price of $700, down from $750 a year ago, which is a relief in an era of skyrocketing smartphone costs.
But none of this is enough to warrant an immediate upgrade if you have had your smartphone for only two years. The latest iPhones just aren’t a big leap forward from last year’s iPhones or even the iPhone X from 2017.
So here’s what I ultimately suggest: You should definitely upgrade if your current device is at least five years old. The iPhone 11 models are all a significant step up from those introduced in 2014. But for everyone else with smartphones from 2015 or later, there is no rush to buy. Instead, there is more mileage and value to be had out of the excellent smartphone you already own.
IPHONE 11 VS IPHONE X
I tested the new iPhones for a week, starting with the $700 entry-level iPhone 11 with a 6.1-inch display, which I used as my primary phone for three days. Then I switched to the iPhone 11 Pro, the $1,000 model with a 5.8-inch screen, for two days. And then finally, the iPhone 11 Pro Max, the $1,100 model with a jumbo 6.5-inch screen, for another two days.
Then I compared the results with my notes and photos from testing the iPhone X in 2017. What I found was that the iPhone 11 was better, but not profoundly so.
Here were the notable differences between the iPhone 11s and the iPhone X:
— All the iPhone 11 models have a new ultra-wide-angle lens in their cameras, which provides a wider field of view than traditional phone cameras. This makes them handy for shooting landscapes or large group gatherings. The iPhone X lacks the ultra-wide-angle lens but its dual-lens camera is capable of shooting portrait mode photos, which puts the picture’s main subject in sharp focus while softly blurring the background.
— The newest iPhones all have the same computing processor, called A13 Bionic, which is about 50 percent faster than the iPhone X. While that may sound significant, the iPhone X is already incredibly fast at shooting photos and running apps and games.
— The new iPhones all have longer battery life. Even after a day of heavy use, which included taking phone calls, using maps and shooting lots of photos, each iPhone had lots of juice remaining — at least 30 percent — by bedtime. After similar tests with an iPhone X two years ago, the battery had about 15 percent left by bedtime.
— The back of the Pro models is composed of a rugged glass that makes them scratch-resistant. This is impressive, but if you’re spending $1,000 on a phone, you will probably protect it with a case that covers the back anyway — just as many iPhone X owners do.
— The Pro models have OLED displays that are slightly brighter than the screen on the iPhone X.
There are lots of little things that are somewhat better on the new iPhones compared to the two-year-old iPhone X. For early adopters who are keen to have the latest and greatest tech, those differences may add up to a substantial upgrade.
But for most of us, the upgrades won’t meaningfully change our phone experience.
CONTRASTING THE PHONE CAMERAS
The most noteworthy new feature on the iPhones 11s is the ultra-wide-angle lens. Using the ultrawide mode is simple and seamless: You pinch outward to zoom all the way out. On a beach, the wider view captured my dogs playing on the sand, the ocean waves and the adjacent highway.
The telephoto lens on the iPhone 11 Pro did an exceptional job zooming in on my dog Mochi’s snout as she shook some water off her head.
The new iPhones also have a new mode for shooting photos in low light. Once the camera detects that a setting is very dark, it automatically captures multiple pictures and then fuses them together while making adjustments to colors and contrast. The result was that photos taken in low light without flash look brighter, in a natural way.
Photos taken with the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro looked crisp and clear, and their colors were accurate. But after I finished these tests, I looked back at my archived photos taken with an iPhone X.
Those pictures, especially the ones shot with portrait mode, still looked impressive. Some of the low-light ones looked crummy in comparison to the ones taken by the iPhone 11s, but I wouldn’t recommend that you buy a new phone just to get better night photos. You could always just use flash.
WHEN SHOULD I UPGRADE THEN?
Each year, the most common question I get from friends and colleagues is whether they should buy a new iPhone. So here’s a list of considerations in any decision about upgrading.
The simplest place to start is software. Apple’s newest mobile operating system, iOS 13, will work only on iPhones from 2015 (the iPhone 6S) and later. So if you have an iPhone that is older than that, it is worth upgrading because once you can no longer update the operating system, some of your apps may stop working properly.
For those with younger iPhones, there are ways to get more mileage out of your current device. While the newest iPhones have superb battery life — several hours longer than the last generation — a fresh battery in your existing gadget costs only $50 to $70 and will greatly extend its life.
If you have the iPhone 6S from 2015 and the iPhone 7 from 2016, the iPhone 11s are speedier, with camera improvements and bigger displays. That makes an upgrade nice to have but not a must-have.
But if you spent $1,000 on an iPhone X two years ago, then hold off. The iPhone 11s just aren’t enough of an innovation leap to warrant $700-plus on a new smartphone.
If you wait another year or two, you will most likely be rewarded with that jump forward. That might be an iPhone that works with fast 5G cellular networks, or a smartphone that can wirelessly charge an Apple Watch.
Patience has its benefits — and so will breaking free of the iPhone’s automatic two-year upgrade cycle.
2019 The New York Times Company
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON -- Apple Inc's AirPods, Apple Watch and HomePod, which have helped the company offset waning sales of its bestselling iPhone this year, are not included in a temporary reprieve on tariffs by the Trump administration and will face a 10 percent levy on Sept 1.
The administration said on Tuesday that some major items, such as laptops and cellphones, including Apple's MacBooks and iPhones, will not face tariffs until Dec. 15. President Donald Trump said the change was to avoid an impact on US customers during the Christmas shopping season. The tariff delay that affects some of Apple's biggest-selling products helped send its shares up more than 4 percent in late trading.
Trump and his administration did not say why some electronics received a reprieve and others did not. Many of the products set to face tariffs on Sept. 1, such as smart watches, fitness trackers, smart speakers and Bluetooth headphones, had been spared once before.
These include popular products from Apple rivals, such as Fitbit smart watches and smart speakers from Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google. The Trump administration had proposed tariffs on those devices to take effect last September, but they were spared at the last moment after Apple, among other companies, told the government that the levies would "result in lower US growth and competitiveness and higher prices for US consumers.”
Some accessories have been central to Apple's efforts to diversify revenue beyond its signature iPhone, which pushed the company's market capitalization past $1 trillion in 2018 though the market cap has slipped this year.
In Apple's latest reported fiscal quarter, the iPhone contributed less than half of company revenues for the first time in seven years. The iPhone's decline was somewhat offset by a 50 percent jump in sales of so-called wearables, such as the Apple Watch and AirPods, helping Apple beat Wall Street estimates and boosting its stock.
Apple does not break out by geographic region the sales of products such as wearables.
"We've really put large strategic investments and resources and interest into wearables and services," Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters on July 30. "And if you take those two and add them together, they're now the size of a Fortune 50 company, and they were essentially nascent businesses not that long ago."
Apple, Fitbit, Amazon and Google did not immediately return requests for comment.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SEOUL -- South Korean electronics giant Samsung said Thursday it would release its cutting-edge foldable smartphone in September, despite a trade dispute between Seoul and Tokyo which analysts said would affect delivery.
Tokyo earlier this month restricted export to South Korea of several key materials crucial to its world-leading electronics and smartphone companies, including market leader Samsung.
The decision was made in response to a South Korean court decision ordering Japanese firms that used forced labor during World War II to compensate Korean victims.
Tokyo's move has raised international concern about the effect on global tech supply chains and the possibility of price hikes for consumers worldwide.
Samsung's Galaxy Fold is among the end products that will be affected as it relies on a chemical film produced by Japanese firm Sumitomo Chemical, said IHS Markit display research directtor Tadashi Uno.
Samsung had planned to launch the Fold in April, but pushed back the release date after early reviewers reported screen problems after just days of use.
The smartphone giant said it has "made improvements" to the device since then.
Samsung has spent nearly 8 years developing the Fold in an effort to spark demand and potentially revive a sector that has been struggling for new innovations.
Tech companies are already under pressure from a weakening global outlook, while the chip sector in particular is suffering from weak demand.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple has recalled a number of its older generation MacBook Pro because their batteries may overheat and "pose a fire safety risk."
The recall affects 15-inch MacBook Pros with Retina displays sold between September 2015 and February 2017, the company said, adding it would replace batteries free of charge.
A number of countries are covered by the recall.
In mainland China, around 63,000 units may be affected by the problem, China's State Administration for Market Regulation said.
The regulator said there have been 6 reported incidents of overheating among laptops that qualify for the recall in China.
The tech giant, however, said it had not received any reports of significant damage to computers or injuries due to the defect, but urged owners of the affected devices to stop using them immediately.
It said a dedicated recall website has been set up where users can input the serial number to determine if their computer is affected.
The company said the recall does not include newer 15-inch MacBook Pro units or Apple laptops of other sizes and variations.
The battery recall marks the second technical glitch to affect Apple laptops this year. Last month, the US behemoth confirmed that some of its newer laptops had problematic keyboards and offered free replacements to affected customers.
In 2016, South Korean phonemaker Samsung suspended sales of its Galaxy Note 7 handset after devices caught fire due to flawed batteries exploding.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple is seen as a prime target for retaliation over US moves against the Chinese tech giant Huawei, but the roots planted by the company in China should help it weather the storm, analysts say.
While Beijing may take aim at Apple in the countries' high-stakes trade war, experts believe that the company's size, cachet, and years spent cultivating business relationships in China should protect it from any direct retaliation.
"As the US pounds on Huawei, Apple is the likely target for China to pound back," technology analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said.
"As the trade war accelerates, then Apple and Huawei are the two firms likely to get the damage," he said.
Huawei has been thrust to the center of escalating tensions between the world's two top economies, which have exchanged tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in two-way trade.
President Donald Trump's administration has infuriated Beijing by blacklisting the smartphone and telecommunications company over worries that China uses it as a tool for espionage and allegations of breaking Iran-related sanctions -- charges the company has denied.
Trump has said that Huawei's fate could be included in any deal to resolve their trade war, but such a deal has proved elusive, and in the interim, tensions remain high.
The company is considered a "national treasure" in China, and Apple has similar status in the US, said Enderle.
"It is always difficult dealing with companies considered national treasures," he said.
"There is certainly a risk of this escalating beyond reason."
POINTS IN APPLE'S FAVOR
But Apple has various factors in its favor.
Increasing costs or crimping production for Apple directly in China could cause self-inflicted wounds, since much of the company's manufacturing is done there and jobs could be lost, analysts say.
Playing into nationalist sentiment that shunning Apple is a sign of Chinese loyalty is something the government "could get away with," Enderle said.
But boycotts of Apple products that began in China last year due to the US's treatment of Huawei had no meaningful impact on the American company, according to Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi.
And in a Bloomberg interview on Monday, the chief executive of Huawei said he was against the idea of calling for a boycott of Apple products in China.
"At the end of the day, there is a lot that Apple is doing in China from an economy perspective that helps China," Milanesi said.
"I struggle to see China using Apple as a way to retaliate against the US."
On its website, Apple says it has created five million jobs in China, three million of which were related to contractors and investment.
A million of those jobs were its staff, and about 1.8 million were through the App Store ecosystem for developers who make digital content or services for its mobile devices, the company said.
TARGETING TRUMP BASE
And while hampering Apple product production in China would hurt that country's economy, forcing up the price of iPhones exported to the US would not be much of a political blow against the Trump administration, according to Forrester analyst Frank Gillett.
"The Chinese government is more likely to target the Trump base," Gillet said.
"Hitting a California-based company doesn't seem to give them a lot of leverage, it makes more sense to go after agriculture and everyday stuff."
Analysts also noted that Apple chief Tim Cook ran supply chain logistics for the company before succeeding the late co-founder Steve Jobs at the helm in 2011.
"Tim Cook knows the culture in China and has worked very closely understanding how to tread carefully to make more of an impact there," Milanesi said.
Cook's supply chain expertise also makes him an ideal executive to figure out ways to move manufacturing out of China if the need arises.
Apple's rise to one of the world's most valuable companies has involved cultivating strong relationships with Asian suppliers and manufacturers such as Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group and Pegatron.
"Everybody and their brother is trying to find ways to ship manufacturing out of China," Enderle said.
"Tim Cook was a logistics guy, so if anyone can do this well it should be him."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple on Tuesday introduced its first new iPod model in 4 years, highlighting music and games as it continued to make a priority of serving up digital content.
The new-generation iPod touch, essentially an iPhone without the phone calls, was available in more than two dozen countries at Apple's online shop starting at $199 (P10,400).
"We're making the most affordable iOS device even better with performance that is twice as fast as before, Group FaceTime and augmented reality,” said Apple vice president of product marketing Greg Joswiak.
"The ultra-thin and lightweight design of iPod touch has always made it ideal for enjoying games, music and so much more wherever you go."
The iPod touch evolved from the original iPod digital music player first launched by Apple in 2001.
The iPod touch became popular with people, particularly parents of internet-coveting children, who wanted mobile devices for getting online without the cost of telecommunications services.
The mobile devices can connect to the internet using Wi-Fi hotspots.
Apple earlier this year unveiled streaming video plans along with news and game subscription offerings as part of an effort to shift its focus to digital content and services to break free of its reliance on iPhone sales.
An Apple TV+ service, an on-demand, ad-free subscription service, will launch this year in 100 countries, the company said.
Apple News+ was launched in the US and Canada in English and French and will be available later this year in Britain and Australia, the company said.
Separately, the company said it was launching a new game subscription service called Apple Arcade later this year with at least 100 titles at launch.
"iOS is the world’s largest gaming platform, and with three times faster graphics, games on the new iPod touch run even smoother and look even more beautiful," Apple said in a release.
The first new iPod since the year 2015 comes as Apple shifts to emphasize digital content and other services to offset a pullback in the once-sizzling smartphone market, and with many news organizations struggling to monetize their online services.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK -- Microsoft hit the trillion-dollar value mark Thursday for the first time, becoming the third technology giant to reach the milestone.
Shares in Microsoft rallied some 5 percent in early Wall Street trade after a robust earnings report a day earlier to lift the value briefly above $1 trillion.
The stock ended the day with a gain of 3.3 percent at $129.15, translating to a market valuation of some $990 billion.
At its current levels, Microsoft is the world's most valuable company, ahead of Apple and Amazon, which both topped $1 trillion last year before slipping back.
On Wednesday, Microsoft said profits in the quarter to March 31 rose 19 percent to $8.8 billion on revenues of $30.8 billion, an increase of 14 percent from the same period a year earlier.
The results were driven by growth in cloud computing and business services, the new focus for Microsoft after a long run as a leader in consumer software.
"This quarter was an absolute 'blow out quarter' across the board with no blemishes and in our opinion speaks to an inflection point in deal flow as more enterprises pick (Microsoft) for the cloud," said Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities.
"While the stock has been very strong and a trillion dollar market cap is now reached, we believe the cloud party is just getting started in Redmond."
Richard Davis and David Hynes of Canaccord Genuity said Microsoft delivered a "boringly excellent quarter."
They said in a research note that Microsoft is still getting strong results from its "legacy" Windows business as it expands to new services.
"When your legacy business doesn't decay as fast as expected and your aggregate growth business exceeds expectations, estimates go up, and that has led the stock higher," they wrote.
"We see no reason to conclude that this trend will change anytime in the next few quarters."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA -- Samsung will unveil its 10th generation Galaxy S device on Wednesday, as it defends its status as the world's largest smartphone maker in the face of rising Chinese rivals and slowing sales.
The Galaxy S10 is expected to have even smaller top and bottom bezels compared to its predecessor and a tiny cutout on the screen for the front-facing camera aside from memory, processor and camera upgrades.
Samsung is also expected to talk up its folding display during the S10 event, where it said it would "unfold" the future of mobile. It unveiled its "infinity flex" in November last year.
The top-tier S10 Plus is tipped to have triple rear cameras and dual lenses on the front according to leaks leading up to the official announcement in San Francisco California at 3 a.m. Thursday Manila time.
It will be the first major redesign of the Galaxy S line since 2016's Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, Last year's Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus kept the look of the phone largely unchanged and put dual shooters on the back of the larger model.
This year's crop of mobile devices will be among the first to support the 5G standard, which promises to be faster than 4G.
While 2018 was an iterative year for the Galaxy S line, Samsung's Chinese rivals pushed hardware and design boundaries.
Huawei put 3 cameras on the rear of its P20 Pro which came in a color-shifting glass shell. Oppo and Vivo put motorized pop-up selfie cameras on the Find X and NEX, respectively, while Xiaomi revived the slider form factor with the Mi Mix 3.
Samsung put 4 rear cameras on the Galaxy A9, which was released in late 2018, providing a preview of the unannounced Galaxy S10's photo capabilities.
Arch-rival Apple, kept the design of its 10th generation iPhone X for the iPhone Xs released in late 2018. It also released a "Max" model with a large 6.5-inch screen.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON -- Under the shadow of trade wars, geopolitical tensions and a decline in public trust, the technology sector is seeking to put its problems aside with the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual extravaganza showcasing futuristic innovations.
The Jan. 8 to 11 Las Vegas trade event offers a glimpse into new products and services designed to make people's lives easier, fun and more productive, reaching across diverse sectors such as entertainment, health, transportation, agriculture and sports.
"Smart" devices using various forms of artificial intelligence will again be a major focus at CES.
Visitors are likely to see more dazzling TV screens, intuitive robots, a range of voice-activated devices, and folding or roll-up smartphone displays. Also on display will be refinements to autonomous transportation and gadgets taking advantage of 5G, or fifth-generation wireless networks.
But the celebration of innovation will be mixed with concerns about public trust in new technology and other factors that could cool the growth of a sizzling economic sector.
"I think 2019 will be a year of trust-related challenges for the tech industry," said Bob O'Donnell of Technalysis Research.
CES features 4,500 exhibitors across 2.75 million square feet (250,000 square meters) of exhibit space showcasing artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, smart homes, smart cities, sports gadgets and other cutting-edge devices. Some 182,000 trade professionals are expected.
MUCH ADO ABOUT DATA
There will be a focus on artificial intelligence that can "personalize" a user's experience with a device or a car, or even predict what someone is seeking -- whether it's music or medical care.
But because this ecosystem is built around data, confidence has been eroded by scandals involving Facebook, Google and other guardians of private information.
"The public is wary because of recent events," said Roger Kay, analyst and consultant with Endpoint Technologies Associates. "I think the industry will be slowed by this skepticism."
Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Creative Strategies, said, "You'll definitely hear people talk about security more, and really looking at how you secure the data," at CES.
TRADE FRICTIONS
The Consumer Technology Association, which operates the show, acknowledges that the sector is being hurt by tariffs and trade frictions between the two largest economic players, the United States and China.
Tariffs on tech products jumped to $1.3 billion in October, according to CTA, raising fears about growth.
"It's almost inevitable that an economic slowdown will occur if these tariffs continue," said Sage Chandler, CTA vice president for international trade.
The US-China trade issues and the arrest of a top executive of Chinese giant Huawei in Canada have thrown into question the "supply chain," the system in which US designs are manufactured in China for the global market.
"This does cast a shadow over CES," O'Donnell said.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND PERSONALIZATION
The auto sector will again have a major presence at CES with most major manufacturers on hand, some with prototypes of self-driving vehicles.
Japanese carmaker Honda will be showing an "autonomous work vehicle" which can be configured for search and rescue operations, firefighting and other uses.
Other exhibitors will be showing technology designed to serve as the "brains" of self-driving vehicles, not only for navigation but to create a better, more personalized "user experience" for travelers.
The show includes startups offering "predictive" health care solutions designed to anticipate the kind of care senior citizens may need.
Facial recognition, which is already being used on many smartphones, will be incorporated into vehicles, doorbells and security systems as part of efforts to increase personalization and improve security.
And consumer products group Procter & Gamble, making its first appearance at CES, will demonstrate ways to use facial recognition and AI for improved skin care and beauty recommendations.
The new applications raise questions on whether consumers are ready for technologies that evoke the notion of Big Brother and a surveillance state.
Brenda Leong, senior counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington think tank, said consumers should be mindful about whether data from facial recognition is kept only on the devices, such as in the iPhone, or held in a database.
"Even if commercial institutions are collecting the data, everybody is worried about government access," she said.
Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy said consumers have shown a willingness to adopt these new technologies if they offer convenience.
"If they are balanced from a benefit point of view, those worries are going to go away," he said.
Moorhead noted that as facial recognition has become a standard feature for many smartphones, "those fears have faded."
O'Donnell said consumers are starting to understand more about data and become more discerning about which companies and devices they trust.
"Personalization is something people want, and they are willing to give up some privacy to get it," he said.
"But if they can get personalization on the device without sending it to the cloud, they get the benefits without giving up privacy."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
BERLIN -- Europe's biggest tech fair, Berlin's IFA, opens its doors Friday with a flood of new product launches. Here are some of the top trends making waves along the aisles:
1. Future TV: higher resolution, bigger screens
With four times as many pixels as today's 4K ultra-high-definition (UHD) screens, the latest 8K TV sets have the potential to wow -- but the first compatible content will only reach viewers in 2020 with the Japan Winter Olympics.
In the meantime, Europeans are buying bigger and bigger TVs, hitting an average of 50 inches last year.
And wireless or wifi connectivity is moving from the "nice-to-have" to the "must-have" column, with many sets offering on-demand video that users can launch via voice command.
2. Earphones get cuddly
Many of the bulky headphones that dominated audio over the past decade have shed wires in favor of Bluetooth connections in the past two years.
And as listeners increasingly opt for smaller earbuds for everyday use, headsets are evolving to fit new niches -- like integration in soft neckbands that won't bother users as they drift off to sleep while bingeing on podcasts.
For shared sounds, TV-connected sound bars or multi-room speaker set-ups sport fewer and fewer buttons as voice commands become the control scheme of choice.
3. Laptop or tablet? Why choose?
While ever-lighter and thinner laptops are a constant feature of tech shows, the real action at IFA is elsewhere.
High dynamic range (HDR) monitors increasingly offer gamers and other power users more true-to-life images on their desktop computers, while "convertible" PCs -- useable as either laptop or tablet -- are increasingly popular for travel.
As for "classic" tablets, sales fell some 18 percent last year according to IFA organizers.
4. Wearables quit the gym
After a 2017 that saw wearable gadgets for monitoring fitness take off, this year they're increasingly present elsewhere, for example as trackers on the wrists of children or the elderly.
But authorities in some countries are leery of such developments.
Last November, Germany banned a smartwatch aimed at children that allowed parents to remotely activate a microphone to listen in on the playground.
5. Smog alert
White goods buyers are increasingly convinced that "big is beautiful," according to Norbert Herzog of consumer research firm GfK, opting for roomier fridges and ovens and higher-capacity washing machines.
Elsewhere in the home, cordless vacuum cleaners are gaining ground, making up some 40 percent of global sales of small home appliances.
Devices from dishwashers to lightbulbs can be networked and controlled remotely by voice commands.
And global demand for air purifiers is rising, stoked by health-conscious Chinese consumers worried about pollution in the country's smog-choked cities.
6. Virtual reality mirage?
Virtual reality -- whether the low-end headsets that use the wearer's phone as a screen, or ultra-powerful dedicated rigs for gamers -- faces a "chicken and egg problem," said IFA executive director Jens Heithecker.
"Consumers will rush to buy once there's great content to enjoy, while content production is slow as long as consumers are not buying in large numbers," he lamented.
That hasn't discouraged Taiwan's Acer from launching a standalone gaming headset in Berlin this year.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA - It's understandable why Huawei did not unveil the P20 Lite at the same time as the P20 and P20 Pro in Paris last March. Without the camera brawn of the two, the Lite would seem like too much of a downgrade.
Taken on its own, however, the P20 Lite is a beautiful device with a surprisingly excellent display for its P15,990 price tag. Announced without fanfare, the P20 Lite goes on sale at the end of April along with the rest of the P20 series.
DESIGN AND HARDWARE
The P20 Lite does not stray too far from the P20 range. It has a notch at the top of the screen that's similar to the iPhone X. The glass back sets it apart from the polycarbonate shells of its competitors giving it a more premium feel.
The textured metal frame makes it easier to grip. Though at 145 grams, it feels too light, almost like a chocolate bar that can fly off the hands.
The glass back, which also houses the fingerprint sensor, is not curved as in the P20 Pro. Overall, the phone fells sturdy and well built.
The 5.84-inch 2280x1080 screen packs 432 pixels per inch, that's slightly higher than on the P20 and P20 Pro. The iPhone X has 458 pixels per inch.
It's in the screen where the P20 Lite feels nothing like a mid-ranger. It's bright, images are sharp and colors are vivid.
CAMERAS
The P20 Lite has two lenses on the back, one at 16 megapixels and the other at 2 megapixels. The front-facing camera also has 16 megapixels.
The cameras don't carry the Leica branding of the P20 and P20 Pro, but the P20 Lite's cameras produce rich colors and fine detail under good lighting conditions.
The P20 Lite struggles, however, when shooting against the light when subject can get washed out.
Huawei is touting a 'beauty algorithm' on the selfie camera that smoothens the skin and brightens the eyes and lips without sacrificing detail.
The P20 Lite also offers augmented reality or AR effects and backgrounds.
PERFORMANCE AND SOFTWARE
Even without the AI-centered Kirin 970, the P20 Lite had no hiccups running on the lesser Kirin 659, built in-house by Huawei.
The 3,000 mAh battery can get through a day. Huawei promises a 43-percent battery boost with just 30 minutes of charging with the supplied brick and USB C cable.
The phone runs Android 8.0 Oreo overlaid with Huawei's EMUI skin.
For better or for worse, it's the same EMUI as in Huawei's most recent devices though it's not as heavily customized compared to the EMUI of a few years back.
Huawei also gives users the option to hide the notch by blackening the space around it.
CONCLUSION
Huawei was right to hold off on announcing the P20 Lite until after the international media blitz of the P20 and P20 Pro.
By giving it its own launch, albeit quiet, the P20 Lite is a phone that gets appreciated on its own merits.
Its a handset that retains much of the design DNA of the far more expensive phones in the P20 series while offering a capable camera and an excellent display at a price that undercuts its rivals.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA - Where Apple goes, the industry follows. While late to the all-screen game, the iPhone X signalled aggressive pricing that outpaces the upgrades that are starting to get more iterative than revolutionary.
Samsung priced its 256 gigabyte S9 Plus, unveiled on Monday, at P60,990, P13,990 short of the P73,990 iPhone X with the same capacity.
A minimum wage earner in Metro Manila will have to toil for 129 days to buy the top end S9, if he doesn't spend for food or transportation for 4 months and works on weekends. And that's 30 more days if he wants the highest capacity iPhone X.
But flagship mobile tech is for luxury, not for utility. In the same vein, designer handbags can cost twice or thrice as much as an iPhone.
For the 10th anniversary edition of its most important device, Apple offered face unlock in place of fingerprint scanning, unicorn and poop animations mapped to the user's face, and portrait effects that simulate different types of lighting.
Despite Apple's knack for making new technologies accessible to the masses with clever branding, the features that were supposed to justify the price tag were unfinished. Face ID was not as reliable as Touch ID, Animoji was a novelty that was bound to iOS, and Portrait Lighting looked like paper cutouts.
For the S9, Samsung is promising 60 percent brighter images in low light compared to the S8, super slow motion to add drama to footage of free falls, flapping bird wings and bursting balloons. It is also challenging Animoji with AR Emoji, complete with a boxy fish character that looks like Pixar's Dory.
We have yet to spend enough time with the S9 to judge whether or not the price bump is justified. But the S9 is the same price as last year's larger S8+ when it was launched. This year's S9+ with 64GB of storage is priced at P52,990, P7,000 more expensive than its predecessor and P3,000 pricier than the larger Galaxy Note 8 from barely 5 months ago.
Chinese upstarts are also challenging Apple and Samsung with comparable, if not better performance, at roughly half the price. Huawei's Mate 10 Pro retails for P38,990 and offers free screen replacement in case of breakage, something that will cost you if you wreck your iPhone X.
Disruptor OnePlus is offering its flagship killer officially in the Philippines. If you can live without water resistance and a design that looks like the iPhone 7 Plus, the OnePlus 5T offers a full screen display, fast performance, 64GB of onboard storage and long battery life starting at P26,990.
China's Xiaomi also opened its first official store in the Philippines, undercutting Apple and Samsung in terms of flagship price, while offering devices for the connected home including WiFi routers, desktops and laptops.
Smartphones are also becoming more and more expensive when the battle has begun to shift to software from hardware.
What Google's Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL lacks in terms of looks, it makes up for with slick software and an AI-powered camera that does with a single lens what it's competition can't do, even with two lenses.
At this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, LG offered the V30 from late last year with upgraded internals, including double the storage and an AI-backed camera. It did not unveil a successor to the G6, which launched at the same gadget showcase last year, signaling a rethink in its mobile strategy.
Mobile phone sales worldwide were down 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter last year, the same period the iPhone X and Galaxy Note 8 went on sale, according to industry tracker IDC.
While manufacturers are pushing the limit in terms of pricing, consumers hit the pause button and were in no rush to upgrade, IDC said.
The iPhone X cost as much as P90,000 in the grey market when it first hit the Philippines. It now costs as low as P55,000 in unofficial stores after less than four months.
For those with gadget lust, price is not a consideration. But for the practical consumer, the choices are at their most varied.
And with the tech companies looking at AI powered devices that will replace the smartphone, forking out an insane amount for something that will suffer the inevitable fate of the typewriter in a few years is getting more difficult each year.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SHANGHAI - A Chinese consumer group has asked Apple for information about the slowing of older iPhones after operating system updates, demanding a reply before Friday, state news agency Xinhua reported.
The query from the Shanghai Consumer Council came in response to consumer feedback that old iPhones became sluggish after upgrading the software to iOS 10.2.1, it said.
In a letter to Apple on Monday, the council requested an explanation for the slowdown and information about what Apple planned to do to rectify the problem, Xinhua reported.
The California-based company acknowledged in December that iPhone software can slow down some phones with battery problems and apologized for the issue. It also cut battery replacement costs and said it would change its software to show users whether their phone batteries were working well.
The Shanghai Consumer Council, a non-government organization approved by the Chinese authorities, said it had received 2,615 complaints about Apple products and services in 2017, compared with 964 complaints in 2015.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LAS VEGAS - Carless commuting is cruising in the fast lane at the Consumer Electronics Show, with companies showing off electric bicycles, scooters, skateboards and more aimed at making the internal combustion engine a thing of the past.
As the ranks of people around the world living in cities has grown, so too has the cost of car ownership as well as traffic congestion.
Nowhere was this more apparent than at the annual tech gathering in Las Vegas where some 170,000 conference goers jammed the streets.
"In a lot of big cities, cars aren't tenable anymore," said tech analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates.
An AFP reporter testing the car-free concept through the week at CES by relying on a freshly released GenZe electric bicycle consistently sailed past clogged traffic near the convention center and on the famed Las Vegas Strip.
Riders too tired or lazy to pedal meanwhile can twist a throttle to glide along at close to local street speed limits.
GenZe spokesman Tom Valasek, a former auto industry marketing executive, said that several car makers had come to check out the company's CES exhibit.
"There is a lot of curiosity right now about where things are heading," Valasek told AFP.
"I know a lot of people in the auto industry who are quite worried that car ownership is going away."
DRIVERLESS CARS
The popularity of smartphone-summoned rides from services such as Uber and Lyft are playing into the trend, with technology giants investing heavily in self-driving capabilities that could soon see automated vehicles available on-demand.
"We believe car ownership makes no sense in the future," Lyft chief executive John Zimmer said at a CES dinner event.
Zimmer doubted that his daughter, now a young child, will want to own a car when she is of age. Instead, he said: "She'll want access to transportation."
A boom of autonomous cars would likely prompt vehicles to evolve to be more akin to rooms on wheels: sleeper cabins in trains, or private offices, Zimmer added.
A shift away from owning and relying on cars was also expected to result in traffic and parking becoming less of a priority in urban design.
GenZe, a US-based division of the Mahindra Group in India, this week announced its e-bikes will be added in April to a Ford GoBike ride-share program in San Francisco.
The e-bikes should "help to make San Francisco more livable and reduce congestion," Metropolitan Transportation Commission deputy executive Alix Bockelman said in a release.
Leading online social network Facebook has a fleet of 100 GenZe bikes for employees to get around its Silicon Valley campus, and they are also used by delivery services DoorDash and Postmates, according to Valasek.
SCOOT, SKATE, RIDE
Despite negative publicity about hoverboards a few years ago -- centered on their tendency to explode -- the manufacturer Swagtron was at CES with some of those devices along with skateboards and bicycles boosted with electric motors.
"We are seeing with personal mobility that some people like to skate; some people like to scoot, and some people like to ride," Swagtron chief operating officer Andrew Koven told AFP.
Koven saw alternatives to cars as an "absolute necessity" that was part of a "systemic shift" toward getting around in ways that are economical as well as socially and environmentally responsible.
"If I am commuting a short distance to work, do I really need a car?" analyst Gold asked rhetorically.
Cities are already eyeing autonomous shuttle services.
A self-driving electric shuttle built by Navya was introduced here last year in a test that segued into a program providing rides on a route in downtown Las Vegas.
Swiss-based Rinspeed also showed its autonomous shuttle, and Toyota introduced a boxy concept vehicle which could be used for ridesharing, deliveries, medical services or as an extension of retail stores.
Plenty of new cars were shown at CES including a number of self-driving models. But some attendees said that the vehicle of the future may be something different.
Automakers "have been building cars from the driver's perspective," said Ankit Jain, head of the Ola Play software platform for the India-based rideshare group.
In future vehicles which may be autonomous, "the passenger is the one paying," Jain said. "You have to fundamentally rethink the car."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA - Samsung Electronics will move up the unveiling of its Galaxy
S9 and S9+ phones in 2018 compared to previous years, presenting a new
challenger to chief rival Apple's iPhone X, according to two reports.
The S9 and S9+ will look nearly identical to this year's S8 and S8+,
the first Samsung phones to sport near bezel-less displays, but with
improved cameras and processors, according to Bloomberg and Venutre
Beat.
The S9 line will be unveiled by late February, one month earlier that its predecessor's launch in 2017, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. Venture Beat
said the phones would be presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas in January with an official launch to follow in March.
The screen sizes will stay at 6.2 inches for the S9+ and 5.8 inches
for the S9. The larger model will pack a dual lens rear camera, similar
to the one on the Galaxy Note 8 which launched last September, according
to the reports.
The fingerprint sensor will be positioned below the rear camera lens,
according to Venture beat. It was located to the right of the lenses in
the S8 and Note 8 lines, making it hard to reach for some and leaving
the camera prone to smudging.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
