Laptop Batteries, Chargers and AC Adapters

After years of success in China, and slow but steady progress in Europe and the rest of Asia, chipset manufacturer MediaTek has clearly set its sights on the US smartphone market with its first ever mmWave 5G chipset: the Dimensity 1050.

While MediaTek already offers several 5G chipsets to smartphone manufacturers, all so far have been limited to sub-6GHz frequencies. The Dimensity 1050 breaks that trend by supporting sub6 along with mmWave, a different frequency band that’s currently only widely used in the US. Support is often set as a requirement by key US carriers to stock manufacturers’ 5G phones.

Despite arguably boasting MediaTek’s most advanced networking yet, the Dimensity 1050 isn’t actually the company’s top-tier chip – that remains the Dimensity 9000. Instead, this is a cheaper offering built on a 6nm process, intended to even sit below the recently announced Dimensity 8000 and 8100 in the MediaTek lineup.

For those who care about CPU construction, the 1050 uses two A78 performance cores clocked at 2.5GHz, and a further six A55 efficiency cores.

MediaTek hasn’t yet confirmed any specific manufacturers that intend to use the Dimensity 1050, but says the first phones should arrive some time in Q3, meaning July to September this year.

That means phones will begin to arrive after the first handsets using the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, the similarly positioned rival chip from Qualcomm, announced just last week. Honor, Oppo, and Xiaomi have already committed to using the Qualcomm chip, and it will be interesting to see if MediaTek can attract a similar calibre of OEM – or, as it’s no doubt hoping, companies like Motorola and OnePlus that have a foothold in the US market.

▷▷▷Lenovo

▷▷▷ Fujitsu

While most gamers are interested in Nvidia’s high-end RTX 30 Series (if not the RTX 40 Series due in the coming months), there’s still a huge market for entry-level graphics cards that don’t cost the earth.

With that in mind, Nvidia is said to be prepping a new entry-level graphics card that could hopefully retail at around $150 – and what’s more, a Videcardz report gives us a good idea of specs and when the GPU will be released.

Here’s everything there is to know about the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1630 right now, from release date and pricing speculation to leaked specs.

When will the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1630 be released?
According to the Videocardz report outlining the upcoming graphics card, the budget-focused Nvidia GTX 1630 is currently scheduled for release on 31 May 2022.

Of course, that’s yet to be confirmed, but with Nvidia set to take to the stage at Computex 2022 in little under 24 hours, it’s likely that we’ll hear more about the graphics card then.

We explain how to watch the Nvidia keynote at Computex 2022 separately if you’re interested in watching the event live, though be warned; it’s either a very late, or very early, start depending on where you are in the world.

How much will the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1630 cost?
As an entry-level graphics card, it should come as no surprise that Nvidia will want to price the GeForce GTX 1630 competitively – especially in a market in desperate need of entry-level options.

With top-end graphics cards still hard to come by, let alone at RRP, the budget specs of the GTX 1630 should mean less (or no) interest from crypto-miners. That’s the hope, anyway!

>>>>> Tablet Batteries

>>>>> Rechargeable Batteries

The iPad Air 5 brought with it some key upgrades, including an improved 12Mp front-facing camera, 5G connectivity and the same M1 chipset as the iPad Pro and Apple’s MacBook line, but it’s safe to assume that Apple is hard at work on the next-gen iPad Air behind closed doors at Apple Park.

While it’s early days, we cover all there is to know about the iPad Air 6 right now, including release date and pricing speculation based on previous releases and our wishlist of features we’d love to see on the next-gen tablet.

When will the iPad Air 6 be released?
While you might be excited by the idea of the prospect of an update to the popular iPad Air 5, there’s some bad news: you’ll likely be waiting a while.

Unlike Apple’s iPhone range, which is updated every year, the iPad range has a longer upgrade cycle, meaning you shouldn’t expect the next iPad for quite some time. What we can do, however, is predict when to expect the tablet to appear based on previous releases.

The iPad Air 3 was revived back in March 2019 after a five-year hiatus, with the iPad Air 4 following 18 months later in September 2020. There was a similar pattern with the release of the iPad Air 5, which came 18 months after the release of the iPad Air 4 in March 2022.

With all that being said, it’s safe to assume that Apple has an 18-month upgrade cycle for the iPad Air, leading us to believe that the iPad Air 6 will be released in September 2023.

>>>>>> HP HW03XL

>>>>>> LENOVO 01AV463

Apple announced its M2 processor at its 2022 WWDC event, claiming the new silicon can eke out 18% greater performance compared to the M1 chip in current Macs.

Like the M1, the M2 is based on a 5-nanometre process. It has more than 20 billion transistors (25% more than M1), an 8-core CPU, and up to a 10-core GPU.

What does that actually equal in real life? Well, Apple claims the M2’s CPU and GPU are 18% and 35% faster respectively over M1.

The new silicon also boasts of a 40% faster 16-core neural engine capable of nearly 16 trillion operations per second. It also will be able to support 100GB/s memory bandwidth.

For people using the computers it should result in better performance for those CPU-heavy applications used in music production, video rendering, 3D modelling, and similar. Of course Apple said performance trounces Windows computers, boasting of twice the performance of a 10-core PC laptop at the same power level.

Similarly, Apple said the GPU in the M2 can run 2.3x faster than “the latest PC laptop chip” and “matches its peak performance at the same power level”.

This taunting is usual but the M1 was so good that we won’t be surprised if this proves to be true.

New hardware

This M2 update comes after the M1 was launched in November 2020. Since then, Apple has added the M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra to the line-up. M2 will be able to support up to 24GB of LPDDR5 memory, leaving the door open for possible similar beefed-up iterations for desktop Macs soon.

>>>>>> Laptop Battery

>>>>>>Hot Products

Apple focused heavily on iOS 16 at its annual developer conference in June 2022. Among the headline features are a redesigned, highly customisable lock screen, with less intrusive notifications, improvements to Focus and more.

But while Apple spent a significant amount of time talking about iOS 16, it didn’t mention many of the smaller changes, some of which are well worth knowing about.

So without further ado, here are the best features we’ve spotted that we think you’ll love when you update to iOS 16 later this year. For more on the big software update, take a look at the latest iOS 16 news.

1. The Fitness app is available for all
   iOS 16 marks the first time that iPhone users who don’t own an Apple Watch will be able to fully use the Fitness app, with access to the same three-ring system that tracks calories, standing hours and exercise. Instead of getting that data from a Watch, it’ll use the iPhone’s built-in sensors.

Of course, it won’t be quite as accurate, and you won’t see advanced metrics like heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, but it’s a nice app that’ll let you keep an eye on your general fitness goals over time.

1. Privacy Access History
   While the iPhone and iPad can let you know when your mic, camera and location are being accessed by apps, it’s only handy if you catch the icon while it’s in use, with no way to look at what has been accessing tech recently – until iOS 16, that is.

A new privacy access history feature will give you a list of all the apps that have recently accessed your camera, microphone and location data, and it’ll be accessible by tapping the icon in the control centre when it appears.

Goodbye secret location-tracking apps!

>>>>>> Laptop Battery

>>>>>>Hot Products

Search around online and you’ll find the general advice is that you don’t need antivirus on your iPhone or iPad. And while the reasons for that advice are sound, the real answer is a bit more nuanced than an outright no.

Apple has designed iOS – and iPadOS – in such a way that it is very difficult for malware, including viruses, to penetrate its defences. This is a good thing, but remember that modern antivirus software does far more than detecting and blocking viruses.

In fact, calling it ‘antivirus software’ does it a disservice as the threats go way beyond viruses these days. The latest security software protects your device – and you – from a much wider range of dangers.

The people who create viruses are in a constant battle with the companies that make the operating systems (such as iOS and iPadOS), and have realised that it it’s far easier to trick the user into handing over their password and payment details than trying to make some malware that will achieve the same result.

After all, the criminals are after your identity and your money: that’s the end game.

So, this means that running an ‘antivirus’ app on your iPhone and iPad can be a very good idea indeed as it can protect your from yourself!

>>>>>> Laptop Battery

>>>>>>Hot Products

Chipset company MediaTek has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone silicon: the Dimensity 9000+.

In case the name doesn’t give it away, this is positioned as an upgrade to the Dimensity 9000 flagship the company launched last November. Like that chip, this is high-end hardware intended for premium phones only.

This isn’t a true successor – expect that to arrive some time towards the end of the year – but a half-step upgrade, with enhancements made to the same base 4nm hardware.

The key change is an upgrade to the CPU’s Cortex-X2 prime core, which runs at 3.2GHz in the 9000 Pro – up from 3.05GHz in the regular 9000 – though the remaining seven CPU cores are unchanged from the previous iteration, resulting in an overall performance improvement of around 5%.

The GPU has had an upgrade too. The 9000+ still uses a Mali-G710 chip, but MediaTek says it’s made tweaks to deliver a 10% boost in graphics performance.

Those might not sound like dramatic gains, but they’re enough to bring the 9000+ right in line with rival Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, itself announced almost exactly a month ago. That chip also upgraded to a 3.2GHz clock speed on its prime CPU core, and boasts 10% GPU gains along with some power efficiency improvements.

As always, the big question is which phones will be powered by the Dimensity 9000+. While Qualcomm has already announced the 8+ Gen 1 will appear in phones from Asus, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and more, MediaTek usually waits a few weeks to announce OEM partners, so there are no phones or manufacturers confirmed so far – though the company has confirmed the first handsets should arrive in Q3 2022, aka July-September.

>>>>>> Laptop Battery

>>>>>>Hot Products

AMD is on a roll. The US chipmaker continues to eat into Intel’s CPU market share, hitting a record 25% by the end of 2021.

This progress has been driven by the strong performance of its Ryzen processors, which took a big leap forward with the Ryzen 5000 Series. 2022’s Ryzen 6000 Series only includes laptop CPUs, but AMD has already confirmed that its successor – the Ryzen 7000 Series – will also feature desktop processors.

But in this article, we’re looking even further ahead. The Ryzen 8000 Series might be well over a year away, but that hasn’t stopped AMD revealing some key details. Here’s everything we know so far.

AMD Ryzen 8000 Series release date
It’s not clear exactly when the Ryzen 8000 Series will officially launch, but we can take some clues from other AMD launches. The company has already confirmed that the upcoming Ryzen 7000 Series will debut in the ‘second half of 2022’, but mobile CPUs aren’t expected until CES in January 2023.

Indeed, the Ryzen 5000 Series was announced in October 2020 before laptop chips were added in January 2021.

A similar schedule is likely for the Ryzen 8000 Series. That would suggest an initial release of late 2023 – potentially October – then mobile processors at CES in January 2024. But as is often the case, AMD is likely to continue releasing new Ryzen 8000 Series chips in the the subsequent few months and even years.

Remember, AMD hasn’t confirmed any of this yet. We know the company is working on the Ryzen 8000 Series behind the scenes, but no release window has been revealed.

>>>>>> Laptop Battery

>>>>>>Hot Products

Sony has unveiled a raft of new gaming hardware, but hold your horses – this isn’t the PS VR2, PS5 Pro, or whatever other upcoming gear you’ve got your heart set on. In fact, you won’t find the PlayStation logo anywhere.

That’s because the new tech – a trio of gaming headphones and a pair of gaming monitors – mark the debut of a whole new PC-focused gaming brand: Inzone. Or INZONE, if you prefer Sony’s excited capitalisation.

With Sony increasingly moving to port its biggest PlayStation games to PC, it’s no surprise that it wants to catch a portion of that market. The bigger surprise is that it’s launching a new hardware line to do so, rather than leveraging the power of the PlayStation brand.

While the new Inzone hardware may not boast PlayStation branding, it does boast plenty of tech borrowed from the company’s console line, and is clearly designed to appeal to PC gamers who also have a PS5 in the living room – or would if they could buy one – with features optimised for both gaming PCs and Sony’s latest console.

>>>>>> Laptop Battery

>>>>>>Hot Products