Google has announced that it has started rolling out the stable version of Google Chrome that is optimized for computers using ARM processors. More specifically, Google has hinted that it has made the newest version of its web browser that performs much faster and smoother on the upcoming Snapdragon X Elite processor.
ARM-optimized stable Google Chrome is available for download
The new Google Chrome version optimized for ARM and Snapdragon X Elite processor is now available for download. Google and Qualcomm have worked closely on this optimization, and they say that it offers “a dramatic performance improvement.” The ARM-optimized version of Google Chrome has been in beta testing since January 2024, and people who have tested it on computers with ARM-based processors and Windows 11 OS have reported significant performance improvements in terms of smoothness and speed.
Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm Inc., said, “The new version of Google Chrome will help cement Snapdragon X Elite’s role as the premier platform for Windows computing starting in mid-2024.” He added, “As we enter the era of the AI PC, we can’t wait to see Chrome shine by taking advantage of the powerful Snapdragon X Elite system.”
Samsung confirmed after the announcement of the Snapdragon X Elite that it is making a device based on the new chipset. A few weeks ago, it was revealed that the device could be named the Galaxy Book 4 Edge. A recent report claimed that the Galaxy Book 4 Edge features a 14-inch screen, the Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD. It could be priced at €1,800 in Europe.
Known for compact and affordable chargers, Ugreen jumped into network-attached storage (NAS) devices in a big way Tuesday with a crowdfunding campaign for its new NASync products on Kickstarter.com.
That’s where you can pledge and save 40% on items that suit home and business users alike with high-speed, huge-capacity data storage, the company said.
New Ugreen NAS products are 40% off on Kickstarter
Until now primarily know for chargers, Ugreen is launching its NASync series with 12th-generation Intel processors for both individual and business users. The Kickstarter campaign hit $2.2 million on its first day, over its $20,000 goal (with 44 days to go).
The company’s new NASync DXP2800, NASync DXP4800 and DXP4800 Plus devices are tailored for personal and home users. NASync DXP6800 Pro and NASync DXP8800 Plus, featuring 12th-gen Intel Core i5 processors, should suit business users. The biggest capacity goes up to a staggering 184TB.
“This leads to enhanced responsiveness, efficient data processing, and seamless multi-tasking, the company said. “Furthermore, the advantage of seamless multimedia processing and transcoding significantly improves the media file playback experience.”
And Ugreen designed another model, NASync DXP480T Plus, to meet the needs of creative and media professionals.
Ugreen NAS products’ Kickstarter campaign, aimed at users in the United States and Germany, features an early bird discount of 40% with prices starting at $239.99.
Dual Thunderbolt 4 ports
In addition, NASync DXP6800 Pro, DXP8800 Plus and DXP480T Plus come with dual Thunderbolt 4 ports. They can connect to a variety of storage devices for high-speed data transmission. Each port can reach data-transmission speeds up to 40Gbps.
NASync DXP6800 Pro and DXP8800 also come with dual 10GbE network ports.
As Ugreen noted:
These two high-speed 10GbE network ports can be combined to provide a total bandwidth of 20GbE, allowing for theoretical download speeds of up to 2500MB/s. Furthermore, the load between the two port links can be dynamically adjusted and balanced, enhancing the overall transmission efficiency.
DDR5 memory
With this kind of capacity, you may never run out of storage again. And NAS devices don’t necessarily take up too much space. Photo: Ugreen
Every Ugreen NASync model is equipped with an expandable 8GB DDR5 memory (two to three times faster than DDR4), Ugreen said:
For models like NASync 4800 Plus, DXP6800 Pro, DXP8800 Plus and NASync DXP480T Plus, with the capacity to expand memory up to 64GB, even the most resource-intensive software becomes manageable, and multi-tasking is more efficient than ever. Importantly, it accelerates data processing, which is particularly advantageous for tasks such as AI recognition and video transcoding.
Unlike cloud drives, Ugreen NAS products securely store substantial amounts of personal data on local devices with encryption, reducing risk of leaks, the company said. The series employs secure protocols like SSL/TLS. It uses robust SHA256 encryption, a standard in the financial and communications sectors. And the app’s built-in Security Manager offers real-time protection and conducts scheduled virus scans.
Ugreen NAS products: Pricing and availability
Ugreen offers Super Early Bird Discount of 40% off on the products. Here are the details:
Earlier this year, during the launch of the Galaxy S24, Samsung teased the Galaxy Ring for the first time. In the following weeks, the South Korean firm gave us a closer look at its first Galaxy Ring and revealed some of its features. It now looks like the Galaxy Ring could launch soon, as it has appeared in One UI.
The Galaxy Ring has appeared in Samsung’s stock Battery Widget. Once you add the widget to the home screen and go to its Settings menu, you can see the Galaxy Ring entry, along with entries for the Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Fit, Galaxy Watch, and other devices. Since Samsung has added the Galaxy Ring to the Battery Widget already, we think that the company will launch its first smart ring in a few weeks or months.
The Galaxy Ring is very light and comes in various sizes and colors/finishes. It has a built-in heart rate sensor and sleep tracking. Whether or not it features SpO2 hasn’t been confirmed yet. It could last up to a week on a single charge and is very comfortable, making it an ideal choice to track sleep length and quality. You can watch our hands-on video of the Galaxy Ring in the video below.
We have gotten used to seeing Samsung rebranding its Galaxy A smartphones and selling them as Galaxy M and Galaxy F handsets in some markets. The Galaxy M and Galaxy F lineups aren’t replacements for their Galaxy A counterparts, but alternative options for those on tighter budgets.
If selling similar phones in three different lineups wasn’t enough, Samsung seemingly wants to add a fourth lineup to the mix. To be more precise, the company may be resurrecting an existing lineup: a phone called the Galaxy C55 is on the way, seven years after the last device in the Galaxy C series.
We have known for some time that Samsung has been working on a Galaxy C55, and the phone could be very close to its official launch, as it has made multiple appearances on the Google Play Console, the backend dashboard for Android app developers.
While the Galaxy C55 was first seen on the Google Play Console almost a week ago, the listing we’re talking about here names the device outright. Everything else is the same, once again confirming that the C55 is a rebranded version of the Galaxy M55/F55 for the Chinese market.
Most interestingly, all three handsets will use the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, a mid-range chip that was announced back in 2022. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 didn’t catch on and has only been seen on a handful of devices in nearly two years, and in 2024, it will be making its debut on Samsung-branded smartphones.
The Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 is older than the Exynos 1480, which is used on the Galaxy A55 and has AMD-powered graphics, but it should be perfectly capable of handling all kinds of tasks. In addition to a different chip, it appears the C55, F55, and M55 may not have a variant with 12GB of RAM, though it’s not confirmed at the time of publication.
Customers in China should be able to get their hands on the Vision Pro later in 2024. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook confirmed during his visit to China that Vision Pro will launch later this year in the country. Currently, the company’s $3500 mixed reality headset is only available in the US.
Responding to a media question after the China Development Forum in Beijing, Cook confirmed the Vision Pro’s Chinese debut in 2024. He also reaffirmed Apple’s continuous investment in China in its supply chain, R&D, and stores.
Given the complex retail launch and supply chain issues, the Vision Pro was rumored to remain US exclusive for a few months after its launch.
The headset’s international launch should boost its sales and allow more developers to get their hands on it. This should open up new use cases for the $3,499 mixed reality headset.
Tim Cook visits China as iPhone sales slowdown
Cook is on a visit to China amid a slowdown in iPhone sales. He also visited the opening of the “one-of-a-kind” Apple Jing’An store in Shanghai last week. The store in Shanghai is Apple’s second-largest in the world and 57th in the country.
Its opening and Cook’s visit to the country come at a time when iPhone sales have lagged behind other Chinese companies. This is the executive’s third visit to the country in less than a year.
Apple has diversified its supply-chain away from China in recent years, but the country remains an important market for the Cupertino giant. And so, the company cannot afford a dramatic drop in iPhone sales in one of its largest markets.
Apple CEO Tim Cook today confirmed that the Vision Pro headset will go on sale in China later this year (via Reuters).
Responding to a question from the press at the China Development Forum in Beijing, Cook confirmed that Apple’s first spatial computer will launch in the country in 2024. He added that Apple will continue to increase research and development investment in China. Earlier this week, Cook visited Apple’s new Jing’an store in Shanghai.
This is the first explicit confirmation of a specific country other than the United States that the Vision Pro will launch in this year. Apple says that the Vision Pro will launch in additional countries later in 2024, but the company has not provided a more specific timeframe or, until now, indicated exactly where the headset will become available. Last month, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said he believed the Vision Pro would launch internationally before Apple’s annual developers conference WWDC, which typically takes place in the first week of June.
Apple today released iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1, minor updates to the iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 operating systems. The new software comes a couple of weeks after Apple released iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 with app changes in the European Union, new emoji, and more. iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software…
Apple’s iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models concurrently, which is why we sometimes get rumored feature leaks so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and already we have some idea of what to expect from Apple’s 2025 smartphone lineup. If you plan to skip…
Earlier this week, leaker “Instant Digital” on Chinese blogging site Weibo claimed that Apple will be making an iPad-related announcement next Tuesday, March 26, suggesting a potential press release introduction ahead of pre-orders and a launch date. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has now weighed in, however, to say that this claim is “not true.” While disputing a March 26 announcement, Gurman has…
The U.S. Department of Justice today announced it has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit alleges that Apple illegally maintains a monopoly in the smartphone market with the iPhone and the device’s locked-down ecosystem. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. In a statement shared with MacRumors, Apple said the lawsuit is “wrong on the facts and the…
Apple plans to maximize the display size on the upcoming iPhone 16 series by using a new ultra-thin bezel technology, claims a new report out of Korea. According to Sisa Journal, Apple will use Border Reduction Structure (BRS) technology to minimize the bezel at the bottom of the display. BRS achieves this by rolling up the internal copper wiring into a more compact package. Apple…
On this week’s episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss Apple’s rumored plan to refresh the entire AirPods lineup with a series of new models. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos The fourth-generation AirPods will reportedly feature a new design with a better fit, improved sound quality, and an updated charging case with a USB-C port. For the first time ever,…
Apple is widely expected to release new iPad Air and OLED iPad Pro models in the next few weeks. According to new rumors coming out of Asia, the company will announce its new iPads on Tuesday, March 26. Chinese leaker Instant Digital on Weibo this morning 日发布%23″>claimed that the date will see some sort of announcement from Apple related to new iPads, but stopped short of calling it an…
Doogee has unveiled a low cost tablet with a surprising selling point. The Doogee T30 Max, a new and upgraded version of the firm’s T30 series tablet, sports a 12.4 inch IPS 4K Display. Yes, 4K.
That’s an impressive achievement for any tablet, let alone one retailing for $329 (or $296 when you apply the 10% off coupon code available on the website). For comparison, Apple‘s iPad Pro has a slightly larger screen (12.9 inch) and a resolution of 2732 x 2048 pixels or 2.7K. We recently reported on NEC’s LAVIE Tab T14 which we said had “probably the highest ever resolution on a tablet”, and even that only manages 3000 x 1876 (QHD+) and costs nearly $1,000.
Doogee T30 Max has an 87.5% high screen ratio, and is reasonably thin at just 7.9mm. For comparison again, the iPad Pro is 6.4mm thick.
Android 14
Doogee’s new tablet runs on Android 14 and is powered by a MediaTek Helio G99 Octa Core processor. This comprises two high performance Arm Cortex-A76 processors clocking up to 2.2GHz, and an Arm Mali G57-class GPU. The tablet comes with up to 20GB DDR4X RAM (8GB plus up to 12GB Extended RAM), and 512GB of storage (plus up to 2TB expansion).
The Doogee T30 Max features a 10800mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging.
There’s an AI dual camera setup (50MP+2MP) and a 20MP front shooter. It also supports face unlock and side fingerprint recognition.
In addition, the device has received TÜV SÜD blue light certification and conforms to High-Resolution Audio standards defined by the Japan Audio Association. It also supports a 4096 level active capacitive pen and a docking plug-in interface for a magnetic keyboard connection.
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
The Doogee T30 Max is encased in a nano injection molded one-piece shell with a leather texture rear and comes in black, khaki, and green. It’s available for pre order now with shipping expected to start on April 1 for all regions except the EU/UK, where buyers will have to wait until April 30th.
March 21, 2007: Apple launches the Apple TV, a gleaming white set-top box with a remote control, for bringing iTunes media to the living room.
Unfortunately, the device lacks key features needed to make it a killer entertainment system. It’s something of a missed opportunity for Apple.
Apple TV builds on a solid foundation
A bit like Apple’s move into music with the iPod and iTunes Music Store, producing a streaming video device made perfect sense. Given Apple’s history — and Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ Hollywood contacts, courtesy of his position as The Walt Disney Company’s largest shareholder — the company seemed perfectly poised to straddle the high-tech and entertainment worlds.
Even in the years that Jobs worked outside Apple, Cupertino innovated in this area. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Apple pioneered software for playing video on a personal computer. In the mid-1990s, the company launched the bold-but-unsuccessful Macintosh TV. That weird hybrid machine melded a Performa 520 Mac and a 14-inch Sony Trinitron CRT television.
After Jobs’ return, Apple launched its enormously successful movie trailer website, which became the place to download high-quality teasers for movies like Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, The Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man. Following this, Apple started selling TV shows through iTunes.
With that success in the rearview mirror, a standalone Apple TV seemed primed to take the world’s living rooms by storm.
First look at Apple TV
Right from Apple TV launch, however, it became clear that the device wasn’t Apple’s primary focus. Despite the company’s well-deserved reputation for secrecy and not releasing products until absolutely ready, Cupertino showed off Apple TV as a work in progress at a special event on September 12, 2006. (The company initially referred to the device as the “iTV,” but changed the name later after legal threats from the British broadcaster of the same name.)
By contrast, the first-gen Apple TV wasn’t a revolutionary product so much as a Mac accessory for slinging downloaded content to your TV. Initially, owners could not order a movie for Apple TV directly through their TV sets, despite the device’s internet connectivity. Instead, users had to download movies to their Macs, then send them to their Apple TVs.
Worse, despite insisting that you own an HDTV to use it, the video played by Apple TV was, in the words of Fortune‘s review, “so low-res that it looks as fuzzy as plain old broadcast TV.”
Apple works to improve its set-top box
Apple quickly improved the Apple TV interface. On January 15, 2008, a major software update transformed the device into a stand-alone gadget. Finally, Apple TV owners no longer needed a computer running iTunes to stream and sync content to it.
For the most part, though, observers initially called the Apple TV launch a rare “miss” for Apple. Within the device’s first six months, Apple sold only 250,000 Apple TV units. Even Jobs admitted the product was more “a hobby” than a serious undertaking.
By late 2008, Forbes called it a notable misstep — and labeled it “The iFlop.”
Later versions of Apple TV
A second-generation Apple TV, launched in September 2010, sported a much smaller black enclosure and supported video up to 720p resolution. The third-gen model, which arrived in March 2012, looked the same as its predecessor but bumped up video resolution to 1080p (and added HomeKit support for home automation).
The fourth-gen Apple TV added key features in 2015, including an App Store and Siri voice commands. Plus, it ran on a new operating system, dubbed tvOS, which was based on iOS.
It also came with a sleek, touch-sensitive remote control that looked great but infuriated many users. Two years later, the Apple TV 4K boosted the device’s video capabilities and made the remote slightly more user-friendly.
Earlier reports about the Galaxy M55 have revealed that the phone uses a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 processor, which is quite powerful for its class. It is a 4nm chip made by Samsung Foundry and features one prime CPU core, three high-end CPU cores, and four power-efficient CPU cores.
It has the Adreno 644 GPU, which is more powerful than the GPU inside the Snapdragon 778G (used in the Galaxy A52s) and the Snapdragon 782G. The phone was spotted earlier with 8GB RAM and Android 14 (One UI 6) out of the box.
The phone is said to feature a 5,000mAh battery and 45W fast charging. It likely has a triple-camera setup featuring a 50MP primary camera. The phone will likely have a 12MP ultrawide camera and a 5MP macro camera.
There have been reports that Samsung plans to launch two Galaxy Z Fold 6 phones this year. However, a new report now claims that the South Korean firm will launch a cheaper Galaxy Z Flip 6 version this year to improve its sales figures.
Cheaper Galaxy Z Flip 6 to have largely the same cameras as the costlier one
According to a new report from SisaJournal (via @Tech_Reve), Samsung is planning to launch a more affordable version of its Galaxy Z Flip series phone this year. While the device’s name hasn’t been speculated, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that Samsung could name it the Galaxy Z Flip 6 FE.
The upcoming foldable phone could have lower-end/older components than the Galaxy Z Flip 6. According to the report, it will have cheaper display, processor, and battery specifications. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 FE cameras, though, are expected to be similar to the pricier Galaxy Z Flip 5. So, it will likely feature a 12MP+12MP dual-camera setup, and there have been no major changes in camera components.
Samsung’s foldable smartphone market share has dropped from 66.4% to 60.4%, which is expected to drop further in the second quarter of this year. Samsung is reportedly trying to increase its market share by launching a more affordable foldable phone. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 FE will reportedly be priced at $800.
March 21, 2007: Apple launches the Apple TV, a gleaming white set-top box with a remote control, for bringing iTunes media to the living room.
