Weekly Tech Recap - № 322 - Apple market cap, TP-Link routers, Zenbook 17 Fold, Enki Pro HyperSense, and Dell U3223QZ
Apple reigning champion over the stock market
Apple Store, Bangkok. © iStock.
Apple became the first publicly traded company to be worth more than $ 3 trillion, reports the New York Times, a colossal sum that roughly matches the gross domestic product of Great Britain or India. The news comes less than two years after the company was the first to reach a market valuation of $ 2 trillion. The company is worth more than Walmart, Disney, Netflix, Nike, Exxon Mobil, Coca-Cola, Comcast, Morgan Stanley, McDonald’s, AT&T, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, IBM and Ford combined. Apple now accounts for nearly 7% of the total value of the S&P 500, breaking the 6.4% record set in 1984 by IBM. When Apple unveiled the iPhone in January 2007, the company was “only” worth $ 73.4 billion.
Apple briefly lost its title of the world’s most valuable company to Microsoft in late October. However, it retrieved its crown thanks to a very strong recovery in November. It then shot forward through the rest of 2021 and has added $ 500 billion to its market value since November 15.
⇨ New York Times, Jack Nicas, “Apple becomes first company to hit $3 trillion market value.”
2022-01-03
A router with autonomously mobile antennas
Archer AXE200 Omni. © TP-Link.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, TP-Link presented a prototype router, the Archer AXE200 Omni, which has four antennas that autonomously deploy and rotate in search of the best possible signal. Beyond its mobile antennas, the Omni is a tri-band router with a 6GHz band (Wi-Fi 6E). It can handle maximum transfer speeds of up to 4.8 Gbps on the 5 and 6GHz bands, as well as speeds of up to 1,148 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. The router has an ultra-high-speed WAN port for the wired connection capable of handling incoming speeds of up to 10 Gb/s, as well as an Ethernet port capable of handling up to 2.5 Gbps. Neither price nor availability date have been published. TP-Link also showed many other new routers to be released sometime in 2022, but none of them have antennas that move around, which takes away from the cool factor.
⇨ The Verge, Alice Newcome-Beill, “This TP-Link router automatically moves its antenna for the best Wi-Fi.”
2022-01-04
Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED
Zenbook 17 Fold OLED. © Aus.
Just two years ago at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, several manufacturers presented what was then a novelty: foldable Windows laptops/tablets. Since then, Lenovo has persisted in this niche market. It announced the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED this week, which, as the name suggests, features a 17-inch OLED (2560 x 1920) display. Besides its 17-inch touchscreen, it is equipped with a 12th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED will be available in the second quarter of 2022 and its price will be announced eventually.
Asus has also announced other Zenbook OLEDs with a more conventional design, including the Zenbook 14 OLED, which will come in different colors. This laptop features a 14-inch display (2.8K, 16:10, 90Hz) and you can buy it with a 12th generation Intel Core i7 processor or an AMD Ryzen 5000. As with the Fold, the price isn’t yet announced and the device will be available in Q2 2022.
⇨ The Verge, Monica Chin, “Asus will release a 17-inch foldable OLED laptop this year.”
2022-01-05
Enki Pro HyperSense for the strong of heart
Enki Pro HyperSense. © Razer.
Razer’s lineup of gaming chairs has expanded with a new model, the Enki Pro HyperSense, which vibrates and wobbles to the action taking place in your game or movie. This chair results from a collaboration with D-Box, a company specializing in haptic cinema seats. Razer claims that over 2,200 games, movies, and music tracks offer native support for the moving seat. Sounds like a lot, yet in terms of games, Razer only listed Forza Horizon 5, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and F1 2021 as a few compatible examples. Price and availability have not been released.
Razer isn’t the only company interested in vibrating chairs. Cooler Master announced a collaboration with D-Box a few months ago but has yet to reveal the product. For now, we just know the chair’s name: Motion One. If market demand grows, we can assume that more games will build in compatibility.
⇨ YouTube, “Razer Enki Pro HyperSense & D BOX reveal”
⇨ The Verge, Cameron Faulkner, “Razer’s Enki Pro HyperSense can jig to the beat of your games.”
2022-01-05
Dell 4K screen and webcam
U3223QZ. © Dell.
Dell is expanding its line of UltraSharp monitors with a new 4K model, unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Its integrated webcam, which is also 4K (with a Sony 4K HDR Starvis CMOS sensor), is unique on the market. Dell says the camera’s tilt is adjustable to 20 degrees and can switch between 65, 78, and 90-degree fields of view. The monitor has a USB-C port that Mac users will appreciate, a 31.5-inch (3840 x 2160px) IPS panel, and two built-in 14W speakers. The refresh rate caps at 60Hz and there is no support for variable refresh rates, which make this monitor less than ideal for gamers. The target audience is probably more creatives and teleworkers who do a lot of videoconferencing. The device can also act as a USB hub with its five 10Gb/s USB-A ports. Dell says the monitor, which goes by “U3223QZ” (Dell’s product names are appealing and punchy as ever), will be available from March 29th. The price has not yet been announced.
⇨ Ars Technica, Samuel Axon, “Dell’s new UltraSharp 4K monitor has a monstrous 4K webcam built in.”
2022-01-05
