If we learned anything in 2020, it’s that we’re more dependent on our phones than ever. We’re working, learning, playing and even ordering groceries from home, and we’re doing a lot of it via apps. With the pandemic raging on, it seems there’s no end in sight to this digital dependence. Businesses of all sizes need to pivot and be able to go with the digital flow in 2021. No matter what type of business you run, we bet you could benefit from making an app. And thanks to , you can do that entirely on your own. Yep, you don’t need to hire someone to build an app thanks to this award-winning and highly reviewed platform.
Analytics firms like IDC and Canalys have released their sales projections for the PC market for both Q4 2020 and the full year. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has driven a huge increase in PC sales over the past 12 months. While these impacts were initially expected to be limited to Q1 – Q2, the ongoing nature of the pandemic has kept sales elevated throughout the entire year. PC sales rose ~26 percent in Q4 2020 and were up roughly 13.1 percent in the entire year, to IDC (Canalys reports 11 percent). This is easily the largest growth the PC market has shown in the past decade.
Today you can get a highly versatile laptop from Dell with over $800 marked off the retail price. This system is perfect for work, but it also has a 100 percent sRGB compatible display for editing images and a GPU that’s powerful enough to keep the average gamer happy. Intel Core i7-10750H 15.6-Inch 1080p Laptop w/ Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU, 8GB DDR4 RAM and 256GB NVMe SSD for $979.00 from Dell (List price $1,712.86) Qualcomm SnapDragon 855 Dual-Sim 128GB OLED Smartphone for $299.99 from B&HPhotoVideo (List price $499.99) 1080p USB Camera for $115.89 from Amazon (List price $129.99) MicroSDXC for $27.99 from Amazon (List price $49.99)
This year, at the first-ever digital CES, Intel is announcing a slate of new processors across multiple product families. There are new updates coming for the budget Pentium Silver and Celeron families, new 11th Generation vPro and Evo vPro systems, upcoming eight-core Tiger Lake CPUs, new higher-end Tiger Lake quad-cores intended for gaming, and new data on upcoming products like Rocket Lake. Here, we’ll focus mostly on the new CPU announcements. Intel is putting a lot of emphasis on the Chromebook market, with the first 11th Gen CPUs launching in that space later this quarter. When Chromebooks first appeared, they were typically powered by ARM CPUs, but we’ve seen a number of x86 devices launch over the past few years.
The bacterium Clostridium botulinum produces the world’s most potent poison, which can cause paralysis, labored breathing, and death — it’s called botulism. The same toxin also smooths wrinkles in the skin at low concentrations because nature is weird like that. There’s an approved treatment for botulism, but it’s not perfect. Two different teams have that could more effectively clear the dangerous toxin from cells and tissues, and it relies on a modified version of the toxin itself. It won’t do anything for your crow’s feet, though. The botulinum toxin is so deadly because it’s adept at slipping into nerve cells where it blocks the release of a vital neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
Last week, a report surfaced claiming that Microsoft and Duracell have a secret agreement between them in which Microsoft agrees to keep AA batteries as the default power standard for its Xbox controllers. Microsoft denied the rumors, which began when Duracell UK’s marketing manager, Luke Anderson, referred to a deal between the two companies: There’s always been this partnership with Duracell and Xbox… It’s a constant agreement that Duracell and Microsoft have in place… [The deal is] for OEM to supply the battery product for the Xbox consoles and also the controllers’ battery. This has been broadly read across the internet to mean that Microsoft and Duracell have some kind of agreement in which Microsoft agrees to keep traditional AA batteries as the default solution for its controllers so that Duracell will… cut it a good deal on a couple of AA batteries + some console parts?
Nvidia’s purchase of ARM in 2020 kicked up a lot of controversy over whether ARM could be owned by one of its most prominent licensees. Now, the UK government has announced an investigation into the deal and the likely outcomes if Nvidia is allowed to buy ARM. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority it will examine how Nvidia’s deal with ARM treats other current licensees of the company’s designs, and investigate whether the deal gives ARM “an incentive to withdraw, raise prices or reduce the quality” of the chips it builds. The organization also said it would examine the deal in cooperation with other authorities around the world, to ensure it does not harm consumers or raise prices.
For the last few years, Jeff Bezos has been the richest person in the world — even after losing a large chunk of his fortune in a divorce. That changed this week when a Tesla stock surge made Elon Musk the world’s richest man. In celebration, he’s not going to Disneyland. Nope, Elon Musk is apparently , and he wants to bring a million people along for the ride. After Musk officially became the world’s most successful capitalist on Thursday, he pinned a 2018 tweet to his Twitter page announcing his intention to use his wealth to start a colony on Mars.
Working from home took on a whole new meaning in 2020. Whether you were working, distance learning or spending your birthday on a Zoom call, we all spent a lot more time on our computers. And it became clear that the home office was a necessity in today’s crazy world. Even if you don’t have enough space to create a separate room, there are certain gadgets that can give you the semblance of an organized office area. For instance, all you need is a desk to upgrade your workspace with this full desk blotter. Make working from home in 2021 a little more bearable.
