Source: OnePlus

Is the smartphone market entering a downhill trend? TSMC believes so

The official news today will be.. Coming later but let's call these semi-official. We have a new report from TSMC… yes, I know... So weird. Anyways, their chairman is claiming that the demand for smartphones, PCs and other consumer electronics will decrease once again due to the pandemic and the issues caused by conflicts in Europe. He also mentions that everyone in the industry is currently worried about the rising costs across the overall supply chain, as the semiconductor industry has already experienced this cost increase. Liu is also warning us about the changes in pricing for components and materials as everything just keeps getting more expensive, and yes these costs "could eventually be passed on to consumers", meaning demand for devices could also be affected by the higher price tags. As for TSMC, they will be reorganizing and prioritizing their orders to supply their customers who can sustain a healthy demand despite the slowdown in some areas. A clear example is Apple, which benefits from using the same chip across all its phones, which allows it to slow down manufacturing of one without affecting their demand. Yeah, I'm talking that new iPhone SE.

Apple & Meta reportedly gave sensitive data to hackers pretending to be government officials

Sticking to official news, let's talk about Apple, Meta and leaking data. I know. We have a new report from Bloomberg claiming that both Meta and Apple, allegedly gave away sensitive information to hackers who were pretending to be law enforcement officials. Apparently the hackers first targeted the emails of the law enforcement officials and once they got access to their email and IDs, they then submitted requests to these big tech companies in order to get sensitive information. These requests usually go through some process of verification but, I guess it just slipped up this time. According to a report from Krebs, Apple received 1162 emergency data requests out of which they answered to 93% of them. Facebook on the other hand received over 21500 requests out of which they answered 77%. The data passed to the hackers reportedly includes certain user's address, phone numbers and IP address according to the Bloomberg report. Apparently this happened halfway through last year and the masterminds behind this might be Lapsus$ who have been getting a ton of huge companies recently. Both Apple and Meta have issued statements but due to the origin of the issues, both of them were really just fulfilling legal requests. Let us know what you guys think about this in the comments.

3 things the Google Pixel 6a retail box reveals about the next Pixel phone

Moving on to Google and some new Pixel leaks... I know, I know, it's been a while but we get some new updates for the Pixel 6a. We've already seen renders and we've heard some of the leaked specifications but now, we have an image of the Pixel 6a's retail box. Obviously as expected this doesn't reveal much other than confirm that it will bring a similar design to the regular Pixel 6 and this box does look identical to the ones we got for the 6 Series. On the image we can also see that this is a completely black variant which looks kinda different to the Stormy Black on the larger Pixel 6. The main differences between this devices would be the sizes and the build materials of course, they'll probably use polycarbonate for this one. Some benchmarks that leaked recently also confirmed that the 6a will be powered by the Tensor chip, 6 Gigs of RAM and the same camera we got all the way up to the Pixel 5a. The problem is the launch date, with several leaks mentioning that it's coming at Google I/O but that it could be delayed. Honestly, I'm just waiting on the hands on video.

OnePlus 10 Pro launches in the US and other global markets

Finally, for the hottest and also official news today, let's talk about OnePlus. Yes, the company had their launch for the 10 Pro earlier today where they gave us the details for this phone for the rest of the world. Some things we already knew, others that came as a pleasant surprise. Just to get the specs out of the way for this international variant, it brings a 6.7-inch QHD+ display which is an LTPO 2.0 panel. It's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 which is also equipped with a new five layer 3D Passive Cooling System. Sadly, OnePlus is only giving us one variant in the US that brings 8 Gigs of RAM and 128 Gigs of UFS 3.1 storage. Seems other markets like the UK are getting the 12/256 for more money. It also brings a 5000 mAh battery cell that supports 80W fast charging… but, hold it right there. That's if you're outside the US, as here we only got the same 65W SUPERVOOC charging.. I know. Also only the T-Mobile variant brings the official IP rating, though I'm sure they're all built the same. And yes, it also runs on Oxygen OS 12.1 which is based on Android 12. As for the cameras, you get a 48MP main sensor, a 50MP ultra wide with a 150 degree FOV and an 8MP telephoto. Yes, these cameras are tuned by Hasselblad and they even give you a Pro mode that let's you capture 12-bit raw photos. But honestly, the hottest thing here is the price. This phone costs $899 and before you tell me this isn't cheap, the 9 Pro cost 969 and only in certain markets, as the US only received the higher storage variant that was 1100 bucks.