Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the new year, Lenovo has rolled out a ton of product announcements. The announcements include no less than six (six!) laptops, a desktop, a tablet, and a few monitors. And we’re likely to get more announcements from Lenovo related to CES come January.

Since we’ve got so many products to go over, let’s just dive in.

Laptops

First up, we’ve got the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5/5i, IdeaPad Slim 5/5i, and IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook. The Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 and 5i (pictured in the header image) come in 14- and 16-inch sizes in either ‘Artic Grey’ or ‘Frost Blue.’ Unfortunately, only the 16-inch Pro 5i will be available in North America. It offers “up to the latest Intel Processor” and “up to an Nvidia GeForce Next-Gen Laptop,” although Lenovo didn’t specify which CPUs and GPUs would actually be available.

Other IdeaPad Pro 5i features include a 25 percent larger touchpad, expandable SSD storage, up to 120Hz refresh rate, and a QHD+ resolution. The IdeaPad Pro 5i that will be available in North America will start at $1,499.99 USD (roughly $2,049.08 CAD) and will be available starting in May 2023.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i

There’s also the IdeaPad Slim 5 and 5i Gen 8 in 14- and 16-inch variants (only the 16-inch models will be available in North America). The IdeaPad Slim’s OLED display offers up to a 2.5k resolution with 400 nits of brightness. Moreover, the Slim 5i sports up to the latest Intel Core processor, while the Slim 5 offers upto the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPUs. They come in three colours — ‘Violet,’ ‘Cloud Grey,’ and ‘Abyss Blue.’

The IdeaPad Slim 5i will start at $749.99 USD (about $1,024.53 CAD) and the Slim 5 will start at $649.99 USD (approximately $887.93 CAD). Both will be available in May 2023.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3i

Finally, the IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook offers a 360-degree hinge for 2-in-1 use. Lenovo says the Flex 3i’s battery lasts up to 12 hours on a charge and it runs on the latest N-series Intel CPU. The Flex 3i will start at $349.99 USD (about $478.11) when it becomes available in May 2023.

Alongside the consumer laptops, Lenovo showed several ThinkPad laptops aimed more at businesses. There’s the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8, and ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3. The X1 laptops are built on Intel’s Evo platform and offer the latest generation of up to Intel Core i7 CPUs and up to 64GB of RAM. All three will be available in April 2023 starting at:

ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 – $1,729 USD (about $2,361.92 CAD)
ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 – $1,859 USD (roughly $2,539.51 CAD)
ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 – $1,649 USD (approximately $2,252.63 CAD)

Desktop and tablets

Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini 5i

The desktop unveiled by Lenovo is the IdeaCentre Mini 5i, a tiny, Mac mini-style PC. It sports a built-in power supply unit and a chassis that Lenovo says can be easily opened, allowing users to access the dual-vortex cooling fan and memory chip. It’s got the latest Intel Core CPU, two DDR4 memory chips, up to 1TB of SSD storage, Wi-Fi 6 support, and more.

The IdeaCentre Mini will start at $649.99 USD (roughly $887.93 CAD) and will be available starting Q2 2023.

Lenovo Tab M9

Lenovo also showed off its Tab M9 tablet running Android 12. Sporting a MediaTek Helio G80 Octa-Core CPU, 128GB of storage and a 9-inch ID display, the Tab M9 looks like a decent option for watching Netflix and playing games. It will cost $139.99 USD (about $191.23 CAD) and is expected to be available starting in Q2 2023.

Monitors

Lenovo’s P49w-30 is a one wide boy

Lenovo listed several monitors, but the only one really worth writing about was the wild ThinkVision P49w-30. It’s a 49-inch ultrawide display with up to 13 ports, two of which support Thunderbolt 4 with up to 100W of power delivery and that can be used to daisy chain other Thunderbolt 4 monitors (if you even have room for one after placing this behemoth on your desk).

Lenovo expects the P49w-30 to be available starting in June 2023 for $1,699.99 USD (about $2,322.29 CAD)

BBC Studios and ITV have revealed what content is coming to BritBox, a British programming-focused streaming service, in January.

BritBox, which costs $9.99/month (or $99.99 per year), offers access to series like Doctor Who, Emmerdale and Five by Five. In August, the service will add content like Pride and Prejudice, About A Boy, Mr. Bean’s Holiday and more.

Check out everything coming to the streaming platform next month below:

Vera: Season 7 (January 1st)
Seekers (January 6th)
Here We Go (January 10th)
Stonehouse (January 17th)
Vera: Season 12 (Sometime in January)

Apple has some great deals on discounted MacBook Air laptops and accessories through Amazon Canada. If you buy today it seems the massive online retailer can ship to you before the 25th.

Check out the deals below.

Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad for $124 (save 17%)
Magic Keyboard – French for $94 (save 21%)
Magic Keyboard – US English for $94 (Save 21%)
Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad for $124 (Save 17%)
Apple Magic Mouse (Wireless, Rechargable) for $79.99 (save 10%)
2020 Apple MacBook Air Laptop for $1,149 (Save 12%)
2020 Apple MacBook Air: Apple M1 Chip, 13″ Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage for $1,149 (save 12%)
2020 Apple MacBook Air: Apple M1 Chip, 13″ Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage for $1,149 (save 12%)
Silver 2020 Apple MacBook Air: Apple M1 Chip, 13” Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage for $1,149 (save 12%)
Gold 2020 Apple MacBook Air Laptop: Apple M1 Chip, 13″ Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage for $1,149 (save 12%)

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.

Source: Amazon Canada

The IRS accidentally releases private data, Amazon and Reddit hit the list for companies with the lowest retention rates, and South Australia powers the state for a week with green energy. 

 

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Tuesday December 20 and I am your host, Ashee Pamma.

Confidential data of over 100,000 taxpayers inadvertently published by the IRS over the summer was accidentally republished in late November and remained online til this month. According to the IRS, data from Form 990-Ts that was supposed to stay private had been taken offline but made its way back to the IRS site when a contractor uploaded an old file which included most of the private information, The agency had to make Form 990-Ts filed by nonprofit groups available online but is supposed to keep the form filed by individuals private. According to Bloomberg, an internal programming error caused the September release of private forms along with the ones filed by non profit groups. In a letter written to congressional leaders last week, this time, the contractor tasked with managing the database reuploaded the older file with the original data instead of a new file that filtered out the forms that were supposed to stay private.

 

A report from Work and Money reveals the tech companies with the lowest retention rates. Out of 19 companies, Shopify and ByteDance tied at 14th place citing long hours and overworking for the low score. Meta was ranked at 12th place with employees claiming that the workplace is not a positive environment. Other notable tech companies on the list include Alphabet, Zoom, Reddit and Amazon. Amazon made the list for employee burnout and extremely low pay. 

 

South Australia has been effectively powered by green energy for a week and one expert is predicting that it could extend to a month by 2023. From December 12 to 19, National Energy Market data showed wind and solar contributed on average 103.5 per cent towards the state’s energy demand. Coal energy was not used at all during the period and gas accounted for 5.9 per cent of electricity when renewable sources were not enough to power the state throughout the night. The average cost of a megawatt hour dropped to -$26.35. In addition, ABC News reported that the Head of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre at Victoria University, Bruce Mountain, said this milestone is another step on the renewable energy journey. He added that South Australia could potentially see the state powered using green energy for a month by early next year.

 

A new artificial intelligence tool called ChatGPT has the ability to solve math problems, write college essays and write research papers. However, following the release of the text-based system to the public last month, some educators have noted that  these AI systems have the ability to transform academia in good and bad ways. According to NPR, one professor named Ethan Mollick from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, said the tool has become a popular way to help students cheat by plagiarizing the AI-written work. But there are benefits to it as well. Mollick has used it as his own teacher’s assistant, for help with crafting a syllabus, lecture, an assignment and a grading rubric for MBA students. 

 

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Ashee Pamma.

 

The post Hashtag Trending Dec 20 – IRS releases private data; Big tech tops list for companies with low retention rates; South Australia powers with green energy first appeared on IT World Canada.

News that Avaya Holdings Corp. could imminently file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection means that both channel partners and corporate clients are watching anxiously to see what will happen next.

Should a filing end up happening, “part of Avaya’s Chapter 11 filing requires a simplification of their product lines,” Thomas Randall, advisory director with London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group, said today. “Both channel partners and clients are watching for whether parts of Avaya will be sold off (e.g., their contact centre solution) to meet financial objectives, or whether certain products will just reach end of life from lack of R&D investment.”

News of the pending bankruptcy protection plan first broke on Thursday when the Wall Street Journal reported that the “company is reaching a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to restructure its balance sheet, in a bid to turn around its business and move past accounting problems.”

Company shares at the end of trading today plunged to US$0.15, from a high share price earlier this year of US$21.65.

According to Randall, “plenty will be attractive to potential buyers of Avaya product lines – Avaya still retains an extremely large customer base. The question will be whether Avaya just remains the paint on a solution powered by another provider, or if the Avaya brand will disappear altogether from a sell-off. RingCentral already powers Avaya’s UCaaS solution – will another vendor (like Microsoft) decide to acquire Avaya’s contact centre solution for ease to market?”

At the end of the day, he added, another concern to be considered is customer experience: “With so many layoffs and an inability to meet certain cloud deployment deadlines, Avaya customers and channel partners may be reaching the point of jumping ship.

“It is a difficult process to modernize from on-premises legacy communications to cloud-based solutions. But, if that move has taken place, the infrastructure now exists for clients to perform a cloud-to-cloud migration. Cloud-to-cloud migration services also present a market opportunity for channel partners to move into.”

Another stumbling block revolves around the fact that confidence among partners will not be high, Randall said: “Having already been through a Chapter 11 journey just five years ago, Avaya had to rally its partners at their 2018 Engage conference.

“Channel partners will now likely be asking, ‘What is different this time? What confidence can I be given that the product lines I am selling will still be here next year? What communication should I be giving my clients?’ At the moment, communication still remains vague and likely will remain so until the filing takes place.”

A Reuters article that followed the Wall Street Journal reporting  stated that the company “was in talks with its financial stakeholders regarding a comprehensive resolution to strengthen its balance sheet.”

In a statement issued on Dec. 13, Alan Masarek, Avaya’s chief executive officer (CEO), said discussions with all of the company’s financial stakeholders are taking place, “to enhance our capital structure, increase liquidity and accelerate our investment in innovative products and solutions.”

The post Sell-off of Avaya product lines a real possibility if Chapter 11 filing occurs, says analyst first appeared on IT World Canada.

Tbaytel will use Ericsson’s network to launch 5G services in 60 sites in Thunder Bay in January 2023.

The company says it will expand the service to other markets by the end of 2023.

“5G networks will enhance our mobile experience providing us opportunities to reimagine how we use our smartphones and connected devices,”  said company president and CEO Dan Topatig said.

“It will bring faster data speeds for downloads and streaming, larger network capacities to support more connected customers and continuous network reliability to enrich Tbaytel’s overall mobile experience.”

The company is also partnering with Rogers to launch the service.

Tbaytel is initially planning on using a combination of network spectrums for a “superior combination of coverage area and capacity.” Low band spectrum will provide coverage for long distances and desirable service in rural areas. Mid-band, on the other hand, will boost speed and provide ultra-low latency.

Image credit: Tbaytel

Source: Tbaytel

A pair of former Tesla employees have filed formal complaints against their former employer after they were illegally fired for taking part in an organized effort that publicly criticized Tesla CEO Elon Musk, as reported by Bloomberg.

The employees, who are based in California, have both filed formal complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), citing that the firing violated federal laws regarding employee freedom of speech related to working conditions.

Both of the fired employees were reportedly involved in drafting two letters, one of which prompted Tesla to re-consider its return-to-office policy, while the other talked about a Tweet by Musk that reportedly violates the company’s anti-harassment policies.

The case is similar to the SpaceX firing incident, where a group of former employees were illegally fired after they wrote a letter that suggested the company strengthen its “zero-tolerance policies” after sexual harassment allegations against Musk came out. The fired SpaceX employees filed a complaint with the NLRB and hired a San Francisco-based law-firm to represent them. Reportedly, the recently fired Tesla employees have hired the same firm.

It’s worth noting that U.S. law bars companies from firing or taking action against its employees for taking collective action related to their working conditions, making the firing outright illegal.

Source: Bloomberg Via: The Verge

Instagram has launched a new Recap Reel to let people create a custom video to commemorate the end of 2022.

First, you’ll choose a narrated template featuring either Bad Bunny, DJ Khaled, Indian rapper Badshah or Stranger Things‘ Priah Ferguson. From there, you can select up to 14 photos for Instagram to automatically edit into a sharable Reel.

To access this, click the new ‘create your 2022 recap reel’ prompt on the Instagram app’s homepage or locate it in the Reels tab.

Historically, Instagram has lacked any in-app recap feature, leading users to use third-party apps like ‘Best Nine’ to round up their most-liked posts. However, the social media giant introduced ‘Year in Review’ in 2021, allowing users to select up to 10 stories to share with followers.

Now, the company is shifting to Reels for its 2022 recap, which falls in line with its larger push for the TikTok-esque short-form video format.

Via: Engadget

Starting 2023, Nvidia Shield TV users will lose access to a feature that allowed them to stream the games they run on their PC directly to their TVs.

The feature, called Gamestream, allows users to access their favourite games from a GeForce GTX-powered PC directly on a Shield TV or Shield Tablet at 60FPS at up to 4K HDR. Starting mid-February, however, a planned update will begin rolling out to Shield owners that will permanently disable remove the Gamestream feature from Shield devices.

As an alternative, Nvidia is recommending users to migrate over to using Steam Link to stream games from their PC to Shield devices. “Steam Link supports 4K streaming and allows streaming to many devices, including PCs, phones, and tablets. Gamers can also stream PC games from the cloud to their SHIELD TV using NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW service,” wrote Nvidia in a support document. 

You’ll need the SteamLink app on your Shield TV and Steam on your PC to stream games.

Mid-February is when the update will reportedly drop. However, if you want to use Gamestream for a little bit longer, you can choose to not update your device. According to Nvidia, if you don’t update, “Gamestream may continue to work for a time, but will no longer be supported and eventually will stop working.”

It is currently unknown why Nvidia decided to end support for Gamestream. Learn more here.

Image credit: Nvidia

Source: Nvidia

Microsoft has floated the idea of introducing a lower-cost, ad-supported membership for Xbox Game Pass.

In a new survey sent to some Spanish Xbox players, per Windows Central, the tech giant looked to gauge interest in a number of hypothetical less expensive Game Pass subscriptions.

One of the proposed memberships would be to pay a lower fee to get first-party Xbox games as much as six months later, a significant change from Game Pass’ current promise of day-one exclusives. An even cheaper tier could also introduce ads into the service, which would presumably play when a game is launched.

Interestingly, Windows Central notes that Microsoft recently patented a method to show personalized ads in games, which is curious timing considering the new survey.

It’s also worth noting that many streaming services have been introducing lower-cost, ad-supported memberships as a way to drive growth. In November, Netflix launched the $5.99 CAD/month ‘Basic with Ads’ subscription in Canada and other markets, while U.S. services like Disney’s Hulu, Warner’s HBO Max and NBC Universal’s Peacock also offering similar ad-enabled alternatives. Disney+ even just got an ad-supported option in the U.S. earlier this month, although it’s unclear if and when it will expand to Canada.

Given how Game Pass already draws inspiration from the on-demand nature of these streaming services, it’s easy to see how Microsoft might also be looking at how they’ve been handling ads. Of course, it’s important to stress that surveys and patents are not the same as an actual confirmation, so it remains to be seen whether Microsoft will go down this route.

For now, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said the price of Game Pass will inevitably go up, but not until next year at the earliest. The company has confirmed that the cost of first-party Xbox Series X/S games will also increase next year ahead of Starfield.

Source: Windows Central