Yahoo Finance The Morning After: Sony is selling a lot of PS5s
Plus big numbers from Microsoft and Alphabet.
Since launch, Sony has already sold almost 8 million PlayStation 5 consoles, with 3.3 million of those picked up since January. The company has even sold a further million PS4s. The lifetime total for the last-gen PlayStation now stands at roughly 116 million. Predictably, the overall PlayStation business is now making a record operating profit for Sony, cementing its place as the crown jewel for the company.
What’s next? Immediately, some sneakers. In 2018, the NBA’s Paul George talked up his PlayStation fandom while introducing a PG 2.5 shoe linked to Sony's console, and now there's a PS5 set on the way, which will reportedly go on sale in May for $110.
While the company’s next-gen VR headset won’t arrive until next year, Sony is currently testing a video pass for PlayStation Plus users in certain territories. If it works, we could see PS Plus subscribers picking up video goodies alongside monthly free games. In short, it’s keeping busy.
— Mat Smith
What did the pandemic mean for Microsoft? A 44 percent jump in profits
Surface revenue is up 12 percent from last year.
Microsoft announced a 19 percent increase in revenues for the third quarter ($41.7 billion), compared to last year. Even more impressive, the company's profits jumped by 44 percent to reach $15.5 billion. Revenue for the More Personal Computing segment, which includes Windows, Xbox and Surface devices, reached $13 billion (up 19 percent). And while Microsoft didn't reveal specific Xbox sales figures, it said console sales were up 232 percent compared to last year.
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Apple's next-gen M2 Mac processor has reportedly gone into production
It could arrive as early as July in time for next-gen MacBooks.
Apple's successor to its M1 Apple Silicon chip could arrive in MacBook computers by the second half of this year, according to a report from Nikkei. Tentatively known as M2, the processor has reportedly gone into production and could start shipping by July 2021.
For anyone who hasn’t been following, Apple’s M1 chip is now in its newest MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini and, most recently, the new 24-inch iMac and iPad Pro. However, the majority of models still run on Intel CPUs. Apple still plans to phase out Intel chipsets within two years, which would be around the end of 2022.
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Dell's latest Latitude detachable has a stylish look with thinner bezels
It could have a serious Surface competitor on its hands.
Dell’s new Latitude detachable packs thinner bezels around a larger 13.3-inch Full HD display. Dell says the machine has a smaller, thinner footprint than previous models, while still including a fingerprint reader, IR camera and a pair of standard camera sensors.
Behind those Surface-style looks, the 7320 detachable has an 11th-gen Intel processor (up to Core i7) with integrated Iris Xe graphics, and you can have up to 32GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM. The Latitude 7320 detachable starts at $1,549 and is available now.
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Two weeks with Spotify’s Car Thing
An in-car remote control.
Spotify’s odd audio accessory is available in “limited release” but, as Billy Steele explains, it could be a useful upgrade for subscribers trying to enjoy the service in older cars that don’t have Bluetooth or voice control built-in.
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A PSN outage knocked gamers offline Tuesday afternoon
Some players couldn't even launch their digital games.
Over the last few weeks, the Xbox network has had issues that disconnected gamers and even kept them from launching their own games. And yesterday, it was apparently PlayStation's turn. The PlayStation Network status page confirmed an outage stopping folks from logging in or being able to create accounts.
DownDetector started tracking reports of issues shortly after 5 PM ET, but according to PlayStation’s status page, everything was back and working again by 7 PM. There's no word on what caused the problem.
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