Google just concluded its big I/O event, revealing a ton of hardware and software developments. Among the big hardware announcement was the launch of the new Pixel 6a and the Pixel Buds Pro. However, Google also teased details about the upcoming Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel Tablet, and Pixel Watch. Google also announced Android 13 Beta 2 for a number of smartphones, foldable devices and tablets. The search giant also announced Google Translate is adding support for 24 new languages including eight new Indian languages.

Google has been working to make the way users search, more intuitive and more natural. It also announced a range of new features and improvements across its suite of products, including Google Search, Maps, and Assistant at its annual developer conference Google I/O 2022. Google also aims to enhance the hybrid work experience using machine learning. The Android family of users is now over three billion strong, and more than a billion of those users were added in the last year alone.

Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal announced a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting efforts on Thursday, a reflection of the company’s state of uncertainty while it awaits Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover. This could be down to the fact that Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition was put on hold. Elon Musk announced that his deal with Twitter’s board to take over the social network had been temporarily put on hold. “Twitter deals temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” Elon Musk said.

Saudi Aramco overtook American tech giant Apple as the world’s most valuable company, stoked by a surge in oil prices that is buoying the crude producer while adding to an inflation surge throttling demand for technology stocks. Aramco traded near its highest level on record on Wednesday, with a market capitalization of about $2.43 trillion, surpassing that of Apple for the first time since 2020. The iPhone maker fell 5.2 percent to close at $146.50 per share, giving it a valuation of $2.37 trillion.

The global smartphone market is expected to face a decline in 2022. According to TrendForce, smartphone production volume stood at 310 million units shipped in Q1 2022, a decrease of 12.8 percent from the same period in 2021. The return of the pandemic in China contributed to decline of the smartphone market in Q1 2022. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to exacerbate the rising global inflation issue. High inflation means that personal disposable income will shrink and will inevitably lead to prolonged replacement cycles and reduced purchasing budgets for individual devices.

India’s financial crime-fighting agency asked a court on Thursday to reinstate a freeze of $725 million in the Indian bank accounts of Xiaomi Corp as it investigates fund transfers by the Chinese smartphone giant. The enforcement directorate had seized the money saying Xiaomi had illegally transferred funds abroad to three entities, including one in the Xiaomi group, describing them as payments “in the guise of royalty”.

Motorola announced the Edge 30 in India, debuting as a mid-range 5G smartphone that is touted to be the slimmest 5G smartphone in the world. The Moto G82 was recently unveiled in Europe. The Moto G82 is a 5G mid-range smartphone with an OLED display, a Snapdragon chipset, a large battery, and a triple-camera setup.

After a nearly 30-yeat long partnership, EA and FIFA will finally go their separate ways starting next year. EA Sports, the sub-brand, under which EA publishes its sports titles, will drop the FIFA name from the title and adopt Sports FC instead. FIFA 23 will be the last game before the changes take effect.

Disney’s video streaming service Disney+ Hotstar has crossed the 50 million paid subscriber mark, the media and entertainment conglomerate disclosed as part of its earnings results on May 11. Disney+ Hotstar added 4.2 million paid subscribers for the quarter ended April 2, 2022, taking its total base to 50.1 million subscribers. Disney+ Hotstar accounted for about 36.4 percent of the total paid subscriber base of Disney+ for the quarter which stood at 137.7 million.

At Intel Vision 2022, the company launched seven new mobile processors under the company’s 12th Gen Intel Core mobile processor family. Intel said that the new 12th Gen Intel Core HX processors utilise “desktop-calibre silicon in a mobile package”. The new line-up includes seven new processors, including the Intel Core i5-12450HX, Core i5-12600HX, Core i7-12650HX, Core i7-12800HX, Core i7-12850HX, Core i9-12900HX, and the top-of-the-line Intel Core i9-12950HX.