The outlook for PC shipments continues to call for eventual stabilization as competition from other devices eases, upgrades to new models and Windows 10 boost demand, and economic conditions around the world stabilize or improve. However, the decline in PC volume since early 2012 is still expected to linger through 2016 with later years struggling to boost volumes as economic issues and competing products continue to present headwinds, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company hit a new 52-week high of US$25.80 on Mar 16, eventually closing at US$25.78.

A virtual-reality version of Mnecraft will be coming to Samsung's portable VR headset this spring. The Oculus Rift version of Minecraft is also slated for release this spring. The key difference, of course, is the Gear VR only costs $99 compared to the $599 Rift. The Gear VR also only needs a compatible Samsung phone (like the new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge) versus a powerful gaming PC.

Globalfoundries has announced new advanced radio-frequency (RF) silicon solutions, further expanding the portfolio of Silicon Germanium (SiGe) power amplifier (PA) technologies designed to enable performance-optimized cellular and Wi-Fi solutions in increasingly sophisticated mobile devices and hardware.

Swiss watchmakers, who once dismissed smartwatches as short-lived gadgets, are now racing to grab a share of a fast-growing market via technology partnerships and stepping up investments.

Imagination Technologies, the British company whose graphics power Apple's iPhone, said it would make new cost cuts, including job losses, to speed up a turnaround plan.

The transaction is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2016.

Having trailed behind both Intel and Nvidia in the PC graphics market in recent years, AMD is preparing to go all in on virtual reality.

Kyocera will spend about JPY15 billion (US$132 million) to double production capacity for flip-chip chip scale package (FC CSP)substrates. These items carry the central processing unit, communication modules and sensors, and connect to the printed circuit board which holds other components such as resistors.

Suntech has announced to cooperate with the new government in Colombo, the biggest city of Sri Lanka. Suntech will provide 378 pieces of polycrystalline solar modules for a roof-top system.

The laptops-to-nuclear conglomerate said it had overstated past profits by JPY5.8 billion (US$51.30 million) on a pretax basis due to seven new accounting errors, on top of the 224.8 billion in overstated profits it has already announced.

Toshiba is in late-stage negotiations to sell its white goods business to Chinese household appliance giant Midea Group, a move that would mark another chapter in Japan's drastically changing home electronics industry.

Microchip Technology has announced the receipt of antitrust clearance in US and Germany for its acquisition of Atmel

Sino King Technology, set up by Yukio Sakamoto, will be a key part of a roughly JPY800 billion (US$7 billion) project by the Chinese city of Hefei to build a plant to churn out cutting-edge semiconductors.

"We believe Samsung, despite some recent delays, will still be the first mover to 10-nanometer technology," Mark. C. Newman, a senior analyst at Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to clients Thursday. "TSMC and Intel will soon follow, whereas Globalfoundries can hardly keep up. Samsung can still edge ahead of TSMC."

After announcing in 2014 it would bring an industrial 3D printer to market within two years, HP went mostly silent -- until now.

Once more Google has released the monthly look at the market share of each version of Android. Once more the poor performance of the current version is painfully on show. And once more the arguments about how important this is will carry on. Why is Google allowing this vicious cycle to continue?

AMD has introduced XConnect, a form of driver-level support for external graphics cards, as part of its latest Radeon 16.3 driver. XConnect allows users to add and remove a Thunderbolt 3 external graphics device (eGFX) such as the Razer Core, without needing to restart the PC, as well as switch between discrete and integrated graphics on-the-fly.

MediaTek and Orange have announced a new collaboration to market IoT tailored offerings embedding ready-to-use cellular connectivity to address the growing industrial demand for connected objects. The agreement will address professional developers and manufacturers of IoT devices including consumer electronics products.

The latest leak on Apple's upcoming 4-inch iPhone suggests Apple might be ready to deliver a two-punch combo to competitors by rolling out not only the new iPhone SE but also keeping the 5s alive.

Morgan Stanley's James Faucette today weighs in on the speculation about whether Qualcomm may lose some share of the baseband modem chip business in Apple's iPhone to Intel, concluding that there's a real chance it will happen, but it doesn't threaten Qualcomm overall.

Toshiba has granted Canon exclusive negotiating rights for its medical equipment unit after a hotly contested auction, with a report putting Canon's offer at more than $6 billion.

Chinese exports have seen their sharpest drop in almost seven years, adding to concerns over the health of the world's second largest economy.

US chipmakers will feel the sting of the US government's decision to restrict technology exports to China's ZTE. Qualcomm and Intel are both suppliers to ZTE, as is Singapore's Broadcom.

Multimedia chip designer DSP Group on Monday confirmed a report by Chipworks that its HDClear chip is a component in the new Samsung Galaxy S7 phone, a deal expected to significantly boost the company's revenue.

These chips will apparently be used on both future Nvidia Pascal graphics cards and AMD Polaris GPUs.

JP Morgan thinks TSMC has not lost its technological edge and Qualcomm will be coming back to the Taiwan manufacturer for 7nm in 2018.

It looks like everyone has forgotten one of the big selling points of Android is for manufacturers. Either that or Google is ready to concede a vital UI element to Apple's iOS.