Haven't found the perfect gift yet? Look no further! The Serious Insights Holiday Gift Guide for 2022 focuses on our best-reviewed products. They fall into a wide range of prices, from stocking stuffers to “wow, you bought that instead of a diamond ring?” 

– Dan W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

At the height of Covid, before we really knew how it was transmitted, many tech companies reacted with antimicrobial offerings. Global accessory maker Targus started a line that included the mouse and the keyboard reviewed here. While transmission of Covid from hard surfaces ended as a rare transmission method, other bacteria and viruses, however, do travel that way. Many times, I have come home with CES and Comic-Con “crud” long before Covid-19, mostly from a lapse in hygiene after a day of touching well-touched escalator handrails.

The US Chips and Science Act took over a year of negotiations to pass and contain provisions that supply around $11B in semiconductor research and development. To begin to make use of this money, over 100 companies in the technology sector have come together to form the ASIC (American Semiconductor Innovation Coalition). This is a broad effort to help address the dire situation the U.S. Semiconductor industry is in because of the pandemic, Ukraine War, and China’s increasing hostility toward Taiwan. Let’s talk about ASIC this week.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

Despite still high digital adoption rates, our latest Digital Sentiment Survey finds that consumers are uncertain about the future. But clear opportunities for digital growth exist for companies that know where to look.

- Neira Hajro, Klemens Hjartar, Paul Jenkins, and Benjamim Vieria 

Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference, WWDC 2022 announced several updates to chips, devices, and all of the operating systems. We explore the more important announcements below and analyze their impact on users and the market.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

I received an evaluation copy of TripIt Pro several months ago. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the first trip after that. And the one after that as well. But I have had time to explore the latest version of TripIt Pro, which now sits ready to support a trip in July 2022. Earlier versions of the service proved valuable in trips across the globe. TripIt offers value before trips and during them. The services insights help subscribers realize how many adventures they have shared. A free version will serve for most, while a Pro version at $49 will likely find more than one way to pay for itself.

– Dan W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

The metaverse arms race is really picking up speed and new announcements are being made all the time. The most recent development is the coming together of two great tech worlds: the Metaverse and the cloud. That’s because of tech company Nvidia, which has led the switch to move its metaverse over to the cloud, where it can be more easily accessed. The question remains: will the rest of the metaverse do the same?

– TGDaily

Want to show off with the coolest looking earbuds around? Read Serious Insights’ latest earbud review to see if the sound from these new GravaStar Sci-Fi-inspired earbuds lives up to their looks. 

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

The return to offices has forced many managers to confront new team dynamics in meetings with some staff joining in shared spaces while others remain virtual. That’s not the only fear created by returns to the office. Daniel W. Rasmus identified 12 Hybrid Work Fears Managers Must Face as the next reality. He looks at planning, motivation, finding time to reflect, how to innovate and other challenges that all of us will likely face at one time or another over the next several months.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Last week I attended the IBM event with Fast Company on its hybrid cloud solutions. IBM is unique in that it often populates events like this with customers who talk about how IBM’s solutions are used rather than the far less interesting performance metrics of new hardware, software, or networking solutions. This use of customers to create content is far more compelling than the usual vendor talking head, and, in terms of credibility, people who use a technology are far more credible than those who sell it. In short, IBM’s use of customers to tell the story has for some time been a best practice.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group