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Showing posts from April, 2017

Windows 10 Creators Update will only roll out to these 13 phones

Microsoft has recently launched the Creators Update for Windows 10 for computers, and now the company is working on finishing that release for smartphones. So today it's published the official list of handsets that will be getting the Windows 10 Creators Update. And the list only contains 13 models. Here they are: • HP Elite x3 • Microsoft Lumia 550 • Microsoft Lumia 640 • Microsoft Lumia 640 XL • Microsoft Lumia 650 • Microsoft Lumia 950 • Microsoft Lumia 950 XL • alcatel Idol 4s • alcatel Fierce XL • SoftBank 503LV • VAIO Phone Biz • MouseComputer MADOSMA Q601 • NuAns Neo That's it. If you have another Windows phone, it's time to get to grips with the fact that it will never be updated to the latest release of Windows 10. To preemptively counteract the inevitable criticism regarding this decision, here's what Microsoft's Dona Sarkar, Windows Insider chief, had to say: We recognize that many Insiders will be

Nokia 3310 is on its way to Vodafone and EE in the UK

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We already know that Carphone Warehouse will be selling the newly revived Nokia 3310 (2017) in the UK, because the retailer has boasted about seeing "an unprecedented level of demand" for the feature phone. Clove will also be offering the device, starting in May. But what about operators? Today both Vodafone and EE have confirmed that they will be stocking the new 3310. Unfortunately neither was kind enough to share a specific release date, so we'll have to stick to saying it's "coming soon". On the other hand, O2 and Three have no plans to sell the 3310, at least for now. The 3310 should be priced at €49 in the Eurozone, which means its UK pricing will probably be around £39.99-44.99. There's a small chance that the feature phone will launch before the end of this month, apparently, but May is still our safest bet for that. Since it's more of a marketing stunt than an actually desirable handset, we're interested to see how w

HTC One X10 will have a 4,000 mAh battery, newly leaked promo materials reveal

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Yesterday an official-looking poster for the upcoming HTC One X10 got leaked, and it promised us a "bigger battery". We were intrigued, for sure. Today a couple of additional promotional materials for the One X10 have been outed, as you can see below. And one of these thankfully clears up the mystery regarding the device's battery capacity. It's 4,000 mAh. That's great for a handset that should come with a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, as per previous rumors. The One X10 will supposedly be powered by MediaTek's Helio P10, aided by 3GB of RAM. 32GB of storage will be built-in, and a fingerprint scanner can be seen on the back. The main camera is allegedly a 16 MP unit, while an 8 MP snapper will take care of selfies. HTC will probably make the One X10 official soon, given that its promotional materials have started leaking already. Hopefully the company manages not to overprice it. Source

Check out this Galaxy S8 “Infinitely Amazing” video ad

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Samsung Mobile USA uploaded a new Galaxy S8 ad on its YouTube account. It highlights all the new features of the flagship in one minute, combined with cool music and amazing visuals. The video starts with the device powering on "when it sees you." This is a reference to the iris scanner that Samsung made for Galaxy Note7, but after discontinuing the phablet, the technology eventually found its way in the Galaxy S8. Then it continues to the "Infinity Screen" and its (almost) bezel-free design, stating the world would get “infinitely bigger” with a camera that snatches “just about anything.” Samsung didn’t forget to mention its in-house assistant named Bixby that learns your habits and improves with time. If you are a fan of Internet of Things and have connected your home to the web, you can turn on and dim lights in your living room. And if you need to go “anywhere you can imagine,” you can just use the Gear VR, the video says. The spot

LG G6 to gain facial recognition support in June

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LG unveiled its flagship G6 a month before Samsung in order to get a head start over its competitor. Yet, the company is also working hard to make sure the G6 stays relevant once the Galaxy S8 hits the shelves and one of the steps it will take is match its competitor's facial recognition support. LG is planning to deliver that when it launches LG Pay in June. LG Electronics is partnering with facial recognition solutions firm Oez to deploy a 3D face-scanning technology. Both companies worked together in bringing contactless biometric technology to other LG devices such as the V20 and the G5. When launched in June, LG’s in-house digital wallet app (exclusive to Korea initially) LG Pay will enable users to authorize payments just by looking at the phone. It sure sounds interesting, but we have to wait and see if it will perform as well as it looks. Until then you can authorize payments on your G6 with the fingerprint scanner like some cave dweller from t

Huawei Mate 9 already running a test version of Android O

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Huawei is wasting no time and has started work on porting the new Android O to its premier phablet, the Huawei Mate 9. It’s early in the development stage, but some unique O features like picture in picture are already working. A ROM was unearthed by an XDA senior member, who provided the first glimpse of what’s to come. The EMUI version is 5.1 - a tenth higher than the last update, but the Huawei P10 is already on v5.1 so this is likely not the final version of Huawei’s custom skin. Huawei Mate 9 running a test version of Android O • The picture in picture feature The ROM isn’t suitable for a daily driver as its for the Chinese version, comes pre-rooted with SELinux set to permissive and (worst of all) there are several issues. Still, sideloading the Play Store worked, even at this early stage. There’s no official roadmap to the Android O update for the Huawei Mate 9. Google first needs to finish tinkering with it before phone makers seriously start thinking about a

AMD releases Ryzen 5 desktop CPU lineup

As planned, AMD has released the Ryzen 5 series of desktop CPU after releasing the Ryzen 7 series in February. The Ryzen 5 series currently includes four models, two of which are 6-core and the rest 4-core. Starting with the 1600X, you get 6-cores, 12 threads, 3.6GHz base clock, 4.0GHz boost clock, 4.1GHz XFR clock, 95W TDP and $249 price tag. The 1600 has 6-cores, 12 threads, 3.2GHz base clock, 3.6GHz boost clock, 3.9GHz XFR clock, 65W TDP and $219 price tag. The 1500X has 4-cores, 8 threads, 3.5GHz base clock, 3.7GHz boost clock, 3.9GHz XFR clock, 65W TDP and $189 price tag. The 1400 has 4-cores, 8 threads, 3.2GHz base clock, 3.4GHz boost clock, 3.45GHz XFR clock, 65W TDP and $169 price tag. The 1600 and 1500X come with Wraith Spire coolers and the 1400 with Wraith Stealth cooler. AMD is targeting these processors at gamers who also stream simultaneously as well as workstation machines that can take advantage of multi-threaded processing prowess of these ch

Microsoft has laid Windows Vista to rest

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Today, Microsoft is “sunsetting” Windows Vista. That means it will no longer be supported with security updates from Microsoft. So if you find yourself with a machine running Windows Vista, you should look at upgrading to a newer version of Windows in order to stay secure. Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista In the early 2000s, Windows pumped three major consumer operating systems: In early 2000 came Windows 2000, later that year, Windows released a Windows Millenium update which was filled with glitches and bugs, including a way to bypass the password screen by hitting a few keys. Then came Microsoft’s saving grace: Windows XP. Windows XP then became a very popular operating system getting its third service pack in 2008. Back-tracking a couple of years to 2006, Windows Vista is released to the public. Windows Vista was abundant with glitches, bugs, and the overall performance of the OS was quite awful on hardware available at the time: when d

Sony Xperia XZs camera low-light performance examined in detail

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The Sony Xperia XZs turned out a great flagship in spite of a few caveats here and there. We published our review on Friday and it has been under the spotlight ever since. Many people showed interest in the device and quite a few expressed their opinions and concerns. And we thank you for that! We noticed one particular review chapter to be gathering unusually big attention - our low-light camera samples - and so we decided to make an in-depth follow up on that. What we usually do for our low-light test is shoot the urban landscape from our office balcony. We would take one handheld sample, then we'd use a tripod, and if available - we would snap a long-exposure photo. That's what we do with the rest of the phones and that's what we did with the Xperia XZs. Our readers became curios about the uninspiring Xperia XZs low-light samples and eventually the discussion gathered traction. We monitored our feedback, so we took the Xperia XZs for another spin

Three new Huawei MateBook devices leaked

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Last year Huawei launched a Surface competitor named MateBook - a 2-in-1 PC running Windows 10. According to leaksters Evan Blass and Roland Quandt, the company is planning to build up on that with an update of the 2-in-1 and an addition of two laptops, dubbed MateBook D and MateBook X. The devices have the codenames “Pascal,” “Bell” and “Watt” and this helped to spot one of them on Geekbench. The Pascal device (aka MateBook X) has an Intel Core i5 CPU and 8 GB RAM. It comes with 15" screen and 64-bit Windows 10. The display is bigger compared to the MateBook D that will sport a 12.5” one. MateBook E, codenamed Bell, will be an update of the first generation Huawei MateBook 2-in-1 and will come with Intel Core M Cherry Trail CPU and 4 GB RAM. Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 | Via

Truly Exquisite covers Galaxy S8 and S8+ with 24K gold

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There’s gold, the color option, and gold, the precious metal. Truly Exquisite means the latter when it talks about its 24K Gold Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. There’s also 18K Rose Gold and, for a more neutral color, a Platinum option. You can combo those noble metals with the Midnight Black or Orchid Grey colors from Samsung as those determine the color of the glass back - Truly Exquisite only gilds the metal frame, while the front is Black on all S8 color options. Anyway, you’re getting more than just a gilded phone for your £2,250 (without VAT) - yes, that’s how much they cost. You’re also getting a 24K Gold Power Bank, Luxury leather card holder, wireless charging pad and the usual Gear VR. All of that is presented in a fancy luxury wooden display box. A Truly Exquisite Samsung Galaxy S8: with Rose Gold, Gold and Platinum You can choose between the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, keep in mind that both are the Exynos-powered versions with 4GB RAM/64GB storage. If

Alleged image of Moto X (2017) is actually the expected Moto E4

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We already told you Moto E4 passed FCC certification, but there is a deficiency of images of the upcoming device. According to famous leakster Evan Blass, the alleged Moto X (2017) render we saw in Moto USA’s 44th-anniversary video was actually of the new E-series smartphone. Leaks of the Moto X (2017) started coming up, but since they look a lot like the render, they might be of the Moto E4. Looking at the positioning of cellular bands, camera setup, and the circular M logo, it's actually very likely. Here’s a quick rundown of the Moto E4 specs that already leaked: a 2,800 mAh battery, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.2 and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connection, plus 16GB of storage. The device, unsurprisingly, runs on Android 7.0 Nougat. We are yet to hear from Lenovo about an official unveiling or market release dates. Via

Qualcomm sues Apple for making its modems look inferior to Intel’s

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Qualcomm filed a lawsuit against Apple in the US. Key complaints are five, including a claim that the Cupertino-based company didn’t use the full potential of the Snapdragon modems in the iPhone 7 so they don't perform as good as Intel’s chips. The company claims its products are better but Apple deliberately “prevented consumers from enjoying the full extent of Qualcomm’s innovation.” Claims state that the Qualcomm iPhones outperformed Intel iPhones, but Apple said there was “no discernible difference between the two variants.” Along with this, Apple also deliberately hid the information from customers and even threatened Qualcomm to keep it quiet. Some of the other complaints include misrepresenting facts and false statements. This lawsuit is clearly an answer to Apple’s $1 billion claim filed in January, stating that Qualcomm has been drastically overcharging for its patents. Apple's actions followed the FTC litigation against Qualcomm that stated

Google Home will support multiple users, the question is: When?

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This comes with some half-good news. Google Home has officially (but indirectly) been confirmed to gain the ability to manage multiple accounts for others who you share a household with. In its most recent app update, a message appears in the app’s “Discover” tab. Unfortunately, there is no such feature available yet, so someone at Google must have made a mistake. Google Home is a smart assistant that can help you with the weather, your commute, and help you to control some of your smart home appliances. However, the biggest flaw is that a single Google Home can’t manage multiple accounts. The most straightforward way of implementing this would be to introduce some voice-recognition that would differentiate who is speaking and provide that person’s relevant information. While Google sorts out the whole multi-users deal, in the meantime you can summon Google Assistant from your Android phone, and it has your own account. Via

FCC Chairman just shot down proposal to allow voice calls, in-flight

Back in 2013, a proposal made by the United Stated Federal Communications Commission would set out to lift the ban of using a phone to make phone calls during a flight. The proposal came from the Department of Transportation and would make it up to each airline to decide if they should allow passengers to make these calls. Passengers would have to be notified they were buying a ticket for a flight that allowed in-flight voice calling. Today, a Statement was released by US FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai, which directly addressed the 2013 proposal: I stand with airline pilots, flight attendants, and America’s flying public against the FCC’s ill-conceived 2013 plan to allow people to make cellphone calls on planes. I do not believe that moving forward with this plan is in the public interest… The statement is, well, just a statement. It doesn’t revoke the proposal, but it shows grandiose disapproval of its possible outcome. Today, it is still impossible to make cellular ca

Samsung Galaxy S8 duo smashes pre-order records in Korea

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smashed pre-order records in its home country - more than 550,000 units were booked in two days. That’s more than 5 times the S7 pre-orders (around 100,000) and nearly triple what the Galaxy Note7 got (200,000, a record in itself). Pre-orders will last until April 17 (by then the number may reach a cool million) and there are a whopping 3,000 stores across the country carrying the S8. Samsung sweetened the pot by offering a free Bluetooth speaker or a KRW 400,000 gift card. An official from a local store reports that 80%-90% of visitors were there to pre-order the new Galaxy flagship. Surprisingly, the ratio of Galaxy S8 and S8+ orders seems even - usually, the smaller unit gets more attention. Still, there’s pent-up demand for a large-screen device since the Note7 went off the market. The 6GB/128GB version is also enjoying high demand, says a Samsung official. # of pre-orders in 2 days Higher is better Sort by L

Bixby to learn new languages, expand functionality in Q4

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Samsung is about to launch its AI assistant Bixby along with the Galaxy S8/Galaxy S8+ announcement on March 29. It's somewhat limited at this point though as it only speaks and understands English and Korean. According to new info from Samsung's German website however, it will also gain German support by the fourth quarter of 2017. On Samsung’s German website a question about the availability of Bixby in the European country was asked. The company answered that the full functionality is expected in Q4 2017. This means the AI assistant will understand more languages and probably will even have a broader range of capabilities. Samsung will probably have an Unboxed event for the Note8 at IFA 2017 in September. And with the phablet launch likely to come in Q4, it might bring the improved Bixby functionality along. Source (in German) | Via (in Dutch)

The Nokia 9 could come out in the fall with a spicy $700/€750 price tag

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Those design sketches with a Zeiss-branded dual camera are getting some further support from the rumor mill. Claimed specs include 22MP dual cam on the back and a 12MP (single) selfie cam on the front for the Nokia 9. This is (allegedly) a flagship slated for a Q3 launch or later and will hit the market at a premium price of $700 in the US and €750 in Europe.could be closer to the US price Other than the camera, the Nokia 9 is said to improve on the Nokia 6 spec sheet with a 5.5” QHD screen (an AMOLED) and a Snapdragon 835 chipset. That also puts it ahead of the purported specs for the Nokia 8 (QHD screen, Snapdragon 660) and Nokia 7 (1080p, S660). Those are expected in mid-May/early June. Source | Via

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ Review

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Samsung Galaxy S8

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Network Technology GSM / HSPA / LTE 2G bands GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2 (dual-SIM model only) 3G bands HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100 4G bands LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 17(700), 20(800), 28(700) Speed HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE-A (4CA) Cat16 1024/150 Mbps GPRS Yes EDGE Yes Launch Announced 2017, March Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2017, April 21st Body Dimensions 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 mm (5.86 x 2.68 x 0.31 in) Weight 155 g (5.47 oz) Build Corning Gorilla Glass 5 back panel SIM Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) - Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified) - IP68 certified - dust/water proof over 1.5 meter and 30 minutes Display Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors Size 5.8 inches (~83.6% screen-to-body ratio) Resolution 1440 x 2960 pixels (~570 ppi pixel density) Multitouch Yes Protection