Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones News - Page 52

The next round of flagship phones will likely be powered by a new chip, and that chip is shaping up to be one well worth getting excited about.

That new chip is of course the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 from Qualcomm, with the silicon set to replace the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that powers flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S23 lineup. Now, new details show the upcoming chip's expected performance when compared to the old one, and it makes for good reading.

The information comes via Twitter leaker Revegnus, with the stats suggesting that there will be up to a 30% speed improvement depending on the type of thing you're doing.

The iPad continues to try and convince the world that it's a real laptop replacement and in many ways, it's proven that to be the case. But so far it's been found lacking in one key way - there was no way to connect a proper webcam.

Sure, the iPad comes with a webcam built in but that's no good if you want the camera angle to be different or, heaven forbid, you just want a really good image out of a proper webcam. But that's all changing when the iPadOS 17 update arrives later this year.

That's because Apple is finally adding USB webcam support to the iPad with the release of iPadOS 17. The update is expected to ship in September, so there is still a little time to wait. But when iPadOS 17 lands podcasters around the world will rejoice.

The iOS 17 update looks set to make a huge improvement to the App Store and it's one that many of us had forgotten that we even wanted in the first place.

The change is the addition of a download timer, one that will give people an idea of how long it will take to complete a download from the App Store. The new timer will appear beside the button that can be pressed to stop a download and only appears on downloads that are relatively large. Downloads that complete within a couple of seconds won't bother displaying a timer, it appears.

The change was noted by Mastodon user Matt Birchler and is also likely to apply to the iPadOS 17 update, although that is yet to be confirmed. However, the same feature hasn't made the jump to the Mac App Store, at least not in the first developer beta of macOS 14 Sonoma.

Apple developer accounts have historically cost $99 to get a hold of, but for that, you also get access to Apple's developer relations teams, resources, tools, and, of course, beta releases. Those beta releases include macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. Now, it seems that everyone can download those betas free of charge instead.

The news means that people who register for a free developer account will be able to download Apple's latest and greatest developer beta updates without having to pay the usual $99 fee. What's more, it also means that they won't have to wait for Apple to release updates to the public beta channel, either. In the case of the iOS 17 beta, that was expected to involve a weeks-long wait. Now, people can download iOS 17 right now - and they can do it for free.

The change was first spotted by iSoftware Updates with Apple updating its developer website documentation to outline the difference between a free developer account and one that will continue to cost $99 per year.

Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event will be for the first time held in Seoul, South Korea, and now details about the contents of the event are unraveling.

The Galaxy Unpacked event being held in Seoul will focus on the foldable category, with reports indicating that Samsung is preparing to unveil its next-generation Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Samsung announced the news and wrote that Seoul was specifically selected for its role in "influencing global trends" through its dynamic culture and innovation. Latest rumors suggest Samsung has made some progress on removing the crease from its foldable displays.

Other rumors suggest that the Galaxy Z Flip 5 will be powered by a Snapdragon 9 Gen 2 chip, similar to the Galaxy S23. As for the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Samsung has been making improvements with every installation into the Galaxy Fold line, from a prominent crease in the very first Galaxy Z Fold in 2019, to a now nearly invisible crease in the latest Galaxy Z Fold. There are expectations that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will be no different in terms of improvements, with buyers expecting improved hinge mechanics that remove the gap and enables the screen to fold completely flat.

Apple's WWDC 2023 opening keynote is now just a matter of hours away and there are plenty of rumors that point to what the company plans to announce. We've seen various rumors relating to the hotly-anticipated Reality Pro headset, but there might be a free upgrade coming for hardware that we already have.

That upgrade could make Siri much easier to use, especially if you're someone who finds that you have to get the digital assistant's attention using the "Hey Siri" command a lot. Because that command might finally be going away.

That doesn't mean that you won't be able to get Siri to respond without pressing a button or anything else so draconian, however. Instead, it now appears that Apple is finally ready to shorten that wake phrase - choosing to simply go with a quick "Siri" instead.

Unlike its first phone, Nothing is bringing the Phone (2) to the United States and the company will officially announce more details about the phone at some point next month. Now, the company has confirmed a couple of little tidbits of information ahead of time relating to software and the Phone (2) display.

The news came via a series of tweets posted to the social network that confirmed a couple of interesting things, especially for those who thought the Phone (1) was a little on the small side.

Perhaps the most notable part of the tweets was the fact that Nothing will make the Phone (2) as sustainable as possible. To do that it says that it is committed to continuing to offer three years of Android updates as well as four years of security updates - something that should ensure that not only do Phone (2) buyers get new features but that they're also protected in terms of security flaws and whatnot.

Every year Apple shares details about how many of its active devices are running the latest and greatest version of its software. Today it did exactly that, updating developers on how well adopted iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 have been since their release towards the end of 2022.

According to the figures, which were posted to the App Store section of Apple's developer website, 90% of all iPhones introduced in the last four years are now running some flavor of iOS 16, a figure that is impressive for developers who want to be able to build apps against the latest APIs.

That figure falls to 81% when all active iPhones are taken into account, but it's still almost identical to the figures from last year's iOS 15 release.

Microsoft just pushed out an update for its Surface Duo and Duo 2 devices with a nasty sting in the tail, in the form of a bug that causes the hardware to reboot randomly.

This gremlin in the works was reported by Surface Duo owners on Reddit after the May 2023 update, with the restarts happening seemingly without any rhyme or reason, making for a serious headache, as you can imagine.

A staff member on Microsoft's Answers.com help forum said the company is actively investigating the problem.

Apple iPhone owners who have just updated to iOS 16.5 are in some instances finding their battery life has been severely hampered, and charging times are reportedly affected too.

Macworld was quick to spot the complaints, of which there are quite a few, hitting various online forums and social media platforms.

The tech site also flagged up the Apple Support account responding on Twitter, as you can see in the above tweet, noting that it's 'normal' for an update to cause your apps and phone to go through a period of adjustment - and it might take 48 hours to return to normality.