Qualcomm has just unveiled its new Snapdragon 710 processor, which is a slight bump on the Snapdragon 700 series that the co many unveiled earlier in the year.

The new Snapdragon 710 is better than the mid-range Snapdragon 600 and 700 series designs, with Qualcomm touting double the AI performance compared to the Snapdragon 660. We have the X15 LTE modem and Spectra 250 image processor, lower on the tech tree than the flagship X20 modem and Spectra 280 processor inside of the Snapdragon 800 series.

As for the X15 modem we can expect up to 800Mbps over LTE, with the Snapdragon 710 including 10-bit color support as well as it being the first Qualcomm chip to support 4K HDR playback, a first for Snapdragon outside of the flagship 800 series.

Apple and Samsung are in court again over the damages retrial, where we'll see how much Samsung will have to cough up to Apple on infringing Apple design patents.

The South Korean giant was found guilty of violating Apple patents in 2012, but the companies have been fighting over how much money Samsung will have to pay over the last six years. The big deal here is going to be over Samsung paying damages for the total value of the device, or whether it's going to be a fee base on the parts of the iPhone that they reportedly copied.

Apple wants to see Samsung pay based on the full value of the iPhone, while of course Samsung wants to pay the smaller amount based on the bits they copied. Samsung lawyer John Quinn states: "They're seeking profits on the entire phone. Apple's design patents do not cover the entire phone. They are entitled to profits only on [infringing] components, not the entire phone".

HTC has discovered the buzzword of the year, and decided to make a smartphone around it with their upcoming Exodus handset announcement during the Consensus 2018 blockchain conference in New York, where we recently saw a crypto-powered beer vending machine unveiled.

HTC is making a new blockchain smartphone that the company explains on the Exodus landing page: "Our vision is to expand the blockchain ecosystem by creating the world's first phone dedicated to decentralized applications and security. With the release of the HTC Exodus we can now make this a reality".

The new Exodus smartphone will support both Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as other cryptocurrencies with its universal wallet, secure hardware, and decentralized apps. HTC has plans to make a native blockchain network where cryptocurrency can be traded with other Exodus smartphone owners. You will be able to buy Exodus using cryptocurrency as well, but no pricing or ETA has been released just yet.

In a world dominated by Apple and Samsung, how can you be any different? That's what Lenovo is hoping to do, especially after its $2.9 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google.

Lenovo VP Chang Cheng teased the new Z5 on China's Weibo social network, showing off slick screen-to-body ratio of 95%, further teasing the Z5 features four technological breakthroughs that include the use of 18 patented technologies. We have no idea what these technologies are, but the hype is definitely building.

How will Lenovo handle the front-facing camera with a screen-to-body ratio of 95% is a big question. Can we expect the 'notch' that Apple made infamous with its courageous iPhone X? Bezel-less smartphones aren't super-new, but with in-display fingerprint sensors now here, Lenovo teasing four technological breakthroughs and 18 patented technologies definitely has my attention.

Huawei is the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer, behind only to behemoths Apple and Samsung, and have now confirmed they will be forcing Bitcoin Wallets on all of their future smartphones.

The Chinese smartphone manufacturer will be baking-in BTC.com's Bitcoin Wallet into their own App Store, with existing Huawei smartphone owners needing (if they want to) download the app from the AppGallery. The Google Play Store isn't available in China, so Huawei users will need to use AppGallery to get it, but future Huawei handsets will have it by default.

Vice President of Business Operations at BTC.com, De la Torre, told Bloomberg: "It's a good opportunity to tap into the Chinese market. The use of cashless payments with apps is very big and the traditional banking system is lacking, so there's a good use case for crypto payments to grow there".

Apple didn't have the best launch with its iPhone X late last year, and now according to sources of the company they are "disappointed" with the sales of iPhone X as it's not competing against other similarly priced flagship smartphones on the market.

FastCompany is now reporting that Apple wants to "burn off" the inventory of iPhone X smartphones with its resellers, and when mixed with the production of iPhone X being cut down to just 8 million units in Q2 2018, things begin making sense. Apple expected to sell 27 million iPhone X handsets in Q1 2018, now expecting to have sold 14 million units.

We should know more about iPhone X sales on May 1, which is when Apple reports its financial results for the March-ending quarter. Analysts will have their eyes glued to numbers, to see if iPhone sales failed, met, or exceeded their expectations.

LG's new flagship G7 ThinQ smartphone is right around the corner, something that will launch next month. With the early tease, LG has said that the G7 ThinQ will rock a 6.1-inch panel with a native resolution of 3120 x 1440.

The 6.1-inch display has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9, something that includes a notch at the top of the display just like the iPhone X, that most people hate. Evan Blass who goes by @evleaks on Twitter, is behind the new leak (seriously, he gets all the scoops, he's a champ) which gives us two new shots to look at, the first of which is above - the G7 ThinQ itself.

LG is shoving in some serious display chops into the G7 ThinQ and its 6.1-inch QHD+ panel that has up to 1000 nits of brightness, which is retina-busting compared to the 400-700 nits on most flagship smartphones. LG might even be able to market the G7 ThinQ as a display that looks great even outdoors in the sunlight.

We all know ASUS is working on a new gaming-focused smartphone, but other than that the handset is a total mystery. We have no idea about release date, the name, price, or anything inside.

What we can do is try and estimate what will be inside of it and when it will launch, and how ASUS will market the first ROG gaming smartphone. ASUS is expected to launch their next-gen Zenfone range of smartphone in the next couple of months, something that will include the new Zenfone Live and Zenfone Max M2, but what about the ASUS ROG gaming smartphone?

ASUS could unveil a new Zenfone ROG smartphone, using both their Zenfone mobile brand and ROG gaming brand into a new super-gaming smartphone.

The mobile version of Fornite launched last week and in just three days of the games launch onto iOS devices, the title has made $1 million in-app purchases.

According to data collected by Sensor Tower, the new mobile phenomenon has brought in a huge total of $1.5 million worldwide.

When compared to Pokemon Go, Fortnite has earned around one third of the games revenue that Pokemon Go earned in just the first four days of its release. Keep in mind these numbers from Sensor Tower are just based on the games in-app purchases alone and nothing else.

Broadcom has its heart set on acquiring Qualcomm so much so that the company has offered a huge $121 billion takeover offer, with Qualcomm denying it, and has now pushed back its shareholder meeting that would've ended with a decision on the Broadcom takeover.

The reason? A request by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that is concerned about Broadcom's possible acquisition of Qualcomm for national security. Broadcom is a Singapore-based company, which could create national security-related issues if it were to acquire US-based Qualcomm, which has technology inside of billions of communications devices.

Qualcomm was behind the request to CFIUS to review the takeover, with the company saying in a statement: "In compliance with the CFIUS order, Qualcomm will delay its Annual Meeting of Stockholders and election of directors for at least 30 days so that CFIUS can fully investigate Broadcom Limited's proposal to acquire Qualcomm".