Mobile Devices - Page 108

Huawei's latest flagship, the Huawei Mate 9, should go on sale in the US on January 6th, according to Evan Blass.

The phone was unveiled in Berlin at the beginning of November, with no specific date of the launch in the States given, although it was speculated that it could happen by the end of the year. However, the date given by Evan Blass makes sense since Huawei will be present at CES, and they could use that event for their official launch in the US.

As for the phone, the Mate 9 features Huawei's newest chip the Kirin 960, comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, and is expandable to 256GB with a microSD card. The phone has a 5.9-inch full HD display, 4,000 mAh battery, fingerprint sensor and rear dual camera system - 20MP (monochrome) + 12MP (color) with an aperture of f/2.2. The front camera is 8MP with an aperture f/1.9.

The iPhone celebrates its 10th anniversary next year and many expect to see something spectacular from Apple. We've heard that Apple's next generation smartphone should be named the iPhone 8 and that it could feature a glass casing and an OLED display that wraps around the edges of the display and wireless charging.

However, new rumors from the Japanese Apple blog Macotakara, who first reported that Apple will ditch the headphone jack, say that Apple will stick to their routine. According to them, the next year's iPhone models will be named the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus.

The iPhone 7s and 7s Plus will be updated versions of this year's devices. The basic design should remain the same, meaning no wireless charging or glass casing. The only update should be a new CPU, the A11 chip.

Rumors were floating around that Samsung plans to launch a new glossy version of the Galaxy S7 edge with more storage.

Now, Samsung has officially confirmed the rumors and announced the Black Pearl Galaxy S7 edge. The new glossy color will be exclusive to 128GB versions of the device and debut in select markets on December 9th. There are still no reports if and when it will be available in the US.

The Black Pearl color follows the Blue Coral and Pink Gold editions released earlier this year.

We previously reported that Samsung plans to launch a new glossy version of the Galaxy S7 edge this month. The new color should be similar to the iPhone 7's Jet Black. Samsung's move isn't surprising since the Jet Black color proved to be extremely popular with the buyers of the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

SamMobile reports that Samsung should launch the new version of the phone on December 9th in South Korea. The color, which won't be much different from the Black Onyx, is reportedly named Pearl Black.

However, that won't be the only change. The Korean giant will also expand the internal storage which should now have 128GB. The other specs will remain the same.

Huawei, the most profitable Android manufacturer in Q3 2016, will unveil their concept phone under the Honor brand on December 16th.

Not much is know about the Honor concept smartphone, but Huawei posted a teaser that reveals the name of the device - Honor Magic.

Samsung is killing its Note brand in 2017, but the Galaxy brand will live on through the Galaxy S8 smartphone that the company should reveal in February next year during Mobile World Congress 2017.

The new rumors for the Galaxy S8 have Samsung removing the physical buttons from the front of the phone, expanding the internal flash storage, and including 6GB of RAM. Depending on the region you buy the Galaxy S8 in, you can expect a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, but there will be an Exynos 9-series model that will be sold, too.

Samsung plans to remove the home button, where it will deploy a new fingerprint sensor that is button-less and reportedly uses ultrasonic technology, reports TechTastic. As for the storage, Samsung made its Galaxy S7 available in 32GB, but the new Galaxy S8 smartphone will reportedly arrive with up to 256GB of storage.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has started talking about smartphones, and in particular, the purported Surface Phone. Nadella has teased that Microsoft will showcase a "unique approach" with Surface Phone.

Nadella said during an interview with the Australian Financial Review: "We don't want to be driven by just envy of what others have, the question is, what can we bring? That's where I look at any device form factor or any technology, even AI".

He continued: "We will continue to be in the phone market not as defined by today's market leaders, but by what it is that we can uniquely do in what is the most ultimate mobile device".

Jet Black proved to be extremely popular with the buyers of the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and according to The Korea Herald, it seems that Samsung wants to follow in Apple's steps.

If true, the Korean giant should launch a new glossy version of the Galaxy S7 next month. Samsung already added a new color for their latest flagship, Coral Blue, after the fiasco with the Note7 devices.

The Galaxy S7 is already available in Onyx Black, Silver Titanium, White Pearl, Pink Gold, and Gold Platinum, plus Coral Blue as of recently.

We've been hearing whispers on the new iPhone for a little while now, but Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI Securities has teased that the iPhone 8 will finally support wireless charging.

9to5Mac reports that Kuo said "Apple's switch to a glass casing for iPhone 8 will enable wireless charging at fast speeds with minimum disruption from frequency interference". There might be a higher-end version of the iPhone 8 that has the wireless charger in the box, so don't expect the cheaper models to support this premium feature.

Kuo continues, saying that there will be one major new 'bezel-less' design that will feature an OLED display that wraps around the edges of the display - similar to how Samsung and its Galaxy Note 7 and Galaxy S7 edge smartphones have edge-spilling displays. The OLED display in question would arrive as 5.8-inches or so, but the active touchscreen diagonal size would be around 5.2-inches or so.

Apple could bring production of its iPhones back to the US, with president-elect Trump talking with Apple CEO Tim Cook about it. Cook called Trump after his victory a couple of weeks ago, and their conversation was interesting, to say the least.

In an interview with the New York Times, Trump said that Cook called him to congratulate him on his victory over Hillary Clinton, where he talked with the Apple boss about his expectations. Trump said: "I got a call from Tim Cook at Apple, and I said, 'Tim, you know one of the things that will be a real achievement for me is when I get Apple to build a big plant in the United States, or many big plants in the United States, where instead of going to China, and going to Vietnam, and going to the places that you go to, you're making your product right here".

Cook said: "I understand that", with Trump adding that he's confident that Apple will begin manufacturing in the US again with his proposed "very large tax cut" and "substantial regulation cuts" he plans on offering.

China is expected to bust into the smart home market to the tune of around $22 billion per year by as soon as 2018, but with product names like LingLong DingDong - I think they're going to have some fun while doing it.

LingLong, the company behind the DingDong, has made an Amazon Echo-like device that costs $118 - and it's capable of playing music, audiobooks, managing schedules, and more - just like the Amazon Echo. In order to wake the device, you'll have to say one of three commands:

LingLong has said that most people are using the DingDong to play music from their library, which spans 3 million songs. LingLong has been working on the DingDong for a while, so it's not a direct knockoff of the Echo, but LingLong's Senior Marketing Manager Charlie Liu did state that Amazon Echo did have an influence in some of their decision-making.

Google knew it was onto something with the launch of its next-gen Pixel smartphones, and since they are "only on Verizon" when they're not unlocked - Verizon is doing well with sales, too.

According to a new report from Wave7 Research, Google Pixel accounted for 7.5% of all Verizon activiations in the last 30 days, which as 9to5Google reports is "a big deal considering we're entering the holiday season". Verizon has been splashing money on advertising the Pixel and Pixel XL, even advertising Google's new Daydream View VR headset now that it's available.

Google and Verizon spent $27 million combined in the week of October 27 to November 2, with Google contributing $15 million while Verizon spent $12 million.

Apple could bring back the manufacturing of its iPhone to the US, a big deal for the country - and according to unnamed sources of Nikkei, Apple asked both of its manufacturing partners in Pegatron and Foxconn on ways of bringing iPhone production back to the USA.

Nikkei's sources said: "Apple asked both Foxconn and Pegatron, the two iPhone assemblers, in June to look into making iPhones in the U.S. Foxconn complied, while Pegatron declined to formulate such a plan due to cost concerns". Another source said that Foxconn boss Terry Gou "had been less enthusiastic due to an inevitable rise in production costs", adding: "Making iPhones in the U.S. means the cost will more than double".

Where did this all come from? Well, considering President-elect Trump has placed Apple front and center during his rallies about hoarding cash overseas and throwing all of its manufacturing out of the United States, he pledged he would make the tech giants manufacture their products in the US - which will significantly boost employment numbers. In January, Trump said: "We're going to get Apple to build their damn computers and things in this country instead of in other countries".

According to recent research done in both the US and China, fast charging is one of the top features that drive customers to buy their next phone, Qualcomm said at this year's Tech Summit in New York.

One of the biggest customer complaints when it comes to smartphones has been battery life and slow charging. They aren't wrong. Today's smartphones feature many apps, we are almost always online, and almost every users will mention battery life as one of their main problems. And if you don't have a phone with fast charging, you are more or less forced to carry around bulky and heavy battery packs.

During their presentation, Qualcomm showed us some interesting data: 61% of the users say that fast charging influences their decision to buy their next smartphone, and 26% of the users are troubled by their smartphone taking too long to charge. Also, 42% smartphone users say their phone's battery doesn't last long enough.

Well now... security researchers have discovered many models of Android smartphones that feature a secret backdoor that is sending all of your data to servers in China.

The authorities aren't 100% clear on whether this is another attempt at mining data for advertising purposes, or if the Chinese government is scooping up as much information for its own intelligence or not. But never fear, security firm Kryptowire discovered multiple models of smartphones that had firmware that collected "sensitive personal data about their users and transmitted this sensitive data to third-party servers without disclosure or the users' consent".

A company named Shanghai Adups Technology Co Ltd used a pre-installed firmware over-the-air (OTA) update that was monitoring these devices without detection. Adups was able to secure the users' location, who they talk to, contact lists, and the content of text messages, as well as countless amounts of personal data. The International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) were also part of the data that Adups was taking, which was being sent every 72 hours.

Qualcomm has been on the bleeding edge of pumping as much power into your smartphone as possible - in both its Snapdragon processors and Quick Charge technology - but now Quick Charge is about to step up to another level.

Our friends over at Fudzilla are reporting that Quick Charge 4.0 will roll out with the upcoming Snapdragon 830 processor, and that the information they have comes from an "accessory manufacture that wants to remain silent". They said that the new charge will support up to 5V/4.7A~5.6A, or 9V/4A in similar configurations.

Quick Charge 4.0 hitting 28W will be a big deal, as it'll charge smartphones even quicker. Quick Charge 3.0 on my Pixel smartphone is incredibly awesome, and so much faster than my previous iPhone 6S smartphone which charged so slowly in comparison.

Jet Black proved to be extremely popular with the buyers of the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and now there are rumors that Apple might add a new color for their new flagships - Jet White.

According to a report from the Japanese Apple blog Mac Otakara, the supply chain suggests that Apple is considering this option although nothing has been confirmed yet.

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are at the moment available in five colors - jet black, matte black, silver, gold and rose gold. The new glossy white color might not seem like a bad idea, and it could boost the sales of the new iPhones, especially considering how popular the Jet Black color is.

Samsung has come under fire over its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones exploding, and now their answer is the upcoming Galaxy S8 which will rock an AI digital assistant - just like Google Assistant in the new Pixel smartphones.

The company acquired Viv Labs Inc, a company that was run by the co-creator of Siri - you know, Apple's voice assistant. Samsung is going to build Viv, the company's AI assistant, directly into their new Galaxy smartphones, polishing the voice assistant features into home appliances and wearables in the near future.

Samsung didn't say what the AI service in its Galaxy S8 would be capable of, but they did say it would allow consumers to use the third-party service seamlessly. Samsung Executive Vice President Rhee Injong teased: "Developers can attach and upload services to our agent".

Swiss luxury goods company Golden Dreams unveiled their iPhone 7 Carbon Concept Edition, which is, according to the company, the lightest and strongest smartphone ever made.

The limited edition of the iPhone 7 features hand-made carbon fiber casing, made from a single piece of carbon fiber. Of course, custom carbon fiber doesn't come cheap so you would have to pay $17,000 for this luxury.

Golden Dreams also noted they would release only 77 copies of the iPhone 7 Carbon Concept Edition, and each will have a unique serial number.

Today in Munich, Huawei unveiled its latest flagship - the Mate 9. You can read all about it here.

Huawei also surprised everyone with a premium version of the phone - Porsche Design Mate 9. Basically, it's a beefed up version of Mate 9 that comes with a ludicrous price.

The Porsche Design Mate 9 comes with 6GB of RAM and 256GB of internal memory (compared to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of ROM on the Mate 9). The device has a 5.5-inch curved display with a 2K resolution screen (1440x2560 pixels). The camera and the battery are the same as the basic Mate 9 version - rear-dual camera 20MP (monochrome) + 12MP (color) and 8MP selfie camera, plus 4,000 mAh battery.