Mobile Devices - Page 109

The Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei unveiled its latest flagship - the Mate 9. The Android phone is the top-of-the-line product and Huawei is in direct competition to Samsung and Google's Pixel.

A lot of info leaked before the official announcement so they don't come as a surprise. Huawei is using their own chips in the phones, and Mate 9 will feature their newest one - Kirin 960. The Mate 9 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 f/2.2. The front camera is 8MP with an aperture f/1.9.

The first phone with Google's Tango platform is now available, making the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro the first phone with AR capabilities.

The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro was announced back in June, and now it's finally available for $500.

The phone comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, expandable with microSD card up to 256GB. It has a bit bigger screen than a standard smartphones - 6.4-inch with 1440x2560 resolution. The phone features a 16MP main camera and an 8MP selfie camera.

When things go south, focus on something else. That's how Samsung has decided to handle to Note7 fiasco which ended with their decision to permanently end the production of the Galaxy Note7 devices.

However, Samsung has an ace up their sleeve. They boosted Galaxy S7 edge marketing, and they announced the device would be available be in a new color - Coral Blue. The specs of the phone will remain the same.

The Galaxy S7 edge in Coral Blue version will be available in Taiwan and Singapore on November 7th. Samsung still hasn't announced when the phone will be available in other countries, but it is expected that the Coral Blue variant of the phone will arrive at the US by the end of the year.

Just like its competitors at Cupertino, Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL flagship duo carry a premium price tag. The Pixel XL starts at $769, for 32GB version, but can cost up to $869 if you go with the 128GB version.

A report from IHS Markit, an analyst company, based in London, shows that Google's total cost to manufacture the Pixel XL (32GB) is $285.75, after including $7.75 in basic manufacturing costs.

Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of cost benchmarking services for IHS Markit, said this isn't surprising.

Xiaomi has been quite busy this Tuesday. After announcing the Mi Note 2, they unveiled the Mi MIX, their most ambitious phone so far.

The first thing you'll notice on this phone is the design. The Mi MIX comes with a 6.4-inch screen, 2040x1080 resolution, and an incredible 91.3 percent screen-to-body ratio, which the company says is the world's 1st.

The Android phone features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset clocked at 2.35GHz, 4 or 6 GB or RAM and 128 or 256 GB of storage. The Mi MIX comes with a fingerprint reader, 13 MP main camera and 5 MP selfie camera. It also rocks a massive 4400 mAh battery with Quick Charge support.

Xiaomi has launched the Mi Note 2 today at an event in Beijing, China. As the fourth biggest phone manufacturer in the world, China is an important market for Xiaomi, although they've been struggling to maintain their growth there lately.

At first glance, Mi Note 2 looks really good with curved edges, but it's hard not to notice a similarity with Samsung's Note7. The Mi Note 2 is curved on both front and back, comes with a 5.7-inch display, 22.56 MP main camera with a f/2.0 lens and 8 MP front camera.

Xiaomi Mi Note 2 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor with a max clock speed of 2.35GHz, 4 or 6 GB of RAM and 64 or 128 GB of storage. It's also worth noting that there's a version with global support for 37 different 4G LTE bands, meaning it will work in pretty much any country.

First, we had brick-like phones that were big and heavy. Then, the phone manufacturers tried to make them as small as possible and today we get to choose between many standard screen sizes. However, you wouldn't think someone would make a smartphone with a 1.54-inch display, would you? Well, that happened.

VPhone company made what is probably the world's tiniest smartphone. The Vphone S8 has 2.5D curved glass screen with 1.54-inch display and one button, used as a power button.

The phone has a speaker, microphone and... even a headphone jack! The Vphone S8 comes with a built-in FM radio, a heart rate sensor, a light sensor, and a pedometer. The company stated that the Vphone S8 can be paired via Bluetooth with your other smartphone so you can answer the calls coming to that phone. Basically, the Vphone S8 is a smartwatch that's not a watch? Something like that... You can put a sim card in the phone, but if you want to use it as a "smartwatch that's not a smartwatch", it does support iOS and Android phones.

In the latest attempt to retain their customers after the Note7 fiasco, Samsung unveiled they will be offering a special upgrade program. South Korean customers who have decided to replace the Note7 for a Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, will be able to upgrade the replacements to either a Galaxy S8 smartphone or a Note 8, Samsung said in a statement, confirming that the Note series isn't dead.

Users in this upgrade program will need to pay only half the price of the Galaxy S7 device, before exchanging it for an S8 or Note 8. The Galaxy S8 is scheduled to be released in February, while the Note 8 is expected for August or September next year.

The upgrade program in South Korea will be carried out by the end of November. As for other countries, Samsung hasn't explained how or if they plan to implement this program.

Whenever a new iPhone launches, we get to read about crazy stuff people are willing to do in order to get their hands onto Apple's newest flagship. I'm not talking about standing in lines for weeks, although that is also pretty hardcore. For example, last year there was a case of a Chinese guy who tried to sell his kidney so he could buy the new iPhone.

This year we have something less dangerous but equally stupid. A Ukranian webshop Allo decided to give away five iPhone 7 devices to people who officially and legally change their name into - Sim iPhone (sim means seven in Ukranian), Sim being the name and iPhone last name.

The iPhone 7 in Ukraine costs around four average monthly wages, so yes, it is highly valued in that country. The average monthly wage in Ukraine is around $200, and the price of the iPhone 7 is around $800.

Huawei will announce their new flagship phone, the Mate 9, on November 3rd and a lot of information has already leaked, including the price, specifications, and photos. You can read more about it here.

We also found out the Mate 9 will come in two models - standard and curved. Evan Blass reports that the curved model will come to the market named the Mate 9 Pro.

The Mate 9 Pro, with a 5.9-inch display, will feature Huawei's newest chip - the Kirin 960. Users will presumably be able to choose between 4 and 6 GB of RAM, and 64 to 256 GB of flash storage.

Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones are some of the best Android-based smartphones money can buy, but what happens when you drop, or damage your expensive new Android 7.1-powered handset? Other than cry of course.

Google has teamed with repair company uBreakiFix, with Google providing its consumers access to manufacturer-backed, same-day repair services that use OEM parts. Yahoo reports that you will "not have to wait for appointments to get your broken screens fixed, and you can use the available mail-in service if you are not able to visit any of the 250 retail locations".

There are over 250 locations in 187 cities across the US, with each store featuring a team of specialists who will get your Pixel or Pixel XL up and running agian. uBreakiFix CEO and founder Justin Wetherill explains: "We are pleased to provide Pixel customers with the quality repair service and exceptional customer experience that have come to define our brand. A broken device shouldn't have to ruin someone's day".

Samsung has been embroiled in its scandal of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones blowing up, and now the story gets worse with the South Korean giant getting pissed after someone used a Note 7 in a mod for Grand Theft Auto V, which doubled Samsung's troubled smartphone as a bomb.

The video has been taken down from YouTube, with Samsung Electronics America, Inc. slapping it with a copyright claim - with Kotaku adding in the perfect comment: "Perhaps Samsung was trying to file more claims, but the device they were using exploded before they could complete the process"... oh snap.

YouTube channel Modded Games is behind the video, with user 'sdaddy345' saying: "Pretty bummed out that Samsung copyright take downed a video that I made 100%... No logo, image or even the word 'Samsung' was uttered/shown in the video. It was pretty much the same thing as this video, which is just a gta 5 player throwing the phone at cars and blowing them up".

Huawei just announced its latest self-made Kirin 960 chip, a high-end SoC that will bring performance boosts to its new Mate 9 flagship handset this November.

The Kirin 960 is a 16nm SoC, and features an octa-core CPU that's comprised of four of ARM's new high-end Cortex A73 2.4GHz cores alongside four Cortex A53 1.8GHz cores. On the GPU side, Huawei's Kirin 960 taps ARM's new 900MHz Mali-G71 MP8 GPU, which features full Vulkan support and doubles the core shader count while offering an 180% boost in GPU performance over the Kirin 950.

Manhattan and T-Rex offscreen benches show the Kirin 960's new bigger MP8-grade Mali-G71 GPU topped the Snapdragon 820 and Exynos 8890.

After the catastrophic release of the Galaxy Note 7, it looks like Samsung might be approaching 2017 in a very different way according to rumors out of South Korea.

The Korea Herald is reporting that Samsung is "planning to ditch its existing smartphone marketing strategy and may release only one premium model annually to ensure product quality", according to Korean news outlet Newsis. Samsung normally releases two flagship smartphones every year, with the Galaxy S in the first half of the year, followed by the larger Galaxy Note in the second half of the year.

We don't know if Samsung will be retiring the Note brand after its battery-related issues that have seen tens of billions of dollars of value wiped away from Samsung shares, but one of Samsung's partner firms said: "Samsung has not notified its suppliers of the plan to scrap the current two-flagship models strategy, but if so that could impact the parts suppliers to some extent. For now, everything is up in the air about what Samsung will do to recover from the recent fiasco involving the Note 7, but it will certainly make changes to its current marketing strategy and product portfolio".

Qualcomm may have just blown our minds with the first 5G modem, but it wasn't finished with the announcements during its 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong, where it announced it's teamed with Netgear, Ericsson, and Australian telco Tesltra on the Netgear Mobile Router MR1100.

Netgear's new Mobile Router MR1100 is the first mobile hotspot to support 1Gbps LTE speeds, thanks to a combination of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X16 LTE modem, MIMO technology, 3X carrier aggregation, and Higher Order Modulation 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM).

Australia, with its piddly download quotas, will be the first country to have the 1Gbps-capable MR1000 router in operation, through Telstra who say that it should be running "in the coming months". Qualcomm will be baking the new LTE modem into its next-generation Snapdragon processors that will power devices throughout 2018 and beyond.

The Note7 saga is officially finished after Samsung confirmed their decision to stop the production for the sake of consumer safety. Although some users will accept to exchange it for another Samsung's phone, like a Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, there is no doubt that many users lost their trust in the South Korean giant, and will turn to other manufacturers.

Apple will certainly profit from this trend, but we also must have in mind users that don't want to switch to iOS and want a good Android phone. A logical choice for some might be Google's Pixel or Pixel XL, which was recently announced. But there is another Android phone that could profit from the Note7 fiasco.

Huawei is the third largest phone manufacturer in the world, with an ambitious plan to become the second in the next two years. Their new flagship, Mate 9, will be announced on November 3rd, and the first images, leaked by none other than Evan Blass, show two version of the phone - first one that will look much like its predecessor, the Mate 8 and second one with curved edges on both sides, like the Galaxy Note7 or S7 edge.

Qualcomm has announced its amazingly fast 5G technology, with their first 5G devices set to arrive in the first half of 2018. During the Qualcomm 4G/5G Summit held in Hong Kong, the company announced its first 5G modem, the new Snapdragon X50, which rocks some seriously amazing speeds.

The new Snapdragon X50 handles up to 5Gbps down, which might not sound like much, but you're probably getting less than 100Mbps on your smartphone right now (seriously, go do a speed test and comment back here with your results). Even at the higher-end of the 4G spectrum, we are only seeing around 300Mbps these days - and maxing out at 450Mbps with 4G LTE, so 5000Mbps (5Gbps) is just amazing.

Qualcomm teases that Snapdragon X50-powered devices "are expected to be available during the first half of 2018", which lines up with the 5G standard being finalized.

Mafia 3 has been a mess ever since it launched, but developer Hangar 13 has to be commended on their adaptiveness to patching the game. The developer has pushed out yet another update for Mafia 3, with this new patch weighing 1.2GB.

The new Mafia 3 hotfix is for the blurry rendering (how did it launch like this?), and other general stability. The developer notes: "We just rolled out a hotfix on PC that addresses blurry rendering for some players, and other stability improvements.We're still working on more fixes for Mafia III and will share more details in the coming week. Thanks for the feedback!".

The latest patch released by Hangar 13 for the PC version of Mafia 3 unlocked the frame rate, which was locked before (again, why was it launched like this?). Hangar 13 explained: "This patch includes 30, 60, and unlimited frames-per-second options on PC. To select your framerate, just head to the display menu in-game. Just make sure to tailor the framerate settings to the power of your machine. This patch also includes improvements to keyboard remapping, so head to the controls menu to check out the options. Note: this patch resets keyboard mapping to default, so any changes you made to the controls previously will need to be customized after installing the patch".

Apple changed the entire technology industry with the release of the original iPhone, and then plotted along with some good upgrades through to the iPhone 4, which did it again. Since then, Apple has been behind - and falling more and more behind to the likes of Google's new Pixel smartphone, and Samsung's various, and sometimes explosive, smartphones.

According to Robert Scoble, an entrepreneur and the co-founder of UploadVR (amongst a truly scroll-worthy list of achievements, partnerships, past employers, startups and more) said on his Facebook page: "Just had a source that I trust tell me it is a clear piece of glass. With the compute in a strip at the bottom". He added that translating this talk of it being an all-glass wonderous next level device into saying that the iPhone 8 does mixed reality, VR, AR and AI.

Scoble's source also talked about Siri, asking him "why did Viv.ai sell to Samsung? I know the founders didn't want to do that". He said that Apple showed the Viv.ai founders their new Siri for "mixed reality", and what Scoble said next put shivers up my spine... adding "and the game was over". Viv.ai sold to Samsung, and Samsung continued on into the Galaxy S7 and Note 7, and eventually whatever phones they released in 2017.

Samsung's Galaxy Note7 is history. The South Korean company confirmed their decision to stop the production for the sake of consumer safety and invited all of its users to turn off their devices and return them to the manufacturer.

Samsung even prepared special boxes in which they tend to transport potentially flammable devices that have caused a tremendous headache to the company. A video posted on YouTube channel XDA shows a return kit that Samsung sent them and it contains detailed instructions on how to handle the packing process.

The box itself is fire resistant so that the Galaxy Note7 which is being transported doesn't cause additional damage in case of a battery explosion. The thermal-insulated box also contains a pair of gloves.