Mobile Devices - Page 115

Samsung's new Galaxy Note 7 is nearly here, where it will rock a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display, 4GB of RAM, some impressive cameras, and more.

The Galaxy Note 7 should rock a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera with an f/1.7 aperture that will also include OIS (optical image stabilization - making your videos appear smoother, and not so shakey cam) and 4K video support. The Galaxy Note 7 should also include a rather large 3500mAh battery, 64GB of onboard storage which is expandable through an included microSD card slot (thanks, Samsung - now don't take it away again), and a USB Type-C port.

We're expecting the appearance of an iris scanner, while Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Note 7 will measure in at 153.5mm x 73.9mm x 7.9mm, with a weight of 168 grams, reports 9to5Google.

Apple has just posted its quarterly results, where we now know that the company sold 40.4 million iPhones in the three-month period, compared to 47.5 million from the same time last year. This is a 15% drop, very similar to the 16% year-over-year drop, and it's not good.

When it comes to the money side of things, Apple pulled in $42.4 billion in revenue with a net income of $7.8 billion, or $1.42 per share. Comparing that to the same quarter of 2015, Apple generated $49.6 billion in revenue, had a net income of $10.7 billion, or $1.85 per share.

Analysts expected Apple to have $42.2 billion in revenue and have sold 40 million iPhones, so Apple barely beat analyst expectations. For 10 quarters in a row now, iPad sales have declined, down 9% to 9.95 million units sold. Apple sold 4.3 million Macs, which is down 11.3% year-over-year.

Apple has just come out with its quarterly financial report, beating analyst expectations with $42.4 billion in revenue over the quarter.

The bigger news, in my opinion, is Jon Rettinger from TechnoBuffalo being featured on CNBC where he said that Apple "stopped innovating years ago". It's quite shocking, but in a good way, to see someone come out and not be glossing over Apple's new products.

TechnoBuffalo's Rettinger said that right now, Apple is "very reminiscent of BlackBerry, a company resting on their laurels, that seems to have stopped innovating several years ago. Apple's flagship 15-inch MacBook Pro uses a processor that is three generations old", adding that he's "not overly optimistic on Apple's next-gen product offerings".

The announcement and release of Apple's next-gen iPhone 7 smartphone is closer than you think, with Apple set to reveal the new iPhone in the "week of September 12", according to notorious leaker Evan Blass.

Blass took to Twitter to say: "iPhone 2016 release: week of September 12" and quickly followed that up by tweeting: "Just to clarify, this refers to the retail release, not the launch event. To be even more specific, it should happen on Friday, Sept. 16th".

Rewinding the clock back to the last two iPhone releases, Apple revealed the iPhone 6 on September 9, and the iPhone 6S on September 25. What should we expect for the new iPhone? Considering Apple saves its bigger upgrades for the 'S' variants a year later, we shouldn't be too excited - but Apple needs something exciting to get people upgrading, and converting over from the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge from Samsung right now.

We've all been there: you drop your smartphone, your heart, soul and time itself stops for those 1-2 seconds as it hits the ground... but does it shatter? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no - depending on the smartphone itself, and whether it has Gorilla Glass protecting it.

Most high-end smartphones have Gorilla Glass, but now Corning is working on Gorilla Glass 5 - its best iteration yet. The Verge reports that Gorilla Glass 5 survives up to 80% of the time, when dropped from as high as 5.9 feet (1.8m), which is not too damn bad at all.

Until now, Gorilla Glass has protected smartphone screens from drops to flat and hard surfaces, but part of the development behind Gorilla Glass 5 is that it will protect your smartphone screen from sharp objects and rough surfaces. These surfaces might not necessarily shatter your screen, but they will damage the front of your phone - and this is what Corning hopes to stop with Gorilla Glass 5.

Google is expected to unveil their next-gen Nexus smartphones very soon, but now we have some 3D video renderings of the new Nexus, which is being made by HTC.

Inside of the new Nexus we should see a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, while it's expected that the new Nexus will feature a 5.1-inch 1080p display. We should expect 4GB of RAM, a 2770mAh battery, 32GB of on-board storage, a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera backed by an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.

HTC will have a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C port, bottom-firing speaker/s, top-mounted headphone jack and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity. Google should unveil the new Nexus smartphone in the coming months.

LG has been making some huge strides in its push for OLED technology dominance, with their 65-inch 4K OLED TV being one of the most beautiful TVs on the market. Well, the company is now going to use its OLED technology in foldable/rollable smartphones and tablets, starting in 2017.

According to the Senior Principal Analyst for Emerging Display Technologies and OLED at IHS, Jerry Kang, foldable and rollable smartphones, tablets and wearables aren't that far away. Kang said that manufacturers like LG are going to be launching them with tablets that can fold into the size of a smartphone, but wearable devices will also be a focus point.

The displays on the foldable and rollable products will utilize OLED, thanks to OLED displays not needing to light up the back panel - making them thinner, and much more power efficient. It isn't easy to bring foldable screens to the market, as it represents a fundamental change in the way smartphones and tablets are created today. Batteries, circuits, touchscreen layers and more will be needing some change, allowing the flexible screen revolution to begin.

Don't worry about the Zika virus everyone, Samsung has released its official Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Games Edition, which is surely to be a cash-in.

Samsung is pricing the Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Games Edition at $970 or so, with Samsung to sell the new Olympic Games themed Galaxy S7 edge in Brazil, China, Germany, Korea and the United States. It will feature a customized UI, and a theme that will match the dark chassis, which looks pretty damn good I must say.

The new Samsung Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Games Edition comes in two variants; one with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and the other with Samsung's own Exynos 8890 processor. Both smartphones feature a microSD card slot, with up to 200GB of storage mixing the on-board and microSD card storage together.

BlackBerry Ltd. is shutting down production of its BlackBerry Classic, the revamped version of the original phone that made the Canadian company a once dominant force in the phone market.

"The Classic has long surpassed the average lifespan for a smartphone in today's market," general manager for devices and chief operating officer Ralph Pini said in a blog post. "We are ready for this change so we can give our customers something better."

The company is currently developing two new Android phones to the disapproval of analysts, who say Chief Executive Officer John Chen should pull out of hardware while he still can. Chen insists the the division will be profitable by September, while noting a software and service revamp are top priority.

America's biggest wireless carrier Verizon is about to make its plans more expensive but include more data, someone familiar with the matter claims.

Here are the changes expected, many of which are already in line with rival carriers:

It's also said Verizon will introduce rollover data, better access to Canada and Mexico, and "Safety Mode", the last of which slows down your connection once you hit the data limit, and costs $5/mo unless you're on the XL or XXL plan.

LG isn't the only one who is restructuring their mobile business, with Sony reportedly telling investors in Japan at a recent event that it's mobile business will continue "defocusing" in the US, India, China and Brazil.

Sony's new Xperia X line of smartphones haven't been received well, with the company 'defocusing' on the US market - just as its new line of Xperia X smartphones are launched. Sony will use fiscal 2016 to "achieve this intentional business contraction in the markets where it does not see much potential for the mobile business" reports Android Police.

It looks like the US isn't a place for Sony to try and push its smartphones, as they simply cannot compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple in teh country. Sony will continue to sell phones in the US, but it will only market and push smartphones it knows will generate the company profit - versus trying to push smartphones into a market where they won't be successful.

Following the disappointing sales of its G5 smartphone, LG has just announced a huge shakeup of its mobile division - where the company is firing some executives and forming a new "program management office" that will oversee product development going into the future.

LG was confident in its restructuring plans, announcing: "Friday's announcement is because LG Electronics' latest flagship G5 smartphone failed to generate sales". The KoreaTimes reports: "Mobiles chief Cho Juno will oversee the PMO, which has authority to handle strategies for product development, manufacturing, marketing and sales; while Oh Hyung-hoon, a former research lab head, will be its chief, supported by mobile division Vice President Ha Jeong-wook. Kim Hyung-jeong, a senior vice president at LG, has been named head of the company's mobile research lab".

LG's push with the G5 was a good one, with an interesting twist on the smartphone game with its ecosystem of friends - such as a camera attachement, and more - but it wasn't enough. Samsung's new Galaxy S7 was a more popular smartphone, but I think we'll see a return to form for LG with its next smartphone - but will the "friends" still be around? I hope so.

Samsung bossed the phablet market with its original Galaxy Note smartphones, with their current 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 5 still one of the best phablets you can buy - even with Apple on the market with its iPhone 6S Plus.

Well, notorious mobile leaker Evan '@evleaks' Blass who has retired, and now out of retirement - has confirmed Samsung's new Galaxy Note7 - yeah, without the space. The new Note7 will reportedly arrive in three colors; Black Onyx, Silver Titanium and Blue Coral. As for their innards, we can expect that information when Samsung fully reveals the Galaxy Note7 smartphone.

Blass does tease some specs, with a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display, 12-megapixel rear-facing camera backed by a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, 64GB of storage and IP68-rated water resistance.

Apple wants the new iPhone to be thinner, but without reducing the size of the internal battery, it's a hard job. The second largest part of most flagship smartphones is the touch display, with Apple rumored to be tapping Samsung for 40 million Super AMOLED displays.

Up until now, Apple has been using LCD panels on its iPhones, but there are significant benefits in moving over to AMOLED panels. First, the colors are superior and there are faster refresh rates, allowing for smoother operation on everything on the iPhone, as well as games. Reduced power consumption which will see the iPhone run cooler, with additional battery life, and it'll make the AMOLED-based iPhone thinner, too.

The iPhone 8 won't arrive until at least 2017, and according to DigiTimes the AMOLED deal was struck with Samsung - Apple's main, and biggest competitor - by far. Samsung will be providing multiple companies with AMOLED panels, which allows them to ramp production up to probably close to 100%, reducing their manufacturing cost as they're selling tens of millions of AMOLED panels to the largest companies in the world.

The NVIDIA Shield 3.2 update promised last month is here at last, complete with support for a variety of exciting new features, particularly if you're heavy into video content.

On the media end, you get support for Netflix HDR (making Shield the first standalone device to feature it), 4K and 60FPS YouTube watching, and 4K Vudu (a Walmart-owned movie streaming service). As well, Plex (which organizes and streams all of your content), can use the Shield to run a Plex Media Server directly from the set-top box.

Audio-wise, there's support for Dolby Atmos surround sound pass-through when using Vudu, MX Player, SPMC, or the Photos & Videos app.

Buying a smartphone today typically entails putting up with a lot of things you don't want to put up with, or being bothered to find a way around those things. The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge ($669 and $769, respectively), though, come with no such conditions and instead respect the customer in that they come unlocked and free of difficult-to-get-rid-of bloatware.

The somewhat rare approach means you can choose from most carriers (also nice if you spend a lot of time in foreign countries), likely get updates faster, and not be bogged down by difficult-to-get-rid-of and performance-taxing apps and services. On the latter point, you will still see some Google apps but just the "top tier" stuff; as for Samsung apps, those are entirely optional at setup.

While the minimalist approach to smartphone offerings has been happening a little more in recent times, it's a deviation for Samsung. And given it's the leading Android phone manufacturer, the shift could pave the way for even more choice from competitors going forward.

If there was a way to make your KFC meal more unique, KFC stores in Delhi and Mumbai have achieved that - with these two stores offering KFC's new "Watt a Box". What is the Watt a Box?

KFC's new Watt a Box is a meal box that features a built-in battery, microUSB and Lightning cables, so that you can charge your smartphone while you enjoy some of the Colonel's infamous chicken. It's a marketing gimmick of course, but inside it rocks a decently sized 6100mAh battery, which isn't too bad at all. As BGR reports: "The power bank claims to have a 6,100mAh battery but the claims fell short during our brief test. We put an iPhone 5s to charge, which gained 17 percent battery after charging for half-an-hour".

BGR continued: "But the downside was that the power bank was drained during this process. We recharged the power bank to 100 percent and tried to charge a Redmi Note 3. But the power bank ran out of juice again with the phone gaining just 7 percent of charge... KFC is not the only one to toy with such marketing campaigns. Pizza Hut came up with a limited edition box in Hong Kong that converted into a projector for smartphones. McDonald's had launched a special edition of its Happy Meal boxes in Sweden that could be converted into cardboard VR headsets. Coca Cola too had a similar cardboard VR headset one could make from its 12-pack cartons".

Samsung is poised to make a big splash with its upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone, with the company reportedly set to use a 4K display, bumping the resolution up from the current-gen Galaxy S7 with its 1440p display.

If Samsung continues the size and dimensions of the Galaxy S8 close to the Galaxy S7, the S8 will have a display with a huge 806 DPI at 5.5 inches. We should also expect to see dual rear-facing cameras on the Galaxy S8, with those pictures to surely shine on that new 5.5-inch 4K display.

Remember that Samsung works directly with Oculus on the Gear VR headset, which will see the purported 4K display on the Galaxy S8 being a very big deal when it launches. VR is only continuing to grow, and Samsung is in a great position to continue its leadership with mobile VR, especially if the 4K display makes it into the Galaxy S8.

For the last few years, smartphones haven't really changed - Samsung's Galaxy range of smartphones are sometimes improved successors, while others aren't as well received. Even the great Apple is beginning to hit the end of its dominance, with a bump in sales of the iPhone. Well, Motorola is here with something very different with its Moto Z family of smartphones.

LG tried the module world with the G5 smartphone, and it was one of the most interesting phones of recent years thanks to its upgradeable components - with the wider angle lens camera attachment was a massive surprise. Motorola now has its own MotoMods, which are future-proof, snap-on extensions that add, or improve the abilities of your Moto Z smartphone.

The most out-there MotoMod is the Insta-Share Projector, which blasts a huge 70-inch screen to your wall from its projector. The resolution is lackluster, but this is a first-gen product - so we have 854x480, or 480p - and while its not the best, it will continue to get better in the future with more R&D put into the product.

Computex 2016 - The deal between Adblock Plus and ASUS is apparently off: new ASUS smartphones and tablets won't come pre-installed with Adblock Plus.

According to Mobile Geeks, ASUS has terminated the deal to automatically enable Adblock Plus on its first-party smartphone and tablet web browser.

"Of course, we must also have consideration for our brand image and we cannot be in connection with the company, who has apparently been sued by various media," an unnamed ASUS rep told Mobile Geeks at Computex 2016. Furthermore, Google Chrome has replaced ASUS homegrown web browser on the company's latest ZenFone trio