Mobile Devices - Page 120

To revitalize its ailing handset business, HTC plans to release the "its most advanced smartphone ever," according to reports from renown hardware insider Evan Blass.

According to inside sources, HTC's new phone is code named "Perfume" and may release onto the retail market as the One M10. The Perfume prototype features a bevy of high-performance specifications across the board, including a 5.1-inch QHD AMOLED screen at 25560 x 1440p resolution, 4GB of onboard RAM, and is tipped to sport Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 820 SoC with Adreno 530 graphics.

HTC has also reportedly fastened a fingerprint scanner to the prototype, which is nestled in a Samsung Galaxy-esque home button format. As far as camera optics, Perfume features a new refresh of HTC's UltraPixel technology: the flagship is outfitted with a 12-UltraPixel resolution with laser-sighted autofocus.

OnePlus phones used to be sold on an invite only basis. You had to apply to be part of an exclusive club, something that curtailed the excitement that was possible surrounding their inexpensive yet powerful and exquisitely designed devices.

But now they're letting anyone get in on the fun with an invite free policy exclusively for the OnePlus X. It seems that OnePlus is able to meet the consumer demands a lot more quickly due to more mature supply-chain management and better manufacturing. This means we can all enjoy their exquisitely designed, inexpensive phones, a lot sooner than with previous models of theirs. Even the OnePlus 2 had to wait four months before being invite-free.

To help celebrate them setting the OnePlus X free, standard shipping for orders of $100 and above is free. The Power Bank that they sell on their site is a little more expensive, though, at $19.00. But overall the $249 price tag is very alluring for such a strangely marvelous phone.

Microsoft isn't holding back anything from their upcoming Word Flow iPhone keyboard app. The new app is going to be a replica of the Windows smartphone keyboard, but it'll feature a unique one-handed mode that's different and very usable compared even to the Windows 10 Mobile version of the same.

Photo credit: The Verge

The one handed mode on the Windows 10 Mobile version has been an unbridled success for Microsoft. People love it and it's surprisingly useful. As phones become larger in size, one-handed convenience is sacrificed. The Windows version just makes a compact keyboard on either side, which is effective yet still somewhat limited.

Earlier today we reported on the newly rumored iPhone 5se, Apple's latest smartphone that's said to feature a 4 inch screen, 8 megapixel camera, and an A8 CPU. Now some more specs have rolled in courtesy of sources close to 9 to 5 Mac, and they're juicy.

First, the phone is now expected to include A9 and M9 chip variants, not the A8 and M8. Beyond improved performance, this means the device will support always-on Siri activation. The default capacity is said to again start at 16GB, but secondary capacity should start at 64GB (versus the 32GB found in the 5s). All told, this should run you what the 5s did: $199 (to start).

If you're confused about all the models, allow us to lay it out. The 5s will be discontinued when the 5se releases (as soon as mid-March); at this time, the lineup will be the 5se, 6s and 6s Plus, and the tentatively named 7 and 7 Plus.

Claimed by One More Thing to be a photo of Apple's next iPhone release, this small image is said to showcase exactly what we should expect to see launched in March.

Designed with a 4-inch screen, this model is reported by 9-to-5Mac to also have a weird name attached to its release - set to be called the 'iPhone 5se'. Not only is this name unusual because Apple hasn't released a 'se' phone to date, but also because industry experts expected it to be named the '6c'.

No matter what the name, you can expect this smartphone to come packed with an 8-megapixel camera, a rounded frame and an A8 processor.

Right now we have some seriously powerful smartphones, with up to 4GB of RAM and 8-core processors - but the next-gen chips are going to be insane. We're looking at 10nm, and up to 8GB of RAM - yeah, 8GB of RAM in a smartphone.

The latest rumor is coming out of China, claiming that Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 830 processor will be manufactured on the 10nm process, which would make it the first system-on-a-chip (SoC) to be made on 10nm. Not only that, but Qualcomm has improved its Kyro cores on the processor for added performance, and lowered power consumption.

Not only will the CPU side of things be faster, but we're expecting to see 8GB of RAM in smartphones sometime in 2017. Qualcomm will reportedly launch its Snapdragon 830 processor next year, where we should see it powering the Galaxy S8 by Samsung, and similar, next-gen handsets.

A new study from Duo Labs has revealed some concerning data on security pertaining to Android users.

It turns out 32 percent of them run version 4.0 of the operating system or older. This is especially worrisome because this makes them more susceptible to the Stagefright vulnerability, unlike later versions which added or supported security features to fight it.

The team also found 1 in 3 Android owners do not use lockscreen passcodes, compared to iPhone owners who are apparently much more concerned about security (1 in 20 don't use a lockscreen passcode). More, just 10 percent of Android phones utilize pre-boot passcode device encryption; 20 percent are running 5.1.1 and not 6.0.1, and 5 percent are jailbroken (versus 0.4 percent of jailbroken/rooted iPhones).

We all know Samsung is preparing their Galaxy S7, but we're beginning to see more concrete details on what will be inside of their upcoming flagship smartphone. First off, there should be three different variants; the normal Galaxy S7, then we'll have the S7 edge, and S7 edge+, according to notorious mobile leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks on Twitter).

The Galaxy S7 should rock a 5.1-inch QHD (2560x1440) display, where inside we'll find an 8-core processor made by Samsung, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of NAND flash. On the rear, Samsung should use a 12-megapixel camera (down from the 16-megapixel shooter in the Galaxy S6 handsets), but we should see low light IQ improved. The international models of the Galaxy S7 will be powered by Samsung's in-house Exynos 8890 SoC, while US models will see Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor.

The University of Washington has come up with a much better way to count calories than we've traditionally done it, by using lasers to 3D map your food and count it's calories with science.

Well, there are other ways to count calories. You could separate all the ingredients, weight them and then look up their corresponding calories online somewhere. Or you could take whatever you're eating to a lab and stick into an actual calorimeter, but that's just too hardcore. This solution uses an external accessory that connects to a smartphone that takes precise measurements of the food, cross-checks in from a database within the app they've designed and estimates, based on the volume, exactly what you're eating.

The gadget created by a crew of electrical engineers at the University of Washington is called the NutriRay3D and currently recognizes around 9,000 different types of food. And can estimate nutritional content, macro-nutrients as well, of those foods with an accuracy between 87.5-91%. Not too shabby.

aApple is known for incorporating new and innovative technologies in its iPhone lineup, and we can see proof of this in every new major iPhone refresh. Now it looks like Cupertino may bolster its future iPhones with the new Wi-Fi-killing connection standard Li-Fi, which is capable of dramatic speed increases of up to 224 gigabits per second.

According to code snippets found by iOS jailbreaker Chase Fromm, Apple referenced Li-Fi in OS 9.1 firmware code. The code clearly states "LiFi capability" alongside other hardware features, giving a strong hint that Apple is experimenting with the new tech for use in new phones.

Li-Fi, which uses light to transmit data, has proven to be an extremely potent platform that can hit speeds 100 times faster than Wi-Fi. Researchers have reached incredible transfer speeds of 224 gigabits per second in laboratory environments, which is fast enough to download multiple full HD movies in two seconds. The amazing new tech has its Achilles heel, though, as Li-Fi's light stream cannot pass through walls like Wi-Fi can. Plus Li-Fi needs a direct line of sight to a light sensor to function, making the tech a more intimate and closed-space platform.

If you didn't already know, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (or TSMC) is the largest contract chip manufacturer, making chips for the likes of NVIDIA, Apple, and other industry giants.

The company has just announced it is developing 10nm chips, and according to an annual report from the company, their 2015 profits hovered at $9.15 billion. Compared to 2014, TSMC saw a 16.2% increase in yearly profits, even in the face of Samsung dominating with its 16nm FinFET and 14nm nodes. TSMC has been pushing ahead, however, and is now on their way to 10nm being taped out in the next couple of months.

Looking into the future, TSMC expects to hit the 7nm process in 2018, which isn't too far away at all. First up, we'll be seeing next-gen GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA arriving in 14nm and 16nm, respectively, over the coming months.

Microsoft has confirmed that the camera app on Windows 10 Mobile is going to receive an update that will allow for the turning on of HDR capture when taking photos.

That's significant because until now, you've only ever had the option of being able to set HDR capture to "auto" or off completely. Auto never guaranteed the capture of a wider gamut of color, even though most sensors are more than capable. We have to remember what HDR, however, to know why that's significant. HDR is a higher level of color fidelity that's more inline with what the human eye can actually see. And now with AMD pioneering HDR on the desktop space, that means it can be a natural part of the workflow for everyone and not just professionals.

Microsoft has actually been on the forefront of camera technology in phones, whether we're aware of it or not. That might be due to the wonderful efforts of Nokia with their famed 808 which eventually made its way onto the Lumia 1020. The huge sensor was fantastic in low-light and had many manual options that made even pro photographers a little jealous. Thankfully, those controls have become standard on Windows Mobile.

After a successful run with the Nexus 6P, Huawei is back in the headlines with its purported P9 smartphone. According to the latest rumors, the Huawei P9 smartphone will feature dual cameras, a physical Home button, and a fingerprint scanner.

The dual camera setup will also feature a dual-LED flash, with a speaker on the bottom of the phone, too. The frame of the P9 smartphone will be made of metal, but we don't know if this will be featured on the back, or whether Huawei will use a sheet of glass. Inside, the P9 should rock a 5.2-inch 1080p display, the Kirin 950 processor, dual 12-megapixel cameras on the back, with a 3000mAh battery that should last most of the day.

We should expect Huawei to unveil the P9 smartphone at Mobile World Congress next month.

Lenovo's head of mobile Chen Xudong has confirmed in the wake of retiring its Motorola name, it will also be retiring the phones formerly known as the Moto G and the Moto E. The Moto G is the most successful Motorola phone, however Lenovo wants to dedicate the new Lenovo by Moto name to high-end smartphones only and have its other phones satisfy budget and mid-range needs.

Speaking of high-end, the Moto X Play and Moto X Style struggled to achieve significant popularity; one can hope Lenovo's changes mean the next addition to the Moto X family has more to entice buyers.

CES 2016 - Lenovo unveiled its impressive new ThinkPad X1 Tablet, which features up to an Intel Core m7 vPro processor, up to 16GB of RAM and up to a 1TB PCIe-based SSD.

The display arrives as a 12-inch 2560x1440 panel, and like the Surface Pro 4 it is in the 3:2 ratio. Lenovo's latest slate is just 13mm thick, weighing 1.1kg with the keyboard attached. The keyboard can be magnetically snapped onto the tablet, without much hassle.

But where Lenovo takes it in a new direction is with the use of a pico-projector inside, featuring 50 Lumens of brightness. Lenovo says that it's enough to blast a 60-inch screen onto a wall around 2m (6ft) away. The 3D imaging module is an Intel RealSense 3D camera, which can be used for 3D scanning objects by playing them in front of the camera.

CES 2016 - ASUS unveiled a pair of VivoBook Flip devices at CES 2016, with the TP301 and TP501. The TP301 has a 13.3-inch screen while the TP501 bumps it up to a 15.6-inch display.

We went hands-on with the VivoBook Flip TP301, with its 13.3-inch screen coming in two options: HD or Full HD. Inside, you can customize it with an Intel Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 processor. It comes with 4GB of RAM, but can be optioned to 8GB while it arrives with both SSD and HDD options. GPU duties are taken care of by the iGPU in the form of Intel HD 520 graphics, while the discrete GPU comes in the flavor of an NVIDIA GeForce 920M, or 940M.

Where the VivoBook Flip takes a different turn, is its 360-degree hinge that lets you flip the display all the way around, and use it as a tablet. You can also use it in laptop mode, tent mode, stand mode - or as a tablet. It's super versatile.

A new app just made it onto the Windows Phone app store that might point towards the future of data services for Windows Phones. It looks like this app is going to pave the way for an in-house data connection solution much in the same vein as Google's Fi.

The new app allows for a persistent data connection of cellular, but only with a Microsoft branded SIM card. Such cards aren't quite in existence just yet. The cellular data service is also only available on certain devices though how one gets the aforementioned Microsoft SIM cards is still a mystery.

Google's Fi service has proven to be a reliable and great alternative to the typical way of paying for cell service. It was far more convenient and ended up being reasonable in price compared to actual competing cell companies. You pay for what you use, and it's all an integrated experience that was streamlined into the Nexus phones itself. Perhaps Microsoft wants to capitalize on that ease of use as well as the potential cost savings, which could end up bringing them huge business as people switch to a pure Microsoft solution. What bands and providers will be the back-end are unknown at this time.

Facebook is looking ahead to all of 2016 in its latest blog post, and in it, it spells the death knell of the ubiquitous phone number.

"Think about it: SMS and texting came to the fore in the time of flip phones," writes VP of Messaging Products David Marcus. "Now, many of us can do so much more on our phones; we went from just making phone calls and sending basic text-only messages to having computers in our pockets. And just like the flip phone is disappearing, old communication styles are disappearing too."

CES 2016 - Following the success of BlackBerry's unfortunately-named but highly-esteemed new Priv smartphone, company CEO John Chen confirmed that a new BlackBerry handset will release in 2016, with the possibility of a second model depending on sales.

Remember when BlackBerry's CEO said that it might exit the smartphone business if the Priv didn't take off? Well BlackBerry's gambit on their new Priv smartphone paid off in dividends, and now the company is looking towards future Android-powered handsets. While the company will continue to make new handsets, the beloved BlackBerry OS will be traded off for Google's mobile OS, meaning BB 10 will be the last iteration of the proprietary software.

Chen didn't deliver any specifics in the keynote, instead just affirming that BlackBerry will continue down this new Android-centric path for the foreseeable future. So we don't know much about the Priv's successor other than it'll be on Android OS, but Chen previously said that the next phone would "focus on the high-end, probably closer to the mid-range."

We reported last week Huawei's Honor smartphone sub-brand would be launching in the US sometime this year. Turns out that's sooner than expected: January 31.

The first Honor phone to hit American shores will be the mid-range Honor 5X, which packs a 1.5 GHz Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, and Android 5.1 Lollipop / Huawei's EMUI 3.1 software. The display, meanwhile, sports 1920x1080 resolution on a 5.5'' inch screen; the battery comprises a 3,000mAh cell. Size-wise, it measures 5.96 inches x 3.00 inches x 0.32 inches and weighs 158 g.

As for the camera, you get a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with SmartImage 3.0 for improved shots in dark scenes, wide F2.0 aperture, and a 28 mm wide angle lens, as well as a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with F2.4 aperture, and a 22 mm wide angle lens. The rear camera supports up to 4160 x 3120 photo resolution and 1920 x 1080 video resolution, while the front camera supports up to 2592 × 1944 photo resolution and 1280 × 720 video resolution.