Mobile Devices - Page 122

Starting in 2016, smartphones are rumored to double system memory from 4GB to a whopping 8GB of RAM. Jumping all the way up to 8GB will see tremendous gains for handsets everywhere, and it's all thanks to a beefier CPU.

According to Chinese analyst Pan Jiutang, Qualcomm is working on a new Snapdragon 830 processor that supports up to 8GB of RAM. Armed with the Snapdragon 830, smartphone-makers like Huawei and Oppo will be able to push the onboard system memory well past today's threshold.

"Now Huawei / OPPO / vivo flagship comes with 4GB, and next year will come out with 6GB phone with 8GB you may want to the year after, because the fire-breathing processor Qualcomm Xiaolong 830 seems to support 8GB (code 8998, made burned lifetime ah, 820 not listed)," reads a post on Weibo.

Reports indicate that Microsoft is indeed developing a Surface Phone, so you may want to hold off on picking up a Lumia 950 XL after all.

According to reports from Windows Central, Microsoft's Panos Panay will be working closely with the team responsible for the new Surface Book to adapt the new handset. The Surface Phone is supposedly timed for a release in the second half of 2016, and may converge with the release of Windows 10 Redstone, Microsoft's latest OS iteration.

Right now details are quite slim, and we don't know if the Surface Phone will be as powerful and productive as recent Surface tablets. The publication notes that Microsoft is experimenting with different technologies for the handset's design, and Intel has been tapped to possibly develop a x86 chipset that will outperform today's Qualcomm CPUs.

According to the latest rumors, Apple will remove the 3.5mm headphone jack on the new iPhone and replace it with an all-in-one Lightning connector. The company might also released Lightning-based EarPods that will support the new audio output on future iOS-based devices.

The rumor is coming from Mac Otakara, which is pretty reliable, with the site adding that it has a "reliable source" that claims Apple will use a same-sized Lightning connector that will support Lightning-based and Bluetooth headphones. It'll also have a DAC, or digital-to-audio connector, that will offer backwards compatibility with wired headphones that use the standard 3.5mm headphone jack. To use this, a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter would be required.

If Apple did remove the 3.5mm jack on the new iPHone, it could be 1mm thinner than the already super-thin iPhone 6S which comes in at 7.1mm. The new iPod touch is something we should look at comparing it to, which is 6.1mm thick - but the iPod touch still rocks a 3.5mm headphone jack. We'll find out early next year if the new iPhone drops the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Released as an ode to keypad phones of old, Microsoft has has announced its new Nokia 230 and 230 Dual Sim mobile phones. Destined for release in December for India, Asia and the Middle East, this phone will cost $55, excluding local taxes.

With the operating system being 'Nokia Series 30+' and the phone brandishing a 2.8-inch QVGA screen running at 240x320 pixels, one of the biggest selling points in this budget mobile is its 2MP selfie camera, matched with a 2MP main camera. Other features include Bluetooth 3.0, up to 32GB of Micro SD expansion, a 1200 mAh battery and a weight of under 100g in total.

Obviously this is no powerhouse phone meant to match the iPhone 6s, but it's certainly a contender in the budget market. Measuring in at only 124.6mm x 53.5mm x 10.9mm this phone would also make for a great emergency backup.

The USB Type-C cable in the box for the OnePlus 2 smartphone has been a disaster so far, with Google engineer Benson Leung testing the cable and saying that it "may cause damage to your charger, hub or PC USB port" if used on a fast-charging device.

OnePlus has said that it doesn't conform to the USB Type-C 1.1 spec, and that it will refund customers - but, and this is a big but, since the cable doesn't have issues with the OnePlus 2 smartphone itself, the company will only refund customers who purchased the cable separately. Now this is a huge downer.

The company says that the USB Type-C cable works for what it was intended to, charging the OnePlus 2 smartphone. Outside of that, most people who aren't aware of the issues with the included cable could use it to charge another USB Type-C device, and possibly damage it. The included USB Type-C cable has the wrong resistor for the USB Type-C 1.1 specifications (10 k-ohms versus 56 k-ohms), so the device could draw more power than it can actually support.

Following news out of Oxford that new developments could mean smartphone charging could be cut down to once per week, scientists at

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have created a chip -- pictured here -- they claim will charge phones in just 10 minutes. In addition, it's said to increase battery life and decrease the risk of your battery catching fire.

The chip, which took five years to develop, is promising enough that it's garnered the attention of Sony, Samsung, Tesla Motors, and Sanyo.

Apple has just released its new performance-driven, massively-screened iPad Pro out into the world, and iFixit has promptly cracked open its case to muss around in its mechanical innards. Unsurprisingly, the tech gurus find that the iPad Pro is quite tough to repair, joining its Apple-branded kin in the "nightmare for DIY repairs" category.

For all of its promises of "PC-grade performance" and high-tech hardware upgrades, the iPad Pro has scored quite low on iFixit's repairability scale. The 12.9-inch tablet has been awarded a paltry 3 out of 10, managing to score a whole two points higher than the truly terrible 4K 21.5-inch iMac. It's quite clear that Apple's new hardware wasn't meant to be repaired by its owners.

What makes the iPad Pro so maddening for would-be repair artists? Well, for starters the LCD panel is fused to the front-facing glass, a disconcerting new trend that pretty much ensures costly repairs--and raises the risk breaking while opening the device. Secondly, the iPad Pro uses an inordinate amount of adhesive to keep everything fixed in place. Lastly, the Smart Connector--which connects the iPad Pro to an external keyboard--is extremely hard to remove, meaning DIY repairs are very unlikely.

Apple has just launched its new premium 12.9-inch iPad Pro out into the wild, and the Apple forums are already bustling with user complaints and performance issues.

According to a sizable forum post, many users have noticed that the $799 iPad Pro freezes up and becomes totally unusable while it's charging. Although users can hard reset the device to restore functionality, just about everyone is pretty upset about a huge oversight affecting such an expensive tablet. After all, Apple seriously touted the iPad Pro by saying the tablet is capable of "PC-grade performance", among other surprising claims.

Apple has yet to issue an official statement on the problem, and there doesn't appear to be an actual fix just yet. Users who contacted Apple Support were advised to send the device in for repairs or exchange it for a new device, however one iPad Pro owner says the same thing happened to their new device. Whether or not the glitch is a hardware or firmware fault remains undetermined.

As time goes by, technology becomes infinitely more innovative and complex, leading to some amazing possibilities. In the realm of lithium-ion batteries, which power our digital lives, key researchers are using an interesting substance to pave the way for nanoscale energy storage: common fool's gold.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University are currently experimenting with iron pyrite--commonly known as "fool's gold"--to significantly optimize lithium-ion batteries. After injecting "ultrasmall quantum dots" made up of 4.5nm pyrite nanocrystals into small lithium ion batteries, the University found that the iron pyrite substantially improved the battery's cycling and rate performance.

According to the researchers, the iron pyrite was able to boost performance due to its unique transformation into an iron and lithium-sulfur compound that's perfect for energy storage. "This is a different mechanism from how commercial lithium-ion batteries store charge, where lithium inserts into a material during charging and is extracted while discharging - all the while leaving the material that stores the lithium mostly unchanged," said Vanderbilt grad student Anna Douglas.

Chinese telecom giant Huawei has just showcased a new breakthrough in quick charging tech that promises to have a significant effect on future and existing devices. Using Huawei's new quick-charge lithium ion batteries, smartphone and tablet owners will spend considerable less time waiting to recharge devices--a move that appeals to just about everyone.

The company revealed their new breakthrough at the 56th annual Battery Symposium in Japan, where it showcased the capabilities of its new batteries. The first demo showed a 600mAh battery that was charged to 68% capacity in just two minutes flat. The other was a more beefy 3000mAh battery found in most of today's newer phones, which was charged up to 48% capacity in five minutes. According to the official press release, theses new batteries have "underwent many rounds of testing, and have been certified by Huawei's terminal test department."

The overseas tech titan further revealed the exact methodologies behind its new battery line, and exposed how it managed such an impressive boost in charge rates. Huawei was actually able to bond heteroatoms to a graphic molecule in the anode, which acts as a catalyst for the "capture and transmission of lithium through carbon bonds." Huawei even went on record to say that because its new batteries just heteroatoms, that the energy density won't degrade nor will the battery life be jeopardized.

NVIDIA is hoping to inspire the next step in artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous robots and drones with the release of its Jetson TX1 device, which is the first embeddable computer designed from the ground up for deep neural networks - and probably the birth of Skynet.

The new Maxwell-powered Jetson TX1, in the right setup, can 'see' something, process the information, and learn from the experience. It's scary, but super exciting, which NVIDIA hopes to see a future of autonomous machines, vehicles, and more. As Android Central notes "The future will be filled with drones delivering packages, cars that drive themselves and robot butlers that help me match my shirt to my socks" and NVIDIA is positioning itself incredibly well with the Jetson TX1.

T-Mobile today announced huge news for its wireless users: streaming content on 4G will no longer eat away at data plans. Netflix, Hulu, Sling TV and more video streaming apps will now cease their voracious gobbling of cellular data and will be totally free for T-Mobile subscribers.

"Start watching your shows, stop watching your data," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said at carrier's Uncarrier X event. The move is part of T-Mobile's "Binge On" initiative, and could be a substantial game-changer against its competition. Some 24 services are included in the program, with powerhouse titans like Netflix and HBO GO filling out the roster.

The free streaming comes with a caveat, however. Legere reveals that the streams are "optimized at a lower quality so they won't use unnecessary data". The footage will be streamed in lower-quality 480p rather than full 1080p, which will see a pretty hefty reduction in visual fidelity. The free streaming option is set to go into effect starting this Sunday.

Apple may have launched the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, but they're expensive handsets, so much so that Apple had its best quarter ever - again. But there are clones popping up, where in China you can pick up an iPhone 6S clone for as little as $37.

The basic iPhone 6S sells for $649 in the US, so this iPhone 6S clone is 20x cheaper, and looks virtually identical. It features a 5-inch screen, comes in three colors, and has a reduced resolution on its display. The real iPhone 6S rocks a 1334x750 resolution, while the iPhone 6S clone drops it down to 960x540.

The iPhone 6S clone runs Android, has a weaker Spreadtrum SC773 processor, 4GB of storage and 512MB of RAM. Comparing this to the A9 processor, 16GB of storage (with 64GB and 128GB models), and a reported 2GB of RAM. However, the iPhone 6S clone rocks two SIM card slots, compared to the one SIM card slot found in the official iPhone 6S.

Google's newest flagship Nexus 6P smartphone has taken the world by storm, winning over the media and users with unanimous praise. Everyone loves the new handset and sees it as a huge improvement over the Nexus 6, but it looks like the celebrations might be premature. The Nexus 6P is actually incredibly tough to repair.

iFixit recently opened up the Huwaei-made smartphone to see what makes it tick, running through its guts and putting everything back in tip-top order. In a way you could say that iFixit are technical surgeons, popping open devices and handling their innards only to see how difficult it is to do DYI repairs.

Google's Nexus 6P has scored a measly 2 out of 10 on iFixit's repairability scale, noting that the devices is almost impossible to open without damaging the camera's glass cover. What's more is that the display itself can't be replaced without having to "tunnel through" the entire phone, making it super difficult to replace the screen. Huawei clearly didn't have DYI repairs in mind while making the phone.

If Apple just posted record quarterly profits riding off of yet another year of similar, yet new iPhones, what's going to happen when the company radically changes its most profitable device?

According to the latest rumors, Apple is poised to use an OLED display on the iPhone 7, something that its competitors have been doing for a little while now over at Samsung. The display on the iPhone hasn't had a radical revamp in a while, but the use of an OLED panel and the rumor continuing of the removal of the Home button, we could be in for quite the surprise with the iPhone 7.

If the Home button is removed, we have to question what Apple would do with its Touch ID fingerprint sensor. If there is indeed a large OLED panel and no Home button, maybe the screen itself will house the Touch ID sensor - or we could possibly see Apple place a thinner Touch ID sensor on the side of the iPhone 7, or on the back.

Samsung today announced the Galaxy View, a full-HD tablet made specifically for media viewing. The Galaxy View sports a huge 18.4-inch screen that makes it the biggest Android-powered tablet on the market and is even larger that most laptop and all-in-one screens.

"At Samsung, we are committed to creating new possibilities and bringing our consumers the best mobile experience," said Samsung exec JK Shin. "We are very excited to introduce the new Galaxy View, providing an entirely new way of consuming mobile video and entertainment."

While some have claimed that the Samsung's Lollipop-powered tablet behemoth is meant to take on the likes of Apple's iPad Pro, you'll notice right away the View isn't armed with performance specs. It's 18.4-inch touchscreen has full 1920 x 1080 resolution and doesn't support 2K or 4K for that matter. Under the hood, the huge tablet has 2GB RAM, a 1.6GHz Octacore processor, 32GB/64GB internal storage with an expandable SD slot, two 4W speakers, and a 5700mAh battery that supports 8 hours of continuous full HD playback. It even has a nanoSIM port for cellular service.

As soon as next year mobile phones are set to fully embrace the new generation of foldable screen technology that will completely change the dimension and scope of the devices. While LG wants to have rollable HDTV's by 2017, it looks like Samsung plans to unleash its foldable smartphone displays as early as January 2016 across two different iterations.

SamMobile reports that Samsung will market its new flexible display model, codenamed "Project Valley", as soon as January of next year.

While no specs are confirmed at this point, Project Valley's SM-G929F model number is closely related to that of the S6 Edge+ model number SM-G928, hinting that the handset might match the Edge+'s hardware. Samsung's Project Valley phone will sport a foldable AMOLED display that can be squeezed into a wallet-like shape. A recent patent filing shows hints on how the foldable tech will work, showing a new "hinge system" that bisects the phone's display.

Motorola teamed up with Verizon on two new smartphones that were unveiled at a press event in New York City yesterday, where we were introduced to the new Droid Turbo 2 and Droid Maxx 2 smartphones.

Starting with the Droid Turbo 2, which features a 5.4-inch AMOLED display with a 2560x1440 resolution (540 PPI). The display has Motorola's impressive ShatterShield technology (check out the video above), which truly protects the display from shattering if you drop it, on every surface. Inside, it rocks Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 processor at 2GHz, 3GB of DDR4 RAM, and either 32GB or 64GB of storage, expandable through a microSD card.

We also have a 21-megapixel rear-facing camera with an f/2.0 aperture, phase detect auto-focus and dual-LED flash that is capable of recording 4K video at 30FPS. Up front, we have a 5-megapixel shooter with a wide-angle lens. There's also dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi with MIMO, Bluetooth 4.1 LE and NFC technology.

One of LG's most interesting phones would have to be the new V10 smartphone, with dual screens and so much more. But inside, it rocks some serious storage performance thanks to Sandisk's "best-in-class embedded storage solution for imaging", the iNAND 7232 embedded flash drive (EFD).

LG's V10 smartphone is the first handset to meet Sandisk's guidelines for 'Extreme Photo-Imaging Capabilities', or EPIC. Sandisk's EPIC guidelines were designed by Sandisk for its OEMs, so that it could differentiate handsets which are EPIC-capable, from other handsets. The impressive iNAND 7232 storage solution used in the V10 smartphone is optimized for high frame rate, 4K content.

Christopher Bergey, VP and GM of Mobile and Tablet Solutions at Sandisk explains: "LG has once again reaffirmed their leadership in smartphone imaging and video with the LG V10, and we are proud to recognize it as the first Sandisk 'EPIC' smartphone. The LG V10 smartphone is an exciting step forward for the Sandisk EPIC initiative. Leveraging Sandisk's deep understanding of flash storage, digital imaging and the mobile ecosystem, our EPIC marketing initiative is uniquely bringing together ecosystem hardware, software and storage to break new ground in smartphone imaging".

We've known that BlackBerry's new Android smartphone is a premium handset for quite some time--BB's CEO John Chen reminds us that PRIVacy brings a sense of PRIViledge--but up until now we haven't had any indication on the company's definition of premium when it comes to cost. Now recent reports indicate that the Priv could cost as much as $749 in the U.S.

Up until now the company has left us in the dark concerning the key details of the hybrid-OS Priv smartphone. but a member of the Crackberry Forums has found what looks to be specifications, launch date, and pricing for the BlackBerry phone.

BlackBerry's own website is the apparent source of the info, revealing that the Priv will supposedly launch on November 16, 2015 for a price of $749. Key specs include a curved 5.43" display with 2560 x 1440 resolution and 540 DPI, 3GB RAM, a Snapdragon 808 hexa-core 64-bit processor, an Adreno 418 GPU clocked at 600MHz, and 32GB onboard memory. Camera solutions include an 18MP Auto-Focus rear-facing camera that can record 4k video at 30 fps and 1080p HD at 60 fps, as well as a 2MP front-facing camera that can record 720P.