Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones News - Page 45

Sales of the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 have broken records for the number of devices preordered, according to a new report.

The new foldable phones began preorders starting from August 1, with Yonhap News Agency reporting that the South Korean preorders reached a record 1.02 million units across both devices. That figure breaks the previous record of 970,000 units for the previous Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4, it's reported.

In terms of how the two devices' preorders break down, Samsung reportedly said that the Galaxy Z Flip 5 was the most popular of the two devices. The foldable is similar to the flip phones of yesteryear and made up around 70% of preorders which is an increase over last year. The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is said to have accounted for 60% of preorders when sold alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 4.

We've been hearing rumors of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max coming with a new Action button, instead of the popular mute switch, for months now. And now it looks like we've seen our clearest confirmation yet that this is exactly what is going to happen.

In a new leak of supposed iPhone 15 Pro Max cases, Twitter leaker Majin Bu appears to have put the Action button question to bed for once and for all. The cases show that the iPhone will have the volume buttons we are familiar with, but where there would normally be a space for the iPhone's mute switch, there's now a new button.

The new Pro iPhones are expected to borrow heavily from the Apple Watch Ultra, adding a new Action button that can be configured to do more than just mute things. It's expected that ti will also function in much the same way as the Apple Watch's button as well, giving users the chance to configure things how they like and depending on their needs.

It's impossible to miss the fact that Apple is expected to announce a new set of iPhones soon. All you have to do is venture near the internet right now and it seems to be the one thing that everyone is talking about. And that isn't going to change today after a new report of when we can probably expect the new iPhones to be announced.

Conventional wisdom already penciled a launch window of September into our calendars thanks to the usual release cadence of these things. And now a new report appears to have put a pin firmly in a couple of potential dates.

The new dates come courtesy of Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the weekly Power On newsletter. According to him, Apple's iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro devices are likely to go on sale around September 22, which is a Friday and would very much match up with previous release dates. If that's correct, we can likely expect that preorders will begin a week earlier, on September 15.

The hugely popular and Meta-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp has started to test a new feature that will make it quicker and easier to add people to a group chat than ever before, but it's only in Beta right now.

Those with the latest WhatsApp for Android beta installed may see a new option to quickly add people to a group chat right from within the chat itself, although the WhatsApp watchers at WABetaInfo do note that this might only be available to some people, rather than all of those with the beta installed.

Once that beta is installed opening a group chat will show a new "Add participants" button on devices whose accounts have been activated to see it. Tapping that button, just below the group chat's information, will allow users to quickly add new people to a group. However, this will only work if the group's admin settings allow the people tapping the new button to add people to that particular group.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 lineup isn't expected to debut until the first couple of months of 2024 but that apparently isn't stopping someone from putting a Galaxy S24+ through its paces. They've been doing that using Geekbench and, for some reason, uploaded the results. And those results tell us a lot.

It's still early days for this phone and it's important to remember that all of this information is liable to change before the phone goes on sale. But for now, here's what we have to hand.

According to the specs shared via Geekbench we can expect the Galaxy S24+ to carry the US model number SM-S926U and be powered by Qualcomm's next flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. That chip will be paired with 8GB of RAM, too.

Owners of iPhones and iPads can control how their children use such devices using a feature called Screen Time. The feature gives parents control over when kids access apps and which apps they can actually use. But things haven't been right for a while and the settings parents configure don't always work. Now, Apple has admitted that something is amiss and that it is working on a fix.

In a Wall Street Journal report, Apple says that it is aware that Screen Time settings can sometimes be unexpectedly reset, while users sometimes report that the settings become completely useless and kids are given unfettered access to their devices regardless of the Screen Time settings in place.

Apple was thought to have fixed the issue in its iOS 16.5 software update but that doesn't appear to have been the case. What's more, testers have already confirmed that the issue remains in place even when using the latest iOS 17 betas which suggests that no fix will arrive any time soon.

Future iPads and iPhones could be about to get super-thin bezels thanks to the display technology used in the Apple Watch. That technology is called low-injection pressure over-molding, or "LIPO" and Apple is already getting ready to use it on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

According to Bloomgerg's Mark Gurman, writing in the weekly Power On newsletter, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will benefit from 1.5mm display bezels, down from the 2.2mm of previous models. The LIPO technology was first used in the Apple Watch Series 7 and that produced a notable change in the appearance of the wearable when compared to previous models. It's thought that we can expect a similar change going from the iPhone 14 Pro to the iPhone 15 Pro series of devices.

Moving forward, we can apparently look forward to something similar taking place with iPads. Gurman didn't explain which iPads we should be looking at first, but it seems likely that the iPad Pro or iPad Air will be the first to benefit from more svelte bezels.

If you're planning on picking up a brand-new Apple iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Plus this fall there's a good chance that you're going to have to pay a bit more than you did for your iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Plus. And it might well depend on what part of the world you happen to be in at the time.

While we'd been hearing rumors of a price increase for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, a new report suggests that buyers of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus might not be safe, either. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the weekly Power On newsletter, there's a chance that the non-Pro iPhones are going to experience a price hike this year as well. But, only if you're buying outside of the United States.

Gurman says that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are likely to see their prices increase by as much as $100 no matter where you buy them, but those picking up non-Pro models internationally can expect all four of the 2023 iPhone models to also cost more than the devices that they will replace.

The iPhone 15, along with next-generation Apple Watches, are right around the corner as Apple prepares for its September event, where it will announce both.

According to a recent report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 15, which will come with a range of upgrades compared to last year's iPhone 14. At first glance, Apple's newest iPhone will have a much smaller border size, expanding the display right out to the very corners of the device.

The reduction in border size is thanks to low-injection pressure over-molding, or LIPO, a technology first tested in the Apple Watch 7, according to Gurman. The border size will shrink from 2.2 millimeters to 1.5 millimeters, which may not sound like much, but it will be noticeable. Other features to expect a shift from a Lightning port to a USB-C port, which follows the recent ruling by EU regulators that forces Apple into USB-C adoption.

New foldable phones from OnePlus and Oppo are set to have the best periscope cameras ever offered in a foldable, a new leak claims. The leak specifically mentions the Oppo Find N3, but that phone is expected to be branded as the OnePlus Open when it arrives globally.

The report comes via the oft-reliable Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station and claims that the Find N3 will boast a big periscope zoom lens upgrade when compared to other foldable phones that are currently on the market. And that includes the latest from the likes of Samsung. A Hasselblad imaging system is also tipped in the same report.

If this turns out to be accurate then there could be some promising specifications for the two phones. We're also told to expect a phone with 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage which is a lot for any phone to have. It also matches the top end of Samsung's new Galaxy Z Fold 5 in terms of storage and even beats it in terms of RAM - Samsung's latest has 12GB.