Mobile Devices - Page 75

The next-gen iPhone will have an Intel modem inside of it and we know that because Qualcomm Chief Financial Officer George Davis said during their recent earnings call that Apple plan on using their competitor's modem inside of the new iPhones.

Davis said: "Apple intends to solely use our competitor's modems rather than our modems in its next iPhone release", so while Intel isn't mentioned specifically, they are the only other supplier of modems to Apple for the iPhone. Apple was using 4G modems from Qualcomm through various iPhones since 4G appeared on the market, but it had also used Intel modems - without great success, I might add.

Also remember that Apple and Qualcomm are in a patent infringement and royalty dispute, with the iPhone maker suing Qualcomm in early 2017 over alleged overcharging to use LTE modems. Qualcomm hit Apple back saying the company owed more money to Qualcomm in royalties, and t hat Apple infringed on some of their patents as well as reportedly sharing proprietary information with Intel. Qualcomm went as far as trying to get some models of the iPhone banned from sale in the US, but didn't get that far.

Qualcomm is a company like no other, the US-based technology giant doesn't sleep in its quest for connecting every human being on the planet with teh fastest mobile connectivity possible, and today is no different.

Enter the new world's "first fully-integrated 5G NR mmWave and sub-6GHz RF modules for smartphone and other mobile devices". It's super-small, with the QTM052 mmWave antenna module family and the QPM56xx sub-6GHz RF module that will be joined with the Snapdragon X50 5G modem that will be powering next generation smartphones.

This might not sound like much, but when I talked to Qualcomm about this last week they said that until now, a working mobile mmWave solution was not possible. It hasn't happened, and wasn't close - and somehow, with most likely dark magic and lots of Redbull, they've pulled it off - 5G will become a reality in 2019.

Samsung is no stranger to directly attacking its main competitor, with the South Korean giant unleashing a bunch of ads in the United States that slam both Apple, and the iPhone X.

It all begins with a long-haired Apple Store employee who is aligned unequivocally with the Apple logo on his T-shirt, giving curious customers some truly hilarious responses to their questions about iPhone X. The entire slew of ads make the Galaxy S9 much more appealing, and that's the entire idea.

The first ad is titled 'Ingenius: Dongle' and is exactly what you think it is: all about Apple stupidly removing the 3.5mm headphone jack from the latest iPhones, and then shoving dongles down your throat that - unsurprisingly, cost you money.

We all know someone in our lives that continuously drops their smartphone, and the most cringe-worthy moment of my days outside of the office (what the hell are they?!) would have to be seeing a smartphone (normally an iPhone) with a cracked display.

Well, Corning has just unveiled its latest Gorilla Glass 6 technology that has been made to sustain even more stress from falls, and has been specifically engineered to "survive multiple drops".

Corning claims that Gorilla Glass 6 is the best yet, and in a press release, vice president and general manager of Corning Gorilla Glass, John Bayne, said: "As consumers become more dependent on their smartphones, the opportunity for potentially damaging drops is also on the rise. Now more than ever, it's critical that the cover glass provides outstanding protection. Corning Gorilla Glass 6 improves upon Gorilla® Glass 5 by surviving drops from higher heights, but, more importantly, has been engineered to survive multiple drops".

Samsung will reportedly be unveiling its foldable smartphone sometime in early 2019, with The Wall Street Journal reporting that it will arrive in early 2019 with its 7-inch screen that will fold in half "like a wallet".

The previous rumors on Samsung's foldable smartphone teased a launch at CES 2019 so these new reports are beginning to form a solid foundation for the flexible smartphone. WSJ adds that the phone will feature a compact "display bar" on one side of the folded phone, with cameras on the back.

Samsung will reportedly aim its foldable smartphones at a niche audience, with a "broader" debut of foldable handsets in 2H 2019. Samsung's eventual goal is to have three flagship brands on offer: Galaxy S, Galaxy Note, and the Galaxy Foldable - or whatever they call it, I think Galaxy X, which will be great.

Samsung has just announced that it is the first to hit 10nm-class 8Gb LPDDR5 production, after announcing it developed 16Gb DDR5 for the desktop PC back in February.

Jinman Han, the senior vice president of Memory Product Planning & Application Engineering at Samsung Electronics said in a press release: "This development of 8Gb LPDDR5 represents a major step forward for low-power mobile memory solutions. We will continue to expand our next-generation 10nm-class DRAM lineup as we accelerate the move toward greater use of premium memory across the global landscape".

Samsung's new LPDDR5 tech hits 6.4Gbps of bandwidth that provides some serious bandwidth numbers of 51.2GB/sec, enough to transfer 14 x 1080p movies (at 3.7GB each) in a single second. Samsung will provide its new LPDDR5 in two bandwidths: 6.4Gbps at 1.1V and 5.5Gbps at 1.05V.

Samsung is set to unleash its new Galaxy Note 9 flagship smartphone on August 9, but what will the new handset be priced at?

According to the latest reports we could be looking at up to $1159 for the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 when it launches. The new price tease is coming from a Polish employee at a retail store which said the Galaxy Note 9 would retail for PLN 4299 in Poland, which translates to $1158. This price could be wrong, but it's definitely in the ballpark of what to recommend.

I'm sure we'll see it reach $1000 or more, especially as this is Samsung's biggest and best smartphone to-date. But as a Galaxy Note 8 user, I'm going to find it hard to upgrade if Samsung don't dial everything to 11.

Microsoft has just turned the heat up on the mid-range tablet market with the announcement of their new Surface Go, a successor to the Surface 3 that costs just $399.

Surface Go is the smallest and cheapest 10-inch tablet on offer from Microsoft, weighing in at just 1.15 pounds - 0.25 pounds lighter than the Surface 3, and a smidgen heavier than the 1.03-pound iPad. The new Surface Go is super-thin as well, at just 8.9mm thick you can put it anywhere. Microsoft is wanting to offer the Surface Go to people who use it all the time, so it has to be thin and portable enough to throw into your bag.

The new Surface Go has the same 3:2 aspect ratio of other Surface slates, with Microsoft's iconic kickstand that lets the tablet open up to a huge 165 degrees. Perfect for the plane, or your lap while on the bus or train. Microsoft has kept the rather large bezels, but a Microsoft representative said this was a design choice as it makes it easier to hold the Surface Go without your fingers getting in the way of the screen.

HTC isn't in a strong position right now, with a report coming out of Reuters that says the Taiwanese smartphone company is cutting around 1/4 of their global workforce.

These job losses will hit the Taiwan manufacturing scene, as HTC is wanting to manage their resources better as sales continue to die against Samsung and Apple. HTC said that it would cut 1500 jobs from its manufacturing unit in Taiwan, which is around 25% of their global staff that right now sits at 6450.

HTC explains: "Today HTC announces plan toust optimize the manufacturing organizations in Taiwan ... This plan will allow more effective and flexible resource management going forward". It shouldn't surprise, as HTC reported a 55% drop in revenues year-on-year in April, and a huge 46.7% drop in sales in March. Ouch.

Samsung is expected to unveil its new Galaxy Note 9 on August 10 at its latest Samsung Unpacked event, with fresh rumors teasing the Note 9 will rock an even larger battery for all-day use.

The latest leaks see Samsung using a much larger 4000mAh battery inside of the new Galaxy Note 9, while the current Galaxy Note 8 has a decent 3300mAh, while the new S9+ has a 3500mAh battery. But that large battery will need to be charged faster, and that's where some disappointment might be seeping in.

The new Galaxy Note 9, like the Galaxy S7, S8, and S9 has EP-TA200 charging which has a maximum 10W of power, the slowest charging speed in the world apart from an iPhone. There are fears of another Galaxy Note 7 fiasco over the battery, but with that over I'd love to see a super-stable battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 technology inside, so we have super-fast charging to get that 4000mAh battery filled as quickly as possible.

Samsung phones seem to be trying to take over the world, messaging random users' contacts and sending them messages and photos. The problem turned up on Reddit, spotted by Gizmodo, and then found its way to Samsung's official forums.

The messages in question are being sent through the default Samsung Messages app, with reports stating that the app doesn't show users the files were sent. The only way people know this is happening, is once they receive a response from the recipient of the message sent. One user said that his Galaxy smartphone sent ALL of his photos to his girlfriend.

The Verge talked to a Samsung spokesperson who said they are "aware of the reports" and that their technical teams are "looking into it". The forums seem to say that both the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are affected, but there could be more.

I'm sure that 2019 is going to be the year of 10 cameras on a smartphone, with LG leading that charge with rumors for its new flagship smartphone, the V40.

LG's new V40 smartphone is rumored to feature an insane five cameras, but we don't know where they'll be split. I'm sure we'll see two up front and three on the back, with one of the front-facing cameras letting you unlock your V40 with your face. Android Police is reporting that the dual cameras up front on the V40 would allow for a 3D map of your face to be recorded, but they're not 100% on that rumor.

We should expect the first of three cameras on the back of the LG V40 smartphone to be a standard wide lens, followed by LG's signature ultrawide lens, and then a third mysterious snapper. Android Police ponders it "could be a zoom lens, or it could be dedicated to bokeh or depth of field effects - we're really not sure. Either way, add them all up and you've got a phone with five camera sensors. This would be the first major smartphone I'm aware of packing that many shooters".

Qualcomm has quite the chip coming in the form of the purported Snapdragon 1000, which according to the latest information, could be quite the performance powerhouse that could compete against AMD and Intel on the desktop.

Snapdragon 1000 is a new SoC that will have a much larger TDP than previous mobile-oriented designs, with up to 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM, 256GB of storage, gigabit WLAN, and a new power management chip that Qualcomm is super-tight-lipped about. All of this is mixing into a world that could see Qualcomm competing against Intel in the PC market more ferociously than ever before.

Qualcomm has reportedly already started seeding out Snapdragon 1000-based devices to developers and manufacturers through a test platform, reports WinFuture. These kits rock 16GB of RAM and two 128GB storage modules, as well as the connectivity chops to handle gigabit network speeds.

Samsung should unveil its next-gen Galaxy S10 in early 2019, and while I expect it to roll out with 5G connectivity, the in-display fingerprint sensor will be a big talking point.

Korean outlet The Bell is reporting that Samsung will use an in-display fingerprint sensor, as the company isn't ordering Iris scanners from its normal suppliers. Samsung will most likely use facial recognition through a 3D-sensing camera that would have a higher layer of security over just a front-facing camera or Iris scanner.

Samsung will have lots of surprises in store for the Galaxy S10 since its a huge milestone for the company, and I think they'll pull out all the stops for its launch. Apple tried with the iPhone X that didn't really seem to take off, so Samsung will be pushing things to the extreme with the Galaxy S10, if it's even called that.

Qualcomm continues to make leaps and bounds with its Snapdragon platform, with one of the highlights of 2018 being their new Always Connected PCs running Windows 10. But in the CPU department, Qualcomm can't beat Intel right now in brute performance, but what about Snapdragon 1000?

Snapdragon 1000 is the purported name of Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon flagship chip, and should have a radical TDP, performance, and feature set that will blow other SoCs out of the water. According to WinFuture, Snapdragon 1000 will have a die size that is much bigger than traditional smartphone and tablet SoCs.

This means the Snapdragon 1000 could be as big as Intel's processors, which would be an interesting change for Qualcomm. Snapdragon 1000 is currently being tested, with support for up to 16GB of LPDDR4X memory, 2 x 128GB UFS 2.1 memory modules which will provide up to 256GB of internal storage. There's even purported support for Gigabit WLAN, meaning the next wave of Always Connected PCs could lead Qualcomm down an entirely new, and very exciting path.

Computex 2018 - ASUS held their Computex 2018 press conference with a huge unveiling of their new ROG Phone, the first smartphone ASUS has made for gaming... and it's all thanks to Fortnite and PUBG.

ASUS has crammed in just about everything you can think of into the ROG Phone, going even as far as offering external cooling with a clip-on fan that connects ot the back of the phone for those long hours of gaming on-the-go, as well as an optional handheld dock that is very Nintendo Switch like.

Inside, we have Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snadragon 845 which is an 8-core CPU that has its clock speed boosted from its usual 2.8GHz up to 2.96GHz. The display itself is a 6-inch 2160 x 1080 AMOLED display with a faster 90Hz refresh rate, not quite 120Hz like Razer, but Razer uses a lesser quality LCD versus the AMOLED on the ASUS ROG Phone.

Samsung will unveil their next big flagship later this year, with the Galaxy Note 9 to surely rock the latest processor from Qualcomm, but I'm more geared for the possibilities of 5G.

The latest rumor is from leaker 'Ice universe' on Twitter, who said if we are lucky we will see 8GB of RAM and 512GB storage on the Galaxy Note 9. Samsung has 6GB of RAM in the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 8, with up to 256GB of internal storage but the leap to 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage will be a big one.

Samsung wouldn't be the only one on the market with a smartphone with 8GB of RAM, as the OnePlus 6 is powered by 8GB of RAM while OnePlus was already the first with the OnePlus 5T seeing an 8GB SKU released last year.

Qualcomm has just unveiled its new Snapdragon 710 processor, which is a slight bump on the Snapdragon 700 series that the co many unveiled earlier in the year.

The new Snapdragon 710 is better than the mid-range Snapdragon 600 and 700 series designs, with Qualcomm touting double the AI performance compared to the Snapdragon 660. We have the X15 LTE modem and Spectra 250 image processor, lower on the tech tree than the flagship X20 modem and Spectra 280 processor inside of the Snapdragon 800 series.

As for the X15 modem we can expect up to 800Mbps over LTE, with the Snapdragon 710 including 10-bit color support as well as it being the first Qualcomm chip to support 4K HDR playback, a first for Snapdragon outside of the flagship 800 series.

Apple and Samsung are in court again over the damages retrial, where we'll see how much Samsung will have to cough up to Apple on infringing Apple design patents.

The South Korean giant was found guilty of violating Apple patents in 2012, but the companies have been fighting over how much money Samsung will have to pay over the last six years. The big deal here is going to be over Samsung paying damages for the total value of the device, or whether it's going to be a fee base on the parts of the iPhone that they reportedly copied.

Apple wants to see Samsung pay based on the full value of the iPhone, while of course Samsung wants to pay the smaller amount based on the bits they copied. Samsung lawyer John Quinn states: "They're seeking profits on the entire phone. Apple's design patents do not cover the entire phone. They are entitled to profits only on [infringing] components, not the entire phone".

HTC has discovered the buzzword of the year, and decided to make a smartphone around it with their upcoming Exodus handset announcement during the Consensus 2018 blockchain conference in New York, where we recently saw a crypto-powered beer vending machine unveiled.

HTC is making a new blockchain smartphone that the company explains on the Exodus landing page: "Our vision is to expand the blockchain ecosystem by creating the world's first phone dedicated to decentralized applications and security. With the release of the HTC Exodus we can now make this a reality".

The new Exodus smartphone will support both Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as other cryptocurrencies with its universal wallet, secure hardware, and decentralized apps. HTC has plans to make a native blockchain network where cryptocurrency can be traded with other Exodus smartphone owners. You will be able to buy Exodus using cryptocurrency as well, but no pricing or ETA has been released just yet.