Tech News

If you signed up to beta test Sony's first build of Android 7.0 Nougat for its Xperia X Performance smartphone, it's worth knowing that Sony has started sending out emails to those who have been picked to enter the Beta Program. In the email, Sony says that the beta update will be rolled out over-the-air, and will start hitting selected Xperia X Performance units in the next 48 hours. More information related to the update will be shared via email...

Samsung looked set to dominate the global smartphone market in the second half of this year as well after making its mark with the Galaxy S7 series. Analysts expected that the company’s impressive sales momentum would continue in the second half after the Galaxy Note 7 was released. It certainly seemed so as the new flagship was well received but it later ended up becoming the company’s worst nightmare. Samsung...

The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ has started receiving a new update. Carrying a firmware version of XXU3BPJ3 and currently rolling out to unlocked units in Europe, the update brings Android security patch for the month of October. As is usually the case with OTA-roll outs, it may take some time for the update to hit your device. Meanwhile, if you feel impatient, you can manually check for the update by heading to your handset's Settings menu. Via Read...

With an aim to better fight fraud and spam installs, Google has started pushing out a new update to its Play Store app that brings along improved detection and filtering systems. "From time to time, we observe instances of developers attempting to manipulate the placement of their apps through illegitimate means like fraudulent installs, fake reviews, and incentivized ratings," the company says in a blog post. "These attempts not only violate the...

After Samsung Singapore and Taiwan separately confirmed the pricing and availability details for the Blue Coral Galaxy S7 edge, the model has been officially announced by the South Korean company. In a press release on its US website, Samsung said that the sixth color edition of the Galaxy S7 edge smartphone has been officially released, and will be available in selected markets around the globe starting November 1. "Specific availability details...

Samsung may have managed to hold on to its lead in the global smartphone market even after the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco but the slide in its tablet market share continues and it’s not even related to the exploding flagship. The tablet market overall has been on a decline since the past eight quarters straight and the situation did not improve in the third quarter of this year. While the global...

Samsung introduced its Creative Lab (C-Lab) innovation program last year through which it enables employees to develop their own business ideas with the company contributing time and resources to help them develop that idea into a product. Samsung announced earlier this year that 18 employees who were working on five C-Lab projects officially resigned from the company to launch proper companies based on the ideas that they worked on in the innovation...

Samsung has a point to prove with the Galaxy S8 following the misfortune it has had with the Galaxy Note 7. Rumors suggest that the Galaxy S8 is going to introduce some major hardware changes to the flagship lineup one of which is expected to be a nearly full-screen OLED display. A new report suggests that one of the most drastic changes for the Galaxy S8 will indeed be a nearly bezel-less or edge-to-edge...

Samsung has the 2017 Galaxy A series in the pipeline right now, we’re hearing new rumors and reports about these devices every other day and the latest concerns the Galaxy A5 (2017). This handset has now received its Bluetooth certification a few weeks after also receiving its Wi-Fi certification. This means that it’s now closer to release and while it’s not confirmed exactly when Samsung is going to launch this series it’s expected to do so early...

It was first rumored a couple of weeks back when an image of the Galaxy S7 edge’s shell was leaked in gorgeous Blue Coral color that the handset would soon be available in this color that was introduced with the Galaxy Note 7. Samsung Singapore later confirmed that the Galaxy S7 edge in Blue Coral will be released in the first week of November in Singapore but it didn’t release any images of the device. Samsung Taiwan released images as well...

A new report comes from The Nikkei Asian Review where the President of Sharp as well as another senior executive of the company both confirmed that next year's iPhone will no longer be using the current LTPS display technology, but rather will be using OLED screens. A remark made by Sharp president Tai Jeng-wu at Tatung University during a graducation ceremony to some of the school's students hinted toward this. "The iPhone has been evolving and...

Much like the Xiaomi Mi Box spotted at Walmart ahead of its release, the retailer has been seen doing the same thing again, this time with a Google product, the company's direct competitor to the Amazon Echo, smart home assistant. The Google Home assistant will be available starting November 4, this is when Google will ship the pre-ordered units, and this is when retailers should stock them and sell them online. Android Police reports that one of...

Samsung is never one to sit back idly, and not only works hard on new mobile devices but brings the same love of experimentation to its accessories as well. There are six new accessories for sale online in Korea that Samsung will introduce worldwide in November. A Wireless Speaker Bottle provides 360-degree surround sound while fitting in with the drink bottles you have around your home (think soda can here) with in-built wireless charging and...

Sony's newest flagship smartphone, the Xperia XZ, launched in the US at the beginning of this month. Ever since, it's been sold unlocked for $699.99. But right now you can get it for less, which should be helpful if you've found that initial price non-palatable. Amazon has decided to shave a cool $50 off the price of the Xperia XZ, taking it down to $649.99. That's still a lot, but at least it's in line with other competing high-end devices. The...

Today vivo has outed its first teaser for an upcoming smartphone that the Chinese rumorsphere has labeled as being the X9. This should succeed the X7 in the company's portfolio, even though that model was only made official four months ago. Things move fast in the competitive Chinese smartphone market. The teaser in question, which you can see to the left, doesn't mention the yet-to-be-announced device by name. It does however confirm that it will...

The LG G6 may be coming alone next year with 'Friends' being (logically) canceled, but it will likely sport an iris scanner. Korean media has covered LG Inotek's development of such hardware for the next-gen flagship. Unlike the Galaxy Note7 implementation, where Samsung had fitted a selfie camera and a dedicated second camera for iris recognition, the G6 will combine the two in a single module. A filter of some sort will allow the two functions...

Tenth generation versus the first of its kind - the iPhone 7 versus the Google Pixel, in their Plus-size versions (or XL in Google terms). Read More........

If you recently traded in your faulty Galaxy Note 7 for a shiny new Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge, there’s a good chance you’re in the market for a reliable screen protector to keep its display in immaculate condition. If so, you’ve come to the right place. For a limited time only, you can bag yourself a Armorsuit MilitaryShield tempered glass screen protector for just $7.85. That’s a total saving...

The Huawei Mate 9 is some 3 days away from official status, and sure enough, the leaks keep coming in. This latest one comes in the form of a couple of live images. The pictured Mate 9 is the flat-screened Manhattan (a dual-curved Long Island Mate 9 Pro version is rumored as well) in a gold body color. We're not entirely sure if it's the real deal or an early mockup, maybe. For one, the Leica branding is nowhere to be found, and we'd be more than...

Sony has announced two new controllers for the PlayStation 4 consoles built for professional gaming. Built by Razer and Nacon, these are the first two controllers being made by third-party manufacturers and officially licensed by Sony. Razer Raiju The first is the Razer Raiju. Named after a mythical Japanese creature, the Raiju has two additional bumpers at the top and two extra detachable triggers on the back and a built-in control panel on the...

Following its rollout for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge in Europe two weeks ago, Samsung is now in the midst of distributing this month’s security release for the Galaxy S6 edge+ in the region. The upgrade — firmware version XXU3BPJ3 — transports patches for a total of 68 Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) in the Android OS and 7 dedicated fixes for the firm’s latest smartphones. As we’ve come to expect from all Security Maintenance...

Meizu counted up twice and announced the Meizu M5. It features a bigger screen than the m3s - now 5.2" big and covered with 2.5D beveled glass. The mTouch 2.1 fingerprint reader below the screen has been optimized and now triggers in just 0.2 seconds. Not bad for a phone that costs CNY 700 ($105/€95). The M5 continues to be powered by the MediaTek MT6750 chipset found in the m3s. The similarities continue with a choice of 2GB RAM and 16GB storage...

Sony is already looking forward to next year and has already registered two phones with a Russian regulatory body. The Sony Xperia G3121 and G3112 are their internal model numbers, which doesn't tell us much except to suggest they may be mid-range or even low-end devices. The Xperia E4 a while back had a number of G2104. Sony's internal numbers are not terribly consistent though, the two new phones may be closer to the Xperia XA instead, aka "F311x"....

With VR heating up, companies have been looking for ways to provide an affordable entry, but VR requires a very different GPU than gaming on a screen. Meet ARM's new GPU - the Mali-G51 - built specifically for VR. A smaller brother of the G71, this is the second GPU to use the new Bifrost architecture built with Vulkan in mind. This one is more than just a G71 with fewer cores, in fact it's the first to use a dual shader architecture. Basically,...

Over the course of the past few days, reports have started to emerge on the Internet from Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge owners claiming that they’re experiencing issues while composing emails within the stock application using the Samsung Keyboard. “Whenever I try to type contractions like I’m it replaces the ‘ with ” and deletes any letters after automatically. It also changes...

Samsung’s facing increasing competition from Chinese smartphone manufacturers. For the first time ever, the combined production volume of three of the region’s top producers — Huawei, Oppo and Vivo — surpassed the South Korean company’s global smartphone market share during the July-September period. Market research analyst IDC has revealed that Samsung manufactured 72.5 million devices in the third quarter, giving it a 20 percent...

Samsung will start mass producing its next-generation 15- and 16-nanometer (nm) DRAM in the second half of next year, reveals Business Korea. In addition, semiconductor industry sources have been cited saying that the manufacturer aims to make its 18nm DRAM chips account for 30 to 40 percent of its overall DRAM production by the same period of 2017. By constantly ramping up its current...

Samsung’s flagship flip phone, codenamed Veyron, has been a project given great care and diligence intended for the Chinese market over the last few months. With the Veyron flagship flip phone receiving its FCC certification recently, the launch of this device could occur, literally, any day now. We’ve seen the SM-W2017 flagship flip phone appear in gold, but a new rose gold variant has emerged, making what could be the most elegant flip phone even...

Evie Launcher This new launcher has an interesting UI, with a panel on the left that houses all your apps and widgets in a vertically scrolling list. You can also access the settings from that panel. On the homescreen you can swipe down to do a local as well as online search. You can also customize the grid size of the homescreen icons. Android DoubleTwist DoubleTwist is a music player for Android that has been around for a while now but got a major...

Apple's recent announcements got relatively muted responses - the spirit of innovation is missing. Young Xiaomi did a much better job of launching a device that got everyone talking, the bezel-less Mi Mix. It's almost all screen - 6.4" inches of it - and yet it's only as tall as an 5.5" iPhone 7 Plus and about as wide. Yes, many point to Sharp's Aquos line (and in fact Xiaomi used a Sharp screen), but the latest Aquos Xx3 abandoned the bezel-less...

There are exciting announcements and then there's the Xiaomi Mi Mix. The (near-)bezelless Xiaomi phablet turned from concept phone to reality in the time it took to be fully detailed on stage, and you can actually pre-order one right now. Mostly if you're in China, unfortunately. The enthusiasm is very much the world over though, hence the top spot on our trending chart. Xiaomi's affordable yet powerful Redmi Note 3 keeps its second spot for a third...

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge won the Best Phablet of 2016 vote, a clean sweep for Samsung (the small S7 won the Best Smartphone vote). This was a much more heated debate - the S7 edge still has a wide lead, but it didn't dominate as much as its smaller sibling. People asked about the Galaxy Note7, but that phone has a terrible battery life (the update limited it to 60% charge) and you're not allowed on planes anymore. Anyway, LG performed much better...

The Xiaomi Mi Mix is the single most interesting smartphone we've seen in a while, no doubt about that. Sure, the iPhone 8 may be rumored to be all display next year, but we can have that now in the Mi Mix, sort of. It does have a chin, and it will only be available in China for the time being, but those are details. A more conventional offering, the Mi Note 2 from Xiaomi is official as well - itself a proper flagship, even with a dual-curved display...

If you are in the United States and are in the market for an Xbox One S gaming console, here's a deal for you: the Xbox One S 500 GB (Minecraft Bundle) is currently going for $280, down from its regular price of $299. eBay seller antonline is currently selling the console at that price. The listing says that quantities are limited, and - as of writing - a total of around 30 units have been sold. Shipping is free. To know more about the discount,...

If you are in the US and are planning to purchase either a Motorola Moto Z, Moto Z Force Droid, or Moto Z Droid, you'll be glad to know that the company is offering a limited-time discount of $150 on these phones. This means - as long as the deal is available - the Moto Z can be purchased for $550, while the Verizon-exclusive Moto Z Droid and Moto Z Force Droid can be purchased for $474 and $570, respectively. To get the discount, you need a promo...

After being spotted on benchmarking site GFXBench as well as India's import/export tracking website Zauba, the Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) has now been certified by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). As is usually the case, the Bluetooth listing doesn't reveal anything about the device's specifications. However, from what all has been revealed until now, the Galaxy A3 (2017) is powered by an octa-core 1.5GHz processor, and sports a 4.7-inch...

Is it just us, or has naming in the mobile realm really gone downhill lately? We are far from the idea that Xiaomi is the only OEM guilty on this account, but one look at the Redmi announcements over the past couple of years is surely enough to confuse even the most loyal of fans and experts out there. At least it is less of a mess over in the higher end Mi section, but we still find ourselves struggling to decipher exactly what we are looking at...

A few months back OnePlus decided to implement its "never settle" slogan quite literally and took to the road on a grand Euro tour. The growing start-up has always had a closer relationship and involvement with its fans than most, which really made the effort special. While meet-ups are typically a regular thing for the OnePlus team, this time a fully-loaded promotional bus and a schedule spanning over two months really took it to the next level....

If you are interested in picking up one of Google's new Pixel phones in the US, you can either go on the Google store directly or Project Fi or hit up Verizon for a unit. The latter is currently the only major carrier that offers the handsets and thankfully with no carrier lock and with updates coming straight from Google. In the absence of a Pixel offer of its own, a few days ago T-Mobile launched a rather sneaky deal to draw more Pixel users to...

We already know the budget-friendly Motorola Moto M is in the works. A few helpful leaks in, we are also fairly well acquainted with what to expect in terms of specs and appearance. Now, in a new turn of events, it appears Lenovo might not even make us wait until December for the full-metal handset, as a new promotional material suggests a November 8 launch date instead. To sweeten the deal even further, the Moto M might not come along, but instead...

As we are sure most of you already heard, Apple finally brought an arguably overdue refresh to its Mac Pro laptop lineup on Thursday. It consists of a trio of new laptops, two in the 13-inch and on in the 15-inch form factor. All of them are more powerful and significantly thinner then their predecessors, have better screens, improved touchpads and lets call it a "different" approach to the keyboard and I/O, now entirely made of Type-C ports. However,...

We’ve known for a little while now that Samsung is working on a third-generation variant of the Galaxy A3. The handset, dubbed the Galaxy A3 (2017), has already been spotted on the GFXBench online database and imported into India for testing. However, it’s now been granted Bluetooth certification, which leads us to believe that the South Koran company is in the final stages of acquiring the documentation it needs to launch a new smartphone....

According to data shared by IHS Research analyst Kevin Wang, Oppo has dethroned Huawei to become the top smartphone player in China. The former sold 22 million smartphone units in the third quarter, compared to 18 million by the latter. Not only Oppo, vivo also surpassed Huawei, recording a total of 19 million units in sales in Q3. It's worth mentioning that Huawei had sold a total of 32 million units in Q2, so that's quite a sharp drop. Moving...

The LG V20 is now available for purchase in Canada, where carriers Videotron and Wind Mobile are currently offering the device. A quick look their websites reveals that the handset is being sold outright for CAD 1,029.95 (around $770) and CAD 999 (around $745), respectively. Those purchasing the phone (irrespective of their carrier choice) will also get a free pair of B&O Play H3 headphones by Bang & Olufsen (worth CAD 199.95). There's currently...