Tech News

Land Rover builds cars for those who enjoy the outdoors in comfort and luxury. The car company is lending its name to a smartphone that will be called the Land Rover Explore. It's a ruggedized smartphone built by Bullitt Group, the same company that makes Ruggedized CAT phones like the S60 . The company announced the phone at ISPO - an outdoor and sports trade show in Munich. Bullitt certainly has experience building sturdy hardware, and it is an...

Google's vast collection of data helps the travel industry with Google's Hotel search tool and Google Flights. Google is announcing a couple of new features for its plane-ticket search. Starting with finding cheap flights, Google will begin offering more specific information about cheaper flight fares. New kinds of basic economy flights may not offer a carry-on or the option to pick your seat, so Google Flights will provide this information for...

The Honor View 10's launch is a significant one in Honor's history. It was known as Honor's V-series and it was only available in China. Honor's rebranding to "View" series comes at the same time as the company's decision to launch the smartphone outside of China as a high-value or bang-for-buck smartphone. Read More........

The Oppo A71 was quietly announced last September, but it looks like it was a short-lived model. That's because today the Oppo A71 (2018) became official in Pakistan, ahead of a probably imminent launch in India. The A71 (2018) is very similar to its predecessor, but packs in a couple of improvements (and, oddly, 1GB less RAM). It has the same 5.2" 720p display, 16GB of expandable storage, dual-SIM functionality, 13 MP f/2.2 main camera, 5 MP f/2.4...

The mystery has been revealed: Huawei isn't introducing its new flagship smartphones at MWC next month. Instead, it will wait until March 27, when it's holding a special event in Paris. That's when the P11 or P20 family should become official - we still aren't sure exactly which name will be used. Regardless of that, it is expected to comprise of at least three members, according to recent rumors: a P11/P20, a P11/P20 Plus, and a P11/P20 Lite. A...

Yesterday, it was reported that Samsung is entering the cryptocurrency market by making ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) chips for mining hardware companies. Samsung has now confirmed this news to TechCrunch. This news follows Samsung’s Q4 2017 earnings, where its semiconductor business has performed stupendously well to emerge as the largest chip maker in the world by ending Intel’s...

Samsung will seed the official Oreo firmware update for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ to registered Beta testers 1 day before the general public. The firmware will carry the new Samsung Experience 9.0 under Android Oreo but there's still no official date for its release. We hope the update is just days away and judging by that announcement it probably is. Thanks for the tip, Pranjal! Read More........

As you may or may not know, Samsung spends a considerable amount of money on research and development every year. With the way tech is shaping up these days, one can only expect an increase in the efforts applied to this extremely pertinent portion of the business. Last year we saw Samsung India hire 800 engineers for its R&D facilities, and this year they seem to be upping the ante. Samsung India...

While VLC is the default go-to media player for many users on their computer, it is not always the case when it comes to Android. Between pre-installed media players from OEMs and dozens of great options on Google Play, users have plenty of choice on their mobiles and tablets. It is not that VLC is not popular, but there are equally good or better options on Android. VLC for Android picks up DeX support Given...

Even Samsung's foundries have been roped into making Bitcoin mining hardware now. The design for the ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) was completed last year and it went into mass production this month, according to The Bell. These ASIC chips are headed to an unnamed company in China. An analyst from Samsung Securities stated that producing ASICs takes up only a small portion of the capacity of the company's foundries. So this shouldn't...

Back in September Asus said the Zenfone 5 series should be expected in Q1 2018 and today we have an official announcement date. The company scheduled an event on February 27 at MWC 2018 in Barcelona. The new phones are arriving just five months after the Zenfone 4 versions hit the market. Six devices were announced back in August, followed by some more in September. Some rumors suggest that we might see at least three devices - Zenfone 5, Zenfone...

Xiaomi is expanding its European presence eastward - a Xiaomi store will open in Romania in less than two weeks, following Spain and (more recently) Italy. The announcement was made on Facebook and a site is already up - though it's not hosted at Mi.com. There's not much to see there besides a countdown clock. The store will open in 11 days from now. It's located in Sibiu, which is close to the center of the country, around 275km (171mi) from Bucharest....

This could be interesting - a Sony Xperia Compact with a tall aspect ratio screen. This is just conjecture based on dimensions from an FCC certification, but the numbers are lining up beautifully. The Xperia in question has a 5" screen (126mm) and measures 135.43 x 64.63 mm. For comparison, an Xperia XZ1 Compact is 129 x 64mm - same width, but shorter. The FCC only gave the display diagonal, not its aspect ratio or sides. However, check out what...

Many Samsung investors had been calling on the company to boost shareholder returns so the company launched its Shareholder Value Enhancement Program in 2015. Since then, it has given out billions in dividends and spent billions on buying back shares to cancel them. The company confirmed in 2016 that it was thinking about a stock split. The company’s board has approved a 50:1 stock split today as...

Samsung became the world’s most profitable tech company in the second quarter of last year but that wasn’t the only record it broke. It also ended Intel’s 24-year reign as the largest semiconductor-based chipmaker in the world. Samsung posted higher revenue and operating profits compared to Intel during Q2 2017. That wasn’t a one-time thing. Samsung’s semiconductor business has seen a terrific boom...

The upcoming alcatel 5 popped up on Amazon France, revealing some specs. Today the famous leakster Roland Quandt posted on Twitter a promo video, additional press renders and a complete specs sheet, including pricing and availability. The alcatel 5 will have a 5.7" IPS LCD with 18:9 ratio and HD+ resolution. The phone is equipped with the unimpressive Mediatek MT6750 chipset with eight Cortex-A53 CPU cores, clocked at 1.5 GHz. The phone will have...

Samsung is primarily a hardware company, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t tried its hand at services. Back in 2014, Samsung launched its Milk music streaming service in select markets, only to shut it down a few years later. With rivals like Apple making a good chunk of money from services, it is expected that Samsung would want to replicate the success. Being the largest smartphone vendor in the world...

It’s only a matter of time before Samsung starts rolling out the official Android 8.0 Oreo update to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, with the beta program having ended in every country where it was made available. Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners will be scrambling to download the update once it goes live, but have you prepared your phone well enough for its first major Android OS upgrade? We’ve put together a couple of tips that Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners...

The Galaxy S9 will be a generation for refinement rather than revolution. The exterior design of the new phones has barely changed - comparing CAD schematics for both makes it plain to see. For the most part, the S9 phones - both the small one and the Galaxy S9+ - will be differ by fractions of a millimeter compared to the S8 generation. The biggest change seems to be that the S9+ model will be 1.7mm shorter than its predecessor (we've included...

Not many topics keep Android users on their toes as much as big, feature-rich updates. And with the Android 8.0 Oreo update on the horizon, we are once more bombarded with questions. Will the Galaxy S8 get that update? When can I update my Galaxy S7? How about my Galaxy S6? Here we share what we know. Be smart and bookmark, since we’ll be updating this article whenever new information surfaces. We’ll...

The OnePlus 5T may be the company's latest device, but it is also the last to receive Oreo. The beta testing is complete and OxygenOS 5.0.2 is rolling out over the air. The update brings a new design for Quick settings as well as new versions for some system apps. It squashes several bugs, the biggest fix being mitigation for Spectre-style attacks. OnePlus 5T gets stable Android 8.0 Oreo As for the system apps, the Launcher was bumped up to v2.2...

Yesterday the 4-year Xiaomi Redmi 1S got MIUI 9 and now the Redmi Note, also from 2014, followed suit. Once again though, the latest Xiaomi user interface runs on top of Android KitKat and the security update is dated as far back as October 2016. The version for the Redmi Note is MIUI 9.2.2.0.KHIMIEK, while it's Prime variant receives MIUI 9.2.3.0.KHKMIEK, both with a size between 150 and 200 MB. The update is rolling out in phases and should arrive...

Phone storage is an often overlooked factor in performance, but JEDEC has the cure for slowness - the new UFS 3.0 standard. It promises up to 2x the bandwidth while using lower power to boot. A single lane can carry up to 11.6 Gbps, twice what the UFS 2.1 standard could manage. For more speed, two lanes can be used for a total of 23.2 Gbps. The new version of the standard has moved to 2.5V operation while the previous generation worked on 2.7V to...

The Honor 7X is officially available since December in major European and Asian markets, but starting yesterday it arrives with some incentives. The Huawei subsidiary announced a partnership with Lords Mobile that lets you get gift cards and free cases. Women case • Men case • £75 Gift card Purchasing the Honor 7X with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage in the UK will cost £270, discounted from £355. The phone in either Blue or Black arrives with a £75...

It has been rumored for a few years now that Samsung is working on a foldable smartphone. We’ve heard countless rumors and seen many patents but Samsung is yet to launch such a device. Recent reports suggested that it may be out in early 2018 and while Samsung itself said that it would launch the foldable smartphone in 2018, it’s unclear when the company might do that. Foldable OLED panels are part...

Samsung earned $14.13 billion in operating profit in the fourth quarter of last year but this stellar performance can’t really be attributed to the company’s mobile division. Samsung’s mobile business has been under pressure for quite a while now due to several factors such as increasing competition from Chinese rivals in key markets. The company released its earnings results for Q4 2017 today and...

Samsung posted its Q4 report, showing $61.8 billion earnings and an operating profit of $11.49 billion. That's a 24% and 73% respective increase over last year's Q4. The positive results are spearheaded by profitable display and semiconductor businesses as well as growing high-end smartphone sales. That higher demand for Samsung's top-tier smartphones was able to offset slowing lower-end phone sales, although Samsung needed to increase its marketing...

Around a couple of weeks after the previous version went out to eager testers, OnePlus has today released the new Oxygen OS Open Beta 3 for the 5T. This addresses the controversial findings revealed a few days ago regarding the Clipboard functionality. OnePlus' solution is to simply remove the Clipboard function, based on user feedback allegedly. Interestingly, the Open Beta 3 packs new navigation gestures that are reminiscent of those employed...

In an interesting and intriguing move, HMD Global has recently renewed the Nokia Xpress-on trademark under its ownership. This was used many eons ago for replaceable front and back covers, once a staple feature of a large number of Nokia handsets. The Xpress-on trademark is classified as follows: "accessories for communications apparatus, namely microphones, speakers, coloured covers, housings, cases, antennas, batteries, battery chargers". That...

Apple has decided to postpone new features in iOS in favor of improving the reliability and performance of the operating system, as according to a report by Axios. According to the report, Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President, Software Engineering, announced the revised plan to employees at a meeting earlier this month. This pushes features like refresh of the homescreen and in-car user interface, improvements to core apps like Mail and camera...

Nikkei Asian Review reported that Apple will halve iPhone X orders, based on information from the supply chain. The predicted number didn't quite line up with other estimates and it seems that the component suppliers themselves are hearings different numbers. Murata claims "the figure sounds a little bit bigger", referring to the 20 million iPhone Xs estimate by Nikkei. Murata provides some of the wireless connectivity components for this generation...

OnePlus posted an infographic detailing its busy 2017. The company's revenues doubled to $1.4 billion as phone sales grew 55% compared to 2016. OnePlus sells its phones in 32 countries and supports 24 languages and it had the #1 selling phone on Elisa, Finland's top carrier. The OnePlus community boasts over 1.3 billion members with user registrations growing more than twofold since 2016. Fans met IRL in 40 pop-up events - with a combined 19,400...

Xiaomi is looking to open a physical store in Milan soon. The maker posted a "Ciao! Italia" picture to its global Facebook page (and subsequently deleted it) indicating its intentions. The brick and mortar store in Milan will follow those in Greece, Spain and India. By adding a local store Xiaomi will offer a local warranty service and not require people to ship the phone outside of the country. There's no official word on what Xiaomi will sell...

The mobile payment game is heating up with a new competitor - Huawei Pay. The tech is already established in its home country of China, but now the company has signed a deal with China's UnionPay to bring the service worldwide. The first overseas market will be Russia. Ten Russian banks have issued 1.3 million UnionPay cards, which can be used on 400,000 terminals. Next in line is Eastern Europe. The competition - Samsung, Apple and Google - are...

Meizu is planning to commemorate its 15 years of operation with an anniversary phone, called Meizu 15 Plus. We've already seen plenty of leaks, but now the phone arrived in its first live images. The phone will come with non-existent bezels on three sides and a tiny one on the top to make room for the earpiece and the front camera. Meizu 15 Plus front and back The back panel of the Meizu 15 Plus is occupied with a dual-cam setup and a 10-LED flash,...

Sharp has introduced a new Android One phone - the Sharp Android One S3 for Y! Mobile. This is a fairly compact device with a dust and waterproof body. It even underwent some MIL-STD style shock testing by dropping it from 26 directions onto plywood from a height of 1.2m. The screen is a 5" IGZO panel (1080p resolution) and has traditionally-sized bezels (a polite way of saying "big"). This is a Snapdragon 430 device after all, so don't expect too...

It looks like Samsung is sending out a final thank you message to everyone who participated in the Galaxy S8 and S8+ Oreo beta program and could be close to releasing the official update. A few users are seeing a new notice about the beta in the Samsung Members app, with the Galaxy Beta team simply saying that it is doing its “best to distribute the official S/W version”. No date or ETA is mentioned this time around, but since the beta team had earlier...

According to people familiar with the matter, Verizon is no longer considering selling Huawei phones in the US following pressure from the US Government to avoid the Chinese handset maker. The government is also pressing Verizon to end any collaboration with Huawei on standards for a 5G network. Huawei was pushing to be among the first to offer a 5G-capable phone. The Trump administration even considered plans to nationalize the 5G Network to 'lock-out'...

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology have seen a huge spike in interest in the last couple of years. With exponential returns on investment, the cryptocurrency market has seen huge investments recently. While some prefer to just buy the Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies for quick returns, the more tech-savvy ones opt for mining coins using high-end mining hardware. This has resulted in huge...

As we said in our Galaxy A8 (2018) and Galaxy A8+ review, the fingerprint sensor is easier to use on Samsung’s latest mid-range phones compared to the company’s 2017 flagships, but it’s still not in the ideal location. That’s especially true on the 6-inch Galaxy A8+; the sensor is housed in the same cutout as the rear camera, so there is some amount of hand movement involved between tapping the sensor...

In the three months ending December 2017, Apple saw a healthy increase in market share in key markets, lead by the iPhone X. Despite slowing sales in the US, the UK, France and Italy, Apple saw an increase in Spain, Germany, Australia, Japan and mostly China, where its market share grew 10.1 percentage points to reach 28.6%. In the US Apple and Samsung accounted for 70.8% of Q4's total smartphone sales. Huawei, which was hit by a carrier deal falling...

Back in September Google and HTC announced a $1.1 billion deal. The phone manufacturer is receiving the money in exchange for some of its employees and access to its intellectual property. The agreement was approved by the Taiwanese Investment Commission in December, and today Google officially welcomed the new members of its team. The deal includes about 2000 engineers who were already working on the Google Pixel 2 smartphone and its upcoming successors....

Sharp has introduced a new Android One phone - the Sharp Aquos S3. Despite the name, this is an entry-level device rather than a follow-up to the Aquos S3 (which was more of a mid-ranger). This is a fairly compact device with a dust and waterproof body. It even underwent some MIL-STD style shock testing by dropping it from 26 directions onto plywood from a height of 1.2m. The screen is a 5" IGZO panel (1080p resolution) and has traditionally-sized...

So you’ve got yourself one of Samsung’s new mid-range phones or are planning to do so, either because you love selfies or because you’re looking for a flagship-like experience without paying the price a flagship would command. The Galaxy A8 (2018) and Galaxy A8+ are good choices for people who fall in either camp (or both), as we said in our review. There’s a lot to do on these phones, from taking beautiful selfies that blur the background to viewing...