HTC Vive Business Edition VR System Launched In India

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Feb 22, 2018

Huawei branded smartphones with model numbers LDN-TL10 and LDN-TL20 have been recently certified by TENAA regulatory body in China. It is speculated that these could be the two RAM and storage editions of the upcoming Honor Enjoy 8 or Huawei Y5 (2018) smartphone.

According to the TENAA listing, the dimensions of the alleged Enjoy 8 smartphone are 158.3 x 76.7 x 7.8mm and its weight is 155 grams. The handset seems to be housed a metallic chassis and it will be coming in color choices like black, gold, blue and rose gold. The fingerprint scanner is placed on the backside of the phone. Some of the specifications of the phone matches with the alleged Honor 7C that was recently approved by TENAA.

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The Enjoy 8 includes a 5.99-inch display that produces HD+ resolution of 720 x 1440 pixels. It is fueled by 1.4 GHz octa-core processor and 2,900mAh battery. Its LDN-TL10 variant features 3 GB of RAM and an internal storage of 32 GB. The LDN-TL20 includes 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of native storage. Both the variants feature microSD card slot for additional storage.

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The TENAA images show that only the LDN-TL10 is fitted with a dual selfie camera setup. Both the smartphones feature 8-megapixel front-facing snapper whereas their rear is fitted with 13-megapixel + 20-megapixel dual cameras. The handset is preloaded with Android 8.0 Oreo.

As of this writing, there is no information available on the launch date and pricing of the alleged the Enjoy 8. The Chinese manufacturer may announce it in the second quarter of this year.

(source 1, 2)

LG K8 2018 And K10 2018 Series Smartphones Announced Ahead Of MWC 2018

By

Jeet

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Feb 22, 2018

Ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, LG has announced its new K8 2018 and K10 2018 series phones, which includes K8 2018, K10 2018, K10+ 2018 and K10 α 2018.

According to the company, these new K-series phones are aimed at closing the gap between mass-tier devices and flagship offerings. The company says that these devices will go on sale in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

It seems that the company is focusing on providing an improved camera setup with features such as high-speed autofocus and noise reduction for better low-light photography. The devices pack a new camera features called Flash Jump Shot that snaps a photo every three seconds, up to 20 photos and stitches them together into a GIF.

Further, both phones will have HD display with 2.5D curved glass design. The LG K8 2018 features a metallic design with metal U-frame, 5-inch On-Cell Touch IPS display, and sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with phase detection autofocus — same unit that is found in the flagship LG G6, along with an 8-megapixel front camera that supports Bokeh effect.

Under the hood, it is powered by a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor along with 2GB LPDDR3 RAM with 16GB (eMMC) storage. There’s a microSD card slot for expanding storage capacity up to 32GB. Running Android Nougat operating system, the phone is powered by a 2,500mAh battery.

On the other hand, the LG K10 2018 is the premium model of the two, featuring a 5.3-inch IPS HD display and a 1.5GHz octa-core processor. The phone will be available with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage — same as the LG K10 α 2018. The LG K10+ 2018 packs 3GB RAM with 32GB onboard storage. All devices have a microSD card slot for further expanding the storage capacity.

As of the camera department, all three models of K10 2018 series come with an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It runs on Android Nougat operating system and is powered by a 3,000mAh battery.

The LG K8 2018 and the LG K10 2018 series will be available in Aurora Black, Moroccan Blue, and Terra Gold colors. The devices will be showcased at LG’s booth in Hall 3 of Fira Gran Via from 26th February until 1st March.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 Features The Capability To Stream Music To Multiple Bluetooth Devices

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Feb 22, 2018

U.S chipmaker Qualcomm unveiled it’s latest Snapdragon 845 mobile platform late last year and the new chips is set to debut onboard a smartphone at MWC 2018. Already, we have seen several benchmarks which indicate that the processor packs a lot of things to be excited about in terms of its graphics, camera support and AI processing. If you thought you have seen it all, you are mistaken as Qualcomm has now revealed a new feature that the SD 845 mobile platform would pack.

Qualcomm says Snapdragon 845 will come with a Broadcast Audio function, which will let users stream music to numerous Bluetooth devices simultaneously. So a group could listen to the same music via Bluetooth headphones, for example, or you could play a podcast throughout your house via multiple speakers. And with automatic retransmission and packet-loss concealment, the feature promises near-perfect synchronization.

As much as we know of, the this is an innovation that isn’t offered by any other mobile chips around presently. This sort of one-to-many sound broadcasting pushes the capabilities of traditional Bluetooth in a way that makes it a viable alternative to platform exclusive smart speakers, especially if you’re a fan of multi-room playback. You won’t need to have multiple smart speakers like Home pods and Echos installed in several rooms around the house in order to listen to Classic FM on a Sunday morning while you move around the house. Also, you can enjoy that tune you’re listening to on your headset with a friend sitting close by without having to give up your headphone. Broadcast Audio lets users share and participate in sound in a way that brings people together, which is what music is all about. So it’s amazinging that this feature is coming with Snapdragon 845.

(via)

Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Will Feature 18:9 Display, SD660, Wireless Charging, Iris Scanner and More

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Feb 22, 2018

Plenty of details of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S and Mi 7 flagship phones have been revealed through their firmware files in the recent past. Today, XDA Developers has revealed some of the key specs and features of the forthcoming Xiaomi Mi Max 3 mid-range phablet through its firmware files.

The first-generation Mi Max came with a 4,850mAh battery and the Mi Max 2 came with a bigger battery of 5,300mAh capacity. The firmware files of Mi Max 3 have revealed that it will be arriving with a behemoth battery of 5,500mAh capacity.

The Snapdragon 660 chipset will be powering the Mi Max 3. The original Mi Max came in Snapdragon 650 and 652 chipset variants. Hence, there is a possibility that the Mi Max 3 may also in arrive Snapdragon 630 chipset option, but there is no supporting evidence for it in its firmware files.

As rumors have claimed, the Xiaomi Mi Max 3 will indeed feature an 18:9 aspect ratio display. However, there is no confirmation on its exact size and the resolution that it will be supporting. It is a safe bet to assume that it will carry support for FHD+ resolution. It will be equipped with a rear positioned fingerprint scanner.

The firmware files of Mi Max 3 have references for wireless charging. For instance, there are some strings in the APK of MIUI Keyguard that contains text like “wireless charging has stopped”, “position offset” and “please reposition.”

Xiaomi had joined the Wireless Power Consortium last year which indicates that some of the phones from the company that will be released this year will carry support for Qi wireless charging. The first phone to feature it could be the Mi 7 and the next one could be the Mi Max 3. A help video and graphic on how to place the handset on the charging base for wireless charging has been also found in the firmware files. A demo image showing a generic device placed on wireless charging been has been also unearthed.

The back panel of the Mi Max 3 is expected to feature Sony IMX363 or an S5K217+S5K5E8 Samsung dual camera module. The frontside of the phone features S6K4H7 Samsung sensor and OmniVision OV2281 iris scanner. Since the lines related to iris recognition have been commented out, the company seems to be still deciding on adding this feature on Mi Max 3.

The firmware files suggest that the device is running on Android 8.1 Oreo. However, it could be a developer ROM. It may probably launch with Nougat flavored MUI 9. The other features that will be arriving on the Mi Max 3 include dual-SIM support, microSD card slot, IR blaster, LED light for alerts, aptX and aptX HD Bluetooth audio codecs by Qualcomm. The device lacks NFC connectivity. Lastly, it may feature dual speakers.

There is no information available on the launch date of Mi Max 3. Judging by the launch patterns of the predecessor models, it seems that the new phablet may get unveiled in May.

Alleged Honor 7C TENAA Listing Reveals Full Specifications, Images

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Feb 22, 2018

Two variants of an upcoming Honor phone have been certified TENAA agency in China. The model numbers of the two variants are LND-TL40 and LND-TL30. It is speculated that these could be the variants of the rumored Honor 7C smartphone.

The Honor 7C can be seen wearing a metallic body with a fingerprint scanner placed on its rear. It measures 158.3 x 76.7 x 7.8 and weighs 164 grams. It is expected to arrive in color like black, gold and blue. It is a full screen design smartphone that is fitted with a 5.99-inch display that offers HD+ resolution of 720 x 1440 pixel. The screen will be delivering an aspect ratio of 18:9.

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The LND-TL30 has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of native storage whereas the LND-TL40 includes 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. Both the models are fueled by 1.8 GHz octa-core processor. These variants also feature a microSD card slot. It is equipped with a 2,900mAh battery.

The images of the LND-TL30 and LND-TL40 are identical except for the fact that the former features a dual selfie camera setup. The backside of both phones feature LED enabled 13-mgeapixel + 20-megapixel dual camera setup. These handsets feature a selfie camera of 8-megapixel. It is preinstalled with Android 8.0 Oreo.

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It is speculated that the Honor 7C may arrive in the market as a lower version of the Honor 7X mid-range smartphone. There is a possibility that some markets may receive it as Honor V10 Play. Since the Honor 6C was launched in April in 2017, there is a possibility that the Honor 7C may get official in April this year.

(source 1, 2)

Moto G6 Plus Leaked Render Reveals 5 Color Variants

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Feb 22, 2018

Couple of renders of the Moto G6 Plus have surfaced in the recent to reveal its design. Today, a new image of the Motorola phone has surfaced to show that it will be arriving in five different color options.

The image show below shows that the Moto G6 Plus would be arriving in colors like Silver, Gold, White, Blue and Cyan. The handset bears resemblance with the Moto X4 that was launched last year. Like the Moto X4, the G6 Plus is expected to arrive with a metal and glass combination. The dual camera setup along with the dual-LED flash are present inside the round-shaped camera housing.

The front view of the phone suggests that it will be arriving with a full screen design. The bottom bezel features the branding of the company along with a thin-shaped home button that could be embedded with a fingerprint sensor.

Codenamed as Teller, the Moto G6 Plus is rumored to be fitted with a 5.93-inch display that will carry support for Full HD+ resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. It is rumored to be fueled by Snapdragon 630 chipset that also powers the Moto X4. It is expected to arrive in RAM variants like 3 GB, 4 GB and 6 GB. It is likely to arrive in 32 GB and 64 GB storage choices and is also expected to feature a microSD card slot.

It is pegged to feature a selfie camera of 16-megapixel whereas the dual camera setup is rumored to include a 12-megapixel sensor and a 5-megapixel sensor. It is likely to be fueled by 3,250mAh battery. It is rumored to be priced around $330.

Motorola had announced the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus smartphones at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February last year. The company is yet to confirm on whether the Moto G6 family will be unveiled at MWC 2018 that is scheduled to happen in the coming week.

Qualcomm Unveils Reference Design For VR Headset Powered by Snapdragon 845

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Habeeb Onawole

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Feb 21, 2018

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 will not only power the high-end phones of 2018 but will also appear in PCs and VR headsets.

Last year HTC announced the Vive Focus standalone headset powered by the Snapdragon 835. Lenovo also announced the Mirage Solo with Daydream which is also powered by the SD835 at CES 2018.

As the year rolls by, we should see manufacturers release new headsets powered by the newer Snapdragon 845. Qualcomm Technologies has released a reference design for upcoming headsets.

In an official blog post, Qualcomm highlighted the features of the chipset which makes it great for VR and AR headsets. The Adreno 630 GPU is the part of the chipset doing the hard work.

It is said to offer a 30% increase in performance, 30% improvement in power efficiency and more than double the display throughput of the Snapdragon 835.

Qualcomm also announced a new technology called Adreno Foveation which uses a combination of “graphics rendering and eye tracking to understand where the user is looking”.

Snapdragon 845 headsets will also use a combination of 6DoF (degrees of freedom) and SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) to track the body and location, allowing you walk around freely within a room without the need for sensors and cables. Qualcomm says this is achieved by the processing power of the Hexagon DSP and the Adreno GPU.

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New Honor 9 Lite Update In India Brings Face Unlock

By

Michele Ingelido

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Feb 21, 2018

Facial recognition is one of the most important innovations of 2017-18 in the smartphones market, together with the 18:9 displays and artificial intelligence. Thanks to the Face ID found on the iPhone X it is actually possible to unlock the phone in a secure way just by looking at it and making it recognize our face. Now, even Honor 9 Lite has started receiving a similar feature thanks to a new update which is rolling out in India. Unfortunately, it is just a software feature, and it does not bring the same level of security as the iPhone X which also uses a depth sensor for its 3D facial recognition.

But it is still a quick method of unlocking the phone, so it remains useful for people who care about comfort while using their devices. After you install the new update, if you want to enable the Face Unlock feature, you just have to go to the Settings and register your face. For now, the update is only available for Indian customers, but according to the company, all the units of Honor 9 Lite should get updated by 5th March 2018. Honor 9 Lite is not the first budget phone by Huawei’s sub-brand to get the Face Unlock feature. In January, the face recognition update was brought to the high-end Honor View 10 and recently even the Honor 7X received it in China.

The update which is rolling out on the Honor 9 Lite should also contain other features and improvements, but the company did not release the official changelog yet. According to the company, Honor 9 Lite will be “the most affordable smartphone in the Indian market to support Face Unlock feature and will further emerge as the best value for money smartphone with superior hardware and software configurations”.

Do you agree?

(Via)

OnePlus Is Giving Away Its 5T Flagship To 5 Lucky Couples

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Michele Ingelido

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Feb 21, 2018

A new exciting giveaway sponsored by model and actress Emily Ratajkowski has just kicked off. OnePlus will give the OnePlus 5T flagship to five lucky couples for free. Each of the 5 couples will get two OnePlus 5T: one for him in the Midnight Black color and one for her in the Lava Red color. The contests is running on Facebook and is only available for people from North America.

To have the chance to win the flagship, the participants need to tag their twin soul, subscribe to OP’s Twitter and Facebook pages, make him/her do the same, and comment the post telling why they should win. The OnePlus 5T contest will officially end on February 22, then the company will draw the five lucky winners.

It is worth mentioning that OnePlus 5T Lava Red has been released in one only one variant: the most powerful one with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. Obviously, this version is also the costliest one, it costs €560 in Europe and $560 in USA, and the price of the Midnight Black 8 GB version is exactly the same. Just like the standard version, it comes with the powerful octa-core Snapdragon 835 chipset by Qualcomm, and the rest of the specs sheet remains the same as well.

(Source, Via)

Xiaomi Mi TV LED 4 Goes On Sale In India On Thursday, Free Installation Included

By

Joel Joseph

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Feb 21, 2018

Xiaomi announced the world’s thinnest LED TV in India a few days ago for a competitive price tag of Rs. 39,999 (~$618). Despite having multiple variants (49/ 55/ 69-inch) of the Mi TV 4 in China, India gets just the 55-inch model. You can purchase the TV from flipkart, mi.com and even Mi Home stores all across the country on Thursday. The Mi TV 4 comes with 3 months of subscription to Sony LIV and Hungama Play among other add on features. You get the Mi IR cable for free along with on-site installation free as part of the launch offer.

The TV supports 4K resolution and HDR and features 8ms response time. Inside, there’s a 64-bit Amlogic SoC clocked at 1.8GHZ with Mali-T830 graphics. You get 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage along with Dolby DTS Cinema Audio powering the 2 x 8W duct inverted speakers. The company’s Patchwall UI has also been tweaked for the Indian market. As for the ports, you get 3 x HDMI 2.0, 2 x USB (1 x3.0), an Ethernet port, S/PDIF port, Wi-Fi ac, and Bluetooth 4.0.

For more details, you can check out our launch article.

Xiaomi Mi 7 Could Arrive with OLED Screen, Always-On Display Function

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Feb 21, 2018

An unnamed high-level employee with Xiaomi had recently confirmed to Android Headlines that the company won’t be debuting the Xiaomi Mi 7 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018. Recent leaks have revealed that the company may launch it in the month of April or May. However, the rumor mill is consistently spilling more information on the smartphone. Leaked firmware files of the Xiaomi Mi 7 that are exclusively available with XDA Developers have revealed some of its key features.

The firmware files have revealed that the Mi 7 is powered by Snapdragon 845 and it is running on Android 8.0 Oreo flavored with MIUI 9. It also carries support for Project Treble.

Rumors have claimed that the Mi 7 will be arriving with 6-inch OLED screen supplied by Samsung. Firmware files have revealed that the Mi 7 will be the first phone from the company to arrive with Always-On Display, a feature that is only on smartphones with OLED screens. It has been also found through the firmware files that the Mi 7 will come equipped with dual cameras like its predecessor.

The other features of the Mi 7 that have been leaked through its firmware files are real-time bokeh in camera app, Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS), NFC. aptX and aptX HD Bluetooth audio codecs by Qualcomm and audio technology by Dirac.

The firmware files have revealed that the Mi 7 is packed with a 3,170mAh battery which is a bit smaller than 3,350mAh battery that powers the Mi 6. Even though there are some references of wireless charging in the different systems apps, it could not be confirmed whether the Mi 7 will carry support for wireless charging.

Rumors have claimed that it could be the first Xiaomi phone to arrive with wireless charging function. However, the publication claims that it came across an unidentified Xiaomi phone enabled with wireless charging support.

It is recommended to digest this report with a pinch of salt since the publication is not completely confident that the firmware files really belong to Mi 7. The probable reason behind it is that there are no direct references to Mi 7 or its codename in the firmware files.

The Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S and Mi 7 are the two rumored devices that are driven by Snapdragon 845 chipset. The firmware files of the Mi MIX 2S that had surfaced in the previous week had carried references for the codename of the handset. Hence, it is speculated that the newly found firmware files belongs to the Mi 7 flagship.

(source 1, 2)

Archos Citee Connect Electric Scooter is an Mi Scooter Look-Alike With a Built-in Android Phone as Interface

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Feb 21, 2018

Frech company Archos is teasing its latest product which would make its grand entry at MWC 2018 and it isn’t a smartphone. Archos is best known for its smartphone range but the company has set the bar higher by manufacturing an electric scooter which strikingly looks like the Mi Electric scooter in terms of its ergonomic and minimalistic, yet beautiful design.

The electric scooter which would be officially unveiled at MWC 2018 goes by the moniker Archos Citee Connect. Not only is the electric scooter beautiful, it comes with a built-in Android phone which functions as its control interface. The smartphone sits in the middle of the handlebars of the Archos Citee Connect and features a 5-inch display. The handset is also powered by a quad-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM while there is 8GB of storage onboard. Despite its low-end specs, the smartphone runs Android Oreo out of the box and is directly connected to the motor of the scooter, giving users a unique controller for their new method of transport.

Furthermore, the smartphone comes preinstalled with custom software which helps users track their progress, see the battery level of the motor/phone, and check how fast they are going. You also get access to Google Play Store, Google Maps and several other third-party apps on the store which aids users on a trip. t’s 3G connectivity ensures that data usage runs at a fair speed while using Google Maps and other relevant apps In situ. Unfortunately, we don’t know if the smartphone is waterproof since the scooter could be in use while it is raining.

As stated earlier, the Archos Citee Connect features a design which resembles the German Red dot award-winning Mi Electric Scooter.It sports an all-black design with a few streaks of green accent on the 8.5-inch puncture-proof wheels. The motorized scooter also packs an aluminum frame which makes it light enough to be capable of reaching a range of 25 km (about 15.5 miles) on a single charge. The frame is also strong enough to withstand a weight of up to 100 kg. Archos also touts the Citee Connect as capable of reaching speeds of 25 km/h (15.5 mph). Despite the similar configuration, the Archos Citee Connect comes with an initial price tag of €399 (about $494), that’s if you are buying from the company when sales commences this April. The price will increase up to €499 when the product hits traditional store shelves in the summer. This is way higher than the Mi Electric Scooter which had an initial price of 1999 Yuan (around $239) when it first hit the market in China. But then, the cost of the smartphone could also play a factor in the higher price. Besides, it is quite difficult to beat the Chinese manufactures in terms of lowest price offers.

(via)

Huawei P20 Plus’ Triple Camera Sensor Revealed Up Close, Different Arrangement

By

Joel Joseph

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Feb 21, 2018

Huawei refreshed the P series back in 2015, getting rid of the Ascend tag, and going with just the P moniker. It’s been three years since this change and the strategy seems to have worked for Huawei as the new ‘P’ series is the company’s face for camera centric smartphones. And after slapping the premium Leica branding on its P series flagship smartphones, the P series models have become a favourite for buyers who are looking for a good flagship camera phone.

With most smartphones featuring dual camera setups, it’s has become necessary for Huawei to innovate in order to stand out of the crowd. And it’s almost confirmed that this innovation comes via the addition of yet another sensor to the setup, making it a triple camera module. So, the Huawei P20 Plus and even the Huawei P20 model is expected to feature not two, but three camera sensors at the back. While we have seen some good renders of the triple camera setup on the P20 Plus, what we’ve got today is a closer look at the three-camera sensor arrangement.

It’s worth noting that the alleged Huawei P20 Plus’ triple camera setup in this image is a bit different than previous renders. Moreover, there’s no guarantee that this leak is legit, showing the P20 Plus up close. So, make sure you take it with a pinch of salt.

This picture shows a real life P20 Plus’ camera up close with two camera sensors, one unknown sensor below them, and one more large camera sensor down below arranged vertically. This is different from the other renders in the sense that the flash is placed outside the housing, right on top of the setup. Another render from Onleaks had revealed the triple camera sensor arrangement as two in the housing and one outside. So, this definitely looks different from what we have seen before.

Huawei P20 Plus 3D Render — P20 Plus render by on leaks

With such a powerful setup at the back, it looks like it will protrude quite significantly. The Huawei P10 did well to keep the design neat and clean and this protruding design might not go well with some fans. But still, if the third camera sensor manages to work wonders for the phone, it might just be worth it. In fact, there are phones like the Pixel XL 2 and the iPhone 8 who manage to capture great images with their single camera setups, so it will be interesting to see how a triple camera setup improves the camera experience.

We don’t know how the third camera works. The first two camera sensors could be a regular sensor with monochrome + color sensor combination while the third one could be a telephoto one. Unfortunately, this is just a speculation. The complete setup is said to bring out the best of smartphone camera with 40MP resolution pictures and 5X optical zoom. But we’ll have to wait until March 27 to know what’s really in store for us. While the functionality of the third sensor is still a big mystery, we know one thing for sure — the Huawei P20 Plus will definitely have a three camera setup. The March launch event teasers were kind enough to confirm this and now, our wait begins to know what these smartphone cameras are capable of.

(Source)

Apple Files New Trademark For Its Famous Rainbow Logo

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Feb 21, 2018

Apple has applied for a new trademark in the US for its multi-color logo. Apple stopped putting the classic logo on its devices in 1999 and even with the new trademark application, that won’t be changing.

The application was filed in December and has now been assigned to an examiner. Below is the logo’s description in the application:

“The mark consists of the design of an apple with a bite removed, with a detached leaf in green, and the apple divided into horizontal colored segments of the following colors (from top to bottom): green, yellow, orange, red, violet and blue,”.

Continue

Samsung Galaxy S9 Real Device Appears in Leaked Hands-On Photo

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Feb 21, 2018

Press renders of the different color variants of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ have appeared in the recent weeks. Freshly leaked images showing the front and rear sides of what appears the actual Galaxy S9 handset have appeared.

The Galaxy S9 model that has appeared in new images is the Midnight Black variant. The overall design of the phone is not very different from the Galaxy S8 from 2017. The boot screen shows the moniker of the phone and it also reveals that it is equipped with Samsung Knox security.

It sports the same Infinity Display design like the Galaxy S8. The slim bezel at the top houses a selfie snapper and an earpiece. Compared to the top bezel, the bottom bezel is slightly slim. On the left side is the volume rocker and dedicated button for accessing Bixby. The power key is on the right edge of the S9.

The backside of the Galaxy S9 features a glass panel. The fingerprint reader was placed beside the camera sensor on the Galaxy S8. Hence, many users had complained that they ended up smudging the camera lens while accessing the fingerprint sensor. The leaked image of the Galaxy S9 shows that the fingerprint sensor is now placed below the camera lens. Here is a leaked press render of the Midnight Black.

Rumors have revealed that the Galaxy S9 would be arriving with a 5.8-inch S-AMOLED Infinity Display. It will be arriving in Snapdragon 845 and Exynos 9810 chipset models. The SoC is likely to be supported by 4 GB of RAM. It may feature a native storage of 64 GB.

The rear camera of 12-megapixel is rumored to offer a variable aperture ranging from f/1.5 to f/2.4. The autofocus enabled selfie camera is expected to be available on the front panel of the S9. It is pegged to arrive with fast charging and wireless charging enabled 3,000mAh battery. Other rumored features include Android 8.0 Oreo with Samsung Experience 9.0 UI, iris scanner and face recognition. Midnight Black, Lilac Purple, Titanium Gray and Coral Blue are the rumored color variants of the Galaxy S9.

Samsung Begins Mass Production of Industry’s Largest 30.72TB SSD

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Feb 21, 2018

Samsung continues to blaze the trail in many aspects including Solid State Storage drive. The South Korean tech giant has announced the commencement of mass production of a new 30.72TB Solid State storage drive called PM1643 built out of the latest V-NAND chips. The new SSD improves on the massive 15.36TB storage which was unveiled two years back.

Apart from the large storage capacity, the storage drive is also touted to come with blazing performance as it promises a speed of up to 2,100MB/s sequential read and 1,700MB/s write (400K/50K IOPS for random reads/writes respectively). To achieve such performance numbers, Samsung had to combine 32 of the new 1TB NAND flash packages, each comprised of 16 stacked layers of 512GB V-NAND chips. These super-dense 1TB packages allow for approximately 5,700 5-gigabyte (GB), full HD movie files to be stored within a mere 2.5-inch storage device.

In addition, the drive is built for use on next-generation enterprise systems and has protection from memory loss in the event of sudden power shutdown and there’s ECC to maintain integrity. In terms of its durability, Samsung touted the new SSD as capable to handle 30.72TB of data written on it daily for five years. The mean time between failures is 2 million hours. No word yet on the pricing and availability but Samsung did hint that smaller capacities with be available later on. Thus, we’ll see 7.68TB, 3.84TB and so on all the way down to 0.8TB models.

Nokia TA-1071 Suspected To Be Nokia 1 Certified By FCC, Launch Imminent!

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Feb 21, 2018

Nokia has already revealed that it would hold an event at MWC 2018 where the company is expected to unveil a number of products including its smartphones. It is almost confirmed that the Nokia 9 would be among the debutants and very recently, the Nokia 1 and Nokia 7 Plus built under the Android Go project popped up online. A new Nokia model identified as Nokia TA-1071 has now been certified by FCC.

The FCC listing was accompanied by a sketch of the device having its dimension written as well. The outlines and dimensions have all the dressing of the Android One-powered Nokia 1 based on the press render we had seen in the past. Talking about the dimensions, the Nokia 1 will be 134 mm tall and 50 mm wide with a diagonal of 136 mm, equivalent to around 5.35 inches. The Nokia 1’s display may, however, come in at around 5 inches considering that bezels would occupy some part of the screen. The FCC listing also shows the presence of Bluetooth 4.0, 4G LTE and WiFi 2.4 GHz availability.

The Nokia 1 is expected to be an entry-level device which should make it very cheap, perhaps cheaper than the $99 price tag of the Nokia 2. The device will feature a 16:9 display, a single rear camera with LED flash as well as a selfie shooter. Other details are still sketchy as of now.

Huawei to Rival Qualcomm, MediaTek By Launching More Smartphones with HiSilicon Kirin Chipsets This Year

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Feb 21, 2018

The flagship and mid-range smartphones from Huawei are powered home-baked HiSilicon Kirin chipsets. However, the company has also launched smartphones powered by MediaTek and Qualcomm chipsets in the past. Fresh information reveals that the Chinese manufacturer will be launching more smartphones with Kirin chipsets this year.

In 2017, Huawei had shipped 153 million smartphones. However, only 70 million units of its flagship phones were fueled by Kirin chipsets. In other words, less than 50 percent of the 153 million shipped phones were powered by Kirin SoCs.

The remaining number of Huawei devices that includes entry-level and mid-range phones featured chipsets from other manufacturers like MediaTek or Qualcomm. Last year, Huawei had launched MediaTek powered devices like Honor 6C Pro, Honor 6 Play, Honor V9 Play, Huawei Y5 Lite (2017), Huawei Y6 (2017), Huawei Y5 (2017), Huawei Y3 (2017) and MediaPad T3.

The Chinese manufacturer will be reportedly placing more orders of its Kirin chipsets with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in a bid to take on the likes of Qualcomm and MediaTek. The ratio of Huawei phones driven by HiSilicon chipsets is expected to cross 50 percent mark this year. Last year, Huawei had launched AI driven Kirin 970 for powering flagship phones whereas the Kirin 658 and 659 chipsets had fueled mid-range phones. There is a possibility that it may launch multiple chipsets this year.

According to IC Insights, Qualcomm is the world’s leading chipset maker for smartphones. Last year, it had generated a revenue growth of 11 percent compared to 2016. MediaTek that is sitting on the fourth spot encountered a revenue decline of 11 percent on year in 2017. In comparison to 2016, HiSilicon had gained a revenue of 21 percent last year.

(via)

Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+ Release Date Could be March 16

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Feb 21, 2018

The highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ flagship phones will be unveiled on Sunday. A fresh report by a South Korean publication has revealed that the Galaxy S9 duo will be releasing in the global market on March 16.

According to The Investor, the pre-orders of Galaxy S9 and S9+ will be carried out by mobile operators like SK Telecom, LG Uplus and KT in South Korea from Feb. 28. However, a previous report had claimed that the Galaxy S9 and S9+ will be available for reservations in South Korea from March 2 to 8.

However, the latest report from the publication states that the customers who pre-order the Galaxy S9 or S9+ in the country will be able to receive their handsets between March 9 to 15. As far as the global roll out is concerned, it will begin on March 16.

As far as European launch is concerned, well-known tipster Roland Quandt had recently claimed the pre-orders begin on Feb. 25, the day when the S9 duo will be unveiled. Samsung is expected to officially confirm on the sales schedule and price at the launch event.

The tipster has also revealed that apart from the reduced lower bezel and repositioned fingerprint scanner, there won’t be any major change in the design of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ compared to their predecessor models. Both the smartphones are expected to arrive with AKG tuned stereo speakers and stellar camera with variable aperture.

The Galaxy S9 will feature 5.8-inch S-AMOLED Infinity Display, Snapdragon 845/Exynos 9810 chipset variants, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, 3,000mAh battery, 12-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front camera. The Galaxy S9+ will be arriving with 6.2-inch S-AMOLED Infinity Display, Snapdragon 845/Exynos 9810 chipset variants, 6 GB of RAM, 64 GB storage, 3,500mAh battery, 12-megapixel dual camera setup and 8-megapixel selfie snapper.

Other common features include Android 8.0 Oreo with Samsung Experience 9.0 UI, animated emoji, facial recognition, iris scanner and wireless charging. Both phones will be available in color choices like Midnight Black, Coral Blue, Titanium Grey and Purple Lilac Compared to the Galaxy S8 and S8+, the upcoming Galaxy S9 and S9+ are rumored to arrive with 10 percent increased pricing.