GeekBuying Is Offering Massive Discounts On Selected Xiaomi-Branded Items

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Jan 31, 2018

There were speculations recently that Huawei may launch the P11 or P20 series at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 holding in Barcelona. Another line of thought soon emerged that since there is a possible clash of the launch event with that of the Galaxy S9 series, a new date might be chosen for its launch. It has now been confirmed by GSMArena that the flagship Huawei P11 which we still don’t know if it would be called P20, would not be unveiled at MWC 2018 but Huawei will hold a special event on March 27 where it would unveil the P11/P20. The details also include that the event would be held in Paris, France.

The next-generation Huawei P-series is expected to be made up of three different models a P11/P20, and a bigger-sized P11/P20 Plus as well as a P11/P20 Lite. There is also rumors of a P11/ P20 Pro which would feature a display notch similar to that of the iPhone X with the 18:9 aspect ratio, That has also been talks of the flagship models utilizing three dual cameras but that could just be the figment of someone’s imagination. It just concept images we have seen about that anyway.

The upcoming models are also expected to arrive with a full-screen design similar to what Huawei did on the Mate 10 Pro. The models will equally be fueled by a Kirin 970 chipset which has AI capabilities. However, the Lite version may feature a different specs lineup. Huawei had made trademark applications for both the P20 moniker and later on P11. So, we’ll have to wait till it is officially unveiled to know the real name. We expect more details to be outed, though, before the March 27 launch date.

Counterpoint’s 2017 Chinese Market Ranking Places Huawei At Top Spot, Xiaomi In Fourth

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Jan 31, 2018

Research firm Counterpoint Research has released its statistical data for smartphone shipments in China for the entire quarters of 2017. The statistical data shows the global smartphone market shares for Q3 2017 as well as the mobile phone market shipment comprising both smartphones and feature phones.According to the report, last year was a not so positive one for the market in China as sales volume grew by 5% but there was a 1% drop in smartphone shipments compared to the previous year. Shipments took a dive with a 4% drop in market shares YoY in Q4 2017 but in Q3, shipments were up by 5% when compared to the same period last year. Counterpoint’s James Yan, a research director explained that the year 2017 was a tough one for the Chinese handset makers due to a reduction in smartphone shipments. This is said to be due to the huge shipments made in 2016 to balance the huge marketing expenditures in the second half of the year which led to the need to clean up the inventory accumulated in 2016 last year. The surge in full-screen models being launched in China was in a way a move to get many buyers to replace their smartphones with new models which would help the overall sales. But then this created a lot of inventory of older models which had to compete with the new full-screen models.

On the individual OEM scale, Huawei emerged as the number one Chinese smartphone brand. Huawei’s shipments increased by 8% in the fourth quarter of 2017 and in the entire year it grew by 19% YoY. Thus, the company is the number one manufacturer n China last year. Don’t forget also that Huawei still ranks among the top 3 global manufacturers. Huawei is closely followed by OPPO with an 18% growth and then Vivo is at number 3 with 17% compared to 2016’s 14% growth. China’s Apple, Xiaomi came in at the number 4 spot after resurging from a turbulent 2016. The company saw its market share grow by just 1% from 11% in 2016 to 12% last year. U.S giant Apple Corp. completes the top five with an 11% shipment. Apple’s market share remained stagnant at 11% which is a result of slumping sales last year. Also worthy of note is the huge drop in the gross shipments by other mobile phone vendors from 33% to 23%.

OPPO A71 (2018) Official: Snapdragon 450 Chip, 13MP Rear Cam, ColorOS 3.2 & More

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Jan 31, 2018

Chinese smartphone maker OPPO has gone official with a new budget model which it dubbed OPPO A71 (2018). The smartphone is presently listed on OPPO’s Pakistan website with the full specs and features displayed but the price tag wasn’t listed.

Design wise, the OPPO A71 (2018) comes with the traditional 16:9 display design, packing a front home button just under this display. The device equally packs an all-metal rear cover with the U-shaped fused antenna band lying at the extreme top and bottom edges. The rear body is wrapped with a gold coating said to have been done using electroplating and nano-silver technology. There is also a black variant also coated using the same electroplating technique. The edges are well chamfered to create an easy grip. The device weighs just 137g and has a dimension of 148.1 x 73.8 x 7.6mm.

Specs wise, the OPPO A71 (2018) features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor which is a relatively new chipset Qualcomm announced at MWC Shanghai 2017. The processor is backed by 2GB of RAM while there is 16GB storage available on the model which can be expanded up to 256GB. The graphic is fired up by an Adreno 506 GPU. The A71 sports a 5.2-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display with HD resolution of 1920 x 720pixels and 16 million colors. On the camera end, the OPPO budget smartphone packs a 13MP rear camera sensor with a f/2.2 aperture while at the front is a 5MP sensor having an aperture of f/2.4.

Proving the interface on the new OPPO A71 (2018) is ColorOS 3.2 based on Android 7.1 Nougat while a 3,000mAh battery keeps the lights on. The device also comes with OTG function and so can be used to fuel other devices. The A71 comes with GPS support as well as WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2. No word yet on the pricing or if this model will be available in any other market.

Mystery Meizu Smartphone Gets 3C Certification, Could Be Meizu 15

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Jan 31, 2018

Since after Meizu launched the Meizu M6S, the next models which have kept the Chinese tech media buzzing are the Meizu 15 and 15 Plus. The tech giant is expected to launch both models to mark its 15 years anniversary. But not much is known about the models save for a couple of leaked renders that have appeared online. In what could be its first official appearance, a Meizu model believed to be the M15 has reported gotten 3C Certification. The model appeared with the model number M851Q.

The 3C Certificate, or China Compulsory Certification (CCC) and also called China CCC Certification, is a mandatory product certification system with the aim protecting consumer’s security through the supervision of products meant for the Chinese market. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) or TENAA already oversees the certification of mobile phones but 3C covers mainly the smartphone charges. So, it is basically the charger ratings that are uncovered whenever a new model is certified. In this case, the M851Q is shown to feature support for 5V/2A, 10V/2A charger rating. The charger has a power of 20W which isn’t very high. Thus, it is suspected that the Meizu 15 may have a standard edition and a flagship edition. Perhaps, only the Meizu 15 Plus will come with flagship specs just as the Pro 7 had mid-range and flagship versions.

The specifications of the Meizu 15 and 15 Plus not known but the leaked renders suggest the presence of a full-screen design. The device is also expected to feature dual camera sensors at the rear arranged in the vertical direction while under the camera setup, there will be a unique round LED flash. As for the processor that would power the models, we still don’t know if Meizu will utilize a Qualcomm Snapdragon flagship SoC or a Samsung Exynos chipset. Of course, since they are flagship models we may not find a MediaTek chip onboard because MediaTek has exited the flagship chipset market.

Live Photo Of Doogee V’s AMOLED Display Panel Surfaces

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Jan 31, 2018

Early this month, we saw two leaked renders of an unannounced Doogee V smartphone. Although both smartphones had different rear designs, they both had a similar display – an 18:9 display with a notch like that of the iPhone X.

Doogee’s official Twitter account today shared a live photo of the AMOLED display. The picture shows one working prototype and another one turned off.

The color reproduction of the working prototype doesn’t look bad but we won’t pass a final judgement until we get to see the final device. Doogee has done well to keep the bezels on the sides and at the bottom minimal. At the top is a notch that is home to the sensor, earpiece, and front facing camera.

There is no info as to who the supplier for the AMOLED display is. While Samsung may be the first guess, they most likely are not seeing as their production of AMOLED displays will be geared towards their own phones and other bigger clients like Apple and OnePlus. So our best guess is this is from a local Chinese manufacturer like BOE or Japan’s JDI.

You Could Decide What To Call The Next MIUI Version: MIUI X or MIUI 10? Voting Begins!

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Jan 31, 2018

Xiaomi‘s co-founder and Senior VP Hong Feng who is also head of the MIUI team recently announced the commencement of the next generation of its MIUI custom ROM. The senior VP made this known during the company’s 2017 summary meeting. Since then, no further details have been disclosed by the company in that regard. However, Xiaomi has kickstarted an opinion poll where it hopes to get the opinions of her fans on what to call the upcoming MIUI version.

The option poll is hosted on the MIUI Weibo page and the contention is between MIUI 10 and MIUI X. Surprisingly, during the recent conference where the next MIUI version was announced, it was clearly displayed on the projector screen as MIUI 10. But it seems Xiaomi has other ideas and the reason given for the poll is that the tenth edition of MIUI will be a special one hence the drive to get fans decide the name it woul be called. There were rumors earlier on as carried in one of our previous report that the MIUI 10 may likely be called MIUI X.

Voting is ongoing presently and would be opened for the next six days. As at the time of filing this report, over 5,000 persons have voted, including yours sincerely. Clearly, MIUI 10 is preferred by over 4,000 respondents, representing 78.7% of the total votes cast so far. So, what do you think? MIUI 10 or MIUI X? You too can make your opinion count be heading over to Weibo if you have a registered Weibo account.

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Gets 100 Yuan ($16) Price Cut In China On Feb 1st!

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Jeet

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Jan 31, 2018

Xiaomi Redmi 5, the first smartphone from Xiaomi to come with a full-screen display will be receiving a 100 Yuan (approximately $16) price cut in China on 1st February. The offer is applicable only for one day and will begin at 10:00 AM. It seems that the offer is only applicable on the Redmi 5 and not the Redmi 5 Plus variant.

With this discount, the 2GB RAM + 16GB internal storage model will be available for 699 Yuan, which roughly converts to $111. Apparently, the discount is only for the 2GB RAM variant and pricing for other variants remains same.

The 3GB RAM + 32GB storage model will cost 899 Yuan (approximately $143) while the 4GB RAM + 32GB variant, which was recently launched, will be available for 1099 Yuan (approximately $175).

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 comes with a 5.7-inch HD+ display with 720 x 1440 pixels screen resolution and an aspect ratio of 18:9. Under the hood, the device is powered by Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor, clocked at 1.8GHz, along with Adreno 506 GPU.

It features a f/2.2 aperture 12-megapixel rear camera sensor with 1.25 µm pixel size that is equipped with a Soft-LED flash. It also comes equipped with some other features like PDAF, dark light enhancement technology, facial recognition, HDR, Panorama, and Burst mode. On the front, there’s a 5-megapixel selfie snapper that is coupled with features like Smart Beauty 5.0, facial recognition, and full HD video recording at 30 fps.

Because of the full-screen design, there are no capacitive touch buttons and instead, the users will have to rely on the on-screen buttons for navigation. Also, the fingerprint scanner has been placed on the phone’s back panel.

The device is running on Android Nougat operating system based company’s own MIUI 9. Connectivity options on the device include hybrid dual SIM slot with support for microSD card, microUSB, full netcom support, 4G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 4.2 Bluetooth, 3.5mm audio jack and GPS. The Redmi 5 is powered by a 3,300mAh battery.

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 sports the familiar three-stage design found on other Redmi phones. It comes with a full metallic body and is available in four color options — Gold, Rose Gold, Blue, and Black.

4-Year Old Xiaomi Redmi Note And Redmi 1s Updated to MIUI 9

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Michele Ingelido

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Jan 31, 2018

For most of the important smartphones, the software support by companies ends in about two years, but it is not so with Xiaomi phones. The Chinese giant is providing a very long software support for its phones, even though the stable version of Android 8.0 Oreo is yet to make its debut on the recent flagships of the company. But in the meantime, the first Xiaomi Redmi Note from 2014 and the Redmi 1s have been updated to MIUI 9.

Both these devices were released about 4 years ago, but they have been updated to the latest version of the Mi user interface in 2018. The version of MIUI arrived on Xiaomi Redmi Note and Xiaomi Redmi 1s is the 9.2.2.0, but even though it is the latest version of the user interface, it is still based on Android 4.4 KitKat and not on Android Nougat like the other recent phones updated. Further, the security patch remains very old: it is the one from October 2016. Anyways, this update is still a great thing and it brings the important features of the new MIUI 9 on these two old phones.

Among these features, there is the split screen mode which allows you to open two apps in the same screen, the Search for Apps feature, the Dual Apps which allows having two accounts on a single app in the same device, the customizable Quick Cards and much more. Xiaomi Redmi 1s was released with MIUI 6.0 out of the box. It is actually a low-end device with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC running at a max frequency of 1.6 GHz. The SoC is paired with just 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage. Xiaomi Redmi Note has an octa-core MediaTek MT6592 processor with a max frequency of 1.7 GHz and it was released in two configurations with 1 and 2 GB of RAM.

(Source, Via)

Honor 9 Lite Lands In Italy and Russia

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Jan 31, 2018

After launching in China and India, the Honor 9 Lite is headed to Europe next. Although Europe already has a mid-range Honor phone in form of the Honor 7X, the Honor 9 Lite will appeal to those who want a smaller 18:9 smartphone.

Honor 9 Lite Russia — Honor 9 Lite as seen on official Russian Huawei site

Italy and Russia are the first two countries that get the Honor 9 Lite. The variant available there and expected to be available in other European countries is the 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM version. However, it is much more expensive than the price in China.

The 3GB Honor 9 Lite is sold for ¥1199 (~$190/~€153) in China but it is priced at a whopping €229 (~¥1790/~$285) in Italy. There is no price info for Russia.

The Honor 9 Lite has a 5.65” FHD+ display and is powered by the same Kirin 659 processor as other Huawei/Honor mid-range phones released in the last couple of months.

Its selling point is its dual front (13MP + 2MP) and dual rear (13MP + 2MP) rear cameras. It has a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, a microSD card slot (SIM slot 2), and packs a 3000mAh battery. It also runs EMUI 8.0 based on Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box.

Coolpad CEO Claims Xiaomi Violated Over 200 of Its Patents & Lawsuit Is To Create Awareness

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Jan 31, 2018

The Chinese media was agog recently with news that Coolpad had sued Xiaomi before a Beijing court for patent infringement. Xiaomi had come out after that to deny the allegation and stated that it is yet to receive the court papers. The latest gist coming out of that story comes from Coolpad’s CEO Jiang Chao who revealed that Xiaomi’s infringement of its patents spans more than 200 patents. The CEO, however, stated that they decided to sue Xiaomi for just six out of the 200.

Jiang Chao hinted that the purpose of selecting just 6 out of the 200 patents that Xiaomi and others infringed pon was to enhance China’s awareness and protection of intellectual property rights. He particularly noted that Coolpad does not intend to take advantage of Xiaomi’s rising status. Jiang also revealed that Coolpad has more than 10,000 patents authorized only for use by Qualcomm, and are not licensed for use by third parties. He noted that hundreds of patents related to dual standby are not even available to Qualcomm.

Xiaomi in its earlier response disclosed that it holds several patent agreements with Microsoft, Nokia, and other patent holders. In addition to that, the company hinted that it is also increasing its Research & Development effort with investments in that regard. Xiaomi recently opened a new R&D center in Shenzhen, Mainland China. But if Coolpad claims to have the patent in China covering dual standby, then Xiaomi must have dabbled into its dragnet even if the patent it used was from Nokia or Microsoft since Coolpad is a Chinese holder of the same patent.

Meizu M6S vs Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus Camera Comparison: Find Out Who’s Better?

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Joel Joseph

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Jan 31, 2018

Meizu and Xiaomi has always been close rivals. I agree that Xiaomi has managed to grow into a much bigger company as compared to its early rival, but that still doesn’t change the fact its smartphones in the budget and the mid-range segments have always got a tough competition from Meizu.

This year, it’s no different, with the Meizu M6s taking on the Xiaomi Redmi 5 and Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus smartphones in the sub 1000 Yuan (<$160) market. We know that both the phones are pretty solid contenders in the price segment, offering great value for money. But there’s always one thing that buyers want to know: Which smartphone has a better camera? This is exactly what we try to answer in this Meizu M6S vs Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus camera comparison. We have taken similar samples from both the phones so that its easy to compare which model has captured the best sample in that particular situation.

So, without wasting any more time, let’s directly move on to the Meizu M6S vs Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus camera shootout!

Meizu M6S Camera Samples (15) — M6S sample

Redmi 5 Plus camera samples (15) — R5P Sample

On first glance, the Redmi 5 Plus seems to take better images. The major reason for this is because of its saturated photos. Colors pop out nicely in the Redmi 5 Plus samples which makes the images stand out, better than the Meizu M6S. However, there’s a catch — color accuracy. Colors on the samples are highly inaccurate. For example, red looks like its pink and then there are other cases too where colors look much different than in real life. It’s quite evident because the Meizu M6S’ samples are much more color accurate. It looks a bit dull, but the color shades are very close to what you see in real life. Also, in general, the images from the Redmi 5 Plus look a bit whitish.

However, if you don’t mind the issue with its color inaccuracy, the R5P samples look better with its vibrant colors.

Meizu M6S Camera Samples (17) — M6S sample

Redmi 5 Plus camera samples (17) — Redmi 5 Plus sample

As for the details, Meizu M6S seem to have better details in most samples. In some cases, the difference is quite significant, while in some others, it may not be as evident. But in general, the M6S seems to take photos with better detail.

Both are quick to focus and shoot. So, no real issues in this department. As for the dynamic range, it’s slightly better on the R5P. As I had pointed out in the first samples that we saw from the Meizu M6S, the phone does struggle a bit in dynamic range. However, the difference is not as significant as I original thought. For example, check out the pictures of the building in the gallery.

Both phones are decent in low light photography. There’s nothing extraordinary about their performance and even in the comparison, you may find it hard to pick which one’s better. This is because the M6S seems to take higher details in some low light images, but the R5P captures brighter photos. So, the M6S’ night time samples could look a bit dull. However, it’s worth mentioning that the Meizu M6S does really well in the night time picture of the parking lot with mountains and buildings in the background. The M6S has higher details and overall, the sample looks better balanced than what we got from the R5P.

Meizu M6S Camera Samples (12) — M6S sample

Redmi 5 Plus camera samples (13) — R5P sample

One major drawback of the Meizu M6S’ photos were its huge size. Samples are anywhere between 10-15MB in size, which is very big as compared to the average 5MB file size of the Redmi 5 Plus samples.

So, which one would you pick in this Meizu M6S vs Redmi 5 Plus camera comparison?

[yop_poll id=”14″]

Check out all the original samples from here!

[envira-gallery id=”170628″]

Samsung To Begin Production Of Hardware For Cryptomining

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Jan 31, 2018

A number of big names have been linked to the recent blockchain trend. Samsung is one of them but not in the way you think. News has it that Samsung will begin manufacturing hardware for the mining of cryptocurrency.

The news was first reported by Korean media The Bell which cited Samsung officials as its source. They said Samsung will supply an unnamed Chinese mining equipment provider the hardware, whom will in turn handle distribution.

A Twitter user also tweeted about it saying Samsung has begun production of ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) mining hardware for bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining.

https://twitter.com/iamjosephyoung/status/958287126415593472

Samsung has been linked to cryptocurrency mining as far back as October last year when it demoed a mining rig made from several Galaxy S5 units. It was also reported to have signed an agreement with Baikal – a Russian bitcoin mining hardware firm for the supply of ASIC chips.

Oppo Starts Operations In Japan, Launches Oppo R11s

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Jeet

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Jan 31, 2018

Oppo, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer which has also found a place in the world’s top five smartphone brands, has now expanded its operations to Japan. The company has forayed in the Japanese market with the launch of its flagship phone — Oppo R11s.

Apart from Japan, the China-based company is also looking to expand its global footprints. For that, Oppo is planning to roll out operations in the Europen market.

According to Deng Yuchen, chief of Japanese operations for Oppo, the company is currently in discussions with NTT Docomo Inc, KDDI Corp, and SoftBank Group Corp for its portfolio. He further adds that the company is making progress with two of those network operators. The Chinese phone maker is also in talks with MVNOs such as Y!mobile and Rakuten Mobile.

Commenting on expanding the Oppo brand to Japan, Deng Yuchen said:

Operating in such a demanding market can enhance our own strength and serve as valuable experience for us to tackle untapped European and US markets in the future. Success in the Japanese market will be an endorsement for our brand.

In a recent interview, Deng Yuchen has revealed that the company is planning to hire around 700 to 800 employees in Japan in the next two years for engineering, marketing, and sales positions. There’s a possibility that Oppo may also open a retail flagship store in Tokyo in the future.

Oppo, which was founded in 2004, is one the leading smartphone brand in China and currently sells its devices in about 30 markets, including Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Indonesia, among others.

The Oppo R11s, with which the company is foraying in the Japan market, features a 6.01-inch Full HD+ display with a screen resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 18:9. The phone is powered by Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 660 processor.

In Japan, the phone will be offered with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Recently, the company had launched the 6GB RAM variant with 128GB onboard storage, but the 6GB RAM model remains China-exclusive.

Coming to the camera department, the rear camera features a combination of a 20-megapixel camera sensor with f/1.7 aperture and a 16-megapixel camera sensor with f/1.7 aperture. On the front side, there is a 20-megapixel camera sensor which comes with Artificial Intelligence (AI) features that support more than 200 facial enhancements, scene detection, and portrait mode.

The phone is running Color OS 3.2 and comes with Android 7.1.2 Nougat operating system out-of-the-box. Oppo has recently rolled out Android 8.1 Oreo update to the device in China. The Oppo R11s is fueled by a 3,205mAh battery, which supports company’s own VOOC fast charging technology.

While the Oppo has announced the Oppo R11s smartphone for the Japanese market, the company has not yet revealed any information related to its availability and pricing.

Intel May Have Erred By Informing Its Chinese Clients of Meltdown Flaws Before the US Authorities

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Jan 31, 2018

A major security flaw was recently discovered in a number of modern processors which could grant hackers access to users’ data. The flaw could allow hackers access a user’s passwords, encryption keys and other sensitive information which are stored in the protected kernel memory of his or her computer, phone or tablet. The flaws are simply identified by the names Spectre and Meltdown and they affect chips manufactured by Intel and Arm, with affected models going back several decades. Intel is the largest maker of chips for PCs and laptops so the number of systems that could be affected run into millions of units. Intel’s rival AMD believes its chips are safe, saying in a statement, “Due to differences in AMD’s architecture, we believe there is a near zero risk to AMD processors at this time.”

Although the chipmakers have hinted that they have got fixes ready to be installed on affected units, but the timeline of who Intel contacted about the flaws and when they did that might be contentious. Wall Street Journal sources have claimed that Intel initially told a handful of customers about the processor vulnerabilities. The company is reported to have informed Chinese tech companies like Alibaba and Lenovo but did not inform the US government since most of the affected chips might be in the hands of Americans and there are several U.S vendors running systems that are vulnerable to the flaws.

Ordinarily, this shouldn’t be an issue as the tech giant needs to coordinate fixes with its partners but because of the Chinese government policy, it portends danger bearing in mind that the Chinese government routinely monitors conversations like this. Thus it is possible that the Chinese government could have theoretically exploited the holes to intercept data before patches were available. We are not sure anything of such ever happened anyway.

An Intel spokesman wasn’t forthcoming on details of who it informed and even added that the company couldn’t notify everyone (including US officials) in time because Meltdown and Spectre had been revealed early. Lenovo, on its part, allayed fears by disclosing that the information was protected by a non-disclosure agreement. Alibaba also released a response labeling any accusations of sharing info with the Chinese government as “speculative and baseless,” but that doesn’t rule out the possibility of Chinese officials intercepting details without Alibaba’s knowledge. There is no evidence that the Chinese government exploited these flaws but informing the U.S government could have helped coordinate disclosures to ensure that enough companies had fixes in place. Big names like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft were ready relatively quickly, but others were left racing to fix or mitigate the flaws. If viewed from another perspective, it would be realized that Intel had to limit the number of vendors notified in other to minimize leaks before patches are ready.

Samsung Employees To Receive Up To 50% Bonus Thanks To Chip Sales

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Jan 31, 2018

It sure is a good day to be a Samsung Employee, most importantly those working for its semiconductor arm. Samsung had a good 2017 and it is rewarding its employees as should any right-thinking organisation.

The chip unit of the Korean electronics giant announced on Monday, January 29, that employees will receive up to 50% of their annual salaries as bonuses thanks to its record-high performance. Other than the annual target bonus, the staff of the chip unit also got 400% of their November salary as a special bonus.

Samsung’s semi-conductor business is reported to have recorded 53.65 trillion South Korean Won (~$50.3 billion) in operating profits from sales worth about 239.58 trillion South Korean Won.

Employees of the smartphone and display units will also get 50% of their salaries due to the successful sales of the Galaxy S8 and AMOLED displays.

Those working for the visual display and consumer electronics (TV and home appliances) arms will get 35% and 28% respectively of their annual salary. This is a lower figure compared to last year’s 50% and 40% figures. Reason for this is because while they did meet their targets, their profits are not record high like the chip division’s.

OnePlus Releases 2017 Annual Report, Claims Rise In Sales And Revenues

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Jeet

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Jan 31, 2018

OnePlus, the China-based smartphone manufacturer has released its annual report for the previous year, i.e. 2017. Apart from the sales and revenue figures, the company has also released several statistics about social media, customer support, community, software, and product milestones.

The company claims that in 2017, it has witnessed growth in its annual sale to the tune of 55 percent. Further, the company adds that its revenues more than doubled to $1.4 billion. OnePlus claims to have 776 employees spread over 18 countries, with over 206,000 official hours logged in.

OnePlus’ products are now available for purchase in about 32 countries. According to the company, it now has 111,000 Open Beta software users, with 1,700 bugs already caught by these users. Coming to the OnePlus community, the company says that the platform now supports 24 languages and has witnessed 219 percent new user registration growth, compared to the year 2016.

As per the company, the OnePlus community now has more than 1.3 million members and fans met IRL in about 40 pop-up events around the world, with a combined 19,400 people waiting in line. The company claims to have over 11 million fans across various social channels, with posts seen more than 2.3 billion times.

As for the support, the company claims that over 10 million support cases were resolved globally in the past year and introduced a new support language — German. OnePlus also held its first Open Ears Forum in London, and the first Customer Support AMA was held on the OnePlus forums.

While the year 2017 has been good for the company in terms of sales and revenues, OnePlus has been a part of a few controversies. As the brand is getting popular, it has started experiencing a higher level of public scrutiny. The most recent controversy is the credit card breach on its official online store, which has impacted up to 40,000 users.

(Source)

Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra Gets TENAA Approval Ahead of its Launching in China on February 4

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Anvinraj Valiyathara

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Jan 31, 2018

Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra was launched alongside the Xperia XA2 and Xperia L2 smartphones at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 earlier in this month. The Japanese tech giant has confirmed that the new mid-range phablet along with the XA2 and L2 smartphones will be releasing in the U.S. in the coming month. Next week, the company will be launching the Xperia XA2 Ultra in China. In the previous week, the smartphone had also received approval from TENAA.

The launch invitation released by Sony states that it will be unveiling the Xperia XA2 Ultra and Xperia Touch Android-based smart projector on Feb. 4 in Shanghai. The Xperia Touch was unveiled in February 2017. It seems that the company will be making it available for purchase in China soon.

At CES 2018, Sony had announced that Xperia XA2 Ultra will be available in 32 GB and 64 GB storage models. However, according to the TENAA listing of the phone, China will be receiving only the 64 GB variant of the phone. Also, the Chinese variant is likely to feature a slightly smaller battery of 3,430mAh battery compared to 3,580mAh battery found on the international variant. The other specs of the Chinese edition of the Xperia XA2 Ultra seems to be unchanged.

The Xperia XA2 Ultra for China features a 6-inch IPS LCD display that supports Full HD resolution. It is driven by a 2.2 GHz octa-core processor, which indicates that it may feature Snapdragon 630 like the international variant. It includes 4 GB of RAM and a microSD card slot. It has a rear camera of 23-megapixel and 16-megapixel dual camera setup at front. The handset will come preinstalled with Android 8.0 Oreo and it will be available in color choices like silver, black, blue and gold.

Xiaomi Launches Circle Kitchen 4L Multifunctional Hot Pot Priced At 239 Yuan (~$38)

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Jan 31, 2018

Xiaomi manufactures various products that meet specific needs and it is usually common to see products tailored towards a particular season coming out at the right time. It is presently winter time and Xiaomi has added to its catalog of products that help families tackle the biting cold with the launch of a new product dubbed Circle kitchen multi-functional hot pot. Yes, it is a product for the kitchen and an electric hot pot which serves as a pot and a cooker at the same time.

Design wise, the electric cooker is manufactured using waterproof design which protects the electrical components. It also features a separate coupler and has a more secure plug. The home appliance has two wooden handles at the sides which doesn’t get too hot when the pot is in use. There is also a glass lid with a wooden handle. Internally, the hot pot comes with a U-shaped heating pipe inside which ensures it is heated evenly. The heat pipe is isolated from the body so there is no risk of electrocution and since the design is waterproof, water can’t get inside the heating chamber and thus no risk of causing short circuit. It features a 1500W power rating and can achieve rapid heating.

The Circle kitchen multi-functional hot pot has a capacity of 4L which is large enough to cook meals. The inside is coated with a food-grade non-sticky coating which is easy to clean. There is also a switch which lets users adjust the cooking temperature. The temperature can be adjusted within the range of 38-210 ℃. The types of food that can be cooked in the hot pot varies and that is why it is known as a multi-functional hot pot. It can be used to stir fry, deep fry, and also to make stew, barbecue and several others.

As stated earlier, the Xiaomi cooker comes with a modest price tag of 239 Yuan (~$38) and is currently available to buy on Xiaomi’s Youpin platform.

OxygenOS 5.0.2 Brings Android Oreo To The OnePlus 5T

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Jan 31, 2018

Owners of the OnePlus 5T can now update their phones to Android Oreo. OnePlus’ latest flagship had received the beta update a few weeks ago but has now made the shift to a stable version.

The update, as usual, not only brings Oreo but a number of other upgrades and fixes too. Below is the complete change-log:

System

Upgraded Android version to Oreo(8.0)
New design for Quick Settings
General bug fixes and improvements
Applied CPU security patch: CVE-2017-13218

Applications

Updated Launcher to v2.2
Updated Gallery to v2.0
Updated Weather to v1.9
Updated File Manager to v1.7.6

The update will gradually roll-out to devices but there is a way to get it immediately. Install a VPN, set your location to Canada or Germany, go to System Update under Settings Menu and check for the update.

The OnePlus 5T has received lots of positive reviews since its launch. It has a 6.01” FHD+ Optic AMOLED display, 6GB/8GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB of storage. It is also powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor like the OnePlus 5.