Xiaomi Mi 7 Rumors: Arriving in Q1 2018 with 6-inch OLED Screen, Snapdragon 845

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Sep 4, 2017

Xiaomi Mi 6 flagship smartphone was released in April this year. It has not even been six months since its debut and the rumor mill has started talking on some of the key specs and launch period of the Xiaomi Mi 7.

An industry insider has revealed on Weibo that the Snapdragon 845 chipset would be powering the Mi 7 flagship phone. And it will be featuring a 6-inch OLED display from Samsung. As far as Xiaomi Mi 7 release date is concerned, it may get unveiled in the first quarter of the coming year. Like the Mi 6, the Xiaomi Mi 5 had gone on sale in April 2015. However, the Mi 7 may arrive between January and March 2018. Some of the other 2018 flagships like Samsung Galaxy S9 and LG G7 are also rumored to debut earlier in 2018.

Other things that have been revealed is that the Xiaomi Mi 7 may arrive in 6 GB and 8 GB RAM editions. Just like the dual camera system on the Mi 6 that includes a wide-angle lens and a telephoto lens, the Xiaomi Mi 7 is also rumored to come with the same set kind of arrangement for its dual rear cameras. The Chinese firm is expected to continue with glass and ceramic body design for the Mi 7.

As mentioned above the Mi 7 may come with a huge display. Going by the current trend, it may feature a full-screen display which means that there won’t be enough space for a frontal home button that is embedded with a fingerprint reader. It may feature an in-screen fingerprint sensor. However, since it is expected to launch earlier in 2018, it may not feature an in-screen fingerprint reader.

The Xiaomi Mi 6 and Mi 5 have 5-inch displays and the older Xiaomi Mi 4 and Mi 3 smartphones have 5-inch screens. Hence, Xiaomi fans feel that the next-generation Mi series may not feature a huge display of 6 inches. However, its possibility cannot be ruled out as the 6-inch display totting Mi 7 may come with a similar form factor like its predecessor as it is expected to feature a full screen display

Readers are advised to digest this report with a pinch of salt. More information on the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 7 is expected to surface in the coming months.

(source)

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 Box Package Appears Before Next Week’s Unveil

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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Sep 4, 2017

Xiaomi has officially confirmed that it will be holding an unveiled event for the highly anticipated Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 on Sept. 11. Its leaked specs have also appeared in the past week. Today, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has officially shared an image that shows a box packages of the Mi MIX 2.

As it can be seen in the above, the two box packages of the Mi MIX 2 do not appear same. The box on the left side carries “MIX” branding. And the one on the right shows another box with some Chinese text that says that the company continues to explore and invest. It also says that even if they have to put one percent effort, they are willing to give their one hundred percent. It also features a signature of Lei Jun.

There is a possibility that the box on the left could be the frontside of the Mi MIX 2’s packed and the on right could be its rear. The original Mi MIX was a concept phone, but recent reports have revealed that the Mi MIX 2 may not be a concept phone. Also, instead of ceramic casing, the Mi MIX 2 is expected to feature a metallic body. This will allow the Chinese firm to manufacture the Mi MIX 2 without facing production issues.

A recent report had revealed that the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones that are pegged to debut in October could be the first smartphones to be arriving with Snapdragon 836 chipset. However, just few days before its official unveil, its specifications have appeared in the form of a screenshot of the smartphone. It has revealed that the Snapdragon 836 chipset is present under the hood of the Mi MIX 2. The Snapdragon 836 could be a slightly enhanced edition of the Snapdragon 835 SoC.

The screengrab also reveals that the Mi MIX 2 has a 6.2-inch display that produces a resolution of 2,960 x 1,440 pixels. It is running on the latest Android 8.0 Oreo that is flavored with MIUI 9. It may feature a dual camera system on its rear and one of its sensors could be 20-megapixel.

It is also expected to feature a 3D sensing camera for facial recognition. The base model of the Mi MIX 2 could feature 6 GB of RAM + 128 GB of storage and it could be priced at 3,999 Yuan (~$610). The advanced may feature 8 GB of RAM + 256 GB of storage and its pricing could be 4,999 Yuan (~$763).

(source)

UMIDIGI S2 and UMIDIGI S2 Pro Appear in Offical Video

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Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 3, 2017

The UMIDIGI S2 and the UMIDIGI S2 Pro are two flagship smartphones with full-screen displays set to launch soon. UMIDIGI has released a video of the phones, giving us a glimpse of what to expect when they finally go on sale.

The UMIDIGI S2 and S2 Pro will be available in three colors – red, black and a special edition mercury silver. In the video we get to see only the red and black variants. Due to the 18:9 display, both phones are slightly longer than usual.

UMIDIGI has settled for a vertical arrangement for the dual Sony IMX258 13MP rear cameras. And with the fingerprint scanner positioned beneath the camera setup, users will be able to easily reach it.

The phone has a metallic back and a 2.5D glass covers the 5.99-inch display in front. It features the U-design for the antenna lines which are black on both color variants but easily visible on the red variant.

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Xiaomi Mi A1 Appears on Geekbench Sporting Snapdragon 625

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Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 3, 2017

The Xiaomi Mi A1 is one of three Xiaomi devices that has been in the news a lot lately. The other two are the Mi MIX 2 which is scheduled to launch on September 11 and the Mi Note 3 which doesn’t have a launch date yet.

The Mi A1 is said to be the Android One smartphone Xiaomi and Google are working on. It isn’t confirmed yet but the “A1” name seems to have been gotten from Android One (1). According to a recent leak the Mi A1 is said to be the Mi 5X but running pure Android, and the Mi A1’s Geekbench listing seems to confirm it.

The Mi A1 is listed as running Android 7.1.2. It is powered by the MSM 8953 A.K.A Snapdragon 625, an octa-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz. It also has 4GB of RAM.

The benchmark result reveals a score of 852 points for the single-core test and 3837 points for the multi-core test. These scores are not too different from what we have seen from some Mi 5X results on the benchmarking platform.

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First Windows 10 ARM PC With Snapdragon 835 Coming Soon – Qualcomm

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Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 3, 2017

It has been months since Microsoft and Qualcomm announced that they would launch a Windows PC powered by ARM chips. While both tech companies didn’t announce the PC at this year’s IFA, Qualcomm confirmed that the first Windows 10 ARM PC would come with a Snapdragon 835 SoC.

The PC is said to be scheduled for a Q4 launch. Although it would have made more sense to release the PC now that students are shopping for their return to school. Let’s hope they release it in time for the holidays. Apart from those two pieces of info, nothing else was revealed.

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Honor Launches Robin Egg Blue Honor 9 Variant For Europe At IFA 2017

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Sep 3, 2017

Huawei’s Honor brand took the center stage at IFA 2017 to unveil the Robin Egg Blue Limited Edition of the Honor 9 for the European market. The Honor 9 Robin Egg Blue variant was first unveiled in China about three weeks back and it is interesting to note that this isn’t going to be a China exclusive variant.

The new Honor 9 color variant comes with the same design and specifications with the other color variants and it joins other color options like Glacier Gray, Sapphire Blue, Gold and Midnight Black which fans can choose from. The Robin Egg Blue variant comes with a bright blue color on its back, while it is all white at the front. As you can recall, the Honor 9 features a metal body wrapped with glass and packs a dual camera setup on the back. There is also a fingerprint sensor embedded in the home button while it uses a curved body.

The Robin Egg Blue Honor 9 is a limited edition and the device is already on presale in China since August 16. The new edition will hit the UK in mid-September and will sell for £459.99 in the UK. This price will likely be applicable across Europe but Honor did not disclose when it will ship to other European countries.

Payment Via Facial Recognition Now being Used In A KFC Outlet in China

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Sep 3, 2017

Reports from China indicate that a KFC outlet in the city of Hangzhou now offers diners the option to pay for their meal with just a smile. Customers will be able to use a “Smile to Pay” facial recognition system at the tech-heavy, health-focused concept store, part of a drive by Yum China to lure a younger generation of consumers.

Yum China, which broke off from its US parent Yum Brands last year, remains the largest fast food chain in China with over 7685 outlets. The new outlet in Hangzhou, called KPRO, is targeting a younger generation of Chinese who are expected to drive the lion’s share of China’s consumption growth over the next decade. The franchise is trying to rev up growth in the world’s second largest economy, where food safety scares and changing consumer tastes have dented sales since 2012.

The new facial recognition technology at KFC Hangzhou outlet is the result of a collaboration with Ant Financial, which developed the facial recognition software. Alibaba affiliate Ant said this is the first commercial application of the technology worldwide. Diners can pay by scanning their faces at an ordering kiosk and entering a phone number which is meant to guard against people cheating the system. The system is based on Ant Financial’s digital payment platform Alipay, which has more than half a billion users worldwide and already allows people to sign into its Chinese app using their face. According to Ant, the KFC restaurant is the first physical store in the world to use facial recognition software to make payments. In addition, the technology is touted as being secure in that the software analyzes more than 600 facial features to make a match, and uses a 3D camera and a “liveness” algorithm to make sure people aren’t trying to fool it with photos or videos of someone else.

(source)

The Samsung J7+ is Samsung’s Second Dual Camera Smartphone

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Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 3, 2017

Barely two weeks after Samsung announced its first dual camera smartphone, the Galaxy Note 8, it has released a second one. The Samsung J7+ unveiled in Thailand is the new dual camera smartphone from the Korean giant.

The Samsung J7+ is a mid-range device like its siblings, the Galaxy J7 (2017) and the Galaxy J7 Pro. It has a 5.5-inch FHD Super AMOLED display, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. There is a microSD card slot for expansion (256GB max.). However, it swaps the Exynos 7870 for a Helio P20 clocked at 2.4GHz.

The rear cameras are the highlight of the device. There is a f/1.7 13MP main sensor paired with a (f/1.9) 5MP rear camera. The latter captures depth of field information, thereby providing you with the option to adjust the blur level after the image has been taken. The front facing camera is a 16MP f/1.9 sensor with its own LED flash.

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Limited Edition Redmi Note 4 Lake Blue Announced, Proceeds Go Into Cleaning Indian Lakes

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Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 2, 2017

Xiaomi has released a new color variant of the Redmi Note 4 in India. The new color called Lake Blue looks very similar to the blue Redmi Note 4X released about three months ago. However this is a limited edition that has a purpose.

As part of its CSR, Xiaomi has started a campaign called “Wake the Lake” to clean up the lakes in the Indian city of Bengaluru (Bengalore), Karnataka. To involve its fans in the clean up, it released a limited edition phone whose proceeds will go into cleaning the lakes. So if you purchase a unit, you are helping to clean up the environment.

Xiaomi has chosen the city of Bengaluru as that is where it first set up camp in India. The first lake to be cleaned is the Kempambudhi Kere Lake. The funds will also be used to plant trees, construct sitting benches, install solar lights, as well as an outdoor fitness center with a play area for kids too.

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Huawei Unveils The Kirin 970, The World’s First Processor With A Dedicated NPU

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 2, 2017

The Kirin 970 is official and Huawei has set a record with the new flagship chip. The 10nm chip is the first mobile computing unit with a built-in AI computing Neural Processing Unit NPU.

Before we dive into the configuration of the Kirin 970, lets talk about its AI NPU. Instead of letting the CPU carry out AI computing tasks, the NPU is assigned the tasks and it does it better and faster. According to the figures provided, the Kirin 970’s NPU delivers performance that is 25 times more than the CPU’s, and efficiency that is 50 times greater. That means lesser time and power required for AI tasks.

The TSMC-built Kirin 970 is an 8-core CPU with a clockspeed of uP to 2.4GHz i.e. 4 x Cortex A73 at 2.4GHz + 4 x Cortex 53 at 1.8GHz. It has a 12-core Mali G72MP12 GPU, making it the first commercially available chip to use ARM’s latest GPU. The GPU provides a 20% performance increase over the previous generation as well as a 50% increase in efficiency. Its Kirin NPU can perform 1.92 Teraflops when using 16-bit floating point numbers.

Huawei CEO RIchard Yu Announcing The Kirin 970

The Kirin 970 has 4.5G Cat.18 LTE and offers gigabit LTE speeds of 1.2Gbps. It also features an advanced dual ISP with face and motion detection, 4-hybrid focus, low-light and motion shooting. Since the Kirin 970 will be appearing in the Huawei Mate 10 series first, expect them to have an impressive camera performance.

The chip also has HDR10 support and 4K video encode and decode. It supports LPPDR 4X RAM (1883MHz) and UFS 2.1 storage. It also features an i7 sensor processor, iNSE and TEE security engines and support for HiFi audio.

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Once Upon A Time, There Was A Surface Mini, But It Was Canceled

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Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 2, 2017

Back in 2014, Microsoft was supposed to release two tablets – the Surface Pro 3 and the Surface Mini. Unfortunately, only the former made it to the market. The Surface Mini was scrapped. Earlier this year, images and specification details were leaked online by Windows Central. Today Evan Blass has provided more images and details of the tablet.

The Surface Mini unlike the Surface Pro 3 was supposed to launch with Microsoft’s made for ARM OS, Windows RT 8.1. It would have a 7.5-inch display with a 1440 x 1080 resolution and a 4:3 aspect ratio.

The device would be available in two variants – a 1GB RAM + 32GB model and a 2GB RAM + 64GB model. Both would be powered by the Snapdragon 800 and have storage expansion slots.

There would be a 5MP camera on the rear and a 2.1MP up front for video calls. Both sensors will be capable of recording 1080p. There would be two microphones and a pair of stereo speakers with Dolby sound.

The Surface Mini would have WiFi a/bg/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and a micro USB port with OTG support. It would also have a 3.5mm audio jack. Sadly, the battery capacity isn’t stated.

The Surface Mini was targeted as a productivity device, so it was going to have a Surface Pen. It is even said to be the exact same one as that of the Surface Pro 3.

Design wise the Surface Mini would not be acceptable by today’s standards. The image above shows it would have launched with thick bezels. Apart from that, everything else seems to be alright. Look t the image and it appears as if it is wearing a case. It is not. That is the body of the Surface Mini and it is described as soft and felt-like.

It has a kickstand that can be adjusted to three different positions – laptop mode but without a surface cover keyboard, a writing mode similar to the studio mode on the Surface Pro and another position in between the above mentioned ones.

Power button and volume rocker is on the right in portrait mode, and the micro USB port and audio jack sit at the bottom at the corners.

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Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana Become Buddies United Against Google Assistant

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 2, 2017

Amazon’s Alexa is a pretty big deal. It is one of the most popular smart assistants and is available on a variety of devices and even cars too. Microsoft’s Cortana on the the other hand is available on Windows 10 computers, phones, as well as the Xbox One. However, both giants have announced a partnership that will see the two assistants become buddies.

Cortana works mainly as a reminder while Alexa does so much more. It can answer questions, place orders on Amazon, and can also control smart devices like your lights. With the announcement it means you should be able to order that new Xbox controller on Amazon by calling up Cortana to open up Alexa or asking your Echo device to call up Cortana to check your work calendar. It is strange but I guess they have to make it work somehow.

Google on the other hand has added the ability to be able to shop on Walmart using the Google Assistant. So you can call the Amazon and Microsoft partnership a sort of take on Google and Walmart’s alliance.

Do you use Cortana? Are you excited about it coming to Echo devices or about Alexa coming to Windows 10 devices? Let us know what you think in the comment box.

(Source)

Leaked Pictures Reveal Samsung Galaxy C8 Will Have Dual Cameras & Fingerprint Sensor

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Sep 2, 2017

A Samsung model with number SM-C7100 and believed to go by the name Galaxy C8 was recently spotted on Samsung China’s website. Samsung had initially launched the Galaxy C-series exclusively for China but later released the C9 Pro model for other South East Asian markets. The Galaxy C8 will likely be Samsung’s first mid-range smartphone with dual cameras, that is if it is launched before the Galaxy J7+ that is also launched with dual cameras.

The Galaxy C8 was recently spotted on a promotional material which confirms some features of the model. The promotional material confirms that the C8 will come with dual cameras. The device is also shown to come with a fingerprint sensor which will be embedded in the home button. The dual cameras on the Galaxy C8 will likely be a combination of a 13MP main sensor teaming up with a 5MP secondary camera, aligned in a vertical direction.

In addition, previous leaks had tipped the Samsung Galaxy C8 as coming with a 5.5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display. The device will be powered by a 2.3GHz octa-core processor with 3GB/4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of storage. It will likely feature a 2,850mAh battery and run on Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

Samsung had hinted that it would not only include Bixby on its flagship but also on the mid-range phone and so, apart from the Galaxy J7+ which is rumored to come with Bixby, the Galaxy C8 may also include a basic version of Bixby. Samsung is yet to disclose when the Galaxy C8 will be launched or if it would be available outside China.

(source)

Grab The Xiaomi Mijia Mini 4K Action Camera for $119.99 (Coupon Inside)

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 2, 2017

Xiaomi announced the Mijia Mini 4K Action Camera a fortnight ago. This is not Xiaomi’s first action camera as it has a bunch released under the Xiaoyi brand name. However this is the second camera released under the Mijia name, as there is also a Mijia dash camera.

The Mijia Mini 4K Action Camera is priced at ¥699 (∼$107) on the official Mi store but since most people outside China can only purchase from third-party resellers, they have to pay a bit more.

Gearbest has it available on pre-sale for $139.99 but you can get it for much less if you use a coupon code. Enter the coupon GBXMINI at checkout and you get $20 off bringing the price down to $119.99.

The Mijia 4K Action Camera has a 2.4-inch display. It has a Sony IMX317 sensor with a 1.62um pixel size and a 145º viewing angle. Its f/2.8 aperture makes it possible to shoot pin-sharp footages under low-light.

The camera can record 4K videos in 30fps. It can also record time-lapse and slow-mo videos. And with its 6-axis stabilization (3-axis gyroscope and 3-axis accelerometer) you can be assured of a steady footage.

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iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus and iPhone 8 To Launch As iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone Edition

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 2, 2017

Latest reports say that what we have called the iPhone 8 is actually the iPhone Edition. The iPhone 8 moniker will go to the device formerly known as the iPhone 7s and the iPhone 7 Plus will launch as the iPhone 8 Plus.

The news comes from 9to5Mac Editorial Director Seth Weintraub, who said he spoke to two case vendors at the on-going IFA in Berlin. The case vendors are said to be major brands with one selling items on the Apple store and the other on 9to5Toys.

One of them says it has even updated its internal stock keeping units (SKUs) based on the info from those who have seen the retail boxes in Shenzhen. Another info revealed is that the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will have lightning ports but future models will inevitably switch to USB-C.

Apple has scheduled September 12 as the release date for its new devices. The launch will take place at the new Steve Jobs Theater situated within the new Apple Campus.

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Huawei Honor 6C Spotted on TENAA

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Sep 2, 2017

Huawei’s Honor 6C has been spotted on TENAA and according to sources its pricing may position it as a competitor against the Redmi Note 5A.

The Honor 6C has a 5.2-inch display with a 1280 x 720 resolution. It has 4GB of RAM and 32GB of built-in storage. But there is news of a 3GB RAM variant, probably with 16GB of storage. Irrespective of the variant, there is a microSD card slot that takes up to 128GB cards.

There is an unnnamed octa-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz. The Honor 6C is listed as having a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing sensor. Flanking the rear camera on the left is a LED flash.

The phone runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box and you can be sure there is EMUI 5.1 on top. Will this get Android 8.0 Oreo in future? It is hard to say but it should at least get EMUI 6.0 when it launches.

The Honor 6C has dual SIM slots and has support for 4G networks. It has a 2900mAh battery which should suffice for its 5.2-inch HD display. It measures 147.9 × 73.2 × 7.65 mm and weighs 145 grams.

The images provided show a black variant of the device. It is actually a two-tone paint job with some areas having a darker shade than others. There is a volume rocker and power button on the left, and a 3.5mm audio jack at the top. SIM tray is on the left and the charging port and speaker should be at the bottom.

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Azdome GS65H – the Dual Lens Dash Cam with Good Heat Dissipation Shouldn’t be Missed

By

Linus

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Sep 2, 2017

A growing number of drivers pay more and more attention to the heat dissipation performance of dash cam, as dash cam with poor heat dissipation will cause much unnecessary trouble to the drivers.

Firstly, excessive temperature will produce an effect on image sensor and lens performance, lead to the unclear video;

Secondly, in severe cases, it will even cause the death and downtime during the shooting process.

GS65H is the first dual lens dash cam launched by Azdome. It combines Novatek96655 chip and Sony IMX323 sensor; besides, it max supports 64GB TF card and supports multi-language including Polish and Russian, etc; the video resolution can reach 1920*1080P/30fps in single camera mode, and 1440*1080i+720P in dual camera mode.

In addition, the same as DAB211, GS65H also has powerful heat dissipation function, as is well-known that GS65H is a dual lens dash cam and the power dissipation is relatively high compared with other single lens dash cams. Therefore, Azdome specially designed numerous heat emission holes on both sides of the dash cam and around the front camera. These heat emission holes will effectively transfer the internal heat to the outside, which can release the heat produced due to excessive power consumption to ensure the normal operation of the dash cam, further avoid the death phenomenon of dash cam because of excessive heat in the case of long-time operation.

Will you choose this dash cam?

Learn more about GS65H

IDC Research: Xiaomi, Apple Lead the Global Wearables Market in Q2 2017

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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Sep 1, 2017

According to the latest market research on wearables conducted by IDC, the global shipments of wearables increased by 10.3 percent in Q2 2017 compared to the same quarter in the previous year. The market analysis also revealed that Xiaomi and Apple topped the list of companies for shipping the most number of wearable devices across the world.

IDC has revealed that between April and June, various companies such as Xiaomi, Apple, Fitbit, Garmin, Fossil and others together shipped total of 26.3 million wearables. According to the research firm, for the first time, the market basic wearables that do not feature any third-party apps fell as it me with a yearly growth of -0.9 percent in Q2 2017. On the other side, the market for the smartwatches running on Android Wear as well as Apple Watch increased by 60.9 percent in the same quarter.

According to IDC Mobile Device Trackers’ senior research analyst, Jitesh Ubrani, the market is now more inclined towards intelligent wearables that come with multiple features. The recent market trend suggest that GPS and health tracking capabilities have now become common features on new smartwatches. In the previous year, there were only 24.5 percent GPS enabled devices among all the wearables. However, now the percentage has increased to 41.7 percent.

By shipping 3.5 million units in Q2 2017, Xiaomi has grabbed the pole position in the list of top companies that manufacture wearable devices. The Xiaomi Mi Band fitness tracker that is priced around $20 is the bestselling wearable device from the company. With a year-over-year growth of 13.7 percent, it has allowed Xiaomi to gain a market share of 13.4 percent in Q2 2017.

Apple is present on the second position with a shipment of 3.4 million. It recorded a remarkable year-over-year growth of 49.7 percent, but has remained behind Xiaomi with a market share of 13 percent in the same quarter. The Cupertino company is expected to introduce an LTE enabled Apple Watch on Sept. 12 alongside the new iPhones. It is rumored to feature an embedded SIM that will its users to connect to VOIP services and web without tethering with an iPhone. The upcoming smartwatch from Apple would possibly allow it to get back its number one position in the wearables market.

Fitbit delivered the shipped the same number of wearables (3.4 million) as the Cupertino company, it could not surpass Apple. Sitting at third position, Fitbit gained a market share of 12.9 percent. In the same quarter last year, it had a higher market share of 24.1 percent. Fitbit has confirmed that it is widening is product catalog by selling smartwatches. It has already unveiled its first smartwatch called Fitbit Ionic.

Garmin and Fossil respectively shipped 1.4 and 1 million units in Q2 2017. Garmin held a market share of 6.4 percent in the same quarter, but now it has dropped to 5.4 percent. It has faced a year-over-year decline of 6.6 percent. Fossil’s Q2 2017 market share is 4 percent. Considering the market share of 1.4 percent in the same quarter last year, it has met with a high year-over-year growth of 217.9 percent.

(source)

Kirin 970 Details Surface Before the Official Launch at IFA 2017

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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Sep 1, 2017

Huawei has already confirmed that it will be holding a launch event on Sept. 2. The official invitation contains a hashtag #HuaweiMobileAI. Rumors have revealed that the Kirin 970 chipset integrated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be announced on the coming Saturday. The official details of the Kirin 970 chipset are not available yet, but the some of the details of the SoC have been already spotted at the IFA 2017. The details are quite similar to the leaked information of the Kirin 970 chipset that was recently shared by popular leakster, Roland Quandt.

First of all, Huawei’s new in-house chipset, the Kirin 970 that is developed by HiSilicon is manufactured by TSMC using its 10nm process. Some of the features of this octa-core processor are 12-core graphics, dual-SIP and Category 18 LTE modem. Since it is equipped with dedicated neural network silicon, the chipset is dubbed as Neural Processing Unit (NPU). It is expected to power the upcoming Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro smartphones.

The USP of the Kirin 970 is that it is integrated with an exclusive computing unit for AI. As far as performance of AI is concerned, the Kirin 970 is expected to produce 25 times better performance than similar processor based AI and is also pegged to be 50 times more power efficient. The smartphones that will be driven by Kirin 970 will be able to offer various kinds of AI features such as image recognition, interaction through voice and intelligent photo shooting.

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The internal specs of the chipset are still under the wraps as it will be fully disclosed during the upcoming launch event. A snapshot that has surfaced from the floor of the IFA 2017 has revealed that Kirin 970 would be featuring four cores of Cortex A73 running at 2.4 GHz and four cores of Cortex A53 clocking at 1.8 GHz. The octa-core processor will be coupled with Mali-G72 MP12 graphics. It is the most recent graphics from ARM. The dual ISP will offer features like motion detection and low light enhancement.

It will support HDR 10, 4K video decoding at 60 fps and 4K video encoding at 30 fps. The Cat. 18 LTE modem will support download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps. It will be also coming with TEE and inSE security engines.

Do you think that the performance of the Kirin 970 will be on par with rivals like Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895? Share us your views by commenting below.

(source)

Beautifully Designed Sharp Aquos 2017 Concept Video Appears

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Sep 1, 2017

Renders of Sharp phones usually adorning a bezel-less design is turning to be a regular in leak land. We have seen a number of renders and despite the release of the bezel-less Aquos S2 mid-range smartphone, the renders keep coming out. This is yet another concept render of the Sharp Aquos 2017, also tagged Sharp S3, showing an even thinner bezel than the Aquos S2.

Sharp first released the Aquos smartphone in 2014 with a slim bezel design and since then we have seen a number of Sharp Aquos models. The Japanese tech giant is rumored to be working on yet another Aquos model and that model is what has been featured in this concept video. The design is the Aquos S3 through the eyes of Concept Creators and it was posted on its YouTube channel recently. The device appears to wear a metal body and talking about the front camera, there isn’t any cut-out from the display to accommodate the front camera as was done on the Aquos S2 but the camera is embedded on the bottom bezels at the right side. Notably, the Xiaomi Mi Mix used this design and the Mix 2 is said to retain the design.

The design indeed reflects Sharp’s design language and rumors of even slimmer bezels on the Aquos 2017. The Aquos models are known to come with a tri-bezel-less design where there are bezels only on the bottom edge and in this case, the bezels are even further slimmer than that of the Aquos S2. Among the features on the phone is a USB Type-C connector, dual speakers at the bottom with nice speaker grills that add to the beauty. The design obviously looks more premium than the Aquos S2 and perhaps, if indeed Sharp is working on a new Aquos smartphone, it may be a flagship model. But then, there is no indication from the Foxconn-controlled company to that effect presently. Meanwhile, you can check out the concept video from below.