Yesterday, at Huawei Mate 20 launch event, the Chinese smartphone maker launched a few other devices including a smartwatch, wireless charger, car charger, and Huawei AI speaker. Huawei’s new speaker is a mix of both the Amazon Echo Dot and Apple’s HomePod design. Unlike Huawei AI Cube which uses Google’s platform as a virtual assistant, Huawei AI Speaker is powered by a Chinese voice assistant, Xiaoyi. Huawei has manufactured the new AI Speaker for the Chinese market only.

It hosts a single cord on the back with 6 microphones to interact with Huawei’s own Xiaoyi virtual assistant. On the top side, Huawei has added its own branding with four physical buttons: mute, +, -, and a call button. The company has partnered with Dynaudio to use its tech in its AI speaker. It carries 2.25-inch high-fidelity hardware with a 10-watt speaker. Further, Huawei has added a “Histen” algorithm to improve its sound performance.

Its voice operation is similar to somewhat that of Google Assistant. It can distinguish between different voices, which helps the users to interact in a more dynamic way. Huawei has focused to build a “smart” product rather than just a “speaker.”

• Read More: Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro Chinese pricing vs other regions

These kind of smart speakers are quite popular around the globe due to their vast number of features. The affordable pricing is another aspect behind the huge number of smart speaker sales. Aside from Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini, all other smart speakers are heftily priced between $100-$400 in the international market.

Well, Huawei has affordably priced its AI Speaker at 399 Yuan (~$60) in China.

(Source)

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Camera manufacturer, Xiaoyi, today announced a “new” action camera called the Yi Lite Action Camera. This is nearly identical to the Yi Lite released months ago. As a matter of fact, this should be called the Yi Heavy seeing as it packs the same specs but is heavier.

The new action camera has the same design as the predecessor as well as the same internals. The touchscreen display is still 2.0” with Gorilla Glass protection, sensor is still a 16MP f/2.8 Sony IMX206, and the chipset inside the camera doesn’t change from the HiSilicon Hi3556.

The Yi Lite Action Camera can shoot in 4K at 20fps and in 1080p at 60fps. It has support for 9 shooting modes: there is time-lapse, photo-in-video, time-loop recording and slow motion for videos in addition to burst mode, lapse mode, timer mode, and regular photo mode for pictures.

The Yi Lite also lets users adjust settings like exposure, ISO, white balance, metering mode, shutter speed and brightness.

The Yi Lite action camera has Bluetooth 4.1 and dual band WiFi for connectivity. There is also app support for sharing photos to social media. Battery capacity is not stated, but irrespective of the mode you shoot in, the action camera is supposed to last 130 minutes on a single charge. Built-in storage is 4GB and can be expanded by up to an additional 64GB via a MicroSD card slot.

These are the exact specs of the first model released months ago but while the first one weighs 72g, the new variant comes in at 88g. It also comes in the same mint green, ice crystal blue, and star black colors.

READ MORE: MGCOOL Releases Explorer Pro 2 Action Camera

The Yi Lite Action Camera will go on sale on the 12th of December, during the Doubles Shopping Festival for ¥699 (~$106). It will be available on Lynx and the Xiaoyi online site.

(Source)

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The market is full of car cameras or dashcams but it’s not that easy to choose the right one if you don’t want to spend hundreds for it. Xiaomi dash-cam is a great camera and you can now get it for just  $46.99, which sounds like a great deal.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QMlOs1SBnQ[/embedyt]

One of the key features is a 2.7” display, which works as a viewfinder. Also, the physical control buttons to help you navigate through the menu.

A camera has a g-sensor (shock sensor). If you hit it (e.g. a car accident), the red indicator shows that the camera saves a separate file of 20 secs. (10 secs before, 10 secs after the g-sensor was activated). You can also record this separate file by clicking a red record button.

The dashcam has 165 degrees wide-angle lens with a f/1.8 aperture to assure a good low-light image quality. You can shoot videos at the maximum resolution of 1296P, which is above full-HD at 30 fps. Of course, you can switch to 60fps but you will lose a little bit of detail.

Xiaomi dash-cam is a great camera and you can now get it for just  $46.99, which sounds like a great deal.

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Jingdong.com is one of the largest 3C (computer, communications, and consumer electronics) online stores in China and yesterday they and several other stores held one of the biggest shopping festivals in the year, the Singles’ Day (Double 11) shopping event. The mall has disclosed that total sales made from the shopping event exceeded 42.5 million.

The sales which cover a wide range of items have been broken down into three major categories:

• Mobile phones = 4.34 million units
• Computers and office accessories = 17.28 million units
• Digital cameras, tablets, ebooks, headphones, smart devices, travel tickets, and hotel bookings etc. = 20.88 million units

Jingdong says Huawei (and Honor), Xiaomi, and Apple were the three best selling phone manufacturers in the smartphone category followed by Meizu, Samsung, LeEco, 360 Mobile, Nubia, OPPO, and ZTE.

The top 10 best selling phones during the sales are the Redmi Note 3, iPhone 7, Honor 8, Redmi Note 4, Honor Play 5C, Redmi 3S, iPhone 7 Plus, Honor Play 5, iPhone 6 Plus, and Honor Play 5A. Huawei’s Honor sub-brand is no doubt enjoying massive popularity among shoppers.

For the computers and office category, Jingdong says 650,000 notebook sales were recorded with Lenovo, Dell, ASUS, ThinkPad, HP, Apple, Samsung, and Acer being the top sellers. In addition, over 570,000 monitor sales from manufacturers such as Samsung, AOC, Dell, Philips, and LG were recorded.

Storage devices (SSDs and USB flash drives) sold exceeded 2 million, while printers and projectors sold was just shy of a million units (960,000).

For the last category, the sales figure shows people are still picking up tablets as the online store sold 500,000 tablets from manufacturers like Lenovo, Apple, Microsoft, Huawei, Teclast, Samsung, CUBE, and ASUS.

Digital camera sales had Canon, Nikon, and Sony taking the lead followed by Dajiang, Fuji, GoPro, Casio, Xiaoyi, Panasonic and Olympus.

READ MORE: Lenovo Shipped 14 Million Smartphones During Second Quarter

The store recorded its highest sales (16 million) in books, travel tickets, and hotel bookings. Based on the above, there  is no doubt that the festival has been a success. Jingdong says it will still continue to uphold their high-quality but low-price policy.

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Xiaomi’s Mijia has something new coming on October 11 and from the teaser image, appears to have been inspired by a dragonfly. The poster’s theme even loosely translates to ”feel the dragonfly’s eyesight”.

The image which was posted on Weibo is accompanied with a brief explanation of how the eyes of a dragonfly works. Insects generally have multifaceted eyes. The housefly for example has 6,000 eye facets but the dragonfly more than quadruples it with 30,000 eye facets. Research has shown that dragonflies have one of the most advanced eyes in the Animal kingdom allowing them to even see ultraviolet rays. A dragonfly also has a near 360° view making it difficult to catch. See the video below.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohcDPgd1V5Y[/embedyt]

This is where the guess comes in. Some people already think Xiaomi plans to launch a new camera with a 360° panoramic view and 240 fps slow-motion capability. If  we look at it another way, we can also guess that it might be a drone as well with a camera with the above features.

READ MORE: DJI Mavic Pro Presale Now on at Tomtop with $50 Off

Xiaomi already makes cameras; security cameras and action cameras under the small ants and Xiaoyi brand name. So this might just be a newer model.

The launch is scheduled for 10:00 on the 11th of October which is just three days away, but you can still keep the guesses coming in.

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Xiaoyi launched the Yi M1 Mirrorless camera today and already, the camera is almost getting soaked in controversy but for Xiaoyi’s timely intervention. The camera which is of DLSR standard carries a very affordable price tag of 2199 Yuan ($330) for the one with standard zoom lens, while the camera with the dual lens kit is priced at 2999 Yuan ($450).

That isn’t the controversy, though. The thing is an official sample photo of the Yi M1 camera was released by the company (pictured above) showing a very high resolution capture of a high-speed rail track as proof of the camera len’s speed but it turns out that the same picture had been in the open on Weibo before the official release of the Yi M1. That has however been clarified that the Yi M1 camera prototype had been handed out for testing by a professional photographer who captured the stunning shot with the M1.

To further buttress the fact that the Yi M1 mirrorless camera took the controversial shot, Xiaoyi went to to share the camera’s Exchangeable image file format (EXIF) metadata on the image and if you don’t know, the metadata can’t be modified.

In order to completely convince the public of the wide capabilities of the 4K Yi M1 camera, Xiaoyi also shared some more captivating image samples shot on the Yi Mi and they should be enough to convince the doubters because the samples are just so perfect for a 2999 Yuan ($450) camera. This may just be a perfect and cheap alternative to the likes of the expensive Canon EOS 5D Mark III DLSR camera which is priced at $4500 along with the lens. Meanwhile you can check out more of the quality sample photos shot on the Yi M1.

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Remember the Xiaomi Yi action camera? Of course, some persons will still remember the gadget because of its cheap price tag on top cool features. Xiaomi first unveiled the XiaoYi (Yi Technology) action camera for surveillance and security purposes last year under its crowdfunding platform. Thereafter an upgraded version was released earlier this year with a massive 4K resolution. It has been reported that a new model of the action camera will likely launch on September 19. A teaser to that effect has been spotted.

According to the leak source, the expected camera was developed in conjunction with former Fujitsu experts and will use M43 frame and Panasonic CMOS sensor which would aid the interchangeable lenses.

There isn’t much information other than these about the anticipated launch event or the new Yi Action camera but it is expected that aside the new innovations, the next Yi cam is expected to consolidate on the current version which has a 4K capable lens, while continuing the tradition of cheap price tag.

Related: Xiaomi Yi Smart Camera 2 Announced With New Features

As a reminder, the Yi 4k action camera crams a Sony IMX377 sensor and also uses the US Ambarella A9SE75 processor with Broadcom BCM43340 dual-band chip. Other features include a Bosch BMI160 si-ais gyro sensor, with seven high definition optical glass lenses, and 330PPI gorilla retina touchscreen. The device packs an ATL professional custom 1400mAh battery which can provide up to two hours of 4K / 30-frame film recording level. The Small Ants motion camera also supports 157-degree wide-angle camera, 5G WiFi connectivity and has a variety of professional level camera and video mode. Despite all these specs, the 4K camera started at 1199 Yuan ($180) via crowdfunding.

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Last year Yi Technology released their first iteration of affordable yet great action camera. This year, the company released a vastly upgraded model and it is one of the best action cameras I’ve tested. We have used this camera for 2 months already. The Yi Technology 4k action camera costs $250, which is half the price of the GoPro Hero 4 and here is our full review.

Thanks to Yi Technology official for sending YI 4k action camera for a review.

YI 4k Action Camera VIDEO REVIEW:

YI 4k Action Camera Review: UNBOXING

As usual, let’s start by unboxing and see what you get with the camera. The contents of the box include a camera itself, some instruction manuals and USB charging cable.

Yi Technology sent me a waterproof case too, which allows you to use the camera under water up 132 feet or around 40m. The case is very sturdy and well-made. It is also dust-proof, weather-proof, drop and press resistant. Also, it uses a glass with a very good light transmittance.

I’ve used the case for quite a while and so far it has been excellent, there is no water condensation inside of it and the opening latch has been working fine.

YI 4k Action Camera Review: DESIGN AND FEATURES

Firstly, the second generation YI camera changed a lot and it improved in each and every way.

One of the key additions is the 4k video recording, which is thanks to a 12MP Sony IMX377 sensor and the newest Ambarella A9SE75 image processor. The camera has f/2.8 aperture and wide 160° lens.

Next to the camera we have the LED, which lights up in different colours to indicate the juice left in the battery. The camera is made of plastic and the device does not feel very expensive but it does not feel cheap either.

We have a power on/off button, which also acts as a record button, two microphones and the speaker grill on the top.

The camera can be charged via the micro USB charging port, which is covered by a flap.

On the bottom, we have a tripod mount screw. Also, we have a removable 1400mAh battery and the microSD card slot. Keep in mind that you would need to purchase a high-speed microSD card separately for a smooth 4k video recording.

Overall, the camera is tiny, compact, well-built and lightweight.

YI 4k Action Camera Review: DISPLAY AND USER INTERFACE

Another key addition is a 2.19” touchscreen display, which is covered with Gorilla Glass and it is the sharpest display on any action camera we’ve ever reviewed. Also, it is visible even under direct sunlight (if you set display brightness to maximum).

Naturally, the display acts as a viewfinder and this is a major improvement over the last generation camera. You can do quite a few things with the display. You can watch the videos you shot or the pictures you took right on the camera. If you swipe from the top, you will access quick settings toggles.

Also, you can select from quite a few shooting modes that include photo, video, time lapse, slow-motion and other modes.A really cool feature is that you can quickly switch from the photo and the last shooting mode by simply swiping from left to right.

As far as the video resolution goes, you can go all the way to the 4k at 30 fps or choose the lowest resolution of 480p at 240fps. There are quite a few resolution/fps combos but I have mostly used 4k at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps and the 720p slow-motion video, where you can set the fps setting to 240.

In addition, there are some manual controls. You can adjust some image settings, turn on/off electronic image stabilization and so on.

One of the notable features is the dual-band Wifi, meaning that you can easily connect the camera to your phone using the YI Action app.

Within the app, you can use your phone as a viewfinder, which only has a little bit of lag, and some other things like switch from one shooting mode to another. Also, you can view photos and videos you shot and download them to your phone. Keep in mind that the camera creates a separate low-resolution video file, so you can easily share it. In addition, you can adjust some camera settings, upgrade the firmware of the device and so on.

YI 4k Action Camera Review: VIDEO QUALITY

See the video review for video/image quality. The camera samples will be uploaded soon (on April 24th)

I shot videos and took pictures that took over 100GB of storage on multiple microSD cards to tell you what I think about the image quality.

First of all, you have to keep in mind that action cameras are not as the good as the flagship smartphones but the Yi 4k camera can produce a very high-quality footage.

The 4k video is fantastic and it is one of the best we’ve seen on any action camera, to be honest. The footage is sharp is crisp, the color reproduction is very accurate and the infinite focus lens make the footage look in-focus and sharp all the time. The only shortcoming is that the 4k video lacks video stabilization.

The 4k time-lapse video is very detailed and sharp-looking too.

1080p video at 30 fps has less detail but does a better job with video stabilization. In addition, you can turn on the EIS in the settings menu to reduce the shakiness even more and it works pretty good.

1080p video at 60fps s great too. It may not look as sharp as the 4k but 60fps mode is the best suited for sports action.

Slow-motion video can be shot at 720p resolution either at 120fps or at 240fps.

When it comes to the low-light video, the quality decreases significantly. There is less detail and much more noise but still, the image quality is pretty good.

The still images look nice too. Again, the images do not look as sharp as the ones taken with the flagship smartphone but when it comes to the action cameras, they are one of the best in class.

YI 4k Action Camera Review: BATTERY LIFE

1400mAh battery performs great. I could get almost 2 hours of usage if I shot mainly 4K videos. If I shot 1080p videos and took pictures with the camera, I could easily get slightly over 2h of the battery life.

YI 4k Action Camera Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the YI action 4k camera. This is a device that challenges the GoPro camera for half the price.In short, we love this camera and we don’t see any major shortcomings.

The device is lightweight, the display is sharp, the UI is fast and easy to use, the Wifi is fast and the camera works fine with the YI Action app. Also, the battery life is great.

The video and image quality are great too. Sure, the camera could be slightly better in low-light situations but this is probably the only shortcoming we can mention.

All in all, YI action 4k camera is a great product. The price point of $250 may sound steep for some but hey, this is the action cam that has a great image quality, good battery life and much more, and it can easily rival the GoPro camera…. for half the price.

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Xiaomi announced the Yi Action Camera back in 2015 and it was quite popular among customers due to its compact size, powerful specs and cheap pricing. Now, the company is all set to release the new Xiaomi Yi 4K Action Camera 2, most likely next week and we have lots more details about the upcoming device.

So, what all upgrades can we expect on the new generation Yi Action Camera 2?

According to a leaked set of pictures online, the new action cam will come with a 12.35MP Sony IMX377 camera sensor. To recap, the previous generation model came with a larger Sony IMX 206 Exmor sensor. Now, you may be disappointed to see that the resolution has been reduced, however, let me remind you that the IMX377 CMOS sensor is pretty fast and supports 4K video shooting. The chip has been upgraded to Ambarella A9, which is known for its high performance and low power consumption. The chip is low power consuming even when recording at 4K 30 fps.

The Yi Action Camera 2 will come with a 2.19-inch display with Gorilla Glass protection. Further, it will have 160-degree viewing angle and 640 x 360 pixel resolution with 330 ppi density. Even the battery on the device has been upgraded to 1400mAh (the previous one had 1010mAh) which means better battery life. It is said that the battery should last for around 8 hours on a single charge. If you want to take 4K videos at 30 fps it would still last for a good 110 minutes.

While we are unsure about rest of the features of the Yi 4K Action Camera 2, it should come with connectivity features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and various ports like MicroUSB or MicroHDMI. We still don’t know for sure whether there would be a MicroSD card slot on board, but it most likely should. We recently got out hands on the test data of the new action camera and it confirms the presence of the MicroSD card slot along with Wi-Fi support.

As for the colors available, from the pictures, we know for sure that there will be a white and a black version. But expect more colors at launch. No info on the pricing yet, but we have got lots more details coming on the Yi 4K Action Camera 2, so stay tuned.

Check out the battery life of the 4K Yi Action Camera 2 from here.

The post Xiaomi Yi 4K Action Camera 2 Details Leaked, Launching Soon appeared first on Gizmochina.

Last year, Xiaomi revealed the XiaoYi Ants Smart camera for surveillance and security purposes. Like most other Xiaomi products, this particular camera was popular among buyers because it was cheap. Now, Xiaomi has announced the second generation version of the XiaoYi Small Ants 2 smart camera and it comes with some much-needed improvements and functional additions.

The new XiaoYi Small Ants 2 smart camera comes with an upgraded CMOS sensor from Panasonic using a new generation of S2LM image processing chip. Now, the camera can capture FHD 1080p videos at 25fps (as opposed to 720p on the older model) and features 130 degrees wide angle lens with f/2.0 aperture. There are many other technologies working inside like a unique smartHDR tech , LDC distortion correction tech etc to improve the images taken by the smart cam.

Given that this is a smart camera, you will find a number of special features on the device, thanks to a combination of its computer vision and speech processing technologies.

First of all, the XiaoYi small ants 2 smart camera comes with “Human Detection” which means it can sound an alarm whenever it detects a human in the room. You can also set a custom alarm area to improve the accuracy of the alarm. Another feature of the device is gesture recognition, such as raised fist to instruct the camera to perform a command. Given that this can be used as a surveillance camera, it comes with a special “Baby Crying” detection as well. Another feature is “traffic statistics” ideal for places like stores.

Apart from these features, Xiaomi is also offering free 24 hours Ali cloud storage for the first year. So, in addition to SD card slot, you can store your surveillance videos directly to the cloud, which is reportedly encrypted to avoid loss of data.

Coming to the pricing, the Xiaomi Small Ants 2 smart camera will soon be available for purchase for 399 Yuan ($61).

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