Samsung Galaxy Note5 and S6 Edge+ on Verizon receive March security patch

Verizon has rolled out updates to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy Note5 (or technically this, and this). Don't go hoping for Oreos, though - these two are past their expected two-year OS version update period, but security patches are more than welcome. Galaxy S6 Edge+, and what is definitely not the Note5's S-pen Both phablets are getting...

Huawei P20 Porsche Design likely coming too

Huawei is all about partnerships with premium brands - they have the Leica collaboration for the cameras, and they have Porsche Design for.... design. The company's two latest Mate iterations have come in special PD trim, and now apparently it's making its way to the P-series too. The quest for perfection continues with heritage brand @PorscheDesignThe...

iPhone X vs. Galaxy S9+ shootout

So which phone do you get when you get rid of your Google Pixel 2 XL? If you are after a great camera, chances are you are going to pick either the iPhone X or the Galaxy S9+. Well, this is exactly what happened to two of our editors. Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_x_vs_samsung_galaxy_s9_plus_shootout-review-1739.p...

Samsung Galaxy A6 receives Wi-Fi certification

Samsung's transitioning its A-series from odd to even numbers for this year, and that's so far brought us the Galaxy A8 (2018) and the A8+ (2018). An A6 and possibly an A6+ are on the way also, as evidenced by a couple of earlier GeekBench listings, and now we have a new episode in the A6's development. A Samsung device with a product code SM-A600FN,...

OnePlus 5T won't be officially available in North America any more

OnePlus has confirmed that the OnePlus 5T is permanently out of stock in North America. This means those in the US or Canada who were planning to purchase the flagship officially from the company are now out of luck. The device was launched back in November last year, meaning it was only available in the region for four months. According to the Chinese...

Huawei Mate 11 (or Mate 20) to sport under-display fingerprint scanner

The much hyped and rumored for years under-display fingerprint sensing technology has finally arrived on the market this year with the vivo X20 Plus UD and X21 UD. These are the first smartphones to sport such a solution, in that case a Synaptics sensor. Huawei is apparently going the under-display route too, for its upcoming Mate 11 (or Mate 20...

Honor View 10 finally becomes available in the US for $499

Honor's latest flagship smartphone is finally available in the US. The Honor View 10 was initially expected to reach the country in early January, but that hasn't happened for whatever reason. It went up for pre-order earlier this month, and today it's in stock. You can purchase one from the Huawei sub-brand's official online store. It's priced at...

Instagram announces new changes to the timeline based on feedback

Instagram has announced new changes to the timeline based on user feedback. One of these changes is the introduction of 'New Posts' button that lets you manually refresh. This prevents the previous automatic refreshing of the timeline that had a habit of yanking you out of whichever part of the app you were in and throwing you at the start of your...

Huawei P20 loses the 40MP camera and 5x hybrid zoom of the P20 Pro

If the P20 Pro has three cameras, but the Huawei P20 has only two, which one gets dropped? The 40MP camera, the telephoto one or the black & white one? It turns out it's not going to be like that. The non-Pro model will simply go back to the battle-tested camera setup of the Mate10 - a 12MP color sensor and a 20MP b&w sensor. The camera will...

LG K9 debuts, is just a rebranded K8 (2018) for Russia

Earlier this month LG showed the K8 (2018) at the MWC in Barcelona and now, it's launching it in Russia under the name LG K9. Outside of the name nothing appears to have changed. The LG K9 has a 5-inch IPS LCD of the conventional 16:9 aspect and 720x1280px resolution, a 2,500mAh battery, 8MP main cam and a 5MP selfie one. The phone is still powered...

Comparing the sizes of flagship chipsets: Qualcomm, Samsung, Huawei adn Apple

There are four major manufacturers of flagship chipsets - Qualcomm (Snapdragon), Samsung (Exynos), Huawei (Kirin) and Apple (A-series). Three of those tend to be used in the respective companies' own flagships. Apple certainly doesn't want to share while Samsung and Huawei rarely find outside customers. We often talk about the power usage of a chipset...

Apple will go after educational market with cheaper iPads next week

Apple is reportedly ready to announce a cheaper iPad model geared towards educators and students at its upcoming March 27 event in Chicago. Apple's new focus on education and a potential release of a lower-priced iPad for students is directly aimed at a market that's dominated by Google Chromebooks and Android tablets. The educational market is worth...

Sharp Aquos S3 will be announced on March 28

Sharp will unveil its Aquos S3 on March 28 in Vietnam. The date and venue were confirmed by Sharp Mobile's CEO. This is the 6-inch S3, which would be announced a week after its smaller counterpart, the 5.5-inch Sharp Aquos S3 mini debuted. Where the mini has a single camera on the back, the Aquos S3 will have a 12MP+13MP dual setup and a 16MP selfie...

Huawei trolls Apple and Samsung with P20 promotion

Yes, those are Huawei trucks parked in front of an Apple store. They parked in front of a Samsung store too. The company is getting cheeky with its promotion of the upcoming P20 phones. However, the trucks were spotted driving around and leaving pavement graffiti in London. And yet the P20 event will be held in Paris, France next week - on Tuesday...

Samsung silently releases updated Galaxy J7 Prime 2

Without any fuss, Samsung unveiled an updated Galaxy J7 Prime 2 on the Indian section of its website. The phone appears to be an updated version of the Galaxy J7 Prime with miniature design changes like the capacitive buttons. It arrives with Android Nougat out of the box, octa-core CPU on an Exynos 7 chipset and a revamped 13 MP selfie camera. Samsung...

Nokia 1 and Nokia 7 Plus go on pre-order in the UK on Amazon

Amazon UK has opened up pre-orders for the Nokia 1 and Nokia 7 Plus with shipments promised to start on April 30. The Nokia 7 Plus comes in Black and Copper and costs £349.99. The Nokia 1 can be had in Dark Blue and Warm Red for £79.99. The rest of the new Nokia smartphones, they should all follow closely shortly as most of them are also expected...

Xiaomi arrives in Portugal

Xiaomi keeps expanding its presence in Europe, with the newest country in the portfolio being Portugal. Devices from the Chinese manufacturer will be available next through retailers, including Worten, Fnac and Media Markt. Some devices are already listed, but as "out of stock". Our source adds that with the official introduction of Xiaomi in Portugal,...

OnePlus 6 specs sheet leaks

Several days ago a leaked image, comparing prices of different flagships, suggested $749 (around €610) price tag of the OnePlus 6 with 256 GB. Today more specs leaked, including the chipset, RAM storage, and dual camera setup. According to the listing, OnePlus 6 will sport a 6.28" AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2280 x 1080, which unsurprisingly...

Vivo launches V9 smartphone in India

Vivo has launched the V9 smartphone in India a day after international announcement. The phone is priced at INR 22,990 and will be available through Amazon India. The V9 has the infamous notch design with a 19:9 aspect ratio, 6.3-inch 2280x1080 IPS LCD. It's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage....

LG may be developing microLED screens for smartphones, trademark filings reveal

LG has filed the necessary paperwork for three new trademarks in the EU, and all of these are about marketing microLED displays. The trademarks the company wants to own are XµLED, SµLED, and XLµLED. If LG is granted these and actually plans on using them in shipping products, we're not sure how well they will be received - it's a bit weird to go...

First Samsung Galaxy Note9 firmwares unearthed

Samsung has started developing the software of the Galaxy Note9, which is coming this Fall. The software carries two firmware versions - N960FXXE0ARB7 and N960FXXU0ARC5. Reports show that Samsung has started work on the Galaxy Note9's software earlier than it did for the Galaxy Note8, which could point to an earlier release of the device. However...

Samsung Pay launches in Italy

"Quanto costa?" asks Samsung Pay as it launches in Italy, its 21st market. The service works just about anywhere that credit and debit cards are accepted - both NFC and the older magnetic type. Besides paying, you can also take advantage of membership cards and promo coupons to bring down the price. Samsung Pay also has some exclusive deals in Italy...

Oppo A1 quietly unveiled in China, goes on sale April 1

Oppo is bolstering its entry-level range with the introduction of the Oppo A1. It has a tall-aspect 18:9 5.7-inch S-IPS LCD, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a 3,180 mAh battery. There's a lone 13MP camera on the back and a fixed-focus 8MP selfie camera. The Oppo A1 lacks a fingerprint scanner but makes do with Face recognition entry. Oppo will start...

Ticwatch E and S Android Wear watches now available in Europe at £120/£150

Mobvoi's Ticwatch S and E smartwatches are now available in Europe. The letters stand for "Sport" and "Express" respectively and the designs have already won awards - an iF Product Design award for the S and Good Design Award for the E. Anyway, the straps are the major difference between the two. The Ticwatch S has a GPS antenna built into the breathable...

Hublot introduces its first smartwatch with Wear OS

Google rebranded its wearable OS last week, and now we see one of the first smartwatches to be announced with Wear OS.Hublot, in partnership with FIFA, named the device Big Bang Referee 2018 World Cup Russia and will produce only 2,018 units, including custom-made versions for each referee during the tournament. Hublot is a luxury watch brand, so...

Oppo partners with Dolby to add HE-AAC and JPEG-HDR to its phones

"Dolby is a leader in creating spectacular sight and sound experiences, and we are excited to partner with them to further our innovation and global growth," said Adler Feng, Director of Oppo IP Department as he signed a partnership that will encompass HE-AAC and JPEG-HDR. High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding is optimized for low-bitrate applications...

Apple to start trial production of next-gen iPhones soon

Apple reportedly wants to switch over from Touch ID to Face ID this year, but it won't repeat the mistakes of the iPhone X. Component shortages delayed the lucrative flagship and limited availability early on. This time around Apple will start its trial production run much earlier to make sure everything is running smoothly. This will kick off in...

Xiaomi launches three new travel backpacks in India

Xiaomi has launched three new travel backpacks in India. Called the Mi Casual Backpack, Mi City Backpack, and the Mi Travel Backpack, these join the previously launched Mi Business Backpack in Xiaomi's accessory lineup. The Mi Casual Backpack has a checkered pattern design that comes in black, gray and blue. The material is 600D polyester and waterproof....

Three new Samsung Galaxy J phones spotted ahead of launch

A month after patenting Galaxy J3 Star and Galaxy J7 Star, Samsung expands its celestial patent portfolio with two new entries. The Korean giant received a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the names Galaxy J3 Orbit and Galaxy J7 Crown. In the same time, the highly rumored Galaxy J8 2018 is closer to a launch after a device...

Latest Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s teaser video is a Pacific Rim crossover

Xiaomi changed gears fast - from Van Gogh and Strauss straight to kaiju. Yup, the latest teaser video for the Mi Mix 2s is a cross-promotion effort with the new Pacific Rim movie. Apparently, they don't hire just anyone to be on the Mix design team. If you want in, you'll have to spend years designing and building a giant monster-fighting robot....

Nubia V18 is now official, 4000 mAh battery in tow

Yet another smartphone went official in China this week - the Nubia V18. It's made of metal and packs a notch-less screen, which is the trending thing now. The Nubia V18 has a 6.01" LCD screen of 1,080 x 2,160 pixels and runs on the Snapdragon 625 chipset (8x A53 CPU, Adreno 506 GPU) with 4GB of RAM. The V18 has a single 13MP main camera with f/2.2...

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S8+ also gets Oreo

AT&T started pushing Android Oreo to the Galaxy S8 units on its network two days ago and now the Galaxy S8+ is also getting a taste of the new OS. The company issued a support page on the software update to Oreo 8.0, revealing what is new in the package. Samsung Galaxy S8+ The build number R16NW.G955USQU2CRB9 is 1.51 GB in size and along with...

No, this isn't the LG G7 in Lime Green

LG decided to scrap the G7 project and start all over again, leading to a delayed launch of the flagship. We showed you the possibly canceled device last month, and now a presentation slide of the G7 in Lime Green color appeared online, leaking from an LG computer at MWC 2018. The poster also includes the line "Life's Good when you play more" that...

Samsung unveils Exynos 7 9610 with 480fps slow-mo support

Samsung has just announced its latest Exynos 9610 SoC - it's part of the Exynos 7 series, which typically powers upper mid-range smartphones such as company's A lineup. The new Exynos 9610 has an octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A73 cores running at 2.3GHz and 4x Cortex-A53 ones clocked at 1.6GHz. The GPU in charge of graphics is Mali-G72MP3, a...

Chrome to completely block videos from autoplaying with sound

Google Chrome stopped autoplaying videos with sound on specific websites with a right-click option when version 64 was launched. Today the company posted the code, introducing a new set of criteria that sites should meet in order to be able to play videos with sound. The list is so long that practically no tab will autoplay with sound once Chrome...

vivo V9 has notched screen and a 24MP AI selfie camera

Today vivo unveiled the selfie-centric vivo V9 with a 24MP selfie camera and a 16MP+5MP dual camera on the back, both equipped with AI-bolstered portrait mode. The vivo V9 is powered by a Snapdragon 626 chipset with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It runs vivo's heavily skinned UI on top of Android 8.1 Oreo. On the front, the vivo V9 packs a 19:9...

Samsung Galaxy S9 ARCore support coming soon

Google's ARCore SDK currently doesn't support Samsung's latest flagship smartphones - the Galaxy S9 and S9+. However, that's going to change soon. As per a member of Google AR team, support for these devices is coming soon. Here's exactly what they said: Support for the S9 and S9+ will be added in the next release, which should be released in the...

Mark Zuckerberg releases statement in light of ongoing data scandal

In case you missed what's going on with Facebook, here's the low down. A data mining and analytics firm called Cambridge Analytica took Facebook user data and misused it in violation of Facebook's terms and guidelines. This misuse of data played a large role in the influencing of voters in the US 2016 presidential elections. Today, founder and CEO...

Google Maps on iOS brings more transit details and restaurant wait times

iOS users should download the latest version of Google Maps so they can take advantage of some new transit features. Version 4.47 of Google Maps brings additional details when getting directions via public transit. Rather than highlighting the intersection where an underground train entrance is and expecting you to find it, Google Maps will tell...

Huawei P20 dummy gets compared to a real life P20 Lite in hands-on images

Huawei has made the P20 Lite official before its higher-end siblings, the P20 and P20 Pro, which will both be revealed at an event on March 27 in Paris. In the meantime we've seen a constant wave of leaks regarding these devices, and here's the latest one. A P20 dummy unit has been handled for a short photo shoot. In the first image below it's compared...

Apple announces new Spring Collection for Watch bands

Apple has announced its Spring Collection of Watch bands. These include an incredible 25 new bands in different colors and finishes, which add on top of the already incredible 61 bands currently available on Apple's website. Woven Nylon in Blue Stripe • Nike Sport in Black/White • Nike Sport Loop in Pearl Pink • Hermès Double Tour in Indigo • Hermès...

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 845-powered VR development kit

Earlier, Qualcomm announced a Snapdragon 845-based VR platform and today the company unveiled the developer kit. It consists of a VR headset and new software to aid developers in creating "truly immersive experiences". It also supports HTC Vive Wave, so it can run the same apps and games as the Vive Focus. The headset supports room-scale movement...

Full Oppo F7 specs leak via sales pitch notes

We are just days away from the official Oppo F7 announcement, but this latest leak has left little to none for Oppo to unveil. We already saw pictures and teasers, but now we get to learn all F7 specs thanks to a leaked sales pitch manual. So, the Oppo F7 will pack a 6.23" notched LCD display of 1,080 x 2280 pixels. It will be powered by the Helio...

Google reportedly acquiring Lytro, the maker of light field cameras

The talk around town is that Google is in the process of acquiring Lytro, maker of light field cameras. Neither company has officially confirmed the deal, but the rumored price is $40 million or even as low as $25 million - a precipitous fall from the once $360 million valuation. The employee headcount might take a hit too, though presumably all...

Deal: Amazon discounts Honor phones up to 35% in Germany

Easter is right around the corner and retailers give their best to lure shoppers on their side. Amazon and Huawei are pushing a massive promotion on various Honor phones, including the latest flagship View 10. Offers are found both at the German and the UK Amazon website, ranging from 5% to over 35% discount. We already covered the sales on the British...

WhatsApp co-founder wants you to delete your Facebook account

Brian Acton, who co-founded WhatsApp with Jan Koum in 2009, has declared it's time for you to leave Facebook, following the recent scandal with Facebook's alleged indirect involvement in the US Elections of 2016. A little backstory in case you missed it - data mining and analytics firm Cambridge Analytica misused Facebook user data in violation of...

Motorola continues retail expansion in India with 100 new Moto Hubs

Motorola is continuing to strengthen its offline retail presence in India with the launch of 100 new Moto Hub outlets in the state of Karnataka. 50 of these will be in the capital city of Bengaluru and the rest spread across 7 other major cities. This comes shortly after the company announced that it has opened 50 new Moto Hubs in the city of Mumbai....

Sharp Aquos S3 mini unveiled: notched phone on a budget, similar specs to the S2

The Sharp Aquos S3 isn't what you would call "official", but the Aquos S3 mini is. Don't ask how that works and don't get us started on a 5.5" screen getting called "mini". It's a 17:9 screen (1,080 x 2,040px resolution), the top row of which houses houses a notch similar to the Aquos S2. The LCD is bright at 550 nits and with high color fidelity...

JoJo Bizarre special edition LG V30+ goes on sale in Japan

LG, has collaborated with NTT DoCoMo to offer a new special edition of its V30+ former flagship. 10,000 units will come to Japan, under the name JOJO L-02K. The name is a reference to popular Manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The themed V30+ will offer an exclusive white on black color scheme with the show's art on the back, show-themed wallpapers,...

Caviar celebrates Putin's reelection win with new golden iPhone X

Apple launched the iPhone X at $999, and some people jokingly said that it should be made of gold for that price. The Russian luxury company Caviar took the statement to heart and had been introducing various versions of the flagship, including one with a meteorite-coated body and a variant with over 300 precious stones. The latest product by Caviar...