Samsung Galaxy S9 pair top global sales in April

Counterpoint put out some interesting figures in its latest Market Pulse April Edition report. It details the top-selling smartphones worldwide - a chart which Samsung's current Galaxy S9 and S9+ appear to be dominating. The company's analysts measured particularly good performance for the Korean giant in North America and the Asia-Pacific markets....

Honor 10 gets software update, enhances fingerprint usability, camera app tweak and more

Some users are already getting the new software version for the Honor 10 with build number COL-L29 8.1.0.120 that adds some useful and maybe not as much, new features. The first one you will notice is the so-called Party Mode app that connects several devices via NFC to form a surround sound experience by playing one song simultaneously. The Honor...

Sunday debate: Bigger battery or slimmer phone?

Ro: "Fast charging to the rescue!" If we were discussing this three or four years ago, I would definitely tell you that thicker phones with bigger batteries are better. But things have changed since then. First, the battery density has increased significantly and now every mid-range device carries at least 3,000 mAh of charge, which should get you...

Samsung Galaxy Note9 case shows new fingerprint reader position and a new mystery button

Samsung's eagerly-anticipated Galaxy Note9 phablet has been leaking left and right lately. Unearthed early accessory prototype, like this screen protector, have already shed some light on hardware. Following the typical order of things, today brings a fresh new case leak. Note9's protective case, we see its fingerprint sensor position. pic.twitter.com/acHwdYq64k—...

Official TWRP recovery for OnePlus 6 and Huawei P20 Pro is now available

Recovery is essential for all custom ROM lovers and the TWRP recovery is arguably one of the best out there and fortunately, there's an official one from the developer team for the fresh OnePlus 6 and Huawei P20 Pro flagships. Aside from those two, TWRP adds support for several new devices like HTC Desire 830, Nubia M2, Planet Gemini PDA and Vanzo...

The Apple Watch will ditch it's physical button in favour of a solid state one

Industry chatter has it that the Apple Watch digital crown and button combo will soon be going the way of the iPhone home button - replaced by solid state technology. Apparently, the wearable's physical button will stop moving back and forth and instead rely on a touch surface, to register inputs and a small Taptic Engine, to give feedback. As per...

Oppo orders Samsung's Edge Displays, not for Find X though

Another interesting report coming from the Korean media The Bell. According to its sources, Oppo has ordered Samsung's curved OLED panels that will be delivered by the end of June. Chances are they won't make it in time for the upcoming Oppo Find X, as that's coming in two weeks - before even the first shipment arrives. But it also makes us wonder,...

OnePlus 6 review

If the letter T is OnePlus' way of branding an interim half-generation upgrade, why isn't this latest one named the 5TT? Yes, we're talking about the OnePlus 6, and a quick look at the specs will tell you what we are on about. Still let's not dwell on what hasn't changed and focus instead on what has. Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/oneplus_6...

Instagram update lets you share posts that mention you in your own story

Instagram has pushed a minor update to its iOS and Android app that allows reposting of content you are tagged in. Starting today, if someone tags you in their Instagram Story, you will get a DM from that person with the Story post. With it will be an option to share that post to your own Story. Tap the button and your Story editor opens up and you...

Apple cuts orders for 2018 iPhones by 20%

Apple has requested suppliers to lower deliveries of products by 20%, Nikkei reported today. The company decided to play it safe in 2018 after overestimating the demand for the $1000+ iPhone X. The 2017 iPhones reached 77.31 million shipments for the October-December quarter, but Apple expected numbers close to 100 million. A source revealed the...

More live images of the Google Pixel 3 XL surface

It's a busy day for the Google Pixel 3 XL. Today we had two different batches of real-life photos showcasing the upcoming flagship from Google and the latest one leaves little to the imagination. Pixel 3 XL front and back The second set of photos appears to confirm the single camera on the back, which might leave a bitter feeling for some of you...

Samsung Gear to stay with Tizen OS

Last month Evan Blass tweeted that some Samsung employees were spotted rocking Gear smartwatches with Wear OS, instead of the in-house Tizen OS. Update: turns out these were actually just one-offs made by Google and seeded to some Samsung workers (i.e. keep moving, nothing to see here).— Evan Blass (@evleaks) June 7, 2018 A reasonable guess was that...

MediaTek's first 5G modem is Helio M70, coming in 2019 smartphones

MediaTek is the next manufacturer to introduce a chipset with 5G capabilities. The modem is called Helio M70 and will be built by TSMC on the 7nm process, incorporating EUV technology. Shipments will begin in 2019 to answer the demand for 1 Gbps internet. In the deployment of 5G solutions around the world, MediaTek has revealed it made contact with...

Google brings Android Go to Brazil

Google's Android Go platform, which is aimed at entry-level smartphones, and also known as Oreo (Go Edition) - has officially debuted in Brazil. The announcement was made at the annual Google for Brazil event. New devices featuring Android Go will be made available in the country by Positivo, Multilaser and alcatel. Google also announced more Assistant...

TSMC is ramping up 7nm chips production to meet growing demand

As most of you know, TSMC is one of the leading semiconductor manufacturers and has some big-name clients like Qualcomm, Nvidia, MediaTek and even Apple. And according to industry sources, the Taiwanese company is moving its 7nm chips to mass production in response to the growing demand from its customers. It seems that most of the fabless companies...

Motorola One Power leaked specs reveal 6.2" Full HD+ screen

Motorola is launching an Android One device that is expected to be the successor of the Moto X4. It will be called Motorola One Power and more specs of the device leaked, revealing a Snapdragon 636 chipset, coupled with 4 GB RAM. The notched screen was confirmed to measure 6.2" in diagonal with Full HD+ resolution. The dual camera setup is listed...

Google now offers free Wi-Fi in 400 train stations in India

Google announced its joint project with Indian Railways and RailTel to bring public Wi-Fi to India's train stations. The initiative began back in 2015, and now 400 train stops have free access to the internet. Caesar Sengupta, Google VP and Head of the Next Billion Users Team, said in a press release that the service is used by 8 million users monthly....

Nokia 3.1 goes on sale in Russia and Jordan

The newly-unveiled Nokia 3.1 is now available for purchase with Russia and Jordan the first markets to get the device. In Russia - where the phone was already available for pre-order - the phone's price tag is RUB 11,990($190). Available color options include white, blue, and black. In Jordan, the Nokia 3.1 is available in all sale points. All color...

Oreo-powered Samsung Galaxy A8 (2016) gets WiFi certified

The Samsung Galaxy A8 (2016) has been spotted on the website of WiFi Alliance. What's interesting here is the 'operating system' entry which shows Android 8.0 Oreo. So this is a strong indication that the Oreo update for the Galaxy A8 (2016) is now finalized and is about to start rolling out. There's currently no information on exactly when the update...

Samsung Galaxy J3 (2018) and J7 (2018) mid-rangers announced

Samsung just unveiled the successors to the Galaxy J3 (2017) and Galaxy J7 (2017) but revealed little about their hardware. The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2018) and J7 (2018) are still mid-range devices as evident by just looking at their photos, but details are scarce. Samsung Galaxy J7 (2018) The more interesting Samsung Galaxy J7 (2018), the model brings...

Sharp Aquos S3 High Edition arrives with Qi wireless charging

Sharp announced the Aquos S3 smartphone back in March with Snapdragon 630 chipset and surprisingly small body for a device with 6" tall screen. Now the Japanese company announced an upgraded version of the smartphone with more powerful internals - the chipset is now Snapdragon 660, the RAM is 8 GB and the phone has Qi wireless charging support. Apart...

Google Pixel 3 XL prototype leaks in live images with a notch and chin

Over the past few weeks, we've started seeing more and more rumors about Google's Pixel 3 and 3 XL, smartphones due to be officially introduced at some point in October. The bigger model will have a screen notch, according to past leaks, while the smaller one won't. Coming today to confirm half of that theory are two images depicting a prototype...

Amazon announces Fire TV Cube with hands-free voice control

Amazon has announced the Fire TV Cube, a new product in its series of media players that is controlled entirely by voice. The Fire TV Cube is built almost like an Echo, which means it includes eight far-field microphones so you can talk to it directly without needing a remote and it can hear you even over the sound of the television. You can tell...

MediaTek is readying an upgraded Helio P60 chip with emphasis on AI

With AI starting to be a big part of our lives, manufacturers continuously push more and more AI-related technologies into their handsets. In response, chip makers have to produce capable hardware that can take the load. Well, MediaTek is planning to do so by optimizing its current flagship Helio P60 chip. The Helio P60 has had a pretty successful...

Upcoming Snapdragon 1000 might have 12 W TDP, take on Intel directly

Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 850 a couple of days ago, its first chip exclusively targeted at laptop-style devices. Sure, it's a slightly overclocked 845, but it's a start. More info is surfacing about the Snapdragon 1000 and it will be more powerful than expected. It will reportedly have a TDP of up to 12 W, nearly double the TDP of the S850...

Alleged Sony Xperia XZ3 specs leak - an XZ2 with XZ2 Premium dual camera?

A purported spec sheet of the Sony Xperia XZ3 has leaked in Japan, ushering the phone into the rumor mill. The sheet points to a meek update over the Xperia XZ2 - a slightly bigger battery, more RAM (6GB) and the dual camera from the Xperia XZ2 Premium - 19 MP (25mm, f/1.8, 1/2.3" 1.22µm) + 12 MP B/W (f/1.6, 1/2.3", 1.55µm). The selfie camera seems...

Samsung Galaxy A9 Star and A9 Star Lite pricing revealed

Samsung semi-unveiled the Galaxy A9 Star and A9 Star Lite a coupled of days ago and started accepting pre-orders. Except details on price and shipping were vague at best. Not any more - the two phones ship out on June 15. Here's what these phones are about and how much they cost. Samsung Galaxy A9 Star The Samsung Galaxy A9 Star shares many similarities...

Honor's new earbuds measure your heart rate and have Hi-Res audio

Honor 9i and Honor Play surely stole the show yesterday at Huawei's event, but let's not forget that one more cool device was announced - the Honor Earphones. With all the wireless earbuds nowadays, Honor is sticking to the cords but compensates with a fresh new feature for the sporty types out there. These buds measure your heart rate because why...

OnePlus will hold its next Open Ears community event in India next month

OnePlus will hold its next Open Ears community event in India on July 7. if you're not familiar with Open Ears - it's an event at which OnePlus meets with select users and fans to discuss specific topics related to OnePlus' services and products. The India-based Open Ears will focus on Products and OnePlus will hand pick 30 people to participate...

BlackBerry Key2 hands-on review

In a sea of smartphone sameness, there are very few outliers, that can still boast a unique angle of their own. Most of TCL's lineup still proudly fits into that category. Understandably, all the turbulence and leadership change in recent years did result in some plain devices, like the DTEK models. On the flip side, devices like the Keyone embody...

BlackBerry Key2 is a love letter to physical buttons and sharp edges

At an event held in New York, today TCL officially announced the few remaining details we didn't already know about the BlackBerry Key2, which was leaked heavily in the past couple of days. Unsurprisingly, the Key2 is a continuation of the Keyone in almost every respect. It retains the squarish form factor that's highlighted by an iconic physical...

vivo accidentally leaks its upcoming vivo NEX and NEX S, only one has in-display fingerprint

We've heard a lot in about the upcoming spectacular vivo devices based on the APEX concept phone, which is rather expected with the nearing launch on June 12. The latest leak, however, comes from vivo's official website, so the information should be as accurate as it gets. vivo NEX and vivo NEX S The vivo NEX S and vivo NEX were showcased for a brief...

Watch the BlackBerry KEY2 announcement livestream here

We saw multiple new devices announced the recent weeks - the new phone season is in full swing. The next big planned announcement is by TCL, the owner of the BlackBerry brand. The Chinese company will introduce the Key2 in New York today at 3PM UK time (10 AM local NY time), and you can watch it below. The BlackBerry Key2 might appear for the first...

HTC Desire 12 and Desire 12+ go live in India

Launched back in March, the two low-end HTC devices, the Desire 12 and Desire 12+, make it to the Indian market as well. It's obvious that the Taiwanese company is trying to make a dent in the Indian market where Samsung is losing some ground to the Chinese manufacturers, namely Xiaomi, vivo and Oppo, but will this be enough? HTC Desire 12 Anyway,...

MIUI 10 goes global - performance, camera and UI improvements

Just a week ago, Xiaomi announced its high-end trio, the Mi 8, Mi 8 Explorer Edition and MI 8 SE and the latest version of its MIUI skin along with it. Today, with the Redmi Y2 in India, the company is officially rolling out the MIUI 10 as well. The new interface focuses on speed, re-designed UI, cool new nature sound notifications and bokeh portraits...

Oppo Find X to have a telephoto lens with optical zoom

Oppo is launching its true flagship Find X on June 19. The company confirmed the news on Tuesday with a press release, and now all it has left is to tease various features until the device is launched. The latest post on the Chinese social network Weibo is an image of a person with a telescope, looking at the sky. A cryptic text, roughly translated...

Samsung Internet browser v7.4 Beta brings handy new features

If you are a Samsung user, you've probably already tried the Samsung Internet browser, and if you did, you've noticed that it's not your usual pre-installed bloatware that OEMs usually put on your phone. Well, to be fair, Samsung does that by pre-loading tons of other apps on your Galaxy handset, but the browser definitely isn't one of them. In fact,...

Xiaomi Redmi Y2 arrives in India, is a rebadged Redmi S2

Xiaomi had an event today in New Delhi where the Redmi Y2 was announced. The device was introduced by Manu Kumar Jain, VP of Xiaomi, and head of the Indian division. The Redmi Y2 arrives in India as a rebranded Redmi S2. It has a Snapdragon 625 chipset with octa-core CPU, clocked at 2 GHz. The screen is 5.99" in diagonal with a tall 18:9 ratio and...

Facebook shared user data with major smartphone manufacturers

Facebook has been under fire recently for giving data third-party apps, allegedly without user's consent. After an investigation by The New York Times, it was discovered the social media gave deep access to all major smartphone makers. Latest information revealed that the now-banned Huawei was one of them, along with three other Chinese companies...

Sony Xperia XZ1 series and XZ Premium getting new update

Sony has started pushing out a new update to the Xperia XZ1 series and XZ Premium smartphones. Carrying a build number of 47.1.A.12.205, it's a security update that brings along Android fixes for the month of June. There's currently no information on what other changes (if any) are included in the update. As is usually the case with OTA roll outs,...

Now you can add Apple Maps to your website

At the ongoing WWDC, Apple has announced a major change related to Apple Maps. The company has made available to third-party developers the ability to embed Apple Maps on websites, something which can be done using the newly-launched JavaScript library MapKit JS (which is currently in beta). Here's what Apple's official website says: MapKit JS brings...

Xiaomi Mi 8 SE goes on sale on June 8

Xiaomi launched its three variants of the Mi 8 in on May 31 and shortly after, the standard Mi 8 version went on sale on June 5 only to be sold in under two minutes. Now, the first ever Snapdragon 710-powered smartphone, the Mi 8 SE will be made available for purchase on June 8. Since the device comes in two memory configurations, the pricing is...

Nokia 3.1 US launch imminent as Nokia 6 and 5 get June updates

When the Nokia 3.1 was officially unveiled, HMD said the device will be available for purchase in June. Since then, the device has already got its Indian pricing confirmed, and has also gone on pre-order in Russia. And now, its US launch also seems imminent. The device is currently listed on retailer B&H Photo's website as coming soon. The price...

Reportedly, Samsung is keeping the same Galaxy Note8 design for the Note9 to cut costs

Reports of the upcoming Galaxy Note9 have been fairly vague, but every single one of them adds to the puzzle piece by piece. The latest one points at no design changes, whatsoever. On the left is the real Note9 Screen Protector pic.twitter.com/BS8rydeqnS— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) June 5, 2018 According to the same leakster who brought you Galaxy...

You can now buy Amazon's Alexa-powered fashion camera Echo Look

Amazon's Echo Look that was announced back in April is now on sale on Amazon.com. The fashion smart cam was up until now only available in limited quantities and through an invite system. For the price of $199 you get an Alexa powered smart camera that can snap photos and 6-second video. Using its built-in LEDs and depth sensors the Echo Look can...

HTC continues to lose money, makes 46% less than in May of 2017

HTC has released unaudited results for May 2018 and they don't look good. Revenue for the month of May is NT$2.45bn (around €70m) which is down 46% compared to the NT$4.53bn (around €130m) of May 2017. HTC posted its January through May 2018 results as well. Total revenue was NT$13.33bn (€380m) - that's quite poor compared to the NT$23.77bn (€678m)...

ZTE nubia Z18 photographed in the wild

ZTE's nubia Z18 mini is official and it has already been through a few rounds of sales. And yet its bigger sibling, the ZTE nubia Z18 is still missing. The phone has been teased, it posted impressive scores in AnTuTu and we even saw a live photo of it. Here are a few more photos, this time without the odd angles and reflections. For example, you...

Deal: Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ with a free Gear 360 (2017) camera

You may have noticed some YouTubers switching to 360° cameras - the great thing about them is that you get to rotate the camera around in post-production. Or maybe you want to shoot videos for VR headsets, either way capturing omnidirectional video can be cool. Best Buy is currently running a promotion that will net you a free Samsung Gear 360 (2017)...

OnePlus 6 receives an update in China, adds selfie portrait mode and battery percentage

With all the missing features and bugs that came along, we can't get over the feeling that the OnePlus 6 is a half-baked product, but we also can't miss the fact that the company is pretty fast with the software updates and swiftly fixes most of the problems that occurred. Case in point, the latest OTA update to hit the HydrogenOS in China fixes...

Moto Z3 Play goes official, works with all Moto Mods

Motorola has just unveiled the new Moto Z3 Play. The phone comes just one year after the Moto Z2 Play and pioneers the new Z3 series. The Z3 Play, just like the previous Z phones, is built around the Moto Mods concept. This means it accepts all existing Moto Mods and as such is rather limited when it comes to design. The Z3 Play has a thin aluminium...