Technical News

(UPDATE: It's official) Leaked promotional images show off the Mi Band 3 in all its glory Categories:   Wearables ,  Xiaomi UPDATE :  Xiaomi  has confirmed that two variants of the Mi  Band  3 will go on sale, retailing for $25 and $30 - the more expensive of the two includes NFC integration. Aside from this feature, though, both variants are identical, including a touch-sensitive display and a 110mAh battery that allows for 20 days of battery life. Also, Bluetooth 4.2 LE. In regards to a release date, the Chinese brand is yet to make an official announcement. Xiaomi  has already confirmed  that it will be unveiling its third-generation Mi Band later on today, but now, just hours before the event, a number of promotional posters reveal Xiaomi’s latest product in its entirety. Taking a close look at the Mi Band 3, it appears the biggest difference is the overall the size of the display, which has been stretched significantly. For re...

Who copied the iPhone X best? Categories:   Samsung ,   LG ,   HTC ,   Apple ,   Sony ,   Polls ,   Xiaomi Hint - the iPhone X can't even muster a shiny blue version Top bezel protrusions, vertical corner camera kits, there is a veritable fashion trend among phones low and high this year. In the  Android world, there are those that don't go after the  iPhone X design compromise dubbed the "notch" ( Samsung , Sony, HTC) and then... there is everyone else, it seems. Not only did third-tier Chinese manufacturers out their X clones shortly after  Apple 's introduction, but the notches keep swimming upstream, and spawning at unexpected places, like the third and fourth-largest  phone  makers globally. Back in 2016, barely anyone had thought of introducing handsets with variable top bezel thickness ( we know, LG, we know ), while, fast forward to this current smartphone season, and it seems that notches are everywher...

Best new icon packs for Android (May 2018) Categories:   Android ,  Apps ,  Picks While the vast majority of  Android  consumers use their devices without customizing these at all, a smaller group of Android enthusiasts can hardly go for more than a week before overhauling the appearance of their homescreens. What can we say, we are guilty of that as well! Thanks to the multitude of icon packs arriving weekly on the Play Store, that's as easy as a pie This is why we regularly show you the icon packs that have recently made their way to the Play Store and deserve your attention. Have in mind that you'd normally need a third-party launcher in order to change your stock icons with some of the beautiful suites right. Note that as a rule of thumb these are usually compatible with all third-party launchers that support icon packs, such as Nova, Apex, etc. Here follow the best new ones that have made it to the Play Store for the month of May 2018. Mino...

Samsung has delayed the Galaxy Note 9 by two weeks due to a design change Categories:   Samsung ,  Android After a previous report claimed  Samsung  was aiming for  a late July unveiling  for the Galaxy Note 9, a new one from  The Bell now states that this is no longer the  case  due to a last-minute design change. As noted, it appears Samsung’s Vice Chairman Lee Jan-Yong visited a number of local stores in Shenzhen to check out competing smartphones and, upon doing so, the Chairman is said to have realized that other smartphones offer an increased feeling of grip. In light of this, Lee Jan-Yong reportedly spoke to Samsung’s engineers in the hope fixing this issue by reducing the thickness of the Galaxy Note 9’s display glass by 0.5mm, a decision that has ultimately led to a delay of two weeks. If this is the case, the  Galaxy Note 9 should see an official announcement towards the beginning of August, falling in line with the...

Alcatel 1X with Android Go is now available in the US Categories:   Android ,  Alcatel The name Alcatel may not mean too much in the United States, but the smartphone brand is bringing the first  Android  Go to the country, the  1X . Although you can pre-order the Alcatel 1X in the US, the smartphone will not be released until June 4. As far as the price goes, customers can buy the  Alcatel 1X  for just $99.99 via Amazon, a great price for what the  phone  has to offer. And with Android Go, Alcatel 1X will benefit from some the latest improvements Google has added to the mobile platform. Hardware-wise, the Alcatel 1X is an entry-level smartphone, hence the low price. It does pack a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6739 processor, 1GB RAM and 16GB expandable storage. Also, the phone sports a 5.3-inch display with an unusual 480 x 960 pixels resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio. There's also an 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back side, wh...

Samsung introduces 18 new AR Emoji sticker expressions doubling the total to 36 Categories:   Samsung ,  Android ,  Software updates ,  Apps ,  Camera Samsung  today, announced it is adding 18 new stickers to the AR Emoji feature available on the  Samsung Galaxy S9  and  Samsung Galaxy S9+ . The update to the camera app, which contains the new stickers, is found in the Galaxy Apps Store under the "My apps" section. With the new stickers, the number of sticker expressions available to AR Emoji users doubles from 18 to 36. Another 18 will be added in the coming months. We might have forgotten all the math we learned at school, but that should mean that 54 stickers will be available by later this year. The stickers automatically appear when an AR Emoji is created. And that happens in the camera app when you select "AR Emoji mode" and tap on "Create My Emoji." The  phone  does all off the heavy lifting including the crea...

Russian pre-orders for Nokia 3.1 are now live 31 MAY 2018 Three new Nokia phone were  unveiled  in Moscow earlier this week - the  Nokia 5.1 ,  3.1 , and  2.1 . While the first and the last will go on sale in July, the Nokia 3.1 will be released next month in June. And now, it's coming to light that pre-orders for the device are live in Russia. The phone costs RUB 11,990, which currently translates to $195. The model on offer comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. Color options include black, white, and blue. Meanwhile the company has confirmed the addition of Nokia 5.1 and 3.1 to the Android Enterprise Recommended program. Source

Sony USB Type-C 2-in-1 cable now officially available from company's estore 31 MAY 2018 Sony's 2-in-1 USB Type-C cable (EC270) is now available from the company's estore in Europe. For those who aren't aware, the accessory lets you charge your phone and listen to music at the same time. The dongle carries a price tag of £17.99 in the UK and €19.99 in other European countries. Keep in mind that the cable doesn't support quick charging. For additional information as well as to make a purchase, head to the  Source  link below. Source

Samsung Gear S3 update lets you answer calls by rotating bezel 31 MAY 2018 A new update has started rolling out to the  Samsung Gear S3 . Weighing in at around 13.6MB, the update arrives as version R770XXU2CRE3 and R760XXU2CRE3 for the frontier and classic variants, respectively. The main new feature is the option to answer calls by rotating the bezel. The feature is enabled by default, and you need to rotate (clockwise) the bezel twice in order to accept a call. Also, early adopters say it has been already available in some regions for a while now.

Samsung Galaxy S9 gets dual VoLTE support in India 31 MAY 2018 Samsung Galaxy S9  arrived in India just a week after the official announcement  at MWC. The flagship duo keeps receiving its monthly updates and the latest one brought dual VoLTE support. The software patch also brings some fixes and performance tweaks. According to the screenshot we got, the update for the Galaxy S9 is 426 MB in size and its version is G965FXXU1BRE5/G965FOXM1BRE3/G965FXXU1BRE3. It enables usage of VoLTE and VoWiFi over both SIM cards for the devices with dual SIM slots. If you haven’t received a notification about the update of your  dual-SIM Galaxy S9 , head to Settings and then Software Update to enable it. All devices in India should already have it, but since it is a rolling update, you might have to wait a while until it gets to you. Thanks for the info, Prathamesh Birajdar!

Samsung Galaxy J5 (2017) may jump straight to Oreo 8.1 31 MAY 2018 Up until now, Samsung has released Oreo for  many   of   its smartphones . The updates bumped the Android version to 8.0. However, now it looks like there may be some devices that will directly jump to Android 8.1. Case in point: a GFXBench listing for the  Galaxy J5 (2017) that shows Android 8.1 on board. Previously, the  Galaxy J5 (2016)  also jumped  straight to Android 7.1.1  after being  spotted  running the OS in benchmarks. So, a precedent is clearly there. And it's likely that other J series devices in the series will also make the same jump. Sadly, there's currently no info on exactly when the update will begin rolling out to these J series devices. Source

DxOMark: Xiaomi Mi 8 beats the Samsung Galaxy S9+ in still shots 31 MAY 2018 DxOMark released its extensive camera review of the fresh  Xiaomi Mi 8  flagship. The device has gone through the test gauntlet scoring an outstanding 105 points in photo category and a very good 88 points in video recording. The overall score is 99, meaning that the Mi 8 shares the 4th place with the  Galaxy S9+ , which did better in video recording but fell a point short in still photography compared to the Mi 8. The guys over at DxOMark had almost nothing bad to say about the camera. In fact, according to the score, the Mi 8 is probably one of the best value smartphones if you are looking for good camera performance. The dual camera setup consists of a 12MP main sensor with f/1.8, 1.4µm pixel size, OIS and dual pixel PDAF coupled with a secondary 12MP f/2.4 unit capable of 2x optical zoom and also supports dual pixel PDAF. According to DxOMark, the 2x magnification is pretty decent ...