Samsung Galaxy S8 Active detailed specs leak

The first Galaxy S8 Active photos leaked on Monday. Now, there is even more info about the rugged Samsung smartphone after most of the specs were revealed on Chinese social network Weibo. The Galaxy S8 Active will have a 5.8" Super AMOLED screen with 2960x1440 pixel resolution. That matches the specs of the Galaxy S8 panel, but there won't be curved edges this time around. Similarities continue with Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and the Snapdragon 835 chipset. The big difference is battery capacity - the Galaxy S8 Active will offer a huge 4,000 juice pack, compared to the 3,000mAh...

New Verizon Galaxy S7/S7 edge update brings email improvements

Verizon has started pushing out a new update to Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge units on its network. The update - which arrives as software version G935VVRU4BQG1 for the former and G930VVRU4BQG1 for the latter - brings improvements related to the email app. Specifically, the update fixes the app's sluggish behavior when running within the Knox container, a change aimed at Knox Business and Enterprise users. Release notes say this change has been done "while ensuring optimal performance and information security." The Android security fixes for the month of July are also included in...

Motorola Moto X4 pricing revealed

The yet-to-be-announced Motorola Moto X4 is expected to be a mid-tier smartphone that'll be supported by Google's MVNO, Project Fi. The device has been the subject of several leaks and rumors so far, and now we have some pricing-related information for the phone. What the latest report says is the 32GB storage variant will carry a price tag of €350 ($410) in Europe. It's yet to be seen how much of a premium the 64GB version will command. Moto X4 32GB will have some interesting pricing it seems. ~350 Euro in eastern EU. Lower than I thought.— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) July 27,...

LG Q6 to launch in Europe next month

The LG Q6, which was officially unveiled along with its Q6+ and Q6α versions earlier this month, will be available for purchase in Europe in August. This information was revealed by tipster Roland Quandt‏ in a tweet which said Germany will get the handset on August 21. And given the way the EU market normally works, other countries on the Old Continent should get it at about the time. LG Q6 launching in .de from Aug 21 at 349 Euro. 18:9 is coming to the masses!— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) July 27, 2017 The tipster also revealed pricing information for the phone: €349,...

New Motorola dash camera coming - 4'' touchscreen, $99 price

A new dash camera is coming soon from Motorola. While the name isn't currently known, the device has a 4-inch screen, features wide angle lens and a microSD card slot, and is capable of recording Full HD videos. There's also a motion detection feature that'll help you park your car. Binatone Global - an IoT electronics and lifestyle products firm, which has exclusive rights to design, develop and market certain Motorola accessories - is the company behind the product. The camera carries a price tag of $99, and will be available in the United States and Europe soon - the latter...

Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro now available in US

The Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro - which was made official last month, and has only been on sale in India so far - is now available for purchase in the United States as well. It's not officially coming from Samsung, but Amazon has the device listed on its website for $319.99. This means that you won't be getting the software tailored to the local market, but probably also less carrier bloatware. Both single and dual-SIM models are available - the listing for the latter says it's an international variant with no US warranty, and is compatible only with GSM networks like AT&T and T-Mobile....

Essential outlines the PH-1's dual cameras

Essential released a blog post that outlines the technology and work that went into creating the dual camera for the unreleased Essential PH-1. Yazhu Ling is Essential's imaging engineer, who tells us that the company wanted to build a camera that fulfilled two requirements: there should be no camera hump, and low-light quality shouldn't be sacrificed as a result of that. There are two cameras in the Essential Phone, one RGB and the other monochrome. The main RGB image is overlaid with the monochrome image, which when combined, results in a better-exposed image with reduced noise. By...

Unlocked BlackBerry KEYone launches in Canada, quickly goes out of stock

The BlackBerry KEYone unlocked variant was originally scheduled to arrive in Canada in June, but that didn't happen. Later that month, the company confirmed that the launch has been delayed to "later this summer." Well, the good news is that the model was finally made available in the country through Wallmart. However, there's a bad news as well - the stock depleted very quickly. A quick look at the retailer's website reveals the model - which carries a price tag of CAD 650 ($517) - is still out of stock. There's no information on when the next batch will be available. Meanwhile,...

Nougat for Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 could be arriving soon

Looks like the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 will get the Nougat update soon. The device - which was launched way back in 2015 running Lollipop - has now been certified by the WiFi Alliance, with the listing revealing Android 7.0 OS. Sadly, there's currently no info on exactly when the roll out will begin, but given that the update has started collecting necessary certifications, it shouldn't be too long before that happens. Source | Via

YouTube Red and Google Music may eventually merge to one service

Google has been looking into some kind of unity for the streaming services that it offers. Currently, if you sign up for Google Play Music, you'll get YouTube Red included for free (and vice-versa), which gives access to exclusive content, removes ads from YouTube, and lets you download YouTube videos to watch offline. YouTube's head of music, Lyor Cohen, has confirmed that Google Music and YouTube Red need to be merged in order to educate consumers and bring in new subscribers. This should come in some sort of unification and/or rebranding of the subscription service. In a...

Google hires Essential's head of User Experience

Liron Damir was once the lead designer for Pebble and WebOS. His most recent position was at Essential as head of UX (User experience) which focused on the way customers interacted with the products. After moving around a couple of startups, Damir has more recently been hired by Google to lead the design of Google Home products. Damir's departure follows that of another executive on the Essential team, which, honestly, doesn't look very good for the startup smartphone company. We are still waiting to see when we can get our hands on the Essential PH-1, as the company has yet to begin...

LG Watch Style drops to a much more palatable $139.99

Back in February LG launched two smartwatches in partnership with Google. The Watch Sport and Watch Style were the first devices to ship with Android Wear 2.0. While the Watch Sport has an 'everything plus the kitchen sink' approach to specs (and size), the Watch Style lacks a lot of features - NFC, a heart rate monitor, and a decently sized battery for example. With that in mind, its recommended retail price of $249 has always seemed a bit ludicrous, especially considering the fact that it's not even that stylish despite the name. Now though, an LG Watch Style can be yours for just...

AMD launches Ryzen 3 series of desktop processors

After Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5, AMD has launched its entry level Ryzen 3 series of desktop processors. The series includes two models, the Ryzen 3 1200 and the 1300X. The $129 Ryzen 3 1300X has four cores and four threads with a base clock of 3.5GHz and boost clock of 3.7GHz. It can go up to 3.9GHz with XFR provided you ditch the stock Wraith Stealth cooler and get an aftermarket one like the new $59 Wreath Max with RGB lighting. The $109 Ryzen 3 1200 also has four cores and four threads with a base clock of 3.1GHz and boost clock of 3.4GHz. Both have 65W TDP. Both processors are...

Google Pixel and Pixel XL now start at $420 ($399.99 refurbished) through new deals

As we get closer to the unveiling of their successors, Google's Pixel and Pixel XL are starting to be offered for lower prices more often. Today both Woot and Verizon have promos on the Pixels, though in the case of the former we're talking about refurbished devices, offered in black only - and for a very limited time. You can get a refurb Pixel for $399.99, or a Pixel XL for $449.99 from Woot, but you do have to act fast - the deal is only on for around six more hours. If you'd rather get a brand spanking new phone for your money, then Verizon has something for you. Namely, if you opt...

Huawei Mate 10 will have "full-screen display", CEO says while revealing exit from the low-end

Huawei's next flagship phablet will be called Mate 10, just as anticipated. This has been confirmed today in an interview by Richard Yu, the chief of Huawei's consumer division. He also said it would come with a "full-screen display", which we take to mean "near bezelless", joining the defining trend of 2017 in the smartphone world. Such an edge-to-edge screen was rumored for the Mate 10 at the beginning of this month, and now it's pretty much a given. We've also heard that the phablet would be powered by the upcoming Kirin 970 chipset, but Yu stayed mum on that one. He did however promise...

Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus get more than 100,000 registrations in the first day

Yesterday Meizu finally announced the Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus, its latest flagship smartphones, following many weeks of leaks, rumors, and speculation. The devices both come with a second screen on the back, dual rear cameras, and top specs throughout. The first flash sale for the duo will happen in China on August 5, which is next week. Ahead of that, as usual in China, the company has started taking registrations - you can't participate in a flash sale without registering first. In slightly less than one day, the Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus managed to score over 100,000 registrations,...

HMD now owns 500 Nokia design patents, including one for the Lumia Camera UI

An interesting revelation comes today regarding Nokia, both old and new. About 500 design patents have been transferred from Microsoft Mobile to HMD Global. The former is the company that made the Microsoft and Nokia branded Windows handsets following the acquisition by Microsoft of Nokia's smartphone division many years ago. The latter is the company currently holding the exclusive license to use the Nokia name for smartphones. HMD Global has already launched the Nokia 3, 5, and 6, and will unveil the flagship Nokia 8 next month. This top of the line offering may have something rather...

Unlocked Moto Z2 Play is up for pre-order in the US, Verizon's model just $120 this weekend

The Moto Z2 Play has been available at Verizon since late June, so it's finally time for the unlocked model to make an appearance. This can now be pre-ordered directly from Motorola's online store. It is priced at $499.99 and will work on all major US carriers - AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, even Verizon. You can choose between black and gold, color-wise. Note that the unlocked model comes with 64GB of built-in storage, twice the amount found in the Verizon-specific iteration of the smartphone. Speaking of which, coincidentally or not the carrier nicknamed Big Red has decided to run an insane...

iPod nano and shuffle were discontinued today, iPod touch got double the storage

Today it's time to shed a tear for the iPod nano and iPod shuffle, because both of them got discontinued by Apple. This comes less than three years after the same thing happened to the iPod classic. The iPod nano and shuffle have been unceremoniously pulled from the Apple website, and the company has since confirmed to TechCrunch that it is in fact discontinuing the music players. So if you want an iPod, from this point on your only option will be the iPod touch - and who knows how long it will be before that one bites the dust too. For now, Apple seems to be doubling down on the touch,...

Samsung Pay might work on non-Samsung smartphones next year

Samsung Pay started out being exclusive to the Korean company's high-end smartphones but has since made it into the mid-range, in its more restricted Mini iteration. We've already heard that Samsung plans on bringing Pay Mini to Android devices made by its competitors, as well as iOS, and today a new report says the company wants its payments service to be ubiquitous. Apparently there have been internal talks regarding the possibility to make Samsung Pay available to the high-end smartphones made by other companies. It also plans on making the full fledged service available on some of its...

Foxconn plans to open a factory in the US

Taiwan-based manufacturer Foxconn, most popular for manufacturing the Apple iPhone plans to build a 20-million sq.ft facility in Wisconsin for LCD panel development. The investment will cost around $10 billion and will open around 3,000 jobs. Soon in the United States LCD panels are currently integrated into all iPhones and iPads, but Apple stated on multiple occasions that it would like to switch to OLED. It even purchased machinery for in-house OLED development for the 2018 iPhone. The location of the factory was announced by the US president Donald Trump, while Foxconn CEO Terry...

Daydream VR compatible device list to grow to 11 devices by the end of 2017

Google launched Daydream last year at I/O 2016, making it the company's first official attempt at mobile VR. Unfortunately, the feature did not quite take off and hardware support from most device manufacturers never came. If you go to the Daydream website right now, you will see support for six devices, including the Pixel, Pixel XL, Moto Z, Axon 7, Mate 9 Pro and the ZenFone AR, with the Galaxy S8 support still coming even though it was announced back at I/O 2017. However, the list might be getting a sizable expansion by the end of the year. Sundar Pichai mentioned in the...

Huawei scores 73M shipments in H1 2017

Huawei published its resluts for the first half of 2017, and the numbers certainly look promising - 73 million shipped phones for six months and 36% increase in revenue YoY. A breakdown of smartphone shipments reveals 8.5 million Huawei Mate 9 and Huawei Mate 9 Pro units were moved. At second come the P10 and the P10 Plus with 6 million shipments. The one-month old Honor 9 already reached 1 million sales. Compared with the same period last year, shipped smartphones grew 20.6%, while the revenue is now CNY105.4 billion, or about $15.4 billion. Huawei Consumer Business CEO...

Upcoming OxygenOS update for OnePlus 5 could improve battery life significantly

The OnePlus 5 has solid battery life as is, but the next big OxygenOS update may improve it significantly - unnamed sources claim 7 hours of screen will eat up only 50% of the battery charge. Those are unofficial claims, of course, and they lack important details - 7 hours doing what? It seems that the key improvement will be Energy Aware Scheduling. EAS makes the Linux kernel smarter leveraging the big.LITTLE architecture found in many modern chipsets, including the Snapdragon 835. EAS takes into consideration core size and clockspeed when deciding where to run each app. The Google...

WhatsApp now has 1 billion active daily users

WhatsApp had 1 billion active users per month last year. Now it has 1 billion active users per day. The monthly active users have grown from 1 billion to 1.3 billion. The more interesting metric is the messages sent daily - that's a whopping 55 billion. Add to that the 4.5 billion photos and 1 billion videos shared daily and you've got a very active social network. Source