LG has just revealed that the upcoming G7 ThinQ flagship will feature a "Boombox Speaker" that packs a resonance chamber which allows it to provide 6 dB higher base sound levels and twice the amount of bass that the brand's existing flagships can deliver. The G7 ThinQ will also feature a HiFi Quad DAC and DTS:X 3D Surround Sound.

Google has updated its Chrome OS to version 66, bringing with it numerous bug and security fixes. Chief among the security updates is a patch for Meltdown for Intel-based Chrome OS devices closing off the vulnerability across all Chrome OS devices.

Shortly after finding out that AMD is working on 7 nm Vega 20 GPUs, the alleged benchmark results for this upcoming product were spotted in the 3DMark 11 database. According to the listing, the Vega 20 with 32 GB of HBM2 memory clocked at 1.25 GHz is about 70 percent faster per clock than the RX Vega 64 Liquid.

There has been a growing wave of people in the community calling the Exklim eX Core a scam. Some feel that the eX Core fills a new niche, some think that it can't achieve the claimed performance, while others believe it doesn't exist at all. We haven't seen any working products and we don't endorse the eX Core, but we did feel it was important to give Edgar the chance to answer some of the communities questions.

Samsung recently divulged the name "Max-P" to describe the GTX 1060 GPU in its upcoming Odyssey Z gaming laptop before quietly removing the word. However, we can confirm that "Max-P" is simply a standard GPU without the Max-Q designation. The GTX 1050, 1050 Ti, 1060, 1070, and 1080 found on most gaming laptops are all technically "Max-P" graphics cards so long as they are not Max-Q GPUs.

Although similar rumors that we heard in the past did not come to fruition, this time we might finally get an LG flagship phablet with stylus support. For now, the only certain thing is that LG has registered the Q Note trademark in South Korea earlier this month, so the upcoming LG Q7 flagship might not launch alone.

A firmware teardown by XDA-Developers has revealed the details of the Redmi S2, a device that looks to be Xiaomi's next budget king. The S2 features an 18:9 display, dual rear cameras with EIS, and the trusty Snapdragon 625. Update: Further details and live images of the Redmi S2 have surfaced.

Xiaomi has apparently reached a "top secret" agreement with Taiwanese semiconductor company TSMC that will see the latter produce Xiaomi's upcoming in-house Surge SoC on its 16nm manufacturing process.

Sony's PlayStation 4 remains one of the company's biggest revenue sources. The console sold 2.5 million copies in the first quarter of this year to extend its all-time sales to a massive 76 million. That figure is expected to rise across all coming quarters of the year, with new games like God of War, and the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2 and Spiderman.

Canalys's latest report provides valuable information on the state of the Chinese smartphone market at the end of Q1 2018. Going by the data, the market saw a whopping 21% YoY drop in shipments, with companies like OPPO, Vivo, and Samsung all seeing dwindling sales numbers.

The CDMA giant has only one-third the install base of the largest smartphone carrier in the U.S. at only 53 million users. Should it merge with T-Mobile, the combined user count would still be millions fewer than Verizon and AT&T, but the combined resources would allow Deutsche Telekom and SoftBank to better compete in the wake of 5G technology. Talks between T-Mobile and Sprint have been on and off for the past 4 years due to anti-trust concerns.

The AMD processors that will probably hit the market soon were recently spotted in the official product master list available on AMD.com. In addition to the dual-core and quad-core desktop and mobile Ryzen processors, there are also three Threadrippers: the octa-core 2900X, the 12-core 2920X, and the 16-core 2950X.

Although the new XPS 15 2-in-1 (9575) was supposed to begin shipping more than a week ago, Frank Azor has just confirmed that many early adopters still have to receive their machines due to a delay that has been caused by "a small bad batch of the Mag lev keyboard." Even more, the i9 processor upgrade for the XPS 15 9570 is not available yet but will be added on May 10.

The company behind the development of Frostpunk has announced that 250,000 copies of the game have already been sold in just 66 hours. 11 bit studios posted a message on the game's official Twitter account to share the impressive achievement. The game developer has already announced plans for additional content and bug fixes for the snowy steampunk-inspired city-building title.

It has been reported that Huawei is working on a possible replacement of the ubiquitous Android OS. Anonymous sources talking to the South China Morning Post have commented that the Chinese tech giant is developing the alternative operating system in case the company ends up receiving a similar US-imposed ban to the one that ZTE is currently facing.

A previously unseen series of patent applications and associated imagery for the rumored Surface Phone / Andromeda PC have emerged. They show that Microsoft is mulling a range of solutions for making the device responsive to how it is being held or used at any time.

The Windows 10 April 2018 update is scheduled to begin its rollout on April 30. Its list of new features includes better voice recognition, Timeline to easily retrieve your content across devices, Focus Assist to get things done without distractions, various Microsoft Edge improvements, and more.

The second-generation Spectacles camera glasses by Snapchat no longer feature a yellow ring that alerts people and can also shoot images, not just video. Capable of shooting underwater, this new accessory also comes with faster syncing, a slimmer frame and charging case, prescription options, and a price of US$149.99.

An impressive reveal trailer has been released for the upcoming game Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The latest title in the famous franchise is scheduled for September 14 and will be available on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One platforms. The action adventure has been developed by Eidos-Montréal and Crystal Dynamics and will be published by Square Enix.

American technology company Essential has opened up its online store to customers from a number of other countries. Previously, only US residents could get their hands on the Essential Phone (PH-1), but now the company’s products will be available to people in the UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan. The California-based firm is believed to be currently working on the PH-1’s successor.

In the recently announced Q1 2018 earnings report, AMD's CEO Lisa Su mentions that the company is already testing 7 nm Radeon Instinct GPUs, which should be sampling later this year. This GPU series is most likely part of the Vega 20 family that appeared in previously leaked roadmap slides. Spec-wise, the Instinct looks to be a solid competitor for Nvidia's Volta AI GPUs.

Oppo's A3 smartphone is among the first mid-rangers to feature the trendy notched display, which usually comes with high-end models. Also included are a large 6.2-inch FHD+ LCD and the MediTek Helio P60 octa-core SoC clocked at 2.0 GHz coupled with 4 GB of RAM and an impressive 128 GB storage capacity. The rear cam gets a 16 MP sensor, while the selfie shooter gets only 8 MP.

Although there are supposed to be no Samsung phones in North Korea and the country is well-known as a totalitarian dictatorship, smuggled Samsung smartphones are very popular in the country. According to a South Korean news outlet, the number of mobile subscribers in North Korea reached 5 million this year.

Meizu launched the Meizu 15 Plus a few days ago. The device offers a lot of features that would thrill Android enthusiasts—a 16:9 display, slim bezels, no notch, etc—but is ultimately let down by its less than spectacular software.

Renders of Motorola's upcoming Z3 Play mid-ranger have surfaced. The images show the device with a dual rear camera setup, a side-mounted fingerprint reader, and no headphone jack.

The HTC U12 has appeared on Verizon's Open Development page. The listing claims the device will sport a 6-inch Super WQHD LCD display, a 3500 mAh battery, and IP68 certification.

Although it was initially supposed to become available via the Microsoft Store before the end of 2017, Apple needed some additional to make iTunes ready for the Windows platform. When installing from the Microsoft Store, the iTunes app removes its desktop variant — if installed already — and uses its settings.

The annual Amazon Prime fee will rise to US$119 in two weeks. The annual subscription cost for this service of US$99 has been around since 2014 when Amazon had increased it from the initial value of US$79. However, the benefits of a Prime membership now include ad-free movies, Kindle eBook loans, and even in-car delivery.

The new Alcatel A3 10 Android tablet has the same US$149 price tag of last year's model and features an IPS display, 4G LTE, a quad-core MediaTek processor, 3 GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage, as well as a 4,600 mAh battery. Sadly, this slate will ship with Android 7.0 Nougat onboard and there is little hope for an Oreo update.

Nintendo has announced a partnership with Cygames, Inc. to develop a new game for smart devices. The jointly developed title will be called Dragalia Lost and is scheduled for release in the summer of this year. The Japanese video-game giant held out on introducing its popular franchises to iOS or Android for many years because of concerns about losing unique gameplay elements.

Dell has introduced a new SKU to its lineup that halves the storage capacity for a cheaper introductory price of $1300 USD. Core specifications are otherwise untouched from the Core i5-8305G CPU, FHD touchscreen, Radeon Vega M GL GPU, and 8 GB of DDR4 RAM. The new SKU is a smart move since the SSD in the XPS 15 9575 is easy to upgrade if necessary.

The Samsung handset that surfaced on Geekbench using the SM-J260G model name is expected to hit the market as the Galaxy J2 Core, the brand's first Android Go-driven device. Although nothing is official for now, we expect to see this smartphone launching in the coming weeks.

Google has not had much to say about the Fuchsia OS, its new operating system currently under development, but little hints have popped up here and there — the latest clue is apparent support for Android Runtime. If Fuchsia OS gains Android app support, it could signal the unification of its Pixel hardware efforts under a single "Pixel OS" operating system.

Apple is taking flak for its current-gen MacBook Pro keyboards from its usually loyal community. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has labeled it “one of the biggest design screw ups in Apple history,” while others are calling it “defective” and suggesting it should be recalled.

Amazon, Intel, and Microsoft have all published quarterly financial reports showing better than expected results. Microsoft revealed revenue of US$26.8 billion while fellow tech giant Intel managed revenue of US$16.1 billion for the quarter. However, Amazon trumped both of the other companies thanks to recorded sales of US$51.0 billion.

The successor of the Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 tablet is expected to become the first slate of this popular Chinese brand to use a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, although it might take a while for it to finally reach the market. According to XDA Developers, the Snapdragon 660 is the chip that will power the Mi Pad 4.

According to research by SuperData, Fortnite managed to earn an incredible US$223 million in March. The smash hit from Epic Games was already a success even before the battle royale mode was introduced. Far Cry 5 was also a winner in March, with the Ubisoft title apparently racking up digital sales in the region of 2.5 million units.

To enthusiasts, a primary SSD may seem like a no-brainer for new PCs. Unfortunately, everyday shoppers at most retailers are still drawn in by the higher capacities and lower price points that HDDs offer and not realize the immense performance benefits of SSDs. Two of the largest PC manufacturers in the world will purportedly push primary SSDs onto more budget and mainstream laptops in lieu of HDDs should NAND prices continue to decline.

The graphics card demand drop is certainly a serious profitability issue for the Taiwanese suppliers, but this also means that gamers can now get the graphics cards they need for prices close to the original MSRP. Crypto miners are waiting to see if Bitmain's Ethereum ASICs are indeed worth it over GPU cards, however, if the upcoming GTX 11xx and AMD Navi cards would prove even better, we might see the price inflation scenario all over again.

Although we recently heard that the upcoming iPhone SE 2 would drop the audio jack, a set of leaked images shows that the refreshed version of Apple's compact handset will keep this traditional jack around. These photos also reveal a design with a glass back, apparently inspired by the classic iPhone 5.

Intel is putting together a team of industry visionaries to help counterattack AMD's Ryzen offensive. Ironically, most of the industry veterans recently coopted by Intel include veterans who used to work for AMD. Raja Koduri and possibly Chris Hook could focus on the development of discrete GPUs, while the latest addition, Jim Keller - one of AMD's prominent CPU engineers, would work his magic on upcoming innovative microprocessors.

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" is here and brings quite a few changes to the OS. Users upgrading from 16.04 LTS will notice quite a few aesthetic changes; 18.04 LTS brings the switch back to the GNOME desktop to the long-term support version of the most popular Linux distro. Some other tweaks under the hood bring support for modern hardware features as well.

Freely available for both Android and iOS devices, the brand-new Google Tasks mobile app simply provides another way of adding tasks from the other G Suite apps without using the task management features of Google Calendar or Gmail. For now, this app is quite basic and lacks many of the features found in products like Evernote, Todoist, or Google Keep.

The ZTE Iceberg concept that surfaced on the iF World Design Guide might have seemed nothing more but another over-the-top design, but now a patent showing a similar device has been spotted online. Now, it only remains to see if ZTE can still launch a dual-notch phone, since the Chinese company has been sailing some rough waters lately.

The Huawei P20 Pro rocked the smartphone world when it was launched a month ago. The device's tri-rear cameras and impressive image processing has seen critics hail it as debatably the best camera smartphone on the planet. However, some end users seem to think otherwise, and actually provide evidence pleading their cases. Updated.

The OnePlus 6 mightn't be hitting the market until the middle of next month, but OnePlus hasn't missed the opportunity cash in on the publicity being generated by the new Avengers movie in cinemas now. The Chinese smartphone maker has teamed with Marvel to tease a OnePlus 6 Avengers Limited Edition variant of its forthcoming flagship, and like the movie, it looks like to be a winner too.

Nintendo has racked up nearly 18 million sales of its Switch console. The hybrid handheld / desktop gaming console has helped drive the Japanese gaming giant to a whopping US$1.6 billion profit for its fiscal year just ended.