Sony's new flagships are finally hitting the US. The devices, the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact are now on sale on Best Buy. Potential buyers can now pre-order, with shipping estimated for April 20. The flagships will make their way to brick-and-mortar stores by May 6.

The Moto E5 Plus has made the trip over to Geekbench. The budget device will be powered by a Snapdragon 430, which is an improvement over the MT6737 on the Moto E4 Plus.

Xiaomi has a terrible history with releasing kernel sources—a direct violation of the General Public License. The company looks to have seen the light, with a company spokesperson declaring that devices will now have their sources released to the public, albeit with a slight caveat.

The Snapdragon 710 (SDM710) will be Qualcomm's first SoC in its new Snapdragon 700-series. The chipset will feature two A75 cores and six efficient A55 cores. It will also see likely see its first use on two Xiaomi devices that will be released later in the year.

A report from Kotaku about the video-game company Hangar 13 has mentioned the development of a new BioShock game. BioShock Infinite was the last release in the popular series from 2K Games, and that title came out in 2013. There has been no official announcement about the game yet, which is apparently codenamed “Parkside.”

An internal memo warning Apple employees about the consequences of leaking information has been leaked. The tech giant has suffered from a considerable number of leaks in the past, and the memo warns that leakers face losing their jobs and may be fined and even imprisoned. Apparently, the Cupertino-based firm caught 29 leakers in 2017.

Less than a month since it managed to reach 200 million users within a 30-day period, Telegram Messenger has to take a serious blow as the Russian authorities decide to ban its use in the country. The reason for this decision is the company's unwillingness to provide the keys required by the Federal Security Service to decrypt the users' messages.

The new Vivo Y71 phablet has a generous 6-inch display and features a low-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, 3 GB RAM, just 16 GB internal storage (expandable thanks to a microSD slot), as well as a single 13 MP camera on the back and a 5 MP selfie shooter. However, it also comes at a price of around US$168.

Artists, designers, and editors with Surface Pro 4's can now enjoy full on-screen controls when using a Surface Dial on their Surface device. The Surface Dial provides basic functionality for all Bluetooth 4.0 LE equipped Windows 10 devices, but only the Surface Studio, Surface Book 2, Surface Pro 2017, and Surface Pro 4 provide the full experience.

The refreshed X407/X507 ultrabooks are some of the slimmest models out there, featuring CPUs up to gen 7 Core i7-7500U coupled with up to 8 GB DDR4 RAM, Nvidia's GeForce MX110 GPUs, storage combos made of a 256 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD, Nanoedge IPS FHD displays with thin bezels, and fingerprint sensors compatible with Windows Hello.

According to rumors, AMD's Navi-based GPUs, which are slotted for release in 2019, may compete with Nvidia's GTX 1080 but not supersede it. This could spell trouble for AMD; the GPU shortage caused by the cryptomining craze particularly hit AMD's stock, and the lack of a competitive GPU next year may cause a loss of market share.

Although it is not a compact handset, the new ZTE Nubia Z18 also carries the "Mini" attribute. This 5.7-inch handset is powered by the Snapdragon 660 processor, next to 6 GB RAM, as well as 64 GB or 128 GB internal storage. Sadly, it is only available in China for now, where it can be acquired for the equivalent of US$285 or US$335 (depending on the amount of storage).

The Black Shark gaming phone comes with totally unique features that include a 550 nits 5.99-inch display, special detachable game controller, sturdy back design for improved grip, watercooling system that allows the SoC to run at lower temperatures and thus avoiding throttling, plus stereo speakers that emulate surround sound acoustics.

The successors of the Xiaomi Mi 5X and its Android One variant known as the Xiaomi Mi A1 will soon be unveiled in China. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 626-powered Xiaomi Mi 6X is expected to be unveiled on April 25 with MIUI onboard, while the Android One variant will hit the market as the Xiaomi Mi A2.

Not long after a Samsung device with the model number SM-G8750 surfaced on Geekbench with a Snapdragon 660 onboard, the SM-G8850 hits TENAA with a Snapdragon 845 inside. Nothing is official yet, but insiders familiar with this matter claim that the handset should be unveiled in the coming weeks.

Bitcoin’s price rocketed for a short period on April 12, soaring from US$6,852 to US$7,834 in the space of barely two hours. The virtual currency’s value has been dropping consistently since December 2017, when it enjoyed record prices of over US$19,000. The latest close for the famous digital coin was US$7,819.

Sales of desktop PCs and laptops are continuing their downward trend into the new year according to Gartner. While EMEA is seeing a slight uptick, the sharper declines in other regions worldwide paint a more pessimistic picture. This latest quarter marks the fourteenth in a row of slowing PC sales. Note that the data does not include iPads or Android tablets.

ETNews has claimed that Huawei will announce a truly foldable phone in November of this year. According to the South Korean news outlet’s sources, the Shenzhen-based company will show off the device to the public for additional research purposes, but it won’t be immediately available for purchase. It would be quite a coup for Huawei to beat rivals such as Samsung and Apple in this particular race.

The flagship Huawei MateBook X may soon be accompanied by a mainstream Honor laptop offering. It's possible that Huawei wants to expand its product portfolio in an attempt to keep Xiaomi at bay. Beyond the April 19th announcement date, however, there is no word yet on the specifications of the supposed Honor MagicBook or what regions it will be available in.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has published a patent application for “Luminescence shock avoidance in display devices” that was filed by Apple in December 2017. Luminescence shock occurs when a device is turned on in a dark environment and the brightness of the display temporarily impairs the user’s vision.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has held its annual award ceremony for the video-game industry. The 2018 event was a great success for Nintendo, which took home three prizes, and for the dark fantasy action game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which scooped up five of the prestigious awards. The Best Game category was won by What Remains of Edith Finch.

HP has unveiled its latest Chromebook offering with the Chromebook x2. It is the first Chromebook to be offered in a detachable form factor and is powered by the Intel 7th generation Core m3 processor that can be paired with up to 8 GB LPDDR3 RAM. HP compares the Chromebook x2 to the iPad Pro and shows how the former is a better value for money in most aspects.

Chris Hook had been with ATI and then AMD for almost 20 years. The former AMD Senior Director of Marketing could be joining Intel in order to help the company launch its latest discrete GPU, first one in 20 years. AMD promptly found a suitable replacement, announcing that Hook's position will be occupied by Sasa Marinkovic.

Thuraya has been making satellite phones for two decades now, but none of these were based on Android and had only limited "smart" capabilities. The new X5-Touch model seamlessly integrates the satellite connections with a mid-range Android smartphone that also comes with two SIM slots for quick switches between GSM and satellite networks.

A report from Bloomberg has stated that Apple has had to cut manufacturing orders with Inventec in regard to the HomePod. Apparently, the smart speaker has not been selling in huge numbers and Apple workers have commented that store inventories are simply piling up with the device. A number of factors are being accused for the HomePod's sluggish sales, including the relatively high price of US$349.

LG has announced the establishment of a new "Software Update Center" at its R&D facility in Korea. The new department will focus solely on delivering timely updates to its Android devices across all of its global markets.

In a statement made yesterday, the Federal Trade Commision stated that it had sent warnings to six major manufacturers of cars, mobile phones, or video game consoles. The warning stated that policies requiring users to repair their products via a preset list of vendors or replacement parts in order to maintain a product's warranty is, in fact, illegal.

With the promise of all-day battery life, always-on LTE, and smartphone-like standby and resume, the first Windows 10 on ARM devices are here. Windows 10 on ARM may be great feat of engineering, but it does come with limitations unique to it, impacting what one can and cannot get out of an ARM-powered PC. Windows 10 on ARM is still in its infancy and, in its current manifestation, is better worth skipping for future refinements.

Market intelligence provider IDC has released a report detailing the state of the worldwide traditional PC market for the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18). According to the data, both Dell and HP have seen increases in market share in comparison to the first quarter of 2017 (1Q17). However, the total of global PC shipments for the quarter has experienced a flat year-on-year growth.

The American video-game developer behind Destiny 2, Bungie, has announced the release date for the second expansion to the online first-person shooter. Warmind will be released on May 8, at the same time as the start of Season Three of the game, and a reveal stream on Twitch will begin on April 24. Destiny 2 was released in September 2017 and the first expansion, Curse of Osiris, was released shortly afterwards.

The well-known video-game tracking website Steam Spy will be shutting down after Valve announced changes to Steam’s privacy settings. The specific change that has affected Steam Spy’s operations is the default hiding of a user’s game library. Steam Spy scraped data from public profiles on the software distribution platform to estimate overall game sales.

Exklim has launched a kickstarter campaign for their ultra-portable take on external GPU's. Equipped with a GTX 1050 MXM card and running solely on power provided by the Thunderbolt 3 connection removes the need for additional power supplies and makes this a solution that can really be tucked into a laptop bag. The eX Core is still in the kickstarter stage and the marketing material leans towards promising more than the device might be capable of, but nevertheless it is an interesting product that is worth keeping an eye on.

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed one of the worst abuses of personal information by a corporation in history, trust in Facebook's handling of private information has plummeted. This is evidenced by a new survey run by Recode and SurveyMonkey, where 56% of those surveyed stated they trusted Facebook the least. The next choice was Google at a mere 5%.

According to PCPowerPlay, Dell's marketing for its new laptops in China involves hailing the ability of the devices to enhance cheating in PUBG. Players in the region have become notorious for their blackhat gameplay, so this isn't surprising. Update: Dell has issued an official statement on the issue.

AMD has released OEM-specific variants of RX 500 GPUs for both desktop and mobile. Dubbed the RX 500X, this is a simple re-badging exercise for OEMs help in advertising new systems. The RX 500X series are exactly the same as their corresponding base parts but OEMs can tune their clock speeds for thermal and power reasons.

The Nano version of the Radeon RX Vega cards will feature a narrower PCB with 150 W TDP. A similar PCB is already used by Sapphire for its RX Vega 56 Pulse cards. The only known specs for the Nano cards are the 64 raster operators, the 8 GB HBM2 video memory and the 2048-bit memory buss. The cards are expected to be launched this year, before the arrival of the next gen Navi architecture.

HP has refreshed the Pavilion and Pavilion x360 lineup with modern thin bezel designs, borrowing many cues from the premium Envy series. Both the Pavilion and the Pavilion x360 come in 14 and 15-inch versions and come in a range of configuration options and price points.

The refreshed G75 Titan gaming laptops are the only MSI series to pack the high-end i9 hexa-core mobility CPUs. The rather bulky chassis feature large intakes/exhausts and gamers can choose among several configurations that can include the more affordable i7 hexa-core CPUs coupled with 16/32 GB of DDR4-2666 RAM, GTX 1070/1080 GPUs, and a choice between FHD 3 ms TN or 4K 17.3-inch panels.

HP has announced a revamp to its Pavilion Power Desktop lineup. The new generation is christened Pavilion Gaming and comes in two chassis options with options of the latest Intel 8th generation hexa-core 'Coffee Lake-H- series or AMD 2nd generation Ryzen CPUs along with options of a GeForce GTX 1060/GTX 1080 or a Radeon RX 580 GPU. These PCs are aimed at those who value both content creation and gaming on a budget and feature a stand-out design language.

The Pavilion Power series is now the more aptly-named Pavilion Gaming series to tackle on the newly announced mainstream Dell G gaming series. Currently, SKUs are limited to a single 15.6-inch chassis but with a very wide range of CPU, GPU and display options up to the Core i7-8750H with Optane memory and GTX 1060 Max-Q graphics for $1020 USD.

The inexpensive FX504 gaming notebook comes equipped with a Coffee Lake-H CPU and GTX 1050 GPU for a starting price of only $700 USD. The system is intended to complement the recently revealed mainstream Zephyrus GM501 and enthusiast ROG G703 that are also shipping with Intel 8th gen Core ix CPUs.

Hackers have managed to deface or delist many popular YouTube videos, including the highly popular 'Despacito' by Fonsi and Yankeee. Some videos have entirely disappeared while some had their titles changed. The affected videos were uploaded to the artists' YouTube Vevo accounts.