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Google is now officially warning against sideloading Google services, the Play Store and other well-known Google apps on newer Honor and Huawei smartphones. While the announcement only affects those handsets that Google has not certified because of ongoing US sanctions, like the Mate 30 Pro, Honor and Huawei are planning to announce new smartphones in the coming days and weeks. Hence, you should be aware that Google is probably not an option on these upcoming handsets.

WhatsApp sets a lot of store by the privacy in messaging it supposedly offers. However, allegations that links that invite new users to private groups are searchable online have recently emerged. This is due to the fact Google has indexed them, meaning appropriate terms can bring them up.

Sony will unveil its next flagship tomorrow and the phone's technical spec sheet has surfaced, revealing a device that competes against the Samsung Galaxy S20+ without necessarily losing. Major talking points include the return of a 3.5mm headphone jack, the same main camera sensor as the Galaxy S20 and S20+, 3x optical zoom, and a 4000 mAh battery.

Samsung has filed a patent with the US Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO) for a kind of display that, despite curving down around the sides of the phone, can also have physical buttons. This, in effect, is a new kind of punch-hole that could reconcile many buyers to waterfall displays and their potential drawbacks. Furthermore, the button could also be replaced by other modules or sensors.

The Mi A1 signaled the start of major OEMs adopting Google's Android One program. While one would expect Xiaomi to build on the success of the Mi A1, it's starting to look like the series peaked with the phone. Poor updates, bad quality control, and cost-cutting decisions plague a lineup that had the potential to be the global enthusiast's smartphone series of choice.

The 15.6-inch laptop houses a Core i9-9980HK CPU, GeForce RTX 2070 GPU, and up to 64 GB of RAM with 16 TB of SSD storage across two M.2 2280 slots and a 2.5-inch SATA III bay.

Eve will launch its "last chance" to buy its first crowd-designed tablet, the V, soon. The company will sell the core i7, 16GB RAM variant of this product at less than US$800 on this date. However, the actual delivery of the same has been surrounded by controversy in the past; furthermore, it is to get a 2nd generation soon.

Casio has announced the Bruce Lee Collaboration Model, a specially-designed version of its high-end G-SHOCK MR-G watch series. It features a band and case colored to match the martial arts cinema legend's hallmark tracksuit, as well as a case with detailing inspired by the same. There will be only 300 of its units available when it goes on sale.

Don't be fooled into believing that the Core i7-1065G7 CPU in the latest Surface Pro 7 tablet can perform roughly the same as the Core i7-1065G7 in a "proper" Ultrabook. The tablet version of the processor can be around 22 percent slower than the similarly equipped 15-inch Surface Laptop 3.

Samsung's newest production line is unique among the OEM's fabricators in that it is dedicated to the extreme UV lithography (EUV) process. This means that it is capable of making chipsets of the up-to-date 7-nanometer (nm) variety - and beyond. The company has announced that it is now open for mass-production.

Time-of-flight (or TOF) sensors became a hallmark of flagship phones as of 2018. They may enhance 3D perception in these devices for photography or even biometrics purposes. However, they are also now projected to become important in other forms of consumer electronics, autonomous cars and robotics. This may drive their market's value up to US$6.9 billion in 5 years.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro are in high demand at the moment, with the first two batches of handsets selling out almost instantly. After selling around US$28.5 million worth of units in under a minute, Xiaomi has now announced the next dates and dealers which will be selling the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro.

The Red Magic 3 was the first phone to launch in 2019 with a 90 hertz (Hz) refresh rate in its AMOLED display. Now, its maker Nubia has announced a new discount for the phone. But is it worth holding out until its next generation is released?

Verizon has provided Google's own-brand phones through its stores since their first generation. However, the latest leak on this subject alleged that the carrier would not continue on with the Pixel 5. The company has refuted these claims, saying that it "looks forward" to the OEM's new devices.

A Github listing of Realtek UAD drivers seems to indicate that the Lenovo ThinkPad X13, ThinkPad T14, and ThinkPad T14S would be getting AMD options. Although no details about the specific processor SKUs are mentioned, it is very well possible that ThinkPads powered by the Ryzen 4000 APUs are not too far away from launch.

Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP) is a popular alternative recovery used by those who like to root and modify their Androids. A new thread on Reddit asserts that Pokemon GO will not work if it detects signs of it in a device's storage. This behavior may be intended to prevent cheating in this augmented-reality (AR) game.

Numerous chipset foundries, TSMC included, use equipment from US-based firms to make their products. Now, the same nation's current administration may be able to leverage this fact in order to stop the supply of silicon to Huawei. This, apparently, is a new tactic to lock the OEM out of the US market.

The IRS is suing social media giant Facebook for allegedly undervaluing its 2010 IPO, thereby avoiding over $9 billion in tax payments.

We were quite surprised during the temperature measurements with the new Lenovo ThinkPad E15, because one area at the bottom of the case heats up to almost 70 °C (158 °F) under load and during gaming. The cooling solution seems to be overwhelmed by the dedicated graphics card.

It says something when even Huawei can create a better Windows laptop than Microsoft can. The Apple-like approach of the Surface Laptop series has forgone almost everything that makes Windows laptops great in the first place.

Microsoft has restructured its apps for the Android platform, mainly by combining all of them into one. It is now called Office on the Play Store, and allows access to OneDrive as well as Word, PowerPoint and Excel. However, it is reportedly not optimized for tablets.

Apple will not hit its estimated revenue target for this quarter. Citing supply chain restrictions caused by the coronavirus outbreak and falling demand in China, the Cupertino colossus will pull in lower-than-expected revenue. Apple's stock fell 3% in response.

With prices starting at more than US$700, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is a rather expensive handset considering the wallet-friendly price tags of its predecessors. However, the Chinese OEM managed to sell more than 28.5 million USD worth of these new flagships in just 55 seconds during the first flash sale session.

You won't be disappointed, those are apparently the words of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang about the company's upcoming GTC Conference in San Jose. Huang will be in attending GTC 2020, where the company is expected to announce Ampere GPUs, the next-generation successors to the RTX 20 series and the company's Turing architecture.

Canon has teased the EOS R5 by affirming that this next-generation full-frame camera is indeed in development. The OEM now asserts that it will be the "most advanced" model in its category on its launch. It also plans to release new RF lenses and lens-extenders to go with the new unit.

As with its immediate predecessor, the Galaxy M30s, Samsung will release the M31 to the Indian market via Amazon. This site is currently teasing the phone as one that will replicate the popular "battery monster" in many ways, its 6000mAh battery included. However, its camera specs stand to improve somewhat.

Imaging sensors are used in a huge variety of electronics, which include digital cameras and smartphones. Their market was worth US$15.93 billion in 2018, but is now projected to be worth $29.99 billion in 6 years. This is thought to be related to their emerging relevance to autonomous vehicles.

As the latest Qualcomm flagship processor, the Snapdragon 865 may be expected to gain a Plus variant (or 865+) later this year, in accordance with very recent tradition. A Weibo tipster now asserts that this will occur some time in the third quarter of 2020. This new version may power late-year versions of phones such as the OnePlus 8 and Nubia Red Magic 5G.

The T8i is the latest in the EOS Rebel series made by Canon. It has a 24MP APS-C CMOS sensor with a 45-point all-cross form of auto-focus (AF) with Face Detect. This Rebel is also the first of its line to feature vertical video for consumption on mobile devices.

A Chinese e-tailer site briefly carried a listing of the upcoming Intel 10th gen Comet Lake-S desktop CPUs qualifying samples (QS) for sale indicating that we may not have to wait much longer before retail units become available. Another site managed to get their hands on a Core i9-10900, but the base clock seems to be lower than what was expected.

Huawei has been slapped with a trade ban from the US Administration that prevents it from selling to companies based in that country. However, the nation's Department of Justice (DoJ) had postponed it for 90 days by way of a new licensing system. Now, the same body has issued a further extension to the same.

The sub-$1000 ceiling seems to be a sweet spot for Ice Lake laptops. The Surface Laptop 3 joins the HP Spectre 13, Lenovo Yoga C940, and Razer Blade Stealth as some of the least expensive laptops you can find with Intel's latest 10 nm 10th gen Core i5 to Core i7 CPUs.

NVIDIA has now completed its fiscal 2020, which ended on January 26 this year. It has reported revenues of just over US$3 billion for its last quarter (4FQ2020), or 41% greater compared to 4FQ2019. The company's CEO has attributed this success to its "accelerated computing" concerns.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020 has been cancelled in an effort to help control the spread of the novel coronavirus worldwide. Now, a prominent imaging hardware show, CP+ (or the Camera and Photo Imaging Show) 2020, has followed suit. It was to take place in Yokohama, Japan, and may have attracted about 70000 visitors.

Earlier (on February 13, 2020), Android Police spotted a page for a new Android Developer Preview on this OEM's website. However, its download links never went live. Now, this page is back to its old Android 10 self, suggesting that the new version is still not here in any form after all.

After four titles made by Ghost Games, the Need for Speed franchise is returning to Criterion Games. The UK-based studio, widely known for the Burnout series, developed Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010) and Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012). The recent titles that involved Criterion include Battlefield V (2018) and Star Wars: Battlefront (2016-2017).

With the MWC 2020 event officially called off, Realme has decided to launch its flagship, the Realme X50 Pro 5G, in an online event on February 24. The Realme X50 Pro 5G will be powered by the Snapdragon 865 SoC, will feature 65W SuperDart fast charging, and will run on the new Realme UI OS based on Android 10.

Roh Tae-moon, the president of Mobile at Samsung, has claimed that the OEM has developed devices with "even more" hinges than the new Galaxy Z Flip. However, these multi-folding phones are apparently not ready for prime-time yet. This is due to the idea that consumers will want much more UX polish in such products.

Instead of ending production of the Galaxy S10 series, Samsung will keep making them and selling them officially with a US$150 permanent price drop. That could have an interesting effect on the support lifespan of the phones, and their resale value.

Olympus has released the third generation of the OM-D E-M1, its popular lightweight professional camera. The company is making big promises too, with the OM-D E-M1 Mark III apparently offering world's best image stabilisation. The camera can stabilise up to 7.5 stops and includes a 20.4 MP 4/3" Live MOS sensor, along with fast autofocus and more.

Even after the introduction of the Z series, Nikon continues to improve its SLR cameras. The company's latest attempt is the D6, a camera that it promises sets new performance standards. The Nikon D6 comes with a range of features that should please professional photographers, too.

Samsung's next-gen 108 MP ISOCELL image sensor can deliver brighter and more detailed still images and 24 fps 8K videos even in the most difficult lighting conditions. The list of technologies used by the Bright HM1 image sensor includes Nonacell, Smart-ISO, real-time HDR, and more.

Samsung has opened up its Galaxy S20 series trade-in program for reservers and there looks to be a few issues with it. For one, owners of the Galaxy S10e get the short end of the stick.

After meeting earlier this week to discuss the viability of Mobile World Congress 2020, the GSMA has decided to cancel MWC 2020 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. Multiple companies have stated they would not be in attendance due to the epidemic earlier this month. In response, the GSMA has outright cancelled MWC in its entirety.

The popular online messaging service WhatsApp has reported that it has passed an important milestone: 2 billion users. It emphasized its simple, convenient and private interface in its statement on this matter. Furthermore, it asserted its ongoing commitment to protecting the (doubtless huges amounts of) data sent through it daily.

HMD Global, an OEM that makes Nokia phones, is one of the latest companies to announce the cancellation of its showcase at MWC 2020. Like the others, it has done so to keep its staff and audience safe from the spread of the novel coronavirus. To date, there is no new date for its upcoming launches.

Liquidated in 2018, Swiss firm Crypto AG seems to have been involved in helping the US and German governments spy on no less than 120 countries for decades. The story has just surfaced thanks to an investigation carried out by The Washington Post, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), and Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF).

Xiaomi will still be attending MWC 2020 in Barcelona at the end of the month, where it will globally unveil the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro. The company has promised to take precautions against the proliferation of the coronavirus, the reason for the likes of Sony bowing out of this year's conference. CEO Lei Jun has been showing off some official camera samples for the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro ahead of their Chinese launch this Thursday, too.