Notebook, Smartphone, and Tablet News

Intel has announced that it is opening a new development center in Hyderabad in the state of Telangana, India with a capacity to host about 1,500 staff. Raja Koduri, who is now leading Intel's graphics division, said that the upcoming India Development Center will help in augmenting its existing Indian sites in graphics hardware and software development efforts.

After this year's earlier AI-related acquisitions that involved Semantic Machines (May), Bonsai (July), and Lobe (September), Microsoft is up for another round. Its latest purchase is XOXCO, a software product design and development studio that has been developing conversational AI and bots so far.

While we're still coming to terms with the distressing fact that notches may be a long-term feature in smartphones, Japanese OEM Sharp has gone the extra mile by including two notches on its new flagship. And no, that is not a joke.

The Snapdragon 8150, Kirin 980, A12 Bionic, and a few other SoCs were intensively tested on AnTuTu, with the results showing the Snapdragon 8150's overall dominance. The A12 Bionic managed to hold the high ground in a few departments, though.

The EPYC Rome server-grade CPUs have just been revealed to have 64 cores and 2.35 GHz clocks, but it looks like AMD is already working on the successor that will be based on the Zen 3 architecture. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the upcoming CPUs will be known as the EPYC Milan, will have more than 64 cores, and will be featured in octa-CPU nodes along with Nvidia's 'Volta-Next" GPUs in the Perlmutter supercomputer.

The RTX 2000-series has been around for a few months now, and it was just a matter of time until the small form-factor models would start popping up. MSI is among the first to release an ITX Turing card with the RTX 2070 Aero ITX, but more models are expected from Gigabyte and Zotac. MSI's ITX card is missing a few connectors and gets stock clocks.

The award-winning creators of Skyrim and Fallout 4 are back with Fallout 76, an online prequel to the epic series of post-apocalyptic RPGs that was introduced by Interplay Entertainment back in 1997. Fallout 76 is now available via the Microsoft Store as an Xbox One X Enhanced title and also comes as a Tricentennial Edition with various in-game bonuses.

The LG 17Z990, 17ZD990, 17ZB990, 17ZG990, and 17Z99 are all probably pointing to a new series of 17-inch devices as part of its existing family of Gram laptops. With CES less than two months away, there's a good chance that LG will have something up its sleeve to announce.

Good luck, commanders! EA announced today that Command & Conquer, the grandaddy of RTS games, will be getting a 4K remaster in the future. EA will work with Petroglyph Games, a studio founded by some of the original developers of C&C when Westwood Studios closed down.

Specs and pricing information for the upcoming AMD Radeon RX 590 based on the Polaris 30 architecture are now available. The Radeon RX 590 is said to have an MSRP of US$279. According to presentation slides accessed by Videocardz, the RX 590 will offer 12% better performance than the current RX 580. It is expected to be offered with a 'blockbuster launch bundle' with three free titles.

Corsair has announced that its wide range of gaming keyboards and mice will support the Xbox One. Microsoft recently announced keyboard and mouse support for the Xbox One and developers can choose to support their game for such input if desired. Corsair also said that the Elgato Stream Deck can now be integrated with Mixer for improved live streaming.

The October update for Windows 10 is currently being rolled out to the general public. For those in the Fast ring of the Insider Preview program, however, the build of the future is available to try out. This update, known as 19H1, includes an improved Light Theme and some other things Microsoft had promised.

While both Zen 2 and the Zen 2 based Rome processor were officially announced by AMD at its Next Horizon event, little information was given on things like clock speed, IPC improvements, and other performance figures and specifications. At this year's Supercomputing conference, however, we got some details on Rome's clock speeds.

Samsung is rumored to be preparing multiple varieties of its upcoming S10 series, one of which will be 5G-enabled. The well-regarded leakster Roland Quandt believes that, if this SKU is to exist, it will come with the new Exynos 9820 chipset only, to go with its Samsung 5G-NR modem.

Apple has released a new models of the 15-inch MacBook Pro with AMD Radeon Pro Vega GPUs. The new MacBook Pros can be configured with either a Radeon Pro Vega 16 or Radeon Pro Vega 20. The new GPU option is only available to the most expensive 15-inch Macbook Pro and will start at US $3,049.

The latest update to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is a massive one and comes with a rather long list of changes, which includes Nuketown, Daily Tier Skip, Blackout with Nuketown Island zombies and the Bowie Knife, stability tweaks, and much more. The update is already rolling out to PlayStation 4 consoles, and the other platforms should get it next week.

The mobile game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has finally received a teaser trailer, just over a year after its development was announced. There are plenty of games based in the Harry Potter world, but this one is particularly newsworthy because of the developer involved: Niantic. The American software company is probably best known for its work with Pokémon Go.

It has been claimed that Apple will be releasing the successor to its AirPods product before the end of the year. There has been speculation that AirPods 2 could feature a case that can be charged wirelessly, but nothing has been confirmed from Cupertino yet. Leaked images of stacked AirPods cases have added fuel to the fire.

Google Glass was the search giant's first attempt at smart glasses, and could clip onto transparent spectacles to deliver info and shots from its camera via an eyeball-level LED. It was not a popular release, not least because of its ultra-high price tag. Nevertheless, Google is developing second-gen Glass, which is to target corporations rather than consumers.

The Fairphone 2 has finally received an update to Android 7.1 Nougat, a two-year-old version of the mobile OS. Considering the Fairphone 2's age and the slow rollout of supported software, the handset may be entering its end-of-life.

The successor of the original Razer Phone will go on sale this Friday directly online from AT&T's website, but those in a hurry will also be able to grab it from the San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and Seattle flagship stores. Even more, these locations will host special gaming events dedicated to the Razer Phone 2.

NVIDIA has released a new Game Ready driver that is available to download for RTX and GeForce GPUs. The new driver brings optimisations for Battlefield V, Fallout 76 and Hitman 2. The Game Ready driver also adds support for real-time ray tracing in Battlefield V for GeForce RTX GPUs.

Google Chrome Labs has just revealed Squoosh, an in-browser image compression tool that can use non-browser image codecs to compress images without much loss in quality. The app can also be run offline after it is loaded in a browser at least once. Squoosh is aimed at web designers that hope to reduce web page load times by using compressed images.

Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has told investors to temper sales expectations for the iPhone XR. Citing trade disputes, consumer fatigue, and steep competition, Kuo has slashed sales expectations for the iPhone XR by 35% for 2018Q4 and 30% for 2019Q1 and 2019Q2.

Samsung has unveiled its new premium SoC, the Exynos 9820. The chipset will be used on devices like the much-awaited Galaxy S10 and Note 10. It is built on Samsung's 8nm node and features the new Mali-G76 GPU found on the Kirin 980.

HMD has sent the Pie update out to the Nokia 6.1 and Nokia 7 Plus. The company has now reaffirmed its commitment to providing steady software updates by confirming that the last-gen Nokia 3, 5, 6, and 8 will also all receive the Android Pie update.

Xiaomi's launched its enthusiast-oriented Pocophone F1 a few months ago in Europe and India. The company is set to bring the device to South Korea on November 19, and it will be sold locally by SK Telecom, LG Uplus, and KT.

Although there is little doubt about the fact that Samsung will make this color option available for the entire world in the coming months, the Ice Blue Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ will only launch in China. Fortunately, those who just want a blue contemporary Galaxy S flagship can already find the Coral Blue flavor in most markets.

Previous speculations of this curious variant of the 1060 have been confirmed: this particular 1060 is actually based on the same silicon the 1070, 1070Ti, and 1080 are based on. Nvidia is likely getting rid of old Pascal and GDDR5X memory stock.

Nintendo has won $12 million in a settlement with LoveRoms.com and LoveRETRO.co, two ROM distribution sites it sued this past summer. The couple that operated the two sites admitted that they participated in copyright infringement and agreed to the $12 million judgement against them. While it's unlikely the couple will have to pay the full judgement, this ruling will surely send a message to other ROM sites that distribute ROMs of Nintendo games.

The Core i9-8950HK is faster than the Core i7-8750H configuration, but how much faster is it when compared to the Core i5-8300H? Our direct benchmark comparisons show the Core i7 configuration performing closer than we initially anticipated to the pricier Core i9 option.

The nominations for The Game Awards have been announced and both God of War and Red Dead Redemption 2 managed eight nominations apiece. Other big names securing multiple nominations include Marvel’s Spider-Man with seven, Fortnite with four, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey with four, and Celeste with four. The awards will be handed out on December 6 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

Earlier, OnePlus had made a commitment to bring Pie to its older flagship series. However, the company later admitted that this upgrade would be delayed. Now, it seems that the prospect of Pie for last year's phones, the 5 and 5T, is back on the table with a new Hydrogen OS beta based on the latest version of Android.

Although Google's G Suite is more than enough for the office-related needs of many companies, Microsoft is working on a tool that would ease their migration to Office 365. If everything goes as planned, this "G Suite migration experience" should become available in the second quarter of 2019.

Gigabyte has published a press release with details of four new graphics card the company is adding to its line-up. All of the new GPUs are part of the Aorus Waterforce GeForce RTX 20 Xtreme series. The Taiwanese company is offering four years of warranty to buyers who register via the official website within 30 days of purchase.

The highest configuration of the MateBook X Pro with Core i7 and GeForce MX150 graphics will be 10 percent off while the mainstream MediaPad M5 tablets and Mate SE smartphone will be about 15 to 20 percent off each. Those hoping for a Mate 20 Pro deal will be out of luck this year.

PlayStation 4 owners will soon be able to get their hands on the smash-hit battle royale game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). PUBG Corp and Sony have jointly announced that the title is now available for pre-order and will be launched on December 7. Four different editions will be available, and there are bonuses for those who pre-order the game.

Intel has unveiled its new XMM 8160 5G modem that will soon find place in phones, PCs, and other mobile devices. Intel is launching this modem half a year earlier than the supposed launch date. The XMM 8160 can handle data throughput up to 6 Gbps and will bring support for 5GNR standalone and non-standalone modes along with legacy radio support.

The Xiaomi Mi A2 is supposed to receive the Android Pie update before the end of the year, but the firmware still needs some work. For now, the official Beta ROM can be downloaded via TWRP or fastboot and tried by the more adventurous users. Obviously, there is no OTA update to talk about at this stage.

Microsoft has announced that it has resumed rolling out the Windows 10 October 2018 update having fixed and tested last month's file deletion issue. The update is available now on Windows Update for certain devices that Microsoft has determined will have no issues with the feature update.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has formally re-named HTTP-over-QUIC as HTTP/3. This means that it is the next generation in internet-traffic-enabling protocols. HTTP/3 essentially allows QUIC to supplant TCP, and may hasten the adoption of TLS 1.3.

Updated | Buried deep within the footnotes of AMD's announcement of Rome, it seems AMD is claiming an IPC improvement of about 29% when comparing Zen 2 to Zen 1. AMD did not disclose exactly how much more IPC Zen 2 had over Zen 1, but it seems 20% or more for at least some workloads can be expected.

TFI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects that the next generation of Apple iPhone could be switching to MPI antenna technology instead of the LCP antennas as in the current models. This move is expected to improve costs and production yields, and also broaden Apple's supplier base.

Only launched in Midnight Black and Mirror Black, the OnePlus 6T flagship also received a Thunder Purple color option after a while. Sadly, it was supposed to be a China-exclusive choice, but now it seems that the US and Europe will receive it as well. The price remains the same and the sales should start on November 15, at 9 AM EST.

Adoptable Storage is a feature introduced with Android 6.0 (Marshmallow). It allows a phone to effectively turn a microSD card into its own internal storage. Some brands still allow Adoptable Storage in their stock ROMs, but Samsung is not one of them. However, it now seems that it is coming back in future updates that involve Pie (9.0).

Last week, Xiaomi opened up shop in the UK. The triumphant entry into the market was marked by a flash sale, the likes of which have almost become a Xiaomi trademark. Sadly, participants of the sale noticed a few irregularities and have cried foul.

Samsung's Galaxy S9, S9+, and Note 9 may be some of the highest profile devices of 2018 but the company will not be sending the Android Pie update to users of those devices until next year.

The existing high-performance ThinkStation P series is not expected to have any major redesigns as the announcement relates only to the inclusion of Nvidia RTX. Applications ranging from university research to major game developers like Epic are just a few example clients who rely on ThinkStation products.

HP is ending the year with some 11.6-inch netbooks designed around classroom use. The ProBook benefits from many of the same security features found on EliteBooks like HP BIOSphere Gen4 while having pre-loaded software support for e-readers and classroom projects.

It appears that Dell's most recent BIOS releases for the XPS 15 9570 have caused a GPU bug in some devices. Originally reported on Reddit, some XPS 15 9570 laptops power limit throttle their NVIDIA GPUs until they hit a temperature threshold, causing noticeably worse performance in games.
Update:Further benchmarks on an XPS 15 9570 running BIOS 1.3 added.