Latest Tech News

Apple's smallest iPhone will not be available until next week, but a prominent Romanian YouTuber has already got his hands on one. The iPhone 12 mini has been compared to last year's 6.1-inch iPhone 12 and the iPhone 11 Pro Max, ahead of the device's review embargo.

It seems that Xiaomi forgot to include several features in the first Android 10 and MIUI 12 update for the global version of the Redmi Note 8. According to multiple reports, V12.0.1.0.QCOMIXM is missing multiple elements of MIUI 12, like floating windows, new animations and even the Android 10 gesture navigation pill.

Logitech has rolled out its latest trackball-based mouse. The ERGO M575 is designed for use in small spaces and also aims to reduce arm and hand fatigue with thumb-based scrolling greatly reducing overall movement and effort.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge have received a new update, over four-and-a-half years since their release in March 2016. The update brings the September 2020 security patch to the two devices, along with bug fixes, performance optimisations and stability improvements.

The Honor Band 6 and Huawei Band 5 have been tipped to launch soon, with a potential release occurring in the first week or so of November. While few details have been offered about the Honor Band 6 and Huawei Band 5, which may even end up being the same wearable, the Honor Band 6 will have at least one attractive unique selling point.
A launch date and teaser promo image for the Honor Band 6 have been revealed.

The rumor mill has been pointing to an upgraded Nintendo Switch coming in 2021 for some time now. The latest detail to emerge about the purported handheld console is that it will sport mini-LED technology which should deliver improved contrast ratios and deeper blacks for more engaging gameplay.

NVIDIA apparently has an RTX 3080 Ti with 9,984 CUDA cores in development and is likely to position it between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. Details of the rumored RTX 3080 Ti are not fully available except for the fact that it uses a GA102-250 GPU with a 384-bit memory bus and possibly feature either 12 GB or 24 GB of GDDR6X VRAM.

For the first time in over a decade, AMD has reclaimed the performance crown on both the graphics and CPU fronts with the launch of its Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 CPUs and its RDNA2 Radeon RX 6000 GPUs. What does this mean for the market and for competitors NVIDIA and Intel?

Xiaomi has started publishing volume two of its MIUI 12 Global ROM bug tracker report over at the Mi Community forum. The table contains a list of issues reported by Mi Pilot testers, with the POCO F1 featuring heavily. There are also entries for the Redmi Note 9 Pro, Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, POCO F2 Pro, and Redmi 9A.

Google has announced several new initiatives to improve the environmental friendliness of its Pixel smartphones. From 2025, the packaging of Google's smartphones will be plastic-free, while at least 50% recycled or renewable plastic will be used in its Pixel or Nest hardware.

Noctua has announced new additions to its chromax.black line-up. For the uninitiated, they are versions of this Austrian OEM's PC coolers or fans in an all-matte black finish. These latest examples are new versions of the award-winning NH-D15 asymmetric cooler and the NH-U9S compact fan.

AMD introduced the RX 6800 as the most vanilla of its all-new RDNA 2-based line-up today (October 28, 2020). However, based on its specs, it may pack a punch of its own. It offers the same GDDR6 memory and Infinity Cache as its higher-end siblings, albeit with fewer compute units (CUs) and the series' lowest base clock thus far.

Gigabyte and MSI have filed multiple Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT with the EEC, following their launch by AMD. Gigabyte has certified another RTX 3060 Ti SKU with the regulator too, following the ones that it registered earlier this month.

The RX 6900 XT is here, and AMD claims that it takes on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 for just US$999. AMD's most-powered RDNA 2 GPU will debut in December, albeit only as a reference card initially.

Initial benchmark leaks of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X show excellent leads in single-core performance over the Intel Core i9-10900K in PassMark and Geekbench 5. The scores seem to indicate anywhere between 16 to 20% benefits in single-core applications for the Ryzen 9 5950X. Even the Ryzen 5 5600X seems to have managed quite a decent lead over Intel's flagship offering.

Seems like AMD is winning in so many markets now. Desktop CPUs, server CPUs, AI soon (with the Xilinx acquisition?) and now it finally reclaims the GPU crown with the announcement of the RX 6000 series. The RX 6800 XT model is beating the RTX 3080 in raster performance, gets 6 more GB VRAM, and costs $50 less, but we are hearing the ray tracing performance is not quite there yet.

Apple and Foxconn may have been partners for years but the relationship has soured in the last few years, according to a report published by The Information. Reputedly, Foxconn has employed a range of tactics to maximise profits, including overcharging for production costs and even potentially revealing Apple designs to third-parties before they have been announced.

The Hela Bio smartwatch is not only a fitness tracker but a smartwatch that can measure blood glucose levels, blood pressure and heart rates. The smartwatch has gained over US$200,000 in crowdfunding, but some things do not add up.

Unbridled MIUI 12 has finally arrived globally for the Pocophone F1. V12.0.2.0.QEJMIXM is available as an OTA download, but Xiaomi has also published the recovery and fastboot ROMs of the build, should you need to install one of those instead.

Huawei's place on the US administration's Entity List had cut it off from supplies of high-end OLED smartphone panels from Samsung and LG. However, new reports indicated that the former has obtained a license to sell these components to the Chinese OEM again. Then again, it still can't use them to make new flagship devices.

LG has just introduced its revolutionary Wing smartphone to the Indian market. The display-swiveling device has been joined there by a 4G/LTE version of the Velvet. This variant swaps its normal Snapdragon 765G processor for an 845 SoC. The two phones will start to become available from October 30, 2020.

PCWorld tested the Apple A13 Bionic SoC against a few popular laptop processors, and it turns out that the iPhone 11 chip appears to be faster than iGPUs like the Iris Plus and the Vega 8, but it is also significantly lagging behind the new Tiger Lake Iris Xe iGPUs. Are we even supposed to mix mobile GPUs with laptop iGPUs?

Recently, the tipster Max J. asserted that OnePlus would introduce its first-ever smartwatch in October 2020. Now, the same leaker claims that this launch has been postponed, possibly due to development issues with the new product. The OEM apparently does not have a new date for the event at this time.

NVIDIA has based the RTX 3070 Max-P and Max-Q on the GA104M GPU, according to a list of PCI IDs. Assigned the IDs 249c and 249d, the RTX 3070 mobile cards will undoubtedly offer pared-back performance compared to the desktop RTX 3070. It seems that NVIDIA has been testing tonnes of other GA104 and GA102-based cards, too.

The purple smartphone may not be the sleekest or most powerful, but it's one of the least expensive Android 10 smartphones you can without being tied to year-long contracts.

The PrimeMini 5 is a new and powerful mini-PC, considering its size. The compact machine runs silently too and features a good selection of I/O. The PrimeMini 5 ships worldwide from Switzerland.

A leaked internal document has revealed HMD Global's future plans for Nokia, which apparently include the release of a Nokia 10. The Nokia brand will remain committed to the Android One ecosystem too, which is becoming increasingly Nokia-dependent following the seeming withdrawal from the program by Xiaomi.

The RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti should be arriving before the end of November, according to multiple pre-order listings on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao. The RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti may cost upwards of US$450 too, which would make them around US$50 cheaper than the RTX 3070.

Apple is now estimated to have an installed user base of 1 billion iPhones. The figure comes from a respected Apple analyst who has been tracking iPhone sales data for the past 13 years.

Mophie has released its latest Qi-enabled wireless battery charger, but this one has a twist. The new Mophie Juice Pack Connect has a modular design that clips on the back of any Qi-enabled smartphone to give it a wireless battery top-up.

The PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has been discussing the phenomenal reception of the upcoming PlayStation 5 in an interview. Pre-orders for the next-gen console in the US have gone way beyond what the PlayStation 4 could manage, and a noted analyst has suggested that over one million PS5 pre-orders may have already been made worldwide.

Take to the streets in joy, Redmi Note 8 owners; MIUI 12 and Android 10 is finally here for you! After months of delays, Xiaomi is finally sending out the stable MIUI 12 and Android 10 update to the global version of the Redmi Note 8, with the update weighing a hefty 2.1 GB.

The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite has appeared in an image on packaging that was featured as part of an FCC listing. Some key details about the upcoming smartwatch were also revealed, such as its 1.4-inch HD screen, 24-hour heart-rate monitor, and built-in GPS. It’s possible the Mi Watch Lite may be rebranded as the Redmi Watch in some markets.

A PS5 SSD price tag that purportedly comes from Walmart has appeared online, and if it is accurate then the practically must-have PlayStation 5 accessory seems like a steal. Little further information can be gleaned from the tag, although US$115 for a 500 GB SSD that operates at the PS5’s next-gen standards is a bargain.
Update: The drive has been revealed to be a simple Seagate Game Drive external SSD.

An astonishing claim has been made by a self-proclaimed “Xbox insider” in regard to the performance abilities of the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S, with the latter apparently beating the PS5 in terms of frame rate and ray tracing. Elsewhere, Ubisoft and Capcom have been updating gamers with news about expected next-gen console titles.
Update: A change by Ubisoft has cast further doubt on the frame rate claim.

The attention may be on Apple's expected ARM MacBooks, but the company also seemingly has a new version of the 16-inch MacBook Pro in the pipeline. The new MacBook Pro 16 will seemingly arrive before the end of the year, too.

With the i7book, Alldocube has set its sights on creating a compact laptop with an aluminium chassis and a minimal design. However, its Core i7-6600U processor is a blast from the past.

Rockstar Games has given an insight into what improvements it plans to bring to the next-generation version of GTA V. Specifically, how its triple-A game will differ on the PS5. The game will benefit from improved rendering distance and a higher resolution, among other changes.

OLED TVs cost stacks of cash anyway, but Xiaomi's transparent Mi TV Lux takes it up a notch. Costing around US$7,000, the Mi TV Lux looks brilliant, but its showstopper design is held back by its 1080p resolution and its limited connectivity.

The Pro1 X is a collaboration between F(x)tec and XDA Developers with native support for both LineageOS and Ubuntu Touch. The price is high for outdated hardware and long lead-times, though.

The OEM Huami has held its global launch for the second-gen Amazfit GTR and GTS wearables, although they will only be released in the US and UK markets to start off with. These smartwatches feature blood-oxygen, heart-rate, sleep and stress monitors, which are analyzed using their in-house PAI system. They will be available through channels such as Amazon on their release.

After sending out the highly awaited MIUI 12 update to the European version of the Redmi Note 9S, Xiaomi has now expanded the rollout by sending a similar update to the global variant of the device. The Mi A3 also happens to be receiving the October security patch.

Acclaimed battle royale PUBG will deliver enhanced performance on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. According to the PUBG Corporation, both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will deliver a 60 FPS experience when running under the "Framerate Priority Mode."

The Redmi K30 Ultra comes with the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ instead of a Qualcomm SoC; the former offers a lot of performance for a budget mid-range phone. In some benchmarks, the K30 Ultra outclasses the smartphone competition, especially in the graphics tests.

Here we go again. CD Projekt Red has delayed the release of Cyberpunk 2077 for the third time; this time re-scheduled for December 10. Apparently, the company is guilty of its own ambition this time.

Razer's freshly-announced Hallowe'en 2020 sale is good news for those in need of an older mobile gaming controller from this brand. There is also up to 23% off Black Widow keyboards and Mamba mice. Certain Blade laptops are US$100 less their usual price-tags.

Creative Technology has launched a new pair of its Outlier Air earbuds, the V2. The new model builds on the Outlier Air and Outlier Gold by adding touch controls, while retaining the stellar battery life and sound quality of its predecessors. The Outlier Air V2 is available to order in the UK now and will launch in the US on November 5.

NVIDIA is rushing to release an RTX 3070 Ti after all, keen to take on AMD's impending 'Big Navi' cards. The card will be based on the company's GA102 GPU and will feature a 320 W TGP, along with 10 GB of GDDR6X VRAM. 7,424 CUDAs will be present too, as will 232 Tensor cores and 58 RT cores.

Apple has plenty of audio hardware in the works, Mark Gurman and Debby Wu of Bloomberg have revealed. A new pair of AirPods are on the agenda, as are a second-generation pair of AirPods Pro and the AirPods Studio.

Mesh networking is based on a set of repeaters that can be placed strategically around a building (usually a home) to ensure a good Wi-Fi signal in every room. Qualcomm has just announced its latest series of chipsets for this use-case, which, as it claims, can greatly improve on speeds while reducing the size of each new mesh point based on it.