Latest Tech News

An Android trojan by the name of xHelper has been found to reinstall itself after removal. Worse still, the malware reinstalls itself even after a factory reset. Malwarebytes has devised a fairly complex manner of removing the malware, which it says is the worst mobile malware the antivirus firm has ever encountered.

After carefully inspecting Samsung's hidden spec sheets for the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+, we have to conclude, that neither the Galaxy S20 nor the Galaxy S20+ have any kind of real telephoto or zoom cameras. Instead, Samsung's fake marketing wants you to believe a second wide-angle lens and a crop into a 64 megapixel image can be considered "Hybrid Optic Zoom". Only the expensive Galaxy S20 Ultra actually has a real telephoto camera.

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.

AMD’s Ryzen 7 4800U has already been discovered going through 3DMark 11’s punishing tests and a new run has thrown up even higher scores for the Renoir mobile chip. The Ryzen 4000 APU had managed to create quite a margin between itself and Intel’s Core i7-1065G7, with the new results demonstrating the Ryzen 7 4800U’s processing capabilities.

AMD’s Renoir APU, the Ryzen 7 4800HS, has been spotted in action again. This time, the mobile processor was tested on 3DMark’s Fire Strike Ultra test, with the physics score recorded as 21,254 points. This puts it way beyond a tested Intel Core i7-9700K on 18,934 points and not a million miles behind the powerful Core i9-9900K on 24,794 points.

All the talk and expectation around mobile silicon from Qualcomm this year is understandably focused on its beastly Snapdragon 865. However, there are to relatively new PCs on the market that are running PC-optimized versions of the 2019 flagship Snapdragon 855. These are of course, the Samsung Galaxy Book S and the Microsoft Surface Pro X. The Galaxy Book S runs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx while the while Microsoft’s Surface Pro X runs a custom variant of the 8cx dubbed the Microsoft SQ1. So, what are the differences between them and is there much of a difference in performance between the chipsets?

A new report has suggested that an issue with components could force Sony to price the PlayStation 5 at around the US$500 mark instead of the much lower level that many fans would have been hoping for. Acquiring DRAM and NAND memory at higher prices could mean that the next-gen console costs over US$470 and toward US$500.

According to a source familiar with the subject, Apple is currently developing its own 5G antenna to better fit with the 2020 iPhone's design. While it is currently believed that Apple will opt for Qualcomm's Snapdragon X55 modem for its first 5G iPhone, the Cupertino colossus may be designing its own antenna. This would mark the first step toward Apple creating its own 5G modem.

The latest update for Pokémon Masters, a popular mobile game that takes place in the Pokémon universe, introduces Professor Oak and Mew as a sync pair. Players that complete the game's tutorial by March 15 will unlock the pair, as well as extra content surround the Pokémon Prof's character.

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.

Meizu's next flagship phone series with be called "17th", according to a new leak. It includes a render purporting to show the Plus variant of this line. It has a distinctly Galaxy S20-esque display, whereas the rear panel has a...unique gradient effect that goes from a very bright yellow to a neon green. This phone is also purported to come with the Snapdragon 865 and 3 to 4 rear cameras.

Some recent leaks have asserted that the second-generation Find X flagship phone from OPPO will have a 120 hertz (Hz) refresh rate at a QHD+ resolution. The freshly-launched Samsung Galaxy S20 series has similar properties - however, they don't co-exist in real-world devices. In addition, the X2 is rumored to have some new Sony camera sensors.

Apple has been announcing products out of the blue lately, with the iPhone SE 2 rumoured to appear within the next few weeks. Some new iPad Pros may be on the horizon too, but we doubt a notchless iPhone is. Regardless, such a device is currently on Apple.com and available to purchase.

Fancy a look at the Pixel 5 XL nine months before Google releases it? Well, that is what Jon Prosser and Front Page Tech claim to be offering, at least. Unconvinced? Yeah, so are we.

Rumours about the possibility of Sony releasing an Xperia 9 have appeared online, with an image posted to Reddit cited as proof. Does that not sound dodgy enough?

Setting Windows to High Performance mode could drop performance by as much as 90 percent. We're able to reproduce the bug quite easily by toggling the Windows power profiles while running the CineBench Multi-Thread test.

While this week has been all about Samsung, Xiaomi and the cancellation of MWC 2020, we may only be a few weeks away from the launch of the OnePlus 8 series. To that end, the OnePlus 8 has now appeared on Geekbench, complete with a Snapdragon 865 SoC and 8 GB of RAM.

The prototype that led to the launch of the original PlayStation back in 1994 was a hybrid console made in collaboration with Nintendo circa 1992. It is said that only 200 of these prototypes were made, and only one survived throughout the years. This fabled unicorn is now up for auction and could end up fetching upwards of US$2 million.

Intel's Lakefield chips are smaller than the usual CPUs, as they stack most components in order to reduce size and improve energy efficiency, much like smartphone SoCs nowadays. According to new 3DMark tests, these chips are certainly not meant for gaming, as they barely match a Celeron G3900 + Nvidia MX250 combo, but they will most likely take energy efficiency to the next level.

The demand for compact gaming laptops is increasing. With the XMG Core 15, Schenker is offering a suitable 15-inch notebook that is able to convince, besides having a few weaknesses.

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).

Last week, Google Maps celebrated its 15th anniversary and now the mobile apps receive an update that includes quite a few noticeable changes, both functional — more information about transit rides — and visual — a new icon and a refreshed interface.

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.

The Samsung Galaxy S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra were launched in their new Cloud- or Cosmic-themed colorways on February 11, 2020. However, other reports have revealed that they have drastically different options on the South Korean market, one of which is Aura Red. A leaker now asserts that these SKUs are also on their way to Europe.

The 1 TB option will be even faster with sequential read and write rates of up to 2100 MB/s and 1650 MB/s, respectively. The manufacturer will offer 3-year warranty as standard with support for Advanced Wear Leveling to prolong the lifespan of NAND flash.

The recent Samsung Galaxy S20 launch event also served to unveil the addition of the Live Caption feature to Google, in which video-call speech is converted into text in real time. Now, there is evidence that this function is also being ported to Chrome. This app's gerrit shows the integration of an API necessary to deliver it within the browser.

A photo of an alleged PlayStation 5 icon that supposedly appeared on the official Sony PlayStation Japan website has been leaked online – and if it is genuine its appearance could be something of a major surprise. While it is generally maintained that consumer market consoles look vastly different from their devkit counterparts, the icon suggests the PS5 will retain a V-shaped design.

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.

iQOO is a Chinese smartphone brand that has made a name for itself in recent years by offering high-end hardware at decent price-points. Now, it has revealed that its next such device is to be called the 3 5G. It will be powered by the Snapdragon 865 SoC and have the next-gen UFS 3.1 storage standard.

Is Apple planning 5G and A14X Bionic iPad Pros this year? Well, that is the current speculation, at any rate. The rumour may well be wide of the mark, though.

Xiaomi is now broadening the rollout of Android 10 to the Mi 8, having begun rolling out the OS upgrade to its former flagship last month. The latest update, V11.0.3.0.QEAMIXM, weighs in at 1.9 GB and introduces a few other fixes, too.

Rumour has it that while the coronavirus outbreak will not affect the expected September release of the iPhone 12 series, it may delay the mass-production of Apple's next flagship handsets. Slated for a June start date, the outbreak has apparently delayed Apple's development processes for the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, too.

At the turn of the year, rumours and renders appeared online of Apple's iPad Pro 2020 series. Slated for a March release, Apple appeared to have made only minor changes from the iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 that it released in 2020. While the information originated from reputable sources, it has now come to light that the next iPad Pro series may have been delayed until Q3 2020, instead.

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.

The latest Chrome OS update source code mentions the existence of Ryzen 7 3700C and Ryzen 3500C CPUs that appear to be derived from the Zen+ desktop-grade CPUs. Additionally, the code also includes references for Athlon Silver 3050C, Athlon Gold 3150C and Ryzen 3 3250C APUs that include Vega iGPUs.

The cancellation of MWC 2020 and the coronavirus may have scuppered the release of the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro, but that has not stopped Xiaomi from unveiling both in an online event. The Mi 10 Pro has stormed to the top of DxOMark too, but there are some key differences between it and the Mi 10. The Mi 10 has the edge over the Mi 10 Pro in some areas, too.

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.

While Samsung continues to dominate the foldable smartphone market, Huawei is set to release a successor to the Mate X. The Chinese company is said to be switching to using an ultra-thin glass for its next foldable too, a change that may do away with the crease that affects the likes of the Galaxy Z Flip and Moto Razr.

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.

It has been over a year since Razer last released a gaming phone, with plenty of other OEMs stepping into the fold in the meantime. Now, Lenovo has dropped hints that it too will bring a gaming phone to market this year. Naturally, the device will be marketed under the company's Legion division, and with a Snapdragon 865 SoC in tow too.

Surprisingly, Samsung has just managed to release the Android 10 update for the Galaxy A30 one month ahead of schedule, so other handsets might get the new software earlier than expected as well. The Indian Galaxy A30 gets the software version A305FDDU4BTB3 in the shape of a 1.4 GB OTA update package.

Leaked SiSoft Sandra scores for Intel's Xeon LP DG1 indicate that the GPU runs far worse than expected: as much as 50 percent slower than the GTX 1050 Ti. The leak adds credence to rumors of corporate infighting at Intel over major issues with the Xe architecture.

The Indian government is reportedly in the final stages of drafting a law that will force social media companies to divulge the personal information of anonymous social media users. The proposed law will apply to all social media and instant messaging platforms. Authorities can request for said information without a warrant and can hold on to it for up to 180 days.

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.

Xiaomi has just launched its newest flagship phones, the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro. The Mi 10 Pro has also been put through the paces over at DxOMark, and posted impressive results that place it at the top of the website's photo, video, and audio leaderboards.

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.

Essential just announced that it will cease operations starting today. The Essential PH1 will no longer receive security updates. One has to look for third-party software alternatives such as LineageOS to keep their devices up to date. The company's email app Newton Mail will cease to operate on April 30th 2020.

Adafruit has announced the Adafruit Clue, a new developer board that has a built-in display, along with several sensors. The board supports Bluetooth LE too, along with 2 MB of internal flash storage.