Latest Tech News

TechCrunch Security Editor Zack Whittaker blew the whistle on Lenovo on his Twitter account recently over Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo's alleged attempts to pay Information Security "influencers" to say good things about ThinkShield, Lenovo's new corporate security solution. Others chimed in saying that Lenovo wanted the posts to seem authentic and did not want the sponsorships to be revealed.

A new Samsung device with the model number SM-G770F has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This identifier has been linked to the "Galaxy S10 Lite" since the first rumor about this putative phone ever started. Its new certification confirms its apparently paradoxical 6.7-inch display.

This kind of full disclosure apology is unprecedented for companies the size of Intel. While the CPU maker is acknowledging the “production variability” that is causing customers and OEM partners more supply issues, there is no mention of any immediate solution. Unfulfilled demands are not entirely bad for Intel, since at least the company manages to sell its entire supply, but OEMs are also starting to cover supply needs with AMD's offer.

Huawei has officially acknowledged the MatePad Pro product name in full. Its latest Weibo video shows this tablet in action, showcasing some features such as split-screen apps and M-Pen support. The new promo also reveals that the first MatePad has dual rear cameras and will have a keyboard cover accessory.

Things are not looking up for Google's Stadia game streaming platform. Users were already disappointed that some features would not be ready by launch, and now hardware issues are popping up, as well. Several Reddit posters are reporting that their Chromecast Ultra devices are overheating and shutting down after only a few hours of playtime.

Sony is planning on introducing four flagship smartphones next year if multiple sources are to be believed. However, the company potentially plans to split the release of the quartet across three dates, which may be up to seven months apart from each other. All will feature the upcoming Snapdragon 865 SoC though and 5G capabilities. Tell us, what is going on with Sony right now?

Want to lose money quickly? Well, the OnePlus 7T trade-in scheme would be a good way to go about it. You can get up to US$370 in credit for trading-in a 256 GB OnePlus 7 Pro, a quite frankly ludicrous amount of money for a six-month-old US$799 handset.

Are you looking for your next graphics card for your small form factor PC? Well, the PNY GeForce GTX 1660 XLR8 Gaming OC could be the card for you. Setting aside its long-winded name, the XLR8 Gaming OC offers 1080p triple-A gaming at a pinch. It is not all plain sailing though, as we shall discuss in this review snippet.

The Redmi K30 phones are one of the most anticipated phones right now, as they're expected to build on the high-value performance the K20 duo offered. A new report has revealed more on the devices, with notable takeaways including a super mega camera sensor, a 120 Hz display, and possibly, a switch from OLED to LCD displays.

OPPO's 65 W SuperVOOC 2.0 is the current most powerful fast-charging technology in the world, as it charges a 4000 mAh battery from 0-100% in half an hour. Xiaomi has other ideas, however, and is set to debut its own 100 W charging technology that will charge almost twice as fast as OPPO's solution.

PUBG 5.2 is now up and running for both PC and console players, and the most important change is the introduction of PUBG Labs, defined as "a new destination for where you can try our latest game modes and help us refine them into greatness." The Public Test Server is free for anyone who already owns a copy of the game.

A Tiger Lake Y processor has seemingly been spotted on Geekbench delivering some very unimpressive results. However, it’s likely that if the record is genuine then Intel may be simply testing an early engineering sample (ES) that’s not operating at its regular base clock rate. Tiger Lake is expected to be the successor to Intel’s Ice Lake microarchitecture.

It was only a couple of days ago that Microsoft’s Phil Spencer said that the company would not “be out of position on power or price” with its next-generation Xbox console. According to a plausible rumor, that could mean a starting price of just US$499 which should really spice up the battle for next-gen supremacy with Sony’s PS5 if accurate.

Oppo's Android 10 fork is here in the form of ColorOS 7. It brings forth a host of cosmetic and performance improvements and will be available to eligible devices starting November 25th.

Samsung unveiled a new Star Wars-themed variant for the Galaxy Note 10 Plus. It comes with a pair of Galaxy Buds out of the box and will be released on December 13.

We already liked the predecessor of the Motorola Moto G8 Plus due to its good camera performance. With the successor, the camera concept has been revised, but this hasn't only led to improvements. This is a summary of our test results.

Rumours about NVIDIA releasing a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti SUPER are doing the rounds again, this time from a reliable leaker of upcoming NVIDIA products. While this contradicts what NVIDIA stated earlier this year, the prospect of AMD being on the cusp of releasing Navi 23 'NVIDIA killer' GPUs may have stirred the green team into action. Will it be another RTX 2070 SUPER style upgrade or something more underwhelming like the RTX 2080 SUPER?

We are still about a year out from the arrival of the PlayStation 5. However, the account behind The Last of Us 2 release date has revealed not only when Sony will first showcase its next console, but also when it will unveil the design and formally release the PlayStation 5. We have rounded-up the rumors published by the account and offered an overview of the key dates to watch for PlayStation 5 updates.

Apple launched battery cases for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max today. The new cases feature a dedicated camera button that can snap a photo or start recording video without the need for launching the Camera app or unlocking the device. The cases are priced at $129.

Qualcomm has announced that its next Snapdragon Tech Summit will take place from December 3 to 5, 2019 in Maui, Hawaii. This year, the company will showcase its growing 5G expertise, as well as other facets of its mobile device business such as the appropriate SoCs. Each of the event's keynotes will also be livestreamed from a dedicated site.

According to multiple outlets, some games on Google's Stadia streaming service are not rendered natively at 4K, like Google advertised them to be. Rather, some titles are rendered at lower resolutions and then upscaled to 4K once the data is sent to a gamer's Chromecast Ultra. This and a myriad of other complaints have left black marks on Stadia's first impression.

A One UI 2.0 beta may have just spoiled Samsung's big next-gen display spec reveal. The leaker Ice Universe has reported that a user has found references to a 120 hertz (Hz) display setting in this version of the OS. This feature, called Best Display in the ROM, could be destined for the Galaxy S11 at the earliest.

A phone called the Huawei OXF-AN10 has appeared on the Geekbench 4 website. Despite the first part of this model number, it has been linked to the upcoming Honor V30 series. It is listed as running Android 10, has 8GB of RAM and may furthermore be a 5G device.

Users may not necessarily want to purchase Razer devices on a whim, but walk-in stores in heavy trafficked areas help to gain exposure and to create a sense of community for the brand.

AT&T now maintains specific bands for internet of things (IoT) devices and other low-power 4G/LTE applications. To this end, the carrier has just validated the new 9205 modem for these kinds of networks and ecosystems. This Qualcomm SoC is designed to be half as big as its predecessor, while using 70% less power and 40% fewer resources.

The new Geekbench include 6-core / 12-thread and 10-core / 20-thread models from the upcoming Comet Lake-S with relatively low boost clocks. They also pack the UHD Graphics 630 iGPU, so no Xe architecture that could boost the graphics performance. Hopefully the 10-core model is not the-top-of-the-line for Intel's gen 10 desktop CPUs as they would not stand a chance against AMD's upcoming Zen3 chips.

Seeing that Apple is already offering 16-inch MacBook Pro models and Microsoft is pushing for more 15-inch Surface laptops, Huawei is now willing to step up its game with 15-inch Matebook models of its own. According to the renders leaked by Evan Blass, the 2020 Matebook series will include 15-inch, as well as 14-inch laptops.

The Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max costs between US$1,099 and US$1,449 depending on which version you buy, making it one of the most expensive smartphones currently on the market. However, although Apple extols the device's camera capabilities, DxOMark seems to think that a smartphone that costs up to 3x less offers a better camera experience than Apple's latest flagship does. While DxOMark is not the arbiter of camera reviews, but Xiaomi can probably chalk this one up as a win.

The Android-x86 project has now released its first Android 9.0 Pie-based release candidate, bringing the OS to x86 systems for the first time. The new build should offer better compatibility, performance and stability than older versions of Android-x86 too. It is not ready for the prime time yet, though.

A recent blog post by Diablo IV's lead systems designer, David Kim, confirms that the game will support elective mode-style skill selection and will also feature Keyed Dungeons. Kim also detailed itemization, endgame progression, power sources, and concluded by urging the members of the community to get involved by sharing their ideas.

A trio of photos of the successor to last year's Honor Watch Magic have appeared online, ahead of its anticipated release on November 26. The Watch Magic 2 appears to feature some minor revisions over its predecessor, although we would not be surprised to see it launch in multiple colours too.

Few Android OEMs update their devices for as long as OnePlus does. Released in 2016, the OnePlus 3 and 3T have received three major OS updates bringing them from Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow up to Android 9.0 Pie. However, both handsets have now started receiving their final software updates, as we wave goodbye to the devices that brought OnePlus into the mainstream.

Leave it to a company who designs some of the most stylish gaming laptops to offer one of the best-looking mobile workstations yet. The ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 promises Xeon options, ECC RAM, and a 16:10 1200p display wrapped a Zephyrus-like chassis.

Settlers of Catan is coming to mobile with an AR adjustment. Dubbed Catan: World Explorers, the new augmented reality game will be built using Niantic's extensive suite of AR tools. The game is still in the early stages of development, but more details should come early next year.

The security research group Checkmarx has claimed to have identified a vulnerability that could have allowed hackers to bypass Android permission restrictions to remotely open and control device cameras without their owners' knowledge. This issue, which apparently affected Google and Samsung apps, has reportedly been addressed in recent software updates.

Dripp Audio is a new company that has put its interestingly-named true-wireless earbuds on Indiegogo. The "Dropps" are described as the cheapest products in their category to have Qualcomm aptX and cVc noise-cancelling tech. They also have Bluetooth 5.0 and IP5X ingress protection, and start at US$39.

Even though the gaming tablet market is not that big right now, TCL is gearing up to release 10.8-inch 240 Hz tablet displays for 2020. Gamers may find the included punch-hole selfie cam a bit annoying, but tablet OEMs will surely like this feature for slim bezel models. The new displays also come with 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, 2 ms GTG response time and HDR capabilities.

The MatePad Pro is rumored to be the name of an upcoming tablet from Huawei. It is thought to have premium specs, including the Kirin 990 processor and 5G variants. A new Geekbench listing appears to agree with the first of these, if not the second.

A new leak points towards the DualShock 5 only being a minor revision of the DualShock 4. Sony has already confirmed that it will incorporate new triggers in the controller that it will release alongside its next console. However, the patent offers an insight into the other features that the DualShock 5 will also include, along with the ones that it will likely remove.

Rumors of Apple releasing a 14-inch MacBook Pro have been around since at least the start of this year, although the 16-inch refresh of the 15-inch model points towards the smaller entry in the series receiving another incremental upgrade. Apparently launching in mid-2020, Apple may once again be taking inspiration from its past with the next baby MacBook Pro.

Previously rumored to have a clamshell design, the Samsung W20 appears to be almost identical to the galaxy Fold. The specs leaked by TENAA last week also confirm the similarities, even though the SoC is still unknown. The W20 is a China-only model and could feature a more affordable price to compete with the Mate X from Huawei.

The Geekbench 4 database has added several new sets of results for the Redmi Note 8 Pro, which differ from existing ones in only 1 important respect: they list the phones' OS as Android 10 rather than Android 9.0 (Pie). This suggests an imminent update to MIUI 11 for the device.

According to our sources, Nvidia will refresh its mobile line-up around March 2020. The three RTX cards will get the new Super designation and a specification bump. Furthermore, two new GTX cards will be added below the GTX 1660 Ti.

Centaur Technologies has announced that their SoC combining eight x86 cores and a dedicated AI co-processor has posted outstanding results on the MLPerf AI inference benchmarks. This is the industry's first server-class SoC with a dedicated 20 TOPS AI processing capability and is designed to be scalable when augmented with external AI accelerators.

Simply NUC just announced the Sequoia, a small form-factor NUC-like device with AMD internals. It can be configured with either a Ryzen Embedded V1807B or V1605B and is designed for industrial use cases. But with prices starting at £445, it might just be a good fit for your HTPC setup, too.

The information guide for Huawei’s Sound X smart speaker has leaked online ahead of the device’s expected launch. The Sound X offers an interesting collection of hardware specifications that includes two 60 W subwoofers and a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor. But will consumers be willing to place a hefty listening device from a controversial manufacturer in their homes?

In a recent interview, Microsoft executive Aaron Greenberg stated that the company is building the “world’s most powerful console”. The Xbox chief himself, Phil Spencer, has also talked about Xbox Project Scarlett’s power and how it will be carefully priced to be competitive. It seems Microsoft is ready to start stealing some limelight from Sony and the PS5.

If you happen to be looking for a simple gaming notebook with great price-performance ratio you may want to take a closer look at the 2019 iteration of Xiaomi’s Mi Gaming Laptop. For less than $1,500 you get a 15-inch gaming laptop with Core i7-9750H and GeForce RTX 2060.

Samsung has a solid track record of both designing and making all its own phones in-house, unlike other phone companies that contract these processes out to original design manufacturers (ODMs). However, according to a new report, the Korean giant will farm out some of its mobile devices to just such a company in the future. This ODM (Wingtech) may end up informing these products' quality, both inside and outside.

The 17-inch laptop integrates some unique features for a sleek mobile workstation including a ScreenPad, 16:10 1200p display, Xeon E-2276M, and a Quadro 5000 GPU.