Latest Tech News

If you thought you were crazy covering your laptop webcam with paper, you're not alone. A continent-wide survey conducted earlier this year has revealed that nearly 80 percent of respondents would rather just turn off their webcams to avoid fears of hacking. Women in particular are more worried about their laptops being compromised and are more likely to tape over or disable their webcams.

The US$139 Nokia 2.2 is a budget phone with limited features in many ways, but recent news has revealed the return of a cherished feature for many: user-replaceable batteries.

The Intel 660p 1 TB PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD is now available at a discounted price of just US$95 on Newegg and Amazon. Newegg is offering an additional US$10 off till Thursday bringing the price down to just US$85, which makes it a good entry-level option for those looking to upgrade their PC or laptop storage.

The AMD Ryzen 7 3800X managed to achieve an impressive 5.9 GHz single-core overclock on LN2. Pro-overclocker 'TSAIK' achieved this on an MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE motherboard and also managed to overclock the DDR4 RAM up to 5,774 MHz. There are no performance numbers yet, but it looks like the Ryzen 7 3800X has very good overclocking potential.

Sony has launched the Alpha 7R IV (or a7R IV), its latest 35-millimeter full-frame camera. It is the first such product to feature the new, back-illuminated, Exmor R CMOS sensor with a 61.0MP resolution. The a7R IV is also capable of professional-grade 4K video, an APS-C mode and USB 3.1 Gen 2 transfer speeds via a type C port.

Lenovo's newest high-end ThinkPad laptop, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme 2019, is now available in the USA. Prices for the Dell XPS 15 competitor start at $2,049 for the cheapest pre-configured model available – a hefty base-price, though it will likely fall considerably in the near future with the introduction of discounts & more configuration options.

New leaks that allegedly emanate from Chinese sources point to the imminent release of a new processor by MediaTek: the Helio G90. This CPU is also directed at relatively fresh ground for the Taiwanese silicon-smiths. It is purported to be destined for gaming smartphones.

To say OPPO may be planning to expand its K series of smartphones may be somewhat of an understatement. The OEM has reportedly made a total of 21 trademarking applications for new device names along these lines. This volume of submissions may mean that it plans to keep this line going for some time.

Researchers at the University of California created an AI that taught itself the shortest solution paths in several different one-goal logic puzzles, including a Rubik's Cube, sliding tile puzzles, Lights out, and Sokoban. While the AI is much slower than human-programmed robots, it gives an interesting look into how AIs arrive at solutions to problems.

According to a new report, the OnePlus 7 Pro only costs US$324 to build. That figure is non-inclusive of R&D, logistics, and marketing costs, of course. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ costs US$420 to build, and here we compare the cost of components on the two devices.

The L3 memory integration was recently hinted by a series of 01.org test results checking for L3 cache hits/misses on an upcoming Snow Ridge ULV chip. Snow Ridge and Lakefield are both codenames for next gen Atom CPU families expected to launch in late 2019. These will integrate the new Foveros 3D packaging for hybrid architectures that combine desktop-grade cores with ULV ones.

The Unihertz Titan is inspired by BlackBerry's Passport and combines the qwerty design with rugged features like IP67 dust / water resistance. It also includes a 4.5-inch 1:1 1,400 x 1,400 IPS display, selfie cam and rear main cam, face recognition, wireless charging and a hefty 6,000 mAh battery, plus fingerprint sensor.

You could say Tim Cook a highly effective CEO, or you could say he is a world champion penny pincher. Under Cook, Apple has found every way it can to save a few cents here and there to increase or preserve profit margins and the latest device to get the Tim Cook penny pinching treatment is the just refreshed MacBook Air.

Toshiba will be dipping its toes back into the mobile business world with the budget Portege A30 designed to take on the Lenovo ThinkPad E series, Dell Vostro series, and the HP ProBook series.

Google has decided to focus its efforts on the AdSense mobile web interface and discontinue the mobile apps. Those using AdSense on mobile devices were probably expecting this, since the Android app has not been updated since December 2017 and the iOS AdSense app received its latest refresh on November 2017.

Asus has announced that the upcoming ROG Phone II will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC that is optimized for enhanced gaming and VR experiences. The first leaked images of the ROG Phone II in action have also surfaced on Weibo confirming the 120 Hz display and a notch-less yet not fully bezel-less design.

The next-gen Exynos 9825-powered Samsung Galaxy flagships are flooding Geekbench and the results definitely look good. Alongside the Galaxy Note 10 (SM-N970F), the Galaxy S10+ (SM-G975F) was also spotted on the website of the aforementioned benchmark database. In both cases, the scores were around 4,500 for single-core and over 10,000 for the multi-core tests.

(Update: Cursor bug fixed.) Having a tough time choosing between the Blade 15 IPS or Blade 15 OLED? We go over the core visual advantages and disadvantages of each to give a better idea of what you can expect.

AMD’s CEO Lisa Su has announced that former Dell executive Frank Azor has officially become a member of the red team. Su’s tweet revealed that Azor will be the company’s chief architect of gaming solutions. Azor has responded to the message with an acknowledgment of enthusiasm for his new role.

According to some new leaks, the Honor 9X and its Pro variant will have full-screen displays. This will allegedly be conferred by selfie cameras hidden in pop-up modules. One of these Huawei sub-brand phones may also have appeared on the Antutu benchmark database.

A new Geekbench comparison has been unearthed that appears to give a snapshot of the true performance of the upcoming Intel Core i9-9900KS processor. The chip from the blue team has been measured against a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 3800X once again, and this time it has outshone the competition in both the single and multi-core benchmarks.

Qualcomm has released a mid-year refresh to the Snapdragon 855 called the Snapdragon 855 Plus. The 855 Plus offers a slightly faster Kryo 485 Prime core and a 15% faster Adreno 640 GPU. The rest of the specifications remain unchanged from the original Snapdragon 855 SoC. The Snapdragon 855 Plus could find its way into most gaming smartphones slated to release later this year.

The V1921A is a new device from Vivo that has triple cameras and an in-display fingerprint scanner. It has been certified by TENAA, and has now also appeared on the benchmarking site Geekbench. Its results show that it is powered by the Snapdragon 710 SoC, runs Android 9.0 and has an 8GB RAM SKU.

Microsoft has acknowledged that some Surface Book 2 laptops are experiencing NVIDIA dGPU disconnects following the Windows 10 May 2019 Feature Update. If you have already updated your Surface Book 2 to Windows 10 version 1903 then you are out of luck, as Microsoft currently has no workaround other than to prevent all devices from updating to the latest version of Windows.

Popular teardown and repair website iFixit has taken the new 13-inch MacBook Pro apart, revealing a 7% larger battery, a soldered SSD, a smaller heatsink and modular ports. Unsurprisingly, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro 13 received a woeful 2 out of 10 for repairability.

The internet celebrated the arrival of the Raspberry Pi 4 last month, with its more powerful SoC, USB Type-C port, dual 4K HDMI and up to 4 GB of RAM. However, a few issues are rearing their head, with the Pi Foundation being quick to shut one of the more concerning down.

Huawei is putting together plans to lay off hundreds of its US-based employees, according to the Wall Street Journal. Although President Trump has eased some of the restrictions on the Chinese company, it remains on the US Entity List and US companies still need to apply for licenses to supply it.

A new Samsung patent shows a phone that can extend its display transforming it into a small tablet. To achieve this feat, the device would use a rollable OLED panel that would also allow the device to retract back into its normal state.

As impressive as it may be, the US$5 billion fine that Facebook could be subjected to — after the review of this settlement by the Department of Justice — only accounts for 9 percent of the revenue obtained by the company in 2018. According to some senators and Congress members, this is not enough to get Facebook back in line.

If you're in the market for a Core i9 laptop, you may want to skip the Asus Strix Scar III G531GW for the larger MSI GE75 9SG in order to get the most of what the Core i9-9880H can offer. The same CPU in the MSI is able to maintain faster clock rates for longer for a not insignificant performance advantage.

In comparison, the older MSI GL63 with a Core i7 CPU but same GTX 1660 Ti graphics retails for $1100 USD. The Walmart sale prices the newer Asus Strix G aggressively for GTX 1070-level performance at just $899 USD.

For today's useless fact, Razer has sold about 1,050,000 kg worth of Deathadder mice to be its most successful accessory to date. The Deathadder is the manufacturer's least expensive mouse at $50 USD.

The PanGu is an STMicroelectronics STM32MP1 powered single-board computer (SBC), which should offer good value for money for some developers. The board runs Debian Jesse and Yocto Linux and is available to order from Taobao for 499 RMB (~US$72.50).

The pi-top [4] allows you to code and program on the move thanks to its 5-hour internal battery life. The device comes with 14 electronic components including LEDs, buttons and programmable sensors, while it even works with an optional 2-in-1 screen and keyboard or an Advanced Vehicle Kit (AVK). The pi-top [4] is available to order on Kickstarter now for US$199 and will shop in November having already reached its US$100,000 funding goal.

Unexpectedly, SIGMA Corporation has introduced the world's smallest and lightest full-frame mirrorless camera. The SIGMA fp is extremely modular, weatherproof and comes with some very interesting features.

With the 2019 generation of ThinkPad laptops, the PC manufacturer Lenovo has stopped offering any models with external, hot-swappable batteries. Instead, all ThinkPads feature a single internal battery now – a development that is now lamented by fans and a relatively well known Youtuber.

Vivo is an OEM that mostly produces smartphones with modern features such as multiple cameras. However, these handsets have not been officially available in certain regions. However, new reports indicate that this company is hiring for pivotal positions in Central Europe, indicating that Vivo intends to establish a presence there.

A SamMobile source claims to have spotted a working unit of the Samsung Galaxy Fold in the hands of someone on the New Delhi metro recently. It is likely that this device has the updated design it needs to secure a re-do of its planned April 2019 launch.

The G6 is LG's flagship smartphone for 2017. Despite this, it is yet to be officially updated to the latest version of Android. A Redditor claims to have found a beta for this very upgrade - albeit for just 1 region-specific variant of the phone.

Smart glasses are useful in many contexts, most of them enterprise-related. However, it is also possible to replicate the smartphone experience to some degree using some of these devices, Vuzix-brand ones included. This company claims that a new development will bring peer-to-peer video calling to its Blade devices.

Every year, OEMs increase prices on their new devices. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 phones will be no different, as a new leak claims that the Note 10 could start at US$999. That's the same MSRP the Note 9 launched with but the main problem is that the Note 10 may as well be a "Lite" phone. The Note 10+ is the true premium device here, and that one is expected to cost north of US$1100.

Xiaomi is set to unveil its newest Android One phone, the Mi A3, soon, and details of the device have now been revealed in full. Notable takeaways include a 32 MP selfie camera, 48 MP main rear shooter, and an SoC that looks to a worse performer than the chipset on last year's Mi A2.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 phones have received a number of updates, with most improving on the few flaws the devices had at launch. The June OTA appears to be doing the opposite, however, as a number of users have reported a new focusing bug after installing the update.

The Asus Zenfone 6 was released a few months ago and is widely considered to be one of the best value flagships on the market right now, competing against the Mi 9 and OnePlus 7. Asus appears to have gotten the gist of the matter, as the Zenfone 6 is seeing some really good community development support right now, with major pros for the device including a Google Camera port, LineageOS 16 ROM, and a custom kernel.

Samsung will release the Note 10 and Note 10+ next month. As the date draws closers, leaks reveal more differences between the devices, and the latest is on the kind of fast-charge the devices will feature. The Note 10+ will feature Samsung's new uber-fast charging technology, while the regular Note 10 will make do with the same fast-charge seen on the Galaxy A70.

A listing of the unannounced AMD Navi 14 has appeared on Compubench that reveals some of the specs of this GPU, which could eventually be christened the RX 5600. The specs indicate that AMD is positioning Navi 14 as a viable alternative for NVIDIA's GTX 1660 series and a possible replacement for Polaris GPUs such as the RX 580.

Taiwan's DigiTimes reports that Apple has killed its plans for an AR headset citing supply chain sources. Samsung, however, seems to be ploughing on with its AR headset efforts filing a new patent for a foldable headset.

News about the GPD Win Max has been quiet since April, but a host of leaked photos give a better look at the 8-inch handheld. Dual-fans, a larger keyboard, a PlayStation Vita style d-pad and even a trackpad? One-Netbook and Smach better take notice.

A Geekbench comparison between an Intel Core i9-9900KS processor and an AMD Ryzen 7 3800X has been shared online showing some surprising results. The Ryzen CPU is soundly defeated in the single-core benchmark test; however, in the multi-core test the 8-core i9-9900KS falls behind its fellow 8-core rival.

Square Enix has released Dragon Quest Builders 2 for the PlayStation 4. This title builds on its predecessor with a unique setting within the relevant universe, and all the new crafting and battle opportunities that come with it. The game has a recommended price of US$59.99, or $79.99 for a Digital Deluxe version.