Latest Tech News

A Korean IT news outlet claims that Samsung is developing three-dimensional time-of-flight (3D TOF) modules for next year's phones. 3D TOF is linked to improved depth-sensing and AR capabilities. The Galaxy S10 line may be in line for these next-gen sensors.

A key Samsung executive has just confirmed that the upcoming Galaxy F foldable handset will ship with Bixby 2.0's successor. However, he also added that the company has not decided yet if the next-gen virtual assistant will be branded as Bixby 3.0, so in the end we might get Bixby F or something completely different.

Chinese officials, citing "massive evidence," have accused Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix of colluding and fixing the price of DRAM. If the allegations are true, the three largest DRAM manufacturers in the world would be directly responsible for the massive price increase for DRAM over the past few years. This isn't the first time these three companies have been accused of price-fixing. Back in 2005, all three pled guilty to similar charges levied by the US Department of Justice.

It looks like some media outlets have a bone to pick with Nvidia, blowing things out of proportion where it really is not the case. Yes, there are faulty RTX 2080 Ti cards out there and Nvidia admitted some cards did not go through the QA process, but the cards are out of stock now not because Nvidia was forced to delist them for too many manufacturing faults. The green team simply did not expect the demand for these cards to be so great.

The Wall Street Journal has published an article stating that Samsung will deliver a smartphone featuring a total of six cameras in the next series of its Galaxy S range. Two of the cameras would be on the front, while the rear of the device would have a quad-camera setup for the user to enjoy. The flagship handset would also sport a 6.7-inch display and would have support for 5G.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and other leading cryptocurrencies have been experiencing sharp falls in their prices in the market recently. Bitcoin in particular has suffered a terrible week that will have owners feeling nervous about their digital currency holding. The well-known cryptocurrency has seen its price drop by over US$2,000 in less than seven days.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday usually bring some of the best PC component bargains of the year, but, in Intel's case, these are not really bargains, especially in the case of all the CPUs affected by the 14 nm shortages. Prices for these processors have been floating well over MSRP in the past few months, and now, retailers like Newegg and Amazon are offering the most demanded Intel models for MSRP prices.

Valve quietly announced that once physical stock of the Steam Link streaming device sells out, they will no longer sell physical units. Instead, Valve will shift focus and support to the Steam Link mobile app, currently only available for Android. While the reasons for the discontinuation aren't entirely clear, it's likely that the Steam Link is no longer selling enough to warrant continued support.

Epic Games has announced that the Fortnite Winter Royale Qualifiers and Winter Royale Finals will feature a total of US$1 million in prizes. The qualifiers, which are open to all, begin on November 24. The Winter Royale tournament is a test event to help the company prepare for the Fortnite World Cup, which will take place in 2019.

In leaked AI benchmarks, the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 SoC managed to score the highest among all other SoCs featured in Android phones. The Snapdragon 8150 scored 22,082 points with the Mediatek Helio P80 coming in a close second at 19,453 points. The results show Qualcomm's renewed focus on AI will put it firmly ahead of competitors in 2019.

The GT83 Titan with GTX 1070 SLI or GTX 1080 SLI graphics will be a full $1000 off. Most purchases will come with free MSI-branded gifts such as carrying bags, mice, mouse pads, and more.

Tumblr's disappearance from Apple's App Store finally has an official reason: what was first simply described as "an issue" was, in fact, child pornography that slipped through the filters — enough of it to make the app vanish. This is not the first time Tumblr has run into pornography-related problems — most likely not the last time, either.

According to a recent report by the analyst firm TrendForce, global laptop shipments have grown by 3.9% during the last quarter of this year. However, this number was projected to be 5 to 6% by now. This slowdown in the laptop market is attributed to Intel's current silicon drought.

A recent listing on Geekbench details an upcoming Samsung device. The Samsung SM-M205F, otherwise known as the Galaxy M20, will likely be the first entry in Samsung's new mid-range Galaxy M line. Sporting an Exynos 7885 SoC and 3 GB of RAM, the Galaxy M20 looks poised to supplant the aging Galaxy J line.

Not satisfied with just offering hardware, Lenovo will now have a dedicated online storefront for PC games and closed betas. The store will be limited to gamers in the U.S. for now, but the manufacturer is promising exclusive deals and a tight screening process to weed out "half-finished, half-hearted" demos.

Since Apple Maps often gives the same directions to pedestrians and drivers, the company's pedestrian recon teams are now back on the streets of the United States. The individuals who are part of these teams are wearing backpacks apparently filled with the same cameras and sensors as those found on Apple Maps vehicles.

Asus will be seeding the Android 9 Pie update for the ZenFone 5Z by the end of January 2019. The new update is expected to bring new features including a new contextual pop-up volume bar and a new Magnifier for easy copy-paste.

The OnePlus 6 is currently on sale with US$100 off its MSRP. A Snapdragon 845, 6 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage, dual rear cameras, and a headphone jack is an incredible package for just US$429. Buyers in Canada also get 130 CAD shaved off the device's regular retail price.

Huawei introduced the tri-rear camera to the world earlier this year and has since been copied by Samsung and LG. No company has attempted to implement three selfie cameras, though, but we could see one such device in the near future, one produced by an unlikely OEM.

While the Mate 20 Pro and Mate 20X both feature AMOLED displays—as opposed to the regular Mate 20's LCD display—new information shows that Mate 20X users can rest easy, with their phones unlikely to suffer from the green hue issues found on the Mate 20 Pro.

The Google Pixel 3 Lite looks increasingly probable with each passing day. A new leak showcases what it claims to be photos taken by the Pixel 3 Lite "Sargo". The shots themselves, while not bad, aren't mindblowing or anything of the sort.

Priced at the equivalent of US$230 in China and around US$310 in Nepal, the Oppo A7 is a 6.2-inch handset with a Snapdragon 450 inside, as well as 4 GB of memory and 32 or 64 GB of internal storage. There is also a generous 4,320 mAh battery, dual cameras on both sides, as well as HyperBoost capabilities.

The new Apple store that opened its doors for the first time last Sunday in Paris is located on one of the most famous shopping streets in the world — the Champs-Élysées — and is entirely powered using renewable energy. Apple Champs-Élysées has over 100 employees that belong to 15 nationalities and speak 17 languages.

FSLogix is a next-gen app-provisioning platform that optimizes the ingredients — hardware resources, time, and human resources — needed to offer virtualization support when deploying and scaling Windows and Office on Azure. As usual, the financial details have been left out of the spotlight.

Another industry may soon be replaced by robots - IBM's Watson AI scripted a 60-second commercial for luxury car brand Lexus. Watson was fed 15 years worth of award-winning commercials and was able to outline and script the basis of the commercial. After a bit of editing by IBM researchers, Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald shot the commercial after being convinced by the "melodrama of the story."

Citing an insider source, XDA Developers has shared knowledge about an upcoming Motorola smartphone dubbed "Odin." The device will sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 and will continue support for Moto Mods, including the 5G Moto Mod. While these details point to a flagship device, possibly the Moto Z4, other supposed specifications sound more in line with a mid-range handset.

Many Microsoft users will soon be able to make Skype calls over their Alexa-powered smart speakers. This feature is only available in select countries, however. Those living in them may be able to find the new function in the speakers' Settings menu.

After all the buzz Samsung's upcoming Galaxy F foldable smartphone has generated, rival OEMs are taking notice of the new form factor. One of these rivals, Oppo, recently filed a foldable smartphone design with the Chinese patent office SIPO. While a patent doesn't necessarily mean that a device is coming, it does show that Oppo is considering the idea of a foldable smartphone.

According to some of its suppliers, Apple has cut orders for both the iPhone XS and iPhone XR. Citing a weak Chinese market and a slowdown in smartphone demand, Apple has had to pare back its supply of the new iPhones, a move that will inevitably reduce sales in the short term.

The Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) has just become the first Galaxy J series handset to receive two major upgrades for the operating system. In some markets, this handset has received Android 8.1 Oreo, but it is not clear yet if the Galaxy J5 (2016) will get the same treatment or not. The new firmware comes with Samsung Experience 9.5 on top.

Defending Apple's decision for making Google the default search provider in Apple products, CEO Tim Cook said that Google's search is the best despite some lingering privacy concerns. Google is known to pay companies such as Apple and Samsung hefty amounts to make them set Google Search as the default search provider. Cook also touched upon other issues such as government regulations in user data privacy and gender disparity in Silicon Valley.

Finally launched in the United States earlier this month, the Motorola One is already receiving Android 9.0 Pie. In addition to the Motorola One, Android Pie is now reaching the Motorola One Power as well. Both these two handsets are also expected to get the Android 10 Q update once it comes out.

The Red Magic may represent a novel alternative in a gaming-phone space dominated by a small number of brands. This phone, marketed by the ZTE sub-brand Nubia, is reportedly getting a second generation. A new leak shows a Geekbench score for the phone, and suggests some other new details about the device.

Users have reportedly discovered that iCloud stops working on laptops updated to the latest version of Windows (1809). This prevents syncing or uploading to the service. New installs of iCloud may also fail due to a lack of compatibility. Microsoft has announced a collaboration with Apple to fix the problem.

The "early sale" is for Razer newsletter subscribers via special promo codes only. Nonetheless, it's a sneak peek at the kinds of deals Razer likely has in store for the rest of the year.

In a rather awkward effort aimed at reducing the production costs by a very small amount, Samsung is now using the front-facing camera to take selfies and adjust the screen brightness based on them instead of including an ambient light sensor. In some markets, Galaxy J8 owners are already receiving this feature via a software update.

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10 could very well use an in-display selfie camera eliminating the need for a notch altogether. The Galaxy S10 could implement the Infinity-O display that was showed off during the company's recent developer conference. A design patent to this effect was applied for at the Hague International Design System, whose database is managed by the World Intellectual Property Office.

Barnes & Noble have given its new Nook 10.1 some wings. After hitting the shelves on November 14, the company has now launched a matching keyboard cover and charging dock making it a very affordable productivity and entertainment package.

The cycling deals will run throughout the week with savings between 10 percent and 35 percent across Lenovo's popular product lines. Newer models like the Legion Y530, however, have much smaller discounts compared to older models.

On Thursday, Nvidia released its Q3 earnings report, and as a result stocks plummeted nearly 20% thanks mainly to Nvidia's Q4 guidance, which were $700 million below the expectations of third party analysts who predicted Nvidia would achieve $3.4 billion in revenue. Nvidia claims the lack of crypto demand and surplus of Pascal supply are to blame.

During its earnings report call this Thursday, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang predicted a decline in revenue in Q4 owing to an inventory backlog of Pascal cards and the fact that cryptocurrency miners would be offloading their cards at much lower prices given that the boom has now ended. Huang expressed confidence that this 'crypto hangover' would pass but this could delay shipments of midrange Turing GPUs such as the RTX 2060.

The German federal authorities have dedicated the country's entire C-band (or frequencies from 3.4 to 3.8 GHz) to the provision of 5G. This move is being applauded as it may result in more efficient deployment of the new mobile-data standard; on the other hand, there are those that see it as a governmental cash-grab.

Samsung has confirmed that there is a white variant of the Galaxy Note 9. However, it is only going to be available to the Taiwanese market. This new version of the S Pen-toting flagship is reported to go on sale from November 23.

The Apple iPad Pro is apparently not a very durable tablet as demonstrated by Zack Nelson of the popular YouTube channel, JerryRigEverything. Zack was easily able to bend the iPad Pro with very minimal effort, which raises concerns about Apple putting build quality at stake in the quest for slimness.

While we're usually vocal about Samsung's unimpressive update roadmaps, we're also impressed by the company's treatment of the Galaxy S6, a device launched close to four years ago, and still receiving security updates.

So far, only a few OEMs like OnePlus, HMD Global, and Sony have sent out the stable Pie update. Thankfully, the Android One program exists to combat that, and it's been rather effective so far, with a number of Android One phones receiving the update to Android Pie last week.

Huawei executive Walter Ji has teased the company's plans of launching a device with up to four rear cameras, and 10x zoom. The Huawei man also confirmed that the company has no plans of releasing an Android One phone, which means that Huawei fans will have to make do with EMUI for the foreseeable future.

The Mi Mix 3 was one of the most interesting device launches this year, with its manual slider possibly ushering in a new trend. The Xiaomi flagship has remained in China for the past couple of weeks but, if word on the grapevine is anything to go by, it could be coming to Europe on December 1.

T-Mobile looks like it has some great deals on some of the best smartphones released this year. Handsets like the iPhone XR and Galaxy S9 can be had for free, but reading the fine print shows a few caveats. In addition to activating two new lines and trading in an eligible device, the phones are only free because of a bill credit that is granted over a 36-month period, which effectively locks consumers into a three-year contract.

Samsung is one of the world leaders in curved display technology, and is to take flexible OLEDs even further with its upcoming foldable phone range. However, IceUniverse believes that the company has even more of the same up its sleeve; a 360-degree type of transparent display.