Latest Tech News

Since the Xiaomi Mi 8 and Mi 8 Explorer Edition already got Android 9.0 Pie, seeing the Mi 8 SE on Geekbench with the latest Android update onboard is not surprising at all. However, this only means that Xiaomi has begun testing the update and it might need at least a few weeks before being ready for launch.

Among the announcement from the latest Apple event is that the company is making the new Mac mini and MacBook Air from 100 percent recycled aluminum. The company says that its metallurgists have discovered a new method for using the excess aluminum from the production process to create the new alloy it is using to make its new Macs.

There's no doubt that this year's Surface Pro models are significantly faster than the last generation since Kaby Lake-R doubles the number of cores from Kaby Lake. The bigger question, however, is how much or little the models will throttle when under load. Performance throttling was abysmal on the 2017 series and it's just slightly improved for this latest iteration.

Despite continued losses in its mobile division, Sony enjoyed a massive $1.5 billion profit in Q2, thanks in large part to the success of the PlayStation 4. A mixture of excellent exclusive titles and strong console sales racked up $4.9 billion in sales, cementing a solid profit in spite of a $265 million loss in the company's smartphone division.

As expected, Apple has unveiled a new Mac mini, MacBook Air and new iPad Pro models. However, one device that missed out on getting a chipset refresh was the 12-inch MacBook, leaving it essentially unchanged since June 2017 barring a new gold hue.

The world's biggest name in retail wants a piece of the gaming pie. The 15-inch OP Laptop 15 will carry narrow bezels, an i7-8750U CPU, GTX 1060 GPU, 144 Hz 1080p display, 256 GB SSD, and 16 GB RAM for $1400 USD when it launches on November 13. The series consists of Walmart-branded Tongfang barebone laptops.

Intel, Volkswagen and Mobileye have joined forces and published plans to launch a taxi service in Israel in 2019 that relies entirely on autonomous cars. This is another step towards a future in which cars drive completely on their own.

Apple is rolling out iOS 12.1 today, and if you have an iPhone Xs, Xs Max, or XR, you can use Apple's new dual-SIM feature... as long as you're not using Verizon on your digital SIM or as your secondary number. Both T-Mobile and Verizon have stated that their networks are not ready to fully support the dual-SIM tech but are working on getting their networks up to scratch "in the near future."

Apple unveiled the new iPad Pro, and many of the rumors from the past year were accurate. The new iPad Pro brings a more powerful A12X bionic SoC, Face ID, and a switch from Lightning to USB-C. The iPad Pro starts at $799 for an 11-inch model and $999 for a 12.9-inch model.

The 8-inch convertible is off to a good start as far as user interest is concerned. Nearly 400 backers have already pledged an average of $450 USD each for the device. We obtained an early sample of the unit and can vouch for its robust chassis quality and stable CPU performance with minimal throttling.

Apple unveiled the new Mac Mini, the first Mac Mini we've seen since 2014. The new desktop boasts some impressive specs, including 8th gen 4- and 6-score CPUs, up to 2 TB of NVMe storage, and up to 64 GB of DDR4 RAM. Thunderbolt 3 comes to the Mac Mini, as well as a few other conventional ports. However, the machine is rather expensive, starting at $799 and climbing all the way to $4,199.

In a recent study concerning children and media consumption, researchers discovered that the majority of apps targeted at children 5 years of age and younger contained advertising. Some of these ads were not clearly marked, were difficult to close, or contained disturbing imagery. Additionally, some of the ads pushed the user to make purchases, a clear violation of the FTC's rules regarding ads used in children's media.

A Eurogamer analyst has reported that Red Dead Redemption 2, a fresh release from RockStar Games, seems to have failed his test for high dynamic range (HDR) support while running on the XBox One. If these results are valid, the game only offers an upscaled form of standard DR (SDR).

Although this is only about connecting a custom R15 to a 5G network in the company's research lab for now, OPPO is planning to become the first Chinese company to bring a 5G smartphone to the market in 2019. Unfortunately, they will have to beat Huawei, LG, ZTE, and all the others who are also chasing the same goal.

The 48 MP ISOCELL Bright GM1 and 32 MP ISOCELL Bright GD1 are Samsung's new 0.8-micrometer image sensors for mobile devices that enable camera module manufacturers to build smaller modules or cram more pixels into existing designs. These sensors support Gyro-based image stabilization and the Tetracell technology for increased light sensitivity.

Just as previously rumored, the new update for Apple's mobile operating system — iOS 12.1 — comes with Group FaceTime and a set of new emojis. In addition to these changes that target all compatible iPhones and iPads, the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max receive depth control in camera preview and dual-SIM support.

Although Microsoft has killed off its smartphone line, the company is still interested in tapping into the handheld gaming space. One of its latest research projects is focused on customer reaction to bringing physical controllers to smartphones and tablets. hinting at possible plans for the near future.

OnePlus has introduced a new feature called NightScape for its latest flagship, the 6T. It is intended to improve on low-light photography for the phone. The 6T also includes re=imagined portrait shots, as a result of a partnership with Kevin Abosch.

Google launched a new grant initiative today, seeking to fund teams that want to develop "AI for social good." Dubbed the AI Impact Challenge, the initiative will award $25 million across multiple teams that qualify based on the scalability, feasibility, and impact their project can have.

Hardware tinkerers ETA Prime and Novaspirit Tech have managed to load macOS 10.14 Mojave on the LattePanda Alpha, a powerful single-board computer. While there are several bugs ranging from non-working audio to broken WiFi, this is currently one of, if not the, smallest Hackintosh-capable system currently available.

GOG and Steam are both getting into the Halloween spirit with sales going on this week. Steam's sale is centered around spooky/horror games, while GOG's is more of a general catch-all. There are some decent discounts to be had, so head over to Steam before November 1 and GOG before November 5 to catch the sales.

Microsoft has raised the prices of Office Home & Business 2019 and Office Professional 2019 to US$249.99 and $439.99 respectively. This is an approximate 10% hike compared to the corresponding Office 2016 suites.

ProtonDB has announced that over 2,600 Windows games are now playable on Linux via Steam Play. These include games such as The Witcher 3, Dark Souls 3, Dishonored, and more. This increase in game compatibility ever since Steam Play launched with Proton last month is an indication of Valve's commitment to making Windows games easily accessible to Linux users.

The Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus are now receiving an update to Android 8.1 Oreo. While receiving a year old update is bad enough, the phones are also receiving the June 2018 Android security patch, putting the devices' security four months behind the curve.

The mid-range Radeon RX 500-series from AMD was preferred by crypto-miners, while gamers stuck to the GTX 1050/1060 solutions from Nvidia. Now that AMD took a serious hit with the crypto market decline, the red team is trying to regain some market shares in the mid-range gaming sector with the Radeon RX 590 solution that looks to be slightly faster than Nvidia's GTX 1060 (6 GB).

Code buried in Google's Play Store app hints that Google may one day offer an app bundle subscription service that offers access to several apps for a monthly fee. A question circulating through Google's Opinion Rewards app seems to corroborate this notion, asking users if they feel the word "Pass" would describe a subscription service that offers "hundreds of dollars worth of paid apps" for a monthly fee.

The Swiss firm ABB appears to believe that robotics is the future. To this end, it has spent US$150 million on a new plant in China. This factory will focus on three main areas: manufacture by automatons, R&D and AI development.

Apart from the thin bezels and the redesigned corners, the 2018 iPad Pro tablets are said to come with IPS LCD touchscreens plus the second-gen Apple Pencils, slimmer profiles (not including the rear camera), a USB-C port and a smart connector, True Depth camera setups with Face ID support, and, of course the latest 7 nm A12 Bionic SoC.

After numerous delays, the RED Hydrogen One will finally go on sale at Verizon and AT&T this Friday, November 2. Despite the initial hype built around the device last year, the steep price tag and disappointing feature set threaten to kill the Hydrogen One at launch. The device will be available for $1295.

Although it might not be doing great on the stock exchange yet, Xiaomi managed to hit its sales target for this year already. Still trailing Huawei and OPPO in China, Xiaomi managed to go from 70 million units in the first 10 months of 2017 all the way to this year's rather ambitious target of 100 million units.

The OnePlus 6T has been officially launched, even if none of its details were a huge surprise. On the other hand, the company did wow the audience with the price for the base model. In addition, it unveiled a new trade-in program with T-Mobile.

The full games list for Sony's upcoming PlayStation Classic has been released. While several classics like Resident Evil, Final Fantasy VII, and Metal Gear Solid will be available, there are a few curious omissions. The full games list is enumerated below.

Narrow bezel gaming laptops are finally starting to drop in price. The new Asus TUF FX505 is smaller than the outgoing thick-bezel FX504 but otherwise very similar in weight and thickness. The system is now shipping with GTX 1050 Ti graphics and a 1 TB primary HDD for $1100 USD.

Twitter might remove the red heart-shaped Like button soon as per reports by The Telegraph. According to the report, the decision to remove the Like button is to foster a healthier climate for debate. Twitterati, on the other hand, aren't too happy with the proposal.

The move of the notch from the top middle area to the corners of the display might not be a bad idea, as revealed by a new patent. In addition to a quad-notch handset, this patent also describes a smart wearable with a similar design, as well as the software approach needed to show the content correctly on such a display.

Corsair has introduced new low profile RGB mechanical keyboards in the K70 MK.2 lineup. The K70 MK.2 Low Profile and the K70 MK.2 Low Profile Rapidfire offer Cherry MX Low Profile RGB and Low Profile RGB Speed respectively. As with other Corsair keyboards, the new K70 MK.2 Low Profile keyboards are fully customizable using the iCUE software.

Although LG Pay was supposed to reach the US back in June, it still needs to get there. However, LG has just registered the LG Pay Quick trademark in South Korea, Europe, and the US. There might not be a launch date to talk about yet, but it seems that everything is finally moving in the right direction.

In a deal valued at US $34 billion, IBM will acquire Red Hat, the organization behind Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, and CentOS. IBM is buying Red Hat in order to compete in the cloud computing market against the likes of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and others. IBM has stated that Red Hat will operate as an independent unit with IBM's Hybrid Cloud team and will continue Red Hat's commitment to open source software.

Razer has managed to make its higher-end configurations look way overpriced by upping their baseline specifications. Users can get the entry-level Base Model Blade 15 and still have the same Core i7-8750H CPU and GTX 1060 Max-Q GPU as the higher-end model plus a few extras to boot.

According to Bethesda's VP of Marketing and Communications Pete Hines, The Elder Scrolls VI isn't likely to be released within the next few years. Clarifying the company's projected workflow, Hines said that just because the game has been announced doesn't mean that development has ramped up.

Gab, a social media alternative to the likes of Facebook and Twitter, has come under fire yet again for posts from its users. This time, anti-Semitic posts from the Pittsburgh shooter, who shot and killed 11 people in a synagogue yesterday, prompted PayPal to ban Gab from its payment services and platform.

A report published by Microsoft Research has described an Integrated Display Cover for use in conjunction with a regular smartphone. The Display Cover would offer users an additional e-ink display for viewing information, thus increasing the amount of screen real estate available. Concept images of the cover were shared on Twitter.

The ASUS ZenFone 6 is the likely successor to the ZenFone 5z that launched earlier this year. Slashleaks claims to have new images of the ZenFone 6 that show several variations on the placement of a smartphone's cameras. This includes one in which a device has an odd, off-center 'droplet' notch.

The latest update pushed to Tesla cars in the United States includes the feature 'Navigate on Autopilot'. It allows the car to suggest the next turning, if this movement will take it off or onto a highway, and complete it by itself. However, this new function still needs human approval to take effect.

Snap Camera is a freshly-launched desktop app that adds Snapchat Lenses to webcam feeds for vlogging or Twitch streams. Like all similar things Snap, it relies on facial mapping to super-impose a range of effects on a video's subject. Snap Camera is available for download now

The iPhone XR scored about 25% better than Android's best in Geekbench 4's multi-core benchmark. While this is impressive on paper (considering that the $750 iPhone XR is cheaper than most Android flagships), there is much more to consider when buying a phone than synthetic benchmarks and raw specs.

Xiaomi's new Mi Mix 3 made the trip over to DxOMark just after launch and impressed, delivering performance figures on par with devices carrying twice its price tag. The Chinese flagship may be far from the priciest on the market, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a phone with better cameras, according to DxOMark.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco was extensively tested on DxOMark and came out of it beaten, with the device achieving relatively poor scores across the board, a continuation of the refreshed Nokia brand's trend of poor camera performance.

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ will be the most impressive device in the upcoming Galaxy S10 lineup. It will also get a bigger battery to power all of that new technology, with sources touting an increase to 4000 mAh.

The Mate 20 Pro was released a short while ago but its DxOMark review is yet to be seen. Sources claim that the report hasn't been published yet because the Mate 20 Pro's scores were just too high and Huawei believes releasing that information to the public would do more harm than good.