Latest Tech News

A Norwegian tech company says its "SiliconX" battery can let you drive over 600 miles or power your smartphone for a week on just a single charge when compared to an equivalent volume of Li-ion cells. Its secret is a proprietary mixture of silicon and graphite that will give up to a five-fold in battery capacity over current Li-ion technology.

The aging Asus Chromebook Flip C302 could soon have a proper successor if the "Rammus" code name is any indication. With IFA 2018 not far off, the Taiwanese manufacturer could be preparing an announcement for its overdue Chromebook refresh. Early rumors point to a mainstream or high-end offering with a backlit keyboard and Kaby Lake U-class or Y-class processor options.

Huawei has launched a photography contest that uses an AI judge and a Leica pro photographer to decide the winner. Photographers need to submit their photos to the 'Spark A Renaissance' competition based on 5 different themes and they stand to win 10 P20 Pro's along with a trip to a Leica photography masterclass in Florence, Italy. The grand winner gets to embark on a three-nation European tour.

Anticipating increased demand for 3D NAND flash storage in the coming year, Samsung is looking to invest an additional US$2.6 billion to expand production capacities of its NAND factories in China and Korea taking the total investment to US$9 billion by 2019. The increased investments are being centered around production of 3D NAND flash, V-NAND flash, and QLC flash memory.

A single USB Type-C port may be all that's needed for a PC VR experience. VirtualLink 1.0 will define a new 'Alternate Mode' standard over the familiar USB port to hopefully reduce cable clutter associated with popular virtual reality headsets.

The new MacBook Pros have problems with the performance utilization of the Coffee Lake processors. We show why Apple's power management fails and how you can fix it with just a few clicks. This applies for the smaller 13-inch as well as the 15-inch MacBook Pro, both for macOS and Windows 10. Update: New results for macOS

Facebook subsidiary PointView Tech is building an internet satellite to enable broadband connectivity to remote areas. The project, named Athena, was shrouded in secrecy up till now. Facebook has finally confirmed to WIRED and CNET about the existence of such a project. Details of the satellite itself are still under wraps but is expected to launch in early 2019.

It may not be able to sustain Turbo Boost for very long, but at least the Core i9 in the Zenbook UX580 can maintain base clock rates when under heavy processing load. With such high core temperatures in the 90 C range, however, it's no wonder that the same i9 CPU in the even thinner MacBook Pro is getting a lot of negative press for its supposed throttling behavior.

Nvidia wants you to start the new school year with an Asus ROG Zephyrus, Acer Predator, MSI GS65, Razer Blade, or Dell Alienware laptop. Prices range from $600 USD for a GTX 1050 notebook up to $2800 USD for a fully-configured GTX 1080 Max-Q.

The upcoming expansion for Creative Assembly's Total War: Rome II is called "Rise of the Republic" and will launch in early August as a full prequel campaign for the game. This US$16.99 pack comes with a full map of Italy — including Rome's ancient enemy, Carthage — and is set in 399 BC.

Although the Chinese brand might not hit its planned sales target of 200 million units for the entire year, reaching the 100 million units milestone is also quite impressive. Compared to 7 years ago, Huawei managed to increase its smartphone sales by no less than 51 times.

The Chinese company reports that it should sell 200 million handsets by the end of 2018, which would bring it fairly close to Apple's target. At this rate, Huawei is expecting to overtake Apple in global sales at some point in 2019. The US and Indian markets should help Huawei further their plans in this respect, although the US embargoes could hinder this development.

Intel announced the Amber Lake-Y CPUs back at Computex in June, but core count or frequency details were not provided. This week, Dell and NextLab501 revealed names and specs for three Amber Lake-Y CPUs, and it looks like the new ULV chips should come with increased frequencies, but the core configuration and the iGPU remain the same.

According to reports from Korean media, Samsung could be looking to merge the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S brands given that the differences between them are minimal. This move can reduce the costs of Samsung's mobile development portfolio and possibly increase profitability amidst the onslaught of Chinese smartphone brands.

Google looks to be positioning its Fuchsia OS as a replacement for Android and Chrome OS on its Pixel hardware. Although the roadmap for the operating system has not been formally signed off, Google has over 100 software engineers working on the project.

Nokia has officially launched the 6.1 Plus for global markets. The first market outside of mainland China to receive the device will be Hong Kong starting July 24.

Fresh off the back of the LG G7 ThinQ, the Korean company is hard at work on the full blown successor to the LG V30/35. Early rumors are promising, with LG set to bring a triple rear camera to the mix as well as going virtually bezel-less.

At the Inspire partner show this week, Microsoft executives talked about plans to bring back consumers into their fold with the inclusion of Gaming and Modern Life under the Modern Life Services umbrella in Microsoft's core digital solutions across the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge. The idea is to make these services attractive for professional consumers with the goal of making them even more productive.

Samsung's upcoming smartwatch will be called the Galaxy Watch instead of the Gear S4 according to its FCC certification. The Galaxy Watch is slated to launch alongside the Galaxy Note 9 on August 9 and comes in two variants along with an additional LTE option.

The first foldable phone from Samsung will most likely be named Galaxy X, and Wall Street Journal informs that it is supposed to be launched in early 2019 with a flexible 7-inch display that can be folded like a wallet. It can either hide the display completely or split the main display into two smaller screens.

The latest financial report coming from TSMC reveals that the Taiwanese company experienced some revenue problems in the first half of 2018 due to the crypto market depreciation, but the foundries are expecting substantial profits in the second half over great demand for next gen GPUs and mobile chips.

Apple Authorized Service Providers have been distributed documents from Apple that confirm the presence of a membrane beneath the keys of the 2018 MacBook Pro models to prevent debris from entering the butterfly mechanism. While the membrane is for real, the reason for its existence is apparently not the same in all versions of the documentation.

The move to 8th generation Intel processors has enabled full speed Thunderbolt 3 connectivity on all the four ports in the 2018 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar thanks to the increased number of PCIe lanes available from the CPU. This is an improvement over the 2016 and 2017 models wherein only 2 of the 4 ports had support for full speed Thunderbolt 3.

Although the changes were quickly removed, Dell's Chilean website has been up for a while showing the XPS 13 convertible with two Amber Lake processors, namely the Intel Core i5-8200Y and the Intel Core i7-8500Y. Now, it only remains to see how long does it take for Dell to make these processor options available for real.

The last of Siri's co-founders, Tom Gruber, has announced his retirement from Apple. Siri was acquired by Apple in 2010 but two of its founders left in the succeeding years. The news comes in the wake of Apple recently appointing Google's former head of Machine Intelligence, John Giannandrea, as Chief of Machine Learning and AI Strategy.

The C43J89 is Samsung's new ultra-wide monitor that boasts a resolution of 3840x1200 in a 120Hz 43-inch VA panel. Coming in both business and gaming variants, the C43J89 supports a host of connectivity options, offers a 99% FOV, and can display two sources simultaneously.

Once a very popular Android launcher, Apex Launch has just become an example of how not to do things for the developers of such apps. The latest update reduced the number of settings available, and some of those that have not been eliminated have been completely changed. All in all, Apex Launch is now one of those launchers that any user should avoid.

Kensington has announced the availability of the SD7000 dock for the Surface Pro. The SD7000 dock connects to the Surface Pro using the Surface Connector and provides USB ports, Ethernet, USB-C, HDMI, and a DisplayPort converting the tablet into a mini Surface Studio of sorts.

The Nokia X5 is now official in China. The latest notched Android smartphone is expected to also get a global rollout as the Nokia 5.1 Plus

Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon has officially announced the Kirin 710. The new ARM-based design will provide mid-range phones powered by the octa-core chip with a substantial boost in performance.

The upcoming free campaign and content update for Sea of Thieves is called "Cursed Sails" and will go live on July 31. The three-week campaign will bring skeleton ships to challenge players on the seas and bring terror to outposts. Fortunately, those who will not be able to take part in the campaign will be able to enjoy the new content in the future as well.

Corning has taken the wraps off the latest version of its ubiquitous Gorilla Glass for smartphones and tablets. Version 6 is all about bringing added drop protection that is twice as resistant to drops as Gorilla Glass 5.

After numerous leaks and teasers, the Xiaomi Mi Max 3 is finally here. Xiaomi's new phablet inherits a lot of specifications from the Redmi Note 5 including the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC and dual cameras but the standout features of the Mi Max 3 are the 6.9-inch FHD+ 18:9 display and its 5,500 mAh battery.

Research firm Blancco has published a Mobile Device Repair and Security Report that throws up some interesting facts. The report puts Samsung as the OEM with the highest failure rate among Android manufacturers and the Xiaomi Redmi 4 as the specific model with the highest failures in 2017. In the Apple camp, the iPhone 6 was the device with the highest failure rate.

Microsoft's Surface chief Panos Panay recently opened up on the WIRED's Gadget Lab podcast and talked about the Surface Go and its position in the Surface family. However, he categorically denied the possibility of a Surface Phone but did say there will be new form factors and new change in the market.

Next to Clevo barebones, notebooks from MSI are some of the easiest to disassemble and upgrade. We've collected a series of motherboard images from our own collection to show how the MSI G Series has evolved over the years from the old GT60 up to the latest GS65.

The specs and pricing info got leaked by UK online retailer MobileFun, and it looks like the XZ3 has a few upgrades in store over the XZ2. While the 5.7-inch remained the same, the new XZ3 will come with a Snapdragon 845 SoC coupled with 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage, a 3,240 mAh battery, dual 19 MP + 12 MP rear camera setup, and an overall reduced thickness of 0.39 inches.

There are generational performance leaps, and then there is pure marketing. The Core i9 series has so far been leaning towards the latter in terms of raw performance. In some cases, the CPU may even be slower than the Core i7.

Without a doubt, Google has become one of the most important technology companies in the last ten years – the company not only has a monopoly in search-engines, but also in the mobile OS market. Today, Google has been fined by the EU commission for abusing its mobile OS monopoly.

Taiwanese SoC maker MediaTek is expanding the 12 nm Helio SoC family with the A-series that is dedicated to entry-level devices. The Helio A22 SoC is already featured in the Xiaomi Redmi 6A and comes with four ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.0 GHz. Most important features are the LPDDR3/4X support, LTE cat 7/13 capabilities, and advanced AI application compatibility.

Although the new story content will be playable starting on July 25 and the Battle of Azeroth update is set to arrive on August 14, the pre-patch can be downloaded already. World of Warcraft 8.0.1 comes with multiple changes, including an updated PvP Honor and Prestige system, the ability to create and join cross-realm social groups, updated classes and specializations, and more.

50% more cores for 13 % more performance. We were eager to find out how the new Apple MacBook Pro 15 handles the new hexa-core processors. Not very well after our initial tests, because the performance advantage under sustained workloads is small compared to the previous model, despite the additional CPU cores.

Hello from the boys and unfortunately few girls in our smartphone editorial team. We would like to tell you about which smartphones and tablets we are currently reviewing and which devices we are eagerly awaiting to arrive in our offices. We welcome comments as always and suggestions as to what devices we haven’t yet reviewed. Let’s get started…

Walmart has chosen Microsoft as its cloud services provider to improve the former's forecasting, purchasing, and data sharing abilities. While both the companies clearly share a rivalry with Amazon, this 5 year deal helps Walmart increase its market share in the US and also streamline its delivery system.

ATARI's classic arcade game Tempest that was released in October 1981 is making a return as Eat Electric Death! Tempest 4000 with new features and 4K graphics. This title is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PCs for US$20 or US$30 — depending on the market and platform, of course.

The OnePlus 6 made its way over to DxOMark yesterday and achieved scores placing it on par with traditional juggernauts like the iPhone X, Google Pixel 2, and Huawei Mate Pro. Of course, it's a lot more impressive when you consider the fact that the OnePlus 6 is a current-gen device and costs significantly less than its peers.

The Snapdragon 632 was released a few weeks ago and has made its way to Geekbench, with it recording scores that would make it the company's most impressive mid-range SoC, even ahead of the Snapdragon 636.

More details of Huawei’s upcoming flagship, the Mate 20, have surfaced. According to the reports, the device will feature OLED panels made by Chinese company BOE, and not Samsung as previously touted. It could also ship with five cameras.

Some Xiaomi fans have always had a feeling that the Mi 8 Explorer was nothing but a concept showpiece by Xiaomi. They may be proven wrong soon, though, with reports claiming that the device could go on sale on July 24.

Although the Android 8.1 Oreo update for the Xiaomi Mi A1 started to roll out last month, it was quickly stopped after the discovery of an SMS bug. Back then, most markets did not even receive it, so now it is the first time for most users of this successful Android One handset when the update reaches them.