Latest Tech News

Word of the LG V40 has surfaced, with the device touted to feature a notch, facial recognition, and grand sum of five cameras. Life is Good but more isn't always better.

There was word last week that OPPO's new Find X was billed to be sold in the US. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to be the case, as OPPO isn't interested in going through the hurdles of selling the device in the US just yet. The Find X will be available in Europe, though.

The Mi Max 3 Pro has been spotted on Xiaomi's official website with a Snapdragon 710, 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, a 5400 mAh battery, and a 6.9-inch display. A July launch is confirmed.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has made the journey to FCC for certification. While the listing doesn’t tell us much we don’t already know, it could be an indication of the device being set to launch earlier than normal.

With the new Legion Cube C730, Lenovo is attempting to provide a hybrid between mini PCs and mini tower desktops. The portability is quite affected by the 20-pound weight, but Lenovo does offer a handle to move the system around easier. Users can choose between the i7-8700K/8700 and i5-8400 six-core CPUs, up to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, up to 512 NVMe SSD plus up to 4 TB HDD storage, and a choice between the GTX 1060 and the Radeon RX 570 GPUs.

According to insider sources, Nvidia's desktop GPU team is already testing GTX 11xx prototype PCBs and the final specs should be announced in mid-July. One of these prototype PCBs was already leaked on reddit. The board does not feature the GPU, however the spec sheet includes 12 GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a 384-bit bus, three 8-pin power connectors and a second gen NVLink.

The ubiquitous and all-pervasive Wi-Fi is receiving its first major update in 14 years with the announcement of the WPA3 authentication protocol by the Wi-Fi Alliance. WPA3 is the successor to WPA2, which was the target of many hackers in the last year and comes with new features that prevent offline dictionary attacks and enable forward secrecy. The protocol is available for implementation in new routers today and is expected to go mainstream by 2019.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 may still be nine months away but word from reputable sources have given us a better understanding of what to expect from Samsung’s milestone device. The S10 is expected to come in three models, the cheapest of which will be a 5.8-inch device with a flat screen. There's also a model expected to feature three rear cameras a la Huawei P20 Pro.

The Blackberry KEYone received a maintenance update prepping it for Android Oreo a few weeks ago, and now a document has been revealed that shows the device penned down to start receiving the Android 8.0 Oreo update on June 28.

HMD has announced that its new entry-level device, the Nokia 3.1, is coming to the US on July 2. The device will be on sale on Amazon and BestBuy and will come with 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, and a US$159 price tag.

Designer Director of Undead Labs (recently acquired by Microsoft), makers of the hit game State of Decay 2, Richard Foge, feels that Microsoft is not fooling around when it comes to providing first rate gaming experiences to its customers. He feels that the company will continue to innovate with the best games and hardware and grow the highly successful State of Decay franchise.

Surprising as it may seem, there is every possibility that the QHD monitor that you are using right now might in fact be a 4K panel. Supply shortages mean that OEMs could simply install a 4K panel, which are now almost as expensive or even cheaper than QHD panels and still be able to limit the output resolution via firmware. But how does one know whether the monitor has a native QHD panel or a 4K panel and does it affect regular usage?

NVIDIA's Add-in Board (AIB) partners are expected to receive the first shipments of NVIDIA's next generation 'Turing' architecture GPUs sometime in between late August to early September. The official nomenclature is yet to be made official but we can expect some leaks to crop up once the first shipments are out. The initial seeding to the AIB partners, however, is said to be in limited volumes.

Apple just released the first public Beta of iOS 12. Committed Apple users can download the Beta for free from Apple's site, but be warned - as beta software, there are quite a few bugs still being worked out. Still, this is the only way to get some of the new features in iOS 12 for free.

Panasonic's latest rugged Android Handheld, the Toughbook FZ-T1, is a low-specced Android handheld priced higher than most premium smartphones. However, the $1,500 device is aimed squarely at enterprises in need of a tough-as-nails handheld that can weather almost anything thrown at it.

The manufacturer is promising 64 GB/s from a single GDDR6 package for future applications in artificial intelligence, networking, automotive, and of course, graphics. Example modules will be on display this week at the ISC 2018 conference in Frankfurt, Germany. These same chips will very likely target the next generation of consumer graphics cards.

The Moto Z Play was loved by enthusiasts when it was released two years ago. Sadly, the company failed to live up to expectations with its successor, the Moto Z2 Play. Fans of the Moto Z Play may have a reason to smile now, though, as details of the upcoming Moto One Power surface.

Not long after surfacing online for the first time, the Samsung SM-J260 is back in dozens of markets worldwide. However, this Android Go handset is not available for purchase yet, since Samsung is only testing it at this stage. The list of countries where this handset is currently undergoing trials includes Germany, Italy, France, Singapore, and others.

Microsoft is working closely with Razer to bring official support for keyboard and mouse input for the Xbox One. Long promised, but never delivered, the new partnership will give hardcore gamers the additional customization options that PC gamers enjoy from an input and control perspective.

Xiaomi has unveiled its new Redmi 6 Pro. The device is a natural successor to the Redmi 4 Prime, and shockingly is powered by the same Snapdragon 625, almost two years after the latter was released.

Xiaomi has announced the launch of its new Mi Pad 4 tablet. The device comes with a base price tag of US$170, which makes it the cheapest device powered by a Snapdragon 660.

Xiaomi has announced that it sold a million units of the Mi 8 devices in just 18 days. Considering how many devices the company has in its portfolio, and the fact that its talents lie in the mid-range and budget market, this number can only be chalked down as a massive success.

The OxygenOS 5.1.6 and 5.1.8 updates to the OnePlus 6 has caused a number of users to experience weird battery behaviors, with some claiming their devices now offer half the regular screen-on time.

Enthusiasts who want the fastest possible storage speeds already know to buy motherboards that use flagship chipsets (e.g. Intel's Z370 and AMD's X470). However, a series of benchmarks from TechSpot confirm that dual slot X470 boards can restrict performance if one of the slots is connected to the chipset with PCIe 2.0.

Intel's upcoming Z390 chipset could be just a rebadged Z370 if the grapevine on the street is to be believed. The Z390 was expected to bring support for the 8-core 'Coffee Lake-S' CPUs along with an integrated USB 3.1 Gen2 Host Controller and Intel Wireless 802.11ac with Bluetooth 5.0 but it looks like Intel had a change of heart owing to increased strain in 14nm production.

Most Windows laptops prioritize battery life at the cost of a dimmer display. If you frequently find yourself squinting at washed out content when using your glossy laptop or Windows tablet outdoors, then disabling this automatic feature can make things a little easier.

Those who love certain Huawei and Honor devices but cannot stand the company's custom interface, EMUI, can run stock Android thanks to a new project called OpenKirin. The list of supported devices currently includes no less than 17 phones and tablets loaded with EMUI 8 by default.

Earlier this week, Google silently introduced a feature that is supposed to increase the security of the Android platform by adding a string of metadata to all APK files. As long as Google does not go DRM-crazy the same way Electronic Arts did on a few occasions, everything should be fine.

The successor of the US$35 Renegade single-board PC by Libre Computer will hit Indiegogo in July and general availability is scheduled for August. This Raspberry Pi alternative uses a Rockchip RK3399 processor and features USB Type-C connectivity, 4 GB DDR4 memory, eMMC 5.x support, Gigabit Ethernet, and more.

As incredible as it may seem, Windows 7 still offered support for pre-2000 processors until recently, when Microsoft confirmed that machines without SSE2 support must be upgraded to continue receiving updates for the operating system. Back in March, the company mentioned that a workaround for non-SSE2 processors was under development.

While most rumors that we heard so far mentioned an ARM processor, new ones reveal that the upcoming foldable Windows 10 device will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000, a chip that was specifically created for Windows on ARM devices. Also known as the Surface Phone, the Andromeda still needs to be confirmed by Microsoft.

In addition to the noticeable price bump from US$999.99 to US$1,059.99 that has been already applied to the Dell XPS 15 9570 with Intel Core i5-8300H processor, the most affordable hardware setup of this performance laptop is also expected to get a 97 WHr battery, confirms Frank Azor.

Already under threat from smartphone chip-based ARM-powered notebooks and having to recover from the unexpected loss of its CEO, Intel looks to be under renewed threat from Qualcomm. Unlike previous ARM-based notebooks, the rumored Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000 could be purpose-built from the ground up to challenge Intel’s ultrabook dominance.

Intel CEO Brian Kraznich has been forced to resign over after it was revealed that he had been involved in a relationship with an Intel employee. Although the relationship was consensual, the relationship violated a company non-fraternization policy barring managers from being romantically involved with subordinates.

Promised features like eSIM and Always Connected PCs could debut on the Snapdragon 845-powered 'Cheza' Chromebook. More unverified code in Chromium have shed some light on the unannounced model including the potential for a 1440p or 2160p display and an integrated X20 modem. A Snapdragon Chromebook would compete directly with Microsoft's plans to launch Windows on ARM.

Apple has finally admitted that its new 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro models are prone to malfunctioning. After months of user complaints, the company has officially launched a Keyboard Service Program for affected users, but it continues to sell devices that could be affected by the same issues.

Huawei's customer support has announced that the Huawei P9 will not get the update to Android Oreo. This comes after the company sent out beta updates to users of the devices in China last month.

With the recent rise of both 3D facial recognition technology and in-display fingerprint sensors, Samsung is set to ditch the iris scanner on the Galaxy S10 in favor of something more mainstream.

Huawei is said to be working on an SoC that will end Qualcomm's reign over the Android SoC market. The chipset, supposedly the Kiirin 1020, is touted to offer twice the performance of the current Kirin 970.

Blackberry's new device, the KEY2, was launched a short while ago. The device will be go on presale in the US on June 29, and will hit shop shelves on July 13–with a base price tag of US$649.99.

The race for smaller and more efficient semiconductor processes continues with 7 nm being the next magic number. Qualcomm is apparently ready to contract TSMC to manufacture the next generation of Snapdragon SoCs for the first time in over 10 years. Samsung had been Qualcomm's go-to company for the 14 nm and 10 nm nodes, but partnering with TSMC will allow Qualcomm to receive both Snapdragon SoCs and 5G modems from one production source.

LG has launched its new Stylo 4 phablet. The device comes with a Stylus Pen for productivity, and a US$179 price tag that makes it a hard pass for those seeking a Galaxy Note device in a much cheaper form.

HMD's upcoming device, the Nokia 5.1 Plus, has stopped by at TENAA with a 5.86-inch HD+ display, a notch, dual rear cameras, and what looks an awful lot like a Helio P22.

The Mi Max 3 popped up on TENAA a few days ago, throwing some more light on what we should expect from the device. Some highlights include an IR blaster, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 5400 mAh battery, and a notchless 6.9-inch display.

The Honor 10 and Honor View 10 are great camera devices by their own rights but didn't come with any form of image stabilization out of the box. Both devices are currently receiving a security update that brings that feature, however.

Although the space on the back of the Samsung device shown in the patent that surfaced online thanks to Mobiel kopen might not be a secondary display after all, it is nice to think that a device similar to the YotaPhone might hit the market backed by the name of a major player in the smartphone market.

In a second letter this month, lawmakers are again expressing concern that Google has been showing preference in working with the Chinese telecommunications company rather than the U.S. army. The search giant only sees Huawei as just one of many contractors under its belt with no current plans to cease cooperation for now.

Getting an inside view into the notebook industry is a rare thing and seeing actual prototypes even rarer still. A few days ago, Lenovo showcased such a prototype to Japanese journalists – the prototype of its current ThinkPad X1 Carbon. This two year old prototype looks very different from the production model.

After a brief pre-ordering period, Amazon's Fire TV Cube can be acquired for a price of US$119.99 (the player alone) or US199.98 (Fire TV and Cloud Cam package). Later this year, this device should get support for sleep timers, Alexa Calling/Messaging, multi-room music, Bluetooth connections to mobile phones, and more.

Five years after the latest redesign and relaunch, the MSN News service gets a new design and a new name: Microsoft News. Microsoft News now features a dark theme, an impressive collection of curated news, as well as quick and accurate notifications. The mobile app is available for iOS and Android, but there are also versions for Windows 10 and the Web.