Software

The OnePlus 8T will be superseded by the new flagship 9 series soon; however, its new official public Android betas might help keep it relevant for some time to come. The latest one contains a bunch of bug-fixes, and also upgrades the phone's security patch level to March 2021. It also adds one or two features, including a time-stamp for the stock camera app.

CTL's latest Chromebook is powered by the Intel Celeron N4020 and has 4GB of RAM, as many of the OEM's devices do. However, the NL71CT-LTE also has standalone mobile data, so it need not be reliant on Wi-Fi for its often educational use-cases. This spec has helped win it one of Tech & Learning's Excellence Awards for Best Remote & Blended Learning Tools.

The display-standard specialist group TÜV Rheinland has announced its new Dynamic Privacy Filter certification, and that 2021's ThinkPads X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga are the first 2 devices to officially match up to it. The 2 business PCs have done so by passing a battery of tests on their ability to protect sensitive data under a variety of lighting conditions.

Motorola is now rumored to have a phone called the Moto G20 in the works. It seems the OEM has made some unusual choices for this device, as its SoC comes not from Qualcomm, or even MediaTek, but from Unisoc instead. According to a new Geekbench leak, it is an octa-core chipset clocked at 2.0GHz.

OnePlus is due to launch its first-gen smartwatch along with its new flagship phones on March 23, 2021. The OEM's CEO, Pete Lau, has just confirmed that it has "more than 110 work-out modes", which, apparently, range from walking to weight-lifting. The wearable is also projected to have heart-rate and blood-oxygen sensors.

SoftBank has announced that it has set up a new 5G service in Japan. It is based on mmWave technology as opposed to sub-6GHz, which, according to its owner, brings the potential for higher speeds at reduced costs for carriers. The new system is made using Qualcomm hardware, and will support phones with the same OEM's SoCs.

A device called the "HMD Global Nokia X20" has popped up on Geekbench 5, detected as running on a Snapdragon 480 processor. This SoC is aimed at affordable new 5G phones, suggesting that this putative X20 will fall into this tier on launch. Its new leak also suggests it has 6GB of RAM and runs Android 11.

NVIDIA's game-streaming service GeForce NOW has announced the end of one membership type and the beginning of another. At US$9.99, the new Priority subscription costs more, but is also slated to add more benefits such as RTX ON and DLSS support in compatible titles. However, those with the original Founder's membership have their pricing locked in.

Xiaomi's Black Shark premium gaming brand has announced that its new, Snapdragon 888-powered flagship is to launch on March 23, 2021 in China. The 4 is slated to have improved, "360-degree, 3D" cooling, triple rear cameras and the shoulder buttons from its 3 Pro forebear. The 2 phones are also likely to have very different designs.

ENACFIRE has announced A9 TWS earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC). This spec is delivered via "smart noise-detect mics" rated to cut out up to 80% of ambient noise while also providing a 'Transparency' mode. The buds also feature IPX7 ingress-protection, a quad-mic system for call quality and a launch price of US$40.

Realme has officially announced that its first phone with the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 flagship processor will be the GT Neo, and that it will debut at the end of March 2021. The OEM has yet to tease any more of its specs, although it is possible it will launch with a curved screen and a 4,400mAh battery.

OxygenOS (OOS) is OnePlus' well-received Android-based ROM for the global units of its phones. It has a Chinese-market counterpart called HydrogenOS (H2OS). However, the OEM has reportedly informed its users that it is to be discontinued in favor of OPPO’s ColorOS instead.

Unleashed for both desktop and mobile users, Vivaldi 3.7 comes with native support for Apple M1 processors and noticeable speed improvements (Windows/Linux/macOS), as well as easier bookmarking of websites and a friendly Welcome page alongside various other interface enhancements (Android).

The Redmi Smart TV X50, X55 and X65 have been unleashed onto the Indian market. Their 4K LED panels are enhanced with MEMC, HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision. The series also features dual 15W speakers, and will start at INR 32,999 (~US$455) on their March 26, 2021 release.

The Xiaomi Mi A3 is now receiving a new update. The OTA delivers the March security update and manages not to include any bugs—a thankful achievement considering Xiaomi's track record with Android One updates. It's also being sent out globally at the moment.

The list of Android flagship phones with the latest Snapdragon 888 SoC is slowly yet steadily growing, although not all of them are available globally. New leaks suggest the Vivo X60 Pro Plus, one such premium device launched in partnership with Zeiss, will make it to international shores soon.

OnePlus will replace the 8T as its newest flagship soon. However, the OEM has news for those who would prefer to stick with the phone: it is now part of the Open Beta project at the company. This channel of new Android updates might unlock access to new features before they hit the "normal" stable versions.

Wear OS might be a no-brainer for consumers choosing a smartwatch to go with their Android phone - or rather, it should be. The wearables platform still has many potentially frustrating limitations, one of which is the inability to set tiles for non-Google or OEM apps. However, the Mountain View giant has announced a solution for this issue is now in alpha.

Rocket Lake-S is a supposedly upcoming line of 11th-gen Intel CPUs with TDPs of up to 125W. A Chiphell user claims to have gotten hold of pre-release samples that indicate this top-end treatment extends to their Core i5 variants. This alleged i5-11600KF is joined by an "i5-11400F" in this new leak.

Crytek has announced that DLSS can be switched on in Crysis Remastered with the game's latest update. Therefore, its performance while running on NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards with RTX may be boosted considerably. Then again, the new potential advantage is also affected by some initial bugs.

Android 11 has arrived for the LG V60 ThinQ in Europe. The update has arrived for the LMV600EA variant, which LG also sells in South Africa and Taiwan.

A Spanish electronics website has posted a new listing for the Moto G50, also known as the XT2137-1 - or the rumored Motorola "Ibiza", in other words. It confirms various other details from this device's earlier leaks, RAM and storage specs included. This new preliminary sales page may indicate that the European smartphone market might get a new budget 5G option soon.

Xiaomi has started recruiting another batch of pilot testers for MIUI 12.5. The program is open for 21 recent smartphones, including the Mi 11, Mi 10, Mi 9, Mi 9 SE, the Redmi K20 Pro, Redmi Note 8 Pro and the Redmi Note 9T, among others.

LG has published another Android 11 roadmap, this time for Germany. Only two devices, the Velvet 5G and G8X will receive the OS upgrade before Q3 2021. Additionally, the LG Wing must wait until Q4 2021 at the earliest for Android 11, which will be long after Google releases Android 12.

Xiaomi has a good record for updating its smartphones, but that record does not stretch to the Mi Mix 3. Unfortunately, it seems that the device has been bypassed for an Android 11 upgrade too, despite being released on Android 9.0 Pie.

The Galaxy Note 9 can now be upgraded to One UI 3.1 and Android 11 thanks to a new custom ROM. Called Noble ROM, the ROM is available for Exynos versions of the Galaxy Note 9, including the dual-SIM edition. The ROM is the first opportunity to run One UI 3.1 on the former flagship smartphone.

Motorola has launched the G10 Power, a 6,000mAh Android 11 smartphone, in India. Its 6.5-inch HD+ Max Vision display is driven by a Snapdragon 460 SoC, paired to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It will be available via Flipkart from March 16, 2021, and will start at INR 9,999 (~US$137) on that date.

Denuvo announced that its popular Denuvo Anti-Cheat program is now on the PlayStation 5. Several PS5 launch titles already use it, added the company, although it didn't specify which ones. Denuvo also adds that Anti-Cheat will not affect the performance of any games that use it.

The latest update to War Thunder, labeled 2.5 "Ixwa Strike" and unleashed earlier today, brings more than 20 new ground vehicles (including a South African separate branch in the British tech tree), first sweep-wing aircraft (Su-17M), 5 new ships, new locations, a pilot HUD, new graphical effects, and more.

iQOO has confirmed that it will launch its Snapdragon 870-powered Neo5 on March 16, 2021. However, new leaks suggest that it will have a second Android device to debut in the same month. The Z3 is thought to be the successor to the Z1, and, thus, to run on the new MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC.

Xiaomi has started rolling out a new software update to the Mi Watch Lite that improves the smartwatch in many ways. The update brings many new features to the smartwatch, along with bug fixes and improved system stability.

GSC Game World's Zakhar Bocharov sat down to answer questions about STALKER 2 on a Russian language podcast. Bocharov highlighted some new information about the game, including the possibility of mod support on Xbox.

The P50 series is slated to be the next generation of Huawei's camera-oriented flagship smartphones. New leaks have suggested that the OEM is developing HarmonyOS 2.0 as their default ROM, which would be the first time it has shipped devices with this new OS. Meanwhile, a screen protector for the P50 Pro is also allegedly now out in the wild.

While Cyberpunk 2077's official 1.2 patch has been delayed somewhat, enterprising modders are improving aspects of the game by themselves. The Realistic Combat Overhaul by cortlong50 promises to revamp combat by making both the player - and enemy NPCs - significantly more dangerous to each other.

Realme has already effectively confirmed that the impending 8 Pro will launch with this brand's first 108MP main camera. Now, some new leaks may hint at what is to be found inside this device. They may include 8GB of RAM and the Snapdragon 720G processor.

A new report has found that Samsung sold just under 600,000 units of the Galaxy S21 series in the first 4 weeks since its launch in this OEM's home country. The flagships have not done so well in this respect since the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus debuted in 2017. Furthermore, the Galaxy A31 was found to be the best-selling Android phone in South Korea for 2020.

Amazfit is a popular wearables brand with its own e-store that serves several regions, the US included. It is currently running a promotion that offers a free second strap with every purchase of its latest GTS 2 and GTR 2 series of smartwatches. These bands normally cost about US$20, meaning this might be a good chance to get two in different colors for a limited time.

Realme has launched the C21 in Malaysia with a unique rear panel that might make even those not looking for a budget phone take a second look. It houses a 5,000mAh battery that also allows the device to double as a power bank. Its opposite side offers a large enough 6.5-inch HD+ display.

The Mijia Mi Smart Projector 2 Pro is a relatively portable FHD projector launched by Xiaomi with the potential advantage of a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor for added focus capabilities in late 2020 in China. Now, it has a Global variant, which means it runs Android TV and is available on Banggood from now.

The official Weibo channel for the Master Lu benchmark claims to have seen its first 18GB RAM phone. Somewhat unsurprisingly, it is the ROG Phone 5, which has also surfaced on Geekbench with this ground-breaking spec. On this occasion, it has apparently shot right to the top of the rankings in this test.

Razer is known for gaming audio peripherals; however, its new Anzu product is something else altogether. They are of the smart-glass type that incorporate personal speakers for the wearer's audio, which, as the OEM claims, will reach the user's head with reduced latency and increased immersion. They are available in Razer's store from now for US$199.99.

Huawei has come out swinging in response to criticism that the smartphone version of HarmonyOS is nothing more than a re-branded EMUI. According to reports, Huawei asserts that people do not have an 'understanding of open-source software' if they believe such things. However, in doing so, Huawei has confirmed that HarmonyOS is not the brand-new OS that it wants us to believe it is.

Users in Germany can now use their Samsung Galaxy smartwatches to make purchases via Samsung Pay. A one-time setup is required via a linked Android smartphone. After that, one only requires to enter a PIN to authenticate every transaction. Only a handful of Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Watch models support it, for now.

Qualcomm offers a range of products that support or serve mobile wireless audio, ranging from its aptX technology to the entire 8-series of mobile SoCs. Now, it has announced that this panel of technology has a new, unified platform: Snapdragon Sound. It will also act as a badge to signal to the consumer that its specs are present in a given product.

Realme has launched its first flagship device of 2021. The OEM asserts that the new GT 5G has been designed and equipped to get the most out of its Snapdragon 888 platform, from its "gaming" 120Hz E4 AMOLED display to its new stainless steel-augmented cooling system. It also does indeed come in finishes that include "racing-stripe" vegan leather, and starts at just under ~US$450 in China.

The Lenovo Yoga Tabs are Android slates marked by unique rolling grips at one end that may also house speakers and USB type C ports. Now, it looks like the OEM has a new member of this series in the works. The "Yoga Tab 13" has appeared on Google and Geekbench databases with 8GB of RAM and Android 11.

Meizu has got the jump on the premium Android smartphone launch season with its new 18 and 18 Pro flagships. The OEM has revealed that the series offers specs such as 120Hz curved displays, 50MP main cameras and internal storage with top-end UFS 3.1 speeds. The new devices are up for pre-order in China from now.

Although Apple still has to confirm this, it looks like macOS 11.3 will come with a nasty surprise for some users. Depending on the region, this update might remove Rosetta, so the users of M1-powered machines in those countries will lose the ability to run x86 apps built for Intel-based Macs.

Realme has announced that it will launch its first 108MP camera phone in 2021. Not only that, but the top-end sensor in question is Samsung's latest CMOS of this resolution: the ISOCELL HM2. It has features such as 3x lossless zoom, nonapixel binning. The OEM has developed "Starry", tilt-shift and Neon Portrait modes for it in the 8 Pro.

Razer DevCon is a new event set to debut in 2021 via Twitch. It is slated to present discussions on the up-to-date innovation and technology that might most benefit the future of gaming across multiple platforms. Therefore, it might interest developers involved in mobile, console or PC ecosystems.