Fail

We have asked Lenovo some questions about the Thunderbolt controller failures in recent ThinkPads. Their answers confirm the suspicion that a problematic firmware version is the reason for the problems.

Two years ago, LG promised that it would start delivering updates faster and more frequently. While 2019 largely proved a bust in that regard, the company has already started pushing Android 10 to the V50 ThinQ. Now, the company has announced its Android 10 roadmap, and who knew that promising to deliver updates in a more timely manner also meant ditching most of your current portfolio.

Xiaomi launched the Mi A2 Lite in mid-2018 running Android One, making it eligible for at least one more OS upgrade. However, the company has now sparked talk online about whether the device will even receive Android 10, with it seemingly relegating it to just security patch updates, instead.

Paraphrasing Radeon VP Scott Herkelman, has AMD jebaited NVIDIA again, or has it pulled one on itself this time? The Radeon RX 5600 XT may be an excellent mid-tier desktop GPU, but the manner in which AMD has released it is nothing short of laughable.

A new day, and a new set of leaks about the Galaxy S20 series. These, as most tend to, purport to be the most accurate yet, and they do not show the S20 Ultra in a good light. Who knew that Samsung could go bigger than Google and Apple?

A noted data miner has dug out an impressive result for AMD’s Ryzen 7 4800H in 3DMark’s Time Spy benchmark. The Ryzen 4000 series chip from the new Renoir family of APUs amassed a total of 8,350 points in the test, putting it ahead of potential competitors such as Intel’s Core i7-9700K, which managed 8,209 points in the same benchmark.

An apparent "PR disaster has struck once again" for Samsung, after a report of a Galaxy S7 Edge handset exploding. While the owner claims that the device was unplugged from the mains at the time, Samsung denies any responsibility. A PR disaster because of one damaged three-year-old phone? Come on now.

Since 2018, most ThinkPads bank on USB C as the sole charging connector. For users, USB C has many advantages over proprietary connectors. Right now though, Lenovo has some problems with the USB C connectors in the ThinkPads, as they sometimes fail due to faulty Thunderbolt Controllers.

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" will finally kill the pre-installed Amazon Web App. The move comes in the wake of Canonical's eliminations of the Ubuntu web launcher dependency. Many users hated the Amazon Web App, which was introduced as a pre-installed link in Ubuntu 12.10.

Apple has found itself in another privacy related controversy, this time over a decision apparently made two years ago, but only coming to light now. According to Reuters, Apple abandoned plans to fully encrypt iPhone (and iPad) back ups in iCloud following pressure from the FBI. The move raises serious privacy concerns for a company that touts itself as a user privacy leader.

A new leak posted to the Geekbench 5 database purports to spill some of the upcoming Google Pixel 4a's specs. However, this "leak" is particularly unreliable, not the least as it makes the bold claim that the OEM will switch from Qualcomm to Samsung for this phone's processor. Furthermore, the SoC in question also belongs to the Galaxy S8 flagship line.

After selling more than 100,000 Mate X units, Huawei is already headed towards the release of its second iteration. Sadly, the display of this innovative piece of technology seems to be just as frail as that of its main competitor and repairing it costs as much as US$1,000.

The latest "leak" doing the rounds about the Xiaomi Mi 10 certainly paints the picture of an exquisite-looking device, but is it real? Despite calls to the contrary, one respected leaker of Xiaomi hardware says no. We are digging the Mi Mix Alpha vibes, though.

After announcing that Cyberpunk 2077 would be delayed until September, CD Projekt Red later disclosed on an investment call that the multiplayer component of the game likely won't be ready until after 2021. While the wait is disappointing, CDPR should be lauded for its transparency about the game's development.

Few OEMs get involved in the work of leakers, but then LG is not just any Android OEM. The company that seems perennially behind the curve has also denounced the work on OnLeaks, specifically, his recent LG G9 ThinQ renders. This is not the first time that Ken Hong, Head of Global Corporate Communications at the company, has done so, either.

Samsung removed the 3.5mm headphone jack on the Galaxy Note 10 phones last year and that decision has carried over to the company's upcoming flagships. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S20 phones will not feature headphone jacks, but what does that mean for audio purists?

CES 2020 marked the arrival of the PlayStation 5, in logo form at least. Unsurprisingly, it looks like the one that the company used for the PS4, and the internet has reacted in particularly humourus fashion.

A crisis of its own making? Last year, Xiaomi had promised that the Mi A3 would be one of the first devices in the world to receive Android 10, but even its predecessor has been graced by Google's latest OS before it has. There has at least been confirmation of when the Mi A3 will receive Android 10 now, but the date has left a sour taste in some people's mouths.

It has been almost two years since LG opened a Software Upgrade Center to speed up the release of software upgrades. However, the South Korean company has still yet to finish bringing the LG G6 onto Android 9.0 Pie, with some people rightfully questioning whether their handset will forever remain stuck on Android Oreo, instead.

While we have previously argued that Xiaomi's approach to MIUI 11 is disingenuous, its latest round of updates for the Mi 9 SE borders on the farcical. While the wait for Android 10 goes on for most Mi 9 SE owners, some have already started receiving the latest version of Android on their handsets. Only a few mind you, and some may have not even realised it.

A new study of those who use voice-activated searches have found that 64% of this group set the assistant in question off by mistake during December 2019. An accidental press of a hardware button was found to be the culprit in 49% of these cases. In others, an AI "mishearing" a user's speech resulted in these mishaps.

Oxygen OS 10.3.0 addressed multiple issues for the OnePlus 6 and 6T, but it also broke the notch hiding feature that had been present in Android 9.0 Pie builds. While OnePlus is yet to fix the problem, there is a workaround that may do the trick.

More images of the PlayStation 5 devkit and a possible DualShock 5 controller have been leaked. This time, a cleaner working for a developer involved with Sony’s next-generation console decided to upload the pictures while giving the office a thorough dusting. These latest images give a closer look at the hefty controller that could be the DualShock 5.

A video on Weibo raises concerns about the durability of the Huawei Mate X. A plastic display coupled with an outward-folding design imply that the Mate X might be just as, if not more fragile than, the Galaxy Fold.

No, the latest Ice Lake-powered Spectre x360 13 does not weigh just 930 grams despite what the HP Customer Support Knowledge Base is affirming. Our own measurements show that the convertible is actually 33 percent heavier to be closer to the Dell XPS 13 7390 2-in-1.

At the request of the director, Universal will roll out an update to the movie Cats, which released this past Friday. The "patch" aims to clean up some of the CGI in the movie, which has largely been panned by critics. The film scored a measly $2.6 million over its opening weekend, a drop in the bucket compared to its $100+ million budget.

Facebook’s security troubles continue. In a recent security incident, the personal information of nearly 270 million people was leaked to a public server. This comes in the context of ongoing security and privacy concerns pertaining to the social media platform.

There is no need for a Surface Connect port now that Thunderbolt 3 is becoming ubiquitous amongst mid-range to high-end laptops and tablets. There is nothing that Microsoft can't do with the more universal Thunderbolt 3 port that they are already doing with the expensive proprietary Surface Connect port.

Some new price tags for two variants of the Sony PlayStation 5 have made their way online but have rapidly been denied by the manufacturer of the next-generation console. It was claimed that a PS5 with a 4 TB SSD would cost the equivalent of over US$1,000, while the same source stated that December 4, 2020 had been confirmed as the official release date.

According to a University of Manchester study, your smartphone’s night mode might not let you fall asleep as previously thought. The warmer light transmitted may actually keep you awake for longer than with night mode disabled.

PewDiePie's levels of popularity have reached insane levels. Even national broadcasters have reported on him "taking a break" from YouTube next year, likely profiteering on his popularity. In response, PewDiePie has deleted his Twitter account.

Windows 10 Mobile has been granted a small bit of life support. While the mobile OS was slated to enter end-of-life on December 10, Microsoft will support the operating system until January 14, 2020. This is the same day Windows 7 will lose support.

Two computer programmers were arrested by the FBI this month on charges of procuring and distributing pirated content. The two programmers ran subscription-based websites that illegally streamed copyrighted content without the knowledge or consent of the copyright holders. One of the websites had more content available than Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Vudu.

Multiple families have reported their Ring cameras have been accessed by unknown third parties. The bad actors were able to access the video feeds and speakers of the cameras to frighten members of the affected households, including children. Ring has stated that the malicious parties probably accessed the cameras by using the victims' usernames and passwords, which were likely leaked in an unrelated data breach and recycled for the Ring cameras.

Chrome 79 for Android has a critical bug that can delete the locally saved data in other apps. The bug affects apps that rely on Chrome's WebView for webpage rendering. Google has paused the rollout of Chrome 79 for the time being until a fix is found.

Samsung Electronics' President Young Sohn, a few days ago, announced that the company had sold a million units of its US$2000 Galaxy Fold. Apparently, the Samsung executive was wrong. The company did not, in fact, sell a million units of the foldable phone.

A bug in iOS 13.3 allows users to easily circumvent the Communication Limits feature. While Communication Limits is supposed to block users (specifically children) from communicating with or adding unknown or unapproved numbers, simply setting up the phone to not sync to iCloud will bypass the feature and allow users to add new numbers without verification.

The iPhone may be doing well in Western markets, but the handset saw a massive 35% year-over-year drop in shipments in China last month. This news from Credit Suisse analysts flies in the face of prior predictions from Apple and others that claimed the iPhone 11 would do well in Chinese markets due to high demand. The most likely cause for the drop in sales lies at the feet of policy; the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China has driven iPhone prices up in the mainland, likely killing demand in the process.

Apple's new Mac Pro is expensive, but most of the components seem worth the asking price (for the most part). But what about the wheels? At its asking price of $400, Apple is pushing the limits of supply and demand.

If you own a ThinkPad P1 or X1 Extreme and connect it to an external monitor on Windows 10, then the chances are that you have experienced sluggish performance with your device set to "Second screen only". Lenovo finally released an update to address the issue, but then pulled it without reason. Fortunately, we still have the download link to the package if you need it.

Apple is suing Gerard Williams III, one of the founders of Nuvia, for breaching an intellectual property contract and soliciting Apple employees to leave Apple and work at Nuvia. Williams denies that he actively recruited Apple employees and claims that Apple intruded on his privacy by reading through his personal text messages.

Epic, the developer of the smash hit arena shooter Fortnite, has reignited an argument with Google over the revenue share practices of the Play Store. Epic is reportedly hoping to bring Fortnite to the Play Store but has requested an exemption from the current 70/30 revenue split all other app developers are subject to on the Play Store. Google has offered a flat "No" in response.

Intel's Asia Pacific marketing team claimed in China that the Intel Core i3-9350K is faster than the entire Ryzen 5 lineup. Is this a simple PR mixup or a sign of worse to come as Intel faces eroding market share, securities issues, and a supply shortage? (Edit: Addressed a typo in the title--Ryzen 5 and not Ryzen)

Apple has finally admitted to secretly tracking the location data of iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max users. The company stated that the tracking was necessary for the Ultra Wideband (UWB) hardware in the 2019 iPhones to meet regulatory standards. Some countries require that UWB radios be disabled within their borders. Apple further stated that a future iOS update will allow users to fully disable this location tracking.

The smallest MacBook Pro released this year has an issue and one that could seemingly strike at any time. Apple has acknowledged that many MacBook Pro 13 machines released from July onwards this year are experiencing random shutdown issues, but is yet to address it with a proper solution.

Pablo Escobar's brother just unveiled the Fold 1, a $349 foldable phone with flagship specs, available to pre-order right now. But the too-good-to-be-true price and uncanny similarities with the Royole FlexPai cast doubts. Is this a real price-performance monster? Or is it a stunt?

Yet another leak has surfaced, painting an extremely attractive picture of the supposed upcoming Mi Mix 4. Some major touted features include a variable 120 Hz display with a QHD+ resolution, a 108 MP main shooter, quad rear camera setup, and an under-display dual selfie camera system. Sadly, dreams are just that...dreams.

The Galaxy S10 series may have already started receiving Android 10 in some regions, but Galaxy Fold owners are not so fortunate. One UI 2.0 roadmaps state that the device still has another four months to wait before it sees an OS upgrade, despite being Samsung's most expensive smartphone. The Galaxy S8, S8+ and Note 8 are unlikely ever to see Android 10, either.

OnePlus' Android 10 rollout to the 6 and 6T has been beset by issues, but things could be on the up. Having pulled the update earlier this month, the company has now pushed out a new beta build to both handsets. OnePlus was hopeful that it would re-release Android 10 to the 6 and 6T this week, but that timeline has slipped once again.