Apple Partner Qualcomm Says Android Is Always First to New Features Hours Ahead of iPhone 8 Event

Hours ahead of Apple’s major iPhone event, in which the company is widely expected to launch the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the iPhone X, its partner Qualcomm has stirred controversy by saying that Android smartphone makers are always first to bring new cutting technology feature to their products.

Qualcomm has shared more than 20 examples to make the case for how Android smartphone makers have been the first ones to introduce new features. Some of those examples include – fingerprint under display (Qualcomm Reference Design Handset), bezel-less design (first introduced in Xiaomi Mi Mix from last year), OLED Display (LG Flex 2) and Facial Recognition (Samsung Galaxy S8). Interestingly these all features are expected to be selling points of Apple’s supposedly upcoming iPhone models that the company would unveil later today. Other notable mentions are Gigabit LTE (Samsung Galaxy S8) and Bluetooth v5.0 (everything running the Snapdragon 835 SoC).

The telecom giant’s brutal blog post comes months after both of them have sued each other in global patent licensing dispute. Earlier this year, Apple sued the chipmaker for roughly $1 billion claiming that Qualcomm has been “charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with.” At the time, Qualcomm dismissed Apple’s accusation. But months later, it filed a lawsuit against Apple, asking the US trade regulators to ban iPhone imports, as they allegedly infringe on six patents. The patents, owned by Qualcomm, provide technology to improve battery life, Qualcomm said.

Meanwhile, on the blog post published on Monday, Francisco Cheng, director of technical marketing said it has “enabled some notable world firsts on Android, and some remain Android exclusives to this day. […] Inventions from Qualcomm lay the foundation for so many technologies and experiences we value in our smartphones today — on Android and other platforms.”

Apple would certainly not appreciate Qualcomm’s constant commentary on how rival products are better, especially on the day when it plans to launch its own flagship iPhone models.

 

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Samsung Galaxy C8 Is the Latest Phone With Facial Recognition, Dual Cameras on the Back

Samsung Galaxy C8 has become the latest smartphone on the market with facial recognition technology to unlock the handset using the user’s face, something the South Korean giant is promoting heavily these days. Two Galaxy C8 variants have been launched – one with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage, and another with 4GB of RAM and 64GB built-in storage. The Samsung Galaxy C8 price and availability details have not been officially announced yet. Apart from the facial recognition feature, the new Samsung phone also features dual cameras on the back, and comes with ‘Dual Photo’ mode that allows users to adjust the focus even after clicking the images. It also comes with an always-on display as well.

Samsung Galaxy C8 specifications
Moving on to the specifications, the dual-SIM Samsung Galaxy C8 sports a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) Super AMOLED display. The new Samsung smartphone is powered by an unspecified octa-core processor (with 4 cores clocked at 1.69GHz and the other 4 clocked at 2.39GHz). As mentioned earlier, the handset is being offered in two memory variants with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM. The storage on both variants is further expandable, via microSD card (up to 256GB), in a hybrid dual-SIM configuration.

In terms of optics, the rear dual camera setup on the Galaxy C8 comes with a primary 13-megapixel sensor with an f/1.7 aperture and a secondary 5-megapixel sensor with an f/1.9 aperture. At front, the handset features a 16-megapixel sensor with an f/1.9 aperture to take selfies.

The Galaxy C8 houses a 3000mAh battery and comes with fingerprint scanner embedded in the Home button at front of the smartphone. The connectivity options offered by the smartphone include 4G connectivity, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 3.5mm headphone jack, and micro-USB port. The Galaxy C8 is being offered by the company in Black, Gold, and Pink colours.

 

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Asus ZenFone 4 Series India Launch Set for September 14

Last month, Asus launched several new ZenFone 4 models, including two selfie-focused smartphones – the Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie and Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro smartphones. Now, the company has sent out media invites for an event on September 14 for the launch ‘of its latest smartphone series’. Furthermore, on its social pages, Asus has confirmed that the next ZenFone is coming next week, confirming the India launch for the ZenFone 4 series.

While there’s no clarity on which smartphones from the ZenFone 4 series will launch in India, Asus has so far, made many ZenFone 4 variants official – the ZenFone 4, ZenFone 4 Pro, ZenFone 4 Selfie, and ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro. The selfie-focused smartphones were launched first, followed by the ZenFone 4 and ZenFone 4 Pro soon after. Back in July, the Asus ZenFone 4 Max was also launched.

Asus has also simultaneously launched a #DitchTheSelfieStick campaign in India as well, hinting that probably the two selfie-focused variants may see the light of the day first. In any case, clarity on that will only be achieved at the event on September 14.

In Europe, the Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro has been priced by the company at EUR 399.99 (roughly Rs. 30,050), while the ZenFone 4 Selfie is priced at EUR 299.99 (roughly Rs. 22,550). These prices are not indicative of how much they will cost in the Indian market, as taxes and government regulation play an additional and definitive deciding role in the final pricing.

As the names suggest, both smartphones are focused on selfies and come with dual cameras at front. The Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro bears a front-facing dual camera setup with a 24-megapixel sensor and another 5-megapixel sensor. The ZenFone 4 Selfie on the other hand comes with a 20-megapixel sensor and another 8-megapixel sensor at the front of the handset. At rear end, both new Asus smartphones feature 16-megapixel primary cameras.

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Huawei Mate 10 Leaked in Renders and Video Ahead of Launch Next Month

Last month, Huawei confirmed that the company will be launching its Mate 10 smartphone on October 16 but while we are still more than a month away from the aforementioned date, the leaked renders and video of the smartphone have been leaked on the Internet.

While the company’s official render for the Huawei Mate 10 already gave us the glimpse of the smartphone’s design from the rear end, the new renders and video show, shared by @onleaks and @compareraja, the front of the handset as well. The newly leaked render video suggests that the smartphone might feature glass back, which should also provide the support for wireless charging to the phone.

In the video, the USB Type-C charging port can be seen at the bottom along with the speaker grille while the 3.5mm headphone jack is placed at the top-end of the Huawei Mate 10 smartphone. The teaser image shared by the company last month confirmed that the Mate 10 will come with Leica-branded lenses. Just like the Mate 9, the upcoming Mate 10 will have a vertical dual rear camera setup on the back near the centre.

To recall, the Huawei Mate 10 has also been rumoured to come with an iris scanning feature, and is expected to be powered by Huawei’s anticipated HiSilicon Kirin 970 SoC, which will be based on the 10nm fabrication process. It is expected to sport a 6-inch full-HD (1080×2160 pixels) display with an aspect ratio of 18:9. Huawei will likely tease more features of the Mate 10 as we approach the October 16 launch. The smartphone is expected to be priced around CNY 4,000 (roughly Rs. 38,500).

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Facial Recognition Can Reportedly Be Fooled by a Photo

South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung may have another publicity nightmare on its hands. Following the controversy of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and its exploding batteries, and reports that the Samsung Galaxy S8’s facial recognition feature can be fooled with just a photo, now, a new report indicates that the Samsung Galaxy Note 8’s facial recognition also falls prey to the same photo prank.

According to developer Mel Tajon, during his time playing around with a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 demo unit at Best Buy, he was able to fool the facial recognition feature with a photo displayed on another smartphone. He claims to have repeated the process again with several Facebook profile pictures and Instagram selfie pics from his iPhone, still managing to unlock the Galaxy Note 8.

As we mentioned, the Samsung Galaxy S8 was found to have a similar loophole in the facial recognition-based unlocking feature, but we weren’t able to replicate the issue (as seen below). We didn’t refute the original report, but ended up with the verdict that it may be possible to fool, just, not very easy. Samsung itself doesn’t consider facial recognition to be completely secure, which is one of the reasons it is not an authentication option for secure payment features, including Samsung Pay.

Tajon here points to three possibilities that may have caused the problem. The first, he says, may be that the demo unit at Best Buy had the issue, but retail units will not. The second, is that Samsung’ facial recognition is just bad, and that Samsung faked the demo intentionally, similarly to how it faked some benchmark reports in the past. And finally, Tajon claims that facial recognition tech could be bad and that the demo is proof of that. For now, until the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is put through its paces in detailed reviews, no definitive claims can be made.

 

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Oppo A71 With 13-Megapixel Camera, Android 7.1 Nougat Launched: Price, Specifications

Oppo has quietly yet another smartphone in its A-Series. Called the Oppo A71, the smartphone is listed on the company’s Pakistan site and the company’s Malaysia store. On the latter portal, the Oppo A71 price is also listed – MYR 858 (roughly Rs. 12,900) – with the smartphone already available to purchase in the country. There is no information about when the smartphone will be made available in other countries across the globe. It has Black and Gold colour variants.

The dual-SIM (Nano) Oppo A71 runs on ColorOS 3.1 based on Android 7.1 Nougat, and sports 5.2-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) TFT display. It is powered by a 1.5GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6750 SoC coupled with 3GB of RAM. The smartphone bears a 13-megapixel rear camera with 1/3.06-inch sensor size, LED flash, PDAF, and an f/2.2 aperture, apart from a 5-megapixel front camera with an f/2.4 aperture.

The Oppo A71 bears 16GB of inbuilt storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 256GB). Connectivity options on the Oppo A71 include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, 3.5mm audio jack, and Micro-USB (with OTG). Sensors on board include accelerometer, ambient light sensor, digital compass, and proximity sensor.

The smartphone features a 3000mAh battery. The Oppo A71 measures 148.1×73.8×7.6mm and weighs 137 grams. The company claims the smartphone has been built using ‘gilding electroface and nano silver technology’ to strengthen the metal gloss and make the body smooth to touch. It features volume rocker buttons on the left side, and the power button on the right side near the SIM card slot.

 

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Huawei Surpasses Apple in Global Smartphone Sales, Takes Second Spot

As Apple prepares to launch its next flagship device – probably iPhone 8 – on September 12, Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has surpassed Apple for the first time in global smartphone sales consistently for June and July.

With August sales looking strong for the Chinese vendor, a hat-trick for Huawei, which is now at second spot after South Korean giant Samsung, could be on the cards, said Counterpoint Research’s ‘Market Pulse for July 2017’ on Tuesday.

“This is a significant milestone for Huawei. The global scale Huawei has been able to achieve can be attributed to its consistent investment in R&D and manufacturing, coupled with aggressive marketing and sales channel expansion,” Counterpoint’s Research Director Peter Richardson said in a statement.

While this streak could be temporary, considering the annual iPhone refresh is just around the corner, it nevertheless underscores the rate at which Huawei has been growing.

“However, a weak presence in the South Asian, Indian and North American markets limits Huawei’s potential in the near-to mid-term to take a sustainable second place position behind Samsung,” Richardson added.

According to Tarun Pathak, Counterpoint’s Associate Director, the growth of Chinese brands is an important trend which no player in the mobile ecosystem can ignore.

“Chinese brands are growing swiftly thanks not only to smartphone design, manufacturing capability and rich feature sets, but also by out-smarting and out-spending rivals in sales channels, go-to-market and marketing promotion strategies,” Pathak said.

Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi have successfully gained access to key supply chain partners, which has allowed them to launch designs with bezel-free, full displays, augmented reality, in-house chipsets and advanced camera features.

“Chinese vendors have become as equally important as Samsung or Apple to the global supply chain, application developers and distribution channels, as they continue to grow in scale more rapidly than the incumbent market share leaders,” Pathak noted.

Apple continues to drive its flagship momentum with iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

Oppo has been one of the fastest growing brands globally thanks to the popularity of models including the flagship Oppo R11 and the mid-tier Oppo A57.

These were followed by Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S8, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X and Samsung Galaxy S8+.

Apple’s 32GB refresh of the venerable iPhone 6 enabled it to regain momentum during the month, with popularity across prepaid markets to edge out Samsung’s Galaxy J7.

“While Huawei has trimmed its portfolio, it likely needs to further streamline its product range like Oppo and Xiaomi – putting more muscle behind fewer products.,” said Senior Analyst Pavel Naiya.

 

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Nubia M2 Play With 4G VoLTE Support Launched in India: Price, Specifications

After launching it in China in July, ZTE has decided to launch the Nubia M2 Play smartphone in India as well. The big highlights of the smartphone are its 4G VoLTE capabilities, fingerprint scanning support, and Android Nougat software. The Nubia M2 Play has been priced in India at Rs. 8,999, and will be made available exclusively on Amazon India soon.

Specifications wise, the smartphone is a watered down version of the Nubia M2, but is a little better endowed than the Nubia M2 Lite smartphone. The Nubia M2 Play looks similar to the Nubia M2 Lite with a metal body, curved glass, and a single camera setup at the back. There’s a home button in the front with the fingerprint scanner placed underneath. The volume keys are on the left edge while the power keys are on the right edge of the smartphone.

As for specifications, the Nubia M2 Play runs on Android 7.0 Nougat with nubiaUI 5.0 skin on top. The smartphone sports a 5.5-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) LCD display with 274ppi pixel density. It is powered by an octa-core(4 cores at 1.4GHz and 4 cores at 1.1GHz) Snapdragon 435 SoC paired with a 3GB RAM and Adreno 505 GPU. The smartphone offers 32GB of internal storage with the option to expand further via microSD card (up to 128GB).

Coming to the camera, the Nubia M2 Play sports a 13-megapixel main Sony CMOS sensor at the back with an f/2.2 aperture, flash support, and hybrid autofocus. It sports a 5-megapixel 84-degree wide-angle front camera with f/2.4 aperture for more composition in selfies. The smartphone packs a 3000mAh non-removable battery, and connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, GPS, and GLONASS.

The Nubia M2 Play is 7.9mm thick, and comes with a Neo Power 2.5 technology package that helps in battery optimisation as well as scenario-based smart sensing to let the user enjoy a perfect balance between performance and energy consumption.

 

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Nokia 5 Receives September Android Security Update Ahead of Google Devices

Nokia, or rather HMD Global, is at it again. The company has released the September Android security update to the Nokia 5 smartphones ahead of Google’s update for its Pixel and Nexus devices. This, as you may have gathered, is not the first time that Nokia has beaten Google to its own Android security update. Back in July, the Nokia 6 received the monthly security patch ahead of Nexus and Pixel devices, whereas last month, the Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 received the update alongside Google devices. So overall, it’s safe to Nokia has thus far been doing a good job with security update rollouts, something the company had promised soon after launch.

Getting back the September Android security patch for the Nokia 5, the 142.1MB update is now rolling out to users, Nokia Power User reports. The update does not bring in any other changes, the report notes. Google hasn’t yet published the Android Security Bulletin for the month of September 2017 yet, putting Nokia far in the lead with its own rollout. To add some more perspective to the announcement, HMD Global this week also confirmed that the Nokia 3, Nokia 5, Nokia 6, and Nokia 8 smartphones will all receive Android 8.0 Oreo updates.

To recall, the Nokia 5 was first unveiled back at MWC 2017, and has since launched the smartphone in India as well. While the smartphone’s India launch was back in July, the company only made the Nokia 5 available to buy in the country on August 15. The Nokia 5 comes with a fingerprint scanner mounted on the home button and sports a 5.2-inch HD (720×1280 pixel) display. It runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 SoC coupled with 2GB of RAM. It comes with 16GB of inbuilt storage, which is expandable via microSD card (up to 128GB). Nokia 5 packs a 13-megapixel camera on the back along with a flash and while an 8-megapixel sensor sits at the front.

 

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)

Lenovo K8 Plus Spotted on Benchmark Site Ahead of K8 Note Launch on Wednesday

With the Lenovo K8 Note launch just around the corner, reports of a smartphone called the Lenovo K8 Plus have started to pour in. To recall, the Lenovo K8 Note is due to launch in India on Wednesday, August 8, and it will be an Amazon exclusive. The Lenovo K8 Plus, on the other hand, is a new entry into the rumour-sphere, and has been spotted in a Geekbench listing online.

The listing on the Geekbench benchmark site, purported to be of the Lenovo K8 Plus, doesn’t reveal too much information about the smartphone, but a few details do come through. It runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat, for one, and is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 (MT6757CD) SoC clocked up to 1.7GHz, for the other. The last little nugget of information that can be gleaned from the benchmark listing of the Lenovo K8 Plus is the fact that it is configured with what appears to be 3GB of RAM. The listing was spotted by Techook.

The Lenovo K8 Plus can also be assumed to run stock Android. The Chinese company recently revealed to Gadgets 360 that it had listened to customer feedback, and decided to abandon its Vibe Pure UI for stock Android instead. The K8 Note will kick off this trend, and run Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box. The company would still have minor customisations to offer on top of the Android build, but the decision would help roll out quicker software updates while also improving performance with less bloatware.

That’s all we know about the Lenovo K8 Plus thus far, but with its first appearance, it’s safe to presume we will hear more about the smartphone in the future.

 

 

Source : (gadgets.ndtv.com)