Fitbit is taking another shot at the smartwatch game with their new Versa smartwatch. Coming on the heels of its previous Ionic smartwatch, Fitbit aims to make the Versa a more pleasing and versatile product for the masses.
The Versa sports a flat, thin, squircle design, with a square watch face. We find two buttons on the right and one on the left, followed by the Fitbit name below the screen. The Versa will come in several different colors and edition, including Black aluminum, Silver aluminum, and Rose Gold for standard versions; Graphite aluminum and Rose Gold for special editions.
As far as specs and features go, the Versa has a high-resolution LCD touchscreen with Gorilla Glass 3 and goes up to 1000 nits brightness. There’s also 50m water resistance, 24/7 heart-rate tracking sensor, Bluetooth 4.0, and a connected GPS. With all that included, Fitbit says the Versa will still last over four days in battery life. The special editions come with NFC for making payments using Fitbit Pay and a woven wristband alongside the classic wristband.
All that hardware pairs with Fitbit’s OS 2.0 software. The OS has a new personalized dashboard with quick and easy access to workouts, sleep tracking, stats, reminders and social media. The latest update has more watch faces, support for music playback, and smart notifications on Android thanks to quick replies. Fitbit has also added female health tracking for women wanting another way to follow their menstrual cycles.
Fitbit already has the Versa available for preorder on their website for $199.95. It expects to ship the smartwatch in April. With the low price compared to the competition and compatibility with both Android and iOS, I expect the Versa to sell well.
What do you all think about Fitbit’s Versa? Do the fitness features make it more attractive than an Android Wear watch? Let us know down in the comments.
Smartphone makers, as most of you know, tend to refresh their products roughly once a year. Flagships, for instance, often arrive in the spring from a variety of players, each with new specs and features. It’s also about once a year that accessory makers shake up or refresh their portfolio, to. Ventev is one of those brands.
We had a chance to meet up with Ventev earlier this year at CES where it showed us some of its recently introduced products. We’ve long been a fan of its efforts and liked what we saw in Las Vegas.
A few weeks after we returned home, Ventev sent us a box of some of its newer items. Each is a little different from the other, but all fall under the same umbrella. Moreover, each builds on the company’s previous efforts and does well to represent Ventev as a premier accessory manufacturer.
Below you’ll find details for the products we were sent with corresponding feedback and insight.
Wireless Charging Kit
It’s 2018 which means that a lot of the phones we buy today feature wireless charging capabilities. This bundle includes a car mount, which attaches to your vehicle air vent, as well as a microUSB charging cable. Together they offer a strong, secure clamp to hold your phone in place and a wireless pad to charge at the same time.
Easy to set up, the mount can be moved to a new location in a matter of seconds. Have a short commute to and from work or school? No worries, the Quick Charge 3.0 speeds mean you’ll still get plenty of juice to power the rest of your day. $59.99 through Amazon
4-product bundle
Rapid Charge: 12W (5V, 2.4A)
Charges 1 wireless-enabled device
Universal compatibility: Qi, PMA, Fast Wireless Charging
Quick Charge 3.0: 24W (5V, 3A/9V, 2A/12V, 1.25A)
Output: up to 15W (up to 9V, 1.6A) wireless
1-Year Limited Warranty
Wallport pd1300 Wall Charger
Given that so many phones, tablets, laptops, and gaming accessories have turned to USB Type-C, it makes sense to pick up some extra cables and chargers. The Wallport gives you more than enough power to charge up your phone. Got a Pixelbook or Nintendo Switch? The 3A/45W unit is exactly what you need to replenish your devices. $58.99 through Amazon
Offered in four different colors (Cobalt, Gold, Silver, Steel Gray), this cable is as practical as it is strong. You’ll have a hell of a time tangling it up, thanks to its braided high-tensile wrap and aluminum housing. And, at four feet long it reaches behind desks and furniture with more than enough cable left over.
With up to 480Mbps data speeds, the cable plugs directly into your standard USB ports with the Type-C plug for newer phones and tablets. The attached Velcro fastener lets you wrap things up nice and compact for travel. $24.99 through Amazon
Premium braided cable aluminum housing
Supports up to 3A
Limited Lifetime Warranty
Includes cable management wrap
Wireless Chargestand
An excellent desktop solution, this lets you prop your phone up at an angle with wireless charging coming from behind. It doesn’t matter where your phone’s charging coils are, the Ventev gives you control over height placement. Simply snap out the puck and place it in the desired spot.
Use the stand to watch media, take and make video conference calls, or whatever else tickles your fancy. The unit works just as well in landscape as it does in portrait orientation. And, because it has super-fast 15W charging, you don’t have to keep it in place very long before the phone’s ready to go another ten hours. Thanks to the six foot cable you can put the mount anywhere you want. $59.55 through Amazon
Charges 1 wireless-enabled smartphone
Universal compatibility: Qi, PMA, Fast Wireless Charging
Cricket Wireless will turn 19 on March 19, so in order to celebrate the company s offering a few deals designed to attract new customers.
Aimed at switchers, the promotion will allow new subscribers jumping ship to Cricket Wireless to purchase select smartphones for only $19.99.
You’ll have to port or have ported an existing number from any carrier that’s not AT&T between March 9 and March 18 and sign up for a plan that costs at least $30/month or more. Which means the basic no-data Talk & Text plan is not an option.
So if you are a current Cricket customer, unfortunately, you won’t be eligible to take advantage of the discounts. Sorry, folks!
Anyway, switchers can choose from one of the eight eligible smartphones which include offerings from Samsung, ZTE, and HTC. You’ll find the whole list of devices below, complete with specs.
Samsung Galaxy Halo
5-inch display with 720 x 1280 resolution
6GHz octa-core processor
2GB of RAM
16GB/32GB of expandable internal storage (up to 256GB)
Rear-facing 8-megapixel camera with flash
Front-facing 5-megapixel camera with display flash
But that’s not all. Cricket has some other goodies in store for switchers. New subscribers signing up with an Unlimited 2 plan will get a $10 bill credit to their account each month for a year. With Auto Bill Pay installed, users will be asked to pay only $40/month for a year of unlimited data.
The YouTube TV pricing of $35 per month is unfortunately no more, as today the service increases to $40 per month.
The hike in price sees the streaming service align with comparable streaming services such as Sony’s PS Vue, and Hulu’s Live TV.
Google announced the plan to increase the pricing of YouTube TV last month amongst its continual expansion in what the service offers so shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise.
YouTube TV is Google’s answer to cutting the cable by utilizing its YouTube platform to deliver a variety of live cable and streamed content. Since the launch of the streaming service, many new providers have been added and that has prompted the increase in price. YouTube’s Heather Moosnick said that the decision to add channels and raise the price is a result of a balance between content and price that the company has been paying attention to since YouTube TV launched. “We’ve looked at both qualitative and quantitive info to understand what is the perfect package for our users, the vast majority of whom otherwise stopped watching live TV,” she said. “Live sports was a key driver in terms of getting new users interested and subscribing to [YouTube TV].”
Those who were already subscribed to YouTube TV and those who hit the button before March 13th will retain the $35 per month price.
This week, Huawei’s sub-brand Honor opened up pre-orders for the View 10 smartphone in the US.
Introduced back at CES 2018, the View 10 is now available unlocked for $499 a pop. The phone will start shipping to customers starting March 22.
Honor also throws in a free gift with the purchase, either a phone case or a pair of AM116 earphones in white (sold out). There are two color options to choose from: Navy Blue and Midnight Black.
Spec-wise, the Honor 10 View is quite similar to the Huawei Mate 10 Pro flagship (which is also available in the US), although it does not offer water-resistance and includes a smaller battery.
Honor View 10 ships out starting March 22
The phone takes advantage of a 6-inch display with 1080 x 2160 pixels. It bundles an octa-core Huawei-made Kirin 970 processor with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage space.
Customers buying the Honor 10 View will also get to take advantage of a rear-facing dual camera (20-megapixel + 16-megapixel) and a 3,750 mAh battery. Honor claims the View 10 can the battery up to 50% in just 30 minutes.
The handset also includes a front-facing fingerprint scanner embedded in the physical home button. There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The phone runs Android 8.0 Oreo with Huawei’s EMUI 8 skin on top. Honor is also pushing an augmented reality (AR) focus on the View 10. The company has included advanced machine learning capabilities that imbue the phone with all sorts of smart features . For example, based on AI algorithms, EMUI 8.0 allocates resources dynamically to give more CPU and memory to the apps in-use in order to ensure a smooth experience.
Just like the other Honor phones that launched in the country, the View 10 is compatible only with GSM/LTE carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile. Unfortunately, Verizon and Sprint subscribers will have to look somewhere else.
President Trump has officially blocked a hostile takeover bid from Broadcom for San Diego based-chipmaker Qualcomm. The President said the deal proposed by Singapore-based Broadcom posed a threat to national security.
The announcement came after Broadcom CEO Hock Tan met with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to stump for the deal. Apparently the meeting wasn’t enough as Trump blocked the deal soon after the meeting concluded.
Qualcomm was on the receiving end of multiple offers from Broadcom that were in excess of $120 billion. Qualcomm rejected these offers and Broadcom eventually moved toward a hostile takeover.
Qualcomm is one of the country’s largest chipmakers alongside the likes of Intel. It makes the processors that power most of the world’s cell phones and is a leader in 5G technology. Many had feared that a possible Broadcom takeover would hurt the country’s progress toward a next-generation 5G network. Other 5G innovators like Huawei have also been hurt by recent US government interference to block deals that would gain them prominence in the states.
Last year HTC made a “Cooperation Agreement” with Google which included $1.1 billion in cash and the transfer of some HTC employees to Google. The Mountain View-based giant also got a non-exclusive license for HTC’s intellectual property, through the Taiwanese device maker has continued to sell its own products.
As part of the agreement, HTC retained its engineering team which is now hard at work on its next flagship phone, the HTC U12. The phone surfaced online as the HTC Imagine and recently we’ve seen the majority of its specs leak online.
So what can we expect from HTC’s upcoming top-tier? In the following article, we rounded up all the information available online about the HTC U12, so you can get a better idea of what to expect.
Design and display
While not much is known about the physical attributes of the HTC U12, we can make some assumptions.
The HTC U12 is probably going to be quite similar in design to the HTC U11+, the first phone to come from the company with a bezel-less 18:9 aspect ratio display. Well the HTC U12 is most likely going to stick with this modern vision, which means no physical home button and a fingerprint scanner located on the back.
HTC U12 render
What will the HTC U12 be made of? We all know that these days the trendiest flagships these days are a mostly made of glass. But glass has the major disadvantages of being a magnet for unaesthetic fingerprint marks. It’s also prone to cracking.
Well according to the recent rumors, HTC will be once again using glass for the back of the smartphone, but this time with a matte white finish. This will help reduce the fingerprint smudges on the back, but will also have the effect of diminishing the unique reflection seen in the Liquid Surface design language of the HTC U11.
HTC’s next flagship was allegedly spotted in the wild during a 5G event hosted in Taiwan a few weeks ago. A few images appeared online confirming that the HTC Imagine will come with rezer-thin bezels and an 18:9 aspect ratio.
And according to a recent leak, the phone will come boasting with a 5.99-inch display with QHD+ resolution.
03/19/2018 Update: VentureBeat’s Evan Blass revealed that HTC’s next-flagship will actually be called the HTC U12+. As you can see in the leaked picture that accompanied the blog post, the U12+ will arrive with a bezel-less 18:9 display and a dual-camera arrangement on the back.
Performance and battery
Like most flagships that will launch this year, the HTC U12 will take advantage of the Snapdragon 845 processor. The device will be offered with either 4GB of RAM + 64GB of storage or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Nothing out of the ordinary here, but in league with devices like the Galaxy S9.
According to the leak, the phone will also include a 3,420 mAh battery, which is a bit smaller than the U11+’s 3,930 mAh power source. On the other hand, the standard HTC U11 only featured a 3,000 mAh battery.
Other features
Cameras
HTC beat everyone to the dual camera game, only to pull out before Apple started popularizing it. HTC offered the first dual-camera phone in 2011 with the Evo 3. HTC’s last dual camera phone came in 2015, and now three years later the company is gearing up to make a comeback.
The HTC U12 should land with a dual-camera that will offer the services of a 12-megapixel and a 16-megapixel Sony IMX3xx sensors. We don’t have more info on the two sensors just yet, so we can’t tell you whether the second sensor is a monochrome one or whether it will come with 2x optical zoom for a dedicate portrait mode.
As for selfies, the HTC U11 should arrive with an 8-megapixel front-facing shooter. It would be nice if the company brought back the optical imagine stabilization it offered on the HTC 10.
Software
HTC U12 concept
The HTC U12 is poised to launch with Android 8.0 Oreo with Sense 10, although Android 8.1 has been out and about for a while now. Ever so, customers will get full Treble support, which means the phone should be in line to get updated to the newest versions of Android a lot faster.
Edge Sense, the U11’s standout feature is going to get an upgrade to version 2.0. But right now we’re not exactly sure what improvements to expect.
For those who don’t know Edge Sense is a feature on the U11 which enables you to squeeze the phone to enable specific activities like taking a photo.
Since the iPhone X, every premium phone has to ship out with a type of face unlock system. The U12 will be no different in this respect.
Miscellaneous
The HTC U12 will also come with IP68 certification for water resistance, as well as dual-SIM support on some models.
When will it launch?
HTC skipped MWC 2018 with grace. Even so we expect the company to announce the U12 in the upcoming months.
The latest rumors suggest that the Taiwanese device maker will take the wraps off the new phone in April. The U12 should then go on sale a month after its launch, just like its predecessor.
How much?
The HTC U12 will probably launch with a price tag similar to its predecessor, which went on sale for $650. Hopefully, HTC won’t try to raise the bar and offer the phone for $700+. Even if it does, the device will still be cheaper than the Galaxy S9 which starts at $719.99 unlocked. As for the Galaxy S9 Plus, it has a base price of $839.99.
Have a tablet at home? Well starting today you’ll be able to make calls, video calls and send messages using Alexa on your Android, iOS or Fire tablet.
So far, Alexa calling has been limited to Echo devices and smartphones. Well with this new update, tablet owners can simply download the Alexa app on their device and start making calls and send out texts. You’ll need a slate running Android 5 or higher, and iOS 9 or later to do so.
Use your tablet to communicate with anyone with the Alexa app installed
If you are a Fire tablet owner, all you need to do is tap the home button and ask Alexa to make a call for you. Easy breezy!
Android and iOS setup includes extra steps. To get things going, you’ll need the latest version of the Alexa app installed on your device. You then have to verify your phone number and import your contacts.
Users have to manually open the Alexa app before they can talk to the virtual assistant, but it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds. Once you’re done, you’ll be able ask Alexa to call your friends from your tablet.
So from now on, you can keep in touch with basically anyone who has the Alexa app installed on their device.
The app also supports something called Drop In. This is a feature offered for owners of multiple Echo devices which enables users to instantly connect with other Echos in the home from their tablet. Provided you’re on a pre-approved list of contacts that is.
Basically, the feature allows users to send the message through without the person at the other end having to “pick up”. It’s like setting up a private intercom system inside your home.
While the new feature is very useful, you still need an Echo device to be able to make calls to a landline. The feat is limited to the US, Mexico or Canada for now.
Not so long ago, Google rebranded its Android Pay service to Google Pay in an attempt to homogenize its mobile payment solutions. Well, it seems that the search giant might be looking to give its wearable operating system, Android Wear a makeover too.
According to the evidence made available by a user on Reddit, Android Wear could soon become Wear OS.
User H3x0n shared a screenshot taken during an Android Wear setup in which the system is refereed to as Wear OS. What’s more, the image also shows a new logo in the form of a “W” that uses Google’s familiar color scheme of blue, yellow, green and red.
Android Wear could soon transform in Wear OS
The new logo popped up as the user was exploring the latest Android P Developer Preview and installed the new Google Play Services beta.
While this doesn’t necessarily mean the announcement is imminent, the new discovery does seem to indicate the rebranding will happen at least by the time Android P gets released.
The Android Wear ecosystem has been in a precarious state as of late. A while back, companies were racing to unveil new Android Wear gear. But that’s no longer the case (remember Motorola?). As MWC 2018 came and went, we didn’t see any notable Android Wear devices get unveiled.
Major brands skipped smartwatches this year (and last year too) and only Huawei talked about releasing the Huawei Watch 3 sometime this year, although the company is in no rush to release it.
Android Wear was completely absent from Google’s keynote at its I/O 2017 conference, so it’s pretty obvious the search giant needs to do something fast if it wants to revitalize the platform.
A name swap could be what Google needs to put the spotlight back on Android Wear. But it’s also going to need the support of good hardware (maybe a Google Pixel smartwatch?) and fast updates to keep things moving in the right direction.
Were you looking forward to the successor of last year’s Moto X4? Unfortunately, we have some bad news to share with you. There’s probably not going to be an Moto X5 this year.
A source talking to the Android Police revealed that on top of laying off part of its Chicago team, Motorola also canceled plans for the upcoming Moto X5. The phone leaked online in full glory a few months ago.
Nope.
According to the rumor mill, the phone should have launched this year with a 5.9-inch FHD+ display with 18:9 aspect ratio and …an iPhone X-like notch.
The company’s current main goal is to simplify and streamline its product lineup, abandon markets that aren’t bringing profits, and concentrate only on phones and Moto Mods that are producing revenue.
Lenovo abandons plans for new Moto X phone
So moving ahead, Motorola will continue to develop only the E, G and Z series. Furthermore, the company will apparently also scale back efforts to partner up with third-party Moto Mods makers.
This doesn’t mean we won’t see some new official Moto Mods grace the market this year or beyond. Actually come June, when the company should unveil the new Moto Z3 and Moto Z3, we also expect to see a few new Mods make an appearance too.
Like the Virtual Viewer. The new accessory was revealed over the weekend by prolific leakster Evan Blass. This is actually a VR head, so it’s going to be one of the beefier Mods out there.
The Virtual Viewer looks quite similar to Google’s Daydream View headset, the only difference being that the latter can be used in concert with any Daydream-compatible Android phones, while the former will play nice only with the Moto Z family.
No word on the pricing or availability just yet. But when it arrives, the Virtual Viewer Mod will join the exotic Moto Mod family which includes snap-on Polaroid photo printers, Alexa speakers, gamepads, and keyboards.
