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.
As with any new smartphone release, iFixit has done the honors of carefully deconstructing the Galaxy S9 to see what powers Samsungs latest flagship. By doing so, iFixit also gives the device a score based on easy it is to DIY repair, and it’s not great news for the Galaxy S9+.
Having taken the screwdrivers and heat guns to the shell of the Galaxy S9+, the device is given a very mediocre score of 4 out of 10, which it shouldn’t be too surprising that it shares that score with the Note 8.
The teardown shows a single rear panel comes off after some treatment from the heat gun to reveal the talking point of the Galaxy S9, the variable aperture lens.The battery of the Galaxy S9+ is extremely well secured, with iFixit requiring an adhesive remover to get it to budge. In fact, the battery is so secure that iFixit said it would need “lots of heat, a pry tool, a fire extinguisher, a bucket of sand, and nerves of vibranium” to remove it.
The display is equally secured with a generous spattering of glue and requires some extensive heat gun treatment, and opening picks to detach.
It’s this combination of glue that contributes to the difficulty of replacing the screen and battery, which are the components most DIY attempts involve. The Galaxy S9+ gets points for the modularity of the elements that, once detached, can be replaced without the need for a soldering iron.
However, with a score of 4 out of 10, it’s probably best to leave repairs to the professionals with this one.
The recently announced Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are truly beautiful devices. But, if experience has taught us anything, phones with glass backs need to be protected! We’ve compiled a list of some of the best cases you can order RIGHT NOW to have on your doorstep by the time your new phone gets there.
If the Spigen Rugged Armor lineup isn’t one of the best selling cases around, I’d be extremely surprised. I see the case everywhere on the street for a variety of phones. It offers just enough protection without making the phone super bulky and looks pretty good in the process. It costs under $15 with free Prime shipping.
If you want protection without hiding the beautiful design of the Galaxy S9, this might be the case for you. This clear case has a raised lip to protect the screen and camera, as well as enhanced bumpers to prevent damage from falls. The clear design means that you can still marvel at the best looking phone on the market right now while keeping it safe.
The Caseology Parallax Series is hands down one of the best looking lineups on the market right now. Available in several colors, the Parallax Series offers stunning looks, excellent protection and a price tag that can’t be beaten. I love the Burgundy/Rose Gold combination pictured above, but there are others to chose from if that’s not your thing. I highly recommend them.
When you think about cell phone protection, who is the first name that comes to mind? Yep, I thought of OtterBox too. The company has a reputation for keeping phones looking new from the day the case is put on until the case is taken off. The DEFENDER series offers all the protection you could want and a handy holster so your phone doesn’t have to fit in your pocket anymore. If you’re looking to protect your investment long-term, there are few better choices than OtterBox.
While I am certainly not a folio case lover, I can see the logic behind them. A cover for the front of your phone to protect it from scratches is a smart route to go and adding convenient features like credit card slots is just downright smart. The Maxboost mWallet Series has both of those features and more. The case can also be opened up to prop up your phone for hands-free media viewing and the magnetic lock means your phone will stay protected even when it’s in your bag or purse. We also love the design with the folding flap over the front. Not bad, Maxboost.
Screen protectors for phones with curved screens are a tricky thing. They either don’t grip the entire screen, leave halos, or have no suction in the middle. While we can’t endorse any of the screen protectors listed below because we haven’t tried them, they do look promising enough for you to take a look at it.
Gaming headsets are pretty standardized in 2018. Generally speaking, they are comfy, lightweight headsets made for the long sessions of smashing your friends and enemies, trying to win that chicken dinner.
One brand we’ve reviewed in that space, SteelSeries, also happens to work well with smartphones, too. Personally, I’ve been a fan of the company for years and appreciate the build quality; its products work as advertised. I recently had a chance to try out the newest models, the Arctis 3 Bluetooth, so I jumped at it.
As I expected, the latest in the Arctis line is no different from its predecessor. Right away I found the ear cups to be super comfortable. In testing, I played multiple hours with them, finding the Arctis 3 Bluetooth just as nice as my normal headset.
The headphones have an adjustable “ski goggle” suspension band for comfort and security. Finding the right fit shouldn’t be a problem, regardless of head size and shape. The ear cups feature AirWeave Performance Fabric for keeping your ears dry and cool. You’ll want this for those endless nights of raiding or base defending.
The Clearcast microphone is good, offering broadcast quality with acoustic noise cancelling to ensure your team never misses an order. In my review time I noticed it’s a little bright for my taste but my teammates never seemed to mind.
Having the ability to retract the microphone when not in use is great in theory, but I found that then I wanted it out, had a hard time keeping positions. The flexible mic wanted to keep to the form of the curve that it has when retracted into the ear cup. Also, and this is minor, when retracted, it looked weird having a mic cover stick out even though I was wirelessly connected to my phone.
The variety of connections for the Arctis 3 Bluetooth make them a no-brainer for daily use. When I think about all the places and ways I game, the idea of having one headset for all needs is nice. I’d love to be able to throw one headset in the backpack and know that no matter if I’m gaming on my phone, my home console, mobile with my Nintendo Switch, or my PC, I’m covered. The fact that the headphones are Bluetooth-enabled in addition to all the hardwired adapters gives me confidence this headset is up to the task.
SteelSeries advised that these headphones would work with the Nintendo Switch, something I was anxious to check. Does it? Yes, and it’s awesome. The voice chat on the Switch works through Nintendo’s Switch Chat App over Bluetooth while the in-game sound is delivered over the wired adapter. That might be my favorite part.
Some of the most popular games right now work with multiple people accessing the same game from different devices. Meaning, I can be on my PC while my friends can be on their PS4’s. Until now I would have to jump on a party chat on my PS4 while my in-game audio would come from speakers on my computer.
With the ability to use multiple streams into the Arctis 3 Bluetooth I can have my chat through Discord on my phone (connected via Bluetooth) and wired directly to my PC. Now my in-game audio is in-ear and I don’t have to fight noise bleed from speakers. This is a true game changer if you’ve ever had to deal with audio from multiple sources involving voice chat.
I have been very pleased with the Arctis 3 Bluetooth and think they are almost perfect. While the Clearcast microphone sounds good enough, I’d like the ability to detach it from the headset. Also, it would be nice to have a small case to hold all the wired connections for on-the-go purposes.
At $129.99 they are definitely worth the investment for me. The sound quality is good and the ease of connection with any device I can throw at it makes it so I don’t have to think about how connect. I can just hop in and game! For those who do not want, or need, the Bluetooth option, SteelSeries offers a variant for only $79.99. Each is available in a variety of colors.
I have been a fairly heavy user of Google Assistant ever since I purchased the Google Pixel 2 XL and received the free Google Home Mini. I use it multiple times a day to do everything from turn lights on, to play music, to schedule reminders. One of the things I love about the Google Assistant is how smart it is. It’s so smart that it is able to interpret what certain words mean depending on the day and time. The best example of this is something I utilize frequently and was discussed over at Android Police; Google Assistant will view the word “tomorrow” differently depending on the time of day. However, the more I use the Google Assistant, the more I am convinced Google isn’t sure how it wants the Google Assistant to respond to “tomorrow.”
As a college student, I am almost always ending my days after midnight, whether it be from studying (unlikely) or video games (likely). If I need to remember something to take with me to class the next day, I ask the Google Assistant, “Remind me to take X to class tomorrow at 8 AM.” Because it is usually around 1 AM, when I say tomorrow, I actually mean later that same day. Thankfully, Google Assistant is smart enough to know this and schedules my reminder accordingly. This works for all reminders set between midnight and 5 AM. Unfortunately, I have found the interpretation of the word “tomorrow” is anything but consistent.
Let’s take another example of a command I use several times a week. If I am getting ready for bed and it is 1 AM on Wednesday, I will ask the Google Assistant, “What is my schedule for tomorrow.” It is quite obvious to me that I am asking for any calendar events I have for Wednesday. Unfortunately, the Google Assistant reads off my events for Thursday. When asking about calendar events, it will always take tomorrow to mean the next day even regardless of what time it is.
This is also the case when creating a calendar event through the Google Assistant. I cannot count the amount of times I have created a event using Google Assistant just after midnight and had the event get scheduled 24 hours later than I expected. This is extremely confusing since scheduling other things like reminders take the time of day into account.
The same inconsistency exists when asking about the weather, too. If it is 1 AM and I ask the Google Assistant, “What is the weather for tomorrow?,” it will tell me what I am looking for – the weather for later that day, not for the following day.
I think that Google Assistant is a wonderful and smart tool that has definitely made my life a little bit easier; however, the confusion around how it interprets “tomorrow” needs to be remedied with some standardization on Google’s end. I hate having to remember that it means one thing when setting a reminder after midnight but another when creating a calendar event. It’s early in the morning and the last thing I want to be doing is racking my brain for how my virtual assistant thinks. Google, if you want the Google Assistant to become the virtual assistant for the masses, you have to iron out basic commands.
