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On Friday, OnePlus released a teaser in a tweet for its upcoming OnePlus 7 Pro phone. The company dunked its smartphone in awater bucket despite the fact that the phone doesn't have an official water-resistance IP rating. And it is trying to show that even without the un-necessary rating phone has water resistance.
The company has taken a stance on IP ratings for resistance to water and dust. It suggests that getting the IP rating isn't cheap. To obtain official water and dust resistance the companies have to spend money and the smartphone manufacturers are transferring that cost down to its customers.
OnePlus seems confident enough that the OnePlus 7 Pro will have enough resistance against water that it can easily withstand a good water-bucket dunk. Still, the company doesn't suggest you to intentionally expose its upcoming smartphone to water. The fine print in the video says "Water resistant under optimal test conditions.
OnePlus makes no guarantees regarding water/liquid resistance." This means that if you are exposing your OnePlus 7 to water, you are responsible for any damage and the company isn't entitled to pay any money for the repair or bound to replace the phone if it does more harm to the phone.
This kind of written warning isn't a new thing. You may find the same printed text on phones that have a high official IP rating. Apple's support page has a disclaimer about any water damage which says, "if liquid damages an iPhone or iPod (for example, coffee or a soft drink), the service for the liquid damage isn't covered by the Apple One-Year Limited Warranty."
You have to buy AppleCare Plus for $6 per month and pay another $100 for the repair, which is what you have to pay even if the iPhone doesn't have an official IP rating. To be fair, the official IP rating is just for peace of mind. In the case of OnePlus Pro 7 you have to take its word for it.
At CES 2020 OnePlus unveiled its latest concept smartphone - called the Concept One. Although the design is beautiful, in a recent interview with the company's industrial design team revealed a more stunning early prototype of the device. In such pictures showcasing the design, you don't see the front side because usually there isn't much difference there. What we do see is that same leather back on the Concept One we recently got into our hands. The device is available in black and orange color, whereas this one is completely black, featuring a subtle carbon fiber design around the camera sensors.
According to the team lead in the interview, the company might do some experiments with the design to create more environmentally-friendly alternatives in the future that achieve a similar look and feel to the concept one.
"We believe leather is a material that achieves the premium build quality we strive for, providing a soft touch, while also create a thinner hand feel when compared to glass," said Tao. "In the future, if we intend to apply similar back design, we will look into alternative materials that can achieve the same look and feel with leather, while being more environmentally friendly and easier to keep clean in the long run."
OnePlus has done a few new design experiments with concept one. The biggest surprise perhaps is the use of electrochromic glass. This technology can turn the glass opaque and you will find this technology in fancy hotels and airplanes. This would hide the cameras in the phone OnePlus has encased three camera lens in a slot between two big pieces of orange leather. This phone looks good as you won't see any camera lens in the view. The device takes just 0.7 seconds to switch from opaque to transparent which is the fastest in the industry. As per the company, this type of technology won't be affecting the quality of the photos being taken.

OnePlus has officially come up with the upcoming smartphone in the budget category. The phone costs less than $500 and called Nord. It won't just another smartphone in the market as it will comprise a range of devices that mark the affordability. The phone is getting released to the UK, European, and Indian markets. The Nord phone is going to be the first phone of a new series line that will make the premium OnePlus experience accessible for more users. The device was initially rumored to be called as OnePlus 8 lite and OnePlus Z, but the company decided to settle for OnePlus Nord.
The company is focusing on ‘never-settle' spirit and creating some of the best product lines for its consumers, but it is also about challenging ourselves and going beyond our comfort zone, said OnePlus founder and CEO Pete Lau. He further added, "We are immensely proud of our flagship products and will continue to create more tech-leading flagships for our users. Now we are excited to share the OnePlus experience with even more users around the world through this new product line. OnePlus also confirmed, via its Instagram channel, that 100 units of its new smartphone will be available to order at 9 am BST (4 am EDT, 1 am PDT) on July 1.
OnePlus launched its affordable handset back in 2015 and since then it hasn't introduced any budget-friendly phone. So, far there isn't much information on the device. A few leaks are about its camera and processing chips. According to the rumors, the OnePlus Nord is designed to feature a dual-facing camera system that includes a 32MP lens for the primary camera and an 8MP depth-sensor camera lens in a punch-hole cutout in the corner of the display. The other leaks suggest a device with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset, 6GB of Ram, and a 6.65-inch display screen with three cameras at the rear side. A limited batch of 100 pre-orders are set to open on July 1, so we should have a better idea of the final price by then.

The Vivo X60 series has already been launched in its home country - China, and now Vivo is getting ready for the global launch. Vivo X60 series is going to include three devices - X60, X60 Pro, and X60 pro plus. Vivo launched X50 series in India in July last year that was a premium smartphone from the company with a focus on the photography section and sleek design. Now, the company has launched the refreshing variant of X50, probably with a few minor upgrades. The Vivo X60 is likely to be unveiled in April.
Ahead of the launch, Vivo X60 and X60 Pro were seen on a various certification websites, including India's Bureau of Indian Standards that further confirm its early launch in the Indian market. The Vivo X60 series should be released in three different models just like China. The design of Vivo X60 and X60 Pro looks similar to its predecessor that was launched previous year. It features the same gradient glass design with a rectangular housing on the rear side. However, there's a small change on the front display. The vanilla Vivo X60 gets a flat display whereas the Vivo X60 Pro will feature a curved screen.
All three devices feature a 6.53-inch FHD+ AMOLED display. The best part is that the display is specially designed for power intensive devices and takes less power when compared to other similar panels. In addition to this, the panels come with a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ certification. The Vivo X60 and X60 Pro are powered by Samsung Exynos 1080 SoC. However, a new report suggests that these devices might ditch Exynos in favor of Qualcomm chipset. These two devices bear model numbers V2045 and V246.
Last year's Vivo X50 Pro got lots of attention because of its Gimbal camera feature that was entirely a new concept introduced in smartphones. This year, it's bringing a triple camera system including a 48-megapixel primary Sony camera sensore with four-axis optical image stabilization feature, a 13-megapixe telephoto sensor, and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor with 120-degree FoV.
The Vivo X60 comes in three configurates - one with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage for CNY 3,498 (Rs 40000), an 8GB/256GB model for CNY 3798 (Rs 43000), and the third one has a 12GB / 256GB version for CNY 3,998 (Rs 45500). There's only one Vivo X60 Pro model, with 12GB/256GB versions priced at CNY 4,498 (Rs 51000). Finally, the Vivo X60 Pro will ship in two variants, 8GB/128GB and 12GB/256GB, which should be priced at Rs 56,000 and Rs 59,000, respectively.

Are you the one who look for the specification of the camera when buying a new smartphone? There are a huge percentage of smartphones buyers who think about camera more than any other feature when making a purchase decision of a new smartphone and Xiaomi seems to know this. Xiamoi is developing four smartphones with 108MP camera sensor. Surprisingly, the camera sensor is developed by the Samsung but the Korean tech giant hasn't use this sensor itself for any of its smartphone. In fact, Samsung kept selling its next-generation technology to other smartphone brands instead of using itself. Recently, Xiamoi has revealed that its Mi brand will get the 108MP sensor for its rear camera.
XDA developers have used the reverse-engineering decompiliation tools only to discover that the MIUI Gallery app will now support viewing full resolution images from the 108MP sensor. However, as noted by XDA, the support to view full resolution image is only being added to four smartphones for the time being. These phones are codenamed as - tucana, draco, umi, and cmi. These will be first phones to feature such a high resolution camera as their primary camera.
The strange thing about a high-resolution camera phones is its inability to zoom into the picture when view in the gallery app. This changed with the 48MP camera sensors got into the paly and with it came the ability to zoom in the gallery app. Going by that logic, the cameras with 108MP resolution will also have 108MP full resolution view to support the high-resolution zoom in capability. In addition, XDA Developer said that they belive that Mi Mix 4 isn't among these four phones in development phase. Though earlier the phone was rumored to had a 108MP camera sensor with Snapdragon 855+. The four cameras will be added to Xiamoi's Mi range or Redmi lineup.

Earlier this year, Xiaomi teased a foldable smartphone prototype but since then we haven't heard much about the foldable phone, neither from the official source nor from there were any unofficial leaks. Maybe the company was simply waiting for the right time to unveil their foldable. Meanwhile, the company filed for a patent of a foldable phone. The patent has already been approved and made its way into the world intellectual property office database.
The internet magazine LetsGoDigital spotted the patent filed by the Xiaomi that shows a Moto Razr like clamshell foldable phone. The device has a large display panel which folds in half from the middle, protecting the screen as a result. This is unlike the previous double-fold design we have seen on Xiaomi foldable design. It is entirely different from Samsung or Huwaei which opens up in the middle to become a tablet.
However, unlike the Moto Razr, this new foldable smartphone patent has a visible pop-up camera for taking selfies. The front camera system includes a camera, a flash, and a sensor to detect the face. There is a separate camera system on the rear side with a tiny display above it. It has a sensor alongside the flash. The secondary display at the rear side looks to be dedicated screen for the notifications of messages, or emails when the phone is folded and closed. This will help to keep track of incoming calls and messages even without having to open the fold every time to see who is calling.
From the looks of it, the patented foldable phone does have a somewhere realistic design. However, companies file many patents and it doesn't necessarily mean Xiaomi will launch this phone. The company could just be covering its bases as far as foldable phones go, trying to find the right design it can eventually bring to the market. Apart from Xiaomi, Samsung is also working on a clamshell foldable phone design.

Redmi is doing great with a growing number of units being sold. According to sources, Redmi has already sold around 200 million Note series devices. Redmi Note 10 series is the next smartphone due to release in India and just before the launching date, the Global VP of Xiaomi, Manu Kumar Jain has posted a tweet teasing the launch of the Redmi Note 10 in India. The tweet was retweeted and shared by employees and fans of Redmi Note series.
Every video of them includes a #SM10thChallenge. In the video, he says that the company will be making an announcement on Feb 10 at 10:00 IST. He tweeted, "Got the moves to be as smooth as the smoothest @RedmiIndia smartphone yet? The biggest Not-fication of the year is almost there! Unlock it with Me!, Upload your dance move with the #SM10TH challenge. 10 fans to win BIG!". We don't know what they have decided, but in the company's own words, the price will be BIG.
Redmi Note 9 series was launched back in March 2020, that features a 60Hz LCD. Although a high refresh rate wasn't a trend earlier last year, the realme 6 pro came with 90Hz panels. Still, Xiaomi managed to sell a good amount of Note 9 series in the region. We don't know if the Note 10 series devices would have LCD or AMOLED display, but it is likely that it would come with 90Hz or 120Hz to compete with the latest smartphones.
As per news and leaks, there will be two devices inside the Note 10 series - Redmi Note 10 vanilla model and Note 10 Pro. The former will be available in white, green, or grey colors, while the latter will be available in bronze, blue, and grey variants. As for specs, nothing is final unless we have any words from the official sources or we have the phone in our hands. The devices have already received India's BIS certification. The Note 10 will feature 4/6GB RAM while the Note 10 Pro will feature 6/8GB RAM with 64GB and 128GB internal storage.

In the face of numerous controversies Huawei says it has developed its own proprietary PC and mobile operating systems. The Chinese company, the world's second-largest smartphone manufacturer, says the platforms are a contingency in case it is banned from developing on Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows platforms.
Certainly, trying to create a third mobile ecosystem is potentially a path to disaster. Yes, Huawei has huge resources and a loyal consumer base, but efforts from other companies to rival Android and iOS have failed.
Microsoft's Windows Phone was the third OS on the market but completely collapsed two years ago as Android's lead continued to grow. BlackBerry run its own platform for years but failed to keep pace in the smartphone era and now develops devices on Android.
Even Samsung, the world's largest smartphone manufacturer, has struggled to get its TizenOS off the ground. In fact, when I tested a Tizen powered handset the OS was so sluggish that even simply web browsing looking for a Borgata bonus code was a hassle. Huawei has had its own software problems in the past, with its proprietary Android services often criticized by users. The company may have a backup OS in place, but Huawei will be hoping it can continue to be part of Android's success.
Huawei's Problem
Huawei has been caught up in the political tensions between the United States and China, with authorities in the U.S. accusing the company of spying on users for the Chinese government. Whether a ban on Huawei dealing with US companies is possible or not, the company is taking no chances.
Learning from history, Huawei is planning contingencies. Last year, Chinese rival ZTE was banned from working with US companies for violating US trade sanctions against Iran and closed down for four months. Huawei has denied any spying activity, but tensions continue to rise, and many nations have questioned using the company's 5G technology.
If banned from working with U.S. firms, Huawei would be in a tight position. The smartphone software market is dominated by Google and Apple, with the former's Android taking over 75% of the market. In other words, Huawei would have nowhere to go so has taken preventative measures by creating its own OS.
Richard Yu Chengdong, Huawei's mobile chief, told the South China Morning Post the company is prepared for any restrictions:
"We have prepared our own operating system, if it turns out we can no longer use these systems [Android], we will be ready and have our plan B," Yu said. The company has created a PC and mobile platform but stressed it would prefer to continue working with Android and Windows.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is testing a smartphone with a new operating system Hongmeng, the company's OS developed in-house. This device can go on sale by the end of this year, as Chinese state-media Global times reported. Earlier this year, Huawei had to face trade sanctions from Trump administration which forces to cancel all trades with the company. This led to an international crisis for the Chinese company. While the Huawei band only came into effect this year. The company choose to develop its own operating system after Google refused to continue its license for Android OS. The company has also contributed to develop Android operating system.
We don't have much information about the new OS - Hongmeng. But Huawei executives has referred it as an operating system designed for interconnecting the internet-of-things products. An upcoming Honor TVs is expect to have the Hongmeng as its operating system. The company is using Android as its preferred operating system in the mobile devices so far, but the switch could happen in the near future, bringing Hongmeng to more devices.
In the past, no smartphone manufacturer has attempted such a bold attempt. Android has been the best alternative for non-iPhone users. People are not sure about the future of the company or its operating system but still they are excited to see something strong as Android's rival. It will take a lots of research, support of open-source community and devlopers by the world's second-largest smartphone manufacturer to be able to break-in to the system. Even with this global crisis, Huawei managed to grow by 23% in the first half of 2019. Another information was about the price. The device is expected to be priced around 2,000 yuan ($288). The company hasn't refer any name for this device so far.

Huawei was working on a new operating system after Trump administration enforced a ban on Huawei and Google announced to ceased its support of Android for the company's smartphones. And now, Huawei has officially announced HarmonyOS, the OS that is supposed to replace its reliance on Android. In China, the software is referred to as Hongmeng. The company says that the OS is based on a microkernel distributed OS, and can be used in everything from smartphones to in-vehicle systems. This will create a shared ecosystem across devices. The OS will be released as an open-source platform to encourage developers to work on it.
Since the US ban on Huawei back in May, the Chinese Govt. has shown its full support to the company and company announced that it is going to work on its own OS, but so far, we aren't sure about its reliability and global acceptance. Huawei plans to launch the new OS on a smartphone first before expanding it to other devices like wearables over the next three years. The first devices that will be getting HarmonyOS are expected to be unveiled on Saturday. The focus of this os is the Chinese market at first before Huawei expands it to other markets.
n a statement, the CEO of Huawei's consumer business group, Richard Yu, says that HarmonyOS is "completely different from Android and iOS" because of its ability to scale across different kinds of devices. "You can develop your apps once, then flexibly deploy them across a range of different devices," the CEO says. Although the OS has the ability to power more devices, in a follow-up press release, Huawei said that for the time being, they are going to use it only on the upcoming smartphones. It will continue using Android on its existing phones. Whether it can continue to do so is another matter. In a press conference following the launch, Yu said that the situation was "unclear" as to whether Huawei can still use Android, and that the company is "waiting on an update" to find out.

Last year, the Trump administration decided to put Huawei and its subsidiaries on the U.S Commerce department's entity list to prevent any security risk. This prevented Huawei to have any kind of trade including the licensing from Google for its new devices. For the first few months, Huawei rebranded its existing pre-certified devices to release in the international smartphone market. Even before the ban, Huawei was working on AppGallery which is the alternate app of Google Play store and Huawei mobile services are alternative to Google Play services.
The company is about to launch its next flagship series - Huawei P40 and customers still need to be convinced that they can survive without Google apps. One of the highlighted app as an alternate of Google app is the native Huawei search app, which is in the beta phase right now. Redditor /u/being null informed us that Huawei is recruiting users in the UAE to test the new Huawei Search application.
Google not only gives you access to the search engine but also has Google Assistant, Google Maps, Google podcasts, and many more. Currently, Huawei search is a basic search engine but we may see other features in the future as well. Huawei search allows you to input a basic query to search the internet for web pages, news, blogs, articles, or videos. There is also a weather widget that displays current 24-hour weather forecast data from the China meteorological administration.
In settings, you can have a peek into the search history or can turn it off, give feedback, change the search region or language, toggle safe search or change the app's search scope. The search service is provided by Aspigel limited. There is no information on which search engine Huawei is currently using as the search results from Huawei didn't match results from Google or Yahoo. This service may seem in its early phases but hopefully, it will evolve into something better and who knows might compete with Google in the near future.

Realme announced its latest smartphone which can be classified based on its price as a mid-range smartphone but it has a feature that not even flagship smartphone has. Realme is bringing its new smartphone Realme X3 superZoom this week in Europe. The phone's main selling point is its 60x zoom camera system. While the primary focus is on its camera specs, other hardware specs are pretty good too.
It features a previous year's 855+ processor, which is considered quite powerful for this year smartphone. It has 128G RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage. The phone isn't also 5G capable as the older chip doesn't support 5G connectivity. The company has made it clear that they are looking for high-end features at a low cost and not necessarily the latest hardware.
The Realm X3 superZoom camera is special with its 8MP f3.4 telephoto camera with OIS that supports 5x optical zoom and up to 60x digital zoom. The primary camera module features a 64MP high-resolution lens along with another 8MP ultra-wide-angle shooter and a 2MP macro camera. As for the front camera, you get a large 32MP primary shooter paired with an 8MP wide-angle shooter for selfies. As the phone is camera-centric, it comes with a large 4,200mAh battery so you can take pictures all day long without needing it to recharge it several times a day. It also supports 30W fast charging.
The Realme X3 superZoom uses a dense plastic frame with a glass body on the backside. The phone is available in Arctic White and silverfish-color that gives the phone a very elegant look. The matte-like finish also ensures that the back is not a fingerprint magnet. The rear camera, which protrudes a bit from the body, consists of four cameras - in line with other Realme higher-end devices.

A few years ago, there was no existence of Vivo but now, it has become the fifth-largest smartphone manufacturer. When the world is adopting the 5G with slow pace, the company has already released two 5G-enabled smartphones in China, including the NEX-3. Vivo has plans to bring 5G to its budget-friendly consumers as well as its premium flagship buyers. In this year, almost half a million units were sold in China, developed by different smartphone makers. Vivo holds up to 54.3% of these numbers according to IDC. 5G networks may not be available yet, but Vivo is preparing customers to be connected as soon as the switch flips.
By next year, there will be 5G support by major telecom companies and Vivo is focusing on making the rollout for the Asian market as smooth as possible. Vivo is looking forward to launching more 5G-enabled devices and applications to keep the transition smooth. The company is also bringing the affordable versions of 5G-enabled phones to keep the most of its consumers intact. The internet expense for 5G isn't too expensive that means more and more people will be switching to 5G by the second quarter of 2020.
Vivo is working with its technology partners such as Qualcomm since 2016 to join the 5G revolution as soon as it is introduced to the public. Vivo has revealed technologies like AR glass and the 5G cloud game powered by its partner at MWC shanghai 2019. Both tech giants have been working in unison ever since their first 3G collaboration in 2011. Think about that: Vivo and Qualcomm have been together for three generations of connection. That's a great initiative and may bring positive change in the telecom industry.
The Vivo NEX 3 is available in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is unlocked on Amazon and Vivo Mall. It features a massive 6.89-inch display and a triple camera with a 64-megapixel main shooter. It's powered by the Qualcomm 855 Plus, and it even features a 3.5mm headphone jack. The days of the headphone jack don't have to end quite yet!

We have seen a few 5G smartphones recently but Vivo is missing from the 5G landscape till yesterday. As today, Vivo announced its 5G enabled flagship smartphone that is powered by a Snapdragon 865 processing chip. As you might have guessed it already from the name of the phone that Nex 3S 5G is a minor hardware upgrade over the Nex 3 5G that was launched by the company last year. The phone has a non-removable Li-Po 4500mAh battery that comes with fast charging at 44W.
The new Nex 3S 5G has the same 6.89-inch FHD+ waterfall display just like its predecessor. The device has a screen-to-body ratio of 99.6%. While the company hasn't changed much from the exterior point of view but it has upgraded its hardware specs. The old Nex 3 5G was using Snapdragon 855 plus, and the new Nex 3S 5G is powered by a liquid-cooled Snapdragon 865 processor, paired with up to 128GB LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB UFS 3.1 storage.
The phone has a triple-camera setup with a 64MP primary lens, a 13 MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 13MP telephoto lens featuring 2x optical zoom. For the front camera, the phone has a 16MP pop-up camera. It can create videos up to 2160p at 30 frames per second. The display is a Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen and offers 16M colors with a 1080 x 2256 pixel resolution. The phone comes with Android 10 with the company's own UI FunTouch. The phone is available in China starting from March 14. There are two variants for this device - 8GB/256GB variant is priced at $719 while the other version is priced at $762. For the time being there is no news about its global availability and we just have to see when it lands in India and other parts of the world.

Vivo Apex 2020, a concept phone by Vivo was supposed to be unveiled at the event, but because the event was canceled due to coronavirus, it was doomed to be a footnote in the history despite its amazing features. Vivo intends to create more distinct devices than anyone else is creating reight now. The company was teasing the launch on the X50 series on Weibo, highlighting its main selling feature - the Gimbal camera system on the X50 Pro in particular.
Vivo X50 series has three phones -Vivo X50, X50 Pro, and X50 Pro+. All of these feature 6.56" FHD AMOLED display with 90Hz display refresh rate except Vivo X50 Pro+ that has 120Hz refresh rate. The camera module of the X50 Pro includes a periscope telephoto camera (like the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Huawei P40 Pro, and the OPPO Find X2 Pro), the other two are normal camera lenses (most likely an ultra-wide-angle camera and a normal telephoto), and a much larger module that is the primary camera. The lens rotates as the module is manipulated by a robotic gimbal. The key benefit here is image stabilization.
Vivo is also adding a Gimbal Radar with the Camera UI which will be depicting as a small animated ball to reflect the gimbal's movement. This will let the users know when the frame is being stable. Other techniques are being used as well, including motion-deblur algorithms and continuous focus tracking to enhance the final result and clear video. The camera system also includes super night mode and Astro mode, which enable users to captures night time photography of the streets, city, or scenes, etc.
Vivo X50 series smartphone uses Android 10 out of the box with Funtouch OS 10.5 on the top. The front camera is 32MP for all three phones, whereas the rear camera starts from 48MP to 50MP for Vivo X50/Pro and X50 Pro+ respectively. The phone has launched in China but we don't know when it is going to be available in India or other markets.

Vivo has opened the online pre-order booking of Vivo X60 Pro+ in China. The company has already revealed some specs that confirms earlier rumors as well. As per the official page being listed on Vivo's online store, the smartphone will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processing chip. An earlier report suggests that the smartphone will feature a 50-megapixel primary camera sensor along with a 48-megapixel ultrawide snapper on the rear side. The smartphone is likely to be a more powerful version of the standard Vivo X60 and X60 Pro mobile phones from the series that was launched in December.
According to Vivo China, the phone is available for pre-order for only CNY 50. This amount will be adjusted in the final sales price of the smartphone. The official listing also mentions that the phone will be released at an event scheduled for January 21 in China at 7:30 pm local time. The phone is available in two memory configurations -8GB RAM with 128GB storage and 12GB RAM with 256GB storage. The picture is posted on the listing page shows a quad-camera setup on the rear panel.
A reputable tipster Digital chat station on Weibo has posted the camera specs of Vivo X60 Pro+. According to him, the primary camera will be using Samsung GN1 50-megapixel primary camera sensor with f/1.6 aperture, a 48-megapixel sensor along with an ultrawide camera lens that has a second-generation micro-gimbal stabilization feature, a 5x periscope telephoto camera, and a portrait sensor.
The listing also shows two color options available for the purchase - classic orange and dark blue. A previous report suggested that the mobile phone may support 55W fast charging. The phone features a 6.56-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The Vivo X60 Pro+ uses Android 11 based Origin OS out of the box.

If you own an older Microsoft smartphone that is still running on Windows 8.1, things are about to change as a Windows 10 update for your smartphone is probably on the way already. This is not beta, but a fully fledged final version of the upgrade that has been in the making for months. Although Microsoft has officially started rolling it out to its smartphones around the world, not all phones will be receiving the update at the same time. Also note that if your Windows phone was not manufactured by Microsoft (or Nokia) but some other company, there will be an additional delay.
Check if your phone is in the list mentioned below:
- Lumia 435
- Lumia 430
- Lumia 638 1GB
- Lumia 636 1GB
- Lumia 635 1GB
- Lumia 540
- Lumia 535
- Lumia 532
- Lumia 830
- Lumia 735
- Lumia 730
- Lumia 640XL
- Lumia 640
- Lumia 930
- Lumia 1520
- BLU Win HD w510u
- BLU Win HD LTE x150q
- MCJ Madosma Q501
If you found your model in the list above, then go to the Windows Store and download the application called Microsoft's Update Advisor. Use it to find out if your update is on the way and turn on the option Enable Windows 10 Upgrade. Select Next and it will prompt something like ready to upgrade. Once you see that prompt, tap on Done to finish the setup. You can now go to Settings>Phone Update>Check for Updates to see if the upgrade has arrived yet. When it does actually arrive, you will see the notification automatically now.

Reports that the new Snapdragon 810 chipset has been contending with heating problems has not stopped all OEMs from getting on board with the new Octa-core 64-bit silicon.
LG was the first manufacturer to announce it would be using the new system-on-a-chip in the new LG G Flex 2. The company said it was able to work around the chip's heat emissions. While that is arguably a good sign, it could also be seen as an acknowledgment that the Snapdragon 810 runs hotter than some would prefer.
The issue has been the source of reports that Samsung was forgoing use of the new Qualcomm chip, in favor of its own Exynos CPU for the next generation Galaxy flagship "Galaxy S6". However, it looks like Qualcomm is working on a redesign to address the heat emission issue and should have a solution for Samsung by March.
It is not known if that will be in time for Samsung's plans for manufacturing its new line of devices in 2015, but Qualcomm is undaunted since the Snapdragon 810 is obviously an integral part of the chipmaker's strategy.
For its part, LG has stated that heat levels are not solely about the CPU, but how a device is also designed to dissipate that heat. The company noted that the G Flex 2 was designed with the Snapdragon 810 in mind, so heat levels have remained within what LG deems optimal.

After rumors about the S6 build quality, Samsung has issued a statement complete with a video detailing its own bending test. The company claims that the SquareTrade test does not indicate typical usage scenarios and is also not indicative of the phone's face-down rigidity.
In the Samsung video, which opens up with a quick disclaimer, that it's not inspired by sadistic desires, the complete bend test routine is shown on both the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge. A three point rig is set up with the appropriate software to measure the applied force.
To put an everyday meaning into the numbers a set of 5 pencils is subjected to the same test and reaches a breaking point just shy of the 80lbf (108Nm) mark. Then the Galaxy S6 takes the stage and survives a slightly larger force just fine, returning to its original shape. The Galaxy S6 edge fares equally well, both face down and up.

Tesco was keen to mark the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S6 with as much bang as possible and went all out sending a unit into space. Tied to a special space balloon, the smartphone is accompanied by a trio of GoPro cameras monitoring its every move.
Launched from an undisclosed location within UK's Peak District national park, the balloon soared 32.5km to the edge of space surviving 160km/h winds and temperatures as low as -57 degrees Celsius.
Watch the Live Stream below for the S6 Launch starting tomorrow at 11am UK time.
There'ss an element of competition to the whole event, and the person who tweets "DROP" and "#S6EdgeOfSpace" at the exact moment the balloon bursts will WIN a brand New Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, in Tesco's wording. Now, apparently, a different device will need to be shipped to the lucky winner, as we don't see this one making it back to planet Earth in one piece.

LG G Flex 2 made an appearance before its scheduled announcement. A poster of the upcoming curved smartphone was caught on the CES 2015 show floor in Las Vegas.
As you can see above, LG G Flex 2 has retained the same design as its predecessor. However, we do expect that the device will bring significantly improved specs over last year's model. Earlier this week, Qualcomm teased the upcoming successor of LG G Flex. Unsurprisingly, the smartphone will boast high-end specs headed by the chipmaker's Snapdragon 800 family SoC.
LG will take the wraps off the G Flex 2 on Monday, January,5th during its official press conference. Stay tuned!

HTC One (M7) Dual-SIM is getting its official Android 5.0 Lollipop update, the update is available in India Over-the-air (OTA). Will start rolling-out to other regions in the next few weeks.
After applying the update, which is around 675MB in size, the device runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, with software version 7.117.720.6.
The roll-out comes just over a week after HTC revealed that the One Mini as well as the One Mini 2 won't be getting the update. It's also worth mentioning that the regular version of the M7 started receiving Lollipop back in March this year.

HTC One Max has started receiving its official Android 5.0 Lollipop update. Weighing in at around 760MB, the over-the-air (OTA) update is currently rolling out in select Asian and European countries, including Taiwan, France, Italy, Poland, and Czech Republic.
For those who aren't in the know, according to a previously leaked schedule, the One Max was expected to start receiving the update back in March this year.

HMD Global is planning to launch three new mid-range Nokia smartphones at the IFA 2019 consumer technology conference in Berlin. The company is finalizing the roll-out of the next generation of Android to 17 of its smartphones. All the latest Nokia phones will be powered by Android 10. The Google's OS will be updated in the following three handsets.
In the mid of the fourth quarter 2019, Nokia 7.1, Nokia 8.1, and Nokia 9 PureView will receive the update. In early Q1 2020 Nokia 6.1, Nokia 6.1 plus, and Nokia 7 plus will get the Android 10. The chief product officer Juho Sarvikas recently tweeted about the update.
You may heard about Nokia long time ago but its comeback is only two years old and it seems the new Nokia is taking the user experience very serious. Samsung is also rolling out the Android 10 for some of its smartphones by the timeline given. Aside from all the Google Pixel phones - unlocked models only though - which were the first ones to receive the Android 10 upgrade. OnePlus has already distributed the Android 10 Beta update to its latest flagship devices the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro.
Nokia has promised to its fans that it will support 2 years of update for all of its smartphones. Google has recently extended the support of its Pixel 2 and 3 handsets from two to three years. In comparison, Apple has confirmed that the 4-year old iPhone 6 will receive the next version of its smartphone operating system iOS13 to be released this month. Sarvikas also confirmed that HMD Global is planning to launch a budget-friendly smartphone with 5G network capability.

HTC One A9 is latest smartphone from HTC and the first non-Nexus device to launch with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The handset is supposed to freshen up the HTC portfolio and give another chance of the otherwise struggling One lineup.
The HTC One A9 is built around a 5" AMOLED screen of 1080p resolution and is the first to run on the Snapdragon 617 chip. The SoC employs an octa-core processor with four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.5GHz and another four A53 ticking at 1.2GHz, Adreno 405 GPU and 2 or 3 GB of RAM depending on the version.
HTC says it designed the One A9 from scratch, blending signature elements of its previous phones, such as the antenna stripes on the back. The A9's unibody is made entirely of metal, with 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4 protective glass shielding the entire front.
HTC One A9 Specifications
HTC One A9 is quite thin at just 7.2mm of thickness and it seems like a pocket-friendly chap with the 5" screen and the 143g of weight.
The main camera of the One A9 packs 13MP sensor with optical image stabilization and 1080p video recording (the Snapdragon 617 doesn't support 4K). It supports RAW capturing and Hyperlapse (stabilized time-lapse) videos. The front snapper has a 4MP UltraPixel sensor and a bright F/2.0 aperture.
HTC One A9 comes with either 16 or 32GB of storage, expandable via a microSD slot. LTE connectivity is naturally supported, while a new high-power DAC that promises unmatched audio experience.
The Home key of the HTC One A9 doubles as an always-on fingerprint scanner, which will unlock your device even while the display is turned off. You can also use the sensor for Play Store payments thanks to the Android 6.0 Marshmallow running on the A9 right out of the box.
HTC One A9 is powered by a 2150 mAh battery, which supports Quick Charge 2.0 (and 3.0), though you'll have to buy a proper 15W HTC charger if you want to charge your battery lightning fast.
HTC One A9 will be available worldwide in a price of 600 EURO (about $580) by Early November,2015.

We all know HTC Android skins (Sense) and Apps, they're smart, clean and elegant. Sadly, these Apps and skins are only available for HTC devices... but this is about to change. A Report from Recode, indicates that HTC wants its own-build software to be available for the rest of Android devices.
HTC Creative Labs has started to develop apps for Android phones in general, not just HTC, the labs first products is "HTC Zoe" which has the power to stitch together up to 16 videos or images with your own soundtrack. We hope to see more and more HTC Apps available for Android smartphones in general, Especially HTC Blinkfeed and HTC Sense 6 launcher.
The new Zoe App will come out later this week, with more to follow, as the Creative Labs team plans to release other HTC apps from its own phones' confines in the future.

HTC executives reveales the company's plans for a wearable device in a conversation with Re/code. In line with past rumors, the Taiwanese manufacturer confirmed that it will not enter the market for such products until next year.
According to Jason Mackenzie, the head of HTC Americas, the company originally had plans to launch a wearable in this time frame. However, the gadget is not ready for the spotlight just yet.
Furthermore, Drew Bamford, the man in charge of the HTC Creative Labs team that works on wearables, took a jab at the competition. He pointed to the media that none of the current manufacturers has gotten the wearable device concept right.


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Included out of the box with the HTC Desire EYE, Eye Experience offers a number of cool features for the phone's cameras including Face-Fusion, Screen Share, Split Capture and Auto Selfie to name a few. In a rush to get the Eye Experience update pushed-out to HTC One M8 users, HTC had to leave out the Crop-Me-In feature that was part of the original package.
Today, an update to the Android version of the HTC Camera app brings a beta version of the Crop-Me-In feature to HTC One M8 owners. This feature allows you to crop a selfie taken with the front-facing camera into a picture snapped with the rear camera. You can put yourself in the middle of any situation and share the "proof" with your friends and family via social media.

After the success of the HTC Nexus 9 slate, HTC finally decided to enter the tablets market with its own brand.
According to the latest reports, the Taiwanese company is working on an HTC-branded Nexus 9-shaped tablet with the same 9-inch display 4:3 aspect ratio and the same dimensions but the Hardware Specifications will be different, probably higher.
This tablet will be a strong entry for HTC brand into the tablet's market, the market name of the tablet is not yet known but it may join the "ONE" family naming (HTC ONE Tab, HTC ONE MT.. etc). The exact release date for this tablet is not yet revealed but we won't see this tablet up until Q2,2015.

HTC is still publishing it's main OEM system Apps on the Play store for easier updates regardless of firmware versions, operator approval. Today, HTC just published it's Video Player App for HTC Sense. The App is available to a selected HTC devices.
This is the same video player that's built inside HTC's Sense UI layer, with multiple format decoding, gesture controls (two-finger swipes act as FF and RW for example), streaming, still image capturing, and subtitle support. The player also allows a few simple editing tweaks like trimming and playback speed adjustment for slow-motion videos.
You can download the HTC video player version 6.5 APK from the link below, or wait until the update hits your HTC device via Google Play Store.

Recently a reputed English IT journal brought news into everyone's notice about HTC's upcoming move. The Taiwanese Electronics brand HTC has revealed its plan to release a next-generation model of its blockchain-centric smartphone somewhere by the end of 2019. According to HTC's chief decentralized officer Phil Chen, the development is still in the process and aims to boost smartphones sales. If realized, this will also help to expand the company's blockchain echo system.
In sprint 2018, HTC first unveiled its plans for its first native blockchain phone. HTC Exodus will support multiple block chains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum networks, PCMag reported May 15. HTC Vive creator Phil Chen seem pretty positive about the possible outcomes after this phone is being launched. Chen said the Company's mission is to support the entire blockchain ecosystem in order to "help underlying protocols expand their base of dedicated nodes". Chen also mentioned that the upcoming premium phone will support "multiple blockchain protocols" such as BTC, Ethereum, Lightning Network (LN), and Definity Network.
The Android smartphone will feature a universal digital currency wallet as well as a secure hardware enclave. Chen also insisted that HTC Exodus would be highly secure and follow high standards of security and data protection. He said: "I want to see a world where the end consumers can truly own their data - browsing history, identity, assets, wallets, email, messaging - without the need of central authorities. As there isn't much information about Exodus right now, we can't estimate the price tag it might carry but Chen said that company may consider cryptocurrency as a means of payment for the upcoming blockchain powered smartphone.
The second-generation of HTC Exodus will extend its supported blockchain apps to browsing, messaging and probably to the social media. These new communication apps will be based on peer-to-peer connections instead of being routed via clouds. Chen referred to the major success of centralized consumer apps like Uber and Airbnb as an emerging sector of blockchain and decentralized technologies.

Today, HTC has confirmed its plans on the Android 5.0 Lollipop Update for its latest flagships HTC One M8 and One M7. The Official @HTC Twitter account confirmed that the company will release the Lollipop update in 90 days after Google release the final software... which will be during this Month. This plans goes for all M8 and M7 devices and variants.
So, you can expect the first Lollipop update to come to your HTC One M8 or One M7 in the first week of February,2015. HTC is reported to adopt Google's Material Design UI on its upcoming version of HTC Sense that will be released with its Android 5.0 update.
Stay tuned fro more info in the upcoming days...

The financial reports for Samsung's Q3 2016 sales are out and they show that the Note 7 has burned Samsung in the same way as the company expected it to. The total revenue of the company has plummeted by 3.87 trillion WON/$3.4 billion and landed at 47.82 trillion WON/$42.01 billion; that's a 7.5% decrease, as compared to Q3 2015. Operating profit stands at 5.20 trillion WON/$4.56 billion, which is the lowest for the Korean tech giant in the last two years and shows a 30% decrease.
Things as a whole don't look nearly as bad as it looks in the company's mobile department. Consider this; Samsung Mobiles has managed a total revenue of 22.54 trillion WON/$19.80 billion, which depicts a 96% decrease, as compared to the third quarter of the last year! The profits in the division stand at a meagre 100 billion WON/$87.8 million.
According to reports, things will start to look a little brighter for the company in the last quarter of the year, as it plans to focus on increasing production and sales of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge in the worldwide market. In the meanwhile, the Galaxy A and Galaxy J series of smartphones will hopefully provide some stability in terms of sales to the company in their respective price segments.
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Things are really not looking good for Samsung at all as a brand new serious issue has just surfaced in the form of a lawsuit for something that was previously unknown and unheard of. Daniel Ramirez is a construction worker who has filed a lawsuit against the South Korean electronics giant for allegedly selling defective and explosive Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones. He stated that the incident occurred in Ohio, where he was working in a bookstore and the S7 Edge was in his pant pocket. The phone wasn't being charged or even used while it caught fire and caused Daniel to receive second and third degree burns. He tried to grab the smoking smartphone and throw it out of his pocket, which burned his right hand as well. This was followed by the S7 Edge proceeding to literally explode in his pocket causing horrible injuries.
Now, this is an incident that reportedly occurred on May 30, which is more than three months before the Note 7 was even officially revealed. In light of the recently occuring battery related fires originating from the Note 7 and its worldwide recall by the manufacturer, ClassAction.com has taken it upon themselves to sue the OEM over this tragic incident. They want a worldwide recall for the S7 Edge, just like Samsung did with the Note 7. Not only is this the first time that we are hearing about the S7 Edge catching fire and exploding, but this is also the only time that such an unfortunate accident seems to have happened while the phone was not even being charged. We will have to wait and see what Samsung has to say about this.
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Samsung Electronics has appointed D.J. Koh, the big boss of mobile research and development, as the new chief of the company's mobile communications business. This move comes after setbacks in Samsung's mobile business during the operation period of the former head J.K. Shin, including an underestimation of demand for the Galaxy S6 edge, while overestimating demand for the Galaxy S6 with a non-curved screen.
Actually Samsung's growth deteriorated in early 2014 as Apple experienced something of a revival. The demand for its iPhones, particularly in China increased, while low-cost Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi and Huawei also got boost in sales. Just like the problems faced by Nokia some years ago, Samsung's mid-range smartphones have been getting crushed on both the high end and low end by its competitors.
Analysts said that the moves at the mobile division were an apparent admission that the change was very much needed, as they did not expect a new strategy to come up any time soon. According to Chang Sea-jin, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology business professor - "Koh is basically the same person as Shin". Analysts have reported that Samsung needed to ramp up its software and services offerings to rejuvenate its mobile business, but Koh, who has held mobile business roles since 2006, had an engineering background like Shin. Chang said that "There is no real change and Samsung appears to be continuing on the hardware-centric path".

Although the Galaxy Note 7 is not exactly enjoying a good reputation right now due to the faulty and hazardous batteries that some of the units are shipped with, there is no denying that the iris-scanner which the smartphone boasts of is one of its kind at the moment. The good news is that according to DJ Koh, the iris-scanners will also be seen on mid-range devices from Samsung as it becomes more cost-effective to do so, with time. He also mentions that he was personally associated with its development and in the coming months, Samsung will concentrate towards keeping the technology secure from all kind of privacy or security threats that it may encounter.
Here are some excerpts from the president of Samsung Mobiles speech at the "Unpacked" event press conference in New York.
"We did not put iris scanning in the flagship model just to do 'unlock'. In the long run, through third parties and API, we want to connect it with apps. For mobile banking, we are thinking of applying iris scanning for large transactions, and are already talking with banks in some countries,"
"Through continued cost cutting, iris scanning can trickle down to mid-end models,"
"There is a view that Android is weak in security compared to its competitor and we want to expand software security that can overcome this image"
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

If you have been following us, you probably have a pretty good idea about what to expect from the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 7 already. But just in case you don't have an idea, have a look at some these recent renders released by VRS Design while listing their new range of cases for the Note 7.
The pictures do not reveal anything to us that we do not know already but they sure are reinforcing the rumors almost to the point of becoming facts. We can see the S-Pen's top end poking out from the bottom right S-Pen slot and the expected USB Type-C port makes its appearance in this render as well. What we do not see clearly however, are the three lenses of the rumoured retina scanner. Given that the images do not show the retina scanner to be absent either, don't lose hope yet! Additionally, we can see the dual Edge display, the ambient light sensor, the front camera, the rear camera and the dual tone flash.
Author: Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

According to the latest test results made public by GameBench, the Exynos 8890 powered Galaxy S7 has exhibited a significantly better battery life, in comparison to the Snapdragon 820 version that is available in the US. In fact the difference is enough to surprise you and not in a pleasant way if you are in the US.
You can see all the data in the images, courtesy of PhoneArena, but the end result speaks for itself. Apparently, the S7 Exynos is 71% more power-efficient, as compared to the S7 Snapdragon version! Sadly, it is even the least power-efficient device when compared to two other SD 820 powered smartphones, the LG G5 and the HTC 10. Even though the Snapdragon variant was almost neck-to-neck in terms of audio playback, the Exynos version did beat it in that department as well.
Keep in mind though that the snapdragon variant of the Samsung Galaxy S7 was from Verizon and had the expected bloatware as a result. Nevertheless, the difference in between the two variants is just too great to ignore or blame on the bloatware. We found the disparity to be surprising and disappointing, what do you think?
Author: Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

The beta version of Samsung's latest music application is now available on the Play Store and it's free to download. This will make updating the app easier for Samsung as it no longer has to be part of the Samsung's firmware upgrades. It is an initiative that will make updates for individual Samsung made software more frequent.
If you are wondering what is so special about Samsung Music, you might be disappointed as it is similar to most other music apps on the Play Store, excepting the fact that it is made primarily for Samsung devices and optimized accordingly. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are the first flagship smartphones from Samsung to come without the default music player pre-installed and this is probably the beginning of a new trend.
If you are interested to download and give Samsung Music a try then make sure that your device is running at least Android Marshmallow 6.0 as anything below that is incompatible with it. The Samsung music player supports popular formats like WMA, MP3, FLAC and AAC among others. It is also capable of sorting your songs in six categories, namely Artist, Track, Album, Composer, Folder and Genre. Anyone who has used a Samsung device before will feel at home and if you have another compatible device that you want to try it on, feel free to download it now.

Following the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 which suffered from initial reports out of Korea's Samsung about overheating in early mock-ups causing a delay in the release of one of their flagship phones, the Snapdragon 820 is expected to re-establish Qualcomm's leadership position in mobile-specific microchips.
Samsung develops its own Exynos range of SoC that it puts into model variants, particularly in Asian markets, which it used when Qualcomm came up short with the 810. The Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and Note 5 all used Samsung's over SoC instead of Qualcomm. However, the latter chip-maker is roaring back with its upcoming 820.
Leaked benchmark scores for both Geekbench and AnTuTu indicate that the Snapdragon 820 is likely to outperform the collection of competitors with their best 2015 releases. The benchmark scores beat the Note 5 and even matched the iPhone 6S Plus in some off-screen tests while lagging a little with the on-screen ones.
The test screenshots refer to the SD820 being used on a 6.2-inch smartphone with an eye-gouging 1600x2560 resolution with 4 GB of RAM. Clearly the 820 was being pushed hard with the sheer number of pixels being moved around on the screen during the testing on the Android 6.0 platform. In fact, the number of pixels being managed on-screen far exceeds that of the iPhone S6 Plus which likely explains the on-screen under-performance compared to the Apple model.
LeTV announced the Le Max Pro will use the 820, but Samsung is also expected to release details about the Galaxy S7 in a couple of weeks which is likely to adopt the new Qualcomm technology in some of its phone variants.

Samsung may not only shift its headquarters from London, but it may just leave the United Kingdom altogether. As you can probably guess, if this happens, it would be a direct result of the UK leaving the European Union (aka Brexit). Of course, Europe as a market has not lately been as profitable as it used to be for Samsung. In the year 2013, Samsung boasted of a 21% share in the total mobile sales number throughout the entire continent. Things however, went downhill from there as that share stands at only 12.8% right now. Samsung also did not release the Galaxy Note 5 in Europe last year and had stopped selling cameras, camcorders and associated accessories in there altogether.
It is evident that Samsung isn't exactly making any headway in Europe to speak of, but couple that with the fact that Britain may now impose heavier import taxes on them and the decision to leave the UK starts to seem like an inevitable course for the Korean company. As the United Kingdom will no longer have to follow the tariff regulations and import duty models laid out by the Union, the general consensus is that taxes will now increase for all foreign companies operating within the nation.
Author: Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Even though it was a disaster when a few of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones started to catch fire all over the world, many have applauded the Korean electronics giant on their decision to recall all the 2.5 million smartphones that they had shipped. However, as is often the case in such scenarios, some of the customers have decided to disregard the warnings issued by flight authorities, tech-experts and the manufacturer themselves. While it is questionable what would prompt such negligence, in spite of the free refund/replacement scheme employed by Samsung, many customers are of the opinion that the incidents are far too low and in between to be concerned about it.
Nevertheless, Samsung has decided to limit the maximum charging point to 60% of the Note 7's full battery capacity in an OTA update that will be released shortly in South Korea. This news was confirmed when the Seoul Shinmun (a popular South Korean newspaper) published the message from Samsung on its front page. This is a temporary fix until all the customers turn in their smartphones for free replacements, which should begin by the end of the month. According to Yonhap News Agency, the same update could also make its way to all other nations as well, but we will have to wait and see. In the meanwhile, we advise you to stop using the Galaxy Note 7 and get it replaced/refunded as soon as possible. Although some have pointed out that the chances of your Note 7 exploding are similar to that of winning the lottery, this is one lottery that you may not want to win!
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

A feature that was introduced by HTC's own Zoe Cam and made popular by the iphone 6s via Live Photos, is now going to be adopted by Samsung's upcoming flagship. The basic technology works by bringing a photo alive with the help of a video that captures footage from both before and after the shot, but spans no more than 1-2 seconds. The process results in an animated snap with audio.
If the rumors are to believed, then Samsung will call their version of the feature, "Vivid Photo." However, it won't work exactly like the iPhone 6s' Live Photo feature because the snaps won't have any audio accompanying them. That being said, Samsung is not the one to lose out in a battle of features so Vivid Photo will supposedly stitch together photos of much higher quality when compared to the ones produced by the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
The obvious question that comes next is why did Samsung ditch the audio? Samsung wanted Vivid Photo to be a feature that can be shared via messaging and social networking sites, rather than being a proprietary end-to-end affair. In other words, the Samsung Galaxy S7 probably has come up with a feature that will allow you to create high quality GIF images fit for easy sharing and enjoying on most systems and devices.

Harman International Industries is in the process of being acquired by Samsung in a whopping $8 billion deal, which will mark the Korean giant's entry into the automotive industry. Harman is famous for manufacturing top of the line audio systems, smartcar accessories and other automobile entertainment systems for companies such as GM and Fiat. In an official statement by Samsung, Vice-Chairman Kwon Oh-Hyun mentioned that "Harman perfectly complements Samsung in terms of technologies, products and solutions, and joining forces is a natural extension of the automotive strategy we have been pursuing for some time."
The all-cash deal, when it goes through, will result in Samsung acquiring Harman Industries at $112 per share. Although it will take some time before the buyout is completed, Samsung is looking to finish all the necessary formalities by the end of Q3, 2017, including approvals from the regulators and of course, share holders. It would be interesting to see if any of the new protectionist strategies which could be adopted by the new Trump govenment, interferes with this deal concerning an Asian company acquiring an US business.
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

The Galaxy A7-series is a popular mid-ranger from Samsung and its 2017 edition is on the verge of being launched. The latest news regarding the dual SIM handset is that it just got certified for Bluetooth v4.2 and while this isn't in itself a very revealing news, it does indicate that Samsung may launch it as early as December. In fact, rumor has it that Samsung could launch the A3 (2017) and the A5 (2017) in December as well.
Just like most upcoming smartphones these days, there isn't much left to "unveil" officially as we already have a pretty good idea about the internals of the A7 (2017), thanks to the multiple leaks and rumors. Here's a list of what we have heard so far and the chances are that they are mostly accurate.
Display: 5.5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED panel
SoC: Exynos 7780
RAM: 3GB
Camera: 16-mp front and rear camera
Internal storage: 32GB
External storage: Yes
Battery: 3,300mAh with Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging
OS version: Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, but will receive an upgrade to Nougat 7.0 later (Most probably)
IP68 rated water resistance
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Today, Samsung officially unveil its schedule for CES 2015. The huge trade show is fast approaching, as we're now exactly one month away from its debut.
January,5th is when Samsung will hold a press conference at CES, starting at 2 pm Las Vegas Time. This will be followed by a keynote address by BK Yoon, Samsung Electronics CEO and President, at 6:30 pm.
On the same day also, Sony will hold its CES presentation, though that will start at 5 pm. So this is shaping up to be a pretty crowded day, as the day before the trade show's doors open has always been.
