Technology News - The Circular iPhone

Previously also had the concept of circular phones, but it’s new and exciting. The format of the 2016 handset is pretty much set in stone and the game changing won’t come from a circular device. But that is very sympathetic. This circular iPhone concept can may would work excellently as both a phone and something with a belt to use as a watch. The device is slim, has a metal body and seems to display apps in a cross pattern, rather than a floating cloud, like on the Apple Watch, which would work better on this format. Sometimes this handset feels a bit like a badge to wear on your clothes or pin to a backpack. The port and speakers at the “bottom” look interesting. But then again,were strange devices. People have been using banana shaped phones and hamburger shaped house phones indoors for years now. And apparently people consider Salvador Dali’s lobster phone art…

Related Topics: The Apple Watch - Video-Chat Dick Tracy Camera

                          Apple iPhone 8 - Wireless Charging

   

Technology News - Concept Nokia FIT : ring for calls and messages

One of the biggest problems of modern mobile phones and smartphones is their size. It is certainly, the big screen is very good, play games or read all sorts of information is convenient, but when it concerns where to put the device, pockets sag and create some discomfort when walking. According to the author of the concept, Nokia FIT ring phone is designed for easy acceptance / fulfillment calls and messages. In addition, this ring is waterproof – his not necessarily shoot at any water procedures. Unusual ring made of soft silicone and flexible of rubber and did not restrict the wearer. The use of these materials as well as a special form will allow people to wear the gadget at thin or thick fingers. Of course, in this case we have only a concept that at the current level of technology to implement unlikely to succeed (hard to imagine, where you can hide the radio, SIM-card and main battery). It is much easier to imagine,that this gadget will released to the market, such, as an unusual wireless headset.  

Related Topics: - Spontaneous Pop-up Display (SPUD) converts Smartphone into a 24-inch display

                          - The Circular iPhone

       

Technology News - Google Hits Pixel Resellers with 'Digital Death Sentence'

Some of Google's unwitting users are learning a harsh lesson: If you violate the company's policies, it can abruptly cut you off from your Gmail account, online photos and other vital digital services.Several people who recently bought Google's new Pixel phone on behalf of a New Hampshire dealer are now suffering that punishment after the company detected their online purchases and judged they violated its terms of service. Those rules, outlined in a document that few people read closely , forbid the purchase of the Pixel for "commercial" resale. "There isn't an hour that doesn't go by that I don't think about the enormity of what Google has done to me," said one of the affected resellers, Shmuel Super of Brooklyn, New York. "This is like a digital death sentence." Sell Your Phone, Lose Your Account Super and his fellow resellers got into trouble for buying up to five Pixel phones from Google's online store and having them delivered to New Hampshire for resale. They received $5 for each phone. As of Sunday, some started finding themselves locked out of their Google accounts. In a Thursday statement, Google described the resale arrangement as a "scheme" devised by a dealer looking to sell the Pixels at marked-up prices in violation of its policies. Google declined to say how many people were affected by the account lockdown. DansDeals , a consumer-focused website that first reported Google's crackdown, concluded that more than 200 people had been blocked from their Google accounts after talking to the New Hampshire dealer behind the Pixel buying spree. The Associated Press was unsuccessful in its efforts to identify and interview the dealer. The crackdown may come as a surprise to the hundreds of millions of people who now routinely rely on Google, Facebook, Apple and other tech companies as the caretakers of their digital lives. Few of the people involved in this situation appear to have backed up their data outside of Google. Google said it plans to restore the accounts of customers who it believes were unaware of the rules, although the company didn't specify how long that might take. Living Without Google Once they figured out why they were being locked out, the exiled consumers realized how dependent they had become on Google as the custodian of their digital communications, records and other mementoes. Some said they couldn't retrieve confirmation numbers for upcoming flights or notices about an upcoming credit-card payment. Others couldn't fetch work documents or medical records. Some started getting phone calls from friends, family and colleagues wondering why they weren't responding to emails. Like two other people interviewed by the AP, Super said he had no idea that he was violating Google's policies when he bought the Pixels for the New Hampshire dealer. He can't believe Google would do something as extreme as locking him out of his account without warning, rather than just banning him from buying its phones in the future. "Google's slogan is 'Don't be evil,' but to me, there is nothing more evil that what Google has done here," Super said. Crime and Punishment Some of the Pixels purchased for resale were delivered before Google recognized the violations and meted out a punishment spelled out in a separate terms-of-service document . "We may suspend or stop providing our services to you if you do not comply with our terms or policies or if we are investigating suspected misconduct," Google warns in one section. Google doesn't give any advance notice before it shuts down an account, and doesn't make distinctions between minor and major violations. Affected users can appeal for reinstatement, though it's unclear how long that might take or what criteria Google uses in such cases. Apple also forbids online purchases of iPhones for resale, although its terms of service say only that the company reserves the right to cancel any order suspected of breaking the rule. Daniel Levy, who has been locked out from his Google account since Monday, said he has learned a hard lesson, though not necessarily the one the company intended. "They confiscated my property and shouldn't be trusted," said Levy, who lives in Lakewood, New Jersey. "I will never use their services again."

Technology News - Samsung Not Giving Up: Developing S8, New Note

It is no secret that the affair of the flammable Note 7 caused enormous damage to Samsung. Besides the enormous financial damage, it also seriously affected the image of the world’s large smartphone manufacturer in general, and especially its Note brand. It is no surprise that many people believed that Samsung would have to abandon the series, or at least its name, by issuing its phablet under a new name.

A new and reliable report, however, states that Samsung may have completely different plans.

Note Users: You Should (Probably) Wait

Samsung Galaxy S8 models are indeed skipping SM-G94* model numbers, will ship as SM-G950 & SM-G955. Know what else is in the works? SM-N950. -- Evan Blass (@evleaks) November 9, 2016

The report is by well-known leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks), who is known for his accurate leaks. Blass’s leaks usually come from many sources in the supply and production chain of various manufacturers. He wrote in his Twitter account that Samsung was currently developing two models of the Galaxy S8 with the model numbers SM-G950 and SM-G955 (this refers to the ordinary S8 and the larger S8 Edge). At the end of the tweet, however, Blass added, “Do you know what else Samsung is working on? SM-N950.” This model number refers to a Note 8, which Blass says is already in development.

The Note 7 [pictured above] model number was SM-N930. Samsung, however, chose to skip the digit 4 in its Note 8 model number, because this digit is associated with bad luck in South Korea and East Asia, like the number 13 in other cultures. That is called reducing risk.

Another tweet by Blass confirmed that both of the two new Galaxy S8 devices would have curved convex screens. This contrasts with the current situation, in which there is both an ordinary version of the device and a larger Edge version with a curved screen. If this is the case, the devices may receive a slightly different name, perhaps even Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 plus, as is the case with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Pixel.

Both Samsung Galaxy S8 models will reportedly have an edge display https://t.co/o2LZJw6Mzx pic.twitter.com/qsd6YFuYEd -- Evan Blass (@evleaks) November 9, 2016

Global Launch for the S3 Watch

Smartphones, however, are not the only thing being concocted in Samsung’s kitchen. Samsung unveiled the Gear S3, its new smart watch, two months ago. The watch has already been launched in South Korea. Samsung has now announced, however, that the watch will be launched this Friday in a number of markets, including Australia, Dubai, France, Germany, Singapore, the UK, and the US.

The new watch has been upgraded slightly from the successful S2. An array of new features has been added, such as a loudspeaker, LTE connectivity, and payments support. The watch will come in two models with different designs and specs. The Frontier model will have a black matte finish and LTE connectivity. Together with the loudspeaker, you can actually carry your watch around and leave your smartphone at home. The watch can also receive alerts and send messages independently of your cellular device. The other model, the Classic, with a metallic finish, but without LTE, can communicate with the world only through your smartphone. Both models will be based on Tizen OS, Samsung’s operating system, instead of on Google’s Android Wear.

Technology News - PS4 Pro Offers Worse Performance Than PS4 in Some Games

Highlights

• Most games offer better performance on PS4 Pro, as they should
• Some - such as Watch Dogs 2 and The Last of Us - run better on PS4
• Sony is "aware of" and "investigating" these issues

The PlayStation 4 Pro, launched late last week, is designed to offer better performance with games compared to its more prominent cousin, the PS4. But according to a new report, some “PS4 Pro Enhanced” games are doing the exact opposite – they are performing worse. While most games are delivering as they should – 4K and HDR if you’ve got the right TV, or offering advanced anti-aliasing if you’re running a 1080p screen – some are falling short of the frame rate provided by the regular PS4. Eurogamer has seen this happen with The Last of Us, Skyrim, and Watch Dogs 2 – with all three titles performing worse on the PS4 Pro than they do on the PS4. The issue is “fairly frequent” with The Last of Us, with the game regularly failing to deliver 60fps. Meanwhile, the game runs on the PS4 at a locked 60fps without any worries. Similarly, Skyrim on PS4 Pro drops its frame-rate when the game is “heavy on alpha transparency effects”, while the good ol’ PS4 runs it smoothly on 30fps.  

Watch Dogs 2, locked to 30fps, provides great visuals on the PS4 Pro but has frame tearing and frame-rate issues that are not to be seen with the PS4. Eurogamer had mixed results with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, with the PS4 Pro performing better in some aspects and then dropping multiple frames in other scenes.

A stable, and playable, frame-rate is much more important than visual improvements – be it fidelity or resolution. This is, of course, not the experience gamers should be getting with an upgraded version of a console that carries the “Pro” moniker. After all, Sony’s technical requirements for “PS4 Pro Enhanced” games were that they must “meet or exceed” frame-rates offered on the PS4. For what it’s worth, Sony has responded to Eurogamer’s findings, saying: “We are aware of the issue and currently investigating.” Hopefully the problems will be fixed soon, so current and future PS4 buyers can get their money’s worth.  

Technology News - Samsung is looking for Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge owners to test Android 7.0 on their phones

It’s not a full on Nougat rollout, but it’s something. For a second year in a row, Samsung will be offering a select group of users early access to the latest version of Android through its Galaxy Beta Program.

Currently limited to Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge owners (no Note 7 for obvious reasons) in the US, UK, and Korea, the deal is first-come, first served, according to the company’s site, aimed at testing the stability of Android 7.0 on its flagship devices. The program will be arriving in China at some point in the near future, as well.

Participants will be asked to report bugs and other issues to help the company bring things up to speed for next year’s public roll out. Sadly, if you got your hands on the limited edition Olympics or Batman version of the phone, you can’t participate. Ditto for users in the UK who have devices locked by their carrier.

There’s a bunch more fine print on Samsung’s page, including the fact that “unexpected errors may occur,” because, well, that’s kind of the whole point of a beta program

Huawei Mate 9 review: A big phone with an bigger battery

Huawei is in a tough position. The company is coming out of China with no strong presence in the U.S. market, and yet it prices its phones similarly to top competitors from Samsung and Apple. To beat the best, Huawei needs to be better than the best, and by a sizable margin. With each new phone, Huawei is a bit closer to that goal, but it never quite reached it.

Enter the Huawei Mate 9. After rumors of crazy-good specs, this was the device that had all the makings of becoming the best phablet in the world, and with the Samsung Galaxy Note7 out of the picture, the task appeared to be even easier. And while the Mate 9 is a very good phone, it will only be the best for some users: those who care deeply about battery life, fast charging and some niche features like black and white photography.

The Huawei Mate 9 is a 5.9-inch phone with the latest octa-core Huawei 960 Kirin chipset (paired with a Mali-G71 graphics chip), it's got 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage (expandable via microSD cards), has dual cameras on the back (20- and 12-megapixels), an 8-megapixel selfie shooter, a fingerprint sensor, and runs on Android 7.0, skinned with Huawei's latest EMUI 5.0 user interface.

On paper, that's the best Android phone around, if we disregard two specs: its huge screen only has a full HD resolution (many competitors, including the now-discontinued Note7, have Quad HD resolution), and it's not waterproof. Huawei pointed out that this phone is currently the top dog in Geekbench's multi-core test, and I've confirmed this to be the truth.

 

Huawei Mate 9 scores amazingly well in Geekbench 4's multi-core test; the score is a bit less impressive (but still very good) in the single-core test. For comparison, these scores make it the top Android phone out there; compared to the iPhone 7, it wins in the multi-core test but lags behind in the single-core test.

Synthetic tests like this one don't tell the full story, but the Mate 9 did feel fast and smooth, no matter what I threw at it.

Good but generic design

All the Huawei phones I've reviewed in the past couple of years have had exceptionally good build quality, and the Mate 9 is no exception. It just feels rock-solid.

The design, however, is nearly the same as the design of its predecessor, the Mate 8. Yes, the bezels are thin, the speaker grille is a bit more pronounced, the edges are ever-so-slightly curved, but these days you need to do more to stand out. Place an iPhone 7 or a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge next to it, and both will inspire more lustful sighs.

 

A big part of the smartphone experience these days is the screen, and as I've said many times, I don't mind the 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution. That's the same resolution as the iPhone 7 Plus, and no one is complaining. The screen is also brighter than on any other Huawei phone I've seen. And while earlier Huawei phones have had some problems with visibility in the sunlight, the Mate 9 appears to be better (but not perfect) with that regard.

Great battery life and insanely fast charging

One benefit of having a lower-resolution screen (it feels silly calling full HD resolution on a 5.9-inch screen "low," but that's just where we are these days) is better battery life. The huge, 4,000mAh battery also helps, and so does Huawei's SuperCharge charger that promises a full day's worth of battery life in just 20 minutes of charging.

In my testing, the battery life was not as impressive as on the Huawei Note 8 (which also has a 4,000mAh battery), but it was still great. The phone never lasted less than a day, and often I'd still have more than 30 percent of battery life left when I went to sleep.

The super-fast charging is even better. While writing this review, I started charging the phone at 10 percent, and it took just two hours to bring it to 100 percent. The charger is a bit bulkier than you'll get with most phones, but the tradeoff is worth it. Often, I forget to charge my phone and need a quick charge before going out. With this thing, I easily got 20 or 30 percent worth of battery life by the time I brushed my teeth and put on some clothes.

About that dual camera

This is where Huawei Mate 9 stumbles a bit. Huawei had a big head-start on the iPhone when it comes to dual cameras; the Huawei P9 had a 12-megapixel, Leica-branded, dual camera five months before iPhone 7 Plus did.

 

The Leica-branded dual camera is positioned above the phone's super-fast fingerprint sensor.

On paper, Huawei Mate 9 sounds like it should annihilate every camera out there. It has optical image stabilization, an advanced bokeh mode and a 20-megapixel sensor.

But here's the problem: Only one of the cameras has a 20-megapixel sensor, and it only takes pics in monochrome. The other sensor is 12 megapixels, meaning that color photos on the Mate 9 cannot go beyond 12 megapixels; just like on the Huawei P9. Of course, the iPhone 7 Plus boasts the same resolution, so this is not awful by any means, but it just feels like wasted opportunity.

Before we dive into the details of photo quality (and there's a lot to cover), there are a few more things to mention. The bokeh mode only works well in ideal conditions, with the subject of the portrait near and flat towards the camera, and the background far in the distance. Any other conditions and you'll likely to see strange blurry patches in the photo and imperfections around the object that's in the focus. Check out an example, below.

Notice how the edges of the headphones are blurry and odd, especially on the left earcup? The Mate 9's bokeh mode works well in ideal scenarios, but give it anything a bit tougher and this happens.

Also, the phone boasts some sort of hybrid 2x zoom mode, which is not optical. I fail to see how this is different from digital zoom, so I mostly disregarded it.

The Mate 9 has an 8-megapixel selfie camera, just like its predecessor. But thankfully, the "beauty" mode is no longer the default; gone is the unnaturally smooth skin and bulgy eyes. The selfies are decent if not spectacular, but this little change means more to me than improvements in picture quality.

Finally, the Mate 9 takes 4K video, a first for Huawei.

Photo quality: Stunning in black and white, solid in color, shoddy in low light

Huawei places a lot of emphasis on its partnership with Leica, which yielded the company's dual-camera system. The idea is to combine a monochrome sensor that takes very sharp photos with a color sensor to get very sharp color photos. It worked well on the Huawei P9, but how does it work on the Mate 9, where the monochrome sensor has a higher resolution than the color one?

Since I've already done a detailed analysis of P9's photo-taking capabilities, the easiest way to test the Mate 9 is to test it directly against the P9. I've also thrown in photos taken by a 12-megapixel Canon 450D DSLR for good measure. Given the enormous amount of features all of these cameras offer, I've mostly taken photos on auto settings, which is the way most users will do it anyways.

The short verdict is that the Mate 9 takes very similar photos to the Huawei P9. They're great and sharp in sunny outdoors shots, but lag behind today's top phones in low light conditions. And if you like black and white shots, the Mate 9 will occasionally take a photo that will beat professional-grade cameras.

Huawei Mate 9

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Check out the outdoors shots above. In the park photo (comparison below), the Mate 9 takes a stunningly sharp photo, but it looks a bit too post-processed. The colors are also a bit washed out, while the Canon leans to the blue a bit too much; the P9's photo has the best color accuracy.

In the palm photo, it's the P9 that does too much sharpening. The Huawei Mate 9 gets it just right; both phones produce a far sharper photo than the Canon.

In a monochrome photo, the Mate 9 wins over the P9 due to its 20-megapixel resolution. And while both cameras takes absolutely stunning black and white photos, it's worth noting that pretty much the only thing that separates them is the resolution; in fact, on some occasions the P9 took a better photo.

Go inside a bar or a dark room, however, and the Mate 9 isn't as good. Its f/2.2 aperture lags behind the iPhone 7, Google Pixel XL and the Galaxy S7 Edge, and it shows; the low-light photos it takes are always a tad to dark and grainy. The phone's HDR mode is a must here, but you have to turn it on manually.

The verdict — despite Huawei's partnership with Leica and its experience with dual-camera phones — is that the Mate 9 takes great photos in some cases, but doesn't exactly shine where it counts the most, in those party/beer bar/concert shots most of us love to take.

Details that might change your mind

These days, smartphones are little powerhouses that do a ton of things, and even though people care the most about performance, battery life and camera, it would be very unfair to judge the Huawei Mate 9 on those criteria alone. The phone comes with a plethora of minor but useful features not many competing phones have. Here's a little list of notes I've made while reviewing this phone.

The software has been vastly improved and polished since the Mate 8. It's not just Android 7.0; Huawei has cleaned up its EMUI, making sure you can get to most features with fewer clicks. And if you don't like the cram your apps into folders on the screen, iPhone-style, the Mate 9 now has an optional app drawer as well.

Huawei claims the phone comes with software that learns user habits and improves performance the more you use it, with peak performance coming after 16 months of use. It's tough to test that in only a week, but the phone was definitely very fast.

The company pointed out to me that the software on the device I had for testing is unfinished, and that an update get pushed out before the device hits the market. However, I did not encounter any bugs while testing the phone.

The Mate 9 comes with stereo speakers (a close competitor, the Pixel XL, has a mono speaker) which sound amazing for a smartphone — probably the best I've heard. It also has four directional mics, which make recording interviews much easier; you can listen to sounds that came from a specific direction and mute all other sounds. On the other hand, it does not support Bluetooth aptX, which is a shame.

A single USB-C connector is positioned between the speaker grilles on the bottom. On the top, there's (thankfully) a headphone jack.

The Mate 9 has a headphone jack. This is important to point out now that the iPhone 7, and many new phones, like the HTC Bolt, do not. I have a lot of headphones which I frequently plug in and out of multiple devices, and this is a big deal for me.

The phone has an IR blaster, in case you want to use it as a remote. I rarely do, but hey, a lot of competing phones don't have the feature.

With a 5.9-inch screen, the phone is big but manageable; it's roughly, as Huawei itself highlighted at launch, the size of an iPhone 7 Plus. But the more important implication is that the Mate 9 has a bigger screen than most top phablets out there. The Note7 had a 5.7-inch screen, but that's all gone now, and the S7 Edge, Google Pixel, iPhone 7 Plus all have 5.5-inch screens. If you need a little extra screen estate, the Mate 9 might be a better choice.

Verdict

The Huawei Mate 9 is an ambitious device, polished and powerful. But the Galaxy S7 Edge and the iPhone 7 Plus have a better design and camera. They're also waterproof. And Google's Pixel XL has a better camera and tons of Google-unique software perks.

The Mate 9 more than makes it up in other areas. It has a great battery that charges crazy fast, and is a little bigger than top competitors. It also has top specs and some nifty details, like four microphones and stereo speakers. It takes amazing black-and-white photos.

This leaves us with the question of the price. The Mate 9 will be available in the U.S., but I have not been able to get the exact date and price from Huawei. We know the price in Europe, however: 699 euros ($750). That's a fair price for what you get, but you need to take a good long look at other phones sold at this price and choose which features you care about.

Huawei Mate 9

The Good

Top specs • Takes amazing black and white photos • Premium feel • Great stereo sound • Great battery life and super fast charging

The Bad

Bland design • Camera lags behind top competition • Pricey

The Bottom Line

The Huawei Mate 9 is a polished and powerful phone with great battery life, an innovative camera and — how about that? — a headphone jack.

Samsung Galaxy S8 Tipped to Sport Pressure-Sensitive Display

Samsung may be the next handset manufacturer to go for pressure-sensitive display technology for its next flagship, if a new report citing multiple industry sources is to be believed. Notably, Samsung's pressure-sensitive display technology is expected to work same as Apple's 3D Touch seen on iPhones.

The technology will be able to distinguish between a light tap and deep press, enabling access to more functions just by pressing harder. Notably, Samsung won't be the first Android handset vendor to bring pressure-sensitive display technology to its phones as Huawei was the first to unveil the force touch tech. To recall, Huawei's Mate S was the first Android smartphone featuring Force Touch technology.

The report by The Investor cites an official of a Samsung supplier who said, "Samsung is mulling to adopt the force touch technology partially from the S8 but the full adoption will come in one or two years. It is a matter of time before other major Android smartphone makers deploy the technology that will help enhance user interface." The report also suggests that Samsung may utilise its own force touch tech developed by Samsung Display, which also supplies force touch displays to Huawei.

Additionally, Samsung's Senior Executive at component division on condition of anonymity claimed that the South Korean company was working on the force touch tech "for the adoption in the near future."

A recent report claimed that Samsung's Galaxy S8 may launch in two screen size variants - 5.7-inch and 6.2-inch. Prolific phone tipster Evan Blass (@evleaks) claimed that the Samsung Galaxy S8 models will have model numbers SM-G950 and SM-G955 for 5.7-inch and 6.2-inch screen sizes respectively.

Based on preliminary leaks, Samsung Galaxy S8 will sport a 5.5-inch 4K (2160x3840 pixels) Super AMOLED display with impressive pixel density of 806ppi. It is further expected to pack company's own Exynos 8895 SoC coupled with 6GB of RAM. Rumours so far have claimed that Samsung will launch the alleged Galaxy S8 flagship smartphone on the side-lines of MWC 2017 in Barcelona on February 26.

Now Charge without Current! - Window Socket Solar Charger

Yanko Design, Kyuho Song & Boa Oh designed a portable socket and the users can use it intuitively without special training. It sticks to a window after that a suction plate that encircles the solar panel, and a basic outlet feeds the converted solar accomplishment to a deviceand thats pretty much it. As the designers reduction out, this is a charger/converter that can be used anywhere theres day, particularly where there is restricted use of electricity, such as outdoors or on the subject of the subject of a jet.

At realization, the Window Socket is yet a concept, but in the oppressive difficult the designers aspiration to accrual its efficiency, dynamism storage and battle time. The battery re the Window Socket is totally small; at 1000mAh the stored perform might be approximately sufficient to offensive a mobile phoneparticularly if it were a USB outlet rather than a adequate one, but it wont be satisfactory to facility household appliances. And though it can manage to pay for 10 continuous hours of facility not far and wide and wide off from a full dogfight, it presently takes approximately 5-8 hours to adequately dogfight. But even that cant enormously believe a mannerism from its awesome, easy design.