Samsung Galaxy S7 may release in February despite rumors of an earlier announcement
Tipster Ricciolo took it to Twitter to state the date of Samsung’s 2016 Unpacked event. Despite recent rumors of an earlier announcement, the post draws up the typical February announcement.
Although we don’t know much about the Galaxy S7, we can expect the release date to be around the same time as recent years, perhaps February 21 in Barcelona. This is the day before the Mobile World Congress event gets underway, which is when Samsung typically takes its wraps off the newest Galaxy flagship. It’s still unknown whether the flagship will run Samsung’s own Exynos processor or switch back to Qualcomm for their new Snapdragon 820 chipset. The company is currently testing both and it may come down to your location to determine which processor variant you’ll get. One can also expect the latest hardware including a high-resolution camera and 3 or 4GB of RAM. Samsung is also working on a new edge variant to ensure it satisfies all users, but we’re yet to find out details regarding size and specifications.
Over the next few months expect plenty of talk on Samsung’s newest Galaxy flagship(s). Let the rumors begin to roll-in.
Source: Ricciolo (Twitter)
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Huawei Mate S now available to purchase at Carphone Warehouse
UK-based retailer Carphone Warehouse today announced that the retailer is now selling the Huawei-made Mate S. Huawei originally announced the Mate S at IFA 2015 earlier this year, deeming it the successor to last year’s Ascend Mate 7.
Consumers can pick up the Mate S from Carphone Warehouse starting at £22.50 per month with a £119.99 down payment. Alternatively, it can be bought outright for £419.99.
As a quick refresher, the handset sports an AMOLED 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D display with Gorilla Glass 4. It has the Kirin 935 chipset with a quad-core 2.2GHz and quad-core 1.5GHz processor, a Mali-T628 MP4 GPU, 3GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), a 2,700mAh battery rated for a full day of use, an improved rear fingerprint scanner, and Force Touch.
The device, for the time being, is only being sold in 32GB variants. Anyone plan on picking one up?
source: Carphone Warehouse
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Verizon’s Ellipsis 10 tablet now available for $199 on contract
Verizon today announced a new tablet available for purchase, the Ellipsis 10. The tablet originally surfaced on Twitter in early October, indicating that Verizon could be launching yet another self-branded Android tablet before the end of the year, and as it turns out, the rumors were true.
The Verizon Ellipsis 10 is sporting a 10.1-inch 1920 x 1080 display, offering users excellent media consumption. It’s also running Android 5.1 right out of the box (Verizon hasn’t mentioned any plans for Marshmallow yet). The device has a 5-megapixel rear camera, a 2-megapixel front sensor, and a massive 9100mAh battery in tow. Unfortunately, there’s only a meager 16GB of internal storage, but that can be expanded via a microSD slot.
As far as pricing goes, buyers can pick up the Ellipsis 10 from Verizon for $199.99 on a new two-year contract or for $12.49/month for two years on a device payment plan. Alternatively, they can buy the tablet outright for $299.99, but at that price, consumers may look at other options. After all, HTC has featured the more attractive Nexus 9 on its Hot Deals promotion frequently at a hefty discount.
Anyone interested in the Ellipsis 10?
source: Verizon
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Cyanogen teases multiple cheap devices for next year, CM13, and maybe a flagship
Cyanogen Inc. has been spilling the beans on its plans for 2016 today and there appear to be plenty of projects on the way, including new hardware, developer support and a Marshmallow version of its custom Android operating system.
Being a software company, we’ll start with CyanogenMod 13. The OS will be based on Android Marshmallow and the company is planning to have a stable build ready before the end of the year, but that could slip into early 2016. The new version of Cyanogen OS for retail products will then follow in the New Year. Interestingly, the OS will make use of common APIs and SDKs to tie into partner apps directly, meaning that the OS developer doesn’t have to provide and preload a lot of apps itself. These apps can also then presumably vary slightly depending on the region or handset manufacturer, without providing overlapping software.
This new operating system will play a key role in company’s vision for future hardware, which will be produced in partnership with a selection of currently unknown manufacturers in a number of regions. Cyanogen plans to offer inexpensive handsets with a bloatware free experience and an up-to-date OS, sort of like Android One intended. Cyanogen is sticking to the budget segment of the market for now though, with prices targeted at the $75-$100 range. The entry-level segment is already highly competitive, but Cyanogen is hoping that its streamlined, bloat free experience will make its phones stand out.
Powered by Cyanogen OS: Super-midrange WileyFox Storm hits UK shelves for £199
Cyanogen’s Steve Klondik also briefly mentioned that the company may release a flagship smartphone as well. Although, he didn’t explicitly confirm the existence of such a device or a release time frame, so this all appears to still be in quite the early planning stages right now.
Cyanogen didn’t really manage to hit the mainstream in 2015, but perhaps the company’s ambitious plans for 2016 will see its custom flavour of Android land in a few more hands next year.
Asus confirms augmented reality glasses for 2016
Virtual and augmented reality is the tech sector to be in these days and Asus has just announced that it will be joining the club as well. The company plans to release its own augmented reality headset sometime in 2016, so we’re not sure quite how far away the launch is.
The announcement of the plans came during today’s earnings call. We don’t have any other details about Asus’ hardware at this point, nor what sort of price the company is looking at or even a name. But it is on the way.
“We think AR will be very important for people’s lives … It should be next year when we come out with a product.” – Asus CEO Jerry Shen
While virtual reality is looking rather promising for immersive and interactive entertainment, augmented reality is designed to enhance seemingly more mundane activities. Useful potential applications range from assisted navigation and heads up displays, to bringing a whole world of interactive options and data into your field of view.
See also: Magic Leap posts real time augmented reality video
Both Microsoft and Google are also working on augmented reality projects of their own, see HoloLens and Magic Leap, and are considered the front runners in the space at the moment. Interestingly, Asus was in talks with Microsoft about producing a cheaper version of its HoloLens technology back in October, so perhaps this announcement is related.
Microsoft’s HoloLens developer edition is scheduled to launch early next year, but will come with a whopping $3,000 (AU$4,258, £1,985) price tag. If Asus can undercut this prohibitive cost, then perhaps it can make its own mark in the AR space.
Uber signs up TomTom to provide navigation for its drivers
After losing out to a consortium of Germany’s biggest car makers over the purchase of Nokia’s HERE Maps, Uber has set about building its own mapping and navigation services. They’re not quite ready for prime time, so the company has had to rely upon a number of popular mapping services, including Google (which also serves as an investor), to help both users and drivers understand exactly where they are. Today, Uber has added TomTom to the list, with the Dutch company confirming that it will also support the private hire taxi firm.
Source: TomTom (Businesswire)
ASUS confirms it will build a Hololens-style headset
After teasing the idea last month, ASUS has confirmed that it’s planning to release an augmented reality (AR) headset sometime in 2016. “It should be next year when we come out with a product. We think AR will be very important for people’s lives,” said CEO Jonny Shih, according to CNET. Judging by ASUS’s earlier comments, the device will be a version of Microsoft’s HoloLens and likely come at a lower price. However, ASUS neither confirmed that it would be a HoloLens clone, nor the final price during an earnings webcast yesterday.
Source: CNET
Construction has begun on the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile
A groundbreaking ceremony on top of a mountain in the Chilean Andes on Wednesday has signaled the beginning of Giant Magellan Telescope’s construction. Three years after blowing up the peak where the structure will be built, the GMT Organization’s Board of Directors has finally given its builders the go-signal. It can afford to do so now that the US, Australia, Brazil and Korea have committed $500 million to the project. According to Ars Technica, bulldozers have moved in to level a road that goes up to GMT’s location at Carnegie Institution’s Las Campanas Observatory — which also serves as home to other telescopes, including the smaller Magellans — as soon as the ceremony was done.
Source: Giant Magellan Telescope
Carnegie Mellon may have ratted out Tor users to the FBI
In a story that may become an acid test for internet privacy, the operators of the Tor network have accused Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) of taking up to $1 million to help the FBI bust illegal sites. If the allegations are true, the defendants in question certainly had it coming — they include the drug market Silk Road 2.0 and a child pornographer. However, Tor director Roger Dingledine questions the university’s ethics in the attack. “We think it’s unlikely they could have gotten a valid warrant … [since it] appears to have indiscriminately targeted many users at once,” he said.
Via: Matthew Green
Source: Tor
HTC One X9 render surfaces, rear camera is strangely similar to the Nexus 6P
Right off of the heels of HTC’s One A9 event, the Taiwanese-based company is already planning to launch a new smartphone. The handset said to appear in Q1 2016 is rumored to be the One X9, and according to a new render, its rear camera is strangely similar to the Nexus 6P.
HTC was already accused of copying the iPhone 6’s design pattern, and now the new render is indicating that the company could be taking some design hints from Google and Huawei in its new One X9 handset. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, there’s only so much you can do to make a smartphone unique. On top of that, there’s plenty of other handsets out there that are sporting rear camera visors.
One thing to note about this render is that the bezels could be some of the slimmest we’ve seen from HTC yet. The render by no means screams premium, but the One X9 could potentially be one of the slimmer handsets from HTC.
Keep in mind that this is just a render and is by no means anything official. Initial rumors indicate that the One X9 could sport a 5.5-inch Full HD display, a MediaTek processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 4-Ultrapixel front camera, and a 3,000mAh battery.
All we know for sure is that the One A9 is a nifty handset, and it might not be time for HTC to begin flooding the market with mid-range handsets while revenue continues to crumble.
source: Weibo
via: Pocket Now
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