Grab a new Acer Chromebook R down to $315 today only

Full touchscreen and convertible placement.

The Acer Chromebook R 13 convertible 13.3-inch touchscreen is $314.99 on Amazon today. It fluctuates a lot in price but regularly sells between $370 and $390. This deal is part of a larger one-day sale on Amazon featuring tons of PC gear including mice, keyboards, and more.

The Chromebook uses a MediaTek MT8173C quad-core ARM processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 32GB internal storage, integrated graphics, two built-in speakers, and Chrome OS. The Chrome OS lets you take advantage of the cloud, especially through Google programs, to get as much functionality from this simple, inexpensive, computer as you would a much beefier laptop. The display is a 13.3-inch 1080p IPS touchscreen. It also has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, one USB-C port, one USB 3 port, HDMI, and 12 hours of battery life. Users give it 4.1 stars based on 231 reviews.

See on Amazon

How to enable 4K resolution on your PS4 Pro

Sometimes if you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.

One of the main selling points of the PS4 Pro is its power advantage over the PS4 Slim, allowing for crisper images and faster frame-rates. Not every game supports 4K resolution, but those that do are all the better for it. Though the PS4 Pro should automatically enable 4K resolution support when it detects a 4K-capable monitor, this isn’t always the case.

Here’s how to enable 4K manually when your PS4 Pro just doesn’t do its job right.

How to enable 4K on your PS4 Pro

For starters, you’ll want to make sure that your PS4 is indeed connected to a 4K-capable monitor, and that your display is also set to output at 4K resolution. How to access these settings may be different depending on the brand you are using. As for the PS4 Pro:

Navigate to Settings from the home screen.

Select Sound and Screen.

Select Video Output Settings.

Set the Resolution to 2160p – YUV420 or 2160p – RGB.

2160p – YUV420 allows the console to connect to older 4K displays that don’t support higher HDMI 2.0 bandwidth. 2160p – RGB doubles the bandwidth requirement, so this is what newer 4K televisions will support.

Choosing Automatic will also ensure that your PS4 Pro defaults to the highest possible resolution for your specific display.

How to enable 4K for specific games

Certain games, especially on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, feature multiple graphics options for you to choose from. These usually consist of a 4K at 30FPS mode or a 1080p at 60 FPS mode, but not always. If a game defaults to one or the other and you want to switch it, you can find these options within the game’s settings. We’ve provided an example of what this will look like in The Last of Us Remastered.

Need some help enabling HDR?

How to enable HDR for PlayStation 4 on popular 4K TVs

PlayStation 4

• PS4 vs. PS4 Slim vs. PS4 Pro: Which should you buy?
• PlayStation VR Review
• Playing PS4 games through your phone is awesome

Amazon

OPPO Find X review: A beautiful disaster

Despite its incredible hardware design, the software experience may ruin the Find X for avid power users.

The Find X feels like a direct response from OPPO to all of the jaded critics that love to say that smartphone designs have become “boring” or “iterative.” It’s hard to call this phone either of those things, with its incredibly unique slide-out camera panel and jaw-dropping bezel-less display. From a hardware perspective, this is probably the most interesting phone of the year, and maybe even a milestone for smartphones as a whole.

As with any industry-leading design, though, the phone isn’t perfect, and that’s before you even turn it on. Once you do, the Find X’s software isn’t nearly as futuristic as its hardware, and some of the ways OPPO changes the fundamental Android experience with ColorOS are hard to look past.

OPPO Find X

Price: $960

Bottom line: The Find X has a jaw-dropping, innovative design and an almost entirely bezel-less display, but the ColorOS software is pretty hard to look past and its cameras are subpar for the price.

See at Amazon

Pros:

• Gorgeous, unique design with high screen-to-body ratio
• Long-lasting battery
• Huge, bright display

Cons:

• ColorOS is a travesty
• Notifications are disabled on most apps by default
• Cameras aren’t great for the money
• No water resistance or wireless charging

About this review

I (Hayato Huseman) am writing this review after using the Find X (PAFM00) for two weeks in Indianapolis and New York City on the AT&T network. The phone was running firmware version PAFM00_11_A.23_7cd29206 with ColorOS v5.1 based on Android 8.1 Oreo, and hasn’t received any updates over the course of the review. The unit was purchased by Mobile Nations.

OPPO Find X Hardware

The Find X is one of the most unique phones I’ve ever used from a hardware perspective. There’s just nothing like it, and that starts with its curved 6.4-inch display, front and center. It’s a great Full HD+ AMOLED panel with good color reproduction and outdoor viewing angles, but that’s clearly not its headline characteristic.

The display occupies an insane 93.8% of the face of the phone. Read that back, that’s just a few points shy of a completely bezel-less, 100% screen-to-body ratio. That absolutely topples over phones like the Galaxy Note 9, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2, and even the Vivo NEX — the latter of which is closest in design to the Find X. While having virtually nothing but screen up front isn’t always entirely practical (we’ll get to that later), watching videos on this phone is nothing short of stunning, and it’s an experience unlike using any other phone.

The biggest problem with the coveted bezel-less design tech enthusiasts lust over is that phones still need somewhere to put all of the various sensors that typically sit above the display — things like the ambient light and proximity sensors, the earpiece speaker, and the front-facing camera. Most manufacturers have started cramming those sensors into a notch at the top of the display, but OPPO had something different in mind.

The Find X’s motorized camera panel is a stunning hardware component, but moving parts still give me pause.

At the top of the Find X is a motorized hidden panel that raises whenever you need to access the cameras and automatically tucks itself away when you’re done. It’s just as crazy as it sounds; you can actually hear and feel the motors whirring as the panel raises and lowers, and it’s just wild to watch. While the Vivo NEX pulled off a similar design first with its motorized camera tab, this is the first phone with a raising panel spanning its entire width.

Now if you’re worried about hardware longevity with a motorized panel … well, you’re right to be. OPPO says it’s tested its motor for up to 300,000 actuations, but at the end of the day it’s still a moving part, and moving parts eventually break. If that happens with the Find X, you’re not just out a cool party trick, you won’t be able to access your cameras.

That’s not just a big deal for photographers, either. Since the Find X doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor, it instead relies on facial recognition for authentication. Just like the iPhone X, when you first set up the phone, it uses infrared to create a depth map of your face, then the panel quickly slides out to read your face every time you turn on the display.

The whole system works surprisingly well; the motor is fairly quick to extend and retract the panel as necessary, and the facial recognition is almost instant once the panel is out. The process isn’t quite as fast as OnePlus’s facial recognition or even Apple’s Face ID, but we’re talking a second longer at most — this is perfectly fine for daily use. Just like the alternatives, the Find X won’t unlock if you’re looking away, which is a good security measure. The only time the phone gives me any trouble is when I’m wearing glasses; it’ll still recognize me eventually, but it often takes much longer than usual.

Screen	6.4-inch 19.5:9 (2340×1080) AMOLED
Chipset	Snapdragon 845
RAM	8GB
Storage	128GB/256GB
Software	Android 8.1 Oreo, ColorOS 5.1
Rear Camera 1	16MP, ƒ/2.0
Rear Camera 2	20MP, ƒ/2.0
Front Camera	25MP, ƒ/2.0
Security	Face unlock
Battery	3730mAh
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 5.0
Colors	Bordeaux Red, Glacier Blue
Dimensions	156.7 x 74.2 x 9.6mm
Weight	186g
Price	$960

It’s almost a shame how much the motorized panel and bezel-less display steer the conversation away from the rest of the phone, because it’s just as unique and gorgeous elsewhere. With all the cameras hidden away, the back of the phone is completely barren, with only the OPPO and Find X branding interrupting the otherwise blank slate. By this point, we’re all programmed to avoid touching the upper third of the backs of our phones to keep from accidentally smudging the cameras, but it’s oddly relieving to not have to worry about that here.

The Find X also has some pretty eye-catching, beautiful finishes. On my Glacier Blue unit, the center of the glass back is a glossy deep black, but the edges subtly fade into a gorgeous dark blue that permeates to the metal frame. The Bordeaux Red model features the same gradient effect, but with more of a dark magenta hue. They’re both incredible finishes that are unlike anything I’ve seen on other phones.

Now despite all of the Find X’s opulent hardware traits, there are a few letdowns here, too. There’s no headphone jack, nor are there front-facing speakers — instead, there’s a small speaker grill on the bottom edge that puts out disappointingly tinny audio. You also don’t get wireless charging, despite this phone having a glass backing, but most damning of all, it isn’t water resistant. This was a necessary trade-off to achieve the motorized panel, but it’s disappointing nonetheless — this phone is far too costly to be wiped out by a rainstorm or spilled glass.

OPPO Find X Software

I’ve gushed on for nearly a thousand words about the Find X’s incredible hardware, but the software is a different story entirely. OPPO’s ColorOS software runs on top of Android 8.1 Oreo, but you’d never know it from using the phone. This is a fundamentally different Android experience than any Western user will be accustomed to, and the vast majority of OPPO’s changes do much more to harm the experience than improve it.

From the moment you first set up the Find X, all of your apps are scattered across multiple pages of the home screen without an app drawer, iOS-style, and what would typically be the Google Feed to the left of the home screens has instead been replaced with OPPO’s Smart Assistant. The latter makes sense, since Google’s services aren’t available in China, where OPPO originates, and Smart Assistant actually isn’t bad; you can use it to quickly check the weather, track steps, see upcoming calendar events, and so on.

Android Oreo on the Find X is completely unrecognizable through all of ColorOS’s changes.

The problems begin when you start trying to install … well, pretty much anything. OPPO has its own app store, but it’s all in Chinese, even if you set the phone up in English, and the selection is miserable at best. Instead, you’ll want to side-load the Google Play Store, which is as simple as downloading and installing the APK, but finding it takes a bit of work, no thanks to OPPO’s browser, which — you guessed it — is all in Chinese.

Once you’ve installed the Play Store and started downloading your favorite apps, you’ll likely start running into other problems. Using a third-party keyboard like Gboard works well enough, but much like iOS, the Find X reverts to its default keyboard any time you input passwords — a somewhat reasonable security measure, if not a bit annoying. If, however, you try to install a third-party launcher, you’ll quickly find out that the Find X doesn’t let you change launchers. The default launcher option in the system settings leads to a completely blank menu, no matter what you try, so … get used to ColorOS, I suppose. In fairness, OPPO says that’s been fixed in a new software update, but I have yet to receive it on my unit.

I also had a ton of trouble with Google Maps on the Find X. On a recent trip to New York, I tried to pull up directions to my hotel from the airport, but the phone simply couldn’t lock onto my location. Despite having a solid 4G connection, I waited almost five minutes before the phone could pull up directions, which were entirely wrong because the phone had pinpointed me at a completely different part of town. Eventually I had to just give up and grab my Galaxy S9 to navigate around, but most people who buy this phone won’t have a spare to fall back on, and I can’t say I’d be confident getting around town with the Find X.

It’s easy enough to shrug these issues off and say that the phone wasn’t intended for Western markets or Google Play services in the first place, but the troubles with ColorOS aren’t exclusive to third-party apps. Dismissing individual notifications is a multi-step process now; you can’t just swipe them away like most other phones. Instead, you’ll have to swipe them to the left, which then slides out a trash icon you can tap to dismiss the notification. Every single time. For every notification.

ColorOS has a few convenient features, but it’s so broken in its current state that it makes the Find X hard to use.

That’s not so bad though, since you’ll hardly receive notifications in the first place — at least, by default. After a few minutes with the Find X, you’ll quickly start to notice that push notifications from apps aren’t coming in. That’s not because of aggressive background task management (though it has that, too) or a poor network connection; it’s because by default, notifications are disabled for every third-party app. You actually have to go into the system settings and enable push notifications for each app individually. I can’t overstate how awful of an experience this is, especially without a way to mass-approve every app at once.

These issues are a real shame because the phone actually runs very smoothly — though that’s no surprise, given the Snapdragon 845 and whopping 8GB of RAM in tow. The software has some genuinely convenient and useful features, like the swipe-up gesture navigation that replaces the three-button layout to regain the bottom of the screen, or the app cloning that allows for multiple accounts on a single service like Facebook or Instagram. Sadly, though, the benefits of ColorOS are far outweighed by its shortcomings.

OPPO Find X Cameras

The Find X features two cameras on the backside of its motorized module, one a 16MP primary sensor and the other a 20MP depth sensor that aids in portrait mode photography — both with an ƒ/2.0 aperture. Considering the Find X is priced similarly to the Galaxy Note 9 and iPhone X, I was comparatively underwhelmed by its cameras, but they’re still impressive given just how narrow the sliding enclosure for the cameras is.

Dynamic range is pretty great; I went on a hike with a few friends the other week, and even on darker paths shrouded from the sun by trees, the bright sky still came out blue in photos, rather than a blown out white. Colors are decent as well, if not a bit undersaturated, but I noticed a tendency for the cameras to overexpose. It’s a quick enough fix in post, but I’d rather the phone just properly expose in the first place.

I’m mostly happy with the Find X’s cameras in daylight, but it gets pretty rough in even the slightest of dark conditions. While on that hike, I missed a lot of shots later in the evening because the cameras are just too slow in the dark, and despite the 16MP sensor’s built-in OIS, most of my photos came out blurry and undefined. Take the Find X into a truly dark environment like a bar, and it just gets worse. Colors become muddy and clarity becomes all but nonexistent. Low light is a weakness of any phone’s cameras, but I had hoped for better from a thousand dollar phone.

What annoyed me most about shooting on the Find X is that the camera app has absolutely no settings. Save for the small bits of iconography strewn across the viewfinder, OPPO’s camera software is a mostly take-it-or-leave-it experience, though I’m happy there’s still at least a pro mode (OPPO calls it “expert mode”) for manual controls. As far as video goes, you can shoot in 4K despite the display only reaching 1080p, but I more appreciated the option to shoot in 1080p at up to 120fps for smooth slow-motion shots.

OPPO Find X Battery Life

Battery life is actually one of the Find X’s high points. It’s a sizable 3730mAh, and combined with ColorOS’s aggressive app management and the relatively low-resolution display (that’s not a knock — 1080p is plenty good enough for most people), it’s pretty hard to kill the phone in a single day.

Even with the unavoidable constant gaps in service of riding the New York City Subway, which are notorious for running down any phone’s battery, the Find X always made it through the day for me, typically with 20 or 30% to spare by midnight.

ColorOS doesn’t show screen-on time, but the Find X has no trouble making it through the day and then some.

If you don’t like how often ColorOS closes out idle background tasks, you can actually disable its app management in the system settings, though that’ll likely impact battery life pretty significantly. Then again, you’re still working with almost 4000mAh, so while endurance may be a bit worse without what OPPO calls “app freezing,” it’ll still likely last you through the day without a hitch.

When the phone does run down, it features OPPO’s VOOC rapid charging for quick top-ups. If you’ve ever used another phone from OPPO or OnePlus, you already know all about VOOC charging — it’s insanely fast; even with a 3730mAh battery, the Find X can reach a full charge in less than an hour, so long as you use the included charger.

Even with a different charger, though, I was impressed with the charge times. I use my 15-inch MacBook Pro’s 87W USB-C charger interchangeably with my laptop and phones, and I’ve found that the Find X charges fully in about 80 minutes.

The only letdown with the Find X’s battery life is standby time. If I leave the phone off the charger overnight, it loses nearly 10% of its charge. With such aggressive throttling of idle apps, I’m really not sure what could be draining the battery so much with the screen off, but it’s definitely been disappointing whenever I pull the Find X out of my bag after a flight and notice how much it’s lost.

Should you buy it? Probably not

This far in, it’s pretty easy to guess my feelings on the Find X. I can’t remember the last time a phone’s design has captivated me the way this one’s has, from its unprecedented sliding mechanism to the incredible 93.8% screen-to-body ratio.

It’s not flawless — the camera panel traps dirt and dust pretty easily, and there’s no telling how long the hardware will last, both because moving parts eventually fail and because the phone isn’t water resistant in any way. But it’s no stretch to say that the Find X has some of the most fascinating and impressive hardware of 2018.

3
out of 5

Sadly, great hardware doesn’t get you very far when the accompanying software is as big a disaster as ColorOS. From annoying systemwide quirks to downright broken third-party app support and a complete disabling of notifications out of the box, the software on the Find X seems to combine all the worst parts of iOS and Android into a jumbled mess that make the phone hard to use — and even harder to recommend.

If you’re a hardware enthusiast with considerable money to spend, and you just want to marvel at the stunning design of the Find X, you can order one straight from Amazon for about $960. Who knows — with future updates that promise to fix broken features like the inability to use third-party launchers, the Find X might eventually offer a better software experience.

Until then, though, you can do a lot better than the Find X for a lot less money.

See at Amazon

Hardlight Blade shows off the Oculus Go’s limitations, but it’s a blast

Hardlight Blade makes you fend off killer robots with laser weapons… need we say more?

The Oculus Go is a great device for enjoying entertainment within an immersive environment, but it can be a platform for gaming if utilized correctly.

I’ve generally been underwhelmed with gaming on the Oculus Go, but every once in a while there’s a game that just gets it. Hardlight Blade brings laser weapon combat to the headset, has a simple control system, and gets the most out of what the Oculus Go has to offer.

The game is free and available through the Oculus Store.

See in Oculus Store

Fighting against robots

Hardlight Blade has a simple combat system that centers around swinging either a laser saber or a laser axe at killer robots. You move freely around the environment using the touchpad. This takes some getting used to because you have to navigate with the touchpad of your motion controller and use the same controller to swing at enemies. After playing for a while it was less awkward, but I wish the Oculus Go had a second motion controller that would let me separate these controls.

The game has some nice touches like being able to block laser beams with your weapons, and the addition of throwing your axe after the most recent update. It’s a simple game, but it’s fun to play and I could see this game being perfect for passing around at parties.

Fighting against barriers

While Hardlight Go is an enjoyable game, it shows off the limitations of the Oculus Go. The headsets lack of movement tracking of an individual means that you have to use your motion controller for both navigation and combat. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that there’s only one motion controller. I’d love a Wii-styled nun chuck controller for one hand to focus on navigation while leaving the other hand to swing at enemies.

The game also is very basic with its graphics. I don’t expect hyper-realistic gameplay on the Oculus Go, but I wish gaming on the Oculus Go was better. I’m not a programmer so I can’t speak on the ceiling for graphics on the Oculus Go, but I haven’t played a game on it that impressed me graphically.

Overall thoughts on Hardlight Blade

Hardlight Blade shows off the strengths and weakness of the Oculus Go. The headset is light, easy to hand to your friends, and the simple combat system of Hardlight Blade falls perfectly into party settings with people who want to try out VR, as well as some light gaming for individuals.

Tilt and motion control for your weapon of choice works extremely well, even to the point where you can swipe lasers out of the air, but the lack of motion controls for users means you have to rely on the motion controller’s trackpad to navigate the game.

Hardlight Blade is one of the better games I’ve tried on the Oculus Go and the developers seem keen on adding features, such as axe throwing, so I’d recommend giving it a try and keeping on top of updates, especially since the game is free.

3.5
out of 5

Pros

• Simple to learn
• Lets you swing laser weapons at robots
• Free

Cons

• Restricted by only having one controller
• Has basic graphics

See in Oculus Store

Add Samsung’s 32GB EVO Select microSD card to your gadgets for just $9

Impulse purchase: complete!

You can grab the 32GB Samsung EVO Select microSD card for just $8.99 today at Amazon, which happens to be the lowest it’s ever sold for. This card hasn’t fluctuated much in price and was once selling for around $16 regularly. With read speeds of up to 95MB/s and write speeds of up to 20MB/s, this card is great for adding to your Fire Tablet, dash cam, phone, and much more. You can put the microSD card inside the adapter to use it in places that accept a full-sized SD card, like a camera, or other card readers.

Need more storage? Opt for the 64GB card for $17.99, or go for the 128GB option for $33.99. This discount is part of a larger one-day sale on PC components, accessories, and more at Amazon today only.

See at Amazon

Samsung Announces NVMe-Based ‘X5’ Portable SSD With Read Speeds up to 2800MB/s

Samsung today announced the launch of its newest portable solid state drive, the SSD X5. The X5, which uses Thunderbolt 3 technology, is the company’s first NVMe-based portable solid state drive for super fast transfer speeds in a form factor that’s compact and durable.

Samsung says the X5 offers read speeds of up to 2800MB/s, which is 5.2 times faster than SATA interface portable SSDs and up to 25.5 times faster than external hard drives.

It also features a maximum write speed of 2300MB/s, allowing for a 20GB 4K video to be transferred in approximately 12 seconds. It uses Samsung’s Portable SSD Software, which includes AES 256-bit hardware data encryption, optional password protection, and configurable security settings.

“As a leader in high-performance and reliable storage solutions, we are thrilled to continue to advance the external SSD market with the introduction of our first Thunderbolt 3 portable SSD,” said Dr. Mike Mang, vice president of Brand Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “The X5 is yet another testament to Samsung’s commitment to providing innovative portable storage solutions that enable faster transfer of large data files, saving users’ valuable time.”

Design wise, the X5 includes an all-metal body with a glossy finish and a non-slip mat at the bottom. It uses a shock-resistant internal frame that Samsung says can withstand drops of up to two meters. Inside, Dynamic Thermal Guard technology and a heat sink protect the X5 from overheating.

Samsung’s new X5 works with all Macs and PCs that have Thunderbolt 3 ports, which for the Mac lineup, includes 2016 and later MacBook Pro models, 2017 iMac models, and the iMac Pro.

The X5 will be available for purchase starting on September 3. The 500GB model will be priced at $400, the 1TB model will be priced at $700, and a 2TB model will be available for $1,400. Additional information is available on Samsung’s website.

Tag: Samsung
Discuss this article in our forums

Samsung’s Thunderbolt 3-Enabled Curved Monitor Launching in September for $900

Following an unveiling at CES in January, Samsung has announced the launch of the Thunderbolt 3-enabled CJ79 curved monitor, coming in September for $899.99. The 34-inch monitor is compatible with both Mac and PC computers, marking the first time that Thunderbolt 3 connectivity is available on a curved monitor.

On the unit there are two Thunderbolt 3 ports that transmit display, data, and power at a processing speed of up to 40 Gbps to compatible docks, other displays, computers, external GPUs, and more. Thunderbolt 3 connectivity also allows Samsung’s monitor to supply up to 85 watts of charging power to compatible MacBooks.

Thanks to the 3440×1440 ultra-wide curved display and a 21:9 aspect ratio, the CJ79 can also provide a dual monitor experience on one screen. Using a Picture-by-Picture feature, users can multitask by displaying two sources on screen at the same time, and even resize the second source to up to 25 percent of the screen, and position it anywhere.

The CJ79 includes a height-adjustable stand and tilt functionality, ensuring a comfortable position while working for extended periods of time. Samsung lists a few other details on its website:

– Supporting up to 125% sRGB color space, Quantum Dot technology delivers not only more hues than conventional monitors but also colors that are brighter, crisper, and more natural — especially reds and greens. And every monitor is factory calibrated to ensure the most accurate and life-like images

– Samsung’s VA panel technology provides a 3000:1 contrast ratio that delivers deeper blacks, brilliant whites, and richer colors for clearer, more vibrant images.

– AMD FreeSync synchronizes the refresh rates of your graphics card and the CJ79 to minimize image tearing and stutter. The smoother transition between image frames provides seamless gameplay and video playback for uninterrupted viewing.

– The fast 100Hz screen refresh rate provides smoother, silkier mouse sensitivity for enhanced productivity in any application. It also reduces screen stutter in fast-moving action scenes for a flawless gaming experience.

Samsung also briefly mentions the CJ89 43-inch curved monitor, but it does not support Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and is USB-C only. Otherwise, that monitor has a 3840×1200 resolution and a 32:10 aspect ratio.

The company says that both the CJ79 and CJ89 are available in Europe right now, and the monitors will launch worldwide “soon.” On B&H Photo, the CJ79 Thunderbolt 3 monitor is listed as being available to purchase around the “beginning of September 2018” for $899.99.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with B&H Photo. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Tags: Samsung, Thunderbolt 3
Discuss this article in our forums

2018 iPhone Shipments to Apple This Fall Predicted to Be Highest Since iPhone 6 Lineup

Apple’s upcoming trio of iPhones will see an estimated 70-75 million units shipped from suppliers to Apple by the end of 2018, according to supply chain sources speaking to DigiTimes. Thanks to the expected solid performance of the iPhones this year, Apple’s main supply partners TSMC and Foxconn are looking forward to new revenue highs in Q4 2018.

Specifically, if suppliers hit this range it will be the best performance for an iPhone since the launch of the iPhone 6 models in 2014. One of the main reasons for the boost is given to the “price-friendliness” of the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone, which Apple is expected to introduce as a cheaper alternative to the other two models: an updated 5.8-inch iPhone X and a larger 6.5-inch “iPhone X Plus,” although Apple may not go with the “Plus” branding this year.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple will use an aggressive pricing strategy for its 2018 iPhone lineup: the 6.5-inch OLED device will be priced at $900 to $1,000, the 5.8-inch OLED second-generation iPhone X will be priced at $800 to $900, and the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone will be priced at $600 to $700. While the 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch will be available in September, a few reports have stated the 6.1-inch model will face a delay.

DigiTimes also references “smooth production and strong shipment momentum” picking up soon:

Most supply chain partners are expected to see revenues pick up significantly along with smooth production and strong shipment momentum before peaking in the fourth quarter of the year.

The impressive upgrades in overall designs and functions as well as the price-friendliness of the 6.1-inch model should give the new devices a shipment momentum much stronger than their two preceding generations, the sources said.

For TSMC, the supplier is expected to “fully recover” by the fourth quarter, following a “debilitating” computer virus that hit many of its fabrication tools in early August. Concern quickly spread about the company’s inability to fill Apple’s orders in the wake of the virus, but follow-up reports quickly suggested that TSMC would be able to “fill orders on time for Apple Inc.,” ensuring no delays in chip shipments for the 2018 iPhones.

In regards to the 2018 iPhone assembly, both Foxconn and Pegatron will share duties building the models. Foxconn will build the majority of the two OLED iPhones, while it has just 30 percent of the orders for the LCD model, with Pegatron getting the majority of the duty building the cheaper iPhone this year.

Yesterday, a report from Bloomberg provided a hint at one name that Apple has brainstormed for the 2018 OLED iPhones — “iPhone Xs” — but it’s still unclear what the final names will be. The actual reveal event is now rumored to be held on Wednesday, September 12 at Steve Jobs Theater, according to two unnamed sources speaking to French radio station Europe 1, followed by iPhone pre-orders kicking off on Friday, September 14.

Despite concern over sales figures quickly dropping after first-adopters purchased the ten-year anniversary iPhone X, the flagship device performed well in Q4 2017 and remained popular among customers throughout 2018. Addressing concerns over dwindling sales and those worried about numbers, Apple CEO Tim Cook in May said: “I think it’s one of those things where a team wins a Super Bowl. Maybe you want them to win with a few more points, but it’s a Super Bowl winner and that’s how we feel about it.”

Related Roundup: 2018 iPhonesTag: digitimes.com
Discuss this article in our forums

The ZTE Axon 9 is about to be released, but you won’t see it in the U.S.

ZTE is back! After a long and stressful year for the company, it finally looks as though ZTE is ready to get back to business by announcing the new ZTE Axon 9.

Unlike most other smartphone launches, all we know at this point is that there will be a ZTE Axon 9 — and that it’ll be announced in full at an event on Thursday, August 30. We also know that, unfortunately, the ZTE Axon 9 will not be coming to the U.S. at any point in the near future.

It’s not known what we can expect from the ZTE Axon 9 just yet, but we can speculate. At launch, the ZTE Axon 7 feature flagship specs — so we expect the Axon 9 to boast a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, at least 4GB of RAM, and plenty of storage. The jury’s out on design — but we certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see an edge-to-edge display with a notch for facial recognition tech.

The Axon 9 comes a full two years after the Axon 7 — and as reports earlier this year noted, ZTE opted to skip the ZTE Axon 8. We’re not quite sure why ZTE chose to skip the Axon 8 name. In between the Axon 7 and Axon 9, however, we were treated to the Axon M, ZTE’s foldable phone that largely failed to live up to expectations considering the fact that it was basically just two phone displays with a hinge in between them.

Smartphones aside, ZTE has had a rough year on the business side of things. Troubles began in 2017 when ZTE was fined $892 million for violating laws prohibiting sales of American tech to Iran and North Korea. On top of the fine, the company was forced to let go of four of its senior employees and reprimand other employees, but it did not disclose that while it did let go of the four executives, it also gave staff bonuses rather than letters of reprimand. ZTE was then banned from selling devices in the U.S., which almost led to the company being shut down. Eventually, the ban was lifted and the company was allowed to start selling its devices in the U.S. again.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ZTE and the U.S.: Everything you need to know
• ZTE could see ban lifted soon, but it’s still on thin ice
• Bigger isn’t always better: 5 of the smallest smartphones worth buying
• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review

As Christie’s auctions its first A.I. painting, the meaning of ‘art’ gets blurrier

Obvious Art

There are no shortage of new milestones being reached by artificial intelligence these days. But unless you work in computer science, chances are that most of them won’t really resonate with you. The A.I. landmarks that do capture the public’s imagination are the ones that are only partially to do with machines at all.

They’re the ones that are about humans every bit as much as they are about robots: Chess champion Garry Kasparov’s loss to Deep Blue. IBM Watson’s 2011 Jeopardy win over former human trivia kings Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. The success of Google DeepMind’s Go-playing bot against Korean grandmaster Lee Sedol in 2016. As stunning as these feats are from a technical perspective, they’re just as profound on a human level because they make us question the increasingly thin line that exists between machines as labor-saving tools and machines as our superiors. They make use of A.I.’s purposely provocative challenge of a name and force us to question what it is that makes us human — and why that really matters.

It’s in this vein that a newly announced A.I. milestone arrives. Later this year, Christie’s — the auction house that initially banged its auctioneer’s gavel in 1766 — will sell its first work of art created by an algorithm. And, yes, it’s actually rather good. The portrait in question is of a somewhat rotund man, apparently named Edmond Belamy, in a dark frock coat and white collar. His face looks unfinished, as if machines figure that we all look pretty much alike anyway.

Obvious Art

The 70cm x 70cm print on canvas was generated by a type of A.I. called a GAN, or “generative adversarial network.” The GAN was created by a Paris-based art collective called Obvious, and was fed 15,000 portraits painted between the 14th and 20th century. This is the kind of collection that art collectors would do unspeakable things to assemble in one place. For an A.I., of course, it’s just another data set — like Scrubs scripts or signs of tumors on a brain scan or any of the other things machines can make sense of, but don’t care about the actual contents.

As a technical achievement, it’s pretty darn impressive. The GAN has swallowed centuries of art history and used it to generate something that references the past, but does so in a way that appears new. It’s not like one of those A.I. filters you find in a smartphone app that makes your summer selfies look like they were painted by Picasso or Monet. It crunches data about how art has changed over the centuries, and then spits out a piece that looks both modern and like an old 18th-century portrait.

Generating art that we’ll accept as art is one of the biggest challenges for an A.I.

Obvious’ A.I. combines both artist and critic in one. The GAN consists of “generator” (the artist) and “discriminator” (the critic) components. The generator creates new portraits in the style of the pictures it’s been shown. The discriminator then tries to spot the difference between the generator’s work and that of the human artists. When it can’t, the work is finished.

Like generating realistic human faces (the challenge of the so-called “uncanny valley” effect), generating art that we’ll accept as art is one of the biggest challenges for an A.I. That’s because we hold machines to a different standard than we do humans. We’ve been purposely vague about what actually constitutes art precisely because we like to flatter ourselves that it is non-automatable. Sure, A.I. can generate stock music for YouTube videos or background characters for Hollywood movies, but we put artists on a platform that we don’t extend to too many others. We talk about artists as geniuses, and praise them for stirring emotions within us. We don’t do this for Siri or Amazon’s Alexa.

Is the October Christie’s auction in New York about novelty? Sure. Are machines painting 18th century-inspired portraits going to disrupt the workforce in the same way that, for instance, factory robots or self-driving cars will? Absolutely not. Is there still a human hand in this, insofar as someone programmed the Obvious A.I. to begin with? Obviously.

Something tells me this isn’t going to settle the debate about whether machines can create art. Not by a long shot. The double standard will persist, and we’ll endlessly nitpick about whether Obvious is showing actual creativity since it honed its expertise on centuries of human creativity. We’ll ignore that human creators do exactly the same thing.

But does this represent another crucial step in showing us that A.I. is capable of pretty much anything we can throw it? It does indeed. And once it sells at auction, it will have the monetary value to prove it.

Editors’ Recommendations

• A.I. can now learn how to solve a Rubik’s Cube, researchers claim
• A.I. players master ‘Quake III Arena,’ manage to outperform humans
• OpenAI bots bring the pain to professional ‘Dota 2’ players
• IBM’s new supercomputer doesn’t just take orders — it can argue back
• ‘No Man’s Sky’ review