Huawei Mate 10 Pro undergoes scratch, burn, and bend testing

For his first smartphone durability test of 2018, Zack from YouTube channel JerryRigEverything chose the Huawei Mate 10 Pro as the subject. Now that the handset is up for pre-order in the US, more people may like to know how well it fares in this pretty standard challenge. It turns out that it doesn't disappoint. Its screen scratches exactly when you'd expect, and manages to withstand an open flame for a whopping 40 seconds without any damage, matching Samsung's Galaxy S8 in this regard. Unfortunately though, because the Mate 10 Pro uses an OLED touchscreen, its pixels don't recover once...

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Chrome will label all HTTP pages "Not secure" from July

Around this time last year, Google's Chrome browser started labeling HTTP pages with text fields as "Not secure" when you enter any information. And today the company has announced the next and final step in its strategy meant to get website owners to switch to HTTPS encryption. From July, when Chrome version 68 is set to become stable, all HTTP pages will be labeled "Not secure", as seen in the image below. For those webmasters who still haven't transitioned to HTTPS, the company offers set-up guides to help them get started and explain why encryption is important. In the past...

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Verizon's Motorola Droid Maxx 2 gets updated to Android 7.0 Nougat

Earlier today we told you that Samsung is finally releasing the update to Android 8.0 for the Galaxy S8 and S8+, and it's pretty late to the Oreo party at this point. Still, that's quite an achievement compared to the Motorola Droid Maxx 2 for Verizon. This particular handset is now receiving an update to Android 7.0 Nougat. That's an iteration that's almost one and a half years old at the moment, so to call this update long overdue would be a huge understatement. And it's especially true given that the Moto X Play, in effect the international variation of the Droid Maxx 2, first tasted...

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Huawei P20 Lite now leaks in live images

Huawei is announcing its flagship P20 (or P11, the naming isn't 100% known at the moment) on March 27 at a special event in Paris. While the P20 and P20 Plus / Pro are expected to come with three rear cameras, the entry-level model in the line, the P20 Lite, will stick with two. We've seen this phone get certified by the FCC yesterday, and a few hours ago some 360-degree renders of it were outed based on CAD schematics. To add to that barrage of P20 Lite leaks, we now have some live images to show you. They show the iPhone X-inspired vertical arrangement for the dual rear cameras and their...

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Xiaomi, Sony and 16 more OEMs to deliver 5G smartphones in 2019

Qualcomm has hit the gas pedal on the 5G connectivity with its latest announcements. The company will provide Snapdragon X50 modems that support the new standard to 18 OEMs, including smartphone manufacturers Asus, Fujitsu, HMD Global, HTC, LG, Oppo, Sharp, Sony, vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE. The manufacturers are planning to commercialize 5G mobile devices by 2019. While Samsung struck a separate extended partnership last week, the one big company that is missing from the list is Apple. In a separate press release, the San Diego company also said that carriers such as AT&T, China...

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Mysterious Snapdragon 845 device shows up on Geekbench 4

Snapdragon 845 flexed its muscles in AnTuTu, now it has come to Geekbench 4 onboard an unknown device. This benchmark is easier to compare with current-gen devices as AnTuTu had a major upgrade recently. The device tested ran Android 8.0.0 Oreo and packed 6GB of RAM. Unfortunately, it's model name and even maker have been scrubbed, so there's no way to tell if this is the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, a Samsung Galaxy S9 or something else altogether. Snapdragon 845-powered device leaves its footprints in Geekbench 4.2 Here are the results, the ones in red are Snapdragon 845 devices while the...

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Deal: used iPhone 6s (Grade A) for just £200

If you're looking for an iPhone on the cheap, you might have to get one used - Apple slashes its prices very rarely. An iPhone 6s from late 2015 costs £450 new, way too much for a device that's over two years old. If you do want to get a used one, eBay has a nice deal. An iPhone 6s with 16GB of storage goes for - used, Grade A - £200 (you can drop to Grade B for £190). 64GB is £245 and 128GB is £310 (32GB is sold out). You're getting 12 months of warranty and some generic accessories - USB cable and SIM ejector. The availability of colors varies so you should check the specific...

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Unicode Emoji 11 gets finalized, adds 157 new emoji

The Unicode Consortium has announced Emoji 11, the latest update to the emoji set that succeeds Emoji 5 (no idea what happened to Emoji 6-10), with an astonishing 157 new emoji. A huge bunch of these are just racial and gendered variations of existing emoji but there are some interesting new designs in there. While the Unicode set only gives the description and we will have to wait till companies like Apple, Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc. release their interpretations of it, for now the people at Emojipedia have come up with their own designs that follow the general design language of the...

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Samsung patents Galaxy J3 Star and Galaxy J7 Star monikers

Samsung classifies its Galaxy smartphones in three major categories - S goes for the flagship devices, the A is for upper-midrange phones and the J series is where the lower-midrangers hang out. According to the US Patent and Trademark Office, the third family is about to get bigger - the Korean company trademarked the monikers Galaxy J3 Star and Galaxy J7 Star. The "Star" addition will join other sub-series like Pro, Prime, Max, Ace, and Nxt. Both phones are yet to be announced, but since stars are usually seen in the sky, we should expect the J3 Star and J7 Star to sit a bit...

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Huawei confirms three-cam Huawei P20 with its latest press invite

We told you that Huawei is having its P11/P20 launch on March 27 and today the company started handing out official press invites. The image has three circles, clearly indicating that the new flagship will have triple camera setup on its back. If it is not clear enough, the invite also drops second hint, saying guests will "see mooore with AI". At the event, happening in Paris, France, Huawei is expected to show a lite, regular and Plus version of the P11 or P20 - the name is yet clear. Aside from the triple camera that might be arranged in a vertical setup, other suggested specs...

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Hyperknit covers for the Samsung Galaxy S9 spotted in online store

Cloth is trending up in tech - it's becoming popular in cases and other phone accessories (even smart speaker). It appears that Samsung will broaden its range of offerings - from the existing alcantara to Hyperknit cases. What's Hyperknit? It's a woven fabric with a characteristic texture that has been used for sports clothing until now. This is the gray option, though a red version should be available as well. Samsung Galaxy S9 Hyperknit cover This case appeared in a Romanian online store QuickMobile where it's priced €30. That's the same price as an alcantara cover. Source |...

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Samsung starts rolling out Android 8.0 Oreo update for the Galaxy S8

Samsung has started the roll out for its much anticipated Android 8.0 Oreo update for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ devices. Version SM-G955XXU1CRAP — is currently rolling out in Germany. Software info The update will first roll out to those who were on the beta program and then make its way to other users. Similarly, it will eventually make its way out of Germany to other regions. When exactly will your region get it is unknown but the important thing is that the S8 is getting Oreo after what seemed like an eternity since it was released by Google. With Oreo there will also...

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Wileyfox enters administration

It's been confirmed that Wileyfox, the UK mobile phone manufacturer and retailer, has been placed into administration resulting in redundancy for 20 of its staff. Wileyfox entered the market in 2015 with the launch of the Storm and Swift smartphones running Cyanogen, an open source mobile OS based on Android. At this juncture Wileyfox's website, while still operational, is 'out of stock' of all models. A quick search of amazon.co.uk still shows a range of Wileyfox products. No clarification has been made for on-going support for existing Wileyfox users. Their most recent USP was...

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Huawei P11/P20 lite renders reveal an iPhone X-like dual camera

Next Huawei flagship will not arrive until March 27, but thanks to devoted leaksters we know all about it by then. Latest 3D images reveal the Huawei P11/P20 lite, and by the looks of it, the company will introduce a notch in its affordable flagship series too. Huawei P20 lite renders Based on the CAD schematics, the phone will have dimensions of 148.6 x 71.2 x 7.4 mm (8.4 mm at the camera bump). The display will be 5.7" in diagonal, with rounded corners and a notch. The renders of the P11 lite (or P20 lite, the name is not yet confirmed) also include dual-cam...

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New image of bezel-less vivo flagship pops up

First we saw a massive bezel-less screen, allegedly of the vivo X30, later a live image of the eventual vivo Xplay 7 popped up on Weibo without a notch. Now a new photo appeared comes to lend some credibility to the impossibly high screen-to-body ratio (perhaps even record-breaking) of the Xplay 7. The phone pictured appears to be the same as the one in the live image from Monday - vivo's Funhouse user interface, and slightly thicker bottom bezel that might host the selfie camera, similar to what Xiaomi did with the Mi Mix back in 2016. We have already seen vivo implementing a...

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