Global LTE has not gotten much faster on average, but its reach keeps growing

OpenSignal regularly releases reports of how well US carriers are performing against each other based on millions of crowd-sourced data points collected from the app of the same name. Today, OpenSignal released a report that analyses the state of LTE on a global scale, measuring average LTE speeds availability on a per-country basis. According to the report, average LTE speeds have pretty much plateaued toward an average of 50Mbps. This means that the growth of average speeds has slowed down (if that makes sense) and in the past several months, networks have succeeded in expanding LTE...

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Hands-on with Reply, Google's new smart reply app

Last week, we reported about one of Google's newest products being tested at Area 120. The app is called "Reply" and allows Google's predictive reply algorithm to work with non-Google messaging apps like Whatsapp, Twitter DMs, or Facebook Messenger. Today, the app has leaked onto APK Mirror where anyone can download and set it up, all you need is to set it up with a Google Account. We've set it up on our Google Pixel 2 XL and have gone through the setup so you take a look at what the app offers. In order for the app to work, it needs permission to see your notifications....

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New Google Pay app for Android is available now

Back in January Google announced that it would combine all of its different payment services into the new Google Pay brand. And today the new Google Pay app for Android has become available to make that possible. So say your goodbyes to both Android Pay and Google Wallet. The Google Pay app is apparently just one part of everything the search giant has planned in this space. In the future, all Google products should support Google Pay, including Chrome and Google Assistant. You should also increasingly see Google Pay accepted on websites, in apps, and "at your favorite places around the...

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro hands-on review

While some phones are inspired by the ‘less is more' mantra, Samsung's Galaxy Note family has always proudly claimed that ‘more is more'. More features, more options, more settings, more ways to interact with your handset, more choice made possible by the use of the best components adding up to the biggest and baddest spec list. To paraphrase a well known...

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Asus Windows Mixed Reality headset finally goes on pre-order in the US

Asus took the wraps off its Windows Mixed Reality headset last year at IFA, at the end of August. For some reason, though, it only went up for pre-order in the US today. So if you've patiently been waiting for a chance to order one, now you can do just that. B&H is the retailer you should head to, but keep in mind that you'll have to part with $429 of your hard earned cash. That said, there's zero sales tax collected outside of NY and NJ. Unfortunately the company doesn't say exactly when the Asus headset is due to start shipping, so you may still be in for quite a wait before you can...

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Spotify is building its own speaker, possibly a smart one

Spotify is a music streaming service, but it's looking to get into hardware, a new job listing reveals. Specifically, the company wants to build "connected hardware" and is looking for someone to manage supply, distribution and other logistics. "Above all, your work will impact the way the world experiences music," says the job listing. At the very least, this means a Wi-Fi enabled speaker that can stream music directly from Spotify. But those are hardly new, many wireless speakers and soundbars can do that already. Spotify could try to compete with the established players on audio...

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Moto G6 Play (S430) and ZTE Blade V9 (S450) go through Geekbench

The Moto G6 Play specs leaked a while back and they point to a Snapdragon 430 chipset. Not that we're unfamiliar with its performance, but now is a good chance to compare it to the Snapdragon 450. Geekbench results: Moto G6 Play • ZTE Blade V9 The 450 is to be found in the upcoming ZTE Blade V9 - a phone with an 18:9 screen, just like the Motorola. Both of these phones ran the Geekbench 4.2 sprint and here are the results (the two phones have different screen resolutions, but this benchmark tests only the CPU). JRGRAPH_EXPANDABLE_VERSION = false; GeekBench 4.2...

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OnePlus 5T promo campaign smashes other phones

OnePlus has a history of questionable promo campaigns and this one might get your blood boiling too - "the OnePlus 5T smashes the competition, literally". Here's the setup. A OnePlus 5T goes head to head versus Apple's iPhone X and iPhone 8 and Samsung's Galaxy S8 and Note8. The challenges include unlocking the phone, shooting a photo, play music and so on. We don't want to give away the outcome, we'll just say you'll get flashbacks of the infamous OnePlus One campaign that had people smashing their old phones. Source

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Deal: Moto X4 at Prime Exclusive price of $250 (US only)

Several weeks after Google's Project Fi discounted the Moto X4 down to $250, now Amazon is matching the price for its Prime members until the end of the day. Available in Sterling Blue or Super Black, the phone is discounted from $400 and comes with 32 GB storage and some preloaded Amazon apps. The Moto X4 arrived in the US with 3 GB RAM and Android Nougat out of the box, but units have already started receiving Oreo 8.0. Other specs include Snapdragon 630 chipset, dual 12 MP + 8 MP wide-angle camera setup, 16 MP selfie snapper and 3,000 mAh battery. Once the $250 deal is done,...

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Nikkei: Samsung will slash OLED production because of poor demand for the iPhone X

Weak demand for the iPhone X is hurting Samsung's OLED display business - while the company is seeking out new customers, it will slash the output by as much as 20 million units. The original target was for around 45 million to 50 million iPhone X displays, reports Nikkei. And this is just for the January-March quarter, there may be additional cutbacks for April-June. The company is reportedly looking at Chinese and other customers to make up the difference. Last year, Samsung invested $12.6 billion to boost its OLED production capacity in anticipation of an iPhone X boom that never...

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Nikkei: Samsung wil slash OLED production because of poor demand for the iPhone X

Weak demand for the iPhone X is hurting Samsung's OLED display business - while the company is seeking out new customers, it will slash the output by as much as 20 million units. The original target was for around 45 million to 50 million iPhone X displays, reports Nikkei. And this is just for the January-March quarter, there may be additional cutbacks for April-June. The company is reportedly looking at Chinese and other customers to make up the difference. Last year, Samsung invested $12.6 billion to boost its OLED production capacity in anticipation of an iPhone X boom that never...

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Samsung unveils 30.72TB SSD with blazing fast performance

Two years ago, Samsung unveiled a massive 15.36TB SSD and now it has doubled that storage in a single drive - the PM1643. It is a SAS drive with 30.72TB capacity that is built out of the latest V-NAND chips. The new drive promises speeds of up to 2,100MB/s sequential read and 1,700MB/s write (400K/50K IOPS for random reads/writes respectively). To achieve such performance numbers, Samsung used Through Silicon Via tech - the drive includes 40GB of DRAM. This is clearly an industrial drive and has protection from memory loss if the power suddenly goes out and there's ECC to maintain...

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Xiaomi opens first Mi Store in Philippines

Xiaomi's network of offline stores keeps expanding, and now it reached the Philippines. The company opened its first Mi Store and already is setting plans for a second one. The launch attracted more than 2,000 people, per Filipino sources. The authorized store is in partnership with Grimalkin Corporation, expected to take care of official warranties, repairs, and other after-sales support. The Mi Store, located on the 4th floor of Trinoma Mall at Quezon City, just 10 km North-East of Downtown Manila, offers plenty of Xiaomi products, including smartphones like Redmi Note 4 and Mi...

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Swype Keyboard now discontinued

One of the more popular keyboards for smartphones Swype is being discontinued. The company confirmed this to several users, who looked for support with various bugs. Nuance Communications, owners of the app, said Swype will no longer be updated for Android and will not be offered on the iOS app store. Swype Keyboard gained popularity as being the default keyboard on plenty of Huawei devices but now Nuance is ending the support and all direct-to-consumer business to focus on AI solutions for sale directly to businesses. With dropping Swype+Dragon, the company will switch to its...

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Nokia TA-1071 swings by FCC

Nokia is having an event at MWC 2018 but is still secretive on what is going to be unveiled. Thanks to helpful leaksters, we already have seen two Nokia phones which might debut next week in Barcelona. One of them, the Nokia 1, is in its last stage of preparation before arrival, according to an FCC listing. A device with the codename Nokia TA-1071 and the outlines of the entry-level smartphone was approved by the Federal Commission, meaning it is ready to hit the market shelves. The Nokia 1 will be 134 mm tall and 50 mm wide with a diagonal of 136 mm, equal to around 5.35"....

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