Google's ARCore SDK is out of preview, now any developer can publish AR apps to the Play Store

Following a long preview period which started last August when it was initially announced, Google's ARCore SDK has now finally reached version 1.0. It's thus out of preview and allows any developer to create AR-infused apps and publish them to the Play Store for Android. ARCore 1.0 has improved environmental understanding, letting users place virtual assets on textured surfaces like posters, furniture, toy boxes, books, cans, and many more - see an example in the image below. ARCore already works on 100 million smartphones running Google's OS, complete with advanced AR capabilities....

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Google Lens expands to all Android and iOS devices through Google Photos, flagships get it in Assistant too

Google Lens became available for the Pixels last year, and it's now following in the footsteps of the Google Assistant - namely, a period of exclusivity for the company's own smartphones is followed by a much wider release. Google has announced that, in the coming weeks, Lens will be available to all English-language users of Google Photos who have the latest version of the app on Android and iOS. But wait, there's more! If you happen to own a compatible flagship device, you will also get the camera-based Lens experience within Google Assistant. Unfortunately Google hasn't named...

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Google Assistant goes global this year, becomes multilingual, integrates deeper with your phone and carrier

The fact that Google has planned a big expansion for its Assistant in 2018 was first revealed last week. Back then the number of supported languages was said to be 25 by the end of the year, but today the company has officially announced that Assistant will speak more than 30 languages before we say hello to 2019. That will make it reach 95% of all eligible Android phones worldwide. The first new languages will be Danish, Dutch, Hindi, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish, and Thai, with more coming at some point after that first wave. These will be available both on Android and iOS, by the...

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Sony may launch three new devices at the MWC - two XZ2 phones and a surprise

The rumor mill has been pretty clear that we'll see the Sony Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact at the MWC stage. But it seems that there will be a surprise third entry. Sony Mobile's Facebook account for South Africa invites people to watch the unveiling of "three amazing new Xperia models". The image attached to this post features the current Xperia XA2 Ultra, though we'll try not to read too much into that. The new XA2 duo is not yet available in the country, although the post talks about the livestream from Barcelona so presumably it references a global launch. So, which phone...

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Energizer phone with mammoth 16,000mAh battery powers up in a teaser video

It takes a while to lift the veil off a 16,000mAh battery - but it will be worth the wait. Yesterday, we saw the bottom bezel of the Energizer Power Max P16K Pro, now we get a peek at the top. You can see the 5.99" 1080p+ screen has rounded corners to match the rounded corners of the chassis. Also check out the 8MP selfie camera - it seems like it has its own flash. The design seems to be based on the Power Max P600S, most of the specs line up too (screen, chipset, dual rear camera). Well, everything aside from the battery, of course, the P600S has a 4,500mAh battery while the P16K...

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Sony Xperia XZ2 image and specs leak ahead of Monday's unveiling

Sony is changing up its design language as we've seen in several leaks. The latest gives us a front and rear view of the Sony Xperia XZ2, the larger counterpart of the XZ2 Compact, which we saw from the side. The XZ2 duo should be among the first to feature Snapdragon 845 and will be Sony's first to go 18:9. This particular unit will have a 5.7" screen with 1080p+ resolution according to the latest info from @evleaks. The Xperia XZ2 reportedly upgrades the XZ Premium camera to f/1.8 aperture (down from f/2.0). Interestingly, the super slow-motion video recording (at 960fps) has been...

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Huawei FLA-AL00 specs outed by TENAA

Huawei might be preparing for a launch of at least three new P20 phones, including a Lite version, a regular variant and a Plus-sized flagship, but more info about previously leaked FLA-AL00 device just arrived on TENAA. The phone, most likely to come as the Huawei nova 3, will have Kirin 659 chipset and four cameras. Huawei FLA-AL00 The alleged nova 3 is listed with three code names - FLA-AL00, FLA-AL10, FLA-AL20. The first version will come with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage, while the other two are mostly different in SIM availability. Huawei has equipped the phones...

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Samsung Max launches to replace Opera Max, a VPN with data protection

Opera Max was pre-loaded on several Galaxy handsets, but the data-saving VPN service shut down last year. If you miss it, Samsung made its own version and it's available today on the Play Store - download it here. Samsung Max has two key features that you can enable individually. First is Data Saving Mode. It can actively compress web pages and multimedia (images, videos, music) accessed by the browser or apps. It also tracks apps' data usage so it will help you pinpoint data hogs. If you don't want Max working for all apps, you can enable it just for the worst...

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MediaTek P60 chipset headed to MWC, Geekbench reveals

MediaTek is working on new chips and occasionally it lets them run a benchmark. A new model, Helio P60, was caught running Geekbench on a device with a tantalizing name - MTK P60 MWC Demo. It sounds like this will be a reference design rather than a phone meant for retail. It did have 4GB of RAM and ran Android 8.1, but the CPU cores used are unknown. Looking at the single-core score, it's too high for Cortex-A53 - it's closer to (though lower than) the scores we get from Cortex-A73. This is an octa-core processor so we're likely looking at a big.LITTLE design. Both scores are...

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Sony patches up Xperia XZ, Xperia XZs and X Performance for "Spectre" and "Meltdown"

Sony Mobile keeps going with pushing firmware updates to its devices. After the Xperia XZ Premium got patched for "Spectre" and "Meltdown", next in line are the Xperia XZ, Xperia XZs and Xperia X Performance that are over two years old. Owners of these three devices should already be receiving the new 47.1.A.12.75 build over the air. The security update has a February 1, 2018, date and is mostly patching up the software for the CPU vulnerabilities. The firmware does not mention any other changes and is just 120 MB in size. The upgrade should be hitting both dual-SIM and single-SIM...

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Huawei P20 appear in TENAA photos with dual cameras

Huawei P20 is arriving on March 27 when an event is scheduled in Paris, but thanks to TENAA we got to see first images of the phone a month early. Codenamed EML-TL00, the phone appeared from all four sides on the Chinese website, revealing a vertical dual camera setup on the back and another dual setup on the front for selfies. Huawei P20 on TENAA Although we've heard rumors about a tri-lens camera, the vertical setup is actually for the laser autofocus and the dual-LED flash, all lined one above the other. The Huawei logo follows the same design line, suggesting the phone...

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Moto G6 pops up on Geekbench

Rumors have been suggesting a Moto G6 is on its way - first we saw some specs, then we saw some images. Now the phone allegedly popped up on Geekbench, revealing some of the specs. Apparently, the phone, most likely to be called officially Moto G 6th gen, will have Snapdragon 625 chipset and 3 GB RAM. The results of the Moto G6 with the year-old chipset are 709 for a single-core score and 3582 for the multi-core score. Although they look a bit off from the numbers that Moto G5 Plus reached last year with the Snapdragon 625, numbers are not comparable due to the different versions of...

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Gartner: Smartphone sales declined for first time ever in Q4 2017

Global smartphone sales reached 408 million units during the 2017 holiday season, Gartner reported. This is a 5.6% decline, compared with Q4 2016, when over 432 million phones found a new owner, marking the first time sales go down since Gartner started tracking in 2004. According to Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, two factors led to the fall: the upgrade from feature phones to smartphones slowed down due to lack of ultra-low-cost devices and users deciding to choose a quality model and stick with it for a longer time before switching. "Moreover, while demand for high...

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