AT&T rolls out Android 8.0 Oreo for the LG V30

AT&T is now distributing the update to Android 8.0 Oreo to the LG V30 units it has sold. This follows the Oreo release for Samsung's Galaxy Note8 yesterday, and thus the carrier has covered both Korean companies' respective flagships from last fall. The update for the V30 also features the latest security fixes. After installing it you'll have the March 1, 2018 security patch level. The new software version is H93120c. Oreo went out to V30 units in South Korea last year, and in the meantime we've seen both Verizon and Sprint update theirs. Of the Big Four US carriers, T-Mobile is now...

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Nokia 5 and original Nokia 6 start receiving Android 8.1 Oreo update

The Nokia 8 got Android 8.1 last month, and now both the Nokia 5 and the original Nokia 6 from 2017 are in the process of receiving updates to this version of the OS. The two phones got their first taste of Oreo, then in the 8.0 iteration, back in January. The update is rolling out to the Nokia 5 in India, Tunisia, and Indonesia, while the Nokia 6 is only getting it in India at the moment. We expect more markets to see the new software in the next few days. The Nokia 5 is facing an 866.7MB download, while the Nokia 6's will be 933.8MB. For both you will need to grab the file via Wi-Fi....

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Honor 10 allegedly leaks out in a bulky case

Huawei may be working on a smaller Honor 10 to complement the Honor View 10 in its sub-brand's portfolio. Today three images have been leaked on Weibo, China's Twitter equivalent, and they allegedly show the Honor 10. It's trapped inside a big bulky case, the type that manufacturers use to keep prototypes away from prying eyes - or at least not have the entire design of an upcoming device revealed. The case definitely hasn't succeeded at the former, only the latter. Alleged Honor 10 prototype Even so, there are a few things to notice here, from the horizontally-aligned...

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Samsung Galaxy Note9 stops by Geekbench with Android 8.1 on board

The Galaxy S9 and S9+ have been official for around a month now, so it's time for the upcoming Galaxy Note9 to start leaking much more than before. Today the device has been spotted in the Geekbench database. Specifically it's the SM-N960U model, the one that will be sold in North America. It's rocking the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC unsurprisingly, just like the US-bound S9 duo. The Note9 also features 6GB of RAM, like its predecessor. Interestingly, the prototype that ran Geekbench had Android 8.1 Oreo on board. That's of note because the S9 and S9+ launched with Android 8.0, and...

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Samsung Galaxy S9 Exynos vs. Snapdragon speed test emerges

As usual, Samsung has launched not one but two Galaxy S9 versions. Most of the world gets the one with Samsung's own Exynos 9810, while for North America and China the phone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845. If you've been wondering how these two would fare in a classic YouTube speed test, here's your answer. The video starts off with the launch of a set selection of apps - one by one. As soon as one has fully loaded, the Home button is pressed and then it's on to the next app (or game). The first "lap" is won by the Snapdragon version, which outdid the Exynos model by...

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Apple unveils new Spring color range for iPhone and iPad cases

After updating its range of Watch bands, Apple has now unveiled a range of new Spring colors for the iPhone and iPad cases. The iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X Silicone Case now also come in Lemonade, Red Raspberry and Denim Blue. The Leather Case now also come in Bright Orange, Spring Yellow, Electric Blue and Soft Pink. The iPhone X Leather Folio now comes in Electric Blue and Soft Pink. Over on the iPad side, the Smart Cover for 10.5‑inch iPad Pro now also comes in Lemonade and Red...

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Carl Pei confirms that the OnePlus 6 will have a notch

Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus, has officially confirmed that the OnePlus 6 will have a notch. He puts a positive spin on it and describes it as "adding more screen real estate instead of taking anything away". Pei defends the decision by saying the OnePlus notch will be implemented better than other Android makers have managed. The notch on the OnePlus 6 will measure 19.62 x 7.69mm. A smaller notch would mean smaller camera module, which in turn means lower quality photos. The same goes for the earpiece. And people want their notification LEDs. The notch is larger than Essential's,...

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Google acquires Tenor GIF platform

Google images is great, isn't it? There's really no competing with the web titan's vast catalogue of indexed pictures and its cutting-edge searching algorithms. However, it's not really most people's first choice for sourcing a great animated GIF. Whether it's a meme or meant to better express a reaction or emotion, the GIF format, or rather the animated content it houses, has been a true web staple over the past few years. Digging through its vast usage data, apparently, finally prompted Google to take the throw some cash at the problem by welcoming Tenor into its family. If you often...

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Samsung Gear S2 gets firmware upgrade with improved UI and fitness functions

The Samsung Gear S2 is enjoying stellar software support - the three year old smartwatch just got an update with several major new features. The UI was updated to improve multitasking. The App Shortcuts widget mingles recent and favorite apps so they are always within reach. The Quick Panel is available anywhere, quick toggles for brightness, volume and other settings are just a swipe away. The Gear S2 is growing into its role as a fitness tool. Samsung Health was updated with multi-workout mode and inactivity alerts. That's what the watch can do on its own, when connected to a...

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Huawei P20 and P20 Pro are coming to India

Good news for Huawei P20 fans in India - both the P20 and P20 Pro are officially coming to Indian stores. As of yet, there are no specifics as to price or date but Huawei has posted an official teaser on its website with the words "Coming Sooon in India". Huawei currently only lists the ancient P9 and Nexus 6P on its website and Indian buyers couldn't buy the Huawei P10 (or any of the Mates) through official channels. We'll get back to you when Huawei shares prices and dates. Up until now the official Huawei website has used Flipkart as a sales partner so we're guessing it will...

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Check out our first Huawei P20 Pro benchmark results

The Huawei P20 and P20 Pro debuted yesterday and their Leica cameras were understandably met with a lot of excitement. Performance wasn't so much in focus as the Kirin 970 that powers them was introduced back in October with the Mate 10 series. Huawei P20 Pro Still, we though to give the SoC a test to see how it fares on the new taller screens of slightly higher resolution. The Kirin 970 premiered at IFA last fall. It is built on the 10 nm process by HiSilicion, native Huawei division. The chip is housing an octa-core CPU - four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.4 GHz for performance...

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New Apple iPad will start shipping in US on April 2

Apple's new iPad will start its retail run in the US this week - T-Mobile and Verizon have confirmed they will carry it. Apple's own store will be able to ship ordered iPads starting April 2 - the same date that AT&T is delivering its pre-orders. Meanwhile BestBuy is offering a $25 gift card with an iPad purchase. In reality the 2018 version of "the iPad" costs as much as its predecessor but brings support for Apple's $99 Pencil and offers a $30 reduction in price for schools, which can have it starting at $299. If a student goes for a combination of the Apple iPad, the...

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Olixar case renders show the LG G7, notch and all

The LG G7 is trying its best to avoid the spotlight - it's not ready for prime time. That hasn't stopped the rumor mill, however. Nor Olixar for that matter. The case maker has published a few renders showing a few of its cases for the delayed flagship. The renders show the notch and the vertical dual camera on the back, things we've seen before. Of course, the renders can't tell us if the screen will be an LCD or an AMOLED (rumors say that users will get a choice) and nothing on the price either. LG G7 cases and renders by Olixar Anyhow, check out the cases over at...

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Vodafone UK now taking pre-orders for the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro

Brits who are still buzzing from the Huawei event yesterday can now pre-order the two flagships from Vodafone UK. The Huawei P20 is available on contract for £9 up front while the 40MP-shooting Huawei P20 Pro for £49 up front. Here's a sweet deal - pre-order before April 6 and you'll get a free pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 II (black), which some consider to be the best noise canceling headphones on the market. They're worth £330 normally. Anyway, here are two promo deals that get you 4x the data of the normal plans. You can find the P20 plans here and the P20 Pro plans here. There's...

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Leaked MIUI source code hints at in-display fingerprint reader on the Xiaomi Mi 7

If you've been keeping up with Xiaomi and in-display fingerprint tech lately, then you probably heard a lot of rumors regarding the Mi Mix 2s. Since that particular flagship was announced yesterday that obviously didn't come to pass. However, this development doesn't mean the Chinese manufacturer entirely gave up on the technology. The primary suspect to pioneer the new reader within Xiaomi's ranks now seems to be the the Mi 7. As per industry chatter, the flagship was delayed, potentially to accommodate the new tech. Some fine investigative work from the guys over at XDA seems to further...

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Lenovo announces K5 and K5 Play mid-rangers

Lenovo is on somewhat of streak lately - last week the company announced the S5 in China and now two more follow. The affordable K5 and K5 Play devices just appeared on the company's website. Lenovo K5 The Lenovo K5 comes with a 5.7" LCD panel of HD+ resolution. The chipset is lowly MediaTek MT6750 with a processor that goes up to 1.5 GHz and is coupled with 3 GB RAM. Storage on board is 32 GB, but at least there is a microSD slot. ZUI fans should rejoice, because the Lenovo K5 comes with ZUI 3.1 Lite, based on Android Nougat. There are two cameras on the back - 13 MP...

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Samsung Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6+ launch markets confirmed

Recently Samsung SM-A600FN and SM-A605G surfaced on Geekbench earlier, pointing to the a Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6+ smartphones being prepared for a launch. According to SamMobile, the Korean company will indeed launch these devices, but only at three markets - Europe, Russia, and Middle East. The Samsung Galaxy A6 is reportedly coming with Exynos 7870 chipset, seen in the Galaxy A3 (2017) and some phones from the more affordable J series. The SoC is coupled with 3 GB RAM and is running Android 8.0 Oreo, most likely with Samsung Experience UI 9.0 on top. The Galaxy A6+ was shown...

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Google Maps updated with support for 39 new languages

Google has added support for dozens of new languages to its Maps service. A total of 39 new languages have made it to the list, that Google says are spoken by an estimated 1.25 billion people worldwide. The new entries include Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Burmese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, Georgian, Hebrew, Icelandic, Indonesian, Kazakh, Khmer, Kyrgyz, and Lao. Others in the list include Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Mongolian, Norwegian, Persian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swahili, Swedish,...

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vivo X21 UD is now available in China

Last Monday the world saw the new vivo X21 with 6.28" AMOLED display and a notch on top. The new flagship of the manufacturer was accompanied by the vivo X21 UD version that arrived with an fingerprint scanner under the display (hence the UD in the moniker). The vanilla X21 has been available through JD.com for a few days with a price tag of CNY3,198, but today the Chinese online retailer launched the UD version for CNY3,598 in both available colors - Ruby Red or Black. For anyone out of China, wanting to get the device, it will set you back around €460 or $572 (shipping and taxes...

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