IDC: smart wearable market slows, Apple Watch widens lead

It was a slow quarter for wearables - IDC's latest report shows that the segment grew only 1.2%, reaching a total of 25.1 million units. Higher-priced smart wearables from Apple, Fitbit and fashion brands did show promise, however. Apple Watch shipments grew 13.5% year over year as the cellular version of the watch expanded to new markets and carriers took to it with enthusiasm. Xiaomi is in second in terms of market share, but it took in only 1.8% of the money - it has the lowest average selling price of the Top 5 brands. The Versa enjoyed some success and helped Fitbit maintain its...

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Sony announces RX100 VI with 24-200mm lens

Sony has announced the newest member of the popular RX100 series of camera. Called the RX100 VI unsurprisingly, the new model continues the trend of few but important changes across the board to keep things fresh and interesting in what is now a six-year old series. The main change in RX100 VI is a new lens. The new model includes a 24-200mm lens, making it the highest focal length lens in the series so far, giving it some serious magnification that RX100 cameras have lacked so far. Despite the increased focal length the camera packs an impressive f2.8-4.5 aperture range, which although...

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iOS 12 features we missed: second Face ID user and many more

Yesterday Apple announced iOS 12 and eager users are already combing through the beta to see all the features Apple talked about and many they didn't mention. One feature of the latter sort is Set Up Alternate Appearance, under Face ID & Passcode. Its description is a bit unclear - "In addition to continuously learning how you look, Face ID can recognize an alternative appearance." - but the folks over at 9to5Mac have confirmed that it allows a second face to be used to unlock an iPhone X. Some believe that the new feature has been developed for a future iPad that will forgo Touch...

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TENAA certifies a Sony Xperia that may be an XZ2 Premium version or even XZ2 Pro

Months before the Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium was unveiled, we saw the user agent profiles for two phones with 4K screens, the H8116 and H8166. So this could be nothing, but at the end of May TENAA certified a phone with the latter model number. It has 5.8" display like the XZ2 Premium, however, the page does not say anything about the resolution. The physical dimensions of the phone also match the Premium. Sony H8166, perhaps an Xperia XZ2 Pro, but probably just a version of the Premium However, the battery capacity - 3,400 mAh - matches neither the regular XZ2 nor the XZ2 Premium....

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Lenovo K5 Note, A5, Watch X and ZUI 4.0 launched alongside the Z5

Of course, the Lenovo Z5 was the highlight of the event in Beijing, but that doesn't mean it's the only interesting announcement today. The Chinese powerhouse has released a refreshed Lenovo K5 Note with better hardware, another budget Lenovo A5 smartphone, a new Watch X smartwatch and has showcased the latest 4.0 version of its ZUI user interface. Let's start with the refreshed Lenovo K5 Note. It's a direct successor to the 2016 version of the phone but with modern design and hardware. The 2018 version comes with a tall 18:9 6-inch IPS display (720x1440px resolution) and it's powered...

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Marc Jacobs releases Riley Touchscreen watch with Android Wear

Marc Jacobs has released an Android Wear version of it Riley watch (the original was a hybrid). Details are a little messy right now as it seems that retailer Target has mixed up the specs of the smart and the hybrid Riley watches. Anyway, the Marc Jacobs Riley Touchscreen sports a 1.19" AMOLED display, the casing measures 42 mm. It's made of aluminum and is available in Black, Gold/White and Rose Gold/Cement color options. The wrist straps are made of silicon on all versions. Battery capacity is not listed, but officially it should last 24 hours and charges fully in 2 hours. The...

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Xiaomi Mi 8 goes on sale in China today, sells out in under a minute

The Xiaomi Mi 8 went on sale today in China and sold out within the minute. It took the flagship just 37 seconds to show as sold out, as per a Xiaomi official. We're still awaiting word on how many phones there were in the first sale. The next flash sale is going to be on June 12 at 10am local time. Much of what made the Mi 8 a sough-after phone is its appealing price - starting at CNY 2,699 (€360) it's the cheapest Snapdragon 845-powered smartphone selling right now. Outside of its zippy chipset, the Mi 8 offers a 6.21-inch Super AMOLED, dual 12MP f/1.8+12MP f/2.4 cameras, 20MP...

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Asus VivoWatch BP tracks your blood pressure, location and de-stress index

Asus just unveiled the successor of the three-year-old VivoWatch - the VivoWatch BP. It's a sports smartwatch with plenty of new features, with the most notable being the blood pressure tracking and de-stress index. The device isn't exactly the most flashy smartwatch out there, but it does carry a ton of sensors under the rather thick screen bezels. Electrocardiographic (ECG) and photoplethysmographic (PPG) sensors measure your current blood pressure and they both work simultaneously to deliver better accuracy. You still need to keep your fingertip on the front-facing ECG sensor for about...

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Lenovo Z5 arrives officially with a notch and Snapdragon 636

The Lenovo Z5 was just announced in China. The phone could not live up to the expectations of a true bezel-less experience and brought a notch on the top, a chin on the bottom of the screen, a Snapdragon 636 chipset and an average dual camera setup. The screen measures in 6.2" with a tall 19:9 ratio. The processor has eight Kryo 260 cores, clocked at 1.8 GHz, coupled with an Adreno 509 GPU. There are six gigs of RAM as the only option, but at least there is a choice between 64 GB and 128 GB storage. The 4 TB rumor appeared to be a separate announcement of a hard drive. Lenovo...

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Asus introduces two ZenBooks with unique features

Computex is currently taking place in Taiwan, and all the manufacturers are racing to impress with unique features. Asus is one of these companies that brought two new Zenbooks, both with impressive, although questionable ideas. The Zenbook Pro UX580 arrives with 15.6" 4K screen and a secondary 5.5" display, doubling as a touchpad. The ZenBook S is an ultra-light device of about 1 kg with a hinge that lifts the bottom part of the notebook when opened for ergonomic reasons. Asus ZenBook S UX391 • Asus ZenBook Pro 15 UX580 The ZenBook Pro 15 UX580 has Intel Core i9 processor and...

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Snapdragon 850 unveiled: Windows-on-ARM gets a speed and battery boost

The Snapdragon 850 is now official and later this year you can expect the first computers with it - likely laptops and 2-in-1s. The chip is essentially a beefed-up version of the Snapdragon 845 found in phones and comes to replace the 835 chip previously used in Windows-on-ARM devices. Qualcomm offered this image of a reference design - basically, a Surface type form factor with a main tablet body and a foldable keyboard. Even this tablet will have better cooling than phones, so the Kryo 385 Gold cores are now clocked at 2.95 GHz, a small bump in speed over the phone chip. The...

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vivo NEX S specs leak - 20MP + 16MP rear camera setup, 6.01-inch display

It's pretty clear by now that the upcoming vivo NEX smartphone will come in three variants called NEX, NEX S and NEX A. The last two models are believed to be Snapdragon 710-powered devices while the flagship version will boast a Snapdragon 845. The latest leak, however, focuses on the "budget" variant with SD710. A photo of the incomplete specs sheet has been taken revealing a 6.01-inch FHD+ screen with super-slim bezels accounting for near 100% screen-to-body ratio. Presumably, the periscope-styled front-facing camera will be one of the highlight features of all three...

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China investigates Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix

Chinese regulators have launched a probe against memory-chip manufacturers Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix. According to The Wall Street Journal, all three companies confirmed their offices have been visited by China officials. They did not reveal what is the investigation about, but analysts are suggesting a negotiation transferring data and know-how to domestic Chinese manufacturers. Mark Newman, an analyst at Bernstein, said this might be related with the rising cost of DRAM chips. China currently uses 20% of the DRAM memory chips, used for processing data, and around 25% of the...

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Nokia 8110 4G availability expands, Nokia 6.1 gets new update

The Nokia 8110 4G - which has already launched in Singapore and is on pre-order in Europe - is now also also available in a couple of more markets: UAE and Saudi Arabia. The device carries price tag of AED 259 ($70) and SAR 259 ($70) in these regions, respectively. Moving on, the Nokia 6.1 has started receiving a new update. Arriving as build version V2.22C, the update is currently hitting units in India. As for changes, the update brings along battery saving navigation buttons, revamped power menu, new setting menu, and Bluetooth battery percentage. Also included are the Android...

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Limited edition Silk White OnePlus 6 and OnePlus Bullets Wireless are now available

Starting today, OnePlus is selling its limited edition Silk White version OnePlus 6 and along with it, the company is launching its wireless earbuds as well. The OnePlus Bullets Wireless have been critically acclaimed by some tech reviewers prior to their release, so we expect them to be pretty successful right off the bat. The buds start at $69/€69/£69 and offer some neat features like fast charging (10 minutes of charge = up to 5 hours of listening), water-resistance and support for Google Assistant. The so-called Magnetic Control is also a nifty little feature - it turns the buds...

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