What will Apple call its 2018 iPhones - we look at all the options

With the introduction of the 2017 iPhones, Apple backed itself into a corner regarding its naming convention, so how it will proceed in 2018? After all it currently has three phones using two diferent types of numerals, a skipped digit and a Plus version. In our recent article '2018 iPhones: Everything we know so far' we briefly touched on the possible names Apple could adopt for its upcoming iPhones. As it turns out, this in itself generated quite a lively debate so we thought we'd go over the available options. The introduction of the iPhone X resulted in Apple having three flagship...

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Weekly poll results: Xiaomi Mi A2 gets a warm welcome, A2 Lite needed to do better

The Xiaomi Mi A2 was well received by the voters in last week's poll. We were surprised to see that most people miss the 3.5mm headphone jack and the microSD slot more than they missed the telephoto camera. It goes to show that simple components that don't add much to the bill of materials can significantly impact the desirability of a phone. The microSD slot is important as Xiaomi is offering the Mi A2 with 32GB as base and that isn't much. So you need to spend an extra €30 if you want usable storage. Speaking of price, about a third of people are holding out for a discount or a promotion...

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Counterclockwise: HTC is the foundation upon which modern smartphones are built

Last year HTC celebrated its 20th birthday. The company was founded in Taiwan on May 15 1997 as the High Tech Computer Corporation and it initially intended to build laptops. Pretty soon it started building pocketable devices - Pocket PCs as they were called back then - and soon moved to smartphones. One of its first was the HTC Blue Angel aka Qtek 9090 or i-mate PDA2k or O2 XDA IIs or one of several other names. See, HTC was an ODM, it built the hardware for other companies but didn't sell devices under its own brand. And if you spotted the XDA name, that's where the famous forum got its...

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Sony Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra get July security update

Sony is pushing a small OTA to Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra users. It brings the build versions up from 50.1.A.10.40 to version 50.1.A.10.51. The payload seems to consist entirely of a security patch, dated 1 July 2018. As per quite a few user reports, the previous firmware build for the pair of handsets apparently caused some Bluetooth connectivity issues. Even though it's too early to call it one way or the other, the initial feedback seems to confirm there is sadly no fix present in this package either. If you happen to own an Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra, be sure to hit up the...

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Pre-ordering the Galaxy Note9 will get you 15,000 V-Bucks in Fortnite Mobile

Mobile gaming is already a huge deal and the latest rumor about Samsung partnering with Epic Games for the [Galaxy Note9]|(https://ift.tt/2LQRiVN) launch, comes to only further confirm this. Just the other day, news broke that Samsung and Epic Games are planning to release Fortnite - the PC game that already took over iOS - exclusively to Galaxy Note9 owners for 30 days. Today, a string in Epic Games' website suggest that both companies are extending its partnership even further. When buying the Galaxy Note9, you will get 15,000 virtual in-game currency...

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Alleged Oppo R17 and R17 Pro pass through 3C for certification

The Oppo R17 appeared on the web just the other week and we already know some of the features and the better part of the design. Now, a new 3C certification surfaced to tell us about two possible variants, but the information remains pretty vague. Two devices passed the certification process with model numbers PBEM00 and PBET00, which probably correspond to the R17 and R17 Pro. But the TENAA listing, from the other day, contradicts the 3C document, citing model numbers PBCM00 and PBCT00. That means that either the 3C certification is about other devices, or the TENAA one refers to the...

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2018 iPad Pro to come with thin bezels, rounded display, no home button or notch

Rumors about Apple's upcoming 2018 iPad line have been rather frequent lately. While not intrinsically bad, the reports of expected design and functionality have also been all over the place, making it hard to pinpoint anything with certainty. While this is still very much the case, 6to5Mac have continuously been digging through code in the iOS 12 beta and do appear to have some conclusions. First off, both an icon asset and a split screen device simulation seem to show a new iPad Pro with rounded display corners. The icon or glyph was found as a part of the battery usage UI in iOS. It...

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Our Xiaomi Mi 8 SE video review is up

The 'mini' fad came and went, and these days we get quite a few 'Lite' smartphones that want to capitalize on the clout of the high-end devices that bear the same name. Xiaomi felt like doing practically the same thing this year, but using the Apple-inspired 'SE' moniker for the lowest-end model in its Mi 8 lineup. That's not to say that the Mi 8 SE doesn't bring a lot to the table - and for an affordable price, which is something most people have come to associate with Xiaomi. So what's our verdict on it? Well, our full written review goes into all of the minute details. If you don't have...

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Honor Play coming to Pakistan this month as well

Honor Play is expected to launch in India about two days from now on August 6, but sources claim that the company isn't solely aiming at the Indian market. A new report reads that the handset will launch this month in Pakistan too and if initial rumors are to be believed, that's going to be as early as today. Honor Pakistan even uploaded a teaser video on its official YouTube channel. As expected, the device will offer great value thanks to its big 6.3-inch FHD+ display, Kirin 970 SoC and at least 4GB of RAM. Added features, such as GPU Turbo and 4D gaming sure make the handset...

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The HTC U12 Life might feature a Pixel-like two-tone design

HTC was originally rather adamant about keeping the U12+ as the sole release within the family. There is still no word of a vanilla U12 model on the horizon, but the rumor mill has been going on about the "Imagine Life" - aka HTC U12 Life. In a new development, a fresh pair of schematics of the alleged device has surfaced online, Showing off a design quite reminiscent of the Google Pixel line. By the looks of things, the U12 Life might have a dual-tone back. Unfortunately, since this is a schematic, we can't really know if this entails two separate materials, like on the Google...

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