Michael Kors launches new Access Sofie 2.0 with more fitness features

Smart watches made by fashion brands are strong sellers in the Wear OS space. The latest Wear OS smart watch comes from Michael Kors. This is the 2.0 refresh of the Access Sofie and there are new features to support fitness. The design itself is refined from the original. There are now three side buttons instead of a single one and the lug bars of the watch body are smaller and use a narrower strap size, better fitting for a feminine look. The bezel is also slightly smaller and the bling around the watch face is still around. The first Access Sofie smart watch was all about...

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Xiaomi CEO showcases fingerprint scanner over the whole screen

Xiaomi is trying to blend in the role of a market disruptor with its low prices and aggressive marketing, but the company is catching up to competitors on the technology and innovation side. While it wasn't the first company to introduce a notch or a waterdrop cutout or a tall screen or dual cameras, Xiaomi is now aiming to change that. Lin Bin, the president and co-founder of Xiaomi, posted a video on Weibo, demonstrating a fingerprint scanning area of the smartphone which is way bigger than the current solution. You can set up your finger with only one tap and then unlock the locked...

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Apple replaced 11 million batteries last year

After Apple admitted that it's slowing down older iPhones on purpose, the company offered a discounted battery replacement in 2018 and the result is 11 million iPhones with new batteries. Tim Cook shared the latest report on Monday during an all-hands meeting. No wonder the company blames the battery replacement program for poor iPhone sales and lower than expected revenue. On average, the company swaps the batteries of 1 to 2 million devices each year. Inevitably, the battery replacement program has changed the minds of a lot of users and instead of upgrading to the latest...

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Oppo "Poseidon" with Snapdragon 855 visits Geekbench

Geekbench reveals that Oppo is working on a Snapdragon 855-powered phone as well. Oppo "Poseidon" is the code name of the device is question. As usual, we don't put too much stock in benchmark results with non-final software, but the phone is doing quite fine. Here's how it compares to other recently-leaked S855 phones. JRGRAPH_EXPANDABLE_VERSION = false; GeekBench 4.1 (single-core) Higher is better Oppo "Poseidon" 3810

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Another set of iPhone XI prototype renders surfaces

Even though it is only January, we're already seeing rumors and stories about the iPhone's successor despite the current generation has only been on the market for less than four months. Today, some new renders come to us from CompareRaja of one of the current prototype designs that Apple is working with, according to the source. Last week's render We saw another leak just last week with a square camera module on the back and the source claims that both of these renders are legitimate prototype designs in the EVT (Engineering Validation Test) stage. So there's a possibility that...

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Samsung Galaxy A50 spotted with 6GB of RAM

Samsung promises big changes with the upcoming M and A-series of mid-range smartphones and the first signs of the Galaxy A50 have already surfaced. The phone was just certified by the W-Fi Alliance and now we have a Geekbench score sheet suggesting that there might be a 6GB RAM variant. Interestingly enough, this isn't the first sighting of the handset on Geekbench. Just over a month ago, the Galaxy A50 under a different model number designated for another market surfaced with 4GB of RAM and what a appears to be an Exynos 9610 chipset. The new listing is in line with what we've...

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Verizon adds Apple Music subscriptions to some unlimited phone plans

Verizon is planning to relaunch its Above Unlimited and Beyond Unlimited phone plans with no price change but with a cool new perk - free Apple Music account. The subscription will be active throughout the whole contract period while the more affordable Go Unlimited users will still get a 6 months trial. The information isn't yet official but 9To5Mac says it comes from a reliable source. The report also adds that the Apple Music subscription will be available not only to iPhone owners but to Android users as well. The Above Unlimited and Beyond Unlimited plans' prices remain unchanged...

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Apple-Qualcomm legal dispute slows down iPhone's 5G adoption

Apple and Qualcomm have a turbulent relationship to say the least. They are locked in multiple court battles around the world and it's becoming clear that this fight is responsible for Apple's slow adoption of 5G - insider sources claim that the first iPhones with 5G will come out in 2020. A testimony by Apple COO Jeff Williams in front of the FTC revealed that Qualcomm has refused to supply Apple with modems for the newest iPhones since the legal dispute by the two companies began. Also, Williams claims that Qualcomm is charging too much royalty - $7.50 per iPhone. Apple wanted to pay...

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Cases for Samsung Galaxy S10 trio hit the web once again

Azuri has come out with its new range of screen protectors and cases for the Samsung Galaxy S10 trio, never mind that the phones themselves are still a month away from going official. There's some confusion going on, however. There's a case Galaxy S10 Mini, which we assume is the "lite" phone. But there's also a bumper case for the Galaxy S10 E. Screen protectors: Galaxy S10 E • Galaxy S10 • Galaxy S10 Plus Both of them are shown with four cameras on the rear, which is almost certainly wrong. It looks like Azuri just used the same back image for all three S10 models (even...

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Samsung launches Android Pie beta for the Galaxy Note8

While the Galaxy S9-series and the Note9 are already getting their delicious Pie serving, Samsung's developers team is now focusing on the Note8's update. The company has officially announced that it's kicking off the beta program for the owners of the handset. A notice posted in the Samsung Members app confirms that the Galaxy Note8 is entering the beta testing stage and registrations are open in India and South Korea with other markets to follow soon. Shortly after you sign up, you will be able to download the latest One UI beta software. We also expect the same for the Galaxy S8...

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Deal: get a refurbished iPhone X for £550

While you can no longer get one from Apple, the iPhone X is still a fine phone. You can get a refurbished unit for £550 from eBay UK (Good condition, unlocked). That's the 64GB model at least, 256GB storage will set you back £620. Apple iPhone X Or you could spend that same money on a new PlayStation 4 (1TB with FIFA 2019) for £300 + a new 32" curved Samsung Smart TV for £250. There are also a pair of Earin M-1 truly wireless earbuds for £44, though these have mixed reviews (they won the iF Design Award in 2016 for what it's worth). window._epn = {campaign:5338110667};

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vivo Y91 with 4030mAh battery launched in India

vivo has launched the budget Y91 smartphone in India. The phone is priced at INR 10,999 ($155) and will be available across offline retail outlets, as well as Amazon India, Paytm Mall and vivo India estore. The vivo Y91 has a 6.22-inch, 1520x720 IPS display with a teardrop notch. It's powered by a MediaTek Helio P22 MT6762 chipset with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. A triple card slot ensures you can have two SIM cards along with a microSD card slot (up to 256GB). On the back is a 13MP f2.2 primary camera with 2MP depth sensor for portrait mode. On the front is a 8MP f1.8...

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CEO hints at improved fast charging for the Xiaomi Mi 9

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun posted a quick reminder to fans on Weibo - the Redmi Note 7 supports QuickCharge 4 (up to 18W), the first of the line (previous models topped out at 10W). But when was asked if the Xiaomi Mi 9 will support 24W charging, he answered that the flagship must have better charging. For what it's worth, leaked specs claimed 32W fast charging (and no wireless charging) for the Mi 9. However, Jun's statement can also be understood as "yes, 24W" (which is better than the 18W of the Redmi and of the Mi Mix 3). Still, 32W isn't a random number but matches QuickCharge 5, which...

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Realme 2 reaches 2 million sales

Realme continues its flying start - the company has just passed another milestone after the 4 million sold phones earlier this month. The official Twitter account announced 2 million Realme 2 units sold, effectively making it the most successful phone of the brand. Realme 2 arrived in late August with dual camera and neat design of the back panel. It immediately managed to break multiple records, including pushing 200,000 units in India in under 5 minutes and another 15,000 units in 10 minutes during the first Indonesian flash sale. Since its launch it got a new Color OS...

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Samsung SVP explains why foldable phones will bring in the next wave of innovation

Samsung's profits are starting to slip and some believe that it's because smartphone innovation has slowed down significantly. Senior Vice President Hark-sang Kim posted an editorial detailing why he believes the opposite is happening - new technology like 5G, AI and AR will make smartphones even more vital to our daily lives. But all three could benefit from a larger screen, which is where an old age dilemma comes in - how to make the screen bigger while keeping the phone portable. Clearly, Samsung believes that foldable screens are the answer. This is a direction that the company has...

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Apple plans switch to USB-C for future iPhones, iPod resurrection

An interesting report from the supply chain blog Mac Otakara just came in saying that Apple is planning on phasing out its Lightning port on iPhones in favor of the standard UBS-C connector. According to Mac Otakara's inside sources, the engineers are already working on a reference design, but it may not make the deadline for the 2019 iPhones so we may only see it in 2020 iPhones. In addition, the source claims to have gathered plenty of information from suppliers at CES pointing to the fact that Apple aims to revive its iPod lineup as well. The new iPod is said to be aimed at...

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Galaxy S9 and Note9 Android Pie rollout continues with India and South Korea

Samsung continues to update its latest flagship devices to Android Pie, the Galaxy S9, S9+ and the Note9 with the next on the list being India and South Korea. This means the update is now available in 16 countries around the globe. The catch is that the update in India is only available to those that were part of the beta program initially. We saw the same thing happening in Germany with wider availability coming shortly after. The South Korean users, however, will receive the latest software no matter what they are running - stable Oreo or Pie beta. The software build number for...

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Honor 10 Lite launched in India, available January 20

Honor has launched the Honor 10 Lite in India. The phone is priced at INR 13,999 ($197) for the 4GB RAM model and INR 17,999 ($253) for the 6GB RAM model. The phone will go on sale January 20, exclusively on Flipkart. The Honor 10 Lite is a lower mid-range smartphone. It has a 6.21-inch, 2340x1080 resolution IPS display. It's powered by the Kirin 710 chipset with 4/6GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. The phone also features Honor's GPU Turbo 2.0 feature for improved gaming performance in certain titles. The phone has a 13MP f1.8 camera at the back with a 2MP depth...

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Sony Xperia XZ4 design revealed in Olixar case images

Last week we saw an alleged Xperia XZ4 case get compared with an actual Xperia XZ Premium. Today more case images appeared online, confirming once again the size of the upcoming flagship and its vertical triple camera setup. Arriving on MobileFun, some Olixar cases confirmed the rumors for a massively tall screen with a 21:9 ratio and three cameras, lined vertically, while the LED flash is positioned above them. The fingerprint scanner will be on the side, right between the volume rocker and the power key. Sony Xperia XZ4 cases by Olixar There are already...

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 teardown video surfaces

Today a video surfaced of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 being disassembled in a step by step process. The video was originally found on QQ, a Chinese video sharing platform, and has been reuploaded to YouTube. The Redmi Note 7 has a similar build to many other smartphones. The first step it removing the rear glass to see what's inside. After removing the nanoSIM tray, the fingerprint sensor's cable, and a few screws, the logic board shields can come off to reveal more of the phone's innards. There are some key takeaways from the teardown video. First, the Redmi Note 7 has a USB-C port on...

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vivo Waterdrop phone arriving on January 24

Earlier this month we saw a vivo phone codenamed "Waterdrop" with a unique design that raised quite a few questions. The mystery will be unveiled on January 24 when the company will reveal more, according to a Weibo post on the official vivo profile. A vivo invite for the waterdrop reveal This image is as vague as it gets. We don't know what the actual footprint will be or what specs should we expect. A well-known leakster previously said this new phone will "subvert people's past perception of smartphones". There is a real possibility vivo might be revealing just a concept...

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Two Galaxy S10 variants certified in China, still use 15W chargers

We've seen so many rumors and leaks firing from all directions surrounding one of the most anticipated Samsung launches ever. The latest piece leaks comes to us from CCC (China Compulsory Certification) where two variants of the Galaxy S10 have been certified. The first part of the story is that only two variants were certified in China but there have been reports of three and even four total variants of the S10 with at least one 5G-enabled one and possibly a third size (6.1") in addition to the supposed 5.8" and 6.44" versions. The documents also reveal the chargers that will be...

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