Counterclockwise: phones that rotate

Phones have had rotating controls since the early days. In the 19th century, if you wanted to call someone, you had to crank a handle (it generated the electric pulse that rung the bell of the other phone). In the 20th century, there was the rotary dial. While cell phones never had a rotary dial, the likes of the Sony CMD J7 had a Jog Dial - a wheel on the side of the phone that can be used to navigate menus. BlackBerry started with trackwheels too, but the iconic Pearl series introduced the trackball. The T-Mobile G1 had a trackball too. Of course, later models swapped out the...

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Fuchsia OS is moving forward - developer portal goes live

Remember Fuchsia OS? It seems like every time we stumble upon an exciting new development regarding the mysterious open-source OS we have to dust it off from obscurity. That's just the nature of early development stage software, plus things are actually looking up on the exposure and availability side of things. After sharing a few tasty details about its side-project at the last I/O event, Google has now quietly launched a developer portal for Fuchsia OS. And to re-iterate the answer to everybody's pressing question before the comment section gets flooded again - NO, it is not...

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Xiaomi is looking for MIUI closed beta testers on the Pocophone F1, Mi 6 and Redmi 6/6A

This new development might come as a bitter-sweet announcement for many, but it is clearly the position Xiaomi and more specifically the MIUI team currently finds itself in. If you haven't been keeping up with recent development surrounding the popular custom Android project - Xiaomi closed its MIUI Global Beta program. This might come as a shock considering its immense popularity, but the latter actually turned out to be a double-edged sword. There are many aspects to the matter, already discussed at length in the mi forum, but it all boils down to the fact that too many users...

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Asus 6z 6GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB versions will be available in India starting July 1

As far as reasonably priced flagships go, the Asus 6z is a pretty compelling offer. This makes its tardiness on the India market a little bit unfortunate. If you haven't been keeping up with these particular developments - the ZenFone 6, as its is internationally known, should have hit shelves in the country on June 19. However, a ruling by the Delhi High Court barred the Taiwanese company from launching any phone in India with the "ZenFone" branding and pushed that date back a little to June 26. Since then Flipkart has been exclusively offering the base 6GB/64GB model for INR...

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Xiaomi Mi CC9 to feature Mimoji, Meitu Custom Edition's low-light prowess shown off in a video

The Xiaomi Mi CC9 arriving on July 2 will be coming with a feature called Mimoji which is similar to Apple's Animoji, Samsung's AR Emoji, Huawei's Qmoji, and Oppo's 3D Omoji. Xiaomi says that Mimoji comes with 165 different hairstyles, faces and accessories to choose from, and it supports both still pictures as well as video recording. You can check out the sample photos down below, and click here to see the video. Mimoji samples The Mi CC9 Meitu Custom Edition which will be joining the CC9 on next Tuesday is already confirmed to come with an AI-powered portrait mode for...

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New leak says Samsung Galaxy A90 pair won't get a sliding camera

The Samsung Galaxy A90's presence is the rumor mill has been rather confusing so far. What was initially believed to be a re-branded Galaxy A80 for different markets was later mistakenly associated with a mysterious new Galaxy R series. Thankfully, after the latest batch of leaks, the story is starting to make more sense. As far as we currently know the Galaxy A90 moniker will be a reality. In fact a total of two handsets will likely carry it - SM-A905 and SM-A908, probably along with some other "Pro" moniker. Both are expected to feature a Snapdragon 855 chipset - marking a...

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OnePlus 7 Pro gets a price cut in Canada

The OnePlus 7 Pro has received a price cut in Canada. The base model with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage is now down from CAD999 ($760/€670) to CAD899 ($685/€605). The 8GB/256GB and 12GB/256GB models, on the other hand, got a price cut of CAD110 ($85/€75) and now cost CAD939 ($715/€630) and CAD1,009 ($770/€680) respectively. You can purchase the OnePlus 7 Pro at the new price from OnePlus Canada's official website. That said, this is a permanent price drop and those who purchased the OnePlus 7 Pro between 10 am ET on May 17 and 12 pm ET on June 28 will get a refund for the difference...

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Samsung Galaxy A50 gets Night Mode, Super Slo-Mo, and June security patch in new update

Samsung has released a new software update for the Galaxy A50 in India which brings in the June 2019 security patch to the phone. This new firmware requires a 422MB download and sports version number A505FDDU2ASF2. And, while the changelog only mentions improvements to the stability of Knox Guard and security of the device, a user has reported that this build also brings in new camera features to the Galaxy A50 like Night Mode and Super Slo-Mo video recording. However, these features aren't automatically accessible and you have to reset the camera settings to use...

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Trump confirms US companies will continue to sell to Huawei

US president Trump made a few very important and surprisingly hopeful announcements regarding the US - Huawei saga at today's G20 summit. In case you haven't been following the recent ban closely, here is a quick refresher course to get you up to speed. But aside from all the complex political and economic concerns, the situation quite simply boils down to major losses and setbacks on all sides. Hence, the extreme backlash, followed by bargaining and delays and more recently, legal loopholes just to keep the delicate economic balance between the US and China. Well, at the risk of...

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