Trendforce: Apple sells most devices during holiday period in 2020, bright future ahead

Trendforce has posted its quarterly analysis and predictions of the smartphone market. According to analysts, Apple sold 77.6 million units during the Q4 2020 period, becoming the top-selling manufacturer ahead of Samsung. Oppo and Xiaomi occupied the next two spots, followed by Huawei in fifth and vivo in sixth. For the October-December 2020 period, the market saw 364 million units moved, with the top six amounting to 307 million of them or 84% of the total market. Expectations for Q1 2021 are the decline to be around 6% on a quarterly basis but 25% more than the same period last...

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Previously leaked Sony Xperia Compact may be Japan-only ‘Xperia Ace 2’

Reports began surfacing last year regarding a compact Sony Xperia smartphone. An Xperia smartphone’s renders leaked with a 5.5-inch screen and dual cameras. While many were excited about the possibility of the return of Sony’s popular Compact series, it seemed that the leaked render depicted a midrange smartphone – which contradicted the “Compact” series – which always used flagship internals in a small size. Previously leaked render of unreleased Sony Xperia handset A new report from AndroidNext pointed out that although the leaked smartphone render depicted a small smartphone,...

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Mi Watch Lite updated with auto DND, wrist raise sensitivity, and vibration adjustment

Xiaomi’s entry-level smartwatch is now receiving a firmware update that adds useful features. As reported by OneTech, the Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite is being updated to version 4.1.20 via the Xiaomi Wear app. The update changelog mentions some new settings that were added, as well as some new automatic features. A new 'smart do not disturb' mode will automatically trigger when the user is asleep New option to adjust vibration modes Added setting to adjust wrist gesture sensitivity Button added to dismiss phone calls on Android Added notification reminder when Bluetooth is...

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Honor 20 and View 20 get Magic UI 4.0 update based on EMUI 11

As per a report from Huawei Central, the latest Honor devices to receive the Magic UI 4.0 update are the Honor View 20, and the Honor 20 series. Magic UI is based on Huawei’s EMUI and although this update is based on EMUI 11, the update for these Honor devices run on Android 10. In December it was reported that the Honor 20 series was undergoing Beta testing for Magic UI 4.0. Honor View 20 The software will be updated to version 11.0.0.138 and weighs in around 1.84GB in storage space. The update rollout began a few days ago but will continue to roll out over the next several days....

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Apple releases iOS 14.4.1 and iPadOS 14.4.1 with urgent fix

Apple's latest software update for its phones and tablets is of the very minor variety, but despite that it's probably one you should install right away. iOS 14.4.1 and iPadOS 14.4.1 serve one purpose, but it's an important one: fixing a bug in WebKit, Safari's rendering engine, that may have lead it, while processing maliciously crafted content, to execute arbitrary malicious code. That's the last thing one would want, which is why it's important to update to this version as soon as possible. The nitty-gritty of the problem is that there was a memory corruption issue in WebKit that...

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OnePlus 9 Pro will have a charger in the box, video teaser reveals camera island design

Earlier today, OnePlus announced the date of its announcement of its next flagship smartphones, the 9 series, and that's March 23. The company also made its partnership with Hasselblad official, and a few hours later we have the first official teaser of the OnePlus 9 Pro posted on Twitter by OnePlus itself. You can see it below, the money shot is at the end when we catch a glimpse of what is essentially the top half of the back of the 9 Pro. It all begins with a simple thought. Discover the #OnePlus9Series, co-developed with Hasselblad, on March 23.Get notified: https://t.co/8HQZu9LLbl...

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Google Fit gets heart rate and respiratory rate monitoring

Google is introducing heart rate and respiratory rate monitoring to its Google Fit app as part of its latest feature drop. These features will initially only be available to select Pixel phones. With these features, users will be able to track their heart and respiratory rate through their phone without requiring specialized hardware. Both features are designed to work using just the cameras front and back. The heart rate monitoring works by placing your finger on the back camera. This technique has been using other apps for a while now and it's a cost effective way to check for...

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OnePlus' branding deal with Fnatic ends, OxygenOS' gaming mode gets a new name

Last week OnePlus started rolling out Android 11 Beta 3 for the OnePlus 7 and 7T series, the changelog includes things like redesigned UI, dark mode, Always On Display and more. One change not listed is the new name for Fnatic mode. This was the name of OxygenOS’ gaming mode and was based on Fnatic, a professional esports organization. It appears that whatever deal the two companies had is now over. After installing Beta 3, Reddit user T1Az noticed that the mode was renamed to the fairly generic “Pro Gaming mode”. "Fnatic mode" was renamed to Pro Gaming mode with the latest OxygenOS...

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Samsung Galaxy Watch4 and Watch Active4 coming in Q2

Samsung appears set to announce the Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch Active4 in Q2 of this year, per usually reliable tipster Ice universe. It appears that Samsung will skip the Galaxy Watch Active3 and jump it straight to number 4, for series naming continuity' sake. And while the insider doesn't go into details about the pair of watches, we have heard from him, and others that Samsung will replace its Tizen OS with Android Wear OS. Q2— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) March 6, 2021 The Galaxy Watch4 and Watch Active4 will add blood sugar level monitoring. Using the Raman spectroscopy...

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Oppo Find X3 series is already up for pre-order in China

Oppo Find X3 series is scheduled to launch on March 11, but the Pro variant is finding it hard to keep still and constantly pops up on various websites, revealing bits and pieces. The phone is now available for pre-order at the Chinese retailer JD.com and has been certified by the Bluetooth SIG, unsurprisingly revealing Android 11 out of the box. Meanwhile, the company has posted the phone’s first teaser, and it looks and sounds incredible, giving off Interstellar vibes. The listing on JD came with official renders of the Find X3 Pro in Black, confirming yet again Oppo has...

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Microsoft's $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax approved by SEC and the EU Commission

The EU Commission has approved Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of game publisher ZeniMax (which owns Bethesda and several other studios). In the US, the SEC also gave the deal a green light with a Notice of Effectiveness (S-4, which means a merger or acquisition has been approved). After the deal closes, Microsoft will allow ZeniMax to run semi-independently with its current leadership. One thing that will change is that games developed by ZeniMax-owned studios will be available to play through the Xbox Game Pass subscription. Also, Microsoft will nudge Bethesda to ensure its games...

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Xiaomi working on phone with 200W charging, coming in H2 2021

Xiaomi is reportedly working on a phone with support for 200W wired charging, as well as wireless charging, reverse wireless charging and a 5,000mAh battery. The report comes from well-known tipster Digital Chat Station (translated) on Weibo. The report claims the device is geared towards the second half of the year, but it sounds very much like the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, which is expected earlier. Last year, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra was the fastest-charging phone in 2020 with 120W wired charging. It only makes sense that its successor bring even faster charging. So far in 2021...

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OnePlus 9's IMX789 sensor detailed in early video, unique dual camera system teased

The first promo video for the Sony IMX789 is already out. In case you missed it, this is sensor has been custom designed for the OnePlus 9 phones and their Hasselblad cameras. It has dual native ISO, full-pixel omni-directonal autofocus, it can record 4K video at 120 fps and supports real time HDR video processing. The sensor will also feature Sony’s Digital Overlap HDR (DOL-HDR). Unlike staggered HDR, DOL is able to capture several exposures simultaneously, which helps remove ghosting caused by moving objects. The first thing that the video demonstrates is the freeform lens for the...

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Oppo F19 Pro+ announced with Dimensity 800U chipset and 50W charging

The latest additions to Oppo’s F-series are here with the F19 Pro and F19 Pro+ 5G. The two are virtually identical apart from their chipsets and battery charging speeds. Alongside them, we see the global debut of the Oppo Band Style fitness tracker. Oppo F19 Pro The F19 Pro duo comes with 6.43-inch AMOLED displays with FHD+ resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. They have punch hole cutouts for the 16MP selfie shooter. The panel is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 and features a fingerprint scanner tucked below the screen. Around the back, we have OmniVision's OV48B 48MP sensor...

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Samsung Galaxy A50 joins the Android 11 family

The Samsung Galaxy A50 might be a two-year-old smartphone, but the company has promised it will get Android 11 with One UI 3 on top and it has now delivered. The international SM-A505F units are the first receiving the software update. The package has a model number A505FDDU7CUBC and is relatively huge - over 1.8 GB. Samsung Galaxy A50 update Some of the new features that the software update has brought are the dedicated conversations section in the Notifications area, a better media player widget in the quick settings panel, chat bubbles, one-time permissions, and others. The...

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Watch the Oppo F19 Pro and F19 Pro+ 5G unveiling here

Oppo will unveil the F19 Pro series in India with a concert that starts at 19:00 local time and will feature Nucleya, Ravi Dubey, Kusha Kapila and Kings United. The tech stars of the show will be the Oppo F19 Pro and Oppo F19 Pro+ 5G (there’s no sign of the vanilla model yet). The event will be live streamed on YouTube (below), Facebook Live, Instagram and Twitter, so you can pick your platform. Once it’s all said and done, you’ll be able to find the two phones on Oppo’s official site as well as Flipkart. Teaser info reveals that the Oppo F19 Pro will support 30W VOOC Flash Charge...

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Kuo: Apple's VR/AR headset to launch as soon as next year, will be much cheaper than expected

Apple’s VR/AR headset may be closer than expected – a report from February claimed that the headset will launch in 2023 at the earliest, now analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that it will be out in mid-2022. And it will be much cheaper too than previously expected too. Apple’s entry into the market will happen in stages. Stage 1 is the headset. Current prototypes apparently weigh 200-300 grams, but Apple wants to drive that down to 100-200g. This will make it significantly lighter than current VR products. For example, the affordable Oculus Quest 2 is 503g, the higher end Vive Cosmos Elite is...

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Xiaomi Mi 10S appears in audio review

Earlier today we learned that Xiaomi’s Mi 10S will debut on March 10 and now the phone was teased in a DxOMark audio review. The yet to be released phone scored an impressive 80-point outing which gives it first place in the DxO database ahead of another unreleased device – the Asus ROG Phone 5. Xiaomi Mi 10S audio review scorecard The Mi 10S is powered by the Snapdragon 870 chipset and boasts dual speakers with 0.7mm speaker amplitude tuned by Harman Kardon. The impressive setup allowed the Mi 10S to score the highest audio playback and recording score in DxO’s database at 80...

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Huawei P50 series will be the first to come with HarmonyOS out of the box

A now deleted Weibo account let it slip that the Huawei P50 has completed the testing period of running HarmonyOS 2.0 Beta 2 and is moving on to Beta 3. The P50 will be the first phone to come with HarmonyOS pre-installed. It won’t be the first phone to run Huawei’s in-house OS, of course, several older flagships can opt into the beta versions as well. The interesting part is that the P50 series will skip Android entirely. The post about Huawei P50 and HarmonyOS (machine translated) • Icons for new Petal apps/features As for existing devices, a mass migration to HarmonyOS is...

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Global vivo X60 series with Snapdragon 870 to arrive on March 22

vivo is expected to bring its X60 series to the global scene with a Snapdragon 870 chipset, and one of the first markets that will see the lineup is Malaysia - a launch event has been scheduled for March 22. Going for the Qualcomm chipset is a surprising decision since vivo boasted a lot about the X60 phones being the first with the 5nm Exynos 1080 platform by Samsung. While the mention of the vivo X60 series suggests at least two phones, the vivo X60 and vivo X60 Pro with three cameras in a triangle formation, the landing page actually showcases only the vanilla phone with the...

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OnePlus 9 series launch confirmed for March 23, partnership with Hasselblad announced

The next generation of OnePlus devices will be unveiled on March 23. The confirmation comes from OnePlus and specifies the unveiling of its 9 series flagships will start at 10AM EDT / 2PM GMT / 7:30PM IST. The launch will mark the first OnePlus phones co-developed with iconic Swedish photography brand Hasselblad. The new partnership is set for three years with OnePlus committing $150 million in R&D to help take its camera game to the next level for the years to come. The joint venture has resulted in the development of the Hasselblad Camera for Mobile for the OnePlus 9 series. The...

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