Google Assistant will begin showing response bubbles as large bold text instead

Google Assistant first made its debut with the now defunct Google Allo, a messaging app that Google eventually phased out. The mention of Allo here is important because Google Assistant was positioned as a friendly virtual assistant that a user could casually chat with. Therefore, Google Assistant’s visual responses appear in text bubbles. This use of text bubbles is changing, depending on the context of the response given, this according to 9to5Google who reports that the chat bubble responses are being replaced with larger, bold print. The larger print doesn’t show when asking...

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LG Pay will shut down through 2021

As LG leaves the smartphone business, the company now announces the inevitable: it must shut down the payment service it launched for its own smartphones. The message is now visible on the LG Pay website. Thank you for being a valued customer of LG Pay! We regret to inform you that LG Pay will be phasing out and discontinued over the remainder of 2021. More specific details will follow. There’s no concrete date for LG Pay’s shutdown, but those using LG Pay can always switch to Google Pay on their LG handsets. The magnetic stripe feature that LG Phones supported on LG Pay would no longer...

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Samsung patents foldable with dual-hinges, dubbed ‘Z Fold Tab’ with S Pen support

Samsung is expected to make foldables outside of the Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold lineups. Thanks to renders provided by LetsGoDigital in collaboration with Sarang Sheth, we have an idea of what a new kind of Samsung foldable might look like. The patent was filed with both the WIPO and USTPO within a day of each other. The patents is titled “Method and device for providing user interface in electronic device having foldable display’. Dubbed the ‘Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Tab’, the foldable has dual hinges with three display sections. When completely folded, the gap left by the two outer...

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Verizon is giving you a free iPhone 12 mini or Samsung Galaxy S21 to use on its 5G network

Verizon desperately wants you to try its 5G network, so much so that it's offering you a free iPhone 12 mini or Samsung Galaxy S21 if you trade-in any device - old or new, broken, damaged, with a cracked screen, it doesn't matter. If you do that trade-in dance, then you're getting monthly bill credits when you purchase an iPhone 12 mini or Galaxy S21, bill credits that take down your monthly payment for the phone to zero, over 24 months - this effectively means that if you never want to pay anything for the handset, you need to stick with Verizon for the full two years. If you're a new...

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iPhone 13 family members rumored to get larger batteries than their predecessors

Apple's upcoming 2021 iPhones will allegedly feature bigger batteries than their 2020 predecessors. According to a new rumor out of China, the iPhone 13 mini will have a 2,406 mAh cell, the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro will sport a 3,095 mAh battery, while the iPhone 13 Pro Max will come with 4,352 mAh capacity. Comparatively, the iPhone 12 mini has a 2,227 mAh cell, the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro each don a 2,815 mAh battery, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max has 3,687 mAh capacity. iPhone 12 mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max In terms of the relative size gains, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is in the lead, with...

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vivo V21 (5G) review

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Meizu Watch unveiled with 1.78" AMOLED display, eSIM and fast battery charging

Years after the Meizu Mix the company finally released its first proper smartwatch – simply named the Meizu Watch. Unlike the Mix, which had a classic design with physical hands and no screen, this one is all screen (well, and a button on the side). The 1.78” AMOLED panel on the front is bigger than you’ll get on most watches. The size as well as the 368 x 448px resolution perfectly matches the dimensions of recent Apple Watches. The screen is sharp (326 ppi) and bright (500 nits) and it is guarded by 2.5D Goilla Glass. The Meizu Watch comes in two colors: black and...

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Samsung Display will supply Google and others with ultra thin glass (UTG)

Samsung Display has made the decision to sell Ultra Thin Glass (UTG) to other smartphone makers (meaning other than Samsung Electronics), reports ETNews. Until now it held UTG back to give its sibling company an edge as Galaxys were the only foldables to use this type of glass (which is superior to plastic). However, Samsung Display decided that the Galaxys have enough of an edge to stay on top, even if competing devices have UTG, and that it would rather expand its business (and that of partner Dowoo Insys) than maintain the exclusivity. Right now Samsung is the sole supplier of...

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vivo debuts its campaign for EURO 2020, asks you to put down your phone and enjoy the moment

Vivo is the official partner for EURO 2020 and it has a message for you – put down your phone and enjoy the moment. It’s a bit of an odd message from a company that sells phones, but the sentiment is good. “We strive not only to help people capture and share life’s magical moments, but to make every moment in life more magical,” said Spark Ni, Senior Vice President and CMO of vivo. The advertising campaign goes live today with the message “give your phone a break and be there for life’s beautiful moments”. It will air on TV in Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and China, as...

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 mass production has begun

After months of rumors and speculation, Samsung has allegedly begun mass production of its Galaxy Z Fold3. Leakster Roland Quandt delivered the news that the Korean tech giant is already procuring all key components for its latest foldable flagship. This development also means we are not too far from the official launch date which is rumored to take place next month. The new leak mentions that Samsung is taking a pre-cautionary take with the new Z Fold and will produce a limited number of units initially. Production for the Galaxy Z Flip3 has yet to begin though this does not rule out the...

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Poco M3 Pro will launch in India on June 8

Poco will launch its first 5G phone in India a week from now on June 8 – the Poco M3 Pro will be available through Flipkart. The brand has a couple of other 5G phones, of course, but they are yet to arrive on the subcontinent. There is no word on pricing yet, but the Poco M3 starts at INR 11,000. Speaking of the vanilla M3, it has already 5 million units according to Flipcart. That’s a surprising jump considering that the Poco boasted about 3.2 million units shipped (shipped, not sold) just a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, the Poco X3 Pro is currently discounted to INR 19,000...

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A new OnePlus Watch update adds more workout modes

OnePlus launched its smartwatch some time ago and it promised more than 110 workout modes but they weren't available at launch. With the latest update carrying a firmware version B.52, the remaining modes are added. Aside from the 110 workout modes, the watch gains access to marathon running mode and AI Outfit watchface feature. This one has been available on the Oppo Watch and what it does is scan your outfit and generate a matching watchface. The changelog gives a useful tip to tap on the watchface you chose to see if there's a hidden function to it. Source

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Xiaomi Mi TV 4A 40 Horizon Edition announced

The latest Android TV from Xiaomi is the Mi TV 4A 40 Horizon Edition. As the name suggests it brings a 40-inch panel with a 1920x1080-pixels resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. You also get slim bezels all around and a 20W stereo speakers setup with DTS-HD audio. The software front is covered by Android 9 with Xiaomi’s PatchWall interface on top. There’s a quad-core chipset at the helm paired 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. I/O consists of 3x HDMI ports, 2x USB, AV in, Antenna port, S/PDIF and a headphone jack. Xiaomi Mi TV 4A Horizon will retail for INR 23,999 ($330) with first sales...

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Huawei now accepts registrations for early access to the HarmonyOS update

Huawei will launch HarmonyOS 2.0 tomorrow, afterwards select devices will get the option to install the new platform, replacing the current EMUI-on-Android setup. This may happen sooner than expected – the My Huawei app now has a page where you can register for early access to the new OS. It looks like this option is available only in China, but that may expand to other regions tomorrow. You can check the Update screen of the app, there should be a button to become an early adopter. Clearly, Huawei wants to do a slow rollout at first to check if there are any show-stopping issues before...

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AMD announces RX 6000M series mobile graphics and FidelityFX Super Resolution

AMD announced a host of new products today at Computex 2021. The first of these is the Radeon RX 6000M series mobile graphics, the company's latest and most powerful series of graphics processors for notebooks. The RX 6000M series currently includes the flagship RX 6800M GPU with 40 compute units and 12GB of video memory, along with the RX 6700M with 36 CU and 10GB VRAM, and RX 6600M with 28 CU and 8GB VRAM. All three are capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing (DXR) and feature, 96, 80, and 32MB of Infinity Cache, respectively, on the GPU to reduce latency. AMD...

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Xiaomi sells 500,000 Redmi Note 10 units in first sale

Last week Xiaomi brought its Redmi Note 10 series to China, with an altered Redmi Note 10 Pro model and the Redmi Note 10 5G, which is the same as the global version. Today it held the duo's first sale and that was a huge success. The company sold the available 500,000 units in an hour. Quick napkin math says that more than 8,000 units were ordered each minute. Source (in Chinese)

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Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti GPUs announced

Nvidia kicked off the new month by unveiling its latest desktop GPUs - the RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti. As with past Ti iterations, the new cards represent an upgrade over the regular RTX 3080 and 3070 with more VRAM and improved performance to keep up with the latest Triple-A games. Both new graphics cards offer Nvidia staples like ray-tracing, DLSS, and Reflex technologies. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti key specs The RTX 3080 Ti clocks at up to 1.67GHz and brings 10,240 CUDA cores and 80 GPU clusters. RTX 3070 Ti has a boost clock speed of 1.77Ghz with 6,144 CUDA cores and...

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iQOO Z3 India launch set for June 8

The iQOO Z3 announced in China in March was supposed to arrive in India in early May, but plans were changed due to the second COVID-19 wave in the country. However, with the situation getting better, the phone maker today announced it will introduce the Z3 in India on June 8. The iQOO Z3 will come with the Snapdragon 768G 5G SoC at the helm, making it India's first smartphone to be powered by Qualcomm's 7nm chipset. And if the rest of the specs remain the same as the Chinese model (we say so because Indian iQOO 7 is a rebranded Neo5), you will get a 6.58" FullHD+ 120Hz LCD,...

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AMD brings its RDNA 2 graphics to Exynos with ray-tracing and more

While on stage at Computex 2021, talking about the new Radeon RX 6000M series of GPUs, AMD' CEO Dr. Lisa Su talked about bringing AMD's RDNA 2 graphics architecture to Samsung's Exynos chipsets later this year. Making its first appearance on a mobile SoC, AMD's RDNA 2 custom graphics will enable ray-tracing and variable rate shading on Exynos chipsets. Did you see that? "The next place you will find #RDNA2 will be the high-performance mobile phone market. We're happy to announce that we will bring custom graphics IP to Samsung’s next flagship mobile SOC, with ray-tracing and variable...

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