TEEN TEK

FAHAMU SIMU MPYA YA IPHONE 8, 8+ NA IPHONE X

2017-11-23T12:08:00.003+03:00

Mambo vipi ndugu wasomaji wa blog hii pendwa ya Teknolojia, leo tutakwenda kuangalia simu tatu mpya kabisa kutoka Apple, iPhone 8, 8+ na X, Kwa msio fahamu kwanini Apple wametoa simu tatu mwaka huu ni kwa sababu mwaka huu ni mwaka wa 10 wa Apple kwa utoaji wa simu aina ya iPhone tangu mwaka 2007. kwahiyo iphone X ni kama nyongeza ya simu kutokana na maadhimisho ya miaka hiyo 10.

iPhone 8 & iPhone 8+

iPhone X

Utofauti wa iPhone X na iPhone 8 ni muonekano kama wengi tunavyoona hapo katika picha hapo juu.
kwa hali ya kawaida iPhone X inavutia kuanzia muonekano mpaga design nzima haswa kwa upamde wa mbele kuna nafasi kidogo ambayo inashuka chini ambayo kazi yake ni kuweza kuhifadhi rangi tofauti ambazo kazi yake kubwa ni kuonyesha notifications mbalimbali za simu yako kuanzia chaji mpaka sms na missed calls na kadharika.
kwa upande wa nyuma kuna kioo ambacho kama nilivyo waambia hapo mwanzo ni kile kinacho support wireless charging kitu ambacho wamenifurahisha sana. Hii ulikuwepo tangu Google walovyoleta uwezo huo.l tangu mwaka 2015 ,

FAHAMU SIMU MPYA YA TECNO PHANTOM 8 UNUNUE AU USINUNUE?

2017-10-27T11:49:00.004+03:00

Mambo vipi ndugu wasomaji wa blog hii, Leo tutakwenda kuangalia kitu gani kipya tumeletewa kutoka Tecno katika simu hizi mbili (Tecno Ph8 na Tecno Ph8+), Kama wewe ni mfuatiliaji wa simu hizi unaweza kukumbuka mwaka jana tuliletewa Ph 6 na Ph 6+ ambazo zilifanya vizuri sokoni kutokana na sifa zake za kipekee, Sasa sijafaham kwanini wame skip namba "7" na kuweka moja kwa moja kwenye namba "8" pengine wanaona wako nyuma ki namba tofauti na washindani wenzao, kwamfano Galaxy S8, iPhone 8, Huawei P10 nk.

SN: fuatilia mpaka mwisho wa post hii kuna baadhi ya vitu ambavyo ni muhimu uvifahamu kuhusu simu hii

Tuiongelee Phantom 8 kwanza kama kuna Phantom 8Plus hiyo tutaiongelea siku nyingine.

Je, Kipi Kipya katika simu hizi?
Design

Kwa macho tu, unaweza kuona design imebadilika ukifananisha na ile ya mwaka jana, zile pembe zilizo chongoka hazipo tena,. Pia kama unavyo ziona hapo juu upande wa nyuma zimezingukwa na material ya aluminium ambayo inang'ara sana kama almasi (hahahaha), Pia zinakuja na Rangi tatu tu! "Galaxy Blue, Champagne Gold, na Black
Kingine nipenda jisi ilivyo kwani kama mnakumbuka Phantom 6 ilikua imekaa kwa watumiaji wa jisia ya kiume zaidi..msinielewe vibaya yeyote yule alikuwa ana uwezo wa kutumia lakini kutokana na asilimia kubwa ya watu ambao walikua wanaulizia nimekua nikipata jibu "hii imekaa kiume zaidi" kwahiyo ilifanya wadada wasiipende sana, lakini design ya mwaka huu imekaa katikati yeyote yule anaweza kutumia.. ukiangalia kona zake zimekaa vizuri wala hazija chongoka kama zile kwenye Phantom 6 na 6+ . Nadhani hii imetokanan na kupata review nzuri kutoka kwa Camon Cx ambayo ilikuaja kubadilisha muonekano mzima wa simu za Tecno, na ndio maana kuanzia Cx mpaka L9 mpaka k7 na K9 zote zina idea moja ya design kwahiyo Ph 8 na 8+ nadhani zote zimepita mulemule.

Camera
Simu hii inakuja na Megapixels 12 kwa kamera moja ya nyuma na Megapixel 13 kwa kamera nyingine ya nyuma na pia upande wa mbele(selfie) inakuja na megapixel 20.
Pia nimependa mwaka huu wamebadilisha jinsi kamera zimewekwa kwa upande wa nyuma tofauti na Ph 6 ambapo zilikua vertical design nzima imebadilika yan natumaini hata perfomance itakua nzuri
Katika upande wa kamera hamna tofauti sana na mwaka jana ambapo Tuliwekewa kamera mbili lakini mwaka huu matumizi ya kamera hizo mbili ni tofauti na ya mwaka jana ambapo katika simu hii kamera ya kwanza yenye Mp 12 (nyuma) ambayo inapiga picha kwa upana zaidi(super wide angle) na nyingine ambayo ina Mp 13(nyuma) inatumika kwa ajili ya ku zoom ambayo wanaita (10x Super Zoom).
Lakini kipya kingine ni uwezo wa kupiga picha na kuweza kutenganisha Object na background yake.

sifa hizo zote nita test nikiishika simu hii kama ni kweli au mbwembwe tu za kutaka kuuza simu hii, kwahiyo hakikisha unafuatilia blog hii ili uweze kujipatia uchambuzi wa kina wa simu hii hapo baadae.

Hapo juu ni mfano wa kamera ambayo ina zoom kwa uwezo mkubwa bila kupoteza Quality (Hii ipo kwenye simu ya Ph 8 ambayo inaitwa 10x super zoom ) inaweza isi zoom sana kama hii huu ni mfano tu.

Hapo juu ni mfano wa "Wide angle ambayo inasemekana kuwepo katika kamera hii ya Ph 8, ukiangalia picha ya kushoto inaonesha picha imepigwa bila wide angle na pich ya upande wa pili imepigwa ikiwa na wide angle ambayo inaonesha kiupana zaidi details nyingi zinakuwa zinaonekana

Hapo juu ni mfano wa picha iliyo pigwa ambapo mfano huu unaonesha jinsi gani kamera iliweza ku focus kwenye kijiko na kuweza ku blur background

Specs

Kitu ambacho pia ni muhimu kutazama katika simu yeyote ile ni Specs, sasa mwaka huu obviously lazima wa update specs, na tunaona tumewekewa specs kama ifuatavyo:

SN: fuatilia mpaka mwisho wa post hii kuna baadhi ya vitu ambavyo ni muhimu uvifahamu kuhusu simu hii

KIOO: INCH 5.7 "1920x1080px"
RAM: GB 6
OS: Android 7 Nougat
CPU: 2.6 GHz Octa-Core /MediaTek Chip
INTERNAL MEMORY: 64Gb
CHARGING PORT : Type-C Light Speed Charge
NETWORK ; 2G,3G,4G
BETRI : 3500mAh

JE, UNA HAJA YA KUNUNUA SIMU HII..? (WIN AND FAIL)

Kujibu swali la hapo juu inatagemea na mapenzi binafsi ambayo utakuwa nayo hasa kwa wakati wa kuiona kwa mara ya kwanza, kama bado utakuwa bado unawasiwasi basi fuatilia kipengele hiki natumani utapata jibu la swali lako.

FAIL

Design

Design wamefanya kazi nzuri sana na ubunifu wa hali ya juu lakini nadhani wana miss kitu kimoja ambacho tayari tumeshaona makampuni mengine ambayo Tecno wanajaribu ku compete nao wameshafanya, angalia picha hizi

Ukiangali hapo juu kuna baadhi ya simu za makampuni mbalimbali ambazo zimetoka mwaka 2017 Tecno ikiwemo. lakini tukisema simu gani ina sura mbaya nadhani unaweza kuungana na mimi kuwa ni Tecno, kama nilivyo sema design ya Phantom 8 ni nzuri lakini kwa upande wan nyuma , mbele ni kama wamechemsha hivi, design yake imekaa kizamani, inaweza isiwe kizuizi kwako lakini kwanngu ni hapana kutokana napenda sana muonekano wa simu.

Specs

Specs ni mpya kabisa za mwaka 2017 na zinaweza kudeal na kila games na apps ambazo ni powerfull, Ram ya Gb 6 sio mbaya lakini nadhani kulikua hakuna haja ya kuweka Gb 6 hii kwangu naona ni overkill sidhani kama smartphones sasa zinahitaji kukimbilia huko.. Gb 4 ni kubwa na inatosha sana na ni standard kwa sasa, nilitegemea Gb 6 miaka ya 2018 -2019 hivi ambapo simu zitakuwa na uwezo zaidi ya hapa, narudia sio kitu kibaya lakini haikua ina umuhimu wa kufika huko, pengine ni njia ya kupata soko hatujui ngoja tuone.

Kigine ni "OS" ambapo simu hii inakuja na version 7.0 (Nougat) , Pia hapa nadhani wameniangusha hii version ya android ilitoka tangu mwaka jana nilitegemea na uchelewaji wao wa kutoa simu hii tungeletewa android 8 (Oreo) ambayo ina miez kadhaa tangu iingie sokoni nisinge walaumu wangetoa simu hii baada ya mwezi mmoja au miwili android , narudia sio mbaya lakini mimi na watu ambao wana tabia kama yangu vitu hivi hua tuna viconsider ingawa sio deal breaker kwangu.

WIN
Sehemu nyingine zote ambazo sijaorodhesha kwenye kipengele cha "Fail " basi zitaingia humu, na kuna baadhi ya features nyingine kama vile "Usb type C" ambayo ni nzuri sana haswa kwa ajili ya kuchaji simu kwa uharaka sana, pia "finger print" ambayo ishakuwa ni jambo la kawaida lakini sio mbaya kuhorodhesha pia betri ambalo ni " 3500mAh " a siwez kusema chochote ila nategemea tunaweza kupata ukaaji mzuri wa chaji.
Huu ni muonekano na mawazo kutokana na wao simu walivyo i present kwao sisi wateja lakini tutaitaji ku test vitu vingi sana pale nikisha ishika simu hii mkononi na kusema haya yaliyo semwa ni ya kweli au la? kwahiyo usisahau kutembelea blog hii mara kwa mara ili uweze kupata mambo mazuri kama haya.

Karibuni sana kwa post nyingine

cheers....

FAHAMU SIMU AINA YA TECNO K7 NA K9 KIUNDANI

2017-09-29T22:28:00.000+03:00

Mambo vipi ndugu wasomaji wa blog hii pendwa ya Teknolojia, Tecno wamekuja na mpya tena..! ni simu waliyoamua kuipa jina la “Spark” . lakini pia tufahamu zimetoka mbili ambazo ni K7 na K9 (zikiitwa spark na Spark Plus)

DESIGN NA MUONEKANO

Hakuna kitu ambacho kinamvutia mteja kwa mara ya kwanza kama muonekano, unaweza usiipende simu kutokana na sifa zake lakini muonekano unaweza kuku vuta uanze kutumia (Koh..koh…iphone..koh..) na nawapa sifa kubwa

kuna kitu kinaitwa “Finish” kwenye upande wa muonekano ambacho maana yake ni aina iliyotumika kukamilisha muonekano wa mwisho katika body la simu.

Tecno Spark zote mbili zinakuja na metal finnish ambapo inamuwezesha mnunuaji awe na ile hali ya kuona anatumia simu yenye quality nzuri, na kweli kama unatumia simu yenye plastic alafu ukalinganisha na simu hii utaona kuna utofauti mkubwa sana ,

Lakini kitu kilicho nishangaza haswa kwa simu ya Spark (k7) ambayo imefanana sana na iPhone 7, ni kama unaweza kusema anae alie ajiriwa ku design simu za tecno alitokea kwenye kampuni ya Apple, sio kitu kibaya ku copy lakini sasa sio unacopy mpaka wanunuaji tunagundua.. na ni sawa iPhone kwa ku design wapo juu na wana staili kila sifa za kuigwa ila tecno ni kama wamezidi hivi,

Kama unavyoona hapo juu kilicho badilika haswa ni hiyo logo ya apple ambayo wame replace na fingerprint sensor kwenye spark (k7), sio mbaya kuiga kitu kizuri na muonekano ni mzuri, kitu kingine ambacho mimi na watumiaji wengi tu, tunaomba kije kitokee… (ingawa hakiwezi kutokea) ni kututolea logo ya Tecno kwa nyuma huko… ni kama haina mvuto hivi

SPECIFICATIONS

Katika simu zozote zinazotolewa na makampuni mbalimbali hua zina kuwa na lengo maalum, kwa mfano Cx, C9 na C8 Tecno wali focus kwenye kamera haswa ya selfie, Boom j7, Boom j8 wali focus kwenye Mziki, L8, L9 nk wali focus kwenye ukaaji mzuri wa chaji.

Ingawa bado katika pitapita zangu sijafanikiwa kufahamu lengo haswa la simu hizi ni nini lakini nahisi wanataka kutuambia jinsi gani wanaweza ku Design simu vizuri kwa bei ya chini.. kuna ambao nimewaona wanasema spark zimetolewa kwenye kipenele cha “Budget smartphones ” lakini mi sidhani kama ukisema hivyo italeta maana kwasababu siku zote simu za Tecno zina bei rahisi sana kuliko makampuni mengine.. kwahiyo hapo labda tuseme ipo kwenye kipengele cha “Good Design Budget smartphone” na ukifikilia unaweza kukubaliana na mimi, sawa wame copy lakini material yaliyo tumika ni ya gharama na yana hadhi fulani nzuri… specs za kawaida sio high end kusema zishindanishe na phantom 6, kamera ya kawaida, betri ni la kutosha lakini sio la kushangaza .

Specs zake ni kama ifuatavyo..

RAM GB 1 / SPARK PLUS GB 2

INTERNAL 16 GB (ZOTE MBILI)

OS: ANDROID™ 7.0

KIOO : INCH 5.5 / SPARK PLUS INCH 6.0 YENYE 2.5D CURVED GLASS

RESOLUTION: SPARK & SPARK PLUS (1280*720)

KAMERA : 13 MP NYUMA 5MP MBELE (ZOTE MBILI)

PROCESSOR: OCTA-CORE 1.3 GHZ / SPARK PLUS OCTA-CORE 1.5 GHZ

BETRI : 3000MAH / SPARK PLUS 3400MAH

Simu hizi hazina 4g/Lte kitu ambacho unatakiwa ufahamu..sijafahamu kwanini simu hizi zimekosa mtandano wa 4g, je ! ni kwasababu wanataka kufanya simu ikae na chaji ? lakini kama ndio hivyo tayari tuna simu kama L9 na L9 plus ambazo pia zina features nzuri tu na sifa yake kuu ni kukaa na chaji..

Upande wa kioo simu ya Spark plus (k9) kama unavyoona hapo juu nimeandika kioo chenye “2.5D curved glass” sasa nimeona kuna baadhi ya Tech bloggers wamesema ni njia ya kuipamba simu ili watu waweze kununua kitu ambacho sio ukweli, hii ni teknolojia ambayo ipo na inafaa watu waambiwe ili waweze kufahamu wanatumia simu yenye kioo cha namna gani, kiufupi maana curved glass ni kioo ambacho kinakaa juu ya body la simu na wala sio kwamba kina leta uliznzi wowote bali ni kwa muonekano kinakuwa kinavutia na pia ni gharama kutengeneza aina hiyo ya kioo katika simu, angalia mfano hapa chini

Hapo juu ni jinsi curved display inavyoundwa.

Ukitizama hapo juu utaona kioo cha Spark Plus kilivyo kaa juu ya mwili wa simu ni hizo pembe zimeingia kwa ndani (curved) ambapo hapo sasa ndio kinaleta mvuto fulani hivi na pia katika matumizi ya kilasiku kitakusaidi ku touch kwa u smooth wa hali ya juu mbali na hayo wala hakuna cha zaidi.

Resolution ni swala muhimu sana katika simu katika kusaidia ukaaji wa chaji lakini pia kwenye uoneshaji mzuri wa content katika simu yako, niwakumbushe kuwa simu za L8 na L9 ndizo zimekuwa zikifahamika kutunza chaji kuliko simu zozote za Tecno na ndio maana hata Specs zake zimewekwa ambazo hazihitaji nguvu nyingi ya betri ili mwisho wa siku iweze kudumu na chaji.

Sasa tukirudi kwa Spark zote Resolution zake ni 1280×720 (Hd) hii kwangu haijakaa sawa kwasababu ukiangalia mwaka 2017 teknolojia zinaboreshwa kila siku, saizi mpaka tuna simu zenye display zenye 4k (3840 × 2160 ) sio lazima tufike kote huko lakini kwa kipindi hiki nadhani FHD(1920×1080) ndiyo standard na ambayo ukaona picha kwa uclear zaidi ya 12080×720 , bila kunyonya chaji kwa kiasi kikubwa

Ram ni Gb 2 kwenye spark plus(k9) na Gb 1 kwenye Spark (K7) sasa tatizo lipo kwenye k7 sawa nafahamu itauzwa kwa bei ya chini kuliko Spark Plus lakini mawazo yangu ni kwamba kuna vitu vingine ambavyo unaweza kupunguza uwezo ila sio kwa ram kama vile flash ya mbele ambayo naona haina umuhimu sana kupita ram nk, Kwa mwaka 2017 sote tuna fahamu kuwa teknolojia ya simu imekuwa inaendelea kwa kasi sana kwahiyo hata uwezo wa simu unatikiwa uende na kasi hiyohiyo, kwa msio fahamu ram inatumika kwaajili ya multitasking (ku perform kazi zaidi ya moja kwa wakati mmoja) na kwasaizi naweza kusema Gb 2 ndio afadhali tunaweza kujikongoja nayo ila sio chini ya hapo. Ila sawa unaweza kutumia simu hii vizuri kama hauta install apps nyingi kwenye simu yako au kama sio mtumiaji wa simu wa hali ya juu kama mimi.

Kamera sijaitest kwahiyo sitasema inapiga picha kwa namna gani.. ila tufahamu tumepewa Mp 13 ambayo imesifiwa kuwa kuna teknolojia iitwayo ” Visidon brightening and noise reducing algorithm” simu hizi zimewekewa ambayo inasemekana inasaidia kuondoa noise kwa asilimia 75 huku ikiongeza mwanga kwenye picha yako kwa asilimia 50, na pia inauwezo wa kubalance rangi za picha ambazo utakuwa ukipiga. haswa kwa sehemu zenye mwanga hafifu.. niwafahamishe maana halisi ya “noise” katika picha kwa ufupi kwa kuanza na picha hapa chini…

kama unavyoona hapo juu picha ya kwanza inakuwa haionekani vizuri, hii husababishwa na hizo vichengachenga ambavyo ndio vinaitwa “nosies” na ya pili yake ina vichenga kwa kiasi kidogo na kuendelea. kwahiyo ukiwa na simu hii “According to Tecno” una uwezo wa kupiga picha ikatoka vizuri bila hivo vichenga kama picha namba tatu mpaka namba sita kwenye huo mfano wetu hapo juu,

Lakini mwisho wa siku lazima tutest ili tujue kama yanayosemwa ni ya kweli au la, nita test alaf nita update post hii kwahiyo usisahau kutembelea mara kwa mara website yetu.

Specs zilizobaki naona hazina tatizo kwangu kwahiyo hakuna haja ya kuziongelea kwa undani ila tu tuzingatie matumizi yetu ya simu pale tunapokuwa tunanunua simu hizi, usitegemee kununua simu ambayo inaweza ikawa bei nafuu alaf uwekewe mambo yanayopatikana kwenye Phantom 6 kitu ambacho hakitowezekana daima.

Betri pia linahitaji ku testiwa kwahiyo sita ongelea kwa sasa ila 3000mAh na 3400mAh tutegemee ukaaji mzuri kwasababu hakuna kitu cha kutisha cha kuweza kunyonya chaji kwa namna ya hali ya juu siku 1 mpaka moja na nusu kwa kukadiria ila ni vizuri tusubiri tuweze ku test

Fingerprint inapatiana pia kwenye simu hizi zote mbili, lakini kilicho kamata jicho langu ni sifa walizosema, ambapo wanadai kutokana na material yaliyotumika kuwa aina ya “metal” kwahiyo iko fasta kwenye ku sense kidole chako pale unapotaka kutoa loki.

BEI

Bei ya simu hizi itategemea na sehemu utakayo nunua ila bei inaweza kuwa kuanzia 200,000 Tshs mpaka 250,000Tshs kwa SPark (K7) na 300,000 tshs mpaka 380,000Tshs kwa Spark Plus (K9), itategemea na sehemu utakayo nunua maranyingi hakuna bei elekezi katika simu maana wafanya bishashara ni wengi

MAWAZO BINAFSI

Simu hizi ni nzuri kwa muonekano wa mara ya kwanza (first impressions) na bila shaka kama wewe hauna tatizo na muonekano wake kufanana na wa iPhones basi material yake na kila muundo ni simu nzuri ukiishika na kuitumia.

Pia simu hii kama wewe ni mpenzi wa kucheza game, na una matumizi makubwa sidhani kama itakufaa hata kidogo, ndio maana hapo juu nilisema inawezekana focus kubwa ya simu hii ni kwenye Design nzuri na bei nafuu ila kwenye perfomance wala usifikilie kutumia simu hii.

Kama una swali lolote unaweza ku-comment hapa chini nitajitahidi kadri ya uwezo wangu niweze kukujibu kwa wakati karibuni sana kwa posti nyingine.

cheers…

Lets Walk with With The Tesla Model 3

2017-07-31T13:36:00.000+03:00

While more than 500,000 people have put down a deposit for the privilege of owning Tesla's new Model 3, according to the company, 30 employees were the lucky few to receive their vehicles first.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the stage at a companywide event in Fremont, Calif., on Friday night to hand over the vehicles. Approximately a half-million people have put down $1,000 to eventually own an affordable long-range all-electric car.

The launch of Tesla’s mass-market Model 3 last Friday is a major milestone, perhaps an “iPhone moment’’, in the development of the motor vehicle industry.

While there remain significant reservations about whether or not Tesla can meet a production schedule that Elon Musk has described as “production hell’’ — Tesla’s history has been plagued by production problems — the Model 3 has captured the imagination of car buyers and generated enormous excitement about the future of electric cars.

More than 500,000 people paid a $US1000 deposit to reserve their spots in a delivery queue that for many of them will stretch into 2019. That’s more than $US500 million of deposits and potentially more than $US17.5 billion of revenue for Tesla just at the base model price of $US35,000.

Musk is planning a massive ramp up in production volumes, from a rate of 20,000 units a month in December to more than 40,000 a month in 2018. If he succeeds, he changes the auto industry. In some respects he already has.

Volvo recently announced that it would phase out vehicles powered only by internal combustion engines by 2019, shifting its production to electric or hybrid-powered vehicles. All the major manufacturers are investing heavily in battery-powered and hybrid models, partly because of the demand the Tesla experience demonstrates but also because European governments are beginning to mandate a transition away from petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles.

Last week the British Government announced it would ban new petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles by 2040, following hard on the heels of a similar announcement by France. Other European governments, like Norway (2025) have more ambitious aspirations. Many of the major cities in Europe are flagging bans on diesel-powered vehicles within a decade.

While many countries have subsidised the development of electric vehicle with registration and luxury car tax exemptions as well as direct rebates, the Model 3 will rapidly reach the point where it has to compete largely on its own merits, with the $US7500 rebate for electric vehicles phasing out once the company has sold its 200,000th vehicle.

As batteries become more efficient and the costs of producing them falls, electric vehicles will become increasingly competitive with conventionally-powered cars. A Model 3 has a battery life of 220 miles (about 350km) but a bigger battery version, which sells for $US44,000, has a range of 310 miles (about 500km).

The Tesla Model 3 sedan could bring hundreds of thousands of customers into Tesla’s fold, taking it from a niche luxury brand to the mainstream.

If the excitement around the Model 3, and the backdrop of government-decreed phasing out of petrol and diesel vehicles, are sustained it obviously isn’t great news for the conventional auto industry even though it is scrambling to position itself for an electric or at least hybrid future.

It’s also not great news for the oil industry, which has tended to be sceptical about the rate at which electric vehicles will displace those powered by fossil fuels. OPEC has said in the past that in 2040 — the year by which the UK and France say production and sales of new petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles will have ceased — 94 per cent of the world’s vehicles will still be powered by fossil fuels.

Last week oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell, however, said it was preparing itself for a future where oil has peaked and where prices remain lower forever.

Saudi Arabia is pressing ahead with the prospective listing of its giant Aramco oil production and refining group, with plans to list five power cent of the company (and raise about $US100 billion through the world’s largest initial public offering in the process) still progressing. The IPO would be the start of a longer term sell-down of the level of Saudi ownership of Aramco.

The recent elevation of the architect of the Aramco strategy, Mohammed bin Salman, to the role of Saudi Crown Prince, underscores the Saudis commitment to the 2030 vision he developed to reduce and ultimately end the country’s dependence on oil by using the proceeds from cashing out its Aramco interests to diversify its economy.

That could be seen as a sensible risk-mitigation strategy against the long-term threat to oil demand and pricing posed by the shift away from fossil fuels that the increased focus among governments and consumers on electric vehicles exemplifies.

The Tesla Model 3.

Even without that long term threat, the post-2014 havoc wrought in the oil market by OPEC’s ill-fated decision to engage in a market share war with the US shale sector — and the damage done to the budgets of the major oil producers, including the Saudis — has generated an industry-wide conviction that oil prices are likely to be permanently lower than they might otherwise have been.

That’s because the oil price crash has demonstrated that the US industry is far more resilient than anticipated, has responded to the lower prices by significantly lowering industry break-even points and improving its productivity and shown that it can quite quickly switch off, or on, production volumes. US shale oil represents a ceiling on future oil prices.

In the near term, thanks to the production cuts by OPEC and other major producers and the dramatic reductions in investment in new production by oil companies, the size of the oil glut finally appears to be reducing and the oil price stabilising around, or just above, $US50 a barrel.

In the longer term, none of the trends is oil’s friend. The excitement around the Model 3, launched by a company that has sold less than 200,000 cars in its entire near-decade-long history, if Musk and his engineers can deliver, could be one of those moment that will, with hindsight, be seen to have accelerated the rate at which the trends moved against it.

"The whole point of Tesla is to make an affordable electric vehicle," Musk told reporters earlier in the day. While Tesla gets much of the attention in the electric vehicle world, this week would be considered momentous even without Tesla.

Let's consider the week:

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation authority, the nation's second-largest transit system with the nation's largest bus fleet made an investment of $138 million in electric buses. It's the first step in the city's plan to make the bus fleet all-electric by 2030.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation extending the "cap-and-trade" program aimed at reducing use of fossil fuels. The state's "cap and trade" was first signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It has been a powerful tool for California's already-powerful air quality agency, the California Air Resources Board. Schwarzenegger joined Brown at the signing ceremony.

Great Britain followed France in announcing that it would ban the sale of new cars fueled by gasoline or diesel fuel by 2040. It's part of a plan to phase out petroleum-fueled cars and light trucks altogether by 2050.

Toyota Motor Corp is working on an electric car powered by a new type of battery, according to reports from Japanese paper Chunichi Shimbun. The battery is supposed to significantly increase driving range and cut charging times. The new battery technology is supposed to be in cars by 2022.

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden said the company was focusing on the idea of oil prices that were "lower forever." The company says it's shifting its focus from oil to natural gas and plans on taking a bigger role in renewable energy so as not to miss out on a potential electric vehicle boom. Van Beurden said he is switching to an electric vehicle himself.

That's the context in which Musk's long-awaited affordable car enters the market. Musk heaped praise on the Model 3 calling it "safer than a Volvo." Musk has said also in unequivocal terms that the company needs the Model 3 to succeed: "We finally have a great affordable electric cars, that's absolutely what's needed for us."

During a test-drive, the fully loaded version of a Model 3 had comparable handling and amenities of its more expensive siblings the Model X and Model S but, according to Musk, has "far fewer bells and whistles." It's likely a car that will satisfy Musk/Tesla enthusiasts. However, if you want those bells and whistles such as autonomy and extended range, the prices jumps much higher than the $35,000 tease rate up to nearly $60,000. Even with federal and the most generous state rebates, that is out of the range for the average driver.

The problem for Tesla, unlike other automakers, is not demand, but supply. "We've done everything we could to unsell the car," says Musk.

Tesla would have to dramatically increase the scale of its production to fulfill the half-million orders. In 2016, the company produced fewer than 100,000 of its two best-selling cars. The company predicts it will be able to produce 250,000 of the new Model 3, eventually scaling up to a half-million vehicles annually.

As Europe turns toward electric cars, California is doubling down and global leaders are preparing for the rise of such vehicles. Sales of electric vehicles have increased significantly in the past 18 months, but they remain a small fraction of overall sales. Analysts say gas-powered SUV and truck sales dominate the U.S. market at more than 60 percent.

A last bit of context: Just one day before Musk took the stage, Ford's Truck division turned 100 years old. Its F-150 remains the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for 40 years in a row. So while the nation's flirtation with electric vehicles is piqued, its love affair with trucks endures.

Will the production cars maintain this same sense of good carness? It’s hard to say if Tesla can deliver on its ambitious promises, but it certainly surprise delivered on making a good impression on me.

feel free to comment your thought down below..

cheers...

Throw Back To The - ALIENWARE X51 R3 "Almost Portable Gaming Rig"

2017-07-31T13:26:00.000+03:00

To be very clear this is one of my favorite rig of all time, i know there is some things about biulding a custom Pc yeah , but lets get to the point sometimes we have to look at the user experience than Performance (i do that sometimes) and i can tell this is it... lets see what we have on board..

Alienware cases are adorned with glowing alien eyes in sleek silver and gun metal, making them easy to spoke across a crowded LAN party. The brand has never been subtle, even after it was purchased by Dell.

The X51 R3 is no exception. Despite its small footprint, our review system packs in an overclocked i5-6600K, 8GB of RAM, and a 2GB Nvidia GTX 960, while still finding room for a 240GB SSD and a 2TB mechanical drive.

This setup will run you $1,545, right in the middle of the market for a small form factor gaming systems. The specifications reflect that, which raises an important question. Do gamers need the very best, or is a humbler rig, like the X51, up to the task?

AN ALIEN IN A TUXEDO

The R51’s matte black case is offset by a glossy front panel, which would look uncharacteristically professional if not for the alien head logo on the front, and the sweeping edges that outline the brightly colored lights on the side panel. Like other Alienware devices we’ve had hands-on time with, the attention to detail and aesthetic design carries over to the desktop’s build quality.

There are no major panel gaps where they shouldn’t be, and the side panels don’t bend or flex, though they pop off easily with the removal of a screw on the back. The included power brick is fairly massive, a compromise that’s required to keep the system’s size down.

It can sit upright or on its side, as hot air exhausts out the back. The GPU sits at the bottom and weighs down the X51’s case, but it the PC still feels it might tip over if knocked into. It doesn’t have a prominent flange at the bottom, or excellent weight distribution, to help keep it stable.

A FAIR SELECTION OF PORTS

On the front of the case, users will find a pair of USB 3.0 ports, 3.5mm audio in and out ports, and a power button positioned near the top of the case. Around back are two more USB 3.0 ports, as well as a set of four USB 3.1 ports. There’s also a single Ethernet port, three 3.5mm audio ports for a speaker set, and proprietary ports for the power and graphics amplifier. It’s hard to imagine what else users would need for wired connections, except maybe optical audio out.

Video outputs depend on the card included in the system. The GTX 960 in our review unit has three DisplayPorts, a single HDMI, and a lone DVI port on the second lane. There’s also an HDMI port for the motherboard near the top of the rear of the case, but it’s filled with a piece of plastic that requires pliers to remove.

A MESS UNDER THE HOOD

Components are crammed in underneath the clean exterior of the X51, in a way that leaves very few of them accessible without removing other crucial components. To make matters worse, the side panel is attached to the internals via a small wire, making the simple act of opening the case a tricky balancing act.

The liquid cooler’s radiator must be removed to replace most components.

The GPU is tucked into a cage at the bottom of the case. The cage and GPU pop out together by loosening a couple of screws and popping a quick-release tab. Doing so will reveal the mechanical drive hiding underneath.

You’ll need to remove the liquid cooling radiator, which is kind of an ordeal, to access any additional components. That will allow you replace to the M.2 drive, the RAM, and the processor, all of which are inconveniently located under the cooling solution.

OVERCLOCKED MID-RANGE PERFORMANCE

Our review unit is powered by a Core i5-6600K, the most powerful Core i5 in the Skylake family, paired up with 16GB of 2,133 MHz DDR4 RAM, and chilled by a liquid cooler. It’s a quad-core chip with a 3.5GHz base clock and 3.9GHz Turbo Boost. Although it lacks Hyper-Threading, it makes up for it with an unlocked multiplier, which Alienware has already rigged for one-button overclocking up to 4.3GHz.

The Intel chip falls right into line with our expectations. The 6600K falls just behind the i7-6700K in single-core performance, but drops further behind in the multi-core tests. That’s likely due to the lack of Hyper-Threading, which restricts the i5 chip to just four threads, to the i7’s eight.

We also test the processor with Handbrake, an application designed for video importing and conversion, which we use to test out the speed of transcoding a file from H.264 to H.265. A perfect storm of entry-level RAM, modest SSD write speeds, and lack of Hyper-Threading makes for a slow effort, which we didn’t expect.

A TALE OF TWO DRIVES

Our review unit includes two hard drives for storage. The first is a 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD, a Samsung PM951. These drives have quickly doubled and tripled the maximum speeds of eSATA, and the benefits are seen everywhere from load times in games to system boot time.

The PCIe-based SSD scores impressive read speeds, over twice the maximum rate possible under eSATA. But the write speeds are slow, slow enough that they fall behind most SSDs we’ve recently tested. Still, the drive’s overall performance is much faster than a mechanical drive. Its unlikely most users will notice a dip in performance.

The larger mechanical drive is predictably much slower, falling right in line with most 7,200RPM drives we test. Its presence is a welcome boon, especially for gamers who go on shopping sprees during Steam sales, but it won’t break any records for performance.

IT’S A GAMING WARRIOR, BUT FOR WHO?

Alienware includes an Nvidia GTX 960 with 2GB of memory in our review unit. The card is one that we’re familiar with from our testing, so we already have some idea of how it compares to higher-end systems. Before we get into actual gaming though, let’s start by testing in a clean room, so to speak, with 3DMark.

Things look a little rough here for the Alienware, but that’s only because we have high expectations for it. We don’t review a lot of mid-range systems like it, and both the iBuyPower and AVADirect systems pack in significantly more powerful hardware. While it loses to those systems, it takes a decent lead over gaming laptops and lower-end systems intended for 1080p gaming.

The situation starts to improve even more when we move into actual gaming benchmarks.

It doesn’t beat out the other gaming systems we’ve tested, again largely because of the configuration, but that doesn’t mean it loses. Averaging over 60 frames per second in Fallout 4with the settings at Ultra is not too shabby. The X51 struggles with Crysis 3, but that’s by far the most demanding game in our benchmark suite, and even the more expensive machines don’t break 60 FPS.

According to the Steam hardware survey, 35 percent of systems are running 1080p screens, and only four percent of users are running a higher resolution on a single monitor. The X51 still performs better than current-gen consoles, without needing to shoot for sky-high framerates.

Still, PC gamers are going to move quickly to 1440p displays as the prices continue to drop. How does the X51 fare in stormier weather?

Unfortunately, the X51 starts to slip a little when asked to power a higher resolution. It’s not a crippling loss, with the X51 claiming very playable framerates even in games that challenge it at 1080p, like Battlefield 4. Once again, the system is no match for Crysis 3, but only serious machines can hope to climb that mountain.

NOT TOO AMPED

Alienware offers its Graphics Amplifier as an option with some models of the X51, including ours. With room for a full-length, dual-slot graphics card, the Alienware Graphics Amplifier hopes to bring improved performance to systems that don’t have room for larger, more powerful cards.

That sounds much better in theory than it works in practice, and part of the reason for that is the X51 is already a well-equipped machine without an expensive addition like that. The GTX 960 is a very capable card at 1080p, which is still the predominant monitor resolution.

The X51 we received for review was already solid at 1080p, and it’s available with a GTX 970 if you want to run a VR headset or plan on the making the move to 1440p. Even the graphics amplifier with a GTX 980 Ti can’t push this rig to solid 4K performance, so we think buyers should avoid it and stick with the card in the desktop.

ENERGY CONSCIOUS, BUT QUIET ABOUT IT

The Alienware X51 shines when it comes to power draw. At idle it consumes just 44 watts, much lower than most other gaming PCs, largely thanks to the low draw of the GTX 960 and Core i5 processor. When the CPU kicks in, the wattage rises to a still paltry 76 watts. Add in the graphics card, and the whole system only draws 177 watts at load.

Smaller gaming machines run the risk of high noise and heat levels, but the X51 avoids those issues with a quiet liquid-cooling solution. It still makes some noise at load, mostly from the fans on the GPU spinning up. At idle it’s well below the noise floor in our test room (ten floors up, adjacent to a busy street in downtown Portland) and really only climbs to noticeable levels when the 960 is involved. Even then, it barely breaks 42dBa, a noise level easily covered by chatting with friends or in-game audio.

NO BUNDLEWARE

Unlike some of the systems lower down the budget scale in the Dell arsenal, the Alienware doesn’t stuff Windows 10 with bloatware and trial offers. Apart from the pre-installed Nvidia drivers, there’s only one program outside of what’s included with Windows 10, the Alienware Command Center.

The Command Center is a blessing, as it keeps the system from having individual apps for all of the esoteric system settings. That includes lighting controls, overclocking, thermal and power management, as well as profiles and settings for the graphics amplifier. It’s all in once place, and it always works great.

At $1,545, the X51 falls right in the middle of the small form factor market. Notably, it’s a little over $100 less than the same configuration in the Origin Chronos, about the same as the Digital Storm Eclipse, and a full $600 less than the Falcon Northwest Tiki. The iBuyPower Revolt 2 beats the X51 on price, sliding below the cost of the Alienware at just $1,274 for the same build. None of the competing systems, except the Eclipse, sport an M.2 SSD.

But the X51’s size, or lack thereof, is the elephant in the room. Small form factor PCs are a niche market, to say the least, and the X51 makes compromises that set it back from what we’re used to seeing at the price point. This system is sufficient if you game at 1080p — there’s no disputing that. But if you spend the same amount of money on a slightly larger rig, you can obtain even better performance.

Google Assistant vs Samsung Bixby vs Apple Siri (3 in One)

2017-07-31T13:10:00.000+03:00

Samsung and term “software” have not been synonymous for various reasons in the past. We had Samsung’s S voice which was a terrible and half-baked attempt to quickly counter another voice assistant, Siri by Apple. Samsung’s quest to compete with Apple has been a rather long and unending one. While Siri has gotten smarter over time, especially with iOS 10, she is not as smart when you compare it with Google’s recent AI creation, Assistant.

Yes, Google Assistant is right about the smartest assistant you can find that for now is available on a number of devices. Microsoft’s Cortana really does not count as it barely makes a dent in the smartphone space and is fighting its own uphill battle to make itself available on Android and iOS smartphones, since Microsoft really does not have any of its own. In short, out of sight is out of mind.

And in the quest to compete with Apple’s Siri (and in more ways than one Google Assistant) we now have Samsung’s very own AI-based digital voice assistant Bixby that comes built into the Galaxy S8 flagship. Bixby is smart, can get smarter, has the potential to attract developers and even help Samsung build its own smartphone software ecosystem. But at the announcement, Bixby was not as awesome as we expected it to be.

As per CNET, Bixby is purely home grown as it stands today and has yet to be plugged into Viv, the brains and brawn behind the operation. But while this yet has to happen, Samsung has a few tricks up its sleeves those that do give Bixby something worth talking about.

	Google Assistant	Siri	Bixby

Trigger	Voice trigger “OK Google” or long press on the Home button	Voice trigger “Hey Siri” or long press on Home button	Dedicated Bixby button and voice trigger
Separate section to display information and results	Yes	Yes	Yes
Displays contextual information	Yes	Yes	Yes
Works with	Voice, typed queries	Voice, Edited queries	Voice, typed queries and vision
Default Assistant	Google Assistant	Siri	Bixby
Natural language processing	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supported devices	Android devices and Google Home	All devices running iOS, macOS and tvOS	Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+
What does it connect to?	Google apps, third party apps for home automation or supported IoT enabled devices	Data stored in your iPhone, home automation or supported IoT devices	Data on phone, third party apps, IoT enabled appliances from Samsung
Understands…	Different accents	Has trouble	Not known
Third party app support	Yes	Yes	Yes

Unlike Google Assistant and Siri, Bixby comes with its own dedicated button. You don’t have to press down on your home button and wait for the assistant to launch. It can also be triggered by voice like the competition. And unlike the others, it adds vision to the mix, that works similar to Bing Vision or Google Goggles. See something you like? Tap on the vision button and find it on the web or in a store online.

Like Google Now on Tap it not just understands what’s on your screen but can get things done as well. At the announcement an executive demoed the unfinished Bixby by asking it to send his location to a friend. Bixby took a snapshot from the Google Maps app (which was open) and added it to a multimedia message prompting the executive to choose the right contact (as there too many by the same name).

Bixby when integrated into third-party apps will also be able to get every possible action in an Android app completed using just voice commands. Need to exit that annoying group on WhatsApp? Tell Bixby and it should be able to do it without the need for you to open the app.

Impressive? Yes. But we will have to wait until Samsung sorts out things with its long list of partners and third-party app developers, that will integrate their services with Bixby.

In a way, it is not the Bixby we all expected it to be on the day of the announcement. Bixby was supposed to be different in a way that it was expected to complete tasks, things that other assistants could start and help with but not complete. So far, it’s hard to tell as Bixby is indeed not ready for showtime just yet.

And this is a problem, because Google Assistant is already making its way to more Android flagships. Again why would developers use Bixby’s software development kit (SDK) when Assistant already has one and appeals to a broader audience through its Android smartphones (Samsung included)?

Indeed, Bixby will need to prove itself early before it can make itself worthy of a button. And from what we can see right now, that Bixby button on the S8 better be customisable when the device launches as Google Assistant in its current state already seems to do a stellar job

The Almighty Google home vs The Loyal Amazon Echo

2017-07-31T12:41:00.000+03:00

So you’ve decided you have room for a digital assistant in your house. That’s great: welcome to the future. But do you want to entrust your digital life to the Amazon Echo or the Google Home? Both speakers are excellent, but which company should get your hard-earned cash..?

Google Home vs Amazon Echo: Appearance

For two products that essentially do the same thing, Amazon and Google have come up with two remarkably different looking products.

Let’s start with the Amazon Echo. Tall and cylindrical, the speaker looks self consciously space age. It lights up brightly when spoken to, and it would be pretty hard to hide – though if you’ve just spent over £100 on a speaker, that might well be what you want.

The Google Home, on the other hand, does its best to blend into the family home, and it does a remarkably good job of it. I’ve been moving it around the house as I write this piece, and I’m surprised at how neatly it fits in to whatever room it currently resides on – be it a kitchen shelf next to the spice rack, or on the living room table. It too lights up when spoken to, but in a far less obvious way.

You can also get different skins for the Google Home, to make it blend in further with your decor, while the Amazon Alexa is either black or white. Of course, an Echo Dot is easier to hide away should you not want to draw attention to it.

I’m giving Google Home the nod here, because with the extra skins, you can make it as attention-seeking or camouflaged as you see fit.

Winner: Google Home

Google Home vs Amazon Echo: Sound quality

First off, I should say that the Echo’s sound quality is technically as good as you want it to be. That’s because the smaller Echo Dot can be connected to any speaker, either via cable or Bluetooth, and it comes for the low-low price of £49.99. But for the purposes of this section, let’s assume we’re talking the full sized Echo against the Google Home.

To my ears, the Amazon Echo wins this particular bout. Google Home is a little more bass heavy, and offers a slightly muggier, less clear sound overall. It’s also worth noting that while the Echo can be paired to a phone with Bluetooth to play any sound files you like, Google Home cannot be. While you can stream your Google Home to a Chromecast Audio for better sound quality, it's a bit of a faff.

Even though Google Home supports multi-room audio, which Amazon Echo does not, it's still a win for Team Bezos.

Winner: Amazon Echo

Google Home vs Amazon Echo: Voice recognition and smarts

One of the big advantages of these cloud based virtual assistants is that they’re learning all the time, and as such voice recognition just keeps improving. That said, for me, I’ve found Google Home much better at picking out words than Amazon Echo. Trying to get Alexa to play an REM playlist took about ten goes. Now to be fair, initials make for an odd word for assistants to recognise – nonetheless, Google Home recognised it much faster.

In terms of overall smarts, Google Home is a lot more clever. You can ask it all kinds of things, and it reads out an extract of a page from its search results with full citation. Echo does this occasionally, but it’s less effective. For example, when I asked Google Home “what was Derby County’s last score,” it told me they drew 1-1 with Rotherham United. Alexa, bizarrely, told me about Derby losing 3-1 to Leicester back in February. More often then not, it’s left stumped by questions.

But even when they both come up with the same answers, Google Home is generally more effective. If I ask Google Home how many hairs a cat has, I get the answer “On the website catsinfo.com they say there are approximately 60,000 hairs per square inch on the back of a cat, and approximately 100,000 per square inch on its underside.” The Echo, meanwhile says “A cat has 60,000 hairs.”

This intelligence battle has been confirmed by research from 360i, which put the two smart speakers to the test with a series of 3,000 questions. The results were clear: Google Home was six times more likely to answer the question effectively than Amazon Echo.

Now the way that these things work means that this could change in the long run as the Echo learns more, but for now it’s pretty clear this round is going to Google.

Winner: Google Home

Both smart speakers have a growing list of services that integrate neatly into the platform – and of course, some will remain exclusive to them. The Echo is particularly good if you are an Amazon Prime member, as you can order things and get a cheap Amazon Music Unlimited subscription as part of the overall package.

By that same token, if you’re a Googler, then Google Home offers some very useful extras. The best of these is Chromecast integration. You can boss around YouTube using only your voice, which is quite a neat party trick. If you’re on of those strange people that uses Google Play Music for all your musical needs (like me), then you’ll be right at home here too.

Neither Amazon nor Google seem to have great faith in their music platforms being a big draw though, as both include Spotify support, sensibly.

Other than that, the two are very evenly matched, with third parties wisely choosing to pitch their abilities to both speakers. For now, with the Google Home relatively new to market, the Amazon Echo has the edge – it could well be that its lead is short lived though, so watch this space.

Oh, and both speakers support IFTTT, meaning the ability to create your own commands is only really limited by your imagination.

Winner: Amazon Echo

Google Home vs Amazon Echo: Joke telling

This is obviously the most important benchmark. Both Google Home and Amazon Alexa will tell you a joke if you ask them to. It’s like having your very own personal court jester to entertain you at will.

But which is funnier? Here’s a best of three from both of them.

Alexa:

“What has eight wheels and flies?”
“A rubbish truck”

Google:

“I said to the gym instructor, ‘can you teach me to do the splits? He said ‘sure – how flexible are you?’ I said I can’t do Tuesdays.”

Alexa:

“Why did the American football coach shake the vending machine?”
“Because he needed a quarterback.”

Google:

“What do you call a microbiologist in an orchestra?”
“A cellist”

Alexa:

“Why is six afraid of seven?”
“Because seven ate/eight nine”

Google:

Did you hear the one about the chicken crossing the road?
It was poultry in motion

Okay, so neither are likely to kill the room in an open mic night, but I’m going to give this one to Google. Partly because I think the jokes are marginally better, but also because it has more flexibility in its structure, rather than the question and answer format.

Winner: Google Home

Google Home vs Amazon Echo: Price

Well, this is a tough one. Technically both Google Home and Amazon Echo is cheaper than the other. Allow me to explain:

For the full sized speakers, you have Amazon Echo at £149.99. Google Home, meanwhile, is a cheaper £129.99.

But if you already have a perfectly good dumb speaker – or even a decent bluetooth speaker – then you can just get the Echo Dot for £49.99 for the same functionality, and possibly better sound.

Winner: Draw

Google Home vs Amazon Echo: Verdict

So, on overall scores, it’s 3-2 – but given the winning goal was provided by the entirely subjective (not to mention superficial) joke telling round, you can probably guess this is an extremely close call, and my advice therefore hinges on a couple of things.

1) If you want the cheapest experience, the Echo Dot is the way to go

Assuming you have a speaker to connect it to (bluetooth or wired), it’s a no-brainer way of tasting the future.

2) If you’re tied into Google services – and especially if you use Chromecast – then Google Home is the superior product

Gun to my head, if I were buying one today, I’d pick Google Home – and I say that as a household that actually went out and bought an Echo and Echo Dot (the Home is sadly loaned for the purpose of this comparison). But the Amazon Echo is nonetheless a great device that is getting better all the time, and there really is very little between them as things stand.

3) If you care about sound quality above all else, it's best to wait

Neither offer amazing sound quality, even if I gave Amazon the nod earlier. It's probably worth hanging on to see what Apple's HomePod and the Harman Kardon Cortana speaker offer. Or connect an Echo Dot to your own brilliant setup, of course.

Google Home vs Amazon Echo: Upcoming rivals

Finally though, it's worth remembering that there is another: Apple recently announced its own virtual assistant speaker: Siri in a box – or the HomePod as it's actually known.

Our hands on review gives you all the details you need, but the top-line is that this is more dedicated to music and sound quality than Google Home or Amazon Echo. That may look great on paper, but if it does, prepare to pay a premium. with a US cost of $349 per HomePod, you're looking at a premium. That's around the price of two Amazon Echos, six Echo Dots and 2.5 Google Homes.

The of course, there are rivals from in Amazon's own family. Not only has Amazon made the Alexa software available to third parties, meaning that the next Alexa-enabled speaker on the market may not be sold by Amazon, but they have their own version with a screen: the Echo Show. It's US only for the moment, and I think having a screen misses the appeal of the device somewhat, but the option will soon be available is you like.

As if that wasn't enough, Harman Kardon will be throwing their hat into the ring soon with a speaker powered by Microsoft's Cortana. We don't know much about it yet – there's no firm price, and no release date, though we'd expect it to be with us before the year is out. Oh, and the rumour is that Samsung will be getting in on the act with a Bixby speaker soon too – but consider the company a dark horse in this race, given Bixby voice commands still aren't enabled on Samsung Galaxy S8 handsets by default.

One thing is clear though: Amazon is clearly on to something with the smart speaker/home assistant, and as long as Echos continue to sell well, rivals won't be hard to come by. Both the Echo and Google Home make good purchases for the moment, but it won't be long before the market has plenty more options to choose from.

Winner:

While Google Home’s design and movie-playback features best the Amazon Echo, ultimately, Amazon’s voice assistant handily wins this match-up by letting you control a larger number of smart-home devices and providing a lot more skills in multiple categories. And, if you find the Echo too pricey, you can get Amazon’s assistant in a variety of other devices. However, with support for multiple users and hands-free calling to any number, Google Home is gaining ground; So our winner here is Google Home!

The Best SmartPhone camera 2017 Yet..? (In depth)

2017-07-31T12:11:00.000+03:00

As the old adage goes, the best camera is the one that’s with you. Since most people carry a phone with them just about everywhere, it’s no wonder we’re taking more photos on phones than cameras these days. But which phone takes the best photos? Is it also the best for taking videos? These are questions that are very difficult to answer if you're just looking at specifications.

These are the phones that made list

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus

Google Pixel

Huawei P10 Plus

OnePlus 5

LG G6

HTC U11

Sony Xperia XZ Premium

Xiaomi Mi 6

Reviews

Apple iPhone 7 Plus: camera review

Front Camera: 7Mp - f/2.2

Rear Camera: 12Mp - f/1.8 + 12Mp - f/2.8

Video (max): 4K 30fps

Depth Effect: Yes

HDR: Yes

Slo-mo: 240fps, 720p; 120fps, 1080p

Image Stabilisation: OIS, rear

Time-Lapse: Yes

The 7 Plus is Apple’s first phone with two lenses at the rear. Behind these is a pair of 12Mp sensors which can capture what Apple calls ‘wide colour’. The screen can display these extra hues, too, but quite a subtle difference overall.

The main feature is the telephoto lens which effectively gives you a 2x optical zoom. You can tap the 1x icon to flip between 1x and 2x, or swipe your finger to zoom between the two. It’s so seamless that you’ll almost believe there really is a zoom lens.

It also allows the phone to detect distances, so it can produce the kinds of out-of-focus backgrounds you traditionally associate with DSLR cameras. This Portrait Mode works really well, but it does need plenty of light.

There are no other new features, so the app offers the same modes as other iPhones: panorama, slo-mo, time-lapse, square and video. Annoyingly, the resolution settings for video aren’t in the camera app at all: you have to open the phone’s Settings app and scroll down to Photos & Camera for what should be a simple toggle controls in the app itself.

Fortunately, quality makes up for these shortcomings. Photos taken on the main camera are excellent in every respect: focus, sharpness, colour accuracy and contrast. By default it will enable HDR to improve dynamic range when the scene has both bright and dark elements, and it works quickly.

In fact, performance is one of the iPhone’s strongest suits. The time taken to focus is usually imperceptible, and you won’t even notice the processing time after shooting a panorama (which can be up to 63Mp).

Although there’s no funky shortcut to launch the camera, the combination of the phone’s raise-to-wake feature and the ability to swipe left on the lock screen to launch the app means it’s possible to take a photo just a couple of seconds after deciding you want to.

Videos are just as great as photos: 4K footage is sharp and detailed. But just as importantly, it’s also impressively stabilised and has good-quality audio.

There are a couple of weak points. One is that the selfie camera has quite a narrow field of view so it’s not ideal for ‘grouphies’. Second is that – on occasion – photos taken with the telephoto camera appear like oil paintings when you view the actual pixels. Whether this is due to noise reduction or something else we don’t know, but it made us reluctant to use this camera much.

In low light, the main camera is used even if you select 2x (the images is simply cropped to give the same zoom level). And even though it’s the best iPhone for low light photography, it’s not as good as some of its rivals, notably the Galaxy S8. Photos taken in the dark are noisier and simply don’t look as nice.

Where the iPhone really scores, however, is in its ability to capture a great photo or video reliably every time (using the main camera). It might not be the last word in detail or the best in low light, but for everyday use it’s the one you can count on.

Google Pixel: camera review

Front Camera: 8Mp - f/2.4

Rear Camera: 12.3Mp - f/2.0

Video (max): 4K 30fps

Depth Effect: Yes

HDR: Yes

Slo-mo: 240fps, 720p; 120fps, 1080p

Image Stabilisation: EIS, rear

Time-Lapse: No

It’s no secret that the Pixel has a brilliant camera. The phone (and the XL version which has identical cameras) is coming up to its first birthday, but it still ranks among the best for taking photos.

Like a fair few other flagships, it sticks with a 12Mp sensor. This allows for larger pixels, which means more light falls on each one. That’s always a good thing, and you can see the whole combination of lens, sensor and image processor work really well.

Photos have a biting sharpness that some might feel is too much, but plenty of people love it, including us.

Ultimately, the camera isn’t any different to the Nexus 6P’s, but that’s no bad thing: that was also a stunner. What’s changed is the main CPU: the more powerful Snapdragon 821 allows HDR+ to be used all the time.

It combines several RAW images to produce a JPG with high dynamic range, yet without any trace of blurring or ghosting caused by movement in the scene. Better still, you can take several HDR+ photos without any slowdown so, unlike the older Nexus phones where poor performance meant you wouldn’t want to use HDR+, on the Pixel, you can.

And what it means is that the Pixel is a dependable point-and-shoot camera where the user doesn’t have to think about settings – just pressing the shutter button.

Also, despite lacking optical stabilisation, videos are nice and smooth – even when you jack up the resolution to 4K. That’s because Google opted to use gyro-based stabilisation which uses data from the phone’s gyroscope to correct the footage using software.

It can also produce a shallow-focus effect despite having only one rear camera. After taking a shot in ‘Lens Blur’ mode you’re asked to raise the phone slightly – this gives the necessary parallax information, and also means there’s no need to be a metre or more from your subject: you can photograph small objects as well as people.

The Pixel also excels in low light, producing images with surprising levels of detail and hardly any noise or grain.

Even the front camera delivers the goods. Unlike a lot of phones which serve up a doctored, soft-focus, skin-enhancing image by default, the Pixel’s 8Mp front camera produces crisp photos with lots of detail. Some people might prefer it didn’t, which is why other manufacturers such as Samsung and LG default to blemish-reducing Beauty modes.

Of course, the phone itself does have a few drawbacks such as the fact it isn’t waterproof, but as we’re comparing only the cameras here, the Pixel can still mix with the best of them.

HTC U11: camera review

Front Camera: 16Mp - f/2.0

Rear Camera: 12Mp - f/1.7

Video (max): 4K 30fps

Depth Effect: No

HDR: Yes

Slo-mo: 120fps, 1080p

Image Stabilisation: OIS, rear

Time-Lapse: Yes

You might think that all flagship phones have similar-quality cameras, but you’d be wrong. The HTC U11’s photos really do stand out from the crowd, and its ability in low-light is nothing short of remarkable.

It may not have a dual-camera arrangement, but if you care mostly about taking ‘normal’ photos then you’re going to love the U11.

It has a 12Mp sensor and an f/1.7 lens – branded the UltraPixel 3. Like the Galaxy S8 it uses ‘dual-pixel’ focusing which means focusing is super-fast, and accurate to boot. Photos aren’t packed with quite as much detail as the XZ Premium’s (to be expected given the deficit in pixels) but when viewed at the same size on a large TV or PC screen, they look darn good.

When light is noticeable by its absence, the U11’s bigger-than-average pixels come into play, picking up those crumbs of light to deliver photos that look as if they were taken in a much brighter environment. And thanks to optical stabilisation, it does this without needing to use heavy-handed noise reduction that typically results in making everything look smudgy.

Since there’s just the one camera, you don’t get the blurry background effect found on many phones with dual cameras, though.

Video defaults to 1080p, but you can select 4K if you want the extra resolution. It’s good quality and you get so-called ‘3D sound’ if you enable this in the options. It’s basically surround-sound.

The problem is that the phone can’t stabilise 4K video nearly as effectively as it can 1080p, so footage is – unfortunately – quite jerky if you’re not standing still.

Usability, though, is excellent. One of the unique features is the U11’s ‘squeezable’ sides. You can use this to launch the camera app when the phone is in sleep mode, far faster than other phones which make you turn on the screen and swipe the camera icon on the lock screen.

The camera app is easy to use, too, with both photo and video shortcuts on the main screen. For those who like to fiddle with settings, there are quite a few on offer, including the ability to shoot in RAW.

HTC has really returned to form with the U11, and the camera doesn’t disappoint. It may not have a second lens or a depth effect, but as long as you’re not worried by these it’s a great choice.

Huawei P10 Plus: camera review

Front Camera: 8Mp - f/1.9

Rear Camera: 12Mp - f/1.8 + 20Mp - f/1.8

Video (max): 4K 30fps

Depth Effect: Yes

HDR: Yes

Slo-mo: 120fps, 720p; 120fps, 1080p

Image Stabilisation: OIS, rear

Time-Lapse: Yes

Huawei’s partnership with Leica is bound to attract those that know the brand. None of the hardware is actually manufactured by Leica: the setup comes from Summilux.

One of the two rear cameras has a 12Mp sensor and the other a 20Mp monochrome sensor. As with previous Huawei P-series phones, the latter can be used to take black-and-white photos, but it’s also used in conjunction with the colour sensor to produce photos with better clarity.

And it works: the P10 Plus (like its predecessors) is capable of some genuinely superb photos. Add in the depth effect which is possible using two cameras and you can shoot in ‘wide aperture’ mode to get a DSLR-like image with shallow depth of field.

There’s also a dedicated portrait mode so you can isolate your subject in sharp focus while the background bokeh looks gorgeous in its own blurry way.

The P10 Plus has caught up with the ability to shoot 4K video (the P9 topped out at 1080p) but as with several other 2017 flagships, it doesn’t offer stabilisation when recording at this resolution. The toggle control only appears when you step down to 1080p (which can be set to 30- or 60fps).

Another problem is that you’ll struggle to get 4K videos to play in Windows. Despite being a standard-looking MP4 file, neither VLC nor Windows 10’s Photos app would play the file – and we couldn’t upload it to YouTube.

Another black mark is low light performance. The P10 Plus struggles with the darkness and as our sample shot shows, detail levels take a massive hit – text turns into a blurry mess. This is despite the f/1.8 apertures on both rear lenses.

The app is quite icon heavy, with lots of toggles at the top, plus different settings screens depending on whether you swipe in from the right or the left. From the left and you get a page of 12 modes including the ever-brilliant Light Painting that allows you to capture light trails at night.

Slo-mo is here too: you have a choice of 720p or 1080p, but since both are recorded at 120fps, we can’t really see the point of the 720p option. Unlike some rivals, there’s no way to record 240fps.

Also, one of the modes is HDR. Hiding it away like this may lead to snappier performance in normal shooting, but it means you’ll have to enable it manually when other phones do it automatically when needed.

As far as selfies go, the front 8Mp camera takes great pictures. They’re sharp and detailed – but you can adjust the amount of ‘beautification’ if you’d rather those ‘details’ weren’t quite so visible. There’s also a portrait toggle which blurs the background a bit.

The P10 Plus excels in good light and there are some fun modes to play with. However, it can’t match the best phone cameras when it comes to video and low light shooting.

LG G6: camera review

Front Camera: 5Mp - f/2.2

Rear Camera: 13Mp - f/1.8 + 13Mp - f/2.4 (wide-angle)

Video (max): 4K 30fps

Depth Effect: No

HDR: Yes

Slo-mo: 120fps, 1080p

Image Stabilisation: OIS, rear

Time-Lapse: Yes, Hyperlapse

It’s no longer modular, but the G6 retains a similar dual-camera arrangement to the G5. One lens takes photos with a normal field of view (71 degrees to be exact) but the other is akin to a GoPro with a wide-angle 125-degree lens.

Both have 13Mp sensors (unlike before where the wide-angle camera had a much lower resolution) and the app lets you flip almost seamlessly between the two cameras. Best of all, you can shoot 4K video using either camera.

The G6 is water-resistant too, so it’ll record the action by the pool or in the rain. The only downside – if you’re hoping to use it as an action camera - is that it’s not rugged or easy to mount on your head as a GoPro.

Also, there’s nothing in-between the two views: you can’t ‘zoom’ between them as you can on the iPhone 7 Plus and Xiaomi Mi 6.

In bright light, the G6 takes great photos, and the phase detection autofocus works quickly and accurately. They’re sharp and have good colour rendition. Although there’s no depth effect, you’ll still see slight blurring of the background when taking portraits of people.

When using the wide lens, there’s a bit of distortion as expected, but the biggest disappointment is the lack of detail in shots. This isn’t simply because of wider view: textures are smoothed over and images aren’t a patch on those taken with the normal camera.

Usefully, the front camera has a 100-degree field of view and – using similar controls in the app – you can switch between this (which is great for fitting in friends) and a narrower view that’s a better choice if you’re taking a selfie with just you in it. The downside is that the 5Mp resolution is low for a flagship.

In dim lighting, the main camera does a fantastic job of retaining detail. This comes at the expense of a little noise, but overall, we were seriously impressed with the G6’s low light performance. For example, you can clearly make out the word ‘PROTECTION’ on the sunglasses in our example photo. The G6 was the only phone in this test to resolve this level of detail.

Video quality is good on the whole, but ramp up to 4K and you lose stabilisation, as our sample video shows. Audio quality, however, is very good. There’s no stabilisation for the wide-angle lens either, so footage can be quite jerky if you’re moving quickly.

Thanks to the 18:9 screen there’s lots of room for controls in the camera app. One fun feature is Food Mode. This allows you to change the white balance using a slider to ensure the colours are just right.

To sum up, the G6’s cameras are good, but it’s far from a perfect package. It could be tempting if you want your phone to (sort of) double up as an action camera. Just bear in mind that image quality for wide-angle photos and videos isn’t up to the level of the main camera.

OnePlus 5: camera review

Front Camera: 16Mp - f/2.0

Rear Camera: 16Mp - f/1.7 + 20Mp - f/2.6 (1.6x tele)

Video (max): 4K 30fps

Depth Effect: Yes

HDR: Yes

Slo-mo: 120fps, 720p

Image Stabilisation: No

Time-Lapse: Yes

Like the iPhone 7 Plus and Xiaomi Mi 6, the OnePlus 5 has a pair of rear cameras made by Sony with the secondary one performing telephoto duties. The main shooter has a 16Mp sensor and an f/1.7 lens, while the other has a 20Mp sensor and an f/2.6 lens.

Tap the button in the app and it works just as the iPhone’s does: toggle between 1x and 2x. However, the actual focal length of the telephoto lens works out as 1.6x, so some software trickery somehow enables the OnePlus 5 to offer ‘lossless’ 2x zoom.

Regardless, the results speak for themselves, and the zoomed photos are just as good as the iPhone’s. In fact, aside from being a little grainy, the photos are more detailed thanks to the extra resolution: the iPhone’s zoom efforts aren’t exactly first class.

In low light, that f/1.7 lens comes into play and, despite the lack of any kind of stabilisation, photos can be surprisingly sharp and detailed. You’ll need steady hands and a non-moving subject, though.

Absent stabilisation makes video very shaky, and this is the biggest weakness with the OnePlus 5. Really, you’ll need to remain still when taking video and let the action happen in front of you. Audio quality is decent enough, though.

The two cameras allow the phone to ‘see’ how far objects are and blur the background. Our portrait shot shows the effect works pretty well, although the algorithm isn’t quite as effective at masking around hair as its rivals: look closely and you’ll see where it fails.

At the front you get a 16Mp sensor: one of the highest resolutions we’ve seen for a selfie camera. And as you might imagine, it’s capable of taking great photos with lots of detail. The only annoyance is that it joins the ranks of several other phones here which mirror the image.

We really like the simple interface of the camera app. You swipe between video, photo and portrait modes. There’s auto HDR and, if you want to tweak settings, the manual mode allows you to independently set the ISO and shutter speed, plus tap to set an exposure point which you can then drag to set a different focus point.

The mode also allows you to enable RAW mode and gives you a virtual horizon to avoid wonky photos. Plus, an on-screen histogram helps you know if the exposure is correct.

Considering the price which, although not as cheap as the Xiaomi, is cheaper than other flagships, the OnePlus 5 is capable of great photos in a variety of conditions. The zoom lens is a real bonus, especially as it isn’t lumbered with a low-resolution sensor. Unstabilised video is the drawback here, but if you don’t mind that, it’s a good all-rounder.

Read our full OnePlus 5 review

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: camera review

Front Camera: 8Mp - f/2.7

Rear Camera: 12Mp - f/1.7

Video (max): 4K 30fps

Depth Effect: Yes

HDR: Yes

Slo-mo: 240fps, 720p; 120fps, 1080p

Image Stabilisation: OIS, rear

Time-Lapse: Yes, Hyperlapse

In previous years, Samsung’s flagships have been the benchmarks for camera quality, so we expected it to be the same with the S8. We used the Plus version for this test, but the cameras are identical to the S8’s.

Round the back is a 12Mp single camera with an f/1.7 lens. At the front you’ll find an 8Mp sensor with a wider-than-usual f/1.7 lens. No gimmicks or fancy stuff: just two good-quality cameras for taking photos and videos.

The camera app has had something of a facelift since the Galaxy S7. There are loads of features, but they’re mainly hidden away: the shooting screen has just a few key controls, presenting a button for taking photos, a record button for videos and a shortcut (as seen on most Android phones) to view what you’re recently taken.

You can drag the shutter button up or down to digitally zoom, or swipe up to flip between the front and rear cameras. It’s a relatively intuitive system, and certainly one of the better stock camera apps.

Image quality is basically the same as the Galaxy S7. At least, we found it tricky to see improvements on what was already one of the best phone cameras around.

Outdoors with good light, photos are nice and sharp and have accurate, natural-looking colours. There’s lots of detail: you can make out roof tiles and bricks in our photo of the British Library where some other phones can’t resolve (or retain after processing) these textures.

One reason for this is HDR is the default mode. The S8’s multi-frame processing and optical + electronic stabilisation ensures that camera shake and limited light don’t ruin your photos.

So it follows that low light performance is very good, too. It’s not the clear leader any more, but you’ll be surprised at how much detail photos have when there’s limited light around.

As with all nine phones we tested, the S8 (and S8 Plus) can record 4K video. Our footage, which we reshot after double-checking the settings just to make sure, shows some issues with the hybrid stabilisation system. Not only is there a little jerkiness, but the warping movement seems to be a problem with the EIS, perhaps overcorrecting for movement. The problem may be limited to our test phone, however, as it’s not a common issue.

Audio quality is good, but not the best and not as directional as some, including the iPhone.

Selfies are excellent. The front camera is often markedly worse in quality compared to the rear, but you won’t shy away from using it on the S8. The beauty mode defaults to a low level and we think it’s the ideal balance between no processing and too much skin smoothing.

The S8 is right up there with the best phone cameras, but it isn’t head and shoulders above the competition.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium: camera review

Front Camera: 13Mp - f/2.0

Rear Camera: 19Mp - f/2.0

Video (max): 4K 30fps

Depth Effect: No

HDR: Yes

Slo-mo: 960fps, 720p

Image Stabilisation: EIS, rear

Time-Lapse: Optional £1.19 add-on

Sony is one of the biggest names in photography, so its own flagship phone should have great cameras, right? In general, that’s a resounding yes, but there are a couple of caveats.

First and foremost, the XZ Premium offers a great camera experience. It’s the only phone out of the nine on test here that has a dedicated shutter button and as with a ‘real’ camera, this has two stages: half-press for focus, fully press to take a photo.

The other trick is that you can press it when the phone is asleep to quickly start up the camera app. It’s a pretty decent app, too, once you get used to its quirks.

One of those is that (as with previous Sony phones) 4K is its own special mode along with AR and creative effects. So you won’t find it in the normal video mode or in the video resolution settings, and that’s a strange decision.

Fortunately, the Superior Auto mode is the default, and it does a great job in most circumstances (though it doesn’t have auto HDR, which is a control in the manual mode). It’ll detect the scene, such as macro, landscape, people and use the best settings.

It’ll also use a predictive shooting mode when you hold the camera still to take photos before you press the button and present four of the best – you either keep one or all of them.

It also does something no other phone can: record slo-mo video at 980 frames per second. At this speed, you can capture the sort of footage usually seen in nature documentaries, such as a bird’s wings flapping slowly or a spider scurrying across the floor.

It’s only done at 1280x720, but this is enough resolution to make clips look impressive. You need lots of light and to press the button at exactly the right moment since it can record for only a second or two at this speed. And as it crops the sensor, the narrow field of view means you’ll have to stand way back from the action.

Photo quality is up there with the best phones. The 19Mp sensor and f/2.0 lens do a great job of resolving detail, and the default processing offers up great colours and sharpness without being overcooked. They’re slightly oversaturated, but this makes them ideal for sharing on social media without any editing or filters.

Video quality, too, is very good with decent sound and good stabilisation at 1080p. It’s much less evident at 4K, but that’s the trade-off for more detail.

The 13Mp selfie camera has a 22mm-equivalent lens which gives you a wide field of view that makes most other phones feel too limiting. It defaults to the beauty mode which smooths over details, but is capable of decent quality.

Low light is where the XZ struggles. It has to use very high ISO compared to other phones and photos suffer from noise. Noise reduction then serves to smear away detail, leaving this as the phone’s real weak area.

The other disappointment is the manual mode. You can’t set ISO and shutter speed simultaneously. One has to be set to auto. Also, the maximum shutter speed is only 1 second at ISO 500. If you need a higher ISO, shutter speed will decrease.

Overall, though, the XZ Premium is a joy to shoot on, helped by its shutter button, and large, bright, high-res screen. And there’s a lot of fun to be had with the super slo-mo mode.

Xiaomi Mi 6: camera review

Front Camera: 8Mp - aperture not stated

Rear Camera: 12Mp - f/1.8 + 12Mp - f/2.6 (2x zoom)

Video (max): 4K 30fps

Depth Effect: Yes

HDR: Yes

Slo-mo: 120fps, 720p

Image Stabilisation: OIS, rear

Time-Lapse: Yes

At roughly half the price of most flagship phones, the Xiaomi Mi 6 is a seriously tempting device if you want an iPhone 7 Plus but can’t afford – or justify – the extra cost.

It’s hard not to see the Mi 6 as a complete copy of the 7 Plus: it has dual-12Mp rear cameras, one of which is a 2x telephoto lens. It also calls its depth effect ‘Portrait Mode’ and it works exactly like the iPhone’s.

The cameras are flush with the back of the phone, unlike the iPhone’s, and things are slightly different at the front. Here the Mi 6 has an 8Mp selfie camera with a beauty mode, which the iPhone doesn’t have. It’ll estimate the age of the face it detects, a fun feature you’ll likely turn off if it doesn’t flatter.

It doesn’t replicate the iPhone’s camera app and has some extra modes including a fun and configurable tilt-shift mode for making things look like miniature models.

The main rear camera does a grand job of producing sharp, well-exposed images that – in good light – are very detailed. Unfortunately, HDR is a manually operated control so you’ll have to use your judgement as to whether it’s needed or not. But it works really well to improve dynamic range when you do need it. Our only complaint is that the app crashed a few times using this mode.

Similarly, the depth effect is very effective in selecting the subject (or even several people) and blurring the background to create satisfying bokeh. Very occasionally it will get it wrong and completely fail, but on the whole, it works well and delivers top-notch results.

When you need the zoom lens, it does a good job in bright light. The smaller aperture means it’s not great in dimmer conditions. Photos aren’t processed and sharpened as much as the iPhone’s, so the overall result is slightly softer looking images, but with faithful colours.

We were surprised at the phone’s low light capabilities, almost matching the HTC U11. It manages to retain detail yet also do a good job of keeping noise at bay

The Mi 6 stumbles when it comes to video. Its 4K footage isn’t as crisp and detailed as the iPhone’s, nor does it have good stabilisation. It appears that the OIS is used only for low-light photos since the video has the jerky appearance of not-very-effective electronic stabilisation. Plus, the microphones record tinny, thin sound.

Ultimately, it’s astounding that the Mi 6 can compete at all with flagship phones, but it does. It’s capable of excellent photos and has the benefit of the 2x telephoto lens plus the depth effect. Don’t expect great video, though.

So which is the best phone camera of 2017?

We get it. You want the name of the phone with the best camera. Trouble is, not only do phones seem to have an extra camera this year but they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

Also, the best will depend on whether your priority is taking selfies, portraits or videos... as i always say there is "your best" smartphone camera.

However, there are four clear winners here:

Google Pixel

HTC U11

iPhone 7 Plus

Samsung Galaxy S8

Let's start with the Google Pixel. Far from being outdated, this is an excellent all-rounder. It takes fantastic photos in all conditions and has stable, detailed video.

Next, the iPhone 7 Plus. We already knew it was a top-notch choice for both videos and photos. It doesn't have the highest-resolution cameras and photos from the tele lens are a bit iffy on occasion, but like the Pixel, it's a dependable choice that will deliver the goods time after time.

The unexpected winner: HTC U11. We've been underwhelmed in the last couple of years with HTC's flagship cameras, but with the U11, it's a return to form.

Highly commended

Sony Xperia XZ Premium

Huawei P10 Plus

Xiaomi Mi 6

The XZ Premium's poor performance in low light prevents it from being an unconditional recommendation. But it is a truly great camera in good light. The slo-mo mode is unparalleled and it's simply a lot of fun to use.

Xiaomi's Mi 6 earns its place here not just because it's cheap. It has a genuinely good main camera that can produce great-looking shots, and is a solid choice for selfies, too.

Last but not least is the Huawei P10 Plus. Again, its dual rear cameras can produce wonderful photos and there are several useful - and fun - creative modes to play with including monochrome, light painting and the shallow depth effec

feel free to share your thoughts down below..

cheers..

How to ByPass iCloud Activation Lock in iOS 11 on iPhone/iPad

2017-07-27T20:04:00.000+03:00

Good News.. !

You know, I kind of feel there’s no need to spend more money if you have a bit more technical skills than the average Joe. You need to have some knowledge to take full advantage of the specs of iPhone and its software. The conventional way of using iDevices is quite boring and doesn’t do the trick when it comes to Bypass iCloud Activation iOS 11 on iPhone 7 Plus, 7, 6S+, 6S, 6+, 6, SE, 5S, 5C or iPad.

However, I’m aware that you get a sinking feeling as you’re not equipped with some technical skills. Don’t worry! This article explains how to bypass iCloud activation iOS 11 via a ritual DNS server by modifying the DNS IP Address of your WiFi.

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A little on iOS 11: iOS 11 beta was recently seeded to public testers. The firmware itself is a huge update for the iOS world. Slated to be released in fall, it will come with a revamped Control Center, plenty of Siri improvements including realistic voice integration, new image filters, redesigned App Store, new storage optimization feature, and a lot more. We’ve also heard whispers about the iOS 11 untethered jailbreak, though it looks like a long shot.

iOS 11 Bypass iCloud Activation Lock

Do note that the method i mentioned isn’t evergreen. However, you can use it to get the job done while it’s possible. Apart from that, users can use the activation locked product in the account to bypass iCloud activation lock and surf games, internet, videos, apps, etc. on their iPad or iPhone with iOS 11 installed.
And don’t have any second thoughts. The method has been applied on iPhone 7 Plus, 7, 6 Plus, 6S Plus, 6s, 6, 5s, 5c, 5, 4s, and 4 as well as iPod Touch and iPad on firmware iOS 11, iOS 10.3.2, iOS 10.3.1, iOS 10.3, iOS 10.2, iOS 10.1.1, iOS 10.2.1 beta, iOS 10, 9.5.3, 9.3.3, 9.3.2, 9.0 and below firmware. In a nutshell, it works. Continue reading to bypass iCloud Activation Lock on iOS 11.

Steps to bypass iCloud Activation iOS 11

Open your WiFi Settings and change DNS server to 78.109.17.60 or enter another IP address.

Take your locked iPhone or iPad and head to the last activation step and choose “Activation Help” so that your device reboots via the ritual website. Now you’ll have options to watch movies, browse the web, play games, and do more.

Steps to completely bypass iCloud Activation iOS 11

Go to “Applications” choice and select “Crash Test 1” to reprise your things.

Head to WiFi Settings and select “I” and choose “Manual” option over the zone saying “HTTP proxy”.

Now list 30 emoji icons (distinct) to “Server” and over “Port” zone type “8888”.

Choose “Back” and “Next”, and do slide to unlock. Then choose “languages”. Don’t click only, rather click on continuously for a few minutes to boot it over the screen.

When the home screen shows up, three options will be available: Facetime, Newsstand, and Phone.

Now hold the Home and Power button each time you start and application to restart iPhone and facilitate the process.

Now sift through Facetime where the mail of the last owner of the device will be. You can contact that person through that mail and inquire if the device can be taken off from iCloud. If you fail to find the mail, continue with bypass process and see the iPhone Phone app to see if the contact number of the concerned owner is available.

iOS 11 activation lock bypass using DNS IP

Bypass iCloud Activation iOS 11 – iCloud Removal & Unlock

If the above mentioned steps fail to get the job done, you can always take services of a company that bypass, remove, or unlock the iCloud Activation in iOS 11. Here are the best companies in our opinion.

1. iPhoneIMEI.net

This is one of the best companies that you’ll ever come across. They are capable of unlocking almost every model of iPhone. And what’s fascinating is that they provide complete unlocking within a day or two. Customer support is also top-notch, with most queries answered within 60 minutes.

Unlock iCloud Activation on iPhone or iPad running iOS 11

The pricing is the same as the pricing of Official iPhone Unlock – $50 for an unlock. It’s also a UK based company, so you’ll be charged in British Pounds. However, the global operation provides service worldwide and accepts payments in all currencies (of course, conversion fee applies).

2. Official iPhone Unlock

We’ve posted about them in the past. They manage to unlock many phones, expect older variants like iPhone 3GS. They can unlock your phone in 2-5 days, and offer great customer support. Go to this link here to use their services.

Official method to unlock iCloud activation lock on iPhone running iOS 11

You have to pay $50 for unlock, but payment structure is different. Upfront payment is $16, with the rest of the $34 due after the unlock is complete. The company accepts a wide variety of payments including credit card, and functions globally.

3. IMEICodes

This is my last pick on the list, however the bad news is they are no longer doing iCloud removals. Also, they struggle to unlock most iCloud accounts. Those who have already gone through this option know the struggles of this company. Refunds are difficult to get as well.

We hope that you found this bypass iCloud Activation lock article helpful. Please do share it with your friends and family because they may be looking for iCloud removal iOS 11. Sharing also encourages us to write more on the little bugs iPhone users face on a daily basis. Thanks for reading, Unlockboot.

cheers...

Samsung hits record quarterly profits

2017-07-27T19:53:00.000+03:00

Samsung hits record quarterly profits, likely briefly topping Apple ahead of 'iPhone 8'

According to Appleinsider.com Samsung Electronics has posted profits of $12.65 billion for the June quarter, its highest quarterly revenues ever —also eclipsing predictions for Apple's performance in the period, though the situation is likely to reverse once this fall's iPhones ship.

Samsung's profits were up 72.7 percent, while revenues rose 19.8 percent to $54.72 billion, according to Reuters. The South Korean company said its success can be credited largely to memory chip sales, including DRAM and NAND modules.

In fact its mobile division saw a 4.7 percent dip in profits, though sales of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ were reportedly 15 percent higher than for the S7 series.

In comparison, Apple's forecasts for the June quarter call for profits around $10.54 billion. The period is typically a slower one for the company though, with iPhone sales ebbing in anticipation of new models, and few other product launches filling in the gap.

This September Apple is expected to unveil three new iPhones, led by the "iPhone 8" —typically rumored to have an edge-to-edge, 5.8-inch OLED display manufactured by Samsung. The latter firm has near total control of the smartphone OLED market, as companies like LG and Foxconn's Sharp are only now beginning to step up efforts.

The other two models, the "iPhone 7s" and "7s Plus," are rumored to have 4.7- and 5.5-inch LCDs. They may share some "8" features, such as wireless charging, but lack others like 3D facial recognition and/or a rear-facing laser for autofocus and augmented reality.

feel free to share your thoughts..

cheers..

Here Are The best laptops in 2017 So Far..

2017-07-27T18:29:00.000+03:00

Whether you prefer Windows or macOS, here's my favourite laptops for you to choose from...

Buying a laptop isn't anywhere near as expensive as it used to be, but if anything it's a lot more confusing. But let's confuse you no longer -the best laptop of the moment is the HP Spectre 13

So thin, so light. The epic HP Spectre 13 is just an awesome experience that boasts both muscle and feather-like lightness. Its powerful specs are mighily impressive, too (there's a rapid Core i7 under the hood) and 256GB SSD, too. As we've said below, it really does feel like a laptop fom the future. We love it and so will you.

Want something a little less thin or bigger? Check out the also excellent
Dell XPS 13 and 15

Of course these are all Windows 10 laptops, but we've got macOS models below, too as well as plenty more of the best laptops around.

How to choose the best laptop for you

In the dim and distant past you could probably get a laptop for a minimum of £500 and spend up to £2000 or even more on a top-end one. Some can certainly come in on the high end of that range, even now.

But what has happened recently is that Chromebooks have appeared, offering dirt-cheap portable computing with sufficient features for a lot of users like students and people who just need to type while out and about. And, not only that, but what you can do with a £500 laptop has now changed drastically.

The appearance of £200 – and sometimes lower – Chromebooks though, has forced other laptops down in price too. So now you can get laptops for some absurd prices, especially if you pick up a sale bargain.

At the other end of the scale are new thin and light laptops that aren't so interested in offering value. But they often sport all-metal construction, wafer-thin designs and internal guts that can chew through demanding tasks. So what's best?

Well as well as the HP Spectre 13 and also excellent Dell XPS 13 and 15, there's a bunch of other great laptops below. We're not going to look at Chromebooks or 2-in-1 convertibles – those have their own buying guides – but let's have a look at everything else out there on the market.

The 10 best laptops you can buy today

These are the best laptops to buy, in order of preference.

1. HP Spectre 13

A Windows laptop with the sleekness of a MacBook

CPU: 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-6500U (dual-core, 4MB cache, up to 3.1GHz with Turbo Boost | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520 | RAM: 8GB LPDDR3 SDRAM (1,866MHz) | Screen: 13.3-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 FHD IPS UWVA BrightView Corning Gorilla Glass WLED-backlit display | Storage: 256GB SSD (PCIe; NVMe; M.2)

features....

Sleek and lightweight

Tactile keyboard

Standard 1080p display

Mushy trackpad

HP's most luxurious laptop borrows the Lenovo Yoga 900S's style and the MacBook's bag-friendly dimensions. The Spectre 13 is so thin that tapping away on its tactile keyboard almost feels like your fingers are tap-dancing on the table. Its biggest advantage over the MacBook is its Intel Core-series processor inside, which lends it the winning combination of dazzling looks and computing muscle. Packing three USB-C ports for hooking up peripherals (note that you'll need a converter to use your old USB-A ones), the Spectre 13 doesn't just look like a laptop from the future - it has one eye trained on it too.

2. Dell XPS 15

A portable 15-inch powerhouse

CPU: 2.6GHz Intel Core i7 6700HQ (quad-core, 6MB cache, up to 3.5GHz with Turbo Boost) | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M (with 2GB GDDR5) | RAM: 16GB Dual Channel DDR4 (2,133MHz; 8GB x 2) | Screen: 15.6-inch, 4K Ultra HD (3,840 x 2,160) InfinityEdge touch | Storage: 512GB PCIe SSD

Features...

Dazzling 4K display

Portable for a 15-incher

Average battery life

A bit heavy

Like its smaller sibling, the XPS 13, Dell's XPS 15 sports an almost bezel-less InfinityEdge display. It brings the dual benefit of making whatever you're doing on its gorgeous 15-inch '4K' screen come to life while also lending it the dimensions of a 14-inch laptop. It's bag-friendly to boot and comes packing the goods, including an Nvidia GTX 960M mobile graphics card that's beefy enough to handle just about any game so long as you stick to 1080p. The XPS 15's battery life is its main weakness, so don't expect its runtimes to stretch into the double figures without taking a booster pack along for the ride.

3. Dell XPS 13

The most compact Windows laptop

CPU: 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-6200U | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520 | RAM: 8GB | Screen: 13.3-inch QHD+ (3,200 x 1,800) | Storage: 256GB SSD

Gorgeous bezel-less display

Lightweight, compact frame

Off-centre webcam

Small frame limits battery life

If you're looking for a Windows laptop, it's hard to go wrong with the Dell XPS 13. While it's more expensive than the Asus UX303 — particularly if you go for the QHD+ version — the XPS 13's InfinityEdge display makes it worth the money. It's surrounded by a bezel that's just millimetres thick, lending the 13.3-inch laptop a body that's closer to 11-inch laptops in size. It gives the XPS 13 excellent portability, and unlike the 12-inch MacBook Dell has done it without sacrificing ports or power. The XPS 13 packs Intel's latest Skylake processors under the hood, and features both Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.0 ports.

4. Apple 12-inch MacBook

The most fashionable laptop around

Thin and light

Retina display

One USB-C port

Shallow keyboard

Apple's 12-inch MacBook isn't just the most portable MacBook of them all, you won't find a more compact laptop with a high-resolution display full stop. Every inch of Apple's impossibly-thin machine is gorgeous, but it comes at the expense of usability. With just one USB Type-C port, the MacBook requires an adapter if you want to use multiple USB devices - or a combination of peripherals and a display - at the same time. If you don't mind carrying one around in a case, the MacBook's surprisingly punchy speakers, good battery life and catwalk looks make it a unique (and fun to use) laptop.

5. Lenovo Yoga 900S

Lightweight and beautiful, with a twist

CPU: 1.1GHz Intel Core m5-6Y54 (dual core, 4MB cache, up to 2.7GHz with Turbo Boost) | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 515 | RAM: 4GB LPDDR3 (1600 MHz) | Screen: 12.5-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 FHD IPS LED glossy multi-touch display | Storage: 128GB PCIe SSD

Elegant design

Twists and bends

Shallow keyboard

Small trackpad

Convertible laptops undoubtedly make better tablets when they're lightweight. The Yoga 900S is one such machine, weighing in at a svelte 2.2 pounds. What you get then, is a 12.5-inch laptop with a bright and colourful screen that can rotate into several different positions, making it easier to interact with touchscreen apps, do a bit of lightweight gaming or even a spot of reading laid back on the couch. In terms of design, the Yoga 900S borrows the Yoga 3 Pro's stylish watchband hinge design without charging the jewellery shop price tag. It's thinner too, while bringing the same pixel-packed 2,560 x 1,440 pixel-resolution display along for the ride.

I also happen to love the surface book because of the design... Its not on my list but you can check it out ....

Microsoft Surface Book

The ultimate Windows 10 hybrid laptop

CPU: 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-6300U | Graphics: Intel HD graphics 520; Nvidia GeForce graphics | RAM: 8GB | Screen: 13.5-inch, 3,000 x 2,000 PixelSense Display | Storage: 256GB PCIe3.0 SSD

Features....

Futuristic design

Seamless tablet separation

Battery life falls well below promises

Major updates are still in tow

Microsoft's Surface Book is a 2-in-1 with a detachable display that can be used as a tablet, and it's an excellent laptop in its own right for several reasons. First, it's the only one out there with a high-resolution 3:2 aspect ratio display which is great for reading long web pages, typing up documents and doing anything that requires a bit more vertical space on the display. Second, its keyboard is simply superb offering a deep amount of travel that reduces fatigue during long typing sessions. Third, Intel's latest Skylake processors and Nvidia's GTX 940M GPU give the Surface Book enough grunt for light gaming and multimedia editing. If money isn't an issue for you, then Microsoft's laptop should be considered even if you're not planning on detaching its display. Which you will, of course — even if it's just for showing off.

feel free to share your thoughts down below..

cheers....

Apple has fallen to fifth place in a Laptop Brand

2017-07-27T17:33:00.000+03:00

So as usual business is business, we see this time Apple has fallen to fifth place in a Laptop Mag survey of the best and worst current laptop brands after previously taking the top spot for several years. Factors like premium price points and limited port options contribute to Apple’s overall drop in the results, although Apple’s quality tech support is a redeeming factor, the survey says.

Apple has taken the top spot since the survey started in 2010, so which brands outrank the MacBook in 2017? Lenovo takes the top spot followed by Asus, Dell, and HP. Acer tied Apple for fifth place.

While the survey considers Apple’s new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models introduced last fall, it also channels common complaints that some had about the new machines.

Namely that Apple raised the price of MacBook Pros with the new machines (and left versions of the old machines on the market without updating them to hit previous prices), replaced legacy I/O with USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 which is only now starting to become mainstream, and relied on the new Touch Bar for touch input versus a full-on touchscreen that many PC laptops offer.

While Apple leads in design, tech support, and warranty coverage, overall reviews are hurt by so-called innovative features, overall price, and the number of laptop options from Apple.

Laptop EIC Mark Spoonauer points to premium prices with hardware that makes working more difficult for pros and suggests Apple should reconsider its approach to pro notebook hardware similar to its revised roadmap for pro desktops.

Last week Apple dropped its usual playbook to address concern over its focus on the professional desktop Mac space. Apple made the 2013 Mac Pro a slightly better value by offering higher end configs at existing prices. Apple is also working on a new modular Mac Pro and Apple-branded pro display that will ship sometime after this year, and new iMacs with pro configs are coming later this year.

As for the MacBook lineup, this year could potentially be a one-off blip for the survey results. Analysts predict MacBook prices will fall this year as second generation options add higher end configurations including 32GB RAM on 15-inch MacBook Pro models.

feel free to share your thoughts down below..

cheers,

How to Use Your Android as Microphone on PC

2017-07-27T17:23:00.000+03:00

How to Use Android as Microphone on PC

We do need microphones in many situations such as chatting, voice recognition, and especially at audio recordings.

But, there may be chances that your microphone may not work great or you may not have it while you need. So, here we come with the alternate solution which will come in handy.

You can use your android phone as a wireless microphone for PC. You most probably have the android all the time. So, using android as microphone will surely help you to chat or record easily with crystal clear audio.

In this post, we are going to see 2 apps that help us to use android as a microphone. Let’s get started.

Use Android as Microphone

Prerequisites

- WO Mic app comes with a free version and pro version. The free version has ads. The pro version doesn’t have ads and has better audio quality. Download the one as per your need from the below download links.

Download free version

Download Pro version

WO Mic software and its drivers for PC

Steps

First, install all the prerequisites mentioned above. We can connect the devices via 3 options. Let’s check it out the steps and options in detail.

Bluetooth

If you want to connect via Bluetooth, follow these steps

- Switch on Bluetooth in android and PC.
- Connect (pair) both the devices.
- In app, Navigate to settings > transport
- Select Bluetooth option. Choose the audio source you want.
- Now, press back button and click on the start option to start the WO mic.
- Launch the desktop client.
- Navigate to connection menu. Click on the connect option.
- Select the Bluetooth option. You can see that your device selected automatically. If it does not appear in the list, then check if they are paired correctly.

That’s it. Press the OK button. Your android phone is now turned as a microphone.

Hint:

To test it out, open desktop client.

Click on the play in speaker option (under options) and try it out.

USB

Before proceeding with the steps, make sure you’ve enabled USB debugging in your android. Let’s check it out the steps.

- Launch the WO Mic app.
- Navigate to settings > transport
- Now choose the USB connection method.

The default audio source is the mic. If you want to choose any other options, you can select it under the audio source available under audio control.

Now, tap the start button.

Connect the devices (android and PC) via USB cable.

Open the WO Mic client on the PC.

Click on connect option (under the connection menu).

Choose the same transport option. In our case, select USB option.

Now, you can use the android as windows PC microphone.

Wi-Fi

If you want to connect via Wi-Fi, follow these steps

Connect the android with Wi-Fi.

Now, open the app.

Navigate to settings > transport

Select Wi-Fi option.

Click on the start button on WO Mic.

Open desktop client and navigate to connection > connect.

Select Wi-Fi option.

Type the address you see above the microphone icon in the app.

That’s it. Your android phone is now ready to act as a microphone.

Prerequisites

Microphone app

A PC with microphone input

Aux cable

I assume that you have all the requirements and let’s move ahead to the steps.

Steps

Download and install the microphone app.

Connect the aux cable with microphone input of PC and android.

I recommend you to keep the low volume first. Now, open the app in android.

That’s it. You are done successfully; Tap the microphone icon in the app and use android as microphone now.

I hope that the information in this post is useful to you. If you find the information in this post useful, share this post with your friends.

cheers...

Do You Know We Have The 92 Megapixel Smartphone Camera?

2017-07-27T17:06:00.000+03:00

Asus announced a dynamic duo of Android Nougat smartphones for 2017 that offer some insanely powerful specs.

First up is the Asus ZenFone AR, which isn’t much of a surprise thanks to Qualcomm’s accidental leak a few days ago. However, we know a lot more about the device now, including that the Snapdragon 821-equipped phone will have an enormous 8GB of RAM and sport a 2,560 x 1,400 super AMOLED display.That RAM actually has a use now, as this is the first phone to run both Google Tango and Google Daydream experiences, making it one of the most futureproof smartphones to hit the market to date and needs that extra processing power.

Compared to the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, a phone that paved the way as the first Tango phone, Asus’ more powerful smartphone will run laps around it.
Asus is also touting the camera setup in the ZenFone AR outside of its most obvious use case, Google’s AR app Tango. Aside from its comprehensive manual mode, the Zenfone AR has Super Resolution mode that Asus claims can capture four photos shot in native 23MP and stitch them into a single 92MP image. This is made possible from a Sony IMX318 sensor that has 4-axis optical image stabilization (OIS) for photos and 3-axis electronic image stabilization (EIS) for videos to ensure a stutter-free recording.
Of course, all of this technology will very likely come at a high cost, and Asus isn’t talking price just yet, although the Asus Zenfone AR release date has been set for the second quarter of this year, so we'll have it in our hands by June.

Third time's a charm for Zoom

If you don’t need all of that newfangled tech, but still want a capable camera, the Asus ZenFone Zoom 3 might suit your needs - and it comes with a huge battery to help you do that.

Last year’s Asus ZenFone Zoom rocked a premium, if divisive, leather-inspired design that drew the eyes toward its circular, dual-camera setup. This year’s model ditches almost every unique aspect in favor of a more mainstream look.

The 5.5-inch Super AMOLED-screen-packing, Snapdragon 625-powered smartphone has a 12MP wide-angle lens with a respectable aperture value of f/1.7, and another sensor dedicated to more serious shots.

The Sony IMX362 camera sensor on board shoots with 1.4 micron pixels, which are larger than many smartphones can capture and will make it more adept in low-light environments.

Even if you're not into photography, this phone should be able to last a seriously long time, offering a large 5,000mAh battery. Fit inside of its 0.9mm-thin chassis, Asus boasts that it can last up to 40 days in standby mode, which is a long time to not be using the phone.

Some other highlights include Android Nougat software, 4K video recording, RAW file support for greater post-processing flexibility, and a 13MP front-facing camera for better-than-average selfie.

Lastly, the phone boasts a robust manual mode that lets users tweak every last setting, much like the one we enjoyed in the Zoom.

The Asus ZenFone Zoom 3 is out you can go grab one and have a test...

Cheers...

(TechAlert) Samsung and LG may release foldable smartphones

2017-07-27T16:51:00.000+03:00

Samsung and LG are planning to release foldable smartphones later this year, according to theKorea Herald. No, we aren’t going back to the days of the flip phone, we’re moving toward a time when smartphones fold out to become

The Herald says it is “highly likely” that Samsung will release 100,000 units by Q3 of this year, while LG is rumored to match that number and release in the last quarter of 2017.

These reports come after years of rumors that the South Korean giants would release foldable phones with flexible displays. Back in 2015, a Samsung official told Business Korea, “The industry believes that the commercialization of foldable smartphones will be possible in 2016.”

Now rumors have followed us into 2017.

The Korea Herald did include a pretty big disclaimer. According to the newspaper, multiple sources say that despite technical completion, Samsung has not made a final decision whether to unveil the device this year because of potential “marketability and profitability issue(s).” Internal personnel reshuffling from the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco certainly hasn’t helped move things along either.

LG seems to have a clearer path to market, and has “more advanced technology than Samsung,” according to sources with the Herald. The company has been working on the project for two to three years now, and could end up selling its technology to the likes of Huawei or Apple.

It’s hard to image how much the first few generations of foldable phones would cost, especially given that prices for flagship devices still hover around the $1,000 mark. If a company like Apple could run with the idea and bring it to the masses, we may soon see the much-needed evolution of the smartphone, far away from the ‘thin and light’ trend manufacturers seem to prioritize.

Now Samsung just needs to figure out how to produce a battery that can power two screens.

Also according to Korean news site ETNews corroborates the Herald report. It says that Samsung will begin producing “thousands” of these foldable phones this year, followed by a full launch in 2018.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this...

cheers...

Smartphone users temporarily blinded after looking at screen in bed

2017-07-27T16:43:00.000+03:00

Medical journal reports that two women experience ‘transient smartphone blindness’ after constantly checking phones in the dark

Warning: Looking at your smartphone while lying in bed at night could wreak havoc on your vision.

Two women went temporarily blind from constantly checking their phones in the dark, say doctors who are now alerting others to the unusual phenomenon.

The solution: Make sure to use both eyes when looking at your smartphone screen in the dark.

In Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, doctors detailed the cases of the two women, ages 22 and 40, who experienced “transient smartphone blindness” for months.

The women complained of recurring episodes of temporary vision loss for up to 15 minutes. They were subjected to variety of medical exams, MRI scans and heart tests. Yet doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with them to explain the problem.

But minutes after walking into an eye specialist’s office, the mystery was solved.

“I simply asked them, ’What exactly were you doing when this happened?’” recalled Dr. Gordon Plant of Moorfield’s Eye Hospital in London.

He explained that both women typically looked at their smartphones with only one eye while resting on their side in bed in the dark — their other eye was covered by the pillow.

“So you have one eye adapted to the light because it’s looking at the phone and the other eye is adapted to the dark,” he said.

When they put their phone down, they couldn’t see with the phone eye. That’s because “it’s taking many minutes to catch up to the other eye that’s adapted to the dark,” Plant said.

He said the temporary blindness was ultimately harmless, and easily avoidable, if people stuck to looking at their smartphones with both eyes.

One of the women was relieved the short-term blindness didn’t signal a more serious problem like an imminent stroke. He said the second woman was more skeptical and kept a rigorous monthslong diary tracking her fleeting vision loss before she finally believed him. But she couldn’t stop checking her phone for messages from bed, he said.

Dr. Rahul Khurana, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, called it a fascinating hypothesis but said two cases weren’t enough to prove that one-eyed smartphone use in the dark caused the problem. He also doubted whether many smartphone users would experience the phenomenon.

Khurana, who acknowledged that he’s an avid cellphone user, said that he and his wife tried to recreate the scenario on a recent evening, but had difficulty checking their phones with only one eye. “It was very odd,” he said.

What's the Most Secure Way to Lock Your Smartphone?

2017-07-27T16:26:00.000+03:00

Oh No...Nope, you're not being paranoid. From pickpockets to malware, your Android phone is under siege from all sides. Wily attackers are continually switching up their tactics in hopes of taking control of your device.

Let's acknowledge that there's no foolproof way to protect your Android device from thieves and hackers. Indeed, as a wise technology guru once told me, if a sophisticated crook decides to target your phone, good luck trying to stop them.

That said, there are plenty of ways to keep your Android handset safe from the most common security threats, all with a minimum of effort. Just as a deadbolt will thwart a casual thief, so will a passcode foil a pickpocket, while the right security settings can keep most malware-infected apps at bay.

Read on for six easy ways to keep your Android phone secure, starting with...

1. Lock your phone (if you haven't already)

This seems like a no-brainer, I know, but there are too many Android users toting around unlocked handsets because they'd rather not hassle with a passcode. I sympathize, to be perfectly honest—PINs are annoying, particularly if you're having to tap one in every time you want to use your own phone.

Android's Smart Lock feature is perfect for users who don't want to bother with a PIN or a passcode.

If you know a fellow Android user who doesn't bother to lock their phone, remind them how they'd feel if they left their phone in the back of a taxicab, or if someone snatched their device from their hand. Then gently nudge them to tap Settings > Security > Screen lock and have them create a PIN—or, if they're lucky enough to have a phone with a fingerprint reader, scan some fingerprints for touch ID.

Even better, steer them toward Smart Lock, the Android feature that lets you unlock your handset with your face, or keep your phone unlocked whenever you're at home, near a strategically placed NFC sticker, or whenever your device is on your person.

2. Locate and wipe your phone remotely

OK, so you locked your Android phone with a PIN or Smart Lock but you lost it anyway. Now what? Luckily, you can use the Android Device Manager to track your lost device and even wipe it if necessary, but only if you've enabled a pair of settings first.

With the right settings enabled, you can use the Android Device Manager to track your lost phone or even wipe it, if necessary.

Tap Settings > Google > Security, the toggle on these two settings: Remotely locate this device, and Allow remote lock and erase.

Now, even if your Android phone is lost or stolen, you can still pinpoint its location (as long as it's got a wireless connection and its battery holds out) and wipe its storage, including all your sensitive data.

Make sure Unknown Sources setting is disabled

So much for physical threats to your Android phone—now, let's move on to something trickier, starting with malicious apps.

Google does its best to make sure the apps on the Google Play store are free from malware, but it can't protect you from apps on third-party app stores or web sites.

Now, in some cases, third-party app stores will be totally legit—take Amazon's app store, for example. In other cases, though, you might be dealing with an app store that's a lot sketchier than Amazon's. Even worse, you might encounter a website that tries to install an app on your phone without your permission.

Luckily, Android has a setting that blocks any and all apps that aren't from the official Google Play app store. Tap Settings > Security, then toggle off the Unknown sources setting. You can always turn the Unknown sources setting back on to install an app from, say, the Amazon app store, but remember to turn the setting off again once you're done.

Let Android scan and verify your apps

Even with Google busily screening the apps in the Google Play store, there's always a chance that a malicious app slips through the cracks. With the right setting enabled, your Android phone can periodically scan your installed apps for malware.

Android can keep an eye on your installed apps to check for any suspicious activity.

Tap Settings > Google > Security > Verify apps, then switch on the Scan device for security threats setting. Once you do, Android will keep an eye on your apps and flag any app that's up to no good.

Keep your phone updated

Hackers are continually changing up their strategies when it comes to cracking Android's security features—and as they do, Google keeps releasing security updates to patch the latest known vulnerabilities.

Keeping your Android device updated with the latest security patches is one of the easiest—and best—ways to protect your phone from hackers.

That's why it's critical that you keep your Android device updated with the latest patches. If you don't, you're essentially leaving your phone wide open to attack.

Your Android phone should prompt you whenever there's a new update to install, or tap Settings > About phone > System updates to check for an update manually.

Turn on Chrome's Safe Browsing feature

Malicious apps aren't the only online threat your Android phone will encounter. The web is rife with malicious sites that might try to steal your personal data via a "phishing" attack, or surreptitiously download a harmful app onto your handset.

Chrome for Android's Safe Browsing feature will warn you if you stumble upon any suspicious websites.

The good news is that Chrome for Android boasts a "Safe Browsing" mode that'll warn you of any sites suspected of nefarious activity. The warning will give you a chance to back away before you expose your Android phone to a "deceptive" or dangerous site.

To activate Chrome's Safe Browsing feature, just fire up the browser, tap the three-dot menu button in the top corner of the screen, tap Settings > Privacy, then make sure the "Safe Browsing" setting is checked

feel free to share your thoughts down below...

cheers...

Do You Know That A Smartphone Can Accurately Test Sperm Count

2017-07-27T16:13:00.000+03:00

Men may soon be able to take their own sperm count — at home. With a smartphone. Yes, there's an app for that.

You may be asking yourself, why?

Low sperm count is a marker for male infertility, a condition that is actually a neglected health issue worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Current methods to diagnose male infertility require laboratory equipment that can cost up to $100,000. On top of that, standard methods often require a specially trained technician.

A team of researchers at Harvard is trying to change that.

Led by Hadi Shafiee, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who works on developing new tools for patient care, researchers have developed a rapid infertility diagnostic tool that attaches to a smartphone.

The phone attachment works with a smartphone app the researchers created to count the number of sperm and measure motility, which are markers for infertility.

The process is fairly simple. First, you load a small amount of a semen sample onto a disposable microchip. Then you put the microchip into the cell phone attachment through a slot. The attachment turns the phone's camera into a microscope.

After the sample is loaded, you run the app, which allows the user to see a video of the sample. Then hit record, and the app analyzes the video to identify sperm cells and track their movements.

At no point does semen touch the smartphone.

The Harvard team isn't the first to develop an at-home fertility test for men, but they are the first to be able to determine sperm concentration as well as motility.

The scientists compared the smartphone sperm tracker to current lab equipment by analyzing the same semen samples side by side. They analyzed over 350 semen samples of both infertile and fertile men. The smartphone system was able to identify abnormal sperm samples with 98 percent accuracy. The results of the study were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday.

But could the average Joe really do this at home?

Shafiee's group looked at exactly that.

"We wanted to see what happens when this is operated by an untrained user with no scientific background." he says. Turns out you don't need any special training to measure your own swimmers. Both untrained and trained users were able to operate the at-home test without any difficulty.

The cell phone attachment is currently designed for use with Android devices, but Shafiee is busy at work designing a version that would work with iPhones. The device costs about $5 to make in the lab. This low cost could help provide much-need infertility care in developing nations, which often lack the resources for currently available diagnostics.

Although the device is designed to test for male infertility, Shafiee thinks it could also help men who have recently undergone a vasectomy. After a vasectomy, men are supposed to have their sperm count tested to tell whether the procedure worked. Unfortunately, many men do not take the time to come back to a clinic and have their sample tested.

"Urologists will love something like this," says Shafiee. "They can hand it to the patients and ask them to perform the analysis by themselves." Ideally, the results would be sent through the app directly to the doctor.

Shafiee says the next steps are getting FDA approval, starting a company, and beginning mass production of the devices. "I am confident that this can go to customers at below 50.00 dollars when it is ready" says Shafiee.

Shafiee says he hopes that in the future, fertility tests for men will be as easy and common as at home pregnancy tests for women.

cheers....

Here's How You Can Shoot A Great Videos on Your SmartPhone

2017-07-27T16:05:00.000+03:00

It's easy to make a great video using your smartphone with these pro tips.

First and most importantly shoot with your camera horizontally

Shooting with your camera while it is vertical will lead to black bars on the side of the screen because your desktop and TV are all set up to display horizontally.

While shooting video the iPhone is easier to handle when it’s horizontal. This will lead to stable footage.

Put your phone in airplane mode to avoid pesky calls or messages ruining your recording

Stability of the camera is crucial

Here are a few quick tips on how to shoot stable footage with your mobile:

If you are shooting a static shot, prop your phone up against an object to keep it steady or use a tripod

If you are moving while shooting be sure to keep your arms against your body to keep a steady shot.

Your neck is also a natural stabilizer. Try resting your phone on your chin to help stabilize.

Tap and hold the screen the area where you want the image to be in focus. This will lock the focus for the duration of your recording.

Be attentive to lighting

The iPhone does really well in natural light, so take advantage of it:

Find any available light source and get close to it.

Make sure that your subject is facing the light.

If no light is available, add some! Even just a flashlight or the light from your smartphone can make a big difference when shooting in low light.

Use the rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is a concept in video and film production in which the frame is divided into nine imaginary sections. Think of it as a giant tic-tac toe board with each line creating a reference guide for framing the image. Instead of putting your subject directly in the center of the shot, move the subject to the upper third, as illustrated in the video above. The result is a dynamic and well-composed scene that is pleasing to the eye.

Zoom in with your feet, not the zoom tool

If you want to capture close-up footage with the iPhone, move the phone physically closer to what you’re shooting; don’t use the zoom tool. The iPhone zoom feature is digital not optical, so using it results in lower quality, pixelated footage in close-in shots. The iPhone has a high quality camera but is limited by the iPhone camera app. To unleash the full video recording power, download a third party app and play with your settings.

Pay attention to sound

There’s nothing worse than poor audio hampering your otherwise well-shot video. Here are a couple of quick tips to help you record a clean audio track:

Be aware of your surroundings - if you’re filming out in the open and it’s windy find shelter or wait for the wind to die down

Get as close to your subject as possible and ask them to raise their voice slightly above conversation level

Avoid blocking the microphone with your fingers while holding the device or recording video. The location of the microphones on the iPhone can be seen below:

Editing your video

There are a number of great apps you can use to edit your video. We recommend:

iMovie for Mac users
VSDC for PC users
Clips for iPhone users
Adobe Premiere Clip for Android users

Why should we visit your town? Make a 30- to 60-second video about your town.....

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Meet The New Meizu with dual-screen, Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus smartphones

2017-07-27T15:58:00.000+03:00

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Meizu has announced today its two next flagship android smartphones, the Pro 7 and the Pro 7 Plus. Both of them are rocking dual rear cameras, as well as secondary displays at the back.

The secondary Super AMOLED display is used to show notifications, weather, time, and more. It can be also used as a music player, as well as a screen for taking selfies using the dual rear cameras. It will also feature live wallpapers.

In terms of hardware, both phones have pretty decent specs. The 5.2-inch Pro 7 sports a Full HD Super AMOLED display, Helio P25 10-core processor, 4GB RAM, and 64GB of storage.

The Pro 7 Plus meanwhile gets a slight bump in specs with its 5.7-inch Quad HD display, Helio X30 10-core processor, 6GB RAM, and up to 128GB of storage.

Both phones will support Meizu’s mCharge, similar to Fast or Quick Charging. The Pro 7 has a 3,000mAh battery, while the Pro 7 Plus has a 3,500mAh battery.

Camera-wise, the phones feature dual 12MP Sony IMX386 sensors with an aperture of f/2.0.

One of the cameras shoots color photos, while the other shoots in monochrome, which Meizu claims will allow for better night shots. There is also a 16MP front-facing camera.

The Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus come in Black, Silver, Gold, and Red. Pricing and international availability has not been officially announced by the manufacturer, so stay tuned.

Read more Here...https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/7/26/16036076/meizu-dual-screen-pro-7-plus-smartphone-flagship-china-amoled-rear-display

Top 5 Best Tech To Buy in 2017 (July)

2017-07-22T23:30:00.000+03:00

While society moves at its own pace, technology just keeps getting demonstrably better and more powerful. More and more tech products are having a profound impact on the way we live our lives, Most people own smartphones — they’re the best, most personal computers we’ve ever created — but what else should a modern man or woman own in this day and age? These are the five pieces of technology that are, in my opinion, must have if care...

5 Amazon Echo

This deserves a spot in your home because it’s simple, beautiful, easy to use, and extremely useful. You just plug it into a wall, connect it to your WiFi network via the Alexa app, and you’re up and running! The Echo can hear you from one room to another, thanks to its seven omni-directional microphones, and respond to you quickly and naturally. While the Echo can do all sorts of amazing things, like call you an Uber or read you the day’s news, it’s much better at the simple stuff, like setting timers and playing music. , I know this feels kinda last year for a Tech guys but really i can't leave it behind as it does so much more prior to today lifestyle as we know we are always living in the futuristic world with new inventions every day, i know we have the Google home but i just love this more i thing it does more in some aspects

4 LG OLED E6 Series

The look of the LG OLED E6 is impressive. From first glimpse, the TV appears high end. The upper part of the TV is so thin that it is hard to imagine televisions getting any thinner than this. The stand and speakers are flat with the table surface which is an interesting design. The OLEDE6's incredibly slim 'picture on glass' design technique creates simply the most gorgeous TVs ever made. Each OLED pixel produces its own light and colour independent of its neighbours. Unprecedentedly deep black colours sit right alongside even the brightest HDR whites without a hint of light 'bleed' - something just not possible with current LCD technologies. The OLED E6 series delivers levels of contrast and light control just not possible with LCD.

This works wonders for high-contrast HDR sources, as well as making today's standard dynamic range sources look better than on any other TV. The OLEDE6's lose some detail in very bright HDR areas, and occasionally suffer fleeting colour noise. They're not cheap, either. But none of that stops them being utterly brilliant.

A sound bar attached to the bottom of the screen, meanwhile, produces sound quality that wouldn't be out of place on an external audio system.

3 SmartCode 916 - Smart Home Lock

The SmartCode 916's small size makes it less conspicuous than other locks, and allows you to use your old house keys if you want. Kwikset's SecureScreen feature — which makes you punch in two random digits before entering your code — helps ensure burglars can't guess your password by fingerprint smudges alone. And it has an alarm if someone tries to break in. The 916 lacks a standalone app, but can be connected to several smart home hubs via Z-wave or ZigBee. Overall, a great all-around lock that allows you to ease into the world of smart locks, "unlocking" its best features as you feel comfortable.

2 LG Watch Sport

LG Watch Sport is the smartwatch to beat right now simply because it's a full-featured fitness tracker wrapped in a smartwatch running Android Wear 2.0. While other smartwatches can do "fitness tracking" that just amounts to logging runs and calories burned, this watch tracks your all-important strength training, too.

It's also one of the few smartwatches that supports an LTE connection, meaning, if you pop a SIM card into the back of the watch, it can make and receive calls and data – without your smartwatch nearby.

It doesn't have the best battery life, despite its bigger-than-normal size, and apps are still being announced for Google's newly refreshed platform. But it's a proper step up for Android Wear and smartwatches in general.

1 Snapchat Spectacles

Much like Snapchat itself, you either get it or you don't. Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. demonstrated its mastery of artificial scarcity when it debuted its Spectacles video-recording glasses late last year. An easy setup process, good-enough video quality and stylish look made Spectacles a hit. But the company’s distribution process—vending machines with limited stock that randomly appeared across the country—made them a phenomenon. From a hardware perspective, Spectacles could use improvement—they’re not great when it’s dark out and they’re troublesome for prescription eyeglass wearers. But Snap’s first foray into hardware shows promise at a time when camera companies like GoPro are struggling.

feel free to comment your thoughts down below

cheers...

What Are We Missing From The Sony Xperia XZ Premium? (That Bezel Tho.!)

2017-07-22T22:21:00.000+03:00

Whats up? its Sony here, exited enough? now there are tons of tons of reviews about this flagship but im taking a step to review this phone after 3 months of usage, you all would want to know how baad or good it is after couple of months usage right? yeah right.. so why not stick around and see what i have to offer? oh yeas i give away money ( no joking) lets see what it feels to own this device after few months of usage...

The XZ Premium is all about excess. Why just have one piece of cake, when you could eat the whole thing? It’s packed with high-tech hardware, including the phone world’s first 4K, HDR screen, and a slow-motion camera that’s faster than just about anything else out there. At least when it comes to phones, anyway.

Specs and Performance

The vast amount of pixels need a beefy processor to be moved around at high speed, and with its overall 20% to 25% performance increase, the new octa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 835 is perfect for the job. Qualcomm claims a 50% performance increase on the CPU side and 25% on the GPU side. We have not run the benchmarks yet, so we cannot vouch for this until April when the first device with the processor will be introduced to the market.

In fact, the new Adreno 540 GPU supports HDR10, which is a standard for the next-generation video content with High Dynamic Range (HDR) in 10-bit color. Snapdragon 835 devices are “UltraHD Premium Ready”, a TV/Video standard backed by large companies.

I guess that is the reason why the XZ Premium features a 4K HDR display, since Sony has always been big about playing the content exactly the way it was intended to be seen. With the new GPU, we can also expect higher performance for mobile gaming, specifically for 3D games.

Thanks to the integrated x16 modem (4×4 MIMO / LTE Cat16), the device is 4G LTE Gigabit compatible, so if you live in Sydney where the world’s first LTE Gigabit network by carrier Telstra rolled out a few weeks ago, you could enjoy up to 1GBps download speed. When there are a lot of simultaneous connections it is more likely to get 400 MBps or 300 MBps. According to Qualcomm several operators are testing their own infrastructure right now, but no exact timeframe for potential launches was provided.

On the data transfer side, besides the USB 3.1 connector that offers 5 Gbps speed for external transfer, the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) offers high-speed internal memory access at 1.5GB/s (!!), 3X the speed of the traditional eMMC internal memory. The XZ premium comes with 64GB internal memory, 4G RAM and a microSD slot for up to 256GB of extended memory, While playing with the phone, the Android 7.0-powered user interface was fast and responsive.

The Snapdragon 835 CPU is as new and powerful as you can get on a phone, and it’s easily fast enough to run anything in the Google Play Store. 4GB of RAM is still the sweet spot for swift multitasking, too. 64GB of built-in storage is ample, and you can always add more with a microSD card. Battery life isn’t decimated by that 4K screen, either - you’ll get to the end of the day before it’s time to recharge.

It’s a shame Sony didn’t put as much effort into design as it did with the hardware, though. The XZ Premium might be slightly shinier than its Full HD sibling, but you’d have a hard time picking the more potent phone out - they look almost identical. Compared to the skinny, streamlined Galaxy S8, it looks very old-school.

If you insist on the best hardware, the Xperia XZ is practically unrivalled, but sometimes too much cake can make you sick. Learn when to put down the fork, and you’ll be much happier in the long run.

Camera

On paper, the XZ Premium’s camera should absolutely wipe the floor with the competition. The oversized 1/2.3" sensor tops out at 19MP and has both phase-detect and laser autofocus to back it up. In practice, though, it tends towards overexposure, and overly aggressive image processing leaves your snaps looking unnaturally sharp. Video is another matter, though: ultra-slow motion clips at 960fps play life back at 1/40th of real time, letting you recreate all those Matrix fantasies without pro-grade equipment.

The cameras on the Xperia XZ Premium are pretty much the same as they are on the Xperia XZs. On the back, you get a 19-megapixel Motion Eye camera with a stacked sensor, which allows you to capture video at 960fps for a super-slow-motion effect. The camera captures about one second's worth of footage and then stretches it to about five seconds, which is fun to play with. You also get 5-axis stabilisation for the front and rear cameras, 4K video recording, and the ability to launch the camera app and capture an image by simply holding the shutter button down

Here are some images samples taken by Phonearena.com,

And of course I would love to talk about The Motion Eye is a large 1/ 2.3” sensor (7.7mm diagonal), larger than competitive smartphone’s sensors, according to Sony, and is able to deliver super slow motion movies at up to 1,000 frames per second (approximately 8x faster than conventional products*) in full HD (1920×1080 pixels) – thanks to its DRAM layer. Check the the second part of the video demo above, you will see how Super Slow Motion works, This makes the XZ Premium the “world’s first smartphone to feature super slow motion video”, which effectively capture 960 frames per second for two seconds during any video recording session. Users have to tap the Super Slow Motion icon on the screen to trigger the 2-second capture. Previously, Sony had cameras that captured at 960 FPS (equivalent to a 40X slow-motion) with the RX100 IV and RX10 II. It is amazing to see this technology make its way into phones.

Design

Hey... so whats up with that bezel tho ? okay i can hold onto that but clearly to me they look ugly on my sight... So Sony’s signature sharp rectangles haven’t really changed since the first Xperia Z arrived in 2014, and the XZ Premium follows that trend. There’s 2.5D glass on the front and back, now, and the fingerprint sensor sticking out the side is surprisingly convenient, but those top and bottom bezels are looking particularly beefy next to LG and Samsung’s latest. The phone measures 156 x 77mm and packs a 5.5-inch screen. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S8 measures 148.9 x 68.1 mm and manages to squeeze in a 5.8-inch screen, it feels impressively thin at 7.9mm, however, and rock solid as well with not flexing or creaking.

The phone will come in Luminous Chrome, Deep sea Black or a rather fetching Bronze Pink colourway. It’s water resistant, and the finger print sensor is located in the side-mounted power button. We really like this location. Also, the large bezels make space for front mounted speakers. That's great if you use internal speakers a lot, as they won't get covered by your palms.

One final thing we need to mention about the design is just how reflective it is, as is exemplified by our images. It really could be used as a mirror, and looks great after it’s just been polished, but unfortunately, most of the time it’ll be covered in greasy fingerprints. Now, personally, that doesn't bother me, but it may annoy some, slightly more anal, smartphone users.

The HDR display does have a noticeably better colour gamut than comparable non-HDR displays. We tested this with some sample clips from YouTube, and we found performance on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium to be a bit better compared to the display on the Galaxy S8+, delivering slightly better details in the highlights.

Audio performance on the Xperia XZ Premium is equally good through headphones, with a set of useful enhancements like ClearAudio+ and Surround sound (VPT) to take advantage of. You can fine tune the frequencies with EQ presets or set it manually. You don’t have to worry about blocking the speakers with your palms since they face forward, however, the volume doesn’t get very loud.

Conclusion

With the heating issues that plagued its predecessors out of the way, Sony's newest flagship is a legitimate competitor to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is just as powerful, has an excellent display, is waterproof, has decent battery life, and offers a very good set of cameras. Its main weaknesses are its aesthetics and ergonomics, and the new Samsungs smoke the Xperia in this regard. We really hope to see a more modern design language in Sony’s next generation. The chrome finish might tempt some buyers but isn’t practical for real-world usage, so we highly recommend you look at the other colour options if you’re considering buying this phone.

At the time of writing this review, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is priced at Rs. 59,990, which seems a bit on the higher side considering that there's only a relatively small spec bump compared to the Xperia XZs. If Sony hopes to push good number of units off the shelf, then it needs to get more aggressive with pricing, as the Galaxy S8 would undoubtedly look more attractive to buyers.

Besides high pixel count, Sony offers the world’s first Super Slow Motion video capture at 960 fps in 1080p resolution, a high-speed anti-distortion shutter, and predictive capture, Thanks to its new 3-layer Motion Eye image sensor. Powered by the powerful Snapdragon 835, the fastest SoC from Qualcomm, which improves power efficiency by 50%, CPU performance by 50% and GPU performance by 25%, the device delivers an impressive 4K HDR experience on the display, with deep contrasts and a broad color gamut.

feel free to share your mind down below...

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Top 5 SmartPhones To Buy in 2017 (July)

2017-07-21T11:41:00.000+03:00

Whats up..? ! A lot of the most significant Android phones have come out already this year—and many of them are well worth the purchase. but unfortunately we have to choose the best 5 from the list.. so if your favorite smartphone is not on this list then okay im sorry . but "i'm not gonna say throw it away and stuff "

Whether you love the customization, love Google, or just sick of iPhone, Lucky for you, there are a ton of great smartphones out there for you to choose from. You no longer need to sacrifice having a good camera, great app selection, or even world-class software.

5. Huawei P10

First, the P10 has picked up the same great Leica dual-camera system from the Mate 9, and has also brought several new color options to the table, as well as a new, unique metal build. Further, the P10 offers EMUI 5.1 and a new front-facing fingerprint sensor that can double as navigation buttons, yet with a similar level of performance and a very good camera.

The P10 runs on top of the Kirin 960 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 3,200 mAh battery with Nougat and a 5.1-inch 1080p display. The P10 Plus, on the other hand, brings 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a much bigger 3,750mAh battery, under a 5.5-inch QHD display

4. One Plus 5

In many ways, this latest OnePlus 5 is an evolution over the OnePlus 3T and the 3: it does not make any tectonic shifts to the software experience, or anything else, but slowly builds up upon a successful formula, The phone feels like the end of OnePlus phase one and a bridge to whatever the company does next. It might not be the obvious bargain price OnePlus is known for but it's still significantly cheaper, is incredibly fast and has improved cameras.

There are downsides with no waterproofing, Quad HD screen or wireless charging. i strongly recommend considering this phone if you’ve been tempted by the Galaxy S8 or LG G6 but can't stretch to them – the fact it’s in that conversation is testament to OnePlus’ continuing impressive achievements

3.LG G6

The LG G6 marks a new era for LG: less experiments with crazy designs and a focus back on the essentials of great design and performance. The new G6 is not a revolutionary phone ,Compared to last year’s G5, the G6 seems positively safe and tame in comparison, which was probably the point. There are a couple notable features—the wider aspect ratio and wide angle ability—to at least partially distinguish it from the competition. It’s got plenty of things going for it as a proper flagship smartphone in 2017—something LG hasn’t always been able to do in the past.

There’s a lot to cover with the G6, and it’s a complicated phone to assess. The differences in hardware and the tweaks in software mean that is a phone that reveals itself to you slowly than the immediacy of, say, a Samsung Galaxy S. The design looks uniform at first until you realise how well it all comes together.

2.HTC U11

The U11 is HTC’s answer to Samsung’s seemingly unconquerable Galaxy S8, which is my current smartphone of choice. In its bid to outdo the Galaxy, HTC has loaded the U11 with an arsenal of interesting features.

The only other slight quibble I have with the design is that, by today’s standards, the bezel is fairly chunky. A few years ago this may have been fine, but in comparison to other 2017 flagships – such as the Galaxy S8 and LG G6 – the giant black edge around the U11’s screen looks a little retro, and not in a good way.

Highlights include Amazon Alexa support, Hi-Res Audio capabilities and a slightly bizarre set of “Edge Sense” squeeze controls – yes, you read that right. These, plus a wealth of cutting-edge components, make the phone a great choice for any smartphone buyer willing to put up with its atypical, super-shiny looks. It’s just a shame that the U11 feels like a smartphone designed for 2015 not 2017.

1. The Galaxy S8/S8+

When you talk about Design you wouldn't leave the Galaxy S8 apart from its specs and that cute looking display this phone slaps all the available devices in the market design-wise, the only thing that is kind of downside is that fingerprint sensor on the back, next to the camera, and I hate it more every time I use it. First, it’s tiny, meaning those times I actually hit it, it doesn’t recognize my finger. But its real issue is the positioning; it’s so intuitive. You have to wiggle your finger around the camera – which, incidentally, throws up a message on opening the app to remind you to clean dirty smudges of the lens – and guess where the scanner is? I don’t understand why it isn’t at the center tho, as it is every other phone that has a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. I suspect Samsung wanted to build it into the display, but just ran out of time.

The curved rear, as seen on the Galaxy S7, nestles perfectly in your palm, while the glass shimmers as the light hits it. The device is available in three colours – a dark black, bright silver and a grey with a blueish tinge – with no ugly white front plate in sight.

For the all-around big-screen experience, Samsung has knocked it out of the park and while the likes of LG and Huawei definitely come close, the design of the Galaxy S8 means it stands tall above the competition.

Thats all for now feel free to share your thoughts down below..

cheers....

Meet The Nokia 3310 The wake of Original Nokia ( Reviewed in Details)

2017-07-20T22:52:00.000+03:00

Whats up? this feels so special isn't it? i know i'm late to do this review but as they say 'better late than never', so someone i know spoke to me and said... "the Nokia 3310 (2017) has definitely left my jaw dropped". yes it should plus i have to ask myself why this phone hasn't still got a lot of attention it deserves, remember the original 3310? it got popular all over the world not because it was the cutest no.. because of its features i mean we could go a week with it without even thinking of being offline, i don't know maybe because we didn't have the Smartphone era then.

As soon as you hold the phone, you know that there is something special about the gadget, a decidedly unique device. The design sensibilities is 20 years old and contemporary at the same time. It is a little unsettling, like a time machine that partially works. The phone is considerably thinner and lighter than the previous version. Compared to modern touchscreens, it feels almost seems too small. The phone weighs just 79.6 grams, which is little more than half the weight of the 3310 released in 2000.

So here we have the new Nokia 3310, a very well-designed tribute to the iconic handset with a help of modern upgrades. If you were a fan of the 3310, the probability is that you’ll want to pick up that.

It comes in four distinct colors: Warm Red and Yellow, both with a gloss finish, and Dark Blue and Grey both with a matte finish. What’s best, the color runs through the material, so it looks better for longer. A new operating system has meant a new button layout on the front. Below the screen there's a central square select button surrounded by thin frame which acts as the four-directional pad. That's flanked by two dual purpose buttons. The right is the power off/hang up button on the bottom, and a button to select which ever option is displayed on the right side of the display. The left is the calling button, and the button to select whatever option is on the left of the display.

With 17 years of development in the industry, components have become much smaller than they were in 2000 when the first 3310 was launched. That means Nokia has been able to slim down the phone. A lot. The new 3310 is about half the thickness of the original, meaning, it's about the same thickness as the detachable back cover of the first model.

The back cover is nowhere near as easy to remove as the old one. While you're supposed to be able to just pull it off from the bottom, we couldn't, and had to resort to sticking a plectrum in where you're supposed to pull from, and levering it up, away from the back that way. It's a far cry from being able to just push up from the bottom with a single thumb.

On top of the 3310 is a micro USB socket for charging, while on the bottom is a honest-to-goodness 3.5mm headphone jack. Underneath the back, which takes some force to pries off, is a removable battery—which is good for around a week of use (!)—micro SIM slot, and a microSD card slot for up to 32GB of extra storage. You might be wondering why on earth you need a microSD card on a phone like this. Well, wonder no more: the 3310 comes with a miserly 16MB of built-in storage, of which a mere 1.4MB is user accessible. If you plan on taking any more than five photos with the built-in 2MP camera which it's a major down point because i think it exists for showing off, we could buy with or without it, or listening to MP3s, an SD card is a necessity.

One thing we've all become accustomed to in the era of smartphones is typing on software QWERTY keyboard. The fact is, software keys are more versatile, and predictive text is actually helpful. Swapping back to a T9 keyboard is something of a learning curve, In the 2017 interpretation, there are symmetric scroll like keys on both sides, with separate functions mapped to the top and bottom portions of the buttons. The call button is to the left, and the end call or power button is to the right. The scroll keys on the original could allow you to increase or reduce the volume while in a call, this function has now been mapped to the up and down keys on the direction pad.

The vertical speaker grill on the original has been removed to accommodate a larger screen. The speaker on the new Nokia 3310 is beneath a rather deep oval pit that is prone to collect a lot of dust, and needs to be cleaned regularly. The Nokia Logo on the front is on the curved glass covering over the screen, and is embossed below the camera on the back. There is no depression along the back for gripping the phone. The back cover is removable, but you have to pry it out using your fingernails instead of pressing a button and sliding out the back cover

The display is a 4.2 inch QVGA screen that sits below a curved glass casing that makes the display appear deceptively large. The display has a pixel density of 167 ppi, with a screen to body ratio of 30 percent. The screen of the display is made out of TFT.

The new Nokia 3310 achieves what many will want it to. It’s a basic phone with basic features in a novelty, nostalgic shell. The battery life is great, it makes calls and Opera Mini is surprisingly capable within the confines of a non-smartphone.

But if you thought things were better in the days of the pre-touchscreen smartphone, you’ll find out within minutes that they simply weren’t. Texts take ages to write, you get hand cramp in the process, and you’re not even really, truly disconnected from the internet world. You can check your email, so you have no excuse not to.

If you really want a dumbphone for the odd occasion, and don’t mind paying over the odds for one, buy it. You’ll love looking at it more than actually using it, but then you’re probably not planning to use it much. But if you’re looking for an emergency phone, or something disposable, Nokia makes loads of much cheaper versions of the same idea. They’re just not branded 3310

Feel free to comment your thoughts down below

cheers

The Galaxy Note 7 Fan Edition is here!

2017-07-20T21:48:00.000+03:00

Hello there...So last year Samsung really messed up one of their beloved model (Note 7), it was such a sad story but this year today specifically they came with the Note 7 again with everything similar to last year's except for the name and Battery which Exploded. Some found a new life as refurbished handsets offered for rental. Others, it appears, were reborn as the Galaxy Note 7 Fan Edition.

Teardown experts iFixit got their hands on the new device—only 400,000 of which are on sale, exclusively in South Korea.

“And in case you were wondering—no, there isn’t a tiny fan in there to help prevent battery fires. (We checked.)” iFixit wrote in a blog post.

There are, however, subtle differences between the new Fan Edition and the Exploded one"

“At first glance, it seems like nothing has changed,” the company reported.

That is, until you pry off the “nasty glass panel” and take a closer look at the restored hardware: Inside is a new, albeit smaller, battery. Clocking in at 3,200mAh (versus the original Note 7’s 3,500mAh), the petite power source is apparently enough to make the phone safe again.

New Fan Edition battery (left) weighs in just under the original power source (right) ...

Now there are several reasons why Samsung may have chosen a deliberately higher than typical price for the FE. The most obvious is to prevent cannibalizing sales of the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 and stealing its thunder. Usually this wouldn’t be much of a problem, as we’ve discussed that previous models always become cheaper. However, as the Note range has been off the market for so long, a low cost model release so soon before the Note 8 could make the upcoming flagship appear overpriced. The Galaxy Note 7 Fan Edition is priced at KRW 699,600 (close to $617), which is KRW 300,000 (close to $265) cheaper than the original Galaxy Note 7 at the time of its launch in the country. The company will sell 400,000 units of the Galaxy Note 7 FE through three cellular carriers in the country. Also the Galaxy Note 7, the Note 7 FE will be allowed to on flights

Samsung has also said that “overseas sales will be decided later”, but given that the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is rumored for an August release, it may be a better move for Samsung to leave the Note 7 behind it.

feel free to share your thoughts down below

cheers..