HTC has launched the HTC U11 Life in two variants, one variant running Android 7.1 Nougat with Sense UI and an Android One variant running Android 8.0 Oreo. The HTC U11 Life is priced at US $349 (Rs 22500 approx.) for the unlocked version in the US. There is no official word on its availability in India as of now.
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HTC has launched the HTC U11+ at a price of £699 (Rs 59800 approx.) in the UK. There is no official word on the phone’s availability in India as of now. There were multiple leaks leading up to the launch of the phone and most of them have turned out to be accurate. HTC U11+ will succeed the HTC U11 which was launched back in March 2017. Along with the HTC U11+, the HTC U11 Life was also launched, which is a mid-range device with design aesthetics similar to the HTC U11.
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The Xiaomi Mi Note 3 was launched in China on the 11th of September at a starting price of CNY 2,899 (Rs. 28,300 approx.). The Mi Note 3 succeeds the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 which was launched in 2016 with a fair amount of upgrades.
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Israeli company Corephotonics has filed a lawsuit against Apple for patent infringement. It looks like Apple can’t catch a break, as this case has emerged right after it won a US $120 million case against Samsung. Corephotonics, a maker of dual lens camera technology, claims that the cameras featured in the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus infringe on four of its patents.
Corephotonics was founded in 2012 by Dr. David Medlovic, a Tel Aviv University professor and former chief scientist in the Israeli government.
Corephotonics claims in the lawsuit that it reached out to Apple “as one of its first acts as a company” to establish a strategic partnership. The exchanges with Apple continued for a some time but never resulted in a license agreement for Corephotonics’ dual lens technology. In the lawsuit, the company claims:
Apple’s lead negotiator expressed contempt for Corephotonics’ patents, telling Dr. Mendlovic and others that even if Apple infringed, it would take years and millions of dollars in litigation before Apple might have to pay something.
According to the lawsuit filed, Apple infinged four patents that Corephotonics filed between 2012 and 2015. Of the four, two patents were on mini telephoto lens assembly, one patent on dual aperture zoom digital cameras, and one on high resolution thin multi-aperture imaging systems, which is essentially an umbrella term that covers what dual lens cameras are.
The company claims that its dual aperture camera technology has two fixed-focal length lenses, including a wide angle and a telephoto lens, which is what Apple uses in its iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus.
In a bizarre turn of events, the Israeli company has roped in the consumers as well in this lawsuit. Corephotonics says since Apple is selling the phones with “knowledge of or wilful blindness” of the patents it’s allegedly infringing, the lawsuit claims that consumers who buy the iPhone 7 Plus and the iPhone 8 Plus are infringing on the Corephotonics’ telephoto lens assembly patent as well.
The lawsuit demands monetary compensation for the lawyers that Corephotonics has had to hire along with additional damages. It is also demanding that Apple stop using dual-aperture cameras immediately.
Xiaomi has launched its first ever selfie focussed Android phone lineup in India. The Redmi Y1 and the Redmi Y1 Lite are the first part of a new lineup of smartphones in India which will focus on selfies. Along with the new phone, Xiaomi also introduced MIUI 9 in India. Launched back in August in China, the MIUI 9 brings new features like split-screen and CPU acceleration and new themes.
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OnePlus has launched its second flagship smartphone in 2017, the OnePlus 5T at a price of US $499. The device will be available globally on and will go on sale in India on the 21st of November via a flash sale exclusively on Amazon.
The OnePlus 5T is an incremental upgrade over the OnePlus 5 which was launched in June 2017. The hardware is more or less the same as the OnePlus 5, with a new design and display size. The OnePlus 5T is more in line with 2017 flagship phones with thin bezels and a tall display which has become a norm in 2017 flagship phones like the Galaxy Note8 and the iPhone X.
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After weeks of speculation and leaks, Razer has launched the Razer Phone during an event in London. Launched as a gamer’s phone, the Razer Phone has flagship phone specifications. Razer poked fun at the price of its Razer products and announced that the phone will be priced at US $699 and ship it to the US and EU from the 17th of November.
There is no official word on the availability of the Razer phone in other markets including India.
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The latest version of Apple’s operating system for iPhones and iPads, iOS 11, has now been adopted by 52% users. The information was updated on Apple’s App Store support page for developers. The iOS 11 was released for all users on the 19th of September and has had its fair share of hiccups so far.
The adoption rate of iOS 11 at 52% is less than what it was for previous versions. Last year, Tim Cook, at the “Hello Again” Mac event on October 27th, 2016 announced that iOS 10 had reached 60% of devices, while iOS 9 had been adopted by 67% of devices by November 16th, 2015. This adoption rate is significantly higher than Google new OS version, Android 8.0 Oreo. Google’s developer portal estimates that about 0.2% of devices are running Android 8.0 Oreo as of 2nd of October.
iOS 11’s slow rate of popularity or acceptance can be due to the issues found in the new OS. There have been several bugs that have hampered the growth of iOS 11 and a lot of people have refrained from updating their devices to iOS 11. Users have complained that ever since they updated to iOS 11, they have had issues battery draining, UI jitteriness, and random force restart.
In a new bug reported, some users can’t type the letter “I.” Reddit user TheCravin documented the bug and said that Apple’s predictive keyboard feature suggests a random character like “A,” “#,” or “!” followed by the unicode symbol, and then automatically replaces the “I” unless the user takes corrective action.
I? definitely should not have to learn anything to solve this bug. https://t.co/aKSwiA7idx pic.twitter.com/uhO7p4u8PZ
— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) November 6, 2017
After testing the 280-character limit with a few users, Twitter is officially rolling out the new character limit to all its users. The only exceptions will be for Twitter users in the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese languages, who can convey as much as double the amount of information in their tweets compared to characters in English and other languages.
This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is madness ! This is me
— Bharat Nagpal (@TheBharatNagpal) November 8, 2017
In a blog post announcing the new official character limit, Aliza Rosen, Product Manager said:
During the first few days of the test many people Tweeted the full 280 limit because it was new and novel, but soon after behaviour normalised. We saw when people needed to use more than 140 characters, they Tweeted more easily and more often.
But importantly, people Tweeted below 140 most of the time and the brevity of Twitter remained.
The 280-character limit is still rolling out in phases and if your tweets are still limited to 140 characters, then fret not.
Back in 2016, Twitter chief Jack Dorsey was asked about the 140-character limit and its future, and he replied with a firm “It’s staying.” When Twitter had announced the test phase of the 280-character limit, Aliza Rosen, Product Manager in a blog post wrote:
We want every person around the world to easily express themselves on Twitter, so we’re doing something new: we’re going to try out a longer limit, 280 characters, in languages impacted by cramming (which is all except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean).
In the same post, she continued, “Also, in all markets, when people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people Tweeting – which is awesome!” This made it evident that Twitter was willing to reach out to more people by giving the iconic 140-character limit, something that was quintessential to Twitter’s growthfar and has been a part of the company’s identity since the very beginning.
Google has rolled out an update to the Google Assistant which enables the AI assistant to recognise songs. One of the more popular features introduced in the Pixel 2 phones is ‘Now Playing‘, wherein the Pixel2 can recognise songs playing and pull up links to buy or stream them. The catch here is that while Pixel 2 doesn’t use the internet to search for songs, the Google Assistant needs the internet to recognise the song and pull up results.
This feature will come in handy more than you think. If you are always reaching into your pocket and struggling to open Shazam just in time for it to catch the song and show a result, this feature can be priceless.
If you enter a cafe and want to know what song is playing, simply open up Google Assistant and ask ‘what song is this’. Depending on how fast your internet connection is, Assistant will pull up a card for you with the name of the song, the artist, lyrics, and YouTube, Google Play Music, and Spotify (not available in India) streaming links. If Google Assistant has voice set as the preferred input method and you’re in a loud environment, you will see a new “What’s this song?” chip as the first suggestion in the carousel.
The Google Pixel 2 was launched after the iPhone X but, thanks to it being available before the iPhone X the phone was put through its paces all over the internet. DXOmark is a portal that rates the camera of a smartphone on different parameters and the Google Pixel 2 came out to be the highest rated smartphone ever. The recently launched iPhone X was tested by DXOmark and was given an overall rating of 97, which is onepoint less than the Pixel 2.
In its summary, DXOmark said:
With a Photo score of 101, the Apple iPhone X achieves the best results so far for still images, edging out the Huawei Mate 10 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, the previous joint leaders in the Photo ranking, by one point.
Its overall score of 97 puts the iPhone X into joint second place with the Huawei Mate 10 in the current DxOMark Mobile overall rankings, just behind the Google Pixel 2 with 98 points.
It is interesting to note here that despite clicking the best still images, the iPhone X falls short of the overall score of the Pixel 2 because of its video recording capabilities. The iPhone X is the only smartphone that records 3840 x 2160 px videos at 60fps.
For video, the X doesn’t quite rise to the same high-water mark, achieving a video sub-score of 89 points.
Photos are an extremely subjective aspect of smartphones, just like sound hence, scores by DXOmark can mean everything or absolutely nothing to a consumer. Still, having the second best smartphone camera in the world is no mean feat.
The iPhone X has dual 12-megapixel rear cameras, and it’s equipped with dual optical image stabilisation. The sensors are both larger and faster, according to Apple, and the main camera is equipped with a wide angle lens and has an f/1.8 aperture while the secondary telephoto lens has an f/2.4 aperture. In between the two cameras is a quad-LED True Tone flash. Both the front and back cameras have the portrait mode. The rear cameras have the portrait lighting feature, just like the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
Would you prefer the Google Pixel 2 over the iPhoneX on the sole basis of their DXOmark scores? Let us know in the comments below.
The highly anticipated Apple iPhone X is now available to the consumers and has received great early reviews. it may not have broken the Pixel 2’s record on DXOmark, but, its display appears to be doing great. According to a report by DisplayMate, the 5.8 inch OLED Super Retina display of the iPhone X is the “most colour accurate” display.
The report was presented by DisplayMate President, Dr. Raymond M. Soneira and claims that the iPhone X display has “close to textbook perfect calibration and performance” through a built-in automatic colour management system. The system switches to a relevant colour gamut on the basis of the image displayed within the Wide DCI-P3 Colour Space that has an ICC Profile. This process helps in rendering correct colours, neither over-saturated nor under-saturated, the report mentions.
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The display of the iPhone X is reported to have the highest brightness for OLED smartphones at 634 nits. This is higher than the 560-nit brightness of the Samsung Galaxy Note8. Similarly, the iPhone X has a Super Dim Setting that can drop down the display brightness to as down as two nits. The image contrast of the iPhone X was found to be “slightly too high”.
However, the viewing-angle performance of its display is apparently better than any mobile display, monitor, TV or UHD TV that are available in the market right now. The OLED panel on the iPhone X displays 22% decrease in brightness, this is less than the 30% that traditional OLED panels display.
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DisplayMate also mentions the highly discussed ‘notch’ at the top of the display. The notch, which houses the TrueDepth cameras for FaceID and ‘portrait mode’ selfies has a negligible presence on the front, taking up to 2% of the total screen area.
Ever since its launch, the Google Pixel 2 XL has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The integration of software, hardware and AI by Google in the Pixel 2 smartphones has been overshadowed by the growing complaints against the Pixel 2 XL’s OLED display. In a new software update, apart from the December security patch, Google has introduced new settings in the display menu, in a bid to improve the user experience.
The software update also contains a security patch for the Wi-Fi “Krack” vulnerability.
The update also contains a fix for the faint clicking noise heard in some Pixel 2s as well as changes to the Pixel 2 XL’s display behaviour to mitigate against potential screen burn-in. About the new update, a Google community manager writes:
As we mentioned in our deeper dive, this update also brings planned UI changes which extend the life of the OLED display, including a fade out of the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen and an update to maximum brightness. These features have been carefully designed so as not to detract from the user experience. Since all OLED displays experience some degree of decay over time, we’ll continue to make enhancements which maximise the life of your Pixel screen.
With the new update, there will be a new set of three different options on both models: boosted, natural, and saturated under the Display settings option. Here is how Google described how the “saturated” setting would look:
The saturated mode puts the display into an unmanaged configuration, similar to how the Pixel 1 operates. The colors will be more saturated and vibrant, but less accurate (similar to most other smartphones which display more vibrant colors): we give consumers the option to choose the colour saturation.
Google’s definition of the saturated setting proves that even though this update has rolled out, the company still doesn’t want its users to use this setting. Google’s intentions are to keep the Pixel 2 XL looking accurate rather than eye-pleasing and unnatural.
Samsung and Apple may be nearing the end of their legal battle woes. The US Supreme Court refused to hear Samsung’s appeal of a ruling that awarded Apple $120 million for a case that started back in 2014.
Back in 2014, a San Jose, California federal court ruled that Samsung infringed several Apple patents that allowed for a lot of popular iPhone features, such as slide-to-unlock, autocorrect, and the ability for information like addresses and phone numbers to automatically turn into links. As a result of that ruling, Samsung was asked to pay US $119.6 million to Apple. That verdict was then overturned by the Federal Circuit but, it was then reinstated in October 2016 by that same court.
After that ruling, Samsung appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court. In the appeal, Samsung stated that the Federal Circuit, which specifically deals with patents, made the decision without listening or reading the whole story. The company also implied that the patent court is biased toward patent holders. In a statement, Samsung express its disappointment on the ruling:
Our argument was supported by many who believed that the Court should hear the case to reinstate fair standards that promote innovation and prevent abuse of the patent system. One of Apple’s patents at issue in this case has been invalidated by courts around the world, and yet today’s decision allows Apple to unjustly profit from this patent, stunts innovation and places competition in the courtroom rather than the marketplace.
The good news for Samsung is that this does not change an earlier decision to dismiss a $399 million verdict against the company. In December 2016, the US Supreme Court sided with Samsung in a case against Apple over patent infringement. The case began in 2012 when Apple sued Samsung, claiming Samsung had violated its design and other patents for its iPhone on many of Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones. After years of back-and-forth and re-appeals, Samsung took the case to the US Supreme Court in 2016 where it ruled 8-0 that Samsung does not have to pay $399 million to Apple, overturning an earlier appeals court ruling in this case.
Samsung and Apple have been rivals ever since the Android platform rose to prominence and Samsung became one of the biggest smartphone makers in the world. Apart from the legal battles, both the companies are known to mock each other on social media and their respective ad campaigns. Recently, Samsung released an ad where it mocked the iPhone X and urged people to ‘upgrade to Galaxy’.
OnePlus has announced that the new OnePlus 5T will be launched on the 16th of November at an event in New York. Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus confirmed that the OnePlus 5T will be available in India from the 21st of November via a flash sale. After weeks of speculation and doubts around the existence of the OnePlus 5T, the much anticipated smartphone will be made official. In a blog post, Carl Pei said:
For those eagerly considering the OnePlus 5T, let me share a key piece of info to help you decide. Sales for the OnePlus 5T in North America and Europe start on November 21. The OnePlus 5T will be available in China on December 1. Early birds in India will be able to get their device through a flash sale on November 21, while official sales start on November 28.
Get ready for #ANewView. Meet the #OnePlus5T on November 16. https://t.co/AuAAsRIg2i pic.twitter.com/RHsZuCT7Oe
— OnePlus (@oneplus) November 6, 2017
The other co-founder of OnePlus, Pete Lau took to Weibo, the Chinese microblogging website to hint at what the OnePlus 5T might be priced at. It is worth noting that he did not announce the official price but, gave information about what the pricing strategy will be as compared to that of the OnePlus 5. Pete Lau mentions that the OnePlus 5T may be slightly expensive than the OnePlus 5, and could cost under CNY 4,000 (Rs 39000). He confirms that the OnePlus 5T may cost less than Rs 40,000 for the 6GB RAM variant. Similar to the OnePlus 5, the OnePlus 5T is expected to be launched in two variants, one with 6GB/64GB onboard storage, and the other with 8GB RAM/128GB onboard storage.
As per a recent leak through a benchmarks website, the OnePlus 5T will have a 6-inch 2160 x 1080 px display with an 18:9 aspect ratio.
The listing reveals that the smartphone will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, an octa-core processor clocked at 2.4GHz and Adreno 540 GPU, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage. These specifications are the same as the OnePlus 5 and is expected to be this way as the Snapdragon 835 is the best chip available right now. The OnePlus 3T was an incremental upgrade over the OnePlus 3 because there was a faster chip available ion the market.
The next piece of information is interesting. According to the listing, the OnePlus 5T is expected to have a 20MP front-facing camera as opposed to a 16MP camera found on the OnePlus 5. The back cameras are expected to be the same 16MP + 20MP (telephoto lens) as the OnePlus 5 with improved portrait mode capabilities.
With the official launch just a few days away, there are possibilities of more leaks surfacing online and it won’t be a surprise if we all know what the phone will look like before it is officially launched.