Cam Bunton, Editor at NewGeekGuide – Cam has been passionate about tech since his dad bought the family’s first Commodore AMIGA back in the late 80’s. He’s been in the tech industry (writing and making videos) since 2010, and joined NewGeekGuide as the resident video producer and product reviewer in 2015. He sometimes writes news and reviews for 9to5Mac too.
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Google Ideas, Google’s think tank, has officially split off from the rest of the Google products to become its very own sub-division of Alphabet. J, in the company’s ever growing list of companies, now stands for ‘Jigsaw’. Jared Cohen is Jigsaw’s newly appointed president, having run as the Director of Google Ideas for some time. Eric Schmidt announced the move in a Medium post.
Sony has unveiled a new mobile camera sensor which could ensure the smartphones of the near future pack way more punch. If Sony’s claims are true, they’ll produce better images with less motion blur, and way faster and accurate autofocusing. All of this in a ‘stacked’ sensor which is smaller than its current version.
Samsung’s official Indonesian channel has published a teaser on YouTube to get us ready for the next Galaxy devices, which are due to be unveiled on Sunday at MWC in Barcelona. With the video having only been posted recently, it’s hard to imagine Samsung is hinting at an already-released devices in its promo, and yet, all devices we see appear to be current generation devices. In other words, it’s a teaser without a teaser. We think…
As the Galaxy S7 launch closes in on us, leaks are on the increase. The latest — just like the real-life photos of the LG G5 — comes from Dubai selling-site, Dubizzle. In a listing which claims to be selling imported US models of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, the phone is shown off again.
With all the hype and abundance of leaks surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S7, it’s easy to forget that the other big Korean tech company is due to launch a brand new flagship smartphone soon. LG will unveil the G5 at an event in Barcelona on Sunday, Feb. 21 and is expected to depart from its usual plastic-bodied device in favor of an all-metal flagship.
Just a few days ahead of its launch, a unit has been spotted for sale on Dubai’s Dubizzle website, and seems to show the unit in the flesh for the first time.
At CES last month, LG launched a couple of new K-series midrange smartphones with the aim to at least have a presence at the low end of the market. Design was almost identical between the K7 and K10, although specifications were slightly different. Without as much as a press release, it seems the company has now added another K-series phone which sits right in between those two.
Honor has announced through its official Twitter channel that customers with the Honor 7 should start to see Android Marshmallow land on their devices within the next couple of weeks. Currently, the Huawei brand is rolling out the update to beta testers, and will push the software to all other users once that staged roll-out is over.
Having seen a few leaks already over the past few weeks, it’s fair to say there’s little left to the imagination when it comes to what Samsung will announced this coming Sunday. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are expected to take on a design very similar to the S6 family, albeit slightly more curvy and perhaps a little thicker.
Having already officially outed one of the features of its upcoming G5 smartphone, LG clearly isn’t shy about announcing features and products ahead of time. Ahead of their official debut, LG has revealed details of two Android Marshmallow-powered mass-tier phones called the X screen and X cam. As you can probably imagine from their names, each has its own single main feature.
Samsung has announced officially — at long last — that its Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge is rolling out from today. This news follows weeks after the company made it available for some Galaxy Note 5 beta testers on AT&T and some UK beta testers with the S6/S6 Edge.  The rollout will begin in Korea from today, with other markets and carrier-locked models to come in the near future. Samsung also notes that the software update for other Galaxy models is “soon to follow”…
Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s global VP, hasn’t been shy about teasing features for the upcoming Mi 5 smartphone. Xiaomi’s next flagship is being unveiled at an event in Barcelona, at MWC 2016. He’s already told us that the phone will come equipped with Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 820.
Google has won a UK court case filed against it by a European mapping company named Streetmap.EU, which claimed the search giant had been skewing results in its own favor. Streetmap will appeal the decision, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Facebook has been busy testing new versions of its Material-inspired Messenger in recent weeks. Three weeks ago, the Material Design refresh started showing up for a handful of users with an account-switching feature and new FAB (floating action button), while others last week reported a fresh new blue lick of paint.
More recently than that, it seems some Messenger users are seeing the inclusion of a new feature. Or rather, the return of an old, discontinued feature.
Following in the footsteps of competitors, Adidas and Under Armor, ASICS will buy fitness app-maker, Runkeeper. The move was announced on Medium by Runkeeper’s founder, Jason Jacobs, and indicates that all fitness apparel companies clearly see the need to embed tracking technology, and/or tie-in apps with their brands.
Following up its Snapdragon Wear 2100 announcement, Qualcomm has introduced three new low/mid-tier processors to power the next wave of affordable smartphones. The latest additions are the Snapdragon 625, 435 and 425, and all include a notable improvement on previous generation SoCs.
LlabTooFer, who’s slowly building himself something of a reputation for leaking reliable HTC-related information, is back with another nugget today. According to the leaker, the HTC ‘Perfume’ One M10 will feature a Sony IMX377 camera sensor on the back. This is the same 12MP 1.55um camera with laser autofocus and PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus) found in the two new Nexus smartphones…
Qualcomm has announced a brand new processor designed specifically for smartwatches and wearables. The Snapdragon 2100 has been developed to enable manufacturers to create thinner smartwatches with longer-lasting batteries, and make it easier to design watches that don’t need to be tethered to phones.
While mobile photography keeps on improving thanks to the advancement of tiny camera sensors and image processors, it’s still nowhere near as fully-fledged as DSLR or Micro 4/3rd photography. You can’t swap out interchangeable lenses for different types of imagery, and have to rely on third party manufacturers producing clip-on accessories. That’s where the Aukey 18mm HD wide angle clip-on lens comes in.
According to Android World‘s ‘reliable’ sources, Samsung will open pre-orders for the Galaxy S7 on the same day that it announces the device at MWC in Barcelona; February 21. What’s more, it’s claimed that early shoppers who order between Feb 21 and March 10 will receive a free Gear VR set.
Pre-ordered phones are purportedly due for shipment from March 11th, which matches up with a previous rumor that the device will get its retail launch on that day. Android World says customers who want the free VR set will need to register through a separate promotional site, and receive the unit at a later date.
When the original iPhone was announced 9 years ago, the smartphone market landscape was very different. One of the pre-iPhone champions, of course, was BlackBerry. Its physical QWERTY-equipped devices were fast, efficient and productive. Next to the iPhone, they looked old within a few weeks of Apple’s first smartphone launch.
After that came Android, and with it, the slow-demise of the once-giants of the mobile world. The Canadian company had to try and reinvent itself after years of trying to bring its own platform back to life.
As iPhone went from strength to strength, BlackBerry has had to start again with its very first Android handset. But just how does the company’s first Google-powered phone compare with what many regard to be the best phablet around?
Monument Valley is undoubtedly one of the best, and most attractive, puzzle games to ever hit the Play Store. Its gorgeous Escher-esque art and smooth, minimalist animation ensures that it’ll almost certainly gain ‘legendary’ status among the mobile gaming community. Now, with the help of a crowd-support project on LEGO Ideas, it could become immortalized in the form of an official LEGO set.
The concept was created by LEGO Ideas user Isometry, and, if you were worried that it’ll just be a static set of aesthetically pleasing geometric structures, your fears are miss-placed. The aim is to make them interactive.
My Lego Ideas project is inspired by the Monument Valley game, and aims to capture the journey through a creative 3-D experience. This set includes four minimalist landscape themes that are modular and interactive; featuring rotating walkways, platforms, pillars, staircases, bridges and water wheels; along with three main characters, Ida, Totem and Crow. It is an original Lego design concept with visually attractive elements that are appealing and intriguing to a wide audience.
The project has 1,590 supporters so far (at time of writing) and has some way to go before LEGO will build it and place it in stores. But, of all the mobile gaming tributes, I can hardly think of one more fitting than a build-able interactive Monument Valley set.
The set concept includes The Garden from chapter II, Labyrinth from chapter VI, Water Palace from chapter IV, Halcyon Court from Appendix IV and three characters; Ida, Totem and the Crow. There are also three illusion stickers to add dimension through illusion of shadows, buttons, doorways and windows.
Unlike most crowd-support sites, LEGO Ideas doesn’t ask members for money. Instead, you offer your official support and fill in a very quick poll on how popular you think it would be if it hit store shelves. Once it gains 10,000 supporters, LEGO will review it and might even launch the sets.
YouTube has launched its first original movies and series’ exclusively for YouTube Red subscribers. In an aim to compete with the likes of Amazon and Netflix, YouTube has decided to play the subscription game, and give its paying subscribers a selection of content just for them. The first videos are now live, and have been developed in conjunction with some of the company’s best stars; Lilly Singh, Rooster Teeth, PewDiePie and AwesomenessTV.
A couple of fresh leaks this morning suggest the Samsung Galaxy S7 range will see a return to a more traditional color scheme. A press render from oft-reliable Evan Blass reveals a dark gray model, while a retail dummy phone unit leaked by Pisapapeles shows a gold version of the device.
Yesterday, a patent revealed that Samsung might be planning an ‘always on’ display feature for its next flagship, the Galaxy S7. While Samsung hasn’t passed comment on those rumors yet, LG was quick to respond by confirming that its next high-end G-series smartphone will have an ‘always on’ feature.
