Cam Bunton

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Sony has published full financial results for its third fiscal quarter (Q4 for everyone else), and things are looking pretty flat for the Japanese tech giant. Overall, the company made just over $1 billion USD in profit in the three months ending on December 31, 2015. Sony saw a significant increase in PS4 software sales, and in its motion picture department. Sadly, a substantial decline in smartphone sales means the company as a whole only increased its revenue by 0.5% on the same quarter a year ago…

Huawei sends out invites to Mobile World Congress launch event on Feb 21, likely not P9

Cam Bunton Jan 28 2016 - 8:07 am PT

Huawei has just sent out invitations to media for an event taking place in Barcelona on February 21st, the day before MWC 2016 kicks off in earnest. Time hasn’t yet been specified, but the event will take place at the Montjuïc Exhibition Centre, a location the manufacturer has used in the past to announce new products.

Xiaomi Mi 5 retail packaging leak seemingly reveals design and color options

Cam Bunton Jan 28 2016 - 6:50 am PT

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Xiaomi has already confirmed that it will reveal its next flagship smartphone, the Mi 5, at a media event in Barcelona during MWC next month. While we know when the phone will be launched, and that it will be equipped with a Snapdragon 820 processor, little else is close to confirmed. Even the design has been something of a mystery since all we’ve seen so far is a couple of sketchy leaks and a supposed render.

Today, further evidence has risen suggesting the earlier render was accurate. Images posted by well-known leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer show what appears to be a warehouse with multiple empty white boxes stacked on a pallet, seemingly ready for shipment to assembly lines.

The boxes themselves show a device almost identical to the previous renders, and shows them in four different fashionable colors: gold, pink, white and black.

Design-wise, the devices look very much like a Galaxy S6 with its rounded metal frame plus the glass front and back panels. The glass curves towards the edges on the back, similar to the design of the Note 5. As a reminder, these are the earlier leaks which claimed to show the Mi 5’s form factor previously:

While the company has been expectedly vague with any details regarding the Mi 5, we are expecting a device with specs to match most of the top flagship phones for 2016. The SD820-powered device is rumored to feature a Quad HD display, as well as an advanced f/2.2 aperture 16MP camera with 4K video recording. If it’s anything like previous Xiaomi devices, it will cost considerably less than the Galaxy S7, which Samsung is allegedly planning to launch during the first quarter of this year.

Oppo teases ‘groundbreaking power solution’ and ‘unprecedented smartphone camera innovation’ ahead of MWC event

Cam Bunton Jan 28 2016 - 4:19 am PT

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With Xiaomi having just announced its intention to announce the Mi 5 during MWC in Barcelona this year, Oppo wasn’t far behind with its own related — albeit incredibly vague — announcement. Oppo sent out a short press release claiming that it will show off a ‘groundbreaking power solution’ as well as an ‘unprecedented smartphone camera innovation’. If you’re looking for answers as to what exactly that means, I have none. It’s a string of buzz words that don’t say anything of substance.

The power solution could be anything from a new high density, high capacity, fast-charging smartphone battery, to a new battery pack. With Oppo having released motorized rotating cameras in the past, there are no shortage of possibilities as to what ‘camera innovation’ means.

Stepping aside from the excessive use of superlatives, Oppo had a fantastic year in 2015. Like Huawei, it saw a huge jump in the number of shipped devices worldwide. It sold 50 million smartphones, which was up 67 percent on the previous year, taking it up to 8th in the list of 2015’s biggest smartphone manufacturers.

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Wow the World: OPPO to Unveil Breakthrough Tech at MWC
Shenzhen, Jan. 28, 2016 — The ever-evolving smartphone brand OPPO is heading to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress 2016, where it plans to unveil a groundbreaking power solution and an unprecedented smartphone camera innovation that will offer tomorrow’s consumers a reinvigorated user experience.

“With our commitment to equip everyday consumers with the best technology, OPPO invests great efforts in technological innovation. We have a legacy of bringing new ideas to the industry that we are proud to uphold, such as introducing the world’s first motorized rotating camera, the fast and safe VOOC Flash Charge technology, the first front-facing Screen Flash, and the first selfie beautify function for smartphones,” said Mr. Sky Li, OPPO Vice President and Managing Director of International Mobile Business. “We are excited to present OPPO’s latest breakthroughs at the world-class MWC and look forward to creating even more amazing user experiences.”

In 2015, OPPO sold 50 million units, representing year-on-year growth of 67 percent. The company has broken into the top ten smartphone brands worldwide, ranking eighth in units shipped, according to a recent report by TrendForce.

OnePlus X, one of last year’s best budget phones, is now available invite-free

Cam Bunton Jan 28 2016 - 3:18 am PT

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OnePlus has announced via its official forums that the OnePlus X is now available to buy completely invite-free. You no longer need to wait until a Tuesday to buy the device without an invitation, just head to OnePlus.net and add the phone to your basket.

We’re extremely excited to be making the OnePlus X invite-free more quickly this time around. With every device we release, we grow more mature and more adept at handling the demands and expectations of our community. We largely owe our success to your unrelenting support, so we hope that this development will make the process of purchasing your very own OnePlus X as smooth and effortless as it can possibly be.

This marks the quickest time it’s taken any of OnePlus’ devices to go from launch to invite-free. The manufacturer’s original phone, the OnePlus One, wasn’t available to buy without an invite until around one year after it was launched. The OnePlus 2 took four months to achieve the same status, and the OnePlus X took around three months.

The OnePlus X was one of the best affordable phones launched last year. In fact, I kinda wish the company’s flagship phone was just a bigger version of the X with a better camera. At just $249 unlocked, it’s hard to think of a phone as complete and premium-looking for the same price.

With future phone releases, OnePlus would eventually like to reduce the time between launch and completely open sales even further. Perhaps at some point even offering the device for sale right off the bat. As it gets its inventory management under tighter control, that becomes a more likely possibility with every new phone launch.

Xiaomi Mi 5 launch on Feb. 24 will be company’s first at MWC in Barcelona

Cam Bunton Jan 28 2016 - 2:21 am PT

A few days ago, Xiaomi’s global VP Hugo Barra confirmed on Twitter that the company would be releasing the next eagerly-anticipated smartphone on February 24. Just a few hours ago, Barra took to Facebook to announce that a media preview for the Xiaomi Mi 5 will take place in Barcelona during MWC while the launch event takes place in Beijing…

Huawei predicted to be one of 2016’s smartphone market growth leaders

Cam Bunton Jan 27 2016 - 5:38 am PT

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In a report that’s no surprise to anyone who’s followed the smartphone market this past year, DigiTimes‘ industry sources are expecting Huawei to be this year’s biggest growers. The Chinese smartphone maker is predicted to sell 120 million smartphones in 2016, 20% more than it did during 2015.

We think if it follows on from its success this year, there’s no reason why it can’t achieve those figures…

Report: Galaxy S7 to launch alongside Samsung phone upgrade/rental program

Cam Bunton Jan 27 2016 - 3:44 am PT

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According to a report from ETNews in Korea, Samsung is planning to launch a new purchase scheme similar to Apple’s iPhone upgrade program when it releases the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge this Spring. A rumor from months ago suggested Samsung was planning the move, but wasn’t clear when the company was thinking of launching it.

Although the report doesn’t specify exact prices or details of the upgrade scheme, it does say the consumers will be able to pay a monthly rental fee and hand the phone back in after 12 months, swapping it out for the next model…

Chrome 48 beta’s new Security Panel in DevTools makes it easier to create HTTPS pages

Cam Bunton Jan 27 2016 - 2:52 am PT

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Google has announced that it’s rolling out a new feature in Chrome 48 beta so that developers can better find and fix issues hindering their sites from showing as ‘secure’. The new Security Panel in DevTools will help web developers deploy HTTPS web pages more easily by showing connection information for every network request, and indicating whether or not they’re secure.

Devs will be able to see an overview of any given page. Secure pages will be indicated as such by a green lock, or green dot. Non-secure pages will have a yellow/orange triangle and will have information indicating why that particular page isn’t classed as secure.

This overview shows whether the page has a valid certificate, a secure TLS connection, as well as whether or not there’s any mixed content (aka if it loads insecure HTTP subresources). If there is mixed content, you can easily see what it is, and fix it.

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Google launched the new Security Panel to replace the old ‘Connection Info’ tab which the company stated was too complicated for most users, but too basic for most devs. It didn’t make it clear exactly what was causing a site or page to show as non-secure.

Security Panel was originally shown off at the Chrome Dev Summit, where Emily Stark, a Google software engineer showed off the new tool in detail:

[youtube = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WuP4KcDBpI]

Security Panel in DevTools will begin its rollout over the next few days.

Google and NetHope launch Project Reconnect, making 25,000 Chromebooks available to Syrian refugees in Germany

Cam Bunton Jan 26 2016 - 5:01 am PT

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Google has announced a new philanthropic partnership with NetHope aiming to help Syrian refugees in Germany get reconnected by making 25,000 Chromebooks available to nonprofits. The goal — as described on the Project Reconnect home page — is “to help refugees as they strive to rebuild their lives, by facilitating access to education and information resources on the web.”

Xiaomi Mi 5 will launch on February 24, company VP confirms

Cam Bunton Jan 26 2016 - 2:53 am PT

Following weeks of speculation and leaks, Xiaomi’s global VP, Hugo Barra has confirmed on Twitter that the Mi 5 will launch on February 24. Having already revealed that the Mi 5 will be powered by a Snapdragon 820 processor, it’s clear this device is going to be the company’s flagship smartphone of 2016.

#Mi5 is almost here! Xiaomi’s first product in 2016, launching on Feb. 24. It’s everything you imagined, and more. pic.twitter.com/FTd0KzFrgD

— Hugo Barra (@hbarra) January 26, 2016

Apart from the processor, we know little about the Mi 5 with certainty. One website’s placeholder suggested the device will ship with specs that should compete head-to-head with the Galaxy S7, although it will undoubtedly be cheaper than Samsung’s next flagship smartphone. The Mi 5 listing claimed the smartphone will have a 5.2-inch Quad HD display coated in 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 4. It also suggested the phone will have a 6-element 16MP camera on the back with f/2.2 aperture and 4K video recording.

Xiaomi is well known for releasing powerful smartphones at competitive prices. The big question for 2016 is whether or not it will launch its upcoming devices in the US and other established western markets. Its biggest competitor, Huawei, made huge strides internationally last year, and will surely extend its lead over Xiaomi if the Mi-makers don’t respond aggressively.

LG plans to launch two flagship phones in 2016 following 4th quarter mobile loss

Cam Bunton Jan 26 2016 - 2:26 am PT

LG announced its Q4 2015 earnings this morning and revealed that although the company as a whole saw growth and profitability, the mobile division made a loss. LG made $308 million in Q4 thanks mostly to strong performance from its Home Appliance and Air Solution Company.

Despite LG’s mobile division making a loss of around $39 million, LG managed to sell 15.3 million smartphones globally in the fourth quarter, bringing its total for 2015 up to 59.7 million units. That’s slightly better than 2014, when LG managed to sell 59.1 million smartphones. Sequentially, fourth quarter sales were up 12% on the third quarter, thanks to strong performance in North America, presumably as a result of launching the V10 flagship smartphone and holiday season sales…

Lenovo launches K5 Note, an affordable full HD, all-metal phablet

Cam Bunton Jan 25 2016 - 1:26 pm PT

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Having recently made comments that it is seeking to make fewer handsets this year than last, Lenovo is making some contradictory moves in the smartphone market. The manufacturer has launched the all-metal K5 Note in China, and the mid-range smartphone makes its way to market in the same month the K4 Note landed in India. Color me confused.

Regardless, the Lenovo K5 Note will cost ¥1,099 (approx $167) when it lands on Chinese store shelves at the beginning of February. For that money, the phone offers some admirable specifications.

As well as being made from aluminum, it has a full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution 5.5-inch screen boasting a pixel density of around 401ppi. It also features a 1.8GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 processor paired with 2GB and 16GB storage (expandable up to 128GB). A 3,500mAh battery should ensure that it goes at least a full day on a single charge.

Other key features include a 13MP f/2.2 rear camera with phase detection auto-focus and 1080p video recording, as well as an 8MP front-facing camera. It runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with Lenovo’s own Vibe UI on top. The device measures 8.5mm thin, making it slightly thicker than most flagship phones, but is by no means bulky. It also has a fingerprint sensor on the back, as is normal with modern smartphones.

With the low-mid tier markets becoming full of metal devices equipped with high-end specs, it’ll be interesting to see who comes out on top this year. Will Lenovo’s devices have a chance of competing with the likes of Huawei, Xiaomi or OnePlus?

Job listings seemingly confirm Google is working on its own VR hardware

Cam Bunton Jan 25 2016 - 5:38 am PT

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Two weeks ago, a report claimed that Google is forming its own VR division, with Clay Bavor (former VP of Gmail and Drive) in charge of the new focus on virtual reality. Now, two job listings have shown up indicating Google isn’t just really interested in VR as a concept, it wants to build its own hardware too.

Google has posted VR job listings for a Hardware Engineering Technical Lead Manager as well as a PCB Layout Engineer. Both of these job listings specifically mention Virtual Reality in the main job roles, and also mention consumer devices, suggesting Google wants to launch its own VR hardware for the general consumer.
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Android Marshmallow for Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Note 5 rolling out from next month according to sketchy leaked schedule

Cam Bunton Jan 25 2016 - 4:32 am PT

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Samsung is historically a little behind its Android-making competitors when it comes to rolling out major software updates for its smartphones. So it’s no surprise to see that Marshmallow hasn’t yet officially landed on any Galaxy series devices. If a leaked roadmap is anything to go by, that could be about to change…

OxygenOS 2.2.0 rolling out for OnePlus X with manual camera controls, save to SD card options, more

Cam Bunton Jan 25 2016 - 3:26 am PT

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Following the official launch of OxygenOS 2.1.4 for the original OnePlus One, the manufacturer is now pushing out a new software update for its latest phone. OnePlus announced via its official forum that OnePlus X owners should start to see the OxygenOS 2.2.0 update hit their phones from today.

It’s an incremental OTA update, meaning not everyone will get it on the first day, but you will get it over the air, and won’t have to install manually using any flash tools.

The update includes the following:

Manual mode in the Camera App
‘Save to SD card’ option added to Camera App
USSD bug fix for India
Dual SIM preferences have been reintroduced in system settings
OTA App upgrade
Security patches
Usual unspecified bug fixes and ‘optimizations’

While having the manual camera controls is a nice new addition, it sadly isn’t a virtual button that magically improves the camera sensor. So the camera won’t suddenly become incredible, it’ll just be easier to adjust brightness/exposure levels and focus, hopefully making it more bearable.

If you don’t see the update land on your phone immediately, be patient, it should arrive over the coming days/weeks.

Latest Xiaomi Mi 5/Mi 5 Plus chassis leak indicates iPhone 6-esque metal chassis [Update]

Cam Bunton Jan 25 2016 - 3:10 am PT

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Update: Another explanation for the frame not quite matching the previous Xiaomi Mi 5 leaks perfectly is that it’s a photoshopped image of a different handset. Reliable leaker, Steve Hemmerstoffer posted comparisons with an Oppo chassis leak, which looks virtually identical to today’s images. It’s plausible that someone has doctored these to include the Mi logo.

Don’t get fooled by today’s fake #Xiaomi #Mi5 leak… pic.twitter.com/RNCMcFIuZp

— Steve Hemmerstoffer (@stagueve) January 25, 2016

Xiaomi is expected to release its next flagship smartphone sometime next month, after one of the company’s chiefs told his followers on Weibo that a new phone was to be launched after the Chinese New Year. While he didn’t share a great number of in-depth details we do know that it’ll be powered by a Snapdragon 820 processor.

Recently, the front panel of Xiaomi’s Mi 5 leaked, giving us a glimpse of what we can expect from the next Mi handset. Over the weekend, further images were published by CNBeta claiming to show the metal rear panel in great detail. On first impressions, it looks very familiar…

OxygenOS 2.1.4 now available officially for OnePlus One

Cam Bunton Jan 22 2016 - 5:16 am PT

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When OnePlus launched its second smartphone last year, it opted to do so without the Cyanogen-based operating system found on its first smartphone, the OnePlus One. Instead, it had been developing its own UI called OxygenOS which ended up being the out-of-the-box operating system for both the OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X.

Today, the manufacturer has announced that it has finished building a custom version of OxygenOS for the original OnePlus smartphone, and it’s available to download now…

Google launches free high-speed Wi-Fi network in Mumbai Central station

Cam Bunton Jan 22 2016 - 3:21 am PT

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Recently, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed plans for the company’s renewed focus on India. Part of that plan was ensuring the country’s population could get access to high-speed internet, especially when travelling on the nation’s rail services.

Today, Google has officially announced the launch of its free Wi-Fi service in Mumbai Central, one of India’s busiest train stations where 100,000 people on average pass through every day…

SwiftKey Stats brings signature emoji, your most-used topics to beta Android app

Cam Bunton Jan 22 2016 - 2:01 am PT

SwiftKey 6 - Themes

SwiftKey has updated the beta version of its popular keyboard app to include in-depth, personalized and visualized stats for all its users. Using SwiftKey Stats in the SwiftKey beta app for Android you can now see more than just the usual set of statistics. It looks at your typing habits, and brings you a pretty fun look at your most-used emoji, topics and more.

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Topics – 3-5 different subjects you type about the most. We created a bunch of fun, diverse categories to show you some of the topics you love to talk about – from Art & Design to Comics and everything inbetween.
Top Emoji – the emoji you use most often. This is a cloud-like visualization of the emoji you use the most – the bigger the emoji in the ‘cloud’, the more you use it.
Signature Emoji – the emoji you use more than other people. This emoji is generated by the emoji you overuse compared to the average (this is not the emoji you use most often).
Vocabulary Size – how many words has SwiftKey learned from you? This number starts at zero when you install – find out how much your personal SwiftKey vocabulary has grown!

If you’re intrigued and want to try it for yourself, you can download the beta for free from the Play Store. Once installed, go through the set-up process and then sign in to your account. As soon as you start typing, the app starts collecting information and will be able to give you your stats.

Feature Request: Why Android Wear needs Force Touch-like features

Cam Bunton Jan 21 2016 - 1:45 pm PT

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Feature Request is a new regular NewGeekGuide series where authors offer their opinion on how to improve popular hardware or software products.

I think most of us who have used it are aware that Android Wear isn’t exactly a complete platform yet. It feels a little beta-ish. And that’s okay for now. One of the best things about Google’s software efforts is that we get to go along for the ride as it publicly experiments and launches new features. It’s not a case of waiting for months, or years, for it to secretly ‘perfect’ its product before telling us we’re ready for it.

Android Wear is still young enough that there’s plenty Google could change without upsetting the apple cart too much. One feature I think should be implemented soon (this year if possible) is a Force Touch-like technology. In other words: Android Wear should have a deeply engrained system to take advantage of pressure-sensitive touchscreen displays…

Google blocked more than 17M fake ‘software system warning’ ads, 12.5M misleading medicinal ads in 2015

Cam Bunton Jan 21 2016 - 6:51 am PT

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Google has published a blog post revealing just how many bad ads it removed from the web in 2015. Spoiler: they removed a lot.

There can be all kinds of bad ads, whether they’re ads which falsely claim to help weight loss, or phishing sites that trick unassuming web users to submit personal information. Thanks to a team of some 1,000 employees, and some clever computer algorithms, the company was able to remove a ton of ads and ban a huge number of misbehaving advertisers…

Leaked Exynos 8890-powered Galaxy S7 benchmarks show up on Geekbench and AnTuTu

Cam Bunton Jan 21 2016 - 5:59 am PT

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With the Galaxy S7 widely expected to be officially unveiled at an event next month, rumors and leaks are on the rise for Samsung’s next generation flagship smartphone. For some time we’ve been hearing that Sammy is working on both a Snapdragon 820 and Exynos 8890 equipped version of the S7. Over the past couple of days, claimed leaked benchmarks corroborate those rumors, and the others we’ve heard over the past few months.

HTC One M10 ‘Perfume’ rumored to come with Snapdragon 820 and MediaTek variants, launch after MWC

Cam Bunton Jan 21 2016 - 4:01 am PT

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According to relatively well-known HTC leaker, @LlabTooFeR on Twitter, the Taiwanese manufacture won’t use MWC as its platform to launch its next flagship device this year. The usually reliable leaker corroborates a previous rumor, suggesting that the it’s more likely the phone will get its own separate event after MWC. An earlier rumor had suggested we won’t see it announced until March, with a retail launch due in April…