Rumor has it that LG plans to launch its next flagship phone later this year rather than at Mobile World Congress. But that doesn’t mean the company is showing up to MWC empty-handed. According to VentureBeat (and Evan Blass), the company will launch an update to last year’s LG V30 next week. It’s called the […]
TCL introduces Alcatel 5, 3, and 1 smartphones (and tablets)
The Alcatel 1X smartphone with Android Go isn’t the only new Alcatel phone launching at Mobile World Congress this weekend. Alcatel’s parent company TCL is also unveiling a new flagship phone called the Alcatel 5, plus several more phones that will be sold under the mid-range Alcatel 3 and entry-level Alcatel 1 lines. All of […]
Alcatel 1X is one of the first Android Go (cheap) smartphones
Google announced last year that it was developing a version of Android and some key apps that would be optimized for low-cost smartphones. Now TCL is introducing one of the first phones designed for the Android Go platform. The Alcatel 1X is a budget phone with kind of crappy specs… but the point is that […]
General Mobile GM8 is an Android One phone with an 18:9 display
General Mobile’s latest Android One smartphone is the first to feature an 18:9 (or 2:1) display. The General Mobile GM8 has a 5.7 inch, 1440 x 720 pixel IPS display and a decent set of mid-range specs. As an Android One phone, it will also get monthly security updates for at least two years and […]
Archos Hello is an Android-powered “Home Assistant” (that seems separate from Google’s smart display platform)
Lat month Google unveiled a new “smart display” platform for Google Assistant-powered speakers-with-displays. Lenovo, LG, JBL, and Sony all plan to bring smart displays to market this year, where they’ll compete with similar gadgets from Amazon including the Echo Show and Echo Dot. French device maker Archos also seems to want a piece of the […]
Windows 10 will let you run multiple instances of UWP apps soon
The Microsoft Store may not be as essential to Windows 10 as the Google Play Store is to Android or the App Store is to iOS. But there are a few key advantages to downloading Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps from Microsoft’s store rather than from third-party sources. You can get updates automatically. Install an […]
Energizer Power Max P16K Pro smartphone packs a 16,000 mAh battery
Mobile chip makers have gotten a lot better at balancing power and performance recently, so that it’s not unusual to find a phone with a 3,000 mAh battery (give or take) that offers all-day battery life. But what if you’d rather have all-week battery life? There are a handful of phones with 4,000 mAh or […]
Deals of the Day (2-23-2018)
The Samsung Chromebook Pro and Chromebook Plus are nearly identical laptops with 12.3 inch, 2400 x 1600 pixel toucshcreen displays, 360-degree hinges, and Samsung pens for writing or drawing. Both weigh about 2.4 pounds and measure about half an inch thick. And both have 4GB of RAM. But the Pro has an Intel processor and […]
Google steps up its augmented reality game with ARCore 1.0 and Google Lens update
Google is bringing its latest augmented reality platform out of beta. First announced last year, ARCore is a set of tools software developers can use to create apps that superimpose virtual objects on real-world scenes using a smartphone’s camera and other sensors. It’s not as sophisticated as Google’s Project Tango, which also relied on specialized […]
Samsung Max data-saving app picks up where Opera Max left off (for Samsung phones only)
Opera pulled the plug on its Opera Max data saver app last year, but now Samsung says it has a new app designed to replace Opera Max. Like its predecessor, the new Samsung Max app offers a data saving mode and privacy protection feature. But unlike Opera Max, the new app will only be available […]