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Nokia 6 (First Gen) Receives Android Oreo Beta – Download & Install with Nokia Beta Labs Last month, HMD Global rolled out an Oreo beta for the Nokia 5 and promised that the Oreo beta for the mid-range Nokia 6 would soon follow suit. Making good on its promise, the company announced on Saturday that a beta version of Android Oreo is now available for the Nokia 6, adding that owners residing in India can now enroll their device in the Nokia Beta Labs to get a taste of Android Oreo. HMD Global Chief Product Officer, Juho Sarvikas, took to Twitter to announce the news: https://twitter.com/sarvikas/status/949595526000971777 The beta update, which carries build number (V5.140), is based on Android 8.0 and weighs in at 1799.3MB in size. If you have got a Nokia 6 and are interested in trying out an early version of Android Oreo, you can register your device in the beta program at Nokia’s “Beta Labs” . You will need to provider details like the IMEI number and ...

Google Pixel & Pixel 2 Users Reporting Issues with Swipe Gestures on the Lock Screen The Google Pixel line of devices launched in 2017 and has replaced the Nexus line in receiving Android version upgrades first. With Android 8.1 Oreo releasing recently , it came with a number of improvements and bug fixes over the initial release of Android Oreo . However, it seems to have also brought some new problems when it comes to using the lock screen according to multiple reports from users on Reddit and Google’s Product Forums. Apparently, both generations of Pixel devices running Android 8.1 Oreo appear to be affected. The main complaints relate to the difficulty of using the lock screen, with swipe gestures requiring a full device-wide swipe. This includes swiping away notifications, accessing quick toggles, swipe to unlock the device and even answering phone calls. To answer a phone call, one reportedly has to swipe directly from the bottom of the screen to the top. Swiping awa...

One Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (Exynos) Owner Receives Android Oreo Update The Galaxy Note 8 hasn’t gotten a stable version of Android Oreo yet, but Samsung launched a beta program in select markets last year. Since then, it’s issued updates with fixes for the KRACK Wi-Fi exploit and Google’s December Android security patches , and new evidence suggests a broader release is forthcoming. On Friday, a redditor  claiming to work for Samsung published pictures of a Galaxy Note 8 model (SM-N950F) that recently received an update to Oreo. The software (version N950FXXU2CRA1.DM) is an internal test build, according to  SamMobile , and reportedly contains the January 2018 Android security patch. Source: SamMobile Interestingly, the redditor’s phone is an Exynos model of Galaxy Note 8. The Note 8 comes in two variants — one with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor that’s sold in China and the US, and one with Samsung’s Exynos 8895 processor that’s ...

Nokia 6 (2018) Official with Snapdragon 630 SoC, Bothie Camera Mode and OZO Audio After weeks of leaks and rumors , HMD Global on Friday finally took the wraps off the Nokia 6 (2018) , its latest mid-range smartphone for 2018. It’s the successor to the last year’s Nokia 6 , which was announced in China around the same time a year ago, and it improves upon its predecessor while offering a more competitive package all-around. At first glance, the new Nokia 6 (2018) looks just like the old Nokia 6, but there are a couple of key differences worth noting. For instance, the fingerprint scanner has moved to the back, and the capacitive navigation buttons have been replaced by standard Android software navigation keys. In addition, the stereo speakers found on the original Nokia 6 have been replaced by a single bottom-firing speaker. Source: Nokia   The Nokia 6 (2018) sports a metal unibody design made out of 6000-series aluminum with chamfered edges and rounded corners, which...

Leak Reveals Specs of the Sony Xperia XA2, XA2 Ultra, and L2 Sony has a number of mid-range smartphones at different price points, and folks who prefer the company’s affordable offerings are likely familiar with the Sony Xperia XA series, which launched in June 2016, and the Sony Xperia XA1, which hit stores shelves in in April 2017. On Thursday, a new leak revealed details about their successors: The Sony Xperia XA2, XA2 Ultra, and L2. Source: VentureBeat This leak mainly focuses on the details of the XA2 and XA2 Ultra, since the source, Evan Blass, says that less is known about the upcoming Sony Xperia L2. First up is the Sony Xperia XA1, the flagship entry in the series. We’re looking at a device that will be made available in at least four different colors, and that features a 5.2-inch 1080p display. That’s an upgrade from the Sony Xperia XA1’s 5-inch 720p display. The Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra, on the other hand, will reportedly retain its predecessor’s ...

HMD Global’s Nokia 6 2018 Leaks Ahead of Launch When HMD Global began selling Android smartphones with Nokia branding, it started with safe bets, and the strategy paid off — the 2017 Nokia 6 received a lot of attention for high-end specs and affordable price tag. And this year, it seems that HMD Global’s iterating on the work it started. On Thursday, a Chinese retailer prematurely leaked the 2018 version of the Nokia 6. Source: NokiaMob We’ve been hearing about a 2018 variant of the Nokia 6 for a couple of months now, and the product listing fills in the remaining gaps. The Nokia 6 2018 weighs in at 172 grams, and comes equipped with an aluminum unibody, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, and a 5.5-inch 1080p display. Under the hood, it packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 system-on-chip paired with 4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of storage (plus a microSD card slot), depending on the model. The Nokia 6 2018’s other highlights include a 16MP camera sensor on the ba...

Some Razer Phone Owners Experiencing Issues with the Camera App and Screen Dimming The Razer Phone isn’t bad for a first attempt. It’s Razer’s first phone, and its innovative 120Hz display won it early praise from reviewers. But some users are reporting a few glaring bugs with the camera, screen, and fingerprint sensor. Hopefully, Razer’s looking to fix all that. One bug automatically applies filters to photos even when the filters are disabled. Users report filters being applied without choosing them, leading to unintended results. Factory resetting the phone doesn’t seem to fix the issue, and it’s unclear if it affects all camera applications or just Razer’s first-party camera app. Source: Razer Forums A reply from a Razer staff on the official Razer Phone forums states that bug reports will be passed on to engineers, though that doesn’t mean they’ve confirmed the issue is present. Another bug allegedly has to do with the Razer P...

Some Razer Phone Owners Experiencing Issues with the Camera App and Screen Dimming The Razer Phone isn’t bad for a first attempt. It’s Razer’s first phone, and its innovative 120Hz display won it early praise from reviewers. But some users are reporting a few glaring bugs with the camera, screen, and fingerprint sensor. Hopefully, Razer’s looking to fix all that. One bug automatically applies filters to photos even when the filters are disabled. Users report filters being applied without choosing them, leading to unintended results. Factory resetting the phone doesn’t seem to fix the issue, and it’s unclear if it affects all camera applications or just Razer’s first-party camera app. Source: Razer Forums A reply from a Razer staff on the official Razer Phone forums states that bug reports will be passed on to engineers, though that doesn’t mean they’ve confirmed the issue is present. Another bug allegedly has to do with the Razer P...

Honor View 10 Launched in India for Rs. 29,999 ($473), will be Available from January 8 Honor, a Huawei subbrand, has come a long way. It recently signaled its intention to become India’s largest smartphone manufacturer , and its affordable smartphones have done well in the country. ( 20,000 units of the Honor 7X sold within an hour over the course of three December flash sales .) The Honor 8 Pro, which launched in July 2017, was also well-received. Since then, though, the market has changed. 18:9 (2:1) displays are becoming increasingly commonplace in the affordable flagship market, exemplified by Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 and the OnePlus 5T . Honor was expected to follow suit by releasing its own phones with 18:9 displays, and the company delivered:  The Honor V10 was unveiled in China in November , and its international variant, the Honor View 10 , launched in December 5 ahead of a January 8 ship date. (The company also released the affordable Honor 7X at the same event.) Now, the H...

Samsung Unveils the Exynos 9810: 3rd Generation Custom CPU Cores and Mali-G72MP18 GPU In November, Samsung teased the announcement of the Exynos 9810, which had been selected for the CES 2018 Innovation Awards . At that time, details about the new system-on-chip were scarce. A few days ago, Samsung confirmed via Twitter that it would officially unveil the next Exynos SoC on January 4, and now, it has published the details of its newest chip. The background : Ever since the Galaxy S , Samsung has used Exynos SoCs in its flagship phones. Notably, the Galaxy S featured a single-core Exynos 3110 SoC, which was followed by the dual-core Exynos 4210 and the quad-core Exynos 4412 in the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy S III , respectively. In 2013, Samsung used a different strategy, though. It adopted ARM’s big.LITTLE tech with the Exynos 5410, which had four ARM Cortex-A15 performance cores and four ARM Cortex-A7 efficiency cores. The Exynos 5410 was relegated to 3G versions of the Galaxy ...

Here’s an Official List of 120Hz Games for the Razer Phone When Razer unveiled the Razer Phone , it made headlines for a number of reasons. It was a big move for a company known for its PCs, keyboards, and video game peripherals. Then there’s the fact that the Razer Phone is one of the first Android smartphones to feature a 120Hz display. But while that spec’s impressive in its own right, it doesn’t mean much if there isn’t software to support it. So this week, Razer published an official list of Android games that have been optimized to run at 120Hz. Android takes advantage of the 120Hz display on the Razer Phone, and it makes a noticeable difference in the UX’s scrolling and overall responsiveness. But games are a different story — some of them are hard-coded to run at a fixed framerate. And in the severest cases, Android developers have to go in and make changes in order to get a game to reach 120Hz. Since it hasn’t been easy to find g...

Report: Google and Amazon Likely Lost Money on Smart Speaker Sales Over the Holidays There seems to be an ebb and flow when it comes to consumer tech, and nowhere is it more apparent than the smart speaker market, where Amazon and Google are competing for dominance. The competition’s fierce enough that neither’s afraid to forgo profits — according to a Reuters report, in fact, Google ended up losing money on the Google Home Mini and Amazon the Amazon Echo Dot  over the holidays. Both Amazon and Google took advantage of the holiday season to bolster sales. The Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini were discounted to as little as $29 (from $50 and $35, respectively), which put them in “impulse buy” territory. But neither turned a profit — analysts estimate that the companies broke even or took small losses on sales. Analysts at ABI Research estimate that the Amazon Echo Dot’s bill of materials is about $31, and that the Google Home Mini’s p...

Report: Google and Amazon Likely Lost Money on Smart Speaker Sales Over the Holidays There seems to be an ebb and flow when it comes to consumer tech, and nowhere is it more apparent than the smart speaker market, where Amazon and Google are competing for dominance. The competition’s fierce enough that neither’s afraid to forgo profits — according to a Reuters report, in fact, Google ended up losing money on the Google Home Mini and Amazon the Amazon Echo Dot  over the holidays. Both Amazon and Google took advantage of the holiday season to bolster sales. The Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini were discounted to as little as $29 (from $50 and $35, respectively), which put them in “impulse buy” territory. But neither turned a profit — analysts estimate that the companies broke even or took small losses on sales. Analysts at ABI Research estimate that the Amazon Echo Dot’s bill of materials is about $31, and that the Google Home Mini’s p...

Google Looking to Bolster G Suite and Take on Microsoft Google’s Google Cloud suite of productivity applications — Docs, Sheets, and Drive — are part of a package called G Suite , the search giant’s answer to Microsoft’s Office 365. G Suite’s evolved substantially over the years, and rumor has it that Google’s developing new features primarily targeted at businesses, according to  The Information . The first will allow employers to manage employee data, and it’s the Mountain View-based answer to Microsoft’s new Azure Active Directory . It’ll reportedly cost $8 per employee, which is a little pricier than Microsoft’s options — its plans start at $6 per user. Another new forthcoming G Suite feature, code-named “Wolverine”, will see Google roll out voice over IP (VoIP) to businesses. It’s said to be akin to Skype for Business : A cloud-based system that uses Google Hangouts technology to route calls...

Google Looking to Bolster G Suite and Take on Microsoft Google’s Google Cloud suite of productivity applications — Docs, Sheets, and Drive — are part of a package called G Suite , the search giant’s answer to Microsoft’s Office 365. G Suite’s evolved substantially over the years, and rumor has it that Google’s developing new features primarily targeted at businesses, according to  The Information . The first will allow employers to manage employee data, and it’s the Mountain View-based answer to Microsoft’s new Azure Active Directory . It’ll reportedly cost $8 per employee, which is a little pricier than Microsoft’s options — its plans start at $6 per user. Another new forthcoming G Suite feature, code-named “Wolverine”, will see Google roll out voice over IP (VoIP) to businesses. It’s said to be akin to Skype for Business : A cloud-based system that uses Google Hangouts technology to route calls...

Google is Reportedly Looking to Sell the Zagat Brand and Website Before Yelp , OpenTable , and the plethora of online communities devoted to restaurant reviews, there was Zagat , a curated, for-pay collation of restaurant reviews and scores from around the country. At the service’s  peak in 2011, when Google acquired it for $151 million, it was a privilege to be featured in a Zagat guide. But the platform’s development has stagnated, and a new report claims that Google’s looking to offload the brand in the near future. While a sale is certainly not guaranteed, Google’s had informal talks with potential acquirers over the last few months, according to Reuters. The transaction would reportedly include the Zagat brand name, along with its website. Google’s acquisition was an interesting move for the Mountain View-based tech giant. At that time, it was believed that Google had big plans for the brand, and while that may have been true, things didn’t turn...

Google is Reportedly Looking to Sell the Zagat Brand and Website Before Yelp , OpenTable , and the plethora of online communities devoted to restaurant reviews, there was Zagat , a curated, for-pay collation of restaurant reviews and scores from around the country. At the service’s  peak in 2011, when Google acquired it for $151 million, it was a privilege to be featured in a Zagat guide. But the platform’s development has stagnated, and a new report claims that Google’s looking to offload the brand in the near future. While a sale is certainly not guaranteed, Google’s had informal talks with potential acquirers over the last few months, according to Reuters. The transaction would reportedly include the Zagat brand name, along with its website. Google’s acquisition was an interesting move for the Mountain View-based tech giant. At that time, it was believed that Google had big plans for the brand, and while that may have been true, things didn’t turn...

Xiaomi is Recruiting Beta Testers for the Mi Mix 2 Android Oreo Update The Xiaomi Mi A1, which is part of Google’s Android One program,  received an update to Android Oreo a few days ago . But the rest of Xiaomi’s devices run MIUI , Xiaomi’s proprietary software layer, and they haven’t gotten Oreo yet. That won’t be the case for much longer, though — in December, Xiaomi started recruiting beta testers for an Android Oreo update for the Mi 6 , and later that month, the company launched a closed beta program for the Mi Mix 2’s Oreo update. Now, Xiaomi is back with announcement: It’s recruiting beta testers for the Mi Mix 2’s Android Oreo update. Anyone can apply, but only if they’re (1) running the latest version of MIUI Global Developer ROM, (2) active on Xiaomi’s community forums, and (3) have an interest in and knowledge about testing ROMs. To sign up, you need to download the Mi Forum app. Tap on the Recruitment tab,...

Xiaomi is Recruiting Beta Testers for the Mi Mix 2 Android Oreo Update The Xiaomi Mi A1, which is part of Google’s Android One program,  received an update to Android Oreo a few days ago . But the rest of Xiaomi’s devices run MIUI , Xiaomi’s proprietary software layer, and they haven’t gotten Oreo yet. That won’t be the case for much longer, though — in December, Xiaomi started recruiting beta testers for an Android Oreo update for the Mi 6 , and later that month, the company launched a closed beta program for the Mi Mix 2’s Oreo update. Now, Xiaomi is back with announcement: It’s recruiting beta testers for the Mi Mix 2’s Android Oreo update. Anyone can apply, but only if they’re (1) running the latest version of MIUI Global Developer ROM, (2) active on Xiaomi’s community forums, and (3) have an interest in and knowledge about testing ROMs. To sign up, you need to download the Mi Forum app. Tap on the Recruitment tab,...

Microsoft OneNote Updated with App Shortcuts and Office Lens Integration Microsoft refocused its smartphone strategy in 2015, pivoting from first-party Nokia Lumia hardware to cross-platform software. Operating system agnosticism’s worked well for the company — recently, it entered into partnerships with Samsung, Huawei , and other OEMs. And its application development efforts on Android and iOS have only accelerated. Microsoft  now offers a variety of apps for both platforms , one of which is OneNote. Over the years, OneNote’s matured into an excellent note-taking app. It’s a worthy alternative to Google Keep, and it’s continued to receive new features. Last year, Microsoft launched a redesign across all platforms with a focus on usability, and added features like fingerprint security. And on Wednesday, OneNote got an update to version 16.0.8827.2090, which brings features such as Office Lens integration, app shortcuts, and phone number sign-in. Thanks to...

Microsoft OneNote Updated with App Shortcuts and Office Lens Integration Microsoft refocused its smartphone strategy in 2015, pivoting from first-party Nokia Lumia hardware to cross-platform software. Operating system agnosticism’s worked well for the company — recently, it entered into partnerships with Samsung, Huawei , and other OEMs. And its application development efforts on Android and iOS have only accelerated. Microsoft  now offers a variety of apps for both platforms , one of which is OneNote. Over the years, OneNote’s matured into an excellent note-taking app. It’s a worthy alternative to Google Keep, and it’s continued to receive new features. Last year, Microsoft launched a redesign across all platforms with a focus on usability, and added features like fingerprint security. And on Wednesday, OneNote got an update to version 16.0.8827.2090, which brings features such as Office Lens integration, app shortcuts, and phone number sign-in. Thanks to...

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 Receives a Price Cut in India, Now Available for Rs. 32,999 (Approx.$520) The first-generation Xiaomi Mi Mix was a pioneering smartphone. It had a near bezel-less 6.4-inch 17:9 display and ditched the traditional earpiece in favor of a cantilever piezoelectric ceramic acoustic solution. Its design and construction were also unique — its body was made of ceramic instead of aluminum. And although it was only available in limited quantities, the Mi Mix foreshadowed the rise of taller displays with small bezels on Android devices in 2017. Xiaomi followed up the Mi Mix with the Mi Mix 2 in September 2017 . It had a premium list of specifications which included the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip, 6GB of RAM and 64/128GB of storage, a 6-inch Full HD+ (2160 x 1080) 18:9 (2:1) IPS display, 12MP rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), and a 3400mAh battery. ( It also recently received an update to MIUI 9 based on Android 7.1 Nougat .) But the Mi Mix 2...