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Foldable Phone Sales: Samsung and Huawei Showcase their stats

In the recent report, Samsung has revealed that it has sold almost close to half a million foldable tablets that is Galaxy Fold. Just after a few days of the report, Huawei also disclosed the number of shipments, which is near about more than 1,00,000 units of Foldable Phone Sales every month.

You must be aware of the news that Huawei Mate X went on the sale on the 15th of November in China, and currently, this phone is not available anywhere else in the world. If we check out the number of units sold, then the company has sold near about 2,00,000 mate X phones till now.

Huawei Mate X

The 2,00,000 units in China. If the numbers are accurate from Huawei, then it is a huge achievement for selling these units of the smartphone in a single country.

Foldable Phone Sales Comparison

If we compare Mate X with the Galaxy Fold, then Samsung Galaxy Fold has a much broader reach then Mate X. Samsung Foldable Phone Sales are usually in more than one country and generally in the US, South Korea, the UK, India, Germany, France, and a few more countries. Just a week before the Mate X, Samsung started shipping its foldable models in China.

Huawei officially decided not to ship its phone globally, and we should thank ongoing tiff with the US government. It is because the lack of Google services must have been littered this brand in the other markets, but the price of the phone is still high, and the units have been sold to the cost of 2400$ tag.

Galaxy Fold

The price is far more than Samsung foldable phone. In this price tag, selling more than 1,00,000 units per month in a single country is a significant achievement for the Huawei. In fact, the company has doubled the units sell after the US trade ban on Huawei.

Moreover, Huawei is now expected to upgrade its Mate X model with the new iterative successor. The new upcoming model will be known as Mate XS, and this would be with incredible charging speed. To be an instance, the latest model is also going to be a China-only model, and it will only be available to purchase in China.

Samsung is also planning to launch its new foldable smartphone this 2020 and the upcoming smartphone with flip-phone clamshell design and should be expected to compete with the latest Mate Xs. It is because Huawei also planned to launch its new model, Mate XS, at MWC 2020.

January 25, 2020
5G iPhones Sales – Expert Apple Analyst Pegs at 85-90 Million Units

Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, which is a financial services group in the Asia-Pacific region has always been known as a noted Apple analyst, has claimed that the Cupertino-based tech giant will sell between 80 to 85 million 5G iPhones which will be based on the draw of 5G connectivity.

He also has published a note in which he most probably foretells that Apple will be releasing four 5G-connected iPhone models and also is planning to flood the markets with it. Although there were previous speculations that Cupertino will be going for the launch of sub-6GHz models first and might delay the mmWave phones for the start of 2021.

Apple iPhone

However, with a completely unexpected move and taking the tech industry by storm, Ming-Chi Kuo has now doubled down on his prediction. In a follow-up research note on the 13th of January 2020, viewed by MacRumors, he said Apple is still on track to release both sub-6GHz and sub-6GHz-plus-mmWave iPhone models concurrently in the second half of 2020. Both these models’ shipments beginning in the late third quarter or early fourth quarter of the year.

iPhone 12 5G

If you are already in awe with this news then let us point to the additional features the 5G variant of the iPhone 12 may come up with, one of them being excellent image sensor shifting stabilization technology which would help to click stable images without distortion even when there is excessive motion.

Samik Chatterjee, a J.P. Morgan analyst, claimed that Apple will release a 5.4-inch iPhone, two 6.1-inch iPhones and one 6.7-inch iPhone with 5G connectivity in 2020. He further predicts that the company may also introduce two high-end models (one 6.1-inch and one 6.7-inch) with support for mmWave, as well as 3D sensing and a triple-lens camera for improved Augmented Reality capabilities.

iPhone 5G

Apple could fancy waiting until late 2020 for its 5G phone is that the cost of 5G components may experience a drop by then, which would further allow Apple to release the iPhone 12 for around the same price as what you would have paid for an iPhone in today’s date. Although that’s pure speculation at this point, however, and Kuo’s report makes it seem less likely.

Even after all of this, the 5G networks will also be distant along than they are now, with 5G coverage confined to select neighbourhoods in just a few cities. As an example, T-Mobile has previously launched its low-band 5G network, which is offering speeds marginally faster than LTE traditionally has been delivering. So, yes, although Apple will come out with 5G devices later than OnePlus, Samsung, and others, the iPhone 12 could be hitting the markets right as 5G spreads its wings more and becomes relevant to more and more people.

However, countries with little to no 5G coverage will receive phones with 5G disabled to save on manufacturing costs, says Ming-Chi Kuo, which is probably a wise move for companies. This infers hardware omissions, so it won’t be possible to enable 5G via a mere software upgrade.

January 25, 2020
Alternative Search Options: Google To Provide Android Users With Alternatives In EU
Google has finally announced the complete list of available Alternative Search Options for Android users in the European Union. Google received a $5 billion antitrust fine from the EU a year and a half ago, penalizing the company for three practices relating to how it bundles its apps on other manufacturer’s Android phones.

Surprisingly, some of the most popular search engines like Yahoo and Bing did not walk away with the top spots. DuckDuckGo, the privacy-centred search engine, was granted the top position – which means it will be available as an alternative to Google in more countries than any other search engine.

On the other hand, Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, tied for the last place and will only be available for use in the UK. Other listed search alternatives include GMX, Yandex, Qwant, Info.com, PrivacyWall, and Givero. Yahoo remains missing from the list.

DuckDuckGo

EU’s antitrust fine and Google’s response explained

The EU handed Google a record-breaking antitrust fine after investigating its practices regarding service and app bundling. Since Google features its own search engine front-and-centre on Android smartphones and tablets, the EU found Google guilty of suppressing other search engines use on the Android platform.

Google then announced that it would open an auction system to determine possible search alternatives as a solution. The company would list the top three highest bidders in each country, and whichever option the end-user chose, would pay Google the amount offered by the fourth-highest bidder.

This bidding process will repeat every four months. Even with this system in place, many search engine providers are unhappy. The search engine providers claim that Google is abusing its power and popularity. However, no matter how upset these companies were, the plan fell in line with the EU’s demands. Many search providers are playing along in hopes of gaining traction in European countries.

Alternative Search Options

Google Search – Alternative Search Options

Here is the full list of Google Search engine alternatives offered in each EU country:
- Austria: DuckDuckGo, GMX, Info.com
- Belgium: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant
- Bulgaria: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- Croatia: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- Czech Republic: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Seznam
- Denmark: DuckDuckGo, Givero, Info.com
- Estonia: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Yandex
- Finland: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Yandex
- France: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant
- Germany: DuckDuckGo, GMX, Info.com
- Greece: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant
- Hungary: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- Iceland: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- Ireland: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- Italy: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant
- Latvia: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Yandex
- Liechtenstein: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant
- Lithuania: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Yandex
- Luxembourg: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant
- Malta: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- Netherlands: DuckDuckGo, GMX, Info.com
- Norway: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- Poland: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Yandex
- Portugal: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant
- Republic of Cyprus: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- Romania: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- Slovakia: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Seznam
- Slovenia: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- Spain: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant
- Sweden: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall
- United Kingdom: Bing, DuckDuckGo, Info.com
Wrapping Up

The fine set a new record for an antitrust fine – becoming the highest penalty since the $2.7 billion antitrust fine the EU Commission fined Google back in 2017.

Google hopes to clear its name in the EU for the second time by making amends and offering users the freedom to choose whichever search engine they want to use by default.
January 25, 2020
OnePlus 8 Series Challenges Galaxy S20 with patent 120Hz Fluid Display

OnePlus is currently competing with every smartphone brand, and on the recent announcement, OnePlus revealed the new specifications and features for its display technology on the event held in Shenzhen, China. The company has developed a new QHD+ OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate that will debut in the next OnePlus 8 series.

The use of a 120Hz display is only to fast the display refresh rate. The content on the screen is now refreshed 120 times per second. This makes a smoother playback and also the overall OS fluid experience. To be an instance, we have previously seen the 120Hz display on the phones like Asus ROG Phone 2 and Razer Phone 2.

OnePlus 120Hz Fluid Display specs

According to the sources and information that is trending on twitter and other websites like Weibo. The display of the OnePlus 8 series will feature a 10-bit colour depth. It means the 120Hz screen will be able to produce a palette of 1.07 billion colours, and this can be opposed to the 8-bit panel, which can display 16.7 million colours.

The recent report from the verge that OnePlus brand works with the Samsung company to develop the new and better display among other models. The publications also report that the company has worked for improving the gestures and other features of the Android.

OnePlus 8 Series

Additionally, the company aims to have 0.8 JNCD (Just Noticeable Color Differences) ratings for every display it produces. JNCD is a measurement of the bare minimum colours that a human eye can spot. If I make a comparison with Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus, then It has a JNCD rating of 0.4, which is near to perfect.

The recent machine translation of the company’s presentation slides suggests that the new display of the OnePlus 8 series will use a dedicated MEMC (Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation) chip. This is the technology usually available in the televisions only. Basically, it inserts the new frames between the existing video to increase the motion blur.

The latest MEMC technology in OnePlus series can upscale the low frame rate videos and make it smoother and even better using a 120 frame rate per second. If this exactly works as intended, then this could be a massive achievement in the gaming industry.

Further, It has a touch sample rate of 240Hz and can apparently hit 1000 nits peak brightness. The smooth chain technology often optimizes it. The details are scarce at the moment, and we should thank the official information that is only available in Chinese.

Will the OnePlus 8 get a 120Hz Display?

CEO Pete Lau confirmed that the company’s next phone would feature the new display tech and probably the best display phone for the year 2020. It would be best if you also remembered that Samsung is also planning to launch its new S20 series with a 120Hz display.

We can only hope the new display rate would be optimized through the current battery consumption and should be able to provide a good backup. OnePlus is soon expected to detail its tech and other specifications of its new display, and we will let you know quickly as possible as soon we will get the latest.

January 25, 2020
Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro Launch Discloses Removable Batteries & More Control

Samsung has officially announced that it is bringing its latest smartphone: Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro along with removable batteries to the US in a partnership with Verizon and Microsoft. Removable batteries were a thing of the past and have been seldom seen in models in the last decade and their relaunch may open a can of worms full of good or bad news!

Samsung says, “Microsoft is the first company and the partner to leverage the push-to-talk feature in their latest smartphone.” This Sunday, the company has disclosed the information that the new mid-range smartphone will be available in the market during the first half of 2020, and It will cost something near about 499$, the company said.

Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro

Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro

The latest smartphone from the Samsung is not yet designed to rival the flagships models like the S10, S10+, and the Note 10 series of Samsung. It is primarily made for the enterprise market, including the retail, manufacturing, and also, the health care industries.

The company also claims to sell this smartphone to the individual customers – According to Tech Crunch.

Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro Specifications

Unlike the past XCover series of Samsung. The company decided to make XCover pro more fluent and according to the modern-day design. It gets a 6.3 Inch LCD along with a 20:9 ratio. The screen can also be operated using the wet hands and with the gloves as well.

The latest smartphone from Samsung will run on it’s latest Samsung’s octa-core Exynos 9611 silicon processor. Additionally, 4GB ram along with 64GB inbuilt storage. It also gets a 4050 Mah battery with 15W charging.

The new Samsung XCover Pro also gets the dual primary camera setup that includes a 25MP wide lens and 8MP ultra-wide lens. You will also be getting a 13MP lens on the front camera for more explicit selfies.

The only difference in this smartphone is that it comes with a removable battery option, unlike the other smartphones or Samsung series. It also has IP68 water and dust resistance that is powered by US military standard certification (MIL-STD-810) for more durability – Samsung said.

The new Samsung Galaxy XCover pro also has the new two programmable buttons apart from the volume and power button. The two programmable buttons is mainly for the voiceover and also to turn the flashlight on or off.

The phone is currently running on the Android 10 program, and that is eventually on the testing series. The report said that the smartphone would be eligible for the latest Android 10 update as the security part is ideally handheld by the Samsung Knox program.

Microsoft and Samsung have a deep history of developing better software and hardware smartphone togeather. This statement has been said by Satya Nadella, chief executive at Microsoft, during the recent announcement on Sunday. The powerful combination and the partnership of Microsoft Teams and Samsung engineers will make perfect technology, and they only have to more productive and collaborative.

January 25, 2020
Sensel Telematics Looking to Influence the World of Smartphones

Sensel is one of the famous and well-known companies to make the next generation of input devices. It is because of their multi-touch and pressure-sensitive technology they seek to outperform the current industry with its development. That is the reason. Sensel wants to get into the mobile world.

If you had remembered that recently the iffy volume buttons were counted as cons by Bodgan Petrovan in his analysis of Huawei Mate 30 Pro, after that, Huawei dropped the physical volume buttons. However, this not makes their jobs done simply.

The latest Sensel Technology allows phone makers to put virtual buttons nearly anywhere on the screen as they wish. The company has developed nearly 25 centres in a single chip. It is, too, including the sensors under the curved screen and on the edges of the smartphone. It allows phones to regain its lost accessibility of volume controls by giving the touch and virtual buttons on the edges.

Sensel Telematics

Sensel wants to enter the mobile world.

Recently, Sensel says that they are more familiar to the user intent. In simple words, they already had measured the force of people holding their smartphone and clicking on the buttons usually. The main reason for the Sensel to enter the mobile phones world is to develop high-end and modern technology among the latest flagship models of smartphones.

Sensel touch could be a huge achievement for the latest smartphone brands. It also had a feature to let you silence your phone with only a squeeze. It is far better than the usual iPhone drop down to silent buttons. The recent survey from the Android Authority also had tested these features, and It makes them impressed as well.

However, there are still some works that Sensel needs to do after entering the mobile phone world or industry.

If you think from a consumer perspective, then I do believe they have not fallen with the touch controls of Mate 30 Pro and the touch volume controls on the Pixel phones from Google.

Sensel still needs to convince the phone makers and also, to improve their technology so it can work for a long time and without having any lags in the nearby future. However, It won’t be easy for Sensel to convince the phone makers as space is at a crucial premium space on the smartphone could eat a previous volume near the edges.

The next steps for the Sensel is to develop new tool kits along with the API’s to make the repairing part quicker and easier for the latest flagship smartphone models.

January 25, 2020
Xiaomi Launches a 144hz mode for the Redmi K30 5G

Just last month a Redmi phone with a higher refresh rate screen came out: the Redmi K30 and its 5G variant with 120Hz IPS LCD panels. But that may not be just the best that the K30 can do. Taking the whole of the internet and the mobile tech industry by a storm, The Vice President of Xiaomi, Lu Weibing posted a 15-second video of the Redmi K30 5G screen which is seen operating smoothly at 144Hz.

However, the VP says that this was just a test run in the laboratory and did not specify whether the company will or will not release an official update that will push the screen to the higher refresh rate. This happened on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo, where Redmi executive Lu Weibing shared a video depicting a Redmi K30 5G achieving a display refresh rate of 144Hz.

Redmi K30 5G

The 15-seconds-long video is also on YouTube, which you can find here https://youtu.be/ckFN_fWImLY.

If Redmi has already decided to do so, it will also require other backend help and most likely achieved it via a software update. Considering that the Redmi K30 5G model already has capable hardware, the dedicated team will only have to take care of the software side of the situation. Maybe it was the issue with the software aspect that resulted in Redmi curbing the display refresh rate to 120Hz at the time of launch, there are a lot of buzzes and theories throughout.

Technically speaking, 144Hz refresh rates can be found on monitors aimed at gamers, mobile gaming actually comprises 37% on the entire worldwide gaming industry, with a whopping 50 billion dollar revenue stream. It is also the fastest-growing corner in gaming – 29% every year, especially in Asia – 3.5 times faster than PC gaming growth, so it is refreshing to see it brought to a smartphone’s display.

However, whether this move was necessary or not remains to be seen. We all know, a higher refresh rate means that the phone will have more to do, which could result in the phone’s battery being drained excessively, also there is the issue of whether or not people will be able to tell the variation, particularly between 120Hz and 144Hz where the contrast is bordering. For what it’s worth, the leaked specs for the Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro propose a 90Hz OLED will be used, so this is unlikely to be a hint of what is to come. Truly, this will be the first phone in the premium Mi-series to offer 90Hz, never mind 120Hz or higher.

However, it should be kept in mind that the Redmi K30 5G will come with an IPS LCD display, and not an OLED panel. We’ve already seen loads of 120Hz display refresh rates on various LCD panels. The 90Hz display refresh rates on Google Pixel 4 and the OnePlus 7T and are considered to be of a higher quality mainly because of their OLED design. The 120Hz refresh rate displays anticipated on the OnePlus 8 and Samsung Galaxy S20 series will also likely be more suited to the rate on the Redmi K30 5G.

January 25, 2020
Introducing Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus

You must be aware of the latest announcement made by Samsung and that too about two weeks ago, the company announced the latest flagships models, which are Galaxy S10 lite and Galaxy Note 10 lite. Just a few days later, another Samsung smartphone has been leaked, and that may be announced soon to the public as well. For weeks, there has been some confusion in the team and reporters that what could be the name of the series of the new flagship models. Some reports suggest that it would be S11 or note 11 series, whereas some of the reports insist that it would be called the S20 series, probably the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus.

To clear the confusion, some live images of a Samsung smartphone have actually been leaked, which claims that the device is an S20 variant. Thanks to XDA Developers for obtaining live images of Samsung’s new flagship model, which claims that the smartphone is called the S20+ 5G. Additionally, the boot screen, as you can see in the live images, reveals the camera specifications of the latest flagship model of Samsung S20+ 5G.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus

Specifications

The camera of the latest flagship model of Samsung S20+ 5G will generally include 12 MP 1.8-micron primary camera, an ultra-wide lens, a telephoto lens, and possibly a macro lens. The report also suggests that there might be a rear microphone to boost the audio quality and can be beneficial for recording more transparent sound while recording videos. If we look at the front, then the Samsung S20+5G sports an Infinity-O display that has a centred punch hole. However, Samsung is continuing with its 2.5D Curved display, but the actual curve rate would be lower than before for sure.

Moreover, the leaked images and reports show that the screen would be flat to touch and will come with a 120Hz display for a silky smooth experience. It is evident that the phone will be running on the latest Snapdragon 865 chipset processor, the newest of the processors right now.

We know that Samsung’s annual Unpacked event is just a few weeks away, and most probably Samsung will announce its latest flagship smartphone model S20 plus 5G aka, S11. However, according to the reports and leaks, it is confirmed that Samsung is stepping away from the S11, aka, nomenclature models and probably the name of the model will be S20 only. Samsung Unpacked event is currently scheduled for 11 February, where we can expect to get all the low-down on the three variants from Samsung that have been officially announced.

January 24, 2020
Pokémon Go’s New Buddy Adventure Feature Rolled Out: All You Need to Know

Most of us grew up watching a lot of Pokémon cartoons and they shaped up a better part of our childhood. Back then if anyone would’ve told me that someday this simple cartoon would become the physically interactive game that it has today, I wouldn’t have believed it (well let’s be honest I was a kid I would’ve believed it of course).

But the amount of progress that the franchise has put into its legacy is undoubtedly admirable and there is just so much that has been introduced off of the original cartoons. From games to even a standalone movie, the Pokémon franchise has done a good job of standing on its own.

A number of players were excited over the Pokémon Go game back when it made its great debut in early July 2016. A lot of fans were clouding online app stores to grab hold of the game and have their own personalized copies. But their excitement couldn’t be matched to how they were when the new buddy adventure feature rolled out late last year.

The Levels Of New Buddy Adventure

Niantic announced that the rollout would be available for trainers above level 2. The new feature lets the player experience their Pokémon characters in a more life-like manner.

In short words, this mode allows the player’s character to be his/her virtual Artificial Intelligence-based buddy. The character can walk around and explore the map, express feelings and be more interactive.

Each Pokémon character has its own unique way of expressing itself that players are bound to find entertaining to learn. Players will be able to level up by earning affection from their character which is denoted by hearts.

The Pokémon Go app went out of its way to make sure that all of its users are given a more personalized experience. This app is just a good show of how well AI can be used to blend with the physical environment.

It takes a lot of guts above fear to take something that has been such an old franchise and merge it with modern technology to bring something new off of an old concept such as the Pokémon franchise.

The developers have not been sloppy and are obviously well aware of what the franchise means to the public hence their frequent and even their most recent update.

Wrapping Up

Though this is just a game, there is so much more. This program helps establish and a direct bridge between the artificial world of technology and the physical world. With such technology being out there, there is no telling if what is to be expected of the near future.

All we can say that the future of Artificial Intelligence has never been more descriptive and definite as it is now. Hence, we hopefully wish to see a future generation that doesn’t depend so much on video calls but rather virtual representations of callers and a more personalized form of communication.

January 24, 2020
The official Stadia controller phone mount is now available for $15 on the Google

If you are a game enthusiast then you probably know of google’s latest gaming console termed Google Stadia. Whereas the official console is to be officially rolled out this year the whole beta version of the console itself has already gained more popularity. Most games that are connected to Stadia have been rolled out to smartphones from where they have gained a reasonable amount of good reviews and some fairly bad reviews too.

That aside, if you are a fan of Stadia game on mobile then you have probably already noticed how irritating it can be to try and find a suitable posture for your device while playing. Well around late last year, Google announced that the console’s official custom controller Phone mount clip.

It was under development by Power Support. And quite recently the gadget was released and is now available on the Google Store for a warping $15.

The phone mount or claw is built to be well-balanced and is very ergonomic such that it reduces the strain while the player plays Stadia games on the phone.

Color And Compatibility

It is made off of polycarbonate and is black in color. The claw is fitted to hold any Pixel 3, Pixel 3a or Pixel 4 models as these are mainly the phones that are compatible with Stadia as per now.

It was, however, made clear that once stadia rolls off into other compatible devices then the claw should be able to handle any phone with a maximum of 3.19 inches and devices with a minimum height of 2.09 inches.

Previously, the claw was briefly available on Power Support’s official site and a second shipment was made available afterward. However, there is the word that recently the shipment had been sold out and there has been no follow up done by google that could allude towards a resupply.

Though, I’d advise that you be watchful and be ready to pr-order on the next restock in case you would want to acquire The Claw.

Stadia has been rumoured to be the next big deal in gaming. For quite a while now, and despite the common critics, the whole system is admirable. For one, Google hopes to have a console that banks all of its games on the cloud.

Therefore, if a user wants to play any new game all they have to do is access it via the cloud as compared to old methods of using a hard disk or Compact disk to host the games.

They hope that this will help make it easy for players to access their games and even participate in multiplayer and CO-OP matches more efficiently. Since the whole system is banked online then it is easy to access your games and game progress from any of your other devices (as long as they are compatible with Stadia) from anywhere.

Bottom Line

We are all eager to see where this new approach will take the world of gaming and if the Stadia console will stand a chance to compete with its Sony and Microsoft counterparts.

January 24, 2020