2017 has been a busy one for VR/AR teams at Google, with company’s continued push into the space with Google Cardboard, AR for Pixel phones and, most recently, ARCore framework. The latter was announced mid-2017, and after all of this time in development, ARCore is finally ready to start shipping to developers and manufacturers. The framework will allow developers to more easily develop augmented reality applications for supported Android phones. While Google seems to want to make ARCore near-universal, there’s a fair chance that it will only launch for a select few devices for the time being, with the Pixel and Galaxy series being a
First Look at the Rumored Xiaomi Mi 6
After our review of OnePlus 3 and 3T, and a little disappointment in the VR department, we decided to look for a phone with that can mix a good price with a better screen. After discussing with several vendors and their retail / e-tail outfits, we came across a few good ones. If the price point is set around $500, we came to conclusion that in that price bracket, there are just two really good phones with high quality displays. First one is ZTE Axon 7, and the third one, the topic of this first look is Xiaomi Mi6. Although this phone has not been released yet
HTC, Samsung both Feature UltraPixel Camera?
February is the month when all the major and minor smartphone vendors come to exhibit their wares in the halls of Barcelona’s BICC (Barcelona’s International Convention Centre), and two of the vendors that are expected to make a splash will be Samsung and HTC. This time, UltraPixel camera technology might make its biggest splash yet. HTC is gearing up to launch the One M10 flagship smartphone (Perfume), while Samsung is planning to launch three Galaxy S7 phones; Galaxy S7, S7 Edge and S7 Edge+. Both HTC and Samsung (S7 Edge+ only) will utilize Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of LPDDR4 memory and with up to 128 GB
MediaTek’s Upcoming SoCs May Feature AMD Graphics
Huawei Teases New Yet To Be Released Wearable
Huawei finally announces its upcoming wearable, the Huawei watch, opening a demo presentation at its press conference at this year’s MWC 2015.
Microsoft Reveals the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL at MWC 2015
Microsoft finally introduces its low-cost Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL Windows phone models.
HTC Looks Beyond Smartphones at MWC 2015
The beleaguered Taiwanese handset maker is betting on new product lines to reverse its long decline.
Starbucks Adds Powermat Wireless Charging to Coffee Shops
Normally, I would applaud someone like Starbucks for being so forward thinking and adding wireless charging to their coffee shops. But, the problem with Starbucks’ move is that they’ve chosen to stick with one wireless charging standard, PMA (Power Matters Alliance) which also happens to have been founded by Powermat. Powermat was originally purchased by Duracell in order to strengthen the brand and give themselves a wireless charging capability. PMA is one of three alliances that promotes wireless charging, which also includes A4WP (Alliance for Wireless Power) and the WPC (Wireless Power Consortium). PMA and WPC are both inductive technologies, meaning that they are both
Broadcom's Modem Exit Gives 2nd Chance to Others
Early last week, Broadcom announced that they would be looking to offload their cellular modem division or simply shutter operations. This announcement came as a surprise to many because the company had only recently acquired Rensas Mobile’s modem division (acquired from Nokia). This was done after Renesas Mobile was talking about shutting down the division entirely due to being unable to compete with the likes of Qualcomm and Infineon. Broadcom ‘saved’ Renesas Mobile’s modem division (mostly based in Finland) back in September of 2013, which completed in October of that same year with a final purchase price of $164 million. Now, Broadcom already had fairly significant wireless