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All Posts by Alex Dobie

Google Home and Google Wifi launching in the UK on April 6 for £129

13 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 28 Mar 2017 4:45 am
Google Home
The latest products in Google's hardware family are coming to the UK next week. After a brief teaser last month, Google has today officially announced the launch of Google Home and Google Wifi for the UK. The new devices see the company building out its "made by Google" hardware range internationally, following last October's Pixel phone launch. Home and Wifi represent new frontiers for...

Qualcomm licensing blocked Samsung from selling Exynos chips

29 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 27 Mar 2017 5:54 am
Exynos
Deal dating back to 1993 is reportedly why we're not seeing more non-Samsung phones running Exynos. South Korea's Fair Trade Commission has claimed that Qualcomm blocked Samsung from selling its own Exynos processors to other manufacturers through a patent licensing deal, ZDNet reports.

From the Editor's Desk: Is Android O a boring release?

59 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 26 Mar 2017 12:16 pm
Android O logo
The lack of new whizbang user-facing features in O is a sign of Android's maturity, but that doesn't mean we won't see big surprises for non-phone devices. The big Android story of the week was Android O. Based on what we know about O so far, it would appear to be one of those Android releases, like KitKat or Marshmallow that tunes things up, adds under-the-hood enhancements and builds on...

High-res Galaxy S8+ leak shows more of Samsung's new software

91 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 25 Mar 2017 8:06 am
Galaxy S8 Plus
Mexico launch for Samsung's new flagships slated for early May, with prices starting at 17,699 pesos. Ready to kick off the weekend with a fresh Samsung Galaxy S8+ leak? Mexican site AndroidMX has bagged eight new images of the larger S8 model, with its 6.2-inch, "18.5:9" display.

Android O hidden features: The big and small changes for regular users

20 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 24 Mar 2017 12:00 pm
Android O
There's more to Android O than the big new developer features Google's talking about publicly. Any new Android release is a big deal. And new developer preview build, as landed recently for Android O, inevitably has fans scrambling to find new features lurking just below the surface. In addition to big sweeping changes affecting the people who make Android apps, there are dozens of smaller...

HTC U Ultra second opinion: U expect more

42 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 23 Mar 2017 1:00 pm
HTC U Ultra
HTC's first phablet in years is a perfectly fine phone that feels a little half-baked in places — and for $750... well, you expect more. Five or six years ago, HTC was a titan of the smartphone world. But the past half-decade hasn't been kind to the Taiwanese company. It's lost money, market share and several high-profile designers and executives. Nevertheless, HTC's still here, and still...

Galaxy S8 leak reveals gold model + U.S. branding

28 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 23 Mar 2017 4:44 am
Galaxy S8 gold
It says 'Galaxy S8' on the back. Prominent leaker Evan Blass continues to lay bare the Samsung Galaxy S8 ahead of next week's announcement. This morning we're getting a look at the GS8 in gold, in addition to a fresh perspective on the grey and black models. Behold! Blass also reveals the branding for the U.S. versions of the phone which — surprise! — has additional Galaxy branding in...

Galaxy S8 screen resolution confirmed in latest leak

1 Comment
Posted by Alex Dobie on 22 Mar 2017 7:41 am
Galaxy S8 resolution
But will the GS8 default to lower than its native res? More Samsung Galaxy S8 details continue to trickle out onto the web, and today's late-breaking info — via Chinese leaker Ice Universe — appears to confirm the phone's rumored "18.5:9" aspect ratio, with a native screen resolution of 2960x1440 pixels. Like the Galaxy S7 on Nougat, there's a resolution slider, letting you scale down to "HD+"...

Android O hands-on preview: Top 10 features!

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 21 Mar 2017 7:19 pm
Surprise! Google just took the wraps off a new version of Android in developer preview form. Say hello to Android O! It's still early days for Android O, and Google will be adding new features over the course of four developer previews before it's all finalized later in the summer. For now, what we have is a very early sneak peek at some of the new features — including notification...

What will Android O be called?

195 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 21 Mar 2017 1:30 pm
Bugdroid
Android O is coming — and with it a confectionary reckoning. Android O is now available in Developer Preview, but Google isn't divulging its true name — and won't until much later in the summer. But as hard as Google's job was finding a decent N-related dessert, that's nothing compared to the dilemma Android will face this year. There's a real shortage of desserts starting with the letter O,...

Galaxy S8 pre-orders may ship as early as Apr 18

19 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 21 Mar 2017 5:02 am
Galaxy S8
Expect a big pre-order push in Samsung's home market. As it looks to draw a line under last year's Note 7 unpleasantness, Samsung is reportedly betting big on Galaxy S8 pre-orders. South Korean outlet The Investor reports that subsidized deals for the new flagship will be unveiled from April 7, with pre-orders shipping out to customers as soon as April 18. It's worth noting that this likely...

Huawei P10 vs. P10 Plus camera comparison: Tiny improvements

7 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 20 Mar 2017 7:00 am
Huawei P10 + P10 Plus
Just how much difference does the P10 Plus's f/1.8 lens make? In addition to a bigger, higher-res screen and the ability to max out your RAM and storage, the jump from the Huawei P10 to P10 Plus gets you Huawei's most advanced Leica camera to date. The trusty f/2.2 Summarit-branded lens, used in the past a generation of Huawei flagships, makes way for a brighter f/1.8 Summilux aperture. On...

Galaxy S8 breaks cover in blue, white and silver

25 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 20 Mar 2017 5:26 am
Galaxy S8 leak
Some GS8 models may have colored front panels, if latest leak is to be believed. The most recent Galaxy S8 render leaks may have given us the impression that Samsung's next major phone will use black front panels, even if the rest of the phone is silver, grey or some other color. However fresh live photos of the phone, scooped up from Chinese social network Weibo by Dutch outlet Techtastic,...

New Galaxy S8 leak reveals colors and pricing

165 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 19 Mar 2017 9:56 am
GS8 colors
Three colors shown by veteran leaker, alongside euro pricing for phones, desktop dock, 360 camera and new Gear VR. Veteran leaker Evan Blass has kicked off what might otherwise have been a lazy Sunday with fresh revelations surrounding Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. First, Blass gives us a closer look at three of the GS8's color options — "black sky, orchid grey and arctic silver...

Watch our Huawei P10 + P10 Plus video review!

2 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 17 Mar 2017 6:01 am
Huawei is big in China, and growing the West. In the past twelve months, it's gone from being that one company that made great hardware but could never seem to get the software right, to being able to legitimately compete with more established brands in Europe. So in 2017, the new P10 phones are tasked with building on that momentum, while also competing with what's to come from...

Huawei P10 Lite is official — launching Mar. 31 for £299

4 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 17 Mar 2017 6:32 am
Huawei P10 Lite
Affordable version of Huawei's latest flagship will arrive on EE, Vodafone and at Carphone Warehouse. Huawei has today expanded its P10 series with a new mid-priced model, the P10 Lite. Pre-orders kick off today at Vodafone, EE and Carphone Warehouse ahead of the March 31 street date.

Android Pay on Android Wear 2.0 just isn't that good

24 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 16 Mar 2017 9:00 am
I can't quite decide whether being able to pay with my Android watch is good or bad. (And that probably means it's the latter.) I was relatively late coming to Android Pay on phones, mainly because my bank was one of the last in the UK to adopt the payment service. But I've gotten in on the ground floor with Pay on Android Wear, and I return with tales from an almost-convenient future where it...

Huawei P10 up for pre-order at Vodafone UK

1 Comment
Posted by Alex Dobie on 16 Mar 2017 6:40 am
Huawei P10
On-contract prices start at £28 per month for Huawei's latest flagship. Vodafone is the first UK network operator to open up pre-orders for the new Huawei P10. The Chinese company's latest flagship is available to pre-order in white or black (sadly not the eye-catching "dazzling blue" we've been using lately), with on-contract prices starting at £28 per month. (That's for 500MB, with a £200...

Nexus 6 owners facing Android 7.1.1 to 7.0 downgrade

49 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 16 Mar 2017 6:12 am
Nexus 6
Downgrade required 'to guarantee future OTA updates.' The Android 7.1.1 Nougat update for the Nexus 6 hasn't gone entirely smoothly so far, with the most recent March 2017 security patch breaking Android Pay on the device. And now in another bizarre development, Nexus 6 owners who updated to 7.1.1 are seeing an over-the-air update back to Android 7.0. Worse still, some are reporting that the...

Huawei P10 + P10 Plus review: Great phones, with one fatal flaw

53 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 15 Mar 2017 9:18 am
Huawei P10 + P10 Plus
Huawei puts in a strong showing in two different form factors — but the P10 and P10 Plus are diminished by a couple of baffling design decisions. The quick take Huawei's mainstream flagships for 2017 don't necessarily look flashy — unless you opt for the exclusive "dazzling" color options — but they do deliver just about everything you could ask for in a modern Android phone. There's one big...

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