Technical Hits

A non-beta Android 8.0 Oreo build for Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus has been leaked The official (but not final) builds add support for Dolby Atmos Both builds are for the Snapdragon variant of Samsung’s flagships We’ve only just received confirmation from Samsung that the Galaxy S8 Oreo beta program  will end on January 15th , but it seems that some lucky users are getting their updates early. An Oreo build for both the  Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus  appeared today on Reddit including all the features you’d expect from  Android 8.0 Oreo , as well as the January Android security patches. It’s worth noting the two build are only compatible with the Snapdragon 835 variant of both of Samsung’s flagships. In addition, while this is almost certainly an official, non-beta build, it is not the final version as it won’t be certified by the Google Play Store. As well as Oreo features like picture-in-picture mode, notification bubbles, and much more, ...

Tis the season for kicking back, crankin' up the fireplace, and finding some time-saving new tricks for that pretty slab o' glass in your pocket. Enhanced efficiency is one heck of a holiday treat, after all — and one that keeps paying off for months to come. Hey, productivity matters, and there's never a shortage of fresh Android shortcuts and enhancements just waiting to be embraced. In case you missed any of 'em the first go-round or maybe just didn't have time to try everything out, here are some of my favorite Android tips and tricks from 2017. Pour yourself some cocoa, polish up the ol' Festivus pole, and give yourself the gift of finely tuned technology. Best of all? It's the rare gift that won't cost you a single dime to acquire. 1.  16 time-saving Android shortcuts We'll start things off with a zesty power-shot of powerful shortcuts. They'll save you time and help you get around your phone like a seasoned pro. 2.  8 ways to...

Honesty time: I have some friends on Facebook whose posts sometimes greatly annoy me. I can unfriend them, which would be the easiest way to rid myself of those posts, or I can “snooze” them, a new feature that Facebook is rolling out today. Originally spotted by back in Sept Techcrunch   ember, the social media juggernaut’s “Snooze” button allows users to mute people, Pages, and Groups for 30 days. This is beneficial if you find someone’s posts very annoying, but do not want to unfriend them for whatever reason. As the outlet points out, Snooze also allow Pages and Groups to retain less-active users that would otherwise unlike a page or leave a group. Once the 30 days are up, Facebook notifies you in case you want to put them to sleep again. At that point, though, you might want to consider unfollowing or unfriending that person. As  TechCrunch  accurately points out, however, the Snooze button arrives at a time when Facebook itself took on the...

One of the most important areas for every smartphone is how good its camera is, but there are two ways to judge a camera: by whether it is technically good, or whether it looks good. Often, the most accurate smartphone cameras aren’t the ones that produce pictures that look good, so how do you decide which is the best smartphone camera? For Best of Android 2017, we introduced an all-new method of testing smartphone cameras objectively, but we also wanted to see which smartphone camera looks the best. To do so, we split the camera into two parts. Below we’ll go into which is technically the best, based on all of our data. If you’re interested in which looks the best, check our 10 phone camera shootout post and vote in our poll. What we tested Given that modern photography is digital, objectively assessing image quality should be pretty straightforward, right? Wrong. As recent controversies with scoring objective image data have highlighted, it’s very tough to come up...

Microsoft surprised folks back in October when the company released its Edge browser for ANDROID. We say “released,” but the app was in preview up until almost two weeks ago. Even so, Microsoft hit an important milestone as Edge officially surpassed one million downloads on Android. We realize how minuscule that number can be when compared to Microsoft’s other offerings on the platform. For example, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive have all surpassed the 100-million-download threshold. Even Microsoft’s Authenticator app, which provides a two-step authentication process for Microsoft products and services, as well as multi-factor authentication for other services, already passed the one-million-download threshold. Even so, Edge’s one million downloads is an impressive feat. For one, it was available in preview form for almost two months before shedding its beta tag not too long ago. Also, thanks to the number of downloads, Edge is the third most-popu...

Hello friends, I have been using this phone from last 1 month.I am using Redmi 4a of Rs 7000 .The thing i liked about the phone is low price with more features and a suitable handset in the hands of a common man according to me redmi4a is an excellent phone. When we compare Redmi4a  with other phones in this category this phone has been the best phone in the price range of 6000 to 7000  this phone has got two varieties one with 2gb ram, 16gbrom, and the second variety is 3gb ram and 32gb rom the salient feature is the battery backup. the camera is also pretty good with 13mp rear and 5 mp in front .this phone has got a Snapdragon 425 and it has got a common feature that is quad core processor. I  would suggest  Redmi 4a if  i  am asked about the best phone in the range of 7000.

Huawei  chief executive officer Richard Yu unveiled the company's new flagship smartphones -  Huawei Mate 10 and  Huawei Mate 10 Pro  - as he drew comparison with Apple's iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus. The Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro feature near-bezel less displays and offer several functionalities that are better than the $999 iPhone X and pretty much everything else on the market, he claimed. Alongside, the  Porsche Design Huawei Mate 10  was also unveiled, which in terms of specifications is identical to the Mate 10 Pro. The Huawei Mate 10 Pro is priced at EUR 699 (roughly Rs. 53,400), and will go on sale from November in Australia, China, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, and the UAE as the first wave of launch markets. The Huawei Mate 10 Pro is priced at EUR 799 (roughly Rs. 61,000), and will be made available in the above listed countries from November as well, with some regions in Europe and Africa in ...

A new variant of  Moto G5S , the popular affordable Moto smartphone, has been launched in India. The new Moto G5S variant comes in Midnight Blue colour , while the hardware and software remains the same as the original's. Though the new version of the  Moto  phone is priced at Rs. 14,999, it will be available at Rs. 12,999 till October 21 as part of a Diwali offer; the company is also offering no cost EMI schemes in the offer period. Buyers can head to retail stores or the offline Moto Hubs to get their hands on the the new Moto G5S Midnight Blue.  The Moto G5S was launched in India in August at a price point of Rs. 13,999. Until now it was available in only Lunar Grey and Fine Gold colour variants. Moto G5S specifications and features For a refresh, the Moto G5S features a 5.2-inch full-HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection in an all-metal body form factor. It is powered by Qualcomm's octa-core Snapdragon 430 (MSM8937) SoC clocked at 1...

OnePlus has released Oreo for the 3 and 3T as part of the Open Beta program. Early access programs can be a cool way to experience new features, so long as you don't mind a few bugs. The same is true for OnePlus's Open Beta program, which brings early features to some of its phones. As part of that program, the company is trialing  Android 8.0 Oreo  before rolling it out to all of its users later in the year. Known issues with this build include:   Fingerprint actions may be slower than you are used to. Shortcut to access Google Photos is unavailable Some stability issues with NFC and Bluetooth Performance and compatibility of 3rd party apps will continue to be optimized I t’s great to see OnePlus’ increasing dedication in this aspect and that the OnePlus 3 and 3T are still getting so much attention from the company, even after the  OnePlus 5  has been released. While the company keeps finding itself  embroiled in controversy  (and the...

Recently, Evan Blass  shared the final design  that is expected to feature on the upcoming Moto X4 smartphone and admitted that the previous render shared by him was not reflective of the finished product. Now, Blass has shared a new render of the smartphone’s camera design that gives an even closer and better look at the design of camera setup on  Moto X4 . Blass shared the image from a  Lenovo  presentation that was leaked earlier this year and said that this is going to be the final design on Moto X4 smartphone. The  newly leaked render  of the Moto X4 shows the smartphone with the dual camera setup and LED flash support at the top. As per the previous leaks, the Moto X4 will run Android 7.1.1 Nougat out-of-the-box and sport a 5-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) display. The smartphone is expected to be powered by Snapdragon 630 SoC. The Moto X4 has been tipped to come with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM. There is discrepancy in terms of stora...

Huawei  is hosting an event early next week where it is expected that the Huawei Mate 10 will be announced. In fact, it is also expected that as many as four variants may be introduced, consisting of the standard Huawei Mate 10, the Mate 10 Pro, a  Mate 10 Lite , and a Mate 10 Porsche Edition. While it is still unclear whether all four of the models will launch, prices for three of the models mentioned have now reportedly leaked online…again. These prices come from a tipster in China via Weibo and so it does have to be made clear that they are likely to be specific to the Chinese market. How much they will fluctuate from these figures if and when all three models do come to the US or Europe remains to be seen. If nothing else though, they do provide a good oversight as to how much the devices will likely cost and just as importantly, the difference in price between the three models, the Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro, and the Mate 10 Porsche Edition, and their respecti...

The  Essential Phone  has been one of the most polarizing devices of 2017. It had massive hype around it when Android legend and Essential founder Andy Rubin  teased the phone on Twitter  in March. Since then, the bezel-less phone has been the subject of  delays ,  broken promises , and middling reviews. While most people have loved the design, the poor camera performance has been a true killer.  As we noted in  our review , the Essential PH-1’s camera received three updates just during our review process. Those updates added an HDR mode and improved the speed, but pictures still didn’t rise to the quality of a 2017 flagship. Photos came out flatter than on other phones like the  Google Pixel XL , even with HDR turned on. Read More :  Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL hands-on – The Pixel line, refined It seems like Essential has been listening. Today, it took to its blog to announce a new update which will be ...