Android P Developer Preview Released with Indoor Positioning, Display Notch Support, HDR VP9 Video, and More

Android-P-Cutout-Indoor-Location

Google has just announced the release of the first developer preview for Android P mobile operating system, as the company is looking for feedback from developers who can use the official Android emulator, as well as images for Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, and Pixel 2XL devices for testing Google will take into account comments from developers before finalizing the APIs and features. That won’t be the only preview however, as the company plans to release other developer previews planned before the stable release at the end of the year, and Google aims to reveal more at Google I/O 2018 next week. Some of the interesting changes and new features found in Android P so far: Indoor positioning with Wi-Fi RTT (Round Trip Time) also known as 802.11mc WiFi protocol Display cutout support for some of the new phones with a notch Improved messaging notifications, for example highlighting who is […]

Over 40 Android Phone Models Ship Infected with Trojan

If you want to buy a cheap Android phones, one way is to go to some Chinese e-retailers and purchase the phone that matches your requirements. Most phones will work reasonably well, but one thing that’s common to most/all Chinese manufacturers is lack of firmware updates and concerns for security. So you may only get 2 or 3 firmware update during the lifetime of your phone, if any, and usually the Android security patch is rather old. But Dr.Web discovered several Android smartphone models that ships with a Trojan (Android.Triada.231), in other words, the stock firmware is already infected with malware. The company found over 40 injected models, but the list may still grow Android.Triada trojans infect the Zygote process, which is used to launch all applications in Android. Once the module is infected, it becomes possible to download and launch software without the user’s knowledge. The 231 variant of […]

CUBOT X18 Plus 4G Smartphone Sells for as Low as $79.99 (Promo)

If you are on the lookout for an inexpensive 4G phone, Cubox X18 Plus smartphone with a Mediatek MT6750T processor running Android 8.0, a 6″ display, 4GB RAM, and 64GB flash may be worth a look as GearBest offers the device for as low as $79.99 shipped. The trick is that it is a flash sale with only the first 10 units sold at 9:00 UTC on March 5-9 (50 units in total), so you’d have to be fast and lucky to get it at that price. If you miss the flash sale, promo price is $129.99 until March 12. CUBOT X18 Plus smartphone: SoC – Mediatek MT6750T Octa-core (4+4) processor @ up to 1.5GHz with Arm Mali-T860 MP2 GPU System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot up to 256GB Display – 5.99″ 2160×1080 touchscreen display Camera – 20+2MP dual rear camera with AF […]

Snapdragon 700 Mobile Platform Series To Bring On-Device Artificial Intelligence to Mid-Range Smartphones

Qualcomm has announced a new family filling the gap between the mid-range Snapdragon 600 series, and the high-end Snapdragon 800 series, with Snapdragon 700 mobile platform series which will include on-device AI supported by the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine, as well as improvements to camera, device performance and power through Qualcomm Spectra ISP, Kyro CPU, Hexagon Vector Processor and Adreno Visual Processing subsystem (Yes, Qualcomm has a new name for everything, as GPU is now VPS). Snapdragon 700 Mobile Platform Series highlights: Artificial Intelligence – Multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine delivering up to 2x improvements for on-device AI applications compared to the Snapdragon 660 Mobile Platform. Camera – Qualcomm Spectra ISP will allow for better photos in different lighting conditions, slow motion capture, and improvements thanks to AI processing. Performance and Battery life – The new Qualcomm Spectra ISP, Kryo CPU and Adreno Visual Processing subsystem in 700 series will […]

Mediatek Helio P60 Cortex A73/A53 Mobile Processor Includes NeuroPilot AI technology

Neural Network Accelerators (NNA) may have become a must-have block in high-end mobile processors. Huawei Kirin 970, Samsung Exynos 9810, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 (via its Hexagon DSP) processors all come with NNA or NPU (Neural Processing Unit) to speed up tasks and comsume less power for tasks related to artificial intelligence / machine learning. Mediatek has also jumped on the bandwagon with Helio P60 chipset featuring four Cortex A73 cores, four Cortex A53 cores, an Arm Mali-G72MP3 GPU and a multi-core mobile APU (AI Processing Unit) leveraging the company’s NeuroPilot AI technology. Mediatek P60 key specifications: CPU – big.LITTLE Octa-core with four Arm Cortex-A73 up 2.0 GHz and four Arm Cortex-A53 up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G72 MP3 at 800MHz Multi-core AI processing unit (Mobile APU) – 280 GMAC/s; offers deep learning facial recognition, object and scene identification, user behavior-informed performance and other AI and AR application […]

Android Go Smartphones Launches – Alcatel 1X, Nokia 1, ZTE Tempo Go, and More Expected

Google released Android 8.1 Go Edition at the end of last year for low-end devices with 512MB to 1GB RAM, but so far no products had been launched with the new optimized operating systems. Hiroshi Lockheimer, Senior Vice President, Platforms & Ecosystems at Google, wrote a few days ago that Android Go phones were to be announced at Mobile World Congress 2018 for as low as $50. I’ve not seen any models for $50 yet, but several Android Go smartphones have already been announced right before the event. We’ll have a quick look at some of models announced so far. Alcatel 1X The phone is equipped with Mediatek MT6580 quad-core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.3 GHz, 1GB RAM, 16GB storage, a 5.3″ 960×480 display, rear and front-facing cameras, and a 2,460 battery. Alcatel 1X will support 2G, 3G and 4G networks, and come with single or dual SIM slots. The […]

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ Smartphones Launched with Snapdragon 845 or Exynos 9810 SoC

After various leaks on the web, Samsung has now officially launched their flagship smartphones – Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ – at Mobile World Congress 2018. The phones look very much like last year’s Samsung S8/S8+ smartphones, but include faster processors with either Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 or Samsung Exynos 9810, better cameras (e.g. super slow motion mode @ 960 fps, low light improvements), some design tweaks (fingerprint scanner under the camera instead of on the side), and some new software features, like AR Emoji that creates your own virtual avatar based on your photo. Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ specifications: SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor with four Kryo 385 cores @ up to 2.8 GHz, four Kryo 385 cores @ up to 1.7 GHz, Adreno 630 GPU; 10nm Samsung Exynos 9810 oct-acore processor with four Exynos M3 core @ up to 2.7 GHz (Anandtech claims the max frequency can only be achieved when […]

Samsung Exynos 7885 Processor Launched for Mid-Range LTE Smartphones

After unveiling Exynos 7872 Series5 hexa core processor in January, Samsung has now introduced a higher end Series7 octa-core processor with Cortex A73 and 53 cores, and a Mali-G71 MP2 GPU named Exynos 7885. The new processor also supports 18:9 Full HD+ displays, LTE Cat 12 for download up to 600 Mbps, dual camera, 4K 30 fps video decoding/encoding, and comes with an LPDDR4x memory interface. Samsung Exynos7 7885 processor specifications: CPU – Dual-core Cortex-A73 @ up to 2.2 GHz, and Hexa core Cortex A53 @ up to 1.6GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G71 MP2 Memory I/F – LPDDR4x Storage I/F – eMMC 5.1, SD 3.0 Display – Up to WUXGA (1920×1200), Full HD+ (2220×1080) LTE Modem – LTE Cat.12 3CA 600Mbps (DL) / Cat.13 2CA 150Mbps (UL) Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11ac Dual-band, Bluetooth 5, FM Radio GNSS –  GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo Camera –  Rear 21.7MP, Front 21.7MP, Dual camera: 16MP+16MP […]