Here is a list of the Smartphones that left a mark in 2016

By Rehan Hooda /  22 Dec 2016 , 17:31

Smartphones are one of the most important gadgets in our life and each year smartphone makers from all over the world compete to make the most impressive, sleek and fastest smartphone in the market. Apart from the usual bits of improved processor, a little bit of change in the design or the increased RAM or the battery life, there is nothing different or radical that most of these companies want to attempt.

Even though there aren’t a lot of companies that go beyond the industry standards to make and attempt something radical. But still, some companies try and attempt something different, and those are the ones that tend to stand apart in the huge sea of smartphones. We have made a round up of the smartphones that left a mark in the year 2016. Here are some smartphones that were crucial and changed the tech world in their own way.

Google Pixel XL

Google Pixel XL, the first smartphone from Google, is the most important smartphone of the year quite simply because it is the first time the software giant has dived into hardware. It was significant because the Pixel series was the reason why the beloved Nexus line was killed. The Pixel also marked a significant hike in the price to (almost) match the price of Apple iPhone.

The Pixel XL provides the ultimate Android experience with the latest Android Nougat 7.1.1 with Google Assistant baked inside. Pixel was not only the first foray into hardware for the company, but in addition, it was a smartphone with many firsts. Google revamped the ROM update mechanism with revamped system architecture and it was also the first smartphone to come with Daydream support. We reviewed the Android powerhouse and you can check out if you should buy the smartphone. One important thing to note is that in extended testing we concluded that Pixel has the best smartphone camera till date, even beating Apple iPhone 7 Plus by a mile.

Samsung Note 7

The year 2016 will be incomplete without discussing Samsung and Samsung Note 7 because of everything that happened. On one hand, when most of the smartphones left a mark in 2016, the only thing(s) Samsung Galaxy Note 7 left was smoke, fire, unused fire-proof boxes, tumbling profits, destroyed trust and annihilated environment after the explosive year by Samsung. The most ironic part is that Samsung rushed Note 7 out in the market to compete with Apple iPhone 7 and this move backfired big time for the company as back to back recalls of the smartphones left the company without any flagship to compete with the competition.

Image: Hui Renjie

Samsung delayed working on S8 to investigate the cause of battery fires and explosions in Note 7. The company recently concluded the investigation and had submitted the detailed reports to regulatory bodies across the globe. We can expect a public release of the report soon as the company promised that it would publish the cause of explosions to everyone.

OnePlus 3/3T

OnePlus 3

OnePlus 3 was one of the important smartphones for 2016 as it reaffirmed that OnePlus is here to stay. After the failure that OnePlus 2 was, everyone thought that the company is a one-hit wonder in the sea of unknown Chinese companies. But with the launch of OnePlus 3, the company turned off the noise by proving everyone that it indeed can make ‘flagship-killer’ smartphones without much buzz.

OnePlus 3T

The company took the world by surprise with the launch of OnePlus One in 2014. This year the OnePlus 3 became an instant hit and the company raised the stakes by releasing OnePlus 3T. OnePlus 3T is an upgraded version of OnePlus 3 with a new processor, slightly bigger battery and a 16MP front camera. We reviewed both the smartphones and reached a conclusion that this is the best smartphone regarding performance only second to Apple iPhone 7 Plus. OnePlus 3T may lack Daydream or the new update mechanism and Android Nougat 7.1 but these features are coming soon.

iPhone 7

The iPhone 7 Plus.

Apple iPhone 7 was being considered to be one of the most lacklustre iPhones ever with no buzz in the usual markets according to analysts. But the lack of competition from Samsung or LG pulled people to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Another significant change that Apple made was dropping 3.5-mm headphone jack along with the introduction of 256GB internal storage options for users in need for more internal storage.

The iPhone 7 was the first flagship by Apple to sport waterproof capabilities. The company also added a dual-lens camera setup with different focal lengths for shooting in standard as well as zoomed modes on the iPhone 7 Plus. The company also added a portrait mode to add natural Bokeh using data from both the lenses to give a natural depth-of-field. iPhone 7 and 7 Plus launch was aligned with the launch of iOS10, one of the most significant updates by the company to iOS.

Moto Z and Moto Mods

The Moto Z was one smartphone that we were looking out for as it had the potential to change how we look at handsets. It was also the only smartphone that allowed one to add and enhance capabilities through modules made by third party vendors. The smartphone pulled in more interest after Google axed Project Ara making Moto Z and the Moto Mods, the only hope for truly modular smartphones. The company promised that it would release 12 mods each year and all mods will be backwards as well as forward compatible with upcoming smartphones.

We reviewed the Moto Z and were stunned by the build quality and performance of the smartphone along with the entire idea of mods. But the company should drastically improve the experience before even assuming that the offering will be taken seriously by the consumers.

LG G5

Representative image of smartphone

LG G5 was the first real smartphone to sport dual camera and the ultra wide perspective was one of the core points of attraction os the smartphone. The company announced the smartphone, and everyone was excited about the latest smartphone in the G series by LG. After a detailed review of the smartphone, we were disappointed in the build quality of the smartphone along with the lacklustre camera and the extremely limited ‘Modular’-functionality that the company was touting when the smartphone was announced.

The company had announced different modular accessories for the smartphone that ranged from removable batteries, camera and battery mod, Bang & Olufsen-designed DAC mod for improved audio quality along with other mods in the pipeline. But the surprisingly expensive pricing of the smartphone effectively killed it before it even took off in the market.

Xiaomi Mi MIX

Xiaomi Mi MIX, a concept smartphone by Xiaomi was the talking bout of many during the year. Nobody was expecting a nearly bezel-less design this year, but Xiaomi sneaked in with the quite announcement of this almost perfect looking smartphone. It wasn’t released worldwide and only served as a limited launch smartphone. It also came with a unique “Cantilever piezoelectric ceramic acoustic technology” to replace the traditional earpiece for audio. The smartphone looked something straight out of some Sci-Fi movie from early 2000’s.

It did not win any laurels for its performance by the design and execution itself ensured that Xiaomi had the bragging rights to an innovative design.

Meizu announces Pro 6s with 10-core processor, 4GB RAM, 12MP camera and more

By tech2 News Staff /  04 Nov 2016 , 09:14

Meizu has announced an update to its Pro 6 smartphone in the form of the Pro 6s at an event in China. This phone looks like OnePlus 3 and iPhone 7 had a love-child. In fact, the Meizu Pro 6s also features 3D touch, just like the current gen iPhone. The Pro 6s is priced at CNY 2699 (approx Rs 27,000).

The Meizu Pro 6s comes with an aluminum unibody design with rounded corners. The antenna lines are visible on the rear side of the Pro 6s. It sports a 5.2-inch display with Full HD resolution. It houses the 10-core processor sporting MediaTek Helio X25 chipset which has Mali T880 MP4 GPU and is paired with 4GB of RAM. It comes with 64GB of storage which cannot be expanded.

In terms of camera, you get a 5MP front-facing unit whereas on the rear you have a 12MP camera with Sony IMX386 sensor with an f/2.0 aperture. The camera is different from the 21MP unit with f/2.2 aperture that is seen on the Pro 6. The Pro 6s also comes with 4-axis optical image stabilisation. It has a 10-LED dual tone flash ring, just like the Pro 6. In terms of AF, the Pro 6s camera supports phase detect and laser assist autofocus.

The Pro 6s has a 3060mAh battery. It runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow along with Meizu’s Flyme OS atop it.

There is no news on when the phone will launch in India.

Toyota has developed the Smart Key Box app to start a car using a smartphone

Image Credits: Fobes China

  01 Nov 2016 , 12:15

Japanese car maker Toyota has developed an app called Smart Key Box that lets people use smartphones to access and start up a car.

The app would only allow users that have previously signed up for the shared-use car to operate it, providing a more secure way of lending and renting cars, Toyota said in a statement on Monday.

For the pilot programme that will begin in San Francisco in January has invested in Getaround in October — a peer-to-peer sharing service that allows private car owners to rent out their vehicles when they are not using them.

The device works with a cloud service where an individual can be given access to a specific car for a set time period, CNET reported.

According to Toyota, Smart Key Box “can be placed in a vehicle without modification,” enabling engine start and door lock access.

The smartphone app, connecting to Toyota’s cloud-based Mobility Services Platform, can also handle payments and loan scheduling.

“The platform has individual business functions like vehicle management systems and leasing programmes,” Toyota said.

IANS

Motion sensor supplier for Apple and Samsung, InvenSense, exploring sales option

  30 Oct 2016 , 14:40

InvenSense Inc, a US semiconductor company that makes motion sensors for Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, is exploring strategic alternatives, including a possible sale, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

InvenSense shares jumped as much as 13 percent on the news, and were trading up 61 cents at $7.48 by late afternoon, giving the company a market capitalisation of nearly $700 million.

If it succeeds in selling itself, InvenSense would be the latest company to be swept up by a wave of consolidation in the industry, as makers of chips for smartphones face intense price competition and seek scale.

Smartphone chip maker Qualcomm Inc agreed to buy NXP Semiconductors NV for about $38 billion this week, in the biggest-ever deal in the semiconductor industry.

InvenSense, which designs gyroscopes to help smartphones calculate motion, is working with an investment bank to explore its options, the people said. Chinese and Japanese companies are among interested suitors, they added.

There is no certainty that the sale process will result in any deal, the people cautioned.

The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. InvenSense could not be reached for comment.

Northland Capital Markets analyst Tom Sepenzis said in a research note last month that the growth of virtual reality, especially in China, could help InvenSense’s prospects.

“InvenSense is certainly well positioned as there are no Chinese companies offering gyroscopes,” Sepenzis said.

InvenSense, which competes with STMicroelectronics NV and Bosch Sensortech, got a boost in August when Pacific Crest Securities upgraded the rating on its stock, arguing the gyroscopes are essential to mobile phones for augmented reality games such as Pokemon Go.

InvenSense’s chief executive Behrooz Abdi talked up the Pokemon Go opportunity on the company’s last earnings call in July, and said more consumers playing games that involve moving around with their phones would boost demand for its gyroscope products.

Reuters

LG Electronics registers drop in profits as smartphone business bleeds money

  27 Oct 2016 , 18:40

LG Electronics Inc said on Thursday its third-quarter operating profit fell 3.7 percent from a year earlier, hit by sluggish sales in its money-losing smartphone business. LG said in a regulatory filing that the operating profit for the July-September quarter stood at 283.2 billion won ($250.9 million), compared with a profit of 293.9 billion won for the same quarter last year, Yonhap news agency reported.

Compared to the previous quarter, LG’s operating profit sank 51.6 percent. Revenue for the third quarter fell 5.7 percent on year to 13.2 trillion won, according to the filing. LG’s mobile division posted an operating loss of 463.4 billion won for the third quarter, marking its sixth consecutive quarterly loss for its smartphone business. In a statement, LG attributed “lower sales of premium devices and expenses related to business structure improvement activities” to the third-quarter loss in its smartphone business.

“Priorities for the final quarter of the year will include increasing sales of the new LG V20 smartphone and mass-tier K and X series and finalizing business structural improvements in the mobile division to be better prepared for the challenges ahead,” LG said. LG’s home appliance division reported an operating profit of 342.8 billion won and its TV division posted an operating profit of 381.5 billion won.

Reuters

Qualcomm agrees to buy NXP Semiconductors for $47 billion as it expands its reach beyond phones

Image: Reuters

  27 Oct 2016 , 18:16

Qualcomm Inc said on Thursday it agreed to buy NXP Semiconductors NV for about $47 billion, including debt, as it seeks to expand the reach of its chips from phones to cars. The deal would make Qualcomm, which supplies chips to Android smartphone makers and Apple Inc, one of the biggest suppliers to the fast-growing market of chips used by the automotive industry.

Qualcomm said it would offer $110 per share in cash, a premium of 11.5 percent to NXP Semiconductor’s Wednesday’s close. The equity value of the deal is $37.88 billion, according to Reuters calculations based on the company’s 344.4 million diluted shares as of Oct. 2. Qualcomm intends to fund the transaction with cash on hand and new debt.

The company gets the bulk of its revenue from chip sales but most of its profit comes from wireless patents it licenses to the mobile industry. The transaction, which is expected to close by the end of 2017, is structured to use offshore cash flow in a tax-efficient manner to rapidly reduce leverage, Qualcomm said. The company expects the deal to significantly add to adjusted earnings immediately upon its close and generate $500 million of cost savings annually within two years after the deal closes.

Qualcomm had sat out the transformative consolidation sweeping the industry, which has seen mega-deals such as Avago buying Broadcom for $37 billion last year. NXP closed a nearly $12 billion deal to buy U.S.-based Freescale Semiconductor last December, creating the world’s top maker of automotive electronics and doubling the percentage of its auto-related revenue to 40 percent.

The combined company is expected to have annual revenue of more than $30 billion, the companies said. San Diego-based Qualcomm is facing slowing smartphone sales and stiff competition from Chinese and Taiwanese rivals. The company is currently ranked third in terms of revenue among global semiconductor companies in 2015, while Eindhoven-based NXP is ranked seventh, according to research firm IHS.

Goldman Sachs and Evercore were financial advisers to Qualcomm while Centerview Partners LLC advised its board. Qatalyst Partners, Barclays and Credit Suisse were financial advisers to NXP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek were legal counsels. NXP’s shares rose 2.4 percent to $101, while Qualcomm shares were up nearly 2 percent to $69.50 in premarket trading.

Reuters

According to scientists, smartphone batteries emit more than 100 toxic gases

  21 Oct 2016 , 15:12

Not just catching up fire or exploding as you sleep next to them, dozens of dangerous gases are being produced by the batteries found in billions of consumer devices like smartphones and tablets, scientists have warned. The team has identified more than 100 toxic gases released by lithium-ion batteries, including carbon monoxide, which can cause strong irritations to the skin, eyes and nasal passages and harm the wider environment.

According to the researchers from the Institute of NBC Defence and Tsinghua University in China, many people may be unaware of the dangers of overheating, damaging or using a disreputable charger for their rechargeable devices. “Nowadays, lithium-ion batteries are being actively promoted by many governments all over the world. The lithium-ion battery is used by millions of families, so it is imperative that the general public understand the risks behind this energy source,” said Jie Sun, lead author and professor at the Institute of NBC Defence.

The dangers of exploding batteries have led manufacturers to recall millions of devices. Dell recalled four million laptops in 2006 and millions of

Researchers make a portable smartphone lab to detect cancer

Image Credits: Jon Fingas, Flickr

  19 Oct 2016 , 17:48

In a major step towards faster and convenient delivery of medical tests, Washington State University researchers have developed a low-cost, portable laboratory on a smartphone that can analyse several samples at once to catch a cancer biomarker, producing lab quality results.

At a time when patients and medical professionals expect always faster results, researchers are trying to translate biodetection technologies used in laboratories to the field and clinic, so patients can get nearly instant diagnoses in a physician’s office, an ambulance or the emergency room. The research team created an eight channel smartphone spectrometer that can detect human interleukin-6 (IL-6), a known biomarker for lung, prostate, liver, breast and epithelial cancers.

A spectrometer analyses the amount and type of chemicals in a sample by measuring the light spectrum. “The spectrometer would be especially useful in clinics and hospitals that have a large number of samples without on-site labs, or for doctors who practice abroad or in remote areas,” said lead researcher Lei Li, Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

“They can’t carry a whole lab with them. They need a portable and efficient device,” Li noted. Although smartphone spectrometers exist, they only monitor or measure a single sample at a time, making them inefficient for real world applications. The multichannel spectrometer can measure up to eight different samples at once using a common test called ELISA that identifies antibodies and colour change as disease markers, according to a study published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

“With our eight channel spectrometer, we can put eight different samples to do the same test, or one sample in eight different wells to do eight different tests. This increases our device’s efficiency,” said Li, who has filed a provisional patent for the work. Although the system currently works with an iPhone 5, the researchers said they are creating an adjustable design that will be compatible with any smartphone.

IANS

10 Problems With Today’s Smartphones & What You Can Do About Them

Smartphones are replacing desktops and laptops as our primary devices. That’s cool. Unfortunately, this has been a case of two steps forward, two steps back.

The smartphone industry is very different from the PC market. You could say that’s to be expected, but this has had a negative effect on our digital lives and what we can do with our devices. Let me explain.

1. You Can’t Customize Hardware

You can buy a desktop PC pre-built or order the parts and construct one yourself. Either way, with the exception of certain All-in-One designs, you have the ability to dive inside and make upgrades. Need more RAM? Storage space? A better graphics card? You can change what you need and keep your machine running for longer.

Smartphones don’t give you those options. Many leave you with fewer choices than our old flip phones. Back then, you could take out the battery and pop in a MicroSD card for most models. Both of those options are left out of today’s top phones.

Need a faster processor, a battery battery, or a better camera module? Your only option is to replace your phone with the latest model. And it’s not easy for the average person, or even the average geek, to make repairs without sending the device to a professional.

What Can You Do?

Look for phones with MicroSD card slots and

Amazon and Flipkart offer festive season deals to online shoppers

#E-COMMERCE

Image Credit: Amazon.in

By tech2 News Staff /  01 Oct 2016 , 20:12

E-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart have started offering deals to attract potential consumers. Amazon has launched “Great Indian Festival” where the company is offering discounts and additional cash back offers. The company is offering prizes worth Rs 4 crore for the consumers who will use Amazon mobile app for shopping.

Amazon is banking on exclusive deals to

Sony Xperia XZ lands in the US on October 2 for $699.99

Sony announced the Xperia XZ at the beginning of this month. It will replace the Xperia X Performance as the company's flagship smartphone after just a few short months of that device being available.

Speaking of availability, the Xperia XZ will arrive in stock in the US on October 2. It will be sold by retailers such as Amazon and Best Buy, and its recommended price is $699.99. Obviously for that amount you'll get an unlocked unit, which will work with GSM-based networks such as AT&T and T-Mobile (and all MVNOs operating on their infrastructure).

Expect the XZ to go up for pre-order soon, joining the X Compact which was announced alongside it. The smaller handset will be out sooner, though, on September 25. Sadly the Xperia XZ won't have a fingerprint scanner in the US, continuing an unfortunate trend for Sony's smartphones.

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