Mihăiță Bamburic

In 2014, Apple introduced the first big iPhone, the iPhone 6 Plus. Since then, the company has offered a phablet version for each new incarnation of its hugely successful device. While Apple doesn't say how many buyers prefer it over the standard model, reports show that it accounts for a significant portion of sales.

In US, the Plus models have gained considerable traction, with Consumer Intelligence Research Partners saying that they made up 35 percent of the iPhone installed base as of 31 December 2016. And their popularity is growing, as a year prior that figure stood at 25 percent.

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Apple edged Samsung to take the top spot in the smartphone market in the final quarter of 2016, thanks to very strong iPhone shipments. The Cupertino, Calif.-based vendor moved 78.3 million units, having a share of 17.8 percent, while its South Korean rival only managed to ship 77.5 million smartphones, which equates to a market share of 17.7 percent. Total shipments for the quarter were 438.7 million units, according to a Strategy Analytics report.

This is not the first time that Apple beats Samsung, but it is rare for it to happen. Samsung usually has a comfortable lead over its rivals, including Apple, but thanks to the Galaxy Note7 recall it failed to repeat that performance last quarter. You can follow the saga here, but the gist of it is that the company had to pull millions of devices as a result of its mistakes, and that had a serious effect on its showing in the last part of 2016.

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Microsoft Teams, Slack's latest high-profile rival, is slowly gaining traction. The software giant has announced that 30,000 organizations, spread across 145 markets, "actively used" the collaboration service in the past month. It launched in late-November.

Where are those 30,000 customers coming from? Well, since Microsoft Teams is part of Office 365 that means that the users the collaboration service has are first and foremost Office 365 subscribers -- and there are 85 million active users there. That gives it huge potential for growth.

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Parallels Toolbox is a macOS app for power users that provides easy access to dozens of utilities -- like camera controls, screenshot options, archiving and more -- from the menu bar. Now, there is a new version available and it comes with three changes designed to improve the user experience.

Toolbox 1.5 adds the option to drag and drop tools, capture audio from the Mac, and change the sources for the camera and microphone. Let's take a closer look at the latest changes.

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Security researchers from Context IS have uncovered serious vulnerabilities in a number of premium Samsung Galaxy phones which allow attackers to crash devices using a single SMS message and initiate ransomware attacks.

The report is part of a series which aims to show "how, even in 2017, SMS-based attacks on Android phones are still viable". As longtime readers might recall, iOS too was vulnerable to such attacks -- but that was nearly two years ago. While the report focuses on Samsung's Android handsets, the researchers suggest that the vulnerabilities could be found in other vendors' smartphones as well.

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The latest official macOS Sierra update that Apple recently introduced did not bring any new features to the table, as it focused on improving performance and fixing bugs, but that is about to change as Night Shift will finally arrive in the upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.4.

Night Shift should sound familiar to iPhone users, as Apple debuted this feature nearly a year ago in iOS 9.3. What is it? Night Shift is a mode that, when activated, reduces blue light to help you sleep better.

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I am a strong believer in the saying "you get what you pay for." It's been my experience that price is a reflection of quality (design, performance, build quality, customer support, you name it), so when I look at an affordable device I tend to lower my expectations. Case in point, before taking the Chuwi LapBook 14.1 out of the box, I thought it wouldn't be much better than the other Chinese laptop I reviewed, the Jumper Ezbook 2.

Why? Because it promises a lot of things for the money: a 14.1-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080, 1.1GHz quad-core Intel "Apollo Lake" Celeron N3450 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, microSD card slot, microHDMI port, two USB ports, a webcam, a 9,000mAh battery, and Windows 10 Home for a retail price of $299.99. And, boy, was I proven wrong. The LapBook 14.1 punches far above its price tag would suggest.

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Consumers in US and Europe haven't quite warmed up to wearables, according to a new report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Smartwatch adoption in both markets remains below the five percent mark, despite multiple models being available for a few years now.

This isn't exactly a surprising finding, because smartwatch sales are pretty bad. Depending on who you choose to believe, they were between 2.7 and 6.1 million units in the third quarter of last year (we're still waiting on the numbers for 2016 from the likes of IDC and Canalys). Apple Watch rules this space, but it is hardly a major market as you can see.

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OnePlus has been busy lately, rolling out the Android Nougat update for its 3T flagship killer just hours before passing into 2017 and working hard to make the smartphone more readily available to ship to potential buyers in major markets.

The OnePlus 3T is available to consumers without an invite, but not everyone has been able to get their hands on the smartphone. OnePlus did not always have it in stock, but that is about to change from now on.

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Apple today releases updates for all its major operating systems, introducing iOS 10.2.1, macOS Sierra 10.12.3, tvOS 10.1.1 and watchOS 3.1.3. The latest builds do not add any new features, as the focus is on improving the existing functionality and squashing bugs.

Mac users are treated with the lengthiest changelog, and users of the latest MacBook Pros (October 2016 models) should be particularly interested in it. That's because Apple improved graphics switching on the 15-inch MacBook Pro and fixed graphics issues that occurred while using Adobe Premiere Pro to encode projects on both 13-inch and 15-inch Touch Bar-equipped MacBook Pros.

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A common recommendation that Android users get for avoiding malware is to stick with Google Play and not download any apps from other sources. Trouble is, as HummingBad proved early last year by penetrating the search giant's defenses, that advice is not exactly bullet-proof.

The malware generated $300,000 in revenue every month and infected over 85 million devices, which, at the time, ran popular versions of Android, like KitKat and Jelly Bean. It was also one of the most dangerous pieces of malware in 2016, representing 72 percent of attacks on mobile and ranking fourth in Check Point's list of "the most prevalent malware globally" in the first half of the year. But that is not the end of the saga, as a new variant, called HummingWhale, has been found on Google Play.

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Apple is not happy with its longtime partner Qualcomm, as it has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the chip maker for allegedly being charged "royalties for technologies [that Qualcomm has] nothing to do with."

This is the second major lawsuit filed against Qualcomm this week, with the US Federal Trading Commission announcing on Tuesday that it is taking the chip maker to court for "monopolizing key semiconductor device used in cell phones." The two lawsuits are related.

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Facebook has started to roll out the Messenger.com interface as a replacement for the longstanding message inbox on the web. The latest design should feel much more familiar to folks who use the chat service on their smartphones, as it closely resembles the Android and iOS apps.

There is no official announcement yet, but you should start seeing the new interface soon on your account. It debuted nearly two years ago as a standalone website and alternative to the message inbox for folks who do not want to visit Facebook (or wish to create an account with the social network, for that matter).

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Google is adding a new social component to YouTube, rolling out in-app messaging and direct video sharing on Android and iOS. The new features are available only in Canada at the time of writing this article, but Google says that they will be (eventually) released worldwide.

Why is Google introducing those features? Simple. In today's landscape, it is no longer enough to let users watch videos and reply back and forth in the comments section. If you look at Facebook, it is also super easy for users to connect after having a conversation, which then lets them privately share content, among other things. The result? They spend more time using the service.

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Samsung started the Android Nougat roll-out for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge last week, but only members of the Galaxy Beta Program could get it right away. That changes today, as Samsung is finally making the much-awaited update available to more users, starting in China and UK.

After installing the hefty Android Nougat update on my Galaxy S7 edge, it became immediately clear that Samsung has put in a lot of effort to deliver a much more user-friendly experience. Its skin is much improved over what we had before on Android Marshmallow, packing lots of nice changes, both visual and under the hood. It is not perfect, but there is lots more to like now.

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