Search Results for: samsung

When you think of USB hubs, docks, adapters, and dongles, Sony probably isn't the first company that comes to mind. For instance, the minds of consumers are more likely to conjure images of StarTech.com, Satechi, Plugable, and VisionTek. And yet, Sony has announced new SD card reader and USB hub that it calls the "world's fastest." Whether that claim is true is debatable. One thing is for sure -- it looks quite beautiful.

Called "MRW-S3," it is actually much more than a hub and card reader as Sony humbly calls it. Sure, it has an SD card reader, micro SD card slot, and two USB 3.1 gen 2 ports (1x USB-A and 1x USB-C), but also, it has USB-C power delivery and HDMI video. In other words, MRW-S3 is really a full-fledged USB-C docking station -- for both home and mobile. Weighing just 95 grams, you won't even know it is in your bag.

Continue reading →

Smart televisions are kind of... stupid. While TV makers love to advertise all of the integrated streaming services, the truth is, the interfaces are often slow and clunky. Ultimately, it is a much better experience to use a streaming device, such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku, or Apple TV. Hell, connecting your smart TV to the internet could even put your home network at risk!

The best thing about streaming media boxes and sticks, however, is they are typically very affordable. Well, with the exception of the pricey Apple TV. For instance, you can buy a quality Roku Streaming Stick for less than $40. You know what’s better than spending a little money? Spending no money. You see, Roku is giving away five devices (one per winner) to celebrate the summer.

Continue reading →

Donald Trump may have a bug up his ass over Huawei, but anti-Chinese propaganda aside, consumers around the world love the company's devices. Huawei's laptops, smartphones, and tablets are well-received by both professional reviewers and consumers. There should be no mystery how Huawei achieves such praise -- its products are elegant, well built, and not overly priced. The P30 Pro might be the best Android smartphone on the market.

With Android in particular, Huawei is not only providing an excellent customer experience through hardware, but with OS updates too. In fact, the company is celebrating an impressive milestone -- more than 80 million Huawei device users are now on Android 9.0 Pie. Technically, it is EMUI 9, which is Android plus Huawei's improvements. This puts many other device makers, such as Samsung and LG to shame.

Continue reading →

OnePlus smartphones are very well received by those wanting a pure Android experience. They are also popular with budget shoppers, as they have historically been very affordable. Over time, however, OnePlus has been increasing prices, reducing the perceived value of these devices. With the OnePlus 7 Pro, for instance, the starting price is $700 -- a significant amount of money. With that said, it stills costs less than some flagship phones from other manufacturers, such as Samsung and Apple.

If you do decide to drop a big chunk of change on the OnePlus 7 Pro, I hope you would protect it with a case. Today, famed case manufacturer Urban Armor Gear releases such a product -- the Plasma Series case for OnePlus 7 Pro. It is a very rugged case with a pretty reasonable price tag. And yes, the case is designed to accommodate the device's unique pop-up front-facing camera.

Continue reading →

It was the iPod touch that first turned me on to iOS. The gateway drug to getting an iPhone if you will. I had the second and third gen models before graduating to Apple’s smartphone (and the iPad), and if it wasn't for that, I'd probably be an Android user with a Samsung Galaxy S10.

I wouldn’t buy an iPod touch now that I have an iPhone XS, but if you want to enjoy the delights offered by the App Store, without spending a fortune on a flagship phone, then it’s the perfect solution, and Apple has just introduced a new, much faster and more capable model.

Continue reading →

Just yesterday, CORSAIR shocked the world with the PCIe 4.0 MP600 SSD. This new drive will offer insane read and write speeds. While this new CORSAIR drive is certainly exciting, the reality is, most consumers won’t have a PCIe 4.0 compatible computer anytime soon. I’m sure plenty of early adopters will buy an X570-based motherboard and 3rd generation AMD Ryzen processor, but the majority of machines will not have PCIe 4.0 for many years.

With all of that said, NVMe solid state drives based on PCIe 3.0 will remain an attractive option for a while, and today, Toshiba announces an upgrade to its XG6 model. called "XG6-P," it offers very respectable speeds and should appeal to gamers, enthusiasts, and the enterprise too. It is likely to find itself in several laptops from PC manufacturers.

Continue reading →

For the most part, Android tablets have proven to be a massive failure. What looked like a promising market has devolved into a collection of low-quality tablets from no-name manufacturers. Sure, companies like Huawei and Samsung are still producing solid Android tablets, but consumers largely don't care. If it isn't an iPad, the tablet won't get much attention.

There is one big exception to this, however -- Amazon Fire. Yes, the book-seller's affordable media consumption tablets -- which do run a variation of Android -- are extremely popular with consumers. Despite not having access to Google's Play Store, Fire tablets are very affordable while providing a quality media experience. Not to mention, you get access to the Alexa voice assistant. Today, Amazon refreshes the 7-inch Fire 7 tablet with improved specifications, such as providing double the storage capacity and a beefier processor. Believe it or not, despite better hardware, it still retains its sub-$50 starting price tag.

Continue reading →

True to form, the launch of the latest OnePlus handsets have been preceded by numerous leaks, rumors and teasers. As such, today's launch of the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro contained few surprises, but the phones are now here and the launch confirms and clarifies many details.

The OnePlus 7 Pro is at the top of the range. Boasting a 90Hz QHD+ Display, Snapdragon 855 and the option of up to 12GB of RAM. Then, of course, there are the cameras. The controversial pop-up design of the selfie camera isn't going to be to everyone's liking, but the specs of the main shooters are hugely impressive. We've known that this will be the first OnePlus handset to be more directly comparable with the likes of Samsung flagships in terms of price, and this means the OnePlus 7 Pro costs between $699 and $749. For those on more restricted budget, the OnePlus 7 clocks in at slightly lower price.

Continue reading →

Modern smartphones are fantastic, but they burn through battery life like no-one’s business. Most of us charge our devices overnight, but if you’ve used your phone a lot in the day, there’s a good chance you’ll have needed to top up the battery at least once at some point -- especially if your handset is getting on a bit.

Few people choose a smartphone based solely on its battery life (as the abject failure of the 18,000mAh battery-toting Energizer P18K shows) but it is still an important consideration. If you’ve found you’re not getting as much life from your phone as the manufacturer claimed, you won’t be too surprised to see an investigation by consumer champion Which? came to the same conclusion.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18885 (or Windows 10 20H1, if you prefer) to the Fast Ring. The big addition in this latest build is Android notification mirroring in Windows via the Your Phone app.

If you have an Android 7.0 handset, you can (probably, barring handset-specific compatibility issues) take advantage of the ability to see phone notifications in Windows 10. The range of phones that can use the "phone screen" screen mirroring option has been expanded as well. With Build 18885, Microsoft has also addressed the problem that was preventing people from installing updates when they had a USB drive or SD card connected.

Continue reading →

While Samsung's problematic Galaxy Fold was vying for attention by not only being a foldable smartphone, but also an extraordinarily expensive one, handsets from OnePlus have been notable for their low price tags.

The launch of the OnePlus 7 series is just around the corner, and the specs we've seen have hinted that this is not going to be a cheap phone. Now leaked pricing appears to confirm this.

Continue reading →

OnePlus has announced that it is going to reveal its OnePlus 7 series on May 14.

At an event in three weeks' time in London, New York, Bangalore and Beijing, the company says it will "showcase the power of all-new OnePlus 7 Series", which is expected to include the OnePlus 7, the OnePlus 7 Pro, and a 5G handset. OnePlus also promises "several surprise announcements".

Continue reading →

Cloud storage is great. Seriously, folks, storing important files online is a great way to protect them from disasters, such as theft, fire, or flooding to name a few. When people tell me they have their own "cloud" at home with an internet-connected NAS, I simply sigh. Yeah, that's cool, but you are still lacking offsite redundancy. Ideally, you should be using both an online cloud service, such as Dropbox, while also storing your files locally on an encrypted drive.

Of course, the cloud isn't a realistic option for all industries. Media creators, for instance, often need fast local storage with large capacities. Especially with 4K and 8K video editing, you are looking at enormous file sizes. Today, Promise Technology unveils an excellent storage solution for the media editors. Its new Pegasus32 Series offers connectivity for both Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 (aka USB 3.1 Gen 2). In other words, it is compatible with both standards (each uses USB-C). Believe it or not, its DisplayPort can push an 8K display at 60Hz!

Continue reading →

Android fans should be in heaven right now -- there are several excellent smartphones on the market from companies like LG, Samsung, Huawei, and more. Let us not forget about Google's own Pixel phones too. Quite frankly, picking an Android device can be a bit overwhelming, but I suppose too much choice is a good problem to have!

Today, LG announces that its highly anticipated smartphone, the LG G8 ThinQ, is coming to America. Yes, if you are in the USA, you will be able to get it next month. Should you be excited? Uh, yes, because this phone has some revolutionary technology.

Continue reading →

Back in September last year Microsoft announced the launch of its Virtual Desktop to allow Windows to be run in the cloud.

At the time, however, it was only a private preview. Today the public preview launches, so anyone with an Azure subscription can try out the service.

Continue reading →