Articles about Smartphone

That the Samsung Galaxy Note7 was killed off hardly came as a surprise, but rumors also started to circulate this week that the OnePlus 3 was to be discontinued. While OnePlus has not suffered from any problems, delays in getting orders out to customers led to speculation that there was a new phone in the pipeline and that production on the OnePlus 3 had come to an end.

Nonsense! Says OnePlus. The company reassures us that it is "still producing and selling the OnePlus 3". There is, however, a slight problem with the supply chain.

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Call me a cheapskate, but I’ve always been a bit stingy when it comes to spending on technology. Maybe it’s all those years spent testing and reviewing hardware for myriad trade publications (and the parade of free "extended loaners" I received). Or maybe it’s my insider knowledge of tech trends that makes me hesitant to pay top dollar for something I know will be obsolete inside of a year. But regardless of the motivation, I’ve steadfastly resisted the "urge to splurge" on high-profile technology products.

Case in point: Apple. When the original iPhone came out, I dismissed it as a toy and stuck with my feature phone. And when the iPad debuted, I ignored the tablet sector entirely for nearly two years before investing in what I thought was a technically superior (and by that time, heavily discounted) Blackberry Playbook.

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The troubled Galaxy Note7 is being killed off completely. The news comes after Samsung's statement yesterday that it was asking carriers and retail partners to cease sales and exchanges while an investigation is carried out into handsets catching fire or exploding.

But now the company has filed papers with South Korean regulators in which it says it will permanently cease sales of the beleaguered smartphone. The decision follows earlier reports that production was on hold temporarily.

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The Galaxy Note7 has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for Samsung. Problems with exploding batteries wiped billions off the value of the company and led to a recall, but it soon transpired that even replacement handsets were problematic, with a number of reports of replacement handsets overheating, catching fire, or exploding.

Now South Korean news agency Yonhap reports that Samsung has temporarily suspended production of the flagship Android smartphone. It's a move that will unnerve investors, but one that is being carried out in conjunction with safety regulators from South Korea, the United States and China.

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The Android smartphone market is in disarray. Samsung smartphones are exploding like bombs, while Google's too-high Pixel pricing and likely cancellation of the Nexus line are both recent bombshells. In other words, it is a confusing time for consumers looking for a high-quality and safe Android device.

Luckily, a lot of value can be found by choosing lesser-known brands, such as Honor by Huawei. The affordable Honor 8 Android smartphone is rather inexpensive at $399, offering a beautiful design and respectable specifications. To celebrate Columbus Day tomorrow, the company is giving a special one-day $50 discount. Yes, you can score yourself a seemingly good phone starting at a very low $349 -- a fraction of the cost of flagships from some other companies.

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Starting in December, smartphone manufacturers will no longer be required to install Hangouts on their handsets. Instead, phone makers will need to provide users with the recently-launched Duo.

This is not to say that Hangouts is being killed off -- not yet, at least. But Duo, complete with end-to-end encryption, will replace the app as part of the core Google Mobile Services package.

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The Galaxy Note7 is back on sale in some markets, but that does not mean that the new units Samsung is shipping are perfectly safe. A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight says that his replacement Galaxy Note7 caught fire, causing minor damage to the plane and the flight to get canceled.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has opened an investigation, basically to find out whether another recall is in order. "If it’s the fixed phone and it started to smoke in his pocket, I’m going to guess there’ll be another recall", says the agency's former executive director, Pamela Gilbert. Does a second recall sound unlikely at this stage? No.

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Any sort of exercise is made a little easier if you're listening to music. With this in mind, Google has teamed up with Runtastic to provide access to curated playlists in Google Play Music for keen runners.

It's a feature that is -- at the moment, at least -- exclusive to Android users, and it makes it easy to choose music that will suit your mood, or the speed at which you're motoring along.

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Worldwide shipments for devices including PCs, tablets, smartphones and mobile phones, are expected to decline three percent this year, according to a new report by market analysts Gartner. The company says this will be the second consecutive year of decline, as the global devices market fell by 0.75 percent in 2015. "The global devices market is not on pace to return to single-digit growth soon", says Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.

"Growth is on pace to remain flat during the next five years. All segments are expected to decline in 2016, except for premium ultramobiles and utility mobile phones (entry level phones), which are expected to show single-digit growth this year", says Gartner.

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There are many ways to try to learn a new language, ranging from audio books and text books, to software and web-based options. One learning tool that's proving popular at the moment is Duolingo, and a new feature has been introduced that helps to provide an immersive linguistic experience.

It is said that one of the best ways to learn a language is to visit the country that speaks it and surround yourself with native speakers. As this is not always possible, Duolingo's new chatbot feature could be the next best thing.

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Now that Google has its own line of smartphones developed completely in-house, you may be wondering what sort of impact will it have on the beloved Nexus brand? The Pixel and Pixel XL are not direct replacements for the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, targeting shoppers in the premium segment. Could there be something just around the corner to fill in the gaps?

Traditionally speaking, the Nexus brand has featured at least one affordable smartphone in the line -- last year, it was the Nexus 5X -- so it would make sense for Google to launch something similar. However, if we are to believe Android head Hiroshi Lockheimer, you should not get your hopes up.

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It may have been one of the worst kept secrets in tech launches, but today Google officially took the wraps off its Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. In terms of hardware it could be argued that there is nothing too spectacular here, but even if you ignore the (still very impressive) hardware side of things there are two features that directly take on Apple: Google Assistant to compete with Siri, and unlimited full-resolution photo backup.

Unlike Google's previous Nexus range, the Pixel handsets carry no other branding -- these are the first phones designed and built inside and out by Google and Google alone. We already knew just about everything about the two handsets -- which neatly compete with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, but now everything, and more, has been confirmed.

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Until concerns were raised about data sharing with Facebook to help deliver targeted ads, WhatsApp was seen as the messaging tool of choice for those concerned about privacy. As well as offering encrypted messaging, WhatsApp has always been one of the more stripped back messaging apps out there -- but no more.

Bowing to pressure to fit in with the crowd and offer the same features as the likes of SnapChat, WhatsApp is adding photo and video editing and enhancement tools. The ability to add emoji to photos, or draw and write on images are just two new options that are rolling out now.

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Things are slowly but surely starting to move in the right direction again for Samsung and its troublesome Galaxy Note7 flagship. Most affected units have been sent back, with the vast majority of customers opting to have their device replaced with a "new" -- or safe -- one. The only main thing left to do for Samsung is make the Galaxy Note7 available again.

During the recall, Samsung paused sales of the Galaxy Note7 to avoid introducing even more potentially dangerous units on the market. But now that there are enough safe Galaxy Note7 devices in stock, potential customers in some markets can get their hands on the flagship again.

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Google is on the verge of launching the Pixel and Pixel XL, but no launch would be complete without its share of leaks. This time around the slipup comes courtesy of UK retailer Carphone Warehouse which posted details of Google's upcoming phones, complete with photos and full specs.

The same mistake was made by Canada's Bell, effectively confirming the specifications which thus far have only been rumors. The listings not only reveal what we can expect in terms of hardware, but also show that Google is going to offer free, unlimited photo backups at full resolution for Pixel owners.

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