Month: June 2018

Xiaomi released, then pulled, the Android 8.1 Oreo update for the Mi A1. Device owners complained of deleted text messages and tripped SafetyNet. Even though updates for the Xiaomi Mi A1 have been sporadic for months, the company’s first and only Android One smartphone received its Android 8.1 Oreo update. According to XDA Developers, however, the update also introduces a few headaches. For starters, Android 8.1 introduces features like a battery icon for your Bluetooth devices, semi-transparent Quick Settings panel that also goes light or dark based on your wallpaper, refreshed Settings menu, fixed burger emoji, and more. The update also bumps the security patch level to June 5 and improves sound quality. However, the update did not introduce Project Treble. Instead, it brought two nasty bugs that might give you reason to hold off for now. Editor’s Pick Android One phones – what are your options? Android One is Google’s platform designed to bring affordable Android phones to the masses. Originally launched in 2014, with the goal of offering cheap smartphones to emerging markets, Google announced a revamp of the program … The first bug is one that wipes your entire SMS history. This apparently happens when you swipe away the messages app from the recent apps screen, so make sure you backup your text messages if you are wary of this happening to you. Another bug causes...

It’s summer and that means it’s time to get in the water! If you want to enjoy your time in the water without leaving your phone behind, a waterproof phone pouch is a must-have. Even if you happen to have a phone with waterproofing built-in, a pouch adds a little extra assurance. For those without waterproofing, it’s the difference between a water-damaged phone and a functioning one.  A waterproof phone pouch keeps your phone protected by sealing out all the water in a system that’s not too dissimilar from a Ziplock bag. Yeah, they are not pretty, but they will get the job done better than anything else. What’s even better is that you can actually use your phone while underwater with them. They are transparent, so you can operate the touchscreen through them and even take underwater photos. Want to get your own waterproof phone pouch? There’s several options out there. Let’s start with our top recommended pick, the CaliCase.  CaliCase floating waterproof phone pouch Promoted CaliCase might just be the highest quality waterproof case on the market, it looks and feels resistant from the first time you hold it. It floats so you don’t have to worry about your phone sinking and if you want to go underwater you can go up to 100 feet thanks to it’s IPX8 Certification. We like CaliCase pouches because the company seems to have...

Camera company Light is developing a smartphone that could have up to nine camera lenses. Light created the L16, a DSLR-replacement camera with 16 lenses. Light says its new smartphone could launch this year, but it will likely be very expensive. Remember the Light L16 camera? In 2015, a company with the very un-Googleable name Light announced a new type of camera that has 16 lenses working simultaneously to create DSLR-quality photos. You may not remember the story, but you probably remember the way the L16 looked: Light In 2015, the L16 seemed pretty crazy. But today, with smartphones like the Huawei P20 Pro (pictured at the top of this article) sporting three lenses working together to create high-quality images, it seems much less insane. Light might have just been ahead of the curve with its product idea, but now that we’re getting more used to the concept of multiple-lensed cameras, the company is working to bring a new smartphone to the world that will sport anywhere from five to nine lenses. Editor’s Pick 15 best camera apps for Android Cameras on smartphones are a much bigger deal than they used to be. Companies are chomping at the bit to make their cameras more reliable, work better in low light, and add features that people want. … According to an article in The Washington Post, Light has multiple prototypes in...

This week’s poll asked how important is high-performance 3D gaming to you, and the The state of gaming has often been demanding on hardware, with the latest shooters, motorsports, or RPGs throwing every kind of wonderful graphics demands on the internals like your GPU, CPU, and RAM. And it’s all worth it, it’s quite remarkable how good smartphone games like PUBG Mobile, Riptide, and Asphalt look and play, and how much they ask of your tiny hand-held device. Especially compared to the old PC towers we used to own in the 90s and 00s! Now, not all phones are super capable and not everyone has a spare console or PC at time. So for some people, having a phone that’s able to run these types of games is everything. For others, they’re much more dedicated to their gaming setup and while mobile games are fun, they’re not quite the same experience as playing on your TV setup or PC monitors. Also read Arm Mali-G76 GPU deep dive In the pursuit of ever greater graphics performance, Arm made some significant changes with the third entry in the high-performance tier of its Bifrost architecture, the Mali-G76. A number of these important tweaks already made … But it’s still remarkable that most mid- to high-end phones are running these demanding titles without a hitch, thanks to the weaponised triangle-producing-processing available from GPUs. It’s one of the hottest areas...

Welcome to your weekly round-up of the best U.K. deals of the week for Android phones, network plans, accessories, smart home tech, and a little of whatever else is on offer in the world of mobile. Editor’s Pick Google Pixel XL review: a Pixel’s perspective Fans of the Nexus range, you can now wince as Google’s iconic Nexus range is dead. However, if you’re interested in the Pure Android experience as Google imagines it, you need not worry as the … This week’s deals include an epic saving on the first generation Google Pixel XL, a saving of over £200 on an LG G6 bundled with a pair of B&O earphones, a whopping discount on a Sony Android TV, and much more. Below are the most enticing deals we’ve seen this week hand-picked with a little help from the folks over at HotUKDeals – the U.K.’s biggest deal-sharing community. Phones Google Pixel XL (SIM Free, 32GB) – £299.95 (was £429) @ Argos Moto G5 (SIM Free, 16GB) – £99 (was £149) @ GiffGaff LG G6 (SIM Free, 32GB) w/ free pair of B&O PLAY Earphones (worth £79) – £319.99 (was £459.99) Moto G6 Play (SIM Free, 32GB) – £149.99 (was £165.99) @ John Lewis Plans PlusNet, 30 day SIM only, 1.5GB data, unlimited minutes, unlimited texts – £5 @ PlusNet Accessories SanDisk Mobile Ultra Micro SD SDXC Memory Card 128GB...