Instagram's Favorites will let you share with a specific group of people, currently in testing

Instagram's pace of new feature rollouts isn't showing any signs of slowing down. The Facebook-owned company is now testing a new function that lets you share with only a specific group of people. It is, rather unsurprisingly, called Favorites.

This is basically a 'friend list'. But Instagram wants to succeed in making this a thing, where its parent or even Twitter have mostly failed. Instagram will only have one friend list - Favorites. And it is private. That should keep things simple.

If you get this feature, you can choose who to share with, regardless of whether you're composing a regular post or a story post - publicly or your favorites. When you pick "favorites", only the people on that list will see that post, which will be denoted by a green badge. Your profile will also receive a new favorites tab (signified by a star). Here you will see all of the non-ephemeral posts you've ever shared with your favorites.

You can add anyone to favorites, and there's no limit to how many accounts are on that list. No one gets notified when you add or remove them from the list. They will only know they're your favorite through that green badge showing up at the top of those posts that are shared with favorites only. After you remove someone from the list, they lose access to all of your private posts of course.

Gmail will stop scanning emails for ad personalization later this year

Some Gmail haters have always claimed that you can't trust Google's email service because it automatically scans the content of your messages in order to personalize the ads it shows you. While this process doesn't involve any humans, a lot of people have been irked by the realization that it is in fact what is going on.

Well, today Google has announced that this email scanning will be retired from the free consumer Gmail service "later this year". So what is basically the most controversial thing about Gmail is going away. Oh, the poor haters, what will they choose to focus on afterwards? That remains to be seen, but we trust that they will be resourceful.

After the change is implemented, Gmail ads will be "in line" with how Google personalizes ads for its other products. The ads you see will be shown based on your settings, which you can switch at any time in your Google account - including to disable ad personalization completely. Google says Gmail has more than 1.2 billion users, and in the future add-ons will enable things such as payments and invoicing directly within the email service.

Oppo F3 arriving in India on May 4

Oppo has announced that the F3 smartphone will land in India next month - May 4. The announcement came in the form of a tweet from the company's India branch.

To refresh, the F3 and F3 Plus - which are being marketed as selfie experts - were made official by the Chinese company last month. The Plus variant went on sale in India earlier this month, costing INR 30,990 ($473).

The F3 differs from the Plus variant in display size - it has a 5.5-inch screen, compared to 6.0-inch display of the F3 Plus.

Nougat update starts hitting Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 edge in India

After the Galaxy S6 edge+, Samsung has started rolling out the Nougat update to its Galaxy S6 and S6 edge smartphones in India. Weighing in at over 1,245MB and arriving as build number G920IDVU3FQD1 and G925IDVU3FQD1, respectively, the update brings along Android version 7.0.

Aside from the new OS (and the changes/new features it brings along), the update also includes some performance improvements as well as Android security fixes for the month of March. System upgrade and app installation processes have also been enhanced.

Xiaomi Mi 6 official: Announced in China

The Xiaomi Mi 6 is now official and it turns out most of the rumors were true. The smartphone is powered by the latest Snapdragon 835 chipset and comes with dual cameras on the back.

And while it's not new for Xiaomi to focus on bringing the bleeding edge of tech but this time there's also a huge emphasis on build quality and design. The Mi 6 has curved glass on the front and back with a stainless steel frame in between that has a polish which takes 12 days and 40 processes to achieve. Xiaomi stresses the alignment of the controls, the SIM tray and the antenna lines, quoting a new Aligned Design Concept.

There's also an exclusive version with ceramic back and 18K gold rims around the two cameras akin to the Mi Mix 18K.

There is a dual-camera setup on the back that sits flush with the surface without a hump. The setup comprises of two 12MP cameras, one being a wide angle one and the other a tele similar to the Apple iPhone 7 Plus - there's a Portrait Mode too. There's 4-axis optical stabilization to keep things steady from the wide-angle 12MP camera.

The Snapdragon 835 chip comes with 6 gigs of RAM, while storage is either 64GB or 128GB. The screen has retained its 5.15" size and 1080p resolution. The 3.5mm headphone jack has been axed but Xiaomi has added stereo speakers as a saving grace and there's splash resistance.

There's a large 3,350mAh battery inside the Mi 6. The fingerprint scanner is embedded under the home button on the front.

The Xiaomi Mi 6 launches on April 28 and it starts at CNY2,499 ($360) for the base 64GB version. Doubling the storage brings the price to CNY2,899 ($420), while the exclusive ceramic version is CNY2,999 ($435).

Moto G4 Play will be updated to Android 7.0 Nougat in June

Of the three G4-branded phones it launched last year, Motorola has already updated the G4 and G4 Plus to Android 7.0 Nougat. The software rolled out in some markets last October, and made its way to the US in March.

But what about the G4 Play? The cheapest and lowest-end G4 is still on Marshmallow, and you may have expected things to stay that way given its affordability. Software update expectations are generally low in that price bracket. Yet Motorola begs to differ.

The Lenovo-owned company has confirmed to Android Authority that the G4 Play will indeed get its very own taste of Nougat. This will be released at some point in June, at least for devices sold in the US. It's unclear when (or if) the update will become available for G4 units purchased elsewhere.

Xiaomi Mi Max 2 specifications show up on GFXBench!

The specs of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Max 2 — the mid-range phablet from the Chinese phone maker have been up on GFXBench.

The device which shows up as “Xiaomi Oxygen” over at GFXBench is said to be the Xiaomi Mi Max 2. As we can see the handset will sport the same size 6.4-inch Full HD display of the predecessor, obviously there’s been an upgrade in the rest of the hardware.

The original Mi Max

Looking at the specs sheet above, It looks like the Mi Max 2 will follow the footsteps of the Redmi Note 4 and sport a more efficient chipset, our prediction is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 (While other websites are saying it to be the Snapdragon 660) coupled with an Adreno 506 GPU, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. Camera wise, we’ll find a 12MP rear facing shooter that can shoot 4K videos and a 5MP selfie camera.

This is everything we know this far, stay tuned for more info as the phone could get launched very soon!

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ unveiled with US pricing

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ have been officially unveiled, the two phones mostly differ in screen size - the Galaxy S8 has a 5.8” screen, the Galaxy S8+ is at 6.2”. Both are Super AMOLEDs with an extra wide aspect ratio of 18.5:9, they have the same resolution too (1,440 x 2,960px). Also notice the rounded corners of the screen.

HDR10 is supported, just like it was on the Note7, but Dolby Vision is not. Samsung partnered with Amazon to bring HDR capable content. This is also the first Ultra Dynamic Range certified screen, but details are scarce.

The hardware controls below the screen are gone, replaced by pressure-sensitive on screen buttons. Plus, Samsung claims its tactile feedback is better than Apple’s.

One new button did appear - it summons Bixby, the digital assistant. Bixby has three jobs, the first of which is to answer voice queries. It can see the world around it too, not just listen to it. Image recognition can spot landmarks and find products on Amazon. Finally, there’s a hub on the homescreen similar to Google Now. By the way, Bixby will power Samsung’s Internet of Things - the company expects by 2020 most of their appliances will be connected and under Bixby’s control.

Galaxy S8+

Moving on, the Galaxy S8 camera uses the 12MP Dual Pixel sensor from the S7 but with improved software - it captures multiple exposures to raise image quality. Samsung calls it Multiframe Processing and it sounds a lot like Google’s HDR+. The selfie cam did get a hardware upgrade (as well as the Multiframe Processing), it now has an 8MP sensor and autofocus (with clever face detection).

The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are the first phones to launch with 1 gigabit LTE, thanks to the Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895 chipsets. Different countries get a different chipset, but performance should be very similar between the two.

Some countries are special when it comes to memory, though. Most of the world will get 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage, but some (China and Korea, presumably) will get 6GB/128GB instead. Worry not - fast storage is easily available thanks to the UFS/microSD hybrid card slot!

Perhaps the only other difference between the S8 and S8+ (well, aside from price) is the battery. The S8 gets a 3,000mAh battery, the bigger Galaxy S8+ comes with a 3,500mAh pack. Both are sealed and feature Samsung’s Adaptive Fast Charging (the relatively old Quick Charge 2.0 is also supported). There’s fast wireless charging too, both WPC and PMA.

The flagship duo is waterproof as you would expect (IP68) and Samsung switched to the latest Gorilla Glass 5.

Galaxy S8

Bundled with the flagships are a pair of quality AKG headphones with dual drivers - one 11mm and one 8mm (you don’t even have to ask, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the phone).

You can also get the Samsung DeX dock, which turns the Galaxy S8 into a desktop computer, it even has Windows support (kinda). The dock uses the USB-C port on the phone, which offers USB 3.1 speed and DisplayPort too.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ will launch in Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver, Coral Blue and Maple Gold. The duo will go on sale on April 21 in the US, while European availability is scheduled for April 28. The S8 will cost $750/INR 48999, while the S8+ is $850/INR 54999.

Xiaomi Rumoured To Be Working On A Budget Mi Mix Lite

 

The Xiaomi Mi Mix was certainly one of the more surprising phones of the past few months, now rumours suggest a more affordable model could be on the way.

When Xiaomi launched the Mi Mix they really did break the mold and throw the pieces away. The phone was announced as a concept device, but the Chinese manufacturer soon released the handset for customers to buy.

With 3 edges that had zero bezel and a large display, the Xiaomi Mi Mix soon caught the attention of the press, phone fans and rival phone makers who have since been launching their own alternative versions.

Originally the Mi Mix was launched in two variants. A top end version with 6GB RAM and 256GB memory, and a more affordable version with 4GB RAM and 128GB memory, but could a more affordable version be launched?

 

According to Chinese news reports, Xiaomi are working on a Xiaomi Mi Mix Lite that may cost as little as 999 Yuan! That’s significantly more affordable than the current Mi Mix smartphone.

If true the new Mi Mix Lite will also boast a high scree-to-body ratio and may also launch with a variation of Xiaomi’s very own Surge S1 SoC. At this time the report is very much sorted in the ‘Rumour’ category and we’ll monitor new rumours to see if there really is any weight to them.

Do you think a budget Xiaomi Mi Mix Lite could be on the cards?

Nokia flagship appears on leaked design sketch with Carl Zeiss dual camera

This looks quite interesting if you ask me. Today’s leak comes from the reliable Nokibar user who seems to have got his hands on some design sketches of an upcoming Nokia flagship with a Carl Zeiss dual camera! In case you don’t remember HMD Global has already hinted that they plan to partner with Zeiss in the not so distant future and this leak surely confirms it.

Nokia has been a pioneer in mobile photography, with some iconic smartphones during the past years being equipped with Carl Zeiss lenses, so these news today can only confirm our hopes that we will soon see a top quality camera smartphone from the Finnish company.

According to the sketches the phone seems to retain the same design pattern as the Nokia 3, 5 and 6 models but it looks a bit more elegant in a way. Keep in mind that we’re talking about design sketches, these things are just the first step while you design one smartphone and a lot of changes can occur until the device can finally be unveiled.