Xiaomi Mi A1 is official with stock Android

Xiaomi held an event in New Delhi to announce its latest dual-camera device. Called Xiaomi Mi A1 its hardware is identical to the Xiaomi Mi 5X. However A1 stands for Android One and the phone is powered by stock Android 7.1.2 Nougat.

The Mi A1 features a Snapdragon 625 chipset, built on the 14 nm process, coupled with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage. The LCD measures 5.5” and sports Full HD resolution.

At the back the phone has dual cameras, similar to the flagship Mi 6 setup with a dual-tone LED flash. The fingerprint scanner is also there, but on the lower side, we see an “Android One” label, placing the phone in the portfolio of Google’s affordable devices for developing markets. Under the hood is a 3,080 mAh battery, charged through USB-C.

The stock Android means Xiaomi is launching the device without MIUI 9, but the Chinese manufacturer is keeping the MIUI camera app. The phone also arrives with promises that the OS will be updated to Oreo by the end of the year. The Mi A1 will be one of the first phones to get the Android P sometime next year.

The Xiaomi Mi A1 comes in Black, Gold or Pink and costs INR14,999 (just under €200). It is going to be available in 37 countries across the globe and sales are starting on September 12 in various online and offline stores.

Android 8.0 Oreo is here!

As expected, Google today decided to finally unveil the moniker of the next iteration of Android. Known simply as "O" for the past few months while a few Developer Previews and public betas went out, it now officially has a full name.

It's Android 8.0 Oreo.

So yes, the most rumored name actually turned out to be what Google chose to call its latest sweet treat. It's only the second time in Android's history when there's a commercial partnership involved - for version 4.4 KitKat Google teamed up with Nestle (which owns that brand), and this time around the search giant managed to get Mondelez on board the co-branding train.

Android 8.0 Oreo's code will be uploaded by Google engineers to the Android Open Source Project today, while software updates for the supported Nexus and Pixel devices are due to arrive "soon". Of course the final build will be sent to those devices enrolled in the Android Beta Program too.

Google also says that by the end of the year you should expect devices from Essential, General Mobile, HMD Global, Huawei, HTC, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony to either launch with or be upgraded to Android Oreo.

The latest version of Android comes with picture-in-picture support, notification dots, fully redesigned emoji (including over 60 new ones), Google Play Protect built-in, limits to background overuse of battery by apps, faster boot speeds, autofill system-wide, and support for Android Instant Apps.

Nokia 8 announced: its dual camera boasts Zeiss lens and OZO audio

“With the Nokia 8 – we wanted to create the ultimate tool to tell our story”. That’s what HMD told us and we think is a perfect description for this dual-eyed Finn. Any story that stars Carl Zeiss is one we’ll listen to, but let’s start at the beginning.

The Nokia 8 has a 5.3” IPS LCD display on the front with QHD resolution and a blinding 700nits of max brightness. 2.5D Gorilla Glass 5 curves into the phone’s metal shell, which is milled out of 6000 series aluminum. The phone measures 7.9mm at the thickest point and has basic resistance to the elements with an IP54 rating.

The optical engineers at Zeiss helped make the lens for both the rear and the front cameras. The main camera features two 13MP sensors (color + monochrome) with 1.12µm pixels and an f/2.0 aperture. The color camera has optical image stabilization (OIS) and there is Laser autofocus and a dual LED flash to help in the dark.

The selfie camera is one-eyed, but otherwise similar – 13MP sensor (1.12µm pixels) with an f/2.0 aperture and phase detection autofocus. The phone can livestream split-screen footage from the front and back cameras to YouTube and Facebook, something HMD calls Dual-Sight.

OZO – Nokia’s camera division – co-developed the 360° spatial surround audio recording, which will capture sound with a quality to match the sharp 4K video imagery. A rare feature, binaural audio, will give your viewers and even more immersive experience. The powerful Snapdragon 835 chipset handles all the necessary processing.

HMD partnered with Google to make Google Photos the default gallery app on the phone. You’ll get unlimited photo and video storage in the cloud, to bolster the 64GB built-in memory (there’s a microSD slot if you prefer to keep things offline).

The Nokia 8 will start selling globally in September at a price of €600, which is steep but par for the course on a flagship smartphone. Pure Android (7.1 at launch) will allow HMD to breeze through major software updates, though the time frame for Android O is still under wraps.

Galaxy Note Fan Edition goes on sale in South Korea

Just 5 days after the unveiling of Samsung Galaxy Note Fan Edition, the phone has gone on sale in South Korea. It costs KRW699,600 which equals $611 and only 400,000 units will be sold in the initial batch.

The Galaxy Note FE is a reborn Galaxy Note7, but with slight differences. Now it runs on Android Nougat, instead of the original Android Marshmallow 6.0.

Since the battery was the reason Galaxy Note7 caught on fire, Samsung completely overhauled it. Its capacity was decreased to 3,200 mAh, as opposed to the original power cell with 3,500 mAh charge.

The phone is sold in three versions for the three South Korean mobile carriers - SK Telekom, Korea Telekom and LG Uplus.

When the original was released in September 2016, its price tag was close to KRW1 million. Now the Fan Edition’s price is around 30% cheaper.

Apple will make only OLED iPhones from 2018

We're already knee deep in speculation regarding Apple's 2017 plans but why not step it up a bit and move into 2018 territory. Rumor has it that Apple will release three iPhones in 2018 and all of them will have OLED displays.

This means that Apple will transition its entire phone lineup from LCD to OLED next year.

It also means that Apple will have three different iPhones once more. Some rumors suggest there will be two screen sizes - 5.28" and 6.46", both sporting OLED, so what about the third one?

In 2017 Apple is expected to release iPhone 7s and 7s Plus incremental upgrades and a special anniversary iPhone 8 with a taller OLED display.

OLED displays are hard to come by and Apple doesn't yet have the supply to accommodate an all-OLED lineup. The company has reportedly struck a deal with Samsung to make the screen for the iPhone 8 but that could limit its availability when it launches.

The OnePlus 5 scores 87 on DxOMark

OnePlus had been really boasting about the dual-camera featured on the OnePlus 5, even weeks before the phone’s launch. It gave many fans some really high expectations, so some were upset by the camera as far as saying that it wasn’t worth the hype it got.

Some notable mentions of the OnePlus 5’s camera are its excellent outdoor shots with “outstanding color and detail”. DxO says the OnePlus 5’s white balance is often accurate, stable and consistent when shooting outside; details are also well preserved. Meanwhile, shooing high dynamic scenes tents to under expose shadowy areas.

Indoor shots, on the other hand, are good but not consistent. Low light conditions prove to be a challenge for the OnePlus 5 with a noticeable blur and lack of details in handheld shots. White balance is a little off under tungsten and fluorescent lights, but not entire unacceptable.

Focusing is excellent on the OnePlus5. DxO says the autofocusing is consistent, quick, and responsive in all lighting conditions thanks to the OnePlus 5’s hybrid contrast detection AF and phase detection AF. The inconsistencies in white balance and reduced details in low-light photography are what kept the score from getting any higher.

Nokia Android with dual-lens Zeiss camera is coming this year

HMD Global and ZEISS signed a partnership to bring the Zeiss brand back to Nokia smartphones. Later a tweet dedicated to the announcement hinted that a dual-camera Nokia smartphone is the first product to come from the partnership.

HMD shared its excitement saying it's looking “to set new imaging standards within the smartphone industry”.

Previously we saw Zeiss optics in the Nokia 808 PureView and Lumia 1020 with staggering 41 MP sensors - arguably the best cameraphones of their time.

According to previous reports the Nokia 9 will be the 2017 flagship that will debut the Zeiss branding in the HMD lineup.

Nokia and Xiaomi sign a collaboration agreement

Nokia and Xiaomi announced they have signed a business cooperation and patent agreement. The two companies will license each other's cellular standard essential patents. Xiaomi also acquired patents assets as a part of the deal.

Under the agreement, Nokia will provide network infrastructure equipment to Xiaomi. It will improve the capacity and low-power performance of the Chinese manufacturer’s smartphones. Both companies will also work together on data transport and connection solutions. They will eventually explore opportunities for cooperation in the area of Internet of Things.

Xiaomi could make great use of Nokia’s rich patent portfolio if it to expand to western markets. It is currently present in over 30 countries and regions, but most of those are in the SEA region.

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.