ASUS introduces new ZenBook 14 UX431, ZenBook 13 UX392 and StudioBook S W700 laptops

Along with new gaming laptops, Asus has also introduced new ZenBook 14 UX431, ZenBook S13 UX392, StudioBook S W700 at the CES 2019. Just as the name suggests the ZenBook 14 sports a 14-inch full HD display, while the ZenBook 13 comes with discrete graphics, thinner bezels, and a new chassis.  The Asus ZenBook 14 UX431 is powered by upto Intel Core i7-8565U, 4C/8T, 1.8GHz with 8MB cache, up to 4.6GHz coupled with NVIDIA GeForce MX150. It sports a 14-inch Full HD (1920x1080) LED-backlit 16:9 NanoEdge display and packs 4GB/8GB/16GB LPDDR3 RAM and up to 1TB PCIe x2 SSD + SATA SSD. It runs on Windows 10. Connectivity features include dual-band 2x2 802.11ac, 1 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C, 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 USB 2.0, 1 HDMI, 1 SD card slot, Bluetooth 5.0. It comes with Quad-speaker Harmon Kardon-certified audio system. The laptop packs 47Wh battery and weighs 1.18 kgs and measures 12.73" x 8.34" x 0.63." The ZenBook S13 UX392 packs ultra slim-bezels on all corner giving room for more screen to real-estate. It sports a 13.9-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) LED-backlit IPS NanoEdge display with 100% sRGB color gamut and 400nits brightness. It is powered by upto Intel Core i7-8565U, 4C/8T, 1.8GHz (8MB cache, up ...

Honor 10 Lite Unboxing and First Impressions

Huawei's Honor Brand is all set to launch its  Honor 10 Lite smartphone in India this week, after it was introduced back in November last year. Here we have the first impressions of the smartphone. Honor 10 Lite smartphone in Sapphire Blue color 2-pin charger (5V-2A) Micro USB Cable Clear protective case SIM ejector tool Quick start guide and warranty information The smartphone has a 6.21-inch (2340 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19:5:9 aspect ratio dewdrop notch display with a 24-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture is housed inside the notch. The camera uses 4-in-1 light fusion technology and exposure compensation technology for a better selfie experience and has AI feature that recognizes eight selfie scenarios. The earpiece is present on the top edge. It has a small chin below the display. This display looks bright and sharp. Running on Android 9.0 (Pie) with EMUI 9.0 on top, the phone is powered by the company's own Octa-Core Kirin 710 12nm SoC with support for GPU Turbo and up to 6GB RAM. On the back there is a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/1.8 aperture along with a secondary 2-megapixel camera for AI portraits and AI scene detection for detecting 22 different scenes. There is also a fingerprint sensor. The phone comes with ...

Asus TUF FX505 with 15.6-inch 120Hz display and TUF FX705 with AMD Ryzen 5 3550H, up to 32GB RAM announced

ASUS has announced TUF Gaming FX505DY and FX705DY gaming laptops powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor, with up to 32GB of RAM. This new platform is paired with discrete Radeon graphics coupled with vivid FreeSync displays. The laptops are powered by the 2nd Gen Ryzen Mobile APU which is built on 12nm technology. The Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY sports a 15.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) display with 120Hz NanoEdge IPS-level. It packs up to 32GB DDR4-2666 RAM and up to 512GB NVMe SSD and up to 1TB FireCuda SSHD. It is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 3550H coupled with Radeon RX 560X. Connectivity ports include 1 HDMI 2.0, 2 USB 3.1 Gen 1, 1 USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN. It has a 48Wh battery and measures 14.2" x 10.3" x 0.98" and weighs 2.19 Kgs. It runs on Windows 10 OS. The Asus TUF FX705DY packs a 17.3-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) display with 60Hz NanoEdge IPS-level. It is also powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 3550H coupled with Radeon RX 560X and packs 32GB DDR4-2666 RAM and up to 1TB FireCuda SSHD. It has a 64Wh battery and measures 15.7" x 11" x 1.06" and weighs 2.5 Kgs. It runs on Windows 10. Both the laptops come with a specially-designed thermal solution which keeps internal ...

Xiaomi Mi A2 gets another price cut in India, now available starting at Rs. 13999

Xiaomi launched the Mi A2, the company's second Android One smartphone in India back in August last year starting at Rs. 16,999, later it got a Rs. 1000 price cut in November. Today the company has announced a second price cut in the country. The is available for Rs. 13,999 for the 4GB+64GB version, after a Rs. 2000 price cut and the 6GB+128GB version is available for Rs. 15,999, after a Rs. 3000 price cut on Amazon.in and Mi.com. To remind you, the phone packs a 5.99-inch FHD+ 18:9 display, is powered by Snapdragon 660, has a 12-megapixel rear camera with f/1.75 aperture, Sony IMX486 sensor along with a 20-megapixel secondary rear camera with Sony IMX376 sensor to capture depth information for portrait shots with AI, has intelligent scene detection and has auto sensor section . It also has the same 20-megapixel Sony IMX376 sensor for the front camera with soft LED flash and AI beautification. It recently got Android 9.0 (Pie) update. The 20MP sensor on both front and back uses pixel binning technology, combining the information from four pixels to create one large 2.0µm pixel. It has a unibody metal design, fingerprint sensor on the back, has USB Type-C audio and packs a 3010mAh battery with support ...

Google said to bring system-wide dark mode in Android Q

Google is known to taking steps towards supporting dark mode in most of its Android apps. The company in the past few months we have seen major apps like YouTube, Phone, Contacts, Messages, and much more getting the dark mode. Android Pie was initially expected to bring a system-wide dark mode, but that didn't happen and clues indicate that it might happen with next major release; Android Q.  In a post on the Chromium bug tracker; a Googler states that 'Dark mode' is an approved Q feature. The Q team wants to ensure that all preloaded apps support dark mode natively. In order to ship dark mode successfully, all the UI elements must need to be themed dark by May 2019. The Googler points out that the Chrome team should make sure there's a setting inside the browser to enable Dark Mode, and modify the core UI elements to suit this theme. There will also be a master setting for Dark Mode under Settings -> Display -> Dark Mode in Q. There are references to internal Google documents that show that Dark Mode is a key factor. However, this Chromium issue dates back to October 31 and not much has visibly happened on it since. There ...

Apple to bring iTunes Movies and TV shows, AirPlay 2 support to Samsung’s 2019, 2018 TVs

Samsung Electronics has announced that it will offer iTunes Movies and TV Shows and Apple AirPlay 2 support on 2019 Samsung Smart TV models. The company will offer support for 2018 TVs through a firmware update. The new iTunes Movies and TV Shows app will debut only on Samsung Smart TVs in more than 100 countries. AirPlay 2 support will be available on Samsung Smart TVs in 190 countries worldwide. Samsung customers can access their existing iTunes library and browse the iTunes Store to buy or rent from movies and TV episodes. This also includes the largest selection of 4K HDR movies. iTunes Movies and TV Shows will work seamlessly with Samsung’s Smart TV Services, such as Universal Guide, the New Bixby, and Search. With AirPlay 2 support, Samsung customers will be able to effortlessly play videos, photos, music, podcasts and more from Apple devices directly to Samsung Smart TVs, including QLED 4K and 8K TVs, The Frame and Serif lifestyle TVs, as well as other Samsung UHD and HD models. Won-Jin Lee, Executive Vice President, Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics said: We pride ourselves on working with top industry leaders to deliver the widest range of content services to our Smart TV platform. Bringing more ...

Jabra Elite 85h with water-resistant headphones with ANC, SmartSound AI technology announced

At the CES Jabra has introduced new Elite 85h headphones with Jabra's HearThrough technology and include Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and SmartSound that promises best calls and music experience by automatically adjusting to your surroundings, advanced six-microphone call technology and 40mm custom-engineered speakers. It promises up to 32 hours of battery life with ANC activated and completely hands-free Voice Assistant Control to interact with Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant. The Jabra SmartSound based on audEERING's context intelligence technology uses real-time acoustic scene analysis of environmental sounds to detect more than 6,000 unique sound characteristics and uses this to adapt audio output to each specific context.  It will select one of the three moments: 'Commute,' 'In Public' or 'In Private' to guarantee a consistent quality for your audio experience and can also be customized using the Sound+ app, said the company. Key features of the Jabra Elite 85h: SmartSound: Audio that automatically adapts to your surroundings 100 percent hands-free: Voice Assistant access without pushing a button Microphones: Eight microphones in total. Six dedicated for calls, four for ANC and two hybrid mics for both calls and ANC. Speakers: 40mm custom-engineered speakers Durability: Dust and rain resistance (IP52), backed by a two-year warranty against water and ...

PNY introduces 512GB PRO Elite microSD Card, 1TB PRO Elite USB 3.1 USB Flash Drive and more

PNY Technologies has introduced new  512GB PRO Elite microSD Card, 1TB PRO Elite USB 3.0/3.1 USB Flash Drive as well as new 256GB Elite-X Fit and Elite Type-C USB 3.1 Flash Drives.  The PNY 512GB PRO Elite microSD Card offers U3 support and offers improved Read speeds up to 100MB/s. The 1TB PNY PRO Elite USB Drive has a gunmetal plated design, offers up to 400MB/s Read and 250MB/s Write speeds. The Elite-X Fit USB 3.0 lineup offers an additional 256GB of storage for ultrabooks and laptops. It offers up to 200MB/s (Read) speed.  The PNY Elite Type-C USB 3.1 Gen 1 has push/pull bi-directional Type-C connector and ranges from 64GB to 512GB capacities. Highlights of 512GB PNY microSD PRO Elite Capacity = 512GB Speed: up to 100MB/s Read and up to 90MB/s Write Bus speed: U3, Best for 4K video recording App performance: A2 (4,000 Read IOPS, 2,000 Write IOPS) Speed Class: Class 10 Interface: UHS-I Highlights of PNY 1TB USB PRO Elite Capacity = 1TB Speed: up to 400MB/s Read and 250MB/s Write Interface: USB 3.0/3.1 Design: premium gunmetal plated, metal housing Size: Compact, sleek PNY said that these prodcuts will be available starting January 2019 at leading retail and etail partners. Source

Google silently acquired Q&A startup Superpod for $60 million

Google has acquired Superpod which is a startup that had built a question-and-answer mobile app, according to reports. Google said to have paid the firm less than $60 million to acquire founders and purchase some of Superpod's assets. Google hasn't backed out in showing off its ambitions for Assistant; its voice-assistant that debuted in 2016. Superpod which lets users ask questions and receive answers from experts could help Google boost its virtual assistant’s ability to answer users’ questions. A Google spokesperson confirmed that Superpod’s founders have joined the company. However, declined to comment further about the deal. Superpod shut down its app in September. Superpod.io which is formerly known as Sparks was founded by ex-Google employees Sophia Yang and William Li in 2016. The firm has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Precursor Ventures, Charlie Cheever, Social Capital, and the House Fund. Source

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 One UI based Android 9.0 Pie stable update starts rolling out

Samsung has started rolling out the stable Galaxy Note 9 Android Pie update. The update is currently rolling out in Germany but should make it to other markets where the beta was made available. For those who are already on the Note 9 Pie beta, the stable update is just a 95 MB download, which suggests that the last beta was more or less the final version. The Galaxy Note 9 Pie update should also be available for those on Android Oreo since the stable Galaxy S9 update was also released for non-beta users.  However, at the moment, it needs to be seen just how widespread the update will be since the Galaxy S9 Pie update is still available only in a few countries. Samsung did announce that the Android Pie for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 would be out in January, so it’s possible the official rollout may begin in the next few days. The software version for the stable Pie update is N960FXXU2CRLT and it includes the January 2018 security patch. To get Android 9.0 Pie, tap the Download and install option in the Software update section of the settings app. Do let us know if you are seeing the Android Pie update on your Galaxy Note ...