Apple Patent hint Bendable, Foldable iPhone

Apple iPhone 8 is set to launch next, and reports suggest that Cupertino giant is expected to bring about a radical change for it as 2017 is the 10th year anniversary for Apple’s iPhone. Now a patent, filed in 2014, has been granted and published online by the US Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) reveal Apple is working on overhauling the very base of iPhone. Going by the patent, Apple could soon introduce an iPhone with flexible screen. According to the patent, it talks of ‘polymer materials in the flexible structure may be molded to form bends.’The text in the patent reads,“An electronic device has structures such as substrates and internal housing structures.
The substrates may be rigid substrates such as rigid printed circuit boards and flexible substrates such as flexible printed circuits, flexible touch sensor substrates, and flexible display substrates.
Carbon nanotubes may be patterned to form carbon nanotube signal paths on the substrates. The signal paths may resist cracking when bent. A flexible structure such as a flexible printed circuit may have carbon nanotube signal paths interposed between polymer layers. Openings in a polymer layer may expose metal solder pads on the carbon nanotube signal paths. A stiffener may be provided under the metal solder pads.
Polymer materials in the flexible structure may be molded to form bends. Bends may be formed along edges of a touch sensor or display or maybe formed in a flexible printed circuit.”A figure posted on USPTO shows a smartphone that has a foldable hinge, running vertically along the device. The device, in the image, opens up like a rectangular notebook.
The image caption read, “FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device that bends along a flexible portion such as a flexible seam associated with a hinge in accordance with an embodiment.”Clearly, such an iPhone sounds vastly different from the current iPhone 7 series. The latest patent update is only going to raise expectations for this device, which a couple of months away from an official launch.

Samsung Galaxy S8 to get AI Assistant

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it would launch an artificial intelligence digital assistant service for its upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone, seeking to rebound from the Galaxy Note 7’s collapse and differentiate its devices. The world’s top smartphone maker in October announced the acquisition of Viv Labs Inc, a firm run by a co-creator of Apple Inc’s Siri voice assistant programme. Samsung plans to integrate the San Jose-based company’s AI platform, called Viv, into the Galaxy smartphones and expand voice-assistant services to home appliances and wearable technology devices. Samsung is counting on the Galaxy S8 to help revive smartphone momentum after the discontinuation of fire-prone Galaxy Note 7s, which will hit its profit by $5.4 billion over three quarters through the first quarter of 2017.
Investors and analysts say the Galaxy S8 must be a strong device in order for Samsung to win back customers and revive earnings momentum.
Samsung did not comment on what types of services would be offered through the AI assistant that will be launched on the Galaxy S8, which is expected to go on sale early next year. It said the AI assistant would allow customers to use third-party service seamlessly. “Developers can attach and upload services to our agent,” said Samsung Executive Vice President Rhee In-jong during a briefing, referring to its AI assistant. “Even if Samsung doesn’t do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease.
Report Technology firms are locked in an increasingly heated race to make AI good enough to let consumers interact with their devices more naturally, especially via voice. Alphabet Inc’s Google is widely considered to be the leader in AI, but others including Amazon.com, Apple and Microsoft Corp have launched their own offerings including voice-powered digital assistants.

Samsung recall Washing Machines

Samsung Electronics, which is already reeling from a global recall of its Note 7 smartphones, said it would recall about 2.8 million of its top-load washing machines in the United States to address safety concerns. The top of the washing machines can unexpectedly detach from the chassis during use, posing a risk of injury from impact, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a statement on Friday.
The machines being recalled were manufactured between March 2011 and November 2016. Samsung received nine related reports of injuries, including a broken jaw, injured shoulder and other fall-related injuries. Samsung, the world’s top smartphone maker, is grappling with a global recall of at least 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in 10 markets due to faulty batteries causing some phones to catch fire.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Elliot Kaye of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said that these top loading washing machines from Samsung had a serious hazard of completely blowing up. There have been reportedly 700 incidents with these machines with at least nine injuries, according to the CPSC. CPSC had also issued a statement in late September saying that the organisation was working with Samsung to address the safety issue related to 34 models of the company’s top-loading washing machines that were made between March 2011 and April of 2016.
The recall of these washing machines is another huge blow to Samsung that has already suffering through huge losses from the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, recall and eventual termination of the program.

Samsung launch W2017 in China

Samsung has unveiled its W2017 flip smartphone in China. Flip phones are actually a rare sight in the smartphone industry, with the dual-display clamshell Android phone a successor to the Samsung’s W2016 smartphone that had a similar flip design design. The dual SIM phone is 4G LTE capable and weighs 208 grams.
Samsung W2017 is a dual-SIM device and is already listed on the company’s Chinese website. The phone will feature two 4.2-inch Super AMOLED displays that have a full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels). It is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 820 SoC, and comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal memory storage (expandable to 256GB via MicroSD).The W2017 smartphone will be running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, and will be backed by a small 2300 mAh battery that supports fast charging. The phone sports a 12MP primary camera that comes with an f/1.9 aperture and supports 4K video recording. The front camera on the device features a 5MP sensor.
Samsung W2017 has a rear mounted fingerprint scanner. The company hasn’t made any announcements about the price of the phone.
The predecessor to the phone, the W2016 was launched last year and featured two 3.9-inch Super AMOLED displays with 1280 x 768 screen resolutions. The phone was powered by a 1.5GHz octa-core processor with 3GB RAM. It was backed by a 2000 mAh battery. The primary camera on the phone was 16MP, with a 5MP camera sensor on the front of the device.

iPhone 8 to feature all Glass

With the launch of the iPhone 7 now, we already boarded the hype train for iPhone 8 and now with all these new leaks and rumours, we can say that we are slowly getting closer to the destination. We have been hearing a lot about this new iPhone which is supposed to be called the iPhone 8. If you didn’t know already, then this is also going to be the 10-year anniversary edition of the smartphone and hence we are expecting some radical design change here. But this new rumour is something we have never heard about. According to the source, the company might be looking to launch a new iPhones of different sizes varying from 4.7″ display size to 5″ and a 5.5″ as well. Yes, we were surprised to see them launching 2 different iPhones with the iPhone 6 and now with the rumours of the 3 different sizes, things get a little bit clumsy. Also, there are reports claiming that the new iPhones will have glass on both front and the back and it will be held together by a metal frame. This design is something very similar to what we see with the Samsung devices mostly.
The glass panels will be provided by Chinese companies Biel Crystal Manufactory and Lens Technology. And the metal frame to hold them together is supposed to be delivered by China’s Foxconn, Catcher Technology, and U.S.-based company Jabil. It is also expected that only the bigger variant i.e. the 5.5″ variant will come with the new alleged OLED panel and the other two versions will come with the same low-temperature polysilicon technology, which is used i current edition. This is not surprising at all since we already know that the company pushes new technology with the bigger variant just like they did with the new iPhone 7 Plus this year.
Now talking about the new rumours of 3 different sizes, it is highly unlikely to happen because it doesn’t make any sense for them to launch a 4.7″ display alongside a 5″ one. Considering the fact that the difference is very less here, we believe that they would stick to only 2 variant and maybe the 5″ model is something that they will separately or maybe it is special edition smartphone which they will be launching for 10-year anniversary occasion. However, all these are just early speculation and we don’t have any confirmation on any of this info.
Well, talking about the iPhones, if you are in the market for a new iPhone then you can buy the latest ones being the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus. And as far as the iPhone 8 rumours are concerned, we suggest you take them with a pinch of salt and wait for more info in the future.

Android Chrome to get new Design

Google might be testing a redesigned Chrome browser for Android smartphones that places search bar at the bottom. The move is aimed at users with big smartphone screens, allowing them to use Chrome with one hand. According to a report in Android Police, the feature is unfinished as the space where the search tab is ideally placed (top) is empty as of now. “A new flag in Chrome Dev and Canary, only described as ‘Chrome Home,’ moves Chrome’s address bar to the bottom of the screen when enabled,” the report adds. In a screenshot put out by the site, we see controls including search tab, to add tabs as well as to switch tabs at the bottom.
While Microsoft has had browser controls for mobile versions of Internet Explorer and Edge for a couple of years now; Google might be on the verge of doing so pretty soon. Also, Safari for iOS has select select browser controls at the bottom such as switching tab, forward and backward. However, it looks like Google is only testing the feature for now and will roll out the same eventually for mobile users.
Google Chrome has been made 15 per cent faster on Windows. Google Chrome’s Sébastien Marchand, in a blogpost said, “Starting in Chrome 53, Chrome has started using Microsoft’s Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) technology to make Chrome up to 15 per cent faster on Windows.” ” PGO uses data from runtime execution that track which functions are most common to guide optimization,” he added.

Google reject EU antitrust charge

Google on Thursday formally rejected European Union antitrust charges of unfairly promoting its shopping service and blocking rivals in online search advertising, paving the way for EU regulators to rule next year on these issues and potentially impose hefty fines.
The US technology giant’s rebuttal in the shopping case came six years after the European Commission opened an investigation prompted by complaints from rivals such as Microsoft and a host of European and US rivals. The EU regulator followed up with an anti-competitive charge against the company in April last year and added more evidence in July this year. It also issued a separate charge sheet against its online search advertising product AdSense for Search at the same time. Google’s general counsel Kent Walker said on a blog that the accusations had no factual, legal or economic basis, and that the company’s actions were driven by its users rather than any plan to squash rivals.“We never compromised the quality or relevance of the information we displayed.
On the contrary, we improved it. That isn’t ‘favouring’ – that’s listening to our customers,” Walker said. He said the Commission had failed to take into account competition from Amazon, merchant platforms, social media sites, mobile web and online advertising by companies such as Facebook and Pinterest.
The EU executive said it had received Google’s response. “In each case, we will carefully consider Google’s response before taking any decision on how to proceed and cannot at this stage prejudge the final outcome of the investigation,” Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said in an email.
Google may find it difficult convincing the EU regulator with its latest arguments, said Michael Carrier, professor at New Jersey-based Rutgers Law School. “Google has a point that its search results help consumers by allowing them to directly buy the item. But the Commission worries about the effect on rivals. This likely will outweigh the consumer point,” he said. Google also rejected a Commission proposal which would let the company charge rivals for displaying their services prominently, with the amount corresponding to its operating cost or a nominal amount based on the lowest reserve price for AdWords which is currently 0.01 euro per click. In the advertising case, the company said it had already scrapped the exclusivity clauses and other provisions identified by the regulator as anti-competitive.
The Commission plans to hand down hefty fines to Google if found guilty of breaching EU rules, the charge sheet seen by Reuters showed. The penalty could reach $7.4 billion or 10 percent of the company’s global turnover for each case. Walker said Google would respond in the coming days to a third EU charge of using its Android mobile operating system to hinder competitors. The Commission has given it until Nov. 11 to do so.

Lenovo Phab goes on Sale

Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, company’s first official Project Tango smartphone has finally being made available. The Phab 2 Pro was slated to start shipping in August in the US and go on sale in September, but the availability was delayed to October. It was then further delayed to November. Lenovo Phab 2 Pro is now finally listed on the company’s site for $499 (Rs 33,350 approx) in Gunmetal Grey colour option. The smartphone was first announced in June. Lenovo Phab 2 Pro’s camera has an AR mode that brings augmented reality(AR) to smartphones, including gaming, navigation and other utilities.
Once The AR mode in Phab 2 Pro is switched on, it allows you to choose from characters like a cat, a dog, a dragon, etc. Tap on one of these characters, and they appear on the camera app, superimposed on the real world settings around you. Plus, you can do a number of things with the characters you pick. For instance, there’s a laser for the cat and it will chase it around.
Lenovo Phab 2 Pro comes with real world applications such as Lowe’s Home Improvement, Phantogeist, Raise and Woorld. With Lowe’s Home Improvement, users can find products they want, and see how they look in context before buying. Raise allows users to pick a pet from the 3D library and take him wherever they go. Users can train their puppy, and share photos on social media as well.
Lenovo Phab 2 Pro has a 6.4-inch 2K display and runs Qualcomm 652 processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. There’s a 16MP rear camera with special depth-sensing unit, along with multiple camera sensors. The front camera is 8MP. The Phab 2 Pro packs a 4,050 mAh battery and a fingerprint scanner. It is capable of 3D projections and figure out space, which are all new experiences on a smartphone.

Samsung Gear S3 costly than Apple watch

Samsung's new Gear S3 smartwatch will launch on Nov. 18 in the U.S. starting at $349.99 for the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi model — more than an entry-level Apple Watch. Pre-orders start on Nov. 6.
Consumers can pick one up from Samsung.com, Best Buy, Amazon, Macy's. Samsung announced the smartwatch in August, and it'll be available in two models: a regular "Classic" and slightly more rugged "Frontier" edition. They're Samsung's first smartwatches to feature built-in LTE and GPS. The Gear S3 also supports Samsung Pay using MST technology — the same contactless payment technology used by Samsung's flagship S7 and S7 Edge phones.
The smartwatch's large 46mm (diameter) case is a departure from the more reasonably-sized 32mm  Gear S2 and even 38mm and 42mm Apple Watch. The larger case does mean room for the LTE, GPS and a larger battery, which is reportedly good for three to four days on a single charge. Size aside, the Gear S3, last I checked, looks like a solid smartwatch running Tizen and connecting to Samsung smartphones. Not to mention it has military-grade durability with an IP68 rating for resistance to water, dust and sand.

Samsung Galaxy S8 to feature bezel-less display

According to a report by The Investor, Samsung will be bringing an edge-to-edge or a bezel-less display that will be based on OLED technology. Park Won-sang, a principal engineer at Samsung’s display making unit has hinted that the phone will be coming with a 90 per cent display area ratio. In comparison, the average ratio of display to body ratios in modern day smartphone stands at 80 per cent.
Smartphone manufacturers are already playing around with a edge-to-edge and no bezel displays, which includes Xiaomi that recently unveiled its concept smartphone – the Mi Mix.
The phone has been designed by Philippe Starck, a French designer – uses seamless connectors to fuse the phone’s body without the need to use external adhesives. Mi Mix will be featuring a 6.4-inch edge-to-edge display, which the company says will have a 91.3 per cent screen-to-body ratio and a custom 17:9 aspect ratio. Since there is no bezel on top of the phone, the front camera has been moved to the bottom of the device.
Samsung Galaxy S8 will reportedly feature a 5.1-inch 2K super AMOLED display, with the larger version sporting a 5.5-inch 4K display. The phone is likely to be powered by the company’s upcoming Exynos 8895 processor, and likely the Snapdragon 830. A dual-rear camera setup is also expected with the ‘Edge’ version of the Galaxy S8.

Vine founders create Hype

Two of Vine's original founders have teamed up on a new video app called Hype, which is centered around live video broadcasts.
Out now on iOS (its founders say they're working on an Android version), Hype has many of the features you've come to expect from live streaming services.
Users can stream live broadcasts to followers within the app, who can comment and interact with broadcasts in real-time. Videos can also be replayed after the fact or shared to Twitter. But you aren't limited to sharing only video from your smartphone's camera. Hype also allows you to add photos, video, music, GIFs and other elements to your broadcast and broadcasters can feature comments they like so they appear higher up on the screen during the video streams. Though the app's core functionality is more like Twitter-owned Periscope than Vine, its interface, which allows you to add animations and big chat bubbles to your video, is far quirkier than the increasingly polished Periscope. That, of course, is likely due to the app's founders who know a thing or two about quirky video apps. Hype was created by Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll who, along with former Vine CEO Dom Hofmann, founded the six-second video app in 2012. (Hoffmann, who has two new apps of his own, appears to not be involved with Hype.) Yusupov and Kroll took to Hype Friday to memorialize Vine in a lengthy livestream in which they shared some of their favorite clips and reminisced about their time working on the app."It was kind of a surprise to us," Yusupov said about the news of Vine's imminent shutdown.
Quirky features aside, Hype already faces a  much more competition than Vine did early on — particularly from Facebook and Twitter, who each have their own live video service — but, at the very least, its relatively simple interface and the ability to overlay your own photos and video onto your broadcasts make it the perfect place to memorialize your favorite Vines.