The annual Game Developers Conference is underway this week in San Francisco and you can expect a lot of virtual reality news. And it’s HTC first out of the gate with a bevy of Vive updates—mostly concerning developers, but at least one very important new program for consumers. Let’s start with the latter, as it’s…
Lenovo says it wants to redefine Android tablets, but you won’t find anything spectacular or innovative in its new Tab 4 tablets. The four new tablets, which come in 8- and 10- inch screens, are incremental upgrades to the Tab 3 devices. The new tablets are faster, have better screens and deliver better special effects…
The smartphone world will be rocked with MediaTek’s new 10-core Helio X30 chip, which will bring premium features like Google’s DayDream virtual reality platform to Android handsets with prices starting at US$300. The Helio X30 has the most cores of all smartphone chips, and that makes it blazing fast. With the chip, low-cost Android handsets…
BARCELONA — Samsung promoted its smartphone device testing and upgraded safety review processes during a major press event prior to Mobile World Congress on Sunday, almost without mentioning the disastrous Galaxy Note7 by name. That was the infamous smartphone that Samsung recalled globally — to the tune of 3 million devices — after lithium ion…
Lenovo is working with Amazon to get the Alexa voice assistant into a range of Motorola smartphones, and in the process, looking to depose Google’s voice assistant technology. The partners will first focus on developing an Alexa “Mod,” a block that will attach to a Moto Z modular handset. The companies will then integrate Alexa…
This year’s Mobile World Congress is starting to look like an oldies tour. It’s a time-honored tradition in pop music for acts long past their prime – some with only a few of their original members – to play a few of their greatest hits at state fairs and other cheery venues. As one star…
BARCELONA — Four years ago, Huawei was giving lessons at its trade show booth here at Mobile World Congress (MWC) on how to pronounce the company’s name. Now, Huawei is the third largest smartphone maker in the world, behind Apple and Samsung. At a preview event at this year’s MWC on Sunday, Huawei launched the…
Enterprises and cloud companies will start trying their hands at cellular this year, Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri predicts. “Enhanced reality” and events such as concerts may be where cloud giants first get into mobile services, Suri said at a Nokia event in Barcelona on the eve of Mobile World Congress. “The first webscale…
Classic phone brands from yesteryear are coming alive in Barcelona. Nokia, Blackberry and Moto were among the unlikely headline makers ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show, which starts on Monday. Moto is owned by Lenovo, and the unit is still called Motorola Mobility. The new smartphones mixed up retro ideas with new features.…
Over the past decade there have been several attempts to cram video projectors into smartphones. All ultimately failed, but a Silicon Valley startup reckons it has the recipe right and is hoping for a warm response from consumers when its phone debuts later this year. The Akyumen Hawk is a 5.5-inch Android handset that packs…