OnePlus reveals Concept One prototype in original all-black leather finish

Whether you like the OnePlus Concept One prototype or not, it’s safe to say it turned heads when the popular Chinese electronics manufacturer showcased it at CES earlier this month. If you’re a fan of it, here’s a fun fact for you: the OnePlus Concept One prototype originally donned a plain black leather finish before it took on McLaren’s signature papaya orange look for the CES demoes. OnePlus recently published photos of the prototype smartphone in its original black trim on the OnePlus Community while sharing a bit more information on its conception.

Renowned automaker McLaren started using the papaya orange colour in 1968 for Formula One races, beginning with the McLaren M7A. Today, it’s seen on the 720S sports car as well. OnePlus, which has often collaborated with McLaren to create McLaren-inspired OnePlus models, says it drew inspiration from the 720S when it styled the Concept One prototype. “We worked with McLaren on applying the same premium leather that is used on the 720s,” comments Kevin Tao from the OnePlus Industrial Design team.

According to Tao, it took OnePlus three months to optimise that famous ‘invisible cameras’ technology on the Concept One prototype for speed and power consumption. OnePlus new technology, which uses electrochromic glass, can electronically hide or show the camera stack on the rear panel of the Concept One prototype in 0.7 seconds. Talking about mainstream availability of the technology in the market, Tao adds, “A new technology application requires user and market feedback, and when the time is ripe we will introduce it to the market.”

Tao also believes OnePlus is stepping into a new design territory that reflects the marriage of traditional design elements (colours, material, finish) on a smartphone with electronic components, as seen on the Concept One prototype. “We are now working with materials that have dynamic properties, properties we can control and tune however we like, and that then become part of the functionality of a device,” he adds. It’s entirely possible that the ‘invisible cameras’ technology we saw on the Concept One prototype will make it to the market in a OnePlus model someday soon.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2Gktbcy

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip might have a tiny secondary screen, dual-camera setup details leaked

We are nearing the February 11 Galaxy Unpacked event where Samsung will supposedly launch the Galaxy S20 series of smartphones, along with its next foldable phone. Almost every other day rumours and reports about the devices are cropping up online. After a promo poster and some key specs of the Galaxy Z Flip leaked, we now have a couple of more reports about the upcoming handset. Some key specs of the phone were previously outed by XDA‘s Max Weinbach and he’s back at it again. This time, the tipster has revealed some more information about Samsung’s clamshell foldable device like it’s camera details, charging capabilities, info about the reported front display and more. 

As per the report, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip could come equipped with a dual-camera on the rear. Both the sensors here are said to feature a 12MP resolution and while one is said to be a wide camera, the other one could be an ultra-wide camera. Previously leaked renders of the phone hinted at a tiny front display and the fresh leak suggests it could be 1-inch in size and not 0.1-inch as it was mentioned in Weinbach’s original tweet. It is said to indicate charging speeds, battery info and might work as a viewfinder to guide taking selfies using the rear cameras. 

Some additional information about the device includes a side-mounted capacitive fingerprint scanner. The Galaxy Z Flip might also support 15W charging, which we presume is for wireless charging. There might also be reverse wireless charging support on the phone. Display on the device is said to employ “Samsung Ultra Thin Glass" which will have a crease and the screen is said to be a Dynamic AMOLED display.

So Galaxy Z Flip. Capacitive fingerprint scanner on the side. Dual 12MP cameras, wide and ultra wide. 15W charging. Wireless charging and reverse wireless charging are supported. It will use "Samsung Ultra Thin Glass" which has crease. It will use a Dynamic AMOLED display.

— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) January 23, 2020

A previous leak about the handset hinted at a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED Display. Instead of the 108MP camera that is rumoured to be present on the device, it is said to sport a 12MP main camera. On the front, there may be a 10MP sensor for selfies and it is said the whole package could be backed by either a 3300mAh battery or a 3500mAh battery. The phone will most likely run on One UI 2.1 and could be announced in black and purple colour models. 

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2vmredL

UN bars officials from using WhatsApp over security concerns, company responds

The United Nations (UN) has barred officials from communicating on WhatsApp citing accusations made against the Saudi Arabia crown prince back in 2018. The crown prince was accused of using the app to allegedly hack the phone of Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos. “It is not supported as a secure mechanism,” a UN spokesman said on Thursday. UN experts say they had details pointing to “possible involvement” of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman in the alleged 2018 cyberattack on Bezos. As a result, senior officials at the UN have been instructed not to use WhatsApp.

Based on the forensic report by Washington-based FTI Consulting, the UN called for an immediate investigation by the US and other authorities. The report claims Bezos’ iPhone was hacked by a malicious video file sent from a WhatsApp account used by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. While there is no proof of that happening, Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman said, “the senior officials at the UN have been instructed not to use WhatsApp, it’s not supported as a secure mechanism.”

The directive to stop using WhatsApp was given to UN officials last June. When asked about the move by the UN, WhatsApp Director of Communications Carl Woog said, “Every private message is protected by end-to-end encryption to help prevent WhatsApp or others from viewing chats. The encryption technology that we developed with Signal is highly regarded by security experts and remains the best available for people around the world.”

A ban specifically targeting WhatsApp has left experts in disbelief. According to Oded Vanunu, Researcher at Tel Aviv-based security consultancy Checkpoint that regularly points out security flaws in popular messaging apps, “WhatsApp takes security seriously compared to the other social media messaging platforms.” He added, “Every application has vulnerabilities that can be exploited in some way.”

Source

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/38EZAqH

Honor MagicBook 14, MagicBook Pro launched in Russia, to arrive in India later in 2020

After multiple media briefings and teasers, Honor has finally launched its MagicBook series of laptops. The company’s new laptops have been announced in Russia and their global availability will be announced at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC), on February 24.  While we know that the company intends to bring its MagicBook series of laptops to India, a definitive timeline is yet to be released. However, a spokesperson from the company told Digit that the laptop could be launched in India by the end of the first quarter this year or by the early second quarter this year.

Honor took the wraps off its MagicBook 14 and the MagicBook Pro in Russia but we know that there’s also a MagicBook 15 in the line-up. The MagicBook laptops are aimed at “young people on-the-go” and are touted to deliver up to 10 hours of battery life. Here’s all we know about the new laptops. 

Honor MagicBook 14, MagicBook Pro specifications

As per Honor’s Russia website, the MagicBook 14 features a 14-inch Full HD IPS display and is powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor. It comes equipped with 8GB RAM and 256GB of PCIe SSD internal storage. The outer chassis of the device is made of aluminum. Running on the Windows 10 operating system, the device is said to weigh 1.38kg and pack a 56Wh battery that the company claims can deliver up to 10 hours of battery backup. It also sports a 1MP front camera that is hidden beneath a keyboard keycap and integrates fingerprint authentication with the power key. For connectivity, it sports one USB Type-C, one USB 3.0, and a USB 2.0 port. 

The Honor MagicBook Pro features similar build and design as the MagicBook 14. It is equipped with a 16.1-inch Full HD IPS display and is powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 3550H CPU. Both MagicBook 14 and the MagicBook Pro feature Radeon Vega 8 Graphics. The MagicBook Pro is equipped with 8GB RAM and 512GB of PCIe SSD storage. Honor claims it has a 12-hour battery life for video playback on the device with the 56Wh battery and it also sports a fingerprint sensor and a 1MP front camera. 

Honor MagicBook 14, MagicBook Pro price 

The Honor MagicBook 14 is priced at 44,990 Russian rubles, while the MagicBook Pro costs 59,990. This converts to Rs 52,000 and Rs 69,225 approx, respectively. However, one should note that the laptop’s configuration might change when it is launched in India and other factors could affect its pricing. 

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2RmZhuN

Honor Band 4 with optical heart rate sensor, sleep disorder diagnosis launched for Rs 1,999

Honor has launched its new fitness tracker, the Band 4 in India. The product was revealed on Thursday, January 23. It shares the design language with that of Honor Band 5i. Honor Band 4 includes features such as 5ATM water resistance, sleep disorder diagnosis, up to 9 days of battery life and more. Moreover, it supports built-in USB charging. 

Honor Band 4 specifications and features

The Honor Band 4 features a 0-96-inch TFT colour display with a resolution of 80 x 160 pixels. The fitness tracker is powered by an Apollo 3 microprocessor. The device offers the usual on-the-go alerts and notifications. Further, the Honor Band 4 comes with nine exercise modes such as walking, running, cycling, rowing, and more. It also comes equipped with an optical heart rate sensor that is capable of 24x7 heart rate monitoring. 

The Honor Band 4 supports the proprietary Huawei TruSleep 2.0 technology that is claimed to help in detection of sleep disorders of six types. Like the recently launched Honor Band 5i, the Band 4 can be charged directly via a power source, which is a USB-A port. Other features include Remote Shutter and Find My Phone. 

The Honor Band 4 packs a 91mAh battery, which is claimed to deliver up to 9 days of battery life on a single charge. As for compatibility, the Honor Band 4 is compatible with devices running Android 4.4 or higher, and iOS 9.0 or later versions. It weighs 24 grams.

Honor Band 4 price in India

The Honor Band 4 is priced at Rs 1,999 in India. It comes in a lone Graphite Black colour. A microsite for the device is also live on Flipkart, which you can check out here. However, Honor has not yet confirmed when the smart band will go on sale in India. 

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2NW01on

Intel may reduce prices for its processors in 2020

Intel hasn’t had the best year in 2019, with AMD rail-roading Team Blue’s consumer desktop chips across multiple metrics. AMD’s 7nm based Ryzen 3 processors offered more cores than their Intel counterparts while charging customers lower than what Intel was asking for. Additionally, thanks to the higher core/thread count, AMD’s processors started to show Intel up on various workloads. Intel still commands the advantage when it comes to single-threaded loads and even gaming to some extent, but it hasn’t been enough to stop AMD quickly eating into Intel’s share of the desktop processor market. Intel might be readying to counter AMD with a revised price strategy through 2020.

According to a report by DigiTimes, Intel may be considering a price reduction for all its chips in 2020. However, the price cut could be rolled out in phases, with OEMs being the first ones to receive Intel’s chips at a lower price. The report of Intel offering lowered prices to OEMs might happen sometime in the second half of 2020. However, there is no way to be sure that OEMs would actually pass on the benefit of cheaper Intel processors onto the consumers.

It should be noted that there is some merit to Intel’s alleged price reduction plans. Last year when Intel announced its 10th generation Core X HEDT processors, they were almost 50 percent cheaper than their predecessors. So Intel isn’t completely closed off to the idea of lowering the price of its chips. However, a question worth asking is why would Intel offer cheaper processors to OEMs before consumers? One of the biggest endorsement for AMD’s popularity in the last year has been the fact that retailers have had a hard time maintaining stock of various Ryzen 3 SKUs. OEMs haven't been raving about the notable value for money offered by Ryzen, but actual end-consumers who’ve bought the processors off the shelf and built systems with them.

Even if Intel manages to price their processors the same as AMD’s counterparts, there’s still the challenge of the price-to-performance proposition.  AMD has pretty much perfected the art of offering more bang for the buck, so Intel may have a bit of an uphill battle there. But if the contemplations are indeed true, it would mean great news for those who are Intel loyalists, and at the end of the day, it’s the consumers who win.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2tDhZFz

Tinder adds panic button and photo verification to keep you safe during dates

If you have ever felt unsafe during a Tinder date, the popular dating app has announced a feature to help you out. Tinder’s parent company Match Group announced the dating app will get a panic button that’s operated by Noonlight, a safety app that track’s people’s location and sends the data to emergency services when an alarm is raised.

Beginning January 28, the Tinder app will have a panic button which when activated during a bad date, will alert the local police about your location. The user has to opt in to Noonlight’s services, and you can add a badge certifying the same in your profile.

In case you are concerned about Tinder tracking your location, the company assured that the location data will be shared with Noonlight and Tinder will not be a party to it. Users will also have the option to turn location sharing or or off. So when you go on a date, you can turn it on, and after the date has ended, you can turn it back off.

Apart from the panic button, Tinder also rolled out a global photo verification program to verify users using the platform to find matches. The feature will allow Tinder to detect inappropriate messaging and get senders reported.

Match Group which owns Tinder, Plenty of Fish, Match, OkCupid and Hinge will integrate the Noonlight Panic Button feature and the photo verification feature to its other offerings as well, later this year.

The new features should help in making the online dating platform safer to use. Previously, an investigation by Buzzfeed, Columbia School of Journalism and ProPublica had revealed Match Group exposed users to registered sex offenders on most of its apps. And in about 157 cases, women who were victims of sexual assualt after meeting dates from dating apps,the dates were from the apps belonging to the Match Group.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/30OcAYh