Snapchat introduces “Time Machine” — an ageing AR filter

926

Snapchat is famous for its AR filters and despite the decreasing number of users, people still go back to Snapchat for its filters. Few of its famous filters include the dog filter, the baby filter and the gender swap filter. Now, Snapchat attempts to bring back its users with an ageing AR filter called “Time Machine”.

Even though there are less Snapchat users now, it is undeniable that there are other users who will launch Snapchat to use its AR filters before posting it to other platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The baby filter and gender swap filter are two AR filters that went viral this year. The new ageing filter can be assumed to be Snapchat’s way of attracting users to return to its platform again, in hopes that it will turn viral.

This time, Snapchat included a slider for the filter. Users can drag along the slider to change their appearance, in which the left side is their present look and the right side is when they’re old.

Snapchat’s Time Machine filter is also not the first ageing filter. Previously, Russian-based FaceApp offered similar ageing filter but receive quite a number of backlash after users realise that their photos are being saved in the server.

AR filter
snapchat
Time Machine


Snapchat is rebuilding its app to increase compatibility with Android devices

277

Snapchat is once again trying its hardest to gain back its fellow users, and now the company announced a revamped version of its Android apps that promises better compatibility with Android devices resulting in better performance.

According to 9to5Google, the company has been trying to improve on the app since last year so that it can be as good as the iOS version. The new version will be rolling out within this year, in hopes that the app experience will be less buggy and more seamless.

To
@Android
. Love, Snapchat.
#SnapForAndroid

pic.twitter.com/MGOFQYa9Cj

— Snapchat (@Snapchat)
April 8, 2019

“[Android devices] don’t all behave the exact same way, right? It’s very easy for us to build an Android app that will work well on flagship devices like the Pixel 3. It’s more challenging when you have to capture the whole ecosystem, especially when the camera works very differently from manufacturer to manufacturer,” said Snapchat’s SVP of engineering, Jerry Hunter.

Though this is definitely a smart move, it’s not a guaranteed effort that will bring back the ex-users of Snapchat, especially since both Android and iOS users have been leaving for the past year or so. The company also plan to deliver new features in the future when the development is completed.

android
snapchat


Snapchat plans to introduce an in-app mobile gaming platform in April

312

Snapchat hasn’t been getting the hype it wanted to despite introducing new features every now and then, and now the company plans to come up with something slightly more different: a mobile gaming platform.

Set to be revealed at its first developer conference, the mobile gaming platform will be getting various different games from different developers, but these games are customised specifically to suit Snapchat.

According to Business Insider, there will be a high chance for Snapchat to increase its engagement with its users with these games because not only will users be more responsive towards engaging content like games – which requires interaction and commitment, Tencent might also be collaborating with Snapchat to create a new mobile game.

While Tencent has been tied to several trending and popular games, it’s safe to say that we can’t be too sure how it’ll fit with Snapchat in terms of gaming aspects. Either way, the mobile gaming platform is said to be revealed on April 4, so let’s just wait and see.

snapchat
tencent


Snapchat releases AR selfie games called Snappables

358

Snapchat is taking the selfie game to the next level by launching Snappables, AR selfie games that will use touch, motion and facial expressions to interact with the game and more.

This feature is from Snapchat’s shared Lenses that will allow you to interact with your friend on their phone. Some of the first games that appeared were an Asteroids space shooter-like game, bubble gum popping contest, a kiss-blowing game, egg catching competition and a dance party. To play these games, select one the game Lenses from the camera page and just follow the instructions that pop up. You can even send your friend a Snap of you playing the game and your friend can join in your game.

This could put Snapchat on the map again, after many features that were bluntly copied by Instagram, Snapchat has seen a loss of its users. Snappables and other Snapchat Lenses will be rolling out to the world this week and new games will be released each week.

ar
games
selfie
snapchat
snappables


Sounds: New Snapchat feature adds in music in your Snaps

475

Snapchat Sounds is the new feature that allows iOS users to add music to their snaps — much like what we’ve seen on Instagram.

Add music in the background with Sounds

The new feature is called Sounds and basically adds on music to whatever video you’re taking on Snapchat. If you send a Snap to you friends with any tracks from Sounds, your friend will get the song information by swiping up. They also choose to play the full song on their preferred streaming app by clicking on “Play This Song”.

Music tracks still not as extensive

Despite the new feature,
Engadget
 reported that there are limited tracks as compared to Instagram or TikTok. However,
Snap
 has signed multi-year agreements with publishers and labels like Warner Music Group, Universal Music
 Publishing Group and more.

Add your own sounds to Snapchat’s Sounds

PhoneArena
 also mentioned that Snapchat is testing a new feature where users can create their own sounds to be added to Snaps, but it will be not released yet. As for Sounds, there are no news on when it’s coming to Android.

ios
snapchat
Sounds


Snapchat’s new lens turns “the floor is lava” into reality

602

Remember “the floor is lava”? It’s a childhood game where kids pretended the ground is covered with lava, so they could only move around without touching the ground. Now, Snapchat has turned the game into one of its latest AR filters.

The app now has “groundbreaking” lenses that can either turn your floor into lava or water. Playing “the floor is lava” game is now more surreal than ever because you can literally see lava on the floor via the Snapchat lens.

Snapchat has been famous for its crazy amount of filters and lens that are wildly popular. Its dog filter remains one of the classic filters that are widely-used, not to mention several other filters like Time Machine, Gender Swap and more. The company even introduced community filters so you can create and share your own filters with others.

To check out the new lenses, just open your app and tap on the Lens Carousel on your camera screen.

ar
snapchat
snapchat lens
the floor is lava


Snapdragon 1000 processor is made to rival the Intel U and Y series

338

It would seem that Intel has a new competitor other than AMD, as reports have emerged that Qualcomm is working on the Snapdragon 1000 processor for a more powerful Windows 10 devices. Latest reports also indicate that Qualcomm has a test bench running the Snapdragon 1000 processor, alongside 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, Gigabit WiFI and a power management chip.

The report also states that the new Snapdragon processor draws 12 watts of power. Comparing that to the latest U-series chips which draw a maximum power of 15 watts which already makes it better than the Atom and Celeron chips. However, it is the biggest chip that the company will produce but will be smaller than Intel’s 15-watt chips. Whats even more interesting is that the Snapdragon 1000 chip is socketed like any other computer processor, based on the test bench. This could mean that if you buy a Snapdragon desktop, you might have the option to swap out the chip for a better processor in the future.

It is rather intriguing as Qualcomm have always created chips that are soldered on to the main board. Giving the option to users to swap processors could mean that we might be seeing a new desktop processor maker in the future? Perhaps only time will tell where Qualcomm is going to take this technology.

1000
processor
snapdragon
windows


Snapdragon 652 powered Galaxy Tab S2 released

309

Samsung would normally launch a new tablet during mid-year, but with more rumors of an early Galaxy Note 6 launch, it’s pretty uncertain as to when the Korean manufacturer will be updating its tablets. On top of that, Samsung has quietly released an updated Galaxy Tab S2 in Europe this week, which suggests that the company might not be updating its tablet this year after all. But then again, that claim is still a far fetch.

Cyberport.de, an online electronics retail store has been offering the Galaxy Tab S2 in a newer variant, and this applies to both the 8.0 and 9.7 model, representing their screen sizes. Tha main difference of the refreshed variants from the previous ones lies within the heart of the tablet itself. The newer Galaxy Tab S2 sports a Snapdragon 652, a processor that has been rumored to be under the hoods of many upcoming smartphones, in place of the older Exynos 5433, Samsung’s homegrown octa-core processor. It seems like an upgrade from the Exynos to the newer Snapdragon SoC, considering the fact that the Snapdragon 652 consists of four Cortex-A72 cores, which on paper is more efficient than the eight cores on the Exynos 5433.

Other specs remain the same from the original Galaxy Tab S2, with a Super AMOLED display, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage and a fingerprint scanner. Another notable and possibly the only other difference apart from the processor is that the refreshed Tab S2 will be running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, so that’s a plus. Till then, stay tuned!

Source:
Cyberport.de

5433
652
exynos
galaxy
processor
s2
samsung
snapdragon
soc
tab
tablet


Snapdragon 660 processor to be unveiled on May 9 in China

314

Like any other year, Qualcomm will launch a high end processor along with a group of mid range ones before unveiling another flagship processor later in that year. This year is no different as we saw the Snapdragon 835 processor operating underneath the hood of a few flagship smartphones thus far – the Samsung Galaxy S8, Sony Xperia XZ Premium and the Xiaomi Mi 6. The chipmaking company is slated to unveil its line of mid range processors, with the Snapdragon 660 in tow for a May 9 launch in China.

According to Chinese news outlet Anzhuo, Qualcomm has begun sending out press invites for the launch event in China. The Snapdragon 660 will definitely be of mid range standard, but over the last couple of years mid range chipsets have been closing in on the high end ones, resulting in better performance among mid range devices lately. As a mid range processor, the Snapdragon 660 might just be worthy of picking a fight against the top of the line Snapdragon 835.

The Snapdragon 660 processor is rumored to use a Samsung 14nm process, with eight cores consisting of the Cortex A73 and A53. It is also tipped to sport an Adreno 512 GPU, along with UFS 2.1 storage and up to 24MP camera support. It will also be likely that the Snapdragon 660 chipset will make an appearance with numerous future mid range smartphones.

Source:
Anzhuo

qualcomm
snapdragon 660


Snapdragon 735 specs leaked – boasting two high-power Cortex A76-based Kyro CPUs and an Adreno 620 GPU

320

We’re nearing the end of the 2019, meaning products released on the yearly should see its final iterations introduced soon. One of these products is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 735 chipset.

In April, the 7-series chipset made its debut, bringing with its sweet spot between power and affordability, placing it in the upper mid-tier segment. The Snapdragon 730 is the best of the lot in this series, putting it just below the Snapdragon 835.

Snapdragon 735 (SM7250) specs-
 1x A76 @ 2.36GHz + 1x A76 @ 2.32GHz + 6x A55 @ 1.73GHz
 Adreno 620 GPU
 7nm

They don’t match with previously leaked specs by
@SuggestPhone
, cause I’ve extracted these specs from a document.🙄

— Sudhanshu Ambhore (@Sudhanshu1414)
October 21, 2019

The gap between the two chipsets will further be reduced when the Snapdragon 735 arrives with its 7nm manufacturing process, and octa-core build. DroidHolic reported that the specs for the chip has been leaked showing 1x Cortex A76 @ 2.36GHz + 1x Cortex A76 @ 2.32GHz + 6x Cortex A55 @ 1.73GHz. This is an overall upgrade over its predecessor.

Over on the GPU side of things, the report suggests an Adreno 620 to provide the power, which is also an upgrade over the Snapdragon 730’s Adreno 618. Plus, with the onset of onset of a mass 5G rollout next year, the Snapdragon 735 could also have support for the new standard of connectivity. These are just leaks for now, but it’s touted to be introduced this year.

adreno
arm
chipset
cortex
cpu
gpu
kyro
snapdragon 730
snapdragon 7305


Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 to create a new era of smartphones

1.4K

Qualcomm’s long-awaited
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
 Mobile Platform has finally been
unveiled

at the company’s annual Tech Summit. This platform is said to have made innovative advances compared to its predecessors in terms of AI, photography, connectivity, and gaming so keep reading to find out more.

AI

The 7th Gen Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine has been paired with Qualcomm’s Hexagon processor and it features 2x faster tensor accelerator and 2x larger shared memory than its predecessor. With this, you’ll be able to experience speeds up to 4x faster than before.

Image Credit: Qualcomm

Moreover, this AI engine works with Sonde Health to analyse your vocals, detecting if you’re at risk of conditions like asthma, depression, and even COVID-19.

Photography

Apart from the mobile platform, Qualcomm has also introduced the Snapdragon Sight Technology – the first 18-bit ISP Qualcomm Technologies – that will allow your smartphone to capture 4000x more camera data and shoot 8K HDR videos.

Image Credit: Qualcomm

Other than that, there will also be a “mega night mode” which captures and puts together 30 images for the best night shot.

Connectivity

In terms of connectivity, you can now reach up to 10Gbps 5G speeds with Qualcomm Technologies’ 4th Gen Snapdragon X65 5G Modem RF-System. Furthermore, Wi-Fi connections have been upgraded as well. The Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Mobile Connectivity System is capable of supporting the fastest Wi-Fi speeds available over Wi-Fi 6 and 6E – up to 3.6Gbps.

Gaming

Image Credit: Qualcomm

In terms of gaming, you can look forward to a 30% boost in performance and 25% improvement in power efficiency with the re-architected Qualcomm Adreno GPU. Visual wise, you get ultra-smooth responsiveness and colour rich HDR scenes.  To accompany the outstanding visuals, the platform makes use of the Audiokinetic technology and Snapdragon Sound Technology to provide you with rich, immersive, and ultra-clear sound.

Brands that will use the latest mobile platform include:

Redmi

OnePlus

OPPO

vivo

Nubia

Black Shark

iQOO

HONOR

Sony

ZTE

Sharp

So far,  the phones that will be adopting the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 are the
Xiaomi 12
,
Motorola Edge X30
,
realme GT 2 Pro
, and
Samsung Galaxy S22
.

Source

snapdragon
snapdragon 8
snapdragon 8 gen 1


Snapdragon 800/801 devices probably won't get Android Nougat due to lack of support for Vulkan API

317

Google has officially retired the Nexus 5 off its support line after three years in the market in conjunction with the announcement of Android Nougat 7.0, while the Nexus 5 had great hardware and technically it should still be able to run Google’s most current Android OS without any issues, Google’s decision to stop supporting the phone could probably be more than just being a legacy device, and this may affect other Android smartphones that has similar hardware specs as the Nexus 5.

The affected hardware is assumed to be the Snapdragon 800 system-on-chip, which Qualcomm has stopped releasing drivers for newer Android versions. Android 7.0 introduces many major changes under the hood that leads to better smartphone performance, one of it being the support of the Vulkan API, a low overhead graphics API that will greatly improve graphics performance and quality in games, which could probably be one of the reasons that the Nexus 5 isn’t going to get support for Android 7.0, and this news would likely affect many other OEM devices that runs on the chip, the Snapdragon 801 chip could be affected as well as it has the same core of its predecessor but with a higher clock speed.

This assumption is made by Twitter user LlabTooFeR and reported by 9to5Google. Should this be true, there will be a lot of devices affected by Qualcomm’s decision to stop supporting the said chips, especially devices like the OnePlus X, Xiaomi Mi Note, ASUS Padfone S which are still a year old devices, custom ROMs will still make their way to these devices should there be community support but this would also mean that certain hardware will not work properly. Of course, the Snapdragon 800/801 are very old chips that should already reach its support lifespan, they may lack of 64-bit computing instructions, however they are still very capable when it comes to day to day smartphone performance. Therefore, its time to move on people.

SOURCE:
9to5Google

android
google
nexus5
nougat
vulkan


Snapdragon 805 developer tablet goes on sale at $799

386

SoC makers always tend to have their own reference devices prior to a flagship chip that they released. Qualcomm has just announced the availability of its MDP/T (Mobile Developer Platform tablet) that runs on its latest and most powerful quad core Snapdragon 805 chip with Android 4.4 for $799. Based on 4 Krait 450 CPUs, the Snapdragon 805 has a new Adreno 420 GPU and the newest Hexagon DSP. The
tablet
 will have a 10.06-inch WQHD (2560×1440) display, 3GB of RAM and 64GB of high speed storage with microSD expansion.

Other interesting features include a main 13MP camera, Dual 3D gesture cameras with IR LED, 7 microphones, 7.1 channel audio playback, 5.1 surround sound recording, finger print scanner, and Micro SuperSpeed USB 3.0 OTG. The MDP/T is going to create an ultimate experience for any users who purchase it. If you are interested in buying one, headover to the source link below.

Source:
Intrinsyc


Snapdragon 8180 comes with 8.5 billion transistors, highest amount in any mobile processor

376

Snapdragon Windows 10 PCs were not what we expected, with issues like speeds that were promised were not delivers and performance issues. Now the company wants to fix the issues by releasing the Snapdragon 1000 which should be a vast improvement over the previous processors used in Windows PCs.

They solved the problem by including more transistors in any mobile processors in the market. What was previously known as the Snapdragon 1000 is now called the Snapdragon 8180, and it comes with 8.5 billion transistors. To put it into perspective, the Snapdragon 845 has 5.3 billion transistors and Apple’s A12 alongside Huawei’s Kirin 980 processors have 6.9 billion transistors. The only way to achieve this is to make the processor larger, but like the Snapdragon 855, it will be made using the 7nm process. This still means that the 8180 will draw more power than its previous generation, around 15 watts. That’s the same amount of power that is drawn by the Intel Core U series.

Don’t expect to see the 8180 processor in smartphones as the processor was developed with the intention of being equipped and run in Windows 10 PCs.

10
8180
mobile
pc
processor
snapdragon
windows


Snapdragon 820 powered Lenovo ZUK Z2 unveiled with a attractively low price point

339

ZUK has recently became the sub-brand of Lenovo, since Lenovo’s own VIBE handsets aren’t as happening as they are at China compared to elsewhere, coupled with the fact that Motorola’s smartphones just can’t seem to penetrate the East Asian market in general. Together with Lenovo, ZUK has unveiled the Lenovo ZUK Z2 in China, and it carries a pretty low price point for what it offers. Introducing, the tamer brother of the recently launched 6GB RAM ZUK Z2 Pro.

First off, the display of the Lenovo ZUK Z2 is a 5-inch IPS LCD panel in 1080p resolution, and despite claims by ZUK’s CEO himself that the ZUK Z2 packs an Exynos 8890 processor, the handset sports the flagship Snapdragon 820 SoC, matching their recent teaser of the device. Coupled with that is 4GB of RAM, alongside a non expandable 64GB of internal storage. In the camera department, we’re looking at a 13MP primary camera with f/2.2 aperture and an 8MP front facing shooter.

The battery capacity of the ZUK Z2 is surprisingly upgraded to 3,500mAh from the 3,100mAh battery of the Pro variant. A fingerprint sensor is also existent, planted beneath the physical home button on the handset’s front panel. USB Type-C is seen making its way to this flagship spec-ed device for future proofing purposes. The Lenovo ZUK Z2 will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box

All these specs will only set you back 1,800 CNY (RM1,124.64), which is definitely a steal considering the fact that it packs the same processor as other flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the LG G5. What do you think?

Source:
ZUK

4gb
820
lenovo
ram
snapdragon
z2
zuk


Snapdragon 821 LeEco Pro 3 officially unveiled, and it's as cheap as it can get

295

After countless rumors surrounding the LeEco Pro 3, benchmarks and what not, LeEco has finally made the handset official and China. The LeEco Pro 3 has been rumored to max out in terms of specs, so let’s dive in and take a look.

To start things off, the LeEco Pro 3 features a 2.5D glass 5.5-inch display at Full HD resolution. Like OnePlus, LeEco has kept the display resolution at 1080p for its latest flagship. Moving onto its internals is where things start to get a little more interesting. The phone happens to be the second phone ever to be equipped with a Snapdragon 821 processor, the first being the ZenFone 3 Deluxe by fellow manufacturer ASUS. Unfortunately and probably very much unnecessary, the Pro 3 does not have 8GB of RAM, we’ll leave that for next year. The handset does however, come in two memory configurations – 4GB of RAM with 32GB of storage and 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage. Internal storage isn’t expandable, though a 32GB base model doesn’t sound too bad.

The Pro 3 sports a 16MP PDAF rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture, coupled with a wide angle 8MP selfie shooter on the front. Powering the device is a 4,070mAh battery which sounds plenty for the package. Plus, the phone supports Quick Charge 3.0 so battery life is definitely one of the lesser worries. Surprise surprise, the Pro 3 doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack either, and before you label the phone as an iPhone copy cat, do note that LeEco already has three handsets from the Le 2 series that have omitted the headphone jack. And mind you, that was way back in April. Like the phones from the Le 2 series, the LeEco Pro 3 features CDLA audio decoding technology which provides digital audio output as opposed to analog. The phone does come with its own USB Type-C earphones so users won’t have to go out of the way to obtain Bluetooth headphones or USB C ones, for that matter.

Speaking of audio, the Pro 3 has dual stereo speakers – one at the bottom and the other above the display, which acts as an earpiece. LeEco has sided with a rear fingerprint sensor for the Pro 3, and it supports NFC as well. Pricing is where Chinese smartphones shine and the LeEco Pro 3 seems to outshine the rest, with the 4GB RAM/32GB variant coming in at 1,999 CNY (RM1,247.30) and the 6GB RAM/64GB model carrying a price tag of 2,499 CNY (RM1,559.28). Sounds like a banging phone on paper, so let’s hope LeEco won’t let us down. What are your thoughts on LeEco’s latest flagship?

Source:
Phone Radar

3
6gb
821
headphone
jack
leeco
pro
ram
snapdragon


Snapdragon 821 powered LeEco Pro 3 reappears on Antutu benchmarks

329

With most of the attention drawn to the new iPhones, a benchmark screenshot, said to be of the LeEco Pro 3 has made its way to Chinese micro blogging site Weibo, resuming the rumor mill surrounding the device once again.

The LeEco Pro 3 is rumored to be powered by a new Snapdragon 821 processor, but even it happens to be true, it won’t be the first to feature the powerful chipset. The ASUS Zenfone 3 Deluxe already has the SD 821 underneath its hood, making the LeEco Pro 3 the second device rumored to launch with the processor, with slightly higher clocked speeds on both the CPU and GPU. Other rumored specs of the LeEco Pro 3 include a whopping 6GB of RAM, which isn’t surprising anymore for Chinese handsets, 64GB of onboard storage, and a 16MP/8MP pair of rear and front facing cameras. As for the screenshot shown above, the Pro 3 seems to fare pretty well, scoring a good 163,546 points, above the current average points by the Moto Z DROID and the OnePlus 3, hovering around the 140,000 to 150,000 mark.

Having said that, we should probably wait for more leaks to come our way before taking them seriously, but then again, a yet to be released Snapdragon 821 device is definitely a possibility for the likes of a Chinese OEM like LeEco. Let us know your thoughts at the comments section below!

Source:
Weibo

3
821
antutu
benchmark
leeco
pro
snapdragon


Snapdragon 865 Plus confirmed: Crossing the 3GHz threshold

351

Just like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, the Snapdragon 865 also comes with a ‘plus’ version, the Snapdragon 865 Plus.

CPU core exceeds 3GHz barrier

As expected, the Snapdragon 865 Plus has faster speeds for both CPU and GPU cores. It has a higher clocked Cortex A77 core which runs at 3.1GHz. Its remaining seven cores are the same — three Cortex A77 cores clocked at 2.42GHz and four Cortex A55 clocked at 1.8GHz.

It’s also understood that its Adreno 650 GPU is also faster this time around compared to its previous clock speed of 587MHz. Compared to the Snapdragon 865 chipset, Qualcomm said that GPU is 10% faster at rendering graphics.

Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2

According to
Android Authority
, the new processor will also be equipped with better wireless connectivity, meaning it’ll support Wi-Fi 6E and also Bluetooth 5.2.

First phones to use Snapdragon 865 Plus

Now, this is exciting because it’ll arrive with two of the most anticipated gaming devices this year — the
ROG Phone 3
 and
Legion Gaming Phone
.

Bluetooth 5.2
qualcomm
Snapdragon 865 Plus
Wi-Fi 6E


New Sony Xperia flagship could come with Snapdragon 865 chipset

344

Sony Xperia doesn’t quite have the pull it once did in Malaysia – it was, of course the arch rival of Nokia, who’s glory days are also gone past them. The latter have been making strides for a slow, but positive comeback in the country; and we’re thinking Sony could do the same since they had the Xperia 1 pre-order sale recently, signing intentions to revive re-establish the brand in Malaysia.

Image credit: Andro Plus

The Xperia is still popular in its native Japan, and that’s where this news emerges from – it seems like Sony is working on a new flagship that will come with the next generation Snapdragon 865 chipset.

GSM Arena reports on a leaked SoC that lists the model number SM8250 – the part number of the current Snapdragon 855 is SM8150, so this assumption could very well be true. With it being a ‘next generation’ device, we’ll most likely see it come with a 5G variant as well.

The Snapdragon 855 and 855+ are both mighty fast enough now – however, the Snapdragon 865 could pave the way for high screen refresh rates as standard, higher imaging resolutions, higher graphic fidelity in mobile games and smaller processes.

android
chipset
qualcomm
Snapdragon 855
Snapdragon 865
sony
sony japan
sony malaysia
xperia


Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 specs leaked: Better power efficiency

396

Next year’s Snapdragon 875 chipset is
 said
 to pack a few performance upgrades, while focusing on power-efficiency and an increased cache and memory bandwidth.

Occupying the 5nm wafer is supposedly 1x 2.84GHz Cortex-X1 core, 3x Cortex A-78 @ 2.42GHz modules, and 4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz cores. According to reports, the Cortex-X1 module will bring 20% better sustained performance than the A78, and 30% better peak performance.

For graphics, the chip will pack the Adreno 660 GPU; on top of that, we can expect it to also ship with the Snapdragon X60 modem which will bring both
mmWave
 and sub-6 GHz connectivity to the phone.

In any case, we’ll learn more about the
Snapdragon
 875
sometime
 next month, so we’ll know soon exactly what
it
 packs.

cortex
snapdragon
Snapdragon 865
snapdragon 875


New Snapdragon 888+ announced with a 3GHz CPU and stronger AI engine

1.4K

The Snapdragon 888+ chipset was announced during MWC 2021. The new chipset comes with a 3GHz prime CPU core and has better AI performance, but those are the only new changes with the chip. Other components remain the same performance-wise.

No major upgrades/changes with the Snapdragon 888+ chip

If we compare the chipsets in the Snapdragon 888 series, there is not much difference. You still get three Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55 cores that has the same clock speed; only the prime core, the Cortex-X1 is boosted up to 2.995GHz.

Another upgrade is the AI engine which is increased from 26 to 32 TOPS — this is a 20% increase in AI performance.

Apart from that, you’re getting the same components — a Snapdragon X60 5G modem, an Adreno 660 GPU and the same architecture using 5nm process.

These phones have been confirmed to use the new Qualcomm chipset

The Snapdragon 888+ is expected to debut in the third quarter of 2021; several phone brands have already confirmed to be using the new chipset in their phones. This includes the next ROG Phone, the HONOR Magic 3 and phones from Xiaomi, Motorola and vivo.

Source

MWC 2021
qualcomm
snapdragon 888


vivo X60 Pro+, realme Koi, and Redmi K40 Pro to pack Snapdragon 888

504

If you’re chuffed about seeing the new
Snapdragon 888
 flagship chipset on the recently-launched
Xiaomi Mi 11
, you’ll be even happier to know your options will expand very soon with a few more devices touted to pack the powerful chip as soon as January 11.

According to a report by
GSMArena
, the
iQOO
 7 will be the next smartphone to ship
wth
 a Snapdragon 888, but more relevant to us Malaysians is the vivo X60 Pro+ which could launch in its native China this month as well.

The next phone on the list is the
Realme
 Koi, which we know from before according to
realme

themselves. The cool thing about the phone is that its
colour
 and finish is inspired by the varying
colours
 seen on Koi fish – so you can expect a flamboyant
realme
 device soon.

Next, perhaps the most affordable entry in the list is Redmi’s K40 Pro – being a Redmi phone, we can expect it to offer the kind of value the other phones on the list don’t.

We’re definitely looking forward to seeing all these powerful smartphones come so early in the year, and we’ll be sure to review all of them if we can.

flagship
Realme
realme Koi
redmi k40 pro
snapdragon 888
vivo x60 pro+
xiaomi mi 11


Snapdragon 898 is reportedly undergoing a name change

705

Qualcomm’s current naming scheme for their chipsets might have been difficult for some to remember, especially with their wide range of products. If you can relate, then this might be good news to you as rumours are circulating about Qualcomm’s intention to explore new naming conventions for their mobile processors.

Veteran leakers
Digital Chat Station
 and
Ice Universe
 have mentioned the possibility of a new naming scheme. Instead of
Snapdragon 898
, it will be named Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 instead.

Although Ice Universe does mention that this is not finalised, we won’t have to wait long for it to be confirmed by the company itself as it will be hosting its annual Tech Summit later this month – 30 November to 2 December 2021.

Personally, I like where this is going as I tend to get overwhelmed with all the different models that are in the market right now. What do you think?

Source

change
flagship
snapdragon
snapdragon 898


Snapdragon 898 will be very powerful but hot according to first benchmark

599

Qualcomm apparently has a working rendition of the Snapdragon 898 chipset already, and a report by
Gizchina

says that its first benchmarks are out.

The article goes on to say that the upcoming SoC will indeed be very powerful, scoring 20% higher in benchmarks compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 888. However, like the latter, the Snapdragon 898 is also a very hot processor.

This was an issue posed by the SD 888 when it first launched, and reviewers including us noted that phones packing this chipset would warm up too much while gaming, making the device uncomfortable to hold.

This is despite it being built on a smaller 4nm process compared to the SD 888, and the only saving grace now would be to have smartphone manufacturers try and innovate in the cooling department, and create a system that can tame the beast of a SoC.

For the meantime, let’s focus on Snapdragon flagship chip that exists now which is the SD 888+ – we’ll be seeing this in the
HONOR Magic3
 series as well as the
 Xiaomi Mi Mix 4
, and we’re excited to see how it stacks up against its troublesome predecessor.


Soap is an Android KitKat router that wants to manage your household and security

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Imagine you have a big house with lots of switches and home appliances, or you are always afraid that someone might launch a cyber attack on you, you’d definitely want something to tackle them. Soap is an Indiegogo project that tends to solve that problem and offer lots of features under the hood, its technically a wireless router that acts like any broadband routers out there, just that it features a touch screen on the top that ranges from 7-inches for the entry level model up to 8.4-inches for the flagship model. This router will do home automation and claims to provide great security features.

Soap comes with 4 high performance wireless antennas, dual band 802.11AC and 802.11N chips, 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 2GB DDR3 RAM as standard and available in single and quad core Freescale CPU options for the 7-inch model and quad-core only for the 8.4-inch model. Storage options are available from 8GB up to 32GB flavors, you can even pay more to include a crazily fast 128GB SSD onto it.

The router will also come preloaded with Android 4.4 KitKat onboard with support for downloading apps from the Google Play Store. It also features impressive parental control that is able to tap into gaming consoles,
tablet
s or PCs to restrict usage and Soap Secure to protect the household from viruses, malwares and hackers. Most interestingly, there’s an app available for your
tablet
 or smartphone to remotely use Soap to manage wireless connected home appliances such as lights, TVs, curtains and etc.

This impressive router has already got around $70k USD of funding at this time of writing, you can simply pledge for this invention by clicking at the source link below. And lastly, this device isn’t going to be cheap once it makes its debut here, it is pretty much an
Android tablet
 with built-in router features.

Source:
Indiegogo


SOCAR has arrived in Malaysia, offers easy car rental for everyone

670

Tired of using Uber and Grab to get around? Well if you are someone who prefers driving on their own but finds it a hassle to own or use the car you have, SOCAR has the answer for you. This Korean company has just made its way to Malaysia and they are offering very attractive deals for getting a rental car.

The service comes with an App which you can download for Android or iOS for free and it allows you to rent a car for as low as RM8 per-hour. The company was even kind enough to include 30KM of petrol per hour with the initial booking of the car, you will be charged RM0.25 per-KM after the 30KM is used up. They are also offering flexible timing where you can drive the car from 30 minutes to whatever duration you need the car. The best part of this service, designated parking where you will always have a place to park the car before reaching your destination or carry on by foot from there on.

If you are interested in trying out this service you can download the app from the
Play Store
 or the
App Store
.

car
rent
socar


SOCAR is expanding to Penang with 50 cars in 21 zones starting February 2019

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It has been a year since the launch of SOCAR, and now the company has reached a milestone by having 1000 cars that can be used for the car-sharing service, in addition to announcing the expansion of the service to northern region.

With 1000 cars, SOCAR members can now picked from over 15 car models whether it is an Axia, Myvi or MINI 5 Door. According to the CEO of SOCAR Malaysia, Leon Foong, the company wants to offer “the public with an affordable and flexible option for a car or second car,” hence the reason why the company invested in a variety of car models so that SOCAR members are able to pick a car based on their personal taste and suitability.

Image credit: SOCAR

The car-sharing platform will also be available in Penang from 1 February 2019 with 50 cars placed in 21 zones all over the mainland and island such as Sunway Hotel Seberang Perai, Caltex Jalan Jelawat, Gurney Paragon, 1st Avenue Penang and so on. SOCAR members can also book a car for a one-way drive from Kuala Lumpur to Penang.

To provide SOCAR members with more benefits, SOCAR members can now enjoy one-way drives from Kuala Lumpur to Penang for free when they use the promo code “PENANG”. This promotion started from 16 January and will end on 31 January. However, these complimentary one-way drives are only available at selected one-way zones, and the drop-off point is in Queensbay Mall’s SOCAR parking zones.

SOCAR also plans on continuing its expansion in the near future and will probably be bringing in more cars for its expansion. SOCAR can be downloaded in both App Store and Google Play Store.

socar


SOCAR is offering attractive prices on selected cars for this Puasa month

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SOCAR has started celebrating Ramadan early and they want to give a chance to the people the chance to go Buka Puasa with one of their cars. With the special Ramadan promo, members can book selected cars on their platform for as low as RM20.

For those of you that don’t know, SOCAR is a car sharing company that offers very attractive prices for renting their cars. They have makes from our local Perodua cars, all the way to a Mini Cooper. Below are the list of cars and their promo codes that can be used during the promotion period between 5 PM to 8 AM:

Code –

BUKAPUASACOMFORT

Honda HRV – RM46
 Toyota Vios – RM40
 Honda City – RM40
 Perodua Alza – RM38

Code –

BUKAPUASAPASS

Volkswagen Polo – RM 35
 Perodua Myvi – RM32
 Perodua Axia – RM20

For those of you that need a way to go Buka Puasa with your family this festive season, can download their app for free on the Play Store and App Store depending on your device, and create a free account to start using their services, the promotion will last from 16 May to 14 June 2018.

buka
code
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socar


SOCAR is offering special rates on selected cars in conjunction with their expansion

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With the success of their expansion, SOCAR is offering members the chance to book selected cards for a special price of RM3 – RM6 per-hour with 30KM of petrol included for each hour booked. The company has just expanded to a fleet of over 300 cars in more than 150 locations within Klang Valley. In addition to that, they have also expanded the choices of cars, with the recent inclusion of the Volkswagen Polo.

SOCAR has been a popular option for those that prefer to have the comfort of driving a car without the hassle of maintaining it. This allowed the company to clock in 45,000 registered members since its launch in January 2018. With the expansion of cars, users can now choose their favourite vehicle and enjoy the thrill of driving it without any worries. Below are the cars that will be part of this celebratory promotion:

This special promotion will run from 7 – 13 May 2018, those of you that are interested in using SOCAR’s service can download the app on the App Store or Google Play and register an account for free to get started.

discount
promotion
rates
socar


SOCAR launches their one-way airport drive and is offering users a chance to win a mystery vacation

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SOCAR has just announced their ultimate YOLO pass that will give a selected member the chance to go on a spontaneous vacation to a mystery location. In addition to that, they also launched their one-way airport drive that will be more efficient than any other mode of transportation.

Starting July 2018, SOCAR will select a member at random to give them a once in a lifetime chance to go on a spontaneous vacation, where you might even get the chance to go out of the country or take a helicopter ride to another state in Malaysia. To be in the running for this amazing trip, all you need to do is book one ride with the app and you will automatically be in the running to win.

As for the one-way airport trip, users will have the ease of booking the car and driving it to the airport, parking it in the covered carpark and not worry about returning the car to its origin. Customers will just have to pay RM50 plus the hourly rental of the car of choice. Cars that are part of the one-way airport service can be picked up from any SOCAR one-way zone with the choice of over 10 different car models including hatchbacks and SUVs.

The SOCAR app can be downloaded for free from the Play Store and the App Store. Book a ride now and have the chance to be in the running to get your vacation sorted out by SOCAR.

airport
one
socar
trip
vacation
way
yolo


SOCAR expands door-to-door car delivery service to more areas and have 2,000 cars in deployment

430

SOCAR has steadily grown since its inception in early 2018 – the car-sharing platform now has 2,000 cars in their inventory from a meagre 240 a year ago.

Plus, SOCAR is expanding their door-to-door car delivery service in the Valley along with a rebrand to SOCAR2U. The service now covers areas such as USJ 21, Bukit Bintang and Kota Damansara. Users can book their preferred vehicle and choose to have it delivered to their preferred pick-up point; for an additional RM10, you can also choose your preferred return location, as long as it’s within covered areas.

Also, you will now 26 different car models to choose from – from the humble Perodua Alza, to the classy BMW 330e.

To celebrate the expansion, SOCAR is organizing an ongoing online game that gives players the chance to win promo codes worth RM500,000 in total. You can play the game
here
. For more information on SOCAR, visit their website
here
.

car
car delivery
ehailing
socar
socar2u


Socar officially launches in Malaysia with a fleet of 240 cars

390

Socar, a car rental service is officially launched in Malaysia and they have already covered prime locations like Kuala Lumpur, Mont Kiara, Damansara Heights and more to bring a convenient servicer to Malaysian citizens. You can order a car directly from your app and there is even added conveniences like free petrol and designated parking space for customers.

We have previously covered Socar when they had a soft launch which you can read
here
. Customers can rent cars from our local made cars all the way to premium cars like the Mini Cooper for those of you that want to travel with style. The service is charged on an hourly basis, with prices starting from RM8 per-hour to more depending on the type of car requested. They are also having a premium service which you can sign up for that will deliver the car requested to your doorstep so you don’t have to go out looking for the car.

 All the cars will not require a key, as they are all connected to the app which you confirm your booking. The app will allow you to unlock and car and there is even a friendly feature that will allow you make the car horn or turn on its hazard lights if you have problems finding the car.

If you are interested in trying out this service, you can download the free app which is available for both Android and iOS right now and try out this reasonably priced service.

android
car
ios
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Social VR is here thanks to Facebook Spaces

420

Remember the time Facebook bought Oculus Rift, and everyone was laughing at the fact that we might be viewing our newsfeed through VR. Well were we wrong in assuming that. During Facebook’s F8 keynote, Facebook had a demo of Facebook Spaces which is Facebook’s attempt at getting into the VR market. By using the Oculus Rift and Touch controllers, Spaces will transfer you into a “social meet” where you can have a virtual space to interact and communicate with your friends.

To create an avatar, Facebook Spaces will either take a picture of you from your account and create a cartoon avatar or allow you to create your own customized avatar to be displayed in Spaces. Mice Booth, the product manager of Spaces development team, said that because the Rift and Touch creates a little motion capture studio, it will capture actual body language and capture head movement ans even hand gestures. It even goes as far as detecting your eye contact with whatever you are looking at. Spaces will also try to make out the mouth shapes you make based on the words you are saying, capturing them through the Oculus Rift microphone. The thumbstick movements on the touch will also be detected to display what kind of facial shapes you are making, from smiling to shrugging.

Spaces will also allow you to pull photos and videos from your feed to display them in the virtual environment for your other friends to view. It is also integrated into Messenger allowing you to have private conversations with your other friends that are not part of the virtual environment. Facebook Spaces will also allow you to create doodles, turning them into 3D objects where you can interact with them as well as the other people sharing the same environment with you.

Unlike Oculus Room which will only support Oculus Rift, Spaces will allow you to use spaces with the HTC Vive as well. Facebook is trying to show people that VR is not only made for gaming majority of people perceive it but rather trying to build a VR application that would appeal to everyone

Source:
Engadget

facebook
oculus rift
social vr
virtual reality
vr


Softbank acquires chip maker ARM for USD32 billion

296

Japanese telecommunications and internet company Softbank is looking to acquire UK-based chip maker ARM and has reportedly bidded USD32 billion to buy it.

According ot a report from the Wall Street Journal, this all-cash deal between Softbank and ARM has already been reached, but the announcement of the acquisition will only be made later today just before the opening of trade in London. Softbank’s acquisition of ARM comes on the heels of SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son’s decision to take back the reins of the company’s investment strategy after the resignation of Nikesh Arora in June.

Softbank’s acquisition of ARM comes shortly after the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union, causing the British Pound to drop in value. This drop in value may have been a key contributor to Softbank’s decision to buy ARM. That said, it remains to be seen if the deal between Softbank and ARM could be completed without any hiccups. Current British Prime Minister Theresa May has addressed the potential of foreign takeovers of leading U.K. companies in a speech she gave just before taking over from David Cameron, so there is a possibility that the Softbank-ARM deal may run into complications soon.

Source:
The Wall Street Journal

acquisition
arm
softbank


Softbank and Honda team up to make talking cars a reality

317

With every automotive maker being focused on self-driving cars, a partnership between Softbank and Honda seems like Japan’s own attempt to make a self-driving car of their own. However, that may not be the case, as both Japanese companies are looking at something rather different: talking cars.

According to Reuters, Honda is looking to apply Softbank’s humanoid robotic technology to cars, giving them the ability to communicate with drivers. This “talking car” would be able to speak and interact with their drivers via cloud-based technology that was sourced from Softbank’s “Pepper” robot, a life-sized robot that can read human emotions. Both companies would cooperate to research ways to assess driver’s speech, along with other data compiled by vehicle sensors and cameras, to gauge the driver’s emotions and allow the vehicle to engage in conversation.

“Imagine if robots, with their super intelligence, devoted themselves to humans,” says Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank. “And imagine that cars themselves became supercomputers or robots one day. Honda will be the first to adopt this technology.”

Source:
Reuters

honda
intelligentcars
pepper
softbank


Software update for OnePlus 5 adds 4K video stabilization

307

The OnePlus 5 is by all means the best OnePlus device so far, and also the most expensive one yet. But the company’s latest flagship came under fire for overselling the dual rear camera setup. The lack of OIS meant a big turn off to some, with sub par performance under low light. As for video, the EIS only kicks in for 1080p recording, and disappears when recording in 4K, due to a rush in software development in time for the launch of the phone. OnePlus has rolled out a new software update which brings stabilization to 4K videos.

The update size for Oxygen OS 4.5.7 is 310 MB, decent for the updates and fixes that it packs. The most notable ones are stabilization for 4K video recording (EIS support) and a new OnePlus Slate system font. The other are the usual such as the 1st July 2017 security patch update, standby battery enhancements, along with some bug fixes like occasional sound leaks through speakers when using earphones and fixing missing sound channels during video recording.

The latest software update for the OnePlus 5 hasn’t begun rolling out in Malaysia at the time of writing, but you can “force” your OnePlus 5 to get the update via VPN apps such as Opera VPN, that will likely trigger the roll out.

4k video
dual camera
eis
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Solar Paper, one of the world thinnest solar power charger

432

YOLK is a small company that wants to make to the top of the world’s that has the top solar technology and vision to spread this wonderful green technology to everyone’s daily life. Previously, the company started a Solarade project that charge your phone with solar power. This time, the company releases, the release a new version of Solarade that have the smaller size than the predecessor, the Solar Paper.

The Solar Paper is the world’s smallest 2.5W, 5W, 7.5W, and 10W solar charges and when under the sun you can charge an iPhone in about 2.5 hours. What if the solar panels are covered by shadows or receive low-intensity sunlight and will it will simply stop charging it doesn’t receive enough sunlight to generate the power? The solar paper has technology that can outcome the issue for re-plug it all the time by programmed to automatically reset when it has enough sunlight that will generate power more in an efficient and stable way.

The company also provides an LCD on the solar paper to actually display the power output so that you can monitor the output. Besides that. You can add more and more solar paper unit to generate more charging capabilities for devices like a
tablet

and it retain the thickness of the solar paper. It’s measured 9 cm x 19 cm x 1.1 cm and weight is 120g which extremely light and portable to bring around.

You can grab the 5W version at USD 69 (approx. RM 261), 7.5W version at USD 99 (approx. RM 375), 10W version at USD 129 (approx. RM 490) and many more choices over
here
.

charging
external
kickstarter
paper
power
solar
yolk


Sombra, Overwatch's latest hero, will hit the Public Test Realm next week

269

After months of teasing the character via a series of alternate reality games (ARG), Blizzard has finally announced the next character that will be joining the Overwatch cast, Sombra.

Officially unveiled at Blizzcon, Sombra will be an offensive character whose entire skillset is meant to disrupt other characters. Her main weapon is a 60-round machine pistol that tears her foes apart at medium range. Her main ability is hacking, which allows her to disable her foes’ skills, or affect in-game items such as causing medkits to be unobtainable by the opposing team.

Her second skill allows her to cloak herself, making her invisible and boosting her movespeed. The cloaking effect stops when she’s damaged, firing a weapon, using a skill, or if the cloak meter runs out. This skill will be familiar to those who’ve used the Spy class in Team Fortress 2. Her third skill tosses out a Translocator beacon, allowing her to warp back to the beacon anytime she wishes, making it an emergency exit of sorts for her.

Finally, her ultimate skill is an Area of Effect EMP Blast that would disable the skills and abilities of everyone on the opposing team that was hit by it. Sombra is scheduled to go live in Overwatch’s Public Test Realms server next week, allowing players to test out the character herself while Blizzard slowly fine tunes the character.

blizzard
overwatch
publictestrealm
sombra


Some features found in the Pixel smartphones will not be available in Android Nougat

309

When Google first revealed the Pixel smartphones, many were given a first glimpse of Android Nougat and its various features. Unfortunately, that showcase may not be an accurate depiction of Android Nougat as Google has confirmed that some of the features showcased during the Pixel presentation will be Pixel-only features.

A list of “Pixel-only” features was published by the
Android Police
 yesterday, and it reveals quite a bit about which features will be available across the board, and which features will be Pixel specific. Some of the features omitted from Android Nougat is pretty understandable, with the “quick switch” adapter and the camera app found on the Pixel being reliant on the phone’s hardware. The omission of free, unlimited photo and video backup service via Google Photos, while disappointing, is not an altogether surprising move.

However, the biggest omission from Android Nougat has to be Google Assistant. It appears that the Android Nougat update will not implement Google Assistant into all currently available Android smartphones, meaning that Android smartphones that receive the Nougat update will still be reliant on Google Now. Google has mentioned that they intend to make Google Assistant widely available to users, but seeing as Google is omitting the AI assistant from the Nougat update, it appears that this particular feature will only be available on smartphones that are released after the Pixel.

Some UI changes found on the Pixel will also not be available with the Android Nougat. This includes the navigation bar icons, SysUI accent colour theming, the set-up screen, the wallpaper picker, and the dynamic calendar date icon.

Source:
TechCrunch
,
Android Police

android
features
google
nougat
pixel


Users’ videos on Google Photos were accidentally sent to strangers last November

312

Our biggest fear when using cloud storage as backup is real – we’re not talking about hacker leaks, but rather leaks accidently done by the company itself.

Google had recently notified Google Takeout users that their videos on Google Photos may have been exported onto other users’ archives – what in tarnation?!

For the uninitiated, Google Takeout is a one-stop data backup service that lets you export content and data from other Google apps like Google Photos, Drive, Chrome, Calendar and more.

Whoa, what?
@googlephotos
?
pic.twitter.com/2cZsABz1xb

— Jon Oberheide (@jonoberheide)
February 4, 2020

Back in November last year however, a “technical issue” made it so that users who requested a download of their data from the service face the problem.

The issue took place within a five-day period and most likely anyone who requested for a download within that period. Google notified affected users that their downloaded data may be incomplete and may also contain videos belonging to other people.

The company then recommended users to perform a new export of their content and remove their previous one. 9to5Google reports that Google had confirmed the issue to be resolved and had issued an apology for the incident.

This is obviously a huge deal and deals a massive blow to the reputation of cloud storage services – this is continue to fuel debates about data security when using these services.


Someone dropped the beautiful Xiaomi Mi MIX concept phone and it doesn't look pretty

289

Last month, Xiaomi wowed us with its concept phone, the Mi MIX, which was revealed alongside the Chinese manufacturer’s latest flagship Mi Note 2 smartphone. While the Mi Note 2 turned out to be an impressive and attractive phone in its own stride, the Mi MIX pretty much stole the limelight during Xiaomi’s launch event. The concept phone sported an edgeless design, making it bezel-free on the top and along the sides. As pretty as the phone can be, those who have gotten their hands on the Mi MIX are concerned about what will happen if the edgeless designed phablet happened to drop, and it looks like someone has finally dropped it.

According to GizmoChina, a Mi MIX unit has reportedly taken a tumble from the hands of a Xiaomi employee at the company’s headquarters in China. The phablet certainly did not look pretty after having taken a fall, possibly on a hard surface. Looking at the image above, the Mi MIX has taken a knock, landing on its top left corner. The result is a cracked screen plus a broken ceramic frame. By the looks of it, and the fact that it is a concept phone, fixing this Mi MIX will cost an arm and a leg since the Mi MIX’s body was designed seamlessly.

Having said that, it is probably wise to fit such a fragile smartphone in a case of some sort. There is a leather case available for the Mi MIX by Xiaomi to minimize such damage or avoid the disaster altogether. We do hope that Xiaomi makes a bumper case for the Mi MIX phablet, now that we’ve seen the aftermath of its tumble. What do you think?

Source:
 GizmoChina

bezel
broken
ceramic
concept
design
display
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glass
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mix
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Sonic Gear Pandora Micro Review

736

The Pandora family line of products from Sonic Gear has never disappoint us in terms of sound quality and features. Most importantly, they are really affordable. The Sonic Gear Pandora Micro has been our labs for sometime and we’ve been using it everyday and bringing it with us wherever we go. Read on to see why we love the speakers.

Sonic Gear Pandora Micro Specifications

Total Power: 5W RMS
Drivers: 2 x 40mm
Frequency Response: 10HZ-10KHz
Impedance: 4 Ohms
Battery Life: Up to 5 hours playback

Video Review

Small on size, big in features

As they always say, never look down on something that is small, as they can create something that is unexpectedly big. This is how we perceive about the Pandora Micro, its small and compact body is solidly built and offers features such as Bluetooth connectivity and a MicroSD slot for music playback.

On the top you will find capacitive touch buttons for controlling music playback and volume, we like the matte
surface
 that Sonic Gear has implemented instead of a glossy one, which doesn’t attract finger prints. The capacitive buttons worked really well and responds to our touches almost instantly, and we love that nice little beep when we pressed on them.

The speaker charges via its MicroUSB port, and its function doesn’t just stop here. If you plugged the speakers into your computer’s USB port, the speakers will function as a card reader for its
MicroSD card
, which is very thoughtful of Sonic Gear to implement this so we don’t need to take out the memory card.

Although Sonic Gear has excluded the 3.5mm audio jack on the Pandora Micro, we are not really affected by it as our notebooks can play sound via its consistent Bluetooth connection.

The Test – Sound Test and Battery Life

The Pandora Micro is loud, very loud, we experienced clear and undistorted sound even at 70% volume level. Although the speaker isn’t able to pump out deep bass, but it is sufficient for close up listening. The problem here is the rubber grips below the speakers don’t work really well, once you start playing songs that have lots of drums and heavy bass, it loses its grip and shifts its original position, which can be annoying at times.

Battery life of the Sonic Gear Pandora Micro is close to the rated hours, we tested using Bluetooth playback with an average usage of 30 minutes per session, we managed to drain the battery in 4 hours and 15 minutes.

Verdict

Sonic Gear’s Pandora Micro once again managed to impress us in both sound quality and usability, the speakers are really portable and light, which has become one of our gadgets in our bags and we can amplify our music wherever we go. The speaker retails at RM179, which is a very reasonable price tag for such features and quality, if you’re looking for a small sized speaker that gives you wireless convenience and music freedom, you will find them in the Sonic Gear Pandora Micro.

The Good:

+ Decent sound quality

+ Capacitive touch buttons work well

+ MicroSD slot for music playback

+ MicroUSB port can be used for data transfer

+ Great battery life

+ Great for making phone calls

+ Reasonably priced

The Bad:

– No 3.5mm audio jack

– Speaker loses grip when playing sound with heavy drums and bass

– No
storage case

We rate the Sonic Gear Pandora Micro at 4 out of 5 stars.


Sonic Gear Pandora Micro Sound Test

487

DISCLAIMER: The test is not a professional sound test and results may vary due to set up, put on headphones for better accuracy. The songs played are only intended for testing purposes and all rights remain with the artists.

As we’re almost there to finalise the Sonic Gear Pandora Micro review, we’re back again to cover another series of sound tests on the speaker itself. As usual, the
HTC One
 is used to record this video as the smartphone has a HAAC rich recording microphone that is able to record sound as close to its original source, so make sure you put on your headphones to listen carefully to the sound test.

Songs Tested

1) Lady Gaga – Applause

2) Idina Menzel – Let It Go

3) T-Ara – No. 9

4) David Hazeltine – I’ll Let You Know

5) Yisa Yu – Wei Jia Xing Fu


SonicGear BT6500 Soundbar Review: boom-boom cinematic sound at a value

9.8K

SonicGear’s home theatre soundbars are one of the best choices if you are on a budget to have cinematic sound in your living room, the brand has recently sent us the BT6500 for our evaluation, which is a feature packed and powerful soundbar that comes with a wireless subwoofer that pushes 200W of booming sound, here’s my take after using for a month.

Design wise, the SonicGear BT6500 is a very slim and lengthy looking soundbar that measures 865mm (W) x 70mm (D) x 65mm (H) and houses four 2-inch drivers, it fits most TV setups well and still looks good when I place it right below a 27-inch monitor, but if you prefer, the soundbar can be wall mounted to keep things clean.

As for the wireless subwoofer, it can take up quite a bit of space on the floor as it houses a large 6.5-inch driver, it will also require its own power and there’s no need to perform any pairing process with the soundbar.

The BT6500 comes with several input ports, including an optical audio in, coaxial in and AUX in, which is a common sight for budget soundbars, and interestingly, there is a non-detachable thin cable that serves as the soundbar’s FM antenna, which is a very unique feature that you won’t find on more expensive soundbars.

On the front, you get a USB port for playing music from flash drives.

Operating the BT6500 is very straightforward with the provided remote control, the sound source is labelled on the remote and doesn’t require you to press a ‘Source’ button to switch between sources, the soundbar also has a LED display to show you the mode status and volume level.

The BT6500 features Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity which offers a very reliable wireless connection when I tested it with my iPhone 14 Pro, it only supports the SBC codec which is sufficient for playing Spotify tracks.

In terms of sound quality, the BT6500 only supports PCM audio when you connect it to the optical in port of your TV, which is expected for a budget soundbar which you won’t be able to experience a virtual surround sound. Despite that, the BT6500 can deliver very powerful and clear sound when I watched movies on it, vocals doesn’t get suppressed by the strong bass and the details in musical instruments are presented well.

Sound tuning is very basic as it lets you adjust bass and treble levels using the remote, there are also a total of 5 EQ presets for you to switch for the best listening experience.

Overall, the SonicGear BT6500 is an excellent value home theatre soundbar with powerful sound that retails at an affordable price of RM399, it will most certainly outperform your TV’s speakers and a good option if you aren’t prepared to spend that much on a soundbar, go grab one
here
 at SonicGear’s official store on Shopee.

sonicgear bt6500
sonicgear bt6500 review


SonicGear Reference Speakers: why they are absolute no-brainers

3.5K

SonicGear has stepped up its audio game with the new Reference Series speakers, comprising the StudioBox 2-HD and StudioPods V-HD, they feature a premium design while offering high fidelity audio and features that are only available on more expensive speakers, but which one should you go for? Here’s what you need to know about them.

SonicGear StudioBox 2-HD

The StudioBox 2-HD is a bookshelf speaker that comes with a wooden body and fabric speaker mesh, which can add a nice rustic feel to your room when placed on a table or bookshelf, there’s also two unique handcrafted wood options to choose from – Walnut and Mahogany.

In terms of sound performance, the Studiobox 2-HD houses two tweeters and a full-range driver that delivers a total power of 70W RMS, it has two RCAs and one optical audio input for high quality audio input, while you can also stream wireless audio over Bluetooth 5.0.

A built-in DSP is responsible for delivering rich and detailed audio from the output device, while the speaker has classic knob controls for controlling bass and treble levels.

In our tests, the StudioBox 2-HD sounds generally good when playing pop and classical music, as the drivers of the StudioBox 2-HD has excellent sound separation and a warm sound that’s all thanks to the use of the wooden body, the soundstage is wide and can easily fill a living room with just 60% of volume.

We recommend the StudioBox 2-HD if you have a limited desk space for external speakers, as it doesn’t take up too much space with a measurement of 28.7cm (L) x 17.8cm (W) x 15.6cm (H).

The SonicGear StudioBox 2-HD retails for RM499, but for a limited time, you can grab one from
Good Deals by KLGG
 at just RM479.

SonicGear StudioPod V-HD

If you prefer to brighten up your desk with a pair of colorful yet good sounding speakers, the SonicGear StudioPod V-HD comes in five attractive colors of Black, Mint, Pink, Red and White, comprising of an active and passive speaker, they are great choices if you prefer to hear sound from two audio channels.

Each side of the StudioPod V-HD is fitted with a tweeter and one full-range driver, which gives it a total power output of 80W RMS, making it slightly more powerful than the StudioBox 2-HD, while it has a built-in DSP that processes high fidelity audio, you get to switch between three EQ profiles – dialogue, movies and music.

In addition, the StudioPod V-HD comes with a remote control which will offer better convenience for controlling music playback.

Similar to the StudioBox 2-HD, the StudioPod V-HD comes with two RCAs and one optical audio input and supports Bluetooth 5.0 wireless audio streaming. Sound signature is rather similar to the StudioBox 2-HD but it has better stereo sound since each speaker processes a dedicated audio channel, but you will need to deal with an extra cable for connecting to the passive speaker, which can ultimately make your desk a little messy.

The SonicGear StudioPod V-HD retails for RM599, but for a limited time, you can grab one at
Good Deals by KLGG
 for RM579.

SonicGear StudioBox 2-HD vs StudioPod V-HD, which one is better?

Ultimately, it really depends on the type of speaker setup you want, both speakers can deliver very good sound and are easily the best that SonicGear has ever made.

For playing audio in a room or space, the StudioBox 2-HD is recommended due to its straightforward setup and driver placement for a wide soundstage, while the StudioPod V-HD is more suitable for close-up listening and can be placed between a PC monitor or TV for a better stereo sound effect.

sonicgear malaysia
sonicgear studiobox 2 hd
studiopod v-hd


SonicGear Sonic Shuttle Review: Big sound in a small body

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Need a portable speaker to whip out during those late-night vibe sessions on the porch? The SonicGear Sonic Shuttle offers loud audio, while being in a size that fits nicely in your backpack.

Design

Aesthetics-wise you get a good mix of simple and flashy – the simple being a clean, all-black chassis; it’s then accented by a strip of bright RGB lighting on the front of the speaker – y’know, for that extra flair. If you get disapproving stares for flaunting your RGB, you can always choose to turn it off – but I think you’re better off disassociating yourself from people like that.

Splitting the two upward-firing speakers are your set of capacitive buttons – here, you’ll find controls for your volume, modes, power, media playback, and RGB settings.

Audio Performance

Its dual 52mm drivers help produce pretty loud sound – which is the name of the game for the Sonic Shuttle. The speaker is great for filling up small to medium spaces with punchy loud audio.

In terms of sound quality, the device delivers high frequencies with aplomb; paired with decent
mids
, the speaker produces bright and crisp audio – the kind of combination that works for vocal-heavy tunes, as well as rock, and ballads.

It’s the lows that struggle to come through with the Sonic Shuttle, and I find
bassy
 tunes to not work well with this device. There’s a distinct lack of depth that I want when I put on party tunes. With
that
 said however, you can always use an equalizer app to get a sound that’s closer to what you like.

Features

Besides its big sound, another great selling point for the Sonic Shuttle is its multiple audio playback modes – at the back of the speaker, you’ll find a USB port and a microSD card slot to play MP3 tracks off of; an audio line-in port for your aux cable (doesn’t come in the box), and Type-C port for charging.

I mainly connect via Bluetooth – because I despise cables – and the pairing process is as simple as can be on both your PC and smartphone. One thing to note however is some latency, so you should use an aux cable if you plan on watching movies or play games.

What’s impressive is there’s a TWS mode, meaning you get to plop down another Sonic Shuttle – within 10m of the first unit – and use two speakers to output stereo audio!

Battery Life

A decent battery is part and parcel of what makes a good portable speaker – soI’m glad to report that the Sonic Shuttle gets you a whopping 12-hour operation time, with 50% volume, which is plenty loud enough for a small to medium-sized room, like mentioned earlier.

Powering the speaker is a massive 5,200mAh battery and it’ll take around six hours to fully charge the device.

Verdict

For RM199, the
SonicGear
 Sonic Shuttle is a decent buy if you’re looking for something that can handle high volumes, and offer plenty of ways to play your music. Its impressive battery life and sturdy, lightweight body also makes it a great audio companion for when you’re on the go.

Visit
SonicGear’s
 official
Lazada
 and
Shopee
 pages to make your purchase.

This article is sponsored by
SonicGear

sonicgear
SonicGear Sonic Shuttle


SonicGear StudioBar 500HD Review: made to replace your TV speakers

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SonicGear has been well known for its affordable and good sounding speakers, the brand has expanded its Reference Series lineup with the StudioBar 500HD Maverick, and unlike the StudioPods and StudioBox that’s priced more expensive, this soundbar is surprisingly affordable with a RM329 price tag and it offers the brand’s reference sound, albeit it doesn’t come with a subwoofer, does this soundbar truly offer ‘reference sound’ to our ears?

The StudioBar 500HD Maverick has a pretty simple design with a glossy top and a plastic grille on the front, there’s no LED display to show you the status of the speaker and you are only provided a multi-color LED on the right to indicate the source you are on.

The power, volume and source buttons are located on the right side.

Behind the soundbar, you will find two wall mounts, the inputs reside in a gap that can keep your cables in place, you get one HDMI ARC, optical, AUX In and USB port, which makes it a versatile soundbar that can be used for your PC or TV.

The sound system of the StudioBar 500HD consist of four 3-inch woofers and two 1-inch tweeters, they deliver a 2.0-channel sound with a total output of 50W RMS.

With this setup, the soundbar can produce very clear instruments and vocals, bass is present but can sound weak on some songs I listened to.

Despite that, the lack of a subwoofer means you won’t get the needed oomph in movies, and there isn’t much you can tune the sound to your liking, even though the remote control comes with three sound presets and allows you to adjust the bass and treble levels.

As someone who has come across SonicGear’s Reference series speakers, I am not entirely impressed with what the StudioBar 500HD offers, I would be more forgivable if it hadn’t considered this as its ‘reference’ speakers because it is far from being one, though to be fair, it is a really good sounding soundbar just for music that mainly plays vocals and instruments, and it does better than some expensive soundbars I have heard.

Nonetheless, the StudioBar 500HD definitely sounds better than most TV speakers and if you are someone who doesn’t need the deep rumbling bass in your home entertainment setup, this is a no brainer.

The SonicGear StudioBar 500HD can be purchased at
Lazada
 and
Shopee
.

SonicGear StudioBar 500HD Maverick

Far from being SonicGear's reference speakers, but this speaker will shame your TV's speakers.

KLGadgetGuy

SonicGear StudioBar 500HD

8

The Goods

Good clarity and detail

Versatile inputs and Bluetooth 5.0

Minimalist design

Affordable

The Bads

Lacks bass

Mediocre sound tuning

 8.0

Average Score

sonicgear
studiobar 500hd


SonicGear Titan 9 BTMI Speakers Review: It’s all about that bass

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If your home entertainment setup is about all things big, then the
SonicGear
 Titan 9 BTMI speaker (RM239) will fit right in – true to its name, this is one behemoth of a 2.1 audio system; but does its hefty size translate into impressive audio quality?

Build

Depending on who you ask, the Titan 9’s edgy façade can either look really tacky, or ice cool – for me, I think its diamond-shaped cutouts, silver-on-black paint-job, and RGB lighting on the subwoofer belong in bootleg nightclub from the 90s – but hey, to each their own right?

You can also make do without the flashy lighting by turning it off using the remote control; speaking of which, the remote control is as basic as they come – black plastic cover with grey buttons; but don’t let its simple exterior fool you – it packs a decent selection of controls like bass and
treble
 control, volume up and down, mic volume control, equalizer preset change, input, and more.

Measuring at 24cm x 36cm x 33.5cm (
WxHxL
) for the subwoofer and 12cm x 36cm x 12cm for the satellite speakers, the Titan 9 will take up quite an amount of space; so, these speakers are really meant to be used for your TV setup – but some pre-emptive area mapping wouldn’t hurt.

Features

Looks aside, the Titan 9 actually packs all you need for an affordable 2020 entertainment system – it’s Bluetooth-enabled, so hooking up your Spotify playlist on this is simply requires you to pair your device with the Titan 9. If you prefer something more analogue, you can also hook it up via an aux cable.

There’s also FM mode for radio, and the speakers play MP3 and FLAC format files off your SD card and USB pen drive for MP3 and FLAC formats. It’s plug-and-play for the latter two; however, FM mode may require you to plug in the antenna that comes in the box depending on your surroundings.

If you’re worried the speakers aren’t loud enough to wake up your
neighbours
, the Titan 9 comes with a wireless mic too so you can lay bare your sumptuous vocals for all to hear. Call it gimmicky if you want, but the mic works flawlessly and lets you hum to your
favourite
 karaoke tunes on YouTube.

Audio quality

The subwoofer packs a 3.5-inch driver with an 30W RMS output rating, while the satellite speakers pack 3-inch drivers with 15W RMS outputs each. According to
SonicGear
, the Titan 9 is capable of a peak output of 120W, which is plenty loud for a home speaker.

It can handle high volumes just fine without sounding too harsh – though an everyday scenario wouldn’t see it amped up to its maximum anyways. Should you find yourself being the guy to bring a speaker to a house party, rest easy knowing that the Titan 9 can get the job done.

The Titan 9 is great for listening to
bassy
 tunes like EDM, or even a film that’s jam-packed with explosions. What the speakers don’t do so well are in the higher frequencies – treble and vocals aren’t as crisp as I would’ve liked; plus, there’s very little depth in the overall output too.

You can offset that a little with some tweaking using an equalizer app if you’re outputting via Bluetooth; otherwise, you’re limited to adjusting the bass and treble volumes using the speaker’s remote control. All the same however, you’re not going to get the richest audio from this affordable audio system.

So what the Titan 9 really is good for are for bass-heavy music – the kind you’d hear at a bootleg nightclub from the 90s – wait, is this why the speakers look like this?!

Verdict

Jokes aside, the
SonicGear
 Titan 9 is a decent pick up for those who want something loud and punchy that’ll fill a room of any size. It’s also easy to set up and packs enough features to be useful at any event –although you’ll mostly be using Bluetooth or hooking it up with the aux jack anyways.

The addition of a mic is a welcome one, great for a quick singalong session with the family; or
 y
ou can  also opt to get it with two mics if you’ve a hankering for a duet.

The
SonicGear
 Titan 9 is available is available via the brand’s official
Lazada
 and
Shopee
 pages.

The Good

Impressive bass

Several input modes

Loud output volume

Plug-and-play

Surprisingly useful wireless mic

The Not So Good

Lack depth in audio

Tacky design

Fingerprint-magnet finish

120W speaker
2.1 bluettooth speaker
bass
bluetooth speaker
btmi
karaoke system
sonicgear
subwoofer
titan 9
wireless mic


SonicGear’s Reference Series speakers offer powerful sound with a contemporary design

3.8K

SonicGear is a well known audio brand for its wide range of audio products, and it is taking things up a notch by introducing the Reference Series speakers, comprising the StudioBox 2-HD and StudioPod V-HD, they are the highest end speakers ever produced by the brand.

The StudioBox is an elegant hi-res Bluetooth desk speaker that features a nostalgic oakwood design, available in colors of Walnut and Mahogany, it has a classic flip trigger on the top that turns on and off the speaker, wheel knobs for volume, bass and treble controls. With a total power of 70W, the StudioBox comes with a 50W Full Range 4″ driver and two 10W 1.25″ tweeters, apart from Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, it supports wired RCA and optical audio inputs which will offer music lovers a high quality audio listening experience.

As for the StudioPod V-HD, it is a minimalist 2.0 channel speaker that comes in interesting color options of Black, White, Red, Pink and Mint, but don’t look down on these speakers though, as they have a combined power of 80W RMS that comes from two 4-inch Full Range Bass Driver units and two 1-inch Tweeters, the StudioPod V-HD can be controlled with a remote control for convenience and apart from supporting Bluetooth connectivity, it supports RCA and optical audio input for high quality audio.

The SonicGear StudioBox and StudioPod V-HD will retail at RM499 and RM699 respectively, they will be available at
Good Deals by KLGG
 at a later time, do stay tuned for our review and a special price that will be unveiled soon.

reference series
sonicgear
studiobox v2-hd
studiopod v-hd


Sonos sues Google for stealing speaker tech and undercutting the audio company

326

Audio company Sonos is currently suing Google for patent infringement on various products such as the Google Home, Google Home Mini and more.

Sonos said that it has warned Google of its infringement several times since 2016, but since Google persisted, the company decided to sue the tech giant. Sonos also accused Google of subsidizing its own products to get more sales and undercutting Sonos.

Google is not the only tech giant that has allegedly copied Sonos’ patented technology; Amazon is accused of doing the same, but Sonos is only suing the former as it’ll be too risky for the smaller company to go against two tech giants at the same time. Even then,
The New York Times
 reported that Sonos executives contemplated the decision to sue as they’re still connected to Google business-wise.

This isn’t the first time the tech industry has faced situations like this. Not too long ago, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint against Apple for its unreasonable 30% tax and Blix sued Apple for removing it from the App Store after copying its technology that could create anonymous email addresses for users.

google
google home
smart speaker
Sonos


Sonos Roam: Ultra-portable speaker available in Malaysia at RM1,099

412

Sonos’s latest offering is an ultra-portable smart speaker that is portable, light and connects via Bluetooth/Wi-Fi. The Sonos Roam is priced at RM1,099 and will be available starting April 21.

Sonos Roam can connect easily via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you’re out of your house and its Wi-Fi range, the speaker automatically switches to Bluetooth to pair with your smartphone. Sonos also introduced a new featured called Sound Swap and it basically lets users switch from speaker to speaker by holding the play/pause button.

You get a built-in mic + TruePlay technology

If you get two Sonos speakers, you can turn them into stereo speakers; they also work with over 100 streaming services which can be easily controlled using the Sonos app. You’ll also get a built-in mic with this speaker, but it’s mainly used for voice assistants and/or Sonos’s own TruePlay technology that auto-adjusts sound according to your environment.

Charge it wirelessly, or not

Battery-wise, this smart speaker can last you up to 10 hours and charges wirelessly with any compatible Qi-certified chargers. You can also use a USB-C cable to charge it, which is faster compared to the wireless method. As it also comes with an IP67, the Sonos Roam can withstand water up to 1m for 30 minutes.

Find out more
here
.

Sonos Roam


Sonos smart speakers now available; priced from RM799 during 11.11 sale

489

If you’ve been looking for a sound system for your home or even a smart speaker, Sonos is offering some of its products for lower prices during 11.11 sale.

Sonos Beam

Sonos Beam is a sound bar that’s packed with four full-rage woofers and equipped with five Class-D digital amplifiers. It can also be paired with a Sonos Sub for a more realistic audio experience and can be controlled using voice assistants, Sonos app and more. It supports Apple AirPlay 2 and can be mounted on the wall if needed.

Sonos One and Sonos One SL

Sonos also has smaller smart speakers if you think the Sonos Beam is too long. The
Sonos One
 and
One SL
 are both compact and feature two Class-D digital amplifiers, one mid-woofer and one tweeter. The only difference is the Sonos One has voice control but the One SL doesn’t. Just like the Sonos Beam, the Sonos One and One SL supports AirPlay 2.

During the 11.11 sale, the Sonos Beam will be priced at RM1,979 while the Sonos One SL and the Sonos One will be priced at RM799 and RM969 respectively. There are also discounts on other products like the Sonos Move and Sonos Sub. The Sonos Move that’s originally priced at RM2,499 will be available at RM2,239 while the Sonos Sub will get RM600 off its original price of RM3,999.

For more information, check out Sonos’
official site
.

Sonos


Sony a6400 mirrorless camera has Real-time Eye AF, Real-time Tracking and fastest AF speed

290

Sony recently released its next generation a6400 mirrorless camera, and this camera comes with amazing autofocus features while remaining as a travel-friendly lightweight camera.

The Sony a6400 is a 24.2MP APS-C camera that can reach up to ISO 102,400 at its expanded range. It now has improved noise suppression in which noise reduction is more effective when used at the medium-to-high sensitivity range, producing cleaner and battery image quality. It comes with 425 phase and contrast detection AF points, and when combined with Sony’s latest BIONZ X processor, the a6400 is capable of amazing autofocus features.

The a6400 is capable of distributing focus points around 84% of the image area for the better subject capture, and thanks to the Fast Hybrid AF system, it has 0.02 second AF speed. Thanks to the 4D FOCUS technology, the a6400 can focus clearly on the subject even when the subject is not at the centre of the frame, and even when the subject is moving around, the sensor can predict and track the subject’s next move, resulting in persistent tracking so that the subject will not be out of focus.

The a6400 also supports fast continuous shooting up to 11fps with after-view and up to 8fps with live-view, in which there will be minimal display lagging. On its silent continuous shooting mode, the camera can shoot up to 8fps even with AF/AE tracking or with Real-time Tracking and Real-time Eye AF.

Real-time Eye AF and Real-time Tracking are both AI-based subject recognition technology. The Real-time Eye AF is a feature that recognises human faces and focuses on a single eye of an individual which will keep the focus on the subject even when he/she is moving or his/her face is partly covered. This is particularly useful for those who are shooting portrait photography. Apart from that, the Real-time tracking combines face detection, subject tracking, eye detection to track its subject and users can also tap onto their touchscreen to immediately put focus on their subject.

The a6400 is also great for movie recording thanks to its Fast Hybrid Autofocus and thanks to the HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) picture profile so when users connect the camera to Sony Tvs that are HDR-compatible, they can view 4K HDR10 imagery. In addition, users can also create time-lapse movies easily thanks to the new interval shooting which is basically continuous shooting with a pause of 1 to 60 seconds between still shots. Users will no longer need to manually shoot still shots for time-lapse creations, and thanks to the AE tracking sensitivity that can be adjusted during interval shooting, users can adjust the exposure over the shooting interval to prevent the images from being under/overexposed as time passes.

Another new feature on the a6400 is it’s 180-degree LCD flip-screen. The LCD screen can be flipped upwards so that those who do vlogging can do it conveniently, and they can also use the touch functionality on the LCD screen such as Touch Pad, Touch Focus, Touch Shutter and Touch Tracking.

The a6400 comes in three options. Those who are interested can either purchase its body only, its body with a 16-50mm Power Zoom Lens, or its body with a 18-135mm Zoom Lens. However, the a6400 will only be available in Malaysia around the end of March, so the pricing is still unknown.

a6400
mirrorless camera
sony


Sony introduces new A9G OLED 4K TVs to BRAVIA MASTER Series line-up

749

It is the age of 4K as Sony joins the race with new additions to the BRAVIA MASTER Series line-up in the A9G OLED 4K panels.

The range of A9G TVs will include 77-inch, 65-inch and 55-inch panels that come equipped with the Picture Processor X1 Ultimate processing chip that help improve detail and contrast quality via fine-tuned algorithms.

Each OLED panel boasts a total of over 8 million self-illuminating pixels that are controlled by the processor for better tailoring of colours. With the addition of “Pixel Contrast Booster”, it helps in boosting of contrast.

Sony claims that the Picture Processor X1 Ultimate improves SD and HD content to near 4K HDR quality.

The panels are also equipped with Acoustic Surface Audio+ which supposedly emits audio from the surface of the screen itself for a more immersive experience. The TVs can be mounted on a wall via the SU-WL850 mount and fits it close to the wall for your space-saving needs (or aesthetics, if that’s your thing).

In keeping with the times, the A9G is equipped with Android TV based on Android 8 Oreo, meaning you get Google Assistant, YouTube, Netflix and all that good stuff.

The Sony BRAVIA MASTER Series A9G line-up is priced at RM11,949 for the 55-inch version, RM18,399 for the 65-inch version and RM49,999 for the 77-inch version. The TVs will be available for purchase from the end of this month onwards.

a9g
a9g 4k oled
android tv
oled
sony bravia


Sony Alpha A5100 Review: A super fast compact shooter

634

The smartphone photography trend is increasing, smartphone makers are including more powerful imaging processors and sensors onboard, even matching with entry-level DSLRs on imaging quality. Still, smartphone cameras aren’t perfect and they don’t support interchangeable lens, which is why the prosumer will still want a dedicated camera to capture all that beautiful footage when they travel abroad. The
Sony
 Alpha A5100 that we have here has been helping our work a lot and it is our best companion on short trips.

Sony
 Alpha A5100 Video Review

Hardware & Software – Simple and Straightforward

Sony’s compact camera has an iconic design that you will never miss, it’s compact form factor and huge APS-C sensor makes it look like a camera that is too small to fit that E-mount lens. The Alpha A5100’s design isn’t much different from the A5000 and NEX-5T, featuring the same compact body, similar set of control buttons and wheels. If you come from a previous
Sony
 camera, you will certainly feel at home.

The Alpha A5100 comes with an upgraded 24.3 Megapixel APS-C HD Sensor with the latest BIONZ X imaging processor onboard, the camera features a Super Fast Hybrid AF system with 179 phase detection points and 25 point contrast detection, which makes its imaging capabilities on par with the higher end Alpha A6000. The camera is also able to shoot 1080p60 50Mbps videos with the XAVC S codec and that requires an ultra fast memory card. ISO levels are supported from a range of ISO 100-25600 and you’ll be able to capture RAW images with it.

Equipped with a 180 degree tiltable 3-inch 921k dots touch display, taking pictures with the Alpha A5100’s display is a great experience, we are able to see our shots in detail and perform touch to focus, the display’s brightness and viewing angles are also good which will work well under strong sunlight, you basically won’t complain the lack of a viewfinder on the camera.

Flip over the display, the Alpha A5100 instantly becomes your great selfie shooter, click on the shutter button and a 3 second timer starts counting down.

The camera’s configuration is fairly straightforward, even the most common user will find them easy to understand, if you are not sure on what does that feature do, simply press on the “?”button and you are done. The A5100 really requires no user manual to get it work well.

If you think the camera can’t have more features onboard, you’ll be able to download PlayMemories App on the camera, which you can use it to enhance your images and share your photos directly to social media, however for the Malaysian market, you aren’t getting much apps selection as the other supported countries. The Alpha A5100 has NFC and WiFi Direct built-in as well, so you’ll be able to transfer that beautiful still shot over to your Android or iOS smartphone without much hassle, and oh, your smartphone can also become the remote of the camera by using the PlayMemories Camera App.

Lastly, the camera’s NP-FW50 1020mAh battery has a rated battery life of up to 400 shots by CIPA, our continuous image test shot was approximately 390 shots, which is pretty accurate and impressive according to its standards. The camera charges conveniently via its MicroUSB port and you can use any smartphone chargers to provide power.

Sony
 Alpha A5100 Camera Samples

The camera samples down below are taken with the Sony Alpha A5100’s 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 Power Zoom kit lens, which performs extremely well in most lighting conditions and noise control is also pretty impressive even at high ISO levels, the camera rarely needs to reach ISO levels to capture great images under low light. All pictures down below are captured using the camera’s auto mode with no modifications done.

Sony Alpha A5100 Video Recording Sample

While the Sony Alpha A5100 supports taking extremely high quality videos with the XAVC S codec, we sadly don’t have that high speed memory card that the camera requires, do remember to bump the player’s resolution up to Full HD.

Verdict – It captures fast and beautifully

The Sony Alpha A5100 is one impressive interchangeable lens compact shooter that we’ve seen from Sony, the BIONZ X imaging processor proves its capabilities in enhancing images fast and beautifully. The camera’s Super Fast Hybrid AF system and 179 phase detection ensures that you’ll never miss that perfect moment again.

The Good

+ Simple and straightforward features

+ Compact and lightweight

+ Fast imaging performance

+ Clear LCD display

+ Uses E-mount lens

The Not so Good

– PlayMemories camera app limited

– No microphone port

– Lacks horseshoe

The Sony Alpha A5100 retails at RM2,499 and comes with the 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 Power Zoom kit lens, we rate it at 4.5 out of 5 stars.


Sony Alpha A7 Review

387

As what you have got from the title, today we are going to review the brand new
Sony
 A7. We have been using the
Sony
 A7 for plenty of weeks now. We find it awesome as we were getting used to the features of the camera.

Video Review

The Alpha A7, a compact camera body with a full frame sensor

The
Sony
 Alpha A7 is Sony’s first mirrorless camera that features a full frame image sensor in such a compact body. The body is slighly smaller than an entry level Alpha series camera but still larger than its NEX series. The Alpha A7 has a full frame image sensor that shoots pictures at 24.3 Megapixels and supports Sony’s E-mount and full frame lenses. The kit lens provided is a standard 28-70mm lens with an aperture range of f3.5-5.6.

We find a multi interface horse shoe that accepts external microphones and flash at the top of the body. We also find two dials that lets you switch shooting modes and adjust exposure, a two steps shutter button and a customizable button.

We have a 3-inch titltable display on the main panel that shows 921k dots. It also act as a digital live view and of course with the operational butoons next to it.

On the right, we find an NFC sensor that lets users to transfer pictures to smartphones via the Sony’s Playmemories app and they memory card slot. It also features a WiFi connection to connect to your smartphones or
tablet
.

The camera body also has a headphone jack, microphone jack, microHDMI port and a microUSB port on the left.

One thing that we would like to emphasize on is the noise management in poor lighting conditions at a very high ISO levels set. Well, we got a really awesome shot taken with the
Sony
 Alpha A7. Look at the picture below, imagine you can shoot the stars by hand held the camera. This is the result:-

f/3.5, 1/3 sec. ISO-16000

f/3.5, 1/25 sec. ISO-10000

f/3.5, 1/40 sec. ISO-8000

This will speak for macro shot

f/5.6, 1/400 sec. ISO-80

Bottom line, we totally fell in love with the Alpha A7 not just only in image quality and camera performance but also the possibility of having a full frame camera at the size of our palm. The Sony Alpha A7 retails at a price of RM4999 for the camera body alone and RM5999 with the kit lens, it is probably the cheapest full frame camera that you can find in the market with a compact size. We give it a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. You can find more sample shots at the end of this post and a video review done by Warren which sums up all of the details of the Sony Alpha A7.

Tech Specs

24.3-megapixel 35mm full-frame Exmor™ CMOS sensor

BIONZ X™ image processing engine

Meticulously crafted controls within a compact body

Enhanced Fast Hybrid AF

High-contrast, high-resolution XGA OLED Tru-Finder™

Full HD movie recording with advanced audio functions

ISO 50-2560000-25600