Nokia will challenge Samsung, Amazon with its cheap T20 Android tablet
When it comes to buying a cheap Android tablet, you really have three options right now: the Galaxy Tab A series, an Amazon Fire tablet, or a Lenovo Tab M series. Today, Nokia announced the Nokia T20, an affordable 10-inch tablet set to take them all on.
At 10.4-inches, the Nokia T20 has solid resolution (1200×2000) with 400 nits of brightness and a reasonable weight of about a pound, making it easy enough to hold for long streaming binges. Its 8200mAh battery is supposed to last 14 hours of regular use or “7 hours of conference calls” if you use it for work. With an iP52 rating, it’ll handle some light drips, but you should generally keep it inside and away from glasses of water.
Read More at Android Central
The Huawei MateBook 14s features a 90Hz 14.2″ touchscreen, 11th gen Intel CPU
Huawei unveiled a small powerhouse of a laptop – the MateBook 14s features an Intel 11th gen (Tiger Lake) processor with up to 54W TDP, accessible via the Fn+P shortcut. Fn+R triggers its other key selling point, the 90Hz refresh rate.
The laptop has an aluminum-alloy body that weighs 1.43kg (3.15 lbs) and measures 16.7mm thick (0.66”). Even so it can keep the powerful processor cool with its two shark fin fans and two heat pipes. The hinge inlet design promises 25% better air intake than traditional designs.
You can choose between an Intel Core i5-11300H and an i7-11370H, both 4-core, 8-thread processors with Intel Iris Xe graphics. The i7 model has more L3 cache (12MB vs. 8MB) and 96 execution units (vs. 80).
The base configuration comes with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM (dual-channel), but you can get a 16GB upgrade. Similarly, the base storage is 512GB (NVMe) with an option to double it to 1TB.
The 14.2” display on the front has 2,520 x 1,680 px resolution – that is 3:2 aspect ratio (meaning it’s taller than a 14” 16:9 display) and a sharp 213 ppi pixel density. As mentioned, this panel can work at 90Hz (as well as 60Hz). It promises 400 nits of brightness, 1,500:1 contrast ratio, 1.07 billion colors and 100% coverage of sRGB. This is also a touchscreen that can track up to 10 fingers.
Read More at Gsmarena
Polar’s new Grit X Pro is here to challenge the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro
Polar, which makes some of the best running watches, has expanded its wearables lineup with the launch of the new Grit X Pro and Grit X Pro Titan.
The new Polar Grit X Pro is a multi-sport smartwatch featuring a military-grade design with a Sapphire glass lens, flexible FKM wristband, and MIL-STD-810G compliance. It has Polar’s Precision Prime sensor fusion technology for continuous heart-rate tracking and also includes built-in GPS with assisted GPS for fast-fix times.
Since the watch is designed for outdoor enthusiasts, it offers new route and elevation profiles, along with turn-by-turn guidance. With the Track Back feature, the Grit X Pro can navigate you back to exactly where you started your journey.
Read More at Android Central
Android 12 is here, but it shouldn’t be
I think it’s fair to say that Android 12 hasn’t had the smoothest of launches. Not only is it late (relative to the last few versions anyway), but now that it’s finally here it, well, isn’t really.
Google made the odd decision to launch Android 12 onto the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), an open source version of the platform used by developers. That in itself isn’t odd – Google always does this with new versions, but it also always launches them onto Pixel phones at the same time. Except this year.
This year, if you’re a general user, there’s no easy or official way to actually get Android 12 onto your handset right now, even if you have a Google Pixel 5.
It’s a strange situation which has led to confusion, with articles saying Android 12 is here, when functionally for it isn’t, and with early reviews appearing that might not be entirely representative, since the version that appears on even Pixel phones is likely to be at least a little bit different.
This weird launch also means that when Android 12 does finally launch on phones, it will likely do so with less fanfare than normal, because it’s already out, sort of.
This seems to be a theme for Google in 2021, with the company also semi-announcing the Pixel 6 range back in August, but leaving us waiting until October 19 for a full launch. But there at least it was building hype for the phones, whereas with Android 12 it’s just building confusion.
Read More at Techradar
Watch out Nvidia – AMD RX 6700 XT becomes first Big Navi card to rank in Steam’s top GPUs
The appearance of an RX 6000 series card in the Steam hardware survey is a big thing because it’s the very first time that Big Navi has managed to claw its way onto the GPU rankings as mentioned – bearing in mind that these cards have had a long time to make some waves (launching almost a year ago now).
What’s even more interesting is that the GPU to make its mark is a more recently deployed RDNA 2 model, as the 6700 XT was released in March, so has had less time to make an impact – but may have been produced in somewhat greater numbers, we can but guess. That wouldn’t be too difficult given some of the well-documented supply issues around the RX 6800 models and 6900 XT.
We’ve certainly been hearing some more positive things about stock levels with the latest RX 6600 XT card, as you may have seen, and we might see this make more of a mark than the 6700 XT – it’s very new to the scene, of course, having emerged in August, so it’ll take time to register greater sales numbers, no doubt. So, in the big picture, Nvidia may have a little cause for concern here on its rival’s cards, even if a 0.16% share for one Big Navi product is hardly an immediate worry.
Read More at Techradar
The next iPad Pro might have an even better screen than XDR
When Apple unveiled the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro earlier this year, the biggest upgrade was the new Liquid Retina XDR display, which brought mini-LED technology to an Apple device for the first time. Now, a new rumor from The Elec suggests Apple might be bringing an even better display to the iPad Pro.
Reporting on the Samsung supply chain, the Korean-based report states that while Apple has abandoned plans to bring an OLED display to the iPad Air, it is still working on a new low-power LTPO OLED display for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, like the one in the iPhone 13 Pro. Apple introduced the new low-temperature polycrystalline oxide displays in the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max along with a new ProMotion feature that dynamically switches refresh rates between 10Hz and 120Hz.
While the benefits of OLED over mini-LED on the iPad Pro would be difficult to see, the new display tech could bring a boost in battery life. Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro models brought two to three extra hours of battery life as compared to the iPhone 12, partly due to the new display tech that uses 12 refresh rates to increase battery life. The ProMotion display in the current iPad Pro only uses goes as low as 24Hz.
Read More at Macworld
NVIDIA is reportedly testing an Android TV 11 update for the SHIELD TV
In August this year, an NVIDIA staff member confirmed that the company was skipping the Android 10 update for the SHIELD TV. While at the time, the company revealed no information about a potential Android TV 11 update for the Android TV box, recent reports suggest that it’s in the works.
A deleted post on the r/nividiashield subreddit (via Android Police) suggests that NVIDIA has started beta testing a new version of NVIDIA SHEILD Experience 9.0 based on Android TV 11. A cached version of the post reveals that the update doesn’t seem to look noticeably different compared to the Android TV 9 release, but it likely has several under-the-hood changes.
The Reddit user who made the original post also confirmed that they had received the update after enrolling in NVIDIA’s closed beta testing program. However, the post and the user’s account have since been deleted. A different user in the comments reveals that NVIDIA imposed a confidentiality agreement on beta testers, which seems to be the reason behind the deletion. The agreement allegedly states:
“Beta software is confidential. Do not post any information, bugs, or issues on public forms (e.g. SHIELD forums on NVIDIA.com, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, etc. The success of this beta program depends on your discreet cooperation.”
At the moment, we don’t know much else about the Android TV 11 update for the NVIDIA SHIELD TV. We reached out to the company for more information, but a spokesperson declined to comment. We’ll make sure to let you know as soon as we have more information about the update.
Read More at XDA
Intel CEO says AMD lead is over as it considers “software-first” move
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger suggests software will play a much larger role in the future of the company, as he prepares to once again take the fight to AMD, according to reports.
Betting big on software in an interview with CRN, Gelsinger wants Intel to adopt a “software-first” approach to help the company trump the competition in all applications, from the cloud to the edge.
“We have to deliver the software capabilities, and then we have to empower it, accelerate it, make it more secure with hardware underneath it. And to me, this is the big bit flip that I need to drive at Intel,” shared Gelsinger.
Read More at Techradar
Apple Makes It Easier to Find Your Missing AirPods
Back at WWDC, Apple said expanded FindMy integration was coming for AirPods in iOS 15. Now, Apple is delivering on that promise with a firmware update that gives you more options if you lose track of your AirPods Pro or AirPods Max.
The FindMy network works by leveraging Bluetooth on millions of Apple devices. So, if an Apple gadget were to detect a missing device nearby, it reports that location in the FindMy app. The firmware update makes it so that the AirPods Pro and Max can now be a part of that network. However, since they lack the U1 chip, it’s won’t be quite as precise as what you get with AirTags.
Read More at Gizmodo
Telegram says it added 70m new users during Facebook outage
The instant messaging app Telegram registered 70 million new users during Monday’s Facebook blackout, its Russian founder said, as people around the world flocked to the encrypted service.
“The daily growth rate of Telegram exceeded the norm by an order of magnitude, and we welcomed over 70 million refugees from other platforms in one day,” Pavel Durov wrote on his Telegram channel.
The app jumped 55 spots on Monday to top the US iPhone download chart, according to Sensor Tower, an app intelligence company.
Telegram, which says it prioritises users’ privacy and security, was founded by the self-described libertarian Durov in 2013 and maintains a hands-off moderating philosophy.
“I am proud of how our team handled the unprecedented growth because Telegram continued to work flawlessly for the vast majority of our users,” Durov said, although he admitted the service did experience some difficulties after the surge of new users.
“Some users in the Americas may have experienced slower speed than usual as millions of users from these continents rushed to sign up for Telegram at the same time,” he added.
Read More at The Guardian
