Before you start throwing down cash for new phones like a Grinch post heart-expansion, watch our video to directly compare more factors than just name brand and price on two of the most popular phones. The iPhone 8 and Galaxy S8 Plus are both less than $1000 (no thanks, iPhone X) but still expensive, beginning at $805 and $737, respectively. Either would make a great gift to yourself or someone else, but it all depends on what you’re going for. The iPhone 8 looks a little ho-hum in terms of standard old design, but acts zippier because of the new A11 bionic chip, which Apple claims makes it 25% faster. Alternatively, maybe you love Samsung or are just now open to one because of Apple’s no headphone jack policy. The S8 and S8 Plus have a slick design that our own phone reviewers absolutely love and its display (a dazzling 2220 x 1080) compared to Apple’s (a meh 1334 x 750) really put it at the top of the visual appearance heap. And then there’s the camera test. While on paper the smartphone’s cameras seem very similar, (Apple with a 7 megapixel front-facing camera, 12 megapixel back; Galaxy S8 Plus with 8 megapixel front-facing camera, 12 megapixel back), in practice, the selfies from the Galaxy S8 Plus seem far superior. After testing set-up, call quality, video downloading time, playback, visual appearance and cameras on each of the phones, we picked the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus as the winner of this particular head-to-head challenge. Let us know in the comments what we should test next!
Tag: smartphone
Essential Phone review: Impressive for a new company but not competitive
We have a new contender in the smartphone space. “Essential” is a new OEM that came seemingly out of nowhere, announced by Andy Rubin a mere nine months ago . Rubin is the co-founder and former CEO of Android Inc., a little company that was snatched up by Google in 2005 and went on to build the world’s most popular operating system. Rubin left Google, and Essential is his new startup with ambitions in the smartphone and smart home markets. Amazon, Tencent, and Foxconn have already invested in Essential, and the latest round of funding values the company at more than a billion dollars—and this was before it even shipped a product. With the launch of the “Essential Phone,” we finally have that first product: a high-end, $700 smartphone running the operating system Rubin helped create. The phone more or less leaves Android alone, and, with the backing of hardware manufacturer Foxconn, most of the innovation here is in the hardware. Read 79 remaining paragraphs | Comments
View post:
Essential Phone review: Impressive for a new company but not competitive
Xiaomi’s stunning Mi Mix gets a sequel, the Mi Mix 2
Fresh off the launch of its first Android One phone , Xiaomi has a sequel to its high-profile Mi Mix. Meet the Mi Mix 2. When the Mi Mix came out last year, it featured a stunning slim-bezel design that we called ” the future of smartphones. ” Xiaomi’s “concept” phone threw out a lot of the smartphone conventions—like the location of the earpiece and the front facing camera—and came up with a few other unique features like a ceramic back and a screen with curved corners. In 2017, we found out Xiaomi wasn’t the only company with the idea for a slim-bezel phone. Samsung and LG both quickly came out with phones that maximized screen space, and soon it looks like Apple will follow this trend, too. The Mi Mix was the vanguard for this movement, though, and it still has the most extreme design. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments
See more here:
Xiaomi’s stunning Mi Mix gets a sequel, the Mi Mix 2
US carriers partner on a better mobile authentication system
Two-factor authentication ( 2FA ) via SMS and a smartphone provides a heavy dose of additional security for your data, but as the US government declared last year, it’s not without its flaws. To fix that, the big four US mobile operators, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T have formed a coalition called the Mobile Authentication Taskforce to come up with a new system. Working with app developers and others, they’ll explore the use of SIM card recognition, network-based authentication, geo-location, and other carrier-specific capabilities. The idea is to marry current 2FA with systems that “reduce mobile identity risks by analyzing data and activity patterns on a mobile network to predict, with a high degree of certainty, whether the user is who they say they are, ” according to the news release. The problem with SMS authentication is that skilled hackers have successfully hijacked SMS codes in the past, often simply by contacting the carrier and impersonating the victim. It also falls apart if thieves grab your smartphone along with your PC, gain access to your phone via malware, or just steal a glance at a 2FA message on your lockscreen. Through strong collaboration, the taskforce announced today has the potential to create impactful benefits for US customers by helping to decrease fraud and identity theft, and increase trust in online transactions. The system will be an open one that can work the four carriers and others. “We will be working closely with the taskforce to ensure this solution is aligned and interoperable with solutions deployed by operators, ” said Alex Sinclair, CTO of mobile industry group GSMA. The goal to improve 2FA security sounds like a noble one, but Congress, at the urging of carriers and ISPs, recently eliminated certain customer privacy protection rules. As such, consumer protection groups might have concerns about 2FA systems that could be used by operators to track customers, for example. The new system is supposed to arrive for “enterprises and customers in 2018, ” the group says. In the meantime, if you’re still not using two-factor authentication (SMS or otherwise), you really, really should be . Source: AT&T
See the original article here:
US carriers partner on a better mobile authentication system
WD’s My Book Duo storage box puts 20TB on your desktop
Western Digital has unveiled the 20TB My Book Duo, its highest-capacity storage system yet, and it’s a good example of the pluses and minuses of spinning hard disks compared to SSDs . The system works at either RAID 0, which offers the maximum speed but no backup protection, RAID 1, for full data protection but lower speeds and JBOD (just a bunch of disks). At RAID 0 levels, it offers decent 360 MB/s speeds, enough to do video editing and other disk-intensive chores. WD says it uses RAID-optimized WD RED drives, which spin at 5, 400 RPM, though it doesn’t specify how many. The box includes a USB 3.1 Type-C interface port and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports that can be used to connect flash drives and other accessories to your PC. They can also charge up your smartphone, letting the drive do double-duty as a USB hub (it comes with a USB-C to USB-C and USB-A cable in the box). The My Book Duo also supports 256-bit AES hardware encryption. The base 4TB model costs $280/£270, while the top end 20TB configuration will set you back $800/£620. As a point of comparison, Samsung just unveiled its portable T5 SSD that costs $800/£760, but you get one-tenth the storage — 2TB. However, you also get a lot more performance, with 540 MB/s from a single drive and the greater reliability of SSDs. In other words, price is the lone advantage left to mechanical disks and the reason why WD is so anxious to keep its relationship with flash storage manufacturer Toshiba.
Read the original:
WD’s My Book Duo storage box puts 20TB on your desktop
Verizon’s new unlimited plans throttle video all the time
Verizon’s revival of the unlimited data plan was supposed to be a good thing: it was bringing back worry-free service that let you use your smartphone as much as you like. Unfortunately, the carrier is making things complicated again. In the wake of tests that capped streaming video speeds , Verizon is splitting its unlimited access into multiple plans that face new restrictions. As of August 23rd, the standard Go Unlimited plan costs $5 less than before at $75 per month (if you use AutoPay), but you’re limited to streaming video at 480p on phones and 720p on tablets — shades of T-Mobile , anyone? The $80 prepaid plan and the Business plan cap you at 480p, too. The bigger issue is with the $85 Beyond Unlimited plan. Despite paying a premium, you’re limited to 720p streaming on phones and 1080p on tablets. Yes, that means that 1080p phone streaming (and any streaming higher than 1080p) is off the table regardless of how much you’re willing to pay. The carrier says there’s “no visible difference” in quality at those resolutions, but, well, that’s just not true. It might not be a night-and-day quality change, but you’re bound to notice if you have a large device like a Galaxy S8 Plus or a newer iPad Pro . The basic plan gives you unlimited hotspot access, but only at a pokey 600Kbps. You can spring for the business or Beyond plans to get LTE speeds, but only for the first 10GB or 15GB, respectively. And if you regularly visit Canada or Mexico, you’ll need to go to Beyond to use your service in those countries as you would at home. You’re grandfathered into a previous unlimited plan if you have one, and you’ll actually get 5GB more data at LTE speeds (15GB total) than you did before. However, even those older plans will be subject to the same throttling as new customers, so the only reason to hold on is to save money over the Beyond Unlimited plan. The carrier explains its move to Ars Technica as “managing our network” in a way that lets bring unlimited data “to more people.” That’s not completely unwarranted: OpenSignal found that average LTE speeds on Verizon dropped after the move to unlimited, so it’s clear that some people are using data so often that they’re bogging down the network. It’s still a step backwards for many customers, though, and the throttling at all tiers means you’ll still have to hunt for WiFi to get the best possible quality. It’s technically unlimited service, but it sure won’t feel like that in practice. Via: TechCrunch , The Verge Source: Ars Technica
View post:
Verizon’s new unlimited plans throttle video all the time
What each model of the iPhone added to the game
It was 10 years ago today that Steve Jobs announced the long-rumored iPhone to a crowd of tech lovers excited to a fever pitch. We’ve already looked at the history of the iPhone going back to the Newton, but 10 years of iPhone have brought us more than a dozen devices, each of which brought something new and important to the smartphone game. Let’s go through them, shall we? Read More
View original post here:
What each model of the iPhone added to the game
Verizon will test 5G wireless in 11 cities by mid-2017
Verizon isn’t going to let AT&T’s 5G plans go unanswered. The carrier (and our corporate overlord) says it will pilot the gigabit-class wireless in 11 cities by the middle of 2017, including major urban hubs like Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Seattle and Washington, DC. These will be “pre-commercial services” offered to specific customers, so don’t expect to try extra-fast cellular data in your neighborhood. Instead, this is about investigating “scenarios and use cases” before Verizon is ready to ask for money. It’s not certain when you’ll see honest-to-goodness paid service, although Verizon has been aiming for sometime in 2017. However, any widespread deployment is likely to be contingent on a formal 5G standard, which doesn’t exist yet — and that’s not including the necessary hardware . You might not want to get too excited, then. While 5G may well usher in an era where your smartphone data speeds are as fast as a fiber optic line, the technology is still very much in the early stages. Source: Verizon
Link:
Verizon will test 5G wireless in 11 cities by mid-2017
AT&T’s multi-gigabit wireless over power lines heading to trials this year
Enlarge / Preliminary version of AT&T’s Project AirGig antennas. (credit: AT&T) AT&T says it is “in advanced discussions” with power companies to start trials of a new broadband technology in at least two locations by this fall. This is an update on the Project AirGig that AT&T announced in September 2016 . AirGig is a wireless technology even though it depends on the presence of power lines. Antennas that are placed on utility poles send wireless signals to each other; AT&T says the power lines “serve as a guide for the signals,” ensuring they reach their destination. AT&T says the wireless signals could be used to deliver multi-gigabit Internet speeds for either smartphone data or home Internet service. Trial locations have not yet been announced, but today’s announcement says, “One location will be in the United States with others to be determined in the coming months.” There’s also no word on when commercial deployment might begin, but AT&T seems to be excited about the project. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
View the original here:
AT&T’s multi-gigabit wireless over power lines heading to trials this year
Uber will offer free rides in its self-driving cars this month
After months of testing , Uber’s self-driving cars are ready to pick up their first passengers. Bloomberg reports that the ride-hailing company will allow customers in Pittsburgh to request one of its autonomous Volvo XC90 sport-utility vehicles via their smartphone in the coming weeks, pushing it into territory that other major developers of self-driving cars have yet to fully explore. According to the report, Uber won’t be sending its cars out alone. A human supervisor will sit in the driving seat, as required by law, “with their fingertips on the wheel.” A second person will be sat in the front passenger seat, taking notes on a laptop while cameras inside and outside the vehicle record everything that happens during the ride. Customers won’t be expected to pay for their journey in Uber’s XC90s, at least to begin with, which may help put nervous riders at ease. Pittsburgh serves as the ideal environment for Uber’s autonomous trials. The city is home to its Advanced Technologies Center (ATC) and local authorities have already approved the testing of its self-driving fleet. When the do hit the road, only a handful of cars will be available right away, but Uber has struck a deal with Volvo to take delivery of 100 vehicles by the end of the year. With Ford announcing yesterday that it intends to have fully autonomous cars on the road within five years , Uber is moving swiftly. It wants to be out ahead of its rivals with its own tried-and-tested solution, not a ready-made one from a car manufacturer that could one day eat its lunch. Source: Bloomberg
See more here:
Uber will offer free rides in its self-driving cars this month