smartphone News - Page 17 of 74 - CNX Software

March 26, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

T-bao T15A 15.6″ Portable Display Works with Phones, Computers and Game Consoles

In recent months we’ve seen several lightweight portable displays that works with phones or computers such as the 12.5″ ultra-lightweight LAPSCREEN display or TAIHE Gemini 15.6″ Full HD / 4K portable display. But AFAIK, the former is not available for purchase just yet, and the latter was launched via a crowdfunding campaign and shipping appears to be scheduled for May 2019. If you want something similar that ships today, T-bao T15A 15.6″ portable display may be an options. It comes with two USB-C ports one for power, one to connect USB-C devices like smartphones, and a mini HDMI port for laptops, computers, game consoles and so on. T-bao T15A display specifications: Screen – 15.6″ IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution, W-LED backlight, 178-degree viewing angle Ports 1x mini HDMI 2x USB type-C ports including one for host device input, one for power 1x micro USB port to connect keyboard and mouse […]

March 23, 2019June 4, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

NexDock 2 Laptop Shell Gets a Full HD Display, a USB type-C Port (Crowdfunding)

NexDock 14″ laptop shell was first introduced in 2016 to help people convert their smartphones or single board computers into a laptop with a display, a keyboard and battery. The crowdfunding campaign was successful with over $360,000 raised for the projects, and the first NexDock has been shipped to 2,600+ backers. The following year, the company – now called Nex Computer – announced plan to develop NexDock 2 with support for Intel Compute Cards. This did not quite work out as expected since Intel decided to stop further development of Compute Cards, but not all is lost as Nex Computer has now launched NexDock 2 with an aluminum body, a slightly smaller but higher resolution Full HD display, an edge to edge keyboard, and a USB type-C input port. NexDock 2 specifications: Display – 13.3” IPS LCD display with 1920×1080 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio Video Input – Full-size HDMI input […]

March 19, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

eWelink Camera App Recycles Your Old Smartphone into a Remote Camera

Old devices often end up in drawers or shelves collecting dust, but as we’ve seen before there are better ways to recycle your unused gadgets, from giving it to friends or family to selling them on eBay, or re-purposing them for specific purpose. For example, we’ve previously covered Haven open source app that transforms smartphones into smart security cameras or baby monitors. eWelink, the default app used with Sonoff wireless switches, smart plugs and light-bulbs, now happens to support a similar feature. So if you’re using the stock firmware on your Sonoff device and control them with the Sonoff app, you don’t need an extra app to use your old smartphone(s) as IP camera(s). It looked easy enough to setup, so I gave it a try. First you need to download & install eWelink Camera app, only available as an apk at this time, in your old phone. Once the […]

March 14, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Android Q Beta and Preview SDK Released

Google has just announced the first public release of Android Q dubbed “Beta 1”- for Pixel devices only – as well as the corresponding preview SDK for developers. Android Q is said to bring additional privacy and security features for users, enhancements for foldables, new APIs for connectivity, new media codecs and camera capabilities, NNAPI extensions, Vulkan 1.1 support, faster app startup, and more. What’s new in Android Q Privacy protections improvements More control over location with multiple options to “allow all the time”, “allow only while the app is in use” (e.g. not while running in the background), and “deny” Users will be able to control apps’ access to the Photos and Videos or the Audio collections via new runtime permissions Android Q will prevent apps from launching an Activity while in the background, relying on high-priority notifications instead Access to non-resettable device identifiers, including device IMEI, serial number, […]

March 7, 2019March 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Maru 0.6 Combines LineageOS & Debian 9, Supports Wireless Desktop Streaming

Maru OS was first unveiled in 2016 as a smartphone operating system that relies on Android on the go, and Debian while connected to an HDMI display, and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The downside was that it only works on Nexus 5 at the time, but Preetam D’Souza open sourced his solution, and more people joined the project to expand the number of supported hardware platforms. I had not heard about the project for a while, but Maru 0.6 Okinawa has just been released with the three main changes being the switch from Android 6.0.1 AOSP to a custom version of LineageOS based on Android 8.1.0 to support a broader range of devices, the upgrade from Debian 8 to Debian 9, and support for wireless desktop streaming meaning you don’t need a phone with HDMI / MHL support anymore. The reliance on AOSP meant Maru used to only work on […]

February 22, 2019February 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Samsung Galaxy S10, S10+, S10e, S10 5G Launched with Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 SoC

Samsung officially launched the long awaited Galaxy S10 smartphone yesterday sporting either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or Samsung Exynos 9820 processor coupled with 8GB RAM, 128 to 512GB storage, and a 6.1″ display. There are actually four variants of Galaxy S10, with S10+ model coming with up to 12GB RAM, 1TB flash storage, and a 6.4″ display, S10e phone with a smaller 5.8″ display, as low as 6GB RAM, and 128 to 256GB flash storage, and S10 5G with a 5G modem, a larger 6.7″ display, 6 cameras, and a larger 4,500 mAh battery. Many consider Samsung Galaxy phones to be the reference when it comes to Android phones, so let’s have a look at the technical specifications and features to see if there’s anything really new beside more processing power, and memory. Galaxy S10, S10+, S10e, and S10 5G phones share many of the same specifications: SoC (one or […]

February 16, 2019May 11, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Xiaomi Mi A2 Review with Android 9.0 Pie

I had been using Xiaomi Mi A1 Android One smartphone since the end of 2017, and was mostly satisfied with it thanks to regular (monthly) firmware update, although I was a bit disappointed by the camera overtime. Eventually I had a serious issue with Mi A1’s eMMC flash, and stopped using it at the end of last year, or roughly after one year of service, since the phone became unusable, unbearably slow. Xiaomi Mi A2 and A2 Lite where released last summer, and having seen Mi A2 was getting an Android 9.0 firmware in Q4 2018, I asked GearBest whether they could send a sample to review the latest Xiaomi Android One phone. They accepted, and I posted the first part of the review in early December. However, at this time, I did not get the update, since it was not released in Thailand, but soon enough Xiaomi Mi A2 […]

February 8, 2019February 16, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 is an Incremental Upgrade to Snapdragon 710 Processor

Last year, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 710 processor aiming to bring faster A.I. processing to mid-range smartphone with double the AI performance compared to Snapdragon 660. The company has now introduced an upgrade to the processor with Snapdragon 712 that delivers better battery management, auto-adjust settings for pictures, and improved understanding of voice cues. Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 mobile platform (SDM712) specifications with hightlights in bold showing differences against Snapdragon 710: CPU – 8x Qualcomm Kryo 360 CPU @ up to 2.3 GHz (in two clusters) GPU – Qualcomm Adreno 616 Visual Processing Subsystem supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan, DirectX 12 DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon 685 DSP with 3rd Gen Qualcomm Hexagon Vector Extensions (HVX), Qualcomm All-Ways Aware Sensor Hub Memory I/F – LPDDR4x, 2x 16-bit up to 1866MHz, 8GB RAM Storage I/F – No info provided Display – Up to Quad HD+ Video Up to 4K Ultra HD […]