Sony has today announced new closed back headphones to its award-winning and popular WH-1000X series. The new WH-1000XM4 are the fourth generation, as the name suggests, in Sony's flagship headphone series.
Sony has improved upon what already was the market-leading active noise cancellation. While the chip itself is the same, Sony has worked on especially the high and mid pitches sound removal algorithms.
The noise cancellation uses two microphones on each ear cup to produce the best ANC experience yet. This process also uses a new Bluetooth Audio SoC feature to analyze data over 700 times a second.
As with WH-1000XM3, the new model features ANC optimizer that analyzes the users head size as well as the effect of hair, glasses and so on to provide the most accurate noise cancellation. This also includes air pressure optimization when flying.
Tinder, the world's most popular dating app, has introduced a new subscription tier, dubbed as Tinder Platinum. The new subscription level adds on top of the existing tiers (Tinder Gold and Tinder Plus), introducing two important new features to the app.
First and foremost is the feature called Messages without a match, which basically allows one to send a short message (max 140 characters) to the recipient even when there's no match between the two.
In order to send such message, sender must be subscribed to the Tinder Platinum. Message is then attached to a super like that user sends to the recipient. The recipient sees the superlike, along with the message and then decides whether to like the sender or not.
If the recipient doesn't like the sender back, sender wont be able to send further messages. If recipient likes the sender back, a new Tinder match is formed and the two can then continue chatting as normal Tinder matches.
Samsung's this year's Unpacked virtual event ended with a bang as the company unveiled their next-generation foldable smartphone. After the introduction of Galaxy Note20, Galaxy Tab S7, Galaxy Buds Live, and Galaxy Watch3, the company had a "one more thing" in their back pocket.
They officially unveiled the new Galaxy Z Fold2, the successor to last year's immensely controversial Galaxy Fold. The company's initial failure to produce a foldable smartphone was obvious last year after reviewers found out that dirt could fairly easily enter the hinge mechanism and even under the display and break the whole thing.
After a callback and few more iterations of development, the Galaxy Fold was finally launched, although not many probably actually bought one.
The new smartwatch offers an upgraded design that inches it closer to traditional watch in many respects. It is smaller, thinner, and lighter while still managing to improve upon the specs ever to slightly.
According to the company, Galaxy Watch3 is 14 percent thinner, 8 percent smaller, 15 percent lighter than its predecessor Galaxy Watch. Nevertheless, they've managed to include slightly larger, 1.4 inch display (instead of 1.3").
Yesterday's virtual Unpacked event produced us a pair of both Galaxy Note20 smartphones as well as Galaxy Tab S7 tablets. Neither of these come with a 3.5 mm headphone jack, which brings us to the this announcement.
Samsung updated also their Galaxy Buds lineup. The new Galaxy Buds Live is a rather large upgrade to the predecessor with a new design and important new features.
The bean-shaped design is said to come from looking for comfort and fit. That remains to be seen but they are definitely unique.
Samsung's Unpacked gave us most importantly the new Galaxy Note20 smartphones but the company had a lot of somewhat secondary devices to show.
One of these was the new Galaxy Tab S7 and its better-equipped sibling Tab S7+. The new S7 is only a slight upgrade – with one major improvement – to last year's S6.
Regular S7 features a 11 inch LCD display with QHD resolution while the S7+ upgrades it to a 12.4 inch OLED panel and slightly upgrading the resolution along with the size increase.
Both of the new displays have 120 hz refresh rate which is probably the most important upgrade over the last year's model.
Samsung's today's first ever virtual Unpacked event has ended and the company has a lot of new Galaxy products to unveil. The most important of them all was of course the new lineup of Galaxy Note smartphones.
The Galaxy Note20 comes in two different variants: regular Galaxy Note20 and Galaxy Note20 Ultra. They both offer massive AMOLED displays measuring in at 6.7 inches with Note20 and 6.9 inches with Note20 Ultra. However, only the latter supports 120 hz refresh rate – the regular model comes with a rather pedestrian 60 hz display.
As you might imagine, the larger size of the Note20 Ultra also means a slightly larger 4500 mAh battery while Note20 has a 4300 mAh one. Both, however, support 25 watt quick charging as well as Qi wireless charging.
Connections-wise the devices are largely similar with both supporting 5G networks as well as speedy WiFi 6. Both also have either Snapdragon 865+ or Samsung's Exynos 990 chips. Ultra does have more RAM with 12 GB compared to Note20's 8 GB.
In terms of camera, the Galaxy Note20 Ultra is similar to the S20 Ultra with a 108 MP shooter accompanied by 12 MP ultrawide and a periscope zoom camera. The cheaper Galaxy Note20 on the other hand has a 12 MP main camera in addition to a tele zoom camera and a ultrawide.
One of the most important privacy court rulings in recent history was delivered two weeks ago when EU Court stroke down the EU-US Privacy Shield agreement. Privacy Shield agreement between EU and the United States allowed American companies to store and process EU user data within the United States.
But EU Court ruled that because United States allowed its intelligence agencies to access such data, the agreement between EU and US had to be terminated immediately. Since then, basically all American companies that maintained the user databases in U.S. soil and had EU users, were breaking EU legislation.
Problem is massive: Companies wishing to maintain unified user database must basically move it out of the United States - or United States as a country to change its national laws that permit its intelligence agencies to do surveillance on its own soil. Obviously the latter option is highly unlikely to happen.
Technically splitting user database into two separate sets, with separate rules, processes and data location would be a massive technical challenge to the Internet gients like Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
The next generation of console gaming is soon upon us, and Sony is preparing its peripherals to support the PS5. The company has announced a new Ready for PlayStation 5 badge.
The tagline will be used among Bravia TVs that support the high-definition gameplay provided by the upcoming PS5. They've developed the branding in cooperation with Bravia teams and Sony Interactive Entertainment, and it should ensure that gamers find their favorite PS5 TV easier.
The first Ready for PlayStation 5 branded TVs are going to be ZH8 (pictured below) and XH90/92 models that are current occupants of the Bravia family. The latter supports 4K gaming at up to 120 fps and the ZH8 supports an epic resolution of 8K, where ever it is available.
This year has been riddled with cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic, but most of us are hoping that it wouldn't be as big of a deal next year.
Some of the first indications that COVID-19 would be a serious issue outside China and in the west came from cancelled tech conferences. This included world's largest mobile conference MWC that was scheduled for late February.
The largest consumer electronics show in the US, CES, managed to run without much of a hiccup in early January when the spread was still somewhat contained. However, they won't be as lucky in 2021.
CTA, the organizer of Consumer Electronics Show or CES, has announced that they will be canceling next year's conference's physical manifestation. This means that CES 2021 will be an online-only event.
They've taken a page out of Apple's playbook, who very successfully held a virtual WWDC first time ever this summer.
Virtual CES 2021 will be held in the first week of the year. It remains to be seen how the reimagined conference will accommodate both exhibitors and the audience.
World's largest music streaming service has made immense investments recently in non-music audio. Most importantly the company acquired the exclusive rights to Joe Rogan Experience, and just yesterday it launched Michelle Obama's own podcast.
However, the Swedish powerhouse is still innovating in terms of music, too.
Spotify is testing a new feature that will extend the capabilities of Group Sessions. Group Session, a feature that was introduced in May, is essentially a party DJ that allows all the people in the area to add song to a playlist queue.
The new addition will allow online communities to use it too. Spotify Premium members can join the group and listen to the same songs at the same time no matter where they are.
You can have up to 5 people in a group and each member has the controls to pause, skip and add new songs to the queue.
To use the feature open Spotify and head to Group Session feature, located on the bottom right corner menu. You can share the link to your session by copying it to your social media or sending it to your friends.
Qualcomm's new Quick Charge 5 standard dramatically increases charging speeds for smartphones.
First debuted in 2013, Quick Charge is a proprietary charging standard developed by Qualcomm to deliver speedier charging of devices. Through its first few refreshes, it bumped the voltage beyond the 5V limit imposed by the USB standard safely. Later it gained compatibility with USB-PD (USB Power Delivery) along with other improvements.
Each refresh reduces charging times due to higher power output, but Quick Charge 5 is a significant improvement. With a compatible device and charger, it can charge a 4,500 mAh battery to 50 percent in about 5 minutes. The same battery can be charged from dead to full in about 15 minutes.
Underlying the improvements is 2S battery support and 20 Volts of power delivery, for a max power output of 100W+. At the same time, it is 10C cooler in operation than Quick Charge 4, while being 70 percent more efficient and about four times faster.
Quick Charge is the leading charging platform for mobile devices. There are more than 1,000 certified accessories on the market, of which 250 are smartphones. Its competitors in the space include MediaTek Pump Express and OPPO VOOC, which is licensed to OnePlus as Dash Charge.
Christopher Nolan's hotly anticipated spy thriller will debut in theaters internationally a week before it debuts in the United States.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had delayed the release of Nolan's new thriller several times already, with Warner revoking any release date just a week ago. Today it was given theatrical release dates for scores of countries, most of which will have the film available to theatergoers a week before its available in the United States.
It will first be available on August 26 in 24 countries, among them the United Kingdom, Turkey, France, Italy etc. The next day it will be in theaters in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, and 15 others. On Friday, August 28, Tenet comes to East Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and Vietnam.
The following Monday, September 3, it will be released in parts of the United States, but it depends on local COVID-19 policies. There is no date yet for the film's Chinese debut as the government has imposed a two-hour limit for films shown in theaters since they reopened.
Information on the plot of Tenet has been kept quiet, so a staggered rollout presents the risks of major spoilers leaking online, not to mention the threat of piracy. Still, Tenet looks set to be the first blockbuster to hit cinemas since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down movie theaters all around the world.
Facebook is taking the European Commission to court over broad data requests that could violate its employees' privacy or expose sensitive information.
The top competition regulator in the European Union has two ongoing probes into Facebook. One deals with Facebook's collection and use of massive amounts of data, while the other is aimed at Facebook's online marketplace. As part of the investigation, Facebook says it has provided 315,000 documents to the EU commission.
However, Facebook is now taking the commission to court arguing that its data requests are resulting in irrelevant documents being passed onto the EU. On these documents could include, "highly sensitive personal information such as employees' medical information, personal financial documents, and private information about family members of employees."
The EU Commission is seeking documents that include 2,500 specific phrases, some of which are "big question", "shut down" and "not good for us." According to the social media firm, these phrases may result in documents being handed over that include information related to its security.
Corning has revealed Gorilla Glass Victus and touted its improvements compared to its predecessor Gorilla Glass 6.
Over eight billion devices from 45 different brands have incorporated Gorilla Glass into their products. Consumers desire their mobile products to be durable and resistant to scratches and cracks. Nevertheless, most of us will have accidentally damaged a mobile device and we know that even scratches can affect usability.
It is good news then that the latest Gorilla Glass is reportedly much tougher than its predecessor. In lab tests, it has achieved drop performance up to 2 meters when dropped onto hard, rough surfaces. By contrast, Corning claims that competitive aluminosilicate glasses fail at about 0.8 meters.
Furthermore, it claims Victus is twice as scratch resistant as Gorilla Glass 6, and four times more resistant than competitive aluminosilicate glasses.
In the near future, Samsung will become the first customer to release a product using Gorilla Glass Victus.
Sony has today announced new closed back headphones to its award-winning and popular WH-1000X series. The new WH-1000XM4 are the fourth generation, as the name suggests, in Sony's flagship headphone series.
Tinder, the world's most popular dating app, has introduced a new subscription tier, dubbed as Tinder Platinum. The new subscription level adds on top of the existing tiers (Tinder Gold and Tinder Plus), introducing two important new features to the app.
Samsung's this year's Unpacked virtual event ended with a bang as the company unveiled their next-generation foldable smartphone. After the introduction of 
