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The Asus ROG Phone 5 will have a stupid amount of RAM
A press release from a chip supplier says it's coming with 18GB
Asus has scheduled an announcement for the ROG Phone 5 tomorrow, March 9th. But one of its corporate partners has spilled the beans a little early. SK Hynix, a South Korean chip supplier, issued a press release Sunday that said it's sending its first 18 gigabyte mobile LPDDR5 RAM modules to ASUS for the new ROG Phone.
Samsung Germany accidentally announces Galaxy S21 Ultra ahead of tomorrow's launch
What more is there to unveil?
Pretty much everything about the Galaxy S21 series has been leaked at this point short of a full announcement... and now, a full press release has been leaked. Samsung Germany accidentally posted the Galaxy S21 Ultra's announcement earlier today; it's since been deleted, but as we all know, truly erasing something from the Internet is next to impossible.
Alphabet has announced that Eric Schmidt is changing roles to "technical advisor," as the 62-year-old steps down from his position as executive chairman. Schmidt has been with Google for 17 years, serving as CEO from August 2001 to April 2011, and subsequently as executive chairman of Google, a role he continued when the company reorganized into Alphabet in October 2015.
Back in August I wrote a post about some of Asmodee Digital's upcoming game releases that were announced at Gen Con. Well, it would appear that they have released some more details about these titles this week for Spiel Essen 2017. Anyone familiar with Asmodee Digital will know that they are one of the largest digital board game developers and publishers out there today. So it is no surprise to see that they have a ton of new games planned for release this year and the next.
Any tabletop fanatic is going to be pretty familiar with popular board game publisher Asmodee Digital. They have produced digital versions of some of the most popular board games out there today. Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Mysterium, and Splendor are just a few of the high profile releases they have brought to Android, and it would appear that the ride isn't over yet. That's right, Asmodee Digital announced a slew of upcoming games at Gen Con that are either in development right now or are releasing sometime soon.
In this job I work with a lot of public relations people. Their task is similar to mine, but in the opposite direction: while the responsibility of tech journalists is to present consumers with information that helps them make buying decisions, PR agents are generally instructed to drive sales by getting the news out. There's nothing wrong with the profession itself, and I've known great PR agents and those who are not so great. But I often look across the professional aisle and feel profound sympathy for my counterparts on the corporate side of tech media.
Saygus, the company that really will have an actual smartphone for sale any day now, they totally promise, has some more promises for you. A press release issued at Mobile World Congress lays out a series of improvements to the crowdfunded V-Squared phone, which should be easy to implement since the phone still isn't finished despite a first quarter manufacturing target. No less than four, count 'em, four new features have been introduced since... last year's Mobile World Congress. The fact that Saygus has missed multiple ship dates between now and then is conspicuously absent from the press release.
Far be it from us to question the actions of a multi-billion dollar corporation... no, wait, questioning the actions of corporations is exactly what we're supposed to be doing. Let's try this again: hey AT&T, what gives? Today the carrier is introducing a new tier to its data pricing, giving it a grand total of eleven options in its Mobile Share Value plan segment. $75 gets you 7GB of data, with the new rollover feature enabled.
Aside from its round P-OLED screen and stylish case design, the G Watch R is remarkably similar to the original LG G Watch. But as just about anyone could guess, consumers will be paying a premium for that style when the round Android Wear device is released later this year. If LG's German press release announcing the G Watch R is accurate, it's going to be quite a premium indeed. The PR lists the suggested retail price as 299 euro, a full €100 more expensive than the G Watch. It also gives a slightly more precise release date: October.
Just like any open marketplace, there's a lot of crap in the Play Store. In a strange and roundabout way, I'm actually OK with that - separating the silver from the dross of Android apps is one of our core functions at Android Police. But a recent promotion from antivirus vendor Trend Micro painted an extremely dim picture of the Play Store. The company claimed, among other things, that the Play Store was full of "potentially evil doppelgangers... with many carrying malware."
The mid-range market continues to expand into larger and larger handsets, and Sony doesn't want to be left behind. To that end, they've announced the Xperia T3, a 5.3-inch Android phone with an awesome industrial design, but internals that will leave hardware buffs wanting more. The star of the show is an all-steel body that's admirably thin at just 7mm. It will be available globally in late July.
LG didn't do much of a job keeping the flagship G3 under wraps - pretty much every detail has been leaked in some capacity before today. But the press event in London made it official and laid the phone bare for all to see. LG's headliner for 2014 bests headliners from both Samsung and HTC with a 5.5", 2560x1440 screen boasting a DPI of 538. Unfortunately the oh-so-shiny case is only "metallic" (read: plastic), and not true metal like the HTC One family.
Qualcomm And The Amazing Technicolor Dream Box: Chip Maker Teams Up With Color Company For Media Streamer
Chip Maker Teams Up With Color Company For Media Streamer
If you thought that Google and Nestle were unlikely bedfellows, just wait till you get a load of this one. Qualcomm wants a piece of the low-cost streaming entertainment pie, and they intend to bring an Android-powered set-top box (a la Google TV or Chromecast) to market. There's not much information available about the hardware, but it will be called SVELTE, it'll use a Snapdragon 600 processor and an LTE wireless radio, and it will be distributed by Technicolor.
Just yesterday we shared leaked photos of the upcoming but unannounced Sony Xperia Z1, otherwise known as the Honami. The folks at XperiaBlog shared a collection of official rendered press photos, and now they've got their hands on a full press release and specs ahead of tomorrow's planned unveil at IFA. Altogether, it's nine pages of material reminding us that Sony's successor to last year's Xperia Z flagship should be quite the impressive piece of tech.
In a short press release sent out this evening, LG announced that it would be ditching the word (is it a word?) "Optimus" from its premium branding, opting to keep only the "G".
US Cellular Expanding LTE Coverage To 30 New Markets In November, Mostly Northeast And Midwest
US Cellular Expanding LTE Coverage To 30 New Markets
With T-Mobile acquiring MetroPCS, things are starting to look mighty lonely in the regional carrier department here in the States. Even so, US Cellular has been making admirable strides in rolling out LTE services to their relatively small customer base, even beating some of the bigger carriers to the punch in many of their markets. Starting on November 5th, US Cellular will be adding new markets and expanding existing LTE zones... just in time for Galaxy Note II owners to enjoy them.
SoftBank, a Japanese telecommunications and Internet corporation, has confirmed via a press release and a live event in Tokyo the $20.1bn investment that would give SoftBank a 70% ownership of Sprint. The news hit the rumor mill 3 days ago and was pretty much confirmed by CNBC yesterday. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2013 pending regulatory approval.
According to a Czech press release unearthed by The Verge, Microsoft may be readying native Office apps for Android. As of right now, the only programs that have mobile versions on the Play Store are OneNote and Lync. Otherwise known as "the ones very few people care about." If this report is to be believed, though, we may see native versions of the entire Office suite.
HTC Unveils The One X+ With Sense 4+, Jelly Bean, Tegra 3 With LTE, And Improved Specs
HTC Unveils The One X+ With Sense 4+
The worst kept secret in HTC's recent history, the One X+, was finally officially announced this morning by the Taiwanese manufacturer. Let's take a closer look at what has changed.
This May Just Be The Best Email To Ever Hit Our Inbox
This May Just Be The Best Email To Ever Hit Our Inbox
Earlier today, we received an email with the title "iPhone 5 PR Stunt Ends in Disaster Leaving 21 Homeless." You won't see any spoilers from me - just read: