Samsung’s 2025 TVs in the Neo QLED, Micro RGB, OLED and QLED series feature a new conversational AI – the Samsung Vision AI Companion. Samsung says that unlike a typical AI assistant, which is designed to be used on individual devices, this AI is “purpose-built for the communal screen”. In other words, you use your phone by yourself, while the TV can be used by multiple people at once. The Vision AI Companion has a Live Translate mode – this is a real-time translation of dialog in TVs and movies. This allows you to watch content in your own language, even if there is no...
Google has announced that starting March 1, 2026, Play Store will display alerts for apps that may drain your phone’s battery faster due to excessive background activity. In a blog post, Google explained its new “excessive partial wake lock” metric, first introduced in beta earlier this year to address battery drain issues. Developed in collaboration with Samsung, the metric is now available to all Android app developers. Google stated that it has established a new “bad behavior threshold” to identify apps that keep devices awake for too long through excessive wake locks. If an app...
The latest update to Samsung's SmartThings app for iOS brings with it a neat addition - the ability to activate routines with Siri voice commands. This includes routines you've created in the SmartThings app. It works through compatibility with Siri Shortcuts, which is the built-in iOS feature that lets you automate multiple-step routines. You can drag and drop multiple actions from SmartThings to Siri Shortcuts, but you can also access routines you've created in the SmartThings app, and not through Siri Shortcuts. So it's a win for interconnectivity between ecosystems, that's for...
Black Friday and the adjoining Cyber Monday are coming soon, but some deals have arrived early. Here are some Samsung offers to give you a jump start on holiday shopping. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 is available with a $300 discount with nothing extra required. If you have an old device you want to get rid of, you can get up to $1,000 credit for it – last year’s Z Fold6 in good condition can fetch that much, as can a Galaxy S25 Ultra. Even with a cracked screen these two can be worth $800 in trade-in credit. Samsung Galaxy Z...
According to the latest IDC report, Huawei led the Chinese foldable market in the first three quarters (January to September) with a very comfortable margin, securing a whopping 68.9% of the pie. In second place is Honor with 11.2% of the market, followed by vivo with 5%, Oppo with 4.9%, and Samsung with 4.3%. It's interesting to see Samsung making the top five here since in overall smartphone sales it's long been a rounding error in the Chinese market. But apparently Chinese people really like the Galaxy Z Fold7. The foldable smartphone market in China reached 2.63 million units shipped...
Before the Redmi Pad SE 8.7 launched, it had been several years since the last sub-9” tablet from Xiaomi. The company is now putting more effort into it with the release of the Redmi K Pad in China and its global launch as the Xiaomi Pad Mini. Xiaomi Pad Mini We received a test unit – check out our unboxing and hands-on post for a closer look. This slate has an 8.8” IPS LCD (165Hz, 12-bit colors) and is powered by the outgoing Dimensity 9400+ flagship chipset. But today we are interested in battery life and charge speed. The tablet runs on a relatively small 7,500mAh battery...
Apple announced a new “limited edition” accessory for its iPhone called the iPhone Pocket. It is a cross-body carrying pouch made of a 3D-knitted construction with a ribbed mesh structure that holds your iPhone, AirPods and other small everyday essentials. The accessory was developed by legendary Issey Miyake Design Studio, which made the iconic black turtlenecks worn by Steve Jobs. The Pocket can be worn as a sling bag over the shoulder or on the wrist, and it can also be attached to handbags. It comes in short and long strap versions and is compatible with all iPhones, dating back to...
Apple announced a new “limited edition” accessory for its iPhone called the iPhone Pocket. It is a cross-body carrying pouch made of a 3D-knitted construction with a ribbed mesh structure that holds your iPhone, AirPods and other small everyday essentials. The accessory was developed by legendary Issey Miyake Design Studio, which made the iconic black turtlenecks worn by Steve Jobs. The Pocket can be worn as a sling bag over the shoulder or on the wrist, and it can also be attached to handbags. It comes in short and long strap versions and is compatible with all iPhones, dating back to...
Qualcomm is yet to fully unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 – note: no “Elite” – but the company has confirmed some key details. The most interesting part is the CPU as this will be the first non-Elite chip to feature the in-house Oryon cores instead of relying on Arm’s Cortex designs. Geekbench has results from the Motorola XT2603-1 – this should be the Moto Edge 70 Ultra or, more likely, the Moto X70 Ultra since this is probably the Chinese version. Either way, the phone is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, so here is a preview of what it can do. Single-core performance was rated at...
Qualcomm is yet to fully unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 – note: no “Elite” – but the company has confirmed some key details. The most interesting part is the CPU as this will be the first non-Elite chip to feature the in-house Oryon cores instead of relying on Arm’s Cortex designs. Geekbench has results from the Motorola XT2603-1 – this should be the Moto Edge 70 Ultra or, more likely, the Moto X70 Ultra since this is probably the Chinese version. Either way, the phone is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, so here is a preview of what it can do. Single-core performance was rated at...