Category: Phones

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Galaxy Note 10+: Everything we know so far

We’re just a few days away from Samsung’s big Galaxy Note 10 event, and the rumors and leaks are in full form, teasing details of Samsung’s latest super-sized flagship. Or rather, flagships, plural, with Samsung expected to take a page from its own Galaxy S line’s playbook and release multiple sizes of the Note 10.

We already know some of the news, with Samsung announcing some of its smaller summer products — like the Galaxy Watch Active 2 and the Galaxy Tab S6 — ahead of the big Unpacked event, presumably leaving more time for the good stuff.

And while Samsung isn’t officially announcing the Note 10 until Wednesday, the usual flood of leaks means we already have a pretty good idea of what to expect when the company takes the stage at the Barclays Center at 4PM ET that day. Here’s everything we know so far:

GALAXY NOTE 10 (AND FRIENDS)

The star of the show is expected to be the Galaxy Note 10, the latest in Samsung’s line of big-screened, stylus-equipped devices. If the Galaxy S line is the company’s mainstream device, the Note is for true Samsung aficionados, often offering cutting edge features and bizarre experiments before any of its other hardware.

Two (or four) Notes: Samsung is rumored to have two models of Note 10 this year: a smaller 6.3-inch Note 10, and a souped-up Note 10 Plus with a massive 6.8-inch display. For comparison, the S10 has a 6.1-inch screen, and the S10 Plus offers a 6.4-inch panel, meaning that standard Note 10 will be smaller than both the larger S10 Plus and last year’s Note 9, which also had a 6.4-inch screen. Both Notes will feature Samsung’s Infinity-O displays, too, with razor-thin top bezels achieved by putting a single hole-punch camera directly in the middle of the top of the display.

The difference between the two Note 10s isn’t just screen size, though. While both Notes will feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 processor, the bigger Note 10 Plus will have improved hardware in a few key respects. According to reliable leaks from WinFuture, the Note 10 is said to have a 3,500 mAh battery, 12W wireless charging, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage — with no microSD card slot to expand it. The Note 10 Plus, however, will reportedly have a massive 4,300 mAh battery, 20W wireless charging, up to 45W charging speeds for USB-C charging, 12GB of RAM, and the same 256 GB storage, but with a microSD slot added.

The Note 10 Plus is also said to have an additional ToF (time-of-flight) sensor on the back, which could enable better portrait mode depth effects and augmented reality, although we’ll have to wait to see what Samsung intends to use it for to know for sure.

Upgraded S Pen

It wouldn’t be a Note without an S Pen, and the Note 10’s stylus is apparently getting a few new tricks up its sleeve. This year, the big addition is said to be some kind of motion gestures, that will let you control the phone through the S Pen by moving it around, but without actually directly touching the display. It’s not totally clear how the new S Pen will achieve this (or how useful it’ll be), but expect Samsung to have a demo or two showcasing the feature.

Cameras

Both models of Note 10 are expected to get an updated triple-camera system, with three lenses on the back: a 12-megapixel main lens that can adjust from f/1.5 to f/2.4, a 16-megapixel f/2.2 ultrawide lens, and a 12-megapixel f/2.1 telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom. And as mentioned before, the Note 10 Plus is expected to have an extra time-of-flight camera, for a total of four rear lenses.

Both phones will have just a single 10 megapixel front-facing camera (unlike the Galaxy S10 Plus, which had two for its hole-punch camera).

5G?

Of course, why stop at two Notes? Samsung is an early adopter for 5G, with the S10 5G model already out and a planned 5G version of the delayed Galaxy Fold. According to the rumors, Samsung might have 5G models of both Note 10 sizes, for a total of four Note 10 variants (which, if true, probably won’t confuse anyone at all.)

RIP, headphone jack

The Note 10 will become the first mainstream Samsung phone to kill the headphone jack —which means that the company’s future phones likely won’t be getting the port, either. It’s the end of an era in many ways… but at least Samsung has a dongle ready to go.

GALAXY HOME

Samsung announced the Galaxy Home on August 9th, 2018, alongside the Galaxy Note 9. A full year later, and we still haven’t gotten a price or release date for the long-delayed speaker, which has missed several release dates. The latest word from Samsung co-CEO Hyun-suk Kim was a planned Q3 2019 release. If Samsung does plan to hit that date, an update at the Note 10 event might be a good time to do it.

There’s also rumors of a smaller Galaxy Home device — the Echo Dot to the Galaxy Home’s full sized Echo, if you will — that leaked via the FCC earlier this year, which could show up too.

GALAXY FOLD

The Galaxy Note 10 is expected to take up most of Samsung’s event, but it’s not Samsung’s most exciting phone of 2019. That honor still goes to the foldable Galaxy Fold, which was delayed at the last minute ahead of its planned spring release after early reviewers (including The Verge’s Dieter Bohn) discovered critical problems with the device. Samsung says that it’s fixed the issues and plans to release the Fold in September, which means this Unpacked event could be the perfect time to announce a proper release date.

GALAXY BOOK S

A fresh leak ahead of the event is a new laptop, the Galaxy Book S, which appears to be heavily inspired by Microsoft’s own Surface Laptop. Details are slim, although some rumorssuggest that it could be powered by a Snapdragon 855 processor with 8GB of RAM. It would be a little odd for a laptop to show up at what’s typically been a mobile-focused event, though.

SURPRISES?

As mentioned before, the event is likely to focus on the Note 10, but there’s always the chance for a surprise or two. Out-of-the-blue partnerships? Wild OLED panels? Smart refrigerators? Anything’s possible when Samsung takes the stage.

Source: The Verge

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Apple Card app reportedly coming to iPad

Apple and Barclaycard have ended the Barclaycard Apple Rewards card in the last few weeks, as it readies the Apple Card launch with Goldman Sachs. Apple now only offers basic financing plans with Barclaycard.

Bloomberg reports that the Apple Card terms allow for Apple to offer special financing plans for specific purchases. The publication also says that Apple is preparing to debut an Apple Card companion app for the iPad, to allow users to sign up and manage their card from their Apple tablet in addition to the iPhone.

The Barclaycard Visa with Apple Rewards would offer bonus points when making Apple purchases which could be redeemed for App Store and iTunes gift cards and deferred financing. The physical card was emblazoned with an ‘Apple Rewards’ subtitle.

References to Barclaycard rewards have been removed from the Apple site as of a few weeks ago. Now, Apple is only promoting a standard Barclaycard Financing Visa. It’s not clear if this will also be phased out in favor of a comparable Apple Card offering.

On the quarterly earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the Apple Card rollout would begin sometime this month. The use of the word “rollout” implies a gradual launch, perhaps with Apple and Goldman Sachs only approving a percentage of applicants at the start as the service ramps up.

Apple has said customers will be able to quickly sign up for the Apple Card from the Wallet app on their iPhone, ready to use for contactless Apple Pay purchases, and also apply for the physical card to be delivered a few weeks later.

Bloomberg says Apple is also preparing an Apple Card companion app for the iPad, which does not have a dedicated Wallet app (although it does have a “Wallet & Apple Pay” preferences pane in Settings). The Apple Card app for iPad would let customers apply for the card and manage their accounts. So far, Apple has only ever shown the Apple Card in the context of the Wallet app on the iPhone.

The inclusion of product-specific special financing in the Apple Card terms is a way in which Apple and Goldman Sachs may be looking to expand the profitability of the Apple Card product. A special financing offer would let customers buy an expensive product with a separate payment plan on the card, not affected by the standard interest rate charges.

This could apply to third party purchases with a fixed fee, or perhaps a vehicle for Apple to replace the remaining Barclaycard financing offer. Apple could announce that Apple hardware purchases made with the Apple Card receive 0% financing for twelve months, for example.

However, Apple is yet to officially announce plans for any such initiatives. Apple’s current public statements indicate Apple Card will offer interest rates between 13.24% and 24.24% on rolled over balances, with no other fees for late payments or international charges. Apple Card is subject to a credit check — information on credit limits has not yet been disclosed.

The Wallet app displays transaction history and trends, current balance, and clearly shows forthcoming interest charges depending on how much of the outstanding balance paid off.

Source: 9toMac

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Google discovered several iPhone security flaws, and Apple still hasn’t patched one

Google security researchers have discovered a total of six vulnerabilities in Apple’s iOS software, one of which the iPhone manufacturer has yet to successfully patch. ZDNet reports that the flaws were discovered by two Google Project Zero researchers, Natalie Silvanovich and Samuel Groß, and five of them were patched with last week’s iOS 12.4 update, which contained several security fixes.

All of the vulnerabilities discovered by the researchers are “interactionless,” meaning they can be run without any interaction from a user, and they exploit a vulnerability in the iMessage client. Four of them (including the as-yet-unpatched vulnerability) rely on an attacker sending a message containing malicious code to an unpatched phone and can execute as soon as a user opens the message. The remaining two rely on a memory exploit.

Details of the five patched bugs have been published online, but the final bug will remain confidential until it can be addressed by Apple. Regardless, if you haven’t updated your iPhone to iOS 12.4, now might be a good time. Silvanovich will host a talk on interactionless iPhone attacks at next week’s Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

We’re lucky that these vulnerabilities were discovered by security researchers who had no interest in exploiting them for their own benefit. ZDNet notes that bugs like these are invaluable to manufacturers of intercept tools and surveillance software, and the right buyer would likely pay millions for access to them before Apple is able to patch its software in defense. By disclosing these bugs to Apple, these security researchers have done a service to iOS users worldwide.

Source: TheVerge

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Three of Apple’s 2020 iPhones will reportedly support 5G

As networks begin to roll out 5G networks around the world, phone manufacturers are beginning to roll out phones that will be able to access them. Apple has been widely expected to roll out a 5G-compatible phone in 2020, and now, a new report suggests that all three of the company’s phones will support 5G.

Last month, noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that next year’s 5.4-inch and 6.7-inch iPhone models would support 5G, while a third, a cheaper 6.1-inch iPhone XR successor would only access LTE networks. Kuo has now issued a new report, and MacRumors says that he’s revised that prediction: All three iPhone models will support 5G. He notes that “Apple has more resource for developing the 5G iPhone after the acquisition of Intel baseband business,” and that the price of Android 5G phones will drop.

However, while the report comes just days after Apple announced that it was acquiring a “majority” of Intel’s modem business for $1 billion, MacRumors says that the company isn’t quite ready to switch away from Qualcomm, and that it won’t likely be until 2021 before it can use its own version.

Kuo notes that he expects most Android phones will support the sub-6GHz version of 5G, but not the mmWave version, which offers more speed. “The key is that consumers will think that 5G is the necessary function in 2H20,” he writes. “Therefore, iPhone models which will be sold at higher prices have to support 5G for winning more subsidies from mobile operators and consumers’ purchase intention.” Essentially, Apple is betting that its customers will want to have the ability to take advantage of the wide range of 5G networks, and that they’ll pay a bit more for it.

Source: The Verge

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TikTok owner ByteDance confirms plans to produce a smartphone

TikTok owner ByteDance has confirmed previous reports that it plans to produce a smartphone after making a deal with Smartisan earlier this year in which it acquired a number of its patents and employees. In comments given to Reuters, a spokesperson from the company described the phone as “a continuation of earlier Smartisan plans, aiming to satisfy the needs of the old Smartisan user base.”

It’s not exactly surprising that ByteDance is considering entering another product category, especially since it has already expanded into messaging and is reportedly thinking about launching a music streaming service. Previous reports suggested that both of these apps would come preinstalled on ByteDance’s phone alongside TikTok, the app behind the company’s explosive growth.

Previous attempts by mainly service-based companies to move into hardware haven’t gone especially well. Facebook never made a follow-up to the phone it produced in collaboration with HTC, and the less that’s said about the Amazon Fire Phone, the better. There’s also the continued question about the role of Chinese companies in producing smartphones for a global audience, as well as the difficulties experienced by TikTok in its international expansion. Still, ByteDance’s seemingly overnight international success with TikTok means we wouldn’t put it past the company to find a way to make its phone work.