Latest news

Google's one of the more recent tries at communication apps has been released to a new platform. Duo, the video chat platform, is already available for Android, iOS, as well as Chromebooks, now you can use it on the web too.

Originally launched in 2016, Google Duo offers easy high-definition video chats with end-to-end encryption. It works well with even low bandwidth requirements and is based on phone numbers so no other registration needed.

Now Google Duo is also available on the web with browsers like Google's own Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox, and Apple's Safari. Currently it doesn't officially support Microsoft Edge, according to The Verge.

To get started, just open your browser and head to duo.google.com. You can either log in with your Duo account or choose to create one by entering your phone number.

Battery tech has been one of the limiting forces of smartphones for ages. Performance could be better and definitely battery life could increase massively, if someone came up with a new battery innovation.

Meanwhile, we're doomed to one, if lucky two, day battery life on our smartphones with 3000 or maybe 4000 milliamp hour batteries. Well, Energizer doesn't believe so, as they've done with the myth that a smartphone needs to be sleek third-inch thick device.

The battery company has showed off a phone that has six times the capacity of a normal smartphone. Power Max P18K Pop, quite the name, has a 18,000 millliamp hour battery.

Once you see the device, you realize that they haven't come up with any new solutions really, they've just put inside a six times bigger battery.

It's not quite six times thicker, but at 18 mm (around 0.7 inches) it's certainly one of thicker phones we've seen since the 90s.

Surely there are people, perhaps people that can't charge their phones for days and need them for work, who need the most impressive battery life, but it's hard to understand why you wouldn't just have an external powerbank with you.

Anyways, Energizer promises a weeks battery life but remember that you can't refill this battery while you are showering, you need a good eight hours to recharge it entirely.

Android and iOS both have their pros and cons, there's really no objectively better solution for every person. However, there's one single reason above all others that makes it really hard for some people to switch between platforms.

That is of course iMessage, the bane (and boon) of every iPhone user, especially the ones that would like to try out Android. It's so nice inside the cozy iMessage ecosystem with blue bubbles and you'd never want to go out and experience the poisonous green bubbles.

Since there is no iMessage for Android, and rest assured there never will be one, third party developers have been trying to figure out a way to circumvent this for years.

Now there's finally been a public launch of an app, AirMessage, that promises to do just that. But there's a huge caveat that you could fit a Mac computer through.

Yes, you need a Mac. One that is powered up and ready to deliver you messages.

Essentially the Mac just works as a AirMessage server that delivers the iMessages to your Android device's AirMessage app.

If you really, really want iMessage on Android, this seems like a way to get there, albeit being fairly inconvenient. If you are still with us, there's probably no reason not to give it a try, especially since the developer promises that security is a top priority.

Mobile World Congress used to be the biggest stage for mobile phones for years, but nowadays many of the largest manufacturers have their own events which has made MWC more of an industry trade show than a consumer one.

Nevertheless, that has probably given room to adjacent companies that are developing important technology for our mobile devices. It's been a big year for memory cards, microSD in particular.

Yesterday we told you about the new one terabyte microSDXC cards coming from both SanDisk and Micron. Turns out, the capacity isn't the only thing the manufacturers are working on.

Perhaps even more impressively, SD Association has introduced a new memory card format, called the microSD Express, which allows super fast data transfer speeds. According to the announcement the speeds max at a crazy 985 megabytes per second, although that is for read speed, as you might imagine.

That is 10 times the write speeds of yesterday's 1 TB SanDisk card, although it is certainly not the fastest around, and same 10 times faster than UHS-I class card's read speeds.

You know, and hate, Apple for their closed ecosystems, which grow and thrive because of their exclusive features and apps. One of the Apple services that has most reasons to expand beyond their own platforms, Apple Music, is still not available everywhere.

One of the reasons, for Apple especially not necessarily the consumers, is that they haven't managed to close the subscriber gap between Apple Music and Spotify. Sure, here in the U.S., the land of the iPhones, they managed to do well, but there's a whole world of people with Android phones and Google Homes.

Speaking of Google Homes, apparently Apple is expanding their streaming music service exactly there. An image released by MacRumors, sent in by a reader, shows Apple Music as one of the other music services supported for Google's smart speakers.

It's not entirely a surprise since late last year Apple already released Apple Music officially for the Amazon's Echo speakers. Clearly Google Home, just like Amazon Echo, has been more successful than Apple's HomePod, so there's pressure to expand to people with smart speakers.

There's no official word about this yet, obviously, so we'll just have to wait and see when Apple drops the news.

Qualcomm, the leading manufacturer of mobile chipsets, has talked about next-generation mobile connectivity at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The company has revealed that the first 5G enabled system-on-chip will ship in 2020. The company's upcoming chipset did not get a name yet, but it's likely the successor of the new Snapdragon 855.

The first iterations of Qualcomm's 5G have had a separate 5G chip which greatly affect the battery life and is not as compact. Upcoming SOC design will thus improve efficiency and battery life.

The company seems to want you to wait until next year, probably since it hasn't perfected the design and might have a disadvantage compared to some other manufacturers.

Companies like Samsung have already unveiled their first 5G handset, although we'll still have to wait a few months for the Galaxy S10 5G to hit the stores.

Microsoft just released their second-generation augmented reality (or mixed reality, depending on who you ask) device. The HoloLens 2 will become available later this year, but what is going to be good for?

Well, it's not a consumer product so it's mostly for professionals like engineers and doctors, right?

True, but companies are still developing all kinds of use cases for it, and one of those companies is Mozilla.

Mozilla is bringing its web browser to HoloLens 2. Just like the original headset, the new one will therefore be able to browse the web.

This time around, though, Mozilla is going to be able to take use of twice the field of view as well as improved resolution. HoloLens can view content up to 2K resolution, which should be plenty for web browsing.

Mozilla calls the browser Firefox Reality, and it has already been released to VR devices like HTC Vive, Oculus Go as well as Google Daydream. There's also going to be a version of Firefox Reality for the original HoloLens.

While it's debatable that Moore's law is relevant any longer when it comes to transistor density, CPU performance, or memory capacity, digital storage capacity is sure getting easier to come by.

There might be no better way to visualize the improvements over the last couple of decades than the memory card. Not only is capacity getting better and better, the size of the memory card has decreased over time dramatically.

Now SanDisk and Micron have revealed new microSD-sized memory cards able to store one terabyte of data. The cards the size of your pinkie fingernail can now store as much data as 200 original iPods combined.

According to Micron, their 1 TB card supports data read speeds up to 160 MB/s and write speeds up to 95 MB/s. SanDisk's alternative on the other hand can write at the same pace but only manages to retain 90 MB/s write speed for one second.

Although pioneering like this are important for us all, you are likely not going to upgrade your Android phone with a 1 TB microSD just yet. SanDisk's 1 TB card is going to cost $449.99 when it hits the stores later this spring, and presumably Micron's isn't going to be much cheaper, if at all.

Microsoft has unveiled their second-generation augmented reality goggles at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. HoloLens 2 was made official yesterday in Barcelona.

As you might imagine, there are some significant improvements over the first-generation device. Microsoft says both the fidelity as well as the usability aspects have been honed.

Resolution has been bumped up, and HoloLens 2 can now view up to 2K content, but perhaps even more importantly the field of view was doubled.

Previously one of the main complaints with HoloLens has been that you sometimes have to seek for the field of view for AR content, because it is so limited.

Now you'll be able to get more information on your screen but also with better resolution, while also not having to turn your head as much.

Microsoft says that the resolution now allows viewing of font sized down to eight.

They also said that they've made the new version much more comfortable to wear, although it's not entirely clear how. From the looks of it the cushions have been improved but also, as the video hands-on by The Verge explains, it is lighter and smaller the the predecessor.

There are also new gesture controls that help with the navigation on the virtual UI.

HMD Global showed off a new Nokia smartphone that can snap photos with up to 240-megapixel resolution using five separate lenses.

A new contender in the current smartphone camera battle has come forth. The Nokia 9 Pureview was shown off at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona over the weekend. The key selling feature of this smartphone is what it can do with its five cameras on the rear of the device.

Three are monochromatic (they only record light in shades of grey) and two are conventional color lenses. All five can capture 12-megapixel images, but they work together to produce single multilayer images up to 240 megapixels in detail. An infrared sensor compliments the five cameras and allows the device to perceive and accurately capture depth like never before on a phone.

Depending on the light settings, the cameras capture detail up to four times in quick succession, and then the device's software picks one of the color shots as the primary image. The other stills are then used to add even more detail to the image, producing stunningly detailed shots that can even retain details otherwise lost (such as objects in shadows etc.)

The dynamic range this permits (12.4 stops) is higher than any other smartphone on the market, touts HMD Global, which licenses the Nokia brand. Using depth mode, Nokia 9 PureView can identify over 1,200 layers to build a detailed depth map, allowing you to re-focus your shots later in Google Photos.

The latest version of WinRAR addressed a serious security flaw that left users' PCs vulnerable to attack for almost two decades.

WinRAR is one of the best tools available for creating, opening and modifying file / compression archives, such as RAR files, ZIP files, 7zip, ISO and so many more. It has been very popular for pretty much all of its existence, but it had a nasty flaw present for a long time that went unnoticed.

Check Point Research revealed that there was a problem with how WinRAR handles ACE archives, and crucially, even ACE archives that had a different file extension (e.g. .rar). In a nutshell, a crafted ACE archive when extracted with WinRAR could place an executable file in the startup folder in Windows, meaning that the OS would run that executable file on the next boot.

This is a serious problem for obvious reasons. Technically, WinRAR had been using a third-party tool to extract ACE archives, and that's where the vulnerability lay and goes some ways to explaining why it was not noticed by WinRAR developers until pointed out.

To address the issue, WinRAR v5.70 beta 1 does not support opening or handling ACE archives at all. It is worth emphasizing that there is no evidence this flaw was used in any known attacks.

Samsung held its yearly Unpacked event this time around in San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. A new city and a new venue for Unpacked brought out some new approaches to press events of this sort.

Samsung started with a bang by unveiling Galaxy Fold, or Galaxy F as we knew it previously. However, it was never to be seen after the keynote when we got to try out the new Galaxy devices. Neither were Galaxy Fit, an affordable (one can presume even without price details) fitness tracker, or perhaps the most anticipated Galaxy device, the 5G version of Galaxy S10.

What we did get to handle weren't all that bad either. So let's go through our first feelings after the initial hands-on.

At Samsung's press event in San Francisco today, the South Korean firm has unveiled three new wearables alongside its Galaxy S10 handsets and Galaxy Fold.

Samsung's wearables line-up has expanded with the newly designed and health-conscious Galaxy Watch Active, the new Galaxy Fit, and the new cord-free Galaxy Buds.

First up is the Galaxy Watch Active.

The new Galaxy Watch Active sports a new thin, light and versatile design and it focuses on your health and wellbeing. Exercise, sleep, stress and health tracking features are the selling point of Samsung's largest Galaxy-branded smartwatch. The device can monitor your blood pressure through a My Bp app that has been designed with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Samsung has marked the tenth anniversary of the original Samsung Galaxy S smartphone with the release of a powerful and speedy Galaxy S10 5G.

It was announced along with three other models: Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung Galaxy S10+ (plus) and Samsung Galaxy S10e. You can read about those models here.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G beefs up things again over the S10+. As the name suggests, it supports 5G connectivity for lightning transfer speeds compared to current 4G technology. It also has a larger screen again, trading in the 6.4-inch screen on the S10+ for a 6.7-inch AMOLED, 3040x1440 (19:9) Infinity-O AMOLED display.

It packs 8GB of RAM. For internal storage, this model can be purchased with up to 256GB internal storage. It packs the same 4,500 mAh battery (with support for Super Fast Charging at 25W as the S10+ and weighs the same 175g.

There are three camera lenses on the back; a standard camera (12 MP, OIS, f/1.5 or f/2.4), ultra-wide 123-degree angle camera (16 MP, f/2.2), and a telephoto camera (12 MP, OIS, f/2.4). On the front is a 10 MP, f/1.9, Dual Pixel AF.

Samsung has shown off its shiny new Galaxy S10 handsets on the tenth anniversary of the original Galaxy S smartphone.

There are three options to choose from: Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung Galaxy S10+ (plus) and Samsung Galaxy S10e. To start with what is common to all of them, we would first note that they are all driven by a Snapdragon 855 processor (in the United States), or Exynos 9820 (outside the U.S.). They all support WiFi 6, Near Field Communication and Bluetooth LE.

The new models also support reverse wireless charging (Wireless PowerShare7), which allows owners to charge other devices using their Samsung Galaxy S10. An ultrasonic fingerprint scanner lurks beneath the curved edge screens of the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ but is moved to the side for the S10e.

While the Samsung Galaxy S10e has two cameras, the S10 and S10+ features a standard camera (12 MP, OIS, f/1.5 or f/2.4), ultra-wide 123-degree angle camera (16 MP, f/2.2), and a telephoto camera (12 MP, OIS, f/2.4) on the back. With the S10, you can easily switch between the lens based on what you need at the time. The S10 is the first smartphone that can record video in HDR10+.

The S10 camera has a new Instagram mode that allows you to quickly send photos to your Stories and share immediately.