Phone Hacks | Android | iOS | Latest News

LG Support Page Suggests its New Flagship Will be Called the LG G7 In early January, an LG official told members of the press that  the company would ditch its G series smartphone brand for something new . LG’s said to be tossing around new names, and reportedly plans to launch the rebranding effort sometime during the first half of 2018. Some folks took the reports to mean that LG’s next flagship — the successor to the LG G6 — wouldn’t be called the LG G7, but a support page on LG’s UK website points to the contrary. The support page was quickly taken down (you can see a screenshot below), but it talked about which version of Qualcomm’s Quick Charge technology the company’s smartphones support. A chart showed the LG G5 and the LG G6 , which have Quick Charge 3.0, and the “Future LG G7”, which it listed as supporting Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4.0 technology. Source: Androidu It’s not LG’s only recent slipup. The company prematurely published the LG Wallet application in the Play Sto

Keyboard and Biometric Moto Mods Coming in 2018 Motorola’s Moto Mods have allowed the Lenovo-owned company to expand the functionality of its Moto Z smartphone lineup without having to introduce new hardware. Peripherals like the JBL SoundBoost 2, Moto Power Pack, and Moto Insta-Share Projector snap onto the smartphones’ magnetic connectors and add functionality. And at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, Motorola took the wraps off new Moto Mods for the Moto Z series: A keyboard mod and a biometric mod. The Livermorium Slider Keyboard Moto Mod , a project from Motorola’s Accelerator Program, attaches to the back of the phone and wraps around it, angling the keyboard at a 60-degree angle (maximum) with the keyboard facing flat upwards. It’s aimed at folks who use their phone for productivity, and it’ll launch later this winter at a retail price of $99. Next is the Lenovo Vital Moto Mod , which looks like a cool piece of health-tracking technology. It can measure five key vital signs

Report: Samsung to Start Production of a Foldable Smartphone in November Foldable smartphones are becoming a reality. In 2017, we saw the ZTE Axon M launch in the US with dual displays, and Samsung confirmed that it was working on a flexible device pegged for release in 2018 . We’ve also recently seen a patent that potentially describes Samsung’s user interface for its foldable device , as well as a patent for a fully curved device . Now, according to a report by  ET News,  Samsung is expected to start production of its first foldable smartphone in November ahead of a mass-market debut in either December or in early 2019. The report, quoting unnamed sources, states that the company has recently settled on the phone’s final specifications and production plans. The crucial part of display development is will be completed by March, so that panel production will be able to start in September. ET News  says that the phone “is likely” to have a 7.3-inch OLED display that “folds inside”. Sa

Facebook Set to Reveal “Portal” Device With Video Calling and Facial Recognition Facebook is set to unveil a hardware product code-named Portal that’ll compete with smart home devices such as the Amazon Echo Show , according to a report from Cheddar , Portal will make video calls and use a wide-angle lens that’ll recognize faces tied to Facebook accounts, according to the report, and it’ll accept voice commands a la the Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa assistant. The social network intends to pitch it as a way to keep in touch with friends and loved ones. Facebook’s also secured licensing deals with Sony/ATV and Universal Music Group to build out a music streaming service for Portal, and plans to support third-party services like Netflix and Spotify. Portal will retail for $499, but that pricing’s subject to change prior to launch. CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s reportedly told employees that he doesn’t care if it generates a profit, but hopes that it’ll “change user behavior” to encourag

Huawei Mate 10 Pro is coming to the U.S., but not on AT&T Given the focus, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas isn’t a place where you would expect to be surprised by an announcement. However, yesterday several news outlets shared a shocking revelation: that AT&T would no longer carry the Huawei Mate 10 Pro . Leading up to CES, Huawei was expected to unveil a partnership with U.S. carrier AT&T to carry the company’s latest flagship smartphone . Now that this deal has fallen through, the Mate 10 Pro will only be available through online retailers such as Amazon and some brick and mortar stores such as Best Buy. Huawei already confirmed that they would be expanding into the U.S. Indeed, Huawei has been eagerly pushing the news that the Mate 10 Pro would be coming to the U.S., with more details to come at CES. The company has repeatedly confirmed on their U.S. social media accounts that the new Mate smartphone would be unveiled on January 9. Are you ready for #HUAWEI

Vivo Showcases the World’s First Smartphone with an In-Display Fingerprint Sensor We’ve been hearing about in-display fingerprint sensors for quite a while. Notably, Samsung was rumored to include an in-display sensor in the Galaxy S8 , but reportedly opted not to because the tech wasn’t ready. Vivo, though, has made real progress. In July 2017, the China-based company teamed up with Qualcomm to demo an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor — one of the first commercial examples of in-display fingerprint scanning. Then, in November, Synaptics announced its Clear ID in-display fingerprint sensors , and said a “top five” smartphone OEM would use it in 2018.  Some analysts predicted that the OEM was Vivo, and the company confirmed those suspicious at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show. “Today’s showcase of a ready-to-produce in-display fingerprint scanning smartphone featuring an optical fingerprint sensor is a big leap forward in bringing consumers this long-awaited, futuristic mobi