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Samsung Teams up with TagStation to Enable FM Chips in Phones Rare’s the flagship smartphone with FM radio, but there’s a push to change that. In September 2017, Federal Communications Chairman (FCC) Aji Pai penned a letter requesting that phone manufacturers enable FM in wireless chipsets, and carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint are actively encouraging phone makers to activate them. Now, Samsung’s recommitting to supporting FM radio in its upcoming handsets. On Tuesday, TagStation, the developer of NextRadio , announced that the handset maker would unlock the necessary chips in upcoming phones bound for the US and Canada. “Samsung should be lauded for taking this important step,” said  Paul Brenner , President of NextRadio. “They are providing their customers a more engaging, immersive radio experience and, as importantly, a means to connect with life-saving information in emergencies.” So what’s that mean? Samsung smartphones in the US and Canada this year will ship wi

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

New Website for Google Assistant Shows Off All Available Actions and Services Just what the Google Assistant can and can’t do isn’t necessarily clear to folks who haven’t used it before — and even to folks who have. It’s great for basic tasks like checking the weather and setting alarms, of course, but did you know that it had a magic 8 ball minigame, and that you can ask it what position you should play in Quidditch ? To make Google Assistant skills easier to find, the search giant on Tuesday launched a new website with every action, service, and integration available. They’re organized by categories such as “Games and fun”, “Music and audio”, and “Arts and lifestyle”, and the homepage shows a list of new and trending Assistant apps — each with users ratings, instructions on how to use it, and the list of devices that support it. There are hundreds of applications to choose from, and Google’s directory of them makes it easy to search through and find ones you might find useful. Goo

Systemless Xposed for Android Oreo Now Available This week started off with a bang: XDA Senior Recognized Developer  rovo89  announced and released  Xposed Framework for Android Oreo 8.0 and Android 8.1 in beta. It came as something as a surprise, considering how long it took it took Xposed to hit Android Nougat , and it’s not perfect — some Xposed Modules won’t work properly until they’re updated with support for Oreo. But thanks to the hard work of XDA Recognized Developer and Contributor  topjohnwu , Xposed Framework for Oreo is now available in a  Magisk  module that installs in a systemless manner. It’s live now guys, grab it from Magisk Manager > Downloads Enjoy 🙂 pic.twitter.com/exCr2tgOH8 — John Wu (@topjohnwu) January 9, 2018 topjohnwu has been making a systemless version of Xposed for quite a while now, and the installation process for his systemless Xposed Framework for Android 8.0 and 8.1 Oreo is pretty much unchanged from last time around. You’ll need to install Ma

TCL Announces Alcatel 1 Series, Alcatel 3 Series, and Alcatel 5 Series at CES 2018 It was back in November 2017 when well-known leaker Evan Blass shared press renders of six unannounced TCL-made Alcatel smartphones , and while a few details could be inferred from their rumored names, the hardware specs and prices remained a mystery. Thankfully, TCL filled in a few gaps at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show this week with the unveiling of the Alcatel 1, Alcatel 3, and Alcatel 5 ranges. The China-based company’s differentiating between the Alcatel series with sequential numbering — the Alcatel 1 series are the cheapest phones of the bunch, and the Alcatel 5 series are the priciest. Source: TCL Alcatel 1 Alcatel 1 series phones, which will cost less than $100, will feature compact unibody designs with “premium materials” and grippy back plates. They’ll have 18:9 displays, TCL said, plus features like facial recognition. Alcatel 3 Alcatel 3 range devices, which will retail for around $200

Edge Sense Plus Updated with Support for Google Pixel 2 Squeeze Customization HTC’s Edge Sense, which lets you trigger shortcuts and apps by squeezing the HTC U11 and HTC U11+’s edges, was customizable from the start, and only  got better with software updates . Google’s squeezable  Pixel 2 shortcuts, on the other hand — Active Edge — is a lot less flexible. Gripping the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL  tightly opens the Google Assistant and silences incoming calls, but that’s about it — there’s no way to remap the squeeze action. In August, we covered Edge Sense Plus, a third-party app that lets you customize HTC’s Edge Sense to an even greater degree . Now, Edge Sense Plus has been updated with support Active Edge customization on the Google Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL. To recap, we noted in October that it’d be hard to remap the Pixel phones’ Active Edge functionality because of the fact that it was hard-coded by Google to work only when the default assistant app’s the Google Assistant.

Razer Phone Now Supports Netflix Content in HDR and 5.1 Surround Sound Some content on Netflix take advantage of high dynamic range (HDR) and 5.1 surround sound, but not all devices support those technologies. Luckily, that began to change last year, when smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and LG put out smartphones with HDR compatibility. And today at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, Razer and Netflix jointly announced that the Razer Phone will start showing Netflix content in HDR and 5.1 surround sound later this year. “We engineered the Razer Phone to handle HDR video and sound like no other phone on the market,” said  Min-Liang Tan , Razer co-founder and CEO. “We are incredibly excited to deliver Netflix entertainment on a smartphone like never before, enabling us to take full measure of the Razer Phone’s HDR10-enabled display and dual-firing, front-facing Dolby-optimized speakers and THX-certified headphone connectivity.” When the Razer Phone was announced  in late 2017, R

Razer Unveils Project Linda, a Laptop Which Uses Your Android Phone as a Touchpad and Second Screen At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday, gaming company Razer unveiled Project Linda, a tricked-out laptop dock designed for the Razer Phone . Project Linda comes in the form of a clamshell aluminum dock with a 13.3-inch Quad HD (2560×1440) 120Hz display, a 720p webcam, a dual-microphone array, 200GB of storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB-A port, and a USB-C port. The full-sized keyboard has dedicated Android navigation, search, and app selection keys, and Razer Chroma programmable RGB backlighting. There’s a dock where you’d normally find a touchpad, and when the Razer Phone is attached to it, the laptop leverages the handset’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and 8GB of RAM of RAM to PC-like applications and software. (It’s like Samsung’s Dex Dock or the Motorola Atrix laptop dock.) It also charges the phone with a built-in 53.6 Wh internal battery. Source: Razer Razer

Google Pixel Launcher Mods to Change Icon Packs, Widget Sizes, and Labels If you’ve been around the Android block lately, you probably know that Google makes a few home screen alternatives to Android’s default launcher. One’s the Google Now Launcher , which puts Google Now, a card-based scroll of useful information, in the left-most panel. Another’s the Pixel Launcher, a launcher exclusive to Google Pixel smartphones. Both are highly optimized and fast, but don’t offer much in the way of customization. Luckily, Pixel Launcher Mods, a new root application from XDA Recognized Contributor  Quinny899 , fixes that. We’ve seen modded versions of the Pixel Launcher in the past which have included some highly requested modifications , and some that don’t require root. But Pixel Launcher Mods offers more choices and options than many of them, and modifies rather than replaces the Google Now Launcher and Pixel Launcher. Here’s the list of available tweaks: Change individual icons and apply f

TCL Brings BlackBerry Motion to the US, Will Launch Two New BlackBerry Phones in 2018 BlackBerry-branded smartphones from Chinese smartphone maker TCL  may not be the top choice for every Android enthusiast , but it seems the phones got enough attention to warrant follow-ups. Last year’s BlackBerry KEYone , which launched at MWC 2017 , was an attempt to merge BlackBerry’s security and enterprise strengths with the flexibility and popularity of Android. It’s the first of more to come: At its press conference during the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, the company announced that it’ll release “at least two” new smartphones later this year, each of which will have  a physical keyboard . BlackBerry also announced a new Bronze color variant for the BlackBerry KEYone at the event: The Bronze Edition KEYone. It sports a matte bronze look complemented by a textured black back panel, and drops the standard KEYone’s microSD card slot in favor of a second SIM tray for dual-SIM capabilities. That

Nextbit Robin’s Cloud Storage Servers Will Shut Down on March 1, 2018 It’s not easy for new companies to enter the smartphone market — the competition’s fierce, and it takes really unique features to stand out from the crowd. When startup company Nextbit announced the Kickstarter-backed  Nextbit Robin , one of its  standout features was Smart Storage, which dynamically expanded the phone’s local storage by syncing photos, applications, and other content to the cloud. Nextbit’s servers made it all possible, but they won’t for much longer — Nextbit announced this week that they’re shutting down on March 1, 2018. In an email to Nextbit Robin owners this week, the company said that on March 1, users who are still logged into the Smart Storage service will be automatically logged out, and that all personal information and data will be purged from the servers. Images (the thumbnails in Nextbit Robin’s gallery app) and applications that aren’t stored locally won’t be accessible through phone

Android Distribution Numbers for January 2018 Show Oreo at 0.7% We’re a little over a week into the new year, and like clockwork, Google published the global Android distribution numbers for the month of January 2018. As always, they’re not 100 percent accurate, but they give a pretty good idea of where Android stands right now. The search giant collected the stats during a seven-day period that ended on the second week of this month, January 8, and omitted from the results any version Android that didn’t hit 0.1 percent market share or greater. As per usual, only devices that visited the Google Play Store factored into the distribution numbers — phone and tablets that were turned off during the first week weren’t counted, for example. Android 8.0 and 8.1 Oreo reached 0.7 percent of the market, but didn’t manage to nab the lead from Marshmallow , which was well ahead with a 28.6 percent share. It was the most-used version of Android as of early January. Moving onto more popular ver

Google Assistant Reaches Android Auto and Smart Displays from Sony, LG, Lenovo At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, Google took the opportunity to announce multiple developments regarding its smart assistant platform, the  Google Assistant . The product-packed, eventful week in Vegas was the perfect venue to advertise connected devices, smart home products, and artificial intelligence, and Google revealed how its AI-powered platform is expanding beyond smart speakers through smart displays and Android Auto . Google Assistant saw a slow rollout that seemed to curtail its potential, in great part because it was initially limited to Pixel smartphones and Google’s Allo messaging service. It eventually reached non-Google smartphones and Android Wear watches, and the launch of Google Home substantially accelerated its growth. While the original Google Home  was steeply priced at $130 (a bit much for a mediocre speaker with then-limited assistant capabilities), newer Google Home produ

Qualcomm’s New Home Hub Platforms Bring Google Services to Smart Devices Smart devices (and smart home devices in particular) have grown increasingly popular in recent years. Amazon leads the pack with its Alexa virtual assistant, but faces tough competition from Google . The search giant released the newest Developer Preview of Android Things , its lightweight, Weave-enabled operating system design for home automation, in December 2017. And at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday, it teamed up with Qualcomm to announce two new Qualcomm Home Hub platforms that support Android Things. Qualcomm’s new Home Hub platforms are based on Qualcomm’s SDA624 and SDA212 system-on-chips (SoC), and they’re designed to help developers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) quickly and cost-effectively ship devices that tap Google services such as the Google Assistant . Qualcomm notes that smart home hubs, which come in a range of form factors and rely on cloud connectivity and edge co

AT&T Reportedly Calls Off Deal with Huawei to Sell Phones in the US Huawei, the third-largest phone manufacturer on the planet, has been trying for years to break into  the US smartphone industry, but it hasn’t been easy — Apple and Samsung dominate the market with an estimated 70% combined share . The China-based company was said to be in talks to sell  its latest flagship, the Mate 10, through AT&T, the country’s largest GSM carrier, but AT&T stepped back from the deal at the last second. Huawei and AT&T’s partnership was reportedly going to be announced Tuesday during the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, according to CNBC and The Wall Street Journal , and the carrier’s reasons for calling it off remain a mystery. Had it gone through, it would’ve marked Huawei’s first carrier partnership in the US and could’ve given the company’s smartphone lineup a major boost in visibility. The breakdown of the deal means that the smartphone maker’s formal entrance into the US mar

Honor 7X to Get Face Unlock Feature in Q1 2018 Honor, Huawei’s budget-focused sub-brand, stole the spotlight this week with the launch of the affordable, mid-range Honor 7X in a limited-edition red color. In case you haven’t been following our  coverage , the phone packs a 18:9 display with a FHD+ (2160×1080) resolution, dual rear cameras, and a large battery at the competitively low price of $199.99. Alongside the new red color option for the Honor 7X, Honor announced that a face unlock feature will roll out to all variants in the coming weeks. All Honor 7X models and the forthcoming Honor 7X Red will get over-the-air firmware with a facial recognition feature similar to the OnePlus 5T’s Face Unlock . It uses the handset’s front-facing camera to identify your face, and, because the Honor 7X doesn’t have biometric sensors like the iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera, likely works the same way as OnePlus’s implementation — that is to say, the phone unlocks as soon as it recognizes you. It wo