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It looks like Lexar is back on its feet. Back in 2017, the staple company in the world of digital storage threw in the towel and announced that it’d be ceasing retail operations that year. But according to an announcement spotted by CameraJabber earlier this week, the company is back in business, and will be ready to return to producing and globally shipping flash storage as of this fall. “I’m extremely excited to re-introduce the Lexar brand to our worldwide customers,” Lexar CEO Huabo Cai said in a statement. “Lexar is dynamic, has superior research and development capabilities, and has a deep understanding of our customer’s needs. At the same time, we are confident that we can expand the Lexar business successfully in different markets globally.” This is the first news that we’re hearing from Lexar since it was acquired by a new parent company, Longsys, after Micron shut down the brand in June of 2017. Right now, there’s no … [Read more...] about Lexar’s making a glorious return to the world of flash storage

HTC is bringing the U12 Plus in flame red to the US and Canada. It’s now available for preorder from the company’s website and ships next month. The other colors, blue and black, were already available for purchase, but it’s the flame red one that stands out. The flame red color changes depending on what light it’s under, sometimes looking violet or gold in photos. A bunch of smartphones have appeared in iridescent shades lately, like the Huawei P20’s twilight color that can look purple or blue under different lighting and the Motorola P30’s similar “aurora” tone. The HTC U11 might have been among the phones responsible for sparking the trend. All things considered, the U12 Plus is a pretty typical flagship phone for 2018, but its color and cameras are probably the most stand-out features about it. In our review of the phone, The Verge’s senior editor Vlad Savov found its more attractive aspects were overshadowed by dismal software … [Read more...] about The flame red HTC U12 Plus is now available in the US and Canada

Sony has officially surpassed Canon to lead the full-frame camera market in the United States. The company claims to have taken a lead “in both dollars and units” sold. But it likely won’t have too much time to rest on its laurels, given that Nikon is expected to be looking to muscle in on Sony’s full-frame mirrorless cameras next week. Additionally, as DPReview points out, those numbers are probably a little unfairly skewed toward Sony, given that Canon (the old, longtime leader) hasn’t actually released a full-frame interchangeable lens camera in over a year. And Nikon, which Sony passed in April 2017, hasn’t released a major device since the D850 in August 2017 either (and stock can be hard to come by), while Sony has been able to ride the sales of more recent releases. Still, it’s an impressive result for Sony, which has steadily been increasing market share for interchangeable cameras for some time. And it sets the stakes even higher for … [Read more...] about Sony tops full-frame camera market in US ahead of Nikon’s big announcement

For the most part, Bluetooth hearing aids have been easily compatible with iPhones, but Android fragmentation has made it difficult for hearing aid manufacturers to provide support to Android devices. Now Google is working to bring native hearing aid support for streaming on Android. Google announced today that it’s working with Danish hearing aid manufacturer GN Hearing to create a new hearing aid spec for Android smartphones called ASHA, or Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids. It’s designed to be battery-efficient, while providing high quality audio with low latency. Hearing aids utilizing this spec will be able to connect to and stream from Android devices without having to use another intermediate device. ASHA will enable Bluetooth hearing aids to be utilized the same way as headphones, used to call friends or listen to music. Google has published the new protocol specifications online for any hearing aid manufacturer to build native hearing aid support for Android. GN … [Read more...] about Google is developing native hearing aid support for Android

Google is making changes to its Wear OS app review process that could improve the quality of software on the platform. It’s also reportedly working on a fitness coach/assistant for wearables. Put together, it sure seems like the company is preparing for some sort of wearable release. Google said yesterday that Wear OS apps will have to go through a mandatory “light review process,” perhaps in an effort to improve the Play Store offerings ahead of announcing a rumored Pixel Watch in October. The reviews for new apps start on October 1st while reviews for existing apps will begin March 4, 2019. Google already offers an optional review, which it rolled out with Android Wear 2.0, but it says this new process is designed to improve the app quality and presentation. The most common issue, it says, has to do with screen size because Wear OS apps are available for both square and round displays, which might also include various bezels. VentureBeat reporter and frequent … [Read more...] about Google prepares for Pixel Watch with mandatory Wear OS app reviews and a rumored fitness coach

Motorola has made a new iPhone X clone called the P30 that comes in an iridescent twilight color reminiscent of Huawei’s P20, as spotted by PhoneArena. When we say clone, the rear of the phone looks nearly identical to the iPhone X, except that Apple’s logo has been replaced with Motorola’s and it doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Huawei’s P20 comes in twilight, which is a deep purple that can turn into blue, depending on what lighting it’s under. Motorola is calling its similar shade “Aurora.” By taking some of the iPhone X’s looks and the Huawei P20’s most memorable color, the Motorola P30 combines the best of both worlds, even if some might call it derivative. It will come to China before it sees greater availability around the world. The Motorola P30 could possibly be the same Motorola One Power we’ve already seen in leaks, which we’ll likely find out once it’s rebranded for a global launch outside of China. It … [Read more...] about Motorola’s latest phone looks exactly like an iPhone X with a Huawei paint job

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Apple and other US-based technology companies out this week in an effort to drum up support for a boycott of their products and a push to buy Turkish-made gadgets. “Every product that we buy in foreign currency from outside, we will produce them here and sell abroad,” Erdoğan said during a speech in Ankara. “We will boycott the electronics products of the U.S.” He went on to specifically mention Apple and suggest that people could switch from the iPhone to Samsung products. “If they have the iPhone, there is Samsung,” he said. Erdoğan also mentioned Turkey’s own Vestel, which makes the Venus smartphones, among other devices, as an alternative. “We are going to produce enough for ourselves,” he said. “We have to serve better quality goods than we are importing from them.” Turkey’s currency, the lira, has fallen to record lows recently, and it’s … [Read more...] about Turkey’s president wants the country to boycott US-based electronics makers

We’re getting closer to 5G networks becoming a reality, and Samsung is getting in on the game with its new Exynos 5100 modem. The company claims that it’s the first 5G modem that is fully compatible with the industry standard for 5G (via Engadget). It’s not the first major 5G modem out there. That honor goes to Qualcomm’s X50 modem, which was announced years ago and already has numerous companies on board that are planning to use it in their 5G devices. But Samsung’s claim to fame seems to be that by waiting for the spec to actually be completed, it’ll be better able to conform to the 3GPP’s requirements. The new Exynos Modem 5100 supports both the sub-6GHz and mmWave portions of the electromagnetic spectrums used by the 3GPP’s 5G standard. It’s also compatible with legacy networks like, 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE all in a single chip. Samsung claims that the 5100 can reach speeds of up to 2Gbps per second in the sub-6Ghz range of the … [Read more...] about Samsung joins the 5G party with its own Exynos 5100 modem

Apple is working on a dedicated custom health chip that would help it process biometric data from its suite of devices, according to job listings unearthed by CNBC today. The company currently designs custom chips for its iPhone and is rumored to switch to custom processors for its Mac line of computers as early as 2020. Currently, the Apple Watch is powered by the custom S3 chip. CNBC reports that these new job listings indicate Apple would like to go one step further with regard to health data and integrate a custom chip that would be solely responsible for processing metrics like heart rate and helping improve battery efficiency on devices like the Apple Watch. One listing reads, “We are looking for sensor ASIC architects to help develop ASICs for new sensors and sensing systems for future Apple products. We have openings for analog as well as digital ASIC architects.” Another says Apple is looking for engineers to “help develop health, wellness, and fitness … [Read more...] about Apple wants to build a custom health chip for processing biometric data

Apple has been stubbornly resistant to the idea of adding multiuser support to iOS. But according to the company’s newly granted patent for “User profiling for voice input processing,” it may be implementing that idea with Siri, via AppleInsider. Siri can already distinguish an iPhone owner’s voice from other people, but it has so far been unable to provide customized responses for different users. The goal of the patent is to allow a device to identify different users, whether that be through a username and password, recognizing specific commands, or biometric voice print. Then the device would be able to respond using a library of past commands to match a specific user’s content preferences, requests, and phrasings to make Siri more accurate. While the patent is more focused on utilizing user identification to improve accuracy, identifying specific users would have other benefits, too, like solving issues on shared devices like Apple’s HomePod … [Read more...] about New Apple patent hints that Siri could offer multiuser support