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Google Allo finally gains a web interface but it may be too late

Google’s scattershot messaging strategy has one less problem. Starting today, Android users can log in to Allo on the web to see and send messages, but it probably won’t make the chat platform more popular.

google allo

For one, there are a lot restrictions. You’ll need an Android phone. It only works through the Chrome browser. You’ll have to get the latest version of Allo (16.0.024) before you can link your account. And the biggest one of all: Your phone will need to be online and running the Allo app for the web interface to connect. In other words, it’ll be quicker in most cases to just use your phone.

Why this matters: Well, we’re not really sure it does. While the idea of an Allo web interface sounds exciting in theory, in reality it’s just another Google messaging platform to ignore. Allo never took off the way Google hoped it would, and an extremely limited web app that requires phone tethering is unlikely to get new people to use it. Until Google offers proper SMS in Allo, the app will continue to wither in the Play Store, with or without a web interface.

Allo again

Criticism aside, the Allo web interface is a pleasure to use. To get started, visit Allo for web in your Chome browser, where you’ll be greeted with a QR code. Then, open the app on your phone, tap the side menu button, and select Allo for web. (If you don’t see it you’re probably running an older version.) It’ll switch to a viewfinder so you can scan the QR code on your computer screen, which will link your PC and your phone.

And that’s pretty much it. All of your conversations will be pulled over (assuming you have Google Drive backups turned on), and you’ll be able to quickly continue a conversation or start a new one. Nearly every Allo feature is supported, including group chats, incognito conversations, stickers, and, most importantly, Google Assistant.

The Allo web interface is just as easy to navigate as the mobile one, with a sidebar of your conversations and a collapsible list of your sticker packs. You can summon Assistant into conversations by clicking the button in the conversation bar and attach files, but there’s no way to access the camera, so you won’t be able to make selfie stickers. Additionally, you lose out on one of Allo’s best features, an iMessage-style animation that indicates the other person in your conversation is typing.

If the latest version of Allo hasn’t appeared on your phone yet, you can side-load the Google-signed APK from APKMirror. iPhone users are out of luck at the moment, but Google says iOS/Mac support is coming soon.

Windows 10: Microsoft, nearly finalizing the Fall Creators Update, teases a mixed-reality future

Even as Microsoft winds down the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, its Insiders are still receiving new capabilities. Case in point: Insider Build 16273, which adds a new mixed-reality mode, the chance to try out Windows 10 S, and even a rather interesting new font.

windows 10 view 3d mixed reality

Though Microsoft seemingly wound down the new Fall Creators Update with its earlier bug bash, it’s now official. In a blog post, software engineer and Windows Insider spokesperson Dona Sarkar confirmed that the Fall Creators Update is ready to be polished for its expected September debut: “We are now at the point of the development cycle for the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update,” wrote Sarkar, “where our focus is now on stabilization for release to the world.”

What this means for you: If you’re an Insider, it doesn’t mean an end to new builds—far from it. Instead, you’ll receive those builds more quickly as Microsoft starts smashing bugs. What it does mean (right, Microsoft?) is that we’re seeing the end of new features for the Fall Creators Update, and a general slide into the more formal, stable release. Keep in mind, though, that Microsoft has split or “forked” its builds: While the majority of improvements are slated for the Fall Creators Update, the first of these new features is actually part of the “Skip Ahead” or “Redstone 4” track, one release beyond the FCU.

View 3D comes to mixed reality

While hardware and software makers alike hope that virtual or mixed reality will be the next big thing, consumers will still need a reason to buy additional hardware. Microsoft’s shown off mixed-reality hardware at its Build developer conferences, but Insider Build 16273 adds a new feature: mixed-reality support for View 3D.

Microsoft Paint 3D desert island

Remember that Windows 10 now includes Paint 3D, a rather fun 3D content-creation tool for designing your own 3D dioramas. While you can view and edit those scenes within the Paint 3D app itself, you can also export them to View 3D for viewing. It’s sort of like a bare-bones Photos app, but just for 3D objects. Inside Build 16273, you can now “view” objects in View 3D via mixed reality.

What this doesn’t mean, though, is that you have to buy a mixed-reality camera. Instead, you can use your laptop’s rear-facing camera to take a picture and project the 3D object into the scene. Though we haven’t tried it yet, that seems like a smart way to begin pushing mixed reality without requiring additional hardware.

The one catch? This is the feature that’s part of the “Skip Ahead” track of Insider Builds. If you’re not already within the “track within a track” of the Skip Ahead branch, even “generic” Insiders won’t see this until the Fall Creators Update drops, at which point the two tracks will converge again.

Try out Windows 10 S yourself

If you disagreed with our three-star Windows 10 S review, Insiders have a chance to try out Windows 10 S for yourself. Remember, you’ll be limited to the Windows Store, with all of the restrictions that are attached to Windows 10 S.

This is Samsung Galaxy Note 8’s dual-camera, Live Focus advantage

Samsung’s Galaxy Note8 has finally been revealed, and if you have any interest in photography at all, you’ll be focused on the phone’s new dual-camera system. This is a first for Samsung, which has previously stuck with a single camera while its competitors—Apple and LG, to name just two—have gone the dual route.

While LG uses a second camera for wide-angle photos, Samsung is using its second sensor for a depth-of-field mode it’s dubbed Live Focus. I got some hands-on time with the Note8 during a pre-briefing, and I’m convinced this is a huge upgrade for Samsung’s photography fans.

Samsung Note8

Note8 camera specs

The hardware is made up of two separate systems. The main camera has been dubbed “wide,” but is really just a traditional normal lens like on other Samsung phones. The second camera is the “telephoto” option, affording 2x optical zoom over the wide. Both cameras boast 12-megapixel sensors with the same Dual Pixel technology found in the Galaxy S8 and S8+ from earlier this year.

The wide lens has an aperture of f/1.7, while the telephoto goes with a slower f/2.4. This means the telephoto lens needs more light than the wide lens in order to achieve the same exposure.

Samsung Note8

In a first for smartphones, Samsung has added optical image stabilization (OIS) to the telephoto lens of the Note8. Almost every smartphone has some form of OIS on its main camera, but none of the second cameras have had this—until now.

Optical image stabilization is a relatively advanced hardware feature wherein the camera’s lens assembly is integrated with a gyro motor. As your shaking hand struggles to maintain focus on an object, the gyro compensates for this motion, and keeps a lock on whatever you’re about to shoot. No one has a perfectly steady grip, so OIS is there to give the camera more time to leave its shutter open, resulting in a cleaner, less blurry image.

In fact, because of the longer focal range and slower aperture of the telephoto lens, it’s even more important to have OIS on this sensor. I’m glad Samsung included this feature, and it should go a long way toward taking better shots. We’ll know for sure when I do my Note8 camera tests (currently, the LG G6 is our pick for best smartphone camera.)

The dual camera advantage

Dual smartphone cameras are as trendy as ever in 2017, and almost every manufacturer has at least one dual-camera phone in its line-up. For two generations, LG has used the second camera as a true wide-angle lens—it has an almost fish eye view of the world, and lets you capture a more panoramic shot than you would with a traditional lens.

Huawei takes a different approach, dedicating a second monochrome camera to gather fine details. Huawei’s software then melds this monochrome shot with the RGB image from the main camera, and the result is an overall better photo, especially in shadows and highlights.

Samsung has opted for a much more common route, using the second lens as a telephone (or zoomed-in) option. This is the same approach we see in Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus, and allows the Note8 to dip its toe into the world of depth-of-field effects. But where Apple calls this Portrait Mode, Samsung has dubbed these background-blurring bokeh tricks Live Focus.

By using two cameras, the Note8 is able to model a three-dimensional space, and then use software to introduce artificial blur around the focus point. The camera app includes a handy slider that allows you to adjust—in real time—how much background blur will be present in your final shot. The iPhone 7 Plus doesn’t have this level of control, so Samsung has an exclusive on this trick. For now, at least. We’ll have to see what Apple has in store for the iPhone 7s and iPhone 8.

Open the Note8’s gallery app, and you’ll have access to the same depth slider in all photos shot with Live Focus turned on. From there, you can save a new image with a different amount of blur in it. This is possible because all of the information captured by the second camera remains intact.

The post-production slider feature isn’t entirely new, and I actually prefer Huawei’s method of giving you an F-stop number to adjust for easy reference. But in my brief time with Live Focus mode, it worked well. It’s a brand new processing technology, so it’ll probably take a while for users to figure out how they can use it best.

It’s impossible to determine a camera’s true quality without studying the pixels of full-resolution photos downloaded to a desktop PC. So please stay tuned for our comprehensive camera tests once we have the Galaxy Note8. We’ll be shooting both in the studio and out in the field.

Microsoft’s fascinating GigJam service will close in September

Microsoft will close and end the preview of its new GigJam productivity service, which was aimed at helping teams of people collaborate in real time over the Internet, the company said Tuesday.

Microsoft's GigJam is aimed at helping people work together.

“After careful consideration, we’ve decided to retire the GigJam Preview on September 22, 2017,” Microsoft said. As of that day, any remaining “gigs” will automatically expire.

GigJam combines data from a variety of services including Microsoft’s own Office 365, Trello, Dropbox, and Salesforce. Users can then bring that information into a shared workspace, or “gig,” allowing them to quickly work together.

Users can easily redact part of the information they’re sharing with other people, meaning they can selectively share only what needs to be seen in order to get a job done.

There’s no way around it: GigJam was a kind of wacky product Microsoft has built to help people get work done together. But what’s interesting is that it’s emblematic of the company’s current approach to the productivity market—focused on letting people quickly and independently collaborate across different services while maintaining a secure environment.

Here’s how it works: One user starts a “Gig,” and then pulls in information from whatever services they need, like email, Salesforce, Office documents, and Asana tasks. That information shows up as a card inside GigJam, where users can highlight some information inside a card, redact other information, and then send the whole bundle off to another user for review or editing.

It’s a good way to both keep focused on the task at hand (like editing only one slide out of a PowerPoint presentation) and also enables workers to more easily team up with people outside of their organization, like suppliers and contractors who shouldn’t be privy to some information.

The GigJam interface also combines a bunch of interesting input methods. Users can work entirely with the keyboard and mouse, but they can also interact with Gigs using touch and voice input. The service is a crazy bundle of different modern capabilities and looks in demos like something out of the future.

GigJam’s radical differences from other collaboration products like Slack, email, Yammer, and SharePoint are what make it unique and powerful, but may also end up being its undoing. Plenty of companies have bet on innovative productivity services that ended up being less popular than expected. The epic failure of Google Wave comes to mind.

GigJam is available on Windows and Mac, with a beta of the iOS application coming soon. Users can sign up for the private beta here, and Microsoft says everyone who requests an invitation will get one. People who have already requested an invitation to the beta before now should have one waiting in their inboxes.

Pixel 2: Everything we know about Google’s next flagship phone

Google flipped the script last year when it retired the Nexus line in favor of its own branded handsets. Now all eyes are on the Pixel 2. With improved specs and even better cameras, the new phones are poised to propel Google back to the head of the class with a pure Android O experience.

Since the Pixel and Pixel XL landed, the LG G6 and Galaxy S8 have upped the ante for premium phones with their slim bezels and 16:9 screens. So, like last year, we’ll be watching to see whether the next version of Google’s handset can chip away at Samsung’s dominance. Details are already starting to leak about the Pixel 2 phones, so stay tuned to this article for the very latest information:

Pixel 2 design and display

While the Pixel’s iPhone-inspired front seemed somewhat uninspired last year, it looks downright boring next to the bezel-slimming designs of LG’s G6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S8. Rumors suggest that will change. Android Police has gotten its hands on a supposed leak of the Pixel 2 XL rendering, where it appears to have a 2:1 screen like the G6 and S8, much thinner bezels, and smoother 3D edges (though the report says the glass will be flat, not curved). The site claims the new phone will sport a 6-inch AMOLED display manufactured by LG, which makes sense given Google’s reported $900 million investment in LG Display. The picture also shows a similar two-tone rear case with a smaller window of glass around the camera, a feature first reported by XDA Developers. Android Police says that the XL model will represent “the cutting edge of Google’s engineering and design efforts, while the smaller device will act as a sort of entry-level option.”

Speaking of the entry-level Pixel, XDA Developers reports it will feature a 4.97-inch, 1080p display similar to the current version’s, with an “almost identical” design. A leaked image published by GSMArena, above, seems to confirm this description. The spy shot shows a slightly more rectangular device with chunky bezels all around. Of note, there is a new speaker slit below the screen, suggesting the handset will have front-facing stereo speakers.

A series of 3D renders based on leaked design schematics confirm much of what Android Police and XDA Developers have reported as far as the design goes, with dimensions that match of very closely to the current models: 145.3 x 69.3 x 7.8 mm for the smaller model and 157.6 x 76.3 x 7.9 mm for the XL. But there’s one extra tidbit: There may be a camera bump as well.

Pixel 2 specs, features, and sound

Last year’s Pixel featured the then-top-of-the-line Snapdragon 821 chip, and this year’s Pixel may also incorporate high-quality silicon. XDA Developers claims the phones will be powered by the Snapdragon 835 chip, along with the same 4GB of RAM in the current models. A newer report from International Business Times claims that Google will be using an updated version of the chip, much like last year. The publication says it will be the the first phone to use the Snapdragon 836 chip, bringing “faster throughput with minimal power consumption.” Evan Blass all but confirmed the new chip with in a tweet announcing the date the new phones will be unveiled.

Additionally, the smaller Pixel will come in a 64GB variation, though it’s unclear whether it will replace the 32GB base model or add another tier.

Audiophiles will be bummed to learn that Google might dump the headphone jack in the Pixel 2. XDA Developers and 9to5Google both report that the 3.5mm jack will be jettisoned in the new model in favor of stereo speakers. And the 3D renders we’ve seen all but confirm this report. However, audiophiles should rest a little easier knowing that Google has been hard at work at fixing the Bluetooth issues that plague the current models, as reveled in a recent Reddit AMA by Android O engineers.

Finally, Android Police reports that the new Pixel will have a squeezable frame like the HTC U11 to launch Google Assistant and other apps.

Pixel 2 water resistance

It was somewhat surprising that Google opted to skip IP68 water resistance in the original Pixel, but there are signs it will rectify that in its next handset. As 9to5Google explains, the feature is “on the table” for the Pixel 2—although sources had previously informed the site that it was a priority for the next release.

Pixel 2 camera

If there’s one thing you can count on in a new flagship phone, it’s that the camera will be better. 9to5Google reports that Google won’t focus on megapixels with the Pixel 2, but rather will “compensate in extra features.” It’s unclear exactly what that means, but the site says the camera will be a “major focus” in the development of the Pixel 2. Additionally, XDA Developers reports that the Pixel 2 will stick with a single camera rather than a dual setup. And the render from Android Police bears this out, showing a single lens that is much larger than the current model, however it does appear to jut out ever so slightly from the case.

In a blog post, Google has already shown off some incredible results from its experimental nighttime photography techniques that use the existing Pixel camera to generate some incredible low-light images, and we’re hoping some of that processing power makes its way into the Pixel 2.

Pixel 2 price

Premium phones don’t usually go down in price, and the Pixel 2 isn’t about to break that trend. In fact, it might cost more. 9to5Google reports that Google’s next handset will be “at least” $50 higher than this year’s model, meaning it would start at $699 for the 5-inch model and top $800 for the Pixel 2 XL. Furthermore, a comment by Rick Osterloh confirms that the flagship Pixel will stay a “premium” phone, meaning it will fetch many hundreds of dollars.

Galaxy Note8: Features, specs and everything else you need to know

At long last, the Galaxy Note 8 is here. Whether you begrudgingly returned your Note 7 after the battery-related recall, or have just been counting the days until your Note 5 was eligible for an upgrade, the Galaxy Note 8 is ready to fill the phablet-sized hole in your life.

And based on our first impressions, it looks like the Note 8 was worth the wait. From its giant screen to its greatly improved camera, Samsung’s latest productivity handset is a tour de force, packing cutting-edge features inside an elegant, compact enclosure. Here’s everything you need to know about the newest phablet on the block.

Galaxy Note 8 hands-on

Note8 specs

Display: 6.3″ Quad HD+ 2960 x 1440 Super AMOLED, 532ppi
Dimensions: 162.5 x 74.8 x 8.6 mm
Weight: 195g
Color: Midnight black, orchid gray in the U.S.; deepsea blue, maple gold internationally
Operating system: Samsung Experience based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (octo-core, 10nm, up to 2.45GHz)
GPU: Adreno 540
Rear camera: Dual 12MP telephone and wide angle,
Front camera: 8MP, f/1.7
RAM: 6GB/8GB LPDDR4
Storage: 64/128/256GB UFS 2.1 2-LANE
Ports: USB C, nano-SIM slot/microsSD, 3.5mm audio jack
Battery: 3,300 mAh

Note 8 price and release date

The Galaxy Note 8 is Samsung’s most expensive phone to date, clocking in at around $950—about $100 more than the Galaxy S8+. Preorders are already being accepted and the device will begin shipping on Friday, September 15. Samsung is selling the unlocked Note 8 for $930, and carrier pricing is as follows:

T-Mobile is charging $930 for a full-priced Galaxy Note 8, or you can put down $210 up front and spread the rest of the cost over 24 $30 monthly payments. Also, Jump On Demand customers will pay $39 a month with no down payment, for a cost of $936.
AT&T customers will pay $950 up front for a Note 8, or $31.67 for 30 months on an AT&T Next plan.
Verizon will be selling the phablet for $960, or $40 a month for 24 months.
Over at Sprint, the Note 8 will also cost $960. However, the carrier is offering the the device for zero down and $20 per month for 24 months ($480) with the Sprint Flex leasing plan for new customers.

Note 8 display and design

galaxy note8 holding

If you’ve used a Galaxy S8+, then you already have a pretty good idea of how the Note 8 looks. It features a 6.3-inch AMOLED display (up a fraction of an inch from the 6.2-inch S8+), and it features the same stunning Infinity Display design. The design takes most of its cues from the S8 as well, with thin bezels at the top and bottom and an all-glass enclosure. Flip it over and you’ll find a dual camera and a fingerprint sensor, still unfortunately positioned to the right of the camera. The corners of the device are slightly squarer than the S8+, but unless you compare them side by side, it’s very difficult to tell the two phones apart.

Note 8 performance, features, and storage

The Note 8 is powered by the same Snapdragon 835 chip that’s inside the Galaxy S8. It does, however, have 6GB of RAM, an increase over the S8’s standard 4GB. As far as storage goes, the Note 8 comes with the same 64GB of internal storage as the S8 and keeps the microSD card slot as well for expansion up to 256GB. It also has IP68 water resistance, support for fast wireless charging, and a headphone jack.

Note 8 battery

After last year’s exploding batteries spurred a global recall, Samsung is playing it a little conservative with the Note 8. The handset features a 3,300m Ah battery, which is smaller than the S8+ and the Note 7, both of which sport 3,500 mAh batteries. Additionally, Samsung is running Note 8s through the same rigorous 8-point battery safety check that it implemented for the S8, and has established a partnership with UL to certify the Note 8 complies with the firm’s specific standards. All of which is to say, the Note 8 should be safe to take on an airplane.

Note 8 camera

Samsung has seriously upgraded the camera in the Note 8, adding a second lens on the back for its first dual-camera Galaxy phone. Both lenses have the same Dual Pixel 12MP sensor, but the main “wide” lens has an aperture of f/1.7 while the secondary telephoto lens offers 2X optical zoom but a slower f/2.4 aperture. Samsung has added optical image stabilization (OIS) to both lenses as well, a first for a smartphone (competitors only offer OIS on the main camera).

Samsung Note8

As expected, an iPhone 7 Plus-like portrait mode is the key feature of the Note 8’s dual-camera system, but Samsung takes it a step further with Live Focus, a feature that uses both camera to create depth-of-field bokeh effects. Inside the camera app you’ll find a slider that lets you adjust the amount of background blur in your shot, both before and after you snap it. Apple’s phone doesn’t offer this level of depth-of-field control.

Do I Need NFC In My Smartphone?

NFC, as an abbreviation of Near Field Communication, is a kind of short-distance wireless communication technology that’s hot huge potential this year. Today were talking about NFC, what’s NFC function in our real phone, how to make use of it? Let’s have a look today.

What Is NFC?

Near Field Communication, NFC, it is called short-distance wireless communication as well, it allow data interchange between electronic devices such as smartphones, to exchange information from one spot to another in a non contact type situation (within 10 cm).

This technology is developed from Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) by scientist from Sony and Philips, it mainly services mobile, smartphone and other hand-held devices by providing M2M (Machine to Machine) communication. Due to NFC’s natural security, it has great potential and prospect in the mobile payment and other areas.

DO i need NFC In A Smartphone?

NFC has been widely used in smartphone applications, they are divided into five categories below:

Touch and Go.

Access control management, bus tickets, entrance password. Use your phone as ticket identification or access control password to a card reading machine instead of using a login.

2.Touch and Pay.

So long as you close KINGZONE Z1 (with NFC function) to POS machine with NFC mode, payment can be submitted easily.

Touch and Connect.

Connect two devices with NFC function, for instance, a smartphone and a laptop, Peer-to-Peer data interchange will be available, such as, download music, pictures and exchange phone books.

4.Touch and Explore.

User with NFC smartphone is able to glance over public transportation information by closing the device to public phone or poster with NFC function. This is an easy way for fast information access.

Load and Touch.

People can receive or download information through GPRS network and apply it to payment or access control management. With one scan you can even send and automated text message in a specific format to the phone of housekeeper or to your smart home system and take control of his/her authority getting into different premises.

NFC Payment

We are now familiar with NFC payment, particularly after the promotion of several smartphone magnates like Samsung and Apple. Basically, mobile payment is a prime function of Near Field Communication.

After implanting NFC functionaliy in a smartphone, users can release their actual wallet or banking card and conveniently submit a payment in a mall or other entities, it is positive and nearly a future of payment because it has four natural advantages.

Advantages Of NFC Payment

High security: NFC payment can be done within the range of 10cm only, it is a communication between one spot to another, hence, it has guaranteed privacy and security when making data interchange, for instance, entering your payment password.
Convenience: Traditional wallets are redundant, you have to carry it wherever you go, but NFC payment doesn’t. You can gather all you banking cards together in one smartphone, it is easy to pay and extremely effort-less to take control of them.
Low consumption: Its battery consumption nothing compared to Bluetooth or Wifi. In one way NFC communication only one device needs power.
Low manufacturing cost: Now that NFC technology is developed the economy of scale has reached an affordable level and the whole manufacturing cost is stunningly low in 2015.

Disadvantages

1.It is early days, most countries and regions are just at a developing NFC payment tech, so, it is still awaiting official release. As such there is also a high user conversion cost as although manufacturing cost are low, the cost to you is high. To keep it simple, if you don’t have a phone with NFC, you cant use NFC, so there is this initial expense. The average user replaces their phone every 2 years and it is likely your next one will have NFC.

After service. How many NFC after service available at this moment? None, at least at most regions and countries that only at the beginning of NFC payment.

NFC In Daily Life

Apart from payment, NFC has a bright future, even now you can get NFC stickers to open certain apps or put the phone in certain modes. You can put a sticker on your bedside table and when your phone is there it will automatically turn to silent mode, even put in the car for hands free mode to automatically setup and connect.

Let me share my experience,

1.First, you need an NFC sticker.

2.Open “Setting”, click “Network” column and “NFC”, the function is already initiated by default. If you want shut it down, press it again.

3.Put NFC sticker behind the phone and scan it.

4.After the notification “Label recorded successfully”,you can set the desired application or settings that will activate. For example, when bay the bedside table use Sleep Mode, you can make the phone in Flight Mode or silent mode.

5.After all settings are completed and saved, put the phone near the NFC sticker and it should open the set action automatically.

If you want to end the experience, scan the sticker again.

The Difference Between Type C and USB 3.

If you are hooked into technology, then you have noticed changes in the USB world. Both Type C and USB 3.0 are mentioned on almost every new gadget and are being battered around by manufacturers but little explain the real tech behind these terms. This article will explain exactly what the differences are.

Type C is a plug; USB 3.0 is a protocol.

USB-Type-C-41

The Type C Connector

We’ve all seen the UBS Type-A, the original USB. Type B, is a square port that is used in printers. Micro B is used in many small devices. Type-C is the new plug I the market. It is small and compact. This connection is used in place of type A and type B ports. This connection can run on many protocols and older specs like USB 2.0. It measures 8.4mm by 2.6mm. This means that it requires only a little space on the circuit board. It can, therefore, be used also on Smart Phones. It is reversible making it easy to plug upside down. This port is not compatible with any other port but it does not need to be, Type C was designed to be the one cable for everything. Small enough for your phone but powerful enough to power your laptop.

All those extra pins open the connector up to hosting almost every type of connection you would ever need, the spec can;

Transfer files and connect devices just like a regular USB.
Charge high power devices even laptops.
Stream video like HDMI.
Stream audio.
Do all of the above at the same time.
Can be converted back to regular USB with either an adapter or Type A to Type C connector.

Type C is something you should look out for in your next device as it is expected to replace the older USB plugs and eventually all you will need are Type C connections.

USB 3

Unlike Type C that is a physical connector, this is a protocol that supports 5 gig bits per second. It is faster than USB 2.0 and can be amazingly fast if used with external SSD enclosures or pen drives.

Both go hand in hand

The USB 3.1,3 and 2 specification is supported in the Type C system and ensures all your old devices will be operational in the future.

It will be a while for these two specs to become dominant, but looking at everything that has been released already this year, it wont be long until the one cable for all idea is fully embraced.

All you Need to Know About QC4.0+

Last year, Qualcomm Technologies released QC4.0, the most advanced charging technology that is likely to change the charging ability of future Smartphones. At the same time, the company also released the Snapdragon 835 processor which they say will be the next generation Smartphone processor. At the moment, there is no device that supports Quick Charge 4. The company revealed that their advanced charging technology will be available with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.

QC4.0+ benefits

What are the benefits of Qualcomm Quick Charge 4? Basically, QC4.0+ charges up to 15 % faster compared to previous releases. This latest technology will be also 30 % more efficient and will run up to 5-degree Celsius cooler compared to previous releases.

For instance, five minutes of charging will guarantee you more than 5 hours of battery life. Your Smartphone’s battery will attain 50 % of charge in less than 15 minutes of charging. This means that future Smartphones with Qualcomm Quick Charge 4 will charge like they are connected to two high-powered chargers. Their batteries will have increased efficiency and the Smartphone themselves will stay cooler.

Key features of QC4.0+ and how they work

Quick Charge 4 has a wide range of advanced features compared to prior releases. Here are the key features and how they work.

Battery Saver

This feature was included in this latest generation not only to provide comprehensive safety while charging but also to extend the battery’s charging cycle life. A protection feature is implemented at various stages of charging in order to keep accurate records of temperature, current, and voltage while protecting various components of the Smartphone such as connectors, cables, systems and the battery itself.

USB Power Delivery and USB Type-C

The two technologies were incorporated in QC4 adapters to ensure that there is consistent charging performance. These technologies will also ensure that one accessory supports a variety of mobile devices and charging implementations.

Intelligent Negotiation for Optimum Voltage (INOV)

Quick Charge 4 is incorporated with this latest algorithm to help your Smartphone determine the amount of power to request at a particular point. This not only maximizes charging efficiency but also enhances optimum power transfer.

Dual Charge

A second power management IC is also incorporated in Quick Charge 4. Charging your Smartphone using two power management ICs has many benefits. For instance, the charge current is divided into two which reduces charging time and promotes more efficient thermal dissipation.

3 easy ways to transfer everything to a new phone

Having a new phone is delightful but transferring data can be an initial hurdle. Here are 3 ways to transfer the data from your old phone to your new phone.

By Google Account

Backing-up and restoring data by Google account might be the method most people know. Supported by the backing-up and restoring of an Android system, users can transfer their data including Google Calendar, WiFi account and password, desktop setting, Gmail, screen settings, language setting and some of the apps. It is by far the easiest way to replicate your basic system data.

The exact path is entered into the “setting>back up and restore”, unlock the backup set and choose a Google account.

As to the new phone, when you log in the account you have chosen in the former step, you will find everything will be restored as you choose. As this method uses the internet, the time to setup your new phone will depend on the internet connection speed.

In-house solutions

If you buy the same brand as your old phone, there is an effective way most people ignore, many brands themselves have a backup/restore tool for transferring data to new phones. Check your phone settings or jump onto Google to see if an app is available. :

Here are some data apps:

This method can save time if you have a large amount of data as you do not require the internet to copy the data across to other devices.

Tap & Go: A New function of Android

Android’s Tap & Go service arrived with the Android 5.0 Lolipop system launched a few years ago.

You can transmit data (including apps and apps data) through the NFC and Bluetooth. This method will work if both devices have NFC and Bluetooth.

Transferring apps to your new phone with tap and go

When you turn on your new phone, please unlock your old phone and open NFC. Put these 2 phones back to back.
You will receive the notice of adding a new account on your old phone.
When the screen on your old device says,”Copy accounts and data from this device?” tap “ok”.
Enter your Google account and password, then set your new phone as a new device and the transfer will start.

The key advantage to this method is you can choose what apps you want to copy so it is ideal if you are wanting to leave some older or unused apps behind.