Honor Magic Officially Released in China

Today at the Universiade Center in Shenzhen, Honor officially announced their new phone, the Honor Magic. They explained that Magic, to Honor, means "fantasy" and they've chosen to coin the supporting phrase of "to the future." With innovation being the driving force for their products, Honor is looking to take a lead in handset development with the Magic.

Device Name:	Honor Magic	Price	3699 RMB (~510€ / ~420£ / ~530$)
Android Version	Android 6.0 (Honor Magic Live)	Display	5.09 inch 2560 x 1440 AMOLED (577 PPI)
Chipset	Huawei Kirin 950, Octa-Core (4×2.3 GHz+4×1.8 GHz)	Battery	2,900 mAh, Huawei Magic Power (70% in 20min)
RAM	4GB	Sensors	Hall effect sensor, Fingerprint sensor, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Compass, Accelerometer, Phone status indicator, Gyroscope
Storage	64GB	Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth BT4.2, MicroUSB (USB 2.0),  GPS/AGPS/Glonass/BeiDou Navigation Satellite System
Dimensions	146.1mm (L) x 69.9 mm (W) x 7.8 mm (T)	Rear Camera	12MP, F/2.2 Photo resolution: up to 3968×2976, Video resolution: up to full HD 1080P, 720P 120FPS for slow motions
Weight	145g	Front Camera	8MP, F/2.0, Image sensor: CMOS, Video resolution: up to full HD 1080P

Full list of bands here.

The Honor Magic brings smartphone curves to a new level with all four edges of the screen on the front being curved, and Honor has chosen to also curve the four sides on the back making for a smooth and sleek design.

The back of the device is adorned with the same dual camera setup found on the Honor 8. However, on the front of the device things get even more interesting with a three camera set up, one of which is infrared for taking quality selfies at night. Perhaps the most useful feature is the inclusion of Huawei's new charging technology, as Honor claims that the Honor Magic only takes 20 minutes to charge 70% of its battery (in lab conditions), and just 10 minutes to charge up to 40% of its battery.

Another new feature is Honor's take on facial-recognition with the following key notes:

• Bringing the phone to your face, and actually looking at it, will wake the screen. The demo made on stage showed the phone being raised from flat and the screen staying blank until the presenter looked at the screen.
•  The Magic will not display the text of notifications on the lockscreen unless the owner of the device is the one looking.

The entire software package, dubbed Magic Live, is set to provide Honor's take on all of the features found in Google Now and Google Assistant, and given that this device is a China-only product, such choice makes sense for this market. The demo showed AI integrations for location, application usage, and more.

The Honor Magic is available in China beginning today, and can be found on various online retailers. Let us know your thoughts, and which features you would like to see in worldwide devices from Honor in the comments below. A hands on will be coming soon!

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Official CM14.1 Nightlies are Available for the Nextbit Robin

Nextbit has been very supportive of the developer community, and this week we can now flash official nightly builds of CM14.1 on the Nextbit Robin. Some are reporting performance issues with this early build though, and another says the fingerprint sensor is having some trouble.

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Renders Based on CAD Dimensions Show us the Xperia XA’s Successor

OnLeaks, in collaboration with Slashleaks, has been able to come up with a 3D render of what the successor to Sony's Xperia XA could look like. OnLeaks is known for getting his hands on CAD dimensions of upcoming products. Then, he's able to take this data and come up with reasonable look at what an unreleased product will look like.

As with all rumors though, you'll want to take this information with a grain of salt.

Every now and then we see Sony switch up their design language for a new smartphone, but there doesn't seem to be much changed here. We can see Sony's typical circle power button on the side, along with a volume up and volume down button right above it. Then at the bottom of that same side edge we have the well known dedicated hardware button that most use for taking their photos.

It seems like the speakers are front-facing, but we see what looks like a speaker grill on the right side of the bottom edge. There's a USB Type-C port at the bottom, right in the center, and then a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top. There isn't anything special happening on the back, as the render just shows the camera and flash at the top left corner. It's possible that we'll see some sort of Sony or Xperia logo here  when the final product is released.

Some people have not been a fan of this new design language from Sony. Granted, there have been complaints of the boxed/rectangle look of their phones for a while, but we're seeing them refine this as the years go by. This leak makes it seem as if Sony is shifting from a previous design (from the Xperia XZ) over to this new phone, and focusing on a hardware upgrade with the successor the Sony Xperia XA.

Source: Slashleaks

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BlackBerry Announces a Long-Term Licensing Agreement with TCL

You may know of TCL as the company who manufactures Alcatel's smartphones. They've been producing the company's smartphones for a while now and it seems TCL enjoys this type of business relationship. After BlackBerry's popularity declined, it seemed like the company was just going to stop manufacturing smartphones and focus on their enterprise software division instead. Then a new partnership signaled the possibility of new life coming to BlackBerry's smartphone business.

Granted, BlackBerry is not making their own smartphones anymore, but their brand name will live on. We first saw this with the DTEK50, and then again with the DTEK60, as both of these devices were manufactured by TCL. They were rebranded as TCL smartphones and many have been okay with that, since the hardware is nice and BlackBerry excels in software and security, which is what they've been focusing on.

It was unclear exactly how long this relationship would last, but this week it's been announced that the two companies have signed a long-term licensing agreement. This frees up BlackBerry to continue focusing on their enterprise software division, while still maintaining a branding presence in the smartphone market. It will be interesting to see how this relationship develops in the future too, since the DTEK series was the product of a short-term partnership to see how the two companies would work together.

TCL could go the route of simply rebranding their own smartphones with BlackBerry's logo, or they could start to produce unique designs for them. This partnership gives TCL exclusive global manufacturer and distributor rights for all BlackBerry-branded smartphones except in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia. So we'll continue to see BlackBerry partner with at least one other manufacturer for products sold within these countries.

What do you think of this long-term licensing agreement? Are you looking forward to seeing what new smartphones BlackBerry and TCL release in the future?

Source: Marketwired

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Material Design Guideline Update Talks About App Shortcut Icons and More

It's been a few months since Google updated their Material Design guidelines, but they were able to sneak one in before the end of the year. This update adds three new sections to the spec, and then makes some significant changes to three other sections. Many were wondering what design was ideal for icons of Android's new App Shortcut feature, and Google has included some tips in this latest update.

We're starting to see a number of applications adopt Nougat's new App Shortcuts feature. This is quite helpful for those times we need to access a specific part of an application. Google tells us that App Shortcut icons are circular, they contain a system icon (or an avatar), and they must remain inside the trim area. Google says the total area of the icon must be 48dp, and that it should include 2dp of padding so that the live area is a 44dp circle.

Google also created a section for cross-platform use of Material Design. The idea behind this section is to talk about when you should stick with Material Design guidelines, and when you should adhere to a specific platform's conventions. It's recommended that you use a platform's default text alignment for toolbars, and the same goes for a platform's preferred iconography too.

The last new section of the Material Design guidelines talks about how to indicate, craft, and place help content. Google provides a handy flowchart for suggesting where and how you can implement your help content. Some can add a shortcut to their help content directly in the Navigation Drawer, others might find it best in the Overflow Menu, and there's even a way to put it inside the App Bar. Google even includes tips for icons, writing the help content, and more.

If you're a developer who is interested in Material Design, be sure to check out the new changes in the link below!

Source: Material Design

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Flipkart Teases OnePlus 3 Price Drop; OnePlus Denies Collaboration and Maintains Amazon India Exclusivity

The OnePlus 3 has been a very good value purchase for users looking for an affordable but powerful smartphone. But the OnePlus 3T replaces the OnePlus 3 at a slightly increased price. One could argue that the value proposition remains same as the OnePlus 3T offers more, but at the end of the day, the consumers who have to shell out the extra moolah will have to decide this for themselves.

In India, the OnePlus 3T exists alongside the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 2, for now at least. This wide product lineup allows OnePlus to cover a few different price points, though we are unaware of when OnePlus plans to discontinue the OnePlus 3 in India specifically. The OnePlus 3T (64GB) retails for ₹29,999 (~$443), the OnePlus 3 retails for ₹27,999 (~$413), while the OnePlus 2 retails for ₹19,999 (~$295). All of these prices quoted are from official sellers on Amazon India, which is the exclusive online partner for OnePlus in India.

OnePlus 3 Lineup on Amazon India

However, in a very interesting turn of events, Flipkart started teasing the OnePlus 3 at a very heavy discount price. Flipkart is Amazon India's competition in the online marketplace in India, and both often compete neck-to-neck. The discount offered was being teased as part of Flipkart's upcoming "Big Shopping Days" sale. The price was kept mysterious by not disclosing the thousands-place digit, but even in the worst case scenario, the discount would have priced the OnePlus 3 at an astonishing ₹19,999 ($295) — the same price as the OnePlus 2!

Naturally, customers were miffed with this very heavy price drop of  $100+. The move was perceived as an attempt to clear out OnePlus 3 stocks as OnePlus did mention their intentions to not continue production of the OnePlus 3 (though not specifically confirmed for India). Angry customers took to Twitter to mention their displeasure at the same. But as it turns out, even OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei had no information of such a sale!

.@_sachinbansal brother, what's this? We're exclusive with @amazonIN http://pic.twitter.com/0QBoyagoXz

— Carl Pei (@getpeid) December 16, 2016

The news was a surprise to a lot of us as OnePlus does have an exclusivity agreement in place with Amazon India. This means that OnePlus does not officially sell products on other online retailing marketplaces in India. Such a sharp price drop for the OnePlus 3 would also be rubbing salt into figurative wounds of existing OnePlus 3 owners as the resale value of the phone will drop as sharply. After all, the phone would be an absolute steal for a flagship at under $300, especially when OnePlus remains committed to providing update and support for the OnePlus 3 as they had promised.

OnePlus India has denied the existence of any collaboration with Flipkart for the sale. The company reached out with a statement on the matter:

OnePlus is focused on creating premium flagship smartphones. We have an exclusive partnership with Amazon in India. We advice customers to purchase OnePlus products only through official channels as we cannot guarantee the authenticity of the products sold elsewhere.

Flipkart, on the other hand, responded to NDTV Gadgets with an ambiguous reply on the matter:

Flipkart is a marketplace which helps sellers connect with customers across the country. All our sellers are mandated to adhere to stringent guidelines. The prices and discounts for all our sales are decided by the participating sellers and brands.

We advise readers to exercise caution and discretion with the upcoming sale. So far, questions such as authenticity of the product and warranty arrangements seem out of place as the only official channel for purchase remains Amazon India. With OnePlus themselves refuting any collaboration, the means of procurement and the heavy discount seem very questionable.

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National Infrastructure Commission Reveals Britain is 54th In Global 4G Coverage (USA 10th)

The National Infrastructure Commission, the British agency in charge of advising the government on matters of infrastructure such as the energy market and transport has released their report on mobile connectivity. In March of 2016 the Commission was tasked with answering the question "What does the UK need to do to become a world leader in 5G deployment and to ensure the UK can take advantage of 5G applications?" their report attempts to answer this but also reveals some shocking truths about the state of mobile connectivity in the country.

"The Commission's central finding is that mobile connectivity has become a necessity. The market has driven great advances since the advent of the mobile phone but government must now play an active role to ensure that basic services are available wherever we live, work and travel, and our roads, railways and city centres must be made 5G ready as quickly as possible."

The report also found that:

• 20% of urban premises and almost 80% of rural premises are in a not-spot for 4G coverage
• In rural areas 3% of the population do not have any coverage outside their homes (complete not-spots)
• Coverage on our road networks is poor even for voice coverage (2G)
• 17% of A and B roads are in complete not-spots and an additional 42% have only partial coverage.

The NIC advised that the government must also ensure that the railway network sees improved connectivity, which it advised is provided via a trackside network. Don't get excited about huge jumps in your daily commute's coverage any time soon though, the NIC has stated that the Government should provide a plan by 2017, and the infrastructure be in place on main train routes and motorways by 2025.

"5G is the future – ultra-fast, and ultra-reliable it has the potential to change our lives and our economy in ways we cannot even imagine today. But the UK is currently languishing in the digital slow lane. Britain is 54th in the world for 4G coverage, and the typical user can only access 4G barely half the time. Our 4G network is worse than Romania and Albania, Panama and Peru.

Our roads and railways can feel like digital deserts and even our city centres are plagued by not spots where connectivity is impossible. That isn't just frustrating, it is increasingly holding British business back as more and more of our economy requires a connected workforce. 5G offers us a chance to start again and get ahead. If government acts now we can ensure our major transport networks and urban centres are 5G ready in time to give British industry every chance to lead the world in exploiting its applications.

But none of this will matter unless we bring our mobile network up to speed. The existing system does not provide the level of coverage we will need in our connected future. We need a new universal service obligation which ensures that the mobile essentials – like text, talk and data – are available to us wherever we need them. From connected vehicles to the internet of things, 5G will support a whole new way of communicating and doing business. The UK must not be left behind." – Lord Adonis – Chair of the NIC

Download the full report here (3.4MB .PDF)

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