LG will launch a phone with a second screen attachment

It’s one of multiple phones launching at the Mobile World Congress trade show next month. But none of them will fold.
LG’s next smartphone may have you seeing double. And no, it’s not because of a foldable display.
The company will launch a smartphone, whose name hasn’t been finalized, that will have an option for a second-screen attachment, according to a person familiar with the situation. The attachment, which the person describes as a sort of case with a screen, could potentially double the total screen size of the device.
It’s one of multiple phones launching at the Mobile World Congress trade show next month, the person said. While the company is mulling the G8 name, it’s unclear whether the multiple-screen phone will carry the name of its flagship line.
There was some confusion over LG launching a foldable smartphone thanks to a report by Korean-language outlet Naver. But this phone won’t fold.
It’s unclear how the gimmick will work, but it’s certainly different at a time when the company could use different. LG has struggled to stand apart from an increasingly competitive field of smartphone players. While Apple, Huawei and Samsungdominate high-end phone sales and OnePlus and other Chinese makers hit more budget-conscious consumers, LG is caught in the awkward middle.
Its flagship smartphones, the LG G7 ThinQ and LG V40 ThinQ, are decent devices that often get overlooked for flashier alternatives.
So the G8 needs to make a splash. Samsung has already teased its foldable smartphone, but other companies are still dealing with issues like wear and tear of a flexible screen and software and user experience issues. Samsung believes it’s solved some of those concerns.

Leak reveals new launch details for Samsung’s upcoming foldable smartphone

Samsung all but confirmed its foldable smartphone (rumored to be called the Galaxy Fold or Galaxy Flex) will make its debut at Unpacked 2019 in San Francisco on February 20th. But in case you still need any additional convincing, Nashville Chatter spotted a certification from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (CMIIT) for a device with the model number SM-F9000 — suspected to be the Galaxy Fold.
Reports surrounding model number SM-F900 surfaced in November. SamMobile also reported that firmware version F900USQU0ARJ5 was being tested by Samsung. SM-F900U is expected to be the model number for the US phone, while Europe and Asia will get the SM-F900F and SM-F900N variants, respectively.
Not much else can be deduced from the CMIIT approval, other than the fact that China will apparently be one of the markets in which the foldable Galaxy phone will launch.
While Samsung did showcase what we assume was a prototype of the Galaxy Fold at its developer conference last fall, a formal announcement of a retail device has yet to be made. That is expected to change in just over a month, though, and this certification (along with Samsung’s billboards) is convincing evidence.
When it does arrive, the Galaxy Fold is expected to retail for as much as $1,800, limiting its marketshare ceiling rather significantly. But as one of the first foldable smartphones to hit the market (and the first from a major company), there are sure to be plenty of interesting consumers who want to know what the future holds.

Next Windows 10 version will let you search without Cortana’s involvement

Today’s Insider build of Windows 10, number 18317, changes how search and Cortana are used, as Microsoft is working to reposition Cortana as a productivity-focused digital assistant and integrate search with Office 365.
Currently, Windows 10 has a single text box on the taskbar that’s used for searches and Cortana commands. Type a word or two and it’ll search the Start menu, settings, and documents. But type a command (“tell me a joke,” say) and no search is performed; instead, the command is delivered to Cortana, and she duly responds. In the new build, the text box is used solely for searching. To give Cortana a command, you’ll have to speak to her or click a separate Cortana button on the taskbar.
The combination of the two features was an oft-criticized part of the Windows 10 interface, as there’s no particular reason to bundle them together. Both can respond to typed commands, so using the text box for two different things saved some space. Because searches are popular, it’s likely that some people were introduced to Cortana as a result of a search. Separating the two things should make the Windows interface a little more logical. The settings pages have also been disentangled.
Microsoft is promising to make some big changes to its search experience that will be particularly visible to corporate Office 365 users. Searches, whether invoked from Windows, Bing, Office, or Teams will be unified. So no matter where you start your search, they’ll all be able to find, for example, documents in the corporate SharePoint or OneDrive for Business, conversations in Teams or Yammer, or contacts from the company address book.
Cortana is not being abandoned, but Microsoft is making changes to give its assistant more focus. For example, the Insider preview version of Windows 10 also includes integration between Cortana, Microsoft’s To-Do app, and Outlook’s tasks. Cortana has long had the ability to set reminders; the integration means that these will now be made visible in To-Do and Outlook. The Cortana button on the taskbar may not be her final home—rumors have been circulating for some months that eventually Cortana functionality will be moved into the Action Center, with Cortana used to handle notifications.

Android Q leak reveals system-wide dark mode and bigger emphasis on privacy

If the usual cycle holds, it’s going to be a few months before Google is ready to share anything about Android Q. But XDA Developers apparently managed to spend some time with a very early version of Android’s next big update, and although it doesn’t offer the full view, it does provide a look at some of what Google might have planned.
The biggest visual change (for now) is a system-wide dark mode. Android 9 Pie’s “theme” can be changed from light to dark, but it only really applies to the notification shade and the app launcher. XDA’s screenshots suggest that Q will extend dark mode to more places including the settings menu, and it might have a setting to force dark mode even in apps that lack a built-in version of it.
Google is also continuing to bolster user privacy. After implementing stricter rules around things like camera / microphone access and background apps in recent Android releases, it looks like the company will add a new “allow only while the app is in use” permission. Currently, Android Pie offers just an on or off toggle for sensitive permissions like location, so adding more flexibility is a good move since some apps won’t work if a permission is disabled entirely.
Those are the major highlights, but XDA Developers also sees hints that Google is working on its own desktop / external display mode similar to Samsung’s DeX. There’s also a developer setting for built-in screen recording, but that’s not yet fully working in this early build of the OS.
Google unveiled some of Android 9 Pie’s major new features back in May of last year, so you can expect to hear more about Q and whatever new functionality it will bring around that time. Both Android Oreo and Android Pie were released in August after a few months of beta testing.

Acer Announces TravelMate X3410 Business Class Notebook

In addition to the consumer focused products announced this week at CES, Acer has also announced a new business notebook this week. The TravelMate X3410 is a 14-inch notebook aimed at professionals, with several options depending on the budget and performance requirements.

Unlike the Acer Swift 7 just announced, the TravelMate X3410 is more function over form. The 14-inch laptop offers a 1920×1080 IPS display with Acer’s ComfyView matte coating. Without the thin bezels of the higher-end models, the TravelMate X3410 is quite a bit bigger, with dimensions of 328 x 239 x 20 mm (12.9 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches) and a rather hefty weight of 1.6 Kg (3.53 lbs).

Acer offers a range of processor options, from the base model Intel Core i3-8130U, which is a dual-core part with a frequency of 2.2 GHz, to the Core i5-8250U quad-core, up to the Core i7-8550U quad-core. Interestingly, Acer has chosen to outfit the laptop with DDR4 SODIMMS rather than the more typical LPDDR3 we’d see in Ultrabooks, and Acer offers 8 to 16 GB of DDR4, but with SODIMMS that can be upgraded later as well. SSDs are all SATA based, from 128 GB at the low end to 512 GB at the high end.

Acer TravelMate X3410
Component TMX3410-M-866T TMX2410-M-5608 TMX3410-M-30Q6
CPU Intel Core i7-8550U

4C/8T 1.8-4.0 GHz

15W TDP 8MB Cache

Intel Core i5-8250U

4C/8T 1.6-3.4 GHz

15W TDP 6MB Cache

Intel UHD 620

Intel Core i3-8130U

2C/4T 2.2-3.4 GHz

15W TDP 4MB Cache

Intel UHD 620

RAM 16GB DDR4 8GB DDR4 8GB DDR4
Storage 512 GB SATA SSD 256 GB SATA SSD 128 GB SATA SSD
Display 14-inch 1920×1080 ComfyView IPS
Dimensions 328 x 239 x 20 mm

12.9 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches

Weight 1.6 Kg / 3.53 lbs
Connectivity 802.11ac

Gigabit Ethernet

Battery 60 Wh Li-Ion, up to 15 hours

65 W Charger

Ports 1 x USB-C Gen 1

3 x USB-A 3.0

Headset jack

HDMI

VGA

Starting Price $899.99 USD

As a slightly thicker device, Acer has found room for a Gigabit Ethernet port, to complement the 802.11ac wireless, and there is quite a wide range of ports as well, including three USB 3.0 ports, one USB 3.1 Type-C port, HDMI, and even VGA. For those that appreciate it, there’s also a SD card reader.

Acer rates battery life at up to 15 hours with the 5170 mAh battery, which should be right around 60 Wh total capacity. Acer ships a 65 W charger which should allow for a fast refill as well.

Although not as jaw-dropping as the Acer Swift 7, the TravelMate X3410 comes in with a much lower price, starting at $899.99 USD.

ASUS turns to AMD for its latest TUF gaming laptops

ASUS’ latest TUF gaming laptops may look about the same as before, but under the hood, it’s a new ball game. Rather than packing Intel and NVIDIA parts, the 15.6-inch FX505DY (above) and 17-inch FX705DY (below) are all AMD, with a 12-nanometer, four-core Ryzen 2 3550H APU and Radeon RX 560X discrete graphics. Both models also have 1080p FreeSync displays, with the 17-inch model hitting up to 60Hz, and the 15-incher maxing out at a decent 120Hz.

Both models are designed to survive falls and “extreme environments” thanks to the mil-spec toughness and hexagonal bottom design. They both pack beefier-than-usual LED keyboards with full number pads and 1.8mm of key travel. Other features include 7.1 channel virtual surround sound, onboard ethernet, a 512GB PCIe SSD or 1TB Fireuda SSHD, up to 32GB of RAM, HDMI 2.0 output and three USB ports.

ASUS’ move to AMD for its low-end gaming laptops is an interesting one. The current TUF laptops pack Intel eighth-gen CPUs and NVIDIA graphics (up to GTX1060), so don’t expect to see improved graphics performance with the RX 560X chip (the same one Apple uses in the MacBook Pro). It’s more likely that ASUS is trying to drive costs down, as the current models have generally been panned for having poor performance for the price. ASUS has yet to tell us the cost of the new TUF models, but they’ll arrive sometime this quarter.

HP at CES 2019: HP Chromebook 14 Combines AMD and Chrome OS

When the first Chromebooks were released in 2011, they were aimed at the lower end of the market and carried matching price tags. After Google launched its Pixel laptop in 2013 and proved that it was possible to address the premium segment, other makers of PCs followed on with more advanced Chromebooks that were more expensive. Eventually, Chromebooks somewhat moved away from being exclusively in the low end of the market, and towards a broader market covering multiple price ranges. With the low end market diminished by not forgotten, HP has announced that it’s going to take another shot at this segment with its new Chromebook 14. Coincidentally, the Chromebook 14 is also the first ChromeOS-powered PC featuring an AMD processor.

As the name suggests, the HP Chromebook 14 features a 14-inch SVA display panel with a 1366×768 resolution and anti-glare coating. The notebook comes in a fine-looking chassis with a textured finish and a 1.8 cm (0.92-inch) z-height, though HP hasn’t specified what kind of material it is made of. Given the thickness, it is reasonable to guess that some sort of a plastic was used (I would assume polycarbonate).

Moving on to the guts of the system. The HP Chromebook 14 is based on AMD’s A4-9120C processor, a relatively unknown SoC featuring two Excavator cores running at 1.8 GHz and the GCN 1.2-based Radeon R4 iGPU with 128 SPs operating at 720 MHz (more information about the SoC is available in Ian’s AMD at CES 2019 coverage). Being fabbed on a 28 nm process and a low-end chip overall, this SoC is cheap enough to that AMD and HP can still turn a profit even with the low-end pricing of the system. All told, do not expect too much from this APU (and therefore the Chromebook 14 as a whole): it can handle productivity apps, VP9/H.264/H.265 decode, play some games, but that is about it.

The Chromebook 14 is equipped 4 GB of DDR4 RAM and 32 GB of local eMMC storage, just like early Chromebooks. As for I/O, it has a Qualcomm 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 4.2 controller, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C ports, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a microSD card reader, a dual microphone array, B&O-badged speakers, a webcam, and so on. Overall, hardware wise the laptop looks pretty much okay.

As for battery life, HP says that its Chromebook 14 lasts for nine hours and 15 minutes on a single charge in their mixed use case workload. The company is using a fairly hefty 47.36 Wh battery here, driven in good part by the need to light up the relatively large 14-inch display.

Finally, while HP is announcing the laptop today, they aren’t announcing pricing or an ETA for the device. We may find out more on AMD’s Wednesday keynote; competing AMD-powered Chromebooks are due in February, so AMD is just about ready themselves.

AMD 2nd Gen Ryzen Mobile processors aim to take over the laptop scene

While all eyes were trained for AMD to announced 7nm Ryzen 3rd Generationprocessors and Vega II graphics cards, the company has surprised us all with its new 2nd Gen Ryzen Mobile CPUs.

Whereas in years past AMD would only introduce a handful of CPUs, the chipmaker now has a full product stack to power everything from gaming laptops, Ultrabooks, budget notebooks and even Chromebooks – more on this last one soon.

AMD Ryzen 7 3750H: 4-cores, 8-threads, 10 GPU cores, clocked at 2.3GHz to 4.0GHz

AMD Ryzen 7 3700U: 4-cores, 8-threads, 10 GPU cores, clocked at 2.3GHz to 4.0GHz

AMD Ryzen 5 3550H: 4-cores, 8-threads, 8 GPU cores, clocked at 2.3GHz to 3.7GHz

AMD Ryzen 5 3500U: 4-cores, 8-threads, 8 GPU cores, clocked at 2.1GHz to 3.7GHz

AMD Ryzen 3 3300U: 4-cores, 4-threads, 6 GPU cores, clocked at 2.1GHz to 3.5GHz

AMD Ryzen 3 3200U: 2-cores, 4-threads, 3 GPU cores, clocked at 2.6GHz to 3.5GHz

AMD Athlon 300U: 2-cores, 4-threads, 3 GPU cores, clocked at 2.4GHz to 3.3GHz

Looking at AMD’s product stack from the bottom up, you’ll find it offers quad-core chips more quickly and regularly than even Intel’s latest Whisky Lake and Amber Lake processor families. The Ryzen 3 3300U is AMD’s second lowest-tier entry-level CPU, but if you were to buy an Intel-powered laptop with the same number of cores you would have to find a machine with at least an Intel Core i5-8265U – or i5-8259U from the Coffee Lake U-series family.

Unfortunately, AMD’s top-tier mobile processor only features four-cores, whereas the Intel Coffee Lake H-series chips have moved up to being hexa-core. However, it’s worth noting that the company has only announced two H-series CPUs, so this could just be the beginnings of the brand’s gaming laptop ambitions.

Performance gains

According to AMD, the Ryzen 5 3500U will deliver 14% faster web browsing, 27% greater media editing performance and tie in productivity than an Intel Core i5-8250U (Kaby Lake R). In terms of battery life, Team Red promised users can expect up to 12 hours of general usage and 10 hours of video playback.

Of course, AMD’s greatest strength is it integrated, discrete-class Vega graphics and company. The Ryzen 7 3700U pitted against an Intel Core i7-8565U (Whisky Lake) can play most games 10 or more frames per second faster at a 720p resolution and low settings.

AMD also plans to keep its mobile chips in top game playing shape by delivering Radeon Software updates to all its Ryzen Mobile processors both past and present.

Meet the first AMD-powered Chromebooks

On top of introducing its 2nd Gen Ryzen Mobile Processors, AMD also introduced new A-series chips designed specifically for Chromebooks.

AMD A6-9220C: 2-cores, 2-threads, R5 Series Radeon Graphics, clocked at 1.8GHz to 2.7GHz

AMD A4-9120C: 2-cores, 2-threads, R4 Series Radeon Graphics, clocked at 1.6GHz to 2.4GHz

In a fight between the AMD A6-9220C and the Intel Pentium N4200, Team Red promises users can expect 23% faster web browsing, 2.5x faster email, 33% faster photo editing and 34% gaming. That last bit seems crucial as Chrome OS and Android seem to be inseparable at this point and gaming on Chromebooks becomes bigger.

Want more CES 2019 highlights? TechRadar is hands-on with 8K TVs and foldable, rollable displays, along with new laptops and Alexa-enabled smart gadgets.

Jack to the future for Huawei? P30 leak hints at the return of the headphone port

Huawei, currently the world’s second-largest smartphone company by sales, has won over users partly by loading its devices with a ton of new features, from wireless charging to top-class cameras and catchy cosmetic features like the colorful gradients on their shiny backsides. Now, a leaked image of its next flagship Android phone appears to reveal a surprising reverse course. According to Indian blog 91phones (and via Engadget) its next premium device, dubbed the P30, will feature a HEADPHONE JACK.

What’s that, you say? Aren’t headphone jacks so yesterday?

Well, it turns out that sometimes progress isn’t universally loved. (Pour one out for the futurists here.)

Over the past couple of years, Apple and others have gradually removed the jack from their devices.

Yes, it’s been done in the name of thinner handsets and more features like waterproofing. But — let’s be honest — also most likely also to up-sell people to those very pricey, sometimes pretentious-looking wireless earphones.

But you know what? People — say, those who have a favorite set of corded headphones, or who hate the idea of losing the ability to charge using said headphones — are still missing those inky black holes.

Huawei has been no different, removing its jack in the P30’s P20 predecessor.

But the leaked image reveals that it seems to be making a return in the familiar lower edge of the handset, to the left of the USB-C charging port.

Other features revealed in this and previous leaks of the phone include a six-inch screen, more of that gradient backing, a 24MP selfie camera in a streamlined notch on the front, with a Sony triple camera at 38MP with 5x optical zoom on the back, and no fingerprint sensor port, with the device likely to be shipping in 128GB and 256GB versions.

Huawei overtook Apple as the world’s second largest smartphone vendor in Q2 of 2018, and the last two quarters have only cemented that position. In Q3, only Samsung (the leader) and Huawei saw shipment growth among all the top players; and as for Q4, well, Apple’s given us a little preview of what we will expect there.

Interestingly, Apple specifically has singled out China as a disappointing market when it comes to iPhone sales: Huawei happens to be the market leader there.

So — if this leak is accurate — it’s interesting to think that as Huawei grows often by aggressively following the playbook of other brands, it may be making a bold move by bringing something back that appeared to have gotten discarded in the tech march forward.

If its pace of handset sales continues to stay strong, this could be coming at a key time for Huawei. The company remains in hot water with governments in Europe, the US and elsewhere over questionable and potentially illegal business practices, and that appears to be potentially impacting its massive telecoms equipment business and its lucrative deals with carriers.

As for when this supposed phone might launch, we’re just about to kick off CES in Vegas, but it’s unlikely to appear here. The P20 launched in March last year, a few weeks after the big MWC mobile event in Barcelona, and that could potentially be the same timescale the company follows again.

We’re contacting Huawei for comment and will update this post as we learn more.

A new Google Chrome attack can freeze your Windows 10 device

A new exploit has been discovered in Google Chrome that can potentially freeze Windows 10 devices completely. The new bug is being used in a tech support scam that freezes Windows 10 and then tells the user that their device is infected by a virus.
The newly discovered bug uses Javascript code to create a loop and which makes it impossible to close the tab or the browser. The pop-up also claims to from the official Microsoft support website and claims that the computer is infected with a virus, which could compromise your passwords, browser history, credit card information and other data. Since it’s a loop, every time you try to close it, it will open again almost instantly and will push your resource usage to 100% which will eventually freeze the computer.
While this looks like a legit issue, it’s just a scam and you can fix your computer easily by following the steps below.
Open Task Manager from the Taskbar
Go to the Processes tab
Click on Google Chrome (or GoogleChrome.exe)
Click End Task button at the bottom right corner
Also, make sure you have not set Google Chrome to restore back the old tabs as this will open the website again. A good way to avoid tech support scams it to verify the information before paying anyone money to fix your device. This is not the first time, a tech support scam has been identified that targetted Google Chrome. Earlier this year, we reported how a Download Bomb exploit has targetted major web browsers and only Microsoft Edge was imune to the attack. A good thumb of rule to prevent from getting scammed is to remember that companies don’t usually ask users to pay money unless they have thoroughly checked the device and identified the problem.