Massive Note 10 Plus 5G revealed in several leaks

We’re just starting to see leaked images of the stylus-packing Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and its higher-specced Plus version, but there’s something new in the mix: leaked information on and images of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G.

The first image came courtesy of reputable leaker Evan Blass (who supplied earlier leaks of the Note 10 Plus, among others), who tweeted out what appears to be ad copy pairing the new handset with Verizon’s next-generation network, which reads: “Galaxy Note10 Plus 5G meets Verizon 5G. Pre-order today and get a Note10 free.*” He followed it up with a tweet of another Verizon ad GIF.

What does the Note 10 Plus 5G look like? A bigger, wider version of the already-large Note 10, from the looks of the leaked image. True, we don’t see much from the ad – and like early images of the Note 10 Plus, our metric of comparison is really how tall it is compared to the stylus – but it simply looks like a sized-up version of the base model.

Something else has appeared supporting the existence of a 5G Note 10: a certification by China’s 3C authority, according to GizmoChina. The 3C database includes a listing for one SM-N9760, which other reports have tied to the Galaxy Note 10 Plus.

The entry in question prominently lists a “5G digital mobile phone,” which is very likely the 10 Plus 5G, suggesting Samsung views it as a variant rather than a standalone device.

A Note 10 … in 5G?

This isn’t a huge surprise, as Samsung released the Galaxy S10 5G some months after the base phone was released. That handset was bigger, slightly higher-specced, and had an extra ToF sensor. As expected, carriers with nascent 5G networks, like Verizon and later T-Mobile, have supported the S10 5G, which has been the best-performing 5G phone thus far.

A Note 10 Plus 5G will build on that path – though without more information on what’s packed in the phone, we can’t foretell which 5G networks it will be compatible with. For instance, will it follow the S10 5G and just work with hyperlocal millimeter wave setups, like Verizon 5G? Or will it work with the wider sub-6GHz networks coming from the merged T-Mobile 5G and Sprint 5G?

If it’s anything like the S10 5G, the Note 10 Plus 5G will be bigger and higher-specced than the base model – the ultimate version, you could say, for anyone who wants to buy a phone to flex with.

This might look like the next Apple Watch, but it’s actually Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 2

There’s no smartwatch as popular as the Apple Watch, and Apple keeps selling millions of units every quarter. Apple’s smartwatch is quite easy to tell apart from its main competitors, as its design is instantly recognizable. But come next week, Samsung will launch a Galaxy Watch 2 that looks very familiar.

“The best I can do is pass along details from trusted sources. Nothing I say should ever be taken as gospel until the press release is out,” prominent leaker Evan Blass commented on Twitter about a recent Galaxy Note 10 specs leak he posted. “Unless there are pictures,” he followed, sharing the image above.

This was a week ago, and, at the time, we didn’t know what to make of it. Blass didn’t explain what the smartwatch was, and it looked just like a round version of the Apple Watch rather than a Galaxy Watch. Just check out the colors, the metal and glass blend, the physical buttons, and, most importantly, the watchfaces. It all screams Apple Watch, and some people thought it was a press render of the Apple Watch Series 5.

The device Blass leaked could not be an Apple Watch, however, because, as other users observed, the image delivered two important clues. First of all, the watch shows the time as 10:08, which is one second earlier than Apple’s usual 10:09 time for the Watch. Moreover, the date was August 5th, and Apple doesn’t have any Watch events planned for August.

At the time, we thought the Galaxy Watch 2 would be introduced during the August 7th Galaxy Note 10 event, which made the press render even more puzzling. A few days later, leaked FCC documentation (via Droid-Life) revealed actual images of the Galaxy Watch 2. As it turns out, the circular watch design looked exactly like the device in Blass’s press render. However, the similarities with the Apple Watch were no longer obvious. After all, while it may be easy to replicate the Watch design and its watchfaces, it’s harder to copy the watchOS software. Not that Samsung would want to do that again, would they?

I’ll also point out that we saw several Note 10 preorder leaks that included Galaxy Watch 2 renders, but you can barely make out the device in these pics:

In other words, it sure looks like the Galaxy Watch 2 might have a design that could convince some people that they’re looking at an Apple Watch. I wouldn’t call it a blatant ripoff, because it’s not identical, but this Galaxy Watch 2 design looks like it drew its inspiration from Apple’s best-selling wearable.

Gears 5 Xbox One controller possibly leaks

Gears 5 is a third-person shooter that launches in September and The Coalition keeps on providing us with new details about the upcoming game. Recently, Gears 5 Multiplayer Design Director Ryan Cleven discussed servers and balance tuning. The franchise will feature 60 Hz servers for the first time with Gears 5 and there is one tuning setup across core and competitive multiplayer modes.

The servers that track action at 60 Hz should make shooting feel much more precise. This should give every shot more meaning. You can read Cleven’s comments on Twitter below.

The Coalition wanted to have the same balancing tuning for core and competitive modes. This means that weapons, recoil, and other attributes of the shooting mechanics should feel the same across all of the affected modes. Keep in mind that there is no aim assist for competitive modes so you’ll have to rely on your skills alone.

It’s unclear how these changes will be perceived by the community. Only time will tell once the game is in everyone’s hands. Hopefully, these changes will make the game fairer.

Gears 5 shines with Unreal Engine 4. The game looks stunning and should run at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second (FPS) on Xbox One X. Gears of War 4 ran at 4K 30 FPS during the campaign and 4K 60 FPS during multiplayer. This time around, both modes are the same frame rate.

How to Change the Size of Your App Icons in iPadOS 13

One of the more jarring experiences you’ll encounter when updating your iPad to Apple’s iPadOS 13 this fall—including having to call it that from now on—are the slightly smaller icons now gracing your iPad’s Home screen and pages.

Like a juice cleanse, this icon diet is only a temporary fad. It appears Apple is going to let you revert back to the beefier icons you’ve been using all this time if you prefer your apps to look like a delicious thicc steak than a lean patty. At least, that’s my impression based on the latest iPadOS 13 beta—version 5!—which now comes with a little setting for adjusting the size of your app icons.

Make your app icons big or small

If you’re currently running the iPadOS 13 beta, or you know smaller icons are going to drive you crazy and you’ll want to change this as soon as iPadOS 13 drops in (probably) September, here’s how to fatten up your icons.

First, pull up the Settings app. You’ll then want to tap on Display & Brightness. Toward the bottom of this section, look for the new option for “App Icon Size.” You can’t miss it, as you’ll see a little graphic that shows you how many icons will fit on a page in “More” and “Bigger” modes:

That’s it! I haven’t reinstalled iPadOS 13 lately, but it makes sense that Apple would alsoask you this preference as part of your device’s initial setup process. If not, now you know where to find it.

AMD Releases New Chipset Drivers For Ryzen 3000: More Relaxed CPPC2 Upscaling

It’s been nearly three weeks since AMD’s launch of the new Ryzen 3000 series CPUs and our extensive coverage of the new parts. Among one of the things that didn’t quite go as smoothly is AMD’s BIOS and software situation where as things were still very much in flux following the launch.

One issue that was repeatedly brought up by the community over the past weeks was the new CPU’s idle behaviour both in terms of temperature as well as voltages. In particular, the new parts seemingly looked like they rarely idled at lower performance states and instead looked to remain at high frequencies even when not doing much.

While initially appearing as an issue, it really wasn’t one and rather just a side-effect of AMD’s new CPPC2 fast frequency ramp-up behaviour. Monitoring applications that are badly programmed tend to have a too heavy of a monitoring loop that causes load on the CPU – triggering a frequency ramp-up as the CPU is seeing a larger load. Given the new CPU’s sub-1ms ramp-up this meant that it was very hard to actually catch the machine at the lower frequencies – even though it most likely did idle correctly.

As AMD states in their community brief on the issue, part of the new behaviour change is that the new scheduler settings will now have a much more relaxed ramp-up time compared to the previous versions. In particular, when the chip will be at its base frequency and idling voltage, it will now take a significantly longer load for the chip to ramp up to its boost frequencies.

In our quick A/B testing between the two driver versions, we can see that prior to the update the CPU would ramp up in around 840 microseconds to its boost clocks, whilst on the new power plan in this data-set took it a longer 17.5 milliseconds.

The new behaviour thus should make the CPU ramp-up much less susceptible to smaller transient loads. The new boost duration is still very much adequate and extremely fast – sustained CPU workloads will see largely imperceptible difference, while intermittent workloads such as games also won’t be affected as once the CPU gets over the initial base frequency ramp threshold it maintains the sub-1ms frequency change behaviour.

AMD has also addressed concerns about the reported high temperatures of the chip. The company explains that generally the value that most applications are reading out is the maximum of several sensors on the chip. Essentially this acts as the junction temperature of the chip – whilst most of the die would actually be a different/lower temperature.

A new version of Ryzen Master now includes a different temperature readout algorithm that is meant to better represent the “overall” temperature of the die rather than the absolute maximum a sensor reports. AMD says this is a better representation of the temperature of the CPU. Besides averaging across different sensors, it also averages readouts over a small time-window. In my testing the most affected scenarios are idle and low-load scenarios and the new temperature behaviour isn’t nearly as erratic and spiky.

Forget Apple’s iPhone 11, This Is The Smartphone To Buy

Apple is being surprisingly open about the iPhone you should buy, and it’s not the iPhone 11. Moreover, this just confirmed it.

In a new report attained by MacRumors, famed Apple insider Ming-Chi Kuo has confirmed that Apple will now upgrade all three of its 2020 iPhones to 5G. Kuo previously revealed that Apple planned to only upgrade its two premium iPhones to the next-gen standard, but that changed after it acquired Intel’s smartphone modem business. And that’s just the start.

Kuo also explains that all three 2020 iPhones will support 5G with mmWave and sub-6GHz spectrum. The former enables cutting edge 5G speeds but only covers a short distance, while the latter still outpaces 4G but sacrifices some speed to cover wide areas – a key factor for rural and suburban coverage. In contrast, a number of Android rivals are expected to only support sub-6GHz 5G.

Interestingly, Kuo also notes that Apple is investigating a sub-6GHz 5G iPhone at a lower price point, but he says it remains uncertain whether the company has the resources to develop four new iPhones simultaneously.

Interestingly, despite Apple’s modem acquisition (and Intel’s willingness to divulge the product roadmaps), Apple is still expected to make use of its April deal with Qualcomm to supply 5G modems in 2020. This is because Apple will not yet have the scale to cater for its own demand next year but, quite brilliantly, it is the Qualcomm deal which facilitated the Intel sale and now Apple has autonomy long term. This is exactly the kind of supply chain mastery Tim Cook specialises in.

And the reasons to wait for a 2020 iPhone don’t stop there. While the iPhone 11 will be more of the same, Apple is completely redesigning (and resizing) the iPhone range next year, upgrading the displays and giving them the all-new camera tech it pulled from the iPhone 11 at the last minute. Touch ID may also make a comeback.

For those who still think the iPhone 11 will be enough for them (and it has some compelling features), there’s also another factor to consider. Kuo states that Apple’s primary motivation to push all 2020 iPhones to 5G is because customers will deem it essential, so trying to sell your 4G iPhone 11 in a few years time is highly unlikely to give you the great trade-in prices normally associated with iPhones.

So yes, there has never been a better time to delay an iPhone upgrade. The choice, as always, is yours but if you do buy an iPhone 11 I suspect you’ll eventually regret it.

Galaxy Note 10 Exclusive Reveals Samsung’s Surprising Design Change

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10 is going to divide opinion. The two new modelsget a lot right and a lot wrong, but a stunning new leak has revealed one area where they will be truly class-leading.

Hugely popular Samsung insider Ice Universe has revealed that the flagship Galaxy Note 10+ will have the highest screen-to-body ratio of any smartphone, thanks to a combination of stunningly thin bezels and a redesigned camera.

Breaking down the details, Ice states that the Note 10 bezels will measure just 2mm (top), 3.7mm (bottom) and 1.5mm (sides) while the all-new central front camera is just 4.2mm in diameter. The result is a screen-to-body ratio of 92.5%. By comparison, the supposedly “bezel-less” iPhone XS and XS Max have ratios of 82.9% and 84.4% respectively, while the OnePlus 7 Pro ratio manages 88.1% with no cut-out and no notch.

Interestingly, the Galaxy S10+ comes closest to the Note 10 with 88.9% but that is largely due to its more heavily curved edge display. Consequently, Samsung has really pulled off something special with its new Note, especially given the inherent problem in the design.

Will this be enough to convince buyers to part with their money? My own source can confirm that all-new 45W charging will be there (with a catch) which may tip the balance, but also that the headphone jack has definitely gone from both models and microSD is on the chopping block, not just for the standard smaller Note 10 but the 5G versions as well.

And, despite their dizzying price tags, initial Note 10 promotions will be superb with buy-one-get-one-free deals available from launch.

So it’s a slam dunk? Not quite. The flipside is Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy S11 is already on the horizon and it is being described as “a new beginning”. Being a tech fan is never easy.

Apple to acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business

Cupertino and Santa Clara, California — Apple and Intel have signed an agreement for Apple to acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business. Approximately 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple, along with intellectual property, equipment and leases. The transaction, valued at $1 billion, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions, including works council and other relevant consultations in certain jurisdictions.

Combining the acquired patents for current and future wireless technology with Apple’s existing portfolio, Apple will hold over 17,000 wireless technology patents, ranging from protocols for cellular standards to modem architecture and modem operation. Intel will retain the ability to develop modems for non-smartphone applications, such as PCs, internet-of-things devices and autonomous vehicles.

“This agreement enables us to focus on developing technology for the 5G network while retaining critical intellectual property and modem technology that our team has created,” said Intel CEO Bob Swan. “We have long respected Apple and we’re confident they provide the right environment for this talented team and these important assets moving forward. We’re looking forward to putting our full effort into 5G where it most closely aligns with the needs of our global customer base, including network operators, telecommunications equipment manufacturers and cloud service providers.”

“We’ve worked with Intel for many years and know this team shares Apple’s passion for designing technologies that deliver the world’s best experiences for our users,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “Apple is excited to have so many excellent engineers join our growing cellular technologies group, and know they’ll thrive in Apple’s creative and dynamic environment. They, together with our significant acquisition of innovative IP, will help expedite our development on future products and allow Apple to further differentiate moving forward.”

This press release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include without limitation those about the pending acquisition of the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business, including statements regarding the benefits and the timing of the transaction. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the outcome of regulatory reviews of the transaction, the outcome of works council consultations and other relevant consultations in certain jurisdictions, the ability of the parties to complete the transaction in the time expected or at all, litigation or regulatory matters affecting the closing of the transaction. More information on these risks and other potential factors that could affect the transaction and Apple’s financial results is included in Apple’s filings with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of Apple’s most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and subsequent filings. Apple assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple’s four software platforms — iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Intel, a leader in the semiconductor industry, is shaping the data-centric future with computing and communications technology that is the foundation of the world’s innovations. The company’s engineering expertise is helping address the world’s greatest challenges as well as helping secure, power and connect billions of devices and the infrastructure of the smart, connected world – from the cloud to the network to the edge and everything in between.

Apple’s new MacBook Pro keyboard could launch this year

The scissor keyboard could replace the butterfly design in the Pro as well as the Air in 2019.

Apple is reportedly planning to launch a scissor keyboard on its rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro later this year. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the tech giant would be replacing the unpopular butterfly keyboard in 2019 rather than 2020, according to MacRumors Thursday.

Apple had rolled out its butterfly switch design starting with its computer revamp in 2015 in an effort to make the laptops lighter and thinner. But users complained about sticky keys, as well as letters typing in duplicate or not at all.

Kuo had earlier this month said Apple wouldn’t be switching to the scissor mechanism on the MacBook Pro until 2020, despite predicting in June that the company would launch a 16-inch MacBook Pro in Q4.

“The refresh versions of other MacBook models in 2020 will change to adopt the scissor mechanism keyboard, too,” Kuo said in an analyst note, according to MacRumors.

The keyboard component will rise from a price of $8-$12 to $25-$30, Kuo added.

Kuo had originally predicted the scissor keyboard would come to the MacBook Air by the end of this year.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

We tested 5G speeds in 13 cities. Here’s what we found: Faster speed versus more coverage. That’s the most important issue for 5G networks today.

We drowned AirPods, Powerbeats Pro and Galaxy Buds: We sprayed them, dunked them and even put them through the wash to find out which one of these three wireless earphones can handle the most water.

New iPhones won’t be the only competition for the Galaxy Fold this September

Three months after it indefinitely delayed the device, Samsung finally announced a revised September release date for the Galaxy Fold on Wednesday. As well as putting it in line to potentially compete with Apple’s 2019 iPhone models, releasing it in September also means Samsung’s foldable will have to more directly compete with Huawei’s Mate X. Huawei’s take on the foldable smartphone also broke cover this week after being spotted in the hands of Huawei consumer business CEO Richard Yu at the Shenzhen International Airport, according to a Weibo post spotted by Gizchina.

Although Yu was reportedly reluctant to reveal any details about when Huawei’s competing foldable will launch, the last official word from the company was that the phone is due to launch in September, the same month as Samsung. Huawei originally announced this revised release date when it delayed the device back in June.

However, while Samsung needed to delay its device to fix some pretty critical reliability issues with the Fold’s screen, Huawei’s reasons were less publicly visible. At the time, the Chinese company said it was taking a “cautious” approach to the release of the Mate X and that it was doing extensive testing to make sure it was ready for consumers.

It’s not clear what, if any, tweaks have been made to its design as a result of this testing. One journalist who got to hold the Mate X in June said the company had made “significant progress” on the device since MWC in February, but a Huawei executive told TechRadar that the hardware was “basically the same” as what had been shown off earlier in the year.

Recent reports suggest that we might not have long to wait until the Mate X releases. In the same briefing with TechRadar, the executive indicated that the foldable will release in September “at the latest,” while a recent registration on China’s TENNA, spotted byGizmochina, suggests that the device is nearing a release in the country.

Although its foldable hasn’t caused the same publicity nightmare as the Galaxy Fold, Huawei’s Mate X could still face difficulties. Not only is the Mate X not going to be released in the US like Huawei’s other phones, but Huawei’s continued presence on the US Entity List means that its use of Android is still in question. Huawei told CNBC that the Mate X will be allowed to use Android because it was announced before the ban, but with the company’s license due to expire on August 19th, it’s unclear what the situation with its OS will be.