As we approach the release of a couple more Motorola-made smartphones on the 25th, it's become a good time to be a fan of the mobile MOTO brand again. The staple brand name in mobile electronics had a few years of ups and downs - switching parent companies twice over - but they've come home once more. Owned by Lenovo and moving forward with a unique and powerful phone lineup, Motorola's once again hit their smartphone stride.

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With HMD Global now heading up phone development, the revived Nokia brand has seen a few releases already. None of those releases have been quite as noteworthy as the rumored Nokia 8, however. The Nokia 8 is said to be the high-end flagship smartphone we've been waiting for from Nokia, and today we're seeing it (or at least something like it) in a series of leaked images.

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While the Raspberry Pi is undoubtedly the darling of makers and tinkerers, it has always been envisioned for use in education. But in order to keep the single board computer (SBC) affordable and accessible, the Raspberry Pi had to remain what it is today: a bare bones board that, by itself, isn’t exactly useful. You need at least an external display, keyboard, and mouse, not to mention a compatible OS installed on a memory card. This simplicity it both a boon and a bane, the latter because of the nearly infinite amount of choices users, particularly educators, have to make. Fortunately, there are those like pi-top that build greatness on top of greatness. We take its flagship product, the pi-top, to build ourselves a laptop powered by the Raspberry Pi, with a bent towards educating and empowering the next generation.

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Who said going retro is only for games? Vinyl is back in fashion so why couldn’t other electronics be as well? That is probably the thought going through the mind of MisterM over at instructables when he started this “Google Pi Intercom” project. The name might be a bit misleading, because it is essential a makeshift Google Home that is activated by pressing a button. It’s not a two-way communication device, unless you consider talking to Google Assistant two-way communication.

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In a few months, the Star Wars craze will hit the world again with the premiere of the Last Jedi. But before that happens, you can train your own padawans in the old ways of the Force by introducing them to the original (and some would say the best) Star Wars episodes (definitely not I to III). And what better way to get them excited by putting them in the shoes of young Luke Skywalker as he traverses the desserts of Tatooine aboard their very own mini Landspeeder, courtesy of good ol’ Radio Flyer.

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Firefox Focus is a bit of an odd duck. It launched first on iOS, where Firefox itself launched last. It had very limited features and a singled-minded focus on privacy. And yet it seems to have struck a chord with many mobile users, even on Android where the app has been around for less than a month. It managed to rake in 1 million downloads already in that time, encouraging Mozilla to roll out even more futures for the simple browser.

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There are just some gestures that have become so natural that we’ve come to expect them almost everywhere, especially on smartphones. Pinching (not squeezing), flicking, panning, and even dragging and dropping. In the same vein, we become painfully aware when they’re not there. Like being able to drag and drop events in a calendar app just to change the time. The long wait for Android users is over because, after years of wishing, Google Calendar finally got exactly that feature.

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Some, in fact most, manufacturers have short term memories. They tend to forget devices that sometimes aren’t even that old. Even those that are just 2 years old. Fortunately, LG, who prides itself for being a good Android citizen, hasn’t forgotten yet. Owners of the LG G4 have received notifications to upgrade to the latest Android 7.0 Nougat version. But if you still haven’t gotten it yet, you can manually force your way into Nougat, provided you have the right model.

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Although Nokia didn’t exactly start its rebirth with it, its new Nokia 3310 quickly stole the spotlight from its higher end and more modern Android phones, While kids these days will probably sport questioning looks and raised eyebrows, mobile veterans will remember the model fondly for a durability that today’s phones can only dream of. But does the new Nokia 3310 fare just as well as its predecessor? Fortunately for us, YouTubers JerryRigEverything and SuperSaf TV did the heavy lifting so we won’t have to.

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If you were one of the early, and probably disappointed, adopters of the first breed of Windows 8.1 hybrids and convertibles, Microsoft has a good news, bad news thing for you. The good news is that your device is going to be supported for another six years. The bad news is that it only applies to security fixes. As far as “Windows as a Service” is concerned, last year’s Anniversary Update is the end of the line for these devices.

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Is the dream of the modular phone dead? Not if you ask Lenovo and Motorola, though their concept of a modular phone is not exactly what you might have in mind. Closer to that dream that went down with Google’s Project Ara is something that Facebook has in mind. Yes, Facebook has an idea for a modular phone. Or rather, it has patented what is technically a generic “modular electromechanical device” that, in at least one permutation, could also function as a phone.

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The date is no longer a secret. Samsung itself has proudly announced that it will be holding an Unpacked event on 23rd August. And while it doesn’t mention it by name, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see Samsung’s not so subtle hints at a Galaxy Note 8 device. What Samsung hasn’t revealed, naturally, is how the “bigger” phablet will look. Thankfully, case maker Ghostek isn’t so shy about showing that off, revealing was looks to be simply a bigger Galaxy S8+.

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