Phones

OnePlus seemed to have pulled out all the marketing stops when it launched the OnePlus 7 Pro last week, getting benchmarking sites to publish their reviews on day one. That set a high bar of expectation for the phone and, unfortunately, it seems to be coming up short of those expectations. The phone has been swamped with complaints, especially for its cameras. While this latest update doesn't address the biggest ones, it at least paints the picture of a company that's quick to roll out fixes.

Continue Reading

The OnePlus 7 Pro is supposed to be the company's big bet for 2019 but, just like Samsung's Galaxy Fold and Honor's 20 Pro, things are looking a little bit questionable for the flagship killer. In addition to allegations regarding its camera quality and telephoto lens, the smartphone is reported to be having problems with its screen. JerryRigEverything tears down into the OnePlus 7 Pro to see if there's anything else that the company isn't saying outright.

Continue Reading

The future of the iPhone is in flux, with predictions of some features appearing while others fade away. According to a report published today, we won't see 5G in an iPhone in 2019, but we WILL see said feature in 2020. That means another year of waiting - maybe. It might also be that 5G changes the game for every smartphone everywhere.

Continue Reading

An issue appeared on a number of OnePlus 7 Pro units over the past week having to do with its touchscreen. Several users reported their OnePlus 7 Pro triggering its touchscreen in either the upper-right or upper-left of the display - without their finger. Does your OnePlus 7 Pro have an issue such as this?

Continue Reading

This week a report cited multiple sources from Snapchat describing the non-private nature of the apps' back end. Both iPhone (iOS) and Android versions of the app notwithstanding, Snapchat user data (including Snaps) are accessible with a tool called SnapLion. The SnapLion software is supposedly only accessible by Snapchat employees - but as the rules of the internet state: If it's data that exists, it can be shared.

Continue Reading

Toward the end of April, Samsung made the decision to delay the release of the Galaxy Fold after it became clear that the device had some design flaws that made it easy to damage the phone's delicate display. In the weeks since, we've been waiting for Samsung to announce a new release date, but one has yet to come down the line. Now, it seems Best Buy is tired of waiting on the new release date and has decided to cancel all of its Galaxy Fold pre-orders.

Continue Reading

Huawei just can't catch a break, which isn't really a surprise considering the pressure it's under. Of course, companies in the US are also under the same pressure to cut ties with the Chinese company. The latest to unceremoniously give Huawei the boot, at least from an outsider's perspective, is the SD Association which practically means Huawei is no longer allowed to make products, including smartphones, with SD or microSD card slots.

Continue Reading

The recent drama surrounding Huawei and the ban imposed by the US government has caused some chaos in the Android world. There will probably be no shortage of smartphone users from the other camp that are feeling relieved that they are far removed from all that. Of course, it's business as usual in Apple land and even Huawei headlines won't stop this year's "iPhone 11" generation from also making waves. Even if it's just unbranded model numbers found in a regulatory database.

Continue Reading

While Huawei and, to some extent, Google would assure the public that it's business as usual for the Chinese maker's Android phones, reality is proving otherwise. Yes, Google has publicly committed to supporting existing Huawei and Honor phones and, yes, the OEM has been granted a 90-day reprieve. That, however, doesn't take into account new phones that haven't been certified yet including, apparently, the Honor 20 Pro, which may mean that the phone is dead on arrival in markets outside of China.

Continue Reading

Apple caused quite a stir when it became clear that the company was intentionally slowing some phones to compensate for aging batteries. The fallout from that revelation was rather wide reaching - not only did Apple end up discounting battery replacement charges for many iPhone models for a year, but it also added a toggle to iOS that allows users to decide for themselves if they want their phone's speed throttled to make up for their worn down batteries.

Continue Reading

A collection of iPhone 11 smartphones (iPhone 11 era, I should say, who knows their name), appeared in a database this week. A Eurasian database by the name of the Eurasian Economic Commission pushed the codes to the public via database listings for a collection of new iPhone devices. These are the 2019 iPhone code-names: A2111, A2160, A2161, A2215, A2216, A2217, A2218, A2219, A2220, A2221, and A2223.

Continue Reading

It's almost old news by now. The US government, courtesy of an executive order from President Donald Trump, has blacklisted Huawei from buying from or selling to US companies. That has caused Google, Qualcomm, and ARM to withdraw support from the Chinese manufacturer, three companies that have a mutually beneficial relationship with Huawei. It has gotten a temporary and short reprieve but, unless the situation changes, the hammer will fall again. Disregarding political and economic considerations, the effects of this ban won't just cause headaches for Huawei, it could also throw the Android world into disarray.

Continue Reading