OnePlus has made quite a name for itself over the years, not just for creating reasonably high-end devices at relatively low prices, but also for some controversial marketing decisions and its uniquely frustrating invite system. In recent times, OnePlus has been able to move away from their “invite system” for all of its currently sold devices, but OnePlus’ own online store remains the only place to pick up the company’s handsets. This is changing soon, however, as the OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X are now on their way to Amazon UK, with Amazon US to follow in the near future.The official listing in the UK is already posted for the OnePlus 2 and the OnePlus X is expected to go live soon as well. While it’s pretty easy to get these phones directly from OnePlus, it’s good that customers now have another option, particularly a source as reputed as Amazon.OnePlus X reviewOnePlus 2 reviewOnePlus made a splash with the original OnePlus One back in 2014. Offering what OnePlus called a “flagship killer” with CyanogenMod out of the box and great specs with 3 GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 801 paired with a 5.5 inch 1080p display and a very good price at $299-$349. OnePlus then released the OnePlus 2 a year later, offering the same “flagship killer” moniker and with specs that are very respectable including a 5.5 inch 1080p display, 3 or 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 16 or 64 GB of storage. The OnePlus 3 is supposed to arrive next month to take on the current flagship line up on the market. There is no word on whether or not the OnePlus 3 will get the same Amazon availability, however.What do you guys think? Would you like to see all OnePlus phones arrive via Amazon going forward in addition to OnePlus’ direct sales channel? Share your thoughts down in the comments.
OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X heading to Amazon: UK first, US to follow
Amid myriad complaints that millennials possess shorter attention spans and experience greater difficulty focusing than previous generations unexposed to the internet and modern technology, a new study from the University of British Columbia has emerged that is almost certain to be mis-cited and misused to support this sentiment. Research has demonstrated that smartphone notifications can create symptoms in adults similar to ADHD.What the researchers are not saying, and what many people will probably take away from this anyway, is that smartphones cause ADHD. The study doesn’t show this at all. But before we get to that, let’s break down the elements of the experiment. 
See also: After 19 related deaths in India, Mumbai bans selfies in key areas22 Researchers studied a group of 221 young people in an “experimental distraction setting” over the course of a week. During this week, their phones were set to vibrate and were within easy reach. For the next week, their phones were placed on silent and taken away. Researchers took notes regarding the participants’ mental state and productivity during both intervals. The lead researcher Kostadin Kushlev revealed that they honestly didn’t know what results to expect. Some members of the team postulated that regular smartphone users would experience anxiety when parted with their device and thus experience higher degrees of distraction. This isn’t what happened at all, however. When the subjects were deprived of their smartphone notifications, they were more productive, experienced less boredom, and had an easier time focusing on the tasks at hand. They were still able to check their phones, but only when they deliberately decided to, not just because a recent notification jerked their attention. Comparatively, those with smartphones on vibrate appeared to demonstrate symptoms of ADHD.“It’s important to be clear that we’re not saying smartphones cause ADHD itself,” said Kushlev. “There’s been no research on that.” Rather, what this study shows is that the attention-grabbing buzz of our smartphones simulates the way in which sufferers of ADHD are easily pulled from concentration by unrelated minutia. Essentially, having your phone on ring or vibrate all the time is like volunteering for ADHD. The takeaway from this is not that our phones are decreasing our attention spans. Rather, if you want to be productive for a while, then maybe it would be a good idea to hold on just a second someone retweeted me.Next: Selfies now kill more people than sharks
Lenovo’s ZUK sub-brand has been quite busy lately. Last month the company announced the Z2 Pro, which offers a Snapdragon 820 processor and 6GB of RAM for only $420. Now they’re back with a new budget-friendly smartphone that drops the price down even further.The ZUK Z2 will definitely provide a lot of bang for your buck. For less than $300, you’ll get a 5.0-inch Full HD display, a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, a whopping 64GB of internal storage and two SIM card slots. It also comes with a 13MP ISOCELL rear camera with phase detection autofocus, an 8MP wide-angle front-facing camera, a fingerprint scanner, LTE capabilities and a 3,500mAh battery with support for Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0. It will also run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box with ZUK’s ZUI 2.0 interface. 
See also: ZUK Z1 review41 The ZUK Z2 will be available in China when it launches on June 7th for ¥1,799 ($273USD). As of now there’s no word on a global release, but we’ll keep you updated as we learn more details. What do you think if the ZUK Z2? Let us know in the comments!
LeEco, formally LeTV, might not be a major player in the smartphone world but that hasn’t stopped the company from announcing some pretty cool products, including the very first Snapdragon 820 powered phone, back at CES 2016. LeEco isn’t holding still either. In April, the company revealed its next-gen Le 2 family with pre-orders kicking off in China just last month. The LeMax 2 and Le 2 were expected to arrive to India as well on June 8th, but the latter of these handsets is already unofficially available in the country.Thanks to an unofficial Ebay India listing, the LeEco Le 2 can be picked up in limited quantities for a likely higher than retail price of INR 22,999, or roughly $340. The actual final price will probably be much cheaper, but when you consider the specs, even the Ebay price is not too bad.The LeEco Le 2 has a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS display and is powered by a Mediatek Helio X20 processor with 3GB RAM. On the back is a 16MP rear camera, with an 8MP front cam. There’s also a fingerprint scanner and a 3000 mAh battery. All these specs are found within a sleek, attractive aluminum body. 
See also: LeEco Le 2, Le 2Pro and Le Max 2 hands-on12 The user interface is also very interesting with what LeEco is creating, not just because of the phone itself, but because LeEco is actually creating a whole ecosystem including phones, TVs, headsets and even cars. There is a lot of untapped potential in the mobile market in India, and with the right price these phones could do very well.What do you think, would you be interested in picking up this phone once it arrives to India? What do you feel would be a reasonable asking price? Are you guys intrigued by what LeEco is doing? I, for one, am.
If you just can’t wait for Thursday to arrive, Sky Force 2014 is available in the Google Play Store for free. There are some in-app purchases you’ll want to be aware of, but none that get in the way of gameplay. And of course, when Sky Force Reloaded makes its way to Android, we’ll update this post to let you know right away.Anyone else excited? 
See also: 15 best free Android games of 2016!107 
Just a few short hours ago, word broke that Canadian customers on the Rogers network were finally getting Marshmallow pushed to the 2014 Galaxy Note 4, and now new news has hit for American customers with a Galaxy S5 – also from 2014 – on Verizon. Sprint had previously been the first out of the gate with its variant mashing Marshmallow in early April, and just last week T-Mobile’s version was gifted with the soon-to-be-outdated Android build.The Verizon OTA has been given the build code MMB29M.G900VVRU2DPD1 and is now being sent to users.As the update has just now been made available, it typically takes several days or even weeks before it is pushed to all devices on the network. Those seeking to speed-up the process can try to hit the Settings menu, navigate to About Device, and then click on “Check for Updates”. Still, even this manually check is not a sure-fire way to trigger the update in which case the only real choice is just to wait patiently.Alternatively there are sites that provide direct access to the OTA files however there are risks involved if a mistake is made in the manual patching process.
Marshmallow, originally released last October to Nexus devices, contains numerous enhancements to the Google experience, including Now on Tap, which lets users scan their screen for relevant information and make it more productive, Doze, which seeks to better manage battery life during downtime, and granular App Permissions that give users more control over which app has access to what feature. Verizon itself has listed the details as follows:Android’s latest OS. Major features include:Now on Tap anticipates what you need in the moment. With a simple tap, you can get cards with useful information and apps that feed your need to know.When your device is at rest, Doze automatically puts it into a sleep state, preserving your battery charge.No need to give apps access all the time. Android Marshmallow lets you define what you want to share and when. Turn permissions off at any time, too.Wi-Fi Calling: You can make and receive calls over a Wi-Fi network if cellular service isn’t available, helping conserve your data.Ultra-High-Quality Audio – UHQA (Hi-Fi Audio): Your favorite tunes have never sounded better on a Samsung smartphone. This breakthrough audio technology takes select music files and enhances the richness and detail.A fresh look and design: A new design of app icons and folderWhat do you think Verizon users? Is this a case of better late than never, or are you more than a little upset at the idea of being graced with Marshmallow almost 8 months after it hit Nexus devices? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!
I don’t know how many times I have said it, but I will say it again, “power efficiency is everything on mobile.” Normally we focus on the power efficiency of the CPUs and GPUs at the heart of our smartphones and tablets (for example when the new Cortex-A73 CPU core design was launched), however there is more to power efficiency than just the System-on-a-Chip. Android is an eco-system, a combination of hardware, software and online services. OEMs like Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC etc make the hardware; Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc. provide the services; but the software is made by “everyone.” By that I mean that the apps we run on our smartphones can be battery friendly or battery killers.To help with app optimization Basemark has launched the latest version of its Power Assessment Tool (PAT). You have probably heard of Basemark in connection with its benchmarking tools like Basemark OS II or Basemark ES 3.1, however the company does more than just write benchmark apps. At its heart Basemark is a system performance and power consumption analysis company and it has a range of tools that are used by OEMs like AMD, Imagination Technologies, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm.Unlike other tools to measure app power consumption, PAT is hardware based not software based. There is a software element for analyzing the results, however the actual measuring is performed in hardware, something that makes the PAT quite unique.So how does it do that? Do you need to take your phone apart to use it? No. The basic principle is this: if the battery in your device is full and it is plugged into a charger then the amount of power your phone uses when performing different operations can be measured by seeing how much power is drawn from the charger.The basic setup is this. You connect your smartphone to the PAT and the PAT to your PC and to your phone’s charger. When you run apps on your phone it will drawn power from the charger which is detected by the PAT and sent to your PC to be recorded by the PAT software.
Power measurementOnce you have all the cables connected and the software installed on your PC you need to check the battery level on your device. Even if the phone is claiming that it is 100% charged it might not actually be charged fully. When you hit the “REC” button on the software you will get a live update of the amount of power being drawn by the phone. After watching it for a few moments you can see if it is declining or steady. If it is declining it means that the phone is still charging. This initial phase needs to be done with the phone in flight mode and with the screen off.When the baseline is hit then you can start testing. Take the phone out of flight mode, run the app you want to test, then put it back into flight mode and wait for the power level to hit the baseline again. This last part is important as there are times when the app requires more power than it is drawing from the charger. The software is able to calculate the amount of extra energy taken from the battery and add it to the overall app power usage numbers.Obviously, the more power that an app is drawing the quicker the battery will drain. The last thing any developer wants to do is release a new app, build an audience, and then find that people abandon it because it has a reputation of draining the battery quickly. This is bad news for games, but even worse news for social media or messaging apps.
Note 5 running Epic CitadelThe downside of this testing process is that it can be quite long-winded. Switching the phone in and out of flight mode, waiting for the battery to reach its baseline, etc, all means that it can take maybe 30 to 45 minutes to run one test, especially if the conditions are against you.A feature that I would like to see on the software side is the ability to mark points on the data while it is being recorded. For example, say you are running your app and then you activate a certain feature or move to a new activity, it would be useful to mark that on the data so you can refer to it afterwards when you are performing your analysis.BenchmarkingOne interesting aspect of the PAT is that it can be used for power benchmarking. The same app can be run on multiple devices and the power usage measured. This would then give us an indication of how power efficient any given device is compared to another while running the same code. It can even be used to see how much power a benchmark tool uses, allowing for investigation into how “real world” are the loads generated, and also if the device deliberately ups its power usage (which is linked to performance) when it detects a benchmark running.As an example I installed Epic Citadel on two phones, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and the Huawei Mate 8. I used PAT to measure the power usage when running the benchmark mode of the app, first in Ultra High Quality mode and then in High Performance mode.
Mate 8 running Epic CitadelThe average power consumption for the Note 5 during the two benchmark runs was 4.3 watts. According to the PAT, running the benchmark in Ultra High Quality mode takes significant more power than running it in High Performance mode. In the latter mode the average power consumption was around 3 watts, however for the former it was around 5.4 watts. These last two figures are estimates as they doesn’t include any surplus power that was drawn from the battery (and not the charger) during the test.I performed the same test on the Mate 8. This time the PAT recorded an average power consumption of 3.44 watts, a little lower than the Note 5. This is a measurement for the overall system including the CPU, GPU and importantly the screen (which is of a lower resolution on the Mate 8). According to the live results, the Mate 8 used an average of 3.5 watts during the Ultra High Quality mode benchmark and 3.3 watts for the High Performance mode test run.So it seems that the Note 5 pays a high price when running Epic Citadel in Ultra High Quality mode and is the main reason that its average power usage was higher than the Mate 8. For a more in-depth analysis I would need to test several apps and increase the number of test devices.
Wrap-upClearly the PAT isn’t designed for hobbyists and indie developers, it is a serious piece of equipment aimed at certain types of OEMs and software vendors. This is reflected in the pricing and the way that pricing is expressed. “The PAT is priced at 995 € + VAT for corporate customers,” is how the press release puts it.Having said that, it is certainly a valuable tool for professional engineering teams, for “corporate customers.” Not only does it allow software engineers to test their apps for power efficiency, it also allows them to benchmark that efficiency across different devices, different versions of Android, and different releases of their software.As for me, I will certainly be digging deeper to see how this tool can help me benchmark SoCs and new devices that come onto the market.
There is a thin layer of divisiveness between aging hardware and software updates. While OEMs prioritize newer devices and then look to older ones, those who are sitting solid with the smartphones of old are left in wait. Things get even more difficult with carriers in certain areas are updating but not yours.For Canadian customers using a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 on the Rogers network, your time to shine is now in mind: Android 6.0 Marshmallow is now rolling out to your device. The update is around 1.5GB in size and will bring with it the latest build of Google’s mobile OS, 6.0.1.Marshmallow, originally released last October to Nexus devices, contains numerous enhancements to the Google experience, including Now on Tap, which lets users scan their screen for relevant information and make it more productive, Doze, which seeks to better manage battery life during downtime, and granular App Permissions that give users more control over which app has access to what feature.Rogers seems to be a bit on the slower end of things, not unlike various Marshmallow updates with AT&T in the USA, as rival carriers in Canada have long since pushed out the delicious confectionery to their network’s Note 4 handsets. 
See also: Android 6.0 Marshmallow updates roundup – May 23, 2016137 As the update has just now been made available, it may be some days or even weeks before it’s pushed to your individual device. To accelerate the process users can opt to hit the Settings menu, navigate to About Device, and then Check for Updates. Even doing this however, there is no guarantee the OTA will appear in which case waiting is best.Alternatively there are sites that provide direct access to the OTA files however there are risks involved if a mistake is made in the manual patching process.Are you on Rogers and rocking a Note 4? Have you received the update yet? Leave some commentary on your thoughts below!
The cloud is nice and all, but it still can’t beat local storage in terms of speed and convenience. If you want to add a few extra gigs to your device, be it a phone, tablet, camera, or even laptop, check out today’s Amazon Gold Box deal.Amazon has solid discounts on select SanDisk memory products. The most interesting deal sees the price of the 200GB SanDisk Ultra microSD card go down to $59.99. That’s $20 lower than the previous price and the lowest this product has ever gone on Amazon.We’re looking at a Class 10 microSD card, with read speeds of up to 90 MB/s. User reviews of the card are overwhelmingly positive, with a 4.6 stars average across more than 8700 reviews.Buy the SanDisk Ultra 200GB MicroSD card for $59.99If you want something cheaper, the 128GB model (standard packaging) is also discounted, down to $40, a discount in excess of $30.Buy the SanDisk Ultra 128GB MicroSDXC for $40.09You should also take a peek at the SanDisk USB sticks and external hard drives on sale today.Buy the SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick 200GB for $87.99Buy the SanDisk Ultra Flair USB 3.0 128GB Flash Drive for $24.99Buy the SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD for $399.99Buy the SanDisk SSD Plus 480GB 2.5-Inch for $93.79Various networking equipment is discounted as well. Check it all out here.All deals are valid today only (through mid-night PT). Happy shopping!
Josh Vergara, Joe Hindy and Jonathan Feist are joined by Nirave Gondhia for another great episode of the Android Authority Podcast. As is usually the case, our goal to rehash our thoughts on Google I/O is totally sidetracked by talk about ES File Explorer, new Pebble devices and the worst phone names of all time. We wanted to remind you that current Nexus devices will get future updates, just in case there was confusion.Thank you for joining us, and thank you to each and every one of our 2 million YouTube subscribers. We are proud of this landmark and look forward to growing our community, we love Android and we’re excited to share that passion with you. If you have not already, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Also check out our partner sites – SoundGuys cover the best mobile audio gear and TabTimes talks all things tablet. Sign up for our various newsletters and enter for your chance to win one of our many giveaways.The Android Authority Podcast – discussing topics in Android every week.Links to PodcastRSS FeediTunesStitcherSoundCloudDirect DownloadRelevant LinksAndroid Authority ForumsES File Explorer is a little less brokenPebble has new products, and Josh bought them allBad, bad phone namesNexus phones will get updates, just not seamless updates Join our 2 million YouTube subscribersFollow our Hosts
Joshua VergaraTwitter | Google+
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John DyeTwitter | FacebookRecorded on May 26th, 2016 – Hosted and produced by Joshua Vergara.
LG has posted a funny full-length LG G5 and Friends video, showcasing the various unique features of the modular phone and the fun applications for its associated peripherals. There’s a healthy dose of humor in the mix, which brings the previous Jason Statham spots to mind as well as Samsung’s Lil Wayne ads, but the video also goes to show just how rich an ecosystem the LG Friends represent. 
See also: LG G5 feature focus: modules and peripherals33 LG focuses on the modular nature of the LG G5, first showing off its replaceable battery before moving on to the CAM Plus’ enhanced photographic capabilities and the wide-angle dual-camera system. The Hi-Fi Plus from Bang & Olufsen is up next with some funny split-screen twerking and the 360 VR and 360 CAM sections are memorable to say the least.LG’s Tone Infinim Bluetooth headset is apparently now an LG Friend and the just-announced LG Action CAM LTE makes an appearance too. The G5’s Always-On Display makes a quick appearance and even the LG Friends Manager app gets a look in.At four minutes it’s a pretty lengthy commercial, but it definitely manages to introduce the uninitiated into what the LG G5 and Friends can offer, along wth plenty of cool music and dancing models. If you get nothing from the video you don’t already know, there’s at least a funky new handshake to use with your besties and the funniest marketing for VR I’ve yet come across.What is your favorite smartphone commercial?
Xiaomi is once again at the top of the Chinese smartphone market, knocking out fierce competition from the likes of honor, Huawei and LeEco for the number one spot in April. While the figures only represent one month of sales, this is the first time a Chinese smartphone company has captured 26% of the domestic market, demonstrating just how successful Chinese brands are becoming against the largest brands in the world. 
See also: June 1 marks open sales of the Xiaomi Mi 5 and Redmi Note 3 in India1 Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun posted the information on Weibo, based on local research firm Sino’s monthly market analysis report. The data shows honor in second place with 15.7% of the market (with its parent company Huawei in fifth spot with just 8%), followed by LeEco in third with 10.5% and Apple in fourth spot with 8.2%.
Looking at the data, Xiaomi sold as many phones as its two closest competitors (honor and LeEco) combined and three times as many phones as Apple. While Xiaomi’s profit margin is nothing like Apple’s, 26% of the smartphone market is nothing to be sneezed at. Meanwhile, Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone company, is amongst the least popular handset makers in China, with just 3.2% of the market.XIOAMI REVIEWS: 
Xiaomi Mi 4S Review! 
You’ve long been able to search for things along your route when you’re driving, but for some reason, if you were walking or riding a bike while using Google Maps as your navigator, these tools were strangely absent. However, Google Maps version 9.26 is finally rectifying this problem.This is great news for the droves of bicycle commuters and peripatetics who have been denied the ability to search for the nearest beef jerky outlet along their route. Or, you know, whatever it is people search for while they’re walking or biking. 
See also: Google Maps to get promoted pins for local businesses1 The update also have some other tiny tweaks to make your experience a little better. For instance, a shortcut to change your home or work icon has been added to the overflow menu on the Your Places menu. Before this addition, you had to go all the way into the details screen on a given location before changing the way it shows up on your map overview. They’ve also added the ability to toggle “Ok Google” voice detection from within the app. This technically has nothing to do with the Maps app, but since it’s safer to use voice commands than to be tapping away on your phone while you’re on the road, it’s nice to see them add this shortcut to encourage you to take advantage of this feature. You can also now opt in to get updates about your favorite places.It’s a small update, but a pleasant one. Nothing really game-changing; it’s just a few niceties extended to the Maps userbase. Let us know what you think of this update in the comments below!Get it in the Play Store!Next: Is Google Maps draining your battery? Here’s how to fix it.
It’s no secret that a lack of timely updates is one of the biggest problems facing the Android ecosystem right now. In fact, at the Google I/O event this year, Android developers identified this issue as the greatest security challenge they’re currently dealing with. With the FCC and FTC formally investigating the way carriers and manufacturers roll out updates, and with Google potentially considering some creative, passive-aggressive measures to ensure that updates get out to end users in a timely manner, it seems like everyone is cracking down on the topic of security updates. But there is one element that neither Google nor its partners can control, the last vanguard standing against timely updates and device security: the stubborn user. But Samsung may have a solution to this problem.A sharp-eyed redditor noticed that Samsung has started issuing out digital Domino’s coupons to bribe users into updating their devices. The offer he saw on his Galaxy J7 was located in the My Galaxy app and reads as follows:Update Phone Software, Get Dominos OfferGet Flat 20% off on Pizzas & Breads at Domino’s on updating your phone software at your nearest Samsung exclusive store or through WiFi.Check if your phone needs a software update. You can do this by following the below steps:Settings > General Settings > About Device > Software update > Update NowSo far we’re only seeing this deal being offered in India. 9to5Google is speculating that the Korean tech titan might be giving the promo a trial run before potentially rolling it out to other regions. 
See also: Hungry? You can now order Domino’s just by opening an app7 This is one of those kinds of dynamics that has tech enthusiasts and power users pulling their hair out. Why should an offer like this even have to exist? Why would you not want to install security updates on your phone? Must we bribe you with pizza to make sure you protect your own data?? It’s a sad reality, but many casual users who aren’t actively involved in the tech world fall prey to a bevy of misinformation through their friends and family. “Don’t update. I updated mine and now it sucks.” Perhaps it will take pepperoni to combat the reluctant updater.What are your thoughts regarding Samsung’s latest attempt to coax users into keeping their devices up to date? A sad necessity, or “Hey! Cheap pizza for doing what I already do!” Let us know your take in the comments below.Next: Order Domino’s with the push of a literal button
After wearables have arguably yet to gain the massive traction that many were hoping for, VR seems to be the new tech buzzword these days. Just about every OEM on the block is attempting to get in and grab a piece of the action. In the mobile VR space, Samsung and Google are the reigning champs, but it seems that Asus wants in the game as well.While VR wasn’t part of its Computex 2016 press event, in Asus’ demo area you’ll find a virtual reality headset on display behind glass with the name “Asus VR” on it. There’s next to zero information about the device, and so all we have to go on is that it offers leather straps akin to the ZenWatch and appears to have a touchpad and a few buttons on the side, a configuration that’s very familiar to the Daydream-compatible ZTE VR. 
See also: Does Daydream have what it takes to make VR mainstream?13 Considering Asus has previously said that they consider AR a bigger priority than VR, we find it hard to believe that they’d develop their own VR platform. So instead, we’d imagine what we are looking at is an early ‘concept’ of an Asus Daydream VR headset. Obviously that’s just speculation on our part, but it makes sense that Asus would embrace Google’s VR platform, after all Asus has a history of jumping onboard with Google creating several Android Wear watches, the Android TV-based Google Nexus Player, and the Google-backed OnHub router. And considering ZTE already has announced a 3rd party Daydream headset, we’d say this is really a no brainer.What do you think, are we looking at one of the first 3rd party Daydream headsets? Hopefully we don’t have too much further to wait, and perhaps Asus will give us more details around IFA or even sooner.
Asus just revealed a cool new line of smartphones, as well as new laptops that aim squarely at beating Apple’s MacBooks. But the most forwarding-thinking device that Asus introduced at Computex 2016 today is an actual robot.Called Zenbo, Asus’ new toy looks like a cross between a vacuum cleaner and an old iMac G4. But perhaps toy is not the right word here. Asus is billing Zenbo as a robotic helper that can provide “assistance, entertainment, and companionship.” The target audience is mainly children and elderly, who could benefit from having a mobile assistant following along, helping with basic digital tasks or just keeping them company. Think a tablet on wheels, with voice controls, and a lot more brains.Asus’ presentation video is a little ridiculous, and occasionally cringey, but if Asus can deliver even half of what it promised, it could have a hit product. That’s a big “if” though. The voice interactions seem far-fetched, especially if Asus is using its own technology rather than a more mature service like Google Assistant. In fact, Google’s new AI seems like a great fit for a robot assistant – Zenbo is basically just a Google Home on wheels. It remains to be seen whether Google – who is slowly dismantling its robotics initiative – will open up its assistant to hardware partners.So, what can Zenbo do, on paper? It can recognize family members and seek them out in the home; speak reminders; tell stories and play music and video to kids; answer spoken queries for things like recipes or TV schedule; and generally interact with humans thanks to an evolving AI.Zenbo’s most interesting feature could be the ability to connect to and control other smart home systems. That could make it the hub of future smart homes, provided Asus can get enough manufacturers to open up their systems and create integrations with Zenbo. That’s a lofty undertaking, without doubt.Zenbo will cost just $599 when it goes on sale, at a date that will be announced in the future. That’s a bargain compared to the similar, but more advanced Pepper robot from Softbank, which will retail for $1800 this summer, and other humanoid robots coming out of Japan.Let us know your thoughts!
At its keynote event in the opening of Computex 2016, Asus introduced the third generation of the ZenFone series, and it looks like the long wait was worth it.The new ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe, and ZenFone 3 Ultra bring beautiful designs and attractive features, without breaking the bank. Starting prices range from $249 to $499, and considering what these phones bring to the table, we’re inclined to bet on their success in the market.Asus ZenFone 3The entry in the range is the eponymous ZenFone 3, but this is no entry-level device, despite what the $249 price tag would have you believe. The good impression starts with the design, which graduated from plastic to a luxurious-looking brushed metal and glass combination. Asus’ trademark circular brush pattern is present, but it’s encased under a layer of Gorilla glass with curved edges that should make for a very nice feel in the hand.
Perhaps following LG’s lead, Asus replaced the rear mounted volume rocker with a simple fingerprint reader, while volume controls now accompany the power button on the phone’s metallic frame.If you like the ZenFone 3’s looks, its brains won’t disappoint. You get a Snapdragon 625 processor – the chip that emerged as a popular second option for flagship devices from LG and HTC – coupled with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.The display is a 5.5-inch IPS LCD (no change here from the ZenFone 2), but the other half of the media stack, audio, has received a nice boost thanks to a loud 5-magnet speaker and a NXP smart amp. You also get a USB Type C port (USB 2.0 connectivity though), 16MP and 8MP cameras, a fingerprint scanner on the back, and a 3,000 mAh battery. Camera features include laser-assisted autofocus, phase-detection autofocus, 4-axis OIS, a dual-tone flash, and super resolution mode (64MP).ZenFone 3 DeluxeZenFone 3 Deluxe swaps the glass back for a metallic one with curved sides that are just 4.2 millimeters thick. There’s no visible antenna lines on the back, with the plastic bits cleverly hidden in the bezels. The brushed metal finish will be available in three color options – black, gold, and a sexy electric blue called Chi.The display is AMOLED and 5.7 inches in size, but resolution remains Full HD. Asus boasts that the ZenFone 3 Deluxe offers 100% off the NTSC color space, which means color accuracy should be excellent. The phone features Always On mode, similar to the LG G5 and Galaxy S7.
As the top of the range, the ZenFone 3 combines a Snapdragon 820 processor with a whopping 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage (UFS 2.0). The USB Type C port now gives access to USB 3.0 connectivity with Quick Charge 3.0 in tow.The camera uses a 23MP IMX318 sensor from Sony and the ZenFone 3 Deluxe is the first on the market with this sensor. Save for the enhanced super resolution mode (96MP), camera features remain similar to the ZenFone 3.The ZenFone 3 starts from $499 for the 64GB model.ZenFone 3 UltraLike Sony, Asus uses the term Ultra to differentiate its extra-large devices. But at 6.8 inches, the ZenFone 3 Ultra is bigger than any Xperia Ultra out there. This near-tablet goes back to LCD for its panel, but resolution stays at 1080p. Other specs include Snapdragon 652, 4GB of RAM, Quick Charge 3.0, USB 2.0, the same cameras as the ZenFone 3 Deluxe, and a hefty 4,600 mAh power bank. There’s a heavy multimedia focus here, with a “TV grade” PixelWorks iris2+, dual speakers, and DTS Headphone: X 7.1 surround sound.
The ZenFone 3 Ultra will start from $479.Wrap upAs usual, Asus refused to reveal the release date and exact availability of the new ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe, and ZenFone 3 Ultra, but from what we’ve seen so far we think that a lot of people will be anxiously looking forward to their arrival.We’ll bring you our hands-on impressions of these three beasts live from Computex 2016 a bit later, so check back soon!
ARM has announced a new mobile GPU, the Mali-G71, based on a whole new GPU architecture called Bifrost. ARM’s mobile GPU products have been through two previous major architectural revisions. First came Utgard, which you find in GPUs like the Mali-400, Mali-470 etc. Utgard supported OpenGl ES 2.0 and was found in devices like the Samsung Galaxy S2. Next came Midgard, a new architecture with support for the unified shader model and OpenGL ES 3.0. Midgard GPUs include the Mali-T604, found in the Nexus 10; the Mali-T760 found in the Samsung Galaxy S6, as well as other devices including some of Acer’s Liquid range; and the Mali-T880, which if found in the Exynos variants of the Samsung Galaxy S7 as well the Huawei Mate 8, the Huawei P9 and so on.The new Mali-G71, which has been only known by its codename Mimir until now, uses a new architecture called Bifrost. If you are wondering about the names of these architectures they are all based on Norse mythology. Anyone who has seen the Thor movies will remember that Bifrost is the rainbow bridge that reaches between Midgard and Asgard.
Compared to the Mali-T880, the new G71 offers lots of improvements. It offers a 20% higher energy efficiency (on the same process node, tested under the same conditions). A 20% power saving is very impressive and when coupled with the 40% better performance density , which basically means more performance per square millimeter of silicon, the G71 is clearly going to be ARM’s most advanced GPU yet. 
See also: What is a GPU and how does it work? – Gary explains2 The biggest of the Midgard GPUs, including the T880, could support up to 16 shader cores. The G71 (and all Bifrost GPUs) can be implemented with up to 32 shader cores, effectively doubling the potential shader performance. The G71 also supports 120Hz refresh rates (important for VR), 4x multi sample anti-aliasing, and 4K screen resolutions.The G71 is optimized for Vulkan and other industry-standard APIs (including OpenGL ES and OpenCL), and builds on innovations from the previous Utgard and Midgard architectures. Bifrost
The new Bifrost GPU architecture is a major redesign of the previous generations which has resulted in ARM’s most efficient GPU architecture to date. It offers 1.5 time the performance over the previous generation while adding fully GPU coherency (when used with interlinks like the CoreLink CCI-550).This means that for the first time the GPU is a full partner to the CPU and not just a slave component. Full coherence means that the GPU gets access to the same cached data as the CPU and reduces the number of times the GPU needs to access main memory to read or write data. Also the combination of the Mali-G71 and the CoreLink CCI-550 allows the CPU and GPU to share the same memory, which removes the need to copy data between CPU and GPU buffers.
See also: ARM announces its next-gen CoreLink system for Heterogeneous Computing1 One of the biggest architectural innovations in Bifrost is the use of “Quad Vectorization” to reduce the number of cycles needed to perform vector operations. GPUs need to deal frequently with X,Y and Z coordinates. For the purpose of 3D graphics these X, Y and Z numbers need to be manipulated using addition, multiplication and so on. The way Midgard GPUs handled these numbers was to use a SIMD engine.SIMD stands for Single Instruction Multiple Data, a system that allows all three numbers to be multiplied at the same time. Let’s say that X, Y and Z need to be multiplied by 2, 5 and 7 respectively. The traditional serial (scaler) way to do this is to multiply X by 2, then Y by 5 and then Z by 7. That takes 3 cycles. However since the GPU is doing this often, then it is possible to setup a multiply operation on several numbers at once. The GPU can be told to multiply X by 2, while it is multiplying Y by 5 and Z by 7. In other words the GPU is told to multiply the three numbers in block 1 by the numbers in block 2. The SIMD engine is designed to do all that in one cycle. So now rather than 3 cycles (using the serial approach) it can be done in one. Hooray.But you may have noticed that computers don’t handle three of things very well, computers like things to be in 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 groups. So the SIMD engine in Midgard was four wide, meaning it can handle four multiply operations in one cycle. For 3D graphics that means that one of the slots in the SIMD engine is now idle.Now imagine four SIMD instructions being executed by the GPU, four lots of multiplications of X, Y and Z. Let’s call them T0, T1, T2 and T3. Normally that would take four cycles, one for each multiply. What Quad Vectorization does is use that idle forth slot on the SIMD engine to reduce that to three by setting up the SIMD instructions in such a way that T0.x is performed not with T0.y and T0.z as you might expect, but with T1.x, T2.x, and now filling the idle slot T3.x. Then comes the Y multiplications T0.y, T1.y, T2.y and T3.y, and then finally the Z multiplications T0.z, T1.z, T2.z and T3.z. So now it only took 3 cycles. So what Quad Vectorization does is group the SIMD operations into groups of four and executes them in 3 cycles.
To handle all this Bifrost uses a clever Quad Manager along with some execution engines to process the groups of 4 SIMD instructions. The G71 has three such execution engines. This method actually turns out to be very compiler friendly and if the shader code is compiled optimally then the quad execution engine is just fed a constant stream of quad vectors to process.This also has power saving implications as the GPU only needs to fetch one scalar operation per quad execution engine every clock cycle. This means that there is a significant reduction in instruction cache bandwidth.Bifrost also includes lots of other clever innovations like index driven position shading, claused shaders and ARM TrustZone, plus the tiler memory structures have been significantly redesigned to reduce the tiler memory footprint. As you can see, Bifrost is the next generation GPU architecture that is destined to be used over the next several years for a range of different GPUs, of which the G71 is the first.Wrap-upARM foresees the rise of VR and AR on mobile and Bifrost is ideally suited to power these immersive experiences. Some see the ability to deliver a compelling VR experience on mobile as critical for the gaming industry’s continued growth and advancement. As such ARM is positioning the Mali-G71 as the GPU needed to make virtual reality and augmented reality an everyday experience on a mobile device.As is always the case in the semi-conductor industry, there is a delay between when a design is announced and when we will see it in an actual device. ARM has now officially unveiled the G71 and Bifrost. For sure ARM has been working with its partners in the background, long before this announcement was made and that the G71 is already being primed for inclusion in upcoming SoCs. We know that chip makers like HiSilicon, MediaTek and Samsung have already taken licenses. The exact date when we will see actual products using the G71 is uncertain, however we will likely see processors with Mali-G71 GPUs towards the end of this year, and devices sometime during 2017.