Asus ZenFone 3 Max starts getting ZenUI 4.0 update

Asus ZenFone 3 Max starts getting ZenUI 4.0 update

Asus has started pushing out a new update to its smartphone. Arriving as version V14.0200.1712.347, the update bumps the system user interface to ZenUI 4.0. The announcement says it'll take around one week for the system to complete the autopush, so be patient if you haven't received the update yet. Alternatively, you can also head to to update manually. It's already that the entire and series will get the Oreo update. While the Zenfone 4 Oreo update will this month, the Zenfone 3 sooner than later.

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Amazon brings Firefox and Amazon Silk support to Fire TV

Amazon brings Firefox and Amazon Silk support to Fire TV

Amazon has announced that all users of Fire TV devices will now be able to browser the web through Firefox and Amazon Silk browsers. While the Silk browser was made available for download at the end of last month, the addition of Firefox is new. The move comes shortly after Google decided to drop YouTube playback functionality through the YouTube app on the Fire TV. Of course, the very first icon you see when you install and launch the Firefox browser on Fire TV is YouTube. Hilariously enough, this does not even launch the website but instead opens a YouTube app identical to the one that is about to be discontinued right within Firefox itself. The implementation is really weird because once you launch this you can't go back to the Firefox browser and even going back to the homescreen and clicking the Firefox icon only launches the YouTube app again. I had to wait for some time for the app to be cleared from memory, after which I could access Firefox again. Out of curiosity, I decided to open YouTube in Firefox the old fashioned way by typing in the URL. This opened the mobile version of YouTube and the experience here was really bad. In fact you will often be seeing mobile versions of sites here, since this is essentially Firefox for Android in landscape. I couldn't test the Amazon Silk browser as it's not available in all regions. In the end, this really just seems like a workaround to get users to access YouTube long after Google has pulled the plug on January 1, 2018. It remains to be seen if Google will try to do something about this workaround.

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Samsung Galaxy J2 (2018) leaks in all its low-end glory

Samsung Galaxy J2 (2018) leaks in all its low-end glory

At the high-end, Samsung's all about Infinity Displays and small bezels and the 18.5:9 aspect ratio, but the Korean company also churns out quite a few low-end offerings each year. And now we're fast approaching the launch of just such a device: the Galaxy J2 (2018), previously thought to be . The handset has received the full leak treatment today, with specs accompanying the press renders you can see below. The Galaxy J2 (2018) will come with a 5 540x960 Super AMOLED touchscreen, 1.5GB of RAM, and 16GB of expandable storage. It's powered by the Snapdragon 425 chipset, which has a 1.4 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU. Camera-wise, you're getting an 8 MP shooter on the back, and a 5 MP unit on the front, and they both have an LED flash interestingly. The J2 (2018) has dual-SIM support, Bluetooth 4.2, LTE Cat.4 (up to 150Mbps down), and 802.11n Wi-Fi. A 2,600 mAh replaceable battery charges through a microUSB port. The phone weighs 153g and runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat. It will be available in Russia and other emerging markets in the coming weeks, retailing for around 115. (in German)

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Honor announces brand expansion to Latin America

Honor announces brand expansion to Latin America

Following Honors success in the United States with its high-value X series, the company is announcing its expansion into Latin American markets across Central and South America. Honor will begin to sell smartphones in stores starting next year. The company is certainly excited to see how its will do in the new region. The Latin American market is certainly different from North American markets in that people are more likely to purchase an unlocked phone at a physical store or through a carrier than directly from an online retailer. It will be interesting to see how Honor transitions into Latin America. The company held a small reception in Miami where it announced the news to potential partners in the area. Miamis variety of cultures and large number of Spanish speakers makes it a major hub for trade and distribution with South American markets. Huawei already has a strong presence in South America, so translating that presence into a sub-brand shouldnt be terribly difficult. Honor is certainly after the younger crowd of consumers, so perhaps it will be easier to reach the always-connected generation of South and Central America. Honor is going to bring the and the Honor 7X to Latin America the same two devices that will be hitting the United States. The Honor 7X puts an 18:9 display and an all-metal body with a fingerprint scanner and dual-camera for $199 in the States. Meanwhile, the View 10 features hardware and software identical to the at a cost that directly rivals the . Pricing and availability for these new markets have not been announced just yet, we may hear more at CES next month.

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Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ benchmarks confirm 18.5:9 screens

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ benchmarks confirm 18.5:9 screens

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ will retain the 18.5:9 aspect ratio of the Galaxy S8 and S8+. That's been confirmed through an HTML browser benchmark, which revealed the screen aspects for both. Sadly the benchmark doesn't have any more spoilers, but as the Mobile World Congress draws near, we're bound to see and hear much more about the S9/S9+ duo. So far the murmur is that the two phones will have a , a centered fingerprint scanner on the back and on the back of the plus version. We're sure the leaks will keep on coming so stay tuned. |

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