It's official: New iPhone 2018 launch event is scheduled for September 12

Apple's New iPhone 2018 launch event is Wednesday, September 12 - the invites have gone out to the press.

That's the date we expect Apple to announce the iPhone 9 and iPhone 11. There's been little mystery to the timing and design, though the names remain unknown.

New iPhone rumors suggest three new iPhones: a refresh of the 5.8-inch iPhone X we're calling iPhone 11, a larger 6.5-inch iPhone 11 Plus, and a 'cheaper' 6.1-inch iPhone 9 with an LCD screen.

All three phones are expected to eschew the traditional home button, last seen in the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, and utilize Face ID for unlocking and Apple Pay.

Which iPhone will you get and what will it be called?

The 6.1-inch iPhone, what we're calling iPhone 9, may be the most interesting. It's a sizable upgrade without too much of a downside (an LCD screen instead of OLED).

Most people won't notice the difference in screens without a side-by-side comparison. Those same people will notice the wider set of expected color choices: white, gray red, blue and orange. We haven't seen bold colors like this since the original iPhone 5C.

The iPhone 9 price may be closer to the 4.7-inch iPhone 8 at $699 (£699, AU$1,079), which would be a significant deal for an iPhone with such a large screen. But the latest word from analysts is that this LCD-equipped iPhone will release later than the OLED versions, possibly in October.

The iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Plus, both with OLED screens, are rumored to come in black and white colors again, and be joined by newcomer gold (a color Apple is said to have canceled at one point before launching the iPhone X last year). 

The rest of the rumored specs shouldn't be a surprise: Apple's A12 chipset should give us faster performance, and the more expensive phones are likely to have dual-lens 12MP cameras, stainless steel (instead of aluminum frames), and slightly more RAM and storage options. All will run iOS 12 out of the box.

Apple event to have other announcements

This is an iPhone launch event, but Apple is almost certainly going to launch other products on September 12, including two long-overdue accessories.

The AirPower is the wireless charging mat Apple announced on September 12 – last year – at the Steve Jobs Theater. It has faced delays, but may finally be ready in 2018.

We were promised new AirPods (or at least a wireless case) last year, too. We've yet to see those launch, although they may be a stepping stone to the real AirPods 2, rumored to launch next year with features like noise canceling and waterproofing. 

• Apple reportedly launching noise-canceling AirPods and over-the-ear headphones in 2019

With three new iPhones and accessories expected to launch in less than a month, there's a lot of news to unpack in just a few short weeks. We'll be covering every second of the Apple event, so stay tuned for coverage of everything as it happens.

• All about iOS 12

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://www.techradar.com/news/its-official-new-iphone-2018-launch-event-is-scheduled-for-september-12

The new Honor Play will take your gaming to a new level

The real gaming smartphone has come and for an insane price. Meet the new Honor Play with GPU Turbo and other great features

The post The new Honor Play will take your gaming to a new level appeared first on Pocketnow.

from Pocketnow https://pocketnow.com/honor-play-gaming-new-level

Apple could be planning on using MicroLED and MiniLED displays in their devices

More changes could come to the displays of Apple devices like the iPhone and Apple Watches with the new MicroLED and MiniLED displays

The post Apple could be planning on using MicroLED and MiniLED displays in their devices appeared first on Pocketnow.

from Pocketnow https://pocketnow.com/apple-microled-miniled-displays

ZTE Axon 9 Pro announced as a true multimedia flagship

The ZTE Axon 9 Pro just became official at IFA 2018 and it's everything you hoped it would be. A true multimedia flagship.

The post ZTE Axon 9 Pro announced as a true multimedia flagship appeared first on Pocketnow.

from Pocketnow https://pocketnow.com/zte-axon-9-pro

BlackBerry Key2 LE announced as an affordable alternative to the Key2

The BlackBerry Key2 is a business-focused phone with a hardware keyboard and a dual-lens camera, but now the BlackBerry Key2 LE has been announced, ticking all those boxes at a much lower price.

The BlackBerry Key2 LE has a 4.5-inch 1080 x 1620 LCD screen with a physical keyboard underneath it, just like the full fat Key2. And like that phone it also has a handy Speed Key, which acts as a shortcut to various functions, plus 52 customizable keyboard shortcuts.

As noted above it also has a dual-lens camera, but this is one area where you can see how the price was kept down, as the BlackBerry Key2 LE has a 13MP and 5MP pairing, while the standard Key2 has a pair of 12MP cameras.

The Key2 LE’s Snapdragon 636 chipset and 4GB of RAM also make it slightly less powerful, and its battery is smaller too at 3,000mAh, but you still get a fingerprint scanner, an 8MP front camera, up to 64GB of storage, a microSD card slot, Android 8.1 and access to all the sorts of features you’d expect from a BlackBerry handset.

• Read our hands on: BlackBerry Key2 LE review

Putting security first

That includes a ‘Locker’ where you can keep apps, documents and photos private, BlackBerry’s DTEK app, which can detect potential security risks, support for dual accounts so you can keep work and personal separate on a single phone, and BlackBerry Hub, which houses all your messages from various different sources in one place.

The battery, while fairly small, apparently lasts up to 22 hours and supports fast charging, and the design of the BlackBerry Key2 LE includes a newly designed soft textured back, to provide better in-hand grip and minimize the risk of it being dropped.

And as noted, this is cheaper than the standard BlackBerry Key2. That phone costs $649/£579 (around AU$1,035), while the BlackBerry Key2 LE starts at $399 / £349 (roughly AU$625) for the 32GB model and rises to $449 / £399 (around AU$710) for the 64GB one.

It’s not available yet, but is set to launch starting next month, and when it does you should be able to choose between Slate, Champagne and Atomic colors.

• Don't need a keyboard? Check out the BlackBerry Motion

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://www.techradar.com/news/blackberry-key2-le-announced-as-an-affordable-alternative-to-the-key2

Honor Magic 2 teased - no notch, a pop-up camera and voice assistant 'YoYo'.

At the launch of the Honor Play, we were treated to a tasty little teaser for a new phone from the brand: the Honor Magic 2.

This - unsurprisingly - follows the Honor Magic, launched in Asian markets in 2016, and will bring 'more innovation' when it debuts in December this year.

Despite only being a teaser there were a number of interesting tidbits given out - the first being the ever-so-slightly-creepy 'YoYo' voice assistant.

Well, at least that what we assume it is... the voiceover simply said 'Hello, YoYo', to which a young voice replied: 'I'm here [giggle]! What's up?'

No more information was given, although we did get to see the phone in action, complete with the manual sliding camera, which allows the Magic 2 to shed the notch.

Some will note the similarities to the Oppo Find X on this phone, but where that has a mechanical, automatic camera that pops up, it's a manual slide on the Honor Magic 2.

We don't know any further specs for the phone (other than it'll be using Huawei's new Kirin 980 chipset), other than assuming it's going to be sold fairly globally given it was shown off at the European launch of the Play.

But... why?

It's interesting that Honor would want to create its own artificially intelligent (AI) assistant, given the huge investment and effort it takes for a brand to get such a thing accepted by the public - just looking at the apathy to Samsung's Bixby assistant paints such a picture.

That said, Honor has long-touted its status as one of the first brands to bring AI smarts to phones - the Honor Magic was the first device it used such branding on - so the Honor Magic 2 seems like a natural fit if Honor is going to go down this route.

Will we see the same skill applied to other Huawei phones? Given it's using the Kirin 980 chipset that will be used in other flagship handsets, it's fair to assume we'll be seeing YoYo used in further devices soon.

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://www.techradar.com/news/honor-magic-2-teased-no-notch-a-pop-up-camera-and-voice-assistant-yoyo

ASUS just killed the bezel with the new, sexy ZenBook ultrabooks

New ASUS ZenBook ultrabooks were unveiled at the IFA 2018 pre-show in Berlin. ASUS really came prepared with a cornucopia of devices.

The post ASUS just killed the bezel with the new, sexy ZenBook ultrabooks appeared first on Pocketnow.

from Pocketnow https://pocketnow.com/news-asus-zenbook-family