Dell just teased its own Surface Studio PC

Microsoft announced its Surface Studio all-in-one PC last week, with a plan to appeal to creatives. At Adobe's Max conference in San Diego today, Dell aired a teaser video for its upcoming all-in-one PC that looks like its own take on Microsoft's Surface Studio. Spotted by SurfaceProArt on Twitter, the teaser doesn't mention specs or pricing, but it looks like a PC with two screens and additional input through its own Surface Dial-like hardware. In a subsequent tweet, Dell confirmed that the machine will be unveiled at CES 2017. Apparently it's been in development since 2014.

Microsoft unveiled the Dial as an additional input tool for creatives, and Windows chief Terry Myerson told The Verge last week that Microsoft was open to letting partners use its own technology to bring similar devices to the market. It looks like that's about to happen with Dell's all-in-one. Dell's machine appears to include stylus support, with input primarily driven from a touchscreen that lays on a desk where a mouse or keyboard would traditionally sit.Dell ends its 90-second teaser with a mention that this unannounced device will be unveiled soon, and "welcome to your new workspace." That sounds a lot like Microsoft's pitch: turn your desk into a studio.

Xiaomi’s new affordable Redmi 4 and Redmi 4A launched

After the launch of two premium smart phones just a few days back, Xiaomi has launched its new budget handsets in China.The new Redmi 4 is an upgraded its previous version of Redmi 3 that was launched earlier this year that has proved to be the benchmark smart phone model in the market, which makes for a phone with exciting specs at an affordable price.

Backed by a nice unibody metal design, the phone also features a fingerprint scanner mounted at the back, similar to that of the previous phone. It share a similar design detail like that of the Note 4 that has small bezels and over all features a 5 inch HD display with a resolution of 720p, where as speeding the handset is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 SoC that clocks at a speed of 1.4GHz along with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage for saving your precious data, that can be increased to 128GB with the help of an expandable storage. It also has an inferior variant that hosts Snapdragon 430 processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM.

The back metal panel also hosts a 13MP camera sensor where as the front comes with a 5MP selfie camera. It runs on Google’s v6.0 Android Marshmallow OS, skinned heavily with MIUI. For long usability, the phone also uses a 4,100mAh battery and also has support for VoLTE-ready and 4G LTE.

Alongside, the company also launched the Redmi 4A that runs n Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 CPU paired with 2GB RAM, 32GB internal storage and uses a 3, 120mAh battery. This handset too comes with a fingerprint scanner.

The Redmi4 Snapdradon 625 version is priced at CNY 899( Rs 8,888 approx.), while the Snapdragon 430 is priced at CNY 699 (Rs 6,905 approx.).There is no news on India launch as if now for these handsets, as the Redmi3 too did not come to India, but were launched later in different versions of Redmi 3S and 3S Prime in India.

Lenovo's mobile shipments increase; Massive boost in Motorola sales in India

There is good news for Lenovo all around. Right after dethroning Micromax from 2nd place in the Indian mobile industry, Lenovo got a boost from its smartphone division during Q3 2016. 

Substantial increase in Mobile shipments 

The company announced that it sold a total of 14 million smartphone in the third quarter of 2016, which was up 25% compared to Q2. Lenovo’s overall revenues for the quarter stood at $11.2 billion, 8% down from the same period in 2015. On a more positive side, Net income cam in at $157 million in Q3, a radical improvement compared to a loss of $174 million in Q3 2015.

Massive boost from sales of Moto Z 

This is where the news gets a little interesting. Lenovo’s mobile division, which has been struggling a bit as of late, saw a 40% increase in sales this quarter thanks to the Moto Z, Moto Z Play and the innovative Moto Mods. You can read about our initial impressions of the Moto Z here and the Moto Modshere . However, despite the increase in smartphone sales, the mobile division still posted a loss of $156 million (against a revenue of $2billion). Although, this is still a 4.4% improvement over last year.

Major sales of Motorola smartphones in India 

 Majority of the increase in smartphone shipments came from Asia, with India in particular seeing a massive 15% increase in shipments compared to last year. Lenovo’s Motorola division, thanks to the Moto Z, Moto Z Play and Moto Mods saw a 40% boost in sales.

CMRA camera band turns your Apple Watch into a first-gen Galaxy Gear

Remember the original Galaxy Gear? Hard not to — gadgets don’t get much gadgetier and clunkier than Samsung’s first big attempt to figure out why folk might want computers on their wrist. One of its key features was the camera embedded in the watch strap, letting you quickly snap photos without the need to get your phone out, and now a company is aiming to bring similar functionality to the Apple Watch.

The CMRA band comes from Israeli startup Glide, who already makes an Apple Watch-compatible video chat app. It looks like one of Apple’s rubber Sport Bands but incorporates an 8-megapixel primary camera as well as a 2-megapixel module angled toward the face. While it’s not quite clear how CMRA integrates with the Watch, it does require its own battery — Glide includes a stand that charges both the Watch and the CMRA and can also be used on the go.

"The camera is only valuable when it is out and ready to take a photo or video," Glide CEO Ari Roisman tells Recode. "Our phones live in our pockets." If CMRA is able to be used without too much reliance on the phone, that’ll certainly be the selling point. But that’s probably a big "if."

CMRA won’t ship til spring next year, however — preorders open today for $199, or $149 if you’re quick. The regular selling price will be $249.

Here’s what 1Password’s Touch Bar support might look like

All the hype around the new MacBook Pro has been about what its flashy new Touch Bar can do, but there’s good reason to be excited about its Touch ID sensor, too.One early example: the maker of 1Password, AgileBits, is already showing off its planned support for the laptop’s fingerprint sensor. It plans to allow users to log into 1Password without typing in their (quite possibly complicated) master password.

Basically, the change would take the app from 1 to (mostly) 0Password, since you’d only occasionally need to type it in. For users of the app, that’s a big convenience.

AgileBits is already starting to imagine what it’ll do with the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, too. There’s nothing necessarily crazy here compared to what Apple showed on stage yesterday, but it’s good to see that some of the Mac’s staples are already thinking about Apple’s new hardware.

The mockups place some of 1Password’s key options, like the ability to create different types of entries and to change the length of a new password, right on the Touch Bar. These aren’t supposed to be final designs, but they suggest that AgileBits — and other interested app developers — will be able to launch custom Touch Bar layouts pretty quickly.

There’s no timeline on when 1Password will get these new features. But, you know, no one actually has this computer yet so it doesn’t really matter for a few more weeks.

Apple says new MacBook Pro has only 16GB of RAM to save battery life

Much has been said about the cost, trade-offs, and compromises involved with purchasing Apple’s new MacBook Pro. Apple unveiled the device, which comes in three new iterations, yesterday at a press event, and people pouring over its spec sheets and purchase options have complained that its limiting 16GB memory option is severe given the price tag. Apple has now come out and explained that any more RAM in a notebook of its size would have a detrimental effect on battery life.The answer comes from up high. When a MacRumors reader emailed a general Apple line about a 32GB RAM option, he got a surprise response from marketing chief Phil Schiller himself. Here’s the exchange:

Q: The lack of a 32GB BTO option for the new MBPs raised some eyebrows and caused some concerns (me included). Does ~3GBps bandwidth to the SSD make this a moot issue? I.e. memory paging on a 16GB system is so fast that 32GB is not a significant improvement?

Schiller: Thank you for the email. It is a good question. To put more than 16GB of fast RAM into a notebook design at this time would require a memory system that consumes much more power and wouldn't be efficient enough for a notebook. I hope you check out this new generation MacBook Pro, it really is an incredible system.

So this would seem to undermine any speculation as to whether the new MacBook Pro’s performance upgrades mean a bump in memory isn’t neccesary. Now, Schiller didn’t really answer that part of the question, so there remains the possibility that the improved bandwidth does in fact go a little ways toward making up for the lack of RAM. But Schiller’s reply does point a more concrete finger at battery life, which Apple tends to prioritize over other benefits in its notebook lines.

Phil Schiller says the MacBook Pro doesn’t need an SD card slot

Apple is taking a lot of flack for its decision to drop the SD card slot from the new MacBook Pro range and outfit it with Thunderbolt ports only, but the company is confident it’s made the right choice — even if a lot of users won’t agree with its reasoning.

Speaking to The Independent, Apple exec Phil Schiller said the company had dropped the SD card slot as it was "cumbersome" and because wireless transfer technology for cameras is "proving very useful" as an alternative. A lot of photographers, though, would disagree with this. Although wireless tethering is certainly getting better, it’s frequently buggy and still slower than using an SD card to get photos from to your computer. In a professional situation where speed and reliability count, it’s not a viable alternative, which is why people will be forced to use a dongle instead.

Here's Schiller’s full answer on why the SD card slot was dropped:

Because of a couple of things. One, it’s a bit of a cumbersome slot. You've got this thing sticking halfway out. Then there are very fine and fast USB card readers, and then you can use CompactFlash as well as SD. So we could never really resolve this – we picked SD because more consumer cameras have SD but you can only pick one. So, that was a bit of a trade-off. And then more and more cameras are starting to build wireless transfer into the camera. That’s proving very useful. So we think there’s a path forward where you can use a physical adaptor if you want, or do wireless transfer.

When asked if it’s "inconsistent" for the MacBook Pro to retain the traditional headphone jack (another widely-used connector that Apple has dropped from the iPhone) Schiller says that professionals still need that on a laptop for other types of audio gear that doesn't work wirelessly. "If it was just about headphones then it doesn’t need to be there, we believe that wireless is a great solution for headphones," he says.

In a follow-up interview a day later, Schiller also notes that there has been "a lot of passionate dialogue and debate about the new MacBook Pro." He adds that he’s been surprised by the criticism, but says the decision to only use Thunderbolt ports was a "bold risk" and Apple will "help people through these changes."