Nokia C1 renders leak ahead of launch, hints at 4GB RAM and dual rear cameras

Is Nokia working on its own AI assistant for smartphones?

Nokia is planning its return to the smartphone industry with two new flagship smartphones. The Finnish smartphone maker is expected to showcase its first products at Mobile World Congress in February and now a new leak suggests that one of those devices could be the Nokia C1.

Nokia C1 renders have now appeared on Weibo and offers a rather unusual design. The renders show Nokia C1 to feature metal unibody design with the screen dominating the front. The smartphone also seems to drop the physical home button with front camera and another sensor tucked in between a large speaker grille. There is a similar speaker layout at the bottom edge of the screen as well.

The smartphone also seems to have buttons placed at the right hand side of the device. It is unclear whether these buttons are physical or capacitive ones. Interestingly, the render hints at the device adopting dual rear camera mechanism with LED flash placed at either side of the camera. The smartphone sports a combination of 16 + 12MP rear camera setup with Xenon flash and triple LED flash aiding for low light photography. However, the front camera is a modest 5MP one.

The leaked images also reveal that the smartphone will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 processor aided by 4GB DDR4 RAM and option of 32/64/128GB storage.  The smartphone houses a 3210mAh battery and runs Android 7.1 Nougat.

Nokia C1 uses USB-C port for data and charging while there also seems to be a 3.5mm audio jack. The smartphone is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2017. If these renders turn out to be true, then we are definitely looking at one sleek and hot-selling Android smartphone in 2017.

#101 N is for Nougat: Google unveils the official name for Android N

Say hello to Android Nougat v7.0

After months of speculation, Google finally announced that the name of the next version of Android will be Nougat. The company made the announcement via Twitter and also unveiled a statue of its mascot standing on some pieces of nougat. The version number for Android Nougat will be 7.0. 

At Google I/O, the company had announced that it was crowdsourcing the name of of the next version of Android. One of the suggested names included Nutella, which may have been preferred for Google’s Senior Vice President, Hiroshi Lockheimer. Another name that was suggested was a South Indian treat called Neyappam. The Kerala Government, via its Twitter account, even encouraged people to vote for the name.

The developer preview for Android N, or should we say Android Nougat, launched a few months back. The upcoming update would include features such a multi-window support on phones and tablets that would allow users to run two apps side-by-side in split screen mode. Further, the update would also allow users to reply to notifications from within the notification interface. Android Nougat also improves upon the Doze feature that was introduced in Marshmallow and introduces a data saver mode.

Further, Google also announced a new VR platform that was built into Android Nougat called Daydream. The new platform is a more capable than Google Cardboard and would needs some basic hardware requirements for a device in order to work.

 

 

#100 Apple’s Secret Design Lab Where It’s Working To Make iPhones Even Thinner

PowerTech & Powertechmation: Short Bytes: Earlier this year, Apple began working on a secret design lab in Taiwan that focused on making the next-gen displays for its future devices. The latest media reports have suggested that the lab has at least 50 engineers and other employees who are working on new LCD and OLED screen technologies to make the devices even thinner.

Just like every other smartphone company, Apple is working hard to make its future smartphone thinners and more powerful. This never ending quest of the smartphone makers is motivated further by users’ fantasies to own thinner devices. To achieve this goal, Apple has opened a new production laboratory in northern Taiwan.

The secret design lab of Apple is rumored to work on the new LCD and OLED screen technologies for the future Apple devices. Exposed by Bloomberg, this lab has at least 50 engineers and other employees working upon the new screens for iPads and iPhones.

It’s being reported that Apple has recruited the manpower from the local company AU Optronics Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. This lab began its functions earlier this year to make more advanced liquid-crystal displays and adopt the use of organic LEDs which don’t even need a backlight.

This move by Apple is expected to reduce Apple’s dependency on its long-time suppliers like Samsung, LG, Sharp, and Japan Display. This report about outsourcing this job to the local manufacturers was soon reflected in the stocks of the companies that recorded a big jump.

“Shares of AU Optronics surged 7 percent, the most in four months, in Taipei and Innolux jumped 2.6 percent. Japan Display dropped 3.9 percent in Tokyo to the lowest in more than two months, and Sharp fell 1.6 percent,” writes Bloomberg.

However, Apple is yet to release any official statement about this secret facility in Taiwan. The reports suggest that Apple won’t be making this transition to the iPhone 8.

In another similar development, 60 Minutes ran a segment on Apple that featured Apple campus, Apple design studio, and the in-progress new headquarter.

Watch the complete video here.

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