GALAXY S8 NEWS: SAMSUNG’S NEXT FLAGSHIP IS A BEAST, AND IT HAS A SPECIAL MODE TO BACK IT UP

It is no secret that Samsung’s forthcoming flagship device for 2017, the Galaxy S8, would be a beast. What’s significantly attention-grabbing is that Samsung appears to be so serious concerning the S8’s beast-like attributes that it really trademarked the phrase “Beast Mode” within the EU. With this in mind, it sounds like the S8 wouldn't solely be a robust device, it might even be equipped with a special feature that will make the flagship even additional dominating.

While the precise specs of the smartphone haven't been leaked or confirmed by the South Korean technical giant, speculations are high that the handset would feature the best of what mobile technology could offers. After all, with competition from all sides like Apple’s approaching iPhone eight and therefore the powerful, upstart OnePlus four being discharged within the same year, the Galaxy S8 would have terribly huge shoes to fill. Couple this with the actual fact that the S8 is additionally Samsung’s initiative towards redemption from the Note seven disaster and it extremely sounds like the bar for the approaching device has been set very high.

If any, nothing but a beast of a device would be enough for Samsung to dominate the competition and redeem itself from the injury to its reputation shaped by its now-discontinued 2016 flagship phablet. Despite the shortage of official statements from Samsung, however, the rumors emerging concerning the forthcoming device are very encouraging thus far, with speculations pointing to the Galaxy S8 being a device that goes above and beyond the best handsets on the market right now.

The Galaxy S8 is reported to feature either Qualcomm’s most powerful chipset so far, the snapdragon 835, or a home-grown next-generation Exynos processor, in step with PhoneArena. what's notably attention-grabbing is that Samsung was actively concerned with the development and creation of the snapdragon 835. this implies that, for all intents and functions, the Galaxy S8 may all right be a tool that's specifically designed to form the foremost out of the capabilities of the forthcoming powerful mobile processor.

Apart from the snapdragon 835 or the next-generation Exynos chip, rumors additionally purpose to the Samsung Galaxy S8 being equipped with 6GB to 8GB of RAM, permitting even the foremost stringent smartphone users to toggle through multiple heavy applications with ease. VR compatibility is additionally one thing that's speculated for the Galaxy S8, with rumors stating that the device would be the smartphone to beat next year relating to graphical capabilities. This, of course, is probably where the device’s Beast Mode would come into play.

The specifics of what exactly happens when a user turns on the Galaxy S8’s Beast Mode remain unknown at this point, but from the moniker itself, it could be inferred that the feature would enable the mobile device to function with all its guns blazing. According to a Forbes report, the performance of smartphones is commonly balanced very deliberately with the power consumption of the device, since leaving the processor running at full throttle results in massive battery drain. By turning on the Galaxy S8’s Beast Mode, the limiters of the system might be temporarily removed, allowing the processor to perform at its most powerful.

The reception to the trademark filing of the phrase Beast Mode in the EU has so far been polarized among Samsung’s avid fans, with many stating that the feature appears to simply be a gimmick to emphasize how powerful the device is. This is because modern mobile processors are already advanced enough to determine when to function at full throttle and when to hold back. Thus, numerous Samsung fans have stated that the inclusion of a Beast Mode feature is quite redundant.

On the other hand, numerous fans of the South Korean tech giant have expressed their excitement and support for the upcoming smartphone’s new feature. After all, by having the Galaxy S8 have a special Beast Mode that unlocks the device’s optimum performance, Samsung seems to be declaring its re-entry into the forefront of mobile technology. With the Galaxy S8’s Beast Mode, Samsung is declaring that it is back, stronger than ever before. In order to regain its previous dominance in the smartphone market, this is exactly what Samsung needs to do.

HTC Schedules Product Announcement for January 12; New Smartphone Expected

HTC has started sending media invites for an event on January 12 where the company says it will make its "next big announcement." The company has shared a teaser invite with "for U" as a tagline. Unfortunately, not many details about HTC's upcoming announcement are available right now.

It's worth noting that the January 12 launch date is just after the CES week which means HTC doesn't want its announcement to get lost in a host of launches during the event. The Taiwanese company has not dropped any hints in the invite for the launch event, however, recent rumours have pointed to the launch of the HTC X10 mid-range smartphone in January. The event could also see the launch of the company's next flagship or be about the company's recent virtual reality push, or both.

Starting with the HTC X10, the successor to the HTC One X9 is said to launch in January and cost around CNY 2,000 (roughly Rs. 19,500). It is said to sport a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920) display, a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 processor (Cortex-A53 cores), Mali-T860 GPU, 3GB of RAM, and a 13-megapixel rear camera with OIS.

Another recent report claimed that HTC has been working on its next flagship, the HTC 11. According to initial rumours, HTC 11 may sport a 5.5-inch QHD (1440x2560) display and run on Android 7.0 Nougat customised with HTC's Sense 8 UI on top. The handset is rumoured to pack a dual-camera setup of 12-megapixel at the back while an 8-megapixel front-facing camera is also expected on board. Under the hood, the HTC 11 is expected to be powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 CPU, along with Adreno 540 GPU for graphic performance. It is said to pack a whopping 8GB of RAM under the hood, with an inbuilt storage of 256GB. The device is said to be backed by a 3700mAh battery. According to rumours, HTC's next flagship will launched with a price tag of $691 (roughly Rs. 47,000). However, all these leaks should be taken with a pinch of salt as HTC has not mentioned anything about the upcoming device and the leaks legitimacy remains questionable.

Apple and Nokia are at it again over patents

Apple and Nokia settled a patent lawsuit back in 2011, but now, they’re back at it once more. the two firms square measure suing one another over again, however this time Apple is filing an antitrust case, not against Nokia however instead against third-party firms called patent assertion entities, or PAEs, that are engaged on its behalf. In getting even for this cause, Nokia is suing Apple directly.

In its case, Apple argues that these PAEs aggressively pursue cash for patents Nokia transferred to them — one thing it says shouldn’t be allowed as a result of it’s “anti competitive and abusive.” Nokia is on an individual basis suing because it believes Apple owes it money for patents utilized in Apple products.

The two corporations last had a licensing spat back in 2009, when Nokia sued Apple over claims that Apple infringed on a number of its essential patents. These commonplace essential patents are used across the business and as such, are alleged to be authorised on honest, reasonable, and non-discriminatory — aka FRAND — terms. this implies corporations will make the most of these patents while not paying outrageous licensing fees because they’re essential to most products.

The companies eventually reached a settlement agreement during which Apple paid a one-time fee to Nokia then was scheduled to pay regular royalties in the future.

Apple’s new case, that was filed in California, goes after PAEs that Nokia has partnered with to pursue extra patent money. Apple claims these firms, that embody acacia research and conversant Property Management, are “conspiring with Nokia in a scheme to diffuse and abuse [standard essential patents] and, as the PAEs and Nokia absolutely supposed, monetize those false guarantees by extracting exorbitant non-FRAND royalties in manner Nokia couldn't.”



Apple continues to mention that these PAEs are able to pursue violation cases because in contrast to Nokia, they don’t manufacture anything and instead engineered a complete business around fighting violation. Apple implies the PAEs, and in particular, Acacia, has it out for the company, as proved by the quantity of patent lawsuits they’ve brought against it. PAEs have reportedly sued Apple a minimum of 12 times based mostly off former Nokia patents; by itself, tree has sued Apple over 40 times based mostly off patents from Nokia and other firms. Apple desires the court to declare this practice of habitually and aggressively suing based on other companies' patents extralegal.

Meanwhile, Nokia filed a suit today directly against Apple in Europe and the USA that claims the company remains infringing on Nokia patents. Nokia says that since settling that initial case, Apple has “declined resultant offers created by Nokia to license different [parts] of its proprietary inventions, which square measure utilized by several Apple product.” therefore primarily, Nokia is arguing that Apple owes money because it takes advantage of a lot of Nokia patents than it’s presently paying for. The lawsuit covers 32 patents, as well as display, user interface, software, and video-coding technology.



Nokia’s lawsuit is actually retribution for Apple’s lawsuit, but Apple, whereas facing two opponents — Nokia and PAEs — is trying to upend patent law. Apple’s case might ultimately be monumental in however future patent legal proceeding is tried. That is, if it wins and doesn’t simply settle things in an exceedingly couple years.