Mini review : Our verdict on the HTC 10 in a minute

HTC 10 is the flagship phone of HTC . It's also the company's best phone in years.

After years of losses and lackluster phone releases, HTC finally seems to have gotten its mojo back. OK, it might be too soon to say if its new flagship, the 10, is enough to help the company reverse its fortunes, but if nothing else it's a fantastic device. We love the 10 for its excellent build quality, fast performance, robust audio setup and out-of-the-box Airplay support. Compared to other high-end phones, though, the battery life is merely average and camera performance doesn't quite measure up to Samsung's new Galaxy S7 line. For that reason, the HTC 10 received a slightly lower score -- 88, versus 90 on the GS7 -- but it's still among the best smartphones you can buy right now. Depending on your priorities, it might even be a better choice than the GS7.

Pros

Exceptional build quality

A more subtle approach to software than on previous HTC phones

Top-tier performance

First Android phone that supports Airplay streaming out of the box

Great audio through headphones

           

Cons

Merely average battery life

Camera performance falls short of some rivals

Sound is considerably less impressivewhen you listen through speakers

Hi-res earbuds aren't included with US models

Summary

Simply put, this is the best phone HTC has made in years. It's fantastic, though not exactly perfect. While its build quality is tremendous and there's plenty of horsepower under the hood, HTC still isn'tquiteas good as Samsung at cameras, while the battery life here is hit-or-miss. Still, the 10's lightweight Android skin and great audio performance (in addition to everything else) could make it a better choice for some than either of Samsung's Galaxy S7 phones.

Sony says numerous 'Uncharted 4' copies were stolen

A shipment of Naughty Dog's new game may have met a thief's end.

Sony's President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida has just announced that "a number of copies" of the upcoming game Uncharted 4: A Thief's Endhave been stolen in transit. A few copies have surfaced ahead of the game's official release on May 10th -- British site Videogamer reported yesterday that discs were appearing at second-hand stores in the country. Not acknowledging the irony, Yoshida says "Sony is continuing to to work with the police to resolve the matter, which is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation." He urges gamers to be vigilant for potential spoilers resulting from the theft, and says it will be "worth the wait" till May 10th.

There could be a quick end to this tale, depending on the intelligence of the parties involved. It's a policy of CEX, the second-hand store where one copy was purchased from, to require a valid photo ID when buying a game. If the thief in this case used their actual ID, the police will have a very simple job in identifying who was at fault. Additionally, the UK has very strict laws on handling stolen goods, and CEX itself may in trouble for not doing its due diligence (it doesn't seem to care, though). We've reached out to all parties involved for more information.

Keen-eyed among you may have noticed that this all seems to have happened on April 26th, which was once the release date for the game. Despite a criminal enquiry being opened, there's a possibility that this is not in fact a theft, and instead is an early shipment issue. For now, all we have to go on is Sony's word, but we'll update you on any developments to the story.

Source: Sony

Nintendo's 'Miitomo' app passes 10 million users

The game company's first app is turning into a legitimate social network.

Nintendo dropped a pile of news on our laps this morning. Along with its earnings, the Japanese game company gave us a release date for its new NX console, announced a pair of new mobile apps and delayed Zelda into 2017. Buried in among these bigger items is the detail that its first mobile app,Miitomo, now has over 10 million unique users.

That's an impressive number for an app that's been available for less than two months. During that time, Nintendo says over 20 million "Miifotos" have been saved. A Miifoto is a small, sharable images of user's in-game avatar, designed to be shared on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

It could be argued -- and my colleague Nicole has -- that Nintendo's app is a social network in and of itself. Although it differs in many ways, Miitomo employs the same hook of Twitter and Facebook likes by rewarding you with coins for answering questions or sharing photos. And in that way, it's certainly doing better at carving out a slice of the market than other app-based networks like Path.

For its next two mobile apps, Nintendo will be sticking more closely to its roots. A version of Fire Emblem will come to smartphones that'll be "more accessible in comparison to the Fire Emblem games for Nintendo's dedicated gaming systems." It strongly hints that another app, this time based on the popular Animal Crossing franchise, will link with existing titles in the series for dedicated systems like the 3DS and Wii U. "By playing both Animal Crossing games, users will find increased enjoyment," the company says. Compared to Miitomo, both of these are "pure game applications" and have "more prominent game elements." If it can match half of Miitomo's figures with Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing, Nintendo will definitely be on the path to mobile success.

Source: Nintendo

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) Review

Versions: A510F (Europe); A510M (Latin America); A510FD (Southeast Asia); A5100 (Hong Kong); A510Y (Taiwan)
Also known as Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) Duos with dual-SIM card slots

NETWORK	Technology	GSM / CDMA / HSPA / EVDO / LTE

LAUNCH	Announced	2015, December
	Status	Available. Released 2015, December

BODY	Dimensions	144.8 x 71 x 7.3 mm (5.70 x 2.80 x 0.29 in)
	Weight	155 g (5.47 oz)
	Build	Corning Gorilla Glass 4 back panel
	SIM	Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
		- Samsung Pay

DISPLAY	Type	Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	5.2 inches (~72.5% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	1080 x 1920 pixels (~424 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 4

PLATFORM	OS	Android OS, v5.1.1 (Lollipop)
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 Exynos 7580 Octa
	CPU	Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 Octa-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53
	GPU	Adreno 405 Mali-T720MP2

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 128 GB (uses SIM 2 slot) - A510F, A510M, A5100, A510Y microSD, up to 128 GB (dedicated slot) - A510FD
	Internal	16 GB, 2 GB RAM

CAMERA	Primary	13 MP, f/1.9, 28mm, OIS, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, panorama, HDR
	Video	1080p@30fps
	Secondary	5 MP, f/1.9, 24mm, 1080p

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

COMMS	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot
	Bluetooth	v4.1, A2DP, EDR, LE
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS/ BDS (market dependant)
	NFC	Yes (LTE model only)
	Radio	FM radio
	USB	microUSB v2.0

FEATURES	Sensors	Fingerprint, accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
	Browser	HTML5
	Java	No
		- Fast battery charging - ANT+ support - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - MP4/WMV/H.264 player - MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+/FLAC player - Photo/video editor - Document viewer

BATTERY		Non-removable Li-Ion 2900 mAh battery
	Stand-by
	Talk time	Up to 16 h (3G)
	Music play	Up to 75 h

MISC	Colors	Black, White, Gold, Pink
	SAR EU	0.29 W/kg (head)     0.47 W/kg (body)
	Price group	7/10

TESTS	Performance	Basemark OS II 2.0: 833 / Basemark X: 4947
	Display	Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 3.789 (sunlight)3.789
	Camera	Photo / Video
	Loudspeaker	Voice 65dB / Noise 66dB / Ring 66dB
	Audio quality	Noise -93.4dB / Crosstalk -53.0dB
	Battery life	Endurance rating 91h

Disclaimer. We can not guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct.


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