Daily Archives: November 30, 2015

Meet the vivo X6 and X6Plus – a melding of metal and AMOLED

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And the long wait is over – the vivo X6 and vivo X6Plus are official, coming with lovely metal bodies and AMOLED displays. They have 5.2″ and 5.7″ screens as is the current norm of phone and phablet as a flagship duo.

vivo X6Plus

Measuring a slender 6.6mm, the vivo X6Plus comes in Silver, Gold and Rose Gold color options. The 5.7″ Super AMOLED display has 1080p resolution making for an okay 386ppi pixel density. The software is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop, but has been heavily customized into “Funtouch OS.”

The vivo X6Plus impresses with 4GB of RAM, though its chipset is fairly standard, a MediaTek MT6752. It has eight Cortex-A53 cores at 1.7GHz and a dual-core Mali-T760. Like the RAM, the internal storage is generous – 64GB out of the box, with an option to add more.

Both vivos are dual-SIM phones, but the second SIM slot can accept a microSD instead. This gives you an option of dual-SIM or extra storage (but not both at the same time).

Anyways, the phone is secured with a fingerprint reader on the back, which works in any orientation and needs a mere 0.4 seconds to unlock the screen.

The camera department features a 13MP sensor with phase detection autofocus and an f/2.2 aperture. There’s also an 8MP selfie camera. The camera launches in 0.6s and locks focus in 0.2s.

For audio the phone uses a Yamaha Hi-Fi chip and dedicated amp. It also boasts a 3,000mAh battery with fast-charging tech over a microUSB cable.

The vivo X6Plus is launching in China on December 7 with a price of CNY 3,200 (around $500/€475). There will be a China Unicom version too that will be slightly cheaper at CNY 3,000.

vivo X6

The vivo X6 has a 5.2″ Super AMOLED screen with 1080p resolution (that’s 424ppi). It’s not all that compact at 147.9 x 73.8 x 6.6mm. That’s a full centimeter taller than the LG G2 (which too has a 5.2″ scree), a bit wider too. It decently light at 135.5g though.

The X6 is powered by the same chipset, complete with 4GB of RAM, though the storage has been reduced to 32GB. That’s still pretty generous and you do get the same dual-SIM/single+microSD option.

The metal body of the phone is made out of an anodized aluminum-magnesium alloy that’s milled in 57 steps. Nano injection molding, hand polishing and laser engraving are needed to complete the manufacturing process.

A dual-antenna ensures better reception for the 4G LTE modem. There’s also Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0.

Besides the screen, the X6 also has a smaller battery, a 2,400mAh one. It still has the fingerprint reader on its back and the 13MP back plus 8MP front camera setup.

The vivo X6 will start at CNY 2,600 ($390/€385) and a China Unicom version for CNY 2,500. It too is launching on December 7.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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Amazon Prime: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

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Amazon Prime is Amazon’s subscription offering that gives you access to “free” 2-day shipping on eligible products. The service costs $99 per year, which is why I put the word free in quotation marks. We have subscribed to Amazon Prime since its inception because we easily spend more than $99 per year on shipping and it’s a good deal for us. There are a lot of other perks included with Amazon Prime membership now, however, that make at an even better bargain.

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Why Google Glass is not Prêt-à-Porter and shows up bigger problems

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Seeing the patent for Google’s new Google Glass product left me deflated. The design is nice enough – the device wraps around an ear instead of the weird balancing hunk of plastic before (some are saying Monocle-esque), but it’s not winning any design prizes off the bat. Take a look…

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We May Be Sacrificing Our Remaining Privacy For Self-Driving Cars

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The rise of affordable automobiles in the early 20th century led to an increase in personal mobility that was unprecedented in human history. Most of us suddenly had the ability to travel vastly longer distances anytime we wanted to, no longer encumbered by the limits of human endurance. Among the many pluses and minuses of the automobile was the ability to get further away from civilization and get off the grid. The world is now on the verge of another mobility transformation with vehicles that communicate and drive themselves and getting disconnected from the world may become increasingly difficult.

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IBM’s OpenPOWER Presence Was Felt Heavily At SuperComputing ’15

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IBM is in the process of reinventing themselves as a company, changing how they see themselves, what they do as a company and how they want their partners and customers to view them. This is exemplified best in their mobile alliance with Apple, their Watson cognitive efforts, the sale of their chip fab to GlobalFoundries, the sale of their X86 server and networking division to Lenovo, and the creation of the OpenPOWER Foundation.

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