Chinese smartphone market leader Xiaomi and software giant Microsoft has signed a new deal that will see the companies cross-licensing patents. This was announced by Xiaomi’s VP Hugo Barra on Twitter.

Expanding the Xiaomi-Microsoft partnership: new deal for Office & Skype pre-install, IP cross-license and patent transfer agreement— Hugo Barra (@hbarra) June 1, 2016

As part of the deal, Xiaomi will also ship Microsoft Office and Skype on a number of its Android handsets starting September 2016. The device list includes the Mi 5, Mi Max, Mi 4s, Redmi Note 3, and Redmi 3.

“We are…

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Google has decided to enter the smart home market with its not-so-recent acquisition of Nest and most recently at Google I/O with the announcement of Google Home. A new report from The Information says that Google has forgotten to mention one detail about Google’s new home assistant.

The report claims that one of the developers of the product has direct knowledge that the device is actually an enclosure with lots of components: microphones, a speaker, and LED lights that are all built around the hardware of a Chromecast.

The Chromecast’s micro computing capabilities proved to be…

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The Sony Xperia X lineup is getting more attention. Especially with the US launch weeks away. Sony details in a press release that only pre-orders for the Xperia X are live today with Best Buy, Amazon, B&H, and Reagan Wireless. You can begin to pre-order the other 3 Xperia devices starting on June 17.

Customers who pre-order either the Xperia X ($550) or Xperia X Performance ($700) will receive a free 128GB micro SD card. Customers who pre-order the Xperia XA Ultra ($370) will also get a free 64GB SD card and those who’d like to preorder the Xperia XA ($280) will get a free…

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A neat accessory currently being showcased at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan is Weeview’s Eye-Plug. This is essentially a camera on a stick. You plug it into the USB Type-C port of your Android smartphone, and it lets you shoot 3D videos.

It does the 3D capture thing by using both its own camera as well as your handset’s, working together to record footage you can then view in a Google Cardboard headset. And because it goes into the USB Type-C port, you can plug it in either facing the front of the phone or its rear.

So yes, you can do 3D selfie videos too if you want to. Additionally,…

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According to a new report out of Asia, Apple is going to make a change in its iPhones’ lifecycles. Up until now, the company sort of emulated Intel’s tick-tock model – one year we’d see a new design, and then the next year’s models would only feature refined innards, keeping the looks. This has most recently been the case with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, of course – keeping the design of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus while sporting better hardware on the inside.

So you might have expected the iPhone 7 to bring with it a big redesign, but all the rumors and leaks we’ve seen about it so far…

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Computex is currently in full swing in Taipei, Taiwan, and some enterprising folks have spotted an intriguing accessory on display there. As portrayed in the image below, it’s an adapter cable that’s meant to plug into Apple’s Lightning port, and it features a good old analog 3.5mm headset jack at the other end.

It has a three-button remote control, and apparently comes with a built-in amplifier too. The company that’s showing this product, Tama, has already listed a similar accessory on its website – that one has the buttons on the same end as the headset jack.

The fact that…

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Those dreaded invites have long been history for both the OnePlus 2 and the OnePlus X, as you’ve been able to order either device from the Chinese company’s own online store at any point in the past few months. But what if you love Amazon so much that you must make all of your purchases there?

Thankfully OnePlus is now happy to serve you too. In a first, the company will officially start selling all of its devices through the mega-retailer. This is an unprecedented move from OnePlus, but it’s one that’s sure to make grabbing one of its products easier for a lot of people.

At the…

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Always dreamt of wireless charging your iPhone even though Apple hasn’t built in the necessary tech yet? Well then, this is for you. Battery case experts Mophie have now launched a new range of such accessories for Apple’s smartphones – and they have wireless charging support.

They’re anything but cheap though. If you get both the battery case and the wireless charging base for the iPhone 6 or 6s, for example, you need to pay $99.95, while the amount goes up to $129.95 if you have the iPhone 6 Plus or 6s Plus. You can also purchase a vent-mounted wireless charging plate for your car, or a…

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The latest iPhone 7 leak comes from China (as do most of them really). A picture showing what is purported to be the handset’s rear casing has been leaked, and you can see it to the left. This is the shell for the rose gold color version of the upcoming iPhone, which means Apple won’t give up on the pinkish hue this year.

You can see the revised antenna lines on the leaked case. The position of these lines up with what basically every single leak and rumor about the iPhone 7’s design has said so far, so at this point it’s hard not to believe that this is what Apple is going for with…

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One of the Facebook-owned messaging apps already offers end-to-end encryption to all of its users – we’re talking about WhatsApp. However, the social network’s other such service, namely Facebook Messenger, has yet to make that step.

But according to a new rumor, it’s only a matter of time. Facebook apparently plans on adding an opt-in end-to-end encryption feature to Messenger at some point “in the coming months”, three people close to the project have said.

Facebook Messenger may not have the reach of WhatsApp, but it’s still used by more than 900 million people, so this move will…

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