Gert Frolund Pedersen, professor at Aalborg University in Denmark had his name first known in the tech circles with the iPhone 4 “Antennagate” scandal. Ever since, the antenna expert has been putting phones under careful testing, with a focus on the antenna performance. The Apple iPhone 6s reception was the latest to be subjected to his tests and the findings aren’t very flattening.

Pedersen pitted the iPhone 6s against a variety of phones including the iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact. The reception test measures the antenna performance in the GSM 900 frequency band in dBm. This is the band most often used for placing calls and is the backup band of choice in Denmark and a number of other GSM countries.

The professor conducts the tests in a radiowave-proof environment and found out of the 37 phones tested, the iPhone 6s is 30th with a -93.0dBm. The Samsung Galaxy S6 is almost at the top placing fourth with a -97.8dBm, while the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact is 10th.

While the numbers seem relatively close, that’s not the case. Decibel is a logarithmic unit, with -100db being 10 times better than -90db. This means that the difference between the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6s signal strength is roughly three times.

The problem with the reception of the phones, according to Pedersen, is the size of the antennas inside. Now, manufacturers are placing their attention on screen size and battery capacity and there’s not much space left for a larger antenna to be placed.

Here’s the full phone list and…

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After Oppo announced the R7s heavy-hitter last week, it’s now time for a refresh down the ranks. The Neo 7 has just been made official with a price tag somewhere below $200.

The smartphone sports a 5-inch TFT LCD display with qHD resolution (that’s a lowercase q, meaning the modest 540×960 pixels). The Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 is in charge, with a quad-core 1.2GHZ processor and a single gig of RAM. Internal storage is 16GB, and the Neo 7 takes microSD cards for expansion.

Oppo Neo 7 press images

The budget solutions continue in the imaging department, where the primary shooter is an 8MP one, with a tiny 1/4″ sensor behind an f/2.0 lens. On the front there’s a 5MP shooter coupled with f/2.4 glass.

The Oppo Neo 7 measures 142.7 x 71.7 x 7.6mm and weighs 141g, while fitting a rather common for the brand 2,420mAh battery. The smartphone comes with a reflective back panel in either Black or White with a silver or golden frame, respectively. 3G and 4G versions will be available, and both will have the obligatory connectivity options like Bluetooth (v4.0), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, and GPS.

The Oppo Neo 7 should launch first in India two days from now on October 28, with countries in South East Asia, South Asia, Middle East and North Africa as well as Mexico to follow some time…

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The market for kitchen tablets is expanding and after the Alcatel OneTouch Xess from a few months ago and the two-year-old Sony Tablet Z Kitchen edition, the Samsung Galaxy View is next in line. The 18.4-inch monster has been a regular at the rumor mill for a while, but has now been listed for pre-order at Adorama.

The listing reveals key specs of the tablet, not that they were exactly a secret. The large display comes with FullHD resolution for a density of about 120ppi, hinting that it’s not to be used at arms length. The Exynos 7580 SoC powers the Galaxy View, its processor clocked at up to 1.6GHz. Interestingly, the retailer calls the chip Carmen2, the first time we’ve seen that moniker.

The specsheet goes on with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which can be expanded by popping in a microSD card up to 128GB. You get a 2.1MP front-facing camera with FullHD video recording, and thankfully you are denied the opportunity to use the View as a camera – there’s no rear shooter.

There’s a full connectivity suite aboard the View, with quad-band 3G and Cat.6 LTE, and a Wi-Fi-only model may be available too. Either way, the entire WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac range of standards is supported. There’s Bluetooth v4.1 and GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS, though we’re hard pressed to imagine a case where you’d use the 18.4-inch for in-car navigation.

The battery inside the tablet has a rather modest 5,700mAh capacity, though Samsung promises 8.5 hours of video playback out of it. Not much detail is revealed on the kickstand, but by now we’re expecting it to be a permanent fixture.

What Samsung is trying to pitch as the missing link between your Galaxy tablet and your Samsung TV is yet to become official, but you can pre-order yours today for $599. Details on actual availability are yet to be revealed, though.

Source |…

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Remember Batman: Arkham Knight for PC? It’s okay if you don’t. It has been four months since the game’s disastrous launch where the developers got so much flak for what was practically an unplayable game to most people that they had to pull it from Steam and retail outlets.

Now, after four months of long wait, the developer Rocksteady and publisher Warner Bros. are finally ready to re-release the game on PC. The game will be back on Steam on October 28 and of course will be available for free to those who already purchased it.

WB will also be releasing a patch that will bring the PC version up-to-date with all the content that was released so far on the consoles (excluding the exclusives). Unfortunately, there are no compensations being provided to existing buyers for all the frustrations that was caused, which is now causing more frustration among some. But if you just want to play the game, it will be out in two…

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If you’ve been eyeing the ZUK Z1 for a while, now’s as good a time as any to hit the “Order” button. The smartphone has received a limited time price-cut and can be had for $280 instead of its usual $350 asking price.

Active immediately the promotion ends in 40-something hours, so you better hurry. Both the Gray and White color options are available and you get free worldwide shipping.

Meanwhile the Lenovo-backed company is holding a press event in Dubai today to promote the Z1 in the local market. More importantly, the press conference will reportedly shed some light on ZUK’s plans for a second generation product. With the Z1 merely 2 and a half months old now, the company could be looking to diversify rather than announce a…

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Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo will reportedly be unveiling a new smartphone this week – on October 28. Dubbed Neo 7, the device will be launched in India first, followed by an additional 17 markets around the world.

Design-wise, the device is said to be broadly similar to its predecessor, the Neo 5 (2015), which was launched along with the Neo 5s earlier this year.

As for the specs, from what is currently known, it will sport a bigger display of 5-inches, compared to its predecessor’s 4.5-inch screen, and feature 8MP rear and 5MP front cameras. Internal memory will be 16GB, and the handset – which will be available in white and black color options – will offer 4G LTE…

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E-commerce giant Amazon has revealed that its sales in India, which is one of the fastest growing markets for the company, has increased an impressive four times compared to last year.

“We are in the middle of the Diwali season that is going really well. Sales are 4x what they were last year,” said the company’s Senior Vice President and CFO Brian T Olsavsky, adding that the number of sellers has also jumped over 250% year-on-year.

“So, we are very encouraged, as I said last quarter in India, and continue to invest there very heavily,” he said. For those who aren’t aware, the US-based company announced last year that it will invest $2 billion in its India operations.

Amazon also recently announced its financial results for Q3 2015, revealing a 23% increase in sales to $25.4 billion, compared to the $20.6 billion that it recorded in the same quarter last…

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Looks like Gionee is all set to update its Elife S series with a new handset soon. A new teaser image (see below) suggests that the Chinese company will launch the Elife S6 smartphone next month – on November 16.

Unfortunately, as of now, there isn’t much known about the device. However, reports say that it is the same handset (model number GN9007) that received TENAA certification back in August this year.

That particular smartphone is powered by a MediaTek SoC with octa-core 1.3GHz processor, and sports a 5-inch HD AMOLED display. It has 2GB RAM and 16GB expandable internal memory, and features 13MP/8MP camera combo. Having a thickness of 6mm and weighing in at around 124 grams, the handset runs Android 5.1 Lollipop-based Amigo 3.1…

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Over a couple of months after it was launched in the company’s home country of South Korea, Samsung Pay is being used by more than a million users there. The milestone was announced by the tech giant yesterday.

The company also revealed some other interesting information related to its mobile payments service. For example, the number of avg. daily payments in South Korea has now touched the 100,000 mark, cumulative payments have exceeded $88 million, and daily average payments now stand at over $1.8 million.

Aside from South Korea, the mobile payments service is also available in the US, where it launched nearly a month ago. Recently, the company announced that all all major carriers in the country now support the…

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Back in 2012, a class-action lawsuit was slapped against Facebook for breaching user privacy – it was alleged that the company tracked users’ Internet activity even after they log off. That particular lawsuit has now been dismissed.

Passing the verdict, the judge said the plaintiffs failed to explain exactly how they were affected by the tracking, or how it caused them “a realistic economic harm or loss.” He, however, gave them another chance, allowing them to refile their claims in a revised lawsuit.

It’s worth mentioning that the sum of $15 billion was calculated by calling on the Wiretap Act, which – according to the complaint – allows victims (estimated to be around 150 million in this case) to claim damages of as much as $100/violation/day for each Facebook user. Plaintiffs can file the revised lawsuit till November…

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