Androidifying

Not wanting to be left of out this week’s announcements, Xiaomi has just launched two new smartphones for the Chinese market. The new Redmi 4X is looking to bring premium build quality to the low cost market, while the Mi 5c is the company’s chance to show off what its newly unveiled in-house octa-core Surge S1 processor  can do. Starting with the Mi 5c, this launch marks a major milestone for Xiaomi, as this is the first smartphone to launch featuring the company’s in house mobile application processor – the Surge S1. Although not the highest end chip on the market, the Surge S1 shows that Xiaomi is looking to compete with Samsung and Huawei with the development of its own in-house SoCs, and sets up some exciting prospects going forward. See also: Xiaomi reveals 64-bit Surge S1 chipset, its first-ever SoC 29 minutes ago Other hardware inside the Mi 5c breaks down to a 5.15-inch 1080p display, 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 64GB of eMMC 5.0 internal storage, and a 12MP rear camera

Having too many devices to charge is a good problem to have, right? That said, if keeping everything juiced up becomes a hassle, one of the best solutions is to get a USB charger with multiple ports, preferably one that supports fast charging. For all charging-port-challenged folks out there, we have a couple of great deals on Quick Charge 3.0 wall chargers. First up, you can get a well-reviewed USB Type-C 6-port wall charger for $10 off, a good deal on a device that normally sells for close to $30. You get one USB Type-C port, one Q.C 3.0 USB port, and four regular ones, ensuring that you can power up just about any device in your home. This is a Qualcomm-certified product, so safety issues shouldn’t crop up. Just enter promo code ZTT8FXNZ at checkout to get your $10 discount. $19.99 on Amazon with code ZTT8FXNZ If you don’t need a Type-C port, you can also opt for the 5-port version, which can be had for $17.99, with the same promo code ZTT8FXNZ applied. $17.99 on Amazon with

Xiaomi has announced the Surge S1, the company’s first ever processor, at an event in China. The company has been working on the chip for the past 28 months with Pinecone , a subsidiary Xiaomi launched to research and develop the processor, and it will launch with the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5c (release date still to be confirmed). Find out all of the details below. The Surge S1 is an octa-core SoC with four high-performance ARM Cortex A53 cores running at 2.2 GHz and four power-efficient ARM Cortex A53 at 1.4 GHz. These are optimized with ARM’s  big.LITTLE processing tech  to help deliver “peak-performance capacity, higher sustained performance, and increased parallel processing performance, at significantly lower average power.” The Surge S2 uses TSMC’s 28nm HPc process technology, and implements a Mali T860 GPU (said to be 40% more power efficient than the previous-gen Mali-T760), and a 32-bit DSP, supporting VoLTE and 16 kHz sampling. Xiaomi is also touting the benefits of the chi

Khronos , the group behind the OpenGL and Vulkan graphics APIs, has unveiled a name for its fledgling open standard virtual reality initiative at GDC 2017. Known as OpenXR, the working group is comprised of a selection of industry leaders, which are working on a royalty-free graphics standard for augmented and virtual reality applications and devices. You will find AMD, ARM, Google, LG, MediaTek, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung, and many others, among the names involved in the OpenXR project. The group believes that standardization is necessary due to the increasing number of virtual reality software engines and hardware products, which is making it increasingly difficult and expensive for content developers to support numerous platforms. Not only that, but the solution is pegged as a boon for consumers too, as we should see greater compatibility and cross platform support for our favourite applications and VR platforms. The OpenXR standard will be split into two parts; an Application In

Samsung Vice Chairman and current boss Lee Jae-yong will be indicted on charges of bribery, embezzlement and hiding assets overseas, according to a report from Bloomberg . Lee was arrested earlier in February after being accused of bribing South Korean President Park Geun-hye to help him assume control of the Samsung Group. Lee had been the acting chief since 2014 when his father, Samsung’s previous owner, was hospitalized following a heart attack. A controversial merger between Samsung affiliates that Park allegedly aided was key to solidifying his position. (President Park was impeached in December amid corruption allegations and may be removed from office soon.) Following these developments, Samsung reportedly announced that it would dissolve its Corporate Strategy Office, the unit responsible for the company’s most important decisions, which had been linked to the corruption. See also: Samsung Group president and vice chairman offer to resign amidst bribery scandal 4 d

The Samsung Galaxy S8 will be announced in about a month , which means that you’ll soon find a bunch of deals on the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. We have already come across a great one over at Best Buy. The retailer is giving out a bunch of freebies to customers who buy one of the company’s flagship devices. If you pick up a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge , you’ll get a wireless charger ($59.99), a $100 Best Buy gift card, and a Samsung EVO+ 256 GB microSD card ($199.99) for free. The total value of these three items is $359.98, and they will be added to your shopping cart automatically. However, some conditions do apply. You’ll have to activate the device on Verizon Device Payment, AT&T Next, or Sprint 24-Month Installment. Supplies are limited, which means that the deal probably won’t last for long, although Best Buy didn’t mention exactly when it will end. See also: Get the Secure Folder feature on your Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge (Nougat only) 4 days ago This really is a great dea

This post was originally published on VRSource.com . At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, Google announced a few new and interesting games coming to the Daydream VR platform . The most interesting one is probably Virtual Rabbids, which was jointly developed by Ubisoft and the original creators of the game. It is a fun title in which you travel around the world with a goal of recovering a stolen nuclear safety password. The next game on the list is called Beartopia and was developed by Spry Fox. It is described as a co-op village game that brings you together with other players so that you can not only form new friendships but also build a prosperous society. Then there’s the Virtual Virtual Reality by Tender Claws, a game in which you try on different VR headsets, and the Virtual Labor System will give you a hand in identifying a suitable artificial intelligence match. See also: The best multiplayer VR games January 29, 2011 The fourth and last new