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smartphones

OnePlus 2 will have a whopping 4GB of RAM

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Will there be anything left to reveal on the OnePlus 2’s 27 July launch date? On its official forum, OnePlus has announced the new phone will have 4GB of RAM, making it the first major western phone brand to offer it as standard.

The Asus ZenFone 2 offers a 4GB version, but good luck finding that sold anywhere.

The OnePlus 2 doesn’t use just any old RAM either, but LPDDR4. It’s the latest speed standard among phones, used by just a few top-end mobiles including the Galaxy S6.

With it, OnePlus promises "faster loading times, smoother gameplay, and never-before-seen energy saving features.” It claims LPDDR4 lets you switch between apps while using less battery, which could come in handy when none of the other 2015 flagships are stamina superstars.

Being able to use 4GB of RAM is one of the first obvious advantages of using a 64-bit processor we’ve seen, even though we’ve been using 64-bit phones for almost a year now.

Want more OnePlus action? The phone will be officially announced on 27 July, or the small hours of 28 July in the UK. OnePlus claims this is the "last OnePlus 2 announcement” we’ll see until then. 

Don't forget to check out our guide to the best smartphone. 

iPhone 6S to be thicker, faster, have Force Touch?

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The schematics published by Engadget Japan, citing a ‘reliable’ source in China, suggest the new phone will be 7.1mm thick, a grand 0.2mm thicker than the iPhone 6. These drawings don’t show off an otherwise radically re-designed frame, suggesting Apple just needs the extra space to cram in some new components.

There is, sadly, no word of a gigantic battery, though. The most exciting possibility is that Apple is looking to jam Force Touch feedback into the screen. This is used in Apple’s latest MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop trackpads, getting you clicky pressure-sensitive feedback with no moving parts.

It’s a finger-charmer and could be used to revolutionise gestures in phone OSs.

If that all turns out to be a tech daydream, there are a few other possible excuses for the egregious 0.2mm waist size increase. First, Apple is is expected to increase camera resolution for the first time since 2011’s iPhone 4S, with a 12-megapixel camera. Then again, maybe Apple’s new A9 CPU just needs the extra room, although that seems unlikely.

Should Apple go the whole hog and implement a new camera and Force Touch, we could be in for an interested September, when the iPhone 6S is expected to launch. 

Now why not read the full details on iOS 9?

Sony Xperia Z5 may launch as early as September

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This next Sony phone sounds like it could be the one we’ve been waiting for, with enough major improvements to make up for the fairly minor upgrades made in the Xperia Z3+. It levels-up the hardware across the board.

Snapdragon 810 is to be replaced with Snapdragon 820, RAM pumped up to 4GB, the camera to get the upgrade to the IMX230 sensor from the IMX220. It’ll even get a fingerprint scanner. And the battery? The Xperia Z5 will apparently offer 4500Ah capacity while keeping the same slim Omnibalance design.

Is this too good to be true? It may be. This rumour comes from an unnamed source, published by a site called Technodify, which doesn’t have a long-standing reputation for leaking legit high-profile stories.

You may also be wondering why Sony has skipped the ‘Z4’ altogether, but that’s where we start to find reason to believe this rumour. The phone we know as the the Sony Xperia Z3+ was released in Japan back in April as the Xperia Z4.

Not only does that fill-in the gap, it means is the Xperia Z5 will be announced five months after its predecessor, if it lands in September. That’s an almost-sensible gap, by Sony standards. It tends to release flagship phones much more often than Samsung, HTC and co. We’re still sceptical, but will have an eye out. 

Don't forget to check out our Xperia Z3+ review

Via Technodify

HTC’s next flagship phone may get the camera it deserves

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We’ve heard it all in the past, but new reports suggest HTC has finally got the memo. The folks from Vietnamese website HTCViet claim a brand new HTC handset codenamed Aero (which was name-dropped by @evleaks last week) is going to feature a ‘ground-breaking’ camera, something we’ve been waiting to hear from the Taiwanese phone maker.

The One M9 successor is said to feature an f/1.9 aperture for improved low-light shooting, and capture imagery in the RAW format. It all sounds positive but let’s just hope the Aero comes with enough storage space to hold them, otherwise it may prove an issue.

We’ve heard these types of claims before from HTC, but the company has failed to deliver top-end camera technology on its previous flagship phones. While we’re massive fans of the One M8, it was only fitted with a 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera that was outclassed by many of its competitors.

The same with the most recent One M9. While it did get a megapixel boost to 20MP, it has been dogged with problems such as poor colour accuracy.  Hopefully HTC can finally figure out how to make a great smartphone camera for the Aero, or whatever it will be called when it is released. After all, HTC needs to hit the ground running with its next series of devices.

Last month, the company was forced to lower its second-quarter sales forecast by 30 per cent to $1 billion due to lacklustre sales of the One M9. In order to go toe-to-toe with the upcoming iPhone 6S, HTC will need to get everything on point, right from design to hardware and software. 

MasterCard wants to replace passwords with selfies

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MasterCard is looking to the future of online payments security. The credit card company is experimenting with a mobile app that uses facial recognition to verify your identity. Wave buh-bye to passwords; soon all it might take is a good ol’ selfie to buy your weekly shopping.

Shopaholics and selfie-snappers; this might not bode well for your bank account. MasterCard wants selfies to replace passwords, allowing people to pay for things by providing a scan of their face.

It would work like this. You download the app and proceed to the checkout section of the shopping website. The service is then launched where you can choose facial recognition to complete the payment. You simply look into the front-facing camera and blink once to authorise it – the blink prevents thieves from showing the app a picture of your face in an attempt to fool it.

Alternatively, the app will also be able to read your fingerprint, just in case you’re not comfortable in using selfies to confirm hefty shopping trips. MasterCard, though, reckons those who like to take selfies will find the new system appealing.

“The new generation, which is into selfies… I think they’ll find it cool,” MasterCard security boss Ajay Bhalla told CNN. “They’ll embrace it.”

To start off with, MasterCard is launching a small pilot with 500 customers to see how it goes. If the technology works and proves a hit with the public, then the app will be rolled out further. We don’t know about you, but we’re not sure. Google tried facial recognition on Android phones and there were a lot of problems in the early days, so it will be interesting to see what’s changed.

There’s no release date, but we’ll update if we hear more. In the meantime, watch the video below featuring MasterCard’s Ajay Bhalla explain how the app works. Let us know your thoughts in the comments or at the T3 Facebook page.

Note: This post was originally published on T3.com.