Evan Blass (@evleaks) is treating Sony Xperia fans after revealing a huge treasure trove of official marketing images for the Xperia 5 II. We have already seen renders of the device itself, but the images leaked including lifestyle images and highlight the camera, gaming and audio prowess of the phone. We've included a selection below for you to enjoy. Sony is expected to formally unveil the Xperia 5 II on 17 September 2020.
We’ve all seen the TV shows and movies where everyone seems to be driving a flying car. It always felt like the stuff of science fiction, but it looks like it’s slowly becoming a reality. In fact, over in Japan, they are inching towards such a future thanks to Japan’s SkyDrive who recently successfully tested a flying car which got off the ground with a human pilot in the seat.
According to Tomohiro Fukuzawa, who heads up the SkyDrive effort, he hopes that this flying car can be made into an actual product by 2023, although we are a bit skeptical about that somewhat optimistic timeline. He does, however, acknowledge that there are various safety concerns that need to be addressed before that happens, where people have to feel safe while riding it.
Evan Blass (@evleaks) has revealed a couple of new images of the Sony Xperia 5 II, which is expected to be formally introduced on 17 September. He had already revealed an image of the blue variant a few days ago, and he has now released high-resolution renders of the black and grey versions too. This is a similar colour palette that hit the original Xperia 5 last year – although the Xperia 5 also came in a red option too, which does not seem to be present with the Xperia 5 II.
There are plenty of markets around the world that might not have a population that’s willing to shell out $1,000 for a smartphone. This is why there are companies that purely make cheap Android phones to sell to the masses. Obviously there are compromises when you make a cheap phone, such as using less premium materials or using lower-end hardware.
Unfortunately, it also seems that in some cases, you might end up compromising on security as well. According to a report from BuzzFeed News, it seems that there are cheap Chinese Android smartphones being sold in regions such as Africa where it has been discovered that these phones actually come preloaded with malware that will steal your money.
We have already seen a sneak peek of the Xperia 5II (Mark 2) in a recent leak, but now we got a much closer look and a near complete specification list of the device. Android Headlines has managed to leak the promotional video for the Xperia 5 II that shows the device across all angles. It confirms that, in terms of design, the Xperia 5 II will be very similar to its predecessor.
Sony has confirmed that its next Xperia product announcement will take place at 8am BST/9am CEST on 17 September 2020. Sony traditionally announces new devices at the IFA tradeshow in Berlin each year, which takes place in early September. However, give the current pandemic, Sony has chosen to do an online-only event as it did earlier in the year for its MWC announcements. The event will be live-streamed at its official YouTube channel.
Google has since announced that they have worked together with Canon in which it would allow Canon’s cameras to connect to WiFi and if there is an available internet connection, allow the camera to backup the photos stored on it to Google Photos. All you would need is a Google account, the latest version of Canon’s image.canon app, and you’re good to go.
According to Google, “With the latest version of the image.canon app (available on Android or iOS) and a compatible Canon camera, you can choose to automatically transfer original quality photos to Google Photos, eliminating the hassle of using your computer or phone to back them up.”
Back in July, Olympus announced a new piece of software that turns the company’s digital cameras into webcams for the PC. There was no support for Mac yet, but the good news is that if you’re a Mac user with an Olympus camera, you’ll be pleased to learn that Olympus has since released a similar software compatible with Apple’s macOS operating system.
The software will pretty much function the same as the Windows version, where all you’ll need to do is hook up your camera to your Mac computer via the supplied cable, launch the software and set it up, and you’ll be good to go and will be able to choose your camera as the webcam source in your favorite video conferencing app.
Sony has since launched a registration page where gamers who are interested in being one of the first few to purchase the console can sign up. According to Sony, “There will be a limited quantity of PS5 consoles available for pre-order, so we will be inviting some of our existing consumers to be one of the first to pre-order one from PlayStation.”
Basically, gamers can take part in a raffle in which if they are chosen, they will be given an invite to purchase the console and guarantee themselves a unit when it becomes available. As Sony notes, there will be limited quantities of the PS5 at launch, so by registering, you’ll stand a better chance of nabbing it once it goes live.
The IFA Berlin tradeshow is traditionally where Sony launches its new devices in the second half of the year. IFA is taking place from 3 – 5 September 2020, therefore it is not surprising to see the first renders leak of a new Xperia smartphone. Sony launched the Xperia 5 at IFA 2019, so it doesn't take huge elements of deduction to figure that the Xperia 5 II (Mark 2) is likely to arrive at IFA 2020.
Sony Japan has announced the Xperia 8 Lite (J3273), which is basically a SIM-free version of the Xperia 8 model that launched last year. This move follows a number of other handsets that have gone SIM-free in Japan recently, including the Xperia 1 II, Xperia 1 and Xperia 5.
The Nintendo Switch has not seen any changes to its hardware ever since it was launched a few years ago. Nintendo did introduce a new model with the Switch Lite, but otherwise there haven’t been any other upgrades. However, if the latest rumors are to be believed, we could be getting a new model next year.
This is according to a report from Bloomberg who claims that Nintendo is expected to introduce an upgraded version of the Switch in the first quarter of 2021. While the report does not state what kind of upgrades we can expect, they do claim that Nintendo was looking into introducing more computing power along with 4K graphics.
Sony has updated a few handsets recently including the Xperia 1 II (Mark 2) flagship which sees its build number move from 58.0.A.3.88 to version 58.0.A.3.132, and incudes the August 2020 Android security patches.
One of the nifty features of the iOS and macOS ecosystem is that they all work hand in hand. This is especially useful if you have a new device and need to connect to the WiFi, in which you can actually sync the password of the WiFi network from an older device with the new one, saving you some time.
The good news is that it looks like Google wants the same thing for Android and Chrome OS where based on the comments made by developers, it seems that soon Google will enable WiFi password syncing between Android and Chrome OS devices. This means that if you’re connected to someone’s WiFi network and don’t want to bother them for the password, or if you forgot your password, you can use this sync feature to connect the new device to the network.