Huawei Mate 9 with dual 20MP cameras and Kirin 960 rumored for December launch

Although a release is still likely a few months away, reports from China have already begun discussing likely components and designs for the Huawei Mate 9. What's perhaps most interesting about these early rumors is that they point to a handset powered by the company's next generation processing package and a high resolution dual rear camera configuration.

According to the rumor, the Mate 9 will be the first smartphone powered by HiSilicon's Kirin 960 processor. Huawei's Mate series has often be used to debut the company's latest mobile processor technology. Unfortunately we don't know anything official about this chip right now, although it will likely feature four Cortex-A73 cores and four lower power Cortex-A53s in a familiar big.LITTLE design. The chip is also expected to be manufactured on TSMC's 16nm process, just like its predecessor, but the new CPU cores could allow for higher clock speeds.

The dual camera configuration is said to be built from two high resolution 20 megapixel sensors. It's not clear if Huawei will be building on the P9's monochrome 12 megapixel camera design, although this is the anticipated layout, or if the company will by trying something new for the Mate 9. The cameras are also rumored to come with optical image stabilization technology this time around. Oddly enough, this rumor was accompanied by a picture of a modified Mate 8, so treat its legitimacy with some scepticism.

See also: Huawei files trademark for 'SuperCharge' in the EU, likely for the Mate 9 battery26

The Huawei Mate 8 launched back in November last year, while the Mate 7 appeared in October. Some analysts are predicting that the Mate 9 will make an appearance in December, so it might just be best to expect a release sometime mid way though the fourth quarter. What would you like to see from Huawei's Mate 9?

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More Xiaomi Mi Note 2 renders and specs appear online

It's been a little while since we've heard anything about the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Note 2, but another batch of pictures and details have just appeared to quench our thirst for information. A selection of rather well put together renders, including the phone's box, and some additional hardware specs have popped up on Weibo. Real pictures would of course be better, so take this rumor with the usual pinch of salt.

According to the post, there are two versions of the smartphone in the works, one regular and another premium model. The main model will apparently come with a Snapdragon 810 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal stroage. The premium variant features a newer Snapdragon 821 processing package, a colossal 6GB of RAM, and either 128GB or 256GB of internal storage.

Both phone models should feature the same 5.7-inch display with a QHD (2560×1440) resolution and "Force Touch" technology. Other specifications include a  dual 16 megapixel rear camera configuration, a 4,000mAh battery, and MIUI 8 based on Android 7.0 Nougat on board. Impressively, the phone is said to be just 6.5mm thick, despite the large battery. The renders also hint that the phone will arrive in Black, Pearl, and White color options.

See also: Xiaomi Mi Note 2 leaked pictures and specs galore34

In related news, the Mi Note 2 recently received its 3-C certification in China, although it hasn't yet been spotted at the country's TENAA program. Even so, this is a strong sign that the phone is nearing its launch. The smartphone is expected to be unveiled possibly as soon as September 14th.

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Investors have finally realized how bad the situation is for Samsung

Following a flurry of regulatory warnings about the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung Electronics' shares took a beating today on the Korea Exchange.

Samsung's stock saw its biggest intraday drop since 2012, plummeting 7.6 percent. When the 3.9 percent drop from Friday is taken into account, the loss in market value amounts to a staggering $19 billion.

This is the biggest drop for Samsung since it announced the massive Note 7 recall at the beginning of the month. Investors appeared to take the news in stride initially (Samsung's shares actually grew in the days following the recall announcement), but the gravity of the situation is finally setting in.

Over the weekend, Samsung changed its language on its Note 7 recall notice pages, "strongly advising" customers to power down and exchange their devices immediately. Before, Samsung announced the recall, but did not urge customers to actually stop using the Note 7.

The change in tone comes as the Consumer Product Safety Commission became involved with the Note 7 recall, which – among other measures – makes it illegal to sell the device anywhere in the United States.

The bigger blow came from airlines though, as aviation authorities from around the world issued advisories against using or carrying the Note 7 on board of planes. Major airlines from around the world are now asking passengers to power down their Note 7's, and, in at least one case, the "ban" was extended to all Samsung devices.

Announcement on my flight last night: Please power off all @SamsungMobile phones.  Unintended consequences of  #Note7Recall

— Tim McDonough (@timamcdonough) September 10, 2016

Meanwhile, a Note 7 has allegedly burst into flames in the hands of a 6-year boy from New York. The child was rushed to the hospital with burns on his body, though the severity of his injuries is unknown. The incident comes after exploding Note 7's were associated with the destruction of a Jeep and a garage in the US.

In this climate of fear and uncertainty, Samsung is struggling to expedite its recall process. The company said it's working to ship the first Note 7 units with new batteries as soon as next week.

But even if Samsung manages to extinguish this fire soon, the damage to its reputation has to be tremendous. Regardless of how well Samsung handles the situation, the Note 7 may remain in the consumers' memory as the phone that catches fire. And that's on top of the monetary damage that Samsung is incurring, which was initially estimated at $1 billion. According to analysts cited by Reuters, Samsung could be facing revenue losses of up to $5 billion.

Has the Note 7 recall changed how you view Samsung?

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Crowdfunding project of the week: LIVALL smart cycling helmet

It's time for another 'Crowdfunding project of the week', where we highlight some of the best tech funding campaigns in websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We know you don't have time to look through hundreds of campaigns, so we bring the best of the best to your attention.

Other featured campaigns:

• Unleashed will turn your phone into a DSLR remote
• Dot is a smart notification light
• Shoka Bell for bicyclists
• CASE Remote Air helps control a DSLR camera wirelessly

Today we are taking a look at LIVALL, a smart cycling helmet that should make your rides smarter, safer, funner and much more interactive. First an foremost, it is a good helmet, in and of itself. It comes in multiple iterations, varying in both size and colors. And be sure they will keep you secure, as they come with global certifications and have been put through impact tests to ensure quality protection. Not to mention the adjuster, which will make sure the helmet fits firmly on any head.

But of course, the LIVALL is much more than a helmet made for protection. It is as smart as a cycling helmet can get, featuring some very unique capabilities. For starters, the integrated speakers allow you to answer calls, listen to music and communicate with other LIVALL users via walkie talkie. These don't cover the ear, so they won't block out external sound either.

Of course, all of these functions can be controlled from a small remote, which mounts on your handle bar. You could even use it to trigger your smartphone camera and control your helmet's signals. Because it does have signals and a warning light that will alert drivers of your presence and intentions! This is actually my favorite feature of the bunch. Meanwhile, the app will keep record of your heart rate and alert your preset emergency contacts if you fall and stay inactive for 90 seconds.

Interested? Avid bikers will probably be, and it will be nice to learn it isn't too expensive of a product, considering good cycling helmets can get pretty pricey. You can get a LIVALL helmet by backing the Indiegogo campaign with as low as $99. Who is signing up?

Check out LIVALL on Indiegogo

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Google DeepMind’s WaveNet gets closer to replicating human speech

Google has been known to be fond of artificial intelligence, thanks to their various attempts to improve such technologies. The Search Giant has been directly involved with chatbots. They are also involved with AI robots that can write eerie post-modern poetry. And the company knows your fear of a robot apocalypse, so they have also created a system that would stop these machines from causing any harm.

But despite all these improvements, AI assistants are far from sounding like real humans. AI speech sounds very robotic, something that is vastly being improved by WaveNet, Deepmind's new AI that can mimic human speech. It is not perfect, but is 50% better than current technologies. In fact, the thing is so smart it can create its own music, after learning various classical piano songs.

See also: Google's DeepMind AI wants to make your smartphone virtual assistant better4

You can listen to some samples in DeepMind's blog post. They are really quite impressive, but you likely won't be seeing this hit the market soon, mostly because it requires too much computing power.

Researchers usually avoid modelling raw audio because it ticks so quickly: typically 16,000 samples per second or more, with important structure at many time-scales. Building a completely autoregressive model, in which the prediction for every one of those samples is influenced by all previous ones (in statistics-speak, each predictive distribution is conditioned on all previous observations), is clearly a challenging task.

For those out of the loop, Deepmind was acquired by Google in 2014 for $500 million. The Google-owned company's system tries to mimic how the human mind works. It can be trained to learn information and has been known to beat Go champions, a great accomplishment considering this has been long known to be a distinctly human game.

Only time will tell how this will all pan out, but for now we can keep our eyes open to see how it all unfolds. Maybe soon enough you will be able to have actual conversations with your devices!

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Pokemon Go update: “Buddy” feature, Pokemon Go Plus support, no more rooted devices and more

A new update for Pokemon Go is hitting the Google Play Store. Niantic Labs continues to improve the experience in multiple ways, adding new features while resolving previous issues. There is one "improvement" some of you may not like, though.

The main change here is that Pokemon Go is now getting the "Buddy" feature, which was recently announced. This system allows you to pick a Pokemon to show up next to your avatar in the profile. In essence, this pocket monster would be walking beside you at all times. Aside from looking cool, the main benefit here would be that you can earn candies for that specific Pokemon as you walk. It will be pretty convenient for evolving and powering up those Pokemon that are rare to find.

Improvements:

• Implemented Buddy Pokémon: Trainers will now be able to choose one of their Pokémon to be their buddy. A Trainer can earn Candy for their Buddy Pokémon by walking a certain distance.
• Made it easier to select smaller Pokémon on the screen.
• Fixed an issue where Eggs would sometimes hatch without displaying the animation.
• Improved performance reliability when a device switches networks to no longer cause the application to hang or stop updating.
• Pokémon GO Plus support.
• Minor text fixes.

There is one part of the update many of you probably won't be happy about, though. Niantic Labs has also removed support for devices that are rooted (or jailbroken). The app will no longer work if you fall under that category of users. Instead, you will get a message saying: "This device, OS, or software is not compatible with Pokemon Go".

Also read:

• How to play Pokemon Go (and everything else you need to know)
• Android Authority Plays Pokemon Go
• Pokemon Go Plus finally arriving next week

This is real bad news for the rooting community, but Niantic Labs claims its an effective way to eliminate bots and scrapers. Makes sense, but it must be annoying to the honest rooters who just want more control over their smartphones.

How many of you will be affected by this update? Are you willing to get rid of root just to play Pokemon Go?

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Samsung said to remotely deactivate defective Galaxy Note 7 devices if not exchanged

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is a hot device right now, and we don't mean that only in the good way. The Korean manufacturer had to issue a recall due to risk of malfunction and fire. Chances are you don't want to risk your handset blowing up, but what happens if you just want to hold on to your current handset and live on the wild side?

See also: Galaxy Note 7 recall: what you need to know (Note 7 makes the "no fly" list)393

According to French Redditor LimboJr, Samsung mentioned during a phone call that they will be taking matters into their own hands, ensuring there are no defective Galaxy Note devices out there. It seems the phone maker plans to remotely deactivate all affected smartphones by September 30th, which means you will have to get it exchanged… or live with an amazingly expensive paper weight.

Keep in mind this is how Samsung is handling things in France, though, and it does seem to be a little different depending on the market. Regardless, you should be able to get a replacement, along with a prepaid parcel to ship the old phone free of charge. We also know some people are getting free Gear VR headsets and gift cards, so check with your retailer or carrier for more details.

Also read:

• Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
• Galaxy Note 7 sales could resume in early October

We say it is only fair that customers get a little something for the inconvenience. Galaxy Note 7 replacement won't be shipping until the 19th, which means users will be left without a phone for plenty of days.

Regardless, the feds have recommended that you power your Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices down until you get a new one. You definitely don't want it to blow up on you.

Are you affected by this recall? How do you feel about Samsung remotely deactivating your device?

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