Technology - Google News

Nearly half of American teens are online 'almost constantly'
Telegram CEO Says Apple Has Been 'Preventing' iOS App Updates Since Russia's Ban in April
Xiaomi's Mi 8 is the best iPhone X re-creation yet

Nearly half of American teens are online 'almost constantly'

Posted: 31 May 2018 07:10 AM PDT

If it seems like young people are always online, it’s because they are — well, at least that’s the case for about half of them.

Some 45 percent of American teens say they are online “almost constantly,” according to a new survey from Pew Research. That number has nearly doubled from the 24 percent who said they were always online in Pew’s 2014-2015 study.

The results varied by gender. Fifty percent of girls said they were always online compared with 39 percent of boys.

Teens’ internet presence has been enabled by near-universal adoption of smartphones, with 95 percent having access to a smartphone, according to the survey.

What are they doing with all that time online? Mostly using Snapchat and YouTube. Thirty-five percent of teens said they use Snapchat most often out of any internet platform, while 32 percent used YouTube most often. At 15 percent, Instagram was the third-most popular online platform among teens. Snapchat has remained popular with younger people, even as more users overall have flocked to Instagram.

The jury is out on whether all that time online is good for them. About 30 percent of teens said that social media has had a mostly positive impact on people their age while 24 percent said the effect has been mostly negative. The biggest group — 45 percent of teens surveyed — said it has had neither a positive nor a negative effect.

For this survey, Pew interviewed 1,058 parents who have a teen aged 13 to 17, as well as 743 teens online and by telephone from March 7 to April 10, 2018.

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Telegram CEO Says Apple Has Been 'Preventing' iOS App Updates Since Russia's Ban in April

Posted: 31 May 2018 08:16 AM PDT

This is the kind of stuff that makes me lose trust in a platform. Why is Apple trying to undermine Telegram? Nobody even seems to have an answer as to the reasons.

Knowing that any time my favorite app might be nuked because Apple has some issue with it makes me feel less trusting in the company. They should be open about why Telegram isn't being updated, and work with the developers to get the app approved.

Even if you don't use Telegram, pay attention, because your favorite app or platform might be next. At least with Android you can side-load, so they are less affected. I don't want to run Android though. My investment is in iOS and MacOS.

I'd been wondering why the Telegram app had been stagnating so badly and was so broken with 11.4. I was blaming Telegram, but I guess it's more appropriate to blame Apple.

Hopefully now that this is starting to make waves online, Apple will allow an update through.

I've been an iPhone user since 2008 but Apple's behavior lately with the app store is really making me consider switching to Android.

I'm fairly invested in the iOS platform as well, but if this is how Apple is going to run the app store then it's irresponsible for me to continue investing in the ecosystem.

I have an 8 Plus that I will be holding onto for a while longer, but when it comes time to buy a new phone I'll have to see if Apple has stopped acting like this.

This makes relatively little sense though... Why would Apple do that? They could allow it to be updated elsewhere and comply with Russia to remove it from Russian App Store.

... particularly given Apple privacy-first stance in the US.

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Xiaomi's Mi 8 is the best iPhone X re-creation yet

Posted: 31 May 2018 08:09 AM PDT

mi-8-04 — The Xiaomi Mi 8 is awfully familiar.
Xiaomi

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has a new flagship phone, and well, it honestly kinda looks like Apple's iPhone X.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 follows last year's Mi 6, skipping the 7 to mark the company's eighth year. It shares a similar notch design and vertical rear cameras to Apple's device. It will also come with infrared cameras located at the notch for face unlocking, a feature also available on the iPhone X.

The Mi 8 will run Xiaomi's custom MIUI 10 skin on top of Android (Xiaomi didn't say which version, but it's likely Oreo). The new, updated skin will feature gesture controls and a driving mode that uses Xiaomi's own Xiao Ai voice assistant. It will also support portrait mode for single-camera phones.

While there is an uncanny resemblance to the iPhone, the Mi 8's 6.21-inch AMOLED display doesn't quite stretch all the way to the bottom like the X's does. Other cool features include being the world's first phone to adopt dual-frequency GPS, for more accurate navigation.

The rear 12-megapixel dual-cameras will take pretty good pictures -- Xiaomi says its cameras achieved a 105 photo score after being rated by DxOMark. On the front is a 20-megapixel camera using "pixel-binning" technology to combine four pixels into a larger one for better low-light selfies.

mi-8-se-05 — The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE has as smaller screen and a different processor.
Xiaomi

A smaller Mi 8 SE will also be available, sporting a smaller 5.88-inch AMOLED display, and it will be the first phone to launch with Qualcomm's newest Snapdragon 710 chip (the Mi 8 is powered by the Snapdragon 845).

If you're still searching for something even better than the Xiaomi Mi 8, you need not look too far. The Mi 8 Explorer Edition is Xiaomi's coolest-looking phone yet, with a transparent glass back panel that lets you peek into the insides of the phone. It's also the first Android phone to sport 3D face unlocking, using "structured light" technology that projects multiple measurement points on the face, the method used in Apple's Face ID and Intel's RealSense.

The tech behind the face unlocking is also used for Xiaomi's version of Apple's animoji -- so if you're looking for an Android phone that can do animoji, here it is.

The Mi 8 Explorer Edition will also pack Synaptic's underscreen fingerprint scanner. Xiaomi says the scanner's pressure sensitivity allows it to activate, scan and unlock the phone much faster. The regular Mi 8 uses a standard rear fingerprint scanner.

mi-8-explorer-edition-05 — The Mi 8 Explorer Edition is the Chinese company's coolest-looking phone yet.
Xiaomi

The Xiaomi Mi 8 and Mi 8 SE will hit China from June 5 and 8 respectively, while the Mi 8 Explorer Edition is set to launch later, though no dates were provided.

The Mi 8 will have a starting price of 2,699 yuan -- about $420, £315 or AU$555. The Mi 8 SE will start at 1,799 yuan (approximately $280, £210 or AU$370). The Explorer Edition will cost the most at 3,699 yuan (about $575, £435 or AU$760).

Apart from the three new phones, Xiaomi also announced its largest TV, a 75-inch 4K capable Mi TV 4; a new Mi-Band 3 fitness tracker that claims a 20-day battery life; and the Mi VR Standalone, a portable VR headset co-developed by Oculus with the intention of being China's version of the Oculus Go ($199.00 at Amazon.com).

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