Samsung’s new Galaxy S20 series of phones will release this coming Friday, March 6th. This leaves you with a whole week to decide whether you want to preorder the S20, S20 Plus, or S20 Ultra.
There’s nothing wrong with waiting for release day before you make a decision. But if you’re already planning on buying one, you’ll get looped into some good preorder incentives if you commit this week.
No matter which retailer you decide to preorder a phone through, running your receipt through the Shop Samsung app on iOS or Android will get you some gift card credit. Samsung will give S20 buyers a $100 voucher to use at its online store. The S20 Plus will net you a $150 gift card, and the S20 Ultra comes with a $200 credit.
The best preorder incentives available right now are at Amazon where each phone comes with a set of Galaxy Buds truly wireless earphones and a Duo wireless charging pad at no extra cost. These gadgets are perks that you’ll get in addition to the aforementioned gift card.
Amazon’s deal is hard to beat if you don’t want to trade a phone in. If you do, you’ll pay even less for your preorder if you choose to trade in your old device and buy through Samsung. Samsung is offering up to $700 in credit toward your new S20 phone. Best Buy is also accepting trades. If you’re interested, check out our comprehensive list of retailer and carrier pricing and their respective preorder perks.
You can get a two-pack of Google’s Nest Hub smart displays for $130 at Best Buy. It usually costs that much for a single display, so you're getting 50 percent off each one. There are a lot of smart displays to choose between, and they range in price and features. My colleague Dan Seifert recommends this model if you’re invested in Google services and really want to show off the photos from your Google Photos collection. Its screen can automatically adjust to the lighting in your room, making the photos appear more to look more like paper than a screen.
The Mate X electric folding bike is $300 off at Wellbots while supplies last. It’s offered in a few different price configurations that differ in terms of battery power, color, and the kind of brake mechanism. But no matter which one you choose, you’ll be getting a capable bike with fat tires that can push through difficult terrain. This model usually starts at $1,999, but you can get it for $1,699 and up now.
The iPad Pro lineup is expected to get a refresh in 2020 following a year focused on software updates in 2019. This year, Apple is expected to double down on its augmented reality efforts and more. Read on as we round up everything we know so far about the 2020 iPad Pro.
Update 2/29: A new report from The Information says that Apple is also planning a new version of the Smart Keyboard with a built-in trackpad. This accessory will reportedly be released sometime this year and will feature a fabric design similar to the current Smart Keyboard Folio.
Meanwhile, reports from Bloomberg and Digitimes have corroborated claims that the 2020 iPad Pro will be released during the first half of the year, likely sometime in March. A leaked image of a 2020 iPad Pro case also shows a camera bump similar to the iPhone 11.
The iPad Pro was dramatically overhauled in the fall of 2018 with a new design headlined by an edge-to-edge display and Face ID support. Following that refresh, Apple focused on the iPad’s software in 2019, unveiling the first-ever version of iPadOS. This year, reports suggest that Apple has plans for new iPad Pro hardware once again.
2020 iPad Pro design
According to leaked renders from OnLeaks, who has accurately leaked designs of previous iPhone and iPad models, the iPad Pro is unlikely to feature any major changes in terms of design. The iPad Pro design introduced in 2018 still feels incredibly modern, especially in comparison to the rest of the iPad lineup.
With that being said, there will be one major change to the back of the iPad Pro this year: a new triple-lens camera setup.
Camera
The biggest change with the 2020 iPad Pro is expected to be a new triple-lens camera setup on the back. This would improve camera performance, add new augmented reality features, and more.
Theoretically, this will be the same triple-lens camera module that Apple uses in the iPhone 11 Pro. Ming-Chi Kuo, however, has said that the iPad Pro will also sport a new time-of-flight 3D sensor as well, which would bring improved augmented reality and depth perception features. These sort of sensors enable a wide range of new augmented reality applications as they provide much higher-fidelity 3D photo captures than Apple’s current technology.
Power
On the inside, the 2018 iPad Pro is powered by Apple’s A12X Bionic processor. While this is still an incredibly powerful processor, Apple will likely upgrade that chip with the 2020 refresh.
Apple’s chip partner TSMC is scheduled to start production in Q2 of the A14 chip for the iPhone 12, but it’s unlikely that the A14 makes its way to the iPad Pro before then. Instead, the most likely scenario is that the iPad Pro features a more powerful revision of the A13 processor currently used in the iPhone 11. If history is any indication, this processor would likely be referred to as something like the A13X Bionic.
While we can hope for a 5G-enabled iPad Pro this year, it’s far more possible that 5G is a 2021 upgrade for the iPad. It’s extremely unlikely that Apple will bring 5G connectivity to the iPad before the iPhone. Apple is expected to add 5G connectivity to the iPhone later this year using modems supplied by Qualcomm.
Smart Keyboard
Last but not least, supply chain reports have suggested that Apple is planning a new version of its Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro. Currently, the Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro features a fabric design with fabric-coated keys with one notable absence: backlighting.
A supply chain report from Digitimes last month suggested that Apple is planning a new Smart Keyboard Folio for the iPad Pro with backlighting. Theoretically, this would mean at least some sort of redesign for the case as well, as Apple would have to put the backlighting hardware somewhere.
An updated Smart Keyboard Folio could go a long way in helping make the iPad Pro feel more “pro,” especially when it faces increased competition from the likes of Brydge Keyboards.
Could there be a new Apple Pencil to go along with the 2020 iPad Pro refresh? It’s certainly possible, but there haven’t been any rumors about that yet.
Release
There have been mixed reports on when exactly Apple plans to release its 2020 iPad Pro, but most recently, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said to expect new iPad Pro models sometime during the first half of 2020.
As we’ve already explained, there’s plenty of precedent for a March event featuring the introduction of the iPhone 9 and new iPad Pros. It’s also possible that Apple saves its iPad Pro announcement until WWDC, where hardware announcements are not uncommon.
The current iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 11-inch model and $999 for the 12.9-inch model. It’s always possible that Apple increases prices with this year’s revision, but as of right now, details on pricing are sparse.
Should you wait or buy now?
This is a common question whenever a hardware announcement from Apple is looming. My colleague Ben Lovejoy recently walked through all of the different scenarios, so be sure to check out his coverage here. While we regularly see deals on new and refurbished 2018 iPad Pro models, it’s hard to justify paying full price for one in 2020 — so the likely solution for many people is to search for a deal or wait.
Wrap up
Based on what we know right now, the 2020 iPad Pro update doesn’t seem like it will be a major revision. The focus will seemingly be on augmented reality features and improved camera performance alongside a new Smart Keyboard.
What do you think of the 2020 iPad Pro rumors so far? Do you plan on buying one? Let us know down in the comments!
5G is here, and to be honest -- I don't get it. I lived through the 4G wars with LTE vs. WiMax, and before that, it was the bad old days of HSPA+, EV-DO and Edge... but now I can't tell mmWave from mid-band. Luckily, Chris Schodt's latest Upscaled video addresses precisely the things I need to know before I (eventually) get a 5G phone.
If all you care about is getting the best of the best, then the Galaxy S20 Ultra wins on specs with big numbers like 108 megapixels, 100x zoom, 8K video, 120Hz screen and 5G support. However, As Cherlynn Low explains, while those features are outstanding, they don't quite add up to the standard of perfection that would justify the massive device's $1,400 price. Read the full review right here.
Game Developers Conference organizers have announced that this year's event is off, after seeing big names like Microsoft, Sony, Facebook and Amazon announce they would skip it due to the coronavirus outbreak. It was scheduled to take place between March 16th and 20th, and in a statement, they said: "we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer."
Did the director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Knives Out just reveal a secret way to tell who is or isn't a villain? In a video for Vanity Fair, Johnson explained that Apple "lets you use iPhones in movies but, and this is very pivotal if you're ever watching a mystery movie, bad guys cannot have iPhones on camera." We're guessing there were no such strings when Apple gave him a sneak peek at the iPhone 11.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Google has been trying different things with the Play Store, including changes that have been enabled and reverted so many times we've lost track — hello, account picker and review section. However, not all of these are welcome modifications, like the controversial removal of update notifications. If your workaround was to manually check your recently updated apps, Google has just made that task a little bit more difficult by messing up the Play Store's sorting method.
Head over to the Store's My apps & games section and check the Updates tab. Previously, the apps were listed by reverse chronological order, with the most recently updated apps on top and the ones that received their updates earlier on the bottom. Now, there's no sense in the sorting method. It's all random, with recent updates mixed with older ones. To check the real order, you have to move to the Installed tab and choose the Last Updated sorting method. It's a simple enough workaround... for now.
Left: Order? What is order? Right: Alternative for checking the real order.
We're hoping this is a bug and that it'll be fixed soon. At this point though, and after the nonsensical disabling of update notifications, I'm starting to question whether Google is trying to put less emphasis on recent app updates and changelogs. Surely this couldn't be a thing, could it?
The PS5's specs have been finally revealed in an official capacity. Not by Sony – although we'll hopefully be seeing a PlayStation 5 reveal any day now – but by GameStop, which promises 8K gaming, advanced ray tracing and backwards compatibility features.
However, GameStop has not yet disclosed many details regarding the PS5's controller, widely thought to be the DualShock 5. We know the controller will have advanced haptic feedback capabilities (more specific, directional vibrations rather than basic rumbles) and thanks to a few patents, we know Sony's even thinking about incorporating sensors to detect your sweat and heart rate.
Another patent, recently published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, shows Sony is thinking about adding smartphone-style wireless charging to its controllers. It's a move that makes so much sense, we're shocked it hasn't happened already.
While Xbox One controllers and DualShock 4s are both compatible with third-party wireless charging stations, this marks the first time Sony has waded into the fray. The drawings show Sony is looking to incorporate a base on which you can rest two or more DualShock 5s (or DualShock 4s), which could even be on top of the games console itself.
(Image credit: WIPO/Sony)
The controller comes with an adaptor showcasing additional keys, which can be mapped to buttons of your choice. The adaptor is "combining a wireless charging adaptor with the ability to strategically locate duplicate game controller button controls on the adaptor, which is mounted on the back side of the controller".
These adaptors also light up to "indicate a state of a battery in the game controller, and/or to indicate a functional mapping of game controller keys to adapter keys." To us, this sounds like a more advanced version of the back button add-on recently released for the DualShock 4. You can map any button you want onto these additional paddles, so to release a second version which also allow for the possibility for wireless charging seems like a natural move.
(Image credit: Future)
What could it be for? The obvious answer is the PS5's DualShock 5 controller, but why not include that functionality with the controller directly, while it was being redesigned?
A second theory is that the adaptor is for the DualShock 4. If PS5 controllers end up coming with wireless functionality and back paddles already, it would make sense to release an adaptor so that gamers could use their existing DualShock 4s as additional PS5 controllers.
Such a move would gel well with the impetus on responsibility that's going round the gaming industry. Both PS5 and its rival, the Xbox Series X, will have backwards compatibility, allowing gamers to keep their existing libraries of previous games. The Xbox Series X will also have "smart delivery" which allows gamers to upgrade their Xbox One games to the Xbox Series X versions for free. Allowing PS4 owners to keep their DualShocks and use them for the PS5 is definitely in line with this philosophy.
We're excited to see Sony finally step in with its own wireless chargers, and even more excited to see what it will do with this multi-functional adaptor. Will it be part of Sony's plans for the PS5? We'll surely know soon, as a reveal can't be far away...
Since the middle of 2019, Huawei and its subsidiaries have been on the U.S. Commerce Department’s Entity List, which has prevented them from licensing Google Mobile Services for new devices. For the first few months, Huawei shifted its international smartphone release strategy to focus on releasing essentially rebranded versions of its existing, precertified devices. Behind the scenes, Huawei has also been working on AppGallery, its alternative the Google Play Store, and Huawei Mobile Services, its alternative to Google Play Services. With the recent launch of the Honor View30 Pro and the upcoming launch of the Huawei P40 series, Huawei will need to convince potential customers that they can live without Google apps. One of the most basic applications missing on Huawei’s Google-less devices right now is a dedicated search app, but that might be changing soon as Huawei is now beta testing the Huawei Search app.
Redditor /u/beingnull informed us that Huawei is recruiting users in the UAE to test the new Huawei Search application. The APK file is attached to the forum post, so XDA’s Max Weinbach loaded it on his Mate 30 Pro to give it a spin. Unlike the Google App which not only provides access to the Google search engine but also to Google Assistant, Google Lens, Google Podcasts, and more, Huawei Search is a basic search app that just lets you input a query to search the Internet for webpages, videos, news articles, or images. There is a shortcut to see the current weather, which brings up a widget of the current 24-hour forecast powered by Huafeng-AccuWeather, a joint venture that apparently sources forecast data from the China Meteorological Administration. There are also shortcuts for “sports,” “unit conversion,” and “calculator.” In Settings, the user can see their search history (or toggle it off), give feedback, change their search region and language, toggle safe search, or change the app’s search scope, which controls what Huawei applications the Huawei Search app can also search through. Oh, and the app supports EMUI 10’s dark theme.
According to the User Agreement for Huawei Search, the service is operated by Aspiegel Limited, Huawei’s subsidiary based in Ireland. Huawei shifted much of its mobile software services to Aspiegel in 2019 to ease concerns over the company’s handling of user data. The User Agreement states that users “must have a Huawei ID” to use the service and that the service is “only available in the Huawei Device as an app or embedded search filed in Huawei services, such as Assistant (i.e. Search is not publically available in the web).” Interestingly, we discovered that Huawei Search can be accessed in any web browser by navigating to this URL. Huawei’s app may just be a WebView wrapper for this page.
One of the questions we sought to answer is what search engine powers Huawei Search. We couldn’t match search results from Huawei Search with results from Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Ask, or AOL. In the Privacy Statement, Huawei says the user has the “right to request delisting of a search result” which is in accordance with GDPR. That Huawei is able to delist search results suggests that Huawei Search may not be using a third-party engine, but we aren’t entirely sure if this is the case. For now, the app seems pretty limited in what it can do, and the service itself seems to only be intended for use on Huawei’s smartphones. It would be premature to say that Huawei Search is an alternative to Google search or Microsoft Bing, but there’s a possibility that this service could evolve into a decent competitor down the line.
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After one big name participant after another (Facebook, Sony, Microsoft, Amazon) announced it would not send people to the show over concerns about the spread of coronavirus, GDC 2020 organizers have announced the event is off. It was scheduled to take place between March 16th and 20th, and in a statement, they said "we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer."
Those who were planning on attending should have received an email with answers to some of their questions about refunds for passes and hotels booked within the convention's block. Right now the plan is for "many" of the presentations that would have been given to be submitted via video and made available for free viewing online. The Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards, as well as some of those talks, will stream on Twitch during the week the event would have taken place.
In an effort to support indie developers who may be impacted financially, the IGDA has teamed up with GameDev.world on a fundraiser that will include "a Pay-What-You-Want games bundle, a public game jam, and free online live talks and Q&A translated in the worlds' largest languages."
GDC organizers:
After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we've made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March.
Having spent the past year preparing for the show with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors, and event partners, we're genuinely upset and disappointed not to be able to host you at this time .
We want to thank all our customers and partners for their support, open discussions and encouragement. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at GDC. For this reason, we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer. We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.
For more information, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page: www.gdconf.com/faq
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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