Technology

That’s 0.39 inches in imperial units Acer is getting IFA 2016 off to a wondrous start this morning with the launch of the incredibly thin Swift 7 laptop. This Windows 10 machine, powered by Intel’s brand new  7th-generation Core i5 processor, measures a scant 9.98mm, making it the first to limbo under the 1cm bar (0.39 inches). Despite beating Apple’s MacBook and HP’s Spectre 13 for the braggadocious title of being the world’s thinnest laptop, the Swift 7 doesn’t sacrifice much in the way of either ports or battery. It offers two USB-C 3.1 ports and a headphone jack, plus Acer promises a 9-hour endurance thanks to Intel’s newly updated and more efficient Y series of chips. The display up front is a 13.3-inch Full HD IPS panel with nothing to truly distinguish it. It’s not going to be the Swift’s big selling point, but neither is it any sort of deal breaker. On the inside, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage sit alongside the Intel Kaby Lake chip, which is passively

Lenovo adds a more affordable third phone to the Moto Z series   Lenovo is today adding a third smartphone to the company's Moto Z series: the Moto Z Play. Like the Moto Z and Moto Z Force before it, the Moto Z Play is coming to Verizon Wireless as a Droid in the United States, but it will also be sold unlocked. Lenovo and the Moto team designed the Z Play to accomplish two things. First, the company wanted it to be more affordable than its flagship siblings. At around $400 ($408 full retail on Verizon, $449 unlocked) you're getting a very decent if not bleeding edge smartphone for the money. More exciting than that, though, is that the Moto Z Play is said to offer "the longest lasting battery in the history of Motorola smartphones." It also supports the full lineup of snap-on MotoMod accessories — oh, and this time there's a headphone jack. The Moto Z Play is chunkier than the regular Moto Z; think of it as on par with Verizon

that has yet to be revealed. Known as the V20, the device is the successor to last  Enlarge Image In addition to its  G5  flagship phone, LG has another top-tier handset up its sleeve  that has yet to be revealed. Known as the V20, the device is the successor to last  year's   V10   and is expected to continue LG's more premium series. Not much is known about the V20, however. We do know that it will be officially  announced on Tuesday, September 6, in San Francisco (and rest assured, CNET  will be on the ground reporting from the event). Its event invitation merely hints at  "playing more," but no other details are given. The V20 will also be the first phone to come out of the box with Google's latest mobile operating system,  Android 7.0 Nougat , which has already been rolling out  over the air. Fortunately for us, we know a lot about Nougat -- including its support  for multiwindow, the ability to reply in a notification an

The Xiaomi Mi Note 2 is  expected to launch on Friday , but before that happens, we already know quite a bit about the smartphone. The Mi Note 2 has been subjected to various leaks , and the latest comes in the form of more images. These new images testify to the old rumours of a  dual camera setup, and the dual-edge curved display. The latest Mi Note 2 images were leaked by tipster @kjuma (and were  picked up  by Gizmochina). The images aren't as clear as the  render images  we were treated to a while back,  but they still clearly show the much talked about dual-edge display. In the meanwhile, Xiaomi  has taken inspiration from  Huawei ,  LG  and  HTC  to introduce the dual camera setup in the Mi Note 2. However, this isn't the first smartphone that Xiaomi has introduced with two  cameras at the back. The Xiaomi Redmi Pro  launched in  July also sported the dual camera  module . x One of the images also give away some of the sp

Data is data, except when it’s an obvious net neutrality violation Here are two lines from  T-Mobile’s latest "Uncarrier" missive , in which the company proclaims that it has "listened to customers" and is  changing its new T-Mobile One plans  less than two weeks after announcing them. The first line: Everyone gets unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited high-speed 4G LTE smartphone data on the fastest LTE network in America. The second line: With T-Mobile ONE, even video is unlimited at standard definition so you can stream all you want. At this point it appears that T-Mobile is operating with definitions of "unlimited" and "data" that are are only tangentially related to reality. For example, most people understand the word "unlimited" to mean " without any limits or restrictions ," but T-Mobile’s definition clearly means "without any limits except for a hard restriction on HD video that

Google’s newest smartphones won’t be Nexus devices after all.  According to  Android Central , Google is dropping the Nexus branding with its two upcoming, HTC-made smartphones. Instead, the company is expected to market the devices under a different name and to lean heavily on the Google brand in the process. This news jibes with  recent rumors surrounding the upcoming devices , codenamed "Marlin" and "Sailfish."  Android Police  reported earlier this month  that Google may strip the Nexus name from the phones and replace it with a "G" logo. It’s unclear what direction the company will take, as it has spent years fashioning the Nexus brand as a hardware entity while Google has reserved its own name for software services. We do know the two devices will come in 5-inch and 5.5-inch screen sizes, representing a small downsize from the current 5X and 6P. GOOGLE MAY REPLACE THE NEXUS LOGO ON ITS NEW PHONES WITH A "G" This shift is more

BlackBerry DTEK50 Last year BlackBerry launched the Priv, its first-ever Android smartphone. The Priv represented another attempt by BlackBerry to reinvent itself for the modern mobile era and build something worthy of competing with Apple, Samsung, and other smartphone makers. But the Priv’s positives (a great physical keyboard and beautiful curved screen) were derailed by buggy software and a comically high asking price. It failed badly. Even so, the marriage between BlackBerry — the self-proclaimed “most trusted name in mobile privacy and security” — and Android seems like a relationship that could really work. This month, BlackBerry began shipping its second Android phone: the DTEK50. At $300 unlocked (and supported by AT&T and T-Mobile in the US), it solves the Priv’s problem of being overpriced and contains all the same stepped up security features and reliable software updates. But in pursuing that lower cost, BlackBerry has ended up with a boring, underwhelming phone