LENOVO Z6 PRO 6GB+128GB PRICE PLUNGES TO 1999 YUAN ($280)

There is currently a special offer for the Lenovo Z6 Pro 6GB+128GB version which takes the price 1999 yuan ($280). This sale is currently active in the Jingdong mall. The Lenovo Z6 Pro was released in April this year. This smartphone comes with a 6.39-inch 2340 × 1080 waterdrop screen.
This smartphone uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 flagship SoC. In the camera department, the Lenovo Z6 Pro comes with a quad rear camera setup. It uses a 48MP + 16MP + 8MP + 2MP AI quad-camera. On the front, we have a 32MP camera. The battery capacity is 4000 mAh and it runs on ZUI 11 system based on Android 9 depth customization. After providing the ZUI 11.0 update for the the Z6 Pro, the Chinese company has released the ZUI 11.1 version which brings improvements to camera and performance. The update also provides enhancements for gestures and some system optimizations.
In addition, this smartphone comes with Dolby panoramic sound, which has a good transient response and a more realistic restoration of the music sound in the game scene. The sound positioning is accurate and the details are clear. Its output is immersive and it delivers a premium listening experience.

UK Spy Agency Alerts Users Of Numerous VPN Vulnerabilities Under Exploit

While VPNs provide privacy to users, they can also threaten users security from security bugs. Recently, a unit of UK spy agency GCHQ has issued alerts for users of various VPN brands for vulnerabilities. The VPNs from Pulse secure, Fortinet, and Palo Alto have these bugs under active exploitation. UK Spy Agency Alerts Of VPN Vulnerabilities The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued a warning for users of numerous VPNs. NCSC, which is a unit of UK’s spy agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), alerts the users for multiple VPN vulnerabilities exploited in the wild. According to their advisory, these vulnerabilities allowed an attacker to retrieve arbitrary files and steal VPN’s login credentials. An attacker could then abuse the credentials to make changes in VPN configuration settings or gain access to internal infrastructure. The attacker could also run secondary exploits to access a root shell by exploiting these bugs. While NCSC noticed numerous bugs under exploit, they highlighted six of these having the most impact. Two of the bugs existed in Pulse Connect Secure, three in Fortinet, and one in Palo Alto.
Patches Rolled Out – Update Now! Since all three vendors have released fixes for the vulnerabilities, NCSC recommends users of these VPNs to update their systems at their earliest convenience. They also suggest users check logs for possible compromise. Users of these VPN products should investigate their logs for evidence of compromise, especially if it is possible that patches were not applied immediately after their release. Moreover, admins should also check for compromised accounts under active use. In addition, NCSC also advises all users to reset their VPN accounts credentials as possible mitigation. For organizations which detected exploitation of their VPNs, NCSC recommends them to keep a check on all configuration settings for any unauthorized changes, monitor logs, enable two-factor authentication, and disable any functionality or ports not in use. Whereas, for devices suffering successful exploitation where they cannot detect the changes, the admins should factory reset the device.

iPhone 11 Pro: the best small phone available

A cracking camera, great screen and 32-hour battery life – but at an eye-watering price.
Apple’s iPhone has gone “pro” for its 11th iteration, with dramatically improved cameras and longer battery life, which make the smaller iPhone 11 Pro the king of more manageable phones.
Costing from £1,049 the iPhone 11 Pro is one of a rare breed: a premium flagship smartphone that doesn’t have a ginormous screen and is therefore small by today’s standards.
Everything is relative, of course. The iPhone 11 Pro’s 5.8in screen is considerably larger than the 4in iPhone SE, but compared with the monsters of the modern smartphone era with their 6.5in-plus screens the iPhone 11 Pro is positively pocketable.
Going Pro
The iPhone 11 Pro is essentially the same on the outside as the mould-breaking iPhone X from 2017, with a stainless steel and glass body, Face ID notch and 5.8in screen.
The new phone is 0.4mm taller, 0.5mm wider, 0.4mm thicker and 11g heavier than the iPhone XS that came before it, but you’d be very hard pressed to tell, even side-by-side. While the 188g weight is fairly heavy compared with rivals, the rest of the dimensions compare favourably, making the iPhone 11 Pro one of the easiest of devices to pocket, hold and use with one hand.
Apple’s Super Retina XDR “Pro level” OLED screen is new for this year and is considerably brighter during regular usage and when displaying Dolby Vision or HDR10 content.
It’s a gorgeous display. Sharp, bright, colour-rich and full of contrast. At 60Hz it isn’t quite as smooth a screen as the 90Hz display on the OnePlus 7 Pro, but it wins on all other counts against everything else, particularly at this size.
Flip the phone over and you will see a new frosted glass back, which is more grippy when the phone and your hands are cold, but less so than the previous glossy coating when both are warm. The camera lump is now a square raised glass section in the top right with three cameras arranged in a triangle. If you suffer from trypophobia (that’s an aversion to clusters of small holes) the iPhone 11 Pro is definitely not for you.
Specifications
Screen: 5.8in Super Retina XDR (OLED) (458ppi)
Processor: Apple A13 Bionic
RAM: 4GB of RAM
Storage: 64, 128 or 256GB
Operating system: iOS 13
Camera: Triple 12MP rear cameras with OIS, 12MP front-facing camera
Connectivity: LTE, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5, Lightning, Ultra Wideband and GPS
Dimensions: 144 x 71.4 x 8.1 mm
Weight: 188g
A13 Bionic
The iPhone 11 Pro has the same A13 Bionic chip, 4GB of RAM and at least 64GB of storage as the rest of the iPhone 11 line, and performs similarly. Everything happens promptly, including intensive tasks such as video editing and gaming.
The iPhone 11 Pro will handle everything you need now, and will likely be a top performer for years to come. There are two small disappointments, however. Despite being “Pro” the new phone still uses the old Lightning connector for charging, not the much more powerful and adaptable USB-C to which Apple switched all its MacBook laptops and the recent iPad Pro.
The starting storage of 64GB is also disappointing. For anyone shooting any amount of 4K video you’ll very quickly fill 64GB, and even if you’re not a “pro” creative, then apps, games and movies will make short work of the space.
Apple says that it’s managed to make the iPhone 11 Pro last four hours longer between charges than the iPhone XS, which only just managed 24 hours in my testing – which itself was worse than the iPhone X at 30 hours.
I’m pleased to report that the iPhone 11 Pro beats Apple’s estimates and lasts eight hours longer than the iPhone XS, at just shy of 32 hours. It will get me from 7am on day one until almost 4pm on day two. Attaching an Apple Watch Series 5 made negligible difference to the battery life of the iPhone too.
That was after the iOS 13.1.2 update, while using it as my primary device without a smartwatch attached, sending and receiving 150 emails and messages, 80 push notifications, listening to five hours of music on Bluetooth headphones, watching an hour of Netflix, and shooting about 10 photos a day.
The iPhone 11 Pro is the first Apple smartphone to ship with an 18W USB-C fast charger and a USB-C to Lightning cable in the box. A full charge from flat took just over two hours 10 minutes, but a 50% charge was reached in 28 minutes and 70% in 43 minutes. As with the iPhone 11, Apple is clearly slowing charging to a trickle above 95%, meaning that charging much beyond 90% unless you need it probably isn’t worth it.
The phone also gets pretty hot when fast charging. It can wirelessly charge too, but can’t charge other devices.
It’s also worth noting that iOS 13 includes a battery optimising feature, which is designed to learn your habits and only charge the battery past 80% when it thinks you need it to extend its longevity.
iOS 13.1.2
The iPhone 11 Pro shipped with iOS 13 but was quickly updated three times to iOS 13.1.2, following the same issues suffered with the iPhone 11.
The big new features for iOS 13 are dark mode, which switches the interface a predominately black or dark background with white text. Dark mode theoretically has a battery benefit for the iPhone 11 Pro thanks to the OLED screen, which only consumes electricity for pixels that aren’t black, making white text on a predominantly black background more power efficient than black on white. But you’ll only see a meaningful benefit if the background is truly black and not a dark shade of grey.
Other highlights include the ability to swipe-type on the default keyboard, a long-press on control centre buttons now opens up quick connect menus for Bluetooth or wifi, as well as quickly jumping to the settings app. Photos now has an improved view of all your photos. You can silence unknown and spam callers, while location permissions for apps have been improved and there’s menstrual cycle and headphone audio level tracking in the Health app, which also now has a new more useful summary view.
Apple leads the industry in software updates, providing at least five years of support from release, where other manufacturers cap out at about three years, and has recently shown a surprising ability to rapidly push out bug-fix updates in quick succession.
Camera
The iPhone 11 Pro has Apple’s first triple 12-megapixel camera setup. It has the same normal and 2x telephoto configuration as previous models, but adds the new ultrawide camera from the iPhone 11.
The combination gives you the ability to shoot at 0.5x, 1x or 2x optical zoom then up to 10x digital zoom.
Apple calls this a “pro camera system” and like the dual-camera system fitted to the iPhone 11, it is a noticeable step up from last year, producing some of the best images I’ve had the pleasure to shoot across a range of different lighting conditions.
Apple’s new night mode brings the iPhone 11 Pro up to par with the gold-standard of Google’s Pixel 3 in very low-light photography, but note that it only operates on the main camera not the ultrawide or telephoto.
The automatic mode takes multiple frames between one and three seconds when handheld, depending on available light and how much you’re shaking the phone. Stick it on a tripod and you can set it to up to 30 seconds, which is best illustrated with starry sky shots - something I couldn’t test in dank, rainy Britain.
Smart HDR has been improved in bright lighting conditions too, producing well controlled highlights with detail in both shadow and bright spots. Images are slightly less flat and more dramatic than the XS last year too, which is a good thing.
The deep fusion technology, which will be enabled on the iPhone 11 series with iOS 13.2 (tested in beta for this review), also made a huge difference in fine detail particularly in middling light. For the first time with any smartphone, including the Pixel 3, we’re approaching the level of sharpness and clarity at full crop that only a proper camera with a large lens has managed in the past.
Video capture from the rear camera is fantastic, arguably the best in the business, including 4K at 60 frames per second. With a third-party app you can also shoot from more than one of the cameras at once, which might be useful for filmmakers, but I can’t ever see myself needing to do that.
The selfie camera is also improved, bumped to 12-megapixels and capable of capturing an almost terrifying level of detail in good lighting. The front-facing camera can also do slow motion selfies, which kids and big kids will love.
Overall the camera on the iPhone 11 Pro is a big step up, levelling to or exceeding rivals from the first half of 2019 in the most important features.
Observations
The iPhone 11 Pro is water resistant to IP68 standards of up to 4 metres for 30 seconds, which is 2 metres deeper than last year’s iPhone XS
Bluetooth performance is much improved, with stronger connections to even the weakest of headphones
Face ID is still best-in-class, now slightly faster and working at slightly wider angles
The new U1 chip enables enhanced location abilities, but so far it’s used only for directional AirDrop file sharing
The highly polished stainless steel is easy to mark and dull after even careful general use
The pressure sensitive screen of previous iPhones is gone and with it 3D Touch, so you can’t press harder on things anymore
Price
The iPhone 11 Pro costs £1,049 for 64GB of storage, £1,199 for 256GB or £1,399 for 512GB in black, green, silver or gold.
For comparison, the iPhone 11 Pro Max costs £1,149, the iPhone 11 costs £729, the iPhone XR costs £629, the OnePlus 7 costs £499, the Samsung Galaxy S10 costs £799 and the Huawei P30 Pro costs £799.
Verdict
After a misstep last year, Apple is back on top with what is simply the best smaller phone available. The iPhone 11 Pro has longer battery life, a better screen and excellent performance all round.
The camera is also a big improvement in terms of clarity and performance, particularly in fine detail and very low light, with the added night mode now matching rivals. It won’t yet replace a digital SLR for my professional photography, but it’s closer than anything there has been before.
The design is still a winner at this size, but is starting to look a little dated three years on from the mould-breaking iPhone X. And there’s no 5G to be seen either, when we’re right on the cusp of it being a key differentiator for 2020.
It’s not perfect, but in the sea of ever-larger, hand-stretching phones, it’s refreshing to have a model that’s comparatively easy to pocket, hold and use one-handed that doesn’t compromise on power or features.
The biggest issue with the iPhone 11 Pro is its price. The starting cost of £1,049 comes with only 64GB of storage, meaning you will likely have to rely heavily on cloud storage if you shoot a large number of photos, videos or download apps or movies.
I won’t pretend the iPhone 11 Pro is even remotely good value, because it’s not. Even if you do get five years of software support. For £1,049 and up you’re buying a product that is unrivalled at this size and paying a hefty premium price for the privilege.
Pros: brilliant camera, night mode, water resistant, wireless charging, Face ID, good battery life, good performance, brilliant screen, long software support, manageable size
Cons: no headphone socket, no fingerprint scanner, super expensive, no headphones adapter in the box, low starting storage

Sony Xperia 8 announced with 21:9 screen, Snapdragon 630 SoC and dual cameras

Hot on the heels of the Xperia 5 release, Sony announced a new midrange device in Japan - the Xperia 8. It packs the signature 21:9 display with a 6-inch diagonal in a body that’s quite similar to the Xperia 10 but features Gorilla Glass 6 on the front and back this time. Another change comes around the back where the new Xperia 8 packs a 12MP F/1.8 main shooter alongside an 8MP F/2.4 ultrawide angle camera.
Upfront, we have the 6-inch FHD+ 21:9 display with an 8MP F/2.0 selfie shooter. Unlike the flagship Xperia models, the Xperia 8 comes with an LCD panel. The right side features the power/ fingerprint scanner combo and Sony also brought in its Side Sense touch sensors from the Xperia 1 and 5. In terms of dimensions, the phone comes in at 158 x 69 x 8.1mm and weighs in at 170 grams.
Under the hood, we have the Snapdragon 630 chipset paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage which can be further expanded via the microSD slot. The battery has 2,760 mAh capacity with support for 18W fast charging. The phone is water and dustproof with an IP65/68 rating. Other noteworthy features include a 3.5mm headphone jack with LDAC for high-resolution audio, NFC and an LED notification light.
The Xperia 8 will remain exclusive to Japan and is expected to arrive later in October for around JPY 54,000 ($505). The phone will be offered in white, black, orange and blue colors.

Cryptic tweet by Raja Koduri points at Intel Xe June 2020 release

We might start seeing Intel’s Xe graphics cards in the summer of 2020. At least, that’s what Raja Koduri, Intel chief architect, was hinting at in his tweet on October 3.
The reigning processor (CPU) manufacturer is entering the discrete graphics cards market with its forthcoming Intel Xe cards, and for the first wave of these Xe graphics cards, it’s already committed to a 2020 schedule.
Raja Koduri’s tweet, which Tom’s Hardware reported on, is a photo of what we’re assuming is the rear of his Tesla Model S bearing a custom license plate with the words ‘THINKXE,’ ‘June’ and 2020’ on it. And, it seems to confirm Intel’s target date.
Intel is no stranger to cryptic messages such as this, having teased the Coffee Lake chips’ release date with a coffee cup bearing the word ‘October’ and the numbers ‘10’ and ‘2017’ a couple of years back. Seeing as this photo came straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, we’re going to take it as gospel.
However, whether or not it’s the date for the unveiling or the release itself, we have no idea. We’re betting on a release, but since Computex is a June affair, it might be that the manufacturer will announce it at the event and release it a few days later.
Intel says it's targeting the mainstream market with graphics cards
Intel Xe graphics to take strain off Tiger Lake CPUs with Display State Buffer (DSB)
Intel Xe graphics card won’t be a $200 Nvidia GeForce RTX killer
A third contender in the GPU race
Just when AMD has finally caught up to Nvidia in the graphics cards game, Intel is throwing its chips – or rather, graphics cards – in the pot, which could only mean good things for us.
These Intel Xe graphics cards, which will be based on the Gen 12 graphics architecture, will come in two variants – one for consumers and the other for the data center. They will also be comprised of everything from entry-level mobile graphics to gaming GPUs to general purpose GPUs for exascale supercomputers.
How Intel’s cards will measure up against their AMD and Nvidia rivals, we’ll have to wait and see. But, with Raja Koduri himself sharing weirdly specific, albeit enigmatic, information regarding the cards, we’re sure we’ll start seeing leaks churning through the rumor mill in the next few months leading up to June 2020.

OPPO RENO ACE LEAKED IN SPY PHOTOS, SHOWING QUAD-CAMERA AND MORE

The next smartphone to come our way from OPPO’s Reno is called the OPPO Reno Ace. It’s set to hit the market as soon as on October 10. Thus, we have to wait for a few more days. But even now we know everything about this device. Moreover, the phone has been leaked in spy photos. So we can take a look at its appearance as well.
Previously, various leaks and TENAA documents revealed its key features. Particularly, we knew the OPPO Reno Ace will come in dimensions of 161.0×75.7×8.7mm and a weight of 200g. The phone will offer three colors of blue, green, and purple. Even this information hints we are dealing with a smartphone designed for younger customers.
Anyways, we also knew the phone will sport a 6.5-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2400×1080 and a refresh rate of 90Hz. On the back, it will carry a quad-camera, consisting of 48MP + 13MP + 8MP + 2MP sensors combination. The front camera will have a 16MP resolution. Under the hood, it will use a Snapdragon 855 Plus chip, paired with a 12GB of RAM and 256GB of native storage.
We can see in the photos that the OPPO Reno Ace will adopt a drop screen design, and the quad-camera will be placed vertically in the upper middle part. But the selling point of this handset is going to be the 65W fast charging support.
And though we know much about the upcoming flagship of Reno, it’s quite interesting how much it will cost.

Google Pixel 4 will let you communicate with Google Assistant in an entirely new way

The Google Pixel 4 will allow users to communicate with Google Assistant just by raising the handset and starting to speak, reports Android fansite 9to5Google.
This will co-exist alongside the option to launch Google Assistant by mumbling "Hey, Google", squeezing the handset by the frame and making an on-screen gesture.
There's no word on whether the feature comes enabled out of the box, or whether it will even be available when the Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL launch on October 15.
In an attempt to keep user information safe, voice-recognition takes place exclusively on the handset – not on an external server, as is the case with other digital assistants.
Engadget raises a valid concern, though – Big G would have had to introduce some sort of failsafe to prevent Assistant from launching whenever the device is picked up.
One way around it would be to have Assistant fire up when the device is held to your ear – similar to how Siri functioned on the iPhone, before the feature was scrapped.
Google seems to be betting big on Assistant's forthcoming new-found intelligence to drive sales of the Google Pixel 4, rather than some wacky new hardware feature.
In addition to the rumoured raise-to-speak feature, Assistant is also tipped to be armed with the ability to wait out the frustrating elevator music while you're on hold.