Oppo F1 Plus now available for purchase in India

The Oppo F1 Plus - which is the international version of the company's recently-launched R9 smartphone - is now available for purchase in India. The device carries a price tag of INR 26,990, which translates to around $407 at current exchange rates.

As for availability, the handset can be purchased in stores across several regions in the country, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. The device is also available for purchase online (Amazon.in), but at INR 27,790, it's slightly pricey there.

The global roll-out of the F1 Plus started earlier this month. The Chinese variant of the 'selfie expert' phone also helped Oppo top offline sales in its home country last month.

Samsung plans to produce 2nd-generation 10nm chips this year

Samsung Semiconductor executives have held a special invite-only meet-up with potential new customers in Silicon Valley. The reason behind the event is the announcement of plans for a new and cheaper 14-nanometer manufacturing process.

Re/Code cited Kelvin Low, Samsung Semiconductor senior director, who also said that a second-gen 10-nanometer chipmaking technology will be operational later this year. The new 10nm process will offer 10% better performance than the one before it.

The battle for the top spot in the mobile semiconductor sector is heating up. TMSC is rumored to have the majority of orders from Apple to make the new A10 chip, but that might change if Samsung's plans for the second-generation 10-nanometer process become reality.

Samsung already managed to snatch the production of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chip from TMSC.

ZUK Z2 Pro is official: Snapdragon 820 and 6GB of RAM for $420

Lenovo subsidiary ZUK just pulled the wraps off the Z2 Pro smartphone, oft-rumored over the past weeks. What sounds like a second model, rather than a successor to the existing Z1, was unveiled at a dedicated event in China.

For starters, the ZUK Z2 Pro comes with a smaller 5.2-inch display, as opposed to the 5.5-inch Z1. It also makes a switch from IPS LCD to AMOLED, but resolution remains FullHD.

On the inside we find the latest Snapdragon 820 chipset - while ZUK settled with the aging S801 for the Z1, the Z2 Pro gets the proper flagship treatment. And in line with this concept, you'll find 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage on board, from day one. Later on, a downgraded version will be made available with still plentiful 4 gigs of RAM and 64GB internal storage.

As for imaging, we're looking at a 13MP ISOCELL rear camera with 1.34μm pixels, F/1.8 aperture and phase detection autofocus. 4K video recording, is supported, of course. Selfies aren't just an afterthought either - an 8MP front-facer with 1.4μm pixels and a reasonably bright f/2.0 lens sounds promising on paper.

The list goes on though. The Z2 Pro has a fingerprint sensor in the home button, but then so did the Z1. This one, however, offers better resolution and will also improve the more you use it. The Z2 Pro is big on all kinds of sensors too, and packs in a heart rate sensor, UV sensor and an altimeter, for all you outdoor types.

All-round excellent connectivity is to be expected, and the Z2 Pro does indeed deliver. ZUK says the smartphone supports 23 cellular network types, and comes with 4G LTE and VoLTE support too. Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.1 and a GPS receiver are also part of the package. Wired connectivity takes place over USB Type-C, proper USB 3.1 too.

The smartphone measures 145.4 x 70.5 x 7.5mm and weighs in at 145g. That's enough room to fit in a 3,100mAh battery, which you can top up fast thanks to Quick Charge 3.0. The ZUK Z2 Pro ships with Android Marshmallow too.

The top-specced 6GB/128GB version of the Z2 Pro is available in China starting tomorrow for CNY 2,699, or just under $420. The 4GB/64 variant will make it to stores on May 10, and while price will logically be lower, the precise number hasn't been announced.

Samsung ships twice as many smartphones as Apple in Q1

Smartphone adoption is reaching a saturation point and global shipments fell 1.3% year on year and 18.6% down quarter on quarter, for a total of 292 million units. The info comes from global market research firm TrendForce.

Leader Samsung moved up the ladder, going up 5.7 percentage points in market share compared to Q1 last year. It shipped 81 million units, which is actually up quarter on quarter (usually, the holiday quarter, Q4, is the strongest).

Launching the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge earlier than competing flagships helped sales. The affordable J-series has found success in China as well as globally. TrendForce expects Samsung sales to continue going up

Main rival Apple experienced a marked decline, going down 6.5 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Note that this is the quarter before the iPhone SE.

This means that Apple shipped only half as many smartphones as Samsung this quarter. The iPhone SE is expected to prop up Q2 sales until the iPhone 7 arrives.

LG's innovative work hasn't paid off. The company shipped a bit more than a year ago but declined compared to the previous quarter. It stays 6th globally.

Chinese companies weathered the storm quite well and their combined shipments went up, despite the global downturn. They shipped more in China than Samsung and Apple combined for the first time.

Demand was driven up by 4G adoption in China and growing smartphone sales in India. Even so, Q1 shipments dropped by 27 million units (20%) compared to Q4 last year.

Huawei maintains its home country lead and 3rd spot globally. However, TrendForce does not believe the company will be able to overtake Apple globally.

Lenovo pulled ahead of Xiaomi (they were on par Q1 last year) and shipped 17 million to Xiaomi's 16 million. Lenovo is committing a sizeable portion of its phones, 80%, to exports.

TCL (which you probably know as "Alcatel") is 4th, hot on the heels of Lenovo. Oppo and Vivo combined make up 20% of Chinese smartphone shipments. Vivo is less export-oriented than Lenovo with only 10% of production heading abroad.

Crossy Road gets four player local multiplayer

Crossy Road on Android has got a fun little update that a lot of you should appreciate. The game now supports local multiplayer.

Now, up to four people can join in the same game over a local Wi-Fi network and play against each other. The one who goes the farthest wins. The gameplay is similar to that on the Apple TV version, where you can push other players into traffic or water, and even block them from moving, which makes this a bit more fun than just moving forward.

The multiplayer is only available on Android for now. Unfortunately, it does not work over Bluetooth, so you have to be connected to a common Wi-Fi network. Other than that, this is a fun new addition and a great way to inject some life into a familiar game.

Xiaomi to launch its own mobile payments service in China

Xiaomi has announced that it will launch its own mobile payments service. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer - which is the biggest player in its home market - will partner with the country's national bank card association China UnionPay for the service.

According to the company's CEO Lei Jun, Xiaomi Pay - or whatever it will be called - will be a Near Field Communication (NFC)-based mobile payments solution, just like Apple Pay.

Currently, the Chinese mobile payments market is dominated by local players such as Alibaba and Tencent. Another well known Chinese smartphone vendor Huawei, as well as international companies like Apple and Samsung have also already launched their payments services in the world's biggest smartphone market.

Facebook will now also take account of time users spend reading stuff clicked from News Feed

In an effort to further improve its service, Facebook has yet again updated it News Feed ranking algorithm. The social networking company says that the algorithm will now also take into account the amount of time users spend reading/watching stuff they click from their News Feeds.

"We are adding another factor to News Feed ranking so that we will now predict how long you spend looking at an article in the Facebook mobile browser or an Instant Article after you have clicked through from News Feed," Facebook said in a press release.

"We will not be counting loading time towards this — we will be taking into account time spent reading and watching once the content has fully loaded. We will also be looking at the time spent within a threshold so as not to accidentally treat longer articles preferentially."

The update has started rolling out, with the company saying that the process will take a few weeks to complete.

Amazon Kindle Fire 7 gets three new colors, 16GB version for $69.99

Amazon is upgrading its most basic Kindle Fire tablet today, if ever so slightly. The 7-inch device now gets three additional color versions you can pick from when buying one. Aside from the existing black model, it's now also being offered in blue, magenta, and tangerine hues.

What's more, a new iteration with 16GB of built-in storage has been revealed. The 8GB model will stay on sale for $49.99, while the new SKU with double the storage is priced at $69.99.

Everything else about the tablet has remained the same. This is still one of the cheapest slates out there, but do keep in mind that it runs Fire OS, Amazon's forked version of Android.

The Kindle Fire has a 7-inch 1,024x600 touchscreen, a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, a 2 MP rear camera, a VGA front-facing camera, 1GB of RAM, and a microSD card slot.

Acer outs Predator 17X gaming laptop, Predator G1 gaming desktop

Gamers haven't been forgotten at Acer's event today. Specially for them, the Taiwanese company unveiled two new computers.

First off, the Predator 17X laptop, one that can be used with both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive VR headsets. It comes with a 17.3-inch screen that can go up to 4K resolution. If you go nuts with the configuration options, you can also choose an Intel Core i7-6820HK processor, 64GB of DDR4 RAM, and three SSDs in RAID 0. You get customizable RGB lighting for the keyboard, and the device has the full Nvidia GTX 980 graphics card, and not the 980M as you'd expect to see in a laptop.

It has a triple fan cooling system, and it obviously supports overclocking. The Predator 17X weighs a whopping 4.5kg and it has 3-hour battery life. It will launch in China first in May, and will reach Europe and North America in June. Pricing will start at $2,799.

Next up, the Predator G1 desktop is billed as "portable", though you probably won't be taking it on road trips with you. It can be configured with up to a 6th gen Intel Core i7 CPU, 64GB of RAM, Nvidia Titan X graphics, and a 512GB SSD + a 4TB HDD.

The G1 is ready for your VR experience of choice, naturally so given the specs. It will be priced from $2,299. It will be out in Europe in June, and in North America and China in July.

Acer says its new Chromebook 14 for Work is the fastest eve

New Windows-powered 2-in-1s and laptops aren't everything that Acer has announced at its event today. Also present was the new Acer Chromebook 14 for Work, a device which the Taiwanese company claims is the fastest Chromebook on the market.

That's seriously doubtful given the specs of Google's newest Chromebook Pixel, but Acer seems to believe in what it says. The odd thing is that the company hasn't actually revealed the detailed spec list for the new Chromebook, so we can't really assess these claims.

All Acer's willing to disclose about the Chromebook 14 for Work is that it features 12-hour battery life, an Intel Core i processor, and that it has a spill-resistant keyboard and overall rugged design which complies with military specs and lets you drop the laptop from 45cm without worry. It can also withstand up to 60kg of weight being placed on top of it.

The Chromebook 14 for Work is the first laptop to use Corning's new Vibrant Gorilla Glass, which can be customized with various images. This is also Acer's first model to be compliant with Google's Chrome for Work program. The laptop is probably only going to be sold through enterprise channels. Pricing and availability information hasn't been announced yet.

Acer Aspire S 13 wants to take on the MacBook Air and Dell's XPS 13

At its grand event today, Acer has announced the Aspire S 13, a new laptop that wants to compete with the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air, but also Dell's XPS 13. And it wants to do all that while being significantly cheaper than its competitors.

The Aspire S 13 will have a 13.3-inch Full HD IPS display, which can optionally be touch-enabled. You can configure it with up to 8GB of RAM as well as up to a 512GB SSD, and an optional battery will make it allegedly last a whopping 13 hours on a charge (the default power pack only nets you 9 hours of usage). Powering the thing are Intel's 6th generation Core processors (you can choose between i3, i5, and i7), and it will have a USB Type-C port, two 'normal' USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, and an SD card slot.

It will be offered in Obsidian Black or Pearl White, when it goes on sale in May starting at $699. The Aspire S 13 weighs just 1.4kg and it's 14.4mm thin.

Acer unveils Switch Alpha 12 detachable PC with liquid cooling

Acer is holding a pretty big event today, and one of the things it's announced is the Switch Alpha 12, a "detachable PC" as the Taiwanese company calls it. It's a 2-in-1 device that can be used either as a tablet or as a laptop, and it runs Windows 10 as you'd expect.

The Switch Alpha 12 has a 12-inch 2,160x1,440 touchscreen, and it's powered by 6th generation Intel Core processors (a choice of i3, i5, or i7). You can configure it with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, as well as Intel's RealSense 3D camera.

The device is fanless despite using proper i-series chips from Intel, and that's because it features a newly designed liquid cooling system to keep its innards at the required temperature.

It has a built-in kickstand (as can be seen in the promotional images), and the keyboard will be bundled with it, so no need to pay extra for that. Optionally you'll be able to pick up the Acer Active Pen stylus with 256 levels of pressure supported. The whole Switch Alpha 12 (including keyboard) weighs only 1.25kg.

The Acer Switch Alpha 12 will start at $599, and should become available in June.