LeEco Le 2, Le 2 Pro, and Le Max 2 hands-on

LeEco held a massive event in Beijing, China, to make few new product announcements. They touched upon a lot of different topics, including television sets and a particularly ambitious project involving making an electric car in cooperation with Aston Martin. However, the meat and potatoes of the event were the three new phones being launched, the Le 2, theLe 2 Pro, and the Le Max 2.

The 2 in the name makes it clear that these are successors to LeEco's current line of smartphones, the Le 1s, and the Le Max. As such, they aren't dramatically different and represent a spec refresh for the most part.

The Le 2 and Le 2 Pro are the cheaper models. The biggest difference between the two is the chipset; the cheaper Le 2 has the MediaTek Helio X20 with 3GB RAM whereas the Le 2 Pro has the MediaTek Helio X25 and comes with 4GB RAM.

Visually, the two phones are practically identical. The only difference is that the Le 2 has a thin body colored bezel along the side of the display but on the Le 2 Pro it has been painted black to make it look like the display flows over the side. In reality, both phones have sizable bezels that become visible once the display is on but maintain the zero bezel illusion as long as the display remains off.

The hardware on both devices is solidly built and feels remarkably premium in hand. The design is very similar to the Le 1s; the three phones look identical from the front, except maybe the Le 2 Pro that has the black borders.

On the back, the camera module is slightly raised and placed in the center whereas it was flush and in the corner on the 1s. The fingerprint sensor is right below and now squarish instead of a circle.

Both the phones run LeEco's eUI, which again looks identical to the one on the older 1s, even though it now runs on the newer Android 6.0 Marshmallow underneath. In our limited time with the phone the performance was good, and there were no signs of lag or stuttering.

There's also the Le Max 2, which is the real deal and LeEco's new flagship. Except you probably wouldn't know it just by looking at it, because it, again, looks pretty much identical to the other two LeEco phones announced at the event.

The Le Max 2 runs on the Snapdragon 820. The phone comes in multiple memory configurations, which go up to 64GB storage and a massive 6GB RAM. The Max 2 has a bigger 5.7-inch that has a resolution of 1440x2560px. It also packs in a 21 megapixel Sony IMX230 sensor and is the first phone in the world to have the Qualcomm Snapdragon Sense ID biometric fingerprint scanner.

The software is once again eUI, but this time, it is running on top of Android 6.0.1. You would be hard-pressed to spot the difference to the UI on the other two phones or even the older LeEco phones for that matter. The consistency across devices is admirable, and you can download themes if you want to customize the UI. Performance during our hands-on was great, and the phone felt fast and responsive.

One thing, in particular, to note about all three of these devices is that they all lack traditional 3.5mm headphone jack. It's not because these are particularly thin devices but LeEco has decided to take the bold decision to route all audio through the USB Type-C connector at the bottom.

To achieve this, LeEco is using a technology called CDLA (Continual Digital Lossless Audio) to output sound through USB, and they claim improved audio quality over the standard analog headphone output. The company announced two products, an in-ear headset and an over the ear pair of headphones, both with a Type-C connector, and eventually, you will be able to get more headphones with this connector. Unfortunately, it also means you can't use any of your existing headphones with the phones.

That's it for our brief hands-on with the new LeEco devices. We will do further testing on the devices as and when the company decides to launch them outside of China.

You can now listen to podcasts inside the Google search app for Android

The rollout of a new podcasts section to Google Play Music for Android is ongoing at the moment for the US and Canada, as has been announced a couple of days ago. But the search giant has already worked on making podcasts even more accessible in its mobile operating system.

From this point on, you can search for a podcast using the Google app for Android (or its persistent search bar widget on your home screen), and you'll be able to start paying that podcast straight from the search results. The screenshots below show this in action. The results screen will present you with the three most recent episodes of the podcast, as well as a play button for each. You also get the option to see more episodes.

Once you have started playing an episode, playback controls will appear at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to pause and resume, rewind, or fast forward. You can do other things on your phone while you listen of course, or even turn the screen off.

Interestingly, podcasts are accessible in the Google app in this manner worldwide, though only in English for now. So they're not limited once again to the US and Canada, like the new podcasts part of the Google Play Music app.

Inbox by Gmail improves handling of events and newsletters, gets a link saving option

The alternative (and still sort of experimental) Gmail interface known as Inbox is receiving a new update today. This one improves the handling of events and newsletters, and lets you save links inside Inbox - for reading later, presumably.

The latter functionality can be achieved on a computer too, by using the new Inbox by Gmail Chrome extension, which basically does the same thing as the Google Keep Chrome extension we've discussed earlier - both save links, they just do it on different Google services.

On a mobile device, just share the website you're interested in to Inbox, and it will be stored in the app for viewing at a later date.

Inbox will now gather emails from a single event in the same spot, and show you what's changed at a glance. When you tap on any event you'll get a comprehensive overview of it, with all changes.

The newsletters you usually read are getting smarter previews, letting you easily click through to the articles that interest you most. And once you've gone through the latest newsletter, it will be minimized in order to save space in Inbox.

HTC 10 gets its first ad, outlining the main selling points

HTC has created a lot of videos for the 10 so far, but up until now they were all either teasers or promotional productions made for the grand unveiling of the handset.

Today though the Taiwanese smartphone maker has uploaded the first ad for the HTC 10 to its official YouTube channel. In around one minute, the commercial goes through what HTC considers to be the 10's main selling points.

As you can see, these are its cameras (both with optical image stabilization), the "next generation ultra vivid 2K display", the Freestyle layout for the home screen, the battery life, as well as 24-bit Hi-Res audio support and the BoomSound speakers.

The HTC 10 was announced earlier this month, and it will go on sale in early May, at least in some markets. Our hands-on preview of the device should give you an idea of whether it's worth waiting for.

Google Keep Chrome extension lets you create notes linked to the websites you visit

Google's note-taking and storing service is growing up slowly, but nicely. Today Google Keep is receiving a new update, one that's all about the ability to easily start notes that contain a link to a website.

If you're on a computer, you can use the new Google Keep Chrome extension. This lets you start a note in Keep from any website, and the address of the page you're on is saved in the note automatically.

On Android, Keep can now receive links from other apps to accomplish basically the same thing. So when you find something you want in a note, just choose Share (no matter what app you might be in), and choose Keep to create it. In both cases (regardless of whether you use the Chrome extension or the Android app), the new note should have the title field autocompleted with the title of the website you shared, while the exact URL will be in the contents of the note.

Finally, today's update adds support for hashtags. You can use these to label things, but unlike Keep's other, pre-existing labeling system, hashtags can actually be added to the contents of a note. So no more hitting the Labels button and applying something from there, you just write the hashtag inside the note and the labeling is complete.

Microsoft Translator gains image translation capability on Android

Microsoft has rolled out a new update to its Translator app on Android. The update brings some new features - including the ability to translate image text - as well as regular bug fixes.

"Translate words within images - convert from 21 languages or choose automatic language detection," the release notes for the update say. In addition, users running Android Marshmallow on their devices will now be able to translate text without leaving their current app.

And finally, language packages - that allow you to use the service even when you're not connected to the Internet - are now available for download in 40+ languages including Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Korean.

Sony Xperia Ear hands-on

Sony Xperia Ear was announced back at the MWC as part of the new Xperia accessory lineup. It went official with three more devices - the Xperia Eye clip camera, the tiny Xperia Projector, and the Xperia Agent hub for home automation.

The Xperia Ear is the first of these to make it to the market. It's a smart headset capable of recognizing voice commands or head gestures, and answer with voice input. It comes with a rather big box, but that's actually a portable battery pack that can recharge the Ear once.

That key is the only control on the Xperia Ear. Naturally, it can answer, end, or reject calls. It supports long-press and the action is also configurable via the Xperia Ear app.

A short press on the key will make the Xperia Ear assistant ready to listen for your voice command. You can:

• Ask for the weather forecast
• Hear the time
• Search for stuff in Wikipedia
• Ask for street directions
• Send text messages
• Listen it read the most recent unread text messages
• Hear your scheduled upcoming events for the day
• You also get voice notifications for low battery

A long press on the key lets you do one of the following:

• Send a message to a person
• Tell you about your upcoming events
• Play or pause music
• Play a startup message - news, time, traffic, date, etc.

Nextbit Robin visits DxO Labs, scores an 81

Good thing you're getting those 100GB of cloud storage with the Nextbit Robin smartphone, as you may just wish to load it all up with photos. Or, in other words, the Robin's 13MP camera posted an 81 overall score on DxO Mark.

The reviewers praised the one-of-a-kind smartphone for detail preservation in both daylight and low light, and for its vivid color reproduction. "A standout performance for autofocus" too, rated at a solid 90. The folks at DxO Labs were less impressed with the Robin's occasionally inaccurate white balance and somewhat limited dynamic range.

In video recording the Nextbit Robin exhibited good autofocus behavior and in bright light also good noise suppression. Not as admirable was the low-light performance, and certain tremor and jitter artefacts were observed.

The 81 points score in still imaging puts the Nextbit Robin in some fine flagship company, at least according to DxO's methodology. That, and the fact that the flagships in question are the aging Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z3, both two points behind at. A notch ahead of it we find the iPhone 6s and the Blackberry Priv, but the top scorers remain the HTC 10 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge with an 88 figure each.

Here are LeEco's USB Type-C headphones with lossless audio

LeEco thinks that analog audio connectors like the 3.5mm audio jack are a thing of the past and starting with the new Le trio is moving to an all-digital solution called CDLA. This stands for Continual Digital Lossless Audio and has already been certified by the Music Association of China.

Headphones will be plugged into the USB Type-C port, which will stream lossless audio to a decoder chip inside the headphones themselves. One benefit of this setup is that it simplifies noise reduction - analog headphones typically need batteries to power the electronics necessary for noise reduction (there are exceptions, like some high-end Sony headphones, which work only with Xperia phones).

At first, two pairs of headphones will be available. The big over-ear headphones have noise reduction (comparable to BOSE QC25, says LeEco) and "solid bass."

There are smaller in-ear plugs that feature 14mm moving coils and bass that tops Apple's EarPods (again, says LeEco).

These initial headphones will be manufactured by FIIL, but ideally others will join in too since now there's slim choice. Apple is rumored to drop the 3.5mm audio jack and go all in on the Lightning port, but that won't help with the availability of USB Type-C headphones.

PS. LeEco's slide lists "reversible connector" as a feature. Have they seen a 3.5mm jack?

Stamina mode is back with Marshmallow update rolling out for Japanese Xperia Z5's

Sony's iconic Stamina battery saving mode marks a return in the latest Marshmallow update rolled out by Japanese carrier NTT docomo. The new firmware is arriving as we speak on current flagship models Xperia Z5, Z5 Compact, and Z5 Premium, as well as on the Xperia Z4 (a Japanese-exclusive name of the global Xperia Z3+).

Earlier Sony Marshmallow builds had the feature removed, instead letting Android do the dozing on its own. Putting inactive apps to sleep is only part of what Stamina does, though - turning off functions like Wi-Fi and mobile data to save power is also among its abilities.

From the screenshots it doesn't look like Ultra Stamina mode is making a comeback. That used to be a basic mode of sorts which only allowed access to a handful of features like dialer, contacts and messaging, to let you get the absolute longest endurance.

So far Stamina has made it to Sony Marshmallow builds for the above four models, and only in Japan. We should expect it to arrive in other regions in the near future.

Intel announces huge layoffs, affecting 11% of total workforce

Massive job cuts are coming at Intel. The world's largest PC chip-maker has announced that it will lay off nearly 12,000 employees globally, which translates into around 11% of the California-based company's total workforce.

The firm - which had a total of about 107,300 employees at the end of last year - said that majority of those on the layoff list will be notified within the next couple of months, while noting that the job cut process may take almost a year to complete.

Intel expects this restructuring will help the company save a total of $750 million in 2016, with the figure nearing $1.5 billion by the middle of next year. Moving forward, the chip-maker said it will focus more on "growing" areas including convertibles, IoT, and gaming.

LeEco unveils Le Max 2 with 6GB RAM and Snapdragon 820

LeEco brought out the big guns - a trio of Le phones with large screens, gobs of processing power and advanced cameras. There's one thing lacking though - a 3.5mm audio jack, the USB Type-C port takes over.

LeEco Le Max 2

This is the leader of the pack with a 5.7" QHD screen (1,440 x 2,560px) and a Snapdragon 820 chipset coupled with the impressive 6GB RAM. The phone runs a current Android 6.0 Marshmallow with EUI 5.5. For storage you get a choice of 32GB and 64GB. Note that only the 64GB model comes with 6GB RAM, the 32GB option has "only" 4GB.

The camera is a 21MP shooter with an IMX230 sensor and optical image stabilization, f/2.0 aperture and phase detection AF. There's an 8MP selfie camera too.

The LeEco Le Max 2 uses Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint sensor technology. It also uses Quick Charge 3.0 for its 3,100mAh battery. On the connectivity side, there's dual-SIM, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.1 and, yes, USB Type-C.

The LeEco Le Max 2 will set you back CNY 2,100 ($325/€285) for the 3GB/32GB version and CNY 2,500 ($385/€340) for the 6GB/64GB model.

LeEco Le 2 Pro

This one dials back the screen size - 5.5" 1080p - and processing power, MediaTek Helio X25 with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage. It still runs Android 6.0 with EUI 5.5.

The camera drops the OIS but retains the 21MP IMX230 sensor with phase detection AF, plus the 8MP selfie cam. Connectivity is similar to the Max 2, while the battery is 3,000mAh with fast charging.

This phone features CDLA - Continual Digital Lossless Audio, which pumps out lossless audio out of the Type-C port. The fingerprint reader is the traditional kind.

The LeEco Le 2 Pro will cost CNY 1,500 ($230/€205).

LeEco Le 2

The baby of the trio is still pretty big with a 5.5" 1080p screen. It uses a MediaTek Helio X20 chipset (the X25 is an overclocked version of this chipset) with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. The OS is Android 6.0 with EUI 5.5.

The LeEco Le 2 has a 16MP main camera and an 8MP selfie cam. Note that these selfie cams have large 1.4µm pixels. You still get a fingerprint sensor, 3,000mAh battery with fast charge and audio over USB Type-C.

The LeEco Le 2 is the cheapest of the three at CNY 1,100 ($170/€150).