Samsung Galaxy S8 Active officially launches on Sprint and T-Mobile this month

Samsung just announced that its rugged Galaxy S8 Active samsung parts would be available via T-Mobile and Sprint later this month - thus confirming previous rumors. Initially sold only via AT&T, the S8 Active is a tougher version of the Galaxy S8 that also packs a larger battery (4,000 mAh vs 3,000 mAh).

Samsung says the Galaxy S8 Active will be available on Sprint and T-Mobile in only one color: Meteor Gray. For now, there's no word on the release dates of the phone on the two carriers, but both will start selling the handset before the end of November. As for pricing, similar to AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint will likely ask around $800 for the Galaxy S8 Active.

Unlike the regular Galaxy S8, the S8 Active does not sport a dual-curve display, instead offering a flat, 5.8-inch, 1440 x 2960 pixels screen. Alongside "high-strength aluminum and protective bumpers," this allows the nexus 6 screen replacement to be drop-resistant - up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) on a flat surface.

We already reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active, and we liked quite a lot about it. So, will you be buying this tough handset on T-Mobile or Sprint?

Motorola's new Moto Mod has Amazon Alexa built in

Motorola has announced the latest MotoMod for its Moto Z family of handsets - the Moto smart speaker iPhone 7 display with Amazon Alexa.

Priced at £99, $149.99 (around AU$160), the snap-to-connect mod features its own dedicated speaker and familiar blue illumination ring that owners of the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot will be familiar with.

Motorola says you'll be able to buy the speaker with Amazon Alexa from Amazon and its own website in the UK, US and Germany from November.

The Mod will allow you to trigger the smart assistant with your voice without having to even touch your handset, and results (if necessary) can be displayed on the wholesale iPhone 7 LCD screen 's screen.

It also features its own battery, which Motorola claims will give you up to 15 hours of use, so you shouldn't need to worry about it draining the phone's battery.

Huawei Mate 9 review

Original review: Huawei's Mate 9 is a phone that's equal parts Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (minus the fire) and iPhone 7, mixed in with the brand's own design sensibilities both inside and out.

It's a Note in that it's a large-screened device, which instantly pushes it into the realm of 'power user' and the enterprise space, a claim backed up by the fact that it features the newest, most powerful chipset, also from Huawei.

But it's also aiming for the consumer-friendliness of the iPhone, offering strong cameras, long battery life and increased day to day usability in the long term, something Huawei is keen to talk up.

This is Huawei's big effort to break into the US market, and push itself from being the world's third-biggest phone manufacturer to second place by the end of 2018.

Whether it will succeed is yet to be seen, but this is the iPhone 7 Plus repair parts the company hopes will help dislodge Apple from its runner-up position behind Samsung when it comes to phone sales.

Huawei Mate 9 price and release date

Huawei's Mate 9 launched at $599.99 or £579.99, while in the rest of Europe it cost €699. Those in Australia can also buy the phone for AU$999, but if you shop around you may be able to find a slightly cheaper deal.

Those in the US can now also get the Mate 9 for only $499.99 after it received a permanent price drop but there's no word of a price cut in the UK or Australia.

If you'd rather spend money each month on the Mate 9, we've seen good deals in the UK offering 4GB of data for around £30 a month and an upfront cost of £100.

Huawei has tried to improve every element of the Mate 9 to keep the Mate series relevant in a market that's full of impressive phablet devices.

A key selling point is that this is one of the world's first Daydream-ready phones. That means it'll be ready to work with the Daydream VR platform when Google launches its Daydream View headset at the end of 2016.

The phone is set up with a strong processor to ensure it can run the apps and games it will need to, but we haven't yet been able to test it out with Daydream.

Considering it doesn't feature a 2K display, however, we expect the Huawei Mate 9 won't be as good for VR as, say, the Pixel XL with Daydream or the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge with a Gear VR.

Another big selling point of the Huawei Mate 9 is its durability. If you only upgrade your phone once every few years, you don't want the processing power to drop off after only six months of use.

To that end Huawei has included its own Machine Learning Algorithm in the Mate 9, which is designed to ensure your phone gets faster over time.

It adapts to the way you use your device, and will use this information to prioritise the performance of features you use most often over apps and services you don't use as much.

The Mate 9 has more than 1,000 different functions that can be tweaked, and Huawei says MLA can offer a 20% increase in smoothness of performance, a 50% improvement in system response times and a 20% boost to the graphics read/write speeds.

We haven't been able to try out this feature yet, as we've only had the iPhone 7 Plus LCD screen replacement for a week of testing, but Huawei is certainly confident that this phone is only going to improve the longer you own it.

Samsung releases new Galaxy Note 8 Enterprise Edition aimed at businesses

Today Samsung announced the release the Galaxy Note 8 Enterprise Edition in the US, which takes the core Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and stuffs it with options that should be appealing to business owners looking for a common iPhone 6s Plus parts for all employees.

It's an unlocked device as a result, with some of its chief attractions being Samsung Knox Configure and Samsung Enterprise Firmware Over the Air, which let IT administrators easily configure the devices remotely and update every device in the system at once.

The system comes with other perks as well, such as the option for companies to buy the same model for up to two years after launch so their IT crews aren't having to worry about rolling out software for a bunch of different devices.

Phabulous security

Samsung is also committed to providing the Note 8 Enterprise Edition with monthly security updates for three whole years, which should lessen some of the worry about company devices getting ruined by exploits and malicious software.

If your company buys the devices through "authorized Samsung channel partners" in bulk, you'll end up paying $994 (about £750/AU$1,295) for each device, which is only slightly more than a Note 8 "phablet" costs for the consumer market.

And make no mistake, aside from its unlocked nature and the IT team-friendly software, it's basically a standard Note 8 with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

But that's a good thing. As we said in Galaxy Note 8 review, the "Note 8 is Samsung’s big iPhone 6s Plus spare parts comeback story, making up for last year's Note 7 recall."

Unfortunately, the Note 8 apparently isn't without its own significant problems, as Android Police noted today that many users are reporting that the device freezes up when the Contacts app is open. Hopefully it'll get fixed soon.

The Enterprise Edition appears to be currently limited to the US and South Korean markets, but a wider rollout may be possible in the coming months.

How to wirelessly charge your iPhone 7

The iPhone 8 family is the first generation of Apple iPhone 6s LCD screen to support wireless charging, something which has been a mainstay in lists of potential iPhone features for the best part of a decade.

You can’t simply use Apple’s own upcoming wireless charge pad with older iPhones, though. Sorry.

However, there is a way to make your iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus wirelessly charge just like an iPhone 8. All you need are a couple of accessories.

Kitting out with a receiver

First, we need a case to receive a wireless charge signal. The AirPower technology seen in the iPhone 8 uses a specific chip that the iPhone 7 lacks, and even if it did have one under the hood, the older iPhone’s design is not suitable for wireless charging as standard.

Look at other wireless charging phones and you’ll see they either have plastic or glass backs, like the Samsung Galaxy S8. Metal rears like the iPhone 7’s are not suitable for current popular forms of wireless charging.

This is why we need to put the wireless charging receiver between the phone’s back and the wireless charging plate. It’s usually done with a case.

One of the most popular is the Mophie Charge Force case. This adds transmitters for both the Qi and PMA wireless charging standards.

Know your standards: Qi and PMA

Apple AirPower uses a custom version of Qi (pronounced “chee”), as do most of the popular wireless charge pads. However, one of the longest-standing players in wireless charging, Powermat, uses PMA.

You can think of PMA and Qi as a bit like VHS vs BetaMax or Blu-ray vs HD DVD. They’re competing standards that aim to do roughly the same thing using different techniques.

If you’re thinking of buying a more affordable wireless charging case for your iPhone 7 that supports just a single standard, we’d strongly recommend getting on board with Qi rather than PMA.

While Starbucks uses PMA chargers in some of its stores (in the US), even it is starting to adopt Qi, because of Apple’s use of the standard in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

If you want something cheaper than the Mophie Charge Force you’ll find affordable Qi pad options online from companies like YooTech and Antye. The Antye Qi receiver case is around half the price of the Mophie alternative.

There are even receivers that leave out the case part, just attaching a 0.5mm thick panel to the back of your iPhone 6s LCD screen wholesale that connects to your iPhone 7’s Lightning port. It’s not the slickest look, but it minimizes bulk, and most should work through a thin case.

For the ultimate wireless charging solution, look for a case that also has a battery built-in. Once again, Mophie offers a great solution with the Juice Pack Air.

It’ll charge your iPhone’s battery wirelessly first before charging up the extra 2,525mAh battery in the case, which provides up to 27 hours’ extra use. The only downside is that a wireless battery case will be more bulky than a plain receiver one.