Boox Palma 2 compact e-reader sports faster processor, upgraded OS

Photo: Boox

The compact e-reader, the Boox Palma, gets upgraded with the new Palma 2. This e-reader that doubles as a smartphone features an upgraded octa-core processor to help it perform daily tasks faster. It also now has Android 13, which isn't the latest Android build but an upgrade from the Android 11 on the original Palma. Boox also added a fingerprint scanner to the Palma 2's power button.

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Otter.ai offers Spanish and French transcription

Image: Otter.ai

Otter.ai adds more languages to its artificial intelligence-powered transcription and translation service. The app adds real-time transcription in Spanish and French on its desktop and mobile apps. The feature works for in-person and virtual meeting platforms, including Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.

You can also use Otter.ai's AI Chat feature to ask follow-up questions about the transcription in your preferred language. The downside is the company isn't offering translation at launch, so you must be a speaker of the language you're transcribing. The company said it plans to support more languages throughout 2025.

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Samsung tipped to be working on a tri-fold smartphone

Huawei has already launched the tri-fold Mate XT Ultimate. Will Samsung follow suit? (Photo: Huawei)

Samsung might be looking to shake up its foldable business. The company is supposedly thinking about launching a tri-fold smartphone in 2025. Industry insiders from Korea said the company is ready for the technology, and its supply chain can handle the new product. However, the final call for its production will come from Samsung's MX (Mobile eXperience) Division, the unit responsible for its foldable phones. The company might be exploring this new design to combat slower sales.

According to the report, there's been a 10% decrease in the order of OLED panels as demands for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 and Flip6 didn't meet expectations. Samsung Displays shipments for foldable OLED panels will total roughly 12 million this year, a stark 40% decrease from last year's 20 million shipments. The Fold6 and Flip6 are responsible for around eight million units, down from the 10 million forecasted sales.

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Qualcomm debuts flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite processor

Image: Qualcomm

You can expect the upcoming generation of Android flagships to feature Qualcomm's newest chipset. The company announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite, unifying its naming scheme with the ARM-based X Elite laptop chips. Like those processors, the Snapdragon 8 Elite has an Oryon CPU with a custom eight-core structure consisting of 2x prime cores clocked at 4.32GHz and 6x performance units running up to 3.53GHz. This CPU is paired with a 24MLB cache and supports 5,300MHz LPDDR5X RAM.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite is fabricated on TSMC's 3nm process, promising a 45% improvement in CPU performance and a 44% power efficiency boost over its predecessor. Meanwhile, on the graphics side, the Snapdragon 8 Elite gets a redesigned Adreno GPU that boosts performance by 40% and improves its power savings as well as its ray-tracing capabilities. This system-on-chip will be the first mobile SoC to support Unreal Engine 5.3 and the Nanite virtualized geometry system.

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