Three major smartphone SoC designers have now detailed their next-generation designs, which will power smartphones throughout 2019. Huawei was first with its Kirin 980, already powering the Huawei Mate 20 series. Samsung followed, announcing its Exynos 9820. Now Qualcomm’s just announced the Snapdragon 855. As usual, a selection of performance improvements are on offer in both the CPU and GPU department. There’s also a continued focus on “AI” processing capabilities and faster 4G LTE connectivity, but no out-of-the-box 5G chip on the market just yet.

Update, July 18, 2018 (2:12PM EST): You can now download Life is Strange for your Android device. The game weighs in at just over 1GB, so make sure you download the game over WiFi. The first episode is free, while the second episode sells for $0.99. The remaining three episodes cost $4.99 each, though you can get every episode as a bundle for $8.99. You can download the game at the link below.

The Oppo N3 and the Oppo R5 have just been unveiled in Singapore, and our Joshua Vergara got a sneak peek at these intriguing devices. His N3 hands-on impressions (with video) are here, but in this post we’ll take a look at what you need to know about the Oppo N3’s specs, features, and design. For a look at the 4.8 millimeter thin Oppo R5, check our hands-on post. In 2013, Oppo came up with the powerful, albeit quirky N1, a beast of a phone whose main claim to fame was it swiveling camera.

TL;DR A user found that v0.115.2 of Pokémon Go stated that he was using an unauthorized device despite not being rooted. Further testing by multiple users found that the game uses the storage permission to snoop through the device to find evidence of root. Simply having empty files with the same name as rooting tools was enough to block Pokémon Go from running. When Pokémon Go was first released, players found multiple ways to cheat within the game.

It feels like ages since we last saw a modular smartphone from a major manufacturer. Motorola was perhaps the most prominent proponent of the concept, but it quietly ditched the Moto Mod system of add-ons a couple of years ago. Would you put your money where your mouth is and buy a modular phone, be it a current device or something new? That’s the topic of our featured poll today. So make your voice heard by voting below and leaving a comment if you’ve got more to share.

According to a leak from Galaxy Club, the upcoming Samsung device will feature a 4,500mAh battery. Compared to the original, which had a 4,300mAh cell, it’s an improvement, but not a large one. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has a much larger 5,000mAh battery providing it with its impressive battery life. However, there’s a good reason for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Plus to have a smaller battery. The company needs to make room for the fairly sizable S Pen.

TL;DR The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 has surfaced in live photos from a Taiwanese regulator. Promo animations have also provided a clear look at the smartwatch. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3 may be one of the more poorly kept hardware secrets this summer. To start, live photos of the next-generation smartwatch have emerged from Taiwan’s NCC (via The_Tech_Guy and MySmartPrice) in certification filings. They largely confirm what you’d expect — this will be a subtle evolution of the original Galaxy Watch design that revolves around slightly smaller 41mm and 45mm case sizes, with wireless charging when you need a top-up.

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization finally labeled the current coronavirus outbreak as a global pandemic. As a result, more and more people are staying at home. Some are sick with this virus, while others are just minimizing their contact with the outside world in an attempt to keep healthy. That may last for weeks or even months. As a result, many of them are turning to streaming services to pass the time.

Update, December 20 at 3:43 p.m. ET: Feral Interactive has finally launched the long-awaited Android version of Rome: Total War on the Google Play Store.  The historical RTS game will cost you $9.99/10.99 euros/9.99 pounds up front, but thankfully it does not have any in-game ads or purchases.  Original article, November 8 at 3:41 a.m. ET: One of the best historical real-time strategy games of all time is finally making its way to Android devices.

A Wii Balance Board, provided you have one lying around in the house, can easily be turned into a scale, and all you need is the FitScales Android app. Using mobile devices for health-related activities is something that more and more users do these days. The soon-to-be-very-popular Samsung Galaxy S4 has a body scale as an official accessory, with the ability to send data to the smartphone via Bluetooth. If you don’t feel like paying the extra money for the scale, you can easily convert a Wii Balance Board into a smart scale that connects to your Android.