Meizu Launches New Logo

2015 has arguably been the breakthrough year for Chinese company Meizu; even though the brand was familiar before its devices became truly quality while sales have soared in the millions. Now the company is moving into this exciting new stage development by launching a new logo.

In fact Meizu says that it is forming a new smartphone strategy and announced the new logo that is quite simple and comes in either in blue or black. However, the company did not just unveil the logo, it also teased a new smartphone range.

Meizu is known for spec’d out handsets, its flagship MX series and high end M series show that the company marries slick design with the latest and greatest hardware. However, the teased range will apparently even top them in terms of specs, so we can’t wait to see just what these super phones will be.

Sony’s Latest Flagship in Official Looking Shot

Sony’s smartphone sales have been lagging, but there is hope the company’s upcoming Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 Compact can breathe new life into its smartphone flagship series. The handsets are expected to be unveiled at the IFA trade show in Berlin next month, but the image you see above purports to be an early glimpse of the Xperia Z5 Compact.

The photo certainly looks the real deal and could be an official render for a press shot Sony will use. However, while this claims to be the Xperia Z5 Compact, we think it looks large enough to be the Xperia Z5 flagship itself. Either way, this appears to be a previously unseen Sony smartphone.

Previous leaks have revealed that the Xperia Z5 handsets will sport fingerprint scanners, a first for Sony in that regard. The volume and power buttons have been moved lower as the scanner will be unusually side mounted.

OnePlus 2 Gets OxygenOS Update

The very good OnePlus 2 was launched at the end of July and has won pretty much universal acclaim from critics and consumers, with over one million people already registering interest to purchase the device. Now OnePlus is updating its Flagship Killer with the latest version of its OxygenOS proprietary Android software.

This is version 2.0.1 of the forked Android system and will be available to download to the OnePlus 2 starting today. The Chinese company says that the new versions comes with new features such as better interface design, better navigation, improved battery life, and security enhancement to solve the recent StageFright exploit.

Android Wear Update Gets Interactive Watch Faces

Android Wear, Google’s smartwatch specific platform, is going to receive a new update in the coming days and weeks. The small but useful upgrade will be rolling out to “all Android Wear devices” and its main new feature is the ability to download interactive watch faces. This means now static watch faces will be able to be used for other features when developers catch up.

That’s because only three current Android Wear watch faces are interactive, Bits, Together, and Under Armour.

The first of those, Bits, is a utility that displays such things as missed calls, emails, weather, battery status, and other system and media notifications with the time. Together is an interactive sharing watch face that lets you share data and photos with someone else. Under Armour's is used to keep track of various fitness features that Android Wear devices boast.

Android Controls Market while iOS Grows

Gartner sent out its new round market numbers that show which mobile platforms are winning in terms of device coverage, and the results do not really throw up any shocks. Indeed, the condition of the smartphone market stayed virtually untouched and went to a form that we have seen for the last couple of years. Android is still way out in front, Apple is still doing its own thing in second place, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone is still in a very distant third.

Apple’s iOS did manage to record growth through the second quarter of this year though, increasing its share to 14.4% on 48.1 million units sold. That number is up from 12.2% on the same timeframe last year. Google will not be worried though as Android still controls the space with a massive 82.2%, although that is down from 83.8% from 2014. Android increased sales, shifting 271 million units, up from 242.48 million the previous year. Windows Phone shrunk 0.3% to hold a market share of 2.5%.

Microsoft Launching Windows 10 Mobile and Lumia 940 in October

Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile platform is arriving too late to make the IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany at the start of September. Microsoft may be at the event, but the company will not offer many details or new products because Windows 10 Mobile is expected to be announced in October with a November launch.

In October the company will likely unveil all the full details on Windows 10 Mobile, but more importantly (arguably) we will get to see the company’s new range of smartphones at the same event. Redmond could certainly use some spark in its handset range as sales have dropped off and there is a distinct lack of flagship quality in the range.

Luckily, the Lumia 940 and Lumia 940 XL are expected to rejuvenate the Windows platform, at least from a hardware perspective. They are going to match current generation flagships and will be revealed in October alongside a new Surface and Surface Pro.

Here’s the Sony Xperia J1 Compact: The Phantom Pain Edition

Company’s dealing with media companies to make handsets themed off their properties is going to become common. The reverse already happens with smartphone companies paying millions of dollars to have their products in movies and TV. Now themed products are a real thing, just like Samsung’s Galaxy S6 with Avengers color schemes. Sony is the latest to follow this growing trend with the Xperia J1 Compact: The Phantom Pain.

The Phantom Pain is the title of the latest game in the Metal Gear franchise, the second part of the Metal Gear V chapter in the famed series. Sony has teamed up with publisher Konami to team up on a limited edition smartphone that celebrates the upcoming game.

With a silver color, the Xperia J1 Compact: The Phantom Pain comes with an Outer Heaven logo, which is the symbol used by the game’s protagonist Big Boss for his base. Elsewhere this is a standard J1 Compact with a 4.3-inch 720p screen, a 2.2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of native storage, a micro SD card slot, a 20.7 megapixel primary camera, and a 2.2 megapixel front facing lens.

The handset will cost the same as $480 when it arrives as a Japanese exclusive.

LG G Edge is trademarked

LG’s recent growth in the smartphone market over the last three years has come to a grinding halt in 2015 and rival Samsung has regained the upper hand. Samsung is of course the market leader and much bigger than LG, but the two South Korean companies have always been similar, not least because what Samsung does with smartphones one day, LG does the next.

Cue derision from LG fans, but in terms of getting technology to market, Samsung is better and LG follows. Take folding screen technology, something that has been on Samsung smartphones since last year with the launch of the Galaxy Note Edge. Heck, the company is on its third edge device, the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus launching this week.

LG is once again playing catch-up, but perhaps the company can learn from Samsung’s devices and make its G Edge smartphone even better. That’s the name that the company trademarked this week by the way, so in the coming months you expect to see more details about the LG G Edge. Indeed, some have already seen the prototype of this handset as the company was showing it off behind closed doors at CES 2015 way back in January.

Asus Teases IFA Smartphone and Smartwatch Event

Asus often launches products at the Berlin, Germany IFA trade show, and once again the company will be unveiling new tech at the event early next month. A September 2nd event has been scheduled, which fits in with the general pre-IFA keynotes that are used to show off new products. At the event Asus is expected to launch a new smartphone and a new smartwatch.

The teaser invitation was released today and Asus is likely to launch a premium new wearable that is unlikely to be called the ZenWatch 3. Instead, it will be a variant of the ZenWatch 2 that was launched earlier in the year. Not much is known about the smartphone however, although it is widely tipped to be a new mid-range device.

Samsung Releases Galaxy Note 5 Launch Nations

You can color us plenty disappointed that Samsung will not be launching the Galaxy Note 5 in the UK or Europe until at least 2016, but at least the phablet flagship is rolling out to plenty of other nations.

Samsung said that it would not release the device in Europe, and has not even confirmed if the handset will arrive at all. It was a strange choice, Samsung said it was playing market conditions, and while the iPhone is very popular in Europe there are still huge high income nations like the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and more. In other words, these are exactly the kinds of populations that buy smartphone flagships that cost hundreds of dollars.

Cambodia, Libya, and Iraq however are not, these a low income nations where lower end devices are more common, even feature phones. So, finding Samsung favouring those nations over Europe is baffling, even from a market view where the company wants high end exposure in emerging markets. Oh well, what’s done is done we guess.

Either way, here is the list of nations that will be receiving the Galaxy Note 5 in the coming weeks:

Afghanistan SM-N920

Australia SM-N920I

Australia (Vodafone) SM-N920I

Australia (Optus) SM-N920I

Australia (Telstra) SM-N920I

Cambodia SM-N920C

China SM-N9200

Hong Kong SM-N9200

Iraq SM-N920C

Israel (Orange/Partner) SM-N920C

Israel (Cellcom) SM-N920C

Libya SM-N920C

Malaysia SM-N9208

Morocco (MWD) SM-N920C

MYM SM-N9208

New Zealand SM-N920I

New Zealand (Vodafone) SM-N920I

New Zealand SM-N920I

Papua New Guinea SM-N920I

Philippines SM-N9208

Philippines (Globe) SM-N9208

Puerto Rico SM-N920W8

Saudi Arabia SM-N920C

Singapore SM-N920I

South Korea

Taiwan SM-N9208

Tunisia SM-N920C

Turkey SM-N920C

USA

VFJ SM-N920I

Vietnam SM-N920C

LeTV Becomes First Company to Tease Snapdragon 820 Smartphone

Forget Xiaomi, Meizu, or OnePlus, LeTV is the breakout smartphone brand of this decade. The Chinese company came from nowhere (admittedly with Lenovo backing) and sold one million units faster than any other brand before it. Now LeTV is responsible for another first as the company teased an upcoming smartphone with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 under the hood.

Qualcomm has already discussed its next flagship processor, and we hope it puts the rather torrid run of the Snapdragon 810 behind it. We know plenty of smartphone flagships over the next year will pack the 820, including flag bearers for HTC, Sony, LG, and maybe even Samsung. However, LeTV became the first to offer any form of official confirmation with the teaser you see above.

As for the chipset, Qualcomm says it is 40% faster and 40% more efficient than the Snapdragon 810, meaning the Snapdragon 820 is unlikely to suffer from overheating, throttling, or poor battery consumption… all issues that have hampered the 810 at one time of another.

Android M is Android 6.0 Marshmallow Confirms Google

Google has officially put a name to Android M, the new platform the company launched at its I/O conference earlier in the year. The latest build will be known as Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and to celebrate there was an Android stature holding a marshmallow placed on Google’s Mountain View headquarters.

The company has had a long tradition of naming Android builds after desserts, something that goes way back to Android 1.5, which was launched in 2009 as Cupcake. Since then the various builds have been called Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb (tablet specific), Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat and Lollipop.

Developers already have their hands on the SDK for Android Marshmallow, while the last Developer Preview arrived on Monday. Those looking for Android 6.0 on their devices will have to wait until later in the year though, with the platform set to launch alongside any new Google Nexus products in late October, early November.

Best 4G Supported Smartphones below Rs.5000 in India

With the recent launch of the 4G services from Airtel in India, the craze for the 4G LTE Smartphones is increasing every day. It is known that Airtel has launched their 4G services in around 300...

Credits: This article is copyrighted to <a href="http://ift.tt/1FFnkHx Krishna</a> who actively blogs at <a href="http://ift.tt/1EbTdZg;

OnePlus 2 Available in India Today

The OnePlus 2 has only been with us for a few weeks after being announced at the end of July, but this month the Flagship Killer is launching in several regions. One of those is India, where the new handset is being launched today, although consumers can only pick up the device if they have an invite from OnePlus. Yes, the Chinese company’s frustrating purchase system is alive and well.

OnePlus had a tough time rolling its OnePlus One in India last year, so the company will be hoping for something better this time around. The One arrived in India with the CyanogenMod software running on it, but Cyanogen had and indeed has an exclusive deal with India’s own Micromax (the biggest vendor in the country). This meant the OnePlus One was banned from the nation until the company came up with its own OxygenOS, effectively killing the partnership with Cyanogen.

ZUK Z1 Offers Interesting Specs at Low Price

ZUK is not exactly a well-known brand even in its Chinese homeland, although the company is backed by Lenovo, the third biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world. The company’s CEO teased the ZUK Z1 flagship last month and the device has already passed through TENAA, the Chinese certification body. Now the handset has received an official announcement and is a well spec’d high end smartphone.

There is a 5.5-inch 1080p Full HD screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz and supplemented with an Adreno 330 GPU. Elsewhere there is 3GB of RAM, and a generous 64GB internal storage.

It is nice to see OIS baked into the 13 megapixel rear camera, which is a lens made by Sony (IMX214), while an 8 megapixel front camera deals with those who like selfies. A frankly massive 4100 mAh battery should give the ZUK Z1 battery life best in class performance considering the older chipset, 1080p screen, and Android 5.1.1. Lollipop’s better power management. Incidentally it is Google’s latest Android release that deals with software out of the box. Also welcome are a fingerprint scanner in the home button and USB Type-C 3.0.

As we expect these days from Chinese smartphones, the ZUK Z1 is affordable at a price equivalent to $285, although the company has yet to say when the device will arrive, or which regions it will roll out to.

Sense 7 Not Coming to HTC One M8 this Year

HTC’s One M9 was unveiled five months ago and it landed with the company’s newest spin on the Android platform, Sense 7. HTC said that the software, which is among the best third party Android skins on the market, would be landing on its 2014 One M8 flagship in due course. It seems today that the “due course” will actually be longer than we originally thought.

HTC originally said that the Sense 7 UI would land alongside the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update for the One M8, scheduled to land this month. However, Mo Versi, one of the company’s product managers has revealed that the software will now arrive much later. Versi is often the official voice on such things for HTC and using his twitter account he admitted the company is likely to wait until the One M8 receives Android M instead.

HTC will have to wait for Google to launch M first, probably in November, but don’t expect the new Android platform on the One M8 for a long while. The company says the One M9 flagship will get the software within three months, with the M8 likely to follow shortly after. So, if you own the 2014 flagship, we think the earliest you can expect to see Sense 7 is February 2016, nearly a year after it launched.

How to Downgrade From Windows 10 to Windows 7/8.1 Easily?

Have you upgraded your PC to Windows 10 OS, played with the interface, but didn't like it for some reason? Don't worry! You can always downgrade to your previous Windows installation, no matter if...

Credits: This article is copyrighted to <a href="http://ift.tt/1FFnkHx Krishna</a> who actively blogs at <a href="http://ift.tt/1EbTdZg;

Microsoft’s Cortana can be used as Default Assistant on Android

Microsoft has its hands full with its Windows 10 platform rolling out in the biggest software upgrade in history, while Windows 10 Mobile due this quarter to busy the company further. However, software giant still has other avenues, such as Android, where Microsoft makes $1 billion or more per year from its apps and other services. That is soon to include Cortana, Redmond’s mobile personal assistant.

While not under full release, the Cortana app is currently in beta on Android and the newly released version 1.0.0.204 now gives users more functionality. Chief among them is the ability to now make Cortana the default assistant on an Android device. Of course, Google Now currently serves that purpose, with a hold of the home button waking the service. Microsoft has now made it possible to make Cortana the default personal assistant, and she can be awoken in the same manner.

Unknown Samsung Smartphone Breaks AnTuTu Benchmark Record

A new unheard of Samsung device has made its way through benchmark database AnTuTu and torn apart the record score on that software, with a dazzling 95,972. Many may not understand whether that’s good or not, but this is an amazing result that destroys the current record holder, which happens to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, which is yet to be launched.

So, this is definitely not the Note 5, which leaves us asking which smartphone is it? The new AnTuTu king is very possibly the next Samsung flagship, the Galaxy S7 that is expected to launch during the opening months of 2016. It may be early for that handset, but Samsung is undoubtedly already developing it, so an early benchmark is not impossible.

AnTuTu’s new record holder carried the model number SM-8508S, a product worth looking out for in the coming weeks and months.

HTC Brand Now Worthless

HTC is having a torrid time at the moment, with plenty of things going wrong for the company at the moments. Sales have tumbled thanks to the poor reception of the One M9 flagship, while shares have hit a 10 year low and are continuing to slide. The bad news shows no sign of ceasing as it is being reported today that the company has lost all of its brand value.

The Taiwanese giant has saw its market value (currently $47 billion NT), below the $47.3 billion NT that the company has. It was a 60% decline in value that hurt HTC, essentially meaning that everything that the company holds (brand, products, buildings, etc.) are now completely worthless to shareholders.

“Most of the other assets shouldn’t be considered in their valuation because there’s more write-offs to come and the brand has no value,” claimed Calvin Huang, a representative of Sinopac Financial Holdings Co.

The Huawei 7i Comes with Silly Sliding Camera

The Huawei Honor 7i mid-range smartphone is due to launch on August 20th according to a post on Weibo, China’s biggest social network. The handset has recently passed through TENAA and once again we can see the ultra-quirky camera module that transforms something that is otherwise plainly designed into something unique in the market… that’s not necessarily a good thing by the way.

The rear camera sits normally on the rear, but it is bedded into a sliding module that slides up and down, essentially sticking out of the smartphone body when out. This does nothing to the rear camera, but this sliding module reveals the front facing lens on the rear of the slider. The front snapper includes an LED flash and is otherwise hidden from view, only popping up when you want to take shots.

We imagine that the slider works automatically and hopefully quickly as users want to be able to snap some images rapidly. Despite that, this whole mechanism just feels pointless and a gimmick, and we can’t but think it is just that. Pointless gimmick aside, the Honor 7i features a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage, although a TENAA leak suggested 3GB of RAM and 32GB of native storage, meaning two versions may be launching.

Google Follows Samsung, Issuing Monthly Security Patches

With Samsung acting in response to the Stagefright vulnerability by issuing monthly security patches to its Galaxy devices, it seems that Google is following suit. A recent vulnerability known as Stagefright showed that it is possible for hackers to control a device through a nefariously sent MMS. Google says it will shore up its platform further by issuing monthly security patches.

We hope with the platform operator and Android’s biggest vendor now offering monthly patches that other manufacturers will follow suit, especially the major ones. Google has often said that Android leaves its hands in stock form and is completely secure, but becomes unsecure in the hands of third parties. The company has often fought the perception that Android is a security risk, but problems like Stagefright certainly do not help.

Google says that its monthly patches will be different to major Android updates, which will continue to land sporadically (major builds now every year), although the company says only its Nexus line will be open to the monthly patches. That includes owners of the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 7, Nexus 9, Nexus 10, and Nexus Player.

Google says the patches will be issued from 3 years after a product is launched and 18 months once it is purchased from the store.

Samsung Promises Monthly Android Security Patches

Android has been the subject of plenty of security vulnerabilities over the year, but the recent Stagefright problem seems to have spooked manufacturers. The vulnerability showed that hackers could send a corrupted MMS to an Android device and then take control of that device, leaving it completely open to security risks. Samsung has decided to act in the wake of the problem and says it will now be issuing monthly security patches to its smartphones.

The upside of Samsung’s new tactic is that the company will stamp out any vulnerabilities on its products much more quickly, without having to wait for general updates. The company says the patches “will take place regularly, about once a month” and will probably be delivered through Samsung’s own KNOX software. As this is coming directly from the Korean company, the patch will arrive every month without having to pass through a carrier first (something that delays updates typically).

Dong Jun Koh, Executive Vice President at Samsung said:

With the recent security issues, we have been rethinking the approach to getting security updates to our devices in a more timely manner. Since software is constantly exploited in new ways, developing a fast response process to deliver security patches to our devices is critical to keep them protected.

Sony Xperia M2 is the Latest Impressive $400 Smartphone

Sony’s new smartphone strategy will see the company focus on higher end hardware, and while that mainly means the Xperia Z flagship range, it will include other products too. The newly announced Xperia M5 is the arguably the first proof of Sony’s plan to offer quality and affordability together. However, the handset arrives just a week after the OnePlus 2 and Motorola Moto X Play maybe changed the smartphone landscape.

Those two devices of course made their debuts last week with flagship specs and a price tag of $400 or lower (in the case of the OnePlus 2). With two quality devices right in the Xperia M5’s price band, how can the device possibly succeed? Well, whether it succeeds or not remains to be seen, but it seems this handset actually deserves to sit side by side with Motorola and OnePlus is offering arguably the best bang for buck on the market.

Simply put it does the things that those other handsets do so well, and that is come with extremely appealing specs and a dazzling design.

Let’s tackle the design first. Sony’s Xperia Z line maybe starting to get a little stale aesthetically, but it has always looked nothing less than elegant and oozes premium quality. Shrunk down for the Xperia M5 and bearing in mind the mid-range category the premium design actually looks better than ever here and not stale at all. The glass sandwiching a metal frame is retained and this is a very good-looking smartphone.

As we said, the $400 landscape has changed a bit in the last week, but it is almost as if Sony knew it was going to as the Xperia M5 blends nicely into that new category of flagship quality for less money. Indeed, there is not a whole lot of difference between this and the current Xperia Z3+ flagship, making the price even more appealing… of course Sony will be updating its flagship range to the Xperia Z5 next month.

So what about the specs? A 5-inch 1080p screen provides Full HD resolution and is an alternative to Motorola’s and OnePlus’ huge screened options. A 64-bit MediaTek MT6795 processor runs under the hood, maybe not quite as potent as some rival chipsets, this is still clocked at 2.0GHz and is part of the company’s flagship Helio X10 line. Elsewhere the flagship-like specs continue with 3GB of RAM, 16GB of native storage, thankfully a micro SD card slot, a 2,600mAh battery, and Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Sony has positioned itself as easily the biggest company in terms of smartphone camera technology, so it is not a shock to see the Xperia M5 filled with leading hardware in this department. A 21.5 megapixel rear camera comes with all the bells and whistles, not least an f/2.2 aperture and has a maximum light sensitivity of up to ISO 3200. A hybrid autofocus allows the camera to snap in 250 milliseconds, which is very quick, while 4K video adds to the quality of the rear set up. Not that the front facing lens is poor by comparison; it is a 13 megapixel lens, making it among the better selfie cams on the market.

Typically for Sony, the Xperia M5 is dust and waterproof to an IP65 level for dust and an IP68 level for water.

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Impresses Through AnTuTu

We know that Samsung will launch the Galaxy Note 5 at a special Unpacked event on August 13, the company has already sent out invites for the press. Another sign that the phablet is due to arrive is its continued presence on benchmark databases, with the latest seeing the Note 5 show what a beast it will be through AnTuTu.

Sure, benchmark scores are not the be all and end all, and only end user tests will say how powerful the Galaxy Note 5 is. Nevertheless, its AnTuTu score is hugely impressive and is actually better than anything else out there, including Samsung’s own Galaxy S6 flagship. A score of 68,345 through AnTuTu beats all smartphones tested through the first half of 2015, the Galaxy S6 was the previous leader with 67,520.

The benchmark also revealed the specs of the Galaxy Note 5, and for the most part they tally with previously leaked information. A 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display will sit on the front with Quad HD resolution, while Samsung’s Exynos 7420 flagship processor will act alongside of 4GB of RAM to handle that blazing performance. Elsewhere there will be 32GB of storage (no micro SD slot), a 16 megapixel primary camera, a 5 megapixel front shooter, and Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Samsung’s own UI.

Lenovo Vibe X3 Benchmark Reveals Good Mid-Range Option

Lenovo’s upcoming Vibe X3 is expected to be launched at the Berlin trade expo known as IFA next month, and it has already passed through GFXBench to reveal its specs. Of course, going through a graphics database such as this usually means a handset is close to release, so what can we expect from Lenovo’s latest mid-range effort? Well, quite a lot actually as this looks to be another in an increasingly long line of flagship baiting smartphones with lower prices.

Of course, Lenovo has yet to name the exact price yet, but the company usually offers plenty of bang for buck at all tiers. We will have to wait until next month to find out when the Vibe X3 replaces the X2 that launched at IFA back in 2014.

Here are some of the core specs. There’s a 5-inch 1080p display offering Full HD resolution, a six core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 clocked at 1.8GHz, 3GB of RAM, a 32GB amount of on board storage, a micro SD card slot to expand the space, a 20 megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash, a 7 megapixel front facing lens, and rear mounted fingerprint scanner. Android 5.1.1 Lollipop will run out of the box, with Lenovo’s own skin over the top.