LG confirms G Pro 2 announcement in February
It has been a year since LG unveiled the 5.5-inch beast, original G Pro. According to the company, more than one million units of the product have been sold, while consumers enjoyed using its enormous screen, snappy Snapdragon 600 CPU and custom UI that LG loaded on it.
In the same press release, LG announced that the successor of the particular handset will be debuted in February. The company did not disclose any info about the specs of the device nor the exact date, though we feel suffice to speculate both. The second iteration of the line, LG G Pro 2, will ostensibly sport a larger display, around 0.2 to 0.5 inches bigger, with 2K resolution — which appears to be this year’s trend in the industry along with fingerprint scanners. The processor will be upgraded to either Snapdragon 800 or the 850 — announced in November, which offer double the performance of the soon to be outdated 600 SoC. To compete with Samsung’s counterpart, the Note 3, we might see three gigs of memory as well, instead of just two. Design wise, we hope to see much thinner bezels and enhanced ergonomics.
As far as announcement date goes, there is no doubt that we’ll see this happening during MWC 2014 in Barcelona, where all of the major manufacturers — except the Cupertino Giant — show off what they’ve got for the current season. The conference starts on the 24th and wraps up on the 27th.
Albeit not being a big fan of the Optimos line up, I can’t wait to see what LG has in store for us. We wonder what you guys think about LG’s upcoming monster so feel free to sound off in the comments down below.
Source: LG
Nintendo’s Mobile Push to Focus on Marketing Demos, Not Full Games
Earlier this month, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata indicated Nintendo was looking into a new business structure involving “smart devices” after the company experienced its third consecutive annual loss in light of increasing competition from mobile platforms.
While that statement was interpreted by some as an indication of Nintendo’s plan to develop game titles for iOS and Android, it appears that the company instead intends to use smartphones to market its existing handheld and console hardware and game lineup.
According to a report from Japanese business newspaper Nikkei [Google Translation] (via Dr. Serkan Toto), Nintendo will introduce a free app that includes information on new games, including videos and character profiles along with some smartphone mini games.
But Nintendo will not simply put Mario, Pokemon or other games on smartphones. According to the report, Nintendo plans to use Android and/or iOS devices (not confirmed at this point) to market its console games.
To be more concrete, The Nikkei writes that Nintendo wants to use smartphones to expand its potential user base by spreading information about new game releases, i.e. by using video to introduce future titles. (This will probably happen through some kind of official Nintendo app.)
Nintendo’s mini games are said to be playable demos of console games, but full versions of the titles will only be available on Nintendo hardware like the Wii U and the 3DS. The idea is to give players a small taste of the gameplay in order to entice them to purchase content on the Nintendo platform.
Mobile devices from Apple and Android and more popular consoles from Microsoft and Sony have devastated Nintendo’s earnings in recent years. According to a report from App Annie, consumer spending on games for iOS and Android is now 4x that of dedicated gaming handhelds and sales of the Xbox and PlayStation have far outpaced Wii U sales. Though Iwata has said that Apple is “the enemy of the future” he has stated publicly that he will not provide Nintendo’s “precious resources” to other platforms.
Nintendo is expected to make an announcement about its new mobile app on Thursday.
     |
Apple Reports Strongest Ever Quarterly Earnings: $13.1 Billion Profit on $57.6 Billion in Revenue in Q1 2014
Apple today announced financial results for the fourth calendar quarter of 2013 and first fiscal quarter of 2014.
For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $57.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.1 billion, or $14.50 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $54.5 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share in the year-ago quarter.
Gross margin was 37.9 percent compared to 38.6 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 63 percent of revenue. Apple also declared a dividend payment of $3.05 per share, payable on February 13 to shareholders as of the close of trading on February 10. The company currently holds $158.8 billion in cash and marketable securities.
Apple had previously issued guidance for the quarter of revenues between $55-58 billion, with gross margin between 36.5 and 37.5 percent.
Apple sold a record 51 million iPhones in the quarter, up from 47.8 million in the same time period last year, and the company has now sold 472.3 million smartphones in total. It sold 26 million iPads, a new record, up from 22.86 million last year. Apple has now sold 195 million tablets. It sold 4.8 million Macs during the quarter, compared to 4.06 million in the year-ago period.
“We are really happy with our record iPhone and iPad sales, the strong performance of our Mac products and the continued growth of iTunes, Software and Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We love having the most satisfied, loyal and engaged customers, and are continuing to invest heavily in our future to make their experiences with our products and services even better.”
Apple’s guidance for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 includes expected revenue of $42-44 billion and gross margin between 37 and 38 percent.
Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2014 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.
| |
Consumers are out, business is in: Looxcie to focus on Vidcie enterprise solutions
Parting is such sweet sorrow. Shed a tear for Looxcie’s consumer aspirations, y’all, because the company has decided that the enterprise is now where it’s at. After launching its Vidcie business-focused POV camera system at CES, it seems that Looxcie views the b2b brand as its ticket to profitability. Of course, the company will still sell its consumer products, and you folks who bought a Looxcie 3 or HD won’t be left out in the cold, as Looxcie will still support those products and honor their warranties. The shift to focus on the enterprise isn’t terribly surprising, given the ample and established competition in the wearable camera market. Still, we shall miss Looxcie’s lipstick cams gracing our pages, won’t you? (Probably not.)
Filed under: Cameras
Via: SlashGear
Galaxy Gear 2 rumored with bendable display
Despite being the leader in its space, the Samsung Galaxy Gear has had quite a rough year. Limited functionality, incompatibility with current flagships at launch, bugs, and more have proved difficult for mainstream success. According to an unnamed industry insider, Samsung is working on a total redesign of the Galaxy Gear. Will this be Samsung’s chance to redeem itself?
The so-called Galaxy Gear 2 is said to have a flexible OLED display roughly the same size (1.63inches) with a redesign which removes unfavorable aspects of the current model.
Many are wondering if Samsung will allow compatibility with devices other than their own smartphones. How much does that matter; do you think Apple would make an “iWatch” that played well with other brands or OSes?
With 2014 set to give way to many wearable devices, Samsung’s next-gen Galaxy Gear will need to be considerably better than the current iteration. Another misstep here could be costly.
The post Galaxy Gear 2 rumored with bendable display appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Rumor: Nexus line coming to an end in 2015?
If true, this may be sad for many, but according to @eldarmurtazin on Twitter, Google will be killing off the Nexus line by next year in favor of Google Play Edition devices.
The Nexus program has been around since January 2010 when the HTC Nexus One was announced. All Nexus devices have been pure Google Android, with no custom skin on top of them. Highlights of the Nexus program have been that the devices have “usually” been unlocked, were “usually” sold directly by Google and have been the first to receive software updates.
While it may seem this is the natural progression, killing off the Nexus line once phones started shipping with stock firmware, in my opinion, I don’t think that Google is ready to kill it just yet.
One thing that people have praised the Nexus program for is that it has offered the choice of an off-contract at a reasonable price. Besides the Moto G, which isn’t in the same class as the Nexus 5, there is no GPE device that is that inexpensive. The HTC One is $599 from the Play Store and the Samsung Galaxy S4 is even more expensive at $649. Besides the only GPE tablet, LG’s G Pad 8.3, and the Moto G, there are no reasonably priced GPE devices.
Devices like the Moto X have proved that selling a cheaper device is possible, but who knows if Samsung, Sony and HTC will ever release a high-end GPE device that is also relatively inexpensive.
With comments from Android director of engineering Dave Burke (from the August 2013 article from The Verge) that states they’re “halo” devices meant to educate the rest of the ecosystem, I’m not sure I believe the death of the program.
“Basically what Nexus allows us to do is set the standard … [we can] demonstrate how Android runs and hopefully influence other device manufacturers to take what we’ve done and do even better,” he said in that interview.
There was also another reason for its existence, that Google needs hardware on which it can develop Android and Burke said “as an engineering team creating a mobile platform — we can’t do that in the abstract. We need to do it on a real device that we’re carrying with us.”
Well, anything is possible, but only time will tell if Google is putting an end to the Nexus. That being said… where’s that new Nexus 10?
via Twitter
The post Rumor: Nexus line coming to an end in 2015? appeared first on AndroidGuys.
NSA Servers Collect Personal Data Sent by iPhone Apps
The U.S. National Security Agency specifically looks for data sent by mobile apps in order to capture personal data on targets, according to a new report from The New York Times and other news agencies.
Intelligence agencies can grab data as it travels across the Internet, looking specifically for data from smartphone apps including Google Maps — searches within the app allow Governments to locate users to within a few yards — and even Angry Birds. Much of the information being sent seems to be related to targeted advertising.
The secret report noted that the profiles vary depending on which of the ad companies — which include Burstly and Google’s ad services, two of the largest online advertising businesses — compiles them. Most profiles contain a string of characters that identifies the phone, along with basic data on the user like age, sex and location. One profile notes whether the user is currently listening to music or making a call, and another has an entry for household income.
In addition, apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all support sending some amount of location data and other information, allowing intelligence agencies significant opportunities to capture personal data in real-time on targeted persons without ever having access to phones, something that was part of a different intelligence strategy revealed in previous leaked documents.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been vocal in his disapproval of some of the NSA’s methods, meeting with the President to discuss NSA surveillance and more recently saying the NSA “would have to cart us out in a box” to have access to Apple’s servers.
For its part, the NSA says it only analyzes data on foreign intelligence targets and that significant protections exist for data collected on U.S. persons and “innocent foreign citizens”. The NSA has said in the past that collection of this sort of smartphone traffic has been useful in cracking cases.
“N.S.A. does not profile everyday Americans as it carries out its foreign intelligence mission,” the agency said in a written response to questions about the program. “Because some data of U.S. persons may at times be incidentally collected in N.S.A.’s lawful foreign intelligence mission, privacy protections for U.S. persons exist across the entire process.” Similar protections, the agency said, are in place for “innocent foreign citizens.”
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
| |
HTC M8 to Have On-Screen Buttons Instead of Capacitive Buttons
The HTC M8 has gotten its fair share of leaked information the past couple months, and leak king, evleaks, has been on top of a lot of those leaks. The passed couple days the leak junky gave us two pieces of wallpaper straight out of the HTC M8 gallery, which are colorful little pieces of eye candy. Now we are getting word that the successor of the HTC One will finally ditch those capacitive buttons that have graced every HTC phone since the beginning, and they will jump onto the on-screen button bandwagon.
M8 will be the first HTC device with on-screen buttons.
— @evleaks (@evleaks) January 27, 2014
Evleaks doing what he does best, and he is usually spot on. I remember last year when he dropped the very first image of the original HTC One, and a lot of us didn’t believe it. Something about the design just didn’t scream HTC, but we soon came to find out that it was the design, and ended up being the best designed phone of 2013. Anyways, let us know your thoughts about this information. Glad to see the capacitive buttons go away?
Source: evleaks
T-Mobile LG G-Flex Pre-Orders Begin, Scheduled for Feb 5th Release
T-Mobile’s LG G-Flex has finally received an official out date. Up until today they only had a registration page up for those interested in the curvy flexible device from LG. Now you are free to jump in and get a pre-order placed for the device, or just mark your calendar for February 5th to head into a store.
Cost wise you are looking at $672 outright with $0 down and monthly payments of $28 for 24 months to pick one up. T-Mobile is also kicking in 6 months of Netflix with your purchase.
Quick recap of the LG G-Flex Specs:
- Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor at 2.26 GHz
- 2 GB of RAM
- 32GB internal memory w/ expandable micro SD slot
- 13MP rear camera
- 2.1MP front facer, 88 degree Ultra-wide-angle, f/2.0 aperture
- 6-inch screen (Res 1280 x 720, 245 ppi)
- 3,400 mAh battery (Yes, that is 100 mAh less than the competitors)
- Android 4.2.2 at launch
- Flexible screen and body with self healing back
Anyone thinking of picking this up? Feel free to pop over to T-Mobile.com to take a closer look.
Starwood swapping room keys for mobile phones at two hotels
Starwood plans to roll out refreshed SPG apps that can unlock your guest room later this quarter. The new tech, which the company refers to as “keyless key” in its intro video (embedded after the break), will soon let you bypass the front desk and enter your room using an Android 4.3 or iPhone 4s (or newer) device at the Aloft Harlem and the Aloft Silicon Valley. Existing locks must be upgraded in order to communicate with the Android and iOS apps via Bluetooth, according to a WSJ report, but Starwood’s CEO says that the “investment would not be substantial.”
Starwood currently offers a Smart Check-In solution at several Aloft hotels, but the existing system requires guests to obtain (and carry) a compatible membership card. It’s also quite limited, with only nine hotels currently participating. Meanwhile, if this initial smartphone rollout is a success, your phone could be the key to all W and Aloft hotels worldwide by the end of next year.
Filed under: Wireless, Software
Source: Wall Street Journal, Starwood Hotels
AIVAnet 