[LEAK] New, mysterious octocore HTC Desire leaks out in Pictures
With all this hullabaloo about MWC 2014 and HTC M8 wallpapers being leaked left and right, you might be forgiven for thinking HTC might only be announcing their new flagship at MWC. Well, we know that HTC’s Desire line of devices has been pretty quiet since they launched the Desire 600 series, but if this new leak is to be believed, there could be a new octacore HTC Desire just around the corner.
The leak alleges that HTC is readying a new line of Desire handsets which will sport new Mediatek octocore processors, as well as 1.5GM RAM, 5-inch, 720p display and a 8 megapixel rear camera. The leak also goes on to say that these Desire handsets would be getting Android 4.3 and Sense 5.5 and provides pictures of an assortment of brightly coloured handsets. I am slightly adamant about the details regarding the software version seeing as LlabTooFer’s leak a few days ago appeared to suggest that HTC has essentially abandoned all work on Android 4.3 in favour of Android 4.4, but all of this is up in the air anyway.
One thing is for sure: if this octacore HTC Desire is real, this could go a long way to help HTC claw back some market share in the cut-throat smartphone market in Asia. Do you think this leak is real? Let us know what you think.
Three Companies to Share Packaging Orders for Apple’s Next-Generation A8 Chip [iOS Blog]
Semiconductor companies Amkor Technology and STATS ChipPAC will each handle 40% of the packaging orders placed by Apple for its upcoming A8 processor, while Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) will obtain the remaining 20% of the orders, according to a new report from DigiTimes.
Apple’s A8 chip will be a package-on-package (PoP) SoC solution comprising processors and mobile DRAM in a single package, said the sources.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is also believed to have secured wafer-bumping orders for the processor, and will reportedly start ramping up production of the A8 chip using 20nm process technology in the second quarter of 2014, with the processor widely expected to be used in Apple’s next-generation iPhone.
According to a report in September, it is also expected that Samsung will assist with production of A8 chip, with the Korean company expected to handle 20% to 30% of the manufacturing load.
Overall, production plans for the iPhone 6 seem to be gearing up, with a report earlier this month stating that TSMC would be producing fingerprint sensors for the next-generation iPhone using a larger 12-inch fab from the current 8-inch fab to increase production efficiency. It was also stated that TSMC would handle the packaging process for the sensors itself rather than contracting out to other firms in order to centralize control over the component.
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iPhone Market Share Holds Strong as Android Increases Lead in Global Smartphone Race
Research firm Kantar Worldpanel has released a new report (via The Next Web) highlighting global smartphone sales over the October-December period, finding that while Apple held strong in key markets such as the U.S. and China, Google’s Android devices increased their lead over other platforms during the end of 2013, registering year-over-year growth in various major markets.
Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, comments: “Android finished 2013 strongly, showing year-on-year share growth across 12 major global markets including Europe, USA, Latin America, China and Japan. Apple has lost share in most countries compared with this time last year, but importantly it has held strong shares in key markets including 43.9% in USA, 29.9% in Great Britain and 19.0% in China.
Apple’s total market share in the U.S. hit 43.9% in December, and was overall lower in most countries compared to the same timeframe last year. However, Sunnebo stated himself in Kantar’s prior report highlighting global smartphone sales over the August-October period that customers generally react more positively to “full” releases than incremental improvements such as the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c, which is the likely reason for the drop in market share.
Apple also continues to have strong presence in Japan, as the iPhone has held a steady market share in the months after the debut of the iPhone on the country’s largest carrier, NTT DoCoMo:
In Japan, consumers’ desire for all things Apple continued into the final quarter of 2013, with iOS taking 68.7% share of smartphone sales. Apple’s deal to sell iPhones through Japan’s largest carrier, NTT DoCoMO, has proved an unarguable success with Apple’s share on the carrier reaching 58.1% in the fourth quarter compared with 91.7% on Softbank and 63.7% on AU KDDI.
Despite its strong market share in various countries, the iPhone continues to face challenges in mainland Europe and China, where Android’s market share is around 70% or higher in many countries. Microsoft’s Windows Phone also continues to show growth in many markets, as the platform’s market share has even overtake that of iOS in Italy.
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Looking for Cute Game Characters? Check Out These Games
Many gamers don’t just play for the gameplay. For them, the graphics and game characters are also important. Some games endear players because of the cute characters and the adorable gaming environment. If you are looking for games that feature cute and charming characters, consider the following options:
(Image courtesy of AKARAKINGDOMS / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
1. Tiny Monsters
Published by TinyCo, Tiny Monsters is one that can surely fill your desires for adorable characters. This free game offers loads of cuteness as you can expect updates of new monsters every week. Gameplay is simple. You just have to hatch, raise, and reproduce your monsters. You will have to take care of monsters and chase the opportunity to breed rare hybrids. You will definitely appreciate all your monsters’ charms given the game’s high resolution and outstanding animation. Complete your collection of magical monsters while enjoying cuteness overload.
2. Angry Birds
They may be described as angry avian creatures but there’s something about them you are bound to like. Proof to this charm is the popularity of the near-iconic angry bird characters. For a time, Angry Birds became highly popular and would probably rise to a new wave of popularity again after Sony releases the film adaptation of the game. The distinctive design of the characters in Angry Birds make them easily recognizable. They’re supposed to be angry but they don’t convey any unpleasantness at all.
3. Burger Cat
Cats: they make the Internet a cuter place. And they do the same for games! Take Burger Cat for example. This feline has an insatiable appetite and adorable antics that make him all the more irresistible. And look at those dopey eyes! Burger Cat loves to eat cheeseburger – something you’d appreciate if you are one of those who have fallen for characters like Jerry or Stuart Little. Yes, he does not chase mice although he’s indirectly giving them competition through the cheese in the cheeseburger he loves.
4. Pokemon
And of course, who could forget Pokemon when talking about cuteness? There are many Pokemon games on mobile. Many are not affiliated with the real Pokemon creators but if you are just looking for your dose of cute game characters, they should suffice. Admittedly, these charming little monsters look adorable even in their less than HD incarnations. There are many of them so you won’t be running out of options that would suit your idea of what a charming little monster should be.
5. Panda Jump
Nobody can say pandas are not cute. Perhaps, they’re even the best representative for the adjective. Their unmistakable color combination and irresistible plump form make them utterly cute. That’s why if you are looking for cute game characters, Panda Jump is something you will not regret trying. The game is an endless runner type that requires a player to tap to jump and attack. Just like other endless running games, there will be obstacles and challenges. Fortunately, you can make your panda do a shield to block a hit. Panda Jump may not have the best graphics but it is nice enough to complement the cuteness of panda character.
6. Tiny Castle
In this game, you will try to explore an enchanted kingdom with magical creatures. You will have to collect mystical creatures and raise them until they mature and become useful in your quest to beat the Evil Queen in the castle. You can also unlock magical powers and summon hybrid monsters. What’s more, there’s also the option to decorate the game’s setting with various cute items. This is something you shouldn’t miss if you are looking for cute creatures and an exciting gameplay.
7. Terra Monsters
Terra Monsters is another monster game that is about collecting, raising, training, and battling cute monsters. There are 178 monsters in the game and players can develop their own distinct monsters that they can endow with unique traits, including hundreds of moves or skills. The game also features 10 different settings, an exciting story, and mysteries to solve.
Try these games and drown yourself with all the charms of make-believe adorable critters. It doesn’t hurt that all of these games are free and only charge for in-game purchases that you may not really need at all.
Samsung throws money at Ericsson to end smartphone patent war
We prefer it when companies make devices, not courtroom drama, so it’s delightful to see that Samsung has silenced another one of its litigation-frenemies this morning. The company has signed a cross-licensing agreement with former Sony beau Ericsson, with a figure of around $650 million being paid up-front, and an undisclosed regular payment to follow. Now that Samsung has appeased both Google and Ericsson, let’s hope we can get back to reporting on gadgets, or else we may have to rename this place Enlawsuit.
[Original image credit: Wikipedia]
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung
Via: re/code
Source: Ericsson
Kantar: Samsung sales stall in China and Europe despite Android’s overall growth
Thanks to its latest earnings report, we already knew that Samsung’s market share dropped last quarter. But the latest report from analytics outfit Kantar now shows mainly where: the all-important Chinese and European markets. Its figures show that the Korean giant has slipped 2.2 percent in France, the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany over last year while remaining flat in China during the same period. Since overall Android market share increased five percent in China, that means Samsung has lost ground to local companies like Xiaomi, which is now the market share leader in that nation.
Meanwhile, though Apple’s iOS dropped in most markets over last year, it held strong in key markets China, UK and the US, counting up 44 percent of holiday handset sales stateside. Cupertino is also king of Japan with 69 percent of total smartphone share, due in large part to Japan’s largest operator, NTT DoCoMo finally carrying Apple handsets. As for the rest of the pack, Windows Phone has picked up significant market share in every region over last year and is even the number two smartphone OS in Italy. That’s mostly at the expense of Blackberry, which now holds a miniscule 0.4 percent of the US market and has declined precipitously everywhere else — to the point that its not a given that it’ll appear on any charts soon.
Filed under: Cellphones
Via: Techcrunch
Source: Kantar World Panel
10 Important E-commerce Strategies for Post-Holiday Craze
The holiday craze is over, however, clearance sale isn’t. As sellers, we must know how to take advantage of the shoppers’ online habits—they know we’re going to offer marked-down prices and free shipping, but the question is this: is your e-commerce hosting ready to receive tons of traffic?
Spin up those servers and consider the following strategies to optimise your website and promotional campaigns and avoid downtime whilst they shop till they drop:
- Monitor the infrastructure – Keep the online “doors” open and make sure you’re running a high-performance website to ensure the shoppers’ delight whilst browsing through your pages. Team up with your cloud vendor and conduct cloud monitoring to see the condition of your servers and websites.
- Racking up a managed account with e-commerce hosting – Focus on your sales, core operations and promotional campaigns and let the cloud specialists do the work of optimising your cloud infrastructure with a managed cloud account.
- List product deals and freebies – Create lists for your clearance sale for top 10 products, top 20 free shipping items etc. As the brain easily understands numbers more than the spelled words. Be creative in designing the products and strategically position the call-to-action button of “buy now.”
- Share via social media networks – Take advantage of the social media networks and advance your marketing team to contribute in sharing your website links, landing pages and shopping deals. Keep on sharing and building momentum during the first weeks of January until product supplies last.
- Position your social media buttons visibly – Shopbop, an online fashion retailer, positioned the popular social media buttons per product description where shoppers can easily share the images via Facebook, Sina Weibo, Pinterest and Email.
- Send newsletters as reminders – Massive promotions through newsletters are helpful. Select all the items you wish to feature on the newsletter and apply the psychology principles to stimulate their interests, desire and urgency. Your goal is to lead them to your website and buy the items.
- Guarantee 24/7 customer service – eBay Hong Kong positioned its customer service support on their home page to let the shoppers know that they have a support team to assist them.
- Offer free international shipping – Most shoppers would always calculate the shipping costs. Despite the post-holiday craze and the clearance sale, be generous in offering international shipping if possible. You can even offer extra codes for promos and reduce the charge for bulk items.
- Live chat box – Serve your shoppers well by integrating a live chat box on your website. You can’t avoid their queries and questions; although some of them can wait. A minute delay of any online transaction can cost you hundreds of dollars. Make sure that the apps and services hosted in the cloud are able to keep up with these because these are highly critical.
10. Give additional discounts through promo codes
Is the Nexus Line Ending in 2015?
Eldar Murtazin is one of those guys that seems to have a knack in finding out information before everyone else. We would say he has about a 70 to 80 percent rating for being spot on, and now he has dropped a doozy about our precious Nexus phones.
Nexus line by Google is over in 2015 
Yes – this line will be replaced by Play Edition (current name, it will be rebranded)
— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) January 27, 2014
Murtazin just tweeted that information out, and I quickly straightened up and belted out, “WHAT?!” before my fingers started typing out this post. To me it seems like a pretty good idea, as well as true.
When Google started this Google Play Edition line, a lot of us thought they were being extremely kind by throwing on stock Android on our more popular devices, without us having to suffer through the task of rooting those devices. But then Google started throwing curveballs at us, when they announced Google Play Editions of random devices, like the LG G Pad 8.3, Sony Z Ultra, and the Moto G. Maybe this is a preview of things to come?
Then we have the Moto X. Some of us speculated that the Moto X line would maybe phase out the Nexus line, but having the Google Play Edition line sounds a little more intelligent, and it will allow the manufactures battle it out for best Google Play device. That’s just what we are thinking over here, but let us know what you guys think about this. True? Or complete BS?
Source: Twitter
LG shrinks losses thanks to strong TV sales, promises new flagship phone next month
LG doubled its profits in the last year — and it’s thanking an apparent boom in HDTV sales, not its mobile wares. From October – December 2013, the company made an operating profit of $220 million (238 billion won), more than doubling the operating profit from its TV range, but saw a net loss for the quarter of $59 million (64 billion won). Meanwhile, mobile (including both smartphones and the company’s return to tablets) went from profit maker to loss maker in the space of a year, with an operating loss in Q4 2013 of $40 million (43 billion won). That operating loss has been partly blamed on marketing spending, with LG advertising more aggressively for flagship phones like the LG G2 and the G Flex in the last 12 months. LG’s quarterly smartphone unit sales totaled 13.2 million units: more than a 50 percent increase from the same period last year.
The company has also announced that it’ll have a new G Pro model, the G Pro 2, to add to the flagship in February — presumably ready for when MWC 2014 kicks off in Barcelona — although it’s not specifying, well, anything about the new smartphone yet. LG also expects 2014 to be the year of OLED (although not flexible ones ), with the nascent screen tech becoming its “main growth driver” in TV and replacing LED sets in the process.
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile, LG
Via: Reuters
Source: LG Social (Korean), LG
Weekly Roundup: PlayStation Vita TV review, T-Mo’s ‘Mobile Money’ and more!
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
The future of Nokia featurephones
Engadget’s Brad Molen discusses Microsoft’s impending acquisition of Nokia and how the deal might change the future of the manufacturer’s once-mighty featurephone linup. Follow the link for more information.
PlayStation Vita TV review
Sony’s PS Vita TV media streamer is cute, quiet and about the size of a deck of cards. You can even pair it with a PS3 DualShock controller and viola, you’ve got games. But would your $96 be better spent on a more portable PS Vita? Click the link for our review and find out.
T-Mo’s ‘Mobile Money’
T-Mobile’s latest endeavor is a personal finance product called “Mobile Money” that combines a smartphone app and branded prepaid Visa card. Best of all: you don’t even have to be a customer to sign up for it. Click on through for details. Click on through for details.
Uber-rare NES game lands on eBay
Back in the 1990′s, the Nintendo World Championship toured the US with 116 custom game cartridges containing special levels from Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer and Tetris. If owning a gem like that makes you flutter on the inside, now might be your chance! Click the link for details.
Filed under: Misc
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