LG Liger shows up in benchmarks with mid-range hardware
It looks like LG is planning on launching a new device in the G3 family called the LG Liger. The oddly named smartphone looks extremely similar to the G3, but LG has lowered the specs a bit, so this one effectively falls in the mid-range category of smartphones.
The device features LG’s in-house Odin CPU with four Cortex-A15 cores and four Cortex-A7 cores, similar to many newer pseudo-octacore processors. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it an extremely high-end CPU, as the benchmarks for the device put it well below the Snapdragon 801 found in the G3. To make up for the lower speed, LG has decreased the screen resolution to 1080p instead of the extremely high resolution seen on the G3. The screen itself is also a bit bigger, coming in at 5.9-inches. Other specs include 2 GB of RAM and a 13 megapixel camera.
It’s crazy to think that an octa-core device with a 1080p screen is “mid-range,” but compared to other high-end offerings on the market, this device can’t compete with the best available. It’ll still very likely be an excellent device that won’t cost much, so keep an ear for it as we get closer to the holidays.
source: GSM Arena
Come comment on this article: LG Liger shows up in benchmarks with mid-range hardware
Etsy takes a stab at real world sales with free credit card readers
Etsy is best known for being an online marketplace of folksy gewgaws and crocheted everythings, but it’s making moves to help its sellers do more out in the real world. Case in point: The company just took a page out of Square and PayPal’s playbooks by offering free, smartphone-friendly credit/debit card readers to its users. The idea’s simple enough: Etsy crafters hawking their wares in public can use the reader just like any of the other ones out there, but once they swipe a card, those products automatically get deducted from their online Etsy inventory. Buyers who already have Etsy accounts can leave reviews too, just to make sure everyone knows how rad their new minimalist wallets are. Voilà: sellers get to make money and build deeper connections with actual, physical people, and Etsy gets a sweet (if tiny, think 2.75 percent) cut of each transaction to help fuel its growth.
Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got some funky brass steampunk corsets to prep for the big craft show next week.
Via: Re/code
Source: Etsy
Microsoft is doing great, and so are Surface Pro 3 and Office 365
The cloud has been a solid source of income for Microsoft in recent times, and while the company is still in the middle of a huge transition, the future is looking bright under recently appointed CEO Satya Nadella. Today, Microsoft released its earnings for the first fiscal 2015 quarter, with the main takeaway being the growth of its Devices and Consumer revenue by 47 percent, to $10.96 billion, and a total of $23.20 billion in overall revenue, a 25 percent increase compared to the same period last year. In other words, business is superb over in Redmond.
Part of the reason for this is how successful its productivity suite, Office 365, has been — there are now over 7 million subscribers to the Home and Personal software. What’s more, Microsoft revealed that the Surface Pro 3 drove the momentum of its Surface line to a revenue $908 million, doubling the amount of the previous quarter; meanwhile, 2.4 million Xbox units were sold during the term, though the company didn’t specify how many of those were for its newest console, the Xbox One.
Beyond that, its smartphone efforts continues to be on the rise. The phone hardware business totaled $2.6 billion and 9.3 million Lumias were sold, which is an even better figure than the record 8.8 million sales reported within the same timeframe last year. “We delivered a strong start to the year, with continued cloud momentum and meaningful progress across our device businesses,” Amy Hood, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President and CFO, Amy Hood, said in a statement from the company. “We will continue to invest in high-growth opportunities and drive efficiencies across the organization to deliver long-term shareholder value.”
Developing…
[Image credit: Michael Kappel/Flickr]
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Software, Microsoft
Amazon’s acquisitions and experiments are erasing its profits
In case you didn’t know, here’s the crazy thing about Amazon: it isn’t really known for turning a profit. Just think about that for a second. The company that wants to you sell everything, get it to you by any means necessary and serves as the backbone for a considerable chunk of the internet doesn’t usually make money at the end of the day. And even with that financial truth entered into the record, people — from Wall Street types to armchair prognosticators — cheer whenever Amazon avoids losing as much money in a quarter as they expect it to. Today is not one of those days.
Amazon’s Q3 results dropped not too long ago, and it packs some big numbers. While the Everything Store raked in $20.58 billion in revenue (which is more than most small countries make in a year) it just wasn’t enough to please to please those pesky shareholders — the company’s stock price is down nearly 10 percent in after-hours trading. Amazon’s business model is the epitome of spending money to make money, except what operating profits they do post are pretty meager and big losses like today’s (think $437 million) aren’t rare. In fairness, this quarter has been a really busy one for the folks in Seattle. After all, Amazon snapped up Twitch for a billion dollars, expanded its same-day delivery service in six cities across the United States, and launched a phone that no one actually seems to want (if you’re reading, Bezos, we’d like still like hard sales numbers for that thing). The question is, how much longer can Amazon afford to spend and spend and acquire and expand and create before shareholders — the people who back the company with their own money — decide that enough is enough?
Source: Amazon
Facebook Announces Anonymous Chat App ‘Rooms’ [iOS Blog]
Facebook today announced the release of a new anonymous sharing app called Rooms, which will allow users to create an anonymous invite-only chat room based around any theme.
Rooms is a standalone app that is not integrated with Facebook and does not require a Facebook login. No personally identifiable information is required within chat rooms and users are identified by nicknames. A user can join a chat room via a QR code that can be shared online, offline, privately, or publicly. While Rooms does not monitor user location, it does store messages on Facebook’s servers.
Rooms will be using the same community standards used by Facebook, so content flagged for bullying, threats, spam, and more can be deleted by Facebook. The site can also ban members or disable entire chat rooms, and each Room moderator has the power to ban users who join.
Chat rooms, which can be created on any topic, are also customizable with different colors, emojis, and more. According to Facebook Product Manager Josh Miller, who spoke to Re/code, Rooms is not designed to emulate anonymous sharing apps like Secret or Whisper, instead aiming to provide people with a place to chat with others who “care about the same stuff you do.”
Rooms lets you create places for the things you’re passionate about. Pick a topic, customize the look and feel, be whoever you want to be and share with others. It’s perfect for the things you love and interests that make you unique.
– Pick a topic: Create a home for people who are as into the topic as you are.
– Customize the look and feel: Pick a color, choose an emoji for your like button, and more!
– Be whoever you want to be: Choose nicknames for yourself, real or made up.
– Share with others: Invite other people so you can share photos, videos, and notes with them.
Rooms was created by Facebook’s Creative Labs branch, which has also created Paper and Slingshot. While news reader Paper has enjoyed success in the App Store, video and photo messaging app Slingshot has not been as popular.
Rooms is an iPhone-only app that can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
AIVAnet 