Xiaomi Mi5 to possibly have a black edition
It’s been reported that Xiaomi, the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer, is set to release its newest flagship device at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015. There have already been possible Mi5 white edition photos leaked, but today brings us a photo of a possible black edition.
The Xiaomi Mi5 is rumored to be sporting a screen somewhere between 5.5 to 5.7 inches with a 2K HD display. Anything beyond that, like what Snapdragon processor it will be using, is still debated among various sources. Some sources claim it will be the Snapdragon 805, others are saying the 810.
Xiaomi has been featured fairly heavily in the news lately. Yesterday, Talk Android reported that Xiaomi reached $45 billion USD valuation, making it the number tech start-up in the world and surpassing Uber, who is sitting at $40 billion USD. The valuation offers a bit of respite for Xiaomi after just reporting to their shareholders that their net profit for 2014 had only been $56 million USD.
Additionally, Xiaomi has been crushing its competition in emerging markets. It bested Samsung in China for 2014, and just today, it sold out its 40,000 units of Redmi Note 4G smartphones in India in just six seconds.
Source: GizmoChina
Come comment on this article: Xiaomi Mi5 to possibly have a black edition
A Palm smartphone running Android? It could happen in 2015
Oh how I remember dropping by my local CompUSA in the 90s to buy the first Palm Pilot. Now after the brand (and WebOS) has been killed by HP, it just might be coming back from the dead.
It appears Alcatel Onetouch has bought the Palm trademarks from HP by means of a shell corporation called Wide Progress Global Limited. The transfer of the trademarks was signed by the President of the Americas and Pacific of Alcatel Onetouch.
What exactly is Alcatel OneTouch planning? We have no idea, but it’s like they will launch a phone under the Palm brand sometime next year. Alcatel does make a lot of Android phones, but they aren’t a household name. The Palm brand might not help the Alcatel brand per se, but it could very well jump start their sales. We will have to keep an eye on this one.
sources: webosnation / USPTO
via: Android Central
Come comment on this article: A Palm smartphone running Android? It could happen in 2015
Tesla shows just how far your Model S will go on a charge
So you’re fortunate enough to be shopping for a Tesla Model S, but you’re anxious about just how far the electric sedan’s variants will go on a full battery. How do you know you won’t be stranded on the roadside because you bought the wrong edition? The automaker clearly wants to put that range anxiety to rest. It just posted a detailed look at the driving range you’re likely to get from the Model S based on a slew of factors, including the equipment you use and how you drive. There’s a range estimator, too, if you want to see how each of those factors comes into play.
It’s no secret that the entry-level Model S 60 has the shortest range, while the 85D is the long-distance champ. Also, some of the efficiency tips for gas-powered cars still apply to varying degrees. You’ll lose about 3 percent of your range if you opt for the big 21-inch performance tires, and opening the windows or turning on the air conditioning is a no-no. Both your speed and consistency matter as well. You’ll eke a little extra mileage out of your ride if you cruise on the highway, and resisting the urge to mash the throttle will go a long way — you’ll go around 350 miles if you stick to 55MPH in a warm climate.
These figures are still somewhat optimistic, of course, and assume that you’re not coping with unpredictable elements like traffic or snow. However, this is a rare chance at seeing how well an EV copes with your driving conditions before you take the keys. And if you’re really, truly concerned about driving as far as possible in a Tesla, you can always try scoring a used Roadster.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Tesla Motors Blog, Tesla Motors
Super thin OPPO R5 launches in India
Add another entry to list of smartphones that target the market of buyers who are interested in having the thinnest device they can find. Today in India, OPPO officially launched the OPPO R5 smartphone that measures only 4.85mm thick. The device was officially announced back in October in China, but this is the first market where the OPPO R5 can actually be purchased. OPPO does not do much in terms of laying claim to having the world’s thinnest smartphone, only calling it “Industry Leading,” but it would appear they have trumped yesterday’s announcement from Kazam.
The OPPO R5 probably would not be considered top-tier by most buyers, but it does have a decent set of hardware riding in that thin frame. The R5 is equipped with a Snapdragon 615 processor running at 1.5 GHz, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of non-expandable internal storage. The screen is a full 5.2-inch HD AMOLED display running at 1920 x 1080 resolution yielding 423 ppi. For cameras, OPPO equipped the R5 with a 13 MP rear sensor and a 5 MP front-facing camera. OPPO also gave the R5 a unique casing material to help it stay cool and their VOOC charging technology that helps it charge quickly.
Pre-orders for the OPPO R5 will start on January 1st with the device selling for 29,990 INR ($473 USD).
Come comment on this article: Super thin OPPO R5 launches in India
It looks like Alcatel Onetouch purchased the Palm trademarks from HP
We've been wondering for a while what is up with Palm.com domain, and it's looking more and more certain that HP sold the brand and trademarks to Alcatel Onetouch. The first hints of this came from the teaser when the website started redirecting to mynewpalm.com, with a looping video of the Palm logo with the text "coming soon" and "smart move" beneath. "Smart move," as it would be, is the slogan of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Alcatel Onetouch (a brand of Chinese electronics firm TCL). That's not exactly a lot to go off of though, but it was enough to raise suspicions.
That's where webOS Nation Forum member Ederic Eder comes into play. He did a bit of diging and found that on October 31st Palm, Inc (still technically a subsidiary of HP) transferred ownership of the Palm name, trademarks, and logos to Wide Progress Global Limited.
The transfer was executed on the Palm side by Rishi Varma (HP SVP Deputy General Counsel) and Wide Progress Global Limited was represented by Nicolas Zibell. We wouldn't expect either of those names, nor Wide Progress Global Limited to be familiar to you. It doesn't take much research to find that Wide Progress Global Limited is what's called a "shelf company", a corporate entity that's created and the tucked away for the day somebody needs to do something without exposing who's really behind that something. It's different than a shell company in that it was created with no intended purpose — it's "put on a shelf" until it's needed. A quick search revealed that the Palm trademarks are the only trademarks currently held by Wide Progress Global Limited.
Nicolas Zibell is, according to the trademark transfer, a VP at Wide Progress Global Limited. But that's nothing — Nicolas Zibell is also President, Americas and Pacific, of Alcatel Onetouch and TCL. Alcatel Onetouch isn't a huge brand, though they have sold well over 300 million handsets. The company's strongest positions are in Asia, with very little presence or brand recognition in the US.
So we have HP transferring the Palm trademarks to a shelf company that just so happens to be led by the same guy who is in charge of Alcatel Onetouch America. Interesting, no?
We reached out to Alcatel Onetouch and Nicolas Zibell directly, both neither have responded to our requests for comment.
If we assume that the trail of crumbs to this point is correct (and we see very little reason to assume otherwise), then the real question is this: what is Alcatel Onetouch going to do with the Palm brand?
There are a couple of approaches to consider. The most basic is that Alcatel Onetouch has in the past produced phones with a model name of Palm, and they just are working to protect their own branding. Though why that would necessitate a shelf company transfer maneuver, we couldn't tell you.
The more intriguing option is that Alcatel Onetouch plans to use the Palm brand going forward, either as part of a line of phones, or as their own brand. While an Alcatel Onetouch Palm line of smartphones seems like a reasonable proposition, Alcatel Onetouch America rebranding as Palm (or perhaps even all of Alcatel Onetouch) would be a very interesting move.
Like we said, Alcatel Onetouch has very little brand recognition in the US, while the Palm name has significant recognition and customer goodwill. What was probably a few million dollars to buy the Palm trademarks (perhaps several million, though we have no way of knowing right now) brings instant brand recognition that would cost far more in advertising dollars. Of course, Alcatel Onetouch as Palm would still have to follow up with an advertising campaign for "The new Palm" (see the new URL at play there, eh?) as well as delivering quality products.
The most impressive smartphone that Alcatel Onetouch offers right now is the Fierce 2 on T-Mobile. It's a rather unimpressive slate-style Android 4.4-running smartphone with a 5-inch 540×960 display (220ppi — the HP Pre 3 of 2011 had a pixel density of 260), octa-core Samsung Exynos 5 processor, 5MP rear camera, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB internal storage. It doesn't even have LTE. It's primary redeeming factor is its price, at just $126 off contract on T-Mobile (or just $50 on MetroPCS)
Palm was something truly impressive. They pioneered the PDA and the smartphone. Palm webOS revolutionized the way we approached multitouch user interfaces so thoroughly that you can pick up literally any smartphone made in the past few years and find something that was lifted from webOS.
Alcatel Onetouch has carved out out a comfortable little niche for itself serving the lower end of the smartphone market. We hope that if they're truly planning to go full bore with the Palm brand that they start producing hardware that's worthy of the name.
The Palm brand might be coming back, courtesy of Alcatel Onetouch
It’s been a good long while since we’ve mentioned Palm around these parts, but there’s a strong possibility we could be mentioning them a lot more often if what we think is happening is in fact what is happening. By all appearances, it looks like Alcatel Onetouch has purchased the Palm brand and trademarks from HP. This comes just a few years after HP shut down webOS and eventually open sourced it and sold their development assets to LG. It’s hard to say what exactly Alcatel Onetouch might be doing with the Palm trademarks, anything from protecting their own branding to a complete rebrand as Palm is possible.
T-Mobile’s John Legere talks about the state of the wireless industry in 2015
T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere has posted a blog entry on the carrier’s website detailing his prediction for where the wireless industry will be heading in 2015. He talks about the direction T-Mobile is going in, and in typical Legere fashion, he doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to throwing other carriers under the bus.
Right out of the gate, Legere talks about all of the different moves T-Mobile has put into place with their Uncarrier revolution. This includes the recently announced roll over data, unlimited music streaming, and ending annual service contracts, among several other things. There’s even a nice chart that shows how each of the four carriers fares when it comes to those Uncarrier moves, and while it’s definitely weighted in T-Mobile’s favor, it does show that T-Mobile is committed to offering a better value for your money than the other big three.
When it comes to other carriers, John Legere is happy with where T-Mobile is standing. Their LTE network covers about 264 million customers, and even though it’s trailing Verizon’s 303 million, the carrier plans on catching up to at least 300 million customers by the end of 2015. On top of that, T-Mobile’s network is typically very competitive with Verizon’s when it comes to speed, even beating out Big Red in many markets. He also hit the other big three carriers with some pretty rough comments about promotions they’ve been running, including slamming AT&T for squeezing money out of their customers with old unlimited data plans and bashing Verizon for their “BS promos.”
Of course, the entire blog post isn’t just carrier trash talking, and Legere discussed how he thinks wearables are the next major component in the wireless industry, especially after Apple releases their first smartwatch, and he believes phablets will continue to grow in popularity. That insane phablet growth has two pretty major side effects, however; increased data usage thanks to the extra data screen that’s ideal for streaming and consuming media, and lowered tablet sales as people switch over to using phablets exclusively as opposed to a smartphone and tablet.
Legere made a few witty jokes about his Twitter account, then ended on a high note that T-Mobile plans on staying the course of what they’ve been doing. Expect to see some more moves by T-Mobile in 2015 to try and stay ahead of the competition.
You can find the full post at the link below.
source: T-Mobile
Come comment on this article: T-Mobile’s John Legere talks about the state of the wireless industry in 2015
Palm might make a return thanks to Alcatel Onetouch
Most fans of smartphones would say that Palm’s popular webOS software died much too soon. In 2010 after HP bought webOS, they killed it off and allowed it to (slightly) live on as an open OS called Open webOS. Following the launch of Open webOS, LG acquired the operating system, but only the websites, documentation, source code and team behind the client side of webOS. After the LG acquisition almost two years ago, we haven’t really heard much of the operating system aside from a few rumors of LG bringing it to a smartwatch and the TV. We may be hearing much more about it in the future, though, thanks to some recent reports uncovered from the USPTO. According to webOS Nation, it seems as though Alcatel Onetouch, and Android device manufacturer, (sort of) purchased the brand as well as all trademarks and logos from HP earlier this year.
The documents that have been uncovered from the United States Patent and Trademark Office show that the brand and all trademarks and logos have been transferred to a “shelf company” called Wide Progress Global Limited. A ‘shelf company’ is a legitimate company that’s inactive, meant for people who need a quick jump on starting a business. So, how does this relate to Alcatel Onetouch? The vice president of the shelf company is Nicolas Zibell, who is also the President, Americas and Pacific, of Alcatel Onetouch and TCL. So, the President of Alcatel Onetouch transfers Palm’s brand, trademarks, and logos to a shelf company that he’s also the VP of. There aren’t too many reasons why transferring the remainder of Palm to a shelf company would be warranted, unless Alcatel Onetouch is planning on resurrecting the brand.
Alcatel Onetouch has released devices in the past named Palm, so this could be a giant ploy to protect themselves from legal issues. Though, there wouldn’t be much reason to transfer it all to a shelf company, just to avoid getting sued. The only other valid reason this is happening is because the company is actually going to do something with the brand. Now remember, we haven’t heard official word that Alcatel Onetouch is bringing back Palm, but it seems as though that’s the only reasoning behind all of this trouble.
Alcatel Onetouch isn’t the most prominent brand out there, especially in the United States. They offer a few lower-end phones, though the entirety of their smartphone line is very low-cost. Only time will tell whether or not Alcatel Onetouch will actually do something with the Palm brand, but right now, it seems pretty likely.
Android Lollipop afflicted with memory leak bug, but Google is working on a fix
Lollipop is the latest and greatest version of Android from Google, but like all new software, there are a few bugs. The newest release has already had a few issues (that were promptly fixed) but now it looks like some Nexus devices are being bogged down with a memory leak on Android 5.0.1.
The issue causes the Android system to use up to over 1 GB of RAM instead of the typical 500 MB, so you’ll see tons of apps being force closed and home screen redraws. It’s not a devastating glitch, but it’s enough to be pretty annoying, especially if you like to use tons of apps at once.
Fortunately, it looks like Google has found a solution and is working on implementing it. However, there’s no word on just when the fix will get pushed out to Nexus devices, but whenever you see the next incremental update you can bet the memory leak will have been addressed.
source: Google
via: GSM Arena
Come comment on this article: Android Lollipop afflicted with memory leak bug, but Google is working on a fix
Judge dismisses Apple employee labor suit over time spent in security checks
It looks like Apple employees engaged in a potential lawsuit against the tech giant will have to go back to the drawing board. The case, in which Apple employees alleged that they lost wages while being forced to endure long, mandatory security checks, was thrown out by U.S. District Court Judge William Alsop.
Judge Alsop cited a recent Supreme Court decision in a similar case against Amazon in which the court ruled that workers were not owed lost wages because the time spent in security checkpoints was not a part of what they were paid to do.
Second, named plaintiffs Dean Pelle, Adam Kilker, and Brandon Fisher’s individualclaims under the FLSA, New York, Massachusetts, and Ohio state law are hereby DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. Both sides agree that these claims do not survive Busk (Dkt. Nos. 210, 211). This dismissal, of course, is only as to the named plaintiffs’ individual claims since no class has been certified.
However, as per the court ruling, plaintiffs will have until January 6th to file an amended complaint, so the case could resume in the future.
Source: Apple Insider, Scribd (via Apple Insider)
AIVAnet 