New HTC Desire model rumored in the works labeled as the HTC A55
Leaks and rumors are nothing new to the world. Be it a leaked movie trailer, a new mobile chip or an unreleased phone. HTC has been making the headlines lately with leaks of their upcoming HTC Hima and Hima Plus, which are supposedly two variants of the upcoming HTC One M9 that is scheduled to […]
The post New HTC Desire model rumored in the works labeled as the HTC A55 appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
First Photos of Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs Surface
The Steve Jobs biopic based on Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography began filming in January, and the first images of Michael Fassbender and Seth Rogen as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak have surfaced (via The Daily Mail). The two actors were filming scenes at the Flint Center in Cupertino last week, and will also be filming at Steve Jobs’ original childhood home.
In the images, Fassbender wears a dress shirt, jacket, and bowtie, while Seth Rogen is dressed somewhat more casually in a tie and sweater with a full beard. Fassbender has the long ear-length hair style that Steve Jobs had in the 1980s.
Michael Fassbender, who has most recently starred as Magneto in the newest X-Men movies, was somewhat of a controversial choice in the leading role due to his limited resemblance to Steve Jobs and the fact that he’s not a household name like Christian Bale or Leonardo DiCaprio, both of whom were previously attached to the film before turning down the role of Jobs.
In leaked emails from Sony, Aaron Sorkin and other executives were initially against Fassbender because “the world isn’t going to care,” but director Danny Boyle was fully behind Fassbender and Sorkin came to accept him, saying “He’s a great actor whose time has come.”
Filming on the biopic will reportedly take place at a limited number of locations including the garage of Steve Jobs’ childhood home, two auditoriums, and a restaurant. The movie will consist of three continuous scenes covering three product launches: the unveling of the NeXT computer, the debut of the original iMac, and the introduction of the iPod.
Along with Fassbender and Rogen as Jobs and Wozniak, the film also stars Kate Winslet as early employee Joanna Hoffman, Katherine Waterson as Steve Jobs’ girlfriend Chrisann Brennan, Perla Haney-Jardine as Jobs’ daughter Lisa, and Jeff Daniels as former Apple CEO John Sculley.
Apple Seeds Fifth iOS 8.2 Beta to Developers
Apple today seeded the fifth beta of iOS 8.2 to developers, three weeks after seeding the fourth beta and almost three months after releasing the first iOS 8.2 beta.
The beta, build 12D5480a, is available immediately to registered developers as an over-the-air update and it can also be downloaded from the iOS Developer Center. Today’s update also includes Xcode 6.2 beta 5 with WatchKit.
iOS 8.2 includes the WatchKit SDK, allowing developers to create apps, Glances, and notifications for Apple’s upcoming wearable device ahead of its 2015 launch. The first iOS 8.2 beta, with WatchKit SDK and developer documentation, revealed several new details about the Apple Watch, including its heavy reliance on the iPhone and the different types of content developers can create for the device.
Huawei P8 potentially shows up in benchmarks with Kirin 930 processor
Huawei’s upcoming flagship device, the P8, may have shown up in benchmarks, confirming some of the specs of the device. The benchmark came from a device with a model number of ML100-UL00, and it scored fairly highly, giving credibility to the rumors.
The processor in question was an unnamed octa-core CPU clocked at 1.5 GHz. The benchmark score was higher than the older Kirin 620, and it’s fairly close to the Kirin 925 in the Ascend Mate 7. If this does end up being the P8 with this particular chipset, it will be the first Kirin 930 device on the market.
Other specs of the device include Android Lollipop and 3 GB of RAM, but for everything else, we’re just going to have to wait for Huawei to make something official.
source: Geekbench
via: GizmoChina
Come comment on this article: Huawei P8 potentially shows up in benchmarks with Kirin 930 processor
Download the LG G Flex 2 wallpapers for your Android
Ready for a new batch of gorgeous, high-resolution images to use for your Android’s wallpaper? Check out these 10 photos that stem from the forthcoming LG G Flex 2; there’s a little something for everybody. We’re really loving the direction LG has taken with its last few smartphones, and the wallpapers are part of that. So, if you can’t afford a new handset just yet, or just like new wallpapers, grab them1
The post Download the LG G Flex 2 wallpapers for your Android appeared first on AndroidGuys.
China to impose more restrictions on companies like Qualcomm
As EETAsia reports, China’s antitrust regulators are about to impose additional restrictions on foreign companies operating inside the country within the semiconductor industry. This means that companies such as Qualcomm and other American companies will be dealing with China’s antitrust regulators on an even greater scale. China’s semiconductor market is currently the world’s largest.
The Chinese government is likely trying to slow down companies such as Qualcomm (US) and MediaTek (Taiwan) in favor of state-run companies such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) and Spreadtrum Communications. Combine that with the fact that China is already probing Qualcomm over antitrust concerns and it isn’t hard to see why Qualcomm has been forced to cut sales and profit expectations for the year.
As the Financial Times notes, the investigation into Qualcomm by the Chinese government is being done by a powerful state central planning body, with a fearsome reputation and a win rate “which if it is not 100 per cent, it’s pretty close.”
Qualcomm is not alone in dealing with China’s regulators. Whether it is Apple, IBM or Microsoft, China has “been counselling, cajoling and sometimes banning state companies and government agencies from buying US high-tech goods.”
“China seeks to strengthen such [state] companies through the anti-monopoly law and, in apparent disregard of the AML, encourages them to consolidate market power, though this is contrary to the normal purpose of competition law.” – US Chamber of Commerce, Financial Times
Considering that China owns the largest three domestic telecom service providers in China (China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom) and that all of them are moving to chips that are supported by Chinese vendors, many in the US continue to be skeptical of the motives of the Chinese government in their investigation of Qualcomm and other foreign corporations operating inside China.
It should also be noted that Qualcomm is far from an angel. The company was hit with a $20 million fine in South Korea in 2009 and was forced to renegotiate licensing agreements with Nokia and others by the European Commission in 2007.
Pebble has sold over 1 million smartwatches, plans new software this year
There may be many big smartwatch brands on sale these days, but Pebble, one of the early start-ups to the market, continues to shift units. Pebble’s CEO Eric Migicovsky has revealed that the company surpassed the one million units sold mark on December 31st 2014.
This announcement means that Pebble has managed to double its sales since March last year, most likely due to a combination of new products and price cuts for its first generation hardware. Unfortunately we don’t know how this figure stacks up with other smartwatch competitors, as Google and other OEMs have not announced any figures recently.
Looking forward, Pebble has big plans for new products and an entirely new software platform in 2015. The company has found a new framework with which consumers will use to interact with future smartwatches, which moves focus away from the typical app-based model used in current devices. While apps will continue to exist on Pebble, the new software is apparently quite different from what people are used to with current smartwatches and smartphones.
In preparation, Pebble has been bulking up its staff count over the past year, expanding its team from 30 to 100 members and bringing designers from LG’s webOS TV platform on board. The company also launched a web-based emulator this month, which allows developers build and test apps via a browser and is designed to help swell Pebble’s app base in excess of the current 6,000 total.
With LG potentially moving away from Google’s Android Wear platform to its own WebOS smartwatch and Samsung renewing its efforts with Tizen, perhaps Pebble’s new software platform is the right move that will help the company stand out from the competition later this year.
Pebble Unfazed by Apple Watch, Plans New Hardware and Software in 2015 [iOS Blog]
While much of the wearables focus remains on the upcoming Apple Watch launch, Pebble continues to push forward with its own smartwatch platform that began as a record-setting Kickstarter project and has blossomed into a successful company. Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky recently discussed the company’s extensive plans for new hardware in the upcoming year, along with a few details of Pebble’s prosperous 2014, in an interview with The Verge.
Reaching a milestone for the company, Pebble shipped its one millionth Pebble smartwatch on December 31, 2014, undoubtedly thanks to a few major price drops to its flagship products and the introduction of noteworthy apps onto the device last year. As The Verge points out, Pebble’s biggest competitor in 2014 was Google’s Android Wear device range, but both will be facing significant competition come this April when the Apple Watch launches to the public.
Migicovsky is unfazed by the imminent release of the Apple Watch, however, outlining how Pebble’s line of devices planned for release this year will deal less with the app-obsessed world most devices focus on, instead offering something dramatically different than any smartwatch on the market.
“We’ve found a new framework to use as an interaction model on the watch,” boasts Migicovsky, before adding that while apps will continue to exist on Pebble, they won’t be the main focus of the platform. “It doesn’t look like what we have today, and it doesn’t look like what’s on your smartphone.”
Migicovsky sticks mostly to pointing out Pebble’s successful year – such as the company more than doubling by year’s end its 400,000 units sold as of March – than providing meaningful details on new products coming out of the company. He tells The Verge fans will have to wait until “later this year” for more details on the company’s upcoming devices.
Pebble’s unflinching attitude towards its upcoming war with the Apple Watch falls in line with previous actions the company has taken when it comes to Apple’s new wearable. When Apple announced the Apple Watch last September, Pebble updated its website with a few related zingers – targeting battery life, price, and over-enthusiastic responses – aimed at its competitors, namely Apple.
‘Doctor Who’ coding game for kids arrives on tablets
You no longer have to fire up your computer just to give your children some programming lessons from Doctor Who. The BBC’s educational coding game, The Doctor and the Dalek, is now available on iPads and Android tablets (both through Amazon and soon Google Play). You’ll get largely the same instruction-based Boolean logic puzzles as before, but with a few new levels and new abilities for your one-of-a-kind Dalek companion. The catch? While the game is still free, it’s only available in the UK for now — here’s hoping that the BBC makes it available worldwide so that more kids can help their favorite Gallifreyan.
New HTC Desire phone revealed with a 64-bit octa-core and 2560 x 1440 display
We are told this one isn’t a flagship, but it sure sounds like one based on the specs. The HTC A55 is a Desire phone that seems a lot like the upcoming One (M9) Plus. Perhaps it will be a plastic version of it with a slightly toned down processor
The specs include a 5.5-inch Quad HD (2560 x 1440) display, a 2.0 GHz 64-bit octa-core MediaTek MT6795 (as opposed to a Snapdragon 810) processor, 3 GB of RAM, 20 MP rear camera, 13 MP or 4 MP Ultra Pixel front camera, BoomSound, less than 3,000 mAh battery, Bluetooth 4.1, Android 5.0, and Sense 7.0.
The launch date is February 2015, which is even before the March 1st unveiling of the One (M9) and One (M9) Plus.
The Desire brand is usually reserved for the economical devices, but this one appears to be at the upper echelon of that category. We should see it at Mobile World, Congress so stay tuned.
source: Upleaks
Come comment on this article: New HTC Desire phone revealed with a 64-bit octa-core and 2560 x 1440 display
AIVAnet 
