Huawei sends out invites for April 15 event in London, Ascend P8 incoming?
Huawei has begun sending out invitations to a press conference that will be taking place in London on April 15th, which was initially hinted at by Huawei back in January. The event will begin at 3pm GMT (11am EDT) and the company is expected to announce its new high-end Ascend P8 smartphone. Huawei has launched its previous Ascend P smartphones in Europe.
Specifications have been kept close to Huawei’s chest, but rumors are pointing to 5.2-inch handset with a full HD (1920×1080) resolution display. Huawei is also expected to include its in-house 64-bit octa-core Kirin 930 CPU, which is built from four Cortex-A57 and four A53 CPU cores and a Mali-T628 MP4 GPU on a 16nm process. Other anticipated hardware includes 3GB or RAM, 32GB of storage, a 13MP OIS rear camera and a 2,600mAh battery.
A dual rear camera rumor also appeared last month, which would allow photographers to re-adjust the focal point of a picture after it has been taken. This feature is similar to what Samsung, HTC and LG have offered in previous handsets. A fingerprint scanner could also feature on the P8. A focus on new build materials is also expected during Huawei’s P8 announcement. We’ve previously heard rumors suggesting a metallic frame with a ceramic back and buttons.
The Huawei Ascend P8 will supposedly be priced at around ¥2999 ($480), which would easily undercut the current batch of flagship smartphones. We should know more about price, availability and specifications come April 15th.
Amazon expands its Prime Now one-hour delivery service to Baltimore and Miami
Amazon today announced the company is expanding its one-hour Prime Now delivery service to two new US cities – Baltimore and Miami.
Those who purchase goods from the online retailer in these new locations are now able to take advantage of one-hour delivery on select essentials. The Amazon Prime Now service is available between 8am and 10pm in both cities, with two-hour deliveries available for free and the one-hour service in select zip codes for $7.99.
Should you rock Amazon Prime membership, you’ll be able to enjoy unlimited free two-day shipping, as well as other membership benefits. Amazon notes that its delivery services will expand to more cities throughout this year.
See the press release below for more details.
- Free – Download Now
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mar. 19, 2015– Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that Prime Now has expanded to Baltimore and Miami. The ultra-fast service, which initially launched as a benefit for Prime members in Manhattan, offers one-hour delivery on tens of thousands of daily essentials through a mobile app.
“Customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn love Prime Now—it means you can skip a trip to the store and get the items you need delivered right to your door in under an hour,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations. “Since launching, we’ve seen high demand on everything from essentials like water and paper towels to more surprising deliveries like getting a customer a hard-to-find, top-selling toy in 23 minutes—we are excited to continue delivering to customers in record-breaking time.”
Prime Now is launching in select Baltimore and Miami zip codes today and will expand rapidly to additional zip codes within each city soon. All Prime members can download the Prime Now app, available on iOS and Android devices, and be notified when the service is available in their local area. In Miami and Baltimore, Prime Now is available from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Two-hour delivery is free and one-hour delivery is available in select zip codes for $7.99.
Tens of millions of members around the world already enjoy Prime. In the US, membership includes unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on more than 20 million items, instant streaming of tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes through Prime Instant Video, over a million songs and hundreds of playlists through Prime Music, free unlimited photo storage through Amazon’s Cloud Drive, early access to select Lightning Deals and access to over 800,000 books to borrow through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
The one-hour delivery service is powered by Amazon’s growing operations that utilize advanced technology to speed up order delivery times for customers. Prime Now will continue rolling out to additional cities in 2015. Learn more and download the mobile app at http://www.amazon.com/primenow.
Google Docs for Android update hides the editing icons to allow full page review
If you’ve ever used the Google Docs app, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of seeing the editing tools getting in the way of viewing a document whilst scrolling through, making it difficult to view everything you need to without those pesky icons obscuring information. Luckily, the Google Docs app is receiving an update that will solve this irksome problem. More info and the Apk download link after the break.
Today’s update to version 1.4.112.09.35 will see Google Docs allowing users to quickly open a document and browse through it without the editing tools getting in the way. From now on, when you open the document and begin to scroll down, the editing tools will vanish, allowing you to view the document on the full screen of the device. When you want to edit, all you have to do is select the blue Edit icon that appears at the bottom right of the screen once you have stopped scrolling. You should see the Google Docs app receive the update anytime from today, although if you are impatient you can just click the download link below to install the update manually.
Google Docs Apk Download (Apk Mirror)
Source: Google
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Samsung bringing 128GB internal storage to mid-range smartphones
The Samsung Galaxy S6 packed in more internal memory than any other Samsung handset before it. The company wants to bring 128GB of storage to mass market smartphones as well and has just announced a new 128GB, 3-bit per cell NAND memory chip designed for this market segment.
However, this memory module won’t be built from the same UFS 2.0 standard as the fast memory found in the Galaxy S6. Instead, Samsung’s mid-range high capacity memory will be designed to the eMMC 5.0 standard, which is still ample for the vast majority of situations.
The new Samsung 128GB eMMC 5.0 chip delivers 260 MB/s for sequential data reads. Random data read and write operations reach 6,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second) and 5,000 IOPS, respectively, which is just fine for the likes of high definition video processing.
See below for a quick general comparison, although individual chips may, and in this case, do vary from specification maximums.
The main benefits of faster UFS memory come when reading or writing large chunks of data with minimal latency, such as recording and processing high resolution slow-motion video content, which is probably outside the capabilities of most mid-range smartphones anyway. Even though the new memory may not be on the cutting edge, the extra space is bound to come in handy to store larger apps and plenty of media.
Samsung is ramping up its component development operations this year, in order to pull ahead of the competition and offset the decline in smartphone sales. Higher density memory for a broad range of devices could result in large orders from competing mobile manufacturers.
Samsung has not announced when it will be releasing its 128GB memory chips for more affordable smartphones.
Microsoft’s Lumia 430 is the cheapest route to Windows 10
If your budget is tight but you still want the new notifications and other stuff coming with Windows 10, Microsoft has your back — depending on where you live. It just revealed the 4-inch Lumia 430 Dual SIM model that’s Windows 10-ready for around 70 bucks. For such a price, you’ll get about what you’d expect: a WVGA display, 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 CPU, 8GB of upgradeable storage and a 1,500 mAh battery. Unfortunately, the biggest compromise is with the cameras: it has a meager 2-megapixel front/0.3-megapixel shooters that will make for passable selfies and not much else.
As the name gives away, it also packs “intelligent” dual-SIMs and is only coming to regions where that feature is desirable; namely the Middle East, Asia-Pacific regions, Africa, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. That doesn’t mean you’re without cheap Windows Phone options in the the UK and North America, however. The Lumia 530, for instance, retails at $100-plus, but is available on the street as low as $40. There’s also the new Lumia 640 and 640XL, though those go for around $100 more. Budget models aside, however, there’s still no sign of a high-end Lumia model created by Microsoft without any help from Nokia.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Samsung details colorful accessories for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge
Samsung will let you customize your Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge to your heart’s content with a range of accessories tailored for the devices.
Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer will unveil a smartwatch today – is Google involved?
A year ago almost to the day, Google announced Android Wear, a version of Android designed just for smartwatches. Among the several companies that were listed as partners in the announcement, Fossil stood out as the only conventional watchmaker on the list. We haven’t heard anything about Fossil’s Android Wear smartwatch since then, but we do know that Google is at least interested in putting its OS in the body of a more traditional watch.
While Fossil seemingly abandoned Android Wear, Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer is gearing up to release a smartwatch of its own. It’s not clear for now if TAG Heuer embraced Android Wear for its first smartwatch, though comments from CEO Claude Biver seem to hint at that.
According to Reuters, TAG Heuer is partnering with Intel for the mystery device, but Pocket-lint suggests Google is involved as well. Intel has dabbled into making smartwatches before, having bought Basis Science in March 2014.
The watch coming today will be a “digital replica” of the original black TAG Heuer Carrera (a version of which is pictured above); presumably, the device would look just like the Carrera on the outside, while the watch face will be a digital reconstruction of the Carrera’s dial. The device will be announced today, with a release scheduled for this autumn.
All the pieces of the puzzle suggest this “Carrera smartwatch” could be powered by Android Wear, but we have no guarantee for now. But even if Google isn’t involved, the release of Swiss-made smartwatch that looks like a conventional timepiece is still important for the budding field of wearables.
TAG Heuer is expected to make its announcement at 6AM ET, and we will update you with the official info as soon as we can.
The new clips that Robert Downey Jr. made for HTC are… interesting
Back in 2013, HTC gave Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. a boatload of money to become its image, as part of a billion-dollar promotional campaign dubbed Change.
Two years later, not a lot of things have changed (especially if you take that literally and look at the M9), but HTC is still struggling to effectively market its products. And the latest “shorts films” made by Downey for the new M9 probably won’t change that.
To be fair, these are not actual commercials. They are a “series of shorts representing the creative collaboration between Robert Downey Jr., Russell Scott of Jetset Studios, and HTC. Using color as a unifying metaphor, the shorts channel many artistic influences into a narrative that finds Downey and his scene‐partner, Brian Schaeffer, navigating a genre‐bending series of adventures.”
There’s RDJ swinging a baseball bat at a chicken. There’s Brian Schaeffer as a merman assaulting RDJ with a fake moon. And there’s a bunch of other weird and wonderful situations. The M9 itself only appears at the end of each clip along the “One Life. Make It Count.” slogan.
Check out the 10-video playlist.
While the artistic value of these shorts may be way above my head, I can’t help thinking that HTC gave RDJ a little too much leeway. Sure, these clips will bring HTC some attention, but HTC is a relatively well-known brand anyway. Perhaps some good old conventional marketing focused on the M9 would have been better for the company at this point?
Microsoft announces the new ‘super affordable’ Lumia 430 for just $70 USD
Just how low can Microsoft’s Lumia series of Windows Phone go? Evidently, very low as the company this morning is unveiling the ‘super affordable’ Microsoft Lumia 430 dual-SIM Windows Phone. The announcement was teased yesterday and now it has become a reality.
The ultra-budget dual SIM Lumia is destined for select emerging markets this April including India, the Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus all for just $70 USD.
Although the specifications are on the low side, Microsoft did not cut back in the crucial areas that make smartphones important these days. Accordingly, the Lumia 430 has 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB internal storage (micro SD expansion) and both rear and front-facing cameras for video calls. Even better, the device is slated to get Windows 10 later this year when that OS is released.
Reserve wants you to order food at Coachella with your phone
Music festivals already dole out plenty of perks if you have a VIP pass, but Coachella is trying something new this year: ordering upscale food from your phone. Roll up to the event with a VIP wristband and you can use Reserve’s restaurant app to order from pop-up locations at a flat $50 per person (not including the mandatory tip and Reserve’s $5 fee). You can also use the app if you’re a regular guest, but you’ll be limited to the deluxe Rose Garden dinners at a hefty $225 a pop. You’d better like haute cuisine, folks. Still, you’ve already paid hundreds of dollars to see your favorite bands — Reserve could be worth the added expense if it lets you enjoy concerts instead of waiting to get a seat or pay your bill.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile
Source: Reserve Blog
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