OnePlus 2 will ship with Snapdragon 810 processor; Come in at $400
As of late, the OnePlus 2 rumor mill has been rather quiet. We know that the device will come out in Q3 of this year and have a higher price tag. Today, we fount out that the device will come with a Snapdragon 810 processor and come with a $400 price tag thanks to CEO Pete Lau and co-founder Carl Pei.
Pete Lau asked via Weibo and Carl Pei asked via Twitter “If the OnePlus 2 comes with the Snapdragon 810 processor, how much should it cost?” Both of them received many replies, but both seemed to narrow on on a single price range. Both stated $400 “sounds reasonable.” We know that they are going to up the price, that’s been confirmed. It’s good to see them gauge interest one how much they should retail it for.
So, with only a few months to go until the OnePlus 2 gets announced and released, we know a good chunk of info. The device will ship with OnePlus’s in-house ROM dubbed ‘OxygenOS’ in place of CyanogenMod. It will also feature an invite system, that is been confirmed. Now, it will most likely sport the Snapdragon 810 processor and come in at around $400 USD.
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OnePlus is testing the waters for $400 OnePlus 2 price tag
We already knew that the OnePlus 2 would have a different price than the OnePlus One, which starts at $299. But just how different? Well, it looks like OnePlus wants to know how you feel about a price tag of around $400.
CEO Pete Lau took to Weibo to poll OnePlus fans about what the right price would be for OnePlus 2 if it were equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor. When someone said RMB 2500 (the equivalent of $402), Lau simply said he finds the price “reasonable.”
So far, nothing conclusive, right? Maybe Lau was simply voicing an offhanded opinion and we’re reading too much into it. Yes, except OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei said the exact same thing on Twitter.
If the OnePlus 2 comes with the @Snapdragon 810, how much should we charge for it?
— Carl Pei (@getpeid) May 7, 2015
.@Info4Geek sounds reasonable
— Carl Pei (@getpeid) May 7, 2015
We think it’s safe to say that it’s not a coincidence when OnePlus’ two top men are – seemingly – casually pointing to the same price point for the OnePlus 2.
To wrap up, what do we know about OnePlus’ next device so far? We know it’s coming in Q3 (July-September); it will run Oxygen OS, instead of Cyanogen OS; it will be powered by a Snapdragon 810 processor; will probably cost around $400; it will be available through an invite system; and, it won’t be the only OnePlus phone coming out this year.
So, let’s give OnePlus some more insight, shall we? How do you feel about a potential $400 price tag for the OnePlus 2?
Kill zombies with your favourite goat in Goat Simulator GoatZ
If you’ve enjoyed playing the Goat Simulator game, smashing your unsuspecting goat into vehicles and people for no apparent reason, then you are for a treat. Coffee Stain Studios has released a zombified version of the game called Goat Simulator GoatZ in to the Play Store.
As you can probably guess, Goat Simulator GoatZ entails killing zombies with your chosen goat. You can arm the goat up with various weapons that range from machine guns, bags of flour to bows and arrows and even a gumball machine. Kill the hungry zombies with vehicles and other objects as you guide your goat around town creating mayhem.
Features:
- Mandatory crafting system – craft anything in the world, so long as it’s one of the half-dozen weapons in the game
- Zombies, zombies everywhere because this is a zombie game, remember?
- A pretty big map with some stuff on it
- Fully fledged survival mode where you have to eat every five minutes to survive, just like your grandmother
- Turn humans into zombies and loot some crates. Just like your grandmother
- Also a casual mode for people who don’t like feeding their goat every five minutes
- Tons of new unlockable goats with special powers – shrink people’s heads, hang glide, wreak havoc, spit and be a goat. For real.
Goat Simulator GoatZ is available to purchase from the Play Store link or by scanning the QR code below for $4.99 (£3.99), while the original (non-zombie) game has been discounted down to $1.99 (£1.49). Go on, you know you want to be baaaad!
Click here to view the embedded video.
Come comment on this article: Kill zombies with your favourite goat in Goat Simulator GoatZ
Get a limited edition set of Avenger-themed cases when you purchase a Galaxy Note 4
Samsung is well-known for having a well-funded marketing department, the results of which were seen in the latest Marvel movie, the Avengers: Age of Ultron which saw the Galaxy S6 on display. Now, Samsung has leveraged the movie again, except this time, it’s offering a complimentary set of 4 Avengers-themed limited edition cases with every Galaxy Note 4 purchased.
The limited edition cases have a retail value of $200, and so long as your Galaxy Note 4 purchase is dated between May 4th and June 1st, you will be eligible to receive the Avenger themed cases. The other main requirement is that you must reside in the US. In case you were wondering, the 4 cases are themed after the Hulk, Ironman, Captain America and Thor. Black Widow and Hawkeye did not receive any love from Samsung for this promotion.
All you have to do is enter your email address and fill in the required details to claim your set of Avengers-themed cases. Remember that this is a limited offer with a limited amount of stock, so the sooner you submit your details the better. Click the source below to get started.
Source: SamsungPromotions
Come comment on this article: Get a limited edition set of Avenger-themed cases when you purchase a Galaxy Note 4
OnePlus 2 to sport the Snapdragon 810 and cost $400
OnePlus already confirmed that the OnePlus 2 won’t launch until the fall, but more details have been revealed thanks to OnePlus CEO Pete Lau.
According to Lau, the OnePlus 2 will sport the Snapdragon 810 chipset. That seems surprising since we are talking about a release in the later part of the year. Then there is the question of the overheating issues, which Qualcomm continues to deny, but even LG dropped the 810 in favor of a lesser chip (Snapdragon 808) for the G4. The Snapdragon 820 might have been the better choice, but it might not be ready in time.
One of the reasons why the OnePlus One was so popular was the price. Considering the specs and the $299 price point, it was hard finding anything comparable. The second go around is likely to be more expensive now that they have a created a name for themselves. When fans asked Lau about the price, he said 2499 Yuan would be reasonable. That translates to about $400. If this holds, you can expect a $399 price point, but Mr. Lau might be going a little high only to surprise us with something in the middle ($349).
Either way, the OnePlus 2 is going to be a highly anticipated phone for the Android faithful, but don’t expect it to go mainstream. Your average Joe has still never heard of them, and would never purchase a phone that isn’t available in their local carrier store. Still, OnePlus has a pretty successful thing going on and I doubt they are looking for that kind of growth.
What do you guys think? Does a OnePlus 2 with a Snapdragon 810 and a price of $399 excite you?
Come comment on this article: OnePlus 2 to sport the Snapdragon 810 and cost $400
Scientists turn an iPhone into a blood parasite detector
Seeing a hematologist is a luxury that few people can afford in the poorest parts of Africa. That’s why a team at UC Berkeley has adapted its iPhone microscope project to identify blood parasites in under three minutes. CellScope Loa is, essentially, a 3D-printed box that a smartphone can sit on top of, taking five-second videos of blood samples. The companion app then looks for signs of movement from the microscopic worms that, when left untreated, cause river blindness and elephantiasis.
The drugs necessary to treat these two conditions are relatively common, but there’s a problem. If a patient is also suffering with Loa Loa, or African eye worm, then that same medicine can cause severe brain damage or death. Naturally, public health campaigns have stalled as a consequence, since there’s such an enormous risk that a treatment program could do more harm than good.
Thankfully, the components required to build the CellScope Loa are pretty easy to procure, including an Arduino board, Bluetooth module and an LED Array. At this point, researchers are going to expand the trial of the hardware to around 40,000 people in Cameroon. If successful, there’s a hope that the kit could be used to screen out Loa Loa suffers and help the countless others who are otherwise suffering, and dying.
Filed under: Cellphones, Science
Via: MedicalXpress
Source: Berkeley
At £199, Google’s Nexus 9 finally makes sense
Ever since Google launched the Nexus 10, I’ve craved a decent full-size Android tablet. Sony’s Xperia slates are nice enough, but I’ve always missed the purified software experience that comes with Nexus devices. When the Nexus 9 was announced, I thought a worthy upgrade had arrived, but it quickly became clear that the hardware wasn’t up to HTC’s usual standards. The plastic back creaked and the display suffered from light leaks, while the price, which originally started at $399/£319, felt a little on the high side.
It’s been roughly six months, and now we’re starting to see some price movement for the Nexus 9 in the UK. John Lewis and Currys/PC World, for instance, currently have the 16GB model listed for £199.99. Both deals are only temporary, but they’re still significant given how long the Nexus 9 has been on the market. There’s no word on whether the price drop will ever be made permanent, but I feel like it definitely should.
You see, I like many of the ideas underpinning the Nexus 9. The brand has never been a huge seller for Google (arguably by design) but there’s a substantial group of people that want a large, premium Android tablet at an affordable price point. With its One smartphone line-up, HTC has shown that it can design beautiful hardware, and the Nexus 9 was an opportunity to marry that expertise with the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop. (The device still hasn’t been updated to Android 5.1, incidentally.) The 9-inch display’s 4:3 aspect ratio, while not to everyone’s tastes, is great for reading digital comics, magazines and browsing the web, and the front-facing speakers are well-positioned for blasting out music.
However, the Nexus 9 does have its flaws. As we’ve said before, the device can be a little awkward to hold, and the display is good enough, but not spectacular. It’s a similar story with the speakers and performance. Both are solid, but nothing exceptional. All of this is a problem when you’re being asked to shell out £319. But £199? Personally, that makes the tablet’s drawbacks less of an issue — although of course, you could argue that a flawed product will always be flawed, whether it’s being sold for £319 or £199. Google should make this price drop official, only then does the Nexus 9 start to make sense.
Source: John Lewis, PC World
Apple Executive Jeff Williams to Speak at Code Conference in Late May
Apple’s Senior Vice President of Operations Jeff Williams will speak at the annual Code Conference, held this May 26-28 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, reports Re/code. Williams joined Apple in 1998 and leads a team responsible for the company’s supply chain management, and during the past two years has also overseen development of the Apple Watch and health initiatives such as ResearchKit.
Apple executives Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi spoke at the inaugural Code Conference last year, with Cue discussing how today’s TV experience “sucks” and is a complicated problem to solve. Code Conference is a successor to the D: All Things Digital Conference that Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, among other Apple executives, have participated in the past before Dow Jones closed technology website AllThingsD and replaced it with WSJD.
Williams will participate in Code Conference just over one month after the Apple Watch launch, which some customers believe has not gone as smoothly as past product releases. Much of the criticism has been directed towards Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts, although Williams is directly in charge of Apple Watch development and manages the worldwide supply chain.
Other notable Code Conference speakers announced include GM CEO Mary Barra, Pivotal CEO Paul Maritz, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti and editor-in-chief Ben Smith, Xiaomi vice president Hugo Barra, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, Reddit interim CEO Ellen Pao, GoPro CEO and founder Nick Woodman, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and Google business lead Omid Kordestani.
Is Android losing ground to iOS in Europe?
2015 is well under way, with major Android players all announcing their flagship devices for the year. While we wait for the first sales figures to roll in, we can take a look to see how last year’s major releases shaped the current smartphone market. Kantar has just published its figures for smartphone market shares during the first quarter of 2015.
Kantar’s research finds that Apple’s iOS had continued to show growth in Europe’s five largest markets, with its share reaching 20.3 percent in March 2015, up 1.8 percent from last year. Android, on the other hand, has seen its market share slide by 3.1 percent to 68.4. This still puts Android some way out ahead of iOS in Europe, however, the implication is that iOS is gaining ground in Europe. But the trends are a little different when we break them down by country.
http://embed.chartblocks.com/1.0/?c=5549ea8fc9a61d8a10f43e0f&t=6f2cc7536cd4e16
The biggest shift towards iOS has come from Great Britain, a traditionally strong market for Apple. iOS saw its share increase by 6.9 percent over the past 12 months while Android declined 4.8 percent, showing just how important the high-end market is in Great Britain. Germany shows a similar 5.7 decline for Android and a small up-tick of 3 percent for iOS, and Italy shares a similar trend. However, France saw a decline in iOS share from 23.4 to 19.4 percent, while Android stayed mostly stable. Spain remains tightly locked in a love affair with Android.
iOS grew again in the UK, but Spain remains tightly locked in a love affair with Android.
Kantar points out that a lot of users switching to iOS are coming from Android, but this is hardly surprising given that other operating systems make up such a small percentage of the European market. Speaking of smaller players, Microsoft has seen its Windows platform grow slightly in France and Germany, while remaining stable in most of Europe’s other top 5 countries. Globally, Windows has also seen slight growth in Brazil and Australia, but Europe remains the largest market for the operating system. We’ll have to see what Windows 10 can bring to the table.
“In the first quarter of 2015, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus continued to attract consumers across Europe, including users who previously owned an Android smartphone,” – Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech
Turning to the global trends, we can see a more significant swing between Android and iOS in some regions. China and Japan show the largest changes, with Android’s market share dropping by 8 percent in the former. In Japan, Android has now overtaken iOS as the largest mobile operating system, growing from 41.1 to 52.3 percent over the past year, while iOS has shrunk from 57.6 percent to 45.1. Australia has seen a smaller 5 percent market shift in favour of iOS, while the USA remains virtually unchanged.
Brazil and South America are still increasingly strong markets for Android, with the OS retaining a share just shy of 90 percent. Here Windows is actually more commonly used than iOS, which has been sitting around the 3 percent mark for a while.
http://embed.chartblocks.com/1.0/?c=5549e829c9a61dfd0ff43e0f&t=95a1ed587520293
There are a couple of key global trends worth identifying here. Although we don’t have the exact sales figures, we can conclude that the launch of the iPhone 6, most likely the Plus version, has done well to give iOS a boost in some key markets.
As you may expect, typically strong iOS markets have responded well to Apple’s new handsets, and Android has suffered a little as a result. We must not forget that customers had been hoping for a larger iOS device, which was previously a product segment held exclusively by Android. Screen size was cited as the main reason for buying a particular phone by both iOS and Android buyers, at 43% and 47% respectively. However, the latest iPhones have done little to help Apple reach into more price sensitive markets, including EU markets such as France and Spain.
While some Android brands suffered from design fatigue, a larger display gave Apple customers a reason to buy
iOS growth in China is particularly interesting, given the strength of home-grown talent that has appeared in the Android space. However, as China’s economy continues to grow, demand for high-end Western brands, such as Apple, is expected to increase. Importantly, China is now driving more volume for Apple than the US.
“Thirty-five percent of consumers who bought an Android smartphone in 1Q15 said their decision was driven by receiving a good price on the phone. Another 29% said that getting a good deal on the tariff/contract was a factor in their purchase.” – Dominic Sunnebo, business unit director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Europe
For Android, emerging markets are still a particularly strong area for the OS, as the diverse range of handset manufacturers have moved to cater for budget and mid-range devices, which iOS is still not interested in. China and South America remain strong bases for Android, but we’ll have to see if this changes as the economic demographic shifts with time.
Apple continues to do what Apple does best, but it’s the Huaweis and Xiaomis that are chasing the fastest growing markets.
Sadly, Kantar doesn’t appear to have any data available for India, one of the world’s fastest growing smartphone markets, which we known is becoming increasingly saturated with low cost Android manufacturers. It would also be interesting to look at the broader European market, as this is an area where competitive Android brands, such as Huawei, were beginning to make traction last year.
Android’s surge in Japan may have come as a surprise, given that other established economic regions seemed to take to Apple’s flagships a little more last year and given the lack of appetite for Korean products in the country. Without the numbers it’s hard to say exactly which company has been responsible for this turn around, but rebranding exercises and nation specific marketing schemes may all have helped.
Looking at traditional high-end markets like the USA and Europe, there’s not been a big overall change in market positions, and we we can probably put the slight slump down to a mixed batch of high-end Android flagships last year. Brand fatigue was probably an issue, as many high-end manufacturers put out devices which were very similar to last year, while the iPhone 6 Plus was a more noticeable change for Apple customers. This year, things could be different, as Samsung and LG are changing their flagship formulas up more noticeably. Although HTC and Sony may suffer as a result of their similar designs.
Impressive early reports for Samsung’s Galaxy S6 may see a few percentage points swing back in Android’s favour
Overall, the past twelve months have been rather steady for the established Western smartphone markets, with Android and iOS exchanging a few percentage points but no major shifts in dominance. Asia is where we’ve seen the largest swings as market tastes continue to adjust, particularly in China and Japan.
Looking further ahead, 2015 could see a further shake-up in Asia, as cut-throat price competition in India and China continues to put pressure on high-end manufacturers. Saturated US and European markets are unlikely to change much, but impressive early reports for Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge may see a few percentage points swing back in Android’s favour.
If you want a closer look at Kantar’s data for worldwide smartphone sales, feel free to play around with their global data tool below.
http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/smartphone-os-market-share/
Buy a Note 4 in the US, get four Avengers-themed cases for free
Samsung’s and Marvel’s co-branded marketing campaign is in full swing. Both companies have blockbusters products on the market right now and both want to milk as much profit as possible out of them. We’re still waiting for that red Iron Man special edition of the Galaxy S6 Edge, but Samsung and Marvel haven’t (completely) forgot about the Galaxy Note 4 either.
If you’re major of age and residing in the US, buying a Note 4 will net you a set of Avengers-themed cases for the stylus-equipped phablet. The four free cases are said to be worth $200 and feature artwork related to Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, and presumably the other superheroes in Marvel’s Avengers lineup.
To qualify for the promo, you need to purchase a Note 4 by the end of June 1, 2015, and then submit your information on this site. Only 4,300 case sets are available, so you may want to hurry if you want to clad your Note 4 in superhero attire. Within 30 days of your submission, Samsung will check and approve it, and then ship your free case pack. The fine print for the promo is available here.
We wouldn’t be surprised if Samsung had similar promos for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, the stars of its current lineup. Regardless of that, you will be able to buy Avenger accessories for your device. The Korean company already has a series of Avengers themes in its S6 theme store, so you can style your phone after your favorite superhero both inside and out.
AIVAnet 