£155 off the Moto X in the Motorola UK summer sale
Motorola is back with yet another sale, this time available for customers in the UK. The company is offering a couple of discounts on some of its smartphones when you buy through the Moto Maker.
Unfortunately, Motorola’s latest Moto X Play and Style smartphones aren’t on sale in the country yet, but you can grab a substantial saving of £155 off the Moto X (2nd gen). This cuts the regular retail price down from £395 to just £240, before you start adding any extras, making this a compelling choice if you’re after an inexpensive high-end phone.
The Moto X (2nd gen) comes with a 5.2-inch 1080p display, a speedy quad-core Snapdragon 801 SoC, 2GB of RAM, a 13 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front camera, and 16GB of memory. This can be upgraded to 32GB at an extra cost of £50. Motorola also has its own software tweaks, including voice commands, based on a virtually stock Android Lollipop OS. Don’t forget, there are plenty of customization options available through the Moto Maker website too.
Related reviews:
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Motorola is also running a smaller discount on the Moto E (2nd gen), with a £10 saving that drops the price down to just £99. The entry level Moto E comes with a 4.5-inch 540×960 resolution display, quad-core Snapdragon 410 SoC, 1GB of RAM, 5 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front camera and 8GB of internal memory. Not forgetting 4G LTE connectivity too.
To claim the discounts, use promotional code UKSUMMERSALE1 at checkout for the Moto X, or code UKSUMMERSALE2 for the Moto E offer over at the Motorola UK website. These deals are running until the end of August 31st or until stocks run out.
Xiaomi receives 800,000 Redmi Note 2 orders in just 12 hours
After a 12-hour flash sale in China, Xiaomi has announced it received a whopping 800,000 pre-orders for its latest smartphone, the Redmi Note 2, which the Chinese manufacturer claims is a new record for domestic mobile sales. If you missed out on the opportunity to bag yourself one, don’t worry as a second 12-hour marathon is scheduled for next week on Monday, August 24.
In terms of specifications, the handset is powered by a 5.5-inch Full HD display, a MediaTek Helio X10 octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable internal storage, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter, dual-SIM compatibility and a 3,020mAh non-removable battery.
The device comes with xiaomi’s brand new MIUI 7 operating system on board, which is essentially a heavily modified version of Android 5.1.1. Although its appearance has changed quite a bit, the firmware still encompasses most of Android’s core functions.
Are you impressed by the incredible number of smartphones Xiaomi managed to sell in just 12-hours? Let us know your thoughts below.
Source: Xiaomi
Come comment on this article: Xiaomi receives 800,000 Redmi Note 2 orders in just 12 hours
NYT report says it’s tough (often brutal) working for Amazon
Amazon is a huge, very successful company that can make headlines with products and services years away from reality. It’s also good at selling you stuff you want really cheaply and delivering it to you super quick. According to a New York Times report, however, the incredible efficiency and continuing expansion comes at the cost of its workers, held to “unreasonably high” standards and demands. The NYT talked to over 100 current and former Amazon workers, across senior management, as well as workers in retail, engineering, HR and marketing. Some nightmare tales outline about how employees caring for relatives or battling cancer soon faced harsh feedback from colleagues and superiors. “What kind of company do we want to be?” said one former human resources exec to her bosses, after she was told to put a woman who had recently returned from serious surgery, and another who had just had a stillborn child, on performance review.
Some said the atmosphere at Amazon pushed them past what they thought were their limits were, helping them to thrive at the company. “A lot of people who work there feel this tension: It’s the greatest place I hate to work,” said John Rossman, a former executive who authored “The Amazon Way.”
According to those interviewed, continuous feedback and competition often meant colleagues would race to answer emails before anyone else. Some say that bosses helped to buffer some of these pressures, but more explained that working at the company added to eroding their work-life balance. Multiple employees praised their colleagues and the ability for anyone to contribute to the company in a major way: Amazon’s drone project was apparently co-invented by a low-level engineer at Amazon. “This is a company that strives to do really big, innovative, groundbreaking things, and those things aren’t easy,” said Susan Harker, a high-level Amazon recruiter said. “When you’re shooting for the moon, the nature of the work is really challenging. For some people it doesn’t work.”
The report calls Amazon a more nimble, more productive kind of company, due to focused, individual-based performance monitoring, but also one that’s “harsher and less forgiving.” The article has lead to multiple responses from existing Amazon employees, who note that they haven’t experienced many of the issues outlined in the article. Nick Ciubotariu, head of infrastructure development at Amazon, takes note at multiple parts of the report that didn’t fit with his experiences; noting that 60-page documents suggested by the NYT would likely be discouraged at Amazon. According to him, execs insist on a six page maximum.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos also followed up with an internal message to staff, reproduced at The Next Web. Although he doesn’t specifically tackle the issues raised in the report, he says it doesn’t represent the Amazon he knows. Bezos also asks that any “callous” HR issues be escalated at the highest level, (“Our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero”), offering up his direct email address. Here’s the entire note below.
Dear Amazonians,
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to give this (very long) New York Times article a careful read:
I also encourage you to read this very different take by a current Amazonian:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/amazonians-response-inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-nick-ciubotariuHere’s why I’m writing you. The NYT article prominently features anecdotes describing shockingly callous management practices, including people being treated without empathy while enduring family tragedies and serious health problems. The article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day. But if you know of any stories like those reported, I want you to escalate to HR. You can also email me directly at jeff@amazon.com. Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.
The article goes further than reporting isolated anecdotes. It claims that our intentional approach is to create a soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard. Again, I don’t recognize this Amazon and I very much hope you don’t, either. More broadly, I don’t think any company adopting the approach portrayed could survive, much less thrive, in today’s highly competitive tech hiring market. The people we hire here are the best of the best. You are recruited every day by other world-class companies, and you can work anywhere you want.
I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company.
But hopefully, you don’t recognize the company described. Hopefully, you’re having fun working with a bunch of brilliant teammates, helping invent the future, and laughing along the way.
Thank you,
Jeff
Source:
NYT
Tags: amazon, drones, jeffbezos, work, working
Could this be the upcoming Nexus phone from LG?
This fall, Google is likely to release two Nexus phones in order to appeal to more consumers. The two phones from LG and Huawei are said to have 5.2-inch and 5.7-inch displays, respectively. Both have have not been shy, appearing in reports and leaks months before launch. The only visuals, though, for either phone have come in the form of digital renders. That seems to have changed as an alleged image of LG’s upcoming Nexus device (codename Angler) has been posted on Google+.
Hit the break to see the image.
The closeup image of the phone’s rear does not show much although the ring below the camera is likely where the fingerprint scanner resides. On the left side of the camera, LG is using LED flash. Next to that could be the laser autofocus component that the company has used with its flagship phones. Other than the fingerprint scanner and camera setup, this alleged image is not giving away a whole lot more than what we already knew.
Source: inno yudha (Google+)
Via: Engadget
Come comment on this article: Could this be the upcoming Nexus phone from LG?
cheero Ingress Power Cube: The most unique portable battery you can gets your hands on
When cheero offered me the opportunity to review its official Ingress powerpack I jumped at the task. Portable batteries are a dime a dozen and offer very little differentiation other than things like outputs and capacity. They have one reason for their existence – to provide backup power when you need it. But in comes cheero with quite possibly the coolest looking portable battery I have ever seen. You don’t necessarily need to be a fan of Ingress to appreciate it, but if you are a fan of Ingress you will love this battery.
Ingress is an award winning, real-world interactive game with over 10M downloads from the Google Play Store. The game is also available on iOS so this battery applies to both Android and iOS users alike. Here is a description from Google Play:
Move through the real world using your Android device and the Ingress app to discover and tap sources of this mysterious energy. Acquire objects to aid in your quest, deploy tech to capture territory, and ally with other players to advance the cause of the Enlightened or the Resistance.
Strategy
The struggle is being played out globally. Track the progress of players around the world, plan your next steps, and communicate with others using an Intelligence map.
What is the Niantic Project?
Is this just a game? An Investigation Board (http://www.google.com/+NianticProject) filled with cryptic clues and secret codes awaits. The story evolves everyday. Powerful secrets and game tech are there to be unlocked.
Form Alliances
The struggle to save the planet spans the entire world. Groups of people acting together can be more effective than individuals acting alone. Cooperation accoss neighborhoods, cities, and countries will be needed to achieve the ultimate victory.
The game was created by Niantic Labs, a startup from Google. Gameplay consists of establishing “portals” from real life places like landmarks and monuments, and linking them to create “control fields” over areas of the map. Progress is measured by how many “mind units” you capture through these control fields. This game spans the globe through alliances and has quite the extreme following. If you haven’t played it, give it a try. It is fun and very unique. Back to the battery. Ingress players travel the map establishing their portals, but that causes serious drain on battery life. You can play the game to your heart’s content, but you will need a battery to match. This is where cheero saw a need for the fanatics of Ingress and released their official cheero Ingress Power Cube.
Design
The cheero Ingress 12000mAh battery is quite possibly one of the coolest looking portable batteries you can buy today. No this isn’t for everyone, as you probably won’t find business people carrying this on them, as it is quite flashy. At first glance, when unboxing the battery looks like most batteries – it is long and rectangular.
As you expose it to light, you can see there is something special in the design with the Ingress battery. You see colorful sparkles from glitter embedded in a clear plastic layer that shows the Ingress logo in the center. That’s the point you realize, this is a special battery.
When the battery is powered on, the Ingress logo instantly lights up with colorful LED lights. By pushing a toggle button on the side of the battery, you can change the color of the LED lights to blue, green, and white. If you hold the button down, the battery will give you a dazzling light show as there are multiple LEDs surrounding the logo which reflect off that glitter. Simply put, this is the coolest light show portable battery you can get your hands on. And if you’re a fan of Ingress this battery was specifically designed with you in mind.
Hardware wise, you can tell cheero took pride in building this 12000mAh battery pack. It is well-built, and feels very sturdy in hand. They also packed quite a bit of juice into this battery which is about the size of my Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, just a bit thicker.
Specs
- Capacity – 12000mAh – Roughly 4 full phone charges for my Note Edge with a 3000mAh battery
- Output – USB 1: 1A / 5V USB 2: 2.1A / 5V
- Size – 156.5mm×72mm×19mm
- Weight – 275g
- Protection features – Auto shut down on overcharging, over-discharging, overheating or short-circuit
- 6 various lighting patterns which can be cycled through using the buttons on side
- Recharge time – 7 hours
Usage
Coming in at 12000mAh, the cheero Ingress Power Cube contains more than enough juice to get me through a few days of use on my smartphone without needing a wall charger. The portable battery provides quite the light show when it is charging your device. It was quite a surprise to me as this type of accessory is not my style. I’m usually quite happy with any power pack, but this Ingress Power Cube is special. I have never seen anything quite like it, and when I was at a local coffee shop working, I was asked several times what it was followed with a few compliments.
The cheero Ingress Power Cube works like all other battery packs. It has a micro USB input for charging with two USB outlets for charging two devices simultaneously. It also works as advertised as I did get 4 refills on my Note Edge battery.
Summary
If you are a fan and enjoy playing Ingress you need this battery. It comes with unique passcode for an ADA Refactor, Jarvis Virus, and Power Cube for use within the game. Also, priced at $43.99 at Amazon.com, the cheero Ingress Power Cube is quite a deal. Similar sized batteries without the special design, can sell for over $100.
This battery pack isn’t just for Ingress gamers , it is for anyone who needs a portable battery and for anyone who appreciates being unique. I have no qualms recommending this battery to anyone as long as you don’t mind bright LED lights while your phone or tablet is charging.
The post cheero Ingress Power Cube: The most unique portable battery you can gets your hands on appeared first on AndroidGuys.
cheero Ingress Power Cube: The most unique portable battery you can gets your hands on
When cheero offered me the opportunity to review its official Ingress powerpack I jumped at the task. Portable batteries are a dime a dozen and offer very little differentiation other than things like outputs and capacity. They have one reason for their existence – to provide backup power when you need it. But in comes cheero with quite possibly the coolest looking portable battery I have ever seen. You don’t necessarily need to be a fan of Ingress to appreciate it, but if you are a fan of Ingress you will love this battery.
Ingress is an award winning, real-world interactive game with over 10M downloads from the Google Play Store. The game is also available on iOS so this battery applies to both Android and iOS users alike. Here is a description from Google Play:
Move through the real world using your Android device and the Ingress app to discover and tap sources of this mysterious energy. Acquire objects to aid in your quest, deploy tech to capture territory, and ally with other players to advance the cause of the Enlightened or the Resistance.
Strategy
The struggle is being played out globally. Track the progress of players around the world, plan your next steps, and communicate with others using an Intelligence map.
What is the Niantic Project?
Is this just a game? An Investigation Board (http://www.google.com/+NianticProject) filled with cryptic clues and secret codes awaits. The story evolves everyday. Powerful secrets and game tech are there to be unlocked.
Form Alliances
The struggle to save the planet spans the entire world. Groups of people acting together can be more effective than individuals acting alone. Cooperation accoss neighborhoods, cities, and countries will be needed to achieve the ultimate victory.
The game was created by Niantic Labs, a startup from Google. Gameplay consists of establishing “portals” from real life places like landmarks and monuments, and linking them to create “control fields” over areas of the map. Progress is measured by how many “mind units” you capture through these control fields. This game spans the globe through alliances and has quite the extreme following. If you haven’t played it, give it a try. It is fun and very unique. Back to the battery. Ingress players travel the map establishing their portals, but that causes serious drain on battery life. You can play the game to your heart’s content, but you will need a battery to match. This is where cheero saw a need for the fanatics of Ingress and released their official cheero Ingress Power Cube.
Design
The cheero Ingress 12000mAh battery is quite possibly one of the coolest looking portable batteries you can buy today. No this isn’t for everyone, as you probably won’t find business people carrying this on them, as it is quite flashy. At first glance, when unboxing the battery looks like most batteries – it is long and rectangular.
As you expose it to light, you can see there is something special in the design with the Ingress battery. You see colorful sparkles from glitter embedded in a clear plastic layer that shows the Ingress logo in the center. That’s the point you realize, this is a special battery.
When the battery is powered on, the Ingress logo instantly lights up with colorful LED lights. By pushing a toggle button on the side of the battery, you can change the color of the LED lights to blue, green, and white. If you hold the button down, the battery will give you a dazzling light show as there are multiple LEDs surrounding the logo which reflect off that glitter. Simply put, this is the coolest light show portable battery you can get your hands on. And if you’re a fan of Ingress this battery was specifically designed with you in mind.
Hardware wise, you can tell cheero took pride in building this 12000mAh battery pack. It is well-built, and feels very sturdy in hand. They also packed quite a bit of juice into this battery which is about the size of my Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, just a bit thicker.
Specs
- Capacity – 12000mAh – Roughly 4 full phone charges for my Note Edge with a 3000mAh battery
- Output – USB 1: 1A / 5V USB 2: 2.1A / 5V
- Size – 156.5mm×72mm×19mm
- Weight – 275g
- Protection features – Auto shut down on overcharging, over-discharging, overheating or short-circuit
- 6 various lighting patterns which can be cycled through using the buttons on side
- Recharge time – 7 hours
Usage
Coming in at 12000mAh, the cheero Ingress Power Cube contains more than enough juice to get me through a few days of use on my smartphone without needing a wall charger. The portable battery provides quite the light show when it is charging your device. It was quite a surprise to me as this type of accessory is not my style. I’m usually quite happy with any power pack, but this Ingress Power Cube is special. I have never seen anything quite like it, and when I was at a local coffee shop working, I was asked several times what it was followed with a few compliments.
The cheero Ingress Power Cube works like all other battery packs. It has a micro USB input for charging with two USB outlets for charging two devices simultaneously. It also works as advertised as I did get 4 refills on my Note Edge battery.
Summary
If you are a fan and enjoy playing Ingress you need this battery. It comes with unique passcode for an ADA Refactor, Jarvis Virus, and Power Cube for use within the game. Also, priced at $43.99 at Amazon.com, the cheero Ingress Power Cube is quite a deal. Similar sized batteries without the special design, can sell for over $100.
This battery pack isn’t just for Ingress gamers , it is for anyone who needs a portable battery and for anyone who appreciates being unique. I have no qualms recommending this battery to anyone as long as you don’t mind bright LED lights while your phone or tablet is charging.
The post cheero Ingress Power Cube: The most unique portable battery you can gets your hands on appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Google’s upcoming Nexus phone might look like this
We know another Nexus smartphone is coming soon, but built by whom? Both Huawei and LG are rumored to be making Google’s reference device for Android M, and we now have pretty solid evidence for LG. A picture of the device from an Indonesian G+ user spotted by blogger Marques Brownlee shows the back of an LG Nexus device. Size-wise, it appears to line up with the 5.2-inch rumors and also features a rear fingerprint scanner, bulging camera, laser focus, dual-LED, iPhone 6-style flash and plastic galore.
If the device is for real, all that plastic might not be a bad thing, as it could mean that Google’s next handset will be more affordable than its last one, the Motorola Nexus 6. A previous render from @Onleaks matches the photo closely, and also shows a USB Type-C port. Rounding out the specs, the device is supposed to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 CPU.
The Huawei device, on the other hand, is rumored to be a larger, 5.7-inch phablet with slightly more upmarket specs. We’d take all this with a ton of salt, but with Apple, Samsung and others now offering big and small handsets, two Nexus devices makes sense. As for when we’ll find out, we’d expect the devices to arrive at the same time as Android M, which is reportedly set to be released sometime in the fall.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Google, LG
Via:
Marques Brownlee (Twitter)
Source:
Inno Yudha (Google+)
Tags: google, GoogleNexus5, leak, lg, Nexus5, photo, rumor
Photos of an actual LG Nexus 5 2015 surface
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And I thought this weekend was going to be a quiet one. With all the leaks surrounding the appearance of the LG Nexus 5 2015 in the past few weeks, it almost seemed inevitable that we were going to get a look at one in person, and it appears that now we can. A photo showing the back of the Nexus 5 2015 has appeared online and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it matches exactly what we were expecting based on previous renders and leaks of the Nexus 5 2015’s cases. Check out the image for yourself down below:
Predictably, marked on the device are the words “not for sale” as well as the Nexus logo branded in the same location as the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 before it. Of course, we also see that the lipped camera from the earlier renders was spot on, and that there is a fingerprint scanner just below that. We’re inclined to believe that we are indeed looking at an actual LG Nexus 5 2015, unless of course it’s an elaborate 3D printing job – very elaborate.
This is one of the first times that we’ve ever seen a Nexus device prior to its release, and not instigated by Google. Then again, the timing is rather suspect seeing as Google started teasing the announcement of Android M’s official name last week. Let the hype begin.
What do you think about the LG Nexus 5 2015? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: DroidFeed via Phone Arena
The post Photos of an actual LG Nexus 5 2015 surface appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Color-changing helmets could warn you about head injuries
Head injuries can be particularly sinister — unless it’s obvious that you took a bad blow, you might not get the help you need in time to mitigate the damage. University of Pennsylvania scientists may have an easy way to raise the red flag when you’re hurt, however. They’ve crafted a polymer that changes color depending on the amount of force, giving anyone around you a sign that you’ve suffered some trauma. The key was to use holographic lithography to create photonic crystals whose structures change color when they deform. They don’t require any power to work, and they’re light enough that you could apply them to a helmet without noticing a significant weight difference.
While these crystals are normally tough to make, the researchers have developed a molding technique that could make them feasible for mass-produced headgear. If that happens, it could mean a lot for football, hockey and any other situation where head injuries are a practical concern. Medical crews could send some players straight to the hospital instead of bringing them to the sidelines, and your bike helmet could tell paramedics what’s up if you’re in an accident.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Ben Margot]
Filed under:
Wearables, Science
Via:
Phys.org
Source:
ACS (YouTube)
Tags: colorchanging, head, health, helmet, injury, lithography, medicine, polymer, science, sports, UniversityOfPennsylvania, video
DeNA releases Blood Gate: Age of Alchemy for free on Android
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DeNA has just launched its new action puzzle RPG, Blood Gate: Age of Alchemy, on Android and iOS. The game sees you connection coloured dots to reach a desired score, however your combos influence what your RPG avatar is able to do while in battle. It’s an interesting formula that isn’t particularly new, but the execution looks great – check out the launch trailer below:
As you might expect with any RPG, you’ll be able to level up and customize your avatar so that they can keep pace as you approach the Blood Gate. Blood Gate: Age of Alchemy is also absolutely free to download, which means there are in-app purchases to peruse. If that sounds like the type of game that you want to get your hands on, we’ve got the Play Store link below:
For more information about the game, visit Blood-Gate.com. What do you think about Blood Gate: Age of Alchemy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The post DeNA releases Blood Gate: Age of Alchemy for free on Android appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
AIVAnet 