Moto 360 in gold surfaces on Amazon, quickly pulled

A Champagne gold color option of the Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch was briefly available on a pre-order on Amazon but it seems the product pages were pulled.

The smartwatch was up with two strap sizes - 18mm (shown below) and a 23mm one, both matching the color and both metal. Motorola started shipping Moto 360s to owners in two color options - silver and black - and with only leather watchstraps, leaving the metal ones for the fall.

  

Moto 360 in gold, 18mm strap

It seems we're getting closer to the metal bands, which Motorola will soon offer with its smartwatch or as an accessory at $80 a piece.

 

Moto 360 in gold, 23mm strap

For those interested in the price, before Amazon pulled the product links, both the more feminine golden Moto 360 with 18mm strap and the golden Moto 360 with 23mm strap had a price tag of $299 with shipment expected in the 1 to 2 months range.

Finally a silver Moto 360 with brown leather has surfaced but, again, was quickly pulled.

Xiaomi could be working on a low-end 9.2-inch tablet

Now that it's become the world's No.3 smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi may be looking to expand its tablet lineup, which so far consists only of the 7.9" MiPad.

The Chinese company's next tablet might be a decidedly low-end affair, however. A new benchmark result has surfaced, and with it a spec list for a yet unreleased Xiaomi device with a 9.2-inch touchscreen.

The new tablet will have a low-res panel, with 1,280x720 resolution. This isn't standard for Android tablets (which usually go for 1,280x800 and a slightly squarer aspect ratio), then again the MiPad didn't come with a standard resolution and aspect ratio for the Android world either.

Powering up the leaked tablet is a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC with a 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU, an Adreno 306 GPU, and 1GB of RAM. Built-in internal storage space is 8GB, of which around 5.8GB will be user accessible.

The benchmark oddly doesn't feature any information about this device's cameras, but it does say it will sport a SIM card slot, so it will have mobile data connectivity integrated. It's also got Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi.

If this is a real product that's currently in development by Xiaomi, we'll surely find out more about it pretty soon through subsequent leaks.

Kantar: Android grows as iOS and Windows Phone decline in Q3

According to the latest Kantar WorldPanel report on mobile operating system market share, Android continues to take the lead marking a slight growth. Its main rivals, iOS and Windows Phone, declined slightly in their respective market share numbers.

In both Europe (EU5) and the US, Android leads its competitors with a market share of 73.9% and 61.8%, respectively. In Europe, Apple takes 15.4% of the market, while Microsoft with Windows Phone manages 9.2%. Interestingly, iOS marks a decline in the US of 3.3 percent points to 32.6% compared to Q2. Windows Phone's presence is also shrinking and is now 4.3% from 4.6%

As far as manufacturers go, LG and Motorola have been doing great in the US and Kantar sees them in a better position to fight with Samsung and Apple than ever. LG is counting on the G3, while Motorola is betting on the Moto X.

In China, Samsung is also feeling pressure from uprising manufacturers such as Xiaomi. It now boasts 30.3% market share whereas Samsung's market share fell to 18.4%. Interestingly, 16% of all smartphones sold in China were with a screen size of 5.5" or larger.

Samsung Gear S // Samsung Gear S launches on T-Mobile US on November 9

Samsung Gear S is the first smartwatch that is capable of existing even without a smartphone companion. Gear S features a nano-SIM slot and supports voice telephony and data connections, so you don't need to communicate with any other kind of device (you still can if you want to though).

Samsung designed the Gear S not to be a full time replacement for your smartphone, but to be perfectly capable to do so when you need the most - like while you are traveling or when you are out partying. The manufacturer announced it was partnering with major carriers for creating suitable plans for Gear S and now T-Mobile US seems to be the first to announce such tariffs.

T-Mobile US detailed the pricing and availability of the Samsung Gear S - you will be able to buy the smartwatch for $0 upfront and 24 equal payments of $14.58 (or a total of $349.95). The release date is November 9, where you will be able to order the Samsung Gear S online or get it from some of the selected T-Mobile retail stores.

Naturally, you'll have to sing a 2-year contract with the Gear S. The monthly plan will cost you just $5/month and gives you unlimited talk, text and data (500MB of maximum speed). The tariff also includes unlimited music streaming and unlimited data and text via Simple Global.

You can check the full specs of the Gear S as well as our hands-on from the IFA expo.

We guess now that T-Mobile has announced its Samsung Gear S pricing, other carriers will follow suit shortly.

GENERAL	2G Network	GSM 900 / 1800
		GSM 850 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 900 / 2100
		HSDPA 850 / 1900
	SIM	Yes
	Announced	2014, August
	Status	Coming soon. Exp. release 2014, October

BODY	Dimensions	39.8 x 58.3 x 12.5 mm (1.57 x 2.30 x 0.49 in)
	Weight	-
		- IP67 certified - dust and water resistant - Water resistant up to 1 meter and 30 minutes

DISPLAY	Type	Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	360 x 480 pixels, 2.0 inches (~300 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

MEMORY	Card slot	No
	Internal	4 GB, 512 MB RAM

DATA	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
	Bluetooth	v4.1
	USB	microUSB v2.0

CAMERA		No

FEATURES	OS	Tizen-based wearable platform
	CPU	Dual-core 1.0 GHz
	Sensors	Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, heart rate, barometer, UV light
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
	Browser	HTML5
	Radio	No
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
	Java
	Colors	Black, White
		- S Health, Nike+ Running - SNS integration - MP3/M4A/eAAC+/OGG player - Organizer - Photo/video viewer - Voice memo/dial/commands

BATTERY		Li-Ion 300 mAh battery

IDC: Xiaomi third largest manufacturer in Q3

IDC has shared its report for the global smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2014. The numbers tell a familiar story with one big change - Xiaomi. Last year's Q3 saw Xiaomi somewhere in the Others tab under Huawei, Lenovo and LG but this year the Chinese maker sits proudly at third spot, all without leaving Asia.

Showing a 211.3% growth over last year's Q3 Xiaomi has shipped 17.3 million smartphones compared to the 5.6 million for the same period of last year.

Samsung remains at the first spot with a close to double lead over Apple but has actually seen a decline year over year. Samsung grabbed the first spot with 78.1 million smartphones shipped while Apple managed 39.3 million. However while Apple shipped 5.5 million iPhones more than last year during the same period, Samsung shipped 6.9 million less.

Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q3 2014 (Units in Millions)

Vendor	3Q14 Unit Shipments	3Q14 Market Share	3Q13 Unit Shipments	3Q13 Market Share	Year-over-year Change
Samsung	78.1	23.8%	85.0	32.5%	-8.2%
Apple	39.3	12.0%	33.8	12.9%	16.1%
Xiaomi	17.3	5.3%	5.6	2.1%	211.3%
Lenovo	16.9	5.2%	12.3	4.7%	38.0%
LG	12.0	4.6%	7.0	3.8%	71.4%
Others	159.2	48.6%	113.0	43.2%	40.8%
Total	327.6	100.0%	261.7	100.0%	25.2%

Lenovo also outdid its last year self with 4.6 million units shipped more. LG shipped 4.8 million units more and overall this year's Q3 saw 65.9 million smartphones more, shipped than last year.

Earlier today we learned that despite its huge lead, the drop in sales really impacted Samsung's profits