Motorola Moto G 4G

Also known as Motorola Moto G LTE

Available as Moto G Ferrari Edition with Kevlar back panel (~$390)

GENERAL	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
		CDMA 800 / 1900 - CDMA version
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 HSDPA 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 - for T-Mobile, AT&T
		CDMA2000 1xEV-DO - CDMA version
	4G Network	LTE
	SIM	Micro-SIM
	Announced	2014, May
	Status	Coming soon. Exp. release 2014, June

BODY	Dimensions	129.9 x 65.9 x 11.6 mm (5.11 x 2.59 x 0.46 in)
	Weight	-

DISPLAY	Type	IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	720 x 1280 pixels, 4.5 inches (~326 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 3

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

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 32 GB
	Internal	8/16 GB, 1 GB RAM

DATA	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA; LTE
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, LE
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0, USB Host

CAMERA	Primary	5 MP, 2592 х 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama
	Video	Yes, 720p@30fps, stereo sound rec., HDR
	Secondary	Yes, 1.3 MP

FEATURES	OS	Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat), upgradable to v4.4.3 (KitKat)
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8226 Snapdragon 400
	CPU	Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
	GPU	Adreno 305
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	HTML5
	Radio	FM radio
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	White, Black, Moto G Ferrari Edition
		- SNS integration - Google Drive (50 GB storage) - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - MP3/AAC+/WAV/Flac player - MP4/H.263/H.264 player - Organizer - Photo viewer/editor - Document viewer - Google Search, Maps, Gmail - YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa - Voice memo/dial - Predictive text input

BATTERY		Non-removable Li-Ion 2070 mAh battery
	Stand-by
	Talk time

Android in May: 4.3 Jelly Bean and 4.4 KitKat growing

Now that the month of May is all but gone Google has released its latest Android distribution breakdown and we get to see how the different versions have developed in the passed month.

April saw KitKat gain more ground at the expense of older versions and the trend continued last month as well. It seems the tablet-centric Honeycomb has passed under the 0.1% and is now gone from the distribution chart.

May saw the latest version of Android - 4.4 KitKat - grow from 8.5% in April to 13.6% in May. Jelly Bean 4.2 and 4.3 also grew in distribution - from 18.8% to 19.1% and from 8.5% to 10.3% respectively.

The older Android versions have continued to see their market share fall. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has gone down by 4.5 percentage points, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich by 1.1 points. Android 2.3 Gingerbread saw a fall of 1.3 percentage points while Android 2.2 Froyo lost 0.2 points.

Sprint agrees on $40 share price for T-Mobile acquisition

US carrier Sprint continues to pursue the acquisition of its local rival T-Mobile and today the negotiations reached a new milestone. Sprint has agreed to pay $40 a share for its stake in T-Mobile or 17% than the current market value.

The deal, should it go through at that price, will increase the valuation of T-Mobile to $32 billion, or more than twice what it cost a year ago. Investors in current T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telecom investors seem moderately happy with the agreed price, sending its shares up 1.4% today.

However Hannes Wittig, an analyst at JP Morgan, believes that the $40 price is low and Deutsche Telecom should be looking to negotiate a price in the high 40s.

If the deal comes through it would mean the third and fourth largest carriers in the US will join forces. The total number of subscribers on the two networks is now just over 103 million, putting them closely behind AT&T's 116 million in the second place. Verizon is still in the lead with 122 million subscribers.

However, the deal might face resistance from the authorities as both the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have declared that they prefer at least two more network operators to provide competition to the two market leaders. Previously, the regulators prevented AT&T from acquiring Sprint as they feared it would affect competition badly and would end up in higher price for the consumers.

Samsung and B&N announce Galaxy Tab 4 Nook

Today Samsung and Barnes&Noble announced they will be partnering on the release of a new tablet. Dubbed Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, the slate will aim to bring new life to B&N's lineup of affordable slates, which hasn't seen new hardware in quite a while.

The hardware of the new tablet is identical to theSamsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0, which the Korean company announced in April. It comes with a 7" screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU and 1.5GB of RAM. The whole thing weighs just 276g and comes with a microSD card slot allowing you to expand the unconfirmed built-in storage (original Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 comes in 8GB and 16GB versions).

On the software side, the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook should be quite different from its vanilla sibling, running Nook's customized UI. That would mean you will get easy access to Barnes & Noble’s digital collection of more than three million books, magazines and newspapers, but it's likely that some of the core Android functionality will be restricted. Previous Nook tablets offered access to the Play Store and we are hoping that this won't change here.

The companies are expected to introduce Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook in the US in early August. Its price is yet to be confirmed, but we expect it will be lower than the $200 that the regular Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 costs.

Barnes&Noble assures us that the fact that it's offloading its tablet production to Samsung, won't mean that it will be abandoning its e-reader business too. The backlit Nook GlowLight will remain available, but now that the company has freed some resources, it will focus on improving the digital reading experience that its products provide.

Apple iPhones reach 500 million sales, iPad pass 200 million

As usual before announcing a new iOS version at its WWDC event, Apple takes its time bragging about the achievements of its platform in the past few month. Tim Cook had a few quite interesting numbers to share about all the iDevices this year.

The iPhones continue to be the most popular iOS-running devices around, having scored some 500 million sales. The iPads came second, having just passed the 200 million mark. Even the iPod Touch, which is currently in serious decline had achieved a cool new milestone - 100 million units shipped.

 

Those numbers are some way behind Android's total sales, which passed the 1 billion mark last year, but Apple was never a company to focus solely on market share. And when you think that all those sales are of high-end or at worst upper mid-range handsets, tablets and music player, the stats are actually pretty good.

Android 4.4.3 now available to all Google Play Edition phones

T-Mobile was the first to unleash the official Android 4.4.3 KitKat update on its Nexus (4,5,7) lineup. Then Motorola begun updating the Moto X, Moto G and Moto E.

Today the entire Google Play Edition phone lineup has been treated to Android 4.4.3 KitKat. The OTA firmware is available for HTC One, HTC One (M8), Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z Ultra. There is no info on the LG G Pad 8.3 slate, but we bet it will be getting it very soon if not already.

The owners of Nexus devices outside T-Mobile are still waiting on the over-the-air update although Google has already release the official factory images. We guess Google should take care of this soon too.

Android 4.4.3 is a minor update bringing a refreshed UI in the Phone app, plus critical bug fixes, stability and performance improvements.

Blu, Prestigio and Yezz showcase Windows Phone handsets

http://www.gsmarena.com/blu_prestigio_and_yezz_launch_windows_phone_handsets-news-8699.php

The Computex Expo in Taiwan kicked off yesterday and is bringing many new devices in the spotlight. Microsoft, is using the scene to present several new Windows Phone smartphones, and surprisingly or not none of them is coming from Nokia.

The first three new Windows Phone gadgets are coming from company's latest OEM partners, added to the official list of manufacturers after Microsoft made Windows free for devices under 9".

Microsoft Corporate VP of OEM Division showcased two new Blu devices today running on Windows Phone 8.1. The one pictured below is a 5" smartphone that will come in many different colors.

The other one is most likely the one was teased via Blu's Facebook page a while ago. There are no more details shared on those gadgets, but we expect an official announcement from Blu any moment now.

Blu's smaller WP handset

Prestigio is also joining the Windows Phone lineup with the MultiPhone 8500 DUO and MultiPhone 8400 DUO. Both smartphones are running on Windows Phone 8.1, come with dual-SIM capabilities and are powered by Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex A7 CPU and Adreno 305 GPU.

The MultiPhone 8500 DUO comes with a 5" 720p display, 1GB of RAM, 8MP rear camera with 1080p recording and a 2MP front snapper. It will launch in July at €170.

MultiPhone 8500 DUO • MultiPhone 8400 DUO

Prestigio MultiPhone 8400 DUO packs a 4" IPS WVGA display and has an 8MP rear cam plus a VGA front camera for video chats. It will hit the EU shelves in August and will cost €85.

The Yezz's Billy, named after Bill Gates, has been around for a while. It boasts a 4.7" IPS 720p display, runs on a quad-core processor and comes with a 13MP rear camera. It should become available any moment now for €229. Yezz is also outing a smaller 4" version of the Billy with 8MP cam for €129.

Those aren't the only OEMs Microsoft has recently partnered with. InFocus will be showcasing its first Windows Phone device this year too, while design manufacturers such as BYD, Compal, Pegatron, Quanta and Wistron brought on Computex various design prototypes and we should be seeing them implemented in real devices in a few months.