Tuesday, October 28, 2014

AT&T confirms that it will carry LG G Watch R

AT&T confirmed that it will officially carry the LG G Watch R in the United States. The wearable gadget will be compatible with all smartphones by the carrier running Android 4.3 and up.
Pricing and exact availability of the Android Wear device will be revealed at a later date. We reckon that the LG G Watch R is going to be available in time for the holiday shopping season.
Last week LG announced its plans for global rollout of the G Watch R. The device is already available in the United Kingdom for £224.99.

Sony Xperia T3 and Xperia M2 LTE officially arrive in the US

Sony Xperia T3 and Xperia M2 officially arrived in the United States. The duo of mid-range devices is available to purchase directly from Sony’s official online store unlocked and contract-free.
Sony is asking $399.99 for the Xperia T3 phablet, while the water-proof Xperia M2 is priced at $279.99. Both handsets feature AT&T and T-Mobile-friendly 4G LTE bands.
Sony has been quite active in the United States recently. The Japanese tech giant recently launchedSony Xperia Z3 Compact in its online store as well. Sony Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3v other hand, were released by the company on T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless respectively.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Upcoming Huawei Honor 4X may cost $146 after all

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A few days ago, we saw the Huawei Honor 4X comprehensively leaked after it got certified for sale on the Chinese market.
The leak brought us some pictures of the handset, its specs, as well as a rumored price point of CNY 800 (that would be $130 or €103 at the current exchange rates).
New information, however, seems to contradict that. According to another source, the Honor 4X will definitely be priced under CNY 1,000, though it will probably go for CNY 899. That translates into $146 or €115.
It's not a big difference compared to what the previous rumor said, but it is one nevertheless. We should know for sure on October 28, since that's when Huawei will make this Honor-branded device official.
The Honor 4X will sport a 5.5-inch 720p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 5 MP front-facing camera, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage, and a microSD card slot for expanding that.
At the helm will be a 64-bit Qualcomm chipset coming with a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor - this is almost certainly the Snapdragon 410, although it isn't named in the leak. The Honor 4X will support 4G LTE networks, and will run Android 4.4 KitKat.

Samsung launches the Galaxy Mega 2 in India

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 has reached India today. Samsung has officially launched the mid-range phablet in the subcontinent. This comes after the Mega 2 has previously gone on sale in Malaysia, and got listed on the official Samsung website in Thailand. In the US, AT&T is due to start offering it today too.
Over in India, the Galaxy Mega 2 is already available to buy from Samsung's own online store. It's priced at INR 20,900, which means about $341 or €269.


It's being offered in both white and black, and the store says it does currently have sufficient stock.
The Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 comes with a 6-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 5 MP front snapper, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, as well as microSD card support.
A 1.2 GHz quad-core processor runs things, and dual-SIM support is built in, although in terms of mobile data connectivity the Mega 2 tops out at 21Mbps HSDPA. It also has Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 2,800 mAh battery. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Nokia brand to be replaced with Microsoft Lumia

If you've seen Microsoft's recent articles about Lumia you know it was coming. The Nokia brand has been phased out by calling the phones just "Lumia" and redirecting Nokia online properties to Microsoft.com. This rebranding effort will expand and soon the lineup will become "Microsoft Lumia".
Lumia is already the de facto face of Windows Phone – it accounts for about 90% of the market. Microsoft has been busy signing up new vendors but they will struggle to gain significant market share as the big names have mostly neglected WP.
Nokia, the company, still exists but as part of the agreement with Microsoft it won't make new phones for at least several more years. Instead it has shifted its focus to things like mapping and, with no exclusivity to consider, it has been bringing its software to Android.
Will Microsoft put its own logo on the devices or will a more restraint Lumia logo suffice? Keep in mind that Microsoft is treading lightly, not to annoy other WP vendors by showing favoritism to its in-house manufacturer.

iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 arrive at T-Mobile on October 29

If you've been wondering just when you'll be able to purchase an iPad Air 2 or iPad Mini 3 from T-Mobile, the mystery has been solved today. The magenta carrier itself has unveiled both the pre-order date as well as the actual release date for Apple's new tablets.
They will be up for pre-order starting tomorrow, October 22. And they will become available one week later, on October 29.


To get a 16GB iPad Air 2 you won't need to pay anything upfront, but you'll have to deal with 24 monthly installments of $26.24. If you want the 64GB model, you have to shell out $99 when you buy the tablet, with the installments remaining unchanged. The same is true for the 128GB SKU, though in that case you're required to put down $199.
For the iPad Mini 3, the situation is similar, though the 24 monthly installments will set you back $22.08. If you're going for the 16GB tablet, there's nothing to pay upfront. For the 64GB model, it's $99 down, while the 128GB version requires an upfront payment of $199.
Needless to say, all of these come with 4G LTE data connectivity built-in, they're not Wi-Fi-only. T-Mobile reminds its Simple Choice plan customers that they can add a tablet to their plan and match the data they already have for $10 per month.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Apple announces financial results for Q4 of the fiscal 2014

Apple announced its financial results for Q4 of the fiscal 2014. The Cupertino giant took home a quarterly net profit of $8.5 billion or $1.42 per diluted share from $42.1 billion of revenue. Its gross margin for the quarter is 38%.

The above result is an improvement over the $7.5 billion of net profit from $37.5 billion of revenue for thesame quarter last year. Gross margin for last year’s quarter was 37%.
Unsurprisingly iPhone sales were the main driving force behind the stellar financial performance. Apple moved 39.2 million smartphones - up from 33.8 million for the same quarter last year.
Mac sales impressed too. An impressive 5.52 million computers were sold - way up from the expected $4.9 million.
Sales of Apple iPad however, weren’t so impressive. Cupertino sold 12.3 million slates - down the projected 13.1 million. Apple sold 14.1 million tablets in the same quarter last year.
Apple’s guidance of the next fiscal quarter is expectedly optimistic. The manufacturer expects revenue in the range of $63.5 and $66.5 billion and gross margin between 37.5% and 38.5%.
The above guidance should hardly catch anyone by surprise, as next quarter is going to include the holiday shopping season. It will also mark a full fiscal period of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus retail availability. The new iPad Air 2 will also likely help Apple’s cause.