mobile

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Lenovo's latest quarter result show record profit

enovo outed its financial report for the quarter ending in September 2014 and the news is great for the Chinese manufacturer. Out of $10.5 billion in revenue, the company made $262 million in profit. As of September 30, the company has $3.2 billion in net cash reserves.

Compared to last year, the company saw 7% increase in quarterly revenue with the pre-tax income also increased by 24%. Lenovo also boasts record high shipment of a total of 35.6 million smartphones, PCs and tablets.

Lenovo's chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang commented that the company enjoys excellent market share gains and profit expansion. In the last month alone, Lenovo managed to close the deals on its Motorola Mobility and IBM x86 acquisitions.

In smartphone sales, the company saw a 38% rise in shipments on a year-over-year basis. This alone made it reach the fourth spot below Huawei, but Motorola's acquisition bumps it to third.

"With these two deals, we are now #3 in both businesses, but we are not satisfied. We will replicate our success in PCs by outgrowing the market to challenge the top two. Mobile and Enterprise are now our new growth engines, and over time, like PCs, they will become our profit pool as well,", he added.

Throughout the globe, Lenovo is doing extremely well with revenue from China and EMEA regions of $3.8 billion and $3 billion, respectively. The laptop sales were the largest contributor to the company's bottom line with $5.5 in revenue globally. Mobile devices account for 13% of the company's total revenue, but they were down by 6% compared to the same period last year. However, Lenovo seems optimistic as it's now present in more than 45 markets.

Sony rolls out Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z2 Tablet update new

Sony has pushed a software update based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat for the Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z2 Tablet. Dubbed User Experience upgrade, the new firmware brings PlayStation 4 Remote Play, hi-Res audio support and new Smart Social Camera apps (Sound Photo, AR fun, Multi camera and Face in).

Initially, PS4 Remote Play was available for the Xperia Z3 series but now users of the older generation flagship can enjoy it too. The Hi-Res audio feature will work with PCM and DSD files. The Walkman app will also enhance the sound of MP3 and AAC files as Sony promises it will restore the experience, which is usually lost from compressing these formats.

The update will also bring the latest version of the Battery STAMINA mode and will introduce the new Ultra STAMINA regime, which promises to get even better power autonomy out of your Xperia Z2. You can expect the phone to last more than a week in standby when used in this mode.

Qucik settings will allow you to personalize them faster, while the Record Screen option will let you record a video of what you're doing on-screen. Expect the update to hit your Xperia Z2 phone and Xperia Z2 Tablet starting from today.

Google creates Inbox Happy Hour to give out invites

Looking to score an Inbox invite? Google has a new way for you to get one without having to awkwardly ask someone for an invite. Today from 3-4PM PST, Google is hosting Inbox Happy Hour, where anyone can email inbox@google.com to get an Inbox invite for themselves. Once you send the email, you’ll get your invite link sent to you by 5PM PST.

Inbox is Google’s next step to email that includes smart bundling, reminders and intuitive information based on your email history. The service is currently in beta and is available to Android users, and there’s a web version available as well. While Inbox has been invite only through initially selected beta testers, Google is now opening it up to everybody for this single hour. If you haven’t received an invite yet, Inbox Happy Hour is the time to get one!

Samsung Gear Circle Bluetooth headphones now available in US in limited quantities

The Samsung Gear Circle is definitely an interesting accessory, and it’s finally out in the U.S. The Gear Circle is a set of Bluetooth earphones that are designed to magnetically clasp together at the ends and become a necklace for easy carrying. And to warn you that you’re getting a call, the piece on the back of your neck will vibrate to warn you to put them on.

As for music controls, it uses a mix of touch controls and a play/pause feature that works when you clasp and unclasp the earphones from each other. You can also control your phone using voice commands, as you can with most earphones. The battery will last for 9 hours of music listening and 11 hours of talk time, which really isn’t bad for such a small set of earphones.

The Samsung Gear Circle is currently available in both black and blue at select T-Mobile stores if you want to pick some up now, with widespread availability coming later this month with AT&T and Amazon announcing availability. And if you want it in white, Best Buy will exclusively carry that color. What do you think of the Gear Circle?

Top 10 Android app updates this week: Any.do, Flipboard

Welcome back to our weekly Top 10 Android App Updates column, where we take a look at the most frequently upgraded apps for the week. We’ve found that one of the best ways to discover useful apps is to find the ones that are actually being updated by the developers rather than selecting the apps with the most installs. As in the past, we’re going to filter out minor updates for the super-popular apps that have over 10 million installs, but we’ll make exceptions for apps that have had significant updates. We hope you enjoy this weekly feature and that you discover some apps that end up being useful.