Mobile Devices - Page 130

BlackBerry is transitioning focus from smartphone hardware more towards software, building business partnerships with Apple and Google. The struggling manufacturer wants to develop business applications able to run on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. It's not a surprise BlackBerry wants to create enterprise products for other platforms, after its hardware efforts slid over the past few years.

"I have a lot of software assets that are really good," said BlackBerry CEO John Chen, when speaking with Bloomberg. "We're going to build a business on putting it on other peoples' devices. As our market share in hardware is shrinking, I think there's a much bigger opportunity to make our software and package it correctly to be available on cross platforms."

Since becoming CEO in November 2013, Chen has looked for strategies to expand BlackBerry's product offerings. The company's smartphone market share has dropped below 1 percent, as Apple, Samsung, and other manufacturers fight for control.

MWC 2015 - We knew it was coming, but Sony has made the Xperia Z4 Tablet official at MWC 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. The new Xperia Z4 Tablet is one of the most powerful slates on the market, and some.

We have a 10.1-inch 2K display (2560x1600) giving us a pixel density of 299PPI, but inside we find the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor (an 8-core 64-bit CPU) at 2GHz. There's 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage which is expandable through microSD right up to 128GB. Sony will be offering the new Xperia Z4 Tablet as a Wi-Fi only tablet, as well as an LTE-capable model.

On the back we have an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, backed up by a 5.1-megapixel selfie shooter with a wide-angle lens. Sony has crammed a 6000mAh battery inside of the Xperia Z4 Tablet which the company says is good for around 17 hours of video playback. Out of the box we will have Google's latest Android 5.0 Lollipop.

MWC 2015 - Samsung announced the Galaxy S6 smartphone yesterday at Mobile World Congress 2015, but our man on the ground Johannes Knapp has gotten some hands-on time with the new super-fast smartphone, with that video below.

As you can see, even with TouchWiz on top, Android 5.0 Lollipop on the Galaxy S6 is super slick and doesn't slow down. This would also be thanks to its incredibly quick 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM. We also have that 5.1-inch QHD 2560x1440 display, a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera with OIS backed up by a 5-megapixel camera for selfies, a 2550mAh battery, and comes in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB with no expandable storage unfortunately.

MWC 2015 - Shock horror! Samsung has just unveiled the new Galaxy S6 at Mobile World Congress 2015 at its Samsung Unpacked event.

Samsung's CEO, J.K. Shin, took the stage to unveil the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge official. The new Galaxy handsets have an all-new design, with wireless charging built into the smartphones finally. We have a 5.1-inch QHD display (2560x1440) with pixel density hitting a huge 576PPI. Samsung has continued the use of its great Super AMOLED display technology on both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge.

Inside, we have Samsung's incredible 14nm, 64-bit, 8-core Exynos processor with 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM making it one of the fastest, if not the fastest handsets on the market. On the back, we have a 16-megapixel camera. The Galaxy S6 edge has the dual edge display, which will show users details like the time, weather and notifications on its side. One of the downsides of the two new handsets, is that Samsung has removed the microSD slot, which means we do not have expandable storage now. A move toward the way Apple does things with its iPhone. The company has also cut out the removable battery, which is another downer.

MWC 2015 - Acer just unveiled its new Liquid Leap+ smartband, but the company has also unveiled its new Windows 8.1-powered smartphone, the Liquid M220.

The new Liquid M220 is powered by Windows 8.1, but it will be upgradeable to Windows 10 when it's released later this year. Acer has a 4-inch display with 233 pixels per inch (PPI), the full suite of Microsoft applications like OneDrive, Skype, Office and more. We have a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera backed up by a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

The Liquid M220 is a cheap handset coming in at under $90, and will be made available through select EMEA retailers in April.

MWC 2015 - Acer has just announced its new Liquid Jade Z smartphone, with the company teasing its Zero Air Gap technology that will get rid of those annoying reflections, all while it's protected by Gorilla Glass 3 from Corning.

The Liquid Jade Z also features 4G LTE (Cat 4), a 64-bit quad-core MediaTek processor, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera which is backed up by a 5-megapixel selfie snapper. Acer calls the new Liquid Jade Z "wallet-friendly" as it is just 7.9mm slim and weighs only 110g. The Liquid Jade Z can also be easily connected to Windows PCs thanks to AcerEXTEND.

Acer will have the Liquid Jade Z available through EMEA retailers later this month.

MWC 2015 - After being splashed around in countless rumors before Mobile World Congress, HTC has made its new One M9 smartphone official. Robert Downey Jr was used in a voice over during the presentation in Barcelona, Spain - something we knew Iron Man would be doing as he has been involved with the Taiwanese company for a while now.

HTC had the slogan of 'Utopia in Process' where the company unveiled the new One M9 smartphone. HTC has a dual tone, dual finish body on the phone. The HTC One M9 features a 5-inch 1080p display, but inside we have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor (an 8-core CPU), with LTE Cat 9 (450Mbps), Android 5.0 Lollipop with Sense 7 on top. HTC is popular for its rear-facing cameras, with the new One M9 featuring a 20-megapixel rear-facing camera. Up front, we have a new front-facing camera with great low-light image quality.

The new One M9 has 5.1-channel sound from its from speakers, which will provide an even more immersive audio thanks to HTC's BoomSound technology. We have 3GB of RAM, 32GB of on-board storage which is expandable by microSD, and a nano SIM.

We all know there's a new Nexus smartphone coming, but with Google already using up the Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 product names, we can't have a Nexus 7 come out for two reasons. First, we already have two Nexus 7 tablets, and second, the new Nexus won't be anywhere near 7 inches.

Rumor has it Google is now working with both LG and Huawei, with the latter being the interesting choice for Google to partner with. Huawei is the leading smartphone manufacturer in China, and is quickly becoming a favorite around the world. Weibo is reporting that we will see Google using two manufacturers work on the Nexus smartphone that will be announced later this year, most likely at Google I/O 2015.

There's a few things to be excited about here: Google working with Huawei on its flagship handset which should rock Android 6.0, Huawei getting a very big stage to showcase its manufacturing talents to the world alongside LG, and the fact that we might receive not one but two Nexus handsets. Google could very well finally step up its game, showing the competition how to do the best Android smartphone, it just needs the right mojo to make it happen. You can do it, Google.

Phablet sales are outperforming sales of smaller smartphones, as phablets with a screen size of 5.5 inches captured 12.8 percent of mobile electronics sales during Q4 2014, according to GfK. Phablet sales are booming in Europe, the Middle East and in Asia, with modest sales growth in Latin America and Africa.

Consumers are embracing phablets so they are able to more comfortably watch online videos, movies, and play mobile games. In the emerging market, dropping phablet prices have helped consumers change their mobile preference, so they won't need to have a smartphone and tablet.

"This means emerging markets will have a crucial role to play in their rise, and we expect to see sales increase in Africa and Latin American in 2015 and beyond," said Arndt Polifke, global director of telecoms at GFK, in a statement published by ZDNet.

Mobile gaming is big business for companies in the United States, with the market growing more than 20 percent in 2014 alone, according to The NPD Group. The expanding popularity of mobile gaming is creating a lucrative opportunity for game downloads, apps, and free-to-play services - with smartphones, tablets, and other mobile electronics becoming more prevalent.

"Mobile is the third largest gaming category in the U.S., and grew in excess of 20 percent over the past year," said David McQuillan, president of global games at The NPD Group. "We believe that information that allows gaming companies to fully capitalize on this explosive growth is paramount..."

The news comes as The NPD Group announced its expanding the Checkout Tracking SM service so it is able to monitor in-app and full-game mobile purchases, providing better insight into consumer buying behavior.

Google is receiving help from BlackBerry to make it safer and more secure to switch from personal use and work use on Android-powered smartphones.

"BlackBerry is working with Google to provide customers with solutions they can confidently deploy on all major mobile platforms within their organization," said Billy Ho, EVP of enterprise products at BlackBerry.

BlackBerry wants to increase its BES12 software client base, while Google wants to use the company's "highly secure mobility solution." BES12 will be available during Q2 2015, though an invite-only preview will be released sometime next month. Smartphones can use BES12 if they are not already using Android for Work.

I'm sure the NSA didn't have to twist Apple's arm too much to get this done, but Apple has patented a system that tracks iPhones even when they have been switched off. Apple's patent would see the iPhone prompting a user to enter their security code to formally shut it down.

If the code isn't typed in, or it is typed incorrectly a number of times, the phone will appear off. But this isn't the case; the iPhone is still "on" but it appears to be off to the user. While this sounds like a great idea for security, it does mean that Apple could track your iPhone even if you thought it was "off". You would be none the wiser.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to you, as it can be done on Android smartphones right now. This can be tested by having an Android-powered smartphone far away from a cellular tower, and then keep an eye on the battery usage on your smartphone. Researchers have used this method to track an Android smartphone by making a malicious application that didn't have access to Wi-Fi or GPS, and only kept an eye on the power consumption of the phone.

The NIX Pro from Nix Sensor is the first full-featured portable color sensor, designed to be a smartphone accessory. The Bluetooth device is able to scan surfaces to quickly obtain a color reading, similar to the Adobe PhotoShop eyedropper tools.

The device is able to save captured colors in a unique library, colors can be shared among users, and should prove much more accurate than other color measurement methods. NIX Sensor says the NIX Pro is able to block out ambient light and use a custom broad spectrum LED light source - all the while with a product just a bit larger than a ping-pong ball.

"Every color measurement solution in the consumer market today is difficult to transport, inaccurate, and costs tens of thousands of dollars," said Matthew Sheridan, founder and CEO of Nix Sensor. "The NIX Pro is the first color sensor that is accurate, portable, and affordable - it's the PhotoShop eyedropper in real life."

According to officials from various mobile carriers, Samsung's upcoming next-gen Galaxy smartphones are better than the best from Apple. In closed-door meetings, these officials used the new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones, responding with nothing but praise.

Executives from companies like T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone and SK Telecom have said that both smartphones were reportedly "greatly satisfied" in terms of the new design, and were "wagering they could beat Apple's hot-selling iPhone 6 at least in terms of design". A source spoke with The Korea Herald, where they said: "Some executives said the new phones were the best of the best among Samsung-made phones. They said the Edge was better than Apple's iPhone 6 in terms of design".

Another source talked about the Galaxy S6 Edge model, where they said "It is doubtful whether the acclamations from the mobile carriers will directly lead to (high) sales. Samsung will need to increase the phone's functionality dramatically to appeal to customers".

We all know how it feels: to be out for the day and your smartphone is beeping or vibrating at you alerting you to the fact that you're on less than 20% charge. Then you can literally feel the minutes clicking over with each percent going down into that drain that your battery slides into. Well, not for long.

An Israeli startup known as StoreDot is looking to solve this thanks to the by-product of research from the nanotechnology department of the Tel Aviv University, which was looking into Alzheimer's disease. The researchers have discovered that a particular peptide molecule has high capacitance, which means it has the unique ability to hold an electrical charge.

Batteries that use this technology can absorb charge much faster than others, but their overall capacity would be smaller. This new technology can't just be baked into current smartphones and devices, but StoreDot is currently in discussions with 15 smartphone makers, with the hopes to getting a contact with a couple of those companies before the end of the year.

Ahead of the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona next month, analysts are picking apart the current state of the smartphone market. Consumers have a number of appealing choices at the moment, as the smartphone market is "highly mature," and it is becoming harder for vendors to differentiate from one another.

"While Apple had a very successful 2014 and a record fourth quarter, Apple has to come up with something innovative in 2015 to replicate record sales," said Annette Zimmermann, researcher director at Gartner, in a press statement.

Samsung has 28 percent global smartphone market share (28 percent), ahead of Apple (16.4 percent), Lenovo (7.9 percent), LG Electronics (6 percent), and Huawei (5.9 percent), according to TrendForce. However, the competition is becoming explosive with Huawei capturing 5.9 percent market share, putting everyone else on notice that it is a serious contender.

HTC is expected to officially unveil the One M9 smartphone on March 1 when Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 kicks off, but there are some early leaks on HTC's upcoming flagship smartphone.

We can expect HTC to bake in an 8-core Snapdragon 810 processor clocked at 2GHz, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of NAND flash storage expandable through microSD, and more. On the back, we have a 20-megapixel UltraPixel camera, which is reportedly housed inside of a camera module that protrudes from the rear of the One M9's body, like the iPhone 6 Plus.

Software wise, we should see Android 5.0 Lollipop with Sense 7 splashed on top. Two new colorways are shown off in the leaked shots, with a gold and silver style for a two-tone look while the other is gunmetal gray. BoomSound speakers make the cut, with the 5-inch 1080p display filling out the One M9. We should expect the know the exact details on the phone on March 1 when MWC 2015 starts.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi now controls 12.5 percent of its home market, ahead of Samsung's 12.1 percent share, according to the IDC research group. Xiaomi has seen smartphone sales increase 227 percent year-over-year, selling more than 61 million units in 2014.

However, Xiaomi continues to grow, while Samsung actually lost more than six percent in the competitive Chinese market - and analysts want to see how much higher Xiaomi can climb.

During Q4 of 2014, there were 107.5 million smartphones shipped to Chinese consumers, a 2 percent quarter-on-quarter growth, according to IDC.

Whether you're looking to 'raise your dongers' or post some kawaii faces on your favorite forum - the HTC One M8 comes pre-installed with almost every option under the sun.

My friend just received his model today and after inspecting the stock emoticon options (who wouldn't do that first?) he came to me extremely excited with a new find - extended meme-like 'smilies'.

This is nothing ground-breaking sure, but it's an awesome inclusion nonetheless. Here's hoping more phone companies subscribe to this kind of 'pop culture' and continue development in this direction.

We should expect to see the HTC One M9 unveiled very soon at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but before then we're seeing more detailed leaks on HTC's upcoming flagship smartphone.

The HTC One M9 should feature a 5-inch screen, with a resolution of 1920x1080, which is a bit of a let down compared to its competitors with 1440p displays. We should see an 8-core processor, 3GB of DDR4 RAM, 32/64GB of on-board storage, support for LTE Category 6 (300/50Mbps), Android 5.0.2 Lollipop with Sense 7.0, a 20.7-megapixel rear-facing camera, 4-megapixel UltraPixel front-facing camera, BoomSound, Bluetooth 4.1, a microSD card slot and a 2840mAh battery.

Some of you might have noticed in those specifications that we've written DDR4 RAM, which is an interesting addition to the mix. The Full HD display will provide additional battery life compared to those with a QHD panel, so while HTC won't win at display resolution, it should have a decent amount of battery life compared to competing handsets.