ASUS releases Android 4.4 KitKat update for the ZenFone 4

ASUS has announced on Twitter that the Android 4.4 KitKat update has started rolling out for the ASUS ZenFone 4. It's a bit late now to do this but better late than never.

Meanwhile, those who bought the bigger and more expensive ZenFone 5 and ZenFone 6 are understandably miffed as their phones are still running Jelly Bean. ASUS hasn't commented on when these phones will be getting the KitKat update.

[Via GSMARENA]

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ASUS releases Android 4.4 KitKat update for the ZenFone 4

ASUS has announced on Twitter that the Android 4.4 KitKat update has started rolling out for the ASUS ZenFone 4. It's a bit late now to do this but better late than never.

Meanwhile, those who bought the bigger and more expensive ZenFone 5 and ZenFone 6 are understandably miffed as their phones are still running Jelly Bean. ASUS hasn't commented on when these phones will be getting the KitKat update.

[Via GSMARENA]

Apple Watch production rumored to start in January

Apple presented its first wearable earlier this month, but the release of the Apple Watch is only going to happen next year. That said, the company was a bit vague on details when it came to this subject.

In these situations, though, rumors sometimes come to the rescue. The latest one on this matter, originating in Taiwan, says we should expect mass production for the Apple Watch to start in January.

That's because Apple wants to have it in stores in February, right before Valentine's Day. There's apparently going to be only one company making the Apple Watch, and that's Quanta. The Taiwanese OEM is looking to hire a lot of people for the plant that will handle the production for Apple's smartwatch, planning to reach a peak of 40,000 employees in January.

Although Quanta is the exclusive manufacturer of the Apple Watch right now, it's unclear whether this exclusivity has an expiration date attached. On the other hand, some unnamed "industry analysts" believe that if sales of the Apple Watch will go well, there will be a second OEM added at some point next year.

Interestingly, Quanta's deal with Apple might have terms prohibiting it from making smartwatches for any other company but Apple.

[Via GSMARENA]

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Apple Watch production rumored to start in January

Apple presented its first wearable earlier this month, but the release of the Apple Watch is only going to happen next year. That said, the company was a bit vague on details when it came to this subject.

In these situations, though, rumors sometimes come to the rescue. The latest one on this matter, originating in Taiwan, says we should expect mass production for the Apple Watch to start in January.

That's because Apple wants to have it in stores in February, right before Valentine's Day. There's apparently going to be only one company making the Apple Watch, and that's Quanta. The Taiwanese OEM is looking to hire a lot of people for the plant that will handle the production for Apple's smartwatch, planning to reach a peak of 40,000 employees in January.

Although Quanta is the exclusive manufacturer of the Apple Watch right now, it's unclear whether this exclusivity has an expiration date attached. On the other hand, some unnamed "industry analysts" believe that if sales of the Apple Watch will go well, there will be a second OEM added at some point next year.

Interestingly, Quanta's deal with Apple might have terms prohibiting it from making smartwatches for any other company but Apple.

[Via GSMARENA]

AFFORDABLE FLAGSHIP LUMIA 830 SALES BEGIN

Bringing flagship innovation like superior PureView imaging technology to more people, the Lumia 830 will go on sale this week.

Inside the slim and lightweight metal and polycarbonate shell of the Lumia 830, you’ll find a wealth of innovation seen on high end models. There’s a 10-megapixel PureView camera with ZEISS optics, Rich Recording, and our thinnest Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) system to date.

Altogether, this ultra-sleek package of photo-smarts will see you taking sharper, more detailed photos then ever before, day or night.

Capturing photos or recording videos is only half the fun; it’s always better when you share them with friends. For that, Instagram, Vimeo or Vine can be downloaded from the Windows Phone Store. Alternatively, why not take advantage of the free 15GB OneDrive cloud storage and share a secure link to your content?

OneDrive needn’t be solely used for your photos or videos, though. With Microsoft Office already preinstalled onto every Windows Phone, you can create or edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents on your Lumia 830 and store them to OneDrive – accessible from anywhere.

At the heart of the Lumia 830 sits a powerful Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 400 processor, featuring quad-core CPUs at 1.2 GHz. But it’s not this alone that gives for a smooth experience; the latest OS also has a part to play.

The Lumia 830 comes loaded with Windows Phone 8.1 and the Lumia Denim Update, providing faster connections to everything that matters with Action Center, Live Tiles, Word Flow, Microsoft Office, Cortana* and a whole lot more.

With a 5-inch ClearBlack display, everything you see on the screen, whether it’s flicking your way throughFlipboard, reliving precious moments with Storyteller, or gamin

g, is beautiful and sharp. With winter approaching for many, you’ll be delighted to know its super sensitive touch screen means you can operate the phone with your gloves still on.

Onboard the Lumia 830 packs in the SensorCore, a low-powered motion sensor that tracks motion and location to help you make the most out of your days with apps like Bing Health and Fitness, Adidas, and RollerBlade Inline Skates.

The Lumia 830 houses a powerful 2200mAh battery that can be charged wirelessly.

The Lumia 830 is expected to be shipping around the world from this week onwards and will be available in a range of colors including bright orange, bright green, white and black — RRP 330EUR before taxes and subsidies.

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SMARTPHONE News

AFFORDABLE FLAGSHIP LUMIA 830 SALES BEGIN

Bringing flagship innovation like superior PureView imaging technology to more people, the Lumia 830 will go on sale this week.

Inside the slim and lightweight metal and polycarbonate shell of the Lumia 830, you’ll find a wealth of innovation seen on high end models. There’s a 10-megapixel PureView camera with ZEISS optics, Rich Recording, and our thinnest Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) system to date.

Altogether, this ultra-sleek package of photo-smarts will see you taking sharper, more detailed photos then ever before, day or night.

Capturing photos or recording videos is only half the fun; it’s always better when you share them with friends. For that, Instagram, Vimeo or Vine can be downloaded from the Windows Phone Store. Alternatively, why not take advantage of the free 15GB OneDrive cloud storage and share a secure link to your content?

OneDrive needn’t be solely used for your photos or videos, though. With Microsoft Office already preinstalled onto every Windows Phone, you can create or edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents on your Lumia 830 and store them to OneDrive – accessible from anywhere.

At the heart of the Lumia 830 sits a powerful Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 400 processor, featuring quad-core CPUs at 1.2 GHz. But it’s not this alone that gives for a smooth experience; the latest OS also has a part to play.

The Lumia 830 comes loaded with Windows Phone 8.1 and the Lumia Denim Update, providing faster connections to everything that matters with Action Center, Live Tiles, Word Flow, Microsoft Office, Cortana* and a whole lot more.

With a 5-inch ClearBlack display, everything you see on the screen, whether it’s flicking your way throughFlipboard, reliving precious moments with Storyteller, or gamin

g, is beautiful and sharp. With winter approaching for many, you’ll be delighted to know its super sensitive touch screen means you can operate the phone with your gloves still on.

Onboard the Lumia 830 packs in the SensorCore, a low-powered motion sensor that tracks motion and location to help you make the most out of your days with apps like Bing Health and Fitness, Adidas, and RollerBlade Inline Skates.

The Lumia 830 houses a powerful 2200mAh battery that can be charged wirelessly.

The Lumia 830 is expected to be shipping around the world from this week onwards and will be available in a range of colors including bright orange, bright green, white and black — RRP 330EUR before taxes and subsidies.

Apple iPhone 6 Plus appears prone to accidental bending

It appears that the Apple iPhone 6 Plus is prone to bending under typically benign circumstances. A number of reports around the web suggest that Cupertino’s first phablet has bent its chassis while sitting in a user’s front pocket.

With the issue gathering increasing amount of attention throughout the day, a crafty YouTube user posted a video, which tests the rigidity of the iPhone 6 Plus. See it below.

In order to be fair, the same YouTube user tested the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 under the same circumstances. See what happened below.

As you can see in the video above, the iPhone 6 Plus does indeed appear to bend easily. The person in the video also observed before the test that his device already displayed slight indentation. The weak spot appears to be on its left side, right below the volume buttons.

Oups, l'iPhone 6 se déforme dans la poche ! http://t.co/szFfovaHB7 pic.twitter.com/Zru9uozhMU

— Florian Paulmier (@FlorianP123) September 23, 2014

The above tweet suggests that the 4.7” Apple iPhone 6 might be susceptible to the issue as well. Suggested iPhone 6 Plus remedies include dressing it in a protective case.

According to an unofficial engineering opinion, the iPhone 6 Plus might be a victim of its elegant aluminum unibody. The device’s significant footprint doesn’t help its case either, as, combined with the thin body, it affects its bending strength.

Apple is yet to officially comment on the matter. It is needless to say that we are all waiting on a reaction from Cupertino.

[Via GSMARENA] 

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SMARTPHONE News

Apple iPhone 6 Plus appears prone to accidental bending

It appears that the Apple iPhone 6 Plus is prone to bending under typically benign circumstances. A number of reports around the web suggest that Cupertino’s first phablet has bent its chassis while sitting in a user’s front pocket.

With the issue gathering increasing amount of attention throughout the day, a crafty YouTube user posted a video, which tests the rigidity of the iPhone 6 Plus. See it below.

In order to be fair, the same YouTube user tested the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 under the same circumstances. See what happened below.

As you can see in the video above, the iPhone 6 Plus does indeed appear to bend easily. The person in the video also observed before the test that his device already displayed slight indentation. The weak spot appears to be on its left side, right below the volume buttons.

Oups, l'iPhone 6 se déforme dans la poche ! http://t.co/szFfovaHB7 pic.twitter.com/Zru9uozhMU

— Florian Paulmier (@FlorianP123) September 23, 2014

The above tweet suggests that the 4.7” Apple iPhone 6 might be susceptible to the issue as well. Suggested iPhone 6 Plus remedies include dressing it in a protective case.

According to an unofficial engineering opinion, the iPhone 6 Plus might be a victim of its elegant aluminum unibody. The device’s significant footprint doesn’t help its case either, as, combined with the thin body, it affects its bending strength.

Apple is yet to officially comment on the matter. It is needless to say that we are all waiting on a reaction from Cupertino.

[Via GSMARENA] 

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge benchmarked

We saw it with previous generations of Galaxy flagships – equalized scores despite very different chipsets. This year the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge will come with either a Snapdragon 805 or an Exynos 5433 SoC and their AnTuTu scores are practically equal.

The Samsung N915L, aka Galaxy Note Edge with Exynos, scored just under 48,000 points while the Samsung N910S, aka Galaxy Note 4 with Snapdragon, got just over 48,000 points. The benchmark seems to show negligible difference in multi-core performance and RAM speed.

The multi-core result is interesting because the Exynos 5433 is SMP-enabled meaning it can run all eight cores simultaneously, even if they are at a lower clockspeed than the four Krait 450 cores in the Snapdragon 805.

With similar CPU and RAM either scores, the GPU score can't be very different – it's Mali-T760 vs. Adreno 420, both rendering at 1,440 x 2,560 pixels (the curved part of the Edge screen is not supported by the benchmark). We'd like to run a full battery of tests before drawing a conclusion but it doesn’t seem like there will be any performance difference between the two models (Note 4 and Note Edge) and their two sub-versions.

[Via GSMARENA] 

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SMARTPHONE News

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge benchmarked

We saw it with previous generations of Galaxy flagships – equalized scores despite very different chipsets. This year the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge will come with either a Snapdragon 805 or an Exynos 5433 SoC and their AnTuTu scores are practically equal.

The Samsung N915L, aka Galaxy Note Edge with Exynos, scored just under 48,000 points while the Samsung N910S, aka Galaxy Note 4 with Snapdragon, got just over 48,000 points. The benchmark seems to show negligible difference in multi-core performance and RAM speed.

The multi-core result is interesting because the Exynos 5433 is SMP-enabled meaning it can run all eight cores simultaneously, even if they are at a lower clockspeed than the four Krait 450 cores in the Snapdragon 805.

With similar CPU and RAM either scores, the GPU score can't be very different – it's Mali-T760 vs. Adreno 420, both rendering at 1,440 x 2,560 pixels (the curved part of the Edge screen is not supported by the benchmark). We'd like to run a full battery of tests before drawing a conclusion but it doesn’t seem like there will be any performance difference between the two models (Note 4 and Note Edge) and their two sub-versions.

[Via GSMARENA]