Items tagged with Mobile
That was fast. About a year after Google’s Motorola started manufacturing the Moto X domestically at a plant in Texas, the factory is shutting down; it will cease operations at some point later this year. The Texas plant was an exciting experiment; never before had a smartphone been actually manufactured in the...
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When Acer announced its BYOC (bring your own cloud) initiative yesterday, it was just getting started. Today, the company announced a new spate of smartphones as well as a wearable device. Up first is the Acer Liquid X1 smartphone, a monster 5.7-inch device with an octa core (1.7GHz) processor and a quad-core graphics...
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Back in December, we caught wind that Japan’s Softbank was looking to snag T-Mobile, and now that deal is closer to becoming reality, according to new reports. Deutsche Telekom AG currently owns a majority stake in T-Mobile, but it’s apparently willing to sell that majority to Softbank while keeping a...
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Earlier this week we covered a deal between Intel and Rockchip that will combine Intel's Atom with Rockchip's graphics IP and considerable share of the Chinese market. I'm returning to the topic because there are some interesting big-picture facets to this move that we didn't cover with the initial announcement. Over...
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At this point, it seems like we need another heart rate-monitoring smartwatch like we need a hole in head (seriously, when did knowing one’s heart rate become such a big deal?), but everyone is jumping in the smartwatch game, Microsoft included. We’ve known about a Microsoft smartwatch for a while, but...
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Early last week, Microsoft unveiled the third iteration of its Surface Pro tablet, the aptly named Surface Pro 3. Unlike previous revisions to the product, the new Surface Pro 3 can be considered a major overhaul. Not only does the new device feature more powerful internal components and offer a handful of new features, but its form factor...
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Early last week, Microsoft unveiled the third iteration of its Surface Pro tablet, the aptly named Surface Pro 3. Unlike previous revisions to the product, the new Surface Pro 3 can be considered a major overhaul. Not only does the new device feature more powerful internal components and offer a handful of new features, but its form factor...
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First things first: Apple’s Beats acquisition is happening, and Apple has confirmed it. The deal is for $2.6 billion in cash and $400 million in stocks, and--perhaps more notably--it will bring Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre to Apple. And that last bit, it seems, was and is the key to the whole...
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Intel has announced a new partnership with mobile SoC developer Rockchip, with plans to bring new Android products to China beginning in the first half of 2015. The partnership will use Intel's SoFIA platform with an integrated 3G radio and Atom processor initially, though Intel does plan to deliver a follow-up...
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The LG G3 smartphone is here, and LG is touting the high-end G2 successor as smart and simple, harnessing the best that technology has to offer while keeping the user experience as straightforward as possible. First off, there’s a lot happening under the hood. The G3 rocks a quad core Snapdragon 801 (up to...
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There are data breaches and then there are data breaches. The Target breach, for example, was (and continues to be) a total disaster for the company with millions affected. Other hacks are made better or worse by a given company’s attitude and response. Spotify has apparently experienced some sort of breach of its own, but if you’re...
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HTC’s new flagship smartphone is the HTC One M8 (review here), but it’s not the only One in the company’s refreshed lineup. There’s also an HTC One M8 mini 2, and there have been rumors of a plastic-shelled HTC One M8 Ace. The latter has apparently broken cover with a pretty press render and full specs. HTC One M8 Ace...
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You’re not the only one who’s a little concerned about the hypnotic effect of screen time on your kids. A pair of former Googlers, Pramod Sharma and Jérôme Scholler, felt the same way, and so they developed a gaming platform called Osmo that connects the physical and digital worlds. The idea...
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Samsung and Amazon are getting cozier, as the two companies announced that they’re creating a custom eBook service called Kindle for Samsung. It will operate as an app, and it will initially be available on the Samsung Galaxy S5 and other Galaxy phones and tablets that run versions of Android over 4.0. Users...
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LG was kind enough to not pretend that its May 27th press event was anything other than the LG G3 superphone reveal, and now there’s a teaser video out that shows off--just for a couple of seconds--the device’s beautiful chassis. We mean “seconds” literally, but you can see that the G3 will...
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For months, it's been rumored that Microsoft would unveil a new version of Windows 8.1 with specific Bing branding and a lower price tag. Now the company has formally unveiled the SKU, which will carry a "reduced cost" to manufacturers of PCs that cost less than $250. Microsoft also makes Windows free to devices with...
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It was quite a surprise when Microsoft neglected to launch a Surface Mini device during a recent press event in New York City. Leading up to the event, Microsoft had sent out invites for "a small gathering," which was seemingly a big hint that a Surface Mini would be on tap. Combined with the rumors and speculation...
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Perhaps it was inevitable, but Google’s Project Tango team has expanded its device experimentation beyond smartphones into tablets. The tablet will, like the Project Tango smartphone, provide real-time 3D mapping overlays of real environments using cameras and sensors. According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, Google is planning...
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To the surprise of few, Samsung is reportedly working on a VR headset that would compete with the Oculus Rift (now a Facebook joint) and Sony’s Project Morpheus. (And, for that matter, dark horses like GameFace Labs.) According to Engadget, this isn’t just a vaporware project; Samsung already has early...
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Based on the latest data provided by Counterpoint's Market Monitor quarterly tracker program, the U.S. smartphone market grew to 33 million units at the end of the first quarter of 2014, representative of a modest 7 percent growth rate. However, smartphones now account for more than 87 percent of total handsets, which...
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FreedomPop announced some big updates to its free (and almost free) mobile services. The MVNO has moved to Sprint’s LTE network to offer 4G service (and is launching commensurate handsets to take advantage of it) and is also rolling out a new $20 unlimited everything plan. The unlimited plan is notable in the...
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Life just got a little easier for iPhone thieves, though technically that's not the intended purpose of a new tool that helps iDevice owners bypass Apple's iCloud activation lock. Officially -- and we're not sure if that comes with a *wink* *wink* or if the developers are being sincere -- a tool called "doulCi" is...
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