A global version of Motorola Droid Turbo to be unveiled in Brazil

The new Motorola Droid Turbo garnered great interest but as a Verizon-exclusive it felt out of reach. Now Motorola is sending out invites for a November 5 event to announce a global rollout. The invite doesn't call out the device by name but the corner of the back shows Droid Turbo's characteristic Ballistic Nylon back.

Rumors are for a name change to Moto Maxx, resurrecting the Maxx brand, which is associated with some of the most long-lasting batteries in the smartphone history.

It's a fitting name too, the Droid Turbo packs a 3,900mAh battery, which can soak up 8 hours' worth of battery life in just 15 minutes thanks to the Turbo Charger. Other specs include one of the sharpest displays yet, a 5.2" QHD AMOLED, a Snapdragon 805 chipset and a 21MP/2160p camera. Check outour hands-on for more details.

Motorola has already filed for a "Moto Maxx" trademark in the US and is planning a Brazil announcement, so the phone should see a proper global rollout, including alternative US carriers.

Source (in Portuguese)

Xolo One is a $105 smartphone that will get Android 5.0 Lollipop

Xolo introduced the latest addition to its lineup of attractively priced smartphones. Dubbed Xolo One the new droid costs just INR 6,599, which translates to about $105, making it one of the most affordable KitKat-powered handset around. More impressively, the company has committed to updating the Xolo One to Android 5.0 Lollipop later on, making it one of the cheapest tickets to Google’s latest ride.

As you could expect at this price point, the hardware of the smartphone isn’t quite as impressive. The Xolo One comes with a 4.5” IPS screen of the lowly FWVGA resolution (854 x 480 pixels) that gives a pixel density of 218ppi. The handset is powered by a Mediatek MTK 6582M chipset with a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU running at 1.3GHz, a Mali 400 MP2 GPU and 1GB of RAM.

The Xolo One comes with dual SIM slots and support for 3G and 21Mbps HSPA networks, but no LTE. There’s a microSD card slot for expanding the 8GB of available storage by up to 32GB.

On the photography side the Xolo One offers a 5MP fixed-focus camera with BSI sensor, LED flash and 1080p video recording as well as a VGA front-facer. Connectivity is covered by microUSB 2.0, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi b/g/n.

The smartphone is powered by a 1,700mAh battery that should be able to last for up to 430 hours of stand-by and up to 19h of talk-time as long as you stick to 2G networks. If you switch to 3G however the numbers fall to 377 and 8 hours, respectively.

The Xolo One will be available in 6 different colors, including brown, black, white and red and will feature “leather finish back” (faux Samsung-style leather, we assume).

evleaks outs an official Google Nexus 6 press photo

Famous leak-agent @evleaks is officially retired, but in a sudden surge of nostalgia brought us a new leak. And not just any leak, as now we have the first official photo of the upcoming Nexus 6.

The photo shows the Nexus 6 front panel and its frame which seems to be made of metal. There are two visible inlays that are required on metal panels for the antennas to work - those wouldn't be needed if the frame was all plastic. Moreover, we get to see the Android L homescreen in action as well as the new iconography style that Google is going for.

The Google Nexus 6 is made by Motorola and reportedly packs a 5.9" QHD display, which makes it the first Nexus phablet. It's good to see then, that the unlock button and volume rocker are placed conveniently towards the center of the right side.

Earlier today, an upcoming Google video ad of the Nexus 6 and Android L leaked, which in addition to this press photo suggest that the launch of the two is imminent.

The rest of the rumored Nexus 6 specs include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset with a 2.65GHz quad-core Krait 450 CPU and 3GB of RAM. At the back, there's a 13MP camera with OIS standing between the two LEDs of the flash.

Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 rumored to be launching tomorrow

If the latest rumor on the matter is to be believed, tomorrow we'll be treated to the official announcement of both the HTC-made Nexus 9 tablet as well as the Nexus 6 phablet by Motorola. But don't expect a big event or anything like that - they'll apparently be introduced via a blog post by Google.

This reportedly has to do with the fact that Android L isn't finished yet, though it's unclear how that has prevented Google from holding a gathering for this product launch. Regardless, both of the new devices will run Android L from day one.

The Nexus 9 has had all of its previously leaked specs 'confirmed' once more by yet another anonymous source. So it should have an 8.9-inch 2,048x1,440 touchscreen, a 64-bit Nvidia Tegra K1 chipset, an 8 MP rear camera, a 3 MP front snapper, and dual front-facing speakers. It will weigh 480g and will come with a brushed aluminum frame, and not an all-metal design (this solution was reportedly chosen in order to keep costs down).

An 'origami' magnetic case for the Nexus 9 will be announced too. The Nexus 9 will be up for pre-order starting on October 17, and it should become available on November 3, though these dates could be changed.

There will be a 16GB Wi-Fi-only version which will cost $399, and a 32GB model with LTE connectivity built-in going for $499. Both will sport microSD card slots for storage expansion.

This particular rumor comes with no additional information about the Nexus 6, but it just got a leaked press render mere hours ago.

Source

Nexus 6 sized up against the iPhone 6 Plus in a photo

The Motorola Nexus 6 popped up in a leaked renderyesterday and now we get to see the phablet again, this time compared to the Apple iPhone 6. In the photo, you can see just how large the Nexus 6 is compared to the 5.5" iPhone 6 Plus. The Motorola-made phone is slightly taller and wider, but it has a 5.9" QHD display and front-facing speakers to show for it.

The phone also made an appearance in CPU-Z, which confirmed its internals. Expect to see a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset with a 2.65GHz quad-core Krait 450 CPU and 3GB of RAM. At the back, there's a 13MP camera with OIS standing between the two LEDs of the flash. Naturally, the Nexus 6 will run the latest Android L-release. Its name is still under tight wraps, though Google enjoys teasing us with it.

The Nexus 6 also leaked in an AT&T listing today. It suggests the phone's on-contract price is going to be $49.99. Both the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 could get their announcements later today, if the rumor mill is to be trusted.

Source | Via

iOS and Windows see small gains in US while Android dominates

comScore has published numbers for the average users on all the major platforms as well as users on a particular smartphone brand in the US. The data was collected over a period of three months ending in August 2014 and compared with previous data of three months ending in May 2014.

Comparing the three platforms, Android continues to dominate the US market with 52% of the user base at the end of August-14, down slightly from 52.1% by the end of May-14. Meanwhile, iOS has gone from 41.9% to 42%. Windows Phone went from 3.4% to 3.5%, while BlackBerry (2.3%) and Symbian (0.1%) maintained their numbers.

As for individual OEMs, Apple continues to lead by having 42% of the entire US smartphone user base, followed by Samsung at 28.9%, and LG at 6.7%. Motorola and HTC come in last place and are the only ones who saw a drop in August since May.

Apple iPhone 6 will arrive in India on October 17

Sales of Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will kick off in India on October 17. Pre-orders of the duo of smartphones will begin this coming Tuesday, on October 7.

Official pricing of the smartphones is yet to be revealed. Apple’s official retail partners Ingram Micro, Redington, Rashi Peripherals, and Reliance will release details when they become available.

India is not the only major market that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will enter on October 17. The devices will be available in China on the same date as well.

Via

Unlocking the Sony Xperia Z3 bootloader degrades camera

Sony has put up a disclaimer on its website stating that unlocking the bootloader on its high-end models, namely the Xperia Z3, will lead to issues in the performance of its camera. After unlocking the bootloader of the device, taking photos in low-light conditions is going to be worse than before. Additionally, noise reduction algorithms might be removed altogether.

The reason for the deterioration of the camera performance is that upon bootloader unlocking, the device loses certain DRM security keys. While this might seem unrelated to the camera, certain advanced camera algorithms in the phone are protected by DRM.

The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is also on the list of affected high-end smartphones. It shares its camera module with the Xperia Z3, so this is barely a surprise. The two phones can now be rooted and flashed with a custom recovery, but this requires unlocking the bootloader first. However, you may want to think twice before doing anything as this will certainly have a negative impact on the camera of your brand new Xperia phone.

Source | Via

Cyanogen reportedly declined acquisition bid from Google

According to a report in The Information, Cyanogen Inc. rejected acquisition interest from Google. Google’s Android chief, Sundar Pichai reportedly discussed the search giant's interest in the small company in a recent meeting with its top brass.

Instead of becoming part of Google, Cyanogen is in late-stage discussions for Series C round of financing. The company is seeking a valuation that is close to $1 billion, despite the fact that it is barely generating revenue.

Potential Cyanogen investors have reportedly been told that the company has struck a deal with the Indian manufacturer Micromax. The latter’s smartphones will be outfitted with custom Android ROMs, a la OnePlus One as part of the agreement.

Cyanogen's exact plans are yet to be fully revealed. However, it looks like the future ahead of its small team looks brighter than ever.

Source (subscription required) | Via