Motorola teases low-cost Moto G unveiling for November 13

Here comes the Moto G. After Motorola’s website team spilled the beans on the low-cost device last week, the company is now officially teasing the Moto G for a November 13 debut.

For now, the teaser page Moto-g.com doesn’t reveal much aside the aforementioned date, but the tiny planet theme and the fact that the November 13 date is displayed in multiple languages suggest that the Moto G will enjoy an international release, just like rumors predicted. Users can sign up for an online live announcement, so some kind of livestream launch event is possible...

Read the full story here... Source: Android Authority

iPhone 5C costs just £50 on O2

O2 has revealed its first prices for the iPhone 5S and 5C -- and the colourful 5C can be yours for just £50.

Despite being embarrassingly left out of Apple's presentation, O2 has offered up a couple of deals that will get you a new iPhone -- including a deal to nab you a 16GB iPhone 5C for £50 if you pay £32 per month.

That's a reasonable amount of money to fork out up-front -- for an iPhone, anyway; there are much cheaper phones and deals available away from Apple -- as long as you're happy with 750GB of 3G data and 600 minutes of talk-time every four weeks...

Read the full story here... Source: CNET

Fan favorite – which Android manufacturer are you rooting for?

By 2017, more than two billion phones will be sold every 365 days. A vast majority of those will be smartphones. With this in mind, we have the world’s biggest technology companies engaging in technological, marketing, and patent warfare. But which manufacturer deserves our acclaim, our respect, and the hard earned dollars of consumers worldwide...

Read the full story here... Source: Android Authority

T-Mobile USA Looking to Expand Apple Product Offerings Beyond the iPhone

Following his company's earnings release earlier today, T-Mobile USA CEO John Legeretold AllThingsD that the carrier is looking forward to expanding its Apple product offerings beyond the iPhone. Back in April, T-Mobile became the last of the four major U.S. carrier to begin selling the iPhone...

Read the full story here... Source: Mac Rumours

Mysterious HTC Zara to arrive alongside HTC One Max?

As Samsung prepares for the release of its Note 3, HTC is also getting ready to unleash two new devices of its own. The first of the handsets is known as the HTC One Max and is designed to compete directly against the Note series. The second is a previously unheard of handset by the name of Zara.

We’ll start by talking about the One Max, which we already know a great deal about.

For starters, the phone will feature a premium metal-body design similar to the HTC One. The handset is also said to have a 5.9-inch FullHD display, a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU, UltraPixel camera and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

What about the HTC Zara? The latest report from China Times suggests that the handset will arrive in September alongside the One Max. Unlike the One Max, the HTC Zara trades in the premium metal body for a plastic design that is probably more akin to Samsung devices.

Unfortunately, beyond its plastic shell, next to nothing is known about the Zara. We can’t say what markets it is being aimed at, its pricing or even what kind of hardware or screen size the phone might possess.

What we do know is that September is shaping up to be an interesting month. Not only will we see Samsung’s latest Note, but now we have two interesting HTC devices to look forward to as well.

With HTC’s push towards higher-end metal bodies, would you still consider a plastic-bodied HTC handset if the specs were right for the money?

Source: Android Authority

Lumia 1020: A flash point for Nokia?

Nokia hopes its comeback story comes into focus with a little help from its 41-megapixel camera-packing Lumia 1020.

The former Finnish mobile devices giant was at it again on Thursday with the debut of its latest smartphone, which rocks the souped-up zoom-lens camera that impressed critics a year ago at Mobile World Congress. For some, this is the real PureView camera that should have been bolted on to last year's Lumia 920 flagship phone.

Even as the Lumia 1020 comes packed to the gills with features and advanced hardware, it's unclear whether this will be the smartphone to finally reverse Nokia's fortunes. Its continued struggles despite a drastically improved line-up of products underscore the broader difficulties facing all of the vendors in getting support from carriers and interest from consumers. More specifically, there remains a lot of work to revitalize Nokia's brand and educate consumers on Windows Phone...

Read the full story here. Source: CNET

T-Mobile announces Jump, an early upgrade program

NEW YORK -- T-Mobile announced a new device upgrade program for its no-contract customers Wednesday. The program allows these customers to get their hands on the latest and greatest phones at subsidized prices.

The upgrade program, called Jump, makes it easier for people to upgrade to new devices and pay a lower price instead of replacing their current devices at full price. To participate in the early upgrade program, customers will pay $10 a month. Customers can get their first upgrade after being enrolled in the program for six months. The company will then credit the remaining cost of the device. Enrollment will start this Sunday.

"Two years is too long to be locked into a phone," said T-Mobile's CEO John Legere."You should decide when you upgrade, not your wireless company."

The program also works as device insurance and includes protection against malfunction, damage, or theft. Legere said that given that device insurance already costs between $8 and $12 a month, so he said the upgrade program is virtually free if you think of it that way.

Legere went on to say that the Jump program will finally allow people to upgrade when their device screen cracks or they drop their phone in the toilet.

"If your phone malfunctions or it becomes possessed," he said. "If it's stolen or you drop it in the toilet or run it over with the car. Or if you just don't like it anymore, you are covered."

Legere pointed out that the company's competitors AT&T and Verizon Wireless are actually lengthening their upgrade cycles to 24 months.

That's not what customers want," he said.

Earlier this year, T-Mobile announced new no-contract plans that require customers to buy devices at full price. Customers also can pay for devices in monthly installments. But if they leave the T-Mobile service, they must pay the full price of the device.

Some consumers complained that buying devices at full price made it more difficult to get newer devices. CNET first learned of this concept in March, when CEO John Legere said it was still an idea that the carrier was tossing around.

Source: CNET

Virgin Media launches VIP unlimited mobile plans, starting at £15 SIM-only

Virgin Media doles out many minutes and data to mobile users with its Premiere plan, but it hasn't had a truly unlimited option for those who don't want to even think about their calling habits. It's assuaging those minds today with new VIP tiers that offer unlimited domestic voice, data and text messaging. The exact perks depend on the level of commitment, however. Traditional customers can pay £26 per month (£31 if they're not already Virgin customers) with promises of unlimited calls to frequently costly 08 numbers. For SIM-only customers, it's all about the price -- while they don't get the 08 number exception, the £15 they pay per month for otherwise unlimited access is comparatively cheap. The new rates may not always make sense depending on local coverage and a desire for LTE, but we'd at least keep them in mind.

Source: Engadget

Facebook Introduces Facebook Home for Android

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage in San Francisco today and said Facebook is going to focus on Android moving forward.

“The great thing about Android is its so open,” Zuckerberg said. “You can have apps that can be your keyboard, can be your home screen of your phone, you don’t need to fork Android to do this, you don’t even need to modify the operating system. The home screen is the soul of your phone.” Home will takeover your lock screen and your home screen and will provide all sorts of status updates that would otherwise populate inside a dedicated Facebook app.

Zuckerberg guaranteed that it’s still easy to access applications, however. You can tap a photo of your face at the bottom of the screen and swipe up to see all of your applications.

We expect Facebook will also introduce a smartphone, but we know that at least part of the experience is designed for multiple Android devices.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Do Mobile Phones Pose a Health Hazard?

The mobile phone has become one of the biggest necessities that a person could own and the one thing people are still debating about is the issue of what health hazards that your modern day mobile phone could cause to the human body.

Many people are concerned about the low levels of radiofrequency energy that mobile phones emit, and how the radiation could cause cancer or other serious health problems. Many studies have been conducted over the past 15 years by scientists who are looking at the effects on the human body caused from the frequency of the mobile phone, but the studies have failed to prove that any frequency from the handheld device has any impact on the said person's health.

Studies show that almost 80 million mobile phones in the UK are in operation, therefore the threat of causing any damage to your health directly from the mobile is one in which each corporation must consider as part of their business module. With times changing, the modern day mobile phone has a considerable amount of data flowing through it compared to 5 years ago. 

Ed Yong, who is head of the health information at Cancer Research UK, has released information to the global population in which he states that despite the dramatic rise in mobile phone sales since the 1980s, the rate of brain cancer has not increased at the same rate as the production and usage of the handheld device has.

There is not yet enough known information to completely rule out the risk of health implications due to using a mobile phone, but very little research suggests that this could be the case.

What do you think about this controversy? Post your thoughts below.

Samsung Introduces REX Feature Phones to Take on Nokia’s Asha Devices

Samsung recently announced a new line of Java-based feature phones that will likely launch in emerging markets and compete head-to-head with Nokia’s Asha line of devices. There are four phones in the REX series, including the REX 90, REX 80, REX 70 and REX 60. All of thephones sport Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface and offer support for using two SIMs at the same time.

The REX 90 has a 3.5-inch display, a 3.2-megapixel camera and a microSD card slot that supports up to 32GB of storage. The REX 80 is similar but has a smaller 3-inch display and can only support up to 16GB of additional storage. The REX 70 has a similar 3-inch display but a lower-resolution 2-megapixel camera. Finally, the REX 60 has just a 2.8-inch screen and a 1.3-megapixel camera. All of the phones only support EDGE networks, so they’re definitely going into brand new cell markets where faster 3G and 4G technology doesn’t yet exist.

“As the number one mobile leader and innovator, we are committed to developing the best possible mobile solutions to suit all lifestyles and budgets, which is why we are so excited to launch the REX series across a number of the world’s fastest growing markets,” said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. “REX devices are designed to seamlessly prioritize and consolidate essential mobile functions that matter most to customers across diverse markets. The result is an extraordinary end-to-end mobile experience with the best value for money.”

Samsung didn’t discuss pricing, but we imagine these device will sell for well under $100.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo - Read the full story here]

Security exploit opens Samsung Galaxy S III, Note II to attack, could let apps from Google Play write to Kernel

Amid the XDA community's ongoing quest to root every Android handset it comes across, one forum user appears to have found a serious exploit that affects certain Exynos devices. While fiddling with his Galaxy S III, XDA user Alephzain discovered a way to obtain root without flashing with Odin. The Samsung kernel apparently allows read / write access to all physical memory on the device, including the kernel itself. This makes for an easy root, Alephzain writes, but leaves devices open to attack -- allowing Kernel code injections and RAM dumps from malware-laden apps from the Google Play store.

It isn't the only avenue for attack on an Android handset, but it is an exceedingly easy attack. Luckily, a community fostered fix seems pretty simple too -- XDA user RyanZA has already created a patch to modify write permissions on affected devices -- though Galaxy S III users are reporting that the fix cripples the phone's camera app. So far, Alephzain has confirmed that the Galaxy S II, III, Note II and the Meizu MX are at risk, but notes that the exploit might work on any device running a Exynos 4210 or 4412 processor. Samsung has not yet made a comment about the vulnerability, but forum members say that the issue has been reported. As for the exploit's lasting implications? Head on over to the XDA forums to join the discussion.

[Source: Engadget]