Tizen – the OS of everything – is a slogan Samsung truly stands behind and with its love and nurturing help, the Linux platform is quickly growing in popularity among developers and tinkerers alike.

A new report, courtesy of Samsung Vietnam, claims that 2016 will be the year of the Tizen revolution, which the Korean giant is said to spearhead with a whole new set of more powerful Tizen handsets. The OS has been around for quite some time now, on the OEM’s wearables and also a couple of enty-level phones. The Z1 and Z3 have really benefited from Tizen’s lightweight nature and have proven a good testing ground for the platform’s worth as a mobile driver and progress is going great.

The Tizen ecosystem has been expanding rapidly and enjoying a lot of developer support, in part thanks to Samsung’s decision to let them keep all app revenue until the end of next year. The OS already has a dedicated VLC app and even an official Facebook app and with Samsung’s support, Tizen might really take off, despite its current low PR profile.

The only thing really missing is a proper hardware stage for Tizen to thrive on and, if this report turns out to be true, we might see a complete Samsung Z series in a matter of months. That would hopefully mean a Z5 and Z8, in keeping with the OEM’s current naming convention. Perhaps even a whole new family with its own proper flagship offer. And we have little doubt that any new handsets will be accompanied by interesting wearables as well, showing off Tizen’s capabilities on your wrist.

Source (in Vietnamese) |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1HW1Be3
via IFTTT

NVIDIA unveiled a new tablet, the Shield Tablet K1, which is a refreshed version of the Shield Tablet from last year. The GPU maker didn’t really add anything, it’s more about what was removed – like $100 off the price.

The catch is that you don’t get a charger, a cable, no stylus either. Still, you probably have a ton of chargers laying around your house, so we think it’s a fair trade. The stylus is sold separately for $20, a branded charger is $30, there’s a wireless controller for $60 too.

The 8″ tablet boasts a 1,920 x 1,200px screen. It’s powered by a Tegra K1 chipset with a quad-core Cortex-A15 processor and a Kepler GPU (192 cores, 852MHz), paired with 2GB of RAM. If you have a 4K TV, the Shield Tablet K1 can output 4K over HDMI.

The tablet runs Android 5.1 Jellybean and has a modest 16GB of storage (you’ll probably want to plug in a microSD so that games have room).

Additional specs include stereo speakers on the front, Wi-Fi, optional LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and a 19.75Wh battery.

Besides Android games, you can sign up for GeForce NOW ($8/month) to stream PC games from NVIDIA’s servers. You get a 3 month trial period.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1QJUFrq
via IFTTT

HTC’s One-series just got even more confusing to the prospective buyer. The One M9s has been launched in Taiwan with proper One M9 looks and a few notable changes in hardware.

The new model comes with a 5-inch FullHD LCD display, much like its namesake. One of the chief differences between the two is the Mediatek Helio X10 chip, but it’s not exactly a first for the company – it can be found in a lot of this year’s Ones.

Budget cuts can quickly be spotted once you go further down the specsheet. Similar to the One E9 and E9s, the One M9s comes with just 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The smartphone does take microSD cards for expansion by up to 2TB, though such cards are less common than unicorns.

The primary camera is a blend of existing models too. On the one hand it uses a 13MP sensor, like the two E models above, but adds optical image stabilization, so far only found on the Supreme Camera edition of the M9+ – quite logical, right?

Other than that, the rear cam has a 27.8mm-equivalent lens with an f/2.0 aperture and a sapphire crystal front element. The front shooter is the familiar UltraPixel affair with 4MP resolution and an f/2.0 26.8mm-equivalent lens.

The HTC One M9s comes in virtually the same all-metal unibody as the non-S One M9 and measures 144.6 x 69.7 x 9.6mm. Oddly enough, at 158g it weighs a gram more. Battery capacity is the same at 2,840mAh.

The smartphone comes with the usual wide range of connectivity options including quad-band 2G/3G and LTE over a multitude of bands. There’s Bluetooth v4.1, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, NFC and GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS and Beidou.

The smartphone can be pre-ordered right now in Taiwan for TWD 12,900 ($390) and it’ll start shipping on November 21. There’s no word on worldwide availability.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1SVOBeL
via IFTTT

The Huawei Mate 8 is rumored to come in three versions – one with a 6.2″ screen, one with 6″ and a third, smaller one with 5.5″ or 5.7″ screen. We’ve already seen live images of one of those versions, now there’s another one.

It looks quite different – the camera is round (with a dual-LED flash to its side) and below it is a fingerprint reader (which wasn’t apparent in the photos that leaked first).

This new image shows a design much closer to the Huawei Mate S, but there’s no guarantee that either of those really is the Mate 8.

Anyway, the handset is slated to be a heavy hitter with a QHD screen, 16MP camera, the new Kirin 950 chipset, 3GB or 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage. The smaller versions will get a 1080p screen and less storage, but all three should launch with Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

The launch of the Huawei Mate 8, however many versions it has, is expected to happen next week on November 26. There’s still no confirmation from Huawei though.

Source (in Chinese) |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1H6oFMh
via IFTTT

HP is back with a second smartwatch, this time in partnership with Swiss watchmaker Movado. The Movado Bold Motion looks more like a traditional watch than the Chronowing, the only real giveaway of the internal smarts is the LED lights.

The Bold Motion has a 44mm stainless steel casing with a black PVD-finish. It connects to an iOS (8+) or Android (4.4+) device over Bluetooth. The watch is water proof up to 50m and comes either with a black silicone strap or a stainless steel buckle.

There’s no screen though. Notifications happen in two ways: vibration and the LEDs. It works like this – an appointment at 10:30 would be shown with a light at 10 o’clock and at 6 o’clock. Something like an email is shown as a pattern of lights.

Obviously with no screen notifications are pretty limited, but at least you should get great battery life, right? Unfortunately it seems like it would only last a week, which isn’t that impressive (a Pebble could do that).

The Movado Bold Motion being a Swiss watch means it’s not cheap either. It’s listed on Movado’s site at $785. That’s close to the limited edition Mondaine Helvetica 1 ($950), which packs sapphire glass, genuine leather and 2+ years of battery life.

PS. This isn’t Movado’s first smartwatch, it also has the Museum Sport Motion and the Bellina Motion.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1SzGxzu
via IFTTT

Kevin Wang from Analytics company IHS has expressed his projection that Apple is planning to launch a budget-oriented iPhone 6C in the middle of next year. According to Wang, the iPhone 6C will rock a 4″ display.

The analyst also reckoned Apple will make a similar move back in August, but apparently that didn’t happen. While you should take this information with a pinch of salt, we’d like to point out that an alleged iPhone 6C rear housing leaked back in March. Back then, it was rumored the phone will have a Touch ID fingerprint sensor as well as NFC support for Apple Pay.

If the iPhone 6C become reality, we would suspect it to be offered for free or $99 with a new two-year contract in the US.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1MjN9QU
via IFTTT

Unveiled by Google back in March this year, the Asus-made Chromebit HDMI dongle – which converts any compatible display in to a Chrome OS computer – has now been officially launched for $85.

The device will be available in several countries including the US, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the UK. Over in the United States, several retailers including Amazon, Fry’s, and Newegg will initially carry the dongle.

For those who aren’t already aware, the 75 gram Chromebit is powered by a Rockchip 3288 chipset with Mali 760 GPU. It comes with 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, and a full USB 2.0 port. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1HSyvS8
via IFTTT

Most Windows 10 adopters tend to feel right at home with Microsoft’s latest OS and should, by design, hardly feel any major difference. However, Windows 10 is undoubtedly the biggest update the platform has seen in a while, if not ever and the most colossal change to users and developers alike comes from the push towards a more versatile and universal core, running across a wide range of devices and compatible with as much code as possible.

As part of this ambitious move towards building a truly Universal Windows Platform, last April Microsoft announced its intention to support quick reuse of both iOS and Android code for creating universal apps. Naturally, the major undertaking was riddled with uncertainty from the start and recent developments have now pushed the PC giant to put Android support on hold.

There hasn’t really been any official statement on the matter yet, but Microsoft has been persistently hinting that Android support, dubbed project Astoria, is now on hold and could remain so indefinitely.

Instead the company is focusing on the iOS migration tools, which have shown more promise in playing nice with Window 10. Major security and optimization problems have been cited. Also, the Windows Bridge for Android has been called a “quick fix” to broadening the new Windows ecosystem and developer base, which, apparently didn’t quite work out as intended and “is not ready yet”.

Still, Microsoft has avoided words like canceled or abandoned, so there might still be hope. Here is the whole statement.

We’re committed to offering developers many options to bring their apps to the Windows Platform, including bridges available now for Web and iOS, and soon Win32. The Astoria bridge is not ready yet, but other tools offer great options for developers. For example, the iOS bridge enables developers to write a native Windows Universal app which calls UWP APIs directly from Objective-C, and to mix and match UWP and iOS concepts such as XAML and UIKit. Developers can write apps that run on all Windows 10 devices and take advantage of native Windows features easily. We’re grateful to the feedback from the development community and look forward to supporting them as they develop apps for Windows 10.

While this whole development is slightly disappointing, it might also be for the best, as hardly anybody wants Microsoft to bite off more than it can chew and potentially jeopardize all the progress it has been showing with its new universal Windows approach and flexible, open development cycle.

Also, we doubt a lot of preexisting developer work and support has been lost, as the Windows Bridge for Android has been absent from Windows 10 insider builds for smartphones for quite some time now, so this new step is hardly a surprise.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1MyW5zY
via IFTTT

Microsoft has announced that it will be retiring the Zune service. Starting November 15, customers will no longer be able to stream or download content from the Zune service.

Existing Zune Music Pass subscribers will be transferred over to the new Groove Music Pass subscription at the next renewal date. Customers can opt for a monthly subscription of $9.99 or a yearly subscription of $99.9. If your Zune subscription is terminated before the subscription period is over, you are eligible for a refund.

Back in October 2011, Microsoft retired the Zune hardware business, turning it into only a streaming service. With the shutting down of the streaming service, the Zune brand has now finally retired in all…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1l1Uc7H
via IFTTT

The LG G3 will start getting the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update towards the mid of the next month – between December 16 and 18.

This was revealed by a new report out of Poland, saying that the update is already in the last stage of testing (or is even ready, according to an LG Poland executive, whose tweet was referenced by the report).

The report also notes that just like the LG G4, the Marshmallow update for the G3 will also be first rolled out in Poland, followed by other regions worldwide.

Via…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1MP2hYe
via IFTTT