Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei has hired Apple’s former creative director Abigail Sarah Brody as its new chief UX designer. She will also be serving as the vice president of Huawei’s Device & Consumer division.

A quick look at Brody’s LinkedIn profile reveals that she has worked with multiple Fortune 500 companies in her 20 years carrier. At Apple, she worked with the team that designed iOS 1 for the first-gen iPhone. In addition, she also worked on the company’s cloud-storage service iCloud as well as ProKit, which is Apple’s internal professional application design language.

As for Huawei, the company seems to be doing quite well lately. It is now China’s top smartphone vendor and claims the third spot globally. The company has just revealed that it shipped 27.4 million smartphones in Q3 this year, compared to 16.8 million it shipped in the same period last year.

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OnePlus is diversifying its current portfolio of one model (spreading two generations) with the brand new OnePlus X. Announced today, the new smartphone will fight a whole different battle – where the OnePlus One and 2 were meant as flagships on a budget, the X aims to put design on top of its list of priorities.

The OnePlus X comes in a choice of either Onyx or Ceramic attire. Both versions feature an anodized metal frame with 17 grooves etched into it. The first one has a black glass panel on its back with a glossy mirror-like finish, nothing out of the ordinary.

It’s the Ceramic version where things go bonkers. The panel takes 25 days to manufacture, OnePlus says, and starts its life as a 0.5mm zirconia mold heated in a 1480-degree furnace for more than 28 hours. It’s then left to cool down for two whole days, goes through some polishing and in the end is good for an 8.5H hardness rating on the Mohs scale.

The thing is also a smartphone, and comes with a 5-inch FullHD AMOLED display. The aging, but still somewhat relevant Snapdragon 801 chipset is in charge, coupled with 3GB of RAM. There’s a modest 16GB of built-in storage, expandable via microSD. Mind you, one of the card slots is of the hybrid variety – you can forget about having a couple of SIMs and a microSD inside at the same time.

OnePlus X press images

Imaging is taken care of by a 13MP primary camera, with an ISOCELL sensor courtesy of Samsung and an f/2.2 lens. It can’t shoot 4K video though, despite the fact that the chipset supports it. The front camera uses a 8MP OmniVision imager behind a slower f/2.4 lens.

The OnePlus X measures 140 x 69 x 6.9mm, which should please compact phone lovers. The Onyx version tips the scales at 138g, while the Ceramic one adds a hefty 22g on top of that – you’d constantly be reminded you’re carrying a rock of sorts in your pocket.

You’d be getting a basic, but all-round connectivity suite – multi band 2G/3G/4G, single-band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS with GLONASS and BDS. The phone boots Android 5.1.1 (so no Marshmallow just yet) with OxygenOS on top. An average-sized 2,520mAh battery provides power.

The OnePlus X is priced at $249/£199 for the Onyx variant, while the Ceramic variant commands a whopping £70 premium and won’t be sold in the States. And by the way only 10,000 of those will be made. Talk about…

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Last week, market research firm Canalys revealed that Huawei has surpassed Xiaomi to become China’s largest smartphone manufacturer in Q3 2015. While the firm did not share the exact shipment numbers, Huawei has now revealed that it shipped a total of 27.4 million smartphones last quarter. The information was revealed by the Chinese company in a tweet (see below).

Thanks to our fans, 27.4M smartphones were shipped in Q3 and 4M #HuaweiP8’s were shipped since April. #HuaweiFacts http://pic.twitter.com/p00SLWp2vv— Huawei Device (@HuaweiDevice) October 28, 2015

For comparison, a total of 16.8 million smartphones were shipped in the same period last year. In addition, it was also revealed that the company has shipped 4 million units of the Huawei P8 smartphone ever since it was launched back in April this year.

For those who aren’t aware, the company recently launched the Honor 5X in China, and has schduled a November 5 event for Kirin 950 chipset…

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Samsung has released its earnings report for the third quarter, and as expected, the company has registered its first profit growth in the last two years. The report reveals an operating profit of around $6.4 billion, which is an impressive increase from $3.6 billion it reported in the same period last year. Overall revenues stood at $45.6 billion, up from $41.7 billion in Q3 2014.

The South Korean company said the increase in revenue was driven mainly by the Semiconductor Business and the Display Panel segment. It was also revealed that operating profits increased by $440 million QoQ due to a favorable exchange rates, although Samsung made it clear that it expects QoQ earnings to decline in Q4 as it does not expect the foreign exchange rate to have a positive effect in the quarter.

Looking at the company’s mobile division, operating profit stood at $2.1 billion, up from $1.54 billion it reported in Q3 last year, but down QoQ. “Samsung saw a significant increase in sales of smartphones in the quarter, compared with the second quarter with increased shipments of Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy A and J series,” the company said.

“However, due to the price adjustment of Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, and increased shipments of mid-to-low end smartphones, revenue increased slightly whereas profit decreased QoQ.”

Looking ahead, Samsung is expecting tablet and smartphone sales to improve QoQ due to higher market demand companies generally see in the year-end holiday season.

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As promised, Google has launched the YouTube Red ad-free subscription service in the United States. Although it’s priced at $9.99 a month, it comes with a one-month free trial so you can get a taste of it before you start paying for it.

For those who aren’t aware, the new service – aside from being ad-free – also lets you save videos on your mobile for viewing offline, as well as supports background playback. Google has also promised that YouTube Red will soon feature new original shows and movies made by “some of YouTube’s biggest creators.”

Also what’s worth mentioning is that the service comes bundled with Google Play Music – conversely, those already subscribed to Play Music will also get access to YouTube Red for no additional…

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Microsoft has announced a limited-period price cut for both Xbox One Kinect bundle and standalone Kinect for Xbox One units. While the price of the former has been dropped by $100, the latter has received a $50 price cut.

The Xbox One with Kinect bundle – which includes 500GB Xbox One console, Kinect sensor, Xbox One wireless controller, as well as full game downloads of Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals, and Zoo Tycoon full – is now available in the US, Canada, and Mexico for $399, CAD 449, and MXN 7,999, respectively.

On the other hand, Standalone Kinect for Xbox One units are now selling in these countries for $99, CAD 109, and MXN 1,999, respectively. There is, however, no information on how long the promotion will last, so those interested should act…

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Over a week after its showed up on Zauba, a website which tracks India’s import and export, the Samsung device – which is alleged to be the successor to last year’s Galaxy A5 smartphone – has received Bluetooth certification from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG).

Keep in mind that the reason the new handset is being said to be the sequel to the Galaxy A5 is its model number, which is SM-510F – the A5, in comparison, carries a model number of SM-A500.

From what is known till now, the SM-510F will sport a a 5.2-inch display, compared to the 5-inch screen the A5 features. And the certification now reveals that the device will support Bluetooth version…

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Huawei recently unveiled the list of its devices that are going to be upgraded to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. At the time, the Chinese company said the first rollouts could happen in November, and now it’s reiterated just that – but with a twist.

The first Huawei device to get a taste of Marshmallow is apparently going to be the Honor 7. That’s because, according to Huawei marketing exec Xi Zhao, a beta release of the Marshmallow update for the Honor 7 will be out soon. In a matter of weeks, actually. Perhaps around four weeks, as it turns out.

So by the end of November if you own an Honor 7 you might be able to test the latest version of Android on it. Of course this being a beta, it could come with bugs and whatnot, but at least Huawei is trying to be faster than it used to be when it comes to software updates.

However, we don’t know whether such beta releases are planned for other Huawei smartphones. Nor do we know when a final build of Android 6.0 will reach the Honor 7, though we wouldn’t bet on it coming this…

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According to new reports out of its home country of South Korea, Samsung is set to start mass producing the Exynos 8890 chipset for the Galaxy S7 at some point in December.

This SoC, also known by its codenames M1 or Mongoose, is going to be the first Samsung-made one to feature custom CPU cores. The Korean company will not be using ARM designs anymore, like it has so far for every single one of its past Exynos chips.

Going with custom cores is significant because at the moment only Intel, Apple, Qualcomm, AMD, and ARM have their own CPU designs in the semiconductor market. So Samsung’s going to be in good company in this regard. And apparently this will allow it to reduce costs, better optimize the chips for its smartphones, as well as gain a competitive edge in the market.

The Galaxy S7 could in fact have three different chipset variations inside, each model being sold in certain markets only. One of those will be the Exynos 8890, while another is set to be Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 820.

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A few months ago Samsung launched the Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man limited edition in partnership with Marvel, and it was pretty exciting for fans of that particular superhero. The Iron Man edition had a special look, with red front and back and a gold metal frame. There was also a bundled wireless charger that was arc reactor-themed, as well as a custom theme on the phone and an Avengers box.

Most of those things are not to be found on the new Galaxy S6 edge+ Ant-Man limited edition that launched in China today. In fact, the only things that are different here than with the vanilla S6 edge+ are the box, a protective case that is bundled with the phone, and possibly a custom Ant-Man theme on the handset.

The case is a nice touch, but going with a custom color scheme for the phone itself, like with the Iron Man edition of the smaller S6 edge, would have been welcome (not to mention a custom designed wireless charger). The box and the case both have the Ant-Man vibe, of course.

If you’re in China and are interested in this limited edition phone, know you’ll need to pay CNY 5,888 to get one, which is around $925 or €848 at the current exchange rates. Not cheap, then.

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