If you were keeping a close eye on this year’s IFA, then you surely remember Acer’s Jade Primo demonstration. Showing up on stage with a powerful new Windows 10 device is more than enough to make a lasting impression, but also boldly touring its Windows 10 Continuum for Phones abilities definitely makes for a memorable unveiling. The Jade Primo is still some time away from end user markets, but it is indeed a true ambassador to a whole new line of Windows 10 devices that break away from the current status quo of underpowered hardware and bring along Mycroft’s vison of a seamless, portable PC experience in the palm of your hand.

A new statement from ST Lui, president of Acer’s handset division highlights that the OEM has realized the importance of this new wave of Windows 10 smartphones and intends to keep working at it, along with a commitment for a Jade Primo 2 successor next year and hopes of up to 10 million smartphone shipments in 2016:

Currently, a majority of our models are priced below US$199. But we have also been trying to ramp up the ASP of our products by introducing flagship models priced over US$300 per year. We launched the flagship Jade Primo in 2015 and plan to release two flagships, the Predator 6 and the Jade Primo 2 in 2016.

This is all pretty exciting for the Windows realm, which is currently long overdue for a new line of higher end devices. It is also worth noting that while models like the eagerly-anticipated Lumia 950 and 950XL seem to be targeted as flagship offers, with prices in the $800 register, fans will also be able to get nicely equipped hardware it a mid-range price point, like the Jade Primo, also perfectly capable of Microsoft’s new line of features, like the aforementioned Continuum.

This development also give hope for Acer’s new Predator gaming line of devices. Although still in its infancy, it does look quite promising, with offers, such as the Predator phone and tablet. They also made a debut at the IFA venue and from the looks of things, we can expect the Predator 6 phone to come out next year as well. Hopefully that goes for the predator 8 gaming tablet as well.

For a more in-depth look at the Acer Jade Primo and Predator 6, check out our detailed hands-on review.

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With the new Nexus pricing revealed, it became abundantly clear that Google is asking a pretty penny for its new smartphone duo. The pricing seems particularly steep In Europe. In the UK, for example, a 16GB Nexus 5X base model will set you back £339, which is dangerously close to the kind of cash a Galaxy S6 32GB costs – £380 on Amazon UK.

That price point alone might be enough to discourage a lot of prospective buyers, but if, for some reason, you just can’t resist the allure of the vanilla-Android device, getting it from Google might not necessarily be the best choice. Carphone Warehouse is selling the much more functional 32GB version of the handset for a mere £10 more, at £349.99. And if you are content with 16GB, then the UK vendor also seems to have a better deal at £299.99.

That is for a SIM free device. As for other markets, the Nexus 5X seems to be overpriced all across Europe, but perhaps not quite so much in the US, where the phone runs for $380, but with the added bonus of $50 Play Store credit, if that is your thing, of course.

For that hefty price tag, the Nexus 5X offers nice specs, albeit nothing really spectacular or that much of an improvement over the Nexus 5. It gives you a 5.2″ 1080p display, Snapdragon 808 chip with a 1.8GHz hexa-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, USB Type-C, a 12.3MP camera and 16GB or 32GB of non-expandable internal storage.

For a more in-depth look on the handset, check out our LG Nexus 5X hands-on…

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It seems the Stagefright storm hasn’t quite passed after all. As most of you might remember, a few months ago a scary vulnerability in one of Android’s core multimedia libraries was uncovered and found to affect almost every device powered by Google’s OS, as early as 2.2 Froyo. Since then, there have been no reports of an actual exploit utilizing the bug, but, naturally, it gave the whole industry quite a scare, triggering a quick reaction from many OEM’s like Motorola and Samsung, who issued emergency fixes.

Just when we thought troubles had passed, Zimperium, the same security company that shed light on the initial vulnerability, now warns of two new bugs that have been found in the very same Android Stagefright component. According to the official description, the new duo of vulnerabilities can be exploited with specially crafted MP3 and MP4 files. The first is found in a function within libutils and could impact nearly any Android build, as early as Android 1.0. The second one, however, might be even more frightening, as it relates to a hole in libstagefright and allows for injecting malicious code and gaining root access on devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop and up.

This new announcement seems to render a large chunk of the existing Stagefright emergency patches powerless and is troubling, since we were left with the impression that no new builds of Android would be affected any more. The existing measures, however, are far from useless, as they seem to have patched the previous MMS delivery method almost completely. If a hacker were to use these new back doors, it would theoretically have to be through the Web browser, either by methods of phishing, malicious apps and ads of even a man in the middle attack if the devices are on the same network.

Now that we are all sufficiently scared, here’s the good news. First and foremost, like the original Stagefright vulnerability, it is unlikely that this new batch will ever be used in an actual exploit, especially since Joshua J. Drake of Zimperium, largely responsible for uncovering the issues, has decided to be extra cautious this time around and not share a proof-of-concept exploit for this new vulnerability with the general public. Even the company’s original Stagefringt detector app will receive an update to pick up the new threat only after Google has developed a patch.

All things considered, we, as end-users, shouldn’t really feel worried at this point.

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Gionee’s Elife E8 smartphone, which was made official back in June this year, could be launched in India next week. The information comes courtesy of a teaser (shown below) revealing a new phone launch in the country’s capital of New Delhi on October 8.

There is currently no information on the price tag the handset will carry in India – in China, it costs RMB 3,999 (around $630 or INR 41,000).

Specs-wise, the device is powered by a Mediatek Helio X10 chipset with an octa-core processor clocked at up 2GHz, and a PowerVR 6200 GPU. It sports a 6-inch QHD display, comes with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory, and packs in a 3500 mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the Elife E8 features a 24MP rear unit and an 8MP front shooter. It runs Android 5.1 Lollipop-based Amigo 3.1 OS, and also includes a fingerprint scanner on the back. The smartphone could be exclusively sold online given that the teaser also mentions Gionee’s entry into the e-commerce…

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Motorola just dropped the list of devices that will be getting the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update. It included phones such as the Moto X 2nd and 3rd gen, Moto G 2nd and 3rd gen, Droid Turbo/Moto MAXX/Moto Turbo, and unsurprisingly the Nexus 6.

But if you looked closely you’d notice that the Moto E 2nd Gen, launched a mere eight months ago, is not part of the list. Somehow, a device so new, and launched on the promise of keeping the phone up to date, won’t be getting a major update released within a year of its launch.

But that’s not all. The carrier versions of the Moto X 2nd Gen will also not be getting the update. This includes the AT&T and the Verizon models, that too weren’t released a long time ago. Not to mention the carrier unlocked version of the same phone getting the update.

Motorola sure has some explaining to…

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In line with the announcement made earlier this week, Samsung has started selling its Gear S2 smartwatch – which was unveiled back in August this year ahead of IFA – in the United States. Both Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic is now listed on the company’s US website.

The listings reveal that only the Dark Gray variant of the wearable will ship in 1-3 days – the Silver variant as well as the Gear S2 Classic in Black will ship in 3-4 weeks.

As for the price, while the Gear S2 carries a tag of $299.99, the Classic model will set you back $349.99. Keep in mind that the Gear S2 price mentioned here is for the Bluetooth version, as the 3G version is still listed as coming soon on the…

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A new set of Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950 XL images has leaked online, showing the devices (although prototypes) in the flesh.

The most important detail the images reveal is that the Lumia 950’s 20MP PureView camera will also have triple-LED flash (see image below) – previous leaks had suggested that only Lumia 950 XL’s rear camera will have triple LED flash.

The leaked images also give a better look at the low-infrared diode for the iris scanner on the devices – if you aren’t in the know, you’ll be able to unlock the devices by just looking at them. Additionally, it was also confirmed that both the high-end devices will have a dual-SIM version.

Both Lumia 950 and 950XL are expected to be made official at the software giant’s October 6 event next…

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Since Android 6.0 Marshmallow will officially make its debut next week when it will land on Google’s Nexus line of devices, Motorola thought it fitting to publish a blog post outlining its plans regarding Marshmallow updates. It’s unfortunate that in this day and age very few smartphone makers are so upfront about their update strategies.

As you’d expect, Motorola has published a list of its devices that are going to get updates to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Yet you might not have expected the list to be this short, or for certain handsets to be missing from it.

Let’s start with the good news then. The following devices will see the newest version of Android:

• 2015 Moto X Pure Edition (3rd gen)

• 2015 Moto X Style (3rd gen)

• 2015 Moto X Play

• 2015 Moto G (3rd gen)

• 2014 Moto X Pure Edition in the US (2nd gen)

• 2014 Moto X in Latin America, Europe and Asia2 (2nd gen)

• 2014 Moto G and Moto G with 4G LTE (2nd gen)

• DROID Turbo

• 2014 Moto MAXX

• 2014 Moto Turbo

Add to all of these the Motorola-made Nexus 6, which however will get its update straight from Google (as is customary in the Nexus program). You may have noticed that neither generation of the affordable Moto E has been included, nor the first-gen Moto G and Moto X. And while these two may be considered too old to update at this point, the second-gen Moto E is only a few months old.

An actual release timeline for the updates for the devices that are getting them hasn’t been outed yet, but Motorola says information on timing should become available “in the coming weeks”.

Moving on, the company has also announced that it’s going to stop developing some of its apps and services that have functionality that’s now either built into Android itself, is very similar to Android features, or for which there are many third party alternatives.

Hence, Moto Assist will be gone in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, along with Motorola Migrate, and the Google Chrome extension found in Motorola Connect. The focus here is apparently on keeping things simple and bloatware to a minimum, and we assume most people would agree with this…

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Skype has updated its iOS app today, bringing it up to version 6.3. This is obviously not as big an update as version 6.0, which was released last month boasting a completely new design.

However, Skype 6.3 for iOS does come with a few useful new things. First off, it is now fully compatible with iOS 9, the latest iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system. This means you can use Slide Over and Split View on iPads, essentially running Skype while also using another app alongside it. This makes sharing things through Skype especially easy.

You’re now also able to reply to your Skype chats straight from the notification that shows up on your lock screen. And finally, it’s easier to start a Skype chat from Spotlight search. That’s because your Skype contacts now show up in Spotlight when you search for people, and from that point on it’s a simple matter of tapping that contact to start Skype and get chatting.

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If you own a vanilla Android Nexus device, you should be getting Marshmallow on October 5. Some other more fast-paced manufacturers like HTC announced a list of its devices that will be getting the OTA and now LG might is joining the Android 6.0 fun.

The clues were found on the company’s Korean support website, where a few flagship models have Android 6.0 listed as an OS version option. Currently, these include the LG G3 F400S, F400K, and F400L, along with the LG G4 F500S, F500K, and F500L.

The corresponding support pages are still unavailable, but here’s to hoping this is some indication that the update itself will follow shortly.

Source (in Korean) |…

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