Live video streaming service Periscope, which was acquired by Twitter earlier this year, is developing an app for the next-gen Apple TV, according to a report from TechCrunch.

There isn’t much known about the app in terms of functionality, except that it’ll allow Apple TV users to watch live-streams broadcasted from the Periscope app.

There was also no word on when the new app will be unveiled, although the report did say that it might be previewed tomorrow, when Apple’s new set-top-box is expected to be unveiled.

This comes just days after there were reports that the next-gen Apple TV is aimed at the gaming market, especially casual gamers – those who like to play games but find Xbox and Playstation require too much time and cash…

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Popular Internet radio service Pandora has announced a new offering that will give users access to 24 hours of ad-free music for 99 cents. Appropriately dubbed Pandora One Day Pass, the new payment tier will be available in the US starting tomorrow i.e. September 10.

“Delivering the best personalized music experience is our sole purpose at Pandora, and our team of nearly 100 musicologists dedicate an indescribable amount of energy to make that happen for each individual listener,” said Pandora’s chief product officer Chris Phillips. “Some listeners want an ad-free experience every once in a while, and the Pandora One Day Pass offers a new way to effortlessly access the music they love.”

The Pandora One Day Pass will only be available for purchase on iOS and Android devices, although the ad-free experience can be enjoyed anywhere you want, including cars and connected devices. The pass will also sponsor Pandora’s “Listener Love Day,” which commemorates the company’s 10-year anniversary with 24 hours of zero-ads music.

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In addition to the Pure XL phablet, the Miami-based manufacturer BLU took the wraps off the Vivo Air LTE smartphone at CTIA in Las Vegas. With a 5.1mm body and 97 grams of weight, the newcomer is the slimmest 4G LTE device to arrive in the United States.

As its name suggests, the ultra-slim smartphone is an upgraded variant of the BLU Vivo Air, which was announced in January. The Vivo Air LTE swaps the MediaTek chipset of the original for a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 solution, coupled with 2GB of RAM.

The rest of the handset’s specs include 4.8″ 720p Super AMOLED display, 16GB of built-in memory, 8MP main camera, 5MP front-facing unit, and 2,050mAh battery. BLU Vivo Air LTE boots Android Lollipop.

The handset will hit the shelves on September 22 in black or white color scheme, sporting a $199 price tag. Its LTE bands will be compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile.

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ZTE and AT&T announced a universal plug-in Wi-Fi hotspot for motor vehicles. Dubbed ZTE Mobley, the gadget utilizes a car’s OBD II port, which is present on most vehicles manufactured after 1996.

The ZTE Mobley features Qualcomm MDM9215 chipset that allows it to bring wireless internet for up to five devices. All users need to do is plug in the Mobley to a car’s port – it automatically turns on when the car starts.

AT&T has priced the ZTE Mobley at $100 with no contract. Wireless plans for the device alone kick off at $20 per month, though existing AT&T customers can add the Mobley to their Mobile Share Value plan for $10 monthly.

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According to a report in Bloomberg, Samsung plans to cut 10% of the staff at its headquarters in Korea. The move will allow the manufacturer to reduce its expenses going forward.

The job cuts will allegedly affect employees in public relations, finance, and human resources departments. The company has close to 100,000 workers in its HQ as of June 30 this year.

Samsung’s attempt to control its costs should hardly catch anyone by surprise. Despite churning out excellent mobile hardware over the past several months, the company has seen its sales and profits drop due to increased competition.

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BLU took the wraps off its most capable handset to date. Dubbed Pure XL, the phablet packs Helio X10 chipset, 6″ QHD AMOLED display, metal body, and highly affordable $349 price tag with no contract.

The rest of the phablet’s specs include 3GB of RAM, 64GB of built-in memory, and 24MP main camera. The latter features 1/2.3″ sensor, dual-tone LED flash, phase detection autofocus, and 4K video capture. An 8MP front-facing unit is in charge of selfies.

BLU Pure XL features a fingerprint sensor, located right below its main camera, as well as 4G LTE connectivity with support for AT&T and T-Mobile bands. The handset’s 9.6mm thick body packs a 3,500mAh battery.

The Miami-based manufacturer’s latest phablet will be exclusively available on Amazon from September 29 onwards in black or gold.

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Meizu went with the whole QHD resolution touchscreen trend for the MX4 Pro, but apparently the Chinese company was not satisfied with the results. Hence, its next flagship smartphone will sport ‘just’ a 1080p display.

This information has been made public by Meizu CEO Aber Bai on Weibo today. He says that his company wants to build devices that satisfy consumers in terms of the overall experience, and not products that simply manage to cross of a checklist of parameters.

Bai thinks that not even the best chipsets of today can work with QHD screens in a very efficient way, and there aren’t many instances in which that resolution is actually useful at this point in time. Hence, Meizu will go with a 1080p panel for its next high-end device.

Speaking of which, this was supposedly leaked a few days ago with the codename NIUX. It was spotted in a benchmark database with a 1080p screen indeed, and it’s powered by Samsung’s Exynos 7420 SoC, the same one that’s in the Galaxy S6 and Note5. This Meizu smartphone also has a 21 MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie shooter, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage.

So far we’ve heard it won’t launch as the MX5 Pro (because Meizu apparently shelved the ‘Pro’ line), and that it may cost more than CNY 3,000, which means around $471 or €421 at the current exchange rates.

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Starting today a new software update is headed towards what is basically the entire Nexus line of mobile devices released within the past few years. We’re talking about the LG Nexus 4, LG Nexus 5, Motorola Nexus 6, Asus Nexus 7, and HTC Nexus 9.

All of these devices are about to receive a new software build, yet the Android version will stay at 5.1.1 even after you apply the update. The new build number is LMY48M, and this should be identical for all of the aforementioned products except carrier versions of the Nexus 6. In this case there will be different build numbers – for example T-Mobile’s is LYZ28K.

This seems to be the first of the recently promised monthly security updates. That commitment was revealed by Google after the big Stagefright vulnerability was discovered. Alongside the security patches, the new update should also come with some unnamed bug fixes.

Since there are no new features inside, these updates are small. We’re talking around 30MB for the Nexus 6, and under 20MB for other devices. So it really shouldn’t take you long to download and install. It might however be a while until you get that update notification, because as usual Google’s opted for a staged…

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The recently revealed 2nd generation Moto 360 smartwatch will be sold in China, according to a new report. The wearable making it to the country might have something to do with the fact that Motorola is now owned by Lenovo, a Chinese company.

This is a bit unexpected because Google services are effectively banned in China and thus don’t work. And the Moto 360 runs Android Wear, which is an operating system that, unlike Android for phones and tablets, is pretty much controlled by Google in its entirety. Most of what the currently outed Android Wear watches do is powered by various Google services.

So in order for the Moto 360 to launch in China, Google had to decouple its wearable OS from its dependence on Google Now and Google Play. At the same time, Lenovo partnered with a few Chinese companies to offer similar (but not identical) functionality.

For example, Mobvoi will provide search services and voice recognition. If you’re in China and buy a Moto 360, you’ll still be able to talk to it, but instead of waking it up by saying “OK Google” you’ll have to utter “Ni hao, Android” (which translates into “Hello Android”). After that you can ask for a taxi, do a search, or dictate messages. Sogou will provide the mapping functionality.

The Moto 360 in China will let you install apps on it too, but these will obviously not be offered by Google’s Play Store (which doesn’t work over there). The apps will come via local app stores, of which there are…

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Google has updated its Android platform versions statistics page today, and after a pretty uninteresting few months there’s finally a new milestone to report.

In September, Lollipop was installed on 21% of the Android devices out there. This is the first time that Lollipop is seen crossing over the 20% threshold, after having moved past 10% back in June. As can be seen from the chart below, this calculation takes into account both Android 5.0 and Android 5.1 installs, since both of those versions are named Lollipop.

KitKat still leads though, with 39.2% of installs, followed by the three Android Jelly Bean iterations which collectively have 31.8% market share. After that there’s a big abyss in terms of numbers, with Gingerbread still somehow commanding 4.1% of the market and Ice Cream Sandwich being at 3.7%. Definitely last is Froyo with a 0.2% install base.

Keep in mind that no such official reporting is possible for even older versions, since the stats come from the new Google Play Store app which is only compatible with Android 2.2 or later. Also note that any versions with less than 0.1% distribution are not shown.

So it looks like Android device makers are releasing more and more products running Lollipop from day one, while at the same time updating their older wares to the new OS. However, there’s still a long way to go, and Android still is nowhere near iOS when it comes to how many devices in use run the latest iteration.

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