Motorola’s Moto X Force smartphone, which first leaked nearly a week ago under codename Bounce, will be launched in the month of December this year, according to the usually reliable leaker @upleaks.

It was also revealed that the device will carry a price tag of 4,000 CNY, which turns out to be around $628.

Specs-wise, the handset will be powered by the Snapdragon 810 chipset, and sport a 5.43-inch QHD display. It will come with 3GB RAM, 32/64GB of internal memory, and pack in a 3,760 mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the Moto X Force – which carriers a “shatterproof” label, suggesting a military MIL-STD rating of some sort – will feature a 21MP rear unit and a 5MP front…

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Just days after there were reports that Sony is preparing to launch a Premium model of the Xperia Z5 Compact smartphone, the rumor mill is abuzz that another member of the Z5 family, dubbed Z5 Ultra, will be launched in the month of March next year.

Specs-wise, the device is said to be powered by Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 820 SoC, and sport a mammoth 6.44-inch (2160 x 3840 pixels resolution) display. It will come with 4GB RAM, feature a 23MP rear camera, and pack in a 4000mAh battery.

Needless to say, none of this has been officially confirmed by the company, so like all rumors, take it with a pinch of salt,…

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According to a report in 9to5Mac citing sources familiar with the device, the upcoming Apple iPad Pro will be able to run two full-size application side by side on its large display. The Cupertino giant is expected to unveil the slate on Wednesday alongside iPhone 6s.

The iPad Pro will pack an A9X chip, which is said to be a massive improvement over the already capable iPad Air 2. The high-end slate will pack 12.9″ “monster” display, optional LTE connectivity, a quartet of stereo speakers, Lightning port connector, and iOS 9.1.

There are three rumored color options – Gold, Silver, and Space Gray. Built-in memory options for the iPad Pro are said to start at 64GB, and top out at 128GB.

As expected, Apple’s flagship tablet won’t come cheap. Fully tricked out models with LTE connectivity are expected to easily top $1,000 jsut like the company’s notebooks.

In addition to the usual array of covers and cases, Apple will also offer optional stylus and keyboard with Force Touch on board.

Apple will reportedly open the pre-order books for the tablet in October, with deliveries set to begin at the end of November. Apparently, the production of the slate is running behind schedule.

Unsurprisingly, the latest iPad Pro report falls in line with past rumors. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long to get the full scoop on the tablet….

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HTC is no longer part of the TWSE 50 stock index in Taiwan. Going forward, the troubled Taiwanese manufacturer will be part of the Mid-Cap 100 Index. The latter is smaller and features 100 companies, compared to 50 in the TWSE 50 index.

A decline in the sales of high-end smartphones, including HTC One M9 has caused the manufacturer’s market cap to tumble. HTC has seen its shares drop by roughly two thirds over the past several months.

In order to deal with its financial woes, HTC has opted to sell its Shanghai factory, as well as cut 15% of its workforce worldwide. The company is also trying to diversify its product portfolio by venturing into virtual reality with the Vive headset, as well as fitness trackers in partnership with Under Armour.

The removal from the TWSE 50 index might cause the HTC stock price to drop further, because foreign investors are not keen on investing in stocks out of the aforementioned main index. Currently, HTC’s market capitalization is lower than its cash deposits….

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According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon is about to release a tablet with $50 price tag in time for the holiday shopping season. Currently, the retail giant’s most affordable slate, Amazon Fire HD 6, costs $99.

Like the Fire HD 6, the upcoming ultra-affordable tablet is also going to pack a 6″ display. Amazon is also tipped to launch new slates with 8″ and 10″ screens.

In order to reach the low price point, Amazon has reportedly outsourced some of the tablet’s development work to companies in China and Taiwan. Unsurprisingly, the device will feature decidedly low end hardware, including a mono speaker.

Amazon’s push further into the market for budget devices is a logical step for the company, as it struggled to establish itself as a premier manufacturer of high-end hardware. Roughly a year ago, the company took a massive write-down due to the market failure of its Fire Phone.

Source |…

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For most of this year, Google has been rumored to be working with both LG and Huawei on two new Nexus smartphones – a new Nexus 6 phablet made by the Chinese company, and a successor to the Nexus 5 from 2013 by the Koreans. The two handsets have been leaking so much lately that their existence is as good as confirmed.

We’ve already heard from a few places that the big unveiling of the two new Nexus-branded devices will occur on September 29. But when will you be able to order one?

Well, a new rumor comes to clear that aspect up too. According to an unnamed source, October 13 is when Google will start taking pre-orders for the duo. That is, coincidentally or not, exactly two weeks after the rumored September 29 event. Unfortunately though, this source could not provide an estimate of when the phones will be shipping.

With past Nexus releases, that’s generally happened 1 to 3 weeks after pre-orders started. Obviously however, things could be different this time around. Also keep in mind that such timetables are known to change, so even if this information is accurate now (and that’s quite an “if”), there’s no guarantee that October 13 will actually be the big…

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Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has announced a new version of his company’s Redmi 2A smartphone model. The new, enhanced Redmi 2A will go on sale in China tomorrow.

Compared to the previous iteration of Xiaomi’s cheapest device, the new Redmi 2A will be almost identical, save for two pretty important upgrades. Whereas the original model comes with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, the new one will double both of those.

So you’ll get 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The price for the new model will be CNY 549 ($86 or €77 at the current exchange rates). That’s CNY 50 ($7.85, €7.05) more than the original, but for most people the upgrade will probably be worth it.

Otherwise, the new Redmi 2A will share its specs with its predecessor. It will have a 4.7-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 2 MP front-facing unit, the Leadcore L1860C chipset with 1.5 GHz quad-core CPU, 4G LTE support, dual-SIM functionality, and a 2,200 mAh battery. Although this hasn’t been confirmed, we expect it to run MIUI 6.0 based on Android 5.0 Lollipop just like the original Redmi 2A.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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As we told you a few days ago, Micromax-backed Indian smartphone maker Yu will hold an event tomorrow during which it’s expected to reveal a new device. And it looks like most of this handset’s specs have been leaked already.

First off, a Yu 5050 has been spotted entering India for testing purposes by a specialized website tracking imports into the subcontinent. This also helpfully tells us that the phone’s screen size will be 5.2″.

Next up, the same Yu 5050 has turned up in the databases of two different benchmarking apps for Android – GeekBench and AnTuTu. And thanks to this we find out that the handset will come with QHD resolution, a 21 MP rear camera, an 8 MP selfie snapper, 32GB of storage, 3 or 4GB of RAM, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 SoC at the helm. It runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

What’s even more interesting is that the Yu 5050’s price is rumored to be around $310 unlocked. That would make it cheaper than the OnePlus 2, for example, and it could end up being the cheapest phone powered by the Snapdragon 810 chipset. On the other hand, the two different RAM amounts seem to indicate we’ll see two versions of the 5050, in which case the lower-end one is probably going to start at that price.

One thing to keep in mind is that such benchmark reports are not at all impossible to fake. Then again, we’ll officially find out everything there is to know about this phone in less than 24 hours.

Source 1 • Source 2 • Source 3 (in Chinese) | Via 1 • Via…

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Sony has started sending out a new software update for some of its older Xperia Z-series devices. The software in question is Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, still the latest stable version to come out of Google.

The devices for which the rollout has started today are the Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, and the Xperia Tablet Z in both Wi-Fi-only and LTE-enabled iterations.

Currently only certain variations of these models are receiving the update. For the Xperia Z we’re talking about handsets with the model number C6602 and C6603, as well as the C6503 and C6506 Xperia ZL units, C5503-badged Xperia ZR, the SGP311 and SGP312 Wi-Fi-only Tablet Z, and the SGP321 Tablet Z with LTE.

Unfortunately it looks like the much-discussed Stagefright exploit has not been fully patched in this release, so we expect to see a further, smaller update coming in the future to address that.

Regardless of which of the aforementioned devices you install the update onto, after having applied it you’ll be on build number…

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Now that it’s finally ready to actually release its first smartwatch after more than half a year since its first introduction, Huawei is ramping up its promotional efforts accordingly.

In a new promo video for the Huawei Watch we see US fashion model Karlie Kloss starring alongside Sean O’Pry. The two models are captured wearing the Huawei Watch by Mario Testino, one of the most well-known fashion photographers.

The #HuaweiWatch, as captured by #MarioTestino and featuring #KarlieKloss and #SeanOPry. #TVC http://pic.twitter.com/XeiqdRf9JW— Huawei Device (@HuaweiDevice) September 7, 2015

The video was posted today by the Chinese company on its social media accounts. By the looks of things, Huawei is set to emphasize the Watch’s classiness by associating it with people in the fashion industry, giving it an aspirational status for the normal consumer. How well this strategy will work remains to be seen of…

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