Last year Apple revealed a new design for its iPhones, but with it came the (in)famous ‘bendgate’ saga. Apple’s new iPhones (but mostly the iPhone 6 Plus) were extensively tested by different outlets and found to bend a lot easier than competing products.

Obviously this hasn’t stopped Apple from selling millions and millions of those phones, but the company has apparently been working on a fix for bendgate for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus that should be outed in a few weeks.

Mainly this has to do with using a different type of aluminum alloy this year, one that’s stronger and bends less easily. This will be more expensive for Apple, but with the margins it still commends we assume that won’t be a problem.

So just how much stronger is this new alloy compared to the one used last year? Well, in a comparative video test, the shell for the iPhone 6 bends at 30 pounds of force applied, whereas an alleged iPhone 6s shell only bends when 80 pounds of force are applied.

So it’s pretty safe to assume then that bendgate will be a thing of the past once the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus launch. The new devices use 7000 series aluminum, which seems to be more than twice as sturdy as the 6000 series alloy employed in the original iPhone 6…

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The financial struggle is all too real for HTC and like many others, the Taiwanese manufacturer is battling hard to stay profitable. A recent guidance revision for Q2 2015 foretold a whopping loss of $257 to $291 million that the OEM is facing and naturally, damage control was imminent.

It appears that HTC is going to sell off its Shanghai-based factory in an attempt to counter some of the losses. The negotiations are already under way, but all we currently know about the mystery byer is that it will be a local Chinese manufacturer.

This, however is no reason for despair, as the sale is simply part of a strategic plan for reducing costs that HTC is carrying out in order to stay relevant on the dynamic mobile market. Other OEMs are often taking similar measures as well. HTC’s business restructuring will also include major lay-offs, which some reports suggest will represent as much as 15% of the company’s current staff.

The factory in question is one of HTC’s many manufacturing facilities, scattered across China and Taiwan, so the deal shouldn’t really affect availability or distribution of devices. Plus, the company’s latest flagship – the One M9 hasn’t really been doing well in sales, so naturally, shrinking sales lead to a reduction in manufacturing. Still, the 147 square meter complex has been known to work quite efficiently. During HTC’s hayday around 2010, it actually operated at double its capacity.

Times might be rough for HTC, but hopes are still high. Industry sources claim that the OEM already has its sights at a new flagship – the Snapdragon 820-powered HTC O2. So, here to hoping for a brighter future for HTC.

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The Lenovo Vibe S1 has already passed by our rumor mill a few times in the past. Back in February, we got our hands on an extensive leak, featuring specs and photos for a few upcoming Lenovo handsets with the Vibe S1 among them. More-recently, a visit to TENAA reaffirmed the hardware and exterior of the phone and we were pretty confident that it would be yet another generic mid-range offer.

But, as it turns out, we might have been a little hasty in our assessment, as according to @upleaks, the Vibe S1 has a trick up its sleeve that it had hidden in plain sight all along. Allegedly, the smartphone will come with two front-facing cameras, which, believe it or not, is a world first. The pair of selfies shooter would presumably be used to achieve bokeh effects.

If you examine the TENAA photos, you will clearly see two symmetrical openings on one side of the earpiece. We previously thought that one would simply house sensors, but it could just as easily hide a second camera sensor, as well.

Lenovo Vibe S1 at TENAA

According to the aforementioned TENAA listing, the Vibe S1 has a 5MP front-facing camera, which under these circumstances is obviously not the full story, but could also indicate that both modules will be 5MP.

As far as the rest of the specs on the Lenovo Vibe S1, it should sport a 5-inch FullHD display and run on an eight-core 1.7GHz processor (perhaps the Snapdragon 615). Memory is set at 2GB for Ram and 16GB of onboard storage, expandable by microSD. It measures 143 x 70.8 x 7.85 mm and weighs in at 130 g, that includes the 2420 mAh battery. Last, but not least, the Vibe S1 should come in a colorful pallet, featuring violet, blue and pink colors, as well as the traditional black and…

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MIUI launched on August 16 2010 with just 100 users and five years later the Android-based software is enjoyed by over 150 million users. They’ll soon get access to version 7 of MIUI, coming soon to a number of Xiaomi devices.

The highlights of the new version include new default themes and a daily lockscreen with different award-winning photographs each day (this feature will debut in India). The interface is designed to support huge fonts so you don’t have to peer at tiny type on high resolution screens.

The insides of MIUI have been spruced up as well, apps should launch 30% faster while overall battery usage will go down 10% compared to version 6.

Xiaomi has integrated Opera Max into MIUI and promises up to 50% data savings (this works for any app that uses the Internet, not just the browser).

MIUI 7 is clever too – it integrates with the Mi Band to detect when you fall asleep and automatically triggers DND. It disables it when you wake up.

The phone experience has been improved with Showtime – MIUI account users can record 5 second videos and they’ll show up a caller ID for other MIUI users. This will also launch in India first, along with Baby Album. The gallery can recognize faces – even baby faces – and create a slideshow.

MIUI 7 will be available as Beta for the Redmi 1S and Redmi 2, Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi 4i, the Redmi Note 3G and 4G. Starting August 25 a limited edition of the Xiami Mi 4i with new colors, sale start 2pm exclusively on mi.com/in at IRN…

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LG is gearing up to announce two new models of Bluetooth speakers at IFA, and one of them sure looks odd. It’s another word for stylish in this case, don’t get us wrong, it’s just that the bottle inspired design is so striking that LG felt the need to warm us up to the idea before we see it in the flesh in Berlin a couple of weeks from now.

Dubbed SoundPop 360, the cylindrical speaker outputs sound in all directions and promises a 20-hour battery life. LG says it drew inspiration from coffee tumblers, which you’re already used to carrying around, so the speaker should be able to effortlessly fit into your daily routine. We can imagine a Monday morning where cranky you will pour your coffee in the SoundPop 360, so we’ll see how the design plays out in the long run.

The more conventional LG Music Flow P5 is not facing such peril. Looking like a miniature retro desktop radio, the P5 joins the already available larger P7. The P5 is claimed to last 15 hours on a single charge, and that’s about everything we get in terms of specs at this point in time.

Both speakers will come a multitude of proprietary features like Auto Music Play, Multi Point, Dual Play. The first one will fire up the speaker, once an audio source comes within range, while the other two let you connect multiple devices to a single speaker, or multiple speakers to a single source of music.

The SoundPop 360 and Music Flow P5 will be shown at LG’s IFA stand, where we’ll hopefully be able to get some more detailed specs. Another attendee there will be the Music Flow HS8 curved TV speaker we told you about a few days back, though none of us peasants seems to have a curved TV to go with it.

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It seems that BlackBerry is making a Hail Mary pass with Android-based, QWERTY-packing smartphones. The BlackBerry Venice has seen plenty of screen time, but now the phone is back with additional promo images hinting at Android 5.x Lollipop with BlackBerry software and integration.

BlackBerry Venice

From previous leaks we already knew the basic design of the Venice – a vertical slider reveals a hardware QWERTY keyboard. At its bottom is a loudspeaker that remains visible even when the slider is closed.

We should see the BlackBerry Venice at IFA with launch scheduled for November on AT&T and likely the other major carriers.

Passport-like BlackBerry

Then there’s the Passport-like device. We don’t even have a codename for it, but now there are images of the whole thing. It has a square screen and a large 3-row hardware keyboard. Interestingly, leaked images of both devices show plain Android with several extra apps – maybe BlackBerry will resist the urge to fix the interface that’s not broken.

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The Meizu m1 note was a fantastic package for the price. It pretty much established the baseline for how to get the best out of a smartphone on a shoestring budget. The one we had others compared to…

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Fossil has been doing smartwatches – ahem, “Wrist PDAs” – since long before Android was a thing, but they met the same fate as the Palm OS that they ran. The company is ready to have another go at it, this time partnering with Intel to deliver an Android Wear watch.

At the Intel Developer Forum 2015 Fossil showed off a round smartwatch with a “flat tire” design like the Moto 360. Both companies were mum on specs and features though.

A glimpse at the Fossil smartwatch

“Combining our fashion lifestyle brands with Intel’s expertise in technology, hardware and innovation will position us to be a leader in this segment,” said Kosta Kartsotis, CEO of Fossil Group.

Intel has also partnered with TAG Heuer to deliver a watch, but the Swiss watchmaker wasn’t at the IDF.

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The next generation iPhones – the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus – have starred in lots of rumors recently. One of those reports suggested the phones will be available in a new Rose Gold color option in addition to the Space Gray, Silver and Gold paintjobs.

Today a few supposedly leaked pictures show how the new iPhones will look in Rose Gold. Check them out.

And a few more images:

Unfortunately the Rose Gold looks too pink in some of the photos, which may hint they are fake. Aren’t those supposed to look like this?

On the other hand – the official announcement will be happening in just a month, which means the new iPhones have already entered into mass production and there is a possibility those pictures are the real deal.

Keep calm and take those pictures with a grain of salt. Meanwhile you can share with us how you imagine the Rose Gold flavor will look like.

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Meizu has announced that it will be selling its flagship MX5 smartphone in India soon. The phone will be available starting Wednesday, August 19 at 10:00 AM exclusively through Snapdeal. You can register for the phone from here.

The MX5 has a 5.5-inch 1920×1080 AMOLED display, Mediatek MT6795 SoC, 3GB RAM, 20.7 megapixel rear camera, 5 megapixel front camera, fingerprint sensor, dual SIM support with LTE, 3150mAh battery, fast charging, and Flyme OS 4.5 on top of Android.

The pricing hasn’t been announced…

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