ARM is great, like powering most of the mobile industry great. But to stand out among the crowd you often have to go beyond a standard chipset. Custom SoC and core development are a risky venture, which has panned out quite nicely for some, like Samsung and Apple and not so much for others, like Huawei.

It is a little known fact, but LG has also tried its hand at custom architectures in the past with something dubbed the NUCLUN chip. Now, new rumors suggest that it is hard at work on a second generation that is intended to take of Samsung’s current gen Exynos 7420 powerhouse. A new leaked benchmark allegedly gives us a preliminary glimpse at what LG has achieved thus far and it is impressive to say the least, boasting over three times the performance of the Galaxy S6.

Now, this all sounds fine, but if you are scratching your head and wondering what this NUCLUN chip is and how come you have never heard of it, well, there is a pretty good reason for that. The first version was an unmitigated disaster that was plagued with overheating issues and never really made it outside South Korea. Keeping this legacy in mind, we naturally tend to be a little skeptical of a successor to the short-lived NUCLUN venture and even more so of the alleged benchmark results.

But, let’s give LG the benefit of the doubt and look into the scoop. As the story goes, the new chipset will be an octa-core model, employing two clusters of powerful Cortex-A72 cores in a big.LITTLE setup. One cluster will run at 1.5 GHz, while the other all the way up at 2.1 GHz. So, from the looks of it, the cores used by LG will still be standard, only in a custom chip architecture.

The manufacturing process is also said to be a one familiar to the industry – 16nm, courtesy of TSMC, which is allegedly cooperating with LG on the development of the new hardware. As for the enclosed benchmark results, we will leave it up to you to decide whether to believe them or not, but frankly, they seem quite “overstated”.

Source (in Chinese) | Via | Image…

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Huawei Kirin 935 turned out quite capable powering the latest P8 and P8lite smartphones. But this is not the best Huawei has to offer. Earlier this year we reported that Kirin 940 and Kirin 950 chips are already in the making and we should see them embedded in devices later this year.

And while we are still waiting for the Kirin 940 chip to premiere on the Huawei’s next big thing – probably the Huawei Mate 7S, we can now shed some light on the flagship Kirin 950.

The company’s best chipset to date will utilize an octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A72 at 2.4GHz and 4x Cortex-A57. The GPU in charge of graphics will be a Mali-T880 unit and the SoC will support LPDDR4 RAM.

Thanks to the CPU upgrade the Kirin 950 scores about 6,000 points at the multi-core Geekbench 3 test, which is about 20% more than the Exynos 7420 inside the top-tier Galaxy lineup. The single-core performance is about 1,900 points, which is 30% better than the single-core result of the Exynos 7420.

The Kirin 950 will most probably premiere on the Huawei Mate 8, which has been reportedly delayed for early next year. Still, we expect the upcoming Mate 7S to do impressively well with its Kirin 940 – an octa-core CPU with 4x Cortex-A72 at 2.2GHz and 4x Cortex-A53, Mali-T860 GPU and LPDDR4 RAM.

Note that the source of the screenshot brought us false information once a few days ago, so we’d take the whole score topping thing with a healthy pinch of salt.

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The dual-screened Oukitel U6 has been around for a while, there’s even a hands-on with it out there, but the parent company still hasn’t nailed down the hardware. We received info that the rumored MediaTek Helio X20 will be left for the U6 Pro version, the regular U6 will come with MT6735M.

That’s a 64-bit chipset with four cortex-A53 cores and Mali-720GPU – capable, but not nearly on the same level as the Helio. The price tag of the X20-packing U6 Pro is unclear for now, but the Oukitel U6 will go for $240.

That’s a good deal less than the YotaPhone 2, which also has a 4.7″ e-paper display on the back. Also, the US launch fell through and Oukitel is taking pre-orders for the U6 internationally.

The Oukitel U6 will run Android 5.1, have a 5″ front display (720p resolution, not 1080p like the YotaPhone). It comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, 13MP main camera and 5MP selfie camera. You can sign up for the pre-order at…

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A, E, J, K, S, V, Z…. O? Wait, how did it go again? Samsung’s Galaxy alphabet may be getting another letter with the Galaxy O5 and O7, which are known at the factory as SM-G550 and SM-G600 respectively.

Samsung’s naming scheme does not follow an alphabetical order. Flagships go under S, the Js are at the bottom, As are alternatives to the S family, while Es are more affordable As. The Zs are Tizen phones. The K showed up briefly as a camera hybrid, V as an entry level phone. There was a W tablet too.

Then there are the name-based lines – the Notes, Xcovers, Pockets, Grands, Aces, Stars, Youngs, Cores.

So, where will the Galaxy O fall into this complicated hierarchy? We don’t know yet, there’s not even one word on specs for the O5 and O7. We can’t even rely on alphabetical order to make a guess between flagship and entry-level.

O well, we may see some official info at IFA in a few weeks, now that the heavyweight Note and S6 edge+ are out the…

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If you thought Microsoft wasn’t being too controlling with Windows 10, here’s something that might change your mind. Microsoft can legally prevent you from playing counterfeit games on your Windows 10 PC.

According to the agreement that you must accept before installing the OS:

“We may automatically check your version of the software and download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorised hardware peripheral devices.”

We haven’t yet heard of any counterfeit games or unauthorized hardware peripheral that have stopped working so far on Windows 10 due to some update. And while we do not support installing pirated games or software on your computers, it really doesn’t seem it is any of Microsoft’s business to decide what their users can install on their computer after paying for the software. Unfortunately, they can legally do that due to the agreement that we all tend to blindly accept before installing…

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Samsung isn’t taking its time with releasing the dual SIM version of the Galaxy Note5 and is already accepting pre-orders. The info comes from the Philippines, but we’d expect all markets to follow soon – of course, the ones where the dual SIM Note5 is meant to be available at all, as previous generations could only be found in select countries.

Meanwhile, an actual retail unit of the said device was the star of a photoshoot in Taiwan, bringing an unpleasant revelation. All hope of a microSD-supporting Note5 appears to be gone now, with the live images to prove it.

There were rumors circling around that the Galaxy Note5 Duos may come with a mixed-use second SIM card slot, which would alternatively accept a microSD card for storage expansion. However, the photo above clearly refutes such claims, showing two regular nano-SIM cutouts in the card tray.

This puts an end to the months-old debate of whether the Galaxy Note5 will have a microSD or not. Apparently, users will need to embrace cloud storage for more extensive photo and music collections and whatnot.

Thanks to Erni for the tip and photo!

Source |…

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Strap in tight, because the hair-raising roller-coaster ride that is Android is still restlessly gaining momentum. While most of the industry is still battling it out with Google’s last major update and Lollipop is proving to be a tough bite to swallow for some, the online search giant is already knee deep in its latest brainchild – Android M. Development seems to be so rapid that the Developer Preview, released only few months ago at Google I/O is still lacking an official name, but is already rushing to consumer devices.

To stay relevant in this dynamic market you have to adapt quick and it comes as no surprise that Samsung is already hard at work building TouchWiz on top of Android M. An official infographic gives us a first glimpse of how the Korean giant intends to leverage the new features on Android M and package them inside a familiar Samsung experience.

Just as a quick reminder – Google outlined six major focus points when unveiling Android M (App Permissions, Web Experience, App Links, Mobile Payments, Fingerprint Support and Power and Charging) and naturally Samsung will focused on much the same in its upcoming update as well.

The said OTA promises granular app permissions, advanced memory tracking, better power management and native fingerprint reader support. But Android M finally tackles a few other long-standing issues as well, like Auto Backup of apps to the cloud.

We really can’t wait to see Samsung’s take on the update, as well as the new TouchWiz design, which is said to be more “material” than ever. The infographic uses renders of the Galaxy S6 edge to showcase the aforementioned changes and we are all but sure that Samsung’s curved flagship will be among the first in line for an Android M update. However, many other models will undoubtedly get the OTA as well. Samsung’s update coverage has always been a major point of interest. Here is a short preliminary list of Android M eligible Samsung devices.

Samsung Galaxy S6

Samsung Galaxy S6 Duos

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Duos

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge

Samsung Galaxy ALPHA

Samsung Galaxy Tab A

This list is said to be courtesy of Samsung as well and seems believable enough. However, it is sure to grow exponentially as Android M gets closer to release, so, as always, we will be sure to keep you updated when new information becomes…

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Xiaomi has managed to sell around 800,000 units of the Redmi Note 2 phone in just 12 hours, which is said to be a new record for domestic mobile sales. The device, which was announced in China last week, was up for flash sale in the country yesterday.

Specs-wise, the handset is powered by a MediaTek Helio X10 SoC with eight Cortex-A53 CPU cores, and sports a a 5.5-inch 1920×1080 resolution display. It comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal memory, and packs in a 3,020mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the Redmi Note 2 features a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. There is also dual SIM support, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and IR blaster, and the device runs the new MIUI 7 out of the box.

The second batch of the smartphone will go on flash sale next week on August 24.

Source (Chinese) |…

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A live photo of the next Nexus smartphone by LG made the rounds on Twitter, courtesy of MKBHD. The upcoming handset is expected to debut in the near future alongside a phablet by Huawei.

The image showcases the handset in white color scheme. In line with past leaks, the photo reveals a fingerprint scanner, as well as a protruding camera sensor with dual-LED flash and what appears to be a laser focus. A large Nexus logo completes the setup.

Rumored specs of the next LG smartphone include 5.2″ display, stereo speakers, and USB Type-C port. Naturally, the smartphone will ship with Android M on board.

Source…

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Sony has a Darth Vader-themed PlayStation 4 bundle coming our way. The special edition gaming console will hit the shelves in two guises on November 17, though pre-orders are due to begin soon.

The Star Wars Battlefront limited edition PlayStation 4 bundle will consist of a 500GB console with an image of Darth Vader and a gaming controller inspired by the Sith lord’s chest panel. Content-wise, buyers will get Star Wars Battlefront Deluxe Edition and download voucher for Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter and Star Wars Bounty Hunter. The classic games will be playable on on PS4 for the first time.

Walmart on the other hand, will exclusively offer the console with Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition and the above four classic titles. Additionally, the bundle will include four action figures of characters from Star Wars.

There is no word on pricing of the decked out PlayStation 4. It is reasonable to expect a price premium over the regular console.

Source…

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