Lenovo is quickly becoming part of the long list of legendary brands struggling for profits in today’s vast tech branch. The Chinese giant is far from sinking, but both its PC and smartphone businesses haven’t been doing well recently and the latest fiscal report from Q1 2015 paints a gloomy picture.

The company’s revenue has a 3% percent year over year increase, but the $10.7 billion are still short of the $11.29 billion forecast. Worse still – Lenovo’s net income is down by 50%, compared to the same period last year. This has caused the company to do major restructuring to restore its profitability.

One of these measures involves laying off about 10% of the company’s employees from non-manufacturing sectors. That amounts to about 3200 people and a total of 5% of Lenovo’s 60,000 staff. This should theoretically bring savings of up to $640 million by the end of the year.

But Lenovo doesn’t really plan on sitting on that money, quite the opposite. It should go toward a major restructure in the mobile business. The manufacturer plans to rethink its handset portfolio and bring it down to just a few signature models. Also, international sales are going to play a much bigger role in Lenovo’s future strategy.

But perhaps most interesting of all is the decision to put Motorola’s expertise in charge of the mobile division. A Lenovo’s CEO letter to employees urges the company’s Mobile Business Group to better leverage on the complimenting strengths of Lenovo and Motorola, suggesting that Moto will be focusing on smartphones and Lenovo on PCs.

We can’t wait to see what new goodies emerge from the new arrangement.

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Xiaomi has announced the newest version of MIUI alongside the new Redmi Note 2. MIUI 7 is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop and comes with a bunch of new features.

One of the features is face detection mode in the Gallery app, that can recognize faces and sort images according to the people in it in the People tab. The software is even able to identify and differentiate pets.

MIUI 7 also has a handful of new themes, including a pink ‘Goddess’ theme targeted at women and as usual you can download more from the store.

MIUI also has a new feature called Mi Roaming, which acts as a virtual SIM for when you go out of your country, allowing users to purchase data packages from Xiaomi and use them instead of getting a new SIM. This feature is only available in China for now.

MIUI 7 can also let you set videos for contacts, which play when the person calls you. Lastly, there is also a Kids Mode, which restricts what content kids can access on the device.

MIUI 7 will start rolling out for Mi 2, Mi 2S, Mi 2A, Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi Note, Redmi, and Redmi Note tomorrow in China. Xiaomi will be officially announcing MIUI 7 in India on August…

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UMI ZERO 2 is back with big promises. This time it takes aim at Vertu with genuine leather back (though the LG G4 seems like a more realistic target). “So no surprise even UMI want to design ZERO 2 is a true art and look-luxury, like Vertu,” says UMI PR.

If you’re thinking “but what about the e-Ink back?” well it turns out this may be a different phone, UMI ZERO PRO. Even though the company’s Facebook page is touting the UMI ZERO 2 with an image of a phone with an e-Ink back.

It seems that the company itself isn’t 100% sure what the ZERO 2 is going to be, but they seem pretty sure it will have a reversible USB Type C port with fast-charging support. Asking about price and launch date is asking to reveal too…

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Xiaomi has announced the new Redmi Note 2 and the Redmi Note 2 Prime in China. The phone comes with several improvements across the board over its predecessor, including a new design, display, processor, camera, and a new version of MIUI.

The new Redmi Note 2 runs on the MediaTek Helio X10 chipset, with eight Cortex-A53 CPU cores. We have previously seen this chipset being used on the HTC One M9+, which was a flagship device unlike the Redmi Note 2. The phone also has 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage. The Redmi Note 2 Prime variant comes with 32GB storage, with the rest being identical.

Other specs include a 5.5-inch 1920×1080 resolution LCD, 13 megapixel rear camera with Samsung sensor, and 5-element lens with f/2.2 aperture. The camera also has phase detection autofocus, which is much faster than conventional contrast detection autofocus systems. On the front is a 5 megapixel camera made by OmniVision. There is also dual SIM support, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, IR blaster, and a 3,020mAh battery. Finally, the Redmi Note 2 comes with the new MIUI 7 out of the box.

In China, the Redmi Note 2 will be available in three variants. The 16GB model will be available TDD-LTE + TD-SCDMA and TDD-LTE + FDD-LTE variants, priced at RMB 799 (USD 125) and RMB 899 (USD 140), respectively. The 32GB variant, also known as Redmi Note 2 Prime, will support TDD-LTE + FDD-LTE and is priced at RMB 999 (USD…

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When Facebook announced its live streaming video feature last week, the company said that it will be exclusive to celebrities. However, the social network seems to have quickly changed its stance, saying that the feature will be available to all verified profiles in the future.

This was revealed in a report from TechCrunch, which also said that the feature’s availability is expected to be expanded before the holidays.

For those who aren’t in the know, the feature can be accessed through the company’s newly launched Mentions app, which is currently only available to actors, athletes, musicians, and “other influencers,” including Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Serena Williams, Luke Bryan, Ricardo Kaká, Ashley Tisdale, Lester Holt, Martha Stewart, and Michael Bublé.

Via 1 | Via…

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LG has announced that it will be rolling out a new music service for users of select LG smartphones. The main attraction of this service is that it will allow users to download high resolution audio files to their device.

While most music we listen today is sampled at 16-bit/44.1kHz, music from LG’s service is sampled at a much higher 24-bit/192kHz, which should theoretically make it sound better (we say theoretically because most humans can’t actually tell the difference between standard and high resolution audio).

The service will let customers purchase tracks at up to 50% off the regular price and get two free tracks every month. The service will be available on phones that support high resolution audio, such as the LG G4, G3, G2, and G Flex 2.

The service will start this month in nearly 70 countries, including the United States, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Italy, Russia and the United Kingdom through the LG SmartWorld app and…

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Google launched a dedicated website that showcases cool applications for Android. Dubbed Android Experiments, the webpage displays apps for smartphones, tablets, and Android Wear smartwatches.

A number of projects are already on display on the Android Experiments website alongside links to download and install them on your compatible device. They leverage a number development platforms including Android SDK, IOIO, and Unity among others.

Interested developers can submit their creations to Android Experiments via a dedicated link on the new website. Experiment submissions are open to everyone.

Source 1 | Source 2…

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The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ – which is set to be unveiled today along with the Galaxy Note 5 – will be up for pre-order in the company’s home country of South Korea on August 20, according to a report out of the country.

All major South Korean carriers, including SK Telecom, KT and LG U+, will begin taking the pre-orders on that date. The report also notes that Samsung is hoping that the device will increase its profit margins.

This comes just a couple of days after the company’s French website revealed that the handset will go on pre-order in the country on August…

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BlackBerry has started testing a new BBM feature that allows you to send and receive money using PayPal from within the messenger app. The feature is currently available for BlackBerry, iOS, and Android BBM users in Canada, and will roll out to other markets in the coming weeks.

The way it works is: first you have to select the PayPal “Send Money” icon in BBM and connect your PayPal account. Once your contacts also do the same, you can start sending money to them by selecting the PayPal icon in the app, entering the amount of money, reviewing the details, and finally hitting the send button.

Another thing worth mentioning here is that you don’t need to have the PayPal app installed on your device for the feature to…

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Mere hours ago Huawei basically confirmed that the Mate 7S would be the star of its September 2 event at IFA in Berlin.

And now the upcoming phablet has apparently been certified for sale in China by TENAA, the country’s equivalent to the US FCC. The certification has produced a couple of shots of the device, which reveal some subtle changes compared to its predecessor, the Ascend Mate 7.

In the image above, last year’s Ascend Mate 7 is on the left, while the Mate 7S is on the right. You can see that the front camera has been moved from the left to the right in between generations. The Huawei logo is also positioned differently. Whereas it was found in the phone’s chin on the Mate 7, the Mate 7S has it on the lower portion of the display panel for whatever reason.

Both sides of the Mate 7S can also be peeked at courtesy of the Chinese regulatory agency. The Mate 7S is expected to come with very narrow side bezels for its screen. It will be offered in black or gold.

For the Chinese market, three versions will be made, one for each of the country’s carriers. Past rumors had the phablet coming with a metal unibody design, 3GB of RAM, a Kirin chipset inside, a 13 MP main camera, and Android Lollipop underneath Huawei’s own Emotion UI.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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