It is hardly a surprise that the third generation Motorola Moto G is one of the most anticipated smartphones of 2015. After all, in less than two years after the first iteration of the smartphone (Moto G became the most successful phone in the company’s history) made its debut, the Moto G product family has successfully redefined what a budget Android handset should look, feel, and perform like and how much it should cost.

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We’ve all had to deal with this issue at one point or another – you managed to capture that one perfect shot and time it just right, but sadly a nasty fence or your own reflection are in the way and horribly distracting. Well, researchers at Google and MIT have been working on a software solution for the problem and it looks like they are onto something.

The algorithm promises to almost magically remove obstructions from photos. An ideal usage would be for fences, like in the demonstration, as anything bigger simply blocks objects and filling in lost content is going to be very tricky.

Michael Rubinstein, a research scientist at Google, familiar with the project explains that the algorithm relies on the phenomenon of motion parallax. It is a perceptive illusion that leads us to believe objects that are closer to us move faster than the ones further away when we change our own vantage point. The software leverages this effect by analyzing a few consecutive shots taken by panning the camera slightly, much like a panorama shot. It then distinguished between the different layers and attempts to remove the one in the foreground, which should be the unwanted obstruction.

Since they’re moving differently, we can use that information to figure out there are two layers we’re actually looking at, and we remove one of them,

This approach is quite clever and according to Tianfan Xue, lead author to the MIT paper, it can currently be applied to reflections, dirt and water on windows, as well as the aforementioned chain fences. The technology has already been tested in practice at a local zoo, where it produced a lot of clean and impressive, “fence-free” shots with the use of nothing more than Android phones.

Rubinstein says that Google has expressed interest for the algorithm, so it is entirely plausible that after the bugs get worked out, it makes its way as a new camera mode.

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Seagate has announced a new Xbox branded portable USB 3.0 hard drive. The drive has a capacity of 2TB and is priced at $109.99. The drive works with both, the Xbox One and the Xbox 360.

While the Xbox does come with capacious internal storage options, with the Xbox One topping out at 1TB, the sizes of games makes it easy to burn through that much storage easily, with several games now coming in at around 50GB each if you choose to download them.

This makes having an external drive for your console a worthwhile investment if you intend to keep all your games. Having said that, Seagate’s drive might be a bit expensive as you can use pretty much any other drive (the non-Xbox branded version of this same drive costs $79 on Amazon). But it’s a small premium to pay if you want it with the branding and the exclusive Xbox green…

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When Sony announced the Xperia C5 Ultra earlier this week, there was no word on its pricing and exact launch date. However, the device is now listed on the company’s Hong Kong website, revealing a HK$ 3,298 ($425) price tag for an unlocked, dual-SIM unit as well as a release date of August 14.

Specs-wise, the Xperia C3 successor is powered by a 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6752 chipset, and sports a a 6-inch, 1920×1080 resolution IPS display. It comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB expandable internal memory, and packs in a 2930mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the handset features a 13MP unit both in front and at the back. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop. For those who aren’t aware, the Xperia C5 Ultra will only be available in selected countries across emerging markets.

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The Meizu m2 note – which was announced a couple of months ago in June – will be available for purchase in India starting next week, i.e. August 10. The device will be an Amazon exclusive in the country, and will carry a price tag of INR 9,999 ($157) – this is apparently for the 16GB variant.

Meizu #m2note is up for grabs. Priced at just Rs. 9999, exclusively available on Amazon.in from 10th August. http://pic.twitter.com/n9olt8xVxq— MEIZU India (@Meizu_India) August 5, 2015

Specs-wise, the successor to the popular m1 note is powered by a Mediatek MT6753 SoC with octa-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and Mali-T720MP3 GPU, and sports a 5.5 inch FullHD display. It comes with 2GB RAM and 16/32GB expandable memory options, and packs in a 3100 mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the handset features a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. The model that’ll go on sale in India will come with Android 5.1-based Flyme OS pre-installed.

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WhatsApp’s iOS app has received an update, bumping it to version 2.12.5. The update brings some new and useful features, such as the ability to include videos in chat backups, custom notification settings for individual chats, and automatic loading of messages on scroll, among others.

The updated app lets you backup your videos along with your chats, something which you can do by heading to Settings -> Chats and Calls -> Chat Backup. In addition, now you can also set custom notifications for individual chats, and even mute the ones that make a lot of noise. The update also lets you mark chats as unread or read with a swipe to the right.

Moving on, now you can directly share contacts from the Contacts app and locations from Apple Maps with others on WhatsApp. Also, older messages now load automatically as you scroll chats. Another useful feature the update brings is that now you can control the amount of data consumed during WhatsApp calls, something which you can do by heading to Settings -> Chats and Calls in the app.

Finally, the updated app also features better support for VoiceOver, and brings improved design for cropping photos and videos.

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Recently a pretty nasty vulnerability in Android was discovered. It’s being called Stagefright, and it affects versions 2.2 Froyo and newer of the OS. There is a fix, and thankfully it’s now starting to be deployed through over-the-air updates by different manufacturers and carriers.

But to ensure a more swift response to future situations of this nature, two companies that are very important to the Android ecosystem have announced some similar measures today.

Let’s start with Google, the developer of Android and the company in charge of software updates for the Nexus line. It has unveiled that, going forward, it will release monthly security updates for the Nexus devices, in addition to the usual platform updates.

The first such security patch is in fact rolling out right now to the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 7, Nexus 9, Nexus 10, and Nexus Player, fixing the aforementioned Stagefright exploit. According to Google, Nexus devices receive security updates “for the longer of three years from initial availability or 18 months from last sale of the device via the Google Store”.

At the same time, Samsung, the biggest Android device maker, has committed to implementing a new security update process for its products. This will fast track patches when new vulnerabilities are uncovered. The updates will come to Samsung devices over-the-air “regularly about once per month”.

The Korean company is already doing some fast tracking in issuing a patch for the Stagefright bug, but it “plans to further develop this process and implement it as a timely security update practice”.

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Yesterday BlackBerry took the wraps off its latest smartphone – the Passport Silver Edition. While it’s really little more than a new color variant for this model, the company launched it like it’s an entirely new device. The silver hue and metal frame do look nice, but on the inside the specs are identical to those of the black Passport.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of the new Silver Edition, you probably know that it’s already available to buy in the US. But what if you’re in the UK and desperately crave one of these?

Well, all you can do for now is pre-order one. That will ensure you’ll be among the first people to own the BlackBerry Passport Silver Edition when it is released in the UK sometime in late August.

Online retailer Clove already has the phone up for pre-order for £399, so you can go ahead and secure one for yourself over there.

The Passport comes with a 4.5-inch 1,440×1,440 square touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with OIS and LED flash, a 2 MP front-facing unit, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC with 2.26 GHz quad-core Krait CPU aided by 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, and a 3,450 mAh battery. It runs BlackBerry OS…

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A couple of days ago an image surfaced claiming to depict both the upcoming Xperia Z5 and the Xperia Z5 Compact from Sony for the first time. In that shot, both phones were turned on and showing the instructions for training their respective fingerprint sensors.

Thus, we found out that these are going to be the first Xperia smartphones to come with such scanners. These will be embedded inside the handsets’ power buttons. And now we’re basically getting a better look at those buttons.

What’s of note here is that the buttons are still on the right side of the devices, having a placement similar to what we’ve seen from past Xperia flagships. It’s just that now they’ll also serve authentication purposes through those embedded fingerprint scanners. While placing a fingerprint sensor on the front of a phone (embedded in the Home button) or on its back (under the camera) have pretty much become the norm, Sony is going a different way with the Z5 duo.

Obviously don’t forget that these images may not be the real deal. That said, the two Z5 devices are probably going to get official at an event on September 2, so the fact that they’re leaking now isn’t at all surprising.

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Today Facebook has announced a new feature. This one is going to be exclusive to celebrities, though. Starting today, verified athletes, musicians, politicians, and “other influencers” will be able to share live video with their fans.

This will happen through Facebook Mentions, the special app designed just for celebrities. Obviously though, you won’t need a special app to watch said live video broadcasts from your fav celeb – they will show up in your News Feed on the Facebook website and in all of its mobile apps.

This being Facebook, you can like, share, and comment on the live videos as they’re being broadcast. You also see when your friends or other public figures start watching a stream. And if you don’t catch the live broadcast, you’ll be able to watch any such video later on the specific celeb’s page.

The first famous people to take advantage of this new feature will apparently be Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Serena Williams, Luke Bryan, Ricardo Kaká, Ashley Tisdale, Lester Holt, Martha Stewart, and Michael Bublé. At this point it doesn’t look like Facebook has any plans to let everyone broadcast live videos – it’s celebrities only for now.

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