A day after confirming the existence of Xplay5, vivo has revealed its unveiling date. The Chinese company has released a new teaser that confirms the device will be made official in less than a couple of weeks from now – March 1 to be specific. The event will take place at the Beijing Water Cube (19:30 local time).

Aside from confirming the Xplay5 name yesterday, vivo had also revealed an important design aspect of the handset – dual-curved display. In today’s post the company referred to the device as “borderless.” While nothing else has been officially revealed/confirmed by the company, we expect to see more teasers and leaks in the coming days given the phone is nearing its announcement.

From what has been rumored until now, the vivo Xplay5 will be powered by Qualcomm’s SD820 chipset and come with 6GB of RAM. It is also said to feature solar charging.

Source (Chinese) |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/212DloK
via IFTTT

Smartwatch sales have surpassed Swiss watches for the first time, and you have Apple to thank.

According to a report by Strategy Analytics, 8.1 million smartwatches were shipped in Q4 of 2015 compared to 7.9 million Swiss watches.

Out of the 8.1 million, 5.1 million were Apple Watches with 63% share, 1.3 million were the various Samsung smartwatches with 16 percent share, and the rest were from other manufacturers, such as Pebble.

Compared to Q4 2014, smartwatches saw an increase of 316% in one year. The only difference between 2014 and 2015 being, you guessed it, the release of the Apple Watch.

We are now seeing watchmakers such as Tag Heuer, and Fossil starting to dip their toes in the smartwatch waters. While overall smartwatch numbers may be up, it’s important to note that it’s mostly the Apple Watch that’s holding the entire segment up on its shoulders. It will be a while before we know if people are interested in smartwatches or just the Apple Watch. And it will be even longer before we see the demise of mechanical watches.

Source •…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1owGBri
via IFTTT

Samsung was the top smartphone vendor for both Q4 2015 as well as the complete year, according to a latest report by market research firm Gartner. Specifically, the South Korean company sold over 83.4 million units last quarter, claiming 20.7% share of the market, which is up from 19.9% share reported in Q4, 2014.

Apple came in second with 17.7% market share, down from 20.4% share the Cupertino-based company claimed in the year-ago quarter. Huawei, Lenovo, and Xiaomi rounded up the top five with 8%, 5%, and 4.5% shares, respectively. Notably, Huawei achieved the best growth with a 53% jump in sales.

Overall, global smartphone sales saw an year-on-year jump of 9.7% last quarter, which the report said was the slowest growth rate since 2008.

For the complete year too, as already mentioned, Samsung retained the top spot – its market share stood at 22.5%, although that was down from the 24.7% share it had in 2014. Apple’s share slightly increased and stood at 15.9%, giving the company the second spot.

Here also, Huawei was the best performer in terms of sales jump.

Talking about the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android retained the No.1 position in Q4 with over 80% share, which is a jump of over 4% compared to the year ago quarter. Apple iOS’ share fell from 20.4% to 17.7%.

The data shows that Windows Phone sales dropped to 4.3 million units last quarter from 10.4 million in Q4 2014, giving the OS just 1.1% market share. This is broadly in line with what we already know.

Finally, struggling BlackBerry’s share of the market slid even closer to…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1UbNES3
via IFTTT

A couple of weeks after its black variant leaked online, another alleged image of the HTC One M10 has surfaced, showing off the white-colored model this time. As was the case before, the new image is also shared by the usually reliable leakster @evleaks on Twitter.

Let’s call it HTC One M10 in white. http://pic.twitter.com/lGfIM5SSpX— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 18, 2016

A quick comparison with the alleged black variant (shown below) reveals broadly the same design, although it’s difficult to exactly compare given that both images are taken at different angles. However, one notable difference is the shape of the fingerprint scanner on the Home button – seems comparatively less elongated than on the black model.

https://t.co/PKvW63aF8L http://pic.twitter.com/zsyzQWbVAt— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 5, 2016

Specs-wise, from what has been rumored until now, the One M10 is powered by Snapdragon 820 and sports a 5.1″ QHD AMOLED screen. It has 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, and features a 12MP UltraPixel camera. The device runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with HTC Sense 8 on top.

It is tipped to launch in April, and go on sale in the US a month…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1os94hx
via IFTTT

Shortly after Apple launched its mobile payments service Apple Pay in China, there are reports that the iPhone maker’s competitors in country are planning to release their own payments service. The revelation was made by IHS Analyst Kevin Wang, who named Xiaomi, Huawei, and ZTE in a Weibo post.

It’s not that Apple Pay doesn’t have any competition in China – there are mobile payment companies like WeChat Payment and Alipay from Alibaba Group that are already established in the world’s biggest smartphone market. However, Apple is currently the only smartphone vendor offering such a service there.

Despite coming from a well-known analyst, the news still falls in the category of rumors as it’s yet to be officially confirmed by any of the companies Wang named. However, given that Xiaomi is said to be bringing back NFC support in its upcoming Mi 5 flagship despite dropping it from the Mi 4 citing low usage, the rumor does seem to carry some weight.

Nevertheless, a rumor remains a rumor until it is officially confirmed, and till then it needs to be taken with a pinch of…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1KtYKjf
via IFTTT

Nextbit’s cloud-focused Robin smartphone, which recently started shipping to the initial 1,000 backers of the company’s kickstarter campaign, is now available for purchase. Carrying a $399 price tag, the device is now listed on the company’s website.

Both mint and midnight color options are available for purchase. However, what’s worth mentioning here is that currently only the GSM model of the handset is being sold. The CDMA version will probably start shipping to backers in April, so expect it be available for purchase after that.

As you might already know, Robin’s selling point is that it makes sure you never actually run out of space – everything that’s important to you is made available offline, while the rest is pulled from the cloud upon…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/24dD4yd
via IFTTT

Nvidia started rolling out the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the original Shield Tablet earlier this month, but the roll-out was soon halted after there were user reports of the update causing Wi-Fi issues with the device. The good news is that those issues have been fixed, and the roll-out has resumed.

A company representative posted in an official forum that Marshmallow OTAs for both shield tablet K1 and original shield tablet are back online. “At this time, we’re confident we have corrected the problem and are releasing a new Software Update,” the post said.

For those who aren’t in the know, the Android 6.0 update for the shield tablet K1 first started rolling out back in December. Notification for the new update should hit your device any time now, although alternatively you can always manually check for the availability of the update by heading to Settings -> About…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1QpofhZ
via IFTTT

Samsung has announced that the launch event of its upcoming Galaxy S7 flagship smartphone will be presented in 360-degree live streaming, making it the first time when viewers will be able to enjoy a 360-degree view of a Galaxy Unpacked event.

“During Galaxy Unpacked you will get four options for where to watch—from the auditorium, stage left, stage right or from center stage. Pick whichever spot is right for you, then use the 360 live streaming to get a complete view of the event from every angle,” Samsung said in a press release.

Those planning to watch the event from a PC will be able to do so by heading to the Galaxy Unpacked page on the Samsung website when the event begins. On the other hand, the Unpacked 360 View app will let you enjoy the event on your Android or iOS mobile device. However, if you’re planning to watch the event with Gear VR, you need to download the app from the Oculus Store.

Just to remind you, the event begins February 21 at 7:00 p.m….

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/20HMKN5
via IFTTT

LG Electronics has announced a new agreement that it is going to collaborate with B&O (a high-end electronics designer and manufacturer) to come up with an audio quality-focused experience on a smartphone. The companies have apparently been working together for the Hi-Fi audio features for the highly-anticipated LG G5.

B&O is a company that designs and manufactures high end TVs, entertainment systems, speakers, and audio equipment. B&O Play is the company’s division of higher volume consumer electronics like high-end headphones and portable speakers for audiophiles.

LG wants to differentiate itself by further planning to work with B&O to provide a significantly better audio experience than other smartphones on the market. The phone maker has been proud to say it has a long history of integrating high quality audio into its smartphones most recently, the LG…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1OiMRHI
via IFTTT

Apple changed its mind about Error 53 being a security feature and allows a phone with a modified Touch ID sensor to function with the Touch ID feature disabled. Disabling phones from restarting, simply because they were repaired at an unapproved shop did not sit well with people. The public backlashed and Apple did what it needed for customers to be happy.

Apple apologized and released a patch to iOS 9.2.1 that will disable the bricking feature that Error 53 was causing. When an unauthorized modification is made to the Touch ID sensor, perhaps when replacing a faulty home button, the iPhone threw an error and would not restart.

Then when plugged into iTunes to recover the software, you were led through the restore process and the phone would never completely restore.

With the new patch, iTunes will allow the device to restore and function normally, the downside is the modified Touch ID will not be active and become useless.

The guys over at iFixIt.org have followed Apple’s official guidelines and were able to successfully follow new prompts to restore iPhones that have a modified Touch ID sensor.

Source | Via | Via…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1TpkGNV
via IFTTT