Some major retailers are not keen on supporting Apple Pay

Despite the major hype that Apple Pay is generating, the payment system might still have difficult time to establish itself as a major player. A number of high-profile retailers including the likes of BestBuy, Walmart, and Rite Aid will not support the Cupertino giant’s latest creation.

Some merchants are even disabling or modifying the NFC readers in their stores in order to shut out Apple Pay. The reason behind the move is called CurrentC - a payment system backed by retail heavyweights, which aims to cut off debit or credit card processing fees by taking money directly from a user’s bank account.

Update! Retail package of Motorola Droid Turbo leaks out

Live images of the retail package of the upcoming Motorola Droid Turbo made the rounds on Twitter. The high-end smartphone for Verizon Wireless is set to debut this coming Tuesday, on October 28.

The elegant retail box of the Android powerhouse contains only the basics. Users will get a charger, a pre-loaded SIM from Verizon Wireless, as well as the usual array of booklets.

Motorola Droid Turbo leaks out in live photos

Motorola Droid Turbo for Verizon Wireless made yet another unscheduled appearance. This time around, the soon to be revealed Android powerhouse showed up in number of live photos.

In line with past leaks, the images showcase the upcoming device in black color scheme. The photos also confirm the handset’s specs.

Apple iPad Air 2 GPU tested, outclasses Tegra K1

Someone has put the Apple iPad Air 2 through GFXBench's 2.7 T-Rex and 3.0 Manhattan's onscreen and offscreen (1080p) platform and we get to ogle at the framerates posted.

The results show the iPad Air 2 is just as good and even at times better than the promising Tegra K1 chip and its Kepler GPU, which was the previous graphics champ.

The scores below show the iPad Air 2 beat the Tegra K1 in both offscreen tests - the same tests that are both capped at 1080p and indicate the raw power of the GPU.

The onscreen tests offer less framerate because of the above-1080p native resolution of the iPad Air 2 but it still managed to pull ahead of the Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9 which has the same screen resolution and Nvidia's latest chip inside.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

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iPad Air 2 benchmark reveals 3-core CPU and 2GB of RAM

Apple iPad Air 2 made a trip to the popular Geekbench benchmark and revealed juicy bits about itself. The freshly announced full-size tablet from Cupertino sports 2GB of RAM and rather curious 3-core CPU.

While 2GB of RAM are hardly a surprise due to a number of leaks that suggested the memory bump, the CPU setup surely is a curious one. Past iPad models have stuck to a dual-core CPU.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 reaches 4.5 million sales in a month and still up

According to South Korean outlet News1 the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has hit 4.5 million sales globally about a month after its launch (it launched September 26). That's a little lower than the 5 million units its predecessor sold in its first month, but the Galaxy Note 3 got a wider release initially.

The Galaxy Note 4 started off in South Korea and China and has been expanding its availability ever since. It started selling in the US only recently. The flagship phablet also experienced some delays in markets like the UK and India where sales started a week ago. As for China, Samsung rolled out the dual-SIM versions only a couple of days ago.

The 4.5 million number doesn't seem to include the Galaxy Note Edge, Note 4's sibling with a two-sided screen, which is only now going on sale and in just a few markets.

The Galaxy Note 4 may have hit a few bumps on the way out but Samsung needed a best seller as its Q3 earnings declined.

Amazon loses $437M in Q3, $170M due to a Fire Phone failure

Amazon posted its Q3 earnings for this year - the company achieved $20.58 billion revenue which is a 20% increase compared to last year's Q3 when it pulled in $17.09 billion.

The company's operating loss tips the scales at $544 million, though, a whopping increase compared to last year's Q3 loss of just $25 million. Net loss is $437 million.

Amazon's results are a direct reflection of the company's Fire Phone not having the best market performance. The company was forced to make a writedown of $170 million to cover costs related to inventory and suppliers.

Perhaps part of the reason the Fire Phone hasn't taken off is the crowded market or perhaps the fact that Amazon agreed to make its first smartphone an AT&T exclusive (aside from Amazon's own retail chain), which has hurt other companies in the past (here's looking at you, Nokia).

Samsung Galaxy A7 1080p screen, a new 64-bit processor confirmed

Last month there was some confusion about the screen resolution of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy A7, some sources said 720p others 1080p. A leaked User Agent Profile confirms the 1080p number for the SM-A700FD, which is a dual-SIM version of the device. The screen will have a 5.5" diagonal, giving it 400ppi pixel density, up from Galaxy Alpha's 312ppi.

The profile also reveals that the Galaxy A7 will have a 64-bit processor (ARMv8-A instruction set) and will be clocked at 1.5GHz.

Samsung launches the Galaxy Mega 2 in India

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 has reached India today. Samsung has officially launched the mid-range phablet in the subcontinent. This comes after the Mega 2 has previously gone on sale in Malaysia, and got listed on the official Samsung website in Thailand. In the US, AT&T is due to start offering it today too.

Over in India, the Galaxy Mega 2 is already available to buy from Samsung's own online store. It's priced at INR 20,900, which means about $341 or €269.

It's being offered in both white and black, and the store says it does currently have sufficient stock.

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 comes with a 6-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 5 MP front snapper, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, as well as microSD card support.

A 1.2 GHz quad-core processor runs things, and dual-SIM support is built in, although in terms of mobile data connectivity the Mega 2 tops out at 21Mbps HSDPA. It also has Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 2,800 mAh battery. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat.

Leak details where the Galaxy S5 Active will land in Europe

The Samsung Galaxy S5 Active is coming soon to Europe, that much has been made abundantly clear by some recent leaks. When exactly that will happen is still quite a mystery, but today we get to find out more about the 'where'.

That is, which places in Europe will be lucky enough to get the rugged version of the Galaxy S5 on sale. This list is based on firmware versions for the phone, spotted on Samsung's servers. There's a chance that more firmware packages will be added later, so this list may not be exhaustive.

So, the Galaxy S5 Active should make it to Austria, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, France, Switzerland, Poland, Slovenia, Germany, Italy, the UK, the Nordic countries, and the Baltics. Note though that in Norway it may be exclusive to Telenor.

Meizu MX4 Pro live image, benchmarks show

A live photo of the Meizu MX4 Pro has surfaced confirming the phone looks as we saw it in a couple of official photos last week. Additionally, the phone went through GFX Benchmark testing, confirming its key specs in the process.

The Meizu MX4 Pro comes with a 5.36" display with a 2560 x 1536 pixel resolution (557 ppi) and is powered by an the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa with a quad-core Cortex-A15 and a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU in addition to a hexa-core Mali-T628 MP6. RAM is reported at 3GB (not 4GB) and available storage is 12GB out of 16GB total.

At the back, there's a 20.7MP Sony camera that's capable of shooting 4K videos. An 5MP snapper is placed at the front for selfies and it shoots QXGA videos. The phone runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat, which means Meizu is preparing an update for its Flyme 4 OS. Its current revision is based on Android 4.4.2 KitKat.

Unlike the Meizu MX4, the MX4 Pro features a phsyical home button and not a capacitive one. The phone also keeps the slim bezels akin to the MX4 and we've seen it run YunOS 3.0

Yea..LG G3 to get Android 5.0 Lollipop update by the end of 2014

The LG G3 is going to sport Android 5.0 Lollipop by the end of the year, according to an LG representative for the Netherlands and Belgium cited by TechTastic. He didn't give a more specific time frame, as we suspect the company is going to make an official announcement regarding its update plans.

The LG G3 is probably going to be joined by the LG G Pro 2 since both are the company's flagships as of now. However, we suspect more devices will be blessed with Android 5.0 Lollipop goodness such as the LG G3 S, G3 Stylus, G2 and the mid-range L90 and L70.

Lumia phones will be branded 'Microsoft Lumia'

The Nokia Lumia brand is no more – from now on there will only be Microsoft Lumia. However the Nokia phone brand isn't completely dead, Microsoft will continue to sell current Nokia Lumia handsets and provide the support that users expect. Also, features phones like the Nokia 130 will continue to be sold, we should also see new feature phones being introduced.

Tuula Rytilä, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Phones, gave an interview in which she detailed the future course of the Lumia brand. She points out that the rebranding is already underway with former Nokia-branded apps coming under the Microsoft umbrella. Similarly Nokia sites are in the process of moving to Microsoft.

Nokia brand to be replaced with Microsoft Lumia !

If you've seen Microsoft's recent articles about Lumia you know it was coming. The Nokia brand has been phased out by calling the phones just "Lumia" and redirecting Nokia online properties to Microsoft.com. This rebranding effort will expand and soon the lineup will become "Microsoft Lumia".

Lumia is already the de facto face of Windows Phone – it accounts for about 90% of the market. Microsoft has been busy signing up new vendors but they will struggle to gain significant market share as the big names have mostly neglected WP.

Samsung unveils Galaxy S5 Plus with Snapdragon 805

With a quiet whisper Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S5 Plus – a Snapdragon 805 version of the company's 2014 flagship. This is the small late season upgrade, similar to the Galaxy S4 LTE-A that launched late last year. Just like its predecessor the new Plus model brings a faster LTE connection in addition to the improved performance.

The Galaxy S5 originally launched with the Snapdragon 801 chipset that included a 2.5GHz quad-core processor. The new processor is also at 2.5GHz but it's a new core – Krait 450. The chipset also has a new generation GPU – Adreno 420 – breaking away from the 3xx series.

Nexus 6 pre-orders confirmed to start on October 29

Google and Motorola unveiled the Nexus 6 phablet last week. During the blog post announcement, we were told that pre-orders for the device would start on October 29.

And this date has just been confirmed by none other than the phone's listing in the Google Play Store. The Nexus 6 is in there, but you'll only be able to pre-order one starting on October 29 - next Wednesday, to be precise.

By now you probably know the pricing: the Nexus 6 will set you back $649 if you want the base 32GB model, or $699 if you need double that storage amount.

HTC-made Google Nexus 9 announced with Tegra K1 chip

As expected, today Google announced its latest tablet - the HTC-made Nexus 9 tablet. The tablet runs on Android 5.0, which has just been confirmed to be called Lollipop and packs a 9" IPS LCD with the unusual for Android aspect ratio and a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels (that's 4:3 aspect ratio).

The 7.9mm thick Google Nexus 9 is powered by the Nvidia Tegra K1 chip with a 2.3GHz CPU, the very potent Kepler DX1 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The available storage is either 16 or 32GB, but there's no expansion slot.

BlackBerry Classic specs detailed, small update over Q10

The new BlackBerry CEO trying to bring the company back to its roots where it had hardware keyboards and success. The unusual BlackBerry Passport is part of that strategy but the mass-market piece of the puzzle is still not official – the BlackBerry Classic.

We've seen the device in the CEO's hands and leaked photos with some specs, but now the entire spec sheet is out. Unofficially, of course. The first Classic device will measure 131 x 72.5 x 10.2mm and weigh the hefty 178g.

 
BlackBerry Classic

It will have a square 3.46" LTPS TFT display with 720 x 720 pixel resolution (294ppi). The BlackBerry Classic earns its name with the traditional 35-key backlit physical keyboard and an optical trackpad. For calls there are three microphones for noise cancellation.

Nexus 6 will be sold by AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile

Motorola and Google made the Nexus 6 official earlier today, and we already know it's going to cost $649 if you choose to purchase the 32GB base model from the Play Store in unlocked form.

Though if you were wondering about carrier support, this is for you. And it's very good news. It turns out that the Nexus 6 will get the widest US release of any Nexus device ever.

It will be available at Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular. What's more, T-Mobile was even so kind as to already announce its release details.

iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 get confirmed by Apple

Just as Google was busy announcing its new Nexus family, Apple managed to confirm the names of the two new tablets that it will introduce at its special event tomorrow.

They will be the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3, the latter being the successor to the iPad Mini with Retina Display from last year and thankfully returning to a more concise naming scheme.

Google Nexus 6 is official with 6-inch QHD screen and S805

Without any sort of special event, Google has just announced the Motorola-made Nexus 6 smartphone running Android 5.0 Lollipop. The phone features a 6" 2560 x 1440 pixel display, which gives it a pixel density of 496ppi.

The premium display is backed up by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset with a 2.65GHz quad-core Krait 450 CPU inside and 3GB of RAM. At the back, there's a 13MP f/2.0 camera with dual-LED flash. Internal storage is either 32GB or 64GB, but there's no microSD card slot.

At the front, there are two stereo speakers and a 2MP front-facing camera.

Google unveils Android 5.0 Lollipop as an official name

Along with the announcement of the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 9 today, Google also announced that the next iteration of their mobile OS, which we so far knew under the codename Android L, will actually be called Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Android Lollipop was one of the top picks of the rumor mill anyway, but another not so distant possibility was also Lion, which seemed quite reasonable, bearing in mind it will follow right after KitKat.

Android 5.0 Lollipop will ship on the just announced Nexus 6 and Nexus 9, but it will also be available on Nexus 4, 5, 7, 10, and Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks.

Meizu MX4 makes its way to Malaysia for $322

The Meizu MX4 is setting foot in Malaysia by the end of this month. The phone is going to be made available from Meizu itself for a price of $322 (RM 1,048).

For the price, Malaysian customers get the latest generation MediaTek MT6595 chipset with big.LITTLE architecture, 5.3” 1152x1920 IPS display by Sharp, 20.7MP Sony Exmor RS camera, and Android 4.4.4-based Flyme 4.0 OS.

The Meizu MX4 is already up for pre-order internationally and the company's CEO Bai Yongxian states the company has received 7.7 million pre-orders for the device.

The Meizu MX4 is available om 16GB or 32GB variants with prices of $449 and $489, respectively. Both price tags include shipping and import tax to select markets in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

Google releases Android L 64-bit emulator for x86 Intel CPUs

The Android developer community has released an Android L emulator image specifically for Intel's x86 64-bit architecture.

It will allow developers to build or optimize older apps for the upcoming Android L OS and its new 64-bit architecture.

Moving to 64-bit increases the addressable memory space, allows a larger number of registers and new instructions sets for developers.

HTC Desire EYE price revealed, costs as much as HTC One (M8)

HTC today announced the Desire EYE, alongside the HTC Re standalone camera (quite an odd camera, we must say), but didn’t reveal how much the two new devices would cost. However, it looks like French website Nowhere Else knows how much the Desire EYE will cost.

According to the website, the new handset should be available in France before the end of this month for €529. Since that’s also the price of theHTC One (M8) in France, it’s probably safe to assume that the Desire EYE will cost about as much as the One (M8) in all markets - including in the US, where it should be launched soon.

The Desire EYE is an unusual smartphone, because it has a 13 MP rear camera, as well as a 13 MP front-facing camera, each with its own dual LED flash set-up. Thanks to these cameras, the EYE should be very good at taking both regular photos, and selfies.

Running Android KitKat with Sense 6 UI, the Desire EYE also features a 5.2-inch display with 1080 x 1920 pixels, BoomSound speakers, a quad-core 2.3 GHz Snapdragon 801 processor, 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of expandable internal memory. The handset weighs 154 grams, measures 151.7 x 73.8 x 8.5 mm, and comes with a 2400 mAh battery.

iPhone #bendgate theater and Apple's respond to?

For the record, I have been counting the days until this stupid iPhone 6 Plus #bendgate nonsense would end ever since the first time I saw the video that kicked it all off from Unbox Therapy. When I saw the knuckles of Lewis Hilsenteger go white in his attempt to bend the iPhone 6 Plus, I was convinced that this was all going to be blown way out of proportion, and any chance to highlight a real problem with the iPhone 6 Plus would likely be lost. I'm sad to say that I may have already been proven right. 

There is obviously a structural flaw in the iPhone 6 Plus that Apple should be held accountable for, but there is a huge gap between confronting a company about a legitimate problem and what we've been seeing with #bendgate. Of course, I should have expected that exact reaction, because almost no one on Earth knows how to discuss Apple rationally and reasonably, and any issue with an Apple product, no matter how small, will become far bigger than it should, because irrationality breeds exaggeration (just check the comment section on any Apple-related article for evidence on that). 

Let's start right at the beginning, when the rumors first started going around about the iPhone 6 Plus bending. The first whispers came from iPhone users, obviously. But, were they finding out about the problem because of normal usage? At first, yes, but quickly afterwards, not so much. The first reports came from people who had put the iPhone their front pocket only to find it bend, which is unfortunate and a real issue. But, those reports were overtaken by jokes about skinny jeans, and complaints from those who put their new iPhones in their back pocket and then sat on them. Look, I don't care if you're wearing skinny jeans or Hammer pants, and I don't care if you have an iPhone, a Galaxy Note, or a NoPhone. If you put a smartphone in your back pocket and then sit on it, any damage that occurs is your fault and yours alone. That's just a mistake waiting to happen, especially when the phone in question is large enough to be affected by the shape of your ass. 

After those initial reports, the mess took an even more silly turn, and for this we have Mr. Hilsenteger to thank, because since then there have been almost no reports from actual consumers with legitimate problems. The vast majority of the "coverage" has been from people who are actively trying to bend the iPhone. The coverage has been flat out ridiculous and has turned into a mess of noise that is obscuring any possibility of getting Apple to answer the real complaints. And, that's a big problem, because there are legitimate concerns which need to be addressed. 

A Nexus X (aka Nexus 6) rumor : features, specs, price and release date

A few months ago, it seemed that Google had killed the Nexus line of devices, and the Nexus 5 was to remain the last one in the series. Reports from notable bloggers including @evleaks all agreed that Google was about to not only switch its focus from Nexus to the new Android Silver program for affordable markets, but also kill the Nexus series altogether. Then, we heard that Google’s Chief Business Officer, and the main proponent of Android Silver within the company, Nikesh Arora had left. This turned out to mean one thing: the Nexus was back in business.

At first, we were talking about a Nexus 6, a placeholder name that did the job done for the time being, but as more evidence started piling up, we started hearing more about a mysterious Motorola ‘Shamu’, a device uncovered in the Android Open Source Project’s code-base by Android Police at the end of July. 


After all those small fish, it was time for something bigger like a whale. It was time to get excited: after all, Shamu is the name of the killer whale that has survived the most in captivity. Most importantly, it is a name of fish, and that is exactly what Google traditionally uses for its Nexus devices: the Nexus 5 was ‘Hammerhead’, the Nexus 4 carried the ‘Mako’ shark codename, and the Galaxy Nexus was developed under the ‘Tuna’ moniker.

HTC unveils the Desire EYE, a selfie-centric high-end smartphone with a gigantic camera front 13MP

HTC's most recent flagships, the HTC One and the HTC One (M8), have been getting quite a lot of flak due to their underperforming Ultrapixel rear cameras, but the company has been rarely criticized for failing to endow its high-end phones with good front-facing snappers. It looks that the company is trying to push the limits in this segment even more, as its latest device can easily snatch the crown and become the ultimate selfie phone from a well-known manufacturer. 

At its long-scheduled press event today, HTC unveiled the 5.2” HTC Desire EYE, a device that is equipped with a humongous 13MP (not a typo) front-facing camera. Whoa. Undoubtedly, HTC's newest smartphone is a direct rival to the selfie-centric mid-rangers of its bigger rivals, namely Sony's Xperia C3, Samsung's Galaxy Grand Prime, and Microsoft's Nokia Lumia 730. There's a vital difference between these devices and the HTC Desire EYE, though - the latter has nothing to be ashamed of in the hardware department.

Design

Frankly said, the two-color, unibody Desire EYE is not as compact as similar 5.2” devices. It has dimensions of 151.7 x 73.8 x 8.5 mm and tips the scales at 154 gr, which is just a tad larger than the 5.2” Sony Xperia Z3, for example. Among most probable causes for the elongated silhouette of the device is the additional space required to fit in the large sensor of the front facing camera. 

The front-facing BoomSound speakers at the front of the device have most probably taken their toll on the size, too – you might not seem them at first sight, but they are right there, hidden between the display's black bezels and the contrasting frame. The BoomSound speakers also come with the signature built-in audio amplifiers. Meanwhile, a trio of noise-canceling microphones and HTC's Sense Voice technology take care of your voice reproduction.

Oh, and HTC has finally jumped on the trendy-of-late water-resistant bandwagon, as the HTC Desire EYE is IPX7-certified, meaning that it can survive in up to 1 meter of water for as long as 30 minutes.

Project list appears to confirm LG G Flex 2

The LG G Flex is an innovative device, no doubt. The self-healing back plate, flexible P-OLED 6-inch screen, comfortable form factor, and snappy performance, made for a compelling package.

We know some folks were not impressed with LG’s decision to pack such a large display with a mere 720p resolution, but the tradeoff was worth it to some since the Snapdragon 800 CPU and Adreno 330 GPU did not have to do much work to keep the lights on.









                                                                   Note - This is the LG G Flex

The G Flex is unique in that it delivered on the basics while packing some technology we have yet to see from any other manufacturer, and that is why we are not surprised that LG confirmed that a G Flex 2 is in the works.

What is a bit odd, however, is the virtual lack of information about a G Flex successor since we learned that not only is the G Flex 2 on the way, but it would also have a “unique” feature. Given the self-healing back plate and flexible display were already unique, we are intrigued to learn more, but the rumor mill has been quiet.

Microsoft said to be terminating its Surface tablet line

According to a report published on Thursday that cites sources from the upstream supply chain, Microsoft is planning to drop its Surface tablet line. This comes after sales of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 have come in lower than expected. Microsoft had high hopes for the tablet, but larger-screened smartphones have recently been taking business away from tablets.

The first two generations of Surface slates are said to have produced losses of $1.7 billion for the manufacturer. Microsoft is now expected to ship less than 1 million units of the Surface Pro 3, which was aimed at enterprise users. In addition, sources say that Microsoft is backing away from developing the next-gen Surface tablets.

Microsoft had been expected to unveil the Surface mini at the same time that the Surface Pro 3 was introduced last May. But the manufacturer's lack of confidence in the product led it to cancel production of the model. Now, it seems that Microsoft has lost confidence in the whole line.

WSJ: Google's 5.9-inch Motorola-made Nexus will be launched this month

The Wall Street Journal today is reporting that Google will launch a 5.9-inch Nexus smartphone sometime later this month. Of course, this is what we’ve been hearing for quite a while now, so the report is far from being surprising - but it’s still good to see more reliable sources confirming the arrival of a new Nexus.

As mentioned many times before, the upcoming device - codenamed Shamu - is manufactured by Motorola, and will be the most advanced Nexus handset yet. Its 5.9-inch display will have 1440 x 2560 pixels, while other features should include a quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor, 3 GB of RAM, 12 MP rear camera, and a 3200 mAh battery.

Jony Ive about companies that copy Apple's designs: it's not flattery, it's theft

Jonathan Ive, the man who designs Apple’s iPhones and iPads (among other things), isn’t particularly happy about the fact that other companies often copy his designs.

Present at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit today, Jony Ive was asked how he felt about Xiaomi’s products - some of which look a lot like Apple’s. He said he doesn’t see this (i.e. mimicking Apple’s designs in general) as flattery. “I see it as theft, and it's lazy," declared Ive. He continued by saying that “a beautiful product that doesn't work very well is ugly.”

Halo smartwatches have real movements, transparent OLED touchscreens

Smartwatches fall into two categories – a functionality-first type with square displays and looks-first with round design. An ideal execution of the second type will be an actual watch with a real movement and hands, but also with a display hidden in there somehow.

It’s the “somehow” that’s the crux of the issue but Longshine Technologies thinks it has the answer – a transparent OLED touchscreen.

The company is an ODM – meaning it manufactures devices that other companies brand but is considering its own line of devices. The two platform demos are the Halo 1 and Halo 2.

will Samsung Gear VR launch on December 1?

The Samsung Gear VR virtual reality headset could finally be released on December 1, at least in South Korea. That’s what a leaked document, purported to have originated at Samsung’s customer service department, claims.

Furthermore, we even get a price to speak of. In Samsung’s home country, the Gear VR will apparently go for KRW 200,000 (which is approximately $187 or €148 at the current exchange rates).

Asus ZenWatch hits stores in November in limited numbers

Asus announced the ZenWatch in September and promised it will hit store shelves in Taiwan in November. Sadly, however, according to information obtained by VR-Zone sources, Asus will offer the smartwatch in extremely limited quantities at launch.

If the information turns out to be true, then we wouldn’t keep our breath for Asus to release the ZenWatch outside Taiwan any time soon. There’s no additional information as to what is holding the company back to launch the wearable at this time.

Nvidia launches GeForce GTX 980M and GTX 970M for mobile gamers

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M and GTX 970M went official today offering superior performance over the Kepler series of GPU they replace. The GTX 980M and and GTX 970M use the company’s latest Maxwell graphics architecture, which also powers the company’s latest desktop GPU line-up.

Thanks to the Maxwell architecture, the two mobile GPUs are more power efficient and offer greater performance. The GTX 980M and GTX 970M feature 1536 and 1280 CUDA cores, respectively. Naturally, the GTX 980 is the more powerful one with a GPU base clock of 1038MHz, while the 970M is clocked at 924MHz.

The mobile GPUs are built on the 28nm manufacturing process and feature up to 8GB of GDDR5 RAM and up to 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM for the GTX 970M and GTX 980M, respectively. The 980M is more power hungry than its less powerful brother with a TDP of 125 Watts against 95 Watts.

Google Play Store updated to v5.0, gets more Material Design elements

Google has started rolling out v5.0.31 of the Play Store for Android. The major difference here is in the UI, and it’s approximately 600% more Material Design now.

First up, the action bar on top is now teal (or something close to that) with a new side menu and a cool animation for the hamburger button. The side menu shows the same items now, but the font is smaller.

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro notebook is official with QHD+ and Intel Broadwell chip

n addition to refreshing its tablet line-up, Lenovo has also announced the Yoga 3 Pro laptop with a 13.3″ 3200 x 1800 (QHD+) display with Gorilla Glass 3 on top. Under the hood, there’s the latest Intel Broadwell chip, the Core M-70, which doesn’t require any fans.

The Yoga 3 Pro has also lost some weight and is 17% thinner and 15% lighter than its predecessor at 1.19kg. Further specs include up to 8GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, but there’s also a base model with 256GB. Connectivity is covered with Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 as well as two USB 3.0 ports, microHDMI out, a 4-in-1 card reader and DC-in, which doubles as a USB 2.0 port.

Samsung Galaxy A7 has 1080p screen, A5 will be go out in November

Samsung's upcoming 'A series' of smartphones has been in the news a lot lately, with leaks coming left and right. This usually signifies an announcement arriving in the near future, and that could be just what's going to happen in this case.

According to a new rumor, the Galaxy A5 will already be in stores in November. If that's going to pan out, then we may see it get officially unveiled later this month. As previously leaked, the A5 should cost around $400-450 without a contract.

Sapphire crystal maker for Apple Watch goes bankrupt!

In a bit of baffling news, GT Advanced has released a statement saying it is filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. GT Advanced, in case you didn't know, is the company tasked with making those sapphire crystal screen covers for the Apple Watch.

Apple also uses sapphire from the same company for the camera covers and the Touch ID fingerprint sensors of its iPhone lineup.

You may obviously be wondering what effect this bankruptcy filing will have on the release timeframe of the Apple Watch. That's still unclear, but just a few hours ago we heard that Apple's first wearable could be delayed slightly, arriving on the market in February in limited quantities. That might be related to GT Advanced's situation, but there's no more information right now.

Meizu MX4 Pro specs allegedly leak, 4GB of RAM rumored

Meizu unveiled the 'normal version' of its MX4 flagship smartphone at the beginning of this month. Yet there are more variants of the MX4 in the works - this has been known for quite a while through various leaks and rumors. At least an MX4 Pro is coming, but that could even be joined by a 'Mini' iteration of some sort.

If you're wondering what kind of specs the ultra high-end MX4 Pro might sport, then this is for you. A purported spec list for the device has leaked in Chinese media, and you can see it to the left.

According to this still unconfirmed document, the Meizu MX4 Pro will come with a 5.36-inch touchscreen with 2,560x1,536 resolution, the same 20.7 MP rear camera with LED flash as the 'vanilla' MX4, and a 13 MP front-facing camera. This would be a huge upgrade in terms of pixels compared to the 2 MP unit on the MX4.

The MX4 Pro will reportedly be powered by a Samsung Exynos 5430 chipset, which will feature an octa-core CPU. This will have four Cortex-A17 cores clocked at up to 2.6 GHz, and four Cortex-A15 cores clocked at up to 2.1 GHz. Aiding the top notch SoC will apparently be no less than 4GB of RAM.