Shortly after the official announcement about Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola, a word got out on the fate of the Project Ara modular phone. Motorola’s Advanced Technology group which developed the device, as well as its patents will remain with Google.
According to people familiar with the subject, the division behind Project Ara will be integrated within the Android team at Google. The team of almost one hundred people will make a short trip to relocate from Sunnyvale to Google’s offices in Mountain View, California.
Going forward, work on Project Ara is to be accelerated using Google’s considerable resources. We will be keeping a close eye on any developments.
Google announced that it has reached an agreement to sell Motorola Mobility to Lenovo. The Chinese electronics giant will pay approximately $2.91 billion for the smartphones business with $1.41 billion due at the deal’s closing in cash and ordinary shares, and the remaining $1.5 billion as a three-year promissory note.
As part of the deal, Google will retain the bulk of Motorola’s massive patent portfolio, including current applications and invention disclosures. Lenovo will acquire about 2,000 patents alongside the Motorola Mobility brand and its trademarks. The Chinese company will receive a license for the remainder of Motorola’s portfolio which will remain at Mountain View.
After acquiring Motorola for $12.5 billion in 2012, Google raised the company’s profile last year with the launch of the characterful Moto X and Moto G duo of smartphones. Despite its efforts however, Motorola Mobility continued losing money each quarter.
Motorola’s acquisition will give Lenovo a much needed presence on the lucrative smartphone market in the United States (Motorola is currently number 3 smartphone manufactuer in the United States). It will also help the company counter the slumping sales of personal computers by expanding its focus on mobile devices.
Furthermore, the deal marks the acquisition of another legendary American technology brand by Lenovo. Back in 2005, the company bought the venerable ThinkPad division from IBM.
The transaction between the two companies is subject to regulatory approvals in both the United States and China.
In an official blog post, Page admitted Google was unable to devote all of its attention to reinvigorating Motorola, alongside its other commitments within the Android ecosystem.
The CEO said Motorola will be better off with Lenovo in the competitive smartphone hardware world, while Google will focus on improving the Android experience for all manufacturers.
Backing Lenovo to restore Moto's place among the Android elite, Page wrote: "But the smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices. It's why we believe that Motorola will be better served by Lenovo—which has a rapidly growing smartphone business and is the largest (and fastest-growing) PC manufacturer in the world.
"This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere."
Patently important
On paper, the deal represents a huge loss for Google, which paid $12.5 billion for Motorola in 2012. However the retention of Motorola's vast mobile patent portfolio is worth its weight in gold, Page said.
"And on the intellectual property side, Motorola's patents have helped create a level playing field, which is good news for all Android's users and partners."
Page also pre-empted any suggestion that the sale could mean Google is rethinking its hardware strategy in other areas and reaffirmed the company's commitment to creating great products.
He added: "As a side note, this does not signal a larger shift for our other hardware efforts. The dynamics and maturity of the wearable and home markets, for example, are very different from that of the mobile industry. We're excited by the opportunities to build amazing new products for users within these emerging ecosystems."
Tribute
The Google boss also paid tribute to Motorola's efforts in the 19 months since Motorola officially came under Google's stewardship.
He wrote: "We acquired Motorola in 2012 to help supercharge the Android ecosystem by creating a stronger patent portfolio for Google and great smartphones for users. Over the past 19 months, Dennis Woodside and the Motorola team have done a tremendous job reinventing the company.
"They've focused on building a smaller number of great (and great value) smartphones that consumers love. Both the Moto G and the Moto X are doing really well, and I'm very excited about the smartphone lineup for 2014. And on the intellectual property side, Motorola's patents have helped create a level playing field, which is good news for all Android's users and partners."
Page added that Google's work with Motorola will continue until the deal is rubber stamped, adding that the approval process takes time.
The flagships aren't going anywhere - in fact, Lenovo has nothing but praise for the Moto X, and even the Moto G.
The company plans on a three-year time table to really challenge the smartphone industry with its new partnership but in that time, Lenovo plans on continuing to push current Moto brands:
"[We will] make it [Moto phones] even more successful. There is a very excellent engineering team, and combined with operations platform within Lenovo, [we'll] sell more volumes of the Moto G."
Google is reportedly ditching its Motorola division
Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo has agreed a deal with Google to acquire smartphone maker Motorola Mobility, it has now been confirmed.
Less than three years after paying $12.5 billion (around £7.5bn, AU$14bn) to acquire Google is parting with Motorola for a mere $2.91 billion (around £1.8bn, AU$3.5bn) in cash and stock.
The sale represents a stunning loss for Google, which has already recouped some of its outlay by selling Motorola Home to the Arris Group for $2.3 billion last year.
However, Google will retain the "vast majority of the Motorola patent portfolio," believed to total around 10,000 patents, which was thought to be a key reason the company bought Moto in the first place.
The sale does see Google acknowledge its expensive failure to turn around Moto's fortunes.
The 'Made in the USA' Moto X made headlines, but struggled commercially, and the low-cost Moto G impressed but had limited scope for profit.
Smartphone search
However, for Lenovo, the world's largest PC manufacturer, the deal represents the culmination of a long search to acquire a major smartphone company.
Following reports on Wednesday afternoon in the New York Times, Lenovo confirmed the acquisition to TechRadar in an official news release.
"The acquisition of such an iconic brand, innovative product portfolio and incredibly talented global team will immediately make Lenovo a strong global competitor in smartphones. We will immediately have the opportunity to become a strong global player in the fast-growing mobile space," said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo, said in a media release.
Google CEO Larry Page said Lenovo has the expertise to turn Motorola into a major player within the Android ecosystem.
"Lenovo has the expertise and track record to scale Motorola Mobility into a major player within the Android ecosystem. This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere," he said.
Following the announcement earlier this week that Google and Samsung will be licensing each other's patents, new details have come to light suggesting the Android maker might be influencing the manufacturer to back off its own customizations.
Re/code reported today that the Android-based Magazine UX user interface shown off on Samsung's latest 12.2-inch Galaxy Note Pro tablet could be marked for death - or at the very least, in dire need of future tweaking that makes the OS underneath shine through.
According to multiple unnamed sources, the recent patent sharing deal between Google and Samsung also involves a directive from the former which reins in the number of custom apps and UI flourishes the latter has added with increasing frequency on recent mobile devices such as the Galaxy S4 smartphone.
Representatives from the two companies refused to comment on such a possibility, although Samsung did promise it would "continue to identify and provide differentiated and innovative service and content offerings on our mobile devices."
Sea change
The newfound cooperation between the companies was described by one source as "a huge change, a sea change" made over the last few weeks which could put Google's content and services more front and center at the expense of Samsung's own.
Sources claim the Korean manufacturer may "consider dumping or altering the Magazine UX interface in future devices," with a reduced focus on the in-house software that has been an increasing focus for the company.
In its place, Samsung might shine the spotlight on preloaded Google Play apps, replacing services like WatchON, ChatON and mSpot, which the report called "largely forgettable in the wider Android community."
Samsung may not ultimately care, but third-party partners such as Dropbox, Flipboard, SwiftKey and TripAdvisor likely will, given that their services have been bundled with devices out the box and Google has its own software capable of replacing them.
Let the Android light shine in our review of the Motorola Moto G!
AT&T really wants more customers to join its network and its latest incentive puts money into users' pockets.
AT&T is throwing $100 to new and existing customers opening a new line of service. The bonus is eligible for every new smartphone, tablet, feature phone, mobile hotspot, or Wireless Home Phone line added to the carrier's 4G LTE network.
Customers lining up for the cash with a string attached can take advantage of the limited offer available until March 31 can visit an AT&T retail stores or this site.
Of course the offer comes with a few lines of fine print that require customers to maintain their service for 45 days. After which mobile users will receive their free credit within three billing cycles.
Pick me!
The carrier is calling it's new initiative a reward for existing customers. Meanwhile, AT&T wasn't too shy about hiding its intentions of picking up new users from other carriers.
"[I]t's an incentive for customers of Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and other wireless carriers to come to AT&T and enjoy the nation's most reliable 4G LTE network," the mobile carrier wrote in an announcement.
Previously, the blue carrier struck out cash bonuses up to $450 to lure in T-Mobile customers.
As we already reported, 2013 is the strongest year for smartphones sales to date with more than 990 million units shipped - a steep rise from the 700 million in 2012. According to Strategy Analytics, the real winner of the blooming smartphone sales in Android, as Google's mobile OS now holds 79% of the smartphone market.
This means that nearly every 4 out of 5 phones sold in 2013 is running some version of Android, which shipped four times more smartphones than Apple and Microsoft combined.
The analyst company predicts that Android growth is going to slow down in 2014 as a result of the smartphone market saturation and the birth of platforms such as Ubuntu Touch, Firefox OS and Tizen.
Android's growth, naturally, is at the expens of Apple's iOS and Microsoft's WP. iOS' annual growth stands at 13% with 153.4 million smartphones were shipped last year. That's much lower than the smartphone market growth in general so the Cupertino giant actually lost a lot of ground despite boosting its sales.
Microsoft isn't in a favorable position either, as its Windows Phone platform is still a very distant third in the smartphone market. To make matters worse its share in Q4 was lower than it was for the full year, so it might not improve on its numbers in the near future either.
Strategy Analytics doesn't mention anything regarding BlackBerry's performance and its new BB 10 platform. We guess this tells you all you need to know about the platform's state at the moment.
The Geeksphone revolution made its news debut a little over a month ago, and not much was known about the device, except that it would offer multiple operating systems on a single handset.
True,Geeksphone offers both Android and an "alternative os", but don't think that you'll be able to use Windows Phone or iOS as that alternative. Also the base OS of the phone is Android, with the “alternative OS” being the auxiliary one you'll have to select to dual-boot into.
For now, the most prominent alternative OS option will be Firefox. You'll be able to boot into it using Boot2Gecko, and it will receive OTA updates, as will any other alternative OS options that you select. What are the other options? Geeksphone only refers to "any other community supported OS" being loaded onto the device.
There's no word on the versions of Android that the Geeksphone will be rocking, but we do know the specs: a 4.7” 960x540 display, 1GB RAM, dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, and an 8mp camera.
A release date hasn't been set nor has a price, which will probably be the most deciding factor for this nifty little piece of tech. Any curious readers plan on buying this?
It's no secret Microsoft is working on the Windows Phone 8.1 update that is supposed to bring notification center and intelligent voice assistant among other features. We've heard rumors and seen lots of alleged shots before, but today we finally get a glimpse of the real deal.
The leaked photos show the settings of the upcoming notification center and are from an early test build of the WP 8.1
Windows Phone 8.1 Notification Center settings
As you can see you can assign four quick toggles (Cellular data, Brightness, Wi-Fi, Airplane mode are the ones on the shot). There is also a checkbox for access the notification center from the lockscreen. Then there are the notification services you want to enable - emails, messages, etc.
It seems Microsoft is going to put everything the modern droids have in the notification center, instead of bringing it feature by feature as some of the competitors did.
Windows Phone 8.1 is expected to be unveiled at the annual BUILD conference in April and released soon after on all WP8-running devices.
An apparently test Flipboard account, @123fliptest, had posted a photo 20 days ago but suddenly that photo is garnering a lot of attention. And it's because of what's in the photo but of what's in the EXIF data.
The camera that allegedly took the shot is a Samsung SM-G900V and the G900 name is known from a couple of benchmarks. One of those benchmarks was AnTuTu and the team behind the app did some digging and claims that the G900 is the Galaxy S5.
Alleged photo taken with the Samsung Galaxy S5
Interestingly, the benchmark detected a 16MP camera (5,312 x 2,988) – not 13MP as the current S4 (and its Snapdragon 800-powered Advance version) or the Galaxy J. That's also the resolution of the leaked photo.
Other info from EXIF reveals that the camera had an f/2.2 aperture and a focal length of 4.6mm. Assuming the camera lens will be 28mm equivalent in 35mm terms equivalent, the sensor size comes in at 1/2.5" – the size of the 20MP in the Nokia Lumia 1520.
There is indeed some speculation that since the photo has 16:9 aspect ratio, the full resolution of the sensor could be 21MP (for a 4:3 sensor).
Anyway, the phone that did the benchmarks was G900F, while this one is G900V. If Samsung keeps its naming convention straight, this would be the Galaxy S5 for Verizon.
Keep in mind that EXIF info is easy to edit, so take this photo with the appropriate amount of salt.
When Motorola announced the Moto X was finally coming to the UK we were given a release date of February 1, but it turns out it's already here.
High street retailer Phones 4U is already peddling the Motorola Moto X with contract, PAYG and SIM-free options available.
The Moto X arrives with black and white colour options (Phones 4U has exclusive access to the latter) though at £389.95 it doesn't exactly offer the best value for money.
Worth it?
Your £400 will get you a 4.7-inch HD display, 1.7GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 10MP camera and Google's latest operating system - Android 4.4 KitKat.
Now that doesn't sound too shabby, but you can pick up the more powerful Nexus 5 (with a bigger, higher resolution display too) for £299, while the HTC One Mini and Galaxy S4 Mini are also fighting for attention in the Moto X's price bracket.
Bluetooth is old and it might be on the way out. It's been around since 1994 and these days it seems to be in just about anything that's even looked at a circuit board, but now there are new kids on the block.
NFC, Wi-Fi Direct and more are encroaching on Bluetooth's turf, which got us wondering, is Bluetooth here to stay or are its days numbered?
Before we can answer that though it's important to understand exactly what Bluetooth does.
What does Bluetooth really do?
In the words of Suke Jawanda, Chief Marketing Officer of Bluetooth SIG, "Bluetooth is a wireless communication technology that allows people to conveniently connect their devices with other devices" and "the role of the technology is evolving to not only allow devices to talk with one another, but actually allow the seamless communication between devices, local applications and the cloud."
At its most basic, Bluetooth could be used for transferring files or contact details between two phones for example, or for an ongoing transfer of data, such as in a hands free kit, where the earpiece would use Bluetooth to wirelessly send and receive sound to and from a phone.
Bluetooth can also be used to wirelessly control devices. For example by using Bluetooth to pair a smartphone to some speakers not only can you send music from the phone to be played out of the speakers, but you can also then use the phone to adjust the volume, pause the music or skip track.
Similarly the wireless controllers used by the PlayStation 4 and some other consoles use Bluetooth to pair with the console and wireless keyboards and mice generally rely on Bluetooth.
Its ability to pair devices has made Bluetooth a key part of the growing Internet of Things (IoT) - smart, connected devices covering everything from phones and watches to cars, washing machines and lights, which can all communicate with one another, or at least with any other devices that it could conceivably be useful to communicate with.
The Internet of Things is likely to be a big part of Bluetooth's future too, as according to Jawanda "We have an exciting road map. Being the largest wireless technology in the world, we're clear on our responsibility and role as the stewards of the technology to be the trusted and low power link of the internet of things. We're just truly at the beginning of fulfilling against this mandate."
Bluetooth's capabilities have also been put to some more inventive uses, such as preventing the theft or loss of an item by pairing it to a mobile phone and then having an alert go off on the phone when the handset and its paired item become separated and the connection is lost. The same concept has also been applied to man overboard alarms on boats.
Developments
Since its creation 20 years ago Bluetooth has seen a number of improvements. Over the years the speed of connection and discovery of Bluetooth devices has been increased, the data transfer rate has got faster and support for low energy use (known as Bluetooth Smart or BLE) has been added.
The latest version of Bluetooth currently available is 4.1, which according to Jawanda "enhanced usability and increased developer flexibility." One of those enhancements took the form of removing the need for a host when transferring information or data.
With earlier versions of Bluetooth everything would need to communicate directly with a host device, but now devices can communicate independently and then feed that data back to the host all at once.
For example if you pair both a pedometer and a heart rate monitor to a phone then with Bluetooth 4.0 and below they both have to separately send their data to the handset, but with Bluetooth 4.1 they'd be able to combine their data and send it together, which is a far more efficient way of doing things and makes other devices less dependent on phones.
This upgrade will also likely be of enormous benefit to the Internet of Things, as that has designs on fully connecting houses and even cities. However Bluetooth 4.1 was only released in December 2013, so it's not in widespread use just yet.
The contenders
Bluetooth has had a good run and as it's continually improving it's managed to stay relevant. But it's got some competition now, most notably from NFC and Wi-Fi Direct.
According to Paula Hunter, NFC Forum Executive Director, NFC (or Near Field Communication) is useful for "everything from access control to device pairing to mobile payments to smart posters. It is particularly well-suited to use cases where the user wants to initiate an action quickly and easily over a short range."
It "harmonises today's diverse contactless technologies, enabling solutions in areas such as information collection and exchange, access control, healthcare, loyalty and coupons, transportation, payments, and consumer electronics."
In a lot of ways then it's like Bluetooth, as it allows two devices to communicate and transfer data. It also consumes less power than standard Bluetooth and according to Hunter it "sets up faster than Bluetooth and is better at point-to-point communications."
However it is much shorter range than Bluetooth, requiring devices to either be touching or within around 4 centimetres of one another, while Bluetooth has a range of up to 100 metres.
It can play a role in longer range communication, for example Google's Android Beam makes use of it, but it simply uses NFC as a quick and easy way to activate Bluetooth and pair two devices, as by touching the two devices together Bluetooth will be enabled and the two devices will automatically be paired. After which Bluetooth handles the heavy lifting.
Samsung's S-Beam uses NFC in a similar way, but it activates Wi-Fi Direct rather than Bluetooth.
Hunter explains that "NFC's bi-directional communication ability is ideal for establishing connections with other technologies with the simplicity of touch. For example, if a user wants to connect a mobile device to a stereo system to play music, he can simply touch the device to the stereo's NFC touchpoint and the devices will negotiate the best wireless technology to use."
NFC in itself more complements Bluetooth than replaces it. As while there is some shared functionality and even some things that NFC is better at, such as contactless payments, ultimately the incredibly short range of NFC means that it will never be in a position to truly replace Bluetooth.
According to Hunter "the two technologies are complementary. NFC is great at showing intent, pairing devices and completing simple transactions with a touch. Bluetooth LE is great for micro-location, push-marketing and having a persistent connection with smart wearables."
Going direct
Wi-Fi Direct could be a bigger threat to Bluetooth as it doesn't have the same range restrictions as NFC.
According to Tina Hanzlik, Wi-Fi Alliance's Senior Marketing Manager, with Wi-Fi Direct "two or more devices can connect directly by Peer-to-Peer in the absence of a traditional Wi-Fi hotspot or network.
"Wi-Fi Direct-certified devices can also connect directly with nearly all of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices a user already owns, allowing users, their co-workers, friends and family to connect anywhere, anytime."
As Wi-Fi Direct can be used to connect devices and transfer data between them it can carry out many of the same functions as Bluetooth, and in some ways it's even better as it can transfer data at much higher speeds than Bluetooth.
That's a big advantage as while Bluetooth tops out at around 24 Mbps, Wi-Fi Direct is more than ten times faster, with speeds of up to around 250 Mbps.
It's versatile too. Hanzlik states that "Wi-Fi Direct devices can perform any function or application that you do today over standard Wi-Fi connections. Devices can connect for file sharing and syncing, sending messages, printing, gaming, displaying video, or playing audio."
So could Wi-Fi Direct replace Bluetooth? Perhaps. Bluetooth still has the low energy market cornered as the power consumption of Wi-Fi Direct is much higher than BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). Meaning fitness devices such as heart rate monitors and other small, low power devices will continue to favour Bluetooth.
But for many other things and particularly for anything that involves large amounts of data being transferred, Wi-Fi Direct could become a more desirable option as it can transfer data at much higher speeds.
Take off
It's taking off fast too, according to Hanzlik "to date over 4200 products have been certified for Wi-Fi Direct. From smartphones to printers, Blu-ray players to fitness devices, all types of products are implementing Wi-Fi Direct to allow users to seamlessly connect devices wherever and whenever they wish."
There are other threats on the horizon too. For example a research team at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University has created a chipset called 'VIRTUS', which they claim can wirelessly transfer data at 2 gigabits per second.
That equates to 80 MP3 songs every second, making it around 1,000 times faster than Bluetooth. Whether the chipset will ever make it into consumer products remains to be seen, but if it does it could be a real threat to Bluetooth, though like Wi-Fi Direct it lacks Bluetooth's low energy support.
Hazy future
Bluetooth isn't going away any time soon. In fact the recent update to version 4.1 has prepared it for a whole new generation of smart devices and could lead to it becoming a vital piece of infrastructure for the Internet of Things, but it's not the only wireless technology around.
Any technology which can both provide higher data transfer speeds than Bluetooth and use as little power as Bluetooth low energy could render Bluetooth obsolete.
It's still going strong after 20 years and right now there's nothing that quite ticks all the boxes Bluetooth does.
Jawanda is certainly optimistic about its prospects, arguing that if anything, Bluetooth is actually replacing other wireless technologies, saying that "given the advent of Bluetooth Smart – it's performance, low cost, simplicity and ubiquity – it's become the preferred wireless technology for OEMs to replace niche or proprietary technologies that prevented them from hitting scale and working with the phones/tablets/PCs their customers already owned."
"If you want to connect your device to a few things, you can use Bluetooth or other proprietary or niche technologies to do so. If you want to connect to a few billion devices your customer probably already has in the palm of their hand, then Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart is the technology.
The fact is, Bluetooth Smart is the fastest adopted wireless technology in the history of wireless and the native OS support and massive and growing network effect is what's behind this." But with the likes of Wi-Fi Direct encroaching on it Bluetooth may still need to be wary.
On the other hand, there's little reason for any other wireless technology to try and overthrow Bluetooth, when it could just as well be complementing it.
Hunter explains that "it is best to think of wireless technologies as tools in a solution developer's toolbox. Everyone benefits when developers have a rich and robust set of tools to choose from. The application or use case dictates which tool or combination of tools to use.
"No one tool is inherently better than or can replace another, any more than the hex screw is better than or will replace the Phillips screw. Developers will choose to use NFC, Bluetooth, a combination, or a completely different wireless technology depending on the requirements of the application and the desired user experience."
Hot on the heels of the launch of the 12.2-inch Samsung Galaxy Note Pro and Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro comes news that Samsung may be bringing the AMOLED technology that has made its phone screens so impressive over to its tablet range.
Reports from Korean news site ETNews state that mass production of 8 and 10.5-inch AMOLED screens is due to begin in February, meaning we could be in line to see AMOLED toting tablets at MWC 2014.
Third times the charm?
This isn't the first time or even second time that we have caught wind of AMOLED tablets, although we were initially expecting to see them at CES earlier this month.
With CES having been and gone leaving no AMOLED tablets in sight we're left clinging to hopes that we'll be able to lay our eyes on them next month.
Current rumours suggest that we may be in line for a few more Samsung tablets at MWC leaving a potential refresh for the now one year old Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0.
ISOCELL technology would give the S5 something more to shout about
Data from a photo allegedly taken by a Samsung Galaxy S5 variant has provided some clues about the device's potential camera.
According to the usually-reliable Twitter tipster @evleaks, the uninspiring image was shot on a Samsung SM-G900V which is expected to be the Verizon variant of the upcoming Korean flagship.
This jives with information passed to SamMobile detailing the model numbers for each of the Galaxy S5 market variants.
EXIF data from the posted image shows a resolution of 5312 x 2988 and appears to confirm suspicions that the Galaxy S5 will ship with the oft-rumoured 16MP sensor.
But what about bigger or ISOCELL?
We could be in line to see a bigger camera on the upcoming handset, as the image captured is 16:9 and not the standard 4:3 that we're used to seeing. Samsung's wide screen photos are shot at a lower resolution, 9.6MP rather than 13 on the Galaxy S4 and 6MP, not 8 on the S4 Mini.
Questions also still remain over whether this is the ISOCELL camera lens that we keep hearing about, but since Samsung announced that its 2014/15 flagship phones will feature the technology, it seems pretty likely.
We'll find out for sure when the Galaxy S5 officially launches, likely to be at a dedicated event in March rather than at the mobile madhouse that is MWC 2014.
LG has officially confirmed that the successor of the LG Optimus G Pro will be called LG G Pro 2. Apart from that, the South Korean manufacturer did not reveal any other details regarding the hardware specifications and the overall design of the upcoming phablet.
Fortunately, we now have a duo of leaked images, of the G Pro 2 to fill in some of the blanks. The live images suggest that he device will sport a design quite similar to the company's current flagship smartphone, the LG G2. The phablet will feature buttons at the back and its functionality is said to remain largely similar to the G2.
LG G Pro 2 is rumored to sport a 6-inch Full HD display and is expected to be powered by a Snapdragon 800 chipset. If the rumors are to be trusted, the phablet will feature many home-baked software goodies such as Knock, Guest Mode and QSlide.
LG has designed the G Pro 2 to rub its shoulders against the likes of Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in an attempt to establish its maker as a major player in the phablet market. LG says the announcement is coming at the Mobile World Congress, which kicks off at the end of February. We'll naturally be covering it all live, so don't forget to tune in when the time comes.
Nokia tested the 512MB RAM waters for the Black update with the Lumia 625 and now it's rolling out the software for the most popular Windows Phone device out there, the Lumia 520.
Nokia Black builds on top of Windows Phone GDR3 and brings various improvements. From GDR3, it gets Bluetooth 4.0 LE support and the ability to close apps from the app switcher menu, there's a rotation lock too.
From the Nokia goodies, there's a new drive mode and Nokia Storyteller. The Lumia 520 already has the Nokia Camera app. Since the device only has 512MB RAM, it will miss out on Nokia Refocus and Nokia Beamer (this is why it's so important that the Lumia 525 has 1GB RAM). Glance Screen will not be available either.
Anyway, you can check if the Nokia Black update is available for your Lumia 520 for your region and carrier by going into Settings > Phone update or check this list. The update is still listed as Pending review for many carriers.
It looks like Three's network has gone wonky this morning, as many users are finding they cannot access internet on their smartphones and tablets.
Three UK tweeted: "Some customers are having internet issues. We're sorry for any inconvenience. We're working on fixing this quickly. We will update you here."
We've contacted Three and we'll keep you updated with any developments right here.
