Motorola posts teaser page for upcoming Moto G midranger

The Moto G existence has officially been confirmed by Motorola and Google but all we're getting right now is a teaser. The official announcement will take place on November 13, which is next Wednesday.


Check out the teaser page here.
We received a new tip from an employee of a UK-based retailer with the photo below. Our tipster was told not to put up the tag until November 25, which makes the 25th the likely launch date for the Moto G.


From past leaks we know that the Moto G is a cheaper alternative to the Moto X. It will have a 4.5" 720p screen with Gorilla Glass, quad-core Snapdragon chipset (perhaps a 200 with quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7), 5MP camera with 720p video, and 8GB of storage. The G will run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean instead of 4.4 KitKat (though this rumor is from before the KitKat announcement).
According to a tip we received, the Moto G will cost just £135 off contract (that's $215 or €160).
The teaser page for the Moto G shows a globe, which may indicate a worldwide launch (the tip from the UK helps too). This is welcome news considering the Moto X is next to impossible to find outside the US.
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Samsung deals with Nokia on patents for another 5 years

Samsung and Nokia have agreed to extend their patent agreement for another 5 years, granting the Korean tech giant access to Nokia phone patents until 2019. Samsung will pay additional compensation for patent use for the period starting January 1, 2014 (which is when the previous agreement was scheduled to end).


The exact amount of compensation is expected to be settled in a separate binding arbitration scheduled for 2015. Nokia expects the arbitration to save significant transaction costs related to licensing disputes between the two companies.
The patent extension sheds some light on Nokia's plans after the Microsoft acquisition, namely that the company will continue to make money on smartphones by "actively managing its patent portfolio and licensing activities," which are not part of the Microsoft deal.
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iOS Engineering VP retires after 23 years with Apple

The iOS team lost a key member a couple of months ago as Henri Lamiraux, iOS Engineering Vice President at Apple, has retired. Lamiraux has been working at Apple since 1990, that's 23 years, but his retirement went unnoticed until someone spotted it on his LinkedIn profile.
Lamiraux cut his teeth at Apple working on Mac OS, moving to iOS in 2005 (you'll recall that the original iPhone wasn’t announced until 2007).
This is the second major departure this year in the iOS leadership after Scott Forstall, Senior VP of iOS, left Apple last month.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
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Apple iPad Air opening weekend sales to set a new record

Apple might be facing big issues with the production of the Retina screen-packing second generation of its iPad mini, but the iPad Air appears to be more than capable of making up for it. According to Piper Jaffray's analyst Gene Munster, the Air might be able to post a new record for opening weekend sales, beating the achievement of the iPad 4 and the first iPad mini from last year.
Last year the two Apple tablets launched simultaneously and sold a total of 3 million units. This year Mr. Munster estimates that the iPad Air sales alone will be in the 2.5 to 3.5 million range. We’ll know the exact number tomorrow, when Apple releases its traditional press release, but the performance is certainly impressive.


Of course we shouldn’t forget that the Apple iPad Air got a much wider initial release than its predecessor. The latest slate hit 52 countries in its opening weekend, including every major market out there, while its predecessor was only available in 27 market initially. There was also the slight price cut that could have helped persuade a few people who were initially sitting on the fence.

Qualcomm to introduce Adreno 400 in 2014

Qualcomm's Adreno 330 GPU that powers the Snapdragon 800 is currently one of the most successful and powerful on the market. However, Qualcomm won't settle with resting on its laurels and the popular chipmaker is already working on its successor, the Adreno 400. The new GPU series is expected to debut alongside a new Snapdragon chipset.
In the past, Qualcomm has showcased its new innovations at CES and the company might well continue to do that early next year in the 2014 edition of the Consumer Electronic Show.


The Adreno 400 is said to come out with a significant boost to its graphic performance. However, if rumors are to be trusted, the Adreno 400 will not support OpenCL.
Currently, the Adreno 330 has the ability to push 3.6 Gigapixels per second. Naturally, the next iteration of the GPU is expected to be a lot quicker than that.
However, please keep in mind that there is no official word from Qualcomm just yet, so take all this information with a pinch of salt.
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Verizon-bound Nokia Lumia 929 leaks in high-res photos

The Nokia Lumia 929 entered rumorland a month ago via a press images. Then we saw a hands-on video (already taken down by the user) and even a camera sample from its PureView camera.
Today we get to see the first real and high-res photos of the Verizon's Lumia 929, courtesy of WPCentral.

Nokia Lumia 929
Nokia Lumia 929 has the same internals and camera tech as the recently unveiled Lumia 1520 phablet, but comes with a smaller 5.0" 1080p AMOLED display and completely different shell.
So, the Lumia 929 runs on the latest Snapdragon 800 chipset with a 2.2GHz quad-core processor, Adreno 330 graphics and 2GB of RAM. The rest of the specs include 32GB non-expandable internal storage, LTE, NFC, and wireless charging support.
The camera on the Lumia 929 back is the same as the one on the Lumia 1520 - a 20MP PureView camera with ZEISS lens and a dual-LED flash. It uses Nokia's supersampling technology for 16MP full-res photos plus 5MP PureView pictures. There is nothing on the video recording specs just yet, but we guess the Lumia 929 will record 1080p@30fps videos, just like the Lumia 1520.

The 20MP camera on the back of Lumia 929
Nokia Lumia 929 will be offered in glossy white and matte black flavors. More color options are quite likely, but they have yet to surface.

Lumia 929 runs WP8 GDR3 with Lumia Black
The Lumia 929 runs Windows Phone 8 GDR3 with Lumia Black on top of it. It should go official any moment on Verizon and go on sale a few days after that. The off-contract price is rumored to be $500 while the on-contract one is yet to be revealed.
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HGST creates helium-filled HDDs with 6TB capacity

HDDs are still kings when it comes to capacity (especially if you look at GB/$ ratio) and HGST, a Western Digital subsidiary, has been working hard to ensure that this remains the case. The company’s new helium-filled Ultrastar He6 HDDs have 6TB capacity, 50% more than the 4TB of current drives.

The helium-based design has other advantages too – the gas is significantly less dense than air, which results in less friction and lower operating temperature for the drive. Helium-filled HDDs spinning at 7,200RPM run 5 degrees cooler than conventional HDDs.
They use up to 23% less power too, which is another major consideration for datacenters. HGST plans to sell to server and storage array manufactures. Netflix, a client of HGST, says these two factors will play a big role in optimizing the video streaming servers of the company.
Anyway, the Ultrastar He6 is the same size as conventional 4TB drives but fits seven platters instead of five, which helps increase the storage capacity. The He6 drives are also lighter (no, not because helium is lighter than air), which will be good for laptops so here’s hoping the company brings its helium design to 2.5″ drives, too.
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BlackBerry receives $1 billion investment, CEO steps down

BlackBerry’s serious troubles began last June, when the company announced $84 million operating loss despite increased shipments and revenue. The very next quarter the company reported $965 million loss, 97% of which is due to the terrible BlackBerry Z10 sales.

BlackBerry has been looking for partners to invest into the company since its financial troubles became clear. The company’s board has even pushed for a quick sale before the end of the year. At the end of September BlackBerry’s fate seemed sealed when a deal with a consortium led by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd for $4.7 billion was announced.
It seems the acquisition deal with Fairfax have been abandoned – Fairfax couldn’t secure the cash because the banks didn’t believe BlackBerry can be saved. Instead Fairfax and other investors will make a $1 billion investment in BlackBerry and push the company into the direction they want. How are they going to do that? With a CEO of their choice, of course!
As part of the new deal BlackBerry’s CEO Thorsten Heins will be stepping down and John S. Chen will take his place until the company is back on its feet. Chen has previous experience with saving troubled companies, which is why the investors want him explicitly. If everything goes as planned, he will also become the Chairman of BlackBerry’s board thus becoming the most powerful man in the company.
BlackBerry shares dropped 18% in pre-market trading, but now that the market is open they are down by about 10%. It seems not everyone is happy with this investment.
So, BlackBerry is alive and there is a chance it may have a bright future ahead after all. I guess only time will tell if the company’s new direction will be successful or not.
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Official Android 4.3 for Samsung Galaxy S III rolling out now

It was just yesterday that the unofficial Android 4.3 update for the Samsung Galaxy S III leaked. It looked like the real deal but the ROM lacked KNOX security support and widgets were still using the old TouchWiz design.
Today this very same build is seeding as the official update to Vodafone Ireland Galaxy S III units. As it turns out this is indeed the official update despite some features still missing when compared to the S4 build (albeit features that were never promised in the first place).
The Android 4.3 update weighs in at about 932MB, so make sure you have enough space left in your Galaxy S III. Here is a thorough changelog for the 4.3 update:

• GALAXY GEAR Support
• TRIM Support (faster UI)
• ANT+ Support
• Core UI elements get the new TouchWiz look (not widgets and icons though)
• New Samsung Keyboard
• GPU drivers have been updated
• New Lockscreen: Multiple Widgets, improved ripple effect than Android 4.1.2, ability to change clock size and set a personal message
• New Display modes: Adapt Display and Professional Photo
• Daydream
• Driving mode
• Actionable notifications
• Move-to-SD-card feature
• New Camera mode : Sound and Shot
• New Additions in Notification Center
• Tabbed Settings UI
• Implementation of Voice controls
• New Samsung Apps: Calculator, Clock, Contacts, Gallery, Music
• Full screen Samsung apps
• New S-Voice

So, there you have it. Samsung was either in a hurry or it decided not to bring the launcher looks up to date. Yes, the core applications and UI elements look like the ones on the Galaxy S4, but the whole skin is still the same the Galaxy S III users had on their phones since they bought it.
Ireland is the first country to get the update, but many more markets should follow suit shortly. To get the update, keep an eye on both the OTA interface and Samsung's Kies tool.
Thank you, Sagar Saliya, for the tip!
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