Alleged iPhone 5S Display Assembly Leaks

We’ve seen a lot of alleged iPhone 5S components being leaked over the past few months. Today we pick up on pictures of what is apparently the display assembly of iPhone 5S, it has been leaked merely a day after we saw a purported iPhone 5S logic board online. Now many believe that these leaks are signs pointing towards ongoing production on Apple’s next generation iPhone, that seems plausible, considering that this device is expected to be unveiled this September.

This components adds substance to the rumors that iPhone 5S will not have any major design changes. While it has been rumored that this smartphone may come with a larger display, perhaps a 5 inch one, but this alleged display assembly tells a completely different story. This part also reportedly fits the logic board we featured yesterday, which hinted that there might be minor changes made to the internal hardware. All of this is pure speculation, there’s no way of telling if these components actually belong to Apple’s upcoming iPhone. We’ll know for sure only when Apple makes the official iPhone 5S announcement. [Image via Macrumors]





Huawei Rules Out Nexus Experience Devices, Praises Its Emotion UI

Two very popular Android smartphones, the Galaxy S4 and HTC One, both have ‘Google Edition‘ or ‘Nexus Experience‘ variants out in the market. These variants don’t come with any major hardware changes, rather they simply run on stock Android as opposed to manufacturer modified versions, which include skins such as TouchWiz and Sense. Huawei announced its Ascend P6 smartphone earlier today and ruled out releasing a ‘Nexus Experience’ version of it. Instead it praises its Emotion UI, saying that they have made “hundreds of improvements” over Google’s stock Android UI.

Richard Yu, Chairman at Huawei made these comments at the Ascend P6 launch event in London. He says that the company’s Emotion UI will be much more attuned to the user’s “emotions.” Such claims are made by all manufacturers, who claim that their own skins are much better than the user interface of stock Android. Emotion UI brings a different launcher and icons as well as various themes to the Ascend P6. So while Samsung and HTC may have deemed it feasible to embrace stock Android, Huawei seems to be sticking solely to its guns.


Facebook Discusses Potential Partnerships With Samsung

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Samsung President Shin Jong Kyun, according to Bloomberg, and discussed possible partnerships with between the world’s biggest social network and one of the world’s biggest smartphone vendor. They also discussed the state of IT industry, Zuckerberg left without answering any questions, while Shin reportedly answered some outside Samsung’s offices in South Korea. Facebook has also not released any official comment regarding Zuckerberg’s meeting with Samsung.

One of the partnerships that both of them discussed reportedly includes boosting ad sales for Facebook from mobile devices, Samsung is in a good position to deliver on that, considering that it sells a phenomenal number of smartphones and tablets around the globe. Zuckerberg also met President of South Korea Park Geun Hye for half an hour, in which he discussed possibilities related to promoting technology startups in the country. Will it be too soon to speculate that perhaps Facebook might also partner with Samsung to create the next generation ‘Facebook Phone?’ Its current endeavor with HTC has flopped, maybe its looking to rope in Samsung? We can’t say for sure, its pure speculation.


Google Adds Interactive Carousel To Local Search Results

Google has announced that starting today, local search results will display an interactive carousel at the top of the page. Users will be shown this carousel when they search for local places, such as restaurants, bars etc. It will list places nearby, clicking on any of the suggestions will bring up more details on it. These details will include overall review score, photos and address. More suggestions can be viewed by clicking the arrow at the right of the carousel. A map appears below it from which users can restrict their search to a specific area.

This interactive carousel has been showing up for some iPad and Nexus users since December. Now it has officially been expanded for desktop users. There’s a little caveat though, for now it is only available to users in the U.S. and it only supports English. Google promises that they will be adding more features and languages over time. Recently Bing too announced a similar feature. It displays a carousel in Bing News, the purpose of which is to make it easier for users to explore people, places and things that they are interested in.


Boeing 787 10 Dreamliner Unveiled At Paris Air Show

Making sure that Airbus A350 XWB was not the only aircraft grabbing all of the attention at Paris Air Show, Boeing has announced a stretched version of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Called 787-10, this aircraft has a 20 foot stretch over the 787-9 and can seat between 300 to 330 passengers. It will be able to fly up to 7,000 nautical miles. Final assembly is reportedly going to be completed soon, test flights will begin in 2017 and the first delivery has been scheduled for 2018.

Ray Conner, Commercial Airplanes President at Boeing, said that this aircraft is “25% more efficient than airplanes of its size today and more than 10% better than anything being offered by the competition for the future.” Quite a lot of customers have already made commitments for the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner. Air Lease Corporation has ordered 30, GE Capital Aviation Services ordered 10, Singapore Airlines placed an order for 30 and United Airlines has ordered 20 of the 787-10 Dreamliners. The 787-9 was announced earlier this year, its slightly larger than the 787-8. It is expected to make its first flight later this year. All three of these aircraft will share a common type rating, meaning that airlines will have additional flexibility in scheduling and training flight crews.


AT&T BlackBerry Q10 Release Date Is June 21

Earlier this month we notified you when AT&T started taking pre-orders for BlackBerry Q10. At that time the carrier didn’t say exactly when it would release the device. The AT&T BlackBerry Q10 release date has now been made official, it drops on June 21st. The device will cost the same that it does on other U.S. carriers, that’s $199 with a two year contract. Apart from running on the Canadian manufacturer’s new BlackBerry 10 platform, the Q10 is also able to connect to AT&T’s 4G LTE network for high speed data.

BlackBerry Q10 is one of the two current flagship smartphones that the company has launched, the other one being Z10, which was released back in January. The device has a 3.1 inch touchscreen as well as BlackBerry’s iconic full QWERTY keyboard. Physical keyboard aficionados will definitely not want to miss out on this device. This smartphone has reportedly gained much popularity in various markets, some even claim that it is outselling the likes of HTC One, Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 in France. If you’re still in doubt whether or not you want to pick up this device, our detailed BlackBerry Q10 review will help make the choice a lot easier.


Galaxy S4 Wireless Charging Pad And Cover Now In Stock

The Samsung Galaxy S4 does support wireless charging, but the feature is not built in to the device itself, much like it is on the Nokia Lumia 920. Users actually have to purchase a couple of accessories which enable them to wirelessly charge their latest Android flagship from Samsung. The company listed wireless charging back and pad earlier this month on its website, the accessories weren’t in stock then, but they are now. Those who waited for these accessories to become available can now rejoice.


Read full post →Galaxy S4 Wireless Charging Pad And Cover Now In Stock


Huawei Reportedly Says Its Open To Acquiring Nokia

The Financial Times of London is reporting that Huawei has said it is open to the idea of acquiring Nokia. These comments were reportedly made by chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, Richard Yu, at the Huawei Ascend P6 launch event. Richard says that the company is considering acquisitions of this sort, but it all depends on the “willingness” of Nokia. Having the Finnish manufacturer under its belt would greatly improve Huawei’s chances of making a dent in the European and North American market.

Obviously an acquisition can not go through unless the other party is interested as well, there’s no chatter about Nokia taking part in talks related to this topic, and Nokia denies commenting on market speculation. So we don’t know if Nokia is even sitting at the table with Huawei. Last year it was speculated that Nokia was going to be acquired, possible candidates were rumored to be Microsoft, Intel and even Lenovo, but nothing of the sort materialized. The market seems to have responded well to these rumors, analysts report that Nokia’s stock has risen by almost 11% on the back of these acquisition rumors. Would Nokia willingly consider being acquired by a Chinese company or would Huawei do a hostile takeover by making this offer directly to Nokia’s shareholders? To bit too soon to say that for sure.


Toshiba Canvio Slim II Portable External Hard Drive Announced

Toshiba today announced the Canvio Slim II portable external hardware. Measuring only 12.5 mm thick and with storage capacity of up to 1 terabyte, Toshiba claims that the Canvio Slim II is one of the thinnest and smallest portable hard drives available on the market. Users will also have the ability to access and share data straight from the device itself.

The Canvio Slim II supports both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, and as long as it is active and connected to an internet enabled PC, users will be able to access all of their music, movies, files and photos from any device in any where on the planet. Toshiba is also giving away 10GB of free cloud storage with each portable hard drive for storing “always available” copies of important files, as well as quick sharing of large folders and files. The Canvio Slim II also allows users to directly back up their photos and videos from their smartphones and tablets through the dedicated iOS and Android apps.  The drive is pre-formatted NTFS for Windows and comes with a NTFS driver for Mac. The 500GB model is priced at $114.99 and the 1TB model at $149.99. Both models will be available from select retailers and on Toshiba’s website later this month.


BlackBerry Q10 Review

BlackBerry released its first BlackBerry 10 device earlier this year once its Z10 was made available across a number of U.S. carriers, but hardcore BlackBerry fans had to seriously consider whether or not they really wanted to pick it up since it didn’t have a physical keyboard. Sure – the BlackBerry Z10 does have a 4.2-inch touchscreen, but BlackBerry owners know it’s all about the QWERTY keyboard, which is why the release of the Q10 is probably a bit more anticipated than the Z10 was.

We were able to get our hands on the BlackBerry Q10 earlier this year when BlackBerry announced both it and the Z10 would launch the BlackBerry 10 platform, and at the time we were impressed with how well the QWERTY keyboard performed through our limited time with the device. The BlackBerry Q10 will soon be made available in the U.S., which means it’s about time we get our hands on the device and put it through its paces to let you know whether or not you should pick it up when it’s made available on your preferred carrier. So without further ado, let’s get into the BlackBerry Q10.
Read full post →BlackBerry Q10 Review