BlackBerry updates BBM with timed messages and message retraction

BlackBerry today released a new version of BBM, adding
timed messages, message retraction, and HD picture
transfer, among other features. If you don’t see the
update just yet, note that the company says it “may take
24 hours or more” for it to appear in your app store
“depending on your mobile platform and region.”
First up, you now have a lot more control over your
communications. Before you send messages and
pictures, you can set how long your contacts have
access to them in a chat. After you send messages and
pictures, you can also “retract” them from your BBM
chat.
BlackBerry is pushing these two additions as new
privacy features that let users “take control over the
messages and content that they share, so they can
communicate with more discretion and freedom than
ever before.”
The company first showed off the new additions to
messages two weeks ago in a beta release; testers
apparently have been giving “incredible” feedback,
saying that controlling their messages adds “a whole
new dynamic to BBM.”
Nevertheless, for both of these features, BlackBerry did
offer an obvious warning to its users:
While these features are designed
to remove the message or picture
[from] the recipient’s BBM chat
view, they do not prevent
recipients from capturing an image
of the content by taking a
screenshot or using an image
capture device. Retracting a
message after it has been read by
the recipient will remove the
message from the BBM chat view
but will not affect copies of the
message that the recipient may
have made prior to the message
being retracted.
Privacy additions aside, BBM has received a new sticker
picker that the company claims is faster for adding
stickers to your chats, the ability to transfer HD pictures
so you can send higher quality versions of your photos,
and an option to see what music your contacts are
listening to in BBM Feeds. None of these are as
significant as the privacy additions, but they do round
out this release as a major one.
Paid subscription
For some time now, BlackBerry has been talking about
monetizing BBM. The company has started offering
stickers, noting that many messaging applications,
particularly in Asia, have successfully built new revenue
streams by opening up a sticker shop for their users to
peruse.
Today, BlackBerry revealed that it plans to offer a paid
subscription for premium features. It didn’t share many
details, but the company did say that timed messages
and message retraction will be included in the package.
The features will be available for free and without
restrictions over the next three months. In other words,
we can expect a BBM subscription to arrive within the
next quarter.
Via : ventureBeats

Samsung launch Galaxy A3 and A5

The Samsung Galaxy A series is now official with 2
models – the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 . This is a new
line up designed for the younger crowd and it features a
slim profile under 7mm with a full metal unibody design.
Unlike its flagship Galaxy S series that comes with an
ascending numbering system for each generation, the
new Galaxy A series employs an Audi/BMW-like
numbering convention with the A3 being the smallest
with a 4.5″ display and the A5 comes with a bigger 5.0″
screen.
Samsung Galaxy A5
The Samsung Galaxy A5 specs include a 5″ HD 720p
(1280×720) Super AMOLED display and it runs on a
Quad-Core 1.2GHz processor (likely to be Snapdragon
410) that’s mated to 2GB of RAM. There’s 16GB of on-
board storage which can be expanded via microSD up to
64GB.
At the back, you’ll find a 13MP camera while selfie shots
are handled by a larger 5MP front camera that’s capable
of shooting Wide-Selfie. Connectivity wise, there’s WiFi
802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and Cat4 4G LTE with
speeds up to 150Mbps. With a 2,300mAh capacity on-
board the Galaxy A5 is 6.7mm thin and weighs 123
grams. That’s the same thickness as the Galaxy Alpha
but the Alpha is lighter at 115grams.
Samsung Galaxy A3
The Galaxy A3 is a notch below with a 4.5″ display that
also uses Super AMOLED but it pushes a lower qHD
resolution of 960×540. It is powered by the same
processor as the Galaxy A5 but mated to just 1GB of
RAM. On-board it also gets 16GB of storage that also
comes with an expandable microSD slot.
The front retains the same 5MP camera but the back
settles for a lower 8MP camera. It also supports 4G LTE
and powering the A3 is a slightly smaller 1,900mAh
battery. Overall, it is much lighter at 110.3 grams but it
is a negligibly thicker at 6.9mm.
Both the A3 and A5 will come with a variety of colours
including Pearl White, Midnight Black, Platinum Silver,
Soft Pink, Light Blue and Champagne Gold. As mentioned
earlier, the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 will be available
first in China starting in November 2014. You can
probably expect the Galaxy A5 to be launched in
Malaysia as it was certified under SIRIM.
Source : Samsung

Tablet shipment sees growth in Q3 2014

The tablet market continues to grow, albeit not as
quickly as before. Q4 2013 saw 53.8 million units ship
worldwide, up 11.5 percent from 47.6 million the same
quarter last year.
The top three tablet-makers maintained their positions:
Apple was first, Samsung took second, and Asus settled
for third. Nevertheless, all three market leaders lost
share of the overall pie, compared to Q3 2013:
Apple dropped to 22.8 percent market share, meaning it
grabbed less than a quarter of all sales as it shipped
fewer units. Samsung slipped to 18.3 percent, though it
actually shipped more units, and despite its percentage
loss year-over-year, it continued to close in on its
biggest rival.
Asus lost share but managed to maintain the third-place
position it had in Q3 2013, largely thanks to its
Windows-based 2-in-1 devices. Lenovo saw more than
30 percent growth, largely thanks to strength in
emerging markets, while RCA surprised the market and
managed to enter the top five, mainly due to distribution
deals with some of the largest retailers just in time for
the back-to-school season.
The big question for these top five companies will be
related to how they handle the high demand of Black
Friday and the upcoming holiday season. Last year, the
top five were as follows: Apple, Samsung, Amazon,
Asus, and Lenovo.
In Q4 2014, Amazon will likely show up once again, as
the company’s figures are always very seasonal. Apple
and Samsung will fight for first place, while Asus and
Lenovo battle for fourth. Competitors like RCA will find it
difficult to muscle in.
Yet it won’t be completely out of the question. This past
quarter’s results showed us that more and more tablets
are still selling, and the small players are successfully
stealing share from their larger counterparts, mostly by
offering cheaper alternatives.
Yet this can’t last forever, as IDC Senior Research
Analyst Jitesh Ubrani notes in his statement. “Although
the low-cost vendors are moving a lot of volume, the
top vendors, like Apple, continue to rake in the dollars.
A sub-$100 tablet simply isn’t sustainable—Apple knows
this—and it’s likely the reason they aren’t concerned
with market share erosion.”
As tablet shipment growth slows, small players will
eventually be pushed out. In the meantime, however, the
big players are losing sales to cheaper devices.

It's official:Lenovo buys Motorola

The cash has been handed over, the contracts are
signed and the lawyers are sipping champagne, which
can only mean that Lenovo's deal to buy Motorola has
been completed. The purchase makes Lenovo the
world's third-largest smartphone maker, and the
Chinese company has been quick to promise not to
meddle. The outfit has pledged to keep Motorola based
in Chicago, and CEO Rick Osterloh will keep his job at
the head of the table. What will change, is that
Motorola will now be able to sell its devices in
Lenovo's Asian and European strongholds, which
should help the pair meet its pledge to sell 100 million
smartphones and tablets this year. The pair have also
pledged to return Motorola to profitability by
mid-2016, which seems a lot more plausible with a
stable of devices that include the Nexus 6, Droid Turbo
and Moto 360.
Via : Re/Code

Forget those shiny iPhones and stick with BlackBerry according to Chen

BlackBerry executive chair and CEO John Chen has
written an open letter to loyal BlackBerry users
(current and former), basically pleading with them to
forget those shiny iPhones and buy a freakin'
BlackBerry phone already.
OK, that might be an exaggeration. But not by much.
"It’s tempting in a rapidly changing, rapidly growing
mobile market to change for the sake of change – to
mimic what’s trendy and match the industry-standard,
kitchen-sink approach of trying to be all things to all
people," Chen wrote in the letter published today on
BlackBerry's blog. "But there’s also something to be
said for the classic adage, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it."
In other words, please don't buy an iPhone 6 or the
lastest Android phone. Instead, try the
forthcoming BlackBerry Classic.
By "classic," BlackBerry apparently means throwback.
Specific details about the phone aren't clear yet,
though Chen says it will come with a top row of
navigation keys and a trackpad, a larger and sharper
screen, a "growing" app catalogue, and it will run on
the BlackBerry 10 operating system.
BlackBerry, of course, was a smartphone pioneer, but
saw it's market share eaten by Apple and Google. Not
too long ago, BlackBerry released the awkwardly
shaped BlackBerry Passport.
"We also recognize that a lot of you continue to hang
on to your Bold devices because they get the job done,
day in and day out – just like you," Chen wrote.
Overexposed reality star Kim Kardashian recently said
at a tech conference that she is still in love with her
discontinued BlackBerry Bold, adding that it is
her “heart and soul.” Kardashian apparently keeps
three in her room at all times and if one breaks she
immediately searches eBay for a replacement.
Perhaps that was a coincidental plug for BlackBerry
and nothing more ...
In his letter, Chen continued to blast the competition
while trumpeting the BlackBerrys of yore. "Innovation
is a word that gets used too often and carelessly.
Innovation is not about blowing up what works to
make something new – it’s about taking what works
and making it better. ... You don’t reinvent yourself
every day; you take what you learned yesterday and
sharpen it today. You drive change – often on your
terms, but sometimes not. That you keep going
regardless is what distinguishes you as a grown-up.
You’re in it for the long haul. So is BlackBerry.
Via : Enterpreneur

Upgrade your old Macbook pro

I recently
upgraded my mid-2009 MacBook Pro with an SSD drive.
Since then, my computer went from completely useless
to like new.
I was still a little disappointed, however, when it came
to running a few demanding tasks at once, like when I
was editing in Photoshop, playing music on Spotify and
left a bunch of browser tabs open.
The best way to deal with this is by adding more RAM,
and, like installing an SSD, it's really simple.
Before you begin, find out if your MacBook Pro (or even
iMac -- the process is similar) can handle a RAM
upgrade. If you have a MacBook Air or Retina MacBook
Pro, for instance, the RAM is not upgradable. Refer to Apple help page to find out about the model you
own.
In my case, I have a mid-2009 MacBook Pro, which
allows for RAM upgrades.

Facebook has announced update on Android and iOS that focuses on photos

Facebook on Monday announced an update to its Android and
iOS apps that focuses on photos. You can download the
new version now directly from Google Play and Apple’s
App Store .
When uploading photos, you can now choose the order
in which they will appear. Once you pick the ones you
want (notice the numbering system in the left
screenshot below), you’ll also get a preview of how the
story will appear in your friends’ News Feed.
You can add an introduction to the preview as well as
caption individual photos. Even at this point, you can
reorder photos: Just touch one and drag it to a different
spot.
The whole point of adding the ability to reorder photos
is linked to Facebook’s new collage layout. Here is how
it looks:
The uploader and all their friends will see photos in this
new story form. Tapping a photo lets you scroll through
the photos in the order they were chosen to be seen.
Photos have been a huge part of Facebook, ever since
the feature first became available in October 2005. Over a
year ago in September 2013, the company shared it was
seeing 350 million new photos being uploaded daily,
and 250 billion photos had been uploaded to date.
While those figures haven’t been updated since then,
they’re still massive even one year later. While some
estimates show Snapchat edges Facebook in photos
sent per day, those images aren’t stored for long
periods of time.
As such, Facebook is still the king of online photo
storage, and right now it doesn’t appear to have a
serious competitor. Nevertheless, that’s no reason for
the company to stop delivering new features related to
photos, which is exactly why today’s update isn’t much
of a surprise.
Via : VB

LG sells record breaking 16 million Android phones

The company that was once
synonymous with home appliances has reinvented
itself into a smartphone manufacturing juggernaut. LG
Electronics has just announced their third quarter
earnings which saw an operating profit of $450
million, in big part thanks to their record breaking
16.8 million Android phone sales. The company has
doubled their year over year profits and isn’t
expecting to slow down anytime soon. They
announced that they expect to strengthen
their positioning in the budget smartphone market
with its L Series III models, despite the landscape
becoming more competitive.
ADVERTISEMENT
LG is doing well in the component business as well,
spurred by the good performance of its mid-range and
high-end devices, including the G3 and its variants, G3
Beat and G3 Screen . LG Display recently
announced good earnings as well, while LG Electronics
recently announced its first smartphone processor
designed in house, the Nuclun .
On thursday we’ll find out exactly how much of the
pie LG has taken away from their Korean
counterpart Samsung . Samsung is set to release their
third quarter earnings and it’s expected to be bad , and
even Samsung has admitted that it will be
worryingly bad .
Via : Engadget

Sony smartphones are sending data back to servers in China

Own a Sony phone? You may be transmitting data
back to servers in China without knowing it, even if
you haven’t installed a single app.
That’s not something you’d necessarily expect from a
Japanese company, particularly one that was already
busted for shipping a rootkit in its software. Sony
has been struggling to stay afloat in the smartphone
market, and the last thing they need is a privacy
debacle rattling consumer confidence.
So what’s going on? A Baidu folder is appearing on
affected Sony phones. Delete it, reboot the phone,
and the folder comes right back like the proverbial
cat who wouldn’t stay away. The folder isn’t the real
cause for concern, though; it’s the fact that the
phones open a connection to servers in China that’s
making users nervous.
Several Reddit users have reported finding this folder
on their phones, too — and not necessarily phones
made by Sony. One owns an HTC One M7, another an
HTC One X, a few others the OnePlus One. There’s
even a Nexus 5 owner claiming that he’s seen the
Baidu folder pop up.
Now, obviously on a stock Nexus 5 running Google’s
vanilla Android ROM there’s no Baidu folder and no
software running that would make one appear after
the fact. The most likely culprit, then, is a third-party
app that’s being installed is communicating with
Baidu servers and creating the folder.
As for why it’s happening on new Sony phones out
of the box or immediately after performing a factory
restore on them, that’s up to Sony to explain. Right
now it looks as though it’s the MyXperia app that’s
to blame — and some are guessing that Sony might
be leaning on Baidu for location services.
For their part, Sony has promised to issue a software
fix. Their wording in the Xperia forums doesn’t make
it clear, though, whether they’re simply going to
make sure the Baidu folder disappears and doesn’t
come back or whether they’re going to shut down
the mysterious connection completely.
Those of you who own a Sony phone, have seen the
Baidu folder, and find the whole situation a tad
unsettling, check out the Sony forum discussion for
instructions on blocking MyXperia from establishing
the connection. It’s a good workaround until Sony
comes up with a permanent fix.
Via : geek

Last quarter proved Xiaomi is the 3rd largest smartphone manufacturer

The company sold 19 million smartphones in the third
quarter of this year, the vast majority of which were
sold in its home nation of China. In the second
quarter of the year Xiaomi managed to sell 15.1 million
smartphones, 14.6 of which were sold in China,
according to Strategy Analytics. This suggests a quarter
on quarter sales growth of 26 percent, which is very
high indeed. Rival Huawei, which was ranked third
last year, managed 16.8 million smartphone sales in
the third quarter.
Looking at Xiaomi’s longer term sales, you can see just
how sudden its rise to the top has been.
That is pretty remarkable growth spurt for a company
that was only established four years ago. The
company’s growth has mostly been led by the
explosion of the Chinese smartphone industry and
heavy local demand, but this trend is unlikely to
continue forever.
Recently, Xiaomi has been attempting to expand
beyond its core Chinese market, selling smartphones
in Singapore, Hong Kong, and most recently in India
too. Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra recently announced that the
company was expanding its data centers around the
world to better reach consumers outside of China.
Xiaomi still hasn’t released any sales or profit figures
of its own, neither yearly or quarterly, so it’s hard to
tell just how much money the company is making
from this huge growth in sales. Despite the cutthroat
pricing of its handsets, the sheer volume of customers
is sure to leave plenty of cash around for future
investments and expansion.
We will have to wait and see just how ambitious
Xiaomi is and whether the company can become an
equally well known brand outside of China over the
next few years.
Via : GforGames

Office 365 subscribers get unlimited OneDrive storage

Microsoft is removing its OneDrive storage limits for
Office 365 subscribers. If you’re an Office 365 Home,
Personal, or University subscriber then OneDrive storage
will be unlimited in the coming months as Microsoft rolls
out its changes to every account. OneDrive for Business
customers will also get unlimited storage as part of
Microsoft’s Office 365 roadmap. While Microsoft's
unlimited OneDrive storage is rolling out to all Office 365
accounts in the coming months, you can opt-in to be
upgraded early over at Microsoft's OneDrive preview site .
The surprise move comes just months after Microsoft
gifted 1TB of OneDrive space to Office 365 subscribers.
At the time Microsoft also doubled its free space and
aimed to beat competition from Google and Dropbox to
widen the storage gap. Today’s unlimited storage
announcement changes things significantly, and
Microsoft claims it’s all part of the company’s plan to
make "OneDrive the world’s cloud storage leader."
Microsoft’s latest offer means unlimited OneDrive storage
and a copy of Office that works on Mac or PC, tablets,
and smartphones is only $6.99 per month. Google and
Dropbox charge $9.99 a month for 1TB of space alone,
without the additional Office software. Google also offers
Drive for Work to business for $10 per user per month
with unlimited storage.
Via : The Verge

Samsung finally responding to their dwindling market share

Samsung is especially noticing declining marketshare
in China, India, Thailand, and the Philippines. These
are markets where companies like Xiaomi, Lenovo,
and Huawei work exceptionally well, due to their low-
cost upfront pricing.  So, what is this “pressure”
Samsung is feeling? On Thursday, Samsung is expected
to report a 60% loss in profits since September of last
year, mainly due to “increased competition” in China.
On top of this staggering statistic, analysts are
reporting that the mobile phone division will fall by
8.1% in the third quarter, down from 19.8% in Q1.
As a counter measure of sorts, Samsung is slashing the
prices of their current handsets by 20% in China. As
the company has spent years building up their
reputation as a premium brand, the last thing they
want is to spend more time on budget phones but that
may be the only move they have left to play. For now,
details are still scarce regarding the company’s new
budget-friendly line of smartphones but it is great to
see that they’re finally doing something about their
dwindling marketshare.
Via : Android Authority

Tim Cook explains why Apple discontinued iPod classic

Cook said Apple primarily stopped making the device
because it was no longer possible to source the
necessary parts from anywhere in the world. Apple
does not have plans to reintroduce the iPod classic
due to a shrinking audience and the engineering
costs that would be needed for a new version, but
Cook pointed towards the iPod touch, which has
almost the same amount of storage space, as a viable
option.
Observers had speculated Apple was waiting for a 128
GB iPod touch before discontinuing the iPod classic,
but while the iPhone and iPad have gained 128 GB
options, the iPod touch has yet to do so. Still, with
Apple unable to source parts for the iPod classic, the
company was left with no choice but to end sales of
the descendent of the original iPod.
The iPod classic's 1.8-inch hard drives were typically
supplied by Toshiba, with the last generation using a
160 GB drive. Toshiba launched a 220 GB version in
early 2011 that gave some hope the iPod classic
might receive an update, but one never came to pass
and Toshiba has long since discontinued its entire
line of 1.8-inch hard drives.
Via : MacRumors

Iphones 6 and plus expected to outsell Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Pre-orders for the new phones hit 100,000 on the first
day of pre-orders compared to 30,000 units for the
Galaxy Note 4. Analyst Lee Seung-woo, an analyst with
IBK Securities said that he expected the iPhone 6 and 6
Plus to outsell the Galaxy S5 and Note 4 by some factors.
The Note 4 is Samsung’s latest large phablet.

LG G3 to get Android 5.0 Lollipop later this year

After weeks of complete silence, a post on LG’s official
German Facebook page reveals that the company will
actually be one of the first to have Lollipop ready for
its latest flagship. LG is promising to have the update
for the LG G3 out before the end of the year. That
might be even faster than HTC’s 90 day promise.
However, regional and carrier update timeframes
could vary. An update for the LG G2 is scheduled to
follow shortly afterwards, although a specific
timeframe hasn’t been given.

Via : BGR