Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 and Galaxy Gear 2 allegedly confirmed to join the S5 at MWC 2014

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 and Galaxy Gear 2 allegedly confirmed to join the S5 at MWC 2014 | It looks like Samsung is getting ready to officially announce a new series of tablets - Galaxy Tab 4 - at MWC 2014, less than two months after the company unveiled the Galaxy TabPRO and Galaxy NotePRO at CES in Las Vegas. 

According to ZDNet Korea and unidentified “local sources”, Samsung will unveil the Galaxy Tab 4 series alongside the long-rumored Galaxy S5 smartphone, plus a new Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch - all during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (24 - 27 February). Of course, we were already expecting to see the Galaxy S5 and Gear 2 later this month. 

Just like the Tab 3 series introduced in 2013, the Galaxy Tab 4 family will include three members with different screen sizes: 7 inches, 8 inches, and 10.1 inches, all running Android 4.4 KitKat. As we previously told you, the new tablets should have the following model numbers: SM-T530 / SM-T531 / SM-T535 (Galaxy Tab 4 10.1), SM-T330 / SM-T331 / SM-T335 (Galaxy Tab 4 8.0), and SM-T230 / SM-T231 / SM-T235 (Galaxy Tab 4 7.0).
Unlike the Galaxy TabPRO slates, the Tab 4 series will be targeted at users who don’t want to spend too much on a tablet.
As for the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2, this is expected to have a flexible OLED screen, and an improved design. The first-generation Gear wasn't exactly a success, manly because of its high price, so maybe the new one will be more affordable.


 source: ZDNet Korea via SamMobile

Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside moving on to be COO of Dropbox

Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside moving on to be COO of Dropbox | When Google agreed to purchase Motorola in 2011 for $12.5 billion, Dennis Woodside worked for Google for 10 years, and was ultimately the Vice President of Google's America Operations. In 2012, the Motorola acquisition was completed, and Woodside became the new CEO of Google's subsidiary Motorola. Now, less than two years since that deal was finalized, Google has agreed to sell Motorola to Lenovo, and it looks like Woodside might be moving on. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Dennis Woodside is about to leave Motorola/Google in favor of becoming the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Dropbox. Google recently agreed to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, but that deal is far from complete given the regulatory hurdles that need to be cleared. Even so, it is being reported that Woodside is on his way out. 

At Dropbox, Woodside will reportedly be in charge of the push to get Dropbox into the enterprise market. Dropbox has been growing extremely fast over the past few years, reaching $116 million in revenue in 2012 after $46 million in 2011 and just $12 million in 2010. As yet, there is no word on who would become the interim CEO of Motorola while the Lenovo deal is working towards completion. 

 

source: WSJ

Blackberry issues privacy guidelines for developers

BlackBerry issues privacy guidelines for BlackBerry World developers | Security is the one feature that BlackBerry has left to flaunt over its rivals. And with all of the permissions requested to download and install an app in the Google Play Store, for example, this is one area where BlackBerry could have an edge against Android. On Wednesday, BlackBerry announced a number of new guidelines for developers to follow. 


The first new guideline is to Use the Principle of Least Permissions – Limiting Collection. BlackBerry says that developers should request only that information that is "reasonable". In other words, developers should only collect the information that makes their app run better. The manufacturer makes it clear that information not required or needed to improve an app should NOT be collected. BlackBerry also tells developers to Consider the Impact of Third-Party Code. If your app has third party code, developers should know exactly how it works and how it handles customers' information. 

BlackBerry suggests that developers Get Consents and Implement a Privacy Policy. If you collect information, BlackBerry says that you need to be able to easily explain what happens to the information that you collect from the public. Along those lines, BlackBerry is telling its developers to Be Accountable. What this means is that developers should understand what legal protection customers have, especially minors. Be Transparent, BlackBerry says. You can build trust with your customers by explaining how your app works. Most importantly, explain how the data you collect makes your app work better.

Motorola in the black in just a few quarters claims Lenovo CEO

Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing spoke to both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal to explain more about the plans and expectations. The prevailing theory was that Lenovo's success in Asia would be combined with Motorola's brand power in North America and Europe to create a global powerhouse. That is certainly part of the idea, but it seems that Yuanqing also has plans to reintroduce the Motorola brand to China and emerging markets. Of course, Motorola has already begun its move into emerging markets with the Moto G, and Lenovo doesn't want to interrupt those plans, but to expand on them. 

Lenovo obviously believes that it is a good idea to purchase Motorola or else the Chinese company wouldn't have agreed to the deal with Google in the first place. We've talked about why we think Lenovo made the deal, but now Lenovo is explaining more about its rationale, and how it expects to be able to bring Motorola back to profitability in less than one year.
Lenovo will not be abandoning the premium market either. Lenovo obviously is banking on the brand name of Motorola to be worth the majority of the $2.91 billion it spent on acquiring the company, and it knows how much money Motorola has lost for Google (almost $2.4 billion in less than two years of operation). But, Lenovo is confident that it can lower material costs and supply chain, "turn around" Motorola in just a couple quarters, and make the company profitable again in the end. 

We assume that at the very least Google believes in Lenovo's plans, which is why it agreed to sell Motorola in the first place, but it certainly won't be an easy route. And, it is hard to believe that Lenovo would be able to both make Motorola profitable that quickly while holding true to the plans that Motorola began while it was a Google company. Most notably, it is hard to imagine the Moto Maker customization plans being a part of such a quick turn-around, but we'll have to see.  

 

 

source: Bloomberg & WSJ via The Verge

Nokia X A110 (Normandy) is priced in Vietnam

Nokia X A110 (Normandy) is priced in Vietnam | Nokia's first Android phone, still unannounced, has appeared on the website of a online retailer in Vietnam. That is actually quite fitting considering that much of this story came out of the country. The appearance of the phone, known as the Nokia X A110, included a price. According to the listing, this handset will cost between 2.2 million to 2.5 million VND which works out to about $110 USD. 

The same online retailer had the similarly spec'd Nokia Lumia 525 on the site, priced at 3.39 million VND ($160 USD). The Nokia X A110 has 512MB less RAM and 4GB less native storage than what is on the Nokia Lumia 525. 

The specs of the Nokia X A110 show a 4 inch glass with resolution of 480 x 854 for a 285ppi pixel density. A dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon 200 is under the hood, with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of native storage. Those needing more memory can use the 32GB capacity microSD slot that is available on the phone. A 5MP camera graces the back of the device, which will have Android 4.4.2 installed out of the box. 

The latest buzz is that the phone will launch in March, which means we could see it at MWC later this month, in Barcelona. 

 
source: Techrum (translated) via WMPoweruser

LG says it is also considering biometric authentication options for the G3

At a press conference for the G Pro 2 unveiling, an LG exec spilled some beans regarding the upcoming G3 flagship, too. When asked whether it will include some sort of fingerprint or eye-scanning technology, like the ones already present on the iPhone 5s, or rumored for the Galaxy S5, he said that LG is considering all these possibilities for its 2014 top dog. 

As for the just-announced G Pro 2, the phablet will be released in Asia first, after the South Korean launch, and this will happen in March. The US and Europe are coming afterwards, so we can arguably expect LG's first 6" phablet to hit our shores mid-Spring at the earliest.  

The phablet will apaprently be promoted heavily during the MWC expo, but the LG exec mentioned it won't clash with the events around the Galaxy S5, as they are “different-sized and not in the same category”. “The target consumer for the G Pro 2 and the Galaxy S5 are different so we don’t consider it a competition,” he said. 

 

 

 

source: Zdnet.co.kr

LG Executive: LG G Pro 2 not coming to U.S. before April

The LG G Pro 2 is now official, as we told you earlier Thursday. The big question for those in the U.S. is, when will the handset be available in the states? Good question. Let's start in chronological order. Being a Korean company, LG's home country gets first crack at the device at the end of this month. So says Cho Sung Ha, head of Korean sales at LG's mobile division. Other Asian countries will be ringing up the LG G Pro 2 sometime next month. 

According to Sung Ha, the U.S.launch of the LG G Pro 2 will not take place before April. Why? Well, it seems that LG conducted a study which revealed that phablets are most in demand in Asia while in the U.S., 5.2 inches is the sweet spot, exactly the size of the LG G2. In Europe, the continent goes wild over 5 inch handsets. 

So with this survey in mind, the 5.9 inch LG G Pro 2 gets launched in Asia first and finally hits the U.S., followed by Europe. With that humungous screen, quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU and 3GB of RAM, LG has quite a beast on its hands."The G Pro 2 will be launched in Korea within this month. Starting in March, we will launch it in Asian countries where demand for large-screen phablets is the highest. We will release the G Pro 2 in regions such as the US and Europe after that."-Cho Sung Ha, head of Korea sales, LG Mobile  

     source: ZDNet (translated) via gforgames