HTC: One A9 design coming to One M and Desire series

Like the HTC One A9 design? Good, because you're about to see a lot more of it. "Starting with the One A9, our design language will enter a different and fashionable phase," says Jack Tong, president of HTC North Asia.

Both the One M series (the flagships) and the Desire series (which covers anything from entry-level to upper mid-range) will adopt the sleek look of the A9, which is an evolution of the HTC One design.

Mr. Tong didn’t say anything on the topic of material though. Much of A9's cool factor comes from the aluminum unibody and the One M series will almost certainly stick with metal. We're curious to see what will happen to the top dogs in the Desire lineup though.

The fate of other design elements like the 2.5D glass over the AMOLED screen is unclear as well. We do hope HTC makes stereo speakers work with this new design though.

Sony to open a new smartphone factory in Thailand

Sony has announced plans to open up a new smartphone factory in the Pathum Thani Province in Thailand. The company already own a large production site there which has been suspended following the massive 2011 floods.

The initial investment of several billion yen will give Sony the opportunity to start mass producing smartphones there starting in fiscal 2016. Initially the factory will have an output of several million units per year.

Sony hasn't put up a new plant specifically for mobile devices since 1995. Twenty years ago, the company built a mobile communications factory in Beijing with three local partners. Back then, it participated with 51% of the investment, but now Sony fully owns the new Thai plant. Hopefully, this will make for more agile business decisions.

In the beginning of October, the company CEO Kazuo Hirai gave the mobile division a year to start bringing in a profit, before resorting to "alternative options." Building a brand new factory to handle just mobile devices is an optimistic sign, which should breathe a sigh of relief to fans and investors alike.

And that's exactly what Sony needs after its mobile communications business posted an operating loss of $1.82 billion for the fiscal year ending in March 2015. Through streamlined marketing, reforms and payroll cuts, the company has expressed its hope to turn to profit by March 2017.

HTC One A9 pre-orders start in the UK, costs even more than expected

Pre-orders for the HTC One A9 started in the US a couple of days ago, mere hours after its announcement. And now we have spotted a few UK retailers that are also offering it up for pre-order. The device is much more expensive in the UK than it is in the US, even more so than anticipated - while HTC's official recommended sales price was quoted at the launch as being £429.99 SIM-free, at the moment the cheapest option is £20 more than that.

If you'd like to get the One A9 unlocked, then you can pre-order one at Expansys for £479.99, at Carphone Warehouse for £469.99, or at Unlocked Mobiles for £449.99. While the first two retailers mention that they're selling the model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage (which according to HTC is the only one officially headed to the UK), Unlocked Mobiles lists the one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB - though this might just be a typo. Regardless of which company you choose to do business with, right now you can only pick between the grey and silver hues for the One A9.

If long-term contracts with operators are more your thing, then Carphone Warehouse has you covered. You can bag the phone for free with plans starting at £31.99 per month. That cheapest option is from EE, giving you 1,000 UK minutes, unlimited UK texts, and 1GB of data each month. At the other end of the spectrum, a £39 per month Vodafone subscription brings you unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, as well as 6GB of data, and obviously there are many more intermediate options to choose from.

As for deliveries, Unlocked Mobiles expects to have the One A9 in stock on November 1, while Carphone Warehouse says the phone should be at your doorstep by November 6.

The HTC One A9 comes with a 5-inch 1080p AMOLED touchscreen, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 SoC, a 13 MP rear camera with dual-LED flash, a 4 MP front snapper, and a 2,150 mAh battery. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Leaked Verizon info sheet sheds more light on the Droid Turbo 2

As we're now mere days away from the grand unveiling of Verizon's new Droids, the upcoming Motorola Droid Turbo 2 understandably keeps on leaking every day. And the carrier itself has already unveiled the look of the device's back, through a short teaser video. Yesterday we got a look at the back cover models that will be available through Moto Maker, and today a purported info sheet originating at Big Red has been leaked.

This is apparently meant for Verizon employees to get a quick hang of the Droid Turbo 2's main differentiating features. As you can see, the "shatterproof" screen we've been hearing so much about is confirmed once again.

The Droid Turbo 2 is said to sport 48-hour battery life, as well as fast charging support, with 13 hours of charge being available after just 15 minutes plugged into a power supply.

The camera is a 21 MP unit, probably the exact same one found in the already launched Moto X Style and Moto X Play, undoubtedly Motorola's best effort in the space in recent years. The selfie cam is a wide-angle affair with 5 MP resolution, while microSD card support will provide storage expansion capabilities up to 2TB.

That's it for now, but you should probably expect to see more leaks about the Droid Turbo 2 until October 27, when it will finally become official.

T-Mobile gives you a Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Tab A for free with trade-in

T-Mobile is running an interesting promotion this weekend only. Starting today and until Sunday, you can in fact get both a Samsung Galaxy S6 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab A for free from the magenta carrier.

The catch? Well, there are several, actually. First off, in order to get the devices for free you need to trade-in an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy Note 4, or Galaxy Note Edge. Only if you bring in one of these smartphones will you be able to pick up a brand new Galaxy S6 for free.

Then there's the fact that you'll need to get wireless service from T-Mobile, which isn't surprising we assume. Yet if you cancel that, you lose the promotional pricing - meaning that you either have to return the S6 or actually pay it off in order to keep it.

As for the tablet, to also receive a Galaxy Tab A 8.0 for free, you only need to add a data plan for it to your account. You can do this when grabbing the Galaxy S6, naturally.

All in all a pretty compelling offer, this, especially if, for example, you own a Samsung Galaxy S5 from last year and would like to exchange it for this year's model without additional cost.

Acer Jade Primo will cost around $400 when it launches in December

One of Acer's first Windows 10 smartphones, and certainly the most interesting, is the Jade Primo. The company showcased it in Berlin at IFA at the beginning of September, but didn't mention any pricing details or a release date.

Now though thanks to an Acer presentation in the Philippines, we know both of those things. The Jade Primo will be out over there in December for PHP 18,990, which right now translates into $408 or €367.

That's some pretty decent pricing indeed, especially if Acer will in fact ship the Jade Primo with a Continuum dock, keyboard, and mouse, as previously revealed.

Now of course the device will probably be offered for a slightly different amount in other territories, but there's no reason to expect it to go for more than $450 in the US or €400 in Europe.

The Acer Jade Primo has a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 21 MP rear camera with dual-LED flash, an 8 MP selfie snapper, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808 chipset at the helm, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of expandable storage.

BlackBerry Priv clears the FCC hurdle

BlackBerry's Android-powered Priv smartphone has cleared the FCC hurdle, which means it's now ready to go on sale in the United States. Three different versions of the device have been certified, having model numbers STV100-1, STV100-3, and STV100-4.

This comes just a day after the handset briefly showed up on BlackBerry's official online store, revealing a price tag of $750 for the unlocked model in the US and $949 in Canada, as well as a shipping date of November 16.

While a couple of retailers (Carphone Warehouse in the UK and Rogers in Canada) are already accepting pre-orders for the Priv, BlackBerry is expected to begin allowing consumers to pre-register for the smartphone on Friday (today).

Microsoft's phone business takes a hit in Q3

Microsoft has released its earnings report for Q3 2015, and while most of the company's businesses have performed well, the phone business has taken a hit - revenue was down a disappointing 54% compared to the same period last year.

This means that the Redmond-based company managed to sell around just 5.8 million Lumia phones in the previous quarter, compared to 9.3 million it sold in Q3 2014. Quarter-on-quarter sales were also down - a total of 8.4 million Lumia's were sold in Q2 this year, which, for the matter of fact, was up compared to Q2 last year.

For this quarter, the software giant is pinning its hopes on the recently announced Windows 10 Mobile flagships - the Lumia 950 and 950 XL. Both are now available for pre-order across Europe, and are also listed on the US Microsoft Store website - the company has already confirmed that the Lumia 950 will be an AT&T exclusive in the US for a limited time.

OPPO R7s Plus and A33m receive TENAA certification

A couple of new Oppo smartphones have been certified by the Chinese regulatory agency TENAA. These include the high end OPPO R7s Plus and the mid-level A33m.

Let's begin with the R7s Plus. As the name suggests, it should be an upgraded variant of the R7s that was made official early this week. As for the specs, it is powered by a 1.5 GHz octa core processor, and sports a 6.0-inch AMOLED Full HD display with a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels.

The device has 3GB RAM and 32GB internal memory, and runs Android 5.1.1 OS out-of-the-box. In terms of camera, the R7s PLus features a 13MP rear unit and a 8MP front shooter. Weighing in at 200gms and measuring 158.18×82.3×7.75 mm, it will be available in gold and silver color options.

Moving on to the A33m, the device is powered by a 1.2GHz quad core processor, and sports a 5-inch TFT display with 960×540 pixel resolution. It comes with 1GB RAM and 16GB expandable internal memory, and like the R7s Plus, runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

In terms of camera, the A33m features an 8MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. It will only be available in the gold color option.

HTC exec on One A9's iPhone-like design: It's actually Apple who copied us

Ever since HTC launched its new One A9 smartphone, it has been heavily criticized for making a device that looks like an iPhone 6 clone. Now, a senior HTC executive has came to the defense of the handset as well as the company, saying that it was Apple who originally copied one of their phone's design in its iPhone 6.

"We’re not copying. We made a unibody metal-clad phone in 2013. It’s Apple that copies us in terms of the antenna design on the back," said HTC's North Asia President Jack Tong.

If you're wondering, Tong is referring to the One M7 smartphone from 2013, which sported an aluminium body as well as antenna lines on its back. So, while his statement does carry some weight given that the iPhone 6 came in 2014, it still doesn't justify the fact that the One A9 seems to have copied almost every other design aspect from Apple's new iPhones.

New render of the rumored Lumia Saana leaks out

A couple of days ago, there were reports that Microsoft is working on a new Lumia device (internally code-named Saana). The following was the first leaked render of the rumored device.


Now, another render of the Saana has leaked (see the image below), showing the back of the mid-range handset.

As for the specs, the smartphone (RM-1152) is said to be powered by a Qualcomm MSM8909 Snapdragon 210 chipset, and sport a 5-inch 720p display. It is expected to feature 8MP rear camera and microSD card slot, pack in a 2000 mAh battery, and include Glance Screen support. The photo also confirmed previous reports that the smartphone won't have a dedicated camera button.

Google beats estimates in Q3, enjoys $18.7B revenue and $3.98B profit

Q3 2015 is one of Google's strongest as Alphabet announced the company's financial results for the quarter. Google's revenue for the period is $18.7 billion, a 13% year-over-year rise. Google's websites generated $13 billion of that revenue - a 16% year-over-year increase.

Net income was also high at $3.98 billion, compared to Q3 2014's $2.74 billion.

Google saw a rise in revenue across its devices and advertising businesses. Other revenue streams, including hardware sales brought $1.89 billion in. Average paid clicks were up 23%.

Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google, was quite happy with the results:

Our Q3 results show the strength of Google's business, particularly in mobile search. With six products now having more than 1 billion users globally, we're excited about the opportunities ahead of Google, and across Alphabet.

Operating costs were also up totaling to $6.93 billion up from $6.1 billion from the same period last year. Additionally, Alphabet revealed it will be buying back north of $5 billion in stock in the coming quarter.

Samsung Galaxy On7 and On5 go official in China

Samsung Galaxy On5 popped up on the official Samsung India website just two days ago, but the page was quickly taken down. We still managed to extract all the interesting details about the 5" Galaxy On5 and we are pretty much considering it as official.

Today Samsung China official took the wraps off the Galaxy On7 and the Galaxy On5 smartphones - two entry-level offers with attractive designs. While both look a lot like the A series, they are made entirely of plastic with faux-leather rear covers. Samsung says those affordable phones come with "an unprecedentedly thin frames and bezels".

The Samsung Galaxy On7 is 8.2mm thing, features a 5.5" 720p TFT display and runs on a quad-core 1.2GHz (Cortex-A53 probably) processor with 1.5GB of RAM. It packs a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP selfie snapper, offers 8GB expandable storage and LTE support.

The Galaxy On7 is powered by a 3,000 mAh battery and runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop (with Samsung Milk Music pre-installed). It will be available in white and gold flavors.

The Galaxy On5, which we already met, has a 5" HD display and an Exynos 3475 SoC (a quad-core 1.3GHz Cortex-A7, Mali-T720 GPU) and 1.5GB RAM. It employs an 8MP rear snapper and a 5MP selfie shooter, there is 8GB expandable storage and LTE connectivity.

The Galaxy On5 is also running on Lollipop (with Milk Music app), and has a beefy 2,600 mAh under the hood to power the whole thing.

Both Samsung Galaxy On7 and On5 are going on sale in China very soon. We guess India will be next to get those two models, as the On5 briefly popped up on the official site.

The expected retail prices are about $150 for the On5 and about $200 for the On7.

Sony officially denies selling its mobile segment, yet again

Jonathan Lin, who is Sony Mobile's General Manager in Taiwan has officially stated that the company won't be exiting the mobile market. His claim is backed up by a recent meeting of his with Hiroki Totoki, who also firmly denies analyst allegations, yet again.

According to Mr. Lin, Sony Mobile will focus its energy on improving the business and the products it creates. The company's newly opened factory in Thailand dedicated to smartphone assembly should help in these efforts.

The company's Xperia Z5 Premium flagship will launch in Taiwain in a month's time. The price of the handset is expected to be around the $500 mark unlocked. Sony Mobile's optimistically expects to grab 30% of the high-end Android smartphone market in the country.

AT&T's Samsung Galaxy S5 finally receives Android 5.1.1 update

AT&T is now finally in the process of rolling out the update to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop for its version of the Galaxy S5, Samsung's flagship from 2014. It's quite late, of course, seeing as how Google's already released Android 6.0 Marshmallow to its Nexus devices, but at least owners of the AT&T Galaxy S5 now have something to look forward to.

Aside from bumping up the Android version to 5.1.1, the update also adds Android for Work, a few security updates, as well as a fix to Ultra Power Saving Mode for phones using on-device encryption.

As this is an over-the-air rollout, it may be a few days before you receive the notification that the update is available for your handset. If you're impatient, you can always manually check for the new software by going to Settings > About device > Software update.

Do note that you must use Wi-Fi to download the new release. The file size is around 609MB. After you've applied the update you'll be on build version LMY47X.G900AUCU4COI5.