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AT&T and Asus announced the entry-level PadFone X mini smartphone with tablet docking station. The LTE device will be available later this month, on October 24 for $199.99 with no contract on AT&T’s GoPhone prepaid plans.

Breathometer has unveiled the Breeze today. This is a new breathalyzer that the company claims is the industry’s first such device to be “truly wearable”. It’s small, has a built-in mouthpiece, and it comes with a wearable clip, keychain, and a mouthpiece cover.

The Breathometer Breeze will allegedly last for an incredible 16 months of daily use before needing battery replacement. It’s available to buy for $99.99, and will start shipping on October 22.






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Vodafone is expanding its Android tablet roster with one of the cheapest 4G LTE tablets around. Dubbed Vodafone Smart Tab 4G it will launch tomorrow at £125 on Pay as you go and £30 on a 1GB/£17 a month plan.
     The tablet will be available in Vodafone stores tomorrow.


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Soon after announcing the launch details of the Samsung Gear S in the UK, the company also shed light on its availability in India. The smartwatch launches this week in India in black and white color options and will cost $470 (INR 28,900).


We don’t yet know whether the watch will be available in its Swarovski edition. The IP67-certified smartwatch sports a 2″ 360 x 480 curved Super AMOLED display and features a dual-core 1GHz CPU running the Tizen-based wearable platform.

It can play music to your Bluetooth headset and make calls even without one. Internal storage is 4GB and RAM is 512MB, which does the job well. The battery is 300mAh and is promised to last a full day of moderate usage.

Be sure to check out our first encounter with the smartwatch at the IFA 2014 showroom floor.

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At this week’s HKTDC tech show in Hong Kong, an interesting Windows tablet made an appearance sporting the hard-to-believe price tag of $65 (CNY 399). The tablet is called the Emdoor EM-I8170 and sports a 7″ 1024 x 600 pixel display.
Under the hood, there’s an Intel Z3735G quad-core Bay Trail processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It boots Windows 8.1 and the company boasts it has received over 50,000 orders for the tablet already.

Microsoft is seeing healthy competition in its ecosystem when it comes to low-end tablets. HP launched the $99 Stream 7 Windows 8.1 tablet sporting thr dsmr Atom Z3735G SoC with quad-core processor and a gig of RAM.

The availability of the tablet outside China isn’t known yet, but Emdoor doesn’t seem to know at this point if it’s going to reach outside the boundaries of its home market.

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Multiple Dropbox accounts got compromised today when an anonymous user posted hundreds of Dropbox ID and password in a text file on reddit. The ID and password were in four text files that were posted on pastebin.
reddit users confirmed that many of the accounts listed with their passwords were legit. However, Dropbox later said that it wasn’t hacked, and that the account details were obtained from third party sources.

Dropbox also said that it has measures in place to detect suspicious login attempt and reset the passwords automatically. Dropbox also claimed that the list of usernames and passwords are not associated with Dropbox, which is the exact opposite of what the reddit users confirmed.

Although Dropbox is clearly shrugging responsibility here, in the end the users are going to suffer. This is why it is of utmost importance to have two-step authentication enabled for your every account and have a strong password as well, just in case. If you can’t take all the available precautions for your online accounts in this day and age, you only have yourself to blame.

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Microsoft has added a new ability to Windows Phone’s virtual assistant skill set. Cortana is now capable of looking for song lyrics for you so you can sing along with your favorite artists.

Wi-Fi 802.11ac is just starting to gain traction, but Samsung is already looking ahead. The company has announced that it has managed to complete the development of the Wi-Fi 802.11ad standard and is ready to commercialize it.

A city in China had to open a special lane for people who have their head buried in their smartphone, but car maker VW has a more high-tech solution to this 21st century problem. Introducing Bump Alert – the smartphone app that automatically flashes a warning when you are about to run into something.

OnePlus has announced a partnership with audio company JBL resulting in one of the first official earphones for the One the JBL E1+. The earphones sports a premium 9mm JBL drivers as well as the company’s PureBass technology.

Microsoft has released a new app for the Surface 3 tablet. Called Surface Hub, the app lets you customize the settings for the stylus that comes bundled with the tablet.

Google is working on a new service that is integrated within the Google Search app of your phone. Whenever you search for an illness the app will suggest you to talk to a doctor, which will then initiate a Helpout-style video chat where you can ask the doctor about the problem you are having

Google Play Store is not the only content marketplace to get a refresh these days. Apple began rolling out redesigned iTunes Store app to users as well.

Renowned optics manufacturer Carl Zeiss is making its own alternative to Samsung’s Gear VR headset that uses an inserted smartphone to generate a 3D world.



Unlike Samsung’s offering, the Carl Zeiss VR One will be compatible with a wide range of smartphones between 4.7″ and 5.2″, although you will have to purchase a special tray for each new device.

Initially, the VR One will be come with compatible with the Apple iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S5, although the company has promised a wide range of trays for other devices. Each tray is set to run you an additional $10 on top of the $99 asking price.

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HTC unveiled the first member of its new Eye family this week, but it was very quickly to add a second with the One (M8 Eye) joining the Desire Eye. Now we learn that a third Eye smartphone is on the way as import documents from India have listed it.
Several hundred units of the yet unofficial HTC One (E8 Eye) have entered India. They come in two different colors – Silver and Gray. The price listed is INR 27,275 (about $445), so a reasonable guess is the final retail price will be along the lines of the original HTC One (E8), which goes for INR32,000 ($520) in the subcontinent.
What we don’t really know is how the Eye version of the One (E8) will differ from the original device. It’s certain that it will be running the new Eye Experience selfie-enhancing software out of the box, but that will be seeded to the other One E8 units eventually.

Oppo N3 has been in the rumorland for quite a while with specs and renders. Oppo even began teasing the smartphone on Facebook. The latest teaser picture once again confirmrs the Oppo N3 announcement date - October 29. The event will be taking place in Singapore.

It's been a while since we saw a new DROID from Motorola and Verizon. Well, there is one coming soon, and it is the new DROID Turbo. We have seen some of the specs and other details in a leak before, but here is the back of the phone in that neat Verizon red finish.



The image was posted on Verizon's @DroidLanding Twitter account for a while before being pulled down, so it's fairly legit. From the back you can see the supposed 21 megapixel camera with the dual LED flash. The phone is also supposed to have a massive 3,900mAh but it's hard to tell that from the image. In comparison, the phone looked fairly chunky in one of the previous leaks we saw.

No word yet on when this phone will be announced.


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The assumption is that the official launch date for Apple Pay will be announced next week during Apple's announcement for the new iPad Air; but, until then, we only have rumors to work with. The rumors have claimed October 20th would be the date that Apple Pay gets moving, but a new leaked memo is saying that it will actually be next Saturday, October 18th.


The leaked has come out of Walgreens, and shows a memo that is prepping workers to be able to handle customer questions when they first attempt to use Apple Pay. The document doesn't really go into much detail, except to say that users will have to tap their iPhone 6 to the "upper portion of the pin pad". The explanation is fairly thin, likely because Walgreens workers have been watching random people pay with Google Wallet for a couple years now.

But, the more interesting part of the memo may be the idea of marketing that is going into it. It sounds likely that there will be display ads pushing Apple Pay, while claiming that this product will "reinforce [Walgreens'] position as a leader an [sic] innovator in the mobile world." We'd say, don't be surprised if there is a fair marketing push at all of Apple's retail partners (all of which have been accepting Google Wallet for a long time), like Disney, Nike, McDonalds, and Whole Foods.
source: MacRumors via VentureBeat
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The Angry Birds bubble has burst, and the game has drifted from the public consciousness, but there are hardcore fans out there who still enjoy the game, and Rovio is continuing to support the various versions that exist. The latest update comes to Angry Birds Seasons, which adds a new section to honor the NBA just before the newest basketball season starts in a couple weeks.

Some T-Mobile subscribers who pre-ordered the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 might have checked their order status online on Friday, noting (no pun intended) that their new phablet has been shipped. One of our loyal readers has sent us a screenshot, showing that his brand new phablet is now in transit.

Microsoft is working on a keyboard for Android Wear devices (yes, you read that right). The company has now released a prototype version of the keyboard, which can be downloaded from the company’s website
The Microsoft keyboard is a bit different than the ones we have seen so far, wherein it doesn’t have actual keys but uses the screen to let you draw characters on the screen, which are then converted into actual characters.

I suppose this is a better way to enter text on your watch but if you stop and think about it, you are still that guy who enters text on your smartwatch. Why you wouldn’t use voice or just use your phone is beyond me.


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The Samsung Gear S watchphone will be arriving in the UK a week after the Galaxy Note 4 hits. The Tizen-running smartwatch has its own 3G modem so it can do calls and use mobile data on its own, no need for a connection to a smartphone, unlike the majority of smartwatches out there.
The Gear S comes in Black and White but only the Black version will be stocked at first.

MobileFun is taking pre-orders at £330, while Clove is asking £340. Clove notes that black Samsung Gear S units will be available on October 24, the availability of the white option is yet to be confirmed.

Of course, there’s a Swarovski edition, but let’s say that one has a unique, uh, charm.

The Gear S has a large (really large for a watch) 2″ screen, a 360 x 480 Super AMOLED, a dual-core 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB storage. It can play music to your Bluetooth headset and make calls even without one. And it’s IP67-certified so light sporting activity is no problem (just no diving, okay?).


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Last week we wanted your take on another device released last month at IFA – the Sony Xperia Z3, and how it stacks up against the current crop of Android flagship competition.

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According to analyst company NPD Group, Apple isn’t the only one reaping the benefits of surging iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales. The report states that iPhone 6 accessory makers have made a total of $249 million over the last two weeks.
That’s 43% increase compared to the first two weeks after the iPhone 6 launch, and it’s hardly surprising. The iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s managed to accumulate $195 million of revenue for the same period with just a 17% spike for the second fortnight since launch.



Cases are the most demanded accessories for the latest iPhone 6 duet. Their manufacturers bet on the initially leaked iPhone 6 design and as a result managed to offer e plethora of options at the phone’s launch and this proved move proved successful, according to the research.



However, screen protectors are also on the rise and revenue from them grew by 120% compared to the pre-launch period. Other accessories didn’t bring so much revenue back with microphones going up by 10 percent, and Bluetooth speakers grew 5 percent


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Samsung has partially revealed its launch plans for the Galaxy Ace 4 LTE in the UK. The phone will be available both online and in Samsung Experience Stores stores starting October 17. Sadly, pricing information is yet to be revealed.

Brand consultancy firm Interbrand has released its report on the most valuable brands in the world and has placed Apple in first place. The brand of the Cupertino based tops the list containing 100 companies and is valued at $118.9 billion.

It is followed by Google, which isn’t too far off with a brand price of $107 billion. Interestingly, out of the 100 companies, 13 are technology oriented. IBM, Microsoft and Samsung are fourth, fifth and sevenths, respectively. Coca-Cola is third as Apple and Google pushed it out of the top spot for a second consecutive year. The beverage company has been enjoying the number one spot for 13 annual reports in a row, but its dominance was ended in 2013.



Interbrand measures a brand’s value by taking into consideration financial performance of the company’s products and service, influence on customer choice and the company’s ability to lock down earning and ensure premium price for its products. If this sounds too vague, Interbrand touts its assessment method as the first to be certified by the ISO organization (International Organization for Standardization).

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Google has started rolling out v5.0.31 of the Play Store for Android. The major difference here is in the UI, and it’s approximately 600% more Material Design now.
First up, the action bar on top is now teal or something close to that with a new side menu and a cool animation for the hamburger button. The side menu shows the same items now, but the font is smaller.

In app lists you’ll find that the color of the action bar now applies to the categories below as well. As for the app pages, the ‘What’s New’ section is now at the top with highlight and stays at the top instead of going all the way down when you tap the ‘Read More’ button for description.

Other than that I’d say it more or less looks similar with minor design changes here and there. The update has started rolling out but as usual could take days or weeks before it reaches you, so might as well just head over to the source link below and download the APK now.



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Smartwatches fall into two categories – a functionality-first type with square displays and looks-first with round design. An ideal execution of the second type will be an actual watch with a real movement and hands, but also with a display hidden in there somehow.
It’s the “somehow” that’s the crux of the issue but Longshine Technologies thinks it has the answer – a transparent OLED touchscreen.

The company is an ODM – meaning it manufactures devices that other companies brand but is considering its own line of devices. The two platform demos are the Halo 1 and Halo 2.

Both feature a real Swiss or Japanese watch movement and physical hands. The protective glass over that is where the magic happens, the transparent OLED display. It’s a new technology and its specs are far from impressive – 96×96 pixels with 256 colors per pixel. It’s a touchscreen so you can operate the watch like Android Wear and Tizen watches.

Actually they run full Android – heavily customized 2.3 Gingerbread instead of the bespoke Wear version of the OS. Still, like Wear, the two smartwatches are tethered over Bluetooth to a smartphone. The Halo 2 features a 2G modem so it can do voice calls independently.


Both are powered by an ARM-based Intel XMM 2231 chipset with a 300MHz processor. It’s paired with 512MB RAM and 4GB of internal storage.

The Halo 1 has a 240mAh battery, while the Halo 2 has a 350mAh one, plus a 2G antenna and a SIM card slot integrated into the strap. The watches are expected to last over 3 days, in large part thanks to the “always-on” functionality of an old-fashioned watch.

Longshine Technologies can add IP53 or IP54 water-resistance to the watches if desired.




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The new generation Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 family also comes in 8 and 10 versions, besides the gadget-packed 13.3 Pro version. The smaller tablets come in Android and Windows versions.

They are all powered by a quad-core Atom processor and share the Yoga Tablet's trademark kickstand. The new gen introduces the Hang mode – you basically hang the tablet like a picture. The three old modes – Hold, Tilt and Stand – are also possible. Inside the thicker bottom end of the tablet are stereo front-facing speakers by Dolby and Wolfson.

The IPS LCD screens of the 10 and 8 models both have 1,920 x 1,200 pixel resolution, lower than the QHD screen of the Pro model but still fairly sharp in tablet terms – 226ppi and 283ppi respectively.
The two Android tablets share in other specs too – like an 8MP f/2.2 auto-focus camera on the back and a 1.6MP selfie camera. They have 16GB of built-in storage and support microSD cards up to 64GB, plus you can attach USB On-the-go for more storage or accessories.

The connectivity includes dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. The 10" tablet has an LTE option available only in some countries (but not in the US).

The 10 Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 measures 255 x 183 x 3-7.2mm and weighs 619g. The 8 model is 210 x 149 x 2.7-7mm and weighs 419g.

Three has announced it will be the only UK carrier to offer the newly announced HTC Desire Eye once it becomes available. The smartphone with front and rear 13MP cameras with dual-LED flash units went official last night in New York, and Three was quick to brag that it got the exclusivity deal.

Asus has announced its plans to launch the PadFone S and the accompanying it PadStation dock in Malaysia. In the coming weeks, both will launch with a respective price tag of $275 and $152.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phablet is hitting the US next week and carriers are taking pre-orders. Sprint had one of the higher pre-order prices at $350, but it has changed its mind and sliced $50 off that to match key rivals AT&T and Verizon.

Samsung has stated numerous times that the Galaxy Note Edge is going to have a limited release worldwide. Still, the phone is preparing to launch in the US as it has been spotted passing by the FCC with a model number SM-N915A.



The Galaxy Note Edge, which packs a 5.6" curved Super AMOLED display, is listed to have LTE support AT&T (bands 2 and 4) and US Cellular (bands 5 and 12). While a time frame for the phone's launch on these carriers isn't specified, we suspect it will be before the end of November.