Samsung has been the vendor to beat in China for quite some time, but according to the latest figures from research firm Canalys, Xiaomi has taken the top spot in the second quarter of 2014. Xiaomi managed to capture 14% of the market with nearly 15 million units sales while Samsung took second place with 13.2 million, Lenovo took third with 13 million and Yulong and Huawei rounded out the top 5.
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Although T-Mobile’s assorted “Uncarrier” moves have done a lot to undermine the wireless industry’s traditional two-year contract business model, Verizon still thinks two-year contracts are a wonderful thing, mostly because they’re guaranteed revenue for a fixed period of time. Because of this, it’s not surprising to see Verizon is doing its best to keep the two-year contract model alive by shamelessly trying to convince users that signing a two-year deal is in their best interests. However, Droid Life points us to a new Verizon promotion that really takes things to a whole new level of stupid.
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Samsung is expected to soon unveil the Galaxy Alpha, a 4.7-inch Android smartphone that’s supposed to take on the upcoming 4.7-inch iPhone 6. While the smartphone is not official, it’s specs have already been leaked and have shown that the Galaxy Alpha won’t be a Galaxy S5 version hidden in a smaller body. We’ve also seen a couple of image leaks that have shown us what the device will have to offer in terms of design. Furthermore, Phone Arena has uncovered more model numbers for the Galaxy Alpha, which suggest at least two U.S. versions of the handset are inbound.
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For the past couple of years, we’ve been alternately amused and horrified whenever cable company bigwigs have told us that we don’t really “need” fast speeds like those offered by Google Fiber, so why bother significantly investing in infrastructure upgrade? It turns out, however, that both Comcast and Time Warner Cable have quickly changed their tunes now that they’re feeling the actual heat of free market competition for the first time in years.
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Not too long ago, Kickstarter suspended a crowdfunding campaign for the iFind, a device that would have raised well over $550,000 despite not being able to share any details about the product with backers or show a functional prototype. It’s still not clear whether that was an elaborate scam or an actual product, but it looks like there’s one more similar product that’s raising scam flags during funding. With 17 days left in the campaign, the Ritot smartwatch has already passed $750,000 in funds on Indiegogo well over its initial $50,000 goal, but The Next Web revealed there are some issues with the campaign.
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Everyone loves in-flight Wi-Fi… until it allows a hacker to infiltrate the plane’s satellite communications equipment. CBCNews brings us word that security researcher Ruben Santamarta of IOActive is going to present new findings at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas this week showing how to use a plane’s Wi-Fi and even its in-flight entertainment system to hack into its satellite equipment.
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Several iPhone 6 clones running Android have already been spotted online, and some reviewers have said that they’re so convincing that they could easily fool an unsuspecting buyers into thinking they’re getting an incredible deal on an iPhone 6. This is because, even though they have Android under the hood, they also have a complex skin on top that mimics almost every aspect of Apple’s mobile OS. One buyer who purposely obtained such a clone from China to give it a try while waiting for the real thing to launch shared his experience with it on Reddit.
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Not long after Google unveiled its gorgeous Android L update at I/O 2014, a fake Motorola Facebook account claimed that the Moto X and Moto G would be updated to Android L in the future. A few days later, Motorola revealed the account was not genuine, and the information posted on it should be disregarded. However, the company did not say what handsets will make the jump to Android L until a few days ago, when a short “Yup” from Motorola’s Punit Soni cleared the waters, at least when it comes to the Moto X.
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Over the past few years, the smartphone has become the most popular gaming platform in the world. Anyone with an iPhone has at least dabbled in free-to-play games, from Clash of Clans to the ubiquitous Candy Crush Saga, but there’s a growing premium market on the App Store as well, featuring ports of some of the biggest console games of the past generation. XCOM: Enemy Unknown made a successful transition to iOS last year and now 2K Games will be attempting to recreate the magic with BioShock later this summer.
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Being able to extract audio from a soundless visual recording is something that intelligence agencies will likely one day use – if they don’t already do it – for their operations. Researchers from MIT, Microsoft and Adobe have managed to create an algorithm that can reconstruct audio “by analyzing minute vibrations of objects depicted in video,” like bags of chips found in the same room with a target, as well as other objects including aluminum foil, the surface of a glass of water, and the leaves of a plant.
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