FCC approves another LG G4 variant for the US

A couple of days ago, we covered incoming documents for a new LG G4 variant coming through the FCC with a product number "H815PX". We concluded this was a G4 variant but now there is a variant of the G4 Stylus (G Stylo if you're in the US) also popping up at the FCC with the product codes "H630CX" and "H635CX".

Just like the "H815PX" docs, these new ones contain little information about the hardware on board and no images whatsoever.



While we thought the "H815PX" was going to be a variant that came bundled with a wireless charging back cover, these new documents don't even mention wireless charging. So maybe there is something else new about the "H815PX".

What is LG planning for the States? We aren't sure what these devices are but hopefully we will get an idea soon.

Via | Source

New reports says Apple sold 7 million Watch units

We have little doubt that the Apple Watch is the best selling wearable, but exact figures are rather hard to come by. With Cupertino staying mum we have market research companies to fill us in with (hopefully accurate) info.



The latest report comes courtesy of Canalys and claims that The Apple Watch has blown all of its competitors away with over 7 million units already shipped. This results covers only two quarters and is allegedly bigger than all other vendor shipments combined. As you would expect, however, other parties have offered a quite different opinion on the matter, like MarketWatch, which back in July claimed that Watch sales are quickly dying down after the initial euphoria, with Apple moving less than 20,000 units a day. However, another recent study by Strategy Analytics does also attribute a lot of success to the Apple Watch, claiming it might very well be responsible for the unprecedented 457.3% year-over-year growth in smartwatch sales as a whole.

The whole situation is clearly a mess and we can't exactly rule out some bias or even intentional market influence here and there, but hoping Canalyst got its numbers straight, let's look at the rest of them. The report states that in the last quarter Apple was the only vendor to ship more than 300,000 wearables, followed by Pebble with 200,000 which could be explained with the release of the Pebble Time Steel. The Samsung Gear S2 still wasn't around back then, so sadly it doesn't participate in the statistics.



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Teaser confirms Huawei's upcoming Mate 8 will be powered by newly-announced Kirin 950 SoC

Shortly after making official the Kirin 950 SoC, Huawei has confirmed that its upcoming Mate 8 smartphone will be powered by the latest chipset. The confirmation came in the form of a teaser image (shown below).


If you aren't in the know, the Kirin 950 obliterated Samsung's top-of-the-line Exynos 7420 chipset on GeekBench, and scored a whopping 83000 points on AnTuTu, suggesting that its real life performance as part of the Mate 8 smartphone would be something to look forward to.

As for the Mate 8, the flagship is expected to be made official on November 26. And from what has been leaked now, it will sport a 1080p 6-inch display, come with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory, and feature a 16MP/8MP camera combo.

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New update rolling out to Samsung Z3

A few weeks after receiving its first update, the Tizen-powered Samsung Z3 smartphone - which was launched last month with 5-inch 720p Super AMOLED screen and a quad-core 1.3GHz processor- is getting another software update.


Weighing in at around 600MB, the update (which you can fetch through Samsung Smart Switch as it doesn't seem to be rolling OTA currently) doesn't bring any major changes - a few new icons have been added and there seems to be some change in the screen brightness (see the right hand portion of the image above).

For those who aren't in the know, the Z3 is the South Korean company's second smartphone running its home grown Tizen OS. The first one - dubbed Z1 - was launched back in January this year, and has been quite a success for the company. A recent report from market research firm Strategy Analytics revealed that Tizen has now overtaken BlackBerry OS to become the fourth largest mobile operating system in the world.

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Q3 saw Xiaomi selling over one million phones in India

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has announced that it sold over a million phones last quarter in India, making Q3 the most successful quarter in terms of the company's growth in the country.


The Q3 story looks even more successful when you see that the five-year-old startup - which entered the Indian market in July last year - sold a total of 3 million phones in its first year in the country. On average, the company's quarter-on-quarter sales have increased an impressive 45% since January, it was revealed.

India, being the world's third-largest smartphone market, is naturally important to any multinational smartphone manufacturer, and Xiaomi is no exception. The company's first smartphone launch outside of its home country was in India (the Mi4i back in April this year), and it has also recently started manufacturing phones in the neighboring country.

The company, which has been valued at around $46 billion, is aiming to sell a total of 80-100 million smartphones this year.

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Marshmallow update for BlackBerry Priv will arrive next year

A couple of months earlier, an Android-powered BlackBerry phone was just a rumor. However, it soon changed into reality when the Canadian company officially confirmed the BlackBerry Priv, which was previously named as Venice.


The Priv goes on sale today in the US, where AT&T will be the first carrier to start offering it. As you might already know, the handset has a sliding form factor, complete with the trademark BlackBerry physical keyboard, and runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

Given that Android 6.0 is already out, there's obviously a question about when the Priv will get the Marshmallow update. Well, according to BlackBerry, they are targeting to deliver the update "sometime in the new year." While we know that isn't too specific, all we can do is hope that the update arrives sooner than later.

The information was revealed by Ron Louks, BlackBerry's President of Devices, who also touched upon the issue of monthly Google patches, saying the company is aiming - at least in Europe - to roll out these updates to the Priv within 30 days of the search giant releasing them.

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Zauba data indicates Samsung Galaxy A9 could sport 6-inch display

Just less than a month after it had its specifications revealed on AnTuTu, the yet-to-be-announced Samsung Galaxy A9 has now been spotted listed on Zauba, a website which tracks India's import and export.


While the AnTuTu listing revealed a 5.5-inch screen, the listing on Zauba (screenshot shown above) indicates that the device - carrying a model number of SM-A9000 - could sport a screen as large as 6 inches. The listing also reveals different prices for the different batches imported on November 4.
From what has been leaked till now, the handset will be powered by a Snapdragon 620 SoC with octa-core processor and Adreno 510 GPU, and sport a 5.5 or 6-inch display. Having 3GB RAM and 32GB internal memory, it was spotted running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop during the benchmark test.

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