Meizu: We Have Received 7.7 Million Pre-Orders For Meizu MX4

Meizu is really a hot topic lately. This Chinese manufacturer has launched an extremely affordable, well-specced and beautifully designed smartphone recently, Meizu MX4. It seems that the demand for it has surprised even the company who made it. Bai Yongxiang is co-founder and president of Meizu, he announced on his Weibo account that company has received 7.7 million pre-orders for Meizu MX4. These are some great number for the China-based company.

Mr. Yongxiang also took advantage of this situation and mentioned Xiaomi. He said that the other China-based giant must be feeling pressure now, considering the amount of pre-ordered Meizu MX4 devices. There’s no doubt international orders helped Meizu achieve that number. Meizu is selling this device internationally and you can get it starting from $449 (16GB version), tax and shipping are included in the price for lots of countries all over the world, and if not mentioned, you can contact Meizu and ask them for details. The smartphone is also available for purchase internationally from reseller such as GearBest and Comebuy. Hopefully Meizu prepared for such numbers and will be able to manufacture enough Meizu MX4’s to ship to everyone who ordered the device in time.

Meizu MX4 is sporting a 5.36-inch 1080p (1920 x 1152) display along with 2GB of RAM and 16, 32 or 64GB of internal storage (16 and 32GB models available internationally). MediaTek’s MT6595 octa-core processor is powering this device along with PowerVR Series 6 GPU. 20.7-megapixel camera sporting Sony’s IMX 200 sensor and the dual LED, dual tone flash is located at the back of the device while there’s a 5-megapixel shooter on the front of it. The device comes with 3,100mAh non-removable battery and Android 4.4.4 KitKat pre-installed with Meizu’s Flyme 4.0 OS on top of it.

If you’re ordering the device in China you can get it in 16, 32 or 64GB variants with prices being 1799, 1999 and 2399 Yuan respectively. If you however intend to get the device internationally, you can get it in 16 or 32GB variants which will cost you $449 or $499 respectively. Pre-orders are active until September 20 when Meizu is expected to start shipping the devices worldwide.

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Karbonn Teases Company’s Upcoming Android One Smartphone

Karbonn is an Indian smartphone manufacturer and was announced as one of Google’s partners for their Android One program back at Google I/O in June. Android One, for those of you who don’t remember, is Google’s program in which the company partners with OEMs in order for them to make low cost Android devices which will get fast updates straight from Google. In other words these devices will run stock Android, though OEMs can add apps on it if they choose to do so. First batch of Android One devices will be announced at Google’s event in India on September 15th.

That being said, Karbonn released a teaser for that event and their first Android One smartphone. They don’t exactly say that it will be an Android One smartphone, but considering the date… no doubt about it. You can find the teaser below the article, it’s only 11 seconds long. Video is really nothing special, all you can see is this: “If you ‪#‎NoHave‬ the funkiest, coolest, smartest, awesomest smart phone, then get ready to be surprised!” along with date and time of the event and “Ignite the spark” caption in the end. Karbonn also mentions that the device will be available exclusively from Snapdeal. The price of this Karbonn device and Android One devices in general is expected to be around Rs 6000 ($100), that’s at least the price Google has announced, slightly under $100 that is.

This event is really close, so we don’t have to wait long for the unveiling of this device along with some Micromax and Spice devices as well, considering those are the 2 other Google Android One partners. 4.5-inch screen, Dual SIM functionality, FM Radio and Micro SD card support is mentioned as the reference hardware. This is only part of the picture of course, it remains to be seen what these three companies and Google decided to put inside these devices as far as hardware goes. Are you excited for these devices? Do you intend to buy one once they’re launched? You really can’t beat this price, it will be interesting to see how well will these devices sell.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Android Wear And Google Voice Compatibility Through Hangouts Integration

With all the buzz around Android Wear a little more recently with the devices that had shown up at IFA and the recently released Moto 360, people might be struggling to find what they can do with their newly prized smartwatches. What might be on everybody’s minds right now though is the Hangouts Integration with Google Voice, which happened briefly a couple of days ago only to have Google revert the handful of users back yesterday and then back again today. Now that things are officially official, you might be like some of the other users out there who are sporting one of the available Android Wear smartwatches who also are pretty heavily invested in Hangouts and Google Voice as main messaging applications, and wonder if the combo plays nice together.

Hangouts has been compatible with Android Wear from the beginning, but one thing that people might have been waiting for at some point was some integration with Google Voice. At long last, with the merging of the GV app into Hangouts it seemed that you might be able to send GV messages through your Android Wear watch, and you can, but the message apparently still sends through your carrier number and not through your GV number, at least for some users.

A thread has started on reddit that seems to point to some users not having the ability to send messages via their Android Wear smartwatches using their Google Voice number, something that you think you’d be able to do now with the Google Voice merging into Hangouts. While this might be just an isolated case with this one user, or maybe a few, in theory it should work just fine. If you had the message pop up in the Hangouts app asking if you’d like to merge your Google Voice account into Hangouts(which includes SMS and voicemail as well as calls)sending an SMS through Android Wear uses Hangouts, and so the message should send through whatever number you choose. If you go into Hangouts settings and choose your GV number, that should be the number that people see when they receive messages that you send via Android Wear. That is how it worked for me personally in a recent test after reading this thread, and at least one person commenting in the thread said they had the same experience when sending a message from their Moto 360. What is likely the case for the OP, is that they either didn’t merge the two apps yet, or didn’t set Google Voice as the preferred number to use when sending messages using Hangouts. Long story short, Hangouts messages sent from Android Wear should use Google Voice if you select that number through settings.

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Pear Watchface Gives You A Little Taste Of Apple On Android Wear

Although my own personal opinions of this homescreen for the Android Wear interface are simply that it ruins and takes away the essential beauty of it, it’s actually still quite amazing that someone was able to replicate the design and style of the Apple Watche’s homescreen UI in such a short period of time. Then again it’s just a watchface, so I’m not sure why I’m amazed that it could be created quickly. The Apple Watch was just recently unveiled and without a shadow of a doubt there will be people, legions of people flocking to stand in line and wait to get their hands(or their wrists?)on one of the available models once they officially hit stores. There were a couple of intriguing points about the Apple Watch, one of which is the bands and customization, the other was the homescreen interface.

The former is definitely more of a strong point for the Apple Watch as there will be thousands of customers who surely can’t wait to put their own spin on their device and truly make it their own. That’s the awesome thing about customization, it allows for one to really display their personality and taste. The latter, the Apple Watch homescreen interface, is.. interesting to say the least. It’s designed in such a way that Apple says you’ll be able to get to all your smatwatch apps more easily, although we’re not sure how having a bunch of tiny little dots on the screen makes things so much simpler on a screen so small, but what do we know, we haven’t tested it and it’s entirely possible that it works very well. Whether you love or hate the design of the new Apple Watch interface, one developer by the name of UhrArt(who is actually the same developer behind the wonderful Wear Faces app for Android Wear)has created a similar looking homescreen for Android Wear devices, a watchface named Pear(because fruit)which gives your watchface the already iconic and well known user interface design of the yet to be officially released Apple Watch.

Like we stated above though this is just a watchface, so you can’t interact with any of the icons. Perhaps you really weren’t wanting that anyway and thoroughly enjoy the way we interact with Android Wear as is. If you were hoping that you could interact with the apps via the icons, sorry, you’re out of luck, but hey, at least you can fool your Apple friends with it right? We all have our favorites and personal tastes when it comes to the watchfaces and homescreens we use for our Android Wear watches and Android devices. Does this one strike your fancy? Are you more partial to something that tells the time and date? Tell us your thoughts in the comments. Would you use this?

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Oppo’s Find 5 and N1 Will Finally Receive Kitkat 4.4 Along With Color OS 2.0

Unfortunately, not every smartphone that gets released will get the latest software. There are still tons of handsets out in the market or owned by users that still run Jellybean. For Oppo’s Find 5 and N1, the thought of them getting upgraded to Kitkat was thrown out the window when the company reported themselves that they would not update the two handsets. Now new information suggest that Oppo will indeed upgrade the Find 5 and the N1 to Kitkat and with the latest Color OS 2.0. For users of those two devices, the hope may be alive although there should always be some sort of solace found in knowing that a ROM might cure what ails you.

The Plans were revealed by Oppo in a Google+ comment. The post was a Find of the Week which was a music video by OK Go. In the comments, a user complained about how his Find 5 will never get Color OS 2.0. In response, Oppo Commented back saying, “We have plans for a KitKat based Color OS 2.0 for both the Find 5 and N1. Please stay tuned for more news on this in the near future.” So for many Find 5 users that are upset about how their device won’t be getting an upgrade, the time is finally here. Oppo will update these later generations with Color OS 2.0 which is their newest Android skin and it will be based on Kitkat 4.4.

It’s great to see the Find 5 get upgraded to the latest software available by Android. The Find 5 was Oppo’s flagship device before the FInd 7 came to life. This news is exciting for many Find 5 fans who may have been frustrated with Oppo because they said they didn’t have plans to update. Now that the company confirms an update, Find 5 and N1 users can experience the all new Color OS 2.0 and the joys of Kitkat. The comment made by Oppo on their Google+ page is the only information provided by the company that their will be an update. Further details of the subject have not surfaced. According to Oppo, more news will be revealed in the future, so all we have to do is sit and wait to see what the company has in store for everyone next.

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Sprint Declines To Bid for AWS-3 Spectrum

US carrier Sprint have announced that they are not to participate in the upcoming AWS-3 (advanced wireless service) spectrum auction. This auction is due to start on the 13 November but applications for auction needed to be presented to the FCC today. By way of background, let me explain that the AWS-3 auction is to sell off slices of frequency at the 1,700 MHz, 1,760 MHz and 2,165 MHz points. Sprint currently does not operate in any of these frequencies, but instead has bandwidth at the 800 MHz, 1,900 MHz and a significant proportion of spectrum at the 2,500 MHz point. One of the FCC’s many rules is that no one carrier can control too much spectrum at any of the frequency points and in Sprint’s case, unfortunately, their allocation of spectrum at the 2,500 MHz point counts against their maximum allocation at the higher frequency scale. In other words, if Sprint successfully bid in the AWS-3 auction, they may exceed the FCC’s maximum allocation.

Given that Sprint does not operate in the frequencies up for auction and runs the very real risk of having to hand back frequencies that it successfully bid for, or being forced into sharing it with competitors, it makes perfect sense as to why Sprint has pulled out at this point. This is without mentioning that much of the AWS-3 spectrum being auctioned off is already being used by around 2,500 government agencies, so there is a degree of risk involved in acquiring this bandwidth. Instead, the operator is concentrating its efforts on the low frequency auction expected next year, where it does not have much spectrum as two thirds of these bands are controlled by Verizon and AT&T. Lower frequency radio waves are able to penetrate further into buildings and through solid objects but has lower maximum data transfer speeds for a given technology. Lower frequency masts have a greater effective range and this means it can cost significantly less to build out the infrastructure to provide service for a given area. As less masts are required, it may also mean that LTE roll outs happen quicker too.

In the back link article, I covered how the FCC had asked the TV broadcasters to release spectrum so that it could be re-sold on to the carriers. We’ve also received news that two Los Angeles TV stations, KLCS and KCET, have agreed to share a single frequency for their programming and this means that another channel of spectrum is available for next year’s auction, for which they’ll be paid of course. The FCC have said that without widespread broadcaster participation, next year’s low frequency auctions will fail. Sprint must believe that the FCC in conjunction with technical developments (to allow broadcasters to share channels) will help make the auction a success and if so, it should be able to pick up a meaningful amount of spectrum in the lower frequencies. Going forward, Sprint appear to be caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to spectrum and bandwidth and I hope, for their sakes, that the 2015 auction goes well.

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Amazon Has Confirmed The Shutdown Of Its WebPay Service On October 13th

If you were a user of Amazon’s WebPay service to send and receive funds you probably already knew that the service would be going away, but perhaps you missed the email that Amazon sent out about the whole thing confirming what we had heard about it disappearing back in June. Amazon is officially killing the service apparently due to the service just not doing very well, as Amazon stated in their support section for the WebPay service that “We are not addressing a customer pain point particularly better than anyone else. We’ve learned a great deal about how and when customers want to send money and will look for ways to use these lessons in the future.” Unfortunately for anyone that was actively using this, the service is being completely shut down on October 13th which is only a month out.

The good news for those using the service is that a month is plenty of time to move things around, find a different service or complete any transactions that you might have been planning through the use of WebPay anytime prior to the Oct. 13th date. Furthermore, Amazon also state that any transactions that happen before they pull the plug will not be affected in any way and there will be a 30 day grace period in which recipients of funds through WebPay will have time to collect them, otherwise the funds get sent back to the point of origination.

Sadly Amazon themselves does not have any alternative to WebPay available, although that doesn’t meant that they won’t be planning for something in the future at some point in time. Amazon however hasn’t mentioned anything like that as of yet. Users will also be able to still view and track their payment account history by pointing their browsers to the appropriate web link at Amazon’s webpage, even presumably after the shutdown date. Amazon makes no mention of how long they plan to keep that information up though so if you wanted to grab those details it would be better to do it sooner than later. Although this was likely an great little way for a handful of Amazon users to send money to friends and loved ones, there are a great number of alternative ways to do the exact same thing without using WebPay. Google Wallet for example now allows you to send funds to people through Wallet and it dumps right into their Wallet account, so alternatives are out there. Did you use WebPay? Are you sad to see it go?

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