OPPO R829 Receives Certification in Indonesia

A new mobile phone from Chinese maker OPPO has received the necessary approvals in Indonesia, namely the yet unannounced OPPO R829.

The handset emerged at POSTEL – the certification body of Indonesia – on October 18, but no info on when it might arrive on the market has been provided as of now. OPPO R829 has been spotted online before, though little is known on its features for the time being. Rumor has it that it will arrive on shelves with Android loaded on top.

At POSTEL, the device received certification with support for W-CDMA/GSM networks. According to Ameblo, it should arrive on shelves as an affordable device. The smartphone might be released in China and some markets in South Asia in the not too distant future. Indonesia is one of the countries set to receive it.

Oppo R829 gets certified in Indonesia
Image credits to Oppo

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BlackBerry Still Outselling HTC and Motorola Smartphones

Canadian mobile phone maker BlackBerry has been losing a lot of market share lately, but it seems that the company is still doing better than HTC and Motorola.

A recent report coming from Yankee Group claims that 11 percent of 375 IT decision makers that responded to a poll currently prefer BlackBerry devices over other solutions, as CrackBerry notes. However, Android is leading the pack, with 45 percent of respondents saying that they would choose this platform, while iPhone comes in second, with 39 percent. Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system is preferred by only 4 percent of respondents.

At the same time, the report shows that BlackBerry devices are still outselling HTC and Motorola handsets, despite the fact that BlackBerry had a large write-down of Z10 smartphones. However, chances are that BlackBerry will be left behind by the two in the not too distant future, considering the descending curve it is on at the moment.

BlackBerry still outselling HTC and Motorola
Image credits to BlackBerry

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Lenovo Interested in Acquiring BlackBerry [Wall Street Journal]

Chinese giant Lenovo is the last on the long list of companies and individuals looking to acquires BlackBerry's assets. There have been rumors that Intel, Samsung, Google, LG or even the Canadian's company co-founder Mike Lazaridis might have expressed their interest in acquiring BlackBerry.

Today, Wall Street Journal reports Lenovo has already signed a non-disclosure agreement that will allow the Chinese company to check BlackBerry's financial books. This means that if Lenovo considers BlackBerry a good asset to its smartphone bussines, it will bid against Fairfax Financial, the Canadian consortium that has already made a $4.7 billion offer a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately, there's no telling what will happen in the next couple of weeks, so until Lenovo comes out with an official statement we can only speculate on the subject.

Lenovo logo
Image credits to Lenovo

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Oppo N1 Goes Official in Indonesia

Chinese mobile phone maker Oppo has made its Oppo N1 smartphone official in Indonesia, where it will release it starting with December.

The new device was announced in late September with a 5.9-inch Full HD IPS display and with a 1.7 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor. The smartphone also comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB/32GB of internal memory, as well as with a 3610mAh battery inside. Oppo N1 packs a 13-megapixel rotating camera, capable of recording videos at full HD resolution. The camera module can be rotated 206 degrees, so it can be used both as a rear and front camera.

The mobile phone is running under Oppo’s Color OS platform, which is based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and it’s the first device in the world to come with CyanogenMod support right from the start. According to techinasia, Oppo N1 will be priced at IDR 7 million ($616 / €455) in Indonesia.

Oppo N1
Image credits to Oppo

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Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) Officially Released

Canonical has announced that the next installment of their operating system, Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) has been officially released and it's now available for download.

Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) may not seem like much when compared with the previous Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) released, but it's an obvious evolution, at least in terms of stability. One of the biggest changes in Ubuntu is the implementation of a new Linux kernel, which right now is actually the latest stable version available. This is great news for the owners of new hardware who will be able to enjoy the new operating system without much fuss. According to the developers, Ubuntu 13.10 includes the 3.11.0-12.19 Ubuntu Linux kernel which was based on the v3.11.3 upstream Linux kernel. Other important changes include a number of improvements for AppArmor, which has received some extra attention during this development cycle.

For example, support has been added for fine-grained DBus mediation for bus, binding name, object path, interface and member/method, AppArmor has been integrated with several services as part of the ApplicationConfinement work in support of click packages and the Ubuntu appstore, and the support for policy generation via the aa-easyprof tool and apparmor-easyprof-ubuntu policy has been improved. Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) also comes with Unity 7, which is a shame because everyone was expecting Unity 8, which will be integrated on the phones. In any case, users will enjoy the “101 Scopes” upgrade. Formerly known under the name of Lenses, the Scopes have been integrated much better with Unity, providing much more relevant responses to the user's queries in the Dash.

Users will be able to upgrade to the new version of Ubuntu in no time. Just open Software Sources and Press Alt+F2 and type in "update-manager -d" (without the quotes) into the command box. This should trigger the updates and the rest is a piece of cake. Just follow the instructions and you will have Ubuntu 13.10 installed in no time.

Ubuntu 13.10 Released
Image credits to Canonical

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ZTE Plans Snapdragon 800-Based Nubia

Chinese mobile phone maker ZTE is reportedly getting ready for the launch of a new smartphone in the Nubia series, one that would be powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor.

Apparently, Nubia General Manager Ni Fei has already confirmed plans for the flagship device, and he even went on saying that the smartphone would arrive in November or early December, CNMO reports. Furthermore, he suggested that the upcoming handset would pack a variety of new features, including a series of camera improvements and changes to the user interface.

No other details on the device were unveiled, though it might not be too long before more on it emerges, that’s for sure, as GSMInsider notes. At the moment, ZTE’s Nubia Z5 is the flagship device of the brand, packing a 5-inch full HD touchscreen display and a Snapdragon S4 Pro processor inside.

ZTE plans Snapdragon 800-based Nubia flagship
Image credits to ZTE

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Samsung Galaxy S5 to Feature 14nm 64-Bit Exynos CPU

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics is expected to announce a new flagship Android-based smartphone in January next year, and some more info on it has reportedly emerged online.

According to the latest reports on the matter, coming from DDaily, the new device will feature a 14nm Exynos processor from Samsung, with 64-bit support packed inside. Furthermore, as SamMobile notes, the processor will feature ARM’s big.LITTLE octa-core configuration with Cortex-A53/A57 cores, and will need online half the power that Exynos 5420 uses at the moment.

Apparently, Samsung is on track to have the first sample units ready for this year, and it will launch Galaxy S5 with the chip inside. However, provided that Galaxy S5 is launched in January, it might not include this processor (supposedly part of the Exynos 6 series), as Samsung won’t have enough time to develop the device around it.

Samsung logo
Image credits to Samsung

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BlackBerry Confirms BBM for iOS, Android Coming “Within Days” [Reuters]

Good news for both Android and iOS fans, as BlackBerry is very close to launching the highly anticipated BlackBerry Messenger application for their favorite platforms.

We reported yesterday that the Canadian company was working around the clock to fix the previous issues that had prevented it from completing the rollout of BBM for iOS last month and now we have more information on the matter. It appears that Frank Boulben, BlackBerry's chief marketing officer, told Reuters in an interview that he expected the BBM to launch on both iOS and Android “within days.” BlackBerry's rep claims that his company has already addressed all issues that led to a complete stop of the BBM for iOS deployment back in September. According to Boulben, there are no less than 6 million Android and iOS enthusiasts that have already pre-registered for the release of BlackBerry Messenger, not to mention those who already own the application on their devices.

For those unfamiliar, BlackBerry was forced to halt the launch of BBM for iOS after a beta version of its Android application leaked online and caused its server to overload. Several days ago, BlackBerry confirmed that it was testing a new version of BBM for Android and that it would resume the rollout of BBM for iOS as soon as the tests were successfully completed. BBM for iOS and Android has been met with tremendous interest from millions of users, which seems to have been taken BlackBerry by surprise. One of the best instant messaging applications available on the market will arrive on both iOS and Android platforms without some key features. For example, the application will not include BBM Video function, which allows users to make and take video calls over both 3G and Wi-Fi networks.

However, BlackBerry has confirmed that these features will be included as updates later on. Stay tuned for more updates on the upcoming release of BBM for iOS and Android.

Blackberry Messenger logo
Image credits to

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Android 4.4 KitKat to Pack Revamped Location Settings

Android 4.4 KitKat, the next version of Google’s mobile operating system, will arrive on devices with revamped location settings, the latest reports on the matter suggest.

Following the update to the newer OS version, users will see the “Location access” screen being called “Location” and packing a series of UI changes, Android Police notes. For example, the Location on/off toggle can be seen on the top right corner now, and there is also a new screen called Location mode, which includes 3 options: High accuracy (GPS, Wi-Fi, and mobile network), Battery saving (Wi-Fi and mobile networks), and Device sensors only (GPS).

This should make it easier for users to toggle between different location modes, and offers them the possibility to turn off location in only one way. For the time being, there’s no telling on whether all these will make it inside Android 4.4 KitKat, but it appears that they might actually be included, so stay tuned for more on the matter.

Android 4.4 comes with new Location settings
Images credits to AndroidPolice

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Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 to Go Official on October 15

Next week, Google might finally take the wraps off the long rumored Nexus 5 smartphone, the first device in the world to run under the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system.

No official announcement on the matter has been made as of now, but Google’s Launchpad has an event set to take place soon, and rumor has it that it will be held on October 15, TechManiacs.gr notes. According to speculation, the upcoming version of Android will be in the spotlight there, which means that Nexus 5 will also be presented at the event.

However, previous reports on the matter suggested that Google won’t unveil the smartphone until October 30, and it remains to be seen whether the new rumor will pan out or not. For the time being, we’ll take it with a grain of salt, but stay tuned for more on the matter.

Nexus 5 leaked photo

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