Moto X Pure Edition to receive Marshmallow update as well

  Motorola received a lot of heat when people found out their beloved Moto E from last year was not going to receive any more software updates. Those who had a US carrier branded2014 Moto X were also upset to learn their phone of just over a year of age was yet to be confirmed for a Marshmallow update.

  At one point, Motorola was the quickest to push updates to Android. Particularly, the Verizon Moto X was the very first device to get the Kitkat update even before some Nexus devices. Unfortunately, Motorola hasn't been as quick this time around.

  While the Brazilian and Indian Moto X Style and Moto X 2014 have already begun the update deployment process, the Moto X Pure Edition has begun the approval process and will begin rolling out “in the next few weeks”.

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Gionee GN8001 with 6-inch display and 3GB RAM receives TENAA certification

  The Gionee GN8001 - which along with the Gionee GN5001L and GN5002 was certified by China's 3C earlier this month - has now passed through the country's Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center (TENAA).

  The listing on TENAA's website reveals that the device is powered by a 1.3 GHz octa-core processor, and sports a large 6.0-inch (1920 × 1080 pixel resolution) AMOLED display. It has 3GB RAM and 32GB expandable internal memory.

  In terms of camera, the listing says the Gionee GN8001 would feature at-least 8MP rear unit (could also go up to 13MP) and a 5MP front shooter. Weighing in at 206 gms and measuring 160.7×81.0×8.2 (mm), the handset runs Android 5.1 out-of-the-box. Connectivity options reportedly include 4G LTE, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, and USB, while color options include silver.

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Asus Zenfone Selfie review

Introduction

  The Asus Zenfone Selfie has got to be the company's most straightforward attempt at product naming. Sure, it does have the mandatory 7-symbol alphanumeric model string at its tail, which means zip to the uninitiated, but unlike the piles of different Zenfone 2's, in this case a simple Selfie will suffice to describe the specific model.

  The title does well to advertise the smartphone's headline feature and in person the handset isn't shy showing it off either. Selfie could very well come before Zenfone with this one, as the front 13MP shooter has pushed the earpiece out of its customary central position.A dual-tone front facing flash further emphasizes the device's priorities and is a bit of an exclusive feature. Setting aside rotating camera trickery like on the Oppo N3 and Honor 7i, you'd be hard pressed to find a smartphone with more than a single LED to shine at your face. The HTC Desire Eye is one, the only one perhaps.

  At this point you'd be forgiven to think that the Zenfone Selfie is a one-hit wonder, but you'd be wrong. It can take on most any midrange competitor - after all, in 2015 the majority of those are equipped with the same Snapdragon 615 chipset anyway. Up to 3GB of RAM, a 5.5-inch FullHD display and a 13MP primary camera mean that the Selfie won't be shorthanded against all but the best-equipped rivals.

Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL key features

·Dual-SIM, Dual Standby capability

·5.5-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen with 1080p resolution and 403ppi density, Gorilla Glass 4 protection

·64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset; quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & quad-core 1.1 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU; Adreno 405 GPU

·2/3GB of RAM, 16/32GB of storage and a microSD slot for further expansion, 5GB free lifetime ASUS WebStorage

·13MP main camera with f/2.0 lens, laser autofocus, dual-LED dual-tone flash, 1080p@30fps video recording

·13MP front camera with 88-degree wide-angle f/2.2 lens, contrast detection autofocus, dual-LED dual-tone flash, 1080p@30fps video recording

·Android 5.0.2 Lollipop out of the box with Asus ZenUI overlay

·LTE Cat.4, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac; NFC; Bluetooth; GPS with A-GPS; GLONASS; microUSB 2.0 port, USB host

·3,000mAh user-replaceable battery

·Plastic build, back covers in a choice of colors and textures

Main disadvantages

·No 2160p video recording

·Rather large and hefty

  For the record, the model number of the Zenfone Selfie is ZD551KL. We have here the version with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, and there's a lesser 2GB/16GB option and surprisingly, both share the same model number. We're not big fans of the concept that the two numbers should be interdependent, but let's say that it allows for a more affordable base model, and that's a good thing where the Zenfone Selfie is positioned.

     

Asus Zenfone Selfie press images

  We are happy that the Zenfone Selfie has a few features, which are slowly going into oblivion in the high end segment. The smartphone takes microSD cards for expansion, and it also has an easy-to-access swappable battery - batteries on Zenfone 2's have so far been guarded by a dozen screws despite the misleading removable back.

  So as you see, the Asus Zenfone Selfie is an intriguing handset and we all but ready to put it through our customary review routine, with unboxing and hardware overview first up on the next page.

Color-accurate 5.5-inch IPS panel

  The Asus Zenfone Selfie comes with a 5.5-inch display with 1080p resolution, and that translates to a density of 403ppi. It uses an IPS LCD panel, which our microscope shot revealed to have a standard RGB subpixel arrangement, unsurprisingly.

  The Asus Zenfone Selfie has very accurate color rendition with the average DeltaE being the impressive number of 4.2 (for the primaries plus black and white). The max DeltaE is 7.7 and that's mainly the rendition of white, which is slightly on the bluish side.

  The offered display tuning sliders allow you to improve that even further and by adding just a slight warmness to the display output we were able to achieve exceptional color accuracy - average deltaE of 3.3 and a max DeltaE of only 4.4.

    

Asus Splendid display tweaking app

  The maximum brightness of the LCD panel (333nits) is not a good as it could be, but the relatively deep blacks (not as good as on the Lenovo K3 Note, but certainly in the top-tier among LCDs) allow the Zenfone Selfie to offer good contrast ratio of about 928:1.

  At the middle of the brightness slider, the brightness level is less than a third of the maximum brightness level, but that is also true for many other phones.

  The minimum brightness level is 22nits, which a lot more than the best we've seen so bear that in mind if you intend to use it frequently in pitch dark environment - this sort of light level might be unpleasant for the eyes in such conditions.

  The Zenfone Selfie performed poorly in our sunlight legibility test perhaps due to the low maximum brightness. It's certainly far from good AMOLED screens in this respect (even the budget-minded Galaxy J7, for that matter), but the score is quite low even for an LCD panel, especially in 2015. Even the Zenfone 2 does somewhat better, and we're not quite sure why that is. The panels look very much the same, though the Selfie is indeed a bit dimmer, just not as much as to make that much of a difference in the sun.

Connectivity

  The Zenfone Selfie is well stocked on connectivity options. First off, there's quad-band 2G/GPRS/EDGE on both SIM cards and that's where the second card is capped. SIM 1 also gets quad-band 3G and a multitude of LTE bands, which are region dependent.

  Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac radios are on board as well, with Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot support.

  Bluetooth is in its 4.0 version, there's a GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS and also NFC.

  The microUSB port comes with USB host support for attaching your choice of peripherals and MHL support. The headphone jack is the standard 3.5mm affair, allowing you to plug in just about any set of headphones out there.

  There's also a dedicated microSD card slot for storage expansion, which takes cards up to 128GB.

  An FM radio receiver is provided for listening to music on the go without generating data traffic.

Asus Zenfone Selfie battery life

  The Asus Zenfone Selfie comes with a 3,000mAh battery - a user-replaceable lithium polymer unit. The powerpack might very well be the same exact one as in the Zenfone 2, so we expected comparably unimpressive results. We weren't entirely right, it turned out.

  It all starts with the twenty and a half hours of 3G call times - a good 4 and a half hours longer than the Zenfone 2 ZE551ML and a solid result on its own. It gets even better in the video playback test, where the Zenfone Selfie is good for 11 and a half hours of movie watching.

  The good impression so far is marred by the web browsing longevity. When using the built-in browser, the Zenfone Selfie manages a lowly 6 and a half hours. Switch to Chrome, and the situation isn't as grim, but 7:43 hours is still only an average result. It's virtually the same number as the Zenfone 2 posted.

  All in all, the Zenfone Selfie does okay in the battery department, noticeably better than the Zenfone 2. Its overall rating of 63 hours in our proprietary test is far from record-breaking but it's not disappointing either.

  The Samsung Galaxy J7, for example, would last you a full 5 hours longer in video watching and a little over an hour longer in web browsing, but loses to the Selfie in call times. Another selfie specialist, the HTC Desire Eye, does about ten hours in both screen-on activities, but comes shorter in call endurance, too. Meanwhile, the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra trails the Selfie in all test disciplines.

  Make note that our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating.

  The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

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Android 5.1.1 OTA is seeding for the Samsung Galaxy E7

  If you bought the Galaxy E7 then, like many others, you probably felt a little let down being stuck on Android 4.4 KitKat, while the almost identical E5 gets to enjoy Lollipop. Well, the wait seems to finally be over, or at least in India, where users are already reporting that their E7 handsets are getting an Android 5.1.1 OTA.

  The update carries a E700HXXU1BOJ7 PDA and is intended for the SM-E700H model. To be fair, this is not exactly the first time we spot Lollipop on the phone. The Galaxy E7 (SM-E700F) already got Android 5.1 in Sri Lanka earlier this month. However, the broader rollout is a definite sign of relief, especially after the earlier reports that the E7 won't be getting the update at all.

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Smartwatch-targeted Cortex-A35 is faster, more power-efficient than Cortex-A7

  Everyone expects the Cortex-A72 chipsets to hit the market and break mobile performance barriers, but ARM has designed a core to serve the other side of the market – the low-power Cortex-A35.

  Let's be clear – low-power here is about energy efficiency, at 1GHZ the A35 will draw just 90mW per core. It will be fast though, promising on average of 20% performance increase over the Cortex-A7 in 32-bit workloads.

  The Cortex-A35 is an ARMv8-A core though, meaning it supports 64-bit software and has built-in encryption support.

  Compared to the current 64-bit, low-power core of choice, the Cortex-A53, the new core will use 33% less power and will be cheaper since it occupies 25% less silicon. There's no word on the performance difference though.

  ARM expects its partners to start shipping Cortex-A35 chipsets in late 2016 so it will be a while. Even in that late timeframe the cores will be built on the aging 28nm process, which will keep cost down but the power savings could have been much bigger.

  MediaTek executive vice president and co-COO Jeffrey Ju was quoted "The ARM Cortex-A35 processor is welcomed by MediaTek for its scalability of the ARMv8-A architecture, which will enable us to continue to provide efficient and highly integrated 64-bit SoCs to global markets."

 While multi-tiered chipsets will certainly benefit from the A35 (big.MEDIUM.LITTLE?), smartwatches will be quick to adopt the new core. Currently they use the old Cortex-A7 in Snapdragon 400 and MT2601.

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Apple iPad Pro now available for purchase, ships within a day

  Owning up to its promise, Apple has started accepting orders for the iPad Pro in the US. The 12.9-inch tablet is now available for purchase both online through the company's website, as well as in Apple stores.

  Obviously the more eager among you will choose in-store pickup, meaning you can go ahead and grab one today, provided your local Apple store has it. Online orders will be shipped within a day and can be sent with next-day delivery (at an extra cost) so it will arrive at your doorstep on Friday. Free delivery means a long wait until Monday.

  You won't be able to have a fully equipped iPad Pro from day one, however, as the Pencil and Smart Keyboard won't ship for another week or two. The earliest you'll be able to get yours is November 19, but that may stretch as long as November 30.

  Prices are as initially announced - the iPad Pro itself starts at $799 for a 32GB Wi-Fi only model, upping the storage to 128GB results in a $949 price tag, while adding cellular connectivity means $1079. The Pencil is a hefty $99, while the Smart Keyboard is an even more eye-watering $169.

  Unfortunately for users on the other side of the pond, the iPad Pro cannot be ordered just yet. Throughout Europe Apple still lists the tablet as "Available November" with no further details.

  Update: European orders are now open as well, with next-day shipping and prices starting from €899/£679.

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Meizu Pro 5 Mini said to be powered by Mediatek's 10-core SoC

  Less than a couple of months after the Meizu Pro 5 was made official with 5.7-inch screen and Samsung Exynos 7420 chipset, there are reports that the company is following it up with a new handset named Pro 5 Mini.

  The new handset's highlight is said to be its chipset - it is said to be powered by the Mediatek Helio X20 10-core SoC, which was announced back in May this year. Other known specs of the device include 4.7-inch Full HD display, 32GB/64GB internal memory options, and a metal build.

  As for the price, the 32GB model is said to carry a tag of CNY 1,999 ($315), while the 64GB model would set you back CNY 2,499 ($395). There was, however, no word on when the device would be made official.

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Asus unveils a new Zenfone 2 Laser for the US, out today for $199

  Asus loves confusing people with the names of its products, so today it's launching the Zenfone 2 Laser in the US. Only, this being Asus, of course there's a catch when it comes to the name. See, this isn't the internationally available Zenfone 2 Laser. Actually, it's none of them - since there are amazingly no less than four different Zenfone 2 Laser models out there already: the ZE500KL, ZE500KG, ZE550KL, and the ZE601KL.

  In the US, however, you're getting the never before seen Zenfone 2 Laser ZE551KL. This device comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with laser autofocus (hence the name) and dual-tone LED flash, a 5 MP selfie cam, 3GB of RAM, 16 or 32GB of expandable storage, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615 SoC running the show (with a 1.7 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU), 4G LTE, dual-SIM functionality, and a 3,000 mAh battery. Android 5.0 Lollipop is the OS version employed, underneath Asus' own ZenUI.

  The ZE551KL is compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile, and MVNOs operating on those carriers' frequencies. It won't work on Verizon, Sprint, or other CDMA carriers. The smartphone should become available today at the Asus online store and Newegg.

  For the 16GB version, you'll have to pay $199, while the model with 32GB of built-in storage will go for $249. The prices are valid without any requirement of signing a long-term carrier contract, as the phone is being sold unlocked.

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Data analytics on driving behavior help users improve safety and lower insurance rates

  Those who consider themselves safe drivers may tailgate, speed, or use cellphones while driving, which significantly increase the probability of an accident, Cordova says. "For most of us, the most dangerous thing you do from day to day is driving," he says.

  To improve driver safety, Censio has developed an app that captures and analyzes data on driving behavior to show drivers where they can improve. In September, Progressive Insurance began piloting the app with customers nationwide, with aims of reducing insurance rates for good drivers.

  In a way, the app acts as a sort of "external brain" for drivers, Cordova says, helping them see the risks associated with certain driving behaviors—especially distracted driving. "The human brain is not good at statistics and probability, so most people aren't thinking how sending this text will affect their probability of getting into an accident," he says. "We calculate these complicated probability distributions and send that back to the app in a very digestible way."

  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attributes one accident every 24 seconds in the United States to distracted driving; the National Safety Council estimates that 1.6 million crashes annually are due to cellphone use, with another 1 million due to texting while driving.

  Beyond safety, there's also a monetary incentive: The startup hopes to shift insurers toward user-based insurance programs, where rates are based on how well a person drives. Those policies could lower rates for the 200 million insured drivers across the United States, Censio president Kevin Farrell says, but are being held back by the logistics and costs of introducing hardware into cars. "We believe bringing an app into the market really opens things up," he says.

Breaking bad driving habits

  To capture driving behavior, the app identifies when a person is driving—not, for instance, in the backseat of a cab—and then uses a smartphone's accelerometer, gyroscope (positioning), and GPS to track driving dynamics. Added to that is external data, such as on speed limit, weather, and street information, such as on safe or dangerous intersections.

  Using this data, the app looks for habits such as speeding through intersections and braking hard, which could indicate tailgating or not paying attention to the road. It also observes cellphone use while driving.

  Analyzing all this data, the app then scores the driver, on a score of 1 to 100, and keeps track of the habits a driver has, or may need to improve upon. Scores are also compared with other drivers across the nation. A user, for instance, may brake hard more frequently, or pick up their phone less often, than the national average.

  That data are shared with insurers to help them assess the overall risk of a particular driver.

  Behind the scenes, Cordova says the app earned the business of Progressive, over 10 competitors, because it doesn't drain a phone's battery and is as accurate as a hardware-based solution.

  Beating battery drain, Cordova says, came down to developing optimization algorithms that collect data only when needed, and shut off when not collecting data. Gaining accuracy, he says, was about cleaning up messy data. "When the data comes in from the car, it's extremely noisy," Cordova says. "A lot of the engineering effort went into better signal processing and machine learning to clean up those signals."

Driven by social change

  Leaving an engineering position at CERN in 2011, Cordova came to MIT as a PhD student in electrical engineering and computer science with aims of "making a social difference." (He left after completing his master's degree to pursue Censio.)

  While taking 15.390 (New Ventures), he met Censio co-founder and current vice president of operations Joe Adelmann, a Harvard University student who shared his inclination toward social change.

  Inspired to launch a startup, Cordova and Adelmann designed a system that used a smartphone to alert people who fall asleep at the wheel. Mounting the camera on the windshield, the camera would track the road and the app would calculate various driving data, such as braking frequency and vehicle positioning.

  That system wasn't exactly practical—but at its core was an app that could collect movement and driving data. As a test, several MIT students downloaded the app to their phones, and it accurately predicted if the students were walking, sitting at a desk, or climbing stairs—and when they were about to get in a car and drive.

  But that app drained a phone's battery with a day of use. "As an engineer, you try to make the most awesome product, but you miss something like battery life," Cordova says. "We had to go back to the drawing board."

  After much refining, the end product was a prototype for the Censio app that collected necessary data in the background to let drivers know the risks of their behavior.

  This prototype landed Cordova and Adelmann a finalist spot in MIT's $100K Entrepreneurship Competition in 2012. They further developed the business in office space in the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and Harvard's Innovation Lab, where they met co-founder Jon McNeill, an entrepreneur with prior experience in the insurance industry, and co-founder Scott Griffith, former CEO of Zipcar.

  Three years later, the startup earned its initial funding round of $10 million and the partnership with Progressive, which is offering the app as a replacement for its Snapshot hardware component—a hub that plugs into a car's onboard diagnostics port—currently being used by more than 3 million participants. The plan is to officially release a commercial version of the app early next year.

  Although the app has proven to have a viable business model, Cordova says the mission still harkens back to his MIT years, with a focus on social change: "The aim is to make drivers around the world better and safer."

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New artificial skin can detect pressure and heat simultaneously

  Many scientists around the world are working to develop artificial skin, both to benefit robots and human beings who have lost skin sensation or limbs. Such efforts have led to a wide variety of artificial skin types, but until now, none of them have been able to sense both pressure and heat to a high degree, at the same time.

  The new artificial skin is a sandwich of materials; at the top there is a flexible surface meant to mimic the human fingerprint (it can sense texture), beneath that sit sensors sandwiched betweengraphene sheets. The sensors are domed shaped and compress to different degrees when the skin is exposed to different amount of pressure. The compression also causes a small electrical charge to move through the skin, as does heat or sound, which is also transmitted to sensors—the more pressure, heat or sound exerted, the more charge there is—using a computer to measure the charge allows for measuring the degree of sensation "felt." The ability to sense sound, the team notes, was a bit of a surprise—additional testing showed that the artificial skin was actually better at picking up sound than an iPhone microphone.

  The artificial skin still has a long way to go before it could be used for practical purposes, the team acknowledges—they have yet to develop a means for communicating data from the skin to a robot or human being, for example, though that is one of the major areas of research that that group is focusing its attention on—they plan to develop a means for doing so that takes into account the special capabilities of the skin they developed, rather than simply hooking it to an already existing system or device.

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