New Microsoft flagship phone might be just as edgy as Samsung’s Galaxy S6

New Microsoft flagship phone might be just as edgy as Samsung’s Galaxy S6:

Microsoft will launch new high-end Lumia handsets this year, likely once the phone version of Windows 10 is ready to roll out. Some rumors have already offered a few leaked details about these Lumia flagships, with a new picture suggesting that Microsoft is considering a new display design for its future smartphones, similar to what Samsung did with the Galaxy S6 edge.

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Emerging markets drive worldwide smartphone sales to 19% growth in 1Q15, says Gartner

Emerging markets drive worldwide smartphone sales to 19% growth in 1Q15, says Gartner: Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users reached 336 million units, an increase of 19.3% during the first quarter of 2015, according to Gartner. This growth was led by strong smartphone sales in emerging markets (excluding China); the fastest growing regions were emerging Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa. Due to these high-performing regions, the emerging markets achieved a 40% increase in sales during the first quarter of 2015.

PC shipments will continue to decline in 2015, says IDC

PC shipments will continue to decline in 2015, says IDC: Worldwide PC shipments are expected to fall by 6.2% in 2015 according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. This will be the fourth consecutive year of declining volume as the PC market continues to struggle with competition from tablets and smartphones and generally low demand. The market almost saw stable shipments in mid-2014 as the end of support for Windows XP boosted demand for replacements, but that cycle has passed and been replaced by a reduction in inventory on the supply side as the market awaits the arrival of Windows 10.

Worldwide tablet growth will continue to slow in 2015, says IDC

Worldwide tablet growth will continue to slow in 2015, says IDC: Worldwide shipments of tablets and 2-in-1 devices are forecast to reach 221.8 million units in 2015, a decline of 3.8% from 2014, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. The new outlook follows two consecutive quarters of declining sales and represents a modest downward revision from the previous forecast of 234.5 million units and 2.1% on-year growth in 2015. While IDC expects overall sales to decline in 2015, some segments of the product category are poised to experience strong growth.

Samsung rumored to be working on a dual-screen foldable smartphone called Project Valley

Samsung rumored to be working on a dual-screen foldable smartphone called Project Valley:

A new rumor suggests that Samsung is currently working on a dual-screen smartphone that might turn out to be the rumored Samsung foldable handset.

During the past few years, Samsung was awarded numerous patents that pertain to foldable display technology. These patents led to a considerable amount of rumors regarding an upcoming foldable smartphone from Samsung, although none of them turned out to be accurate, as the technology apparently wasn't ready just yet.

Back in March, an unnamed Samsung was quoted by the South Korean media claiming that foldable ...

Google unveils Project Brillo, its next major software platform that goes way beyond phones

Google unveils Project Brillo, its next major software platform that goes way beyond phones:

Google isn't just putting its software on phones anymore. The company on Thursday unveiled a new platform called Project Brillo that will be its operating system for the so-called "Internet of things," which is an industry buzzword for having several different household devices that are connected to the Internet and can communicate with one another.

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Force Touch originally planned as an exclusive for the Apple iPhone 6s Plus

Force Touch originally planned as an exclusive for the Apple iPhone 6s Plus:

According to a rumor out of Taiwan, Apple was originally planning on using its Force Touch feature as an exclusive on the next iteration of its phablet, expected to be named the Apple iPhone 6s Plus. Force Touch, which is employed by the tech titan on the Apple Watch, allows a device to differentiate between a light and hard press on the screen.



Apple has apparently changed its mind and according to supply chain sources, both the Apple iPhone 6s and Apple iPhone 6s Plus will come with Force Touch. The technology is believed to be coming from a company called TPK, which will supply Apple ...

Huawei P8 Lite officially unveiled; India to get the Huawei P8, P8 Max, MediaPad X2 and more

Huawei P8 Lite officially unveiled; India to get the Huawei P8, P8 Max, MediaPad X2 and more:

Last month, the Huawei P8 and Huawei P8 Max were introduced. And while Huawei did say that the Huawei P8 Lite was coming, the model was not unveiled at the time. Although the Huawei P8 Lite was spotted in Germany and Hungary for the equivalent of $270 USD, the manufacturer made the phone official today at the Premium South East Asia (SEA) launch Event in Bangkok.

The Huawei P8 Lite features a 5-inch display with a resolution of 720 x 1280, and has a 64-bit HiSilicon Kirin 620 SoC under the hood. This contains an octa-core 1.2GHz CPU and the Mali 450 MP4 GPU. 2GB of RAM is inside with 16GB ...

Cybersecurity on the agenda for 80 percent of corporate boards

Cybersecurity on the agenda for 80 percent of corporate boards:

Cybersecurity is a topic of discussion at most board meetings, according to a new survey of 200 corporate directors.

The survey, conducted jointly by NYSE Governance Services and security vendor Veracode, revealed that more than 80 percent of board members say that cybersecurity is discussed at most or all board meetings.

Specifically, 35 percent said that cybersecurity was discussed at every board meeting and 46 percent said it was discussed at most meetings. Only 10 percent said they discussed cybersecurity after an incident in their industry or at their company -- and only 1 percent said they never discussed cybersecurity at all.

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Yu Yuphoria sells out in seconds during Indian flash sale

Yu Yuphoria sells out in seconds during Indian flash sale:

The recently released Yu Yuphoria was offered today by Amazon India via a flash sale, and quickly sold out in seconds. Over 5 million people had registered for the sale. Amazon had told consumers that they had 3 minutes to add the phone to their cart, and 15 minutes to check out once the sale started at 2pm Indian Time this afternoon. The Yuphoria was priced at the equivalent of $109 USD.



The Yu Yuphoria features a 5-inch Gorilla Glass 3 screen carrying a 720 x 1280 resolution. A 64-bit Snapdragon 410 SoC drives the unit. That chipset includes a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU and the Adreno 306 GPU. ...

Lenovo launches depth-sensing laptop and Surface 3 rival

Lenovo launches depth-sensing laptop and Surface 3 rival:

If you're in the market for a mid-range laptop, Lenovo has revealed an interesting option at its Tech World event in Beijing. The 15-inch Z51 laptop has an Intel RealSense 3D camera that can be used for scanning, gaming or gesture control. If you're ...

Lenovo unveils the new ThinkPad 10: a Surface 3 competitor based on Windows 10

Lenovo unveils the new ThinkPad 10: a Surface 3 competitor based on Windows 10:

Earlier today at Lenovo's TechWorld event in Beijing, the company announced the second-generation ThinkPad 10, the first tablet in the world that's marketed as a Windows 10 product. In itself, this doesn't say much about the tablet, but it's a perfect reminder that Windows 10 is right around the corner.

The new ThinkPad 10 will be launched this August at prices starting at $549. Across the board, the new ThinkPad does little to differentiate itself from the Microsoft Surface 3.

In many ways, the new ThinkPad 10 is highly ...

Lenovo's 'Magic View' smartwatch concept hides a private display

Lenovo's 'Magic View' smartwatch concept hides a private display:

Smartwatches, you know the drill: a touchscreen display, and it feeds you notifications and stuff. Pretty boring, right? Lenovo agrees, so has cooked up a "Magic View" concept to show things don't need to be this way. The problem Magic View solves is...

Digitimes Research: Six 2-in-1 Chromebooks scheduled for 2015 to tackle non-education markets

Digitimes Research: Six 2-in-1 Chromebooks scheduled for 2015 to tackle non-education markets: In addition to Lenovo's N21 2-in-1 Chromebook launched in February and Asustek Computer's Chromebook Flip 2-in-1 device released in April, Google, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer are also planning to unveil Chromebook products in the second half. With the devices, the market will see at least six branded 2-in-1 Chromebooks in 2015, showing that Google's aggressive moves to integrate Chromebook with Android are succeeding in promoting the devices in non-education markets.

Lenovo's New Phone Turns Any Surface Into a Touchscreen

Lenovo's New Phone Turns Any Surface Into a Touchscreen:

This, according to Lenovo, is the world’s first laser projection smartphone—and the fact that it recognizes gestures also means that it can turn any surface upon which its images appear into a touchscreen.

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The LG G5's rumored iris scanner security makes fingerprint reading sound so 2015

The LG G5's rumored iris scanner security makes fingerprint reading sound so 2015:

The latest reports on LG's doings suggests you should keep your eyes wide open for next year's LG G5, as the Koreans' next hero phone will most likely come with iris scanning security! Reportedly, LG has been working with Korean-based biometrics firm Irience to integrate iris recognition technology in the G5, which is scheduled for 2016's first half. It is said that Irience has already completed work on the hardware module which will go into the smartphone, and is now polishing its algorithms to increase the recognition range from 12in (30cm) to a cool 20in (50cm).



LG has adopted differentiating ...

IDG Contributor Network: CISOs turn to security awareness solutions to change poor employee behaviors

IDG Contributor Network: CISOs turn to security awareness solutions to change poor employee behaviors:

The importance of computer security awareness training is supported by numerous recent reports including IBM’s 2014 Cyber Security Intelligence Index which found that 95 percent of all security incidents involve human error.

Gartner research Vice President Andrew Wells said the security awareness training market exceeds $1 billion in annual revenue (globally), and is growing approximately 13 percent year.

The things end users do that drive security teams crazy

According to Gartner, employees’ actions can detrimentally impact security and risk performance. CISOs and employee communication leaders are increasingly turning to educational security awareness solutions to help improve organizational compliance, expand security knowledge and change poor security behaviors.

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A Speculative Look at the Future of Google's Nexus Devices

A Speculative Look at the Future of Google's Nexus Devices:

Google’s huge developer conference, Google I/O, is this week(!), and while it’s not normally a place for a hardware announcements, a lot of rumors surrounding Google’s 2015 Nexus devices are already frothing toward the surface. Bottom line: Smartphones are in, tablets are out.

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Halo Back smart screen protector for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus adds a physical back button

Halo Back smart screen protector for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus adds a physical back button:

If you've ever used an Android smartphone as you primary driver before switching to the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 6 Plus, you're probably wishing that your iPhone featured a back button. 

Although the home button can partially act as a back button, and iOS 8 also comes with a back gesture, a dedicated hardware button is considered by many users to be the simplest and most straightforward way of going back to the previous screen. 

Enter Halo Back, a smart screen protector for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus that adds a dedicated back button to the two ...

The unannounced HTC WF5w seems to be the thinnest HTC smartphone yet

The unannounced HTC WF5w seems to be the thinnest HTC smartphone yet:

While HTC isn't known for making the thinnest smartphones on the market, the company has several handsets that are under 8 mm thin. The latest is the One E9+, which, at 156.5 x 76.5 x 7.54 mm, is the Taiwanese company's slimmest smartphone to date. But it looks like this title won't be held for long by the One E9+.



Meet the HTC WF5w, an unannounced handset that showed up today in China, where it's been approved by the country's Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center. Weighing 152 grams and measuring 158.7 x 79.7 x 7.49 mm, the WF5w is a hair thinner than the One E9+.



The ...

Digitimes Research: Lenovo ranks as 3rd largest smartphone vendor in 1Q15

Digitimes Research: Lenovo ranks as 3rd largest smartphone vendor in 1Q15: Lenovo outperformed domestic rival vendors Huawei and Xiaomi Technology to take the third position in the global smartphone vendor rankings in the first quarter of 2015, according to Digitimes Research.

Taiwan ODMs to snap up all orders for next generation iPhone, say sources

Taiwan ODMs to snap up all orders for next generation iPhone, say sources: Taiwan-based handset ODMs will continue to snap up all orders for production of next generation iPhone devices despite recent market rumors indicating that Apple plans to add a China-based ODM to its iPhone production partner list, according to sources at Taiwan's handset supply chain.

Global smartphone growth to slow to 11.3% in 2015, says IDC

Global smartphone growth to slow to 11.3% in 2015, says IDC: Global smartphone shipments are expected to grow 11.3% in 2015, which is down from 27.6% in 2014, according to IDC.

Ponemon: Data breach costs now average $154 per record

Ponemon: Data breach costs now average $154 per record:

According to a report released this morning by IBM and the Ponemon Institute, the per-record cost of a data breach reached $154 this year, up 12 percent from $145 in 2014.

In addition, the average total cost of a single data breach rose 23 percent to $3.79 million.

This is a dramatically different result then Verizon's 58 cents per average record breached estimate which came out last month.

Verizon's calculation, which was part of their annual data breach investigations report, was based on 191 cyber insurance claims.

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Thieves stole data on 100,000 taxpayers through IRS app

Thieves stole data on 100,000 taxpayers through IRS app:

Criminals stole sensitive information about roughly 100,000 taxpayers through the Internal Revenue Service's "Get Transcript" application, a major data breach at the U.S.'s national tax agency.

The thieves first stole information including Social Security details, dates of birth and street addresses from an outside, non-IRS source, the government agency said Tuesday. They then used that information to clear a multistep authentication process and access the IRS site, along with all the personal tax details stored there.

MORE ON CSO: How to spot a phishing email

The matter is now under review by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the IRS' Criminal Investigation unit. The Get Transcript application has also been temporarily shut down.

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8 awesome data visualizations centered on the smartphone industry as it is

8 awesome data visualizations centered on the smartphone industry as it is:

Through data visualizations of all kinds, statistics have served as a cornerstone of human knowledge for centuries, by giving us the means to analyze impossibly vast volumes of data through succinct and understandable presentations. For many — us included — data visualizations are an integral part to the reporting and reviewing process. In short, we love charts, and today, we're assuming that you do too!

From projected data consumption across the world, through Samsung's flailing sales, down to rise of larger-screened devices, we've picked 8 expertly-done charts, most of which ...

Apple is the most valuable brand for 2015, Google second, research firm Millard Brown claims

Apple is the most valuable brand for 2015, Google second, research firm Millard Brown claims:

In the world of technology, having a discernible brand surely goes a long way. According to Millward Brown, a Kantar-owned company that focuses on brands and their value, Apple is 2015's holder of the most valuable world in the world, leaving one of its biggest rivals, Google, distant second.



Interestingly, Millward Brown's 2014 global brand ranking list featured the vice versa situation, with Google at the top and Apple behind, but Cupertino has seen a 67% spike in its brand value to $247 billion, which ensured it the current top spot. In 2011, 2012, and 2013, Apple was also the company ...

Americans Value Privacy But Don't Trust Tech Companies To Provide It

Americans Value Privacy But Don't Trust Tech Companies To Provide It:

Americans want privacy as much as ever—but in the digital age, most of us think it’s a lost cause. That, at least, is the depressing takeaway from a new Pew report, which shows that our faith in digital service providers (and ourselves) to protect our data is abysmally low.

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Lenovo ships 76 million smartphones for the year, remains the third largest global manufacturer

Lenovo ships 76 million smartphones for the year, remains the third largest global manufacturer:

Lenovo reported its fiscal fourth quarter earnings today, remaining the third largest global smartphone manufacturer. For the January through March period, the company shipped 18.7 million devices netting revenue of $2.8 billion. That figure includes tablets and Android TVs. Motorola contributed to the strong period with 7.8 million branded units shipping in the quarter, a gain of 23.6% over last year's figure. Motorola branded handsets accounted for $1.8 billion of Lenovo's top-line mobile products revenue.



Motorola products are being slowly added to Lenovo's offerings in China, and the ...

A Samsung tablet with 4GB of RAM and a high-end, 14nm Intel processor spotted on Geekbench

A Samsung tablet with 4GB of RAM and a high-end, 14nm Intel processor spotted on Geekbench:

An unknown Samsung tablet, codenamed CHOPIN-LTE, has been spotted in Geekbench's database of devices that have gone through its benchmark tests.

A total of 4 passes through the software were recorded in the span of just 24 hours, starting on May 6th, giving Geekbench enough data about the device for us to start drawing some conclusions. Perhaps the most important one at this point is that the mysterious tablet will be positioned as a high-end product, considering the trail of rather impressive hardware specs.

So far, we ...

Apple may hand up to 70% of iPhone 6s production over to Foxconn, eying early announcement

Apple may hand up to 70% of iPhone 6s production over to Foxconn, eying early announcement:

Renowned Apple analyst Ming-chi Kuo tapped into his supply chain connections and emerged with an outline of the upcoming iPhone 6s line-up's production and announcement schedule. According to his findings, long-time manufacturing partner Foxconn is expected to secure the lion's share (60 to 70%) of assembly orders for the next-generation iPhone, with the rest probably going to fellow plant Pegatron. In addition, Foxconn could become the sole assembler of Apple's next-generation iPad — the rumored 12.9-inch screen iPad Pro — which could launch late this year, or early next year.



Thanks to ...