iPhone 6 rumor roundup

Apple’s iPhone 6 press event is only a few weeks away — it’s scheduled for September 9 — so it’s no surprise that iPhone rumors are running wild right now. This time around, the rumor mill’s refrain is “bigger, stronger, faster.” The potential for larger screens, scratch-proof sapphire glass, and incredibly fast hardware specs is being widely reported by the enthusiast press and traditional news outlets alike. Unsurprisingly, Apple is going to have a lot of hype to live up to for the iPhone 6 release.
There are just too many iPhone 6 rumors floating around to count, so I’ve selected only a handful of the most intriguing examples to discuss today. Some of these are certainly more likely than others, but each one is incredibly tantalizing to gadget lovers. Whether or not you plan on buying Apple’s next smartphone, something here is bound to tickle your fancy. After all, once Apple implements a feature in its flagship product, other companies are bound to respond.

4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones

From the iPhone’s inception, there have been rumors about larger screens. Apple stuck with the 3.5-inch screen for years before finally upgrading to a 4-inch screen with the iPhone 5 in 2012. Now, the rumor mill is betting heavily on Apple releasing two new screen sizes: 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches. There doesn’t seem to be much consensus on whether or not these larger phones will be offered alongside the 4-inch models, though. If I had to guess based solely on my gut feeling, Apple probably won’t ditch its 4-inch phones any time soon. Besides, you can still buy a 3.5-inch iPhone 4S directly from the Apple Store.
We’ve been seeing these screens and miscellaneous phone parts show up frequently across the net, and these larger devices are certainly the most wide-spread rumor this time around. However, popularity doesn’t make the rumors true. Remember back when we were supposed to have a teardrop-shaped iPhone? That rumor ran rampant up until the moment the next model was actually announced with a uniform flat design. Unless you’re being told something directly by an Apple executive, take any discussion of future Apple products with a grain of salt.

Sapphire screens

The word on the street is the new iPhones will sport sapphire screens. This rumor has been very persistent, and with good reason. As you can see in the video embedded above, sapphire glass is incredibly durable and scratch-resistant, so it’s perfect for smartphone screens. Stab it, scrape it, or shove it in your pocket with your keys — it makes no difference.
Considering how often I see friends and family with jacked-up smartphone screens, this would be a huge improvement. Unfortunately, we might have to wait another generation for these super screens. JP Morgan’s Rod Hall seems skeptical that Apple will be able to push out sapphire screens in 2014. If Hall is right, we might have to wait for the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 for these nigh-on indestructible screens.

Image credit: Feld & Volk

iPhone 6 shell

So, individual parts have supposedly leaked here and there over the last couple of months, but an assembled iPhone 6 shell has just recently surfaced. These images are allegedly of a 4.7-inch iPhone 6, and it looks incredibly slick. If the real McCoy ends up looking like this, I’ll be pleased. However, Apple’s design aesthetic is constantly being aped by Chinese counterfeiters, so it’s not much of a stretch to think that something this polished could be completely fake.

Image credit: NowhereElse.fr

Bigger batteries

With the addition of bigger screens comes the need for bigger batteries, right? According to a number of leaks, we’ll be seeing some notable bumps in the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models. One leak has the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 sporting a 1810 mAh battery while another photo shows a 2915 mAh battery for the 5.5-inch iPhone 6. Considering that the iPhone 5S’s battery is roughly 1570 mAh, these are substantial jumps in power. I’d certainly like to see a longer battery life for my next phone.

A few weeks back, our own Joel Hruska explained Apple’s move to 20nm chips made by TSMC. The assumption is that the iPhone 6 would use a 20nm A8 SoC. This shrink will improve performance and power consumption by about 20%, and it might give Apple the leg-up on the competition that it so desperately wants. Of course, this also means that Apple will no longer be dependent on Samsung for its SoC production, so this makes perfect sense all around. All of that said, we’ve heard similar rumors about Apple moving to TSMC before. With all of the business deals in place for Apple’s enormous production pipeline, anything could happen before the announcement.

Image credit: Sonny Dickson

Reversible USB cables

Back in 2012 when Apple introduced the Lightning connector as the replacement for the 30-pin dock connector, opinions were split. While some were angry that Apple didn’t use a standardized micro USB port, any poo-pooing was drowned out by how easy the Lightning connector is to use — even in the dark. Now, it looks like Apple wants to apply that same ease of use to the standard USB end of the iPhone cable.
Leaked photos of these reversible USB connectors surfaced just a few days ago, and it could make major waves among consumers and manufacturers alike. The official reversible USB 3.1 connector has been finalized, but it isn’t backwards compatible with older ports. This implementation, if the rumor proves true, is a much more elegant solution.

Near-field communication

Built-in NFC on the iPhone is a rumor that just won’t die. I remember attending the RootsTech conference in early 2011, and being told repeatedly by vendors that Apple will “absolutely include NFC” in its next phone. That didn’t come to pass, but the rumors haven’t slowed down one bit. Back in January of this year, NFC fever hit once again, and recent rumors point to the inclusion of NFC in the iPhone 6.
Based on allegedly leaked schematics, Apple will be using a chip from NXP in its newest phones. This could mean that Apple is trying to take on Google Wallet, but maybe Apple has something else in mind. After the wild success of games like Skylanders and Disney Infinity, maybe Apple wants in on some of that sweet, sweet “toys to life” money.

A chicken in every pot, and an iPhone in every hand

If the majority of these predictions are right, Apple seems to be gearing up to take on Android directly. Larger phones, cutting-edge internals, and top-of-the-line production materials sound like quite a compelling mix. Considering the supply chain wizardry Tim Cook is known for, Apple might just be in a position to outclass the competition for months if not the entire next generation.
Of course, we’ll know for sure what Apple has planned when its executive team takes the stage on September 9. As always, we’ll be covering the next iPhone as new details are revealed, so check back frequently for the latest information. The iPad and Mac lineups are likely to receive updates in the next couple of weeks as well, so there’s bound to be something for everyone.

Intel’s NUC 2.0 leaks: The next unit of Steam Machines and home theater PCs

Thanks in large part to the Raspberry Pi, mini PCs are all the rage these days. In terms of power, none of them yet compare to a standard gaming rig, but they’re slowly creeping toward that end. If some leaked slides are to be believed, then Intel’s next NUC — the next Next Unit of Computing — is creeping much faster than the competition.
The NUC 2.0 is a significant upgrade compared to the original — which we hope Intel will rename to the First Unit of Computing — by the time 2.0 releases. Leaked slides not only point toward a more powerful product line, but two models focused on gaming. Intel will release various models of the NUC, adding new tech and shedding old parts.
The initial next-gen NUCs will be powered by Core i3 and i5 Broadwell and Braswell chips, can support up to either 8GB or 16GB of DDR3 RAM depending on the model, and will feature Intel HD graphics. Don’t balk at the inclusion of Intel graphics — Steam’s hardware survey shows that Intel GPUs are the most used on the service. This makes the NUC a real possibility for use as a Steam Machine, assuming Valve hasn’t abandoned the initiative by then. The exact models of GPUs are not revealed, but the slides state that they will be capable of 4K output, so it looks like the NUCs could enjoy long lives as home theater PCs.

Perhaps most interestingly, it appears as though the next NUCs will make standard 2.5-inch SSDs optional, instead opting for the more flexible M.2 drives — a type that can can even be shoved onto a stick of specialized RAM. As for the ports, the NUCs will feature four USB 3.0 ports, two internal USB 2.0 headers, a mini HDMI and mini DisplayPort connector, a headphone and microphone jack, and a higher-end model will have optical audio.
If you end up using a NUC as an HTPC, but the grey-and-black box clashes with your tastefully decorated living room, Intel is also planning to release colorful case lids that can be mixed and matched. The slides also reveal that Intel plans to release an entry level NUC sometime in the middle of next year — using Celeron Braswell chips — aimed at “HTPC and light mainstream gaming.” Certain current models of NUC run quite cheap, as you can find them on outlets like Newegg for just $150, so a model specifically targeted for entry-level use could be very affordable.
The leaked slides disclose that Intel is targeting a 2015 release for the new models, so if you’re in the mood to stick some powerful, affordable HTPCs all over your apartment, you won’t have to wait too long.

Windows 9 is set to be unveiled on September 30

Microsoft is planning to release a preview build of Windows 9 at a special press event on September 30, according to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans. The date could still consumer preview of Windows 9 before you get to play with your new Cortana digital assistant, however.
change, but September 30 lines up neatly with previous leaks that suggested a late-September or early-October release date for the Windows 9 technology preview. It’s still unclear exactly how many of Windows 9′s hotly anticipated features will actually make it into the September 30 release — but hopefully we’ll at least see the resurrected Start menu and Metro apps running on the Desktop. We wouldn’t be surprised if you have to wait a little longer for the
A few days ago, news leaked that Microsoft was planning to release the first public build of Windows 9 at the end of September or beginning of October. Now, sources are telling The Verge that Microsoft is planning a Windows 9 press briefing on September 30. The tech preview build of Windows 9 will likely be released at the event or shortly after. Hopefully everyone will be able to download the Windows 9 preview — just like the early public builds of Windows 8 — but there’s a chance that Microsoft will only release it to developers and professionals via TechNet and MSDN.

Windows 9, build 9788, leaked screenshot showing PC Settings Metro app running in a window on the Desktop. Microsoft’s current Windows 9 builds are around the 9820 mark.

This technology preview of Windows 9 will contain a lot of new features, but it won’t be feature-complete. In much the same way that the first Windows 8 preview still looked a lot like Windows 7, expect the Windows 9 preview to be a Frankensteinian hodgepodge of new and old features. We would expect the new Start menu to make it into the tech preview build, and the ability to run Metro apps in a window on the Desktop, but beyond that is anyone’s guess. One of Windows 9′s larger new features — integration of Cortana — might not make the cut. You should also expect a lot of smaller changes — UI tweaks, new stock Metro apps, etc. — to pop up a couple of months later in the first Windows 9 consumer preview.
Microsoft might also use the September 30 press event to tell us about the fate of Windows RT, too, which is being integrated into Windows Phone as part of the grand unified theory of Windows.

Cortana, from the Halo universe, is expected to make an appearance in Windows 9

Microsoft, with its accelerated release schedule and exciting features like Cortana and virtual desktops, is clearly trying to prove that it still cares about normal (laptop/desktop) PC users. While Cortana is useful on a smartphone, I think it might be surprisingly powerful on a laptop or tablet as well. I might be getting a bit ahead of myself here, but it would be really cool if you could say “Cortana, show me all of my photos from 2012″ rather than fiddling with various filters and search boxes in Explorer. Using Cortana on a PC could be just like the voice-activated computer in Star Trek — if Microsoft does it properly, anyway, and doesn’t just half-assedly drop the Windows Phone version into Windows 9.

ET deals: Lenovo Z50 laptop with Core i7 and 2GB GeForce 820M for $729

If you want a versatile laptop that does a little bit of everything, check out today’s big discount on the newly updated Lenovo Z50. This laptop packs a Core i7 processor, dedicated graphics, great specs and respectable portability, all for just $729 after our coupon code is applied. That’s $370 off the regular price.
This laptop packs a recently released Core i7-4510U processor, a CPU that will deliver powerful performance while also preserving precious battery life. This pairs with a similarly new 2GB NVIDIA 820M dedicated graphics card, a solid GPU that can handle most of today’s games and will certainly fly through all your old favorites. Together this combo will let you put the 15.6-inch 1080p anti-glare display to good use, opening up tons of real estate for games, movies, or other applications.
With a 1TB hybrid hard drive that includes an 8GB SSD cache, you’ll get speedy boot and resume times while also keeping ample storage space for all your high-def media. 8GB of RAM are also included standard, giving you plenty of memory for multitasking at will.
Wireless connectivity will be superb thanks to the dual-band Intel Wireless-AC 3160 WiFi, as well as Bluetooth 4.0. When it comes to hooking up your wired devices, you’ll find a trio of USB ports (one USB 3.0), HDMI, a multi-card reader, and ethernet to make that easy. This laptop also packs a DVD-RW for accessing physical media, something that’s getting a little harder to find these days.
Lenovo has worked to keep this device fairly portable for its class, with the ULV processor contributing to a 5-hour battery life, and measuring under 1-inch thick and weighing 5.29lbs. Dolby certified stereo speakers and Veriface Pro round out the features list.
Lenovo Z50 Core i7 15.6-inch laptop with 2GB GeForce 820M for $729. Apply coupon code Z50DEAL for total $370 savings.
Love the look, but don’t need quite that much power? Lenovo is highly discounting a few other Z50 models – here’s two of our favorites:
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Now that's a party animal! 'Disco squid' puts on a technicolor light

A ‘disco squid’ that changes colour and glows in the dark ensures that life below the ocean waves is never dull.

The Caribbean reef squid’s incredible technicolour display was caught on camera as it hunted for food at night.

The 12-inch (30cm) cephalopod was snapped searching for prey in the shadows, before rapidly swimming away with its catch while flashing different colours.

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The 12-inch (30 cm) Carribean reef squid (pictured) was snapped searching for prey in the shadows, before rapidly swimming away with its catch while flashing different colours

Photographer Masa Ushioda, 43, encountered the rainbow-coloured creature 50ft (15metres) underwater during a dive at the City of Washington Wreck off Florida Keys in the US.

Mr Ushioda, who lives in Hawaii, said: ‘I found this squid hunting for prey and it started targeting some zoo plankton off my dive lights.

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The squid uses chromatophores in its skin to rapidly change colour

‘When they are hunting, they get excited and display the most brilliant colours using the special chromatophores in their skin.

‘As soon as it had snatched a couple of planktons, it jetted away with excitement.’

Caribbean reef squid are known to communicate by changing their colour, shape and texture.

They can do this by the nervous control of chromatophores, which are pigment-containing and light-reflecting organelles in cells found in a wide range of animals.

The creatures use their transformative power to stay concealed from predators, become large in the face of danger and flash different colours to find a mate.

Incredibly, they can change colour on one side of their body to give another squid a message on their right, while adopting different colours on the rest f their body.

Mr Ushioda said: ‘I'm happy with how the squid came out with colours because sometimes it is difficult to capture them.

‘The key is to deliberately underexpose the photo muting the strobe light, and then brighten the picture later to bring out its natural colours.’

What a party animal! Disco clam creates strobe light effects

CLAMS CREATE STROBE LIGHT EFFECTS THANKS TO LIP 'MIRROR BALLS'

‘Disco clams’ were recently caught on camera 'partying' on the ocean floor while producing their own strobe light effects.

And now one scientist, who first came across the entertaining mollusc four years ago, has discovered the secret of how it lights up.

Ctenoides ales, dubbed disco clams because of this unique feature, produce the effect using its lips - which is packed with tiny spheres of reflective silica - like a mirror ball.

Lindsey Dougherty encountered the two-inch clam in 2010 while diving with her mother and sister in Wakatobi, Indonesia.

She saw Ctenoides ales roll the edge of its mantle - a layer of muscle and tissue that acts like a cloak over the mollusc's body - and produce a strobe-light effect using its mirrored lips.

She found that the flashing was not a form of bioluminescence, which is a chemical reaction inside animals like plankton that produces light similar to that of a glow stick.

Instead, she found, the edge of the clam's mantle lip is highly reflective on one side.

When the clam unfurls its lip - typically twice a second - the millimetre-wide mirror is revealed and reflects the ambient light, like a disco ball.

The inside of the clam's lip is packed with tiny spheres of silica, only 340 nanometers in diameter, that are ideal reflectors, particularly of the blue light that penetrates deeper into seawater compared to red light.

The outside of the lip contains no silica nanospheres, so when the lip is furled, no light is reflected, according to the study, published in the British Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

By repeatedly unfurling and furling the lip, the clam produces a continual rippling light show.

The non-reflective back of the lip strongly absorbs blue light, so it appears dark and makes the contrast between the sides even more striking.

 ‘Disco clams’ were caught on camera 'partying' on the ocean floor while producing their own strobe light effects

HTC One for Windows: Another Great Phone You Probably Won't Buy

Windows Phone smartphones have gotten quite good, so why doesn't anyone buy them? Personal Tech columnist Joanna Stern tests the HTC One (M8) with Windows Phone 8.1 to find out. Photo: Drew Evans/The Wall Street Journal.

Last week, I went hunting for people using Windows Phones in Times Square. Two hours in one of the busiest spots on Earth—zero sightings. Instead, there were thousands of people, from Iowa, Italy and India, holding up their glowing iPhones or Android phones to take photos of Great White Way. One kind lady from London did tell me she was fairly certain her great uncle owned a Windows Phone.

While my method wasn't scientific, the straw poll represents the reality of the global smartphone market. Google's GOOGL -0.57% Android has close to 85% of the market share while Apple's AAPL +0.33% iPhone is at 12%, according to IDC's latest numbers. Microsoft MSFT +0.43% ? Windows Phone holds a measly 2.5% and it isn't growing.

Microsoft's Windows Phone

PROS

• Customizable, easy-to-use 'live tile' interface
• Solid, fully featured core apps
• Easy to manage and edit documents and attachments

CONS

• Quality of third-party apps not as good as iOS and Android
• Many popular third-party apps still not available in store
• Cortana makes some odd recommendations

So what's wrong with the "third" smartphone platform? Until now, the assumption was that Windows Phones just weren't as good as the others. And for the first number of years of the platform's life that was true because of middling hardware and nascent software.

But now, thanks to various software updates released throughout the summer, that once-trailing platform has as much or more functionality than Android or iOS—that is, if you don't consider third-party apps.

And the hardware has caught up, too. Just today, the best-designed Android phone—the HTC One—is being released with Windows Phone 8.1, for now exclusively at Verizon. VZ +0.29%

So, why don't more people give Windows Phone a go? At this point it has very little to do with how good of a smartphone platform it has become, and everything to do with the rule of the masses: It's hard to go one way when everybody else is going another.

The HTC One—One More Time

The HTC One (M8) allows you to tap on photos to change the focus. Drew Evans/The Wall Street Journal

If there was any doubt that Windows Phone devices were as attractive or well made as the iPhone or the best Android phones, the striking HTC One (M8) for Windows immediately dispels that myth.

A carbon copy of the Android model I've loved since its debut in March, the One's bright and crisp 5-inch 1080p screen is enclosed in a solid piece of aluminum, giving it a weight that suggests higher quality than the plastic wares from LG, Samsung and Nokia. NOK1V.HE +1.37% And despite its thinner dimensions, it can last all day long on a charge, even with the screen brightness cranked up.

Like on the Android model, my biggest complaint is about its ultrapixel camera—along with a second camera that strictly captures depth information to allow you to refocus photos after you take them. Despite the gimmicks, the photos just don't turn out as sharp and well balanced as the ones you'd take with the priciest Nokia Lumia Windows Phones.

That said, it does capture photos faster than any smartphone I've tested and if you're vying to be a better selfie-snapper than Kim Kardashian herself, the 5-megapixel front-facing camera is what you need.

The Latecomer Catches Up

A recent update to Windows Phone 8.1 allows you to easily create folders. Drew Evans/The Wall Street Journal

So if all things are now equal in hardware, software must be Windows Phone's big problem, right? That used to be the case for the late-to-the-party platform, but it certainly isn't anymore.

Windows Phone is now as good an operating system as the others. I find it easier to navigate than Android, yet more customizable than iOS. Live tiles show core information without you having to open an app and a new notification center puts new messages and important system settings in closer reach. Customizing app notifications, creating folders, organizing apps right on the tile screen—even toggling between open apps—are all simple moves.

The core apps are more fully baked now, too. With the email and calendar apps, I can manage my work and Gmail messages and schedules as easily as I do on an iPhone or Moto X Android phone. Better yet, opening attached documents and saving revisions in Office doesn't require a coffee break like on the other platforms, and Internet Explorer is just as snappy as mobile Safari and Chrome.

Believe it or not, I didn't even miss Google Maps during my week on Windows Phone. Bing Maps, which is powered in part by Nokia's massive map database, consistently provided really good transit directions, and Waze, a Google-owned, third-party app, helped me fight traffic and road closures while driving into New York City.

How about Cortana, Microsoft's answer to Siri and Google Now? Without a prompt, she told me what traffic would be like on my way to work and even gathered top news stories based on my interests.

I repeatedly used her location-aware reminder feature to remember to do things when I got to the office, relied on her for the weather and enjoyed her humorous answers to my snarky questions. I was starting to think she was the world's smartest digital assistant—right up to the point when she recommended, out of the thousands of great and affordable restaurants in New York City, dinner at Applebee's.

The App Gap

Instagram for Windows Phone lacks some of the new editing tools available in the iPhone and Android apps. Drew Evans/The Wall Street Journal

Apps are still where Windows Phone struggles to keep up with the Joneses.

It isn't in the quantity of apps anymore. There are more than 320,000 apps in the Microsoft Store and you'll find most of the big names—everything from Facebook FB -0.11% to Netflix NFLX -0.21% to Spotify to Uber to Instagram. But because there aren't as many Windows Phone users, app makers don't pay attention to their Windows Phone apps as much as iOS or Android.

For instance, Instagram has all the usual filters on Windows Phone, but it lacks the editing tools that were recently added to iPhone and Android. Similarly, in Rdio, I spent a good five minutes looking for the top playlists chart before realizing it wasn't there.

As for the newest iPhone and Android apps—buzzy ones like Lyft, VSCOcam, Secret and Tinder—they aren't available yet on Windows Phone. And Google doesn't offer its core apps for the platform, including YouTube, Hangouts, Maps or Google Drive. You'll be hard pressed to find the apps that work with your connected accessories, too. Without Windows Phone companion apps, I couldn't pair my Jawbone Up fitness tracker or the Bluetooth tag I use to track my keys.

Microsoft says it is trying to make it easier for developers to create apps that work across Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox. But even then, it's hard to imagine that being as good as the competition will change the tide. People don't use Windows Phones because … people don't use Windows Phones.

In the smartphone market, people tend to join in the biggest crowds. By the time Microsoft got its act together, the masses had chosen sides between iPhones and Android phones. For most, a switch would be like moving from a comfortable home to a comfortable home across the street—it just isn't worth it.

But stranger things have happened than a solid platform from a fiscally sound and committed tech giant gaining in popularity. If you're tired of the current options and can live without the apps and services that set the Internet abuzz, the HTC One (M8) for Windows is a great device and it's just $100 with a two-year contract at Verizon. That or just stick with the crowd.

Why Chinese Smartphone Makers Are Going Global

Chinese smartphone makers are increasing their presence in the global market. This year, we’ve already seen Lenovo Group and Huawei Technologies gain global market share, posing a threat to market leader Samsung Electronics 005930.SE -2.06%. Now, other lesser-known Chinese players are also trying to expand overseas.
 Coolpad, a smartphone maker based in Shenzhen, plans to spend millions of dollars this year to promote its brand in Southeast Asia, Europe and the U.S., its senior executive told The Wall Street Journal in a recent interview.
So why are the Chinese players all focusing on overseas?
“China’s smartphone market is getting saturated,” said BNP Paribas analyst Peter Yu. “If you want to keep growing, you have to look outside.”
Between 2011 and 2013, smartphone shipments in China nearly quadrupled, according to research firm IDC. Now, the rate of annual growth is expected to slow. Meanwhile, smartphone sales are rising sharply in emerging markets like India, Southeast Asia and Latin America, where many consumers are still replacing basic cellphones with smartphones. According to IDC, 89% of all mobile phones shipped in China in the first half of this year were smartphones. In India, smartphones accounted for only 28% of shipments in the same period.
For Chinese players, overseas expansion is a way to keep up their growth and, possibly, to make their business more profitable. “Price competition is too intense in China,” says IDC analyst Kiranjeet Kaur.
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing described China as the most competitive smartphone market in the world. “There are so many local players, and some of them are not logical in how they do business. They don’t want to make money in the short term,” Yang said.
Lenovo, the world’s largest personal-computer maker, and Huawei, one of the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications equipment, both have resources to compete globally. And they are already growing fast in emerging markets. Last week, Lenovo said its smartphone shipments in the quarter through June jumped nearly fourfold in Southeast Asia and sixfold in Eastern Europe. Huawei said last month that its smartphone shipments in the first half of the year increased more than sixfold in the Middle East and Africa, and nearly fourfold in Latin America.
Still, not all Chinese players have what it takes to expand overseas, analysts say. While Lenovo and Huawei have the financial resources to ramp up marketing and enhance their distribution channels abroad, other players with more limited resources, like Coolpad and Beijing-based upstart Xiaomi, may face more challenges.
Another potential hurdle is intellectual property. Some Chinese companies that lack a vast library of international patents face risks of lawsuits if they expand overseas, especially in the U.S. and Europe.
“In China, they don’t have to worry as much about patent litigations,” Yu said.
Lenovo earlier this year bought Japanese technology firm NEC’s mobile-related patents. It is also in the process of completing a $2.91 billion acquisition of Google GOOGL -0.59%’s Motorola Mobility handset business, a move that will give Lenovo access to new distribution channels as well as patents.

A Giant Tablet Gives Kids More Screen Time Together

Fuhu's Nabi Big Tab 24 is a high-definition Android touch device that's big enough for your kids to share. WSJ's Wilson Rothman looks at whether the $530 tablet's promise of increased engagement, and even cooperation, is worth it, despite the lack of mobility.

Just search for "kid tablets" at walmart.com or target.com, and you'll see dozens of brightly colored tablets with rubber bumpers and cutesy names like Kurio, Orbo, Tabby and Meep.
As a parent, I tend to think of these as product spam. It's true, the more reputable makers jam the tablets with age-appropriate content and give parents plenty of controls and tools to incentivize the educational use of the things, but that's still a hard sales pitch for a household that already has two iPads and a Kindle Fire HDX—with more than enough apps, games and interactive books to go around.
But when Fuhu—an El Segundo, Calif.-based company that's been selling its own bright red Nabi tablet for several years—told me they were launching a tablet whose screen measured two feet in diagonal, that got my attention.
A 24-inch tablet sounds like an oxymoron. "That's basically an iMac," several people have told me in unrelated instances. Except that it runs Android, and has a 1080p high-def capacitive touch screen capable of registering 15 simultaneous finger taps, and a built-in battery. Not that the battery will last more than a half-hour, but it's enough to get this 13-pound monster from room to room without having to reboot everything.
Surprisingly, the Nabi Big Tab 24 costs just $550, only a bit more than an entry-level iPad Air. (Fuhu is also releasing a slightly smaller Big Tab, a 20-incher that will cost $450.)
So what happened when I brought my work home with me, and shared the Big Tab with my 6-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy?

The Big Tab's supersize dimensions allow two children to play on the same device. Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

A huge tablet changes the playing dynamic entirely. The kids play well together when it comes to Lego or puzzles, but they have never been known to share a tablet, except maybe to stare dumbly at it while a movie was playing.
The 24-inch Big Tab lets them do all kinds of things together. In the demo unit that Fuhu lent me, there were two-player games such as air hockey and "Fruit Ninja," drawing studios, puzzles, and even family board games: generic versions of "Candyland" ("SweetLand") and "Chutes and Ladders" (well, "Slides and Ladders").
After I unboxed it, the kids actually played for an hour and a half straight, and in that time, I observed two startling phenomena:
1) They didn't fight, but instead talked and laughed with each other the whole time.
2) They never once loaded up the movies or TV shows, though they knew those were also on the device.
I joined in, getting into some of the longest and most brutal "Chutes and Ladders" battles of my life. I was happy to witness the makings of good sportsmanship as I observed how my kids reacted to both victory and loss. Even my wife, who was initially dubious, admitted that she'd much sooner play a game with the kids on the Big Tab than on our smaller tablets.
The period of blissful harmony was over by the next day. The kids were playing a fire-hose game called "Sprinkle Island," and they got into an altercation over water usage that resulted in my son giving my daughter a scratched face. I was stunned, mostly because they had done so well when playing against each another—why would playing toward a common goal cause such anger?
"Cooperation is much harder than competition, especially for young kids," said Seeta Pai, VP of research and digital content at the nonprofit parental-advisory group Common Sense Media. "They are very focused on themselves." Ms. Pai would know—she doesn't just have a doctorate in education from Harvard, but she's got twin 4-year-old girls.
You can tell from reading this that I am not opposed to letting my very active children use tablets in moderation. Yet I make a point to involve myself in the process, so I'm aware of what they're doing, and how beneficial it is to their development.
"If you treat a device like a forbidden fruit, chances are that's how the child is going to relate to it," Ms. Pai told me. "As long as you are achieving the balance, know what works for your child, and are considering the quality of the content, it's OK."
The Big Tab's supersize dimensions provided a stage for my children to play together, and for me to witness those dynamics better. I'm happy to report that they have since made it through multiple levels of "Sprinkle Island," and without further bloodshed.
With the Big Tab, Fuhu found a way to differentiate from the iPads, Kindle Fires and Samsung Galaxy Tabs that dominate the tablet industry. But while size matters, it may not be the only draw for parents looking for an alternative to a TV in a child's room.
The company prides itself on its family-wise software, but we were unable to test the Nabi interface—a youth-focused walled garden of content and tools—on this preproduction device. Instead, we explored the interface on Fuhu's other devices, such as the 8-inch DreamTab, its "Shrek"-"Kung Fu Panda"-"Madagascar"-themed collaboration with DreamWorks DWA +0.66% Animation.
Beyond providing kid-safe photo-messaging apps and cloud storage, and novel utilities like the allowance-earning Chore List, Fuhu is growing on the education front. Its Wings program includes a quiz game with 50,000 questions geared to the common core, that scales from pre-K through sixth grade. There's more to come from Wings as early as this fall, including workbooks and an interactive pen.
Jim Mitchell, Fuhu's CEO, says the focus on software helps differentiate the company from both the candy-colored knockoffs and the dominant tablet makers.
"We're selling tablets in a different way and it's helped us in what I'll call the slowing of tablet sales," he told me. "We're focused on creating an innovative and immersive experience. Parents don't buy tablets based on speeds and feeds. They say they want the tablet because it has all of these great characters and experiences."
With the Big Tab, that also means more titles geared to a "family board game" night, said Mitchell, who acknowledged that he's talking to Electronic Arts, EA +0.04% which handles the digital versions of Hasbro's HAS +0.61% Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers games, to create large-screen Android apps of the classic titles.
After seeing how my kids took to the Big Tab, I went in search of other examples of collaborative play that wouldn't just rot their brains. The best came from LeapFrog, a company that focuses on the 10-and-under crowd, and uses its licensing of Transformers, SpongeBob, Dora and the like as spoonfuls of sugar to make the education go down.
My kids tried out multiplayer games on a pair of soon-to-be-released LeapPad 3 tablets. The devices have tiny screens, so the collaboration and competition take place when they are wirelessly connected.
There's a drawing game that lets kids sketch sea horses, bugs and buses, then send them to their friends to guess what they've drawn. There's a Pac-Man-like gopher digging game where the players have to work together to gather up food. And there are lots of games like "Kart Racing," where the players learn numbers while going head-to-head on the racetrack.
But even if this was cooperation, the kids were nose down in their devices. They weren't physically engaging each other, like they would on the Big Tab. That's why I got a brief demo of the LeapTV, which launches sometime this fall. Think of it as a Wii aimed at the really wee folk—a motion-controlled gaming console that plugs into your TV, with educational games for kids ages 3 to 8. My children weren't able to try it out, because LeapFrog is still working out the bugs, but from what I saw, it could be a very good way of getting them up and moving—and interacting with each other—on a very big screen. (You'll just have to bring your own.)
LeapTV and the Big Tab don't really compete with each other. LeapFrog is focused on a specific age group, while Mitchell says Fuhu is also trying to win over teens and families with its latest products. But both devices overturn certain notions about screen time and electronic play. And it's about time.

Android Market Share Hits New Record

Google GOOGL -0.61%’s Android is extending its dominance over rival mobile-operating systems, including Apple AAPL +0.13%’s iOS, new data show.
Smartphones running Android accounted for 85% of global shipments in the second quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, up from roughly 80% in 2013. Overall smartphone shipments grew to 295 million units last quarter, a 27% increase from the same period in 2013.
Android phones are sold by a variety of hardware makers, including Samsung, HTC and Xiaomi.
“Like the PC market, Android is on the verge of turning smartphone platforms into a one-horse race,” said Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics’ executive director, in a press release. “Its low-cost services and user-friendly software remain wildly attractive to hardware makers, operators and consumers worldwide.”
Rival smartphone operating-system makers all saw their market shares decline in the second quarter, compared with a year earlier. Apple’s share fell to 11.9%, from 13.4% and Microsoft 'sMSFT +0.49% share dropped to 2.7%, from 3.8%. BlackBerry BB.T -3.59% shipments have all but disappeared, registering a scant 0.6% share, down from 2.4% a year ago.
The biggest threats to Android gaining even more share, Mawston said, are Apple’s expected release of larger iPhones later this year and plans by the Mozilla Foundation to support ultra-low-cost smartphones powered by its Firefox operating system.

Apple Hits $100, Closes In on Record

Apple Inc.'s stock price just returned to triple digits. A record high is not far behind.
Shares hit $100 on Tuesday, the highest level since September 2012.

Apple shares have been rejuvenated in recent months thanks to strong quarterly results, high expectations for new products and a 7-for-1 stock split that was completed in June. The split, which increased the number of shares outstanding and lowered the price accordingly, was aimed at making Apple’s stock more accessible to a wider audience.
For Apple bulls, the strategy has reaped immediate benefits. Shares have rallied by more than 30% since late April, when the company announced the split in conjunction with an upbeat quarterly report.
The stock is now poised to take its record high achieved in September 2012. Back then, Apple hit a closing high of $702.10, which is the equivalent of $100.30 in today’s split-adjusted terms.
Apple is currently less than 1% away from reclaiming that mark.
Apple investors are banking on an expected new product launch of larger iPhones, perhaps as soon as next month, and a series of smartwatches before the end of the year, to help juice growth. By diversifying its product lines, Apple is hoping to reignite earnings growth, which has flattened in recent quarters. The company generates billions of dollars in profit every quarter, but after a decade of stellar results its growth rate has slowed recently.
After peaking in September 2012, the stock slid more than 40% before bottoming in April 2013. It continued to struggle through last summer, but the stock has been in a steady uptrend ever since.