Hasta La Gadget!

Nike‘s second-gen FuelBand fitness monitor will include heart-rate tracking and Bluetooth 4.0, insider sources claim, as well as the ability to feed motion data into third party applications. The sports company is already field-testing the new wearable in casings disguised to look exactly like the first model, Gear Live‘s tipster suggests, with a boost in responsiveness among the improvements mentioned.

According to what was reportedly some brief hands-on time with the FuelBand 2, Nike has fettled the speed that the LEDs react, meaning the band shows data more swiftly than the existing version. The use of Bluetooth 4.0, just as on the Fitbit Flex we reviewed earlier this week, means longer battery life, and Nike has apparently built in auto-synchronization too.

However, Bluetooth 4.0′s potential for always-on connectivity without draining the battery too quickly means that Nike can apparently open up the FuelBand 2′s sensor stream to other software. The updated API will include accelerometer data, it’s claimed, so that games and other apps can track user movements and positioning and use them for control and other features.

Meanwhile, there’s also said to be a heart rate monitor – selected from an option on the band, and used by pinching the sensor against your wrist – and the ability to check battery status from the FuelBand 2 itself. Whereas Nike said back in February it had no plans to release an Android app, the current word supposedly from the company’s campus is that an app for Google’s OS is, in fact, in the pipeline.

Nike launched the first Nike+ FuelBand back in early 2012, one of the first wrist-worn activity monitoring gadgets to reach the market. Since then, it has seen rival devices from Fitbit and Jawbone, among others, though Nike has resolutely stuck to its premium pricing: the FuelBand costs $150, versus the sub-$100 tag on the newest Fitbit Flex, for instance. Exactly when the new FuelBand might launch is unknown, and it’s unclear if it will have features not unofficially previewed, such as sleep tracking as supported on both the UP and Flex.

Nike FuelBand 2 reportedly adds heart rate monitor and BT 4.0 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

At the beginning of last week, we learned of a Huawei smartphone, model number P6-U06, by way of the TENAA in China (their FCC equivalent). In addition to some pictures of the handset and a few internal components listed by the TENAA, its thickness, or rather, its thinness was the most interesting spec — at 6.18mm, it could be the super-slim P series model a Huawei exec has been teasing all year. While the company remains tight-lipped, the folks at NowhereElse have received what are thought to be some in-the-wild shots of the P6-U06, this time in black. The French site admits it can’t verify the legitimacy of the pictures, and there’s none of the back that should show the Huawei logo, but they do marry up with what we saw at the TENAA, and it looks pretty trim. We wouldn’t be surprised if Huawei made it official sometime soon, if only to stop the leaks before we know it all and lose interest. There are a couple more pictures after the break, and luckily, it appears Mr. Blurrycam was on another job.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: NowhereElse

The iPhone 5 has been out on the market for roughly seven months, but the phone has never seen a big discount on any of the carriers. However, that could change very soon, as it’s rumored that Verizon will be discounting the iPhone 5 by $100 starting at mid-month. This could possibly hint that a new iPhone model is incoming, as Verizon looks to possibly clear some inventory to make room for new stuff.

The rumor comes from EVLeaks, which we have relied on in the past for many smartphone rumors, and they’ve generally been accurate with their many rumors and leaks. If this discount is to be true, prospective buyers would be able to grab an entry-level 16GB iPhone 5 for just $99, but only after signing a new two-year contract of course.

Sadly, no more details were provided, but if true, the deal will go live sometime in the next week or two, allowing users to grab an iPhone 5 for up to half-off. It’s not said if the promotion will be permanent, or if it’s just a temporary sale that will happen. However, our guess is that it won’t be a permanent discount — at least not until the next iPhone releases.

As for this hinting that the next iPhone is incoming soon, it’s hard to say. Verizon could just be doing this for giggles, without even knowing about a new iPhone coming, but it’s also possible that Big Red needs to quickly clear some of its inventory to make way for something new.

Verizon iPhone 5 discount rumor suggests new model incoming is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The BlackBerry R10, what’s tipped to be the first mid-range BlackBerry 10 smartphone, has been caught in the wild once more, with a launch tipped to take place sometime in Q3 2013. The R10, keeping with BlackBerry tradition and offering a physical keyboard, has a 3.1-inch display according to DGtle, and a 5-megapixel main camera.

There’s also apparently a fixed, non-user-accessible 1,800 mAh battery, together with 2GB of memory and 8GB of storage. The display apparently runs at 720 x 720 resolution, just as per the BlackBerry Q10, and runs BlackBerry 10.1 OS.

So far we’ve seen the R10 leak in black, white, and red, which suggests either BlackBerry is having some fun with its color schemes or, alternatively, the company will be offering multiple colors at retail. Given the BlackBerry R10 is presumed to be the BlackBerry 10 equivalent of a Curve-series phone, that would make sense for the youth market traditionally keen on Curve variants.

Although touchscreen text-entry has found favor on most platforms, and indeed BlackBerry 10 itself has a refined on-screen system for the Z10, the Canadian company is reluctant to step away completely from physical ‘boards. Expectations for the Q10 are high, within BlackBerry at least, with ambitions of “tens of millions” of the phone being sold.

[via MobileSyrup]

BlackBerry R10 leaks with Curve-style specs is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

An LG prototype smartphone that could be the new Optimus G2 or even the Google “Nexus 5″ has been spotted in the wild, though exactly what the sizable handset is still remains a mystery. The image – as well as a close-up of the front camera assembly, shown after the cut – shared by evleaks comes with no hardware specifications nor branding beyond the LG logo in the lower bezel, and there’s no telling whether Google’s Nexus logo gets a mention on the back.

If, though, this was the next-gen Nexus, or “Nexus 5″, the positioning of the LG logo would be a minor coup for the manufacturer. On the current Nexus 4, the fascia of the phone is completely logo-free, with the only mention of LG and Google on the back panel.

Of course, that could also mean that this is the LG Optimus G2, the oft-rumored successor to the Optimus G. That phone was functionally all but identical to the Nexus 4 inside, differing only really with branding (and pricing); since Google and LG are said to have renewed their Nexus collaboration and already be working on the fifth phone of the series, the same internal components in this prototype might – if authentic – end up in both handsets.

Estimates of scale suggest the mysterious phone is around 5.5-inches, which would be a considerable step up from the 4.7-inches of the current Nexus 4 and Optimus G. It would also put it on a par with the display size of the newer Optimus G Pro; indeed, one possibility is that this device is a variant of the G Pro, complete with the slightly curved glass that we know from the Nexus 4.

Should Google opt to refresh the Nexus line more imminently, that would break the roughly year-long lifecycle of the previous phones. However, it would also give the company a high-profile handset to reveal at Google I/O, as well as a time advantage over the next-gen iPhone which isn’t expected until later in 2013.

[via Android Community]

Mystery LG phone leaks: Nexus 5, Optimus G2, or something else? is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.