The Evian babies have today (20 April) returned to TV screens in a new ad that looks to better communicate the product and focus on the water’s core message; youth.

The 'Baby Bay' film, set on a South African beach, shows a surfer who finds himself surrounded by little surfers who serve up Evian at a beach bar shack. The idea behind the campaign is to “surprise” consumers as well as push the brand’s content strategy around ‘live young spirit’, Céline Barral, innovation director at Evian International told The Drum.

“Youth has always been a central message for Evian, [having been] originally conceived as the 'babies’ water' in France and handed out in the maternity [wards]. This time we wanted to propose a new surprising and engaging piece of content about what we call the 'live young spirit'. As an embodiment of youthfulness, babies have always been a key part of Evian's brand DNA.

“The rhythm is certainly different versus previous campaigns; with this film you have intrigue and suspense. It's a different way of approaching entertainment. So it is not a change of target audience but more about our obsession to reinvent ourselves continuously.”

Conceived by BETC, the campaign includes a mobile app in partnership with Quiksilver, which offers users a fun 360° wave-riding experience. Ads will also run print media as well as collector's items and social media activity.

Explaining the brief Valérie Chidlovsky, creative at BETC, said that the campaign needed to “re-introduce” the product and to be more “explicit about the evian effects”.

“Despite the stronger product focus we didn’t want to go back to a traditional advertising construction and we wanted to avoid the eternal before/after [situation]. We imagined a place (the 'Baby Bay') where everyone around had been drinking Evian, which allowed us to only show the ‘after’, that is the post-Evian adults, transformed into babies.”

Meanwhile In the United States and Canada, Evian has partnered with supermodel Gigi Hadid who will be featured in out of home ads dressed as a surfer alongside her baby lookalike.

A new survey, conducted by Mohu, in partnership with Public Policy Polling revealed that half of the country feels unfavorably towars their cable provider. The sentiment is not surprising, especially as high quality streaming services like Netflix and Hulu become the cheaper norm for high quality entertainment.

Mohu, for example, provides cheap and thin indoor antennas to help capture the free over-the-air TV. Here's a snapshot of the results from the survey.

• Consumers aren't keeping cable because they want more channel choices. More than two-thirds (67 percent) of consumers watch 10 channels or less in a given week, while an additional 16 percent watch between 10 and 20 channels in a week. In fact, less than 25 percent (21 percent) strongly believe having access to hundreds of channels is a good thing for the American society. 


• Consumers believe in free access to over-the-air TV. 89 percent of consumers agree that access to free, over-the-air TV is important, with nearly 75 percent strongly agreeing.


• Negative feelings toward cable and satellite could be one of the only things Democrats and Republicans agree on. The poll compared presidential votes in 2012 alongside feelings of cable and satellite companies. Of those who voted for Obama in 2012, 36 percent have a favorable opinion of cable companies, fairly comparable to those who voted for Romney giving cable a 23 percent favorability rating.

You can access the Future of TV hub here. Sign up to receive The Drum's Future of TV newsletter. 

Sky Media is to move from its London office to parent group BskyB’s headquarters in Osterly as it looks to bring its advertising arm closer to the business and broadcasting divisions, The Drum has learnt.

The broadcaster declined to comment on the move, though a source close to the busines said discussions were underway. It is understood that the relocation is not a threat to jobs and consultations with staff on the proposed move in July are now underway.

Sky Media will continue to use the London office for meetings and presentations with customers.

The move follows a restructure of Sky Media last October that saw three pillars emerge behind deputy managing director Jamie West’s technology remit, the director of sales Duncan Wynn and director of partnerships Rachel Bristow. That move was sparked by a deal to handle Channel 5’s £250m TV ad sales business, which has given it the scale of Channel 4. Since the turn of the year, the business has been on a drive to show the market it is a progressive partner, one that’s capable of blending its scale and creativity to drive real business results. 

Google faces EU charge over Android 'abuse of dominance'

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Getty Images

Google has been issued formal antitrust charges over claims that it abuses the dominant position of its Android operating system.

The European Commission sent a statement of objections to the tech firm, alleging that it has breached EU competition law.

Google is accused of placing onerous requirements on firms using Android and stifling competition.

It said Android was "good for competition and good for consumers".

Kent Walker, Google's senior vice president and general counsel, said: "Android has helped foster a remarkable and, importantly, sustainable ecosystem, based on open-source software and open innovation. We look forward to working with the European Commission."

Competition

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, the European competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said she had reached a preliminary view that Google was in breach of EU law.

It has been given 12 weeks to respond, and, if found guilty, the company faces a fine and could be required to change its practices.

Ms Vestager said Google had harmed both competitors and consumers by placing requirements on mobile manufacturers and operators to preinstall some of its own products and, in some cases, set them as default or exclusive options on handsets.

In some cases, she said, this had been as a condition of Google's agreement to grant a licence for the use of some of its apps.

Android is open-source software, meaning competing operating systems can be built using its source code.

The commissioner alleged Google had barred manufacturers from selling devices using these operating systems.

She also said Google had given financial incentives to manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition they exclusively preinstalled Google Search on their devices.

Dominance

She told reporters: "A competitive mobile internet sector is increasingly important for consumers and businesses in Europe.

"Based on our investigation thus far, we believe that Google's behaviour denies consumers a wider choice of mobile apps and services and stands in the way of innovation by other players, in breach of EU antitrust rules.

"These rules apply to all companies active in Europe."

According to the European Commission, Google has about a 90% share in the markets for general internet search services, licensable smart mobile operating systems and app stores for the Android mobile operating system, making it dominant.

Ms Vestager said the issue was particularly important because smartphones and tablets accounted for most global internet traffic, and were expected to account for even more in the future.

She said about 80% of smart mobile devices ran on Android.

Lobbying group FairSearch, the lead complainant in the case, welcomed the decision.

"Google requires manufacturers using key apps on Android, such as Google Play or YouTube, to also install others that it specifies.

"Virtually every phone maker using Google Android in the European Union has bowed to Google's demands, suppressing competition by other app makers and preventing free choice for consumers," it said in a statement.

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PA

Google's history of run-ins with the regulators

2007 - US Federal Trade Commission investigates Google's acquisition of online advertising firm DoubleClick and rules it can go ahead.

2008 - US Justice Department blocks a deal to allow Yahoo to run Google search ads on Yahoo sites.

2009 - Rivals file complaints against Google to national regulators in Europe, citing competition concerns.

2010 - European Commission launches formal antitrust probe of Google's search business. This is still ongoing.

2013 - FTC drops its two-year investigation of Google, concluding it had not manipulated search results to damage rivals.

2014 - European politicians pass a non-binding resolution calling for the break-up of Google's search engine business from the rest of the company.

2015 - New EU antitrust commissioner Ms Vestager charges Google with distorting search results to favour its own shopping services over rivals and reveals that she is also investigating Google's Android business.

Over these years, Google has also faced scrutiny from regulators in South Korea, Brazil, India and Russia.

Pretty much everyone has heard of Amazon, no matter where you live. Amazon is, first and foremost, an electronic commerce company, but they’re also much more than that. This US-based company manufactures tablets, smart speakers, and has even released a smartphone which didn’t do all that well in the market, the Amazon Fire Phone. That being said, the company has launched Amazon Echo Dot and Amazon Tap portable smart speakers last month, and iFixit already managed to get their hands on both of them, and pull them apart, read on.

If you take a look at the gallery down below, you’ll get to see a couple of teardown images, and for the rest of them, you can visit iFixit’s Amazon Tap and Amazon Echo Dot teardowns. Now, these two devices are actually quite different, pretty much the only thing they have in common is Alexa. The Amazon Tap is, according to many people, iFixit included, the more unique out of the two. This device actually uses dual passive radiators over each speaker enclosure in order to increase volume output, and save battery at the same time. The source claims this amplifies sound quite a bit, the output would be noticeably poorer without it. iFixit has even re-assembled the device and noticed that the sound has changed without the passive radiators, which only proves their theory. They have also noted that the control board, battery, speakers, USB port and passive radiators are individually replaceable, which makes them incredibly easy to repair (replace, actually). This device is pretty much modular, if we disregard some adhesive at the base, which is great. iFixit gave Amazon Tap 7 out of 10 on a repairability scale.

Now, as far as Amazon Echo Dot is concerned, it’s a bit more difficult to repair. The Amazon Dot has some steel on the bottom for stability, just like the original Amazon Echo. The majority of the Echo Dot is held together with Torx screws, and its motherboard and daughterboard are easily replaceable. The headphone jack and USB port are soldered to the motherboard, so you can’t exactly replace them without replacing the motherboard. The Echo Dot uses more glue than the Tap, but despite that, iFixit opted to give it 6 out of 10 on a repairability scale.

VPN’s or Virtual Private Networks, can prove to be very useful. On the one hand, they keep your internet browsing safe when connected to public or unsecured WiFi networks. On the other hand, you can use them to access websites that may be banned or blocked on the network you are using. Especially useful for getting around China’s “Great Firewall” as many call it. VPN’s are pretty useful and right now, VPNGhost is offering up a lifetime subscription for just $25. VPNGhost offers you all of the freedom and protection that a VPN offers, but best of all, it doesn’t slow down your connection at all. You’ll be able to connect to various servers in all sorts of countries. This includes the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, Japan and even Russia.

With VPNGhost you can also choose to mask your IP address, so you can be sure that you are not being monitored or recorded. This way you’ll be able to stay anonymous when browsing the internet, even if you are in a country like China that censors the internet. You also get no limits at all as far as bandwidth goes, and you can surf the web at up to 1Gbps uplink connection.

Uber has undeniably been one of the bigger breakthroughs in terms of leveraging technology to offer a service to the end user, but it’s also had its ups and downs over the past year or so. Controversy is never too far behind an Uber, and while it’s somewhat unavoidable – people will be people, after all – Uber perhaps has some cleaning up to do. Regardless, the brand has become well-known and well-established at this point, and spinoffs like UberEats are leveraging the pool of drivers to meet new goals. In this case, UberEats was designed to help get those on a tight lunch break something decent to eat without having to spend that time actually getting the food, as UberEats would bring it to them. For some New Yorkers however, it’s bad news, as UberEats is shutting down its instant delivery service.

Uber said that as of April 18th “we’ll no longer be offering a daily Instant Delivery lunch menu” which is perhaps going to be a blow to a lot of people, but we have to wonder why Uber is able to simply walk away from such a service in the first place. How much could the service have been making if they can simply shut it down like this? The idea behind the daily menu was a set of different items sourced from different restaurants that people could pick from and have delivered to their home or place of work in or around 10 minutes. This was down to a central holding center in Manhattan, and the food was only ever left on the sidewalk, rather than delivered to the door or the exact floor. This doesn’t mean that UberEats is shutting down in New York City entirely, just that those in a hurry won’t be able to get their eat on quite as quickly as they could have done before.

Uber is a service that’s clearly willing to experiment with things, which makes a lot of sense for a business in the business of disrupting old industries. During Valentine’s Day this year they partnered with New York firm Master & Dynamic to deliver earphones direct to people’s doors, for instance. The future of UberEats however, might not be as tasty as people first thought.

The music industry, perhaps like no other, has seen a number of massive overhauls over the past couple of centuries, and it’s no surprise that modern methods of discovering music are still rubbing some people up the wrong way. The Internet was notorious back in the days of Napster and other sharing sites for angering huge parts of the industry, and this still seems to be true, but the bullseye is on someone else’s back; namely Spotify’s and YouTube’s. As part of a new Documentary for BBC Radio 4 in the UK, Peter Mensch, Manager for bands like Metallica, Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others, said that YouTube was “the devil”.

Mensch told the documentary that “YouTube, they’re the devil, we don’t get paid at all”. The concern behind YouTube for a lot of artists is that users can load up the app on their phone, even connect it to their stereos using Chromecast Audio and then stream all the songs they want – completely free. Sure, there’s an ad or two here and there, but this doesn’t seem to be deterring a lot of listeners. Considering that YouTube is ad revenue-based, only channels and firms that go in with YouTube will get paid. Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s Chief Business Officer, had a response for Mensch and said that “it really depends on what is the flow of the money from us to you.”

YouTube – as well as other online services – is arguably a double-edged sword. Many an artist have seen their careers start or reach new heights on YouTube, with South Korea’s PSY being a shining example, how likely would it have been for a song from PSY to get into the charts without YouTube? On the other side though, there’s growing concern that people are unlikely to pay for any records if they can just get it for free on YouTube, and launches like YouTube Music probably haven’t helped matters. As we’ve seen time and time again throughout the ages, the music industry is often one of the slowest to adopt change, and while YouTube has been around for some time now, it appears as though some pockets of the industry have had enough. Mensch himself goes on to say that “if someone doesn’t do something about YouTube, we’re screwed”. Just what Mensch has in mind is unclear, but the problem with an established brand like YouTube is that now people are used to it and the service has gotten comfy, it’ll be hard to shift or ask them to change.

The Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 released last year has been refreshed with a new model called the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 Value Edition. The handset in question was spotted on the virtual shelves of an e-shop in Netherlands earlier today, where the terminal is listed along with a price tag of €228.

Samsung’s “Xcover” brand has been around for more than 5 years. The moniker was initially used to label dust and water resistant feature phones, but later in 2011, the Xcover series switched lanes and entered the world of smartphones. Two years later in 2013, the South Korean tech giant released the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 boasting an IP67 dust and waterproof certificate, and of course, last year in April the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 was released as a budget-friendly rugged smartphone. Keeping the aforementioned release schedule in mind, one would think that the next Galaxy Xcover in the series should be planned for a market launch in 2017 – two years after the 3rd smartphone in the series was released. But surprisingly enough, it appears that Samsung has already decided to launch a new sequel, or rather a refresh based on the Galaxy Xcover 3. It’s called the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 Value Edition, and overall it features roughly the same hardware specifications as the model it succeeds. According to the source, the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 VE is equipped with a 4.5-inch TFT display with a resolution of 800 x 480, an unspecified quad-core processor clocked at 1.3 GHz, 1.5 GB of RAM, 8 GB of ROM expandable via microSD, a 5-megapixel main camera, a 2 MP front-facing sensor, and a slightly smaller 2,000 mAh battery as opposed to a 2,200 mAh unit offered by the predecessor.

Not unlike last year’s model, the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 Value Edition meets MIL-STD 810-G standards, meaning that the terminal can handle humidity, altitude conditions, and adverse temperatures easier than ordinary smartphones. It also comes with a dust and waterproof IP67 certificate so it can technically survive being submerged in 1 m of water for up to 30 minutes. Once again these are the same exact characteristics boasted by the 2015 model, but unlike its predecessor the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 Value Edition does come with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. In any case, the smartphone is priced at €228 on the Dutch online store (source link below), and can also be acquired for €0 down along with a local carrier agreement.

Samsung already sells Android smartphones under a number of ‘Galaxy’ names. The company’s Galaxy J, Galaxy A and Galaxy S handsets are quite popular all over the world, not to mention the ‘Note’ line, but it seems like the company is planning to release yet another sub-brand. The company’s Galaxy C5 smartphone surfaced on GeekBench quite recently, and was followed by the Galaxy C7 which popped up on AnTuTu. It was just a matter of time before we see yet another leak, well… read on.

The Galaxy C5 (SM-C5000) has popped up yet again, this time on GFXBench. According to the listing, the device will sport a 5.5-inch fullHD (1920 x 1080) display, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of native storage. The phone will be fueled by the Snapdragon 615 64-bit octa-core processor, along with the Adreno 405 GPU for graphics. The 16-megapixel snapper will be placed on the back of the device, and an 8-megapixel shooter will be available up front. Android 6.0 Marshmallow will come pre-installed on this device, and on top of it, you’ll be able to find Samsung’s custom UI, as always. We still don’t know what exactly will the Galaxy C5 looks like, but you can expect it to sport a physical home key which will double as a fingerprint scanner, two capacitive keys which will flank that physical key.

In addition to the specs shared by GFXBench, the phone’s alleged cases also leaked, courtesy of Steve Hemmerstoffer. If you take a look at the gallery down below, you’ll get to see four images of Galaxy C5’s cases in various colors. Judging by the cutouts, this handset will resemble Samsung’s previous models. We still don’t know when will the Galaxy C5 and C7 going to be announced, but judging by the amount of benchmark listings we’ve seen, that will happen really soon. These handsets belong in the upper mid-range category we’d say, mainly because of the mid-range Snapdragon SoC which will fuel both of these phones. The Galaxy C5 will sport a 5.5-inch display, which means that the Galaxy C7 might ship with a 5.7-inch panel, but we’ll see, stay tuned.

When the original Chromecast was launched, it was something of a head-scratcher to a lot of people, but as soon as it made its way into living rooms all over the world and more providers jumped onboard, it all started to make sense. It took them a long time, but Google followed up the original Chromecast with the Chromecast 2 and a new Chromecast Audio that is – you guessed it – all about bringing music to your existing stereo. The Google Cast protocol is now practically everywhere, and big names like Spotify, Netflix and YouTube are available to name a few. Now, the new models have finally made their way to India.

While these have been available to import for some time now, it’s nice to see Google pushing an official launch at long last. Both of these new ‘Casts will cost RS 3,999 and each with come with their own promotional offers, too. The Chromecast 2 will feature a free subscription to HOOQ while the audio version gives users six months’ worth of Saavn, neither of which are offers to be sniffed at. As for availability, both will be available online as well in-store, with the online side of things taken care of by Flipkart, Paytm and Snapdeal and the offline side of things by Croma and Reliance.

We reviewed both the Chromecast 2 as well as the Chromecast Audio a while ago now, but they’re both nifty little gadgets to have around, and the Cast ecosystem has become so mature now that even in countries like India there’s going to be a lot of content. A great way of making a “dumb” TV smart as well as making better use of that smartphone, the Chromecast 2 is good for videos while the Chromecast Audio will help upgrade that old, faithful friend of a stereo you refuse to get rid of. If you were wondering if the WiFi issues from the original had been taken care of, both of these now fully support WiFi 802.11ac single and dual-band, which should be able to make the most of your broadband connection into the home quite nicely.

Amidst reports that the European Union’s Competition Commission is all set to charge Google in its antitrust investigations into Android, the American tech giant may well face yet another setback in the continent; this time relating to its popular news aggregation service – Google News. It’s been widely reported that news publishers in Europe have been unhappy with Google for publishing portions of their articles on its site. With many of them already turning to the European Commission with their collective complaint, the organization is currently deliberating on whether to impose a tax on all news aggregation services – including Google News – for carrying snippets of articles published by European publishing houses on their respective websites.

While quite a few well-known publishing houses such as Germany’s Alex Springer, have publicly come out against the American tech giant’s news aggregation service, the increasingly-vocal lobby in Europe now has a high-profile ally, according to reports coming out of the old continent on Tuesday. According to Bloomberg News, it is now the turn of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to officially file a complaint against Google News adding fuel to the already raging fire on whether news such services help news publishers by directing more traffic to individual websites or hinder news publishers by allowing users to whet their news appetite by going through the excepts carried by such services on their own sites. According to a statement issued last month by News Corp. CEO, Mr. Robert Thomson, Google “routinely exploits its market dominance and has little appreciation of the commercial or social value of high-quality journalism”.

It’s worth mentioning here that Spain was reportedly the first country in the continent to push through a legislation which would have required Google to pay a tax to carry news snippets from third-party websites on Google News. The search giant, however, chose to shut down its news service in the country rather than pay the tax, leading to a lot of the publishers there losing a significant amount of web-traffic. That, however, doesn’t seem to be deterring others, as the new complaint from News Corp. proves. Meanwhile, neither Google nor News Corp. has made any official comment to the media on this matter.

I believe that pretty much everyone likes to listen to music, even though each and every one of us prefer specific type(s) of music. There are tons of music players available in the Google Play Store these days, and quite a few of them are truly great actually. That being said, we did come across a rather interesting music-related app recently, but this is not exactly a music player app, even though it can improve music output on your smartphone / tablet. Interested? Read on.

The app I’m talking about is called ‘Music Equalizer – Bass Booster’. As its name says, this app is basically a music equalizer app, but unlike a number of other similar apps we’ve tried out, this app is actually quite good. The sheer design of the app’s UI is quite nice and non-intrusive, and the app has plenty of features you can use to improve sound output. Now, let’s talk more about its features, shall we. The sound volume control is a give for any similar app, of course, and in addition to that, the developer has also included a five-band equalizer, bass boost effect and a virtualizer effect. In addition to all that, you do get 22 equalizer presets, just in case you’re not one for in-depth tinkering, and you can, of course, save customized presets as well. The app also offers the dynamic audio mapping options, and you can change the app’s theme if you don’t like it as well. The 3D surround sound is included here, and this app will work with streaming music apps as well (in addition to regular music playing apps), apps like Pandora and Spotify. A widget for this app is also available, just so that it’s handy whenever you need it, and no, you will not need root permission in order to take full advantage of this application.

Now, please do keep in mind that this app will not work with all music players. Some music playing applications have their own equalizers, and some are simply not compatible with this app, says developer. Check out the official images down below, and if you’re interested in ‘Music Equalizer – Bass Booster’ app, click on the Google Play banner down below in order to install it on your device.

LeEco (formerly Letv) is definitely one of the most interesting smartphone manufacturers out there. This China-based company has entered the smartphone business back in April last year, and has introduced five smartphones to this day. The company has also introduced some other devices, like smart TVs, for example. That being said, the company has introduced the LeEco Le, Le Pro and Le Max devices back in April 2015, and they’ve just announced successors to those three smartphones at an event in China today, read on.

The company has introduced the Le 2, Le 2 Pro and Le Max 2 devices. The LeEco Le 2 is the most affordable one of the three, but this phone still packs a lot of punch, and is a mid to high-end smartphone. The Le 2 Pro is the company’s all-new flagship smartphone, and the Le Max 2 is their new flagship phablet. The LeEco Le 2 features a 5.5-inch 1080p (1920 x 1080) display, along with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. This smartphone is fueled by MediaTek’s Helio X20 64-bit deca-core processor running at 2.3GHz, and packs in a 3,000mAh non-removable battery on the inside. The 16-megapixel shooter is placed on the back of the LeEco Le 2, and an 8-megapixel snapper can be found up front. Android 6.0 Marshmallow comes pre-installed on this smartphone, along with the LeEco’s EUI user interface.

The Le 2 Pro, on the other hand, sports a 5.5-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) panel, but unlike the Le 2, this phone comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of native storage. MediaTek’s Helio X25 64-bit deca-core processor fuels this phone, and is clocked at 2.5GHz. This phone sports a 21-megapixel main shooter (Sony’s IMX230 sensor), while you’ll find an 8-megapixel snapper up front. The software version is identical as on the Le 2. And last, but not least, the Le Max 2 phablet. This is a true beast of a device based on its specifications, the Le Max 2 sports a 5.7-inch QHD panel, 4GB / 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The device is fueled by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 64-bit quad-core processor running at 2.15GHz, and an Adreno 530 GPU for graphics. The Le Max 2 features the same camera sensors as the Le 2 Pro, and also the same software version, but unlike the Le 2 Pro, it comes with a 3,100mAh battery.

All three of these phones offer 4G LTE connectivity, of course, and sport the Type-C USB port on the bottom. They also features fingerprint scanners (Le Max 2 comes with Qualcomm’s Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner), and fast charging. Interestingly enough, none of them offer the 3.5mm headphone jack, you’ll need a special Type-C audio connector in order to hook up your headphones to this device, unless they’re cordless, of course. Availability details have not been announced just yet, stay tuned.

UPDATE: LeEco Le 2 is priced at 1,099 Yuan ($170), Le 2 Pro costs 1,499 Yuan ($232) and the two variants of Le Max 2 (4GB and 6GB RAM) will cost you 2,099 Yuan ($324) and 2,499 Yuan ($386), respectively.

Xiaomi is looking to improve upon last year’s sales, the company has managed to sell 70 million smartphones in 2015, and even though that was their record, they missed the targetted 80 million sales number. Xiaomi has already announced their Mi 5 flagship during the Mobile World Congress (MWC), and they’ve also released the Redmi 3 Pro smartphone as well. The company has already announced that the Xiaomi Max phablet is on its way, and they’re also expected to introduce the Mi Note 2 (Pro) later this year.

That being said, the Xiaomi Max name has been chosen by the consumers, considering the company has released an online pool and asked for their opinion. We’ve already seen the alleged front panel of this smartphone, and now we have yet another leak to share with you. If you take a look at the provided image, you’ll get to see the Xiaomi Max in the flesh. This render surfaced in China, and gives us a pretty good idea as to how the phone will look like. The design of this phablet does remind me of the Mi 5’s design, it essentially looks like a larger version of the Mi 5. The physical home button is located below the display, and it is flanked by two capacitive keys, just like on the Mi 5. The fingerprint scanner will be built into the physical home button, and the remaining two physical keys (power / lock and volume rocker) are placed on the right-hand side of the device.

Judging by the info we have at the moment, the Xiaomi Max is expected to sport a 6.4-inch display, and some rumors indicate we’re looking at a QHD (2560 x 1440) panel here, though that might not be the case. Rumors also say that the Snapdragon 820 64-bit quad-core SoC will fuel this smartphone, which is possible, but it is also possible that the company plans to make this a mid-range phablet, as other rumors have been indicating. Either way, the Xiaomi Max will probably going to be made out of metal, and Android 6.0 Marshmallow will come pre-installed on this device, along with Xiaomi’s MIUI 7 OS.

When Samsung launched the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge last year, they launched them in a number of different colors, some of which were shades and hues that you wouldn’t find in other smartphones. This year, they took a more elegant and classic approach with their colors, offering a gold and silver, as well as black and white option. Now however, Samsung is launching a new version of the device in South Korea; Pink Gold. Samsung says that the new hue will be available in South Korea now, and “select markets” soon.

From the launch photos (embedded below) it’s not hard to see where Samsung was going with this new shade for their Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge flagships. To their credit Samsung’s official release says that Pink was chosen because it’s a “natural color that provides a sense of comfort”. This is true of the Gold Platinum variant of the Galaxy S7 which is most certainly gold in color, but it looks like a natural gold, rather than say, an overly saturated or bright gold. More choice is always good, no matter what the colors are, and Pink Gold joins the aforementioned Gold Platinum, Silver Titanium, Black Onyx and White Pearl. For whatever reason though, some of these colors aren’t available everywhere, and this new Pink Gold options could further confuse things.

Hopefully, Samsung will be able to roll out the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge in this new look fairly soon, as it could help sales among women and just help to spark further interest in the phone, creating a second wind sort of effect. There was a time when color was a serious selling point for a lot of brands, and now it seems it will become a selling point once more. The only question is whether or not Samsung will expect people to pay a premium for this flashy, new hue or will it be the same price as all the other colors? We’re hoping for the latter, but until official pricing for anywhere outside of South Korea becomes available it’ll be hard to tell for sure.

Huawei has been one of the most active smartphone manufacturers this year. The company has re-introduced their Mate 8 flagship phablet back in January, and alongside with that device, they’ve released the MediaPad M2 10.0 tablet. This Chinese smartphone manufacturer has also unveiled their new P9 flagships recently, the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus. In addition to all that, they’ve released the MediaPad T1 7.0 Plus tablet in the Philippines earlier today, and will introduce a couple of more devices in the coming weeks, read on.

The company will announce the Honor 5C on April 28th, and earlier today they’ve confirmed that the Honor V8 is coming on May 10th. One would think that’s enough, but there’s one device we’re missing here, and that’s the Huawei P9 Lite. That handset has been leaking for a while now, and considering it was not launched alongside the P9 and P9 Plus, it was to be expected Huawei will introduce it soon. Well, in addition to all the leaks and what not, the P9 Lite has now been certified by TENAA (China’s equivalent to the FCC) as well. As it’s usually the case, TENAA’s listing confirmed not only the design of this phone for us, but also its specifications. According to TENAA’s listing, the Huawei P9 Lite will feature a 5.2-inch 1080p (1920 x 1080) display, along with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable internal storage. The phone will be fueled by an octa-core SoC running at 2.0GHz, which is quite probably the company’s Kirin 650 processor. The 13-megapixel shooter will be placed on the back of the P9 Lite, and an 8-megapixel snapper will be available on the phone’s front side. Android 6.0 Marshmallow will come pre-installed here with Huawei’s Emotion UI installed on top of it. The 2,900mAh battery will also be a part of this offering, and it will not be removable.

The Huawei P9 Lite will be made out of metal, and will sport a rear-facing fingerprint scanner, as you can see in the images down below. TENAA’s listing says that the device will be available in Black, White and Gold color options, and that it will measure 146.8 x 72.6 x 7.5mm, and weighs 143 grams. That is pretty much it, all that remains at this point is for Huawei to actually unveil this smartphone, stay tuned.

Lenovo might not be one of the largest smartphone manufacturers on a global scale, but this China-based company is quite successful in India. Lenovo has rolled out a number of smartphones in India thus far, and their sales are quite good. The company is trying to keep things fresh, and has decided to release yet another smartphone in India, a device that has been introduced in China back in February, the Vibe P1 Turbo.

The company has unveiled this smartphone in India earlier today, and the device will be available in the country through offline stores, at least according to Mahesh Telecom. This smartphone features a 5.5-inch fullHD (1920 x 1080) display with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 on top of it. The phone is fueled by the Snapdragon 615 64-bit octa-core processor running at 1.5GHz, along with the Adreno 405 GPU for graphics. The 13-megapixel snapper (PDAF, f/2.2 aperture) can be found on the back of this phone, and a 5-megapixel shooter is placed up front. The 5,000mAh battery is also a part of this package, and it will provide more than enough juice to get you through the day. This phone also sports two SIM card slots (2 x Nano SIM), and Android 5.1 Lollipop comes pre-installed with Lenovo’s Vibe UI on top of it. The Vibe P1 Turbo also packs in 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable internal storage. The device measures 152.9 x 75.6 x 9.9mm, while it weighs 189 grams.

The Lenovo Vibe P1 Turbo is made out of metal, and as you can see it sports a physical home key below the display, and the fingerprint scanner is built into it. That key is flanked by two capacitive buttons, overview (multitasking) and back. On top of all this, the Vibe P1 Turbo offers fast charging (24W), and does offer 4G LTE connectivity. The phone comes in Graphite Gray, Gold and Silver color variants, and it is priced at Rs. 17,999 ($272) in India. The source indicates that the phone is already available for purchase in India, just in case you’re interested.

ZTE has several Android smartphone lineups currently available out in the market. The company’s Nubia, Axon and Blade smartphones are quite popular, though the Nubia line is mostly being sold in China. ZTE is going to change that in the future, the company has already introduced their global nubia.com website back in January, and we do expect them to start selling Nubia devices outside of China in the near future, maybe even before the end of the year.

That being said, Nubia has introduced three smartphones back in May 2015, the Nubia Z9, Z9 Mini and Z9 Max. The Nubia Z9 Mini’s successor was announced yesterday, and it is called Nubia Z11 Mini. This announcement more than expected considering the fact that Nubia teased the arrival of this smartphone for quite some time now, and it seems like the Nubia Z11 and Z11 Max will be announced next month. Anyhow, along with the spec and availability info, we’ve shared some official images of the Nubia Z11 Mini yesterday. Well, first hands-ons started popping up in China, so we might as well take a closer look at ZTE’s all-new smartphone. If you take a look at the gallery down below, you’ll get to see quite a few real life Nubia Z11 Mini images which should give you a better look at the phone. The device is made out of metal, as you can see, and it features Nubia’s well-known circular capacitive home key below the display. Both the power / lock and volume rocker keys are placed on the right-hand side of the phone, and the bezel on the sides is quite minimal, almost non-existent. The Nubia Z11 Mini is a sleek looking phone, no doubt about it.

The device sports a 5-inch fullHD (1920 x 1080) display, 3GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable internal storage. The phone is fueled by the Snapdragon 617 64-bit octa-core processor, and a 2,800mAh battery is also a part of this package. The 16-megapixel shooter is available on the back of this phone, and an 8-megapixel front-facer is also included here. Android 5.1.1 Lollipop comes pre-installed on the Nubia Z11 Mini, and on top of it, you’ll find the company’s Nubia UI 3.9. The device sports two SIM card slots, and comes in Black, White and Gold color options. The rear-facing fingerprint scanner is also included here, as you can see, and the device measures 141.9 x 70.4 x 8mm, while it weighs 138 grams. The phone costs 1,499 Yuan ($232) in China, and will be available for purchase on April 25th (first flash sale).

Huawei has been quite busy this year. The company has rolled out the MediaPad M2 10.0 tablet back in January, and they’ve also introduced their new flagship devices quite recently, the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus. Earlier today we’ve reported that the MediaPad T1 7.0 Plus tablet has also been announced, in the Philippines, and we know for a fact that the Honor 5C mid-range handset will be announced on April 28th. Well, Huawei’s Honor sub-brand has shared yet another teaser on Weibo (Chinese social network), and this teaser is quite revealing, read on.

If you take a look at the provided image, you’ll get to see a clear indication that the Honor V8 is on the way, and Huawei also hints at the dual camera setup on this phone as well. The Honor 6 Plus had a dual camera setup and was announced back in 2014, while the P9 and P9 Plus also sport such a setup. The Honor V8 will be the second Honor-branded smartphone to sport the dual camera setup, and it seems like this will be a direct successor to the Honor 7 which was introduced in June last year. The company has also shared the release date for this smartphone, it seems like it will be introduced on May 10th in China.

Now, as far as specs go, we really don’t have all that much info at the moment, but some rumors are indicating that it might ship with two 12-megapixel sensors on the back, just like the P9 and P9 Plus, but without Leica’s lenses. Huawei’s Kirin 950 64-bit octa-core SoC could be the perfect processor for this phone, and the Honor V8 will probably ship with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM on the inside. The fingerprint scanner will probably also be included here, and the device will be made out of metal. Android 6.0 Marshmallow will come out of the box, and on top of it, you’ll be able to find Huawei’s Emotion UI (EMUI) skin.

That is pretty much all the info we have at the moment. The Honor 6, Honor 6 Plus and Honor 7 have been selling really well for the company, and they high expectations for this smartphone as well. Huawei aims to sell 140 million smartphones this year, and in order to succeed, they’ll surely need to release quite a few appealing products, and the Honor V8 sure does seem promising.