In a research note to investors, an analyst said that Taiwanese manufacturer HTC is expected to see “strong revenue growth” in the second half of this year because of bringing two new flagship devices – the HTC One Max which is currently known as the HTC T6, and the HTC Butterfly 2. However, lately alleged blueprint of HTC One MAX has been leaked online.

According to dutch website mobileaks.nl, the blueprint showed above is of HTC T6, which is the HTC brand phablet. The above blueprint hints that the display size of HTC T6 will be 5.9-inch. Besides the device will have a height of 104.4 mm and a thickness of 9.4 mm. If the specifications are believed true, then undoubtedly the HTC One MAX will be larger and thicker than the HTC One.

The source has also mentioned that apart from having 5.9-inch 1080p display, the HTC One MAX will also come with 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor and a 3300mAh battery. The sources also believe that the device would run on Sense 5.

Okay, so we didn't quite know what to make of Gigabyte's lamp / Ultrabook hub. But what about its new smartphones? The company is showing off three handsets here at Computex 2013 -- the Maya, Sierra and Simba, in ascending order of impressiveness -- all of which have dual SIM slots, IPS displays, 1GB of RAM and a stock build of Android 4.2. To tell the truth, none of them are exactly high-end (even the top-tier Simba runs just a dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor), but we were impressed by the quality of those IPS screens, which offer wide viewing angles even under harsh lighting.

They've all got thick, plastic builds too, but some are at least nicer-feeling than others. The 5-inch Sierra has a slightly metallic finish that could possibly pass for metal at a glance. The 5-inch Simba is done up in a trendy white, but with a glossy, tacky sort of look. And the lowest-end Maya (4.5-inches) is made of plain, drab plastic. Not much to see there. On the inside, as we said, the Simba has a Snapdragon 400 (Krait) SoC, while the other two make do with a 1.2GHz, quad-core processor from MediaTek. As for screen quality. the Maya has QHD resolution whereas the Sierra and Simba step up to HD; either way, no 1080p flagships here. That's about all we have to share at this point -- Gigabyte hasn't announced pricing or availability -- but a company rep did tell us these phones should at the very least be headed to Asia and Eastern Europe. For now, head past the break for a quick video tour.

Lenovo has never made a serious push into the realm of mobile devices but that may be about to change. The Wall Street Journal reports that Lenovo “is in preliminary talks with ‘multiple parties’ about a possible joint venture in smartphones” as a way to offset the global decline in PC sales. What makes Lenovo particularly interesting is that it’s been the only major Windows OEM to weather the collapse of the PC industry so far, as IDC earlier this year estimated that the company’s overall year-over-year PC shipments remained steady even asrival vendors’ sales plummeted by more than 20%.

The reason Lenovo’s PC business has stayed afloat has been that it’s concentrated on selling PCs in emerging markets such as Brazil and in its native China, where many consumers are still buying PCs at a fairly healthy pace. If Lenovo can use the brand recognition it’s generated in these markets to boost interest in its smartphones then it could conceivably pose a challenge to rival vendors such as Samsung, Huawei and ZTE.

Smartphones have been forecast to undercut newspaper photography professionals for years. Still, the Chicago Sun-Times’ decision to eliminate all of its full-time photography staff came as a surprise. This is one of the oldest continuously published newspapers in the United States, established in 1844. Its paid circulation of 260,000 in 2012 makes it one of the biggest newspapers in the country. Laying off 28 photography professionals is a drastic move. In a leaked memo, the Sun-Times’ managing editor mentions “iPhone photography basics” as one of the mandatory training session for journalists.

Newspaper journalists are increasingly facing pressure to pick up photography and image editing skills that used to be the domain of dedicated professionals. The rapidly improving camera quality on smartphones like Apple’s iPhone is a major factor in this ongoing shift; the latest wave of high-end phones feature cameras with resolutions between 8- and 13-megapixels, LED flashes, HD video and fairly sophisticated image stabilization software out of the box.

The Chicago Sun-Times’ print circulation dropped by nearly 8% in the latest last two quarters compared to the same six-month period a year earlier. As print continues its grim downward spiral, papers are slowly consolidating several vanishing stand-alone jobs onto the shoulders of a shrinking number of harried journos.

In the brave new world of newspaper journalism of 2020, the evolutionary pressure is likely to produce a strange hybrid creature snapping photos and shooting video, editing images, designing layouts, devising SEO strategies and cultivating social media presence to promote stories… and perhaps actually writing an article or two.

Google is apparently gearing up for two significant announcements for the developer community in June. The company has recently posted two YouTube videos on its Developer website, with each of these videos hinting at a ‘Chrome Mobile special event’ due to take place in June.

One of these videos cites a June 7 event that will take place between 1:00p.m. and 1:30p.m. EDT. The video stops short of citing exactly what kind of event this would be, although many have guessed that Google will be announcing something big on the said date.

The second of these events, again hinted in a YouTube video, is scheduled on June 13, and will take place from 11:00a.m. to 11:30a.m. EDT. Similar in fashion with the first video, this second video divulges no other information about the nature of the event.

However, many have speculated that these events may be about Google announcing Mobile Chrome for Android and iOS devices. That is certainly a possibility, but we haven’t found any hints that the coming events will be about this.

Google recently concluded its I/O event, and if the company has a major announcement, it could have made it at the event. However, the fact that Google is bringing together two new, brief events to make some kind of announcements hints that the company is gearing up to present something recent. Another possibility in this regard is that Google may unveil a Android-supporting Chrome. But then, all these are speculations based on thin ice.

Source: Google 1/2

China Mobile (NYSE:CHL; HKG:0941), the world’s biggest mobile telco by user-base, has perhaps been inspired by the worldwide success of WeChat and Skype in launching its own app messaging app for a global audience. Called Jego, it has apps for iPhone and Android but no desktop application.

While you can sign up with your phone number apparently anywhere in the world, the new Jego service is actually more like Skype than newer social messaging apps because it has global calling plans. For example, a Jego user could sign up for unlimited calls to Hong Kong for $12 per month after buying credit. There are mobile and landline calling rates (see here) for 20 countries so far, such as $0.02 per minute for landline or mobile calls in Singapore. That makes Jego a lot cheaper than the gouging you’d get from most telcos on global calls – including on China Mobile itself – and makes Jego app comparable in affordability to Skype’s paid features.

For those who don’t need calling, China Mobile’s new Jego app supports online messaging for free, and will scan your contacts to find friends who also use the service.

Skype, which is now owned by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has over half a billion users (when it last revealed numbers under its previous ownership), though it’s not clear how many of those are paying for premium calling.

Mobile telcos around the world have been threatened by social messaging apps like Whatsapp, WeChat, Line, Viber, and Nimbuzz for many years, with the threat mounting as new features like video calls get added to some of those apps. WeChat has 195 million active users (and close to 400 million in total) while Line has 160 million registered users this week. While China Mobile’s stealthy launch of Jego won’t really solve any of that, it at least puts the company in contention to wrest back some of those global chatters and perhaps turn them into paying customers.

If you've ever wondered why you can unlock your car by pressing a button, but still have to fumble for your metal keys to get in your house, then the August Smart Lock might be for you.

The $199 device, which will go on sale later this year, lets you secure your door over the Internet. Using August you can bar unwanted visitors and give access to friends and relatives — even for a short period. The base station attaches to your door and attaches to your deadbolt. The company claims the deadbolt adapters and faceplates accommodate 90% of locks on the market. There's also no wiring to worry about — the device uses standard batteries.

On the software side, the August lock uses Bluetooth to connect to an iOS and Android app. Using the app you can issue encrypted "keys" to anyone you'd like to give access to.

August, which was created by Jason Johnson and industrial designer Yves Behar, is not the first lock on the market that interacts with your smartphone — Kwikset's Kevo also uses Bluetooth to connect to your iPhone 4S or iPhone 5. However, August's sleek design may woo some of the consumers who opted for Nest, another stylish update to a boring household fixture, the thermostat.