Lenovo updated the non-Pro Yoga convertibles, meet the Yoga 2 in both 13″ and 11″ versions. Both laptops now run Windows 8.1 on an Intel processor (the original Yoga 11 ran Windows RT on an ARM processor).

The Lenovo Yoga 2 is a mid-range version of the Yoga 2 Pro, which was unveiled in September. Read more »

The Pebble smartwatch receives a lot of praise for its functionality, but its looks could be better – imagine if it had a stainless steel casing and Gorilla glass, with a metal wristband to boot. As it turns out, this might be less than a month away from reality as the smartwatch leaked in photos, presumably shortly before its official unveiling at CES.

According to the rumors, the Pebble Steel watch will come in two color versions – brushed steel and matte black. Read more »

Google started the Open Handset Alliance, which gave us Android, and now it’s unveiling the Open Automotive Alliance, which aims to bring the mobile OS on the road. The other founding partners are Audi, GM, Honda and Hyundai, along with NVIDIA.

More members are expected to join in the OAA’s mission to accelerate the development of intuitive, safe cars. Read more »

Time to break out the champagne and celebrate the first winner of the Smartphone Champions League, the Nokia Lumia 1520. The first Lumia phablet had a lot to overcome some high-profile challengers, including its Lumia 1020 sibling at the end.

We’d like to thank the dedicated fans that swayed the results and several times gave us some surprising turnarounds. Read more »

We’ve been hearing “console-quality graphics” used to describe GPUs in mobile chipsets since the Tegra 2 but that was wishful thinking. Qualcomm is making a similar claim for its latest generation Adreno 420 GPU only this time it created cool demos to back that up.

The GPU found inside the new Snapdragon 805 uses its power for more than just rendering 3D graphics in games – Qualcomm also worked on video playback (3D and UHD) and even assisting with camera image processing. Read more »

The free Windows 8.1 update was released on October 18 and since then adoption has been growing steadily. Yet the number people who went through with the update is still less than half of Windows 8 users. Windows 7 continued to grow too and, surprisingly, so do Vista numbers.

The info comes from Net Applications and points to a combined Windows 8.x market share of 10.49% in December, breaking the 10% mark for the first time since the new generation OS was introduced. Read more »

Samsung’s shares bob up and down based on analysts’ predictions of the company’s earnings. The latest change was a hit to share price because of estimates that the company will posts a lower quarter to quarter operating profit. The stock closed at 4.6% down.

The official numbers are expected to come out next Tuesday, but analysts have already reported in their expectations. Read more »

Samsung is trying to gently enter the Android-powered console market using the Game Pad. The company was showing off the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 Game Edition, which comes bundled with the Game Pad accessory and an HDMI adapter.

That’s right, while the Game Pad can hold phone ranging from 4″ to 6.3″, it cannot hold tablets, not even 7″ ones. Read more »

Huawei announced the Honor 3C just three days ago and it went up for pre-order the following day. The phone is highly affordable (the base model costs CNY 800, which works out to just $130), but offers a 5″ 720p screen, quad-core MediaTek chipset, Android 4.2, a Sony 8MP camera and dual-SIM connectivity.

That seems to be the recipe for success as 1.5 million units were reserved in the first 36 hours. Reservations will continue until December 25. Read more »

This year at IFA Sony unveiled the unique QX line of lens-style cameras and they’re getting their first update. As you may remember they had some issues – for one they could shoot video at 1,440 x 1,080 but not widescreen. The firmware update fixes that and adds proper 1,920 x 1,080p video recording mode.

The update also adds more manual controls and boosts the ISO range. Read more »

The first eight contenders in the first edition of our Smartphone Champions League are ready to go head to head. You can read the rules for the tournament here, where you’ll also find the full tournament bracket and more information on the competition.

Round 1 of the tournament sees the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs. Nokia Lumia 1020, Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. Apple iPhone 5, Google Nexus 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 and Sony Xperia Z1 vs. Nokia Lumia 625. Read more »

GSMArena.com has a current rankings page that sorts phones by the daily interest in them from our readers. We use that to keep our finger on the pulse of what’s popular, but it can be useful to our readers too. But the daily rankings shift quickly as a new popular phone is launched and at the same time slowly as old popular phones take quite a while to go down the ladder.

This is why we decided to launch the Smartphone Champions League – a knockout tournament to determine which phone you, our beloved readers, like the best. Read more »

The continued efforts from Microsoft is paying off as the Windows Phone Store hit 200,000 apps just a few days ago. From modest beginnings in 2010, to 100,000 apps in June last year to double that just in time for the holidays this year.

Microsoft will be releasing $100 million worth of gift cards to 100 retailers across 41 markets to make it easier for users to buy apps (i.e. receive a gift card for the holidays). Read more »

The Nokia Camera app unified the creative features of Smart Camera and the manual controls of Pro Camera. It was made available for high-end Nokia Lumia phones a couple of months ago, but now the app is available in Beta for the low- and mid-range Lumias too.

This means support for the following phones: Lumia 520, Lumia 521, Lumia 620, Lumia 625, Lumia 720, Lumia 810, Lumia 820, and Lumia 822. Note that you need at least Nokia Amber installed, preferably Nokia Black. Read more »

The Xolo Play Tegra Note built on NVIDIA’s platform is now available for pre-order in India. The tablet is based on the Tegra 4 chipset and is priced at INR 18,000 ($290). If you pre-order now, Flipkart and Xolo will throw in a Smart Cover, which otherwise costs INR 2,499 ($40).

The Xolo Play Tegra Note is a 7″ tablet running Android 4.2, with software updates coming straight from NVIDIA rather than Xolo. Read more »