BGR Daily Breaking Stories

Daily Headlines THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2015

Leak may reveal a new feature in the iPhone 6s that will have a huge impact on performance When Apple first announced the iPhone 6 in late 2014, some smartphone enthusiasts scoffed at the fact that Apple still “only” included 1GB of RAM in the handset. Of course, subsequent performance tests reaffirmed the fact that specs on paper never tell the whole story, and the iPhone 6 absolutely slaughtered quad-core rivals with 2GB and 3GB of RAM in several key performance tests. Despite the fact that Apple’s iPhones are already class leaders when it comes to performance, a new report on Thursday suggests that Apple is preparing to make a huge change that will potentially have a dramatic impact on the performance of this year’s iPhone 6s.  MORE → This year’s Oscar nominations were just announced – here are the details This year’s Academy Awards nominations just got announced and as predicted, the big winners were The Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman, which both led the way with nine Oscar nods. We’ve posted a list of the biggest award categories below but be sure to check out The Academy Awards’ official page to get the full list.  MORE → New leak details what might be the best Android phablet of 2015 HTC’s 2014 flagship phone, the HTC One M8, was the most beautiful smartphone that debuted last year. Of course, it also featured terrific performance and a gorgeous display to match its fantastic design. In 2015, the world is waiting to see what HTC comes up with once again, and this year it looks like the company’s flagship HTC One M9 will be accompanied by a larger phablet model as HTC looks to continue its rebound.  MORE → There’s something for almost everyone to hate about the Comcast-TWC merger Unless you’re an executive at Comcast or Time Warner Cable, there’s probably a good reason for you to oppose the two companies’ merger. Whether you’ve dealt with either company’s miserable customer service, been slapped with unexplained fee hikes, or just are sick of seeing the home broadband market dominated by a tiny number of players who have set up their own regional monopolies… these are all solid reasons to oppose Comcast and TWC’s proposed union.  MORE → Apple ripoff master Xiaomi just announced worthy iPhone 6 Plus rivals Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker that has seen tremendous success selling affordable Android handsets in China and other markets, and whose various products have more than once heavily borrowed design inspirations from competing Apple products, is now out with a couple of new affordable phablets meant to take on the iPhone 6 Plus.  MORE → Spiral 2 is the first modular smartphone you’ll be able to buy Google on Wednesday unveiled more details about its modular smartphone plans at the Project Ara Developers Conference, announcing the first such handset that interested fans are going to be able to buy. Set to debut in Puerto Rico later this year, where Google will conduct its first market test, the first Project Ara phone will not be the high-end Android handset you may have been fantasizing about. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, considering that Project Ara is a modular smartphone, which you should be able to turn into a flagship-like handset in no time, assuming certain modules will become immediately available for purchase.  MORE → Bought the wrong app on your new iPhone 6? Here’s how to get a refund… in Europe iOS users in Europe have recently been given a special iTunes refund feature that lets them easily get their money back for any type of digital content purchased from Apple’s stores as long as the claim is made within 14 days after purchase.   MORE → Is this the most shameless iPhone ripoff of all time? There are times when it’s highly debatable whether someone is ripping off the iPhone. This isn’t one of those times.  MORE → Leak reveals first details surrounding Samsung’s 2015 tablet lineup We’ve already had a heaping helping of Samsung smartphone news to kick off the new year (with plenty more to come), but all has been quiet on the tablet front in January. At least that was the case, until SamMobile published a report on Wednesday claiming that the South Korean company is currently hard at work on four new tablets in the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Note lines.  MORE → Samsung’s not done trying to create the perfect Apple Watch rival Samsung has released a variety of smartwatches so far that have run a total of four different operating systems, all before Apple even unveiled its first smartwatch this past fall.  MORE →