Xiaomi Mi 3 to make a return to India

The Xiaomi Mi 3 was a runaway success during its short stay in India earlier this year. The smartphone batches were selling out in seconds with thousands of people never managing to get the unit they wanted. That's why when the company announced that it will be stopping the sales of the former flagship and replacing it with the Redmi 1S it caused quite a lot of discontent.
There's a silver lining to this cloud though - Xiaomi has reevaluated its decision and decided to bring the Mi 3 back to India. During an event in Bengaluru, a Xiaomi spokesperson confirmed that the smartphone will be back in stock in time for the Diwali festival (Thursday, October 23).

There were no specifics mentioned about the pricing and availability channels, but there will likely be no changes there. This means that Xiaomi will probably stick to Flipkart as its partner and sell the Mi 3 for INR 13,999 (roughly $230). We are just hoping the Chinese manufacturer brings enough units this time so they last for more than a few seconds.

Alleged Motorola Nexus 6 appears in a live photo next to the LG G3

The Motorola Shamu, believed to be the upcoming Nexus 6 smarptohne, is starring in a live photo with the LG G3. The phone looks substantially larger than the G3, which carries a 5.5" display. This lends further credence to rumors that the Shamu is going to feature a display in the 6" ballpark.

The photo clearly shows that the Shamu features a soft-touch plastic back and keeps the metal frame from the Moto X (2014). This is clearly an indication that Google likes to keep the soft touch back that made a debut on the Nexus 5 and the Nexus 7 (2014).
In terms of specifications, the rumor mill suggests the Nexus 6 by Motorola is going to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in memory. The screen is said to have a 5.92" diagonal and QHD resolution for a pixel density of 498ppi. At the back, the camera is reported to have a 13MP sensor, LED flash and 4K video recording skills.
The battery of the Shamu is allegedly a 3,200mAh unit. As with all recent Nexus smartphones, don't expect a microSD card slot. The Shamu should be unveiled at Google's Android L release event and will run it out of the box.

Google tipped to require more of its apps on Android devices

According to a report in The Information, Google will require more of its apps to be preloaded on Android devices. Confidential contracts obtained by the media have revealed the upcoming change.

Allegedly, Google will require up to 20 of its apps preloaded going forward. Currently, the number hovers below 10.
Additionally, the search giant will require the apps to be prominently displayed on a device’s homescreen. The list of manufacturers in Google’s contracts includes the likes of Samsung, HTC, and Huawei among others.
The shift in Google’s policy towards its own Android apps is reportedly related to the ever-increasing importance of the OS as an income generator. Google’s apps and services have become a key contributor to its bottom line.

Snapdragon 210 with quad-core CPU and LTE goes official

Today Qualcomm announced its next generation affordable chipset - Snapdragon 210. Its key upgrades over the existing Snapdragon 200 include better Adreno 304 GPU, 1080p video capture and playback support, and LTE Cat.4 connectivity.

These are the new Snapdragon 210 key specifications:

• Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor up to 1.1 GHz
• Adreno 304 GPU with support of 720p displays
• 8MP camera support
• 1080p video recording and playback
• LTE Cat.4 connectivity
• LTE dual-SIM support
• Quick Charge 2.0 support (up to 75% faster charging)

Qualcomm expects the new entry-level Snapdragon 210 chipset to become available in various affordable smartphones in the first half of 2015. The manufacturer hopes its latest design will enable the creation of the first LTE-A sub-$100 smartphones.

Android in August: KitKat runs on a quarter of all devices

Google released its Android distribution report for the month of August. Unsurprisingly, Android 4.4 KitKat continues its march towards larger market share – it now runs on almost a quarter of all devices out there (24.5% to be precise).

The gain of Android 4.4 came mostly at the expense of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Both builds lost some of their share over the month of August.
Android 4.2 and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean registered a slight gain in share. Android 2.3 Gingerbread dropped to 11.4%, while Android 2.2 Froyo remains on 0.7% of all devices.
We don’t expect any dramatic changes to the overall landscape in September – Android 4.4 will certainly continue its march towards larger cut of the distribution pie. The impending launch of Android L will surely alter things in the months beyond.