Future Lenovo smartphones might all carry the Moto brand

The Moto brand might not just be limited to Lenovo’s premium smartphones. A new report from China claims Lenovo might make use of the Moto brand to market its smartphones, with hopes of putting the acquisition to better use. Aside from the possible branding change. The report from Campaign claims Lenovo is switching up its mobile executives in China. Xudong Chen, co-president and SVP of Lenovo’s Mobile Business Group in the country, is being replaced by Gina Qiao, former SVP of human resources. While Qiao may have an HR title at the moment, she was once Lenovo’s chief strategy officer and head of marketing. We can’t say how this will affect the company’s mobile strategy but it might help Lenovo leverage the long established Moto name in its favor. 

Source: Droid Life

Microsoft taking MacBook trade-ins for discounts on Surface models

Microsoft will be happy to take old notebooks including Apple MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros as trade-in fodder for new Surface Pro or Surface Book models in Canada. The promo runs from November 8^th – 22^nd, Microsoft is offering up to $750 toward a new Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book when you trade in a used device.

As Microsoft's fine-print states, "customers must trade-in qualifying Apple MacBook  device (Air or Pro) subject to these terms. Excludes Ipad, newly released Surface Book, Studio devices, and Performance Base models. Any appraised value will be determined at trade-in and provided as a Microsoft online store redemption code and is valid online only." Read more about the promo here.

Some Pixel users experiencing voice and data network disconnection issues

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Google's Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones have been in the market for a number of weeks now but some users are encountering a serious issue where the device disconnects from the LTE network. I have first-hand experience with this issue as my Pixel XL started intermittently disconnecting from the TELUS network in Canada. I noticed this when messages would not be sent and when streaming podcasts or news from the NPR One app would cease to play.

Various attempts to fix this on my part, including restarting the device, removing and re-inserting the SIM card, and even restoring the device after a hard reset, failed to fix the issue which has affected various users who are chiming in on a Reddit post.

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YouTube gets HDR treatment

Simulated SDR vs HDR comparison (seeing true HDR requires an HDR display)

YouTube has always readily adapted new audio and video formats into its service. This time around, it adds High Dynamic Range (HDR) support in the mix. What this promises to give to you is videos with “higher contrast, revealing precise, detailed shadows, and stunning highlights with more clarity than ever.” Colors should come out more vibrant in HDR mode. The feature will come to support devices, like HDR TVs with Chromecast Ultra or soon on 2016 Samsung SUHD and UHD TVs. You can see some sample content from YouTube creators like MysteryGuitarMan and Abandon Visuals. If you’re a creator, you can learn about uploading HDR videos from this link.