Google might be closing purchase of HTC assets to boost hardware efforts

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Looks like Google might be thinking about getting back in the hardware business. This time, it’s being reported that Google is closing a deal with HTC to acquire the Taiwanese company’s hardware engineering assets, focusing on mobile. HTC is reportedly holding a town hall meeting on Thursday and if there’s truth to that, they might be discussing this deal. Not much is known at this point about which parts of HTC’s business Google plans to acquire. The Verge speculates they might leave the HTC brand for the company’s Vive and virtual reality business to use. As Evan Blass tweets, HTC is retaining its brand.

HTC has announced it was temporarily halting trading of its shares on the Taiwan stock exchange tomorrow because of the release of “material information,” which signals the announcement of something big.

Source: Bloomberg

Apple acknowledges Apple Watch Series 3 LTE issues before launch

The Apple Watch Series 3 which comes with its own cellular connection was launched last week and even demoed by enabling a phone call to a user paddle boarding in Lake Tahoe. Early reviews of the new Watch, however, seem to have uncovered some serious issues with its LTE connectivity.

Checking out the review of Lauren Goode of The Verge showed the reviewer having a difficult time getting Siri to work on cellular as well as not being able to make calls on the Watch which often had one bar of signal.

Not good for a product that promises to work independently from the iPhone and is specifically targeting runners and surfers who may not want to take their phones with them. LTE has other issues, including battery drain and (down to 30% by noon).

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Sunwing opens Jamaican themed travel CONCEPT store in Yorkdale Mall

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Sunwing Travel has teamed up with Yorkdale Mall to bring an updated and more immersive version of the travel store. Focused on Jamaica as a destination, Sunwing unveiled the concept store earlier today. Featuring a menu by celebrity Chef Lynn Crawford, as well as Jamaican delicacies, Blue Mountain Coffee and a variety of experience stations, the store brought Jamaica to the Yorkdale Mall.

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OnePlus and designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac launch special edition OnePlus 5

We reported earlier about a special OnePlus event happening in Paris that has the brand collaborating with fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. Well, now we get to see what the two brands are working on. As expected we get a limited edition OnePlus 5 JCC+ smartphone that will go on sale in Paris on September 22^nd. OnePlus will be holding pop-up event at 10 a.m. CEST at the fashion boutique Colette. And then starting October 2^nd, the phone will be sold on OnePlus.net in Europe. This version of the OnePlus 5 gets a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. It features a slightly different colour scheme with a blue power button, yellow sound profile button, red volume rocker, and writings on the back. It’ll retail for €559 (around CA$825).

On top of the phone, OnePlus is also launching a collection of holsters, bags, shirts, and caps that reflect Castelbajac’s chromatic design. This “Callection” as they call it will be sold in Europe, North America, China, and India. The limited edition t-shirts and tote bags will be available for purchase on October 2^nd for US$29.95 (around CA$35) and US$24.95 (around CA$30), respectively. The baseball cap, case bag, and holster will all come later via limited sales drops.

Source: Android Authority