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A possible successor to the Xiaomi Redmi 1S was spotted at China's TENAA certification agency this Wednesday. TheXiaomi Redmi 2 may feature a 4.7-inch screen as well as a similar design profile like the existing Redmi 1S. The pictures listed on the website reveals three red-colored capacitive buttons below the display. On the right side lies the power and volume buttons while the left side is totally clean. The back features a camera sensor, LED flash, speaker grill as well as the Mi branding. Inside, there is a 64-bit quad-core processor (most likely the Snapdragon 410) with 1GB RAM and 8GB of expandable storage. Other tech specs include a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 pixel resolution display, 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera and 2220 mAh battery. The phone runs on Android 4.4.4 Kitkat OS and weighs just 134 grams. According to TENAA, it also supports 4G LTE networks such as TD LTE and FD LTE along with WCDMA. The Xiaomi Redmi 2 will reportedly be available in 8 colors – white, black, yellow, orange, red, blue, green and purple at around $100 (RM350). No Malaysia release or pricing just yet, but the existing Xiaomi Redmi 1S smartphone retails for RM419 in the country.  

Huawei recently announced a special edition of the existing Ascend Mate 7 called the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 Monarch Edition. This special version retains the same design as the original phone but brings in a lot of other upgrades to justify the name. The Monarch version replaces the Gorilla Glass on its 6 inch 1080p display with a much more scratch resistant Sapphire glass. The company has also increased the internal storage from 32GB to 64GB of which 54GB is available to the user. This additional storage coupled with the expandable memory slot, which takes MicroSD cards up to 128GB increases the total storage to 182GB. The phone comes in gold color and its owners get a special VIP card which will give them 1 hour quick repair facility for any kind of problems with the device. Other tech specs are the same as the original model, which includes an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 925 processor, 3GB RAM, 13MP rear camera, 5MP secondary camera, 4G LTE support and a fingerprint sensor. The device runs on Android 4.4.2 Kikat OS with Emotion UI 3.0 and comes with a large 4100 mAh battery. Huawei has priced the Mate 7 Monarch edition at $710 (RM2480). No details about a Malaysia release or pricing yet, but the original Ascend Mate 7 is available to purchase in the country for RM1799.  You can also check out our product demo of the original model as well. 

Microsoft Malaysia and GSC have organized the "1314 - Forever Love" promotion where anyone who buys a GSC movie ticket from 13 December 2014 to 14 December 2014 could win a free Microsoft Lumia 535 smartphone. Participating GSC Outlets include Tropicana City Mall, Cheras Leisure Mall, IOI Puchong, Paradigm Mall and Setia City Mall. Five lucky winners will be chosen every day at each participating GSC outlet. Check out the steps to participate below:

• Customers must purchase a movie ticket for a movie on 13 and 14 December from GSC
• Lumia owners who show their Lumia device with the GSC app will receive a pair of free GSC movie tickets
• At 5:35pm the lucky draw for the Lumia 535 will begin.

Our collaboration with KL Gadget Guy and Nasi Lemak Tech continues with episode 5 of our Tech Kakis discussion group. This time around we talk about the Internet of Things which basically means every device is connected to the Internet. While this may seem like a fad, it does mean that eventually you would be able to remote control your everything or in turn get notified of everything. For example your Internet linked refrigerator could let you know if the stuff you bought has expired or what stuff you may have in cooler. We talk about other connected devices like the Samsung Gear S, the Philips smart LED light bulb and so forth. Check out the full video below:

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha and Galaxy Note 4 will reportedly be the first smartphones in the market to feature Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The latest generation of Gorilla Glass will be 2x times drop resistant as compared to the previous versions which means it can withstand drops around 80% of the time. Corning's experts studied over hundreds of broken devices to understand why the glass breaks after a fall. The results of the study indicate that over 70 percent of breakage occurs due to the surface contact with glass. In order to avoid this, the company made its latest Gorilla Glass 4 almost two times tougher. At the same time, the company managed to reduce the glass's thickness as compared to its previous generations. With this extra thin protective glass, Samsung managed to reduce the thickness of its Galaxy Alpha smartphone to just 7mm. The metal build coupled with the Gorilla Glass 4 protection makes the device sturdy and durable in spite of its thin profile. As for the tech specs, it features Samsung's Exynos 5 chipset with 4G LTE support, 4.7 inch Super AMOLED display, 13MP rear camera, 2.1MP secondary camera and 1860mAh battery. The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is available for purchase in Malaysia for RM1899 while the Galaxy Note 4 is going for RM2499.

According to anti-Virus company Bit defender, the data transferred between an Android wearable and a smartphone is not secure. Wearables like smartwatches use a Bluetooth connection to send and receive information from the paired smartphones. While this connection is secure to some extent, it can easily be intercepted by hackers who would like to take a peek at the user's conversations. Bluetooth is usually considered secure because it can be accessed only from a short distance, about 10 meters or less. This restricts hackers from attacking a live connection from a long distance. Bluetooth also has its own six digit encryption system to keep hackers at bay. However, Bit defender reports that this six digit passcode is easily crackable by a computer program since there are only 1 million possible combinations. Once this encryption is cracked, hackers can get hold of all the information communicated from the smartwatch to the paired smartphone. Bit defender has also demonstrated a proof of concept video which is shown below. In the video, the company successfully brute-forced the six digit encryption between the Android based LG G Watch and the Nexus 4 smartphone running the developer preview version of Android L.

Acer recently added a new device in its Liquid lineup, the Acer Liquid Jade S. The phone is reportedly the upgraded version of the Liquid Jade which was announced back in May 2014. With the MT6752 processor inside, the Jade S is the first 64-bit smartphone from the Taiwanese giant. The phone's design looks identical to the Liquid Jade with a round camera sensor and a back panel which curves gradually towards the sides. Notable tech specs include a 64-bit 1.5GHz octa-core Mediatek MT6752M processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage which can be further expanded with the given MicroSD card slot. The front features a 5-inch 1280 x 720 pixel resolution display. There's a 13MP camera sensor with LED flash at the back and a 5MP sensor up front. The phone is 7.78mm thin and weighs just 116 grams. Other features include 4G LTE support, DTS sound, Dual SIM support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 2300mAh battery. The Acer Liquid Jade S smartphone will be available to purchase in Taiwan starting 18 December 2014 for $225 (RM786). Given that the Liquid Jade was just announced a few weeks back for RM799, the Jade S too could have a Malaysia release date next year in 2015.

One of the biggest drawbacks of the flagship killer, the OnePlus One was that the phone was not readily available. Anyone who wished to purchase the device had to have an invite code. But as a part of the holiday season promotion, OnePlus is offering its 'One' flagship killer smartphone without any invites. This promotion is only for a limited period; from now till 25 December 2014 and will last until stocks run out. Even though the phone retails for a very affordable price tag, it features a solid design. As for the tech specs, the OnePlus One comes with a quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB RAM, 16GB / 64GB storage, a 5.5-inch display with full HD resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 13MP rear camera and 5MP front shooter. The One features a 3100 mAh capacity battery and runs on Android 4.4.2 Kitkat with CyanogenMod 11S UI. The unlocked 16GB storage variant of the OnePlus One is available for $299 (RM1045), while the 64GB variant is available for $350 (RM1224). The company does mention that stocks are limited, so the phone may run out of stock before 25 December 2014.

The Vivo X5 Max has officially replaced the Oppo R5 as the slimmest phone in the market. The device which was announced on 10 December 2014 features a 4.75mm thin profile. In comparison, the Oppo R5 was .10mm thicker at 4.85mm. In spite of the ultra-thin profile, the new Vivo flagship comes with a MicroSD card slot as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. The previous slimmest phone title holder, Oppo R5 had to let go of these two slots to slim down the size. According to the company, this impressive feat was accomplished by making the internal components thinner than traditional smartphones. The motherboard inside the X5 Max measures just 1.7mm in thickness while the screen assembly and the speaker box measure 1.36mm and 2.45mm.  The device is powered by a 1.7GHz Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor. It comes with 2GB RAM onboard along with 16GB memory which is expandable. On the front, the phone has a 5.5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display along with a 5MP secondary camera on top. At the back, there is a 13MP camera. The Vivo X5 Max runs on Android 4.4.4 Kitkat with Funtouch 2.0 UI on top. While Vivo has not yet revealed any information about Malaysia release dates or pricing, the device should go on sale in China starting 22 December 2014 for RMB2998 (RM1700).

Recently the Oppo R5 lost the title of the slimmest smartphone in the market to the Vivo X5 Max. However, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is determined to prove that its smartphone is not all about a thin profile. In a recent advert released by the company, the Oppo R5 was subjected to a number of stress tests which includes smashing a watermelon, cracking nuts, using the device as a hammer to put a nail into a wooden block, and even running a car over it. Not only did the phone survive despite its ultra slim profile but it also remained scratch less throughout the video.  Oppo also took a slice at Apple, by starting off the video with the R5 chopping an Apple in half. Apart from the ultra-slim yet solid built quality, the Oppo R5 features high-end tech specs. It comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB memory. Other tech specs include a 13MP rear camera capable of recording 2K videos, 5MP secondary camera sensor, 5.2 inch Super AMOLED 1080p display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection and 2000mAh Li-Polymer non-removable battery. It runs on Android 4.4.4 Kitkat OS with Color 2.0 UI on top of it. Check out the video below for yourself: