Twitter and Google team up, so tweets now go straight into Google search results

Tweets are now going straight into Google, so that they will show up as huge boxes in search results.

The companies hope that the agreement will allow for real time updates to be fed into Google's results, meaning that a search for a topic or hashtag will show new and trending updates alongside the usual lists of websites and news articles. For Twitter, it could increase the importance of the site to those who don't use it — potentially bringing new users to register, as growth has stagnated.

Clicking on the results on Google takes users through to Twitter, where they can see the tweet in its context as well as exploring the rest of the topic.

A tie-up between Twitter and Google now means that tweets are being fed straight into Google as they are posted, meaning that Google doesn't have to send robots out to crawl over tweets and index them in its data. Instead, Google has been given access to Twitter's "firehose" — the constant stream of tweets that it had access to before, until Twitter turned it off.

In a blog announcing the change, Google said that the update is "a great way to get real-time info when something is happening". "And it’s another way for organizations and people on Twitter to reach a global audience at the most relevant moments," wrote Ardan Arac, a Google senior project manager.

LG starts the global rollout of its flagship G4 in key markets

The G4 shipping starts with Hong Kong and then followed by Turkey, Russia and Singapore then followed by Europe, North America, CIS, South Asia, Middle East/Afria, and South/Central America. The Korean company has brought over 180 different carriers on board for the G4 sale.

LG’s new G4 is the flagship sporting a 5.5” IPS LCD display with QHD resolution and packs the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset coupled with 3GB RAM to easily run the new LG UX 4.0 based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. Do read our LG G4 preview if you’re considering to purchasing LG's latest and greatest.

Xiaomi will launch Mi store in UK this week

Chinese manufacturer will launch online store tomorrow according to Facebook page

Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi will launch a beta trial of its online Mi store in the UK tomorrow (May 19).

An announcement on its Facebook page said it will start selling some of its range of accessories, including fitness tracker the Mi Band, power banks and headphones in the US and UK.

The Chinese firm was founded in 2010 and last year generated revenue of more than $12 billion (£7.65 billion), with more than 60 million handsets sold.

“For the first time ever, fans in the US, UK, France and Germany can shop on mi.com and purchase star accessories like the 5000mAh and 10400mAh Mi power banks, Mi Band and Mi Headphones,” said the post on Xiaomi’s Facebook Page.

Xiaomi did not disclose whether it will be selling handsets but Xiaomi vice president of internation Hugo Barra said the company will start selling phones and tablets in the US sometime this year.

The sale begins tomorrow at midday in the UK.

Xiaomi launches online store in U.S. and Europe, but it’s sparsely stocked

Xiaomi announced earlier this year that it was knocking together an online store for the U.S. and several European markets. Well, the work’s all done, with the Chinese company set to flick the switch this week.

You can already check out the store’s offerings, though you’ll have to wait till 7pm PT Monday for the ‘buy’ button to show up. Products will be shipped throughout the U.S., as well as to addresses in the UK, France, and Germany.

At launch, however, only a selection of the company’s accessories will be available, with its smartphones and tablets possibly finding their way into the store at a later date. Its Mi headphones, for example, are going for $80, while the Mi fitness band is available for $15. Mobile battery packs are also on sale for between $10 and $14.

Speaking earlier this year, company co-founder Bin Lin cited product certification challenges as the reason for excluding its mobile devices from its new e-commerce store. However, if the operation proves a success, we can expect to see its range of mobile products hitting the site somewhere down the line.

Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s international chief, has already hinted at the possibility of the store’s future expansion, saying, “The amount of effort required to bring those products to the market is an incredible amount of work. We’re accelerating our entry by bringing simpler products

Facebook knows you better than your members of your own family

Cambridge University researchers have developed software based on Facebook 'likes' which can predict human personality types better than close family members.

Computers can determine your personality better than friends, just by analysing the posts you have 'liked' on Facebook, a Cambridge University study has shown.

Now researchers, by analysing self-reported personality scores for what are known as the "big five" psychological traits - openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism- have created an algorithm which can accurately predict personalities simply based on Facebook interactions.

And, surprisingly, it knows your character better than your close friends.

The team found that their software was able to predict a study participant's personality more accurately than a work colleague by analysing just 10 'Likes'.

Inputting 70 'Likes' allowed it to obtain a truer picture of someone's character than a friend or room-mate, while 150 'Likes' outperformed a parent, sibling or partners. It took 300 'Likes' before the programme was able to judge character better than a spouse.

Google throws nearly a billion Android users under the bus, refuses to patch OS vulnerability

When it comes to providing security updates for previous products, various manufacturers have pursued different strategies. Some, like Microsoft, tend to provide security updates long after they’ve stopped selling an operating system (Microsoft only stopped providing Windows XP supportlast year). Others, like Google and Apple, have pursued tighter timelines for security updates. Google is now doubling down on that schedule, refusing to patch bugs in Android 4.3 or prior, even when those bugs could expose critical vulnerabilities on nearly a billion devices.

The flaws in this case affect Android 4.1 to 4.3, aka Jelly Bean, which began shipping in mid-2012 and was the primary version of Android through late 2013, or roughly 14 months ago. Up until quite recently, Google has aggressively patched problems in Android’s WebView rendering engine. Before KitKat (Android 4.4), all versions of Android used the version of WebView found within the Android Browser for rendering HTML webpages. With KitKat and Lollipop, Google updated the operating system to use a WebView plugin derived from its Chromium project.

When Security firm Rapid7 discovered a new exploit in the Android Browser version of WebView, it contacted Google to inform the company that Android 4.3 and below were vulnerable. Google’s response and policy change are raising major eyebrows. Specifically, the company states that:

If the affected version [of WebView] is before 4.4, we generally do not develop the patches ourselves, but welcome patches with the report for consideration. Other than notifying OEMs, we will not be able to take action on any report that is affecting versions before 4.4 that are not accompanied with a patch.

This isn’t a minor issue. 60% of Android users are on pre-KitKit versions. No one uses Lollipop yet.

In other words, security staff are now expected to submit a patch to fix an issue when they report it. If they do, Google will “consider” the patch to see if it resolves the problem. If they don’t, Google now says the only thing it can do is inform various OEMs of the problem.

What Google is doing, in essence, is telling its user community “Sorry, you have to tell Samsung, LG, and Motorola to provide you with an updated version of our operating system.” This is hilariously impossible. It would never fly in the PC world — imagine Microsoft telling customers “Sorry, you have to make HP, Dell, and Lenovo provide you with a free update for our operating system.” The disparity is even larger if you consider that, in most cases, a computer running a previous version of Windows can be upgraded by the end user to run the next version. That upgrade may be a headache, but system requirements on Windows haven’t budged in nine years.

The average phone or tablet buyer has no way to upgrade their operating system unless the carrier provides an OTA update, and two-year upgrade cycles means that plenty of people are going to be stuck on broken devices with known exploits that Google isn’t going to fix. Granted, the fact that Google fixes an exploit doesn’t mean that carriers will deploy it, and fragmentation has been a major problem in Android’s ecosystem over the years — but there’s a difference between acknowledging the difficulty of maintaining security updates for the entirety of one’s user base and flatly refusing to do them.

Google Sets End Date for Google Earth API

Goodbye, Google Earth API. Google has officially announced that it'll be killing off said API at the end of next year—December 12 of 2015, specifically.
And before you shed a tear for all of your favorite tie-in websites that embed Google Earth on their pages in some capacity, know that Google put some thought into the API's departure. This isn't just a snap decision.
First off, the Google Earth plugin wouldn't be able to live on anyway, thanks to Google's concerns over browser security.

"...the Earth API is built on a technology called the NPAPI plugin framework, and recently, for security reasons, both Chrome and Firefox have announced they're removing support for this framework. 
These security reasons, combined with dwindling cross-platform support (particularly on mobile devices),

Beyond that, nobody is really using Google Earth. According to Venturebeat, Google says that only 9.1 percent of Chrome users fired up the Google Earth plugin in October of last year. This year, that number is down to miniscule 0.1 percent.

Google's listing of supported browsers during the depreciation period should come with an asterisk, because the Google Earth API needs browsers to support NPAPI. If newer versions of Chrome and Firefox don't, then the plugin won't work on those; people interested in using it will have to run older versions of these browsers.

And the same holds true for Internet Explorer or Safari, if either Microsoft or Apple decide to remove NPAPI support for the framework in their browsers as well.

"Google Earth has a proud legacy, which continues with the new Google Earth for Android, powered by a brand new renderer. 3D is in our blood, and while we can't announce anything just now.

Apple-IBM venture offers up first iOS apps

With the new IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps, such as Passenger+ (pictured), Apple aims to fly deeper into corporate kingdoms. Apple/IBM

The partnership between Apple and IBM is starting to bear fruit.

The companies, which in July struck a deal to deliver mobile apps to big businesses, on Wednesdayreleased 10 apps as part of the IBM MobileFirst for iOS product line. The apps span industries including airlines, telecommunications, insurance, banking and government, and are all designed for corporate customers.

Plan Flight, for instance, is designed for pilots to manage their in-flight activities to help airlines save costs, while Passenger+ is intended to help flight crews offer personalized services to passengers in-flight. Another, called Retention, targets the insurance industry to help agents keep top customers in the fold. The government-focused apps focus on helping caseworkers and on crime prevention.

Companies among the initial wave of adopters are Citi, Air Canada, Sprint and Banorte.

In time, the Apple-IBM venture aims to create over 100 vertical-focused enterprise apps built for the iPhone and iPad. 

In addition, IBM's cloud services will be optimized for iOS, and the giant enterprise-focused company will sell Apple products bundled with the software to companies around the globe. Apple's support platform, AppleCare, will also be tailored for IBM customers and include on-site support from IBM employees.

The move was a surprising, but also exceedingly important, one for Apple. Over the last few years, Apple has talked up the increasing use of its products in the corporate world. 

With each quarterly earnings call, the company's executives have shared how many Fortune 500 companies have so far adopted or tested iOS products. As of this writing, nearly all are at least testing the company's products to see if they make sense for corporate use.

"This is a big step for iPhone and iPad in the enterprise," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in a statement. "The business world has gone mobile."

Apple And IBM Launching First Apps From Their Partnership Today

Apple and IBM’s enterprise partnership is resulting in its first outward-facing software today, with new apps in IBM’s MobileFirst for iOS making their way to iPhones and iPads at partner enterprises.

These include apps built for Citi, Air Canada, Sprint and Banorte, and they allow for various functions covering flight planning, financial advice, customer retention, government case worker support and sales assistance, to name a few.

This first fruit of the IBM/Apple partnership makes it clear that the app side of the equation is going to be about providing analytics-driven, 

secure software that covers a range of industry verticals, and that can be tweaked to suit the needs of any particular customer organization. 

The list of these initial apps also includes software that focuses on the insurance industry, retail and telecommunication in addition to those listed above.

The apps make up just one par of the IBM and Apple partnership,

 which also includes mobile device management, AppleCare tech support and device fleet sales.

 Apple provides more detail about the specific capabilities of the new IBM MobileFirst apps in its official press release.

Sense: A gadget to change the way we sleep

entrepreneur James Proud, 23, presents a white sphere the size of a tennisball covered in a criss-cross pattern. “It is beautiful,” he says, when asked to describe it. “It doesn’t look like a piece of technology. 

We wanted to make something people actually want to put on their bedside table.”

 The device, called Sense, and the first made by Proud’s San Francisco startup company, Hello, is the latest in the world of sleep tracking devices claimed to help improve the quality of an activity we spend about third of our lives engaged in.

 It will be available in the UK early in the new year.

Until now, such devices have only tracked movement during sleep – giving an insight into when you toss and turn – but Sense takes things further by connecting that to the environment. Inside are sensors that record sudden noise and measure light, temperature and humidity in the room as well as the levels of particulates like dust and pollen that can affect sleep.

Just telling people how they slept doesn’t fix poor sleep, says Proud. “They need to understand why they slept that way.” Sense also records a sleeper’s movement, but not by requiring that they wear any device to bed, as most sleep trackers including Jawbone and Fitbit do. A small round plastic “sleep pill” clips onto the pillow. It contains an accelerometer and gyroscope and communicates with the system wirelessly.

The information that Sense gathers while you are asleep can be reviewed in an app. It includes a rating of sleep quality and a log of the disturbances experienced. If you slept poorly around 2am, Sense can tell you whether that was because of light, outside noise or snoring, for example.

Sense allows you to play back the noise disturbances – you can hear whether it was a car alarm or a barking dog that woke you. It automatically identifies snoring. Proud’s team trained the system to recognise the periodic sound by playing YouTube videos of people snoring – though Sense can’t yet distinguish whether it is you or your partner.

Over time the device also learns which conditions give you the best night’s rest. It might suggest that you lower the temperature by a few degrees, for example.

Waving a hand over the device makes it glow a certain colour, indicating how conducive the room is to sleep.

With plans to invest $2 billion in India, iPhone maker Foxconn keen on Nokia's Chennai plant

NEW DELHI: Foxconn, which makes iPhones and iPads for Apple and the Kindle for Amazon, has emerged as a possible buyer for Nokia's defunct Chennai factory as the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer looks to invest around $2 billion in India. This comes within weeks of fast-growing domestic handset maker Lava being reported to be interested in acquiring the plant, once the world's biggest phone-making facility.

In a related development, the telecom and IT ministry has proposed to the revenue department that Nokia be allowed to sell the plant, currently frozen in a tax dispute, without passing on the legal liability to the buyer, people familiar with the matter told ET.

"The proceeds from the sale (of the plant) could be deposited into an escrow account, which, upon the final court ruling, can go to the winner," a senior government official told ET. "The current dispute, as it stands, is lose- .. 

Facebook now lets you search for posts

Facebook said on Monday it is rolling out upgraded search capabilities for mobile and desktop users who want to find favourite posts from their friends on the huge social network.

"You've told us the most important thing is being able to find posts you've seen before, and now you can," said Facebook vice president Tom Stocky in a blog post.

"With a quick search, you can get back to a fun video from your graduation, a news article you've been meaning to read, or photos from your friend's wedding last summer.

Facebook said in August it was testing the search upgrade and that it would be available this week for users of Apple devices and on the desktop version of Facebook.

In 2013, Facebook announced its "graph search," which enabled users to dive into the vast amount of data which they can already access. The social network has promised upgrades to this service.

Facebook allows users to search posts, but only those to which they would have access under privacy guidelines, such as posts from friends and public messages.

"Your search results are personalised and unique to you and, as always, you can only see things that have been shared with you," Stocky said.

"Search at Facebook is a long-term effort. Today is a step toward helping you tap into the experiences and perspectives of your friends.

Google-Motorola Nexus 6 coming to India on December 10; priced at Rs 43,999 onwards

The Google-Motorola Nexus 6 smartphone is one of the first devices to come with Android 5.0 Lollipop, the next version of Google's mobile OS.

 The largest-ever Nexus smartphone is equipped with a 2.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor and features dual front-facing speakers.

The new Nexus 6 sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilisation and a 2-megapixel front camera. According to the company, 

Nexus 6 users can get up to 6 hours of use from only 15 minutes of charging. The 3220 mAh battery in the Nexus 6 is claimed to last for 24 hours on a full charge.

The phone will be available in Midnight Blue or Cloud White colours.

The GOSF will see 450 partners offering their best deals for 72 hours this year, 

Google said in a statement.

Focussing on the first time buyers, gosf.in will feature a special section of Rs 299 with heavily discounted products with free shipping and cash on delivery option.

The section will feature products and offers from brands like Philips, Uber, JBL, Benetton, Alia Bhatt collection and EverPure water purifier.

"Great Online shopping festival is India's version of cyber Monday and is an exciting platform to move the industry forward," said Anandan.

The consumer confidence to shop online has grown considerably in the last 12 months, boosting the growth of both large multinational and homegrown companies, he added.

Google India has partnered Aditya Birla Money My Universe as a preferred partner for this year's event. The initiative was launched by Google in 2012, and has seen tremendous response with most players seeing over 350 per cent growth in daily sales.

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge has a curved edge display, but do you really need it?

The 5.6-inch Note Edge is a variant of the Galaxy Note 4, the latest iteration of Samsung's large-screen stalwart. 

The Edge's main display curves around the right edge of the phone to create a side display for notifications and one-tap access to apps, headlines and tasks.

That side screen is useful in a few ways. When using the camera horizontally, the shutter and other controls are up top, just like a regular camera. 

When listening to music, playback controls are instantly available. At night, the weather, current time and wake-up time are displayed on the side, so you can easily check as the phone lays on a nightstand.

The Edge needs more apps to take advantage of that side screen. 

There are about a dozen, but few of which I care to have. And the side text is sometimes upside down when the phone rests face up. 

It's a first-generation feature, and it'll take time for Samsung and app developers to figure out what works best.

Gmail will soon allow you to ‘unsend’ your sent email

In October 2014, Google launched a new email client called ‘Inbox’, which is essentially a much more organised, easy to access, more intuitive and informative mail service. 

According BGR India, Inbox will soon include a feature that will allow its users to unsend the sent mails. A similar feature exists on Gmail’s web version via its Google Mail Labs channel. It allows user a period of 10 seconds after hitting the sent button to retract the mail. Inbox is expected to feature a similar option.

Other than the power to retract sent mails, the Google team plans to introduce features like cross-browsing and integration with Google Drive. The team is also working to make the Inbox app available for tablet devices.

These features are expected to be rolled out in a few weeks. 

Microsoft enables Skype and Lync video integration

On December 5, Microsoft announced that it is beginning the rollout of the second piece of Skype-Lync federation by turning on video integration between the two services.

"We're excited to announce that Skype users can now video call their Skype contacts on Lync, and vice versa!" said company officials in a blog post announcing the new capability.

In May 2013, Microsoft officials said they would deliver Skype-Lync federation in two steps. In 2013, Skype and Lync users were able to integrate contacts, presence, instant messaging and audio calling across the two services. At that time, officials said video connectivity between the two would happen until mid-2014.

Earlier this year, Microsoft execs pushed back the due date for Skype-Lync video integration until year-end 2014.When Microsoft announced last month that the company would be changing the name of Lync to "Skype for Business," officials also said that they planned to update Microsoft's Skype clients with H.264 codec support so as to be able to provide video integration between Skype and Lync 2013.

Update: According to a December 5 Office Blogs post, Skype for Windows desktop is getting the Skype-Lync video federation first. Android and iOS Skype releases will get the new capability "in the coming months."

Microsoft also announced a new Skype update for Windows desktop users today. With Skype 7.0, users can now scroll, call, and browse using touch.

Your Phone Is More Powerful Than The Computer In The Spaceship NASA Launched This Week

The Orion spaceship, which NASA launched this week as a first step on a mission to take astronauts to Mars, has a less powerful computer than your smartphone.

It's widely known that today's smartphones have more computing power than all of NASA did when it started sending astronauts to the moon.

But that was almost 50 years ago! Why would a rocket today have such a basic computer in it?

Because it's designed for reliability, not power, reports Computerworld. NASA engineer Matt Lemke explained that the rocket will be battered by gravity and radiation, so the computer has lots of modifications to help it withstand the barrage. There are also two backup computers on board.

They're all Honeywell computers originally built for the Boeing 787, and include 12-year-old IBM processors.

The Orion is unmanned in this launch, which is meant to test out key systems for reliability. But NASA is planning a bunch of future missions for it, including lassoing an asteroid and carrying astronauts to Mars.

Apple May Be Reintroducing The 4-inch iPhone

Of all the Apple rumors coming out of the Far East recently, the one with the most legitimacy seems to be Apple producing an iPhone with a 4-inch display next year.

Although the reports are unsubstantiated, returning to the small smartphone market would be a good move for Apple.

According to the Electronic Times of Taiwan, the supply chain for Apple production in 2015 includes the components for a smaller handset than the iPhone 6.

The report states that Apple is producing the smaller model “for the convenience of single-handed operation of female users.”

Even though Apple has turned to the larger smartphone and phablet market with the release of the iPhone 5 and 6, respectively, there are still users who prefer the smaller screens and the ability to use a smartphone with just one hand. As phones get bigger, it becomes impossible to do even the simplest tasks without both hands. 

The new phone is rumored to be replacing the iPhone 5c model. The 5c has been Apple’s budget model since its release in September 2013.

The 5c lacked many of the features of the 5s model, such as using the Apple 5 model’s A6 chip instead of the A7 that came with the 5s, not having Touch ID, lacking the M7 motion co-processor and other minor features. The iPhone 5c was discontinued in September 2014 when the iPhone 6 was announced.

As a budget iPhone, the 5c was too expensive, with the price in the same range as other lines flagship smart phones. Reduced production of the model signaled a decline in demand as early as October 2013.

According to Pocketnow, this rumor might signify that Apple wants to standardize their current iPhone models with a small (4-inch), mid-sized (4.7-inch) and phablet (5.5-inch) display. Whether the new 4-inch iPhone would be marketed as a budget iPhone is impossible to say at this point. 

Apple stayed with a 3.5-inch display for five generations as its rivals grew progressively larger. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, said in 2010 that the smaller screen was better because it was easier to “get your hands around it.”

Nokia Lumia 730 vs HTC Desire 816G

There are some interesting smartphones available for the middle sector of the market, and two of these are the Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM and HTC Desire 816G Dual SIM. These have both released in the last few months and are similarly priced handsets, so you may have both on your shortlist. Today we have a Nokia Lumia 730 vs. HTC Desire 816G specs shootout so you can easily compare what they offer.

One of the major differences of these devices is their operating platforms, as the Nokia is a Windows Phone handset while the HTC phone runs Android. Therefore it will be a much easier choice is you have a decided preference for one or the other. If you’re open minded to either then your selection will be more difficult. Let’s take a look at the specs and more for the Lumia 730 and Desire 816G.

Processors
The Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM has a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor and Adreno 305 graphics. The HTC Desire 816G Dual SIM has a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6582 quad-core processor and Mali-400MP2 GPU.

Display
The Lumia 730 has a 4.7-inch OLED display with resolution of 1280 x 720 and 316 ppi. The Desire 816G has a 5.5-inch display with resolution of 1280 x 720 resulting in 267 ppi.

RAM and Storage
The Nokia phone has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD to 128GB. The Desire 816G also has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, but this time only expandable to 32GB.

Camera set-up
The Lumia 730 packs a 6.7-megapixel rear camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, LED flash, and 1080p video capture, as well as a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The Desire 816G has a 13-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, LED flash, and 1080p video recording capability, and also a 5-megapixel front-facing unit.

Battery
The Lumia 730 has a removable 2200 mAh battery while the Desire 816G has a non-removable 2600 mAh battery.

Connectivity
Both phones support 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, GPRS, EDGE, GPS, and microUSB 2.0. However, the Lumia 730 also has DLNA and NFC.

Operating System
The Lumia 730 runs Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim. The Desire 816G runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat skinned with HTC’s Sense 6.0 UI.

Dimensions and Weight
The Lumia 730 measures 134.7mm x 68.5mm x 8.7mm and weighs 130g. The Desire 816G measures 156.6mm x 78.7mm x 8mm and weighs 158g.

Price

Pricing obviously varies by region as well as retailer, so it’s difficult to be too specific. Dual SIM handsets are extremely popular in many Asian countries, so as an example we’ll give you approximate pricing for India. The Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM launched there at Rs. 15,299 but can be found on sale from around Rs. 14,500. The Desire 816G launched at Rs. 18,890 but can now be found from around Rs. 15,500 bringing the prices much closer together.

Potential buyers should also consider their preference of design, and as we mentioned before, the different software experiences are a big factor in this decision. Looking at specs alone throws up some swings and roundabouts. For instance both phones have the same display resolution. Some may prefer the larger display of the Desire 816G but the bigger size leads to less ppi.

The Lumia 730 has a higher level of expandable storage, but the Desire 816G has a higher-megapixel rear camera. The Desire 816G also has a higher-capacity battery, but on the other hand the Lumia 730’s battery has the benefit of being removable. As well as this the Desire 816G is the slimmer handset while the Lumia 730 is the lighter of the two.

New Samsung SM-E700H Spotted With Mid-Range Specifications

Three deputies to the head of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's (005930.KS) mobile division are leaving, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday, as the world's largest smartphone maker faces a rapid decline in profit.

The person, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the executives directly report to division chief J.K. Shin, who this week retained his post despite sagging smartphone sales and expectations the company will see its worst annual profit in three years in 2014.

The departures included global marketing chief D.J. Lee, the source said, confirming earlier media reports.

Samsung Electronics declined to say if any executives were leaving the company as it announced its annual reshuffle for executive-level staff.

But the announcement showed Samsung had made 165 executive-level promotions, the lowest number in at least four years, underscoring the strains the South Korean company is under.

"Shin was given another chance, given his past contributions, but he will definitely continue to feel the pressure going forward," said IBK Securities analyst Lee Seung-woo ahead of Samsung Electronics' staff announcement.

Samsung's share of the smartphone market has fallen year-on-year for the last three quarters, squeezed by Chinese rivals like Xiaomi Technology Co Ltd [XTC.UL] at the low-end and Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhones in the premium segment.

Samsung Electronics is expected to announce its annual business reorganisation plan by next week.

The company has kept mum about the details but the Joongang Ilbo newspaper reported earlier that Samsung will reduce executive-level positions for its mobile communications business by 25 percent. Other media reported the company could hive off its medical equipment business.

Samsung earlier this week said it will sell its fibre optics business to U.S. speciality glass maker Corning Inc (GLW.N), its second exit from a non-core business this quarter.