A wave of modest price cuts on the on- and off-contract versions of the HTC One M8 have prompted suspicion that the Google Nexus 6 could be just around the corner. What will $400 net you this year?

There’s been another sure-fire sign that not only is the Google Nexus 6 on its way, but also that it will be built by HTC …not LG. Nothing has been officially confirmed by any of the involved parties, but a sudden and unexplained price cut on the HTC One M8 has led some to believe that a new Taiwanese top-seller will be on the shelves soon enough.

One of the sellers knocking a few bucks off the price of the M8 is eBay, where it’s been reduced in price by $50 to $597. That’s for the 16GB SIM-free version, though higher-spec models are also slowly but surely coming down in price. Various third-party stores have also knocked the price of the M8 down to around the $600 mark, while on-contract versions are going for as little as $99.99, which is half the original price.

If HTC really is the brand behind the Nexus 6, chances are it will face a rather severe sales-cannibalization problem in the weeks following the device’s launch. The reason being that not only is the Google Nexus 6 likely to tower over the M8 in terms of specs and features, but it’s also rumored to pack a much more agreeable off-contract price tag.  Nothing has been confirmed in an official capacity, but the latest reports coming out of the industry suggest a SIM-free price of around $400 for the 16GB version.

As for what this minor outlay will stretch to, the general consensus points to a 5-inch+ touchscreen with up to 2K resolution, an octa-core MT6752 SoC running at 2Ghz, at leat 3GB of RAM and temporary exclusivity to the new Android L mobile operating system.

And if any of this pans out to be true, chances are we’ll need to see a fair few additional HTC One M8 price cuts to keep the thing in contention.

Are you holding out for the Google Nexus 6?

It’s still being suggested that supply chain issues have forced Apple to push the launch of the iPhone Air back to late Q4, though realistically this is unlikely to be the case.

A variety of industry sources have for some time speculated than the 5.5-inch iPhone Air will launch somewhat later in the year than the 4.7-inch iPhone 6. Apple is of course yet to confirm so much as the existence of the devices, let alone when we can expect to see them. However, the general consensus reached is that the larger of the two has prompted a series of supply chain and assembly issues, which in turn forced the Air’s later release date.

But here’s a question – would Apple have ever chosen to launch both iPhones on the same day, were no such obstacles encountered?

The idea of the iPhone Air being held back due to production problems doesn’t make a great deal of sense for two glaring reasons. First of all, analyst have suggested that the thinnest, lightest, largest and most powerful iPhone even created is proving slightly more difficult to put together than the iPhone 6. This is the kind of thing that pretty much any of us could have predicted way ahead of time, so it’s not exactly likely that Apple won’t have expected the Air to hit one or two hiccups along the way.

As such, if they really wanted to get it to the market at the same time as the iPhone 6, they would have gotten busy with the project much earlier.

Secondly, both the iPhone 6 and the Air are tipped to be the biggest-sellers in the history of the iOS device range. Revolutionizing the Smartphone the world is already hooked on, each of the two is likely to have enormous global appeal on its launch day. However, to launch the two on the exact same day would result in inevitable cannibalization of sales in both directions. And assuming the iWatch – aka the iTime – lands around the same timeframe, the resulting rollout would be a rather chaotic and messy one to say the least.

So while it’s as likely today as it ever was that the larger iPhone Air will launch a little later, it’s hard to believe it was ever Apple’s intend to put both devices out at the same time.

Reports from Taiwan suggest that the 2014 MacBook Air with Retina panel could now in fact become the 2015 MacBook Air – and shortages of Intel Broadwell chips are to blame.

It’s not looking too good for those holding out for the launch of the Retina MacBook Air – a 2014 debut for the range may be off the cards entirely. That’s according to reports from the Taiwanese media anyway, where it’s been suggested that a delay in the supply of Intel’s latest Broadwell processors has pretty much halted Retina MacBook Air production in its tracks.

Instead, the machines that are in many respects ready to go will now be held back until sometime in early 2015.

The Economic Daily News from Taiwan quoted unnamed supply chain sources as warning not to expect shipments of the Retina notebooks anytime before the end of the year. Having originally been expected to turn up at WWDC back in June, Apple’s iconic ultra-slim computer range is already somewhat overdue.

Still, the delay doesn’t seem to be harming the current range in terms of hard sales and appeal, with the latest round of data suggesting that Apple has in fact increased its laptop market share once again over recent months.

iWatch sales could be driven to enormous highs by the existing pool of iDevice owners investing in what will in many respects be something of an add-on accessory.

Apple may not have yet announced the existence of the iWatch, but this isn’t stopping the industry’s most prominent analysts looking deep into their crystal balls. Once again making her voice heard this week is one Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley fame, having increased her price target for Apple due in part to loft expectations for the company’s first ever wearable.

According to Huberty, an iWatch with a price of approximately $300 could lead to first-year sales of 30 million units. This success would in large be attributed to the ‘halo effect’ which refers to existing iPhone and iPad owners being considerably more likely than others to invest in the firm’s Smartwatch.

One of the key drivers behind the success of the iWatch could be the distinct lack of true competition around at the time of its release. To date, not a single Smartwatch has succeeding in hitting home with consumers in such a way as to sell in convincing numbers – the best attempts by both Samsung and Sony have fallen at the first hurdle. And while the Moto 360 and various Android Wear devices are likely to do far better, the damage to this particular end of the Smartwatch segment may already have been done.

Apple on the other hand has something of a clean sheet, which means to hit it out of the park with a genuinely desirable iWatch the first time around would be to kick-start a serious success story and perhaps reignite the segment as a whole.

No official information has yet been revealed as to when the device will make its debut, though as something of a peripheral for other iDevices it is largely expected to arrive alongside the iPhone 6 in September.

The latest roundup of figures for June confirm that Windows 8.1, XP, 7 and even Windows Vista have increased their market share from the month prior.

So it’s really no surprise to see that Windows 8.1 is slowly but surely increasing its market share – Microsoft having invested massive efforts in the push to drive user-upgrades. And at the same time, it’s not much of a shocker to learn that Windows 8 is on the decline – the reason of course being so many users making the step up to version 8.1.

However, what has come as quite the unexpected surprise is how both Windows XP and even Windows Vista have increased their market shares very slightly for the month of June. The latest figures released by NetMarketShare make for interesting reading to say the least, suggesting that die-hard devotees of prior versions of Windows are still giving Windows 8 a wide berth.

Admittedly the gains were fractional at best – Windows XP for example crept up to 25.31% in June from a prior 25.25% in May…hardly a quantum leap forward, but decent enough. The same could also be said for Windows 7, which according to the stats managed to scoop up 50.55% of the market for June, representing a half-percentage point increase from the month before.

As for Windows 8, June brought the OS a predictable yet minor slide to 5.93% from the prior 6.29% of May, while Windows 8.1 grew to 6.61% from May’s 6.35%.

Of course, the biggest surprise of all was that of Vista also enjoying a pretty impressive June, having come out of nowhere to record a fractional yet notable climb.

Motorola has released a new official video clip showing off its upcoming Moto 360 Smartwatch, which has the very real potential to finally kick-start the market for wearables after a flurry of uninspiring attempts by rivals.

Motorola’s Moto 360 isn’t the first Smartwatch we’ve seen, so why is it causing more of a fuss than its rivals – many of which have been on the market for months?

Simple really – the Moto 360 is undeniably the first and only Smartwatch to date we wouldn’t be embarrassed to wear!

It seems style and elegance were put well and truly in the back-burner when the design teams for Samsung and Sony set about building their own respective Smartwatch devices. The result was the bulky and generally unattractive standard the segment seems to revolve around right now, which is for the most part so uninspiring that features, functionality and hardware are completely overlooked by would-be buyers.

As for the Moto 360, you’ll have seen enough shots of the thing by now to know what you’re in for, but in order to get the message out in a more comprehensive manner, the wonderful folks at Big M have gone ahead and put together the video you’ll find below. What’s particularly compelling is how the 360 is being worn by a female…in this case Motorola’s Product  Marketing Head Cathay Bi…and yet it still doesn’t look even the slightest bit bulky or unsightly – you’d need arms like Arnie to say the same about the Samsung Galaxy Gear, for example.

It’s a genuinely reassuring video clip, though it’s a shame it doesn’t go as far as announcing the final release date for the 360 – it remains the single Android Wear gadget that’s still not been pinned to a specific day/week/month.

Still, by the look of it there’s every chance it’ll be well worth the wait and could play a role in kick-starting the wearable tech market, which thanks to rather paltry players to date has pretty much stalled.

Following the release of similar reports from Google and Yahoo, Facebook has made public its workplace diversity statistics and confirmed that just like its counterparts, minorities are grossly underrepresented.

Facebook has lifted the lid on its workforce diversity figures and…prepare for the least shocking revelation of the week…it’s a tale of mostly men and predominantly whites.

Wednesday’s disclosure was the first of its kind for the social networks and highlighted the fact that must like most other leading tech firms, white and Asian men make up the vast majority of its employee-base. The report followed similar disclosures serves up by LinkedIn, Yahoo and Google over recent weeks, which for the most part told exactly the same tale of a distinct lack of balance and diversity in the workplace.

Google was one of the first to be panned for not diversifying its workforce enough, though exactly what will or can be done to make the apparently necessary improvements remains to be seen.

Critics have insisted that the numbers clear illustrate how important it is for technology companies to further their efforts to include minority groups in their workforces and champion the advancement of female employees. It remains extremely rare to find female workers in executive positions and almost unheard of the women to take the role of CEO – a couple of exceptions exist of course, but generally speaking it’s a rarity.

And just as was the case with the other tech firms in the firing line for not doing enough to further workplace diversity, Facebook has accepted that it isn’t in an ideal position right now has plenty to do to balance things out. The social network giant did however insist that it will reach its diversity goals in the future.

In terms of how it’s to go about doing so, the company’s report stated that it will be modifying its college internship scheme to try and get more minority groups on-board, while at the same time making changes to its general recruitment strategy in order to ensure diversification receives more focus. By contrast, Facebook’s total employee pool is made up of just 2% blacks and 4% Hispanics.

What’s more, the higher the executive ladder is climbed, the starker the reading becomes with almost no women and no minority groups at all being represented at senior management levels.

The figures make interesting reading when taking into account data from the most recent Census on US citizens, of whom 63% are non-Hispanic whites, 13% are African American and just 5% are Asian.

As for Google, the search engine giant likewise pledged its commitment to make concerted efforts to better balance its workplace diversity. In particular, the company insisted that it is not at all happy with the underrepresentation of women at senior levels.

The decision to publicize the figures was that of the companies themselves as while all such businesses are legally obliged to share such information with the government, they aren’t forced to make them public.

Despite being rumored to have been abandoned some time ago, fresh leaks have emerged to suggest that the HTC Nexus 9 is in fact real and will launch before the summer is out.

It’s been called everything from a dead-cert to a work of pure fiction over the last few weeks along – the Google Nexus 9 just will not give up and play dead.

The general consensus among industry analysts and observers alike is that for one reason or another, Google is to do away with its Nexus hardware lineup. Despite enormous success and the kind of devices that have given all-comers a pretty painful run for their money, we’re being warned to expect very few, or perhaps no more Nexus products this year or any.

Instead, it’s all about Google’s Android Silver project, which may or may not come to fruition during Q1 of 2015. Something of an expansion of the ‘Play Edition’ lineup of devices, it’s theorized that the all-powerful web giant will focus more on third-party devices than building its own.

It’s all a very bittersweet tale for hardware fans, but the good news is there could at least be one more device in the pipeline before the plug is pulled once and for all. As mentioned above, the tenacious Nexus 9 has once again popped up in a supposedly leaked image, confirming not only the existence of the device, but also its core specifications and hardware.

First published by Android Police, the report suggests that…as suspected for some time…Google has for its final tablet PC teamed up with HTC. Having already promised that new-generation slate of some description or another would be on the market before the end of the summer, HTC could deliver on its word by supplying the grunt behind the 8.9-inch Nexus name…aka the Volantis or the Flounder.

What’s interesting to note is the ongoing suggestion that it was in fact Google’s initial intent to partner with HTC for both version of the Nexus 7 tablet to date. An unexpected and unspecified hiccup is said to have occurred prior to things kicking off, which is why it ended up being Asus that put its name to the iconic 7-inch tablets.

For HTC to put its name to the very final device carrying the Nexus branding would therefore be somewhat poetic.

If the new shot itself is anything to go by, the Nexus 9 will as predicted feature an 8.9-inch screen with a sizeable 2,048 by 1,440 pixel count. Under the hood, power will be served up courtesy of an Nvidia Tegra K1 chip – aka the Nvidia Logan 64-bit CPU – along with 2GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera to the rear and storage options of 32GB and 16GB. The whole thing is said to be wrapped up in a gorgeous aluminum unibody and tip the scales at just 418g…the LTE version upping this slightly to 427g.

Of course, the above recipe really doesn’t mean a great deal unless accompanied by a digestible price – low prices having proved the biggest selling point of all Nexus hardware to date. According to this particular report, the Nexus 9 will start from $399 for the Wi-Fi only 16GB version and range right up to $600+ for 4G LTE and 32GB.

If so, it will face gigantic competition from the likes of Apple’s iPad Air and all manner of new-generation Android slates, though as all information to date is unofficial in nature things could change radically by the time the thing sees the light of day.

That is, assuming it even exists…of course.