Cristiano Ronaldo threatens to sue over alleged nickname for Lionel Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo has denied that his nickname for rival superstar Lionel Messi is "motherf----r".
The allegation was made in a book, Messi, by respected Spanish journalist Guillem Balague, who said that according to some Real Madrid players, Ronaldo calls the Barcelona star "motherf----r" behind his back and gives the same name to any other Madrid player seen to talking to him.
The Portuguese superstar, via his official Facebook page, has refuted his claim and says he is instructing his lawyers to take action.

Superstars and rivals: Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Photo: Getty Images

Balague says the two rivals are not friends, but are polite, if somewhat cool, to each other in public.

Disfigured man is growing his new face on his chest

Chinese man, who was severely disfigured when he was electrocuted, hopes the growing “head” bulging from his chest will eventually become his new face.
Yan Jianbin sustained serious facial burns and lost an eye and his nose after he opened the door of a high-voltage transformer, according to the Daily Mail.
Doctors at Shenyang Army General Hospital, in Liaoning Province, began a procedure six months ago to stretch the skin on his chest by injecting saline water to create a head-shaped mound.

Plastic surgeons plan to create new facial features and then attach the stretched skin to his face in a five stage procedure that will take two years to complete.
The first two stages of the groundbreaking procedure involves creating a new nose using part of his rib cartilage.
In the third phase, they will create new blood vessels and arteries.
The fourth phase will be the face transplant. The final phase will consist of fine-tuning the new face.

4G Speeds Average Over 15Mbps in UK

On Thursday, Ofcom revealed its first ever 4G research report citing average 4G speeds twice as fast as their 3G counterparts.

In its research, Ofcom looked at the performance of 3G and 4G services on smartphones from the UK's four main mobile operators - EE, O2, Three, and Vodafone - across five major UK cities - Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, and Manchester - between March and June 2014. "Helping to improve mobile coverage and quality of service are important objectives for Ofcom," said the company in a statement. "Today's report is intended to help consumers understand differences in performance between 3G and 4G, and this kind of research is designed to support consumers in choosing a service that best suits their needs. The findings are also expected to encourage providers to improve their performance."

"Our results show that, on average, UK 4G networks perform much better than 3G networks," said Ofcom. "These differences are consistent across all mobile operators, and we would expect consumers to notice material differences in the performance of mobile broadband when using any 4G network compared to a 3G network." Of the networks, EE offered the fastest 4G speeds across the five cities at 18.4 Mbps while London had the fastest 4G web browsing speeds of all the cities. Three, the only operator offering 4G for free, lagged behind in 4G speeds; in the three month period, Three's average 4G speeds were just 10.7 while EE's average was 18.4. Glasgow's average 4G web browsing speeds were the lowest of the five cities, taking 0.82 seconds to load a web page, while London's average was just 0.72 seconds to load a standard web page.

Photo: © Creative Commons - Flickr: steefafa.

The Nexus Six Creates Controversy With Mixed Reviews For Google's Fabulous Phablet

             

Nexus 6 (image: Google.com)

Ask for the opinions of six different reviewers on a smartphone, and you’re likely to hear six different opinions. That’s true of Google’s latest smartphone, the Nexus 6.
The ‘vanilla’ Android handset, running a pure version of Google’s mobile operating system and vision, has been reviewed by a number of online publications this week, and while there are some areas where opinions match up, others are a little bit more subjective.
The Difference Is Clear
Let’s start with Forbes’ review of the Nexus 6 from Gordon Kelly, and the physical characteristics of the handset. It’s a big handset, and while you can argue if it should be labelled a phablet or not, there’s no doubt that the screen is the most attractive element of this handset.

Perhaps the main reason potential Nexus 6 owners are prepared to suffer the inconvenience of its huge form factor is its mammoth screen and here Motorola has delivered in spades. Simply put, the Nexus 6 screen is jaw dropping. The extra size is noticeable against it rivals, particularly the iPhone 6 Plus, and Motorola has done an incredible job in slimming down the bezels. With the exception of the LG G3, no other smartphone comes close and it makes you appreciate what a superb job the company has done to keep the form factor as small as it has.

Rob Pegoraro is not so sure that the screen size is the answer that the sales team are looking for. Over on Venture Beat he notes the screen size ‘madness’ and points out a number of ergonomic and UI issues because of the size:

It’s not that you can’t stash the Motorola-built 6 in a pants pocket (at least if we’re talking dad jeans) or a shirt pocket (although the way it protrudes by over an inch makes it the pocket protector of phones). But working this thing with one hand …requires awkward, uncomfortable contortions. I had to roll and pitch the phone in my hand to get my thumb to reach icons and onscreen keys along its far side, and I kept worrying that this back-and-forth would launch the thing towards the sidewalk.
And where other enormophone vendors have customized Google’s operating system to exploit that expanded screen real estate, the Nexus 6 sticks to stock Android 5.0 Lollipop. For once, that’s not a virtue in a Nexus device.

The bottom line in terms of the screen and the size of the Nexus 6 is that you really should get it in your hand before you consider a purchase. With prices starting at $649 SIM Free, the Nexus 6 is a long-term investment, and while it does rival devices like the iPhone 6 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, it does have some issues in the physical department that the rivals have tweaked away.