Verizon has started rolling out a new update to a couple of devices on its network. Hitting Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and LG G Pad 7.0 LTE units, it's a security update that brings along Android fixes for February. The update arrives as software version G928VVRS3BQB1 and VK41025A for the phone and tablet, respectively. Source 1 2 | Via
Aside from the Barcelona chapter of the Mobile World Congress, there's a separate MWC edition that's held each year in China's Shanghai. Now, a new MWC event has been announced that will take place by India, the world's second-largest smartphone market. The India edition of MWC will be focused on reaching out to the South East Asian markets. The GSMA Association, which organizes the yearly MWCs has agreed to associate with the three-day event that'll kick off in the country's capital city of New Delhi on September 27. "There is Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and an edition in...
Just last week, Samsung started accepting registrations for early access to its mobile payments service Samsung Pay in India, and today the service has been officially launched - those who registered for the early access program can use Samsung Pay now. In addition to supporting credit and debit cards (MasterCard and Visa) from a handful of banks including Axis, HDFC, ICICI, SBI, and Standard Chartered, the service also allows you to add your Paytm wallet accounts in the app. Currently, only those owning a Galaxy S7/S7 edge, S6 edge+, Note5, Galaxy A5 (2016), or Galaxy A7 (2016) can...
The newly-unveiled Nokia 3, Nokia 5, and Nokia 3310 (2017) are now all available to pre-order. Dutch online retailer Belsimpel has the devices listed on its website, and is offering them for €139, €189, and €59, respectively. The listings, however, do not reveal a release date for the devices - they just say "available soon." Officially, it has been revealed that the phones will go on sale sometime in Q2. Source 1 2 | Via
As scheduled, HTC has launched the U Ultra smartphone in India. The device (64GB variant) carries a price tag of INR 59,990 (around $900), and is available from the Taiwanese company's official India online store. Color options include blue and black. The #HTCUUltra is here! Get yours now: https://t.co/ntkMEC58yW http://pic.twitter.com/7RMj9fpMab— HTC India (@HTC_IN) March 6, 2017 The phone recently launched in China as well - there it carries a price tag of around $740. The handset's Japanese launch is set for March 10. Coming back to India, the HTC U Play was also scheduled to go on sale...
The new, 32GB variant of the iPhone 6, which was launched by Apple recently, is now available for purchase in India. Amazon India has the device - Space Grey color - listed on its website, and is offering it for INR 28,999 (around $435), down from its MRP of INR 30,700 (around $460). The discount ends March 7. The new model is already on sale in China. It'll also be available in Taiwan later this week (starting March 10) - Taiwan Mobile will be offering it for "free" with a 30 month contract for about $45 per month (1,399 NT). Source | Via
Popular self-destructing-message app Snapchat, the company (Snap) behind which recently went public, has hit a new milestone - it now boasts of over 500 million installs on Android. As you can see in the screenshot above, it's not possible to pinpoint the exact number - all that the app's Play Store listing reveals is that the number lies between 500 million and 1 billion. In case you missed, Snap's IPO documents offered some great insights on the app's history, future and business model - you can access that information by heading here. Source | Via
A Nougat-powered LG phone has been spotted on the Geekbench benchmarking website. A quick look at the device's model number - LG-K530 - reveals it's the Stylo 2 Plus. Over a week ago, T-Mobile updated its website to reflect that it has started pushing out the Nougat update to LG Stylo 2 Plus units on its network. But turned out that wasn't the case as the carrier later removed all references to Android 7.0 Nougat from the Stylo 2 Plus software update page. The new Geekbench listing, however, suggests that the Nougat update for the device is under testing, and should be available...
iFixit got its hands on the new Nintendo Switch and managed to tear it down promptly. The console, the two Joy-Cons, and the dock, all got the teardown treatment and in the end the system got a very good score of 8/10 for repairability. Some things of note from the teardown: The console does use tri-point screws, which are less common and most people likely won't have a screwdriver for it. But apart from that there are no further complications in the design and everything then comes off easily if you have the right screwdriver. The Switch has a fairly comprehensive...
Google has announced a new Chromebook for schools, the HP Chromebook x360 11 G1 Education Edition. It was announced in a blog post by Google celebrating the success of Chromebooks in Swedish schools. Not a lot of details are available about this model. Google only mentioned a 360 degree rotating hinge with USB-C charging, optional stylus, and an outward-facing camera. It's likely that the HP Chromebook x360 11 G1 Education Edition is based entirely on the HP ProBook x360 11 G1 Education Edition, which comes with Windows 10 Pro. In that case it should have the same Intel Celeron...
MWC 2017 is wrapping up after a week of new devices from various manufacturers where beloved Nokia stole the show. The Nokia 3310 (2017) set records at GSMArena for shortest time reaching 500,000 hits - just over 48 hours. It is followed by another Nokia that was a frequent visitor of this chart, but after MWC 2017 it was announced it was going global - the Nokia 6. The top 3 also includes the latest flagship LG G6 which according to many was the best phone announced in Barcelona. Another flagship is also a newcomer - Sony Xperia XZ Premium. It stays just behind the Galaxy J7 Prime, a...
Facebook introduced Reactions last year, which allowed users to 'react' to posts by choosing one of the emoji options below a post. The company is now working on bringing that feature to its Messenger app. According to Techcrunch, who received a tip from one of its readers, you can now tap a little button next to the messages you receive and choose one of the seven emoji as reactions that is then assigned to that particular message. This is similar to the way Apple implemented Tapback in iOS 10 Messages app. Techcrunch spoke to Facebook, who confirmed that it is working on the...
The Mobile World Congress 2017 is officially over. After a few busy days, we have many new smartphones on our hands and we've already shared our first impressions of them. You can check out our overview of MWC 2017 for the highlights. Now it's time to hear your say - which phones did you like best? To keep things manageable, we have split them into three categories, let's start with the flagships: #qp_main1000188 .qp_btna:hover input {background:rgb(59,160,56)!important} #qp_main1000188[results='0'] .qp_a:hover {background-color:rgb(216,216,216)!important} #qp_main1000188[results='0']...
dbrand, makers of skins and seemingly half the advertisements on the internet at one point, has a public service announcement for all Nintendo Switch buyers: do not put a skin on it. As it turns out, during prototyping, dbrand discovered that the paint on the Switch and the Joy-Cons peels off with the adhesive on the skins. Normally, the dbrand skins (or skins from any decent brand) are designed in such a way that even if you remove it the adhesive isn't left behind and does not cause any damage to the product surface. However, the coating on the Switch does not play well with any...
The Google Pixel will be getting a sequel later this year. This information was confirmed by Google's senior vice president of hardware, Rick Osterloh. Talking about the device, Osterloh said "You can count on a successor this year, even if you don't hear a date from me now. There is an annual rhythm in the industry, so you can count on us to follow it." The current generation Pixel devices weren't received well for their premium pricing. On that Osterloh had to say "Pixel stays premium." Google is currently facing inventory issues with the current Pixel phones, causing it to...
Canadian carrier Rogers has started rolling out the Nougat update to Motorola Moto Z Play units on its network. The update brings along version 7.0 of Google's mobile operating system. The carrier's OS upgrade schedule also reveals that Nougat for the Huawei nova plus as well as the Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge is still "coming soon." Upcoming security updates for some other phones are also listed in the schedule. Source | Via
Nintendo Switch is suffering from some connectivity issues with its Joy-Con controllers, according to several users. Now Nintendo has addressed this issue by releasing a list of objects that could be causing interference between the console and its controllers. Among the list includes a lot of everyday objects, including wireless speakers, wireless access points, wireless headsets, wireless printers, microwaves, cordless phones, mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and USB 3.0 compatible devices such as hard drives, flash drives, LAN adapters, etc. Nintendo also advises against putting the...
Just a couple of days after announcing the Honor 6X Nougat beta program for the US, Huawei has started pushing out the update to participating units in the country. The update is followed by an email detailing how to report bugs. Beta testers will have an option to revert back to Marshmallow/EMUI 4.1 after installing the Nougat beta, which weighs in at around 2.3GB. As for change-log, the Chinese company has provided quite a lengthy one - take a look at it in the tweet below: Is Huawei's Honor 6X Nougat beta changelog long enough? via @jccpalmer http://pic.twitter.com/ZSNT9exTvi— David Ruddock...
The Samsung Galaxy S8 is just a few weeks away from being made official, but in case you are interested in purchasing its predecessor, you might want to check out the deal seller never-msrp is offering on eBay. The seller is offering the Samsung Galaxy S7 Duos for $424.99, but using the promo code CGAMETECH10 at checkout makes sure the price drops to $382.50. The unit on offer is Exynos 8890-powered, factory unlocked model (SM-G930FD). Available color options include black silver, gold - pink and white are currently out of stock. Source | Via
The Samsung Galaxy C5 Pro - which has already cleared China's TENAA and the US FCC, received WiFi certification, and also appeared in benchmark listings - has now been spotted in China. The black colored model of the phone was recently showcased at Samsung Forum 2017. As for specs, from what we've collected so far, the handset is powered by Snapdragon 625 SoC and sports a full HD display. RAM is 4GB, while internal memory is 64GB. The camera department is handled by a 16MP/16MP combo. Price tag is said to be CNY 2,499 (around $360). Source 1 2 | Via
Huawei has started pushing out a new update to its P9 Plus smartphone in Europe. Arriving as version VIE-L09C432B360 and weighing in at around 2.4GB, the update brings Android 7.0 Nougat. Security patches, however, are said to be from January. Given the fact that it's an OTA roll out, it may take some time for the update to hit your device. Meanwhile, if you feel impatient, you can manually check for the update by heading to your handset's Settings menu. Source | Via
The BlackBerry KEYone will be available from almost all major carriers in Canada. Rogers, Bell, and Telus have all confirmed that they'll be carrying the phone. The first two will start selling the phone in April. @wrecker385 No pricing details just yet, we too have been able to confirm the device will be released in April at this time. ^me— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) March 3, 2017 @PatWallace Hi Pat! We're happy to inform you that the BlackBerry KEYone will be available in late April. Please ... http://ift.tt/2m6dCMp Bell Support (@Bell_Support) March 2, 2017 Telus made a...
If you are a Lenovo fan in the US, and have been contemplating purchasing the Chinese company's Tango-enabled Phab2 Pro smartphone, you'll be glad to know that the phone is currently available at discounted rates in the country. Lenovo currently has the handset listed on its US website for $449.99, which translates into a $50 discount. But if you use the promo code PHAB2PRO15 at checkout, the price comes down to $424.99, which means you get to save a total of $75. Specs-wise, the Phab2 Pro is powered by Snapdragon 652 chipset and sports a massive 6.4-inch QHD display. Memory...
Apple has recently launched an updated version of the iPhone 6 for Asian markets. While the iPhone 6 originally launched in 2014, it was available in 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB memory tiers. This new iPhone 6 will become available with 32GB of internal storage in the Gold finish. This particular model has already been available in China as a low-end model, sold by third-party retailers. The same model will become available for Taiwan Mobile on March 10. By contrast, the low-end model that pertains to larger markets is the iPhone SE, which has better internals than the iPhone 6, along...
T-Mobile is really pushing its promotions this tax season. The third largest US carrier is offering a new limited-time promotion which can be combined with T-Mobile's already ongoing "Third line free" deal. Any new or existing customers that port their phone numbers to T-Mobile and trade in an eligible device will be able to get a free iPhone 7 or 7 Plus (valued at up to $650) via mail-in rebate on a prepaid MasterCard. The promotion starts today, so you can walk into any (participating) T-Mobile store with any of the following devices eligible for trade-in: All memory variants and...
