The new HTC One (M8) flagship has just gone official – if you’ve already taken a look at our quick hands-on impressions of the device here, join us as we go more in-depth regarding the new accessories that come with the device.

These include three cool cases, a car kit, keychain locator, BoomBass speaker, external battery bar, and an HTC Mini+ remote that lets you take calls and trigger the phone’s camera. Read more »

Luxottica, the name behind high-profile sunglasses brands like Oakley, Ray-Ban and Vogue-Eyewear, has teamed up with Google to provide future fashion-centric models of the Glass wearable.

The deal will undoubtedly go a long way to pushing the high-tech device into the mainstream, as Luxottica also controls numerous avenues of distribution with over 5000 retail outlets in the US. Read more »

Reports out of China indicate that Apple is heading towards automation of the iPhone battery production, resulting in one less labor-intensive iPhone assembly process.

The move will make it easier for the company to potentially move the production of the iPhone elsewhere, as it will not rely as heavily on specialized manual assembly. Read more »

Google’s smart HDMI stick Chromecast, which turns any HDMI-capable TV into a smart TV with streaming capabilities from Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, and Google Play movies among others, has become officially available outside of the US.

The device goes on sale today in the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, with localized streaming services for many of those countries. Read more »

Samsung’s Gear 2 line of smartwatches was unveiled at MWC last month running on Tizen OS and providing calling, messaging and notification capabilities from a paired Galaxy smartphone.

A rumored next generation of the Gear 2 will supposedly do away with the pairing requirement, and be able to provide calling capabilities through an integrated SIM slot. Read more »

Last week we got a glimpse of the new S Band that Samsung is planning to reintroduce alongside as part of the updated health and fitness aspects of the new Galaxy S5.

The S Band fitness tracker was recently glimpsed at the Samsung Roadshow in Germany in the flesh, and has also gone up for pre-order in the country for €80 on Amazon. Read more »

With its latest flagship, the Galaxy S5, Samsung decided to ramp up the health tracker angle, so much so that they included a heart rate sensor – the first of its kind on a mainstream smartphone.

In certain countries this qualifies it to be considered as a medical device, and Samsung’s home country of Korea is among them. Read more »

The latest piece of tech developed by Chinese smartphone chip manufacturer MediaTek involves a new proximity pairing technology that aims to compete with NFC.

The technology will do away with the traditional antenna and RF chip used by NFC, and instead detect the presence of nearby devices through the use of a special capacitor touch ICs for touchscreens, combined with data from the smartphone’s proximity and gravity sensor. Read more »

Replicant, a third party developer of an open source Android distribution, claims to have stumbled on a backdoor program that makes it possible for the modem to modify the phone’s onboard storage.

The purported affected devices include the Samsung Galaxy S, S II, and S III, Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S, Galaxy Note and Note 2, and Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and Tab 2 10.1. Read more »

The latest report from Ace Matrix finds that Americans rate Apple ads lower than they used to in terms of persuasiveness and watchability.

The number one spot was taken by online retail giant Amazon, while Samsung, LG, and Windows Phone have also passed the Cupertino company since last year. Read more »

Rumors of an LTE-capable Surface 2 tablet from Microsoft has been making the rounds for the past several weeks, and we’ve finally been able to catch a glimpse of one in the wild.

The device will support LTE bands 4, 7, and 17, and will be exclusive to AT&T for an in-store price of $679. Read more »

Last summer, Delta Air Lines announced a partnership with Nokia to equip its flight attendants with Nokia devices, aimed at providing quick and easy onboard purchasing for meals and other extras.

Now, flight attendants are getting upgrade to Nokia’s latest flagship, the Lumia 1520, which also allows the company to verify credit card payments real-time. Read more »

Panasonic’s large 20-inch tablet, the Toughpad 4K UT-MB5, looks to finally be heading to retail outlets after numerous delays.

The large-screened 4K-toting tablet, which was announced more than a year ago at MWC 2013, has seen more than its fair share of delays stemming from difficulties on the production side of things. Read more »

Polar explorer Eric Larsen is attempting to break the Arctic expedition speed record by covering the 500 mile distance from the Northern Ellesmere Island to the North Pole in less than 49 days.

To document his journey, Microsoft is providing Eric’s 3-person team with a Nokia Lumia 1020 and 1520 to capture some great shots along the way. Read more »

A faulty camera process on the Nexus 5 has resulting in a significant number of people reporting of excessive battery drain during standby on the device.

Google has confirmed that a maintenance release that will hopefully fix the bug is on the way. Other Qualcomm SoC-powered smartphones running Android KitKat 4.4.2 that may also be suffering from the bug will have to wait for a fix directly from the respective manufacturer. Read more »