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HTC camera guru talks the M8 camera

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Not many people are familiar with Symon Whitehorn by name but most people know about the Ultrapixel tech he’s managing at HTC.

The company’s camera guru that stood for the Ultrapixel camera last year is in the spotlight once again, defending this year’s take on the 4 MP flagship camera in an in-depth interview with Vodafone UK. He still stands by the Ultrapixel technology and defends the 4 MP resolution as a more reliable choice in terms of speed. He went on to say that most people will be using their photos on their smartphones or social media and that HTC wanted to make those photos great. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Gear discounted to $160

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The Samsung Galaxy Gear, the company’s original smartwatch that runs Android has received a major discount in the US.

The device now costs just $159.99 at Woot and comes in a myriad, including lime green, oatmeal beige, wild orange, mocha gray and rose gold. Read more »

WhatsApp prepaid cards now selling through E-Plus in Germany

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WhatsApp now offers its own prepaid service through E-Plus in Germany, letting you use the popular messaging app for a fixed monthly amount. The offer also features unlimited usage of the app even if you don’t have any standing traffic left.

The package with the SIM card is on offer for €10 but features a starting balance of €10 itself making the SIM practically free. Otherwise a call or text will set you back €0.09 to all German carriers whilst 1 MB will cost €0.24. Read more »

CyanogenMod 11 M5 is here, squishes lots of bugs

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The latest M release of the CyanogenMod 11 version is out and brings some improvements and fixes for several irritating bugs. Version M5 comes just on schedule, one month after the M4 hit devices.

The software is available for download but you’d need to check if your device is eligible. You can do that here. The US Galaxy S III (D2lte) and International Snapdragon 600-powered Galaxy S4 (Jflte) devices will not get the M5 release just yet because the CM team needs to iron out some issues with those devices ahead of the release. Read more »

See the Tesla Model S run over the Samsung Galaxy S5

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Coming straight from the YouTube channel that brought us the fingerprint battle between the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 5s is this new video where the Galaxy S5 is subjected to a drop test and being run over by a Tesla Model S.

We’ve already seen how the Galaxy S5 takes drops on the ground so we’re more interested in the car run over bit. Read more »

Google Play People rounds up your friends’ app suggestions

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Google is rolling out a new feature to its Google Play store dubbed People. You know how you see your friends’ +1s on certain apps in the Play Store? Well now those apps have their separate own tab.

The People tab utilizes Google+’s recommendations in the Play Store in its mobile form and has its very own certain style – shown above. On the web Google Play store you can see the same reviews and ratings by your friends with the “From Familiar Faces” option. The new feature is rolling out as we speak so you might want to check your Play store to see if you have it already. Read more »

12 million iPads now have Office installed

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It has only been a week since Microsoft launched its Office suite on the Apple iPad but it has already been downloaded more than 12 million times.

Microsoft seems really pleased by this so it went on Twitter to boast a little. Office offers free viewing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. In order to edit and create, however, one would need to shell out $10 a month for Office 365 subscription. How many of those has Microsoft secured since the apps became available on the iPad isn’t disclosed. Read more »

Fingerprint scanner battle: Galaxy S5 vs iPhone 5s

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Apple didn’t introduce fingerprint-scanning technology in handhelds but it did make it hip again when it transformed the iconic iPhone home button into a Touch ID scanner in the iPhone 5s.

It must have generated the needed attention because other manufacturers were quick to add in their own fingerprint scanning tech. More recently, Samsung also made the leap with its Galaxy S5 flagship’s home button. But how do both technologies stack up? Read more »

Samsung details new Galaxy S5 display panel

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Display mate gave the Samsung Galaxy S5′s front 5.1″ panel an Excellent score, claiming its the best display they have seen. In turn Samsung display decided to elaborate how much better the flagship screen is compared to its predecessor’s.

The Galaxy S5 display has higher brightness, lower reflectivity, better viewing angles, improved contrast ratio and even better power consumption. Read more »

2.1 million Chromebooks were shipped last year

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Over the span of last year around 2.1 million Chromebooks have been shipped. The majority of those numbers come from North America – exactly 89% – giving the continent the highest demand in the world.

The numbers were calculated by ABI Research and the firm forecasts an increase to 11 million in 2019, but who can really say what can happen in five years (less than five years ago Symbian was top OS). Read more »

Mysterious Samsung SM-T800 slate passes FCC

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An unannounced Samsung slate that goes by the model name SM-T800 has passed the FCC. It looks to be the Wi-Fi-only variant of the SM-T801 and SM-T805, which got their evaluation last month.

The SM-T800 has been leaked before in a benchmark test which pointed to an Exynos 5 Octa chipset with four Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.9 GHz, 3 gigs of RAM, 16GB of built-in storage, 8 MP and 2 MP cameras on the back and front. The slate runs on Android KitKat 4.4.2 and could sport a 2560 x 1600 10.5″ AMOLED on the front. Read more »

Google+ now shows how many times your profile has been visited

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Google has added an option to check your profile and content views on its Google+ social network. The counter sits just under your profile picture, next to the follower count and accumulates the hits to your profile, pictures, posts, etc.

The feature has automatically rolled out to users and is on by default but can be turned off by unckecking the “show how many times your profile and content have been viewed.” field if you’re not completely sure about sharing the information. Read more »

Samsung Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit now available in the UK

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The Samsung Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit smartwatches were expected to hit UK stores on April 11 alongside the Galaxy S5 upcoming flagship. However, if you can’t wait that long, we have some good news as at least one retailer has received their stock earlier.

The Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit are in stock now over at UnlockedMobiles, costing £179.98 just as expected. Your only color option is black at this point, with the other colors expected to become available once the Galaxy S5 is launched on April 11. Read more »

Here’s what the OnePlus One’s CM11 looks like

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Two screenshots reportedly taken from the OnePlus One’s custom CyanogenMod OS were sent to Engadget by a “reliable tipster” and show a custom lockscreen and the About phone page. The latter is important as it shows the Model name One attached to the 4.4.2 Android version and the presence of on-screen navigation buttons.

The lockscreen features a cool split-screen mode showing a wallpaper on the top (perhaps a slightly blurred version of the homescreen wallpaper) and a big clock, notification, weather and battery details. The lockscreen doesn’t have anything in common with the stock or CyanogenMod lockscreen suggesting OnePlus may have deeper customizations planted in the otherwise closely-stock CyanogenMod OS. Read more »

LastPass can now autofill app log-ins on Android

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If there ever was a time to go for the $12 a year premium membership for LastPass it’s now. The form and password-filling service that’s so popular for web browsers has gotten a great new update for Android, allowing it to auto-fill your account log-ins on Android.

This means that aside from working to log you in hassle free in Chrome on Android LastPass will eradicate the need to remember app log-ins as well. Read more »