The dual-screened YotaPhone 2 will be launching in the US early this year and it has already taken the first step – a trip to the FCC. Unlike FCC’s usual cryptic documents, this time we get photos – both external and internal – and even the complete manual.

Not that the phone is a mystery, it’s already available in the UK and in Russia, but wouldn’t it be great if all FCC leaks were like this? Read more »

Did you know that Nokia started off as a paper mill in the Grand Duchy of Finland, then part of the Russian Empire? The company got its name from the town Nokia, where the second such mill was build. Also named after the town is Finnish Rubber Works. These two, plus Finnish Cable Works combined in 1922 to make the Nokia Corporation.

The joint company increasingly moved into communication equipment, finally releasing its first mobile phone in 1987. This infographic details Nokia’s rise to the top and eventual downfall. Read more »

If it’s worth doing on camera, it’s worth doing in front of a live audience right? Maybe even better! HTC’s Re action camera will gain the ability to livestream footage to YouTube starting tomorrow, which will set it apart from market leader GoPro.

The new functionality is coming through an update to its companion app, Android gets it tomorrow while iOS will get it “later in Q1.” Read more »

Intel is staying close to emerging new technologies – the Internet of Things, smartwatches and now HDMI sticks. With the rising popularity of Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick, Intel’s Compute Stick stands out with a complete Windows 8.1 with Bing copy for just $150.

The stick is powered by a quad-core Atom processor, not unlike the ones found in phones and tablets. Read more »

Microsoft is listening to suggestions over at the User Voice forums on how to improve its products and one commenter mentioned how offline access to files in OneDrive will be great to have. In comes Casey Penk (a program manager at Microsoft) who reveals that the team is already on it.

Keeping offline copies from OneDrive is possible on a desktop Windows 8.1, but not on the phone. Competing services like Dropbox and Google Drive have file pinning as well (on Android and iOS at least). Read more »

Sony’s once massive Walkman brand is still going, however the glory days are long gone. I’m not sure how much market there is for music players in general, Walkman or otherwise, but I can guess the market size for a $1,200.

It’s as high-quality as a pocketable player gets – it supports FLAC/ALAC (up to 96kHz/24-bit) and Bluetooth with SBC/LDAC hi-fidelity codec. Dual-band Wi-Fi is also available for DLNA playback. Read more »

Aside from the carbon ThinkPad X1, Lenovo also brought out new Yoga convertible laptops. The Lenovo Yoga 3 comes in 11″ and 14″ sizes, both powered by a 5th generation Intel processor. The signature move of the Yoga are the four modes – Laptop, Stand, Tend and Tablet – thanks to the hinge that opens all 180°.

The Windows Yoga line continues with an 8″ tablet that can use a pen instead of a stylus and three ThinkPad models that aren’t as portable as the Yoga 3 but pack additional features. Read more »

ZTE brought out the second generation of its pico-projector/Wi-Fi hotspot. The ZTE Spro 2 features a powerful Snapdragon 800 chipset, full access to the Play Store and a 720p built-in projector.

The Spro 2 also acts as an Wi-Fi hotspot, sucking up 150Mbps of LTE data and spitting it back out over Wi-Fi. Read more »

Intel has officially unveiled its 5th generation lineup covering everything from Celerons to Core i7s for anything from ultrabooks to All-in-One computers. The 5th gen chips (aka Broadwell) are the first to be built on a 14nm process, down from Haswell’s 22nm.

Along with Broadwell, there’s the Cherry Trail system on a chip for tablets. Read more »

Smartwatches are in vogue and round ones enjoy special attention. Omate will be launching two new ones this year – the Racer and the Roma – both based on the MediaTek MT2502 chipset “Aster.”

Unfortunately, the two smartwatches will run proprietary software rather than Android Wear. Also, little is known in terms of specs. Read more »

Samsung slipped in two new computers in 2014 even though New Year’s Eve is less than 48 hours away. One is an updated Series 9 ultrabook, the other a Series 7 all-in-one PC.

Interestingly, both lack the ATIV branding that Samsung used for its Windows/Windows Phone devices. Read more »

Windows Mobile is dead, long live Windows Ph… Mobile? This could all be a misunderstanding, of course, but the LinkedIn profile of a Program Manager at Microsoft lists him as currently working on Windows Mobile 10.

What makes it seem less like a slip of the tongue is that just two sentences earlier the same person claims to have worked on the Windows Phone 8.1 update infrastructure. Read more »

In February this year SanDisk unveiled the first-ever 128GB microSD card. It launched exclusively on Amazon and Best Buy for a pricy $200. Still, cramming that much storage into something smaller than a stamp was pretty impressive.

Amazon currently has the latest version of that card plus all smaller capacities on a promotion with heavy discounts reaching 60%. Read more »

Game of Thrones is known for many things (the short lives of its characters mostly) but for a third year running it earns another distinction from other TV shows – it is the most pirated show of the year. Estimated downloads top the number of HBO viewers who tuned into the series.

Earlier this year the season finale of the show set its own record – 1.5 million BitTorrent downloads in 12 hours, reaching 7.5 million in the days to follow. Read more »

It’s bundles all the way at Nvidia – starting today (and ending December 24) you can grab an Nvidia Shield Tablet (32GB LTE), plus a Wireless Controller, plus the Green Box bundle.

The whole thing will cost you $400 – the regular asking price of a Shield Tablet 32GB LTE. The wireless controller itself is another $60. Read more »