We knew it was coming, but now it’s official – Google Photos is becoming a separate app. Photos is already available for Android, while an iOS version and web app should be launched later today. It offers free unlimited storage.

It has some very smart way to organize and search your growing photo collections too. Read more »

Pebble has opened pre-orders for its Time smartwatch to anyone and the team even sent a unit to iFixit. The Pebble Time is rated for 30m water resistance, but even so it earned a surprisingly high repairability score.

Some heat was all that was needed to pop the top open and reveal the rather simple internals. Read more »

There was some uncertainty about the Huawei Watch price, but you can pre-order one. Unfortunately, the shipping date is not listed yet.

Interestingly, the leather wristband version is more expensive than the metal band version – for most other smartwatches it’s the other way around. Read more »

Lenovo unveiled three new laptops at Lenovo Tech World in Beijing. Two new Z-series offer high performance and even a 3D camera, while the new Ideapad takes aim at the Chromebooks.

All three laptops will launch with Windows 8.1 and will be available in June. Read more »

Opera’s headlining trick – compressing the web – is evolving in the time of high-powered smartphones. Opera Max enables a Turbo-like compression for any and all apps on your phone, not just the browser. And now not just mobile data either, Max can now handle your Wi-Fi usage.

“Why?” you may be asking. Simple – public Wi-Fi hotspots often suck worse than mobile data. Also, this allows Opera Max to improve your battery life too. Read more »

Smartphones serving as the brain of a laptop always sounded like a great idea, until someone actually makes one. Undeterred by the cold reception of the Motorola Atrix and its laptop dock and the low profile of the Asus Padfone, Samsung has patented a Galaxy Note-like device, which docks into a laptop host.

The patent does get a couple of things right that eluded the Atrix and the Padfone. Read more »

In case you didn’t get a $130 Moto 360 smartwatch from Woot! because they were reconditioned, you can snag a new unit from Best Buy at $150.

As with the Woot! deal, this one is US only (sigh). Read more »

Over 1 million Apple Watches were sold on launch day, Slice Intelligence analysts put the number at almost 1.5 million. A solid start, but then something strange happened – demand all but disappeared.

These projections are for the US and are based on info from over 14,000 online shoppers and cover the period from April 10 to May 18. Most of the action happened on the first day, since then the total has sauntered to just 2.5 million. Read more »

YouTube recently launched 60fps playback and now it’s enabling the smoother framerate for livestreaming videos too. This update comes thanks to the new HTML5 player for livestreams, the old one used Flash.

The YouTube team has also worked with the developers of screen capturing tools that support livestreaming. Read more »

Remember Samsung Flow? It has been half a year since it was announced, but it’s finally available, at least in limited form. Flow has three major features – Transfer (move content between Samsung devices), Defer (syncing tasks) and Notify (share notification between devices, this one isn’t working yet).

Basically, it’s Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Continuity. Read more »

Vanitas was a 16th and 17th century art style that served to remind people of the meaninglessness of earthly life and commonly depicted skulls. Art historians will be surprised to find the style reinterpreted as a luxury aftermarket customization of the iPhone 6, but here it is – the Mana Skull.

Only 50 will be made and use several thousand diamonds to depict a skull (with a police hat) and a yellow police line. Read more »

MediaTek continues its push to become the Qualcomm of the East, the latest step in that direction is fast battery charging for mobiles. The tech is called Pump Express Plus and is found in the MT6732 and MT6595 chipsets, along with newer chips that come out.

There are current devices that use those chipsets (like the Sony Xperia E4g and Meizu MX4), but it seems they are not Pump-enabled. Read more »

There are a few time lapse video apps available and now Microsoft Research is throwing its hat in the ring with Hyperlapse. The app speeds up handheld videos and stabilizes them so that you don’t bore your audience or make them seasick.

It’s available for phones (Windows and Android) and computers (Windows). Read more »

The recent Game of Thrones episode broke pirating records, but now you can legally get the GoT – A Telltale Games Series for Android completely free.

That’s just one of many free games – indeed free apps – Amazon is offering through its app store, their total sum (if you had to pay for them) is $110. Read more »

The Moto 360 may be getting replaced soon, but it’s still one of the better smartwatches around. Woot! is selling factory reconditioned units at $130 for the next 18 hours or so.

The Moto 360 gets constant price cuts – it has been as low as $165 new, the most recent dip was $180 at the Play Store. Actually, you can still find it at $170 at Amazon.com. Read more »