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Retina-packing Apple iPad mini 2 hands-on

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We expected the Apple iPad mini 2 to launch alongside the iPad Air – many people did – but that wasn’t quite the case. Anyway, the initial hurdle has been overcome (mostly overcome, shipping is sluggish in some markets) and it’s time to look at what could be the new most popular tablet, dethroning the 9.7″ iPad, which held that title for a long time.

The original iPad mini was just reheated iPad 2 in a smaller package, but the second iteration promises to get everything right. Read more »

Adobe promo drops Photoshop CC + Lightroom 5 subscription to $9.99/mo

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Adobe switched to a subscription model for tis Creative Suite earlier this year, renaming it Creative Cloud. It was pricy – up to $50 a month for the whole suite. Now there’s a promotion that will allow you to pay only $10 a month for Photoshop CC, Lightroom 5, Behance ProSite and 20GB of cloud storage over the next year.

Previously, the $10 a month deal was only available for people who owned Photoshop CS3. Read more »

US-based online store sells tech for bitcoins only

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Bitcoin is often written about but still most people have had no contact with it. A new online store BitcoinShop.US that just launched may finally start to change that. The store boasts 400 categories, among which are smartphones and accessories.

All phones – 202 at the time of this writing – are sold unlocked. Most of them seem to be from Sony and BLU, with a few Samsung, LG and HTC models. Read more »

BlackBerry Z10-based Porsche Design P’9982 handled in official video

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BlackBerry is a company in financial trouble, but it doesn’t act like it and it got a brand new Porsche – a Porsche Design P’9982 based on the BlackBerry Z10 that is. It’s an exclusive device, only 500 units will be sold worldwide.

So, what do you get for the extra cash over the pedestrian Z10? You can watch the official hands-on video to find out. Read more »

Viber and HERE Transit hit select Nokia Asha phones

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Nokia’s touch-based Ashas are getting a couple of important apps – Here Transit Beta is now available to the Asha 50x range, while Viber has hit the Asha 3xx. Both of these apps were available for certain old-school S40 Nokias, but now owners of the touch-based Ashas can use them too.

Viber works just about like you would expect – it needs a mobile data connection or Wi-Fi, it supports push messages, it will sync your contacts and it even does voice calls, so it’s not just text. Read more »

Qualcomm Toq smartwatch launches on December 2 for $350

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Qualcomm will celebrate Cyber Monday – the Black Friday of buying tech online – with the release of its Toq smartwatch. The watch showcases Qualcomm tech like the color Mirasol display that uses ambient light (so it has great visibility outside) and the WiPower LE wireless charging tech for quick and painless top ups of the battery.

You’d need to do that about twice a week – the Qualcomm Toq has 3 day battery life. Check out how it compares against the Sony SmartWatch 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Gear here. Read more »

Android tablet revenue temporarily inches ahead of iPad

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Android pretty much rules smartphones in terms of market share, but Apple held a firm grasp on tablets. In the third quarter this year things changed though and Android tablets surpassed iPads in revenue for the first time ever.

According to an analyst from Morgan Stanley, Android-powered tablets raked in 46.2% of the revenue, while iPads took 45.6% home. Read more »

Motorola Moto G beats Nexus 4 in AnTuTu

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XDA-Developers member jonmorris got his Moto G and shared some early benchmarks and battery stats of the sub-$200 Android handset. Also, it turns out the Moto G has a feature called Trusted devices, which disables the lockscreen when the phone is connected to a certain Bluetooth device.

This is a great alternative to the Motorola Skip (which requires NFC and the Moto G doesn’t have that) and will work great with Bluetooth headsets and smartwatches. Read more »

Android dominates CES 2014 awards

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CES awards were flying off the shelves and into the laps of various companies. Samsung, Sony and Nokia were honored with awards in several categories for their mobile and imaging products.

The winners in the Wireless Handsets category were the LG G2 and the SpareOne Plus. Read more »

Surface RT 32GB to cost $199 on Black Friday

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The US is getting ready for the big discounts on Black Friday and Best Buy is kicking off things early with a Surface RT 32GB deal for just $200. Black Friday isn’t for a couple of more weeks so you’ll have to wait until then, the deal is only valid between November 28 and 30.

The good news is that this is an online deal, so you won’t have to brave the Black Friday queues. Plus you get free shipping. Read more »

Nokia Lumia 1520 phablet hands-on

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The Nokia Lumia 1520 is the first Windows Phone 8 phablet (alongside the mid-range Lumia 1320) and the take advantage of the newly extended hardware support of the WP devices. We are of course talking about the upped resolution cap and the extended choice of chipsets.

The Nokia Lumia 1520 is on par with the best Android-land has to offer – a 1080p screen and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset with 2GB of RAM. Read more »

Devices with NVidia’s Tegra 5 and Tegra 4i chipsets coming in Q1 next year

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NVidia’s Tegra 4 didn’t get the wide adoption the Tegra 3 saw and the company is already looking to 2014′s models. The Tegra 5 and the Tegra 4i already have certifications by AT&T and should bet certified by other carriers soon.

The Tegra 4i aims at the mid-range market and the first devices with it should be announced in Q1 and ship in Q2 (basically, we should see them at CES and MWC next year). NVidia’s CEO says people will be “delighted by the OEM that it comes from.” Still, it’s coming a little late since it was announced as far back as February this year. Read more »

HTC UK creates Gramohorn II for HTC One’s BoomSound speakers

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We’ve seen some crazy speaker ideas in our time but the Gramohorn II designed by Justin Wolter by commission of HTC UK is one of the cookiest. It’s a dock that features two horns (like on an old-timey gramophone, hence the name) that is designed specifically for the stereo BoomSound speakers on the HTC One.

HTC UK is using the Gramohorn II to kick off its “Here’s To Creativity” campaign. Strange that there’s no room for the BoomBass speaker, but still it’s an interesting design piece, which goes well with the uniquely designed HTC One. Read more »

Check out the new Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 in our hands-on video

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The Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 moniker is really the name of three different phones – one is a regular entry level Android phone, the other is a dual-SIM handset and the third one packs 4G LTE connectivity.

Today we have the dual-SIM variant on hand in our studio, so join us as we take a look at what makes the latest entry-level Samsung droid work. Read more »

Apple iPad Air is cheaper to build than iPad 3

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The Apple iPad Air is a major redesign of Apple’s 9.7″ tablet and is unquestionably more advanced than all their previous models. But did it cost Apple more to make? AllThingsD and researchers from IHS report that the Air is cheaper than the iPad 3 (the last big iPad they have examined), despite the cost of the display going up.

It’s really the screen that is the biggest change to the internals. A new design has allowed Apple to use just one layer of glass instead of two, which has reduced the thickness from 2.23mm to 1.8mm. Read more »