Microsoft is working on an updated Maps app for Windows 10 and thanks to the Universal App platform, the same app that has been running on Windows 10 Technical Preview for desktops is now available for Insiders testing the phone build of the upcoming OS.

The app is designed to work with both mouse and keyboard as well as touchscreens. This includes pinch zooming and two finger map rotation, both familiar gestures. Read more »

Opera Mini was the browser of choice for early phone platforms and has outlived many of them. For the 10-year birthday of thrifty browser Opera is releasing a new version with a native feel on Android along with Private mode.

Keeping up with the tradition of bringing modern browsing even to old devices, the new version of Opera Mini is available even for ancient Android 2.3 phones. Read more »

We’ve all watched unboxing videos – taking a phone out of its retail packaging for the first time. Samsung’s latest promo video for the Galaxy S6 edge is an “inboxing” video, the story of how the phone and its accessories got into that box.

It begins with placing the fingerprint scanner on the front bracket. Read more »

You’ll be able to pre-order an Apple Watch in a couple of days, Apple employees will enjoy a massive discount. No one but Apple employees have handled the watch though it seems that the Daily Mail have a review unit as photos of an Apple Watch in its retail box were posted on Instagram.

The Instagram account has since been made private, but the photos show the Watch with the Milanese Loop mesh band along with a separate brown leather band in its box. Read more »

Last year at CES Huawei unveiled the first router in the Honor family, the Huawei Honor Cube, which ran Android and had a built-in HDD. Now the company is working on a much cheaper router – just CNY 188 (about $30) – called Glory.

It will be powered by a dual-core processor and feature dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac. Read more »

The Motorola Moto 360 was the first round-screened Android Wear smartwatch, though since then a number of competitors have appeared. The 360, despite its name, had a characteristic “flat tire” design – a small section of the bottom was cut off to make room for the touchscreen’s control elements.

A leaked product render shows a properly round screen, while keeping the thin bezels. Read more »

If you need ultimate performance on your PC then SATA drives just don’t cut it – fast SSDs need to be hooked up to the faster PCIe bus. The new Intel 750 SSD promises read speeds of up to 2,400MB/s and writes up to 1,200MB/s.

The drive offers high performance in random reads and writes too. Read more »

Vertu keeps reskinning its Aster smartphone. The latest variations are the Quilt (sporting a leather with distinctive stitching) and the Stingray (which features actual stingray leather). The hardware specs are unchanged, though the price differs.

Starting with the more affordable model – if you can call it that – the Vertu Aster Quilt comes in Black and Blue. Read more »

The Samsung 850 EVO SSDs came a while back, but they were available only in 2.5″ form-factors. Now Samsung has introduced the mSATA and M.2 versions. M.2 is the successor to mSATA and new super-thin laptops – like the ones these SSDs are targeting – are already switching to the new standard.

The SSDs are available for sale now, replacing the 840 EVO mSATAs. Read more »

Two TVs in one week – Xiaomi unveiled a 55″ 4K TV for CNY 5,000 ($800/€750). That’s the biggest Xiaomi Mi TV yet, the previous models were 49″ and 40″. Interestingly, the new Mi TV comes with a 6.2 sound bar and wireless all-aluminum subwoofer included in the box.

It’s a smart TV with an upgraded chipset, MStar 6A928. Read more »

While many Android vendors have switched to Chrome and the default and only web browser out of the box on their phones, Samsung maintains the heavily-customized Internet app. Tizen Indonesia has revealed that the app will be rebranded Samsung Browser and will be available on all Samsung platforms.

This covers everything from phones and tablets (Android and Tizen) to TVs. Read more »

LG already launched the Watch Urbane LTE in in South Korea, now the spotlight is shifting to its non-LTE sibling. LG UK posted a short video of the LG Watch Urbane on its YouTube channel, meaning it’s coming soon, though the video doesn’t give an exact date.

Expansys is already taking pre-orders (at £300), however, there’s no shipping date yet. Read more »

The One M9 had to endure many jokes on the subject, still we un-ironically ask – HTC One M9, Hot or Not? HTC has polished its acclaimed design and leaped forward in the camera department with a 20MP/2160p shooter, while keeping what we love most about the One family – metal unibody and stereo speakers.

It took us a while to form an opinion on the new flagship, it’s a mix of excitement and let downs. We wanted to hear what you think about it, especially now that we gauged your opinion of its rival, the Samsung Galaxy S6. Read more »

Samsung removed the microSD card slot from its latest Galaxy S6 flagship, but it did upgrade the base storage to 32GB. How much storage do you get on a 32GB phone, anyway?

Well, we have plenty of photos and videos on ours, but before we started shooting camera samples there were 23GB available. Read more »

The HTC One M9+ may be unveiled in China on April 9, but recent rumors claim it will be available in Europe too. And that’s with the same MediaTek MT6795, rather than having it swapped out with Snapdragon 810 for the western audience.

That hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, but until the One M9+ is official, you can feast your eyes on its (leaked) QHD wallpapers (courtesy of @LlabTooFeR). Read more »