Oppo has released a rather quirky promotional video for the new Oppo R5. It is all centered around one of the handset’s most prominent features – its 4.85mm body. This is truly an admirable accomplishment in smartphone terms, but maybe not quite as razor-sharp, as the following video seems to imply. The concept is quite original and very much in tune with today’s gorilla-marketing strategies, but perhaps borders a bit on the comic side as almost any device can be smashed into fruit with mostly the same amount of visual carnage.

The Snapdragon 615- powered flagship is in fact quite durable with its 155g 3D-welded aluminum body. Using it as a hammer, however might have also been a step too far. The frame seemed to fair quite well under the ridiculous abuse Read more »

After the recent mass roll-out of the new material design look, the YouTube app is once again receiving special treatment from Google. The latest addition to the video streaming service is the long-requested feature of offline video playback.

This sounds incredibly exciting, but before you head on to the Play Store eager for an update, there are a few catches. The new feature is initially available only in India, Indonesia and the Philippines and only for select video content, or as Google put it: “much of [the] popular YouTube content”. So if you happen to reside in the aforementioned areas, look out for an offline icon on certain clips to see the feature in action. Read more »

Indian telecom Swipe has just made the newest addition to its Slate tablet series available online. The device is now up for sale on the company’s website and through Snapdeal for INR10,270 or around $165. The tablet features a 9.7 inch 1024 x 768 pixel IPS display, a quad-core CPU, clocked at 1.3 GHz, 1GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage.

For the modest price tag you also get two cameras – 2MP primary and 0.3MP front as well as a microSD card slot and 3.5mm audio jack. Interestingly enough, the Android 4.4.2 tablet also features a 3G modem and logically a SIM card slot and can double as a phone with voice calling features integrated into the OS. Read more »

Few titles have captivated the gaming world the same way the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic series has. The third installment of the franchise is a universally acclaimed timeless classic, which still lures in adventure-hungry players with its superbly crafted turn-based style, immersive storyline and most of all – incredibly addictive gameplay. True fans and nostalgic retro gamers everywhere can now rejoice as Ubisoft has announced the resurrection of Heroes of Might and Magic III in a whole new HD edition.

The release is set for January 29 2015, which is really close. And just when you thought this news couldn’t possibly get any better the announcement also cites that a tablet version, with touch-optimized controls will be coming out for both Android and iOS. Read more »

2014 has undoubtedly been an eventful year for mobile tech. One of the definite refrains of the past moths has been the smartwatch reemergence as a viable and fast-growing market niche. Wearables seem to be popping up more and more frequently and the recent introduction of Google’s Android Wear only fueled the market fire. LG has remained at the forefront of the new craze, producing not one, but two very successful smartwatches in under a year – the LG G Watch and the round LG G Watch R.

LG G Watch R

Earlier today, Business Korea reported on a rumor that claims LG is already hard at work on the G Watch R’s successor. The new device will bear the logical name LG G Watch R2 and will be unveiled to the public during the next Mobile World Congress, held in March 2015 in Spain. Read more »

Just like last year, Microsoft is again organizing a 12 day long holiday promotion with price cuts on various devices. Much like an advents calendar the US tech giant will be unveiling the special offers one at a time, every day until December 19.

The campaign is, sadly, only available in the US and Canada and kicked off yesterday with the Toshiba Encore Mini tablet. Read more »

The Samsung Gear VR is available now online from AT&T so be sure to act quickly before it is all gone!

The Samsung Gear VR is perhaps one of the most interesting smartphone-based hardware kits ever, not to mention the trendiest at the moment. With all the hype Oculus VR has been causing lately with its Oculus Rift kit and recent Facebook acquisition it seems that virtual reality is making a huge comeback, only now it is more real than ever. Read more »

With the holiday season drawing closer the annual wave of Christmas-themed ads is coming steadily and instilling that particular cheery mindset that fuels shopping sprees. ASUS is definitely no stranger to the tradition and has just released a Christmas-flavored promotional video for its MeMo Pad.

The ad itself is as Christmasy as it gets with gifts, decorated trees, light and of course jolly old Saint Nick himself showing off the MeMo Pad’s performance. Read more »

Microsoft has been tinkering quite a lot with Android applications lately, even if with mixed success. One of their more interesting creations for the platform is the Next Lock Screen – a smart, location-aware lockscreen that pulls relevant information from user apps and places it right beside notifications for easy access.

Now Microsoft’s experimental brain child has gotten even smarter. The latest update adds weather information to the mix as well as a visual redesign with a lot more freedom for customization. Read more »

Earlier today Sony opened its first of a kind underwater store. But before you put on your bathing suits, there is a slight catch. The Xperia Aquatech store is a promotional activity, carried by the Japanese company in Dubai, or rather 4 meter under sea level near the city.

The three daylong event aims to demo the marine capabilities of some of Sony’s water-proof devices and most of all build publicity. The guest list is very short, with only competition winners, media and VIPs attending and from the looks of it was nothing short of a spectacular experience.

Attendees are required to participate in some mandatory scuba diving training and are put under the constant supervision of a diving instructor. Read more »

There is no doubt that Spotify has changed the music industry forever. The micro-purchasing, ad-supported streaming service that it offers has turned into more than a household name. If you are like most Spotify users, however, the words “try Spotify premium” have been drilled so deeply into your mind that hearing them while listening to music has become more or less the norm. If this is the case and you are among the millions hooked on Spotify’s set of features and experiences, than there has never been a better time to take the premium version out for a spin.

Now you can get three whole months of uninterrupted music listening pleasure for only 99 cents. Read more »

One of the main purposes of the fingerprint scanners, incorporated in various current devices is user authentication. But besides trivial tasks, like unlocking, which is often more of a novelty that an actual useful feature, fingerprint identification has a much more serious possible use – verifying online payments.

PayPal has had a successful partnership with Samsung, bringing the futuristic security feature through its Android application to supported devices. Until now, however, this was done on a separate branch of the PayPal app that was only distributed through Samsung’s own Application Store. Now the internet payment giant has taken another step forward in the utilization of the technology by incorporating support for fingerprint authentication in the Google Play Store version of the PayPal app as well. Read more »

The South Korean pop prodigy PSY can easily be crowned as one of the most viral sensations to ever explode online. The appeal of the singer’s unique art style and quirky performances seems to be so absolutely universal that it transcends cultural, age and language barriers worldwide.

This astonishing success story would, arguably, never be possible without the existence of YouTube as the amazing melting pot of social and cultural influences and trends that it has become. Read more »

The original Sony Play station, one of the most revolutionary pieces of hardware to ever hit the console market has just turned 20. To celebrate this momentous event the Tokyo technology giant is releasing a limited set of units straight out of hardcore fan dreams.

The consoles at hand are a set of 12,300 unique Play Station 4s which are designed and manufactured to resemble the legendary first generation Play Station as closely as possible. The attention to detail is truly astonishing. The chassis, controllers and additional accessories all bear the signature 1994 style rubbery gray color, which is sure to bring a smile to any nostalgic gamer’s face. Even the cables look the part and complete the picture of something that feels as if it came straight out of a time machine. Read more »

A 12 inch tablet by Apple has been a long standing rumor. Ever since January bits and pieces of the story, surrounding the mythical device have been surfacing. Last week we saw what is supposedly a 12.2 inch iPad Air, planned for next year.

Any specifics are not yet available and the whole story is pretty open to debate at this point, but it does seem that sooner or later Apple is bound to release a device in this size format. Read more »