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A Moto 360 successor with new screen leaks – fully round, higher resolution

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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 »

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 hits Germany in May, costs 299 euro

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Samsung Galaxy Tab A is the newest mid-range lineup of slates, which should replace the Galaxy Tab 4 series soon. The Galaxy Tab A 8 and Galaxy Tab A 9.7 tablets went official last month in Russia with attractive designs and mid-range specs.

Both Galaxy A Tabs feature similar specs – 8 or 9.7″ 4:3 screens of 1024 x 768px, a quad-core 1.2GHz processor (courtesy of Snapdragon 400 or Snapdragon 410 chips), 2 gigs of RAM (1.5GB for the Wi-Fi model), 16GB expandable storage, 5MP cams and Android Lollipop OS. The battery capacity for the 8″ model is 4,200 mAh, while the 9.7″ has a beefy 6,000 mAh unit. Read more »

HTC tipped to be working on an Android Auto competitor dubbed Cello

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Looks like HTC is developing its own answer to Android Auto. According to a Reddit poster, the Taiwanese company is working on a device, codename Cello, that is far more capable than Google’s in-car system. The user also posted what appears to be an HTC Release Note (see below).

The device is said to be powered by Android 4.4 and runs a special version of HTC’s Sense UI, dubbed Sense Automotive, which is specifically made for cars. The features it offers include: Night Vision, Sonar, Mini HMI (Human Machine Interface), DVD, Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, Lane Departure Warning System, Navigation, and GPS. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge battery life tests

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The wait is over, guys, the retail units of the Samsung hottest duo made it to our office. As promised we are updating our Galaxy S6 review with the final results of each test, plus our in-depth Galaxy S6 edge review is already live on our homepage.

Both Galaxy S6 and S6 edge utilize Quad HD Super AMOLED screens and are powered by identical Exynos 7420 chips. The battery capacity of the S6 edge is just a whisker larger than the power unit inside the regular S6 model, but we are unsure if that’s enough to make a difference. Read more »

iFixit tear down the HTC One M9, the verdict – slightly better, but still a nightmare.

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The good folks over at www.ifixit.com have finally managed to get to HTC’s latest flagship device. And, as tradition goes, the unit has to suffer, so a lot of others like it can be saved from the electronics graveyard.

Judging by continuity in the design of the One series, it is only natural to assume that the One M9 shares much of the same assembly and mounting techniques as its predecessor, which is notoriously difficult to mend, mostly due to an abundance on tricky adhesive holding things in place. Read more »

Google says Android malware installs fell by 50% in 2014

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Last year saw a sharp decline in the global rate of Android malware installs, according to Google’s Android Security 2014 Year in Review report.

Adrian Ludwig, Lead Engineer for Android Security, highlighted a few of the key findings of the report in a blog post. He said that the overall worldwide rate of Potentially Harmful Application (PHA) installs decreased by nearly 50% in 2014, adding that less than 1% of Android devices had a PHA installed last year, and less than 0.15% of devices that only install from Google Play had a PHA installed. Read more »

Huawei lists a dozen reasons why you’d want its Watch

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Building up hype before the market launch of its Watch, Huawei has come up with a 12-strong list of things you need to know about the wearable. The number isn’t arbitrary, instead it’s inspired by the 12 hours on a traditional watch face.

Huawei starts off with the smartwatch’ design, which is the closest the mobile industry has gotten to replicating an ordinary mechanical timepiece. Read more »

HTC Blinkfeed for Android gets renamed to Sense Home

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An update to HTC Blinkfeed for Android renamed the application to Sense Home. The new app brings BlinkFeed, HTC Themes, as well as HTC Sense Home widget under one roof.

HTC Themes functionality allows users to change icons, colors, wallpapers, and even the sound bundles of their device. Read more »

Microsoft launches Office Lens for iPhone along with preview version for Android

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Today Microsoft has brought its pretty successful Office Lens app from Windows Phone to iOS and Android. Office Lens was initially introduced for the company’s own mobile platform more than a year ago, and Microsoft says it’s now one of the most popular free apps for Windows Phone.

The concept behind it is simple. Office Lens allows you to capture a lot of different things with your smartphone’s camera, then automatically crops and enhances the images and saves them to OneNote or OneDrive. And thanks to optical character recognition, the text inside your captures becomes searchable. The app can even convert images of paper documents into Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, or PDFs for easy editing. Read more »

Skype for Android and iOS gets updated, Skype Qik too

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Today Skype has announced updates for both its main app as well as Skype Qik. Skype itself has been renewed for both Android and iOS, but the former platform gets more new features.

For example, Skype 5.3 for Android gives you a new bubble-style chat layout, similar to the one already employed in the iOS and desktop apps. It also receives support for emoji, so you can express yourself better. Read more »

Galaxy S6 and S6 edge are very eco-friendly and Samsung has the awards to prove it

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Succeeding in the very dynamic and demanding tech market of today often requires a lot more than technological advances, beautiful design and competitive prices. People are starting to pay more attention on how their products are made, what they are made from and, most-importantly, how eco-friendly they are.

This increased consumer concern is definitely a step in the right direction and will hopefully fuel the advancement or sustainable and renewable tech. And while projects like Google’s modular ARA are taking a more radical approach to the problem, there are a lot of things any technology manufacturer can address to help and when we are talking about a giant, like Samsung, efforts usually show quick results. Read more »

Vertu adds Quilt stitching and Stingray leather options to its Aster collection

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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 »

Google News & Weather for Android gets breaking news notifications and recommendations

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Today Google has launched the latest update to the oft-forgotten News & Weather app for Android. This started life as little more than a widget built into Android, but then got released in the Play Store last year. Since that point, it’s received quite a few big updates, this latest one probably among the biggest yet.

This app is slowly but surely growing up into an interesting source for news, though Google has another app for that purpose – Play Newsstand. Read more »

The original Tomb Raider video game arrives on Android

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The 1996 video game smash hit Tomb Raider finally made its way to the Android ecosystem. The title has been available for iOS since December 2013.

Square Enix has priced the Android version of the game at a sweet 99 cents. Read more »

Moto X is $140 cheaper for one day only

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It might be April Fools’ Day today, but this is no joke. Motorola has decided to run another price-cutting promo for the Moto X on this occasion, and you’re now able to save $140 if you purchase the device.

It normally starts at $499.99, but if you order one now it will start at $359.99. Obviously we’re talking about buying the Moto X off-contract, as the promo sadly isn’t valid if you get it with a long-term carrier agreement. Read more »