Via its official Weibo account, Meizu is gathering 5000 beta testers with MX2 and MX3 smartphones to run a beta build of Flyme 4.0.

Currently, the Meizu MX2 and MX3 are running Flyme OS 3.8.5A, but hopefully the sooner the company cleans out any bugs Flyme 4 might have on those devices, the faster it releases it. Read more »

Sony’s first smartwatch to run Android Wear, the SmartWatch 3, is finally up for pre-order – yet just at Verizon of all places. It’s already been listed in the Play Store, but you’ll only be able to get it from there at some (still unannounced) later point.

The wearable is priced at $249.99 over at Verizon’s online store, and it’s due to start shipping by October 30. Read more »

The Netherlands division of Samsung Mobile has enlisted the help of Dutch model/actress/Victoria’s Secret Angel Doutzen Kroes to promote the Samsung Galaxy Alpha.

The campaign kicks off with a 20 second “Your Style, Your Galaxy Alpha” video ad and some Doutzen branding on the Dutch Galaxy Alpha product page. Read more »

Samsung designers have opened up about the Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge design for an inside look of how Samsung’s latest flagships came to be. The fourth generation, say the designers, is focused even more on the combination of digital (the flagship specs) and analog (the S Pen experience) and aims to deliver a “warm and emotional” design.

The addition of a metal frame was done at the request of users but the designers were against adding metal for metal’s sake. Read more »

Microsoft is on a roll these days… making apps for Android. Made by the same Microsoft Garage division that brought us this comes the new Next Lock Screen.

As you can tell from the name, it’s a lockscreen app. It presents notifications on the lockscreen similar to the way Android Lollipop does. You can see them at a glance or swipe them away. But more than showing notifications, the lockscreen also shows relevant information from your apps directly on the lockscreen so you don’t have to go hunting inside the app. Read more »

Microsoft launched a crafty search application for Android Wear devices dubbed Torque. The app activates on the Android Wear device via a twist of the user’s wrist.

Of course, the search engine used by the app is powered by Bing, not Google’s own solution. Read more »

Rovio has gone the 8-bit route, emulating the incredible success that was Flappy Bird. The company’s first game to use pretty much the same formula is now available to download on iOS and Android. It’s called Retry, and you’ll be doing a lot of that while you play it.

It’s no Angry Birds, that’s for sure. Like Flappy Bird before it, Retry is easy to learn but frustrating to play and master. It’s hard but addictive. It’s not a full-on Flappy Bird clone, however, coming with some interesting twists of its own. Read more »

Google has just announced a pretty big update for the Google Earth app for Android. The new version will be rolling out over the next week, bringing with it faster and smoother transitions as you’re zooming in.

Mountains and cities get sharper 3D views too, thanks to an overhauled 3D rendering technology that was built from scratch. This is, in fact, the first big upgrade for the 3D tech since Google Earth launched 10 years ago. And more 3D updates are promised for the coming months. Read more »

Google has just unveiled a new service. It’s called Inbox, and it uses the data in your Gmail account. But it presents this to you in some pretty interesting new ways.

It’s designed to “focus on what really matters”, the company says. It does this by surfacing important information from emails, and by letting you add reminders to your new inbox. Read more »

Samsung has released two new promotional videos for the new Galaxy Note 4 on YouTube, that feature real artists. The first video shows British artist Jon Burgerman, known for his ‘doodle style’ of paintings, while the second video features Helsinki-based illustrator and graphic designer Janine Rewell.

Neither videos show the artists actually drawing on the phone itself but they are used to suggest that the phone can be used to quickly draw something whenever an idea or inspiration comes to you. Read more »

The Nexus 6 is a big phone. You can tell that from the display size or from reading the dimensions. But nothing drives the point home than watching it being compared with phones that we are already familiar with.

TechCrunch did a hands-on with the Nexus 6 and there are two images from the article that are worth focusing on. The first is the image above, where the Nexus 6 sits next to the iPhone 6 Plus. Read more »

Motorola’s Moto 360 smartwatch received a major firmware update. The new Android Wear build brings a host of new features and improvements to the wearable timepiece.

The two most notable new features that the update brings are Smart Battery Saving and more frequent time checks. Read more »

The HTC Nexus 9 tablet itself went up for pre-order last week. And now you can pre-order both the Keyboard Folio for Nexus 9, as well as the Magic Cover for the tablet from Amazon.

The former of those will cost you $129.99, while the latter is priced at $39.99. The Magic Cover comes in four different hues. You can choose from black, ‘coral amethyst’, ‘lime stone’, and ‘mint indigo’. Read more »

Back in September, Google told us to expect an update to Android Wear that would bring support for offline music playback and GPS sensors. And now it looks like the first Android Wear device to get the new software is LG’s G Watch.

Some owners of this particular smartwatch have started receiving update notifications. After applying the new bits, they’re on software version 4.4W.2 and build KNX01Q. And sure enough, a new ‘Play Music’ option shows up in the watch’s menu. Furthermore, the G Watch is now capable of pairing itself with Bluetooth audio accessories. Read more »

Google has announced a big update for its Play Music service. First off, the Android and iOS apps have received a new, Material Design-infused coat of paint. Second, the service now brings you contextual music stations.

These have apparently been “hand crafted” by a team of music experts, including DJs, musicians, music critics, and ethnomusicologists, to give you exactly the songs you need for a particular moment. Read more »