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Sesame Phone is world’s first completely touch-free smartphone, designed for the mobility impaired

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Sesame Enable has developed a smartphone that’s completely touch free, allowing users with disabilities to use and control the device simply by moving their head. Dubbed Sesame Phone, the Android handset is basically a modified Nexus 5 that features proprietary head-tracking technology.

The idea originated when Giora Livne, who himself is disabled, saw a computer game that could be controlled with head movement. He along with Oded Ben Dov, the game’s developer, then founded Sesame Enable to bring the idea to life. They had also started an Indiegogo campaign to help raise funds for the project, and they reached their goal last month. Read more »

Gilded Oppo R5 Limited Edition hands-on

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The Oppo R5 shortly held the title of the world’s thinnest smartphone that it stole from the Gionee Elife S5.1 but later lost to the Vivo X5 Max. The R5 left the ambition of being the thinnest behind and came out with a limited edition gilded Oppo R5, which will only ever be produced in 10,000 units.

The Gilded R5 has a golden hue on its exposed metallic frame that runs around the sides of the handset. There are a few gold highlights, including the hardware keys below the display, the ring around the camera module and the Oppo logo on the back. Read more »

Acer Liquid Jade S hands-on

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Acer is perhaps better-known for its tablets, but the Liquid series of phones offer quality specs on a budget. The Acer Liquid Jade S is a surprisingly light 5″ mid-ranger with dual-SIM connectivity. It was released a few months after its Liquid Jade sibling and brings a number of improvements.

Acer Liquid Jade S Handson

It adds LTE, moves to a 64-bit octa-core processor with double the RAM (2GB), doubles the storage (16GB) and tacks on a 5MP selfie camera. All in all, Liquid Jade S owners have what it takes to make non-S owners jealous. Read more »

Weekly poll: LG G Flex2 – hot or not

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The LG G Flex2 was one of the most hotly-anticipated devices at our headquarters ever since it was officially unveiled at CES back in January. It finally made it in this week and gathered much the expected excitement with the entire office flocked around the box.

We quickly set about examining it and subjected it to our rigorous testing routines, and if you’ve missed our in-depth review, now is a good time to catch up. After you’ve familiarized yourself with the G Flex2, we’ve prepped a few polls for you after the break. Read more »

Another Samsung Galaxy S6 teaser goes live, check it out

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Samsung released yet another teaser for its upcoming flagship smartphone. Samsung Galaxy S6 will debut in a tad over a week, on March 1 in Barcelona.

The latest teaser clip hints that the upcoming handset will feature metal body with no borders. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy A7 hands-on

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Sometimes you have to start fresh to get it right, that’s what Samsung did with the Galaxy A series. They are all thin, with metal frames and go against Samsung’s very nature – they focus on looks and feel more than on features. Even so, the Samsung Galaxy A7 is pretty well loaded.

Samsung Galaxy A7 hands-on

It’s a 5.5″ phablet that serves as a mid-range alternative to the Galaxy Note 4. Read more »

LG G Flex2 battery life test

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The LG G Flex2 will be staying under the spotlight for a while as it is not only a curved smartphone with self-healing coating on its back, but it is also the first device to utilize the new Snapdragon 810 chip. Performance aside, what this blogpost is all about, is its battery life.

The G Flex2 is powered by a non-removable 3,000 mAh battery, which is about 15% less than its predecessor. The Snapdragon 810 chipset supports fast charging by default and the provided charger can replenish 60% of the Flex2′s battery in half an hour. Read more »

Motorola Moto X (2014) with Android Lollipop battery life test

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Motorola has already updated its Moto X 2nd Gen (2014) with the latest Android Lollipop build and we’ve decided to run our battery life tests again. Lollipop brings a number of improvements including a number of battery optimizations combined under what’s known as Project Volta.

We’ve already detailed Volta’s features and you can read more about them right here.

In our previous tests with phones that recently got updated to Lollipop we weren’t able to determine a specific pattern in the change in battery life – some of the phones did better in talk time or web browsing, some did worse. It seems every device behaves differently under Lollipop OS, so we really had no clue what to expect from the updated Moto X 2nd Gen. Read more »

Latest Samsung Galaxy S6 teaser is about materials and shapes

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Samsung is continuing its teaser campaign for the upcoming Galaxy S6. The third video in the series was released today. It follows the previous ones about the phone’s camera and performance.

This time around the short video is all about materials and shapes. So, given all the leaks and rumors we’ve seen lately, it kind of feels obvious that Samsung is teasing a metal build for the device. That said, keep in mind that at no point in the promo is that explicitly stated. Otherwise it would be more than a teaser, wouldn’t it? Read more »

Ubuntu phone firmware now available for download, flashing

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Ubuntu started off with big promises for phones – a true phone and desktop hybrid OS. Those lofty goals didn’t pan out and the first Ubuntu phone launched with a more traditional phone OS. The firmware for the BQ Aquaris E4.5 is now available for download.

The phone went on sale ten days ago and offers a 4.5″ qHD screen, quad-core Cortex-A7 processor, 8MP main camera and 5MP selfie camera. Read more »

Motorola responds to criticism, says Apple charges “outrageous prices”

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The criticism from Apple’s chief designer Jony Ive towards Motorola’s Moto Maker in a recent New Yorker magazine profile, saying “that’s abdicating your responsibility as a designer,” prompted a high-level response from the Lenovo subsidiary. Rick Osterloh, the CEO of Motorola has hit back at the Cupertino-based company, describing iPhone prices as “outrageous.”

“We do see a real dichotomy in this marketplace, where you’ve got people like Apple making so much money and charging such outrageous prices. We think that’s not the future,” Motorola president Rick Osterloh said. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Lollipop update in the making, pictured

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Samsung is gradually updating its flagship smartphones to Lollipop, with the Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 4 so far receiving the OTA in various parts of the world. Tablet users may have felt left out so far, but an update is in the works, at least for the high-end Galaxy Tab S 8.4.

According to SamMobile, Lollipop for the flagship compact tablet is to be expected in either March or April. Read more »

Flip phones sales rise in Japan, smartphones falter

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You’d think that flip phones are a dying breed, but that’s not the case in Japan. The people in the Land of the Rising Sun are buying them like hot cakes, Reuters says based on a report by Japanese MM Research Institute.

In fact, flip phones saw a 5.7% increase in sales to 10.58 million in 2014, while smartphone shipments fell 5.3% to 27.70 million. That’s a negative trend for the smartphones, which continues second year in a row there. Read more »

Oppo Find 7 32GB gets an attractive price cut in the UK

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The Oppo Find 7 went on sale in Europe on December 17 and already the company is having sale campaigns of the device. The 32GB version of Oppo’s flagship is currently on sale on Amazon UK for £309.99. That’s £70 off its regular price of £379.99.

The deal applies for both the white and astro black versions of the device. You have by the end of the day to take advantage of the discount. Read more »

HTC One (M9) renders size it up against the Galaxy S6, iPhone 6

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HTC One (M9) is yet to be officially presented to the world, so all we have to look at are hurried photos and leaked images promoting phone cases. Luckily, Martin Hajek is a wiz at making 3D models and he used all info available on the One (M9) to create a virtual phone and put it up against the Apple iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6.

The Galaxy S6 is also waiting for its official introduction, of course, but a few days ago Hajek modelled that one too. Read more »