HTC started rolling out the update to Android 5.0 Lollipop for the unlocked and Developer Edition units of the One (M8) in the US a couple of weeks ago, and today the Taiwanese company has made the next important step for developers.

It’s now posted the kernel source for its particular flavor of Sense-infused Android 5.0.1 Lollipop on its specialized developer website. This release is different than Google’s Lollipop kernel source exactly because it’s for phones running HTC’s UI overlay. Read more »

When a new smartwatch is announced, two questions are immediately asked – “is it round?” and “does it last longer than a day?” Asus will be addressing the second question with a successor to the ZenWatch, which will deliver 7 days on a charge, up from 2 days currently (by official numbers, in practice more like a day).

The news comes from Chairman Jonney Shih, who mentioned it briefly at an end-of-the-year party at Asus. Read more »

Facebook has employed a rather odd approach to the mobile market and it seems to be betting on quantity, rather than quality for quite some time now. When the social media giant decided to detach the messenger from its main application, thus making it all that less appealing to most users it sparked an avalanche of complaints with a lot of subscribers rage-quitting on the main app.

Facebook surely must have felt the negative consequences and while initially it seemed like a good enough marketing step to promote the messenger itself the detrimental effect have apparently caught on as a new application has silently made its way to the Google Play Store. It is essentially a lightweight version of the social platform that aims to offer services to low-end devices at faster speeds and best of all, with lower bandwidth. Read more »

Last year Microsoft announced that Opera will take over the browsers and app stores running on Nokia’s former platforms – Series 30+, Series 40, Symbian and Nokia X.

The transition is starting this month and Microsoft promises it will be an easy change. Read more »

Apple is apparently working on a larger tablet, as indicated by schematics published in Japanese magazine Macfan. These drawings have been the source of artist Martin Hajek‘s inspiration to create a 3D model of the upcoming device.

The renderings before our eyes represent an informed guess as to what the iPad Pro might look like. Read more »

It seems that selfie contests are becoming as popular as the selfie itself – first Xiaomi, now Oppo too. Oppo’s Selfie Showdown asks you to post your favorite, creative or unusual selfie.

The winners will grab a brand new Oppo N3. The company’s photography flagship has a mechanized rotating camera so selfies get the first-class treatment and are taken with the 13MP camera and dual-LED flash. Read more »

Microsoft rolled out Windows 10 Build 9879 to the members of the Windows Insider Program back in November, and it turned out to be the last build for the year 2014. The next build (9926) arrived just a few days ago, which means after a gap of more than two months.

While that particular delay between could be attributed to the holiday season, the company has said that it won’t be the case from now on. While answering a user question, a Windows team member has confirmed that the Redmond, Washington-based company will be releasing new Windows 10 builds faster from now on – at least one per month. Read more »

Cortana’s location-based reminders, that trigger notifications when you arrive at specific geographic locations, have now started working even in unsupported regions – they are now available in Jordan, as well as Russia.

According to a Geeks on Gadgets report, the feature now works perfectly in Jordan. “Navigation commands also work, bringing a list of nearby locations and approximate distances (in miles however), with the option to navigate to the through HERE drive,” the report notes. Read more »

It’s still a rare occurrence to find a smartphone with built-in wireless charging capabilities these days with the notable exception of the mid-to-high end Lumia lineup. Samsung has opted for a different strategy for several generations of Galaxy flagships, providing optional back covers to those who want to do away with cables.

The Galaxy Note 4 continues this tradition and, in typical Samsung fashion, two options are available, a plain charging back, and an S-View case. Read more »

While HTC is not a company that comes to mind when thinking “games,” the company will be sponsoring three e-sports teams – Team Liquid, Team SoloMid and Cloud9 – in the upcoming League of Legends Championship Series.

Announcements from Team Liquid also lists Counter Strike: Global Offensive, while Cloud9 hints at more games to come Read more »

A technical preview of Windows 10 was made available for download and now benchmarks of MIcrosoft’s new Internet Explorer Project Spartan web browser are available.

Done by AnandTech, the benchmark results reveal that Project Spartan is noticeably faster than Internet Explorer 11 and in some tests even outruns Chrome and Firefox. Read more »

Sony recently announced the limited edition 20th Anniversary PlayStation 4, decked out in the same gray color as the original PSOne. There were only 12,300 of these made, each having a serial number embossed on it denoting its number in the series.

Naturally, the most special one of the lot is the one with the 00001 number on it, making it even more rare and super expensive. But to see just how much it would sell for, Sony recently held an auction in Japan on Yahoo Auctions, and the console was won for ¥15,135,000, which is roughly $129,000. In comparison, the other 12,299 units were sold for ¥49,980 ($425). Read more »

T-Mobile launched a brand new program for discounts on popular smartphones. Dubbed Score!, the plan gives subscribers the opportunity to pick up a new device at a special price every year.

Score! is available for both prepaid and postpaid T-Mobile customers. Read more »

If you are among the owners of a Windows RT tablet, you may have wondered whether about the future fate of Windows RT devices and whether they might get updated to Windows 10 eventually.

It turns out Windows RT devices will get updated with some of the features of the upcoming OS, but not the OS itself.

Even though Windows RT appeared as the OS of choice on a few quite capable tablets, it never managed to gain traction mostly due to the lack of support for x86 desktop applications.

Today, it’s mostly outphased by a slew of tablets running proper Windows 8.1. Read more »

The Nexus Player by Asus is now available outside to the Google Play store. The Android 5.0 set-top box is available in major US retailers that include Amazon, Best Buy, and Newegg.

Newegg and Amazon are the only ones to offer the Nexus Player online. Read more »