Google has issued an update for its Hangouts app on iOS. The latest version of the popular messaging service allows you to place free voice calls as long as you live in the US and Canada.

The app uses your Google Voice number for both outgoing and incoming calls. Calls outside the two countries work too, albeit for a fee. Read more »

ASUS announced its latest convertible tablet at this year’s IFA in Berlin and it’s called the Transformer Pad TF701T. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that ASUS has dropped the Infinity moniker and has chosen a simpler naming scheme for its premium tablet.

Just like its predecessor, the Transformer Pad rocks a 10.1″ IPS display. Unlike it, however, it’s an IGZO panel, which promises richer, more accurate colors and improved brightness. It’s also featuring a higher, 2560 x 1600 pixel, resolution which results in a pixel density of 300ppi. Read more »

If you’re a PC gamer (or just a geek in general), you may have heard of the term V-sync. It works by delaying the image frame update until the vertical blanking interval of the display, so that there is no overlapping of frames that leads to screen tearing. While this does eliminate screen tearing, it causes performance issues with low framerate and a jerky mouse response. This leads to most people choosing to keep it disabled to get higher framerate and response at reduced visual quality.

The problem today is that LCD monitors usually have a fixed panel refresh rate of 60Hz and unless the GPU is attaining anything other than 60fps, the result is less than ideal performance. Current V-sync technology makes the GPU run through hoops to match its speed with the display’s refresh rate. This is where NVIDIA’s G-SYNC comes in. Read more »

Can’t get enough of the Nexus 5 leaks? Well, good news, for we have one more for you. The latest one shows what is supposedly the packaging for the phone. The very Nokia-esque blue box has the image of the phone on the front and the back next to the Google logos, with the LG logos placed on the side.

But what’s more interesting than the packaging itself is the image of the phone depicted on it. You’ll notice that it is, in fact, white in color whereas all the leaks we have seen so far, including the official image and listing on Google Play, have only shown the black model so far. Read more »

Amazon announced that the 7” Kindle Fire HDX tablet is now shipping. The Wi-Fi-only models are the ones available for the time being. LTE-capable slates will be shipping on November 14.

Pricing of the Android tablet starts at $229 for a 16GB Wi-Fi version with ads on the lockscreen, and tops out at $324 for a 64GB device with no ads. Read more »

If you’re a fan of burning rubber on mobile and happen to be an iOS user then you’d be pleased to find that today Asphalt 8 Airborne, the latest title of the game, has gone free on iOS.

Android gamers don’t get to enjoy the same spoils, sadly, and this isn’t even the first time the game has gone free on iDevices. Read more »

The GSMArena.com Facebook page is now liked by more than 500,000 people around the world! This makes us one of the most popular mobile websites on Facebook, and that really makes us proud.

The support we are getting is really raising exponentially, as the last 50,000 likes came in just 10 days! In September 2011 we hit 100,000 page likes and exactly 9 months later in June 2012 the likes counter showed 200,000. Now, in October 2013, we’ve hit the cool 500,000 likes and we really can’t thank you enough for this! Read more »

New images of the alleged next iPad mini and iPad 5 have leaked just days before the Apple October 22 event.

The images show the iPad mini 2 next to the iPhone 5s and with another iPad lurking in the background. Notice how the home button isn’t TouchID but a vanilla one? Previous leaks suggested the iPad mini 2 will have TouchID, but this seems to put those speculations to rest. Read more »

As if the delays for the much anticipated sequel to the original Plants vs. Zombies weren’t enough, EA decided to push back the Android release of Plants vs. Zombies 2 even further to an unspecified date.

That unspecified date happened to be yesterday as the Android version of the game was finally released on the Play Store. Read more »

Suddenly, everyone is interested in smartwatches (and by everyone I mean the companies making it because the average customer still doesn’t care). Samsung has made one, Apple and Google are supposedly making one and now it seems so is Nokia.

Code named ‘Facet’, Nokia’s smartwatch concept is by far the most outlandish that we have seen, mostly because it looks very little like a traditional watch and is mostly just a band with displays all over it. Read more »

The slo-mo videos has been kind of a big deal about the iPhone 5s since Apple announced the fella in September. The iPhone 5s indeed outputs 720p videos at 120 fps, but does it record them in 720p resolution as well? As it turns out – it does not.

A reader of ours tipped us the Apple iPhone 5s doesn’t actually capture proper 720p footage when you enable slow-motion recording and since we had already noticed that those videos have less captured detail than expected, we though a more detailed investigation was in order. It’s like they were recorded in lower resolution and then upsized to 720p. Read more »

LG has just announced the USA availability of the G Pad 8.3 slate. You can pre-order it today exclusively on BestBuy online for $349.99 with free shipping.

The LG G Pad 8.3 will become available through various retailers starting November 3 with BestBuy being the first to get it. Read more »

Nokia would like to name October 20 (cleverly spelled by Nokia 10.20) the International Mobile Photography day and has teamed up with some Associated Press photojournalists to bring a “mobile photo documentary” and a “Life Unexpected” video.

The mobile photo documentary will bring together series of photos from people around the world, while the best will make it to the video, which is said to air on Monday, October 21. Read more »

Motorola’s MotoMaker, the online software that let’s you customize the Moto X (currently only in the US and so far only on AT&T) has a fresh new feature that will appeal to Moto X converts coming from iOS.

After purchasing a Moto X through MotoMaker customers will be given a choice, if coming from an iPhone, to add their iCloud and Google credentials and have their iOS contacts and calendars synced with Google. Read more »

Microsoft is releasing its Windows 8.1 OS today. It will be available as a free update to existing Windows 8 users and will also come pre-installed on new Windows 8 PCs sold after tomorrow. The stand-alone retail version also launches on October 18.

Windows 8.1, previously known as Blue, will bring back the Start button, make the Start screen optional (boot to Desktop), will offer more customization options, new spit screen mode, IE 11, better SkyDrive integration, new apps, new connectivity options and lots of other improvements. Read more »