Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge were announced today in Barcelona. They both feature a new mobile service for payments called Samsung Pay and yes, you’ve guessed it right, is a competitor to Apple Pay.
Samsung Pay works with NFC and a newly developed technology called MST – Magnetic Secure Transmission. The MST will allow the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge owners to use their phones on most of the existing terminals and merchants won’t need to upgrade their payment solution. Read more »
The HTC One M9 is finally official and we’re experiencing a déjà vu. Didn’t the HTC One (M8) look exactly the same? Alright, they are not quite the same, but you have to look very, very closely to see the subtle differences. Still, here’s a direct comparison, which should give you a perspective on whether the new stuff under the hood is enough of a reason for you to upgrade.
Before we discuss the changes on the inside, let’s go briefly on the exterior. The HTC One M9 is just a tad more compact than its predecessor and weighs 3 grams less. The differences aren’t really noticeable, but the build has been altered slightly. Read more »
The established players are staging flashy events for its devices, but Mozilla has roped in an impressive number of new partners off-stage. Working with carriers spanning the globe from east to west – KDDI, LG U+ and Verizon Wireless – the maker of Firefox OS plans to resurrect old form factors.
The touchscreen consolidated phone shapes into one – the ubiquitous rectangle – but Firefox phones will soon come in flip, slide and other form factors. Read more »
Swatch has announced the new Touch Zero One watch that is made specifically for volleyball players. The watch can track your steps, distance travelled, power hits and power claps, and then calculates the calories burnt.
The watch then pairs with your smartphone over Bluetooth and the Swatch app helps you track your fitness level and also use a virtual coach to set fitness goals for yourself. Read more »
HTC has been promising a wearable for years now, but this year it delivered. The HTC Grip is a smart band with a built-in GPS, built in a collaboration with Under Armour. The company made it clear this isn’t for casual tarining, the Grip is aimed at fitness enthusiast and pro athletes.
Being a serious tool, it focuses on standalone performance rather than its interactions with a smartphone (it’s compatible with Android 4.3+ and iOS 7+). Read more »
Valve is preparing a VR demonstration for the Game Developers Conference in March, but the first hardware for it came out unexpectedly from HTC. The HTC Vive headset will work with PCs rather than phones, but the company claims it has what it takes to beat the Oculus Rift.
This could be a big win for HTC though as official figures have it that Valve has 125 million users, nearly 9 million of which are online at the same time. Read more »
As many mobile device makers are holding their pre-MWC press events, HP has unveiled a new laptop – the Spectre x360. This is actually a convertible PC, and HP says that we’re looking at its “most premium and versatile” computer ever.
The Spectre x360 can be used in a few different ‘modes’ – there’s the laptop mode obviously, as well as the tablet mode, but you can also choose ‘tent mode’ for playing, and ‘stand mode’ for watching entertainment. Read more »
Huawei is not particularly big on the wearable market. The company does, however have a history with experimenting in the field, particularly with the TalkBand B1 – a wearable Bluetooth handset. The interesting device saw the light of day last year and was definitely met with mixed response. Today it’s releasing a follow-up on that along withn Android Wear smartwatch. Read more »
After having leaked earlier today, both the Huawei TalkBand B2 (pictured below) and the TalkBand N1 are now official. The Chinese company has updated the design of its original TalkBand B1 from one year ago, this time opting for a more premium look. The materials are different too, since the B2 is made from an aluminum alloy. Its functionality is similar to its predecessor’s – namely, it’s a fitness tracker that’s also a Bluetooth headset.
On the other hand, the TalkBand N1 is a Bluetooth headset and music player apparently aimed at the fitness market. Read more »
Microsoft is slowly but steadily catching up to Android, and is planning to bring USB OTG capabilities along with Windows 10. The feature has been supported on Google’s OS since its 3.1 version, and by now has become virtually ubiquitous.
The official announcement will take place at the Windows Hardware Engineering Community event, which will be held a couple of weeks from now on March 18-19 in Schenzhen. Read more »
Acer’s MWC press event is already under way in Barcelona and a few new phones have been announced. Among these are two entry-level Android phones which are meant to extend the Liquid line, as well as a Windows Phone handset. The manufacturer has already released promotional videos for the pair of phones, which can be found on YouTube.
Despite their modest appearance Acer markets the devices as “all-rounder” phones and accents on the full-featured Android experience they deliver. All three phones spout a rather small, by today’s standards 4-inch 233ppi WVGA screen. The two Android models are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC, clocked at 1.2 GHz with only 1 GB of RAM. The Z220 spouts a 5MP main shooter, while its bigger brother, the Z520 has an 8MP camera and a small 2MP camera sits on the front of both devices. Read more »
Acer unveiled today an updated version of its Liquid Leap wearable, adding a “plus” to the name. It does bring more to the table though, than the marginal name change suggests.
Most importantly, the smartband offers support for all three major operating systems, so you can pair it with the smartphone of your choosing. Read more »
Huawei’s upcoming MWC 2015 product line-up just keeps on leaking today. The latest piece of news regards the company’s Talkband N1 MP3 player and Talkband B2 Bluetooth headset.
Both have been spotted at the MWC 2015 showroom floors in large banners, but the actual product photos have been hidden with black tape. Anyway, the Huawei Talkband N1 is an MP3 player with an activity tracker and Bluetooth connectivity. Read more »
Two promo videos of the Huawei Watch have leaked revealing the smartwatch’s personality in a bit more detail. A couple of days ago, we saw the watch for the first time in an ad banner at the Barcelona airport.
One of the videos tells the story behind the watch’s design and the materials Huawei has used to make it. On top of its perfectly circular display, the Huawei watch sports sapphire glass for protection. The diameter of the screen is 42mm, which the company says is the best size for a luxury watch, which fits both men and women. Read more »
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