Samsung updated its fitness app, S Health, with a new Material Design UI, plus Coach by Cigna and a few bug fixes.

It’s now at version 3.5.5, available now in the Galaxy Apps store. Read more »

Out of the blue the new Raspberry Pi 2 is official. It’s a successor to the B+ model and features the same hardware arrangement (1x Ethernet, 4x USB 2.0), but a much upgraded CPU – a quad-core Cortex-A7 at 900MHz. The best part is that Microsoft will provide a free Windows 10 version!

All this for the same $35 price tag. Read more »

Most major manufacturers recently rolled out the Android 5.0 Lollipop update to their respective flagships and we were more then eager to test how their performance has changed now that Lollipop is here. The speed comparison will be done on our usual battery of synthetic benchmarks.

So, does Lollipop improve performance or make it worse? Read on to find out. Read more »

The Nexus family is treated like Android royalty and is among the very first devices to get updated to a new software version. That’s great, except the Nexus 7 tablets with mobile data did not get the princely treatment they deserve and their update was delayed.

This affected both the original Nexus 7 and the Nexus 7 (2013). No more though, Google released the factory images for Android 5.0.2 Lollipop for both devices. Read more »

It seems that Samsung is updating its Galaxy Tab 4 lineup to 64-bit processors – the Galaxy Tab 4 10.1, the Tab 4 8.0 and now the Tab 4 7.0 as well. The 7″ device (model number SM-T239) was recently imported into India for testing.

The same tipster that sent us the Galaxy Xcover 3 info dropped us a line, saying that the market name of the tablet might be Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Lite 7.0 LTE (*takes breath*), so probably not a Galaxy Tab 5 model though that’s not 100% confirmed. Read more »

Under its new leadership, Microsoft has embraced other Mobile platforms and Office for Android is officially available starting today (having gone through a preview stage). Also, it’s bringing Outlook to Android and iOS and updating the OneDrive apps to handle photos better.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android tablets offer an “unmistakably Office experience”, which means the Ribbon UI. Read more »

Some are using their VR headsets to play a flight simulator and get a first-person perspective of the cockpit. Qantas Airways wants to flip this on its head and use a VR headset – namely the Samsung Gear VR – take you anywhere you want while in a first class cabin of select Airbus A380 flights.

Select first class lounges (in Sydney and Melbourne) will also get the Gear VR so you can preview your destination. Read more »

With communication shifting towards IM and VoIP apps, one might think that dual-SIM phones are on their way out, but it turns out that’s not the case. According to OpenSignal about a quarter of Android smartphones tend to be dual-SIMs.

It’s a very regional thing – countries with strong carrier subsidies have very few multi-SIM devices, while countries with a “bring your own device” model tend to have a lot more. Read more »

Meizu is moving into the home automation game with the new Lifekit system that comprises of multiple devices including a smart bulb, a scale, an air purifier, an smart A/C and a complex four-piece gadget that controls the air quality in your home.

These products are developed in partnership with Haier and Alibaba, with mostly identical hardware but will be integrated into Meizu’s Lifekit platform. Read more »

Twitter is mostly a public social network, but it improved its private messaging experience with Direct Messages for groups. Another change today is the ability to record, edit and share short video clips publicly.

The new features will be rolled out gradually to all users, but you can view videos and be invited into conversations by people who have already gotten access to the features. Read more »

Smartwatch popularity has reached critical levels and new ones come from unexpected places – now including Polish company Krüger&Matz. The Krüger&Matz Smartwatch Classic runs a custom Linux build on a MediaTek Aster chipset and costs PLN 350 ($94/€83).

The smartwatch is compatible with iOS 7+ and Android 4.3+ devices. 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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »