T-Mobile sends out a new firmware update for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge

Those who own the Galaxy S6 or the Galaxy S6 edge on T-Mobile are receiving a new software update today but they shouldn’t get too excited because Android 6.0 Marshmallow has still not arrived for Samsung’s current flagship handsets. T-Mobile has sent out an incremental firmware update for both the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge instead which makes several improvements to overall device performance, battery performance and call stability.

Build number G920TUVU3DOJ7 and G925TUVU3DOJ7 is now being rolled out for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge on T-Mobile. The changelog states that this firmware update brings improvements for the overall device performance, improves security of the device, call stability, battery life and optimizes closing unused applications. The Milk Video application has also been removed in this update, which isn’t surprising since the Milk Video is shutting down this month. It has only been an hour or so since T-Mobile started rolling out this update so it might take some time for this update to go live across all regions.

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Microsoft suspends Android app support for Windows 10 development

Most Windows 10 adopters tend to feel right at home with Microsoft's latest OS and should, by design, hardly feel any major difference. However, Windows 10 is undoubtedly the biggest update the platform has seen in a while, if not ever and the most colossal change to users and developers alike comes from the push towards a more versatile and universal core, running across a wide range of devices and compatible with as much code as possible.

As part of this ambitious move towards building a truly Universal Windows Platform, last April Microsoft announced its intention to support quick reuse of both iOS and Android code for creating universal apps. Naturally, the major undertaking was riddled with uncertainty from the start and recent developments have now pushed the PC giant to put Android support on hold.



There hasn't really been any official statement on the matter yet, but Microsoft has been persistently hinting that Android support, dubbed project Astoria, is now on hold and could remain so indefinitely.

Instead the company is focusing on the iOS migration tools, which have shown more promise in playing nice with Window 10. Major security and optimization problems have been cited. Also, the Windows Bridge for Android has been called a "quick fix" to broadening the new Windows ecosystem and developer base, which, apparently didn't quite work out as intended and "is not ready yet".



Still, Microsoft has avoided words like canceled or abandoned, so there might still be hope. Here is the whole statement.

We're committed to offering developers many options to bring their apps to the Windows Platform, including bridges available now for Web and iOS, and soon Win32. The Astoria bridge is not ready yet, but other tools offer great options for developers. For example, the iOS bridge enables developers to write a native Windows Universal app which calls UWP APIs directly from Objective-C, and to mix and match UWP and iOS concepts such as XAML and UIKit. Developers can write apps that run on all Windows 10 devices and take advantage of native Windows features easily. We're grateful to the feedback from the development community and look forward to supporting them as they develop apps for Windows 10.

While this whole development is slightly disappointing, it might also be for the best, as hardly anybody wants Microsoft to bite off more than it can chew and potentially jeopardize all the progress it has been showing with its new universal Windows approach and flexible, open development cycle.
Also, we doubt a lot of preexisting developer work and support has been lost, as the Windows Bridge for Android has been absent from Windows 10 insider builds for smartphones for quite some time now, so this new step is hardly a surprise.

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IHS: Apple to release the iPhone 6c in the middle of 2016

Kevin Wang from Analytics company IHS has expressed his projection that Apple is planning to launch a budget-oriented iPhone 6C in the middle of next year. According to Wang, the iPhone 6C will rock a 4" display.


The analyst also reckoned Apple will make a similar move back in August, but apparently that didn't happen. While you should take this information with a pinch of salt, we'd like to point out that an alleged iPhone 6C rear housing leaked back in March. Back then, it was rumored the phone will have a Touch ID fingerprint sensor as well as NFC support for Apple Pay.

If the iPhone 6C become reality, we would suspect it to be offered for free or $99 with a new two-year contract in the US.

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Shipments for some HTC One A9 color variants are getting delayed in the US

HTC was supposed to begin One A9 shipments in the first week of this month. However, a quick look at the device's official online listing reveals that some color variants will be delayed.

As you can see in the screenshot above, HTC says that T-Mobile & ATT orders for Gray & Silver unlocked variants will ship on November 10, while Sprint orders for the models will begin shipping later in the month.

Similarly, Gold unlocked One A9 for T-Mobile and AT&T will start shipping in late November, but the Sprint model will arrive only in mid-December. And finally, Red unlocked model for T-Mobile and ATT will begin shipping early December, while Sprint orders for the variant will ship in mid-December.

Apparently, HTC is compensating users for the delay - according to a tip we received, the Taiwanese company sent out emails announcing the delay in shipments, and saying that they are making up for it by offering "25% off of accessories to protect and personalize your new phone." However, we aren't sure whether it's an isolated case or not.

If you're planning to purchase the handset now, keep in mind that its price has been revised starting today - available for $499 now, up from its promotional price of $399.
Thanks John for the tip!

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OPPO R7s goes on pre-order in Malaysia; Rose Gold variant also on offer

The Oppo R7s, the latest member in the company's R7 family of smartphones which was made official last month during GITEX in Dubai, is now up for pre-order in Malaysia.


The device is now listed on Oppo's official Malaysia website carrying a RM 1,898 (around $435) price tag, and you can pre-order it without paying anything upfront. The pre-order period begins today and ends November 22.

As for color options, the handset is available in Gold as well as limited edition Rose Gold, although the shipment time for the latter is listed as December. Another thing worth mentioning here is that if your pre-order is among the first 500 received by the Chinese company, you'll also get a free VOOC car charger along with the smartphone.

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LG Class arrives in Europe as LG Zero with $320 price tag

Back in September this year, LG launched its first metal-clad smartphone Class in its home country of South Korea. The device has now landed in Europe, although with a different name: LG Zero.


The handset is, however, currently only available in Italy, where it is being offered in gold and silver color options, and carries a price tag of €299 (around $320). This compares to the KRW 399,300 (around $345) price tag the mid-ranger carries in South Korea.

As for its availability in the US, while there has been no official confirmation from LG, the usually reliable leakster @evleaks had revealed in September-end that the smartphone will be available on AT&T, although there was no word on when and at what cost.

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HTC A9w with octa-core CPU and 5-inch display certified by TENAA

A new HTC smartphone has been spotted listed on the website of Chinese certification and regulatory authority TENAA. Dubbed A9w, the handset is quite similar to the newly-launched One A9 in both looks as well as specifications.


The listing reveals that the device is powered by an octa-core 1.5GHz processor (should be Snapdragon 617), and sports a 5-inch AMOLED display with 1920×1080 pixels resolution. It comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB expandable internal memory.

In terms of camera, the A9w features a 13MP rear unit and a 4MP front shooter. Weighing in at 143gms and measuring 145.75 × 70.8 × 7.26 (mm), the device runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, USB, GSM, TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE, LTE FDD, WCDMA, GPS, WLAN, while color options include charcoal gray, silver, gold, garnet color, etching gold, and iron black.

Source | Via

Rumored HTC One X9 sporting 23MP camera and QHD display leaks out

Less than a month after HTC launched the highly anticipated One A9 smartphone, a new handset from the company has been leaked online. Dubbed One X9, the rumored device reportedly carries a model number of E56 and will cost RMB 2,999 (around $470).


Specs-wise, from what the leak suggests, the smartphone will be either powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 820 SoC or Mediatek's deca-core Helio X20 chipset, and sport a QHD display, although size isn't known yet.

The handset will have 4GB RAM and 64GB/128GB internal memory options, although it could also be launched with 3GB/32GB configuration to bring down the price. In terms of camera, the One X9 will sport a 23MP rear unit and a 4MP front shooter. Featuring a metal body and including dual HTC BoomSound speakers on the front, the device will pack in a 3,500mAh battery.

Needless to say, none of this has been officially confirmed by the Taiwanese company, so take all of this with a healthy dose of salt.

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BlackBerry Priv to arrive on Verizon soon, carrier confirms

BlackBerry Priv is now available for purchase in the US, although among carriers, only AT&T is currently selling it. However, for those on Verizon waiting for the handset, here is some good news: the carrier has confirmed that it will be carrying the device "soon."

The confirmation came in the form of a tweet (shown above) sent out by the company's @VerizonNews Twitter account. Interested users can now also sign up for updates related to the Verizon variant on the carrier's website (head to the Source link at the bottom).

This comes just a week after a BlackBerry Priv was spotted online running on Verizon's network, although nothing could be deduced at that time as it was just a random image.

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iPad Pro to actually be out on November 13, pre-orders have started

The iPad Pro was announced back in September during Apple's big event, yet so far it's not gone on sale. Not long ago we heard that November 11 would be its release date, but now that's said to be wrong.

Thankfully though, we're only talking about a two-day 'delay' compared to that rumor. That's because, according to two sources, the iPad Pro is set to be released on November 13, which is next Friday.



One of those sources is Sam's Club, as the retailer has already started taking pre-orders for the iPad Pro, even ahead of Apple. The page that lists the tablet clearly states that November 13 is its release date.

If you're interested in pre-ordering an iPad Pro from Sam's Club, know that only Wi-Fi-only versions with either 32 or 128GB of storage are available, in gray, silver, and gold. For the 32GB model you need to pay $787, while the 128GB tablet can be yours for $937. These prices are lower than Apple's, interestingly - and that's not something that happens a lot, especially right as a new iOS device launches.

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Huawei G7 Plus becomes official with metal body, 1080p screen

uawei's upper-midrange G line of smartphones has gained a new member starting today: the G7 Plus. This is a model that's clearly meant to be positioned as the successor to the Ascend G7 from last year, and as such it improves upon its predecessor in many areas.

The Huawei G7 Plus comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen with 2.5D Gorilla Glass on top, a 13 MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, a 5 MP selfie snapper, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615 chipset at the helm (with 1.5 GHz octa-core CPU), 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, dual-SIM functionality, 4G LTE, and a 3,000 mAh battery.



It runs Android 5.1 with Huawei's own EMUI 3.1. Its dimensions are 152.5 x 76.5 x 7.5 mm, and it weighs 167g. The G7 Plus is made out of 90% metal, with only a couple of plastic panels on the back that hide its various antennas. There's a fingerprint scanner under the rear camera.

The phone should receive an update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow in February of next year. It's being priced at around $330 sans contract, and will be offered in three color versions - silver, grey, and gold. Right now it's only gone official in Thailand, but we expect it to launch in many more countries soon.

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HTC One (M8) Google Play Edition gets Marshmallow update

The first HTC smartphone to run Android 6.0 Marshmallow is the One A9, as you may know. But the first HTC handset to be updated to the latest version of Android is in fact the One (M8) Google Play Edition (GPE), the Sense-less version of the Taiwanese company's flagship for 2014.
Since this is a GPE model, updates are handled by Google and only sent out by the OEM, HTC in this case. That explains why the update's been so quick to roll out. The download for the One (M8) GPE is around 450MB in size.

Next up we should see Android 6.0 on its way to the One M9 and the Sense-filled One (M8), with rollouts reportedly starting before the end of the year. And then, in 2016, Marshmallow will also make it to ten more HTC devices.

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Xiaomi has shipped 11 million Redmi 2A units so far

Xiaomi has apparently shipped 11 million Redmi 2A units so far, since the budget device's launch back in March.

Back in June, we were told that the Redmi 2 and Redmi 2A (taken together) broke the 13 million sales mark, but this time around we're talking only about the cheaper of the two. Clearly, the newer Redmi 2A model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage is included in the 11 million sales number along with the original, but even so, this is pretty impressive.

The Redmi 2A is Xiaomi's cheapest phone, going for around $86 in its aforementioned upgraded iteration. The 1GB/8GB model is even less than that, about $78 in fact. So it's understandable why it's been doing so well. And who knows, maybe now that it's passed this milestone Xiaomi will think about launching the Redmi 2A in more markets.

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FCC approves another LG G4 variant for the US

A couple of days ago, we covered incoming documents for a new LG G4 variant coming through the FCC with a product number "H815PX". We concluded this was a G4 variant but now there is a variant of the G4 Stylus (G Stylo if you're in the US) also popping up at the FCC with the product codes "H630CX" and "H635CX".

Just like the "H815PX" docs, these new ones contain little information about the hardware on board and no images whatsoever.



While we thought the "H815PX" was going to be a variant that came bundled with a wireless charging back cover, these new documents don't even mention wireless charging. So maybe there is something else new about the "H815PX".

What is LG planning for the States? We aren't sure what these devices are but hopefully we will get an idea soon.

Via | Source

New reports says Apple sold 7 million Watch units

We have little doubt that the Apple Watch is the best selling wearable, but exact figures are rather hard to come by. With Cupertino staying mum we have market research companies to fill us in with (hopefully accurate) info.



The latest report comes courtesy of Canalys and claims that The Apple Watch has blown all of its competitors away with over 7 million units already shipped. This results covers only two quarters and is allegedly bigger than all other vendor shipments combined. As you would expect, however, other parties have offered a quite different opinion on the matter, like MarketWatch, which back in July claimed that Watch sales are quickly dying down after the initial euphoria, with Apple moving less than 20,000 units a day. However, another recent study by Strategy Analytics does also attribute a lot of success to the Apple Watch, claiming it might very well be responsible for the unprecedented 457.3% year-over-year growth in smartwatch sales as a whole.

The whole situation is clearly a mess and we can't exactly rule out some bias or even intentional market influence here and there, but hoping Canalyst got its numbers straight, let's look at the rest of them. The report states that in the last quarter Apple was the only vendor to ship more than 300,000 wearables, followed by Pebble with 200,000 which could be explained with the release of the Pebble Time Steel. The Samsung Gear S2 still wasn't around back then, so sadly it doesn't participate in the statistics.



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Teaser confirms Huawei's upcoming Mate 8 will be powered by newly-announced Kirin 950 SoC

Shortly after making official the Kirin 950 SoC, Huawei has confirmed that its upcoming Mate 8 smartphone will be powered by the latest chipset. The confirmation came in the form of a teaser image (shown below).


If you aren't in the know, the Kirin 950 obliterated Samsung's top-of-the-line Exynos 7420 chipset on GeekBench, and scored a whopping 83000 points on AnTuTu, suggesting that its real life performance as part of the Mate 8 smartphone would be something to look forward to.

As for the Mate 8, the flagship is expected to be made official on November 26. And from what has been leaked now, it will sport a 1080p 6-inch display, come with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory, and feature a 16MP/8MP camera combo.

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New update rolling out to Samsung Z3

A few weeks after receiving its first update, the Tizen-powered Samsung Z3 smartphone - which was launched last month with 5-inch 720p Super AMOLED screen and a quad-core 1.3GHz processor- is getting another software update.


Weighing in at around 600MB, the update (which you can fetch through Samsung Smart Switch as it doesn't seem to be rolling OTA currently) doesn't bring any major changes - a few new icons have been added and there seems to be some change in the screen brightness (see the right hand portion of the image above).

For those who aren't in the know, the Z3 is the South Korean company's second smartphone running its home grown Tizen OS. The first one - dubbed Z1 - was launched back in January this year, and has been quite a success for the company. A recent report from market research firm Strategy Analytics revealed that Tizen has now overtaken BlackBerry OS to become the fourth largest mobile operating system in the world.

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Q3 saw Xiaomi selling over one million phones in India

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has announced that it sold over a million phones last quarter in India, making Q3 the most successful quarter in terms of the company's growth in the country.


The Q3 story looks even more successful when you see that the five-year-old startup - which entered the Indian market in July last year - sold a total of 3 million phones in its first year in the country. On average, the company's quarter-on-quarter sales have increased an impressive 45% since January, it was revealed.

India, being the world's third-largest smartphone market, is naturally important to any multinational smartphone manufacturer, and Xiaomi is no exception. The company's first smartphone launch outside of its home country was in India (the Mi4i back in April this year), and it has also recently started manufacturing phones in the neighboring country.

The company, which has been valued at around $46 billion, is aiming to sell a total of 80-100 million smartphones this year.

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Marshmallow update for BlackBerry Priv will arrive next year

A couple of months earlier, an Android-powered BlackBerry phone was just a rumor. However, it soon changed into reality when the Canadian company officially confirmed the BlackBerry Priv, which was previously named as Venice.


The Priv goes on sale today in the US, where AT&T will be the first carrier to start offering it. As you might already know, the handset has a sliding form factor, complete with the trademark BlackBerry physical keyboard, and runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

Given that Android 6.0 is already out, there's obviously a question about when the Priv will get the Marshmallow update. Well, according to BlackBerry, they are targeting to deliver the update "sometime in the new year." While we know that isn't too specific, all we can do is hope that the update arrives sooner than later.

The information was revealed by Ron Louks, BlackBerry's President of Devices, who also touched upon the issue of monthly Google patches, saying the company is aiming - at least in Europe - to roll out these updates to the Priv within 30 days of the search giant releasing them.

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Zauba data indicates Samsung Galaxy A9 could sport 6-inch display

Just less than a month after it had its specifications revealed on AnTuTu, the yet-to-be-announced Samsung Galaxy A9 has now been spotted listed on Zauba, a website which tracks India's import and export.


While the AnTuTu listing revealed a 5.5-inch screen, the listing on Zauba (screenshot shown above) indicates that the device - carrying a model number of SM-A9000 - could sport a screen as large as 6 inches. The listing also reveals different prices for the different batches imported on November 4.
From what has been leaked till now, the handset will be powered by a Snapdragon 620 SoC with octa-core processor and Adreno 510 GPU, and sport a 5.5 or 6-inch display. Having 3GB RAM and 32GB internal memory, it was spotted running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop during the benchmark test.

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