Video recaps Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge leaks with new renders

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BY Unknown 15:00 0

Video recaps Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge leaks with new renders

Tomorrow in Barcelona Samsung will make both the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge official. And now, a mere one day before that event, a video has surfaced which does a good job recapping all the leaked details we've heard about the two handsets.

Not only that, but it seems to add a couple of new renders too - showing parts of the front of the Galaxy S6 Edge, as well as what could be the back of either model, since they're expected to be pretty much identical from that point of view.

The video stresses the main specs we've seen rumored so far. An octa-core CPU is pretty much a given, and according to past info Samsung has dropped Qualcomm as a supplier so we might have only one variant with the Korean company's own Exynos silicon. Aiding it will be 3GB of RAM.

The smartphones should both have metal frames, and Gorilla Glass 4 on the front as well as the back, for a more premium look than past Galaxy S-series devices. With this new build comes the revelation that neither handset will offer a microSD card slot, or a user-replaceable battery.

Both phones will sport 5.1-inch QHD (2,560x1,440) Super AMOLED touchscreens, but obviously the panel in the S6 Edge will curve slightly both on the left and right edges. In fact, the siblings are going to be mostly identical, save for the screen difference and the Edge also getting 50 mAh more battery capacity.

The fingerprint sensor may not be of the swipe variety this time around, like the one in past Samsung devices. So the new scanner should mimic the one Apple uses for its iPhones and iPads in terms of ease of use. The heart rate monitor that made its debut on last year's Galaxy S5 is still in, yet it has been repositioned along with the LED flash.

Unfortunately for fans of the feature, the S6 models will not be water resistant like the Galaxy S5. This seems odd, especially as Sony has been making water resistant smartphones out of similar materials (with metal frames and glass on both the front and back) for years now.

The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will be slimmer and narrower than the S5, and they will have wireless charging built-in - so no more aftermarket kits required for that.

Apple to seed iOS 8.2 next week, iOS 8.3 to follow shortly after

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BY Unknown 22:32 0

Apple to seed iOS 8.2 next week, iOS 8.3 to follow shortly after

Apple might release the final version of iOS 8.2 to the general public as early as this Monday, as per a report by BGR. The last release was iOS 8.2 beta 5 at the start of February.

iOS 8.3 is already in the works and is expected to have 4 beta releases. Currently, iOS 8.3 beta 2 is available to developers, leaving two more iterations until the final build is ready. This should happen in early April coinciding with the purported start of Apple Watch sales.

Not that the Apple Watch can't launch without it, iOS 8.2 already supports it. The next version of the OS will introduce redesigned emoji picker as well as new emoji icons. Naturally, there's more the iOS 8.3 and we'll share with you as soon as anything new comes out.

Apple is holding its "Spring forward" event on March 9 and the Apple Watch is the most likely guest of honor. The event should answer any remaining questions on pricing and availability.

Google might be in talk with Huawei for a 2015 Nexus phone

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BY Unknown 20:30 0

Google might be in talk with Huawei for a 2015 Nexus phone

According to the latest set of rumors, Google may be partnering with a Chinese phone maker for the next generation Nexus smartphone. The Weibo source cited by GizChina from where the information originates shares that the phone will be ready later in 2015.

A mockup of a Huawei-made Nexus

Additionally, there would be two different Nexus devices this year - one from LG and one from a Chinese maker. The last Nexus smartphone LG did was the Nexus 5 over a year ago. More interestingly, this will be the first time for Google to go with a Chinese phone maker, provided the rumor is true.

The source of the information hints that the Chinese company in question is yet to decide whether to use its own chipset or a Qualcomm-made one. Clearly, this leaves Huawei to be the company in question.

The mockups are based on the Huawei Honor 6

SlashGear has received a bunch of mocked up photos of the Huawei Honor 6 Plus rocking Nexus branding. Sadly, they're not the real deal, but give us a glimpse of how a Huawei-made Nexus device could look like.

If true, Google is on track to release two Nexus smartphones this year - one more affordable made by Huawei and a high-end one done by LG. We'll keep our ears to the ground additional rumors on the matter.

Firefox for Android gets revamped tablet interface, HTTP/2 support

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BY Unknown 15:00 0

Firefox for Android gets revamped tablet interface, HTTP/2 support

Mozilla is rolling out an update for the Android version of Firefox on the Play Store. This update brings with it a new tablet interface and HTTP/2 support.

Firefox now has a revamped tab layout on top that looks just like the tab design on the desktop version of Firefox. There is also now a fullscreen tab panel, which shows a grid of open tabs with thumbnails for a better view of your open sites.

Along with that, Firefox on Android also gets support for the new HTTP/2 standard, which was added in its desktop counterpart recently, that promises to be faster, more efficient and secure than HTTP 1.1.

Most of the other changes are under the hood. You can check out the complete changelog in the link below.

Meizu keeps on teasing the MX4 Ubuntu Edition, due to be unveiled at MWC

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BY Unknown 23:30 0

Meizu keeps on teasing the MX4 Ubuntu Edition, due to be unveiled at MWC

For almost two weeks now Meizu has been teasing the upcoming release of the Ubuntu-running edition of its MX4 smartphone. At first, things were pretty cryptic, but yesterday the Chinese company published the first official screenshots of Ubuntu running on the MX4 – so all was clear. Today it’s keeping the teasing campaign going with the image you can see below.

So we get yet another confirmation that the Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition will finally become official during MWC next week. Meizu even found time to take an ever so subtle jab at the BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition, which was the first ever handset to run the mobile version of the OS. But indeed that is no “premium device”.

We expect the Ubuntu-running MX4 to come with the same specs as its Android-touting sibling. That means it will have a 5.36-inch 1,920×1152 touchscreen, a 20.7MP rear camera with dual-LED flash, a 2MP secondary shooter, 2GB of RAM, and a 3,100 mAh battery. At the helm should be MediaTek’s MT6595 SoC, coming with an octa-core CPU with four 2.2 GHz Cortex-A17 cores and four 1.7GHz Cortex-A7 ones.

Alcatel to announce new phones this Sunday at the MWC 2015

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BY Unknown 18:30 0

Alcatel to announce new phones this Sunday at the MWC 2015

Alcatel has announced it’s going to hold a press conference at the Mobile World Congress this year. Scheduled for Sunday, March 1, the event should see a yet unknown number of phones announced.

The company has been quite mysterious lately and has managed to keep its upcoming line-up of devices under cover. Historically at the MWC, Alcatel has always announced smartphones covering all of the market tiers and we expect the same thing to happen this year, too.

Alcatel promises its press event to deliver an “Upside down” experience, whatever this means. In any case, we’re very much looking forward to what the company has in store with its new OneTouch phone members.

Google reverses its stance to disallow sexually explicit content on Blogger

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BY Unknown 11:10 0

Google reverses its stance to disallow sexually explicit content on Blogger

Earlier this week Google announced that it won’t be allowing people to have sexually explicit content on its Blogger platform. Earlier such content would be marked as ‘Adult’ so as to provide a warning to viewers before the content was presented to them but then Google thought even that wasn’t enough.

However, it seems the company has received a fair amount of backlash on the decision, following which it has promptly reversed its stance on it. A team member said on the Blogger Help Forum:

We’ve had a ton of feedback, in particular about the introduction of a retroactive change (some people have had accounts for 10+ years), but also about the negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities. So rather than implement this change, we’ve decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn.

As before, blog owners will have to mark any sexually explicit content as Adult’ but other than that there is not much difference for regular users.

Google gets experimental reader mode in Chrome for desktop

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BY Unknown 09:30 0

Google gets experimental reader mode in Chrome for desktop

One of the best features of Safari on desktop or mobile is the Reader mode, that extracts the basic text and the relevant images from a web page and presents it in a more readable manner, free of distractions such as advertisements and odd font choices.

Google has been working on something similar for Chrome. They already added it in Chrome for Android a while back but oddly you have to mess around in chrome:flags to enable it. Now they are bringing it to Chrome for desktop and you can use it with more fiddling around.

On desktop it’s even more work to use this feature right now, as you have to install the DOM Distiller from here, at which point you will see the ‘Distill page’ menu item in your Chrome. That will let you use the reader mode for the webpage.

Of course, this feature should come formally with a more user friendly switch in future but if you want to use it right now and for some reason don’t want to use one of the many Chrome extensions that can already do this (such as Clearly) then give this method a try.

Facebook gives users option to specify any gender they want

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BY Unknown 07:50 0

Facebook gives users option to specify any gender they want

Facebook, which already offers 58 gender identity options, has now given users control over the words describing their gender. “Now, if you do not identify with the pre-populated list of gender identities, you are able to add your own,” the world’s largest social network said.

If you choose a custom gender, you can also choose the pronoun you prefer: he/his, she/her or they/their. As before, you can also control the audience with whom you would like to share your custom gender.

The new option has already started rolling out in the US, although there’s no word yet on how fast it will roll out to all users.

Samsung Galaxy S6 earbuds made the rounds online

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BY Unknown 00:30 0

Samsung Galaxy S6 earbuds made the rounds online

The downpour of leaks and rumors on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S6 has been intensifying with the nearing of its official launch. One detail that has remained left out though has been the flagship’s headset.

That omission has been addressed and live images of the earbuds that will likely accompany the Galaxy S6 and its Edge sibling have been spotted online. Befitting the smartphones’ prices, the headphones sport a premium look and attention to detail.

Abandoning the deep in-ear design of the units that came with previous Samsung flagships, the company has opted for a similar construction to the earbuds that shipped with Apple smartphones since the iPhone 5. A common feature of most upmarket headsets of late is the flat tangle-free cord, present here as well. There’s a remote, naturaly, which houses the mic and has a familiar three-button setup with a volume rocker and pause/pickup/hangup button.

Samsung Galaxy S6 earbuds

Samsung’s “Unpacked” press event at the MWC will be held on March 1, so stay tuned to our website for live coverage of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge unveiling.