Microsoft made its iconic personal assistant available on Android and iOS. The apps were released earlier today on both the Play Store and App Store and are available for free.

Cortana was exclusive on Windows OS until recently, but Microsoft is aiming to expand its reach over other platforms and has done a lot in the past few months. The company aggressively pushed its OneDrive and Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) – they are all available for free, no additional fees apply. Microsoft even managed to replace Dropbox in Samsung’s latest flagship phones.

So, the next logical step was to release Cortana into other platforms and here it is. Currently it is available in USA and China, but Microsoft will be expanding the availability soon enough.

Cortana is a separate app and is a nice mixture between Siri and Google Now – it feels more personal at times and tracks your schedule and interest, provides updates and quickly answers relevant questions. You may want to give it a try.

Play Store • App Store •…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1maLCEr
via IFTTT

Apple announced a Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s yesterday, a first for the company, and inadvertently acknowledging the unsatisfactory battery life on the smaller iPhones.

The case may be Apple branded and iOS recognizable, but it sure looks rather, well, ugly. And throughout the last 24 hours the users around the world have been mostly taking jabs at it.

The first manufacturer to join the ‘make fun of it’ game is Asus. It posted a picture on Twitter, which basically says the Zenfone 2 Max is better than an iPhone with an additional battery case. The beast is powered by a 5,000 mAh battery unit.

Meanwhile feel free to share your thoughts about the Apple Smart Battery Case over our…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1U3AjJH
via IFTTT

According to Google’s latest report on Android versions, Lollipop is nearly at the 30% mark while Marshmallow has yet to score its first percent. While we watch the monthly pie charts with interest, they omit the story of how we got here.

This animated version of Android releases over the years does a much better job of this. It shows how new versions grow eagerly, while old versions are reluctant to leave. Watch out for the blue segment of the 2.3.x branch – that’s the long-lived Gingerbread, which took years to fade into oblivion.

There’s even an app so that you can watch this on your Android phone if you want to be…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1OhZuUa
via IFTTT

The OnePlus 2 has been out for a few months now, and it’s only natural that a successor starts showing up in the rumor mill. A render of the alleged OnePlus 3 has been leaked revealing key design changes.

For starters, the images (low-res as they may be) seem to show a brushed metal back instead of the signature sandstone-like panels. Both the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 had those, and the material even made it to an iPhone 6/6s case, so it would be odd for OnePlus to abandon it for the next generation. Then again, the OnePlus X comes in a choice of glass or ceramic bodies, so sandstone already isn’t the only material the company uses.

The dedicated fingerprint reader on the front appears to be gone too, perhaps in favor of other means of unlocking like iris scanning. The chin of the device will hold a front firing speaker, which may work in concert with the earpiece to deliver stereo output like HTC models have been doing for a few years. Additionally, the images show two different color versions, though the mirror-like facade of one of them doesn’t look too likely.

In terms of hardware, the source cites a Snapdgragon 820 chipset, which is no surprise given that Qualcomm’s powerhouse will be the silicon of choice for the better part of next year’s flagships. A 1080p display resolution has also been quoted, meaning than OnePlus will refuse to join the QHD bandwagon for another year.

Of course, the OnePlus 3 is still a few months away, so there may be changes to both looks and hardware, even if all of the above may be true at this moment.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1QvEHAP
via IFTTT

If you’re in the US and planning to purchase an Apple Watch, here is some good news: the smartwatch can now be purchased for $100 less than its usual price. Best Buy is offering that discount on all variants of the wearable device.

Other retailers are also selling the watch at discounted rates, although their offers don’t seem to be as attractive as the one mentioned above. For example, B&H Photo is offering a $50 discount, while Target is giving a $100 gift card with the purchase of any Apple Watch variant.

While the discount could well be due to the ongoing holiday season in the country, what’s hard to ignore is that it does come in the wake of reports that the second-generation Apple Watch is arriving in March next…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1IEpjRy
via IFTTT

Apple issued the v2.1 software update for the Apple Watch. It mainly contains improved language support and bugfixes.

Supported system languages now include several European ones, East Asian ones and Arabic. In addition to that, right-to-left UI mode is now supported.

Siri can now understand Arabic (Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates). Dictation-only support is added for a number of other languages.

For time-keeping, a new complication is available for the Islamic and Hebrew Calendars. Here’s the full changelog.

Apple Watch OS v2.1 changelog

You can read about some additional security improvements here….

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1REdtc5
via IFTTT

The Motorola Moto 360 (2015) smartwatch, which was unveiled back in September this year, is now being sold at discounted rates by the company in the United Kingdom.

The discount is only available on the men’s 46mm variant and the women’s 42mm model – the former can be purchased starting from £230, while the latter begins at £180. For those doing the math, that’s a discount of 14% and 21%, respectively.

What’s worth mentioning here is that the promo – which is valid until December 11 – comes into effect only after you enter the following codes during checkout: UKXMASM46 for the men’s model and UKXMASW42 for the women’s variant.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1IEjUdo
via IFTTT

Samsung has been hard at work, reimagining its elegant “A” series lineup for 2016. The Galaxy A3, A5 and A7 were all made official at the beginning at the month and all that was left for a full refresh of the lineup was the A8. Yesterday, the Korean giant made a new Galaxy A8 announcement, but, sadly, it is not the 2016 model we have all been waiting for, but rather a Japanese version of the existing A8.

The local variant has the Snapdragon 615 SoC swapped for the Samsung-made Exynos 5433. Some Galaxy A8 versions did come with the Exynos 5430, but this is a slightly different version of the chip.

Other differences include a 2g increase in weight nit we doubt it will be noticeable in any way. The rest of the specs sheet remains unchanged.

The Japanese Galaxy A8 offers a 5.7 inch Super AMOLED display, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. The camera setup includes a 16MP main shooter and a 5MP one on the front. Connectivity includes Cat.6 LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth v4.1 and GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS/ BDS (market dependant). The Japanese version also has VoLTE and WiMAX 2+ thrown in for good measure.

Source (in…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1OhziZD
via IFTTT

We often complain about the European price of the new Nexus phones, now (for a short while) the price of the Huawei Nexus 6P is actually pretty good – at Amazon France for the next half a day the 6P costs €500, €150 off its regular price (prices include VAT).

That’s for the 32GB version, the 64GB and 128GB ones do not get similar discounts. Also, only Aluminum and Graphite units are available, the other color options don’t have 32GB units in stock.

The promotion is valid for about 12 more hours, afterwards it’s probably back to €650. There is no similar promo in the German or UK Amazons and we couldn’t find other stores that do a similar price cut. If you spot one, we and the other readers will appreciate a link in the…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1Nb3eZQ
via IFTTT

Back in October this year, when Motorola announced the list of devices that will be getting the Marshmallow update, there was no mention of the second-gen Moto E smartphone. This was quite strange, given that the handset was released this year only.

The good news is that the device has now been added to the list, which means it will be updated to Android 6.0 after all. However, the update will only roll out in select regions including Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia (excluding China).

In addition to the Moto E (2nd gen), the Moto X Force, DROID Turbo 2, and DROID Maxx 2 have also made it to the list. Hardly a surprise there though, as all three devices were released in the last couple of…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1IE9nyN
via IFTTT