When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note5 back in August this year, it was announced that the device won’t be available in Europe, at least not this year. Now, the year is about to end, and a couple of new reports are claiming that the handset is all set to land in Europe early next year.

A report from Gadgette says the smartphone will go on sale in the UK in January, i.e., next month. And AndroidCentral, on its part, has confirmed that the device will indeed be available for purchase in European markets in early 2016.

There’s, however, still no word on the price tag the Galaxy Note5 will carry in…

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Less than a month after the usually reliable leakster @evleaks confirmed its existence, details on the entry-level LG K7 have surfaced. According to a new report, the device – which currently carries a code name of M1 – will be launched next year, and is expected be available from multiple carries in the US (including T-Mobile).

Specs-wise, the report notes that the handset is be powered by Snapdragon 210 chipset, and sports a 5-inch (480 x 854 pixel resolution) FWVGA display. It has 1.5GB RAM and 8GB internal memory. In terms of camera, the K7 features a 5MP rear as well as front unit.

There is currently no information on how much the device will cost, although the report says pricing information will be revealed in the next few…

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In Seattle, Uber is testing a new way to spot your driver’s vehicle. The ride sharing company has outfitted some drivers’ vehicles with a colored bar called SPOT that illuminates different colors to let passengers easily identify their ride.

The only ways to identify your ride right now is by model, color, and tag number. Some people may not know cars by models and sometimes there can coincidentally be two of the same model with the same color (a black Toyota Camry is quite popular in NYC).

Source: Uber Newsroom

The best way to tell apart your car is by squinting to read the plate number. This is not ideal though, as some states don’t even have front plates so you would not be able to rely on the plate facing your way.

A passenger can use the Uber app to choose a color to look for and he or she can also tap and hold the screen to wave to the driver and in exchange, the driver is more easily able to spot the passenger.

Uber’s plan for SPOT can help to avoid passengers trying to get into the wrong car and help trim down on time wasted calling the passenger because the passenger was unable to spot the driver.

Source |…

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Today ZTE has added a new member to its Blade family of affordably priced smartphones. At an event in China the Blade A1 became official.

This is a small handset that comes packing a fingerprint scanner on its back. It also has a design slightly reminiscent of the iPhone 5c and an incredibly glossy plastic build.

ZTE Blade A1

The specs are nothing earth-shattering, then again that’s not the point here. The Blade A1 will cost just CNY 599 (that’s $93 or €85) when it goes on sale on December 11.

It has a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, an 8 MP selfie snapper, the MediaTek MT6735 chipset (with 1.3 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU), 2GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, and a 2,800 mAh battery. It runs ZTE’s MiFavor 3.2 on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop.

Its dimensions are 142 x 70.2 x 8.9 mm. It will be available in Smart White, Vibrant Yellow, Dream Green, Cool Blue, and Space Grey. Because we’ve seen quite a few Blade-series members in certain parts of Europe in the past, the A1 has a chance of making it to places outside of China too.

Source (in Chinese) | Via (in…

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The LG Nexus 5X may be the first ever Nexus device to have a dual-SIM version. That is, if the information listed by one Kuwaiti retailer is correct. Xcite is the company that claims to have the dual-SIM Nexus 5X already in stock, ready to be purchased for KWD 145 in its 16GB iteration (that’s around $477 or €437, by the way).

All the other specs are identical to the single-SIM Nexus 5X we all know, but there’s the added mention of two nano SIM slots to complete the package. So unless this is a mistake, we should probably expect to see the dual-SIM Nexus 5X launching in some other markets in the near future as well.

However, it’s unlikely that LG and Google will bring this model to Europe or North America, since they’ve traditionally not been markets with high demand for dual-SIM smartphones. On the other hand, the dual-SIM Nexus 5X could be offered pretty much everywhere else in the…

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After a period of indecisiveness on the matter, LG seems to have finally come to a decision regarding the V10’s availability in the UK. And it’s good news if you live in the UK and wanted to purchase the Korean company’s latest flagship offering.

It turns out that LG will officially sell the V10 in the UK after all. The handset is already listed on LG’s UK website, which means it’s coming soon. For now, the “where to buy” section is still empty, meaning we don’t yet know which retailers and operators will be teaming up with LG to offer the V10.

But that information should probably be out soon, when we’ll also hopefully find out how much you’ll need to pay for one V10. The device should become available by the end of the year, according to LG’s own press release from October – where it mentioned that the V10 would be out in Europe this quarter.

As you may remember, LG introduced the phone at the beginning of October. Its main claims to fame are the dual front-facing cameras and the secondary display that sits right above the main 5.7-inch QHD touchscreen.

The V10 also has a 16 MP rear camera with OIS, laser autofocus, and LED flash, the Snapdragon 808 chipset at the helm, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage, and a 3,000 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

Thanks for the tip,…

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OnePlus took to its forums and announced it was no longer going to require invites to purchase a OnePlus 2. The open sale begins on December 5 at midnight with both the OnePlus 2 and the OnePlus X up for grabs. The OnePlus X, however, will only be invite-free until December 7.

After that, the OnePlus X will be invite-free only one day of the week. The Chinese phone maker also guarantees that all orders placed on or before December 7 will be fulfilled before Christmas.

Aside from dropping the invite system for the OnePlus 2, there will also be a mini sale from December 5 through 7 that offer the OnePlus 2 Style Swap covers for 50% off and discounts on all other…

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Huawei is hard at work on an Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for its lineup and it seems it is now entering the home stretch. This is all but natural, considering the OEM’s latest flagship – the Mate 8 does come with Marshmallow out-of-the-box, so, at this point, the ground work is surely done.

By the looks of things, the Honor sub-brand might be the first to experience EMUI 4.0, based on the latest version of Android, as evident by today’s announcement of a beta test for the Honor 7 in UK. The beta was actually hinted in an earlier rumor.

Eager owners of said handset can sign-up now at the source link to join in the test run. It should be a fairly easy procedure as well, with no flashing or modding required, as the conditions suggest the new ROM will simply be pushed to your device as an OTA once you enroll. Still, bugs are naturally expected.

Source |…

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Waterproof phones are nice for hygiene since you can always give them a light wash. KDDI and Kyocera went a step further and introduced the Digno Rafre – the world’s first soap-proof phone. That’s right, you can use soap to make sure the phone is as clean as it looks.

The Rafre has been specifically rated for hot water resistance at 43° (hot water is not included in the usual IP ratings, of which the Rafre has IP58). And, and!.. it comes with a rubber ducky dock, which floats in the bathtub. “Netflix and chill” just got waterborne. Or, you know, kids can play with it, or something.

The Digno Rafre comes in Navy Blue, Cashmere White and Coral Pink. The touchscreen will work even when wet and it’s guarded by Dragontrail X glass against accidents. The phone itself is shock-proof (MIL-SSTD-810G) to survive its young potential owners.

The specs include a 5″ 720p screen, Android 5.1 Lollipop, 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage (with a microSD slot) and a 13MP camera. It supports 4G LTE and WiMAX plus VoLTE and its 3,000mAh battery should last over 20 hours of VoLTE calls.

Kyocera’s Digno Rafre is launching on KDDI next Friday for JPY 57,420 ($465/€440).

Source |…

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As promised, Microsoft has released the Windows 10 ROM for the LTE variant of the Xiaomi Mi 4. The ROM is part of Microsoft’s Windows Insider program and although stable enough to be installed could have some bugs still.

The ROM currently is only compatible with the LTE variant of the device and it is not recommended to install it on any other variant. Once installed, you can expect the full Windows 10 experience devoid of any Xiaomi influence as this is coming straight from Microsoft.

The ROM with instructions can be found in the link…

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