Nearly a week after it started rolling out globally, the enhanced Google Maps offline mode is now available to users in India. The feature is currently only available on Android, although the company says iOS support is “coming soon.”

“From today, Google Maps can help you find directions and get where you’re going, even when you don’t have an Internet connection with the launch of new offline functions in Google Maps,” the company said in a blog post.

Google Maps’ offline mode allows users to get turn-by-turn driving directions, search for specific destinations, as well find useful information about places, even when they don’t have an internet connection. The feature was previewed during Google I/O back in May this…

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If you own an Android Wear smartwatch and are wondering if and when it will get Android 6.0 update, here is some good news: Google has said that all existing Android Wear watches will get the Marshmallow update “in the coming months.”

The company also revealed that the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE (shown above) – which debuted last month and went up for pre-orders this month – already runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow for Android Wear, making it the first Android Wear smartwatch to do so.

As for the update, it will bring several new features like a new permissions model, support for external speaker as well Intel x86 chip (TAG Heuer Connected is powered by one), and resource qualifiers for -round and…

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The Huawei Mate S is somewhat of a weird fit in Huawei’s current device lineup. It is not the eagerly anticipated successor to the Mate7 (that would be the soon to be announced Mate 8), nor is it part of the Honor family, or bothered with an Ascend moniker.

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According to a new report coming out of its home country of South Korea, Samsung is planning to bring a few new features to its more affordable smartphones in the future.

We’re talking about fingerprint sensors as well as support for Samsung Pay (and NFC with it). An unnamed source allegedly said that “Samsung is planning to deploy fingerprint sensors in budget smartphone models”, although it’s unclear what the company’s exact definition of “budget” could be.

This shows that Samsung is feeling the heat from Chinese smartphone makers, who have started including fingerprint scanners in even lower-midrange offerings recently. In fact, for the same price, the Chinese makers always offer more features than Samsung, so the Korean company probably feels like it has to act in this regard. It is currently the top dog in 14 out of 15 emerging smartphone markets, and we assume these moves are meant to ensure that won’t change in the future.

Unfortunately no time frame was mentioned for Samsung launching fingerprint sensors in cheaper devices. Yet Samsung Pay is reportedly going to show up in new mid-range and low-end phones as early as the first half of next year. This will happen for the company’s Android handsets. Analysts are still divided in their opinions of whether Samsung will bring its payment system to Tizen smartphones too. We should see some high-end Tizen offerings next year, though.

Source |…

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Mobile payments are becoming more and more popular with several platforms out and another one on the way.

LG confirmed to The Korea Times that it is planning to launch its own mobile payment platform as soon as next month. LG is making deals with South Korea’s major credit card companies before launching the service. There are no details on the official name nor the date of launch.

It is also unknown whether LG will only use NFC or also MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission like Samsung Pay).

It will be difficult for LG to gain traction with a mobile payment service among giants like Apple, Samsung, and Google, all offering their own payment service, but with the market still in its infancy everything is possible. The company will have to do something different that will encourage people to buy an LG smartphone to use its new mobile payment service.

Source |…

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Microsoft could really be working on a Surface Phone, it turns out. That’s because a mobile device bearing the name Microsoft Surface Phone was recently put through the paces of the HTML5test benchmark, running Windows 10 Mobile no less (which the benchmark hilariously lists as Windows Phone 10). The browser used was Edge 12.

The Windows 10 build on board this mysterious smartphone is an older pre-release affair which has the same designation as the final edition of Windows 10 for the desktop. And the device is listed as having a 640×360 screen, which is clearly absurd – but if it’s a prototype it may just be tested at different resolutions for whatever reason.

Unfortunately no other details are known yet about the Surface Phone. However, bear in mind that the first time we’ve heard a rumor about Microsoft creating such a handset was back in September. Of 2012.

So while it may be that the software giant has finally decided to give the go-ahead for the project taking its Surface brand beyond tablets and laptops, this result could also have been faked. Or “Surface Phone” might just be what Microsoft decided to call its Windows 10 Mobile developer board in order to troll people anxious for an actual Surface phone.

Source | Via (in…

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Xiaomi is holding an event on November 24 during which it’s expected to unveil both its next flagship smartphone, the Mi 5, as well as the newest iteration of its affordable phablet – which should be called Redmi Note 2 Pro.

And now it’s pretty much confirmed that we’ll see the latter getting official next week. Xiaomi President Lin Bin has posted the image you can see below on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent.

What we see perfectly matches both the design of a leaked back panel purportedly belonging to the Redmi Note 2 Pro, as well as what we saw in the TENAA listing for the same handset. The metal design, fingerprint sensor on the back, and that very trendy gold color are all here.

Unfortunately Lin Bin hasn’t so far decided to also tease the Mi 5, so things are less clear in that regard – whether it will be announced alongside the Redmi Note 2 Pro, that is.

According to TENAA’s data, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 Pro will have a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie snapper, MediaTek’s MT6795 (Helio X10) chipset at the helm, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 3,060 mAh battery. It will probably run Android Lollipop underneath the MIUI skin by Xiaomi.

Thanks for the tip, Skyflyer!

Source (in Chinese) |…

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Yesterday we told you about an upcoming official charging dock accessory for the Apple Watch, which got leaked. And here we are now, just one day later, and the thing has become official.

It’s already up for grabs from Apple’s website, and it’s a bit cheaper than anticipated at $79. That said, it’s obviously still not a bargain however. In the US, if you order one today, you can expect to have it at your doorstep on November 20 (if you choose fast shipping) or November 23 (if you go with the slower free shipping option).

As revealed from the leaked pictures yesterday, the dock can charge your precious Apple Watch in two positions: lying flat, or on its side. When you use the latter position, the wearable automatically enters Nightstand mode, so it can also be used as an alarm clock. The dock uses the same inductive charging connector that comes with the Apple Watch. It can charge all models of the smartwatch, regardless of…

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A Samsung mobile phone – which is said to be the successor to the Galaxy A7 smartphone that was launched early this year – has been certified by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), indicating an imminent launch.

As you can see in the screenshot above, several variants of the device have been listed on Bluetooth SIG’s website, including the SM-A710F/DS, SM-A710X, SM-A710S, SM-A710K and SM-A710L. Keep in mind that the device is alleged to be the Galaxy A7 successor due to its model number SM-A710F, which is quite similar to the SM-A700F model number the A7 carries.

This comes just a few weeks after the next-gen Samsung Galaxy A5 received Bluetooth certification. Said to be sporting a premium build, both Galaxy A5 (2016) and A7 (2016) also had their live photos leaked a couple of days ago.

Source |…

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HERE 360, the official blog for HERE Maps, published a chart comparing its offline service to Google Maps.

First, the comparison shows offline support for both platforms. HERE won by a long shot offering offline driving, transit, and walking directions while Google Maps was only able to give one route of driving directions while offline.

Being in New York City, one can appreciate when a maps app offers public transit directions. HERE claims you can get transit directions when offline. I was NOT able to do this on my Nexus 6P (gave me a “no transit route found” error). I was finally able to pull up transit direction offline with an iPhone 5S, but it must have taken 30 seconds for the app to figure it out.

HERE lets you download offline maps by state but Google Maps will only let you download one selected area at a time. This is not ideal for, say, a road trip where coverage is spotty.

Even though you can download these areas in Google Maps, HERE makes a point that “you can download the entire state of California for less than 540MB. Google Maps needs about the same amount of space for just part of Northern California.”.

Countries that perhaps don’t have good mobile coverage should use HERE Maps for much better offline navigation. HERE definitely offers a competitive package worthy of competing with Google Maps.

At Google I/O this year, Google promised full offline Maps by the end of the year. Soon, HERE maps will have much more to compete…

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