If you’re an HTC One M9 owner as well as a fan of CyanogenMod nightlies, here is some good news: CM12.1 nightlies for your device – codenamed himaul – are now available for download.

Aside from the One M9, the nightlies are now also available for three more devices, including the Nvidia Shield Tablet, Shield Portable, and the Lenovo ZUK Z1 – carrying codenames shieldtablet, roth, and ham, respectively.

For those who aren’t in the know, as these are nightly builds, they may contain bugs. Also keep in mind that their installation could lead to a bricked device, and worse, could also void your handset’s warranty.

Source | Via 1…

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An Android-powered smartphone carrying a price tag of just $9.82 has been spotted listed on Walmart’s website (yes, you read it right – an Android phone for under $10). Listed as TracFone LG Prepaid Lucky LG16, the device is currently out of stock.

Specs-wise, the handset is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU and sports a 3.8-inch display. It comes with 4GB internal memory (that can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card) and a 3MP camera, offers 3G and Bluetooth (v4.0) capabilities, and runs Android 4.4 (KitKat) out-of-the-box.

Those specs might not sound impressive, but considering the price tag attached to them, the smartphone does look like – as the sole reviewer says – “a steal.”

Source |…

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The affordable Microsoft Lumia 550, which was announced by the company last month along with the the Lumia 950 and 950 XL flagship smartphones, is now up for pre-orders in the UK.

Both Carphone Warehouse and Clove have the phone listed on their website. While the former is asking £89.99 for the unlocked version (and £9.50/month if you choose to purchase on contract), the latter is selling the SIM-free version for £82.50 (£99.00 including taxes). Another retailer Unlocked Mobiles is also taking pre-orders for the handset, offering it for £95.00 (including taxes).

As for availability, while Carphone Warehouse is asking customers to expect the delivery by December 8, both Clove and Unlocked Mobiles have listed December 10 as the date.

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Back in January at this year’s CES, Asus announced the Zenfone Zoom (ZX550), which the company described as “the thinnest smartphone with a 3x optical zoom lens yet”. While the device is yet to be released, another Zenfone Zoom series variant carrying a model number of Z00XSB has been spotted at TENAA, revealing similar design and specs.

According to the TENAA listing, this new variant is powered by a quad-core 2.3GHz CPU, and sports a 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixel resolution) IPS display. It has 4GB RAM and 64GB expandable internal memory.

In terms of camera, the Zenfone Zoom (Z00XSB) features a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. Weighing in at 185 gms and measuring 158.9 × 78.84 × 11.95 (mm), the handset runs Android 5.0 Lollipop out-of-the-box. Connectivity options include GSM, TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE, LTE FDD, WCDMA, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, and USB, while color options include black and white.

Source (translated) |…

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Apple Music

After a rather long wait, Apple finally released the Apple Music app on Android. Although still technically beta, the app works fine and is more or less on par with the iOS version. You have access to the entire library of music available in your region, along with curated playlists and the Beats 1 radio station. The songs you purchased on iTunes can be streamed in a separate section. You can also download songs to play them offline later. The only thing missing from the iOS version is the ability to stream music videos but other than that this is a fully functional app. Apple has also made the app look like a native Android app, down to the use of Roboto, which is more than what you can say for Google’s apps that use Android design and fonts on iOS.

If you are using the service for the first time, you get three months of free subscription. The app requires you to have an Apple account, however, and also provide your credit card information, which will be charged once your free subscription ends. If you already are a member, then you just need to sign in to start using it.

Price: Free

Download: Android

YouTube Music

Hot on the heels of Apple Music launch, Google released the YouTube Music app for Android and iOS. First things first, the app is US only for now. With that out of the way, YouTube Music is an app with focus on music, behaving pretty much like any of the music streaming apps but instead of just audio you have video as well. Clicking any video starts a non-stop station. You can create personalized stations for yourself. The app also learns your taste and suggests accordingly, along with showing new music and classics. You will also be able to see concert footage and live recordings. If you are a YouTube Red subscriber, you also get ad-free experience, background playback, offline playback, and an audio-only mode without the video.

Price: Free

Download: iOS • Android

uMake

uMake is a powerful but simple 3D design app that lets you create three dimensional objects by drawing in two dimensions. It’s lets you sketch in 2D planes in a 3D space. You can import photos and use them as reference, control curve-weight and color, live symmetry and mirroring functionality, ability to create extruded and revolved surfaces. The app works on any iPad but has been designed with the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil in mind. It’s free but you can unlock additional functionality for $15 monthly or $150 yearly subscription.

Price: Free

Download: iOS

Complete Anatomy

Complete Anatomy is another powerful new app for the iPad that you would likely appreciate more if you’re a medical student or a doctor. The app includes high resolution 3D human male model (female model arriving later) with 12 complete systems, including skeletal, muscular, connective tissue, arterial, venous, lymphatic, nervous, respiratory, digestive, endocrine, urogenital, and integumentary. You can zoom in and study the different systems in detail, observe the movement, use the 3D cut and draw tools that include cut, spurs, 3D and 2D pens, growths, fractures, discover, and pain to alter the model, record 3 minute clips with audio while using any of the app’s features, explode the parts to understand them closely and reassemble them, create notes and quizzes, and more. The app is free but you can opt for a $5 monthly or a $50 yearly subscription. It’s a worthwhile investment for students or colleges or hospitals.

Price: Free

Download: iOS

Osteya

Osteya is a 2D side-scrolling platforming game. The game has very basic controls including movement, jump and teleport. You have to find all the keys in the level to open the gate at the end while avoiding traps and enemies. Sounds simple but isn’t. The gameplay and the retro graphics brings back memories of old school games that made you work a little to earn the reward. It’s fun and addictive and worth a shot. Currently only on iOS but coming to Android later.

Price: $0.99

Download: iOS

Tap Tap Dash

Tap Tap Dash is a ridiculously addictive, fast paced action game, where you have to quickly tap the screen to change direction or jump when your character reaches the marked point on the map. The map keeps rotating around as you move and the character speeds up, making things extra difficult as you play along. Once you get…

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Samsung’s current crown jewel – the Exynos 7420 SoC is definitely at the top of the mobile food chain and has been for a few months now, but by all accounts it is heading toward an imminent and spectacular dethroning, as the next generation of chipsets are coming and they promise to bring a huge leap forward in performance. Huawei’s Kirin 950 has all the odds of being first off the starting line inside the Mate 8, but what the industry seems to be truly looking forward are Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 and Samsung’s Exynos 8890. Both got their full specs revealed last week and the latter is even official, so all we have to do now is play the waiting game and hope they appear in devices as soon as possible.

And the wait might not be that long. People are already discussing Samsung’s next flagship – the Galaxy S7, which will most-likely host the debut of the Exynos 8890, but also, quite possibly, the Snapdragon 820 in an alternative model. The rumor mill is already flooding with bits about the S7 and it seems this year the Korean giant will host the unveiling even sooner than last year – on February 21. This is surely putting a lot of strain on Samsung, but the OEM also seems to be hard at work on expanding its “A”-series, with the Galaxy A9, as well as alleged new version of the A3 and A5 handsets.

Speaking of upcoming devices, the powerful Huawei P9max was spotted online, allegedly carrying a massive 6.2 inch QHD+ display and a Kirin 950 chip. We also have the next Xiaomi Mi5 flagship to look forward to and the Lenovo Vibe X3.

In other news, Blackberry is expanding its Android effort with the option to sideload its app suit, as well as talks of a new handset – the Vienna.

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Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset finally gets fully revealed
The chip maker has announced all of the details regarding its next-generation high-end SoC.

Samsung Galaxy S7 announcement will be on February 21, rumor says
The much talked about earlier launch for the Korean company’s next flagship apparently won’t quite happen.

Windows 10 Mobile update schedule for older Lumias leaks
The information allegedly originates at Orange Poland, with the carrier revealing that there will be two different waves of updates.

Samsung Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 (2016 Edition) leak in photos
The two smartphones feature a slight redesign to better match their more premium counterparts such as the Galaxy Note5 and Galaxy S6.

Nexus 6P owners reporting shattered glass on the front and back
Glassgate?

Samsung Exynos 8 Octa 8890 is official
Built on a 14nm process, the new chip packs the company’s new custom ARM cores and an integrated Cat.12/13 LTE modem.

Exynos 8890 enters mass production, January unveil for the Galaxy S7 likely
According to another rumor, Samsung will use as many Exynos 8890 chipsets as it will Snapdragon 820 ones for the Galaxy S7.

Firmware leaks point to an early release of the Galaxy S7
A new rumor talks about firmware codes, which means Samsung could have started developing the software for the phone.

TAG Heuer launches Connected, world’s first Android Wear-powered luxury watch
The $1,500 intelligent timepiece is inspired by the TAG Heuer Carrera, and has been developed in collaboration with Google and Intel.

Xiaomi Gemini (Mi 5) appears on Geekbench, will use Snapdragon 820
Exceptional single-core result and an average multi-core figure in this early version of Xiaomi’s next-gen…

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This week the hegemony of the Galaxy J series continues another week, the affordable, Super AMOLED group keeps #1 and #2 spots in our charts. It’s the Samsung Galaxy J7 and Galaxy J5, of course, these two refuse to budge from their positions. It’s the Galaxy J2 that is letting down the family, slipping through the ranks to 6th.

The OnePlus X that catapulted up to second place last week is doing a good job of holding on to its popularity. The first compact phone from OnePlus ends this week in 3rd. It probably helped that it launched in Europe last Friday. we also just happened to publish our own review on Friday.

Interestingly, right behind it is the Samsung Z3, the latest and best Tizen phone. It was announced less than a month ago and is the first Tizen device to make its way to the Top 10 in half a year. Samsung’s alt-OS recently surpassed BlackBerry OS for fourth place in the global OS market and has a big lead on other hopefuls.

It’s a trio of Galaxys that follows – the Grand Prime, the Galaxy S6 and the Note5. Rounding off the top 10 is the Motorola Moto G (3rd gen), which occasionally bubbles up into the chart, but doesn’t have much staying power.

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Samsung Galaxy J7
RANK: 1WAS: 1

specs review

Samsung Galaxy J5
RANK: 2WAS: 3

specs review

OnePlus X
RANK: 3WAS: 2

specs review

Samsung Z3
RANK: 4NEW IN

specs gallery

Sony Xperia Z5
RANK: 5WAS: 7

specs review

Samsung Galaxy J2
RANK: 6WAS: 4

specs gallery

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
RANK: 7WAS: 5

specs review

Samsung Galaxy S6
RANK: 8WAS: 8

specs review

Samsung Galaxy Note5
RANK: 9WAS: 6

specs…

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The LG V10 gathered up plenty of fan love in one short week and was voted seriously hot with the crowd split 3-to-1 in favor. 76% of readers hit the thumbs-up on LG’s one-of-a-kind phablet, continuing a positive trend with recent high-end offerings – the Nexus 6P and 5X got the stamp of approval a month ago, followed by the Lumia 950 / 950 XL a week later.

The V10 certainly has some objective imperfections, like the less-than-stellar battery life, sheer size and heft, and not exactly top-tier gaming performance. But in the whole pro-vs-con debate the good has outweighed the bad, and quite definitively so, judging by the poll results.

The secondary display (we know Samsung’s done it before), argue as you might about its usefulness, is indeed a unique feature today and makes for some considerable wow-value. Military-grade shock resistance is also a conversation starter in itself, in some circles at least, though we’ve seen that on a number of occasions too.

Dual front cameras are also good for some bragging rights and then for some actual versatility in selfie shooting. And that’s before we get to the hugely-capable rear camera – how can it not be hot to be able to precisely control the directionality of mic input when capturing your 4K…

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When asked about search engines, most of us have a rather natural tendency to think about Google or Bing, perhaps even Yahoo as primary examples of how we tend to navigate the vast online resources. But what we often tend to forget is that other aspects of our digital life rely heavily on advanced categorization and search mechanisms as well. For, example, all the apps you installed on your smartphone came from somewhere and you probably wouldn’t be in the know about at least a few of them were it not for context-aware searches and recommendations.

Providing users with just the right content, precisely when they need it is becoming increasingly important, not to mention lucrative and this is precisely what Apple is focusing on with the latest improvement to its App Store search. Searching for apps now yields a lot more relevant results thanks to Cupertino’s new raking system, which is now based on a mix of contextual keywords, along with the traditional title and developer searches. In this way, users are presented with more competitor app’s that are relevant to their query.

A perfect illustration of the real-file improvement is that searching for “Twitter” now brings up relevant third-party apps like Tweetbot and Twitterrific in the top results, which are likely to be more useful in the given context then let’s say Instagram, which used to be on the list.

I just searched Twitter on the App Store and Instagram is gone, Tweetbot is #4, Twitterrific #5, and more relevant results overall.— David Barnard (@drbarnard) November 12, 2015

Up until now, the App Store conducted searches in a rather old-school, traditional manner, by going through the title and dedicated keyword fields of each app. Mixing in contextual keywords from the description and other present texts is a considerably more semantic approach that can easily be compared to one of Google’s main ways of rating content relevancy – Page Rank.

Although the search giant’s system is immensely more complicated (just ask any SEO specialist), the parallel is quite obvious and could hint that Apple is trying its hand ant developing its own version of PageRank in the future.

Cupertino is yet to comment on the noticeable search algorithm changes, which were rather quietly rolled to the public. In any case, it is definitely a move in the right direction.

Source |…

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Google has announced that calls made to France over Hangouts are free of cost temporarily. This includes calls made to local landline or mobile numbers, which normally incur a fee.

This move is due to the recent terrorist attacks that took place in Paris yesterday, involving multiple shootings and explosions as well as a hostage situation. The situation is now under control but the events have resulted in unrest among the citizens, as the attack is said to be the worst to have happened in France since the second World War.

Understandably, a lot of people are trying to get in touch with the people over in France right now. As such, this is a welcome move from…

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