Samsung is reportedly offering big discounts on the 32GB and 64GB variants of its Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 flagships, respectively, in Russia – all you have to do is to trade-in an iPhone 5/5s.

While the discount offered on the former is RUB 10,000 (around $155), the price of the latter gets reduced by RUB 15,000 (around $235).

Those who do not have an iPhone 5 or 5s, but own a Galaxy Note II, Note 3, Note 4, Note Edge, S4, or Galaxy S5 instead, can also avail the offer – the discount offered on the flagships remains the same.

Via…

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A new HTC smartphone has been spotted listed on the website of Chinese certification and regulatory authority TENAA. Dubbed A9w, the handset is quite similar to the newly-launched One A9 in both looks as well as specifications.

The listing reveals that the device is powered by an octa-core 1.5GHz processor (should be Snapdragon 617), and sports a 5-inch AMOLED display with 1920×1080 pixels resolution. It comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB expandable internal memory.

In terms of camera, the A9w features a 13MP rear unit and a 4MP front shooter. Weighing in at 143gms and measuring 145.75 × 70.8 × 7.26 (mm), the device runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, USB, GSM, TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE, LTE FDD, WCDMA, GPS, WLAN, while color options include charcoal gray, silver, gold, garnet color, etching gold, and iron black.

Source |…

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If you’ve pre-ordered a BlackBerry Priv directly from the company, you’ll be glad to know that the device has started shipping – if not already, you’ll be receiving an email from the company notifying the same.

This means that you’ll be receiving your unit shortly, although BlackBerry hasn’t shared a specific timeline. In the email, the company also said that customers will also be getting free accessories as a thank you gesture.

“As a thank you for buying from ShopBlackBerry, you will receive a complimentary PRIV slide-out hard shell case and a premium in-vehicle charger. Once your PRIV has been shipped, you will receive an email detailing how to redeem these accessories,” BlackBerry said.

If you aren’t already aware, the Android-powered Priv is already available for purchase in the US from…

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BlackBerry Priv is now available for purchase in the US, although among carriers, only AT&T is currently selling it. However, for those on Verizon waiting for the handset, here is some good news: the carrier has confirmed that it will be carrying the device “soon.”

PRIV™ by BlackBerry. The first-ever BlackBerry powered by Android. Coming soon. https://t.co/xsZRn0ukN0 http://pic.twitter.com/QkZts5de11— Verizon News (@VerizonNews) November 6, 2015

The confirmation came in the form of a tweet (shown above) sent out by the company’s @VerizonNews Twitter account. Interested users can now also sign up for updates related to the Verizon variant on the carrier’s website (head to the Source link at the bottom).

This comes just a week after a BlackBerry Priv was spotted online running on Verizon’s network, although nothing could be deduced at that time as it was just a random…

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Facebook wants people to share more music on its social network, it seems. Hence, the company is launching a new feature today, for now only in its iOS app. It’s called Music Stories, and it’s an enhanced way of showing songs and albums shared from Spotify or Apple Music in the Facebook News Feed.

Such tracks and albums will be emphasized in the News Feed, and you’ll be able to listen to a 30-second preview of the shared item without leaving Facebook. The preview is streamed from Apple Music or Spotify, depending on which service was used to share the song or album. If you like what you hear, you can buy from or save the shared song or album to the respective music service.

Music Stories should support additional services soon. Unfortunately though, there’s no word on when this feature might make it to Facebook’s Android app. So that could take a while, if it ever…

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Pebble announced its first round smartwatch back in September, yet it’s still not out. That’s all set to change very soon, as the company has just unveiled the official release date for the wearable.

The Pebble Time Round will be available on November 8 at Best Buy, Target, Amazon, as well as through Pebble’s own online store. Target and Best Buy will have it in physical stores too. The price remains the same $249 set when the Pebble Time Round first got official.

If you’ve pre-ordered the smartwatch, you should know that shipments for pre-orders will commence on November 8 too.

The Pebble Time Round comes with a 64-color always-on e-paper display. The wearable is 7.5mm thin and it weighs just 28g. Hence, it’s apparently the world’s thinnest and lightest smartwatch. It has a splash-resistant chassis, “days-long battery life”, and “minutes-quick charging”. It’s available with two band sizes, 14mm and 20mm, in black, silver, or a special edition Rose Gold (which can only be paired with 14mm…

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HTC has received a lot of flack for designing its new HTC One A9 to look like an iPhone 6, to which HTC responded that Apple was the one who copied HTC’s unibody metal design cues from the One series. Ironically, HTC made an ad that tells its viewers to be different and stand out.

The commercial below shows a bunch of people breaking away from conforming to society while inserting text titles reading: “BE BRILLIANT”, “BE BOLD”, “BE DIFFERENT”.

I think kind this of ad would have been much more effective for an HTC One M8 or One M9 as an attempt to break people away from using an iPhone, for example.

I found another ad for a One M9 that focused more on showcasing HTC’s Sense software features and hardware features that make it stand out from other Android phones. I think if HTC had swapped these two ad campaigns with each other,the ads themselves could have been so much more effective in their marketing.

HTC seems to be struggling a bit with the direction it is taking and needs to figure it out soon if it wants to stay relevant in such a brutal industry. Be brilliant, be bold, and be different,…

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Back in September Lollipop finally went past 20% in Google’s monthly Android distribution chart, and now, with the latest iteration of the report, Marshmallow is making its debut.

Hopefully you weren’t expecting the latest version of the OS to have a big impact already in terms of market share. Because it doesn’t. It currently sits at 0.3%, which is just 0.1% past Froyo, a very, very old iteration of Android.

But the good news is that it’s there. And it can only go up from here, once more and more Android device makers start rolling out Marshmallow updates.

Lollipop climbed to 25.6% of the market this month, a gain of more than 2% compared to the October data. Meanwhile, KitKat dropped to 37.8% from 38.9%, and Jelly Bean is now at 29% (down 1.2% from last month). The three oldest Android versions in the chart haven’t seen much action over the past few weeks, with Gingerbread and Froyo still stuck at 3.8% and 0.2%, respectively, as Ice Cream Sandwich dropped a mere 0.1%.

Older iterations of Android aren’t part of the report because it uses data from the new Play Store app, which only works on Froyo or later.

Source |…

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YouTube’s Android app is getting into the VR thing. Starting with an update that’s rolling out from today via Google Play, the app now supports VR videos.

There are two layers to this. First off, you can view VR videos – a new type of video that gives you “a sense of depth as you look around in every direction”. These are actual VR videos, so to speak. There obviously aren’t many at the moment, but the number should grow in time. The YouTube folks suggest a couple of such videos at the Source link below.

Second, through YouTube for Android you can now view any YouTube video in “a kind of virtual movie theater”. These are what one might call upscaled VR videos – as in, they haven’t been shot as VR videos, but YouTube’s doing some magic to make them seem more VR-ish.

For both of these features, you need a Google Cardboard headset aside from an Android phone. To access a video in VR (or a VR video), you just select the new Cardboard option from the watch page menu in YouTube for Android, then drop your phone into your Cardboard.

Source |…

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Towards the end of last month Gionee first started teasing its upcoming Elife S6 smartphone. At the time we were given little more than the November 16 unveiling date.

Today though the Chinese company has decided to continue its teaser campaign. And, thankfully, this time around we are given a few glimpses at the smartphone’s design.

The announcement is still scheduled for November 16. The device seems to be made out of metal, and a gold version will surely be available.

Based on the images, it looks like the Elife S6 actually has the model number GN9010. A Gionee handset with that designation passed through TENAA a few weeks ago, with a back that looks identical to what we see in these teasers.

If the GN9010 and the Elife S6 are one and the same, then expect to see a 5.5-inch 720p AMOLED touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 5 MP selfie shooter, a 1.3 GHz octa-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, 4G LTE, and a 3,150 mAh battery. It should run Android 5.1 Lollipop. The dimensions are 151.9 x 74.6 x 6.9 mm, and it weighs 145.2g.

On paper, it seems identical to the Elife S Plus that got official in India a few days ago, except for two things – the design and the amount of RAM. The Elife S Plus has 3GB of RAM, and it looks different too.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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