In a very interesting twist, the latest version of Firefox for Android basically has a built-in ad blocker. The Mozilla-made browser has obviously been no stranger to ad blocking before today, but it’s so far performed such actions via dedicated extensions such as AdBlock Plus.

From this point on, however, the functionality is there without the need for any add-ons. You just have to use the Private Browsing feature (which is called Incognito Mode in other browsers). This now comes with tracking protection, which “blocks certain Web elements that could be used to record your behavior across sites”, according to Mozilla’s changelog. In effect, this function blocks ads too, since those fit the bill quite well. It also blocks tracking cookies and social sharing buttons, for example.

Firefox 42 for Android has other new stuff in it as well, such as the ability to open external URLs from Android apps in the background, family-friendly browsing when you create a restricted profile on a tablet, scrollable tabs for panels navigation, direct voice input support for searching from the URL bar, and a new mobile login manager. Oh, and performance should be improved on interactive websites that trigger a lot of restyles. Finally, some unnamed security fixes are said to be in too.

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The Moto X Force got official as the international version of Verizon’s Droid Turbo 2 last week, and now it’s already up for pre-order at several retailers in the UK.

You can pre-order the Moto X Force in SIM-free and unlocked form from Handtec for £497.99, Clove for £499, Expansys for £499.99, or Carphone Warehouse for £529.99.

If you want to get the phone on an operator contract, Carphone Warehouse is the only option for now. The Moto X Force is free on Pay monthly plans starting at £37.50 per month. That cheapest choice is at O2, and it delivers unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, and 1 GB of 4G data each month.

At the exact opposite end of the spectrum we find a £59.99 per month plan at EE, which gives you unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, and 20GB of data. There are many other options in between, though, as you’d expect.

Handtec expects to have the Moto X Force in stock on November 9, while Carphone Warehouse promises that pre-ordered units will be delivered by November 10, and Clove says the phone is due around November 14.

The Moto X Force has a shatterproof 5.4-inch QHD touchscreen, a 21 MP rear camera, a 5 MP front snapper, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 powering it, and a 3,760 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.1.1…

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HTC is running a very good promotion for its Nexus 9 tablet today. First things first, though – this only applies if you live in the US. The deal is offered through HTC’s own online store for the States, and it’s a “while supplies last” type of thing.

In fact, a few short hours after the offer started, the 16GB Nexus 9 is no longer available. And if you’re after a 32GB Wi-Fi-only model, know that you can only get the white one, as black is already out of stock.

That said, the price is definitely nice. The aforementioned 32GB Wi-Fi tablet goes for just $287.40. If you want LTE connectivity built-in too, you can pick a black Nexus 9 with 32GB of storage for $359.40.

Both of those prices are way, way under what the Nexus 9 used to cost when it launched last year. So if you like its size, its 4:3 aspect ratio, and the fact that it’s a Nexus (thus getting software updates first, and straight from Google), perhaps you should act fast and grab…

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The ZUK Z1 now has a special version that comes with a back cover made from oak wood. This has been announced in China as a limited edition, priced over there at CNY 1,799 ($283 or €259 at the current exchange rates). That’s just CNY 100 ($15, €14) more than what the normal iteration of the phone now goes for. So you’re not paying a big premium for the exotic material on the back.

The oak used for the special edition’s back apparently originates in the Appalachian Mountains in the US. What you see on the smartphone is the pure, unadulterated color of the wood, as it hasn’t been dyed in any way.

Aside from the wood, the special edition ZUK Z1 is identical to the ‘vanilla’ product. It also comes with the same 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, 13 MP rear camera, 8 MP selfie snapper, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC at the helm, 3GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, as well as the big 4,100 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

Source (in…

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As of today, Twitter favorites are no more. They’ve been killed by the social network in favor of likes. With the death of favorites, the star icon used for them is now gone too. Likes are depicted on Twitter with a heart icon.

For whatever reason, Twitter’s decided to let go of one of its oldest features – favoriting tweets. This was done by clicking or tapping on the star icon.

You can say a lot with a heart. Introducing a new way to show how you feel on Twitter: https://t.co/WKBEmORXNW http://pic.twitter.com/G4ZGe0rDTP— Twitter (@twitter) November 3, 2015

Since that’s now dead, in its place you’ll find the new heart icon which you can click or tap if you want to like a tweet you see. Twitter says people like hearts more than stars. They love hearts, in fact. Oh, and the heart is “a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones” in a way that the lowly star couldn’t. The company’s blog post on the matter goes on to claim that “the heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people”.

Hearts are also coming to Vine, Twitter’s enterprise that’s all about six-second videos, after having debuted in Periscope, the company’s live streaming app. The heart icon and associated like gesture are out today in Twitter for iOS and Android, the Twitter website, TweetDeck, Twitter for Windows 10, Vine for Android, the Vine website, as well as in embedded tweets across the web. The new feature will hit Vine for iOS and Twitter for Mac…

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As products get slimmer and slimmer, they need to be engineered for components to take up the least possible amount of space. Manufacturers can come up with some of the most beautifully designed hardware by minimizing the number of seams and replacing screws with gobs of adhesive. The major downside to this is they actually have to use gobs of adhesive, a DIY’ers worst enemy.

Don’t expect the Surface Book to be any different than its previous Surface family members, all of which consistently received repairability scores of 2/10 and under. In fact the Surface Book did even worse, posting a miserable 1/10 score.

While you may be able to remove the display panel to replace a camera module or a fried SSD, there are so many risks involved with heating up the display and prying it away from the surrounding adhesive (i.e. tearing a flex cable, shattering the glass).

If you plan on getting the Surface Book (or any Surface, really) spare yourself the headaches and opt for an extended warranty plan. You might thank yourself…

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According to data revealed by market research firm Kantar Worldpanel, in Russia, Windows Phone was ahead of iOS back in August this year – while the Microsoft’s OS had a market share of 12%, Apple’s mobile OS claimed 10.8%.

Keep in mind that the data covers only the first 8 months of this year, which means there’s no information on the smartphone OS market share in Russia for the months following the release of the newest iPhones, something which happened in September this year. It’s quite likely that iOS would have overtaken Windows Phone in that time-frame.

Aside from Russia, Windows Phone has also seen in its market share rising in several countries around the world. In a report published last month, Kantar revealed that the OS’ share rose considerably in Germany, France, and Australia. However, that report, too, covered the 3 months ending…

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In an interesting turn of events Samsung might be taking a step back from the megapixel race and equip the Galaxy S7 with a 12MP primary camera. The flipside is that the sensor will have a rather large by phone standards 1/2″ size, if the rumor turns out to be true, that is.

Previously rumored to come with a 20MP ISOCELL sensor, next year’s flagship has also been mentioned in the same sentence with Sony’s custom 23-24.8MP imager used in the Xperia Z5 generation. If this new bit of info checks out, however, the S7 might shift its focus towards low-light performance thanks to what has been dubbed dual-PD (dual-photodiode) technology, and obviously larger individual photosites.

The Nexus 5X and 6P both employ Sony’s IMX377 sensor, which is 1/2.3″ in diagonal and has 1.55 micron pixels, the largest on a contemporary flagship phone. Samsung’s new top-tier device will then improve on that number, though the difference between 1/2.3″ and 1/2.0″ isn’t as great as to be called a jump. We’re talking single-digit percentages here and a sensor diagonal of 7.75mm vs. 8.00mm.

Moving away from the dry figures, the source says that the new sensor is set to enter mass production any day now to be able to make it to the Galaxy S7, rumored to be released as early as January. You can tell by now that none of this is backed by tangible evidence, so make sure to contain your excitement.

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If you have been keeping a close eye on the news section, then you surely remember the mystery Huawei smartphone that popped up in a GFXBench score card yesterday. The test itself was failed and held no indication of performance, but the specs sheet of the Huawei NXT-AL10 was revealed and by all accounts, it looks to be the eagerly-anticipated Huawei Mate 8, powered by the company’s new SoC – the Kirin 950.

Today, a new GeekBench leak, bearing the same NXT-AL10 model number offers a new twist to the story. This time around, there is a performance score and it is quite flattering for the Kirin 950, which managed a whopping 1710 points on single-core performance and 6245 on multi-core. Now, these numbers might not be a hundred percent accurate, especially since it’s a pre-production unit and there is even a mismatch in the frequency between the two benchmarks (GeekBench says 1.8 GHs, while GFXBench lists 1.2 GHz), so it is early to say whether this does the Kirin 950 justice.

Still, if we have to make some preliminary comparison, it looks like the new Kirin 950, obliterates Samsung’s current crown jewel – the Exynos 7420, which can do about 1486 points on single core tests and 4970 on multi-core. That is an impressive achievement, especially considering HiSilicon’s track record of putting out underpowered chips. Still, it is not exactly fair to pit an upcoming chip against one that is already being used today and other chip vendors also deserve some attention. You might find the following table helpful, but bear in mind that the scores are preliminary.

Chipset
Single-Core
Multi-Core

Samsung Exynos M1 Mongoose – 2.3GHz
2,294
6,908

Samsung Exynos M1 (Mongoose) – Power Saving
1,710
4,896

Samsung Exynos M1 (Mongoose) – Ultra Power Saving
1,100
3,209

Samsung Exynos 7420
1,486
4,970

Apple A9
2,487
4,330

HiSilicon Kirin 950
1,710
6,245

Qualcomm Snapdragon 820
1,731
4,970

The Apple A9, for instance scores a hefty 2,487 points on single core and 4,330 point on all cores and Samsung’s upcoming M1 Mongoose custom-core SoC is said to be capable of up to 2,294 points on single core and 6,908 points on multi. Also, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 has to be mentioned with reported GeekBench scores of 1731 points and 4970 points, respectively. And last, but not least, there is the MediaTek Helio X30, which is already rumored, despite the fact that its predecessor – the X20 is still on its way to user markets. With its unique four-cluster deca-core design, it also shows benchmark-breaking potential.

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King.com, developer of highly popular puzzle game Candy Crush, has been acquired by Activision for $5.9 billion.

Activision, or rather Activision Blizzard, owns many popular franchises, most notably the Call of Duty series, along with many of Blizzard’s titles such as Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft.

While the amount may seem staggering in light of other recent acquisitions, such as $2.5 billion Microsoft paid for Minecraft, King.com and its many products are undeniably extremely popular on the mobile platform, and their games continue to be top grossing on every platform they are available on. This gives Activision Blizzard a good foothold in the ever growing mobile gaming market, and the investment is likely to pay off handsomely in…

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