Another week went by and it was definitely dominated by IFA. The annual Berlin convention might have shrunk some this year after Samsung decided to move its Note5 launch ahead of schedule, but the venue still offered quite a few exciting announcements.

First and foremost on the list is Sony, which in keeping with tradition introduced its latest line of mobile phones. It is the Z5 series and it is tasked with the hard mission of recovering fan trust after the whole Xperia Z3+, Z3v, Z4 fiasco. That is no easy task, but Sony is shooting big with a total of three new flagship phones – the Z5, Z5 Compact and last, but definitely not least – the Z5 Premium, which is officially equipped with a record-setting 4K display. The lineup also brings a brand new 23MP camera, which we actually discovered to be around 25MP and is the first such update since the Z1.

You can check our initial hands-on impressions of the Sony lineup in the review section, but IFA had a few other announcements to offer as well. Huawei, for instance outed a new flagship device and finally launched sales on its eagerly-anticipated Huawei Watch. Dubbed the Mate S, the phone is a truly impressive offer with a large and vibrant display, beautiful metal body and advanced features such as a fingerprint scanner and a Force Touch display.

Acer was also quite busy and introduced quite a few new devices at the venue. These include more trivial offers such as the Z630, Z530 and Z330. There were also a few Windows 10 offers such as the M330 and M230. Other more interesting offers include a powerful Windows 10 phone dubbed the Jade Primo, which was used to showcase Microsoft Continuum on stage. Also the gaming-centered Predator 6 with an aggressive body and the beastly ten-core MediaTek Helio X20 inside.

Lenovo was also quite active with announcement. The Vibe P1 and P1m were showcased, both spouting massive battery packs. Also the Vibe S1 with an impressive dual camera setup on the front for easy refocusing and effect like bokeh.

Amidst all the IFA commotion a few rumors did manage to slip through, like more info on the new Nexus by LG, as well as the one by Huawei, which will allegedly both be announced come September 29. A new Moto X model might also be coming our way soon, dubbed the X Force. Other highlights include the LG G4 Pro/Note, also the Xiaomi Mi 4c.

For this and more, check out this quick run-down of the most popular articles below.

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Sony Xperia Z5 Premium with world’s first 4K screen unveiled
Sony left QHD flagships in the dust with the sharpest smartphone screen ever.

Sony Xperia Z5, Z5 Compact announced with 23MP camera
Both are powered by the Snapdragon 810 and come with a fingerprint sensor in the power button.

LG’s Nexus 5 (2015) gets another round of leaked specs
The device has so far been rumored to launch alongside a larger, Huawei-made Nexus phablet.

Sony’s new Z5 series phones actually use a custom 25MP camera sensor
Sony has been persistent in using the same 20.7MP sensor for its flagship camera setup since the Xperia Z1. Not any more.

Huawei Mate S is official with a 5.5-inch display and Kirin 935 SoC
The smartphone features a 13MP OIS camera and a fingerprint sensor on the back and is big on knuckle interaction.

The Acer Predator 6 and Predator 8 are new beastly devices aimed at gamers
The game-centric phone and tablet have both the looks and specs to impress.

Motorola Bounce: a 5.43-inch flagship with QHD screen, S810, chipset
More powerful than the Moto X Style, smaller than the Moto X…

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As of today, Lenovo 6000 Plus owners in India can finally enjoy Android Lollipop. The long-overdue OTA is currently seeding, so be sure to check for an update if you haven’t received a notification yet.

The package itself is quite big at 1092MB, has a build number of A6000_A_0001_15_08_27 and is based on Android 5.0.2. As already mentioned, the A6000 Plus is a very popular device, especially in India. It was launched shortly after its sibling – the A6000 sold like crazy in a few consecutive online flash sales and has an equally tantalizing price tag and also double the amount of RAM at 2GB. Unsurprisingly, it did fairly well is sales as well.

As for the basic A6000, however, it is still stuck on Android 4.4 KitKat, which is slightly disappointing, especially considering the two devices are so alike in terms of hardware and compatibility shouldn’t be a big issue. Still, there is hope, as Lenovo’s official Android Update Matrix does state that the A6000 is also due for a Lollipop update by the endo of the month.

Thanks for the tip…

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Microsoft is unquestionably the authority when it come the end-user PC market, but despite the whopping success of Windows throughout the years, the Silicon Valley giant just never seems to get it right with web browsers. Ever since the days of Netscape, Internet Explorer has been consistently outstaged by some leaner, prettier, faster and more standard-compliant alternative.

Shaking such a deplorable reputation, be it deserved or not, has proven a nearly impossible task and despite the new direction, total redesign, better performance and even totally new name, the Microsoft Edge browser is still having a hard time retaining a loyal audience. But you don’t have to trust me on that, the statistics speak for themselves.

In any case, Microsoft has now hatched a new, slightly more aggressive plot to make you stick with the Edge browser that comes bundled with Windows 10. It appears that the first time you open up the browser and use Microsoft’s own Bing search, which is unsurprisingly also set as a default and look up “Chrome” or “Firefox”, the results come up along with a quite serious looking gray information strip, explaining that Microsoft Edge is the recommended choice on Windows 10.

Now, we can definitely understand this desire for a clean slate and a new chance for Edge, but Microsoft is heading down a slippery slope yet again. Let’s look back a little bit, shall we. A few years ago after a major industry scandal unfolded with accusations that Microsoft was abusing it OS monopoly to push Internet Explorer on users, a EU ruling forbid the company from setting it as a default browser and gave birth to a peculiar default browser chooser. That was back in 2009 and you might have missed it altogether, if you happen to live outside the European Union. The said regulations were active for five years and are no longer in place since the beginning of 2015.

While this does mean that Microsoft is free to push Edge, the question can easily be rekindled and such banners are a risky gamble. On the other hand, all you loyal Microsoft fans out there can rest assured that Edge or a similar built-in browser isn’t going away any time soon. Default or not, it is still a vital component of windows, needed for a lot of core and third-party apps to function. So chances are that in a way we are all Edge users, it all depends on how you look at it.

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The Galaxy Z3 is now well on its way to user markets, as predicted and units are apparently already out in the wild. We caught a first glimpse of the device in a few life photos, but today brings us another, more substantial leak.

This time the Z3 is pictured right next to its sibling, the Z1, which allows for a pretty accurate size comparison. Actually, as is evident by the shots and the previously leaked specs sheet, which features a 5.0-inch display, mid-range chipset and 1.5GB of RAM, there is nothing really that special about the unit itself and normally it would simply go by mostly unnoticed. But, the Z3 has one major definitive feature which draws attention – it is powered by Tizen. This is only the second device that Samsung equips with its Tizen OS.

Prior to the Galaxy Z1, the said platform was only reserved for the OEM’s wearables, like the Gear S2 that was unveiled a few days ago at IFA. The tiny Z1 was a bold new ambassador for the Korean giant’s believe that Tizen can in fact be a full-features smartphone OS, but it could only go so far in showcasing the experience with severely handicapped specs, like a 4.0-ich 400 x 800 pixels screen, a Spreadtrum SC7727S SoC and 768MB of RAM.

Now, naturally, all eyes are on the Z3 and needless to say, expectations are high to see how far Tizen has come in its development and weather it can scale and work properly with more horse power. As far as we currently know, the Z3 should be unveiled at the Tizen Developer Summit on July 30-31 at Bengaluru, India and begin shipping in the second half of the ongoing year. The initial launch will cover India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, which leads us to believe that Samsung’s strategy for the Z3 might be an aggressive price policy to make it a good deal in developing markets and perhaps even endeavor to steal away some market shares from Android One.

As for the rest of the unit’s specs, the aforementioned 5.0-ich display is said to be of the Super AMOLED variety, it typical Samsung fashion and have a resolution of 1280×720 pixels. Under the hood will be a quad-core chip, clocked at 1.3 GHz, probably a Spreadtrum SC7730S, but there have been rumors of a Snapdragon 410 as well. The camera setup consists of an 8MP primary shooter and a 5MP front-facing one. Other notable feature are the two SIM slots and a 2600 mAh battery.

Source |…

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If you are an Apple fan and have been lurking around for info on what the Cupertino giant has in store then you have most-definitely stumbled upon rumors of an iPad Pro at some point or another. Such speculations have actually been around ever since January 2014, which looks to be a record and at this point it is anybody’s guess if there are more than pure fiction.

Most of our current info on the tablet comes from pre-production renders that usually case and accessory manufacturer receive ahead of time to prepare their respective products. But in the past months we have gone through so many of these alleged renders and even already manufactured cases that it has become almost impossible to pinpoint one batch of really truthful information. Well, the latest in this long line of rumors comes courtesy of Twitter’s OnLeaks, which definitely gives it more credibility.

Apparently, Steve Hemmerstoffer has managed to narrow things down to only two renders, one from December 2014 and the other from June 2015 which do share a lot of similarities, but are also quite distinct. They both seem to prove that the iPad Pro will come with a large 12.3-inch display, as opposed to previous speculations of a 12.0-inch one. Also, both distinctly show four speaker grills. However, that’s about it in terms of similarities.

iPad Pro renders

The older leak shows a device measuring 305.7 x 222.6 x 7.2mm, while the newer one is of a much thicker unit – 305.7 x 222.8 x 8mm. There are also some discrepancies in the control layout. The older render has the same volume buttons as previous smaller iPads, as well as a microphone instead of a lock switch and a second one near the back camera. The newer one, on the other hand, has the said lock switch intact, a power button and microphone on the top edge and a second microphone in the center top part of the back.

Both variants seem to make sense. The older one is not only thinner, but also has newer control designs, but one could also argue that the newer one is thicker for a very important reason – Force Touch underneath the display, that was added later. It is also worth noting that rumors venture even further and talk of a Force Touch stylus, as well as a second screen smart cover.

Thankfully, this madness should come to an end pretty soon at the September 9 Apple event. And until then, we leave it up to you to tell us, what you think of the iPad Pro…

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Now that the IFA doors are opened to the public, our job there is pretty much over. If you can’t drop by and see all the exciting gadgetry on display in Berlin yourself, it’s ok. Here are the few announcements you shouldn’t miss.

Unlike previous years, Samsung didn’t wait for the Berlin venue to out its new Note phablet, which definitely left a dent in the final lineup. This, however, cleared the stage for Sony, which delivered a whole new Z5 family and definitely stole the spotlight. There were, however, at least a few interesting offers from other OEMs that we didn’t overlook, so without further ado, here are the highlights of the show.

Best phone

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium

Like we said, Sony definitely takes the cake this year. Its new Z5 lineup generated a huge amount of interest, as is evident by our news and review sections, as well as the top ten chart which is now dominated by the Xperia Z5 Premium and its world first 4K display.

Xperia Z5 Premium

A 4K display on a phone might turn out to be more of a gimmick than a truly-useful feature, but it is undoubtedly a step forward. That, along with the slightly bigger display size and the fact that the Z5 Premium offers just about everything the Z5 does and add some was more than enough for the 5.5-inch unit to outshine both the regular Z5 and the Z5 Compact. If we have to point out a winner, it would probably by the Z5 Premium, although there is another worthy contender that needs to be mentioned.

Huawei Mate S

That would be the Mate S. It is a true flagship offer and an emanation of Huawei’s recent accent to high-end quality phones. Its metal exterior is incredibly stylish and just looks premium. This feeling is only furthered by the sharp 5.5-inch AMOLED display that seem to be seamlessly molded into the chassis. Huawei has also went out of its way to fit the Mate S with as much tech as possible and the phone now has an all-new smart fingerprint sensor, more powerful that the one on the Mate7 and even Force Touch.

Huawei Mate S

It is definitely hard to point out the start of the show between the two, so we will just leave it up to you to decide.

Best smartwatch

Everybody seems to be making a smartwatch these days and we definitely can’t blame them for trying. The odd new breed of wearable tech might still feel like more of a gimmick than a must-have accessory, but the figures don’t lie and the tiny devices have quickly turned into a lucrative niche.

Huawei Watch

This being said, it was not surprising that wearables popped out all over the Berlin venue. But if quality is what you are after then you undoubtedly need to look into the Huawei Watch. And before you say it isn’t new at all and was announced way back at MWC in March, well, technically that is true, but the gadget did finally go up for presale during IFA, so it counts.

There is one major definitive feature about the Huawei Watch that simply seems to give it an edge compared to other Android Wear devices – it was designed as a proper watch first and then a smart gadget and that approach has really paid off. If you like a smart, luxurious assistant that you won’t have to substitute for the real thing when putting on a suit, then the Huawei Watch is probably your best bet. It also helps that is currently seems to utilize the most superior hardware in the Android Wear realm.

Huawei Watch

Moto 360(2nd gen)

But, there is also another smartwatch that we can’t help but mention – the Moto 360 (2nd gen). It is arguably the successor to the watch that rekindled the wearable concept and gave it a new twist – a round form factor. And before you quote us on that in the comments, we are quite aware of the “flat tire” display form factor, which just happens to persist in the new Moto 360 as well. Some might not mind it or even find it appealing as a design feature, but it does seem to take away some of the appeal of the wearable. That is why we are naming it a close second, although we must say it was a tough call.

Moto 360 (2nd gen)

Best tablet

Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro

Yet another tough choice, but for a slightly different reason. It all seems to come down to what your idea of a tablet and its purpose is (don’t worry, we are still not completely sure ourselves). If you think of it like a portable entertainment center, then the…

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BlackBerry just struck a deal with the California-based Good Technology and will now be merging its mobile services into the already extensive enterprise suite. $425 million were apparently enough to snatch the mobile business, which has been an IPO candidate for quite some time now.

The deal is actually quite good and here is why. Good Technology is far from a household name, but it is a popular vendor of secure cross-platform mobile management solutions. Thus, the US company is actually offering similar services to BlackBerry’s enterprise suits, but with a cross-platform approach or what is known as a bring-your-own-device approach. Furthermore, Good Technology has been doing fairly well on the market with more than 6,200 organizations in over 190 countries using their services of which more than 50 are on the FORTUNE 100 list.

BlackBerry’s plan is to merge its existing portfolio of enterprise services and solutions with the ones from Good Technology. This way the Canadian tech giant hopes to modernize and broaden its enterprise secure communication offers, which were once undisputed in their total market domination, but have been suffering lately due to the growing popularity of Android and iOS. To quote BlackBerry’s own statement:

BlackBerry’s leadership in MDM, application management and secure connectivity combined with Good’s leadership in mobile containers, productivity suite, service management and SDKs will create a higher-value product stack with the capability to expand well beyond EMM collaboration and application enablement

This all sounds like a terribly complicated endeavor and it most certainly is, but if everything pans out the end result should be a powerful cross-platform suite that can easily manage Android, iOS, Windows, BlackBerry devices and more, complete with more than 2000 ISV and custom apps that Good currently has trough either in-house development or in its partner program. This also means that the existing client and partnership base will be transferred to BlackBerry as well to further strengthen in enterprise branch.

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The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7, which was made official along with the 8-inch variant back in July this year, will be available for purchase from US Cellular starting September 11. The device will be available both online as well as in stores.

“As more people turn to their tablet devices for work, entertainment and productivity, we want to make sure that we have the latest devices and a high-quality national network to keep them connected to everything they need,” said Joe Settimi, vice president of marketing for U.S. Cellular. “The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is the perfect device for families, businesses and anyone looking to have a cutting-edge device that is great for both work and play.”

You will be able to purchase the tablet for $0 down with 24 monthly payments of $27.5. There will also be an option to pay off the full balance amount any-time you want. This comes just over a week after both 9.7-inch and 8-inch variants of the device went up for pre-order in the…

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After the launch of the Go and Pop ranges members yesterday, Alcatel just announced the OneTouch Idol 3C and OneTouch Pixi First smartphones. The also unveiled OneTouch Pixi 3 (10) tablet is another addition to the family of already innumerable Pixi devices.

The OneTouch Idol 3C is Alcatel’s best equipped model we’ve seen at IFA and it is in fact specced almost the same as the OneTouch Idol 3 (5.5). The Idol 3C borrows the 5.5-inch FullHD IPS panel of the Idol 3 and puts it a new body with interchangeable covers in bright colors. Even the fully reversible nature of the Idol 3 has been kept, so you shouldn’t worry whether you pick up the phone mic-side up when answering a call in the dark.

Underneath the covers ticks the Snapdragon 615, its dual quad-core CPU clocked at 1.5GHz and 1.0GHz respectively. 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage shape up the same package as the single-SIM version of the Idol 3 (5.5). The primary camera consists of a 13MP sensor housed behind a five-element f/2.0 lens, and the front cam is an 8MP fixed-focus affair.

There’s multi-band 2G/3G, as well as Cat.4 LTE, while local connectivity covers Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, and NFC. A GPS receiver is also on board with A-GPS, and the FM radio even has RDS. Battery capacity is 2,910mAh, and if the specific number rings a bell, refer to the Idol 3C spec page.

At the other end of the spectrum we find the OneTouch Pixi First. It’s a humble 4 inches in diagonal, with a 800×480 pixels resolution. Powered by a Spreadtrum SC7731 chipset with a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, paired with 512MB or RAM, the Pixi First won’t win any performance awards. Thankfully, the meagre 4GB of internal storage can be expanded by popping in a microSD card.

The smartphone comes with a 5MP/2MP camera combo, both fixed-focus, but it does have a flash on the back. Cellular connectivity is limited to 2G/3G only, and there will be a dual-SIM version as well. You do get Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth, though in a somewhat ancient 2.1 version.

There’s also GPS and an FM radio – Alcatel seems to include the feature throughout its lineup. Battery capacity is a modest 1,450mAh. The physical dimensions are 122. X 64.4 x 9.7mm.

The Alcatel OneTouch Pixi 3 (10) is the largest slate to join the Pixi tablet lineup. Much like Pixi 3 (8), the 10-incher comes with 1,280×800 pixels resolution, but on this diagonal it results in an even lower pixel density of 149ppi.

Alcatel OneTouch Pixi 3 (10)

The Mediatek MT8127 chipset is in charge with a 1.3GHz dual-core processor and a single gig of RAM. Internal storage is 16GB and the microSD slot takes cards up to 64GB. A basic 5MP/2MP camera duo is on board as a last resort.

The tablet is Wi-Fi only, so there’s no cellular radios, but there is GPS and Bluetooth 4.1. Battery capacity is rated at 4,060mAh, and the device measures 255.5 x 155 x…

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