The fact that Microsoft would bring Cortana to Android was announced back in May, and last month a leaked build surfaced. That happened because up until today the app was in closed beta.

Not anymore, though. From now on anyone can use Microsoft’s assistant on Android, provided they don’t mind beta software. The beta has gone public, but you need to be in the US to actually get it.

If you’re interested, here’s the download link. You have to agree to become a beta tester before you’ll see the app in the Play Store.

Cortana for Android has most of the functionality seen in Windows 10 or Windows Phone. You can set and get reminders, search the Web, track flight details, and start and complete tasks across all of your (Cortana-running) devices. It’s even possible to set Cortana to show up when you long press the Home button, if you feel the need to replace Google Now from that spot.

There are still certain things Cortana for Android doesn’t do. It doesn’t toggle settings or open apps, and you can’t invoke it by simply saying “Hey Cortana”. These features may arrive in future updates…

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So, another flagship killer means a) the original left some unfinished business or b) OnePlus ran out of smart taglines. It would’ve made little sense to OnePlus to revise the job description but, while the OnePlus 2 is clearly superior it lacks one thing the original had, the benefit of surprise…

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The Oppo R5s is a refresh of the super thin Oppo R5. It bumps the RAM up to 3GB, doubles the storage at 32GB, and keeps the razor-sharp premium body.

The R5s was announced two days ago and we were promised official pricing and availability soon. Today we can shed more light on those – the Oppo R5s will be sold via the Oppo Style online store in Europe for €199.

The Oppo R5s will become available for purchase tomorrow – August 25. It will be available in only one color initially – Dark Gray. There’s no word if others will be added and when that might happen.

There are no additional upgrades outside the memory department. The display is still a 5.2″ 1080p AMOLED unit, the chipset is Snapdragon 615 and the main camera has a 13MP sensor. This means the Android below the Color 2.0 launcher is still KitKat, too.

If you want to treat yourself a new Oppo R5s, you should visit the official online…

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LG runs the habit of pre-announcing devices ahead of their official unveiling, and that’s the case now with the new LG G Pad II 10.1. Due to be showcased at IFA in Berlin in two weeks, the tablet brings some genuine improvements over the predecessor, unlike the recent G Pad II 8.0.

The chipset inside is the two year-old flagship-grade Snapdragon 800, but aging as it is, it’s miles ahead of the S400 in the original G Pad 10.1. RAM has been doubled and is now 2GB, while internal storage remains at 16GB, expandable via microSD.

The display sticks to the same diagonal, but gets a boost in resolution to WUXGA (or 1,920 x 1,200 pixels for the initialism-challenged), which results in the acceptable 224ppi density. The other headline feature is the 7,400mAh battery, which LG says “will keep you entertained for hours on end”. The ample battery is actually a downgrade, though, as the old model had an 8,000mAh cell inside.

The innards are packed in a more serious-looking shell now, measuring 254.3 x 161.1 x 7.8mm – more than a millimeter thinner than the predecessor and with a few mm trimmed off the footprint. It’s also some 34g lighter.

The LTE enabled tablet will boot Android 5.1.1 upon launch and will come with Microsoft Office pre-installed. An additional 100GB of OneDrive for 2 years will be your third storage option.

LG has promised to detail the price and availability at IFA in the beginning of next month.

Source |…

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As promised, Xiaomi has released the global beta of the MIUI 7 ROM for a host of devices. The ROM can now be downloaded from the company’s forum or if you’re already running a beta ROM on your device, simply updated to through the Updater app on your phone.

The beta is currently available for the Redmi 2, Redmi 1S, Mi 4i, Mi 4, Mi 3, Redmi Note 3G, and Redmi Note 4G. The company will release updates every two weeks on Monday, 7:00PM Beijing time.

We have already talked about all the new features that come with MIUI 7, which include four new stock themes, XXL text option, baby album, showtime feature to set a photo or video as caller ID for others to see when you call, copy button for OTP messages, baby album in Gallery, and performance and battery life improvements.

You can download the ROM with instructions on how to install from the link…

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If you didn’t buy into the 3D render of the Huawei-made Nexus, here’s some more solid proof – live photos of the device itself.

The back design features a raised ridge for the camera and a round fingerprint sensor on the metal back. The Nexus 6 (the name feels uncertain since it has a 5.7″ screen) measures 159.4 x 78.3 x 6.6mm, but thickness goes up to 8.5mm where the camera is.

Huawei Nexus 6 caught in the wild

On the front two speakers flank the QHD screen (1,440 x 2,560px). Not seen here, but at the bottom of the phone is a USB Type C port. The third image above is an early prototype with a plastic body.

We’re also expecting a 5″ Nexus from LG, you can see it rendered in 3D here. It features a similar design and similar features.

Source (in…

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Time for another Samsung inboxing, this time it’s the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+. If you haven’t heard about it before, it’s the opposite of an unboxing. It follows a Samsung engineer through the steps of assembling the flagship phablet.

Well, Samsung probably uses more employees and automation in actual production, but the whole process doesn’t seem too complicated. That doesn’t mean that disassembly is easy though, the Galaxy S6 edge had generous amounts of glue, which made things…

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Huawei Mate 8, which should be launched as Huawei Mate S, previously known as Mate 7S, leaks yet again. We are following the path of this fella for quite a while but it will be all over in few day at the IFA event in Berlin.

According to the latest reports the Huawei Mate S is indeed the company’s next flagship and should be introducing a Force Touch display. We got some glimpses of the device throughout the past few weeks, but today we have something better – live pictures of the device sized up next to an iPhone 6.

The new Mate S looks a lot like its Mate 7 predecessor – it’s big, made out of metal and has the signature fingerprint scanner below its main camera. The sensors and the selfie camera placement doesn’t match the recently leaked photos and retail postings, but they do look the same as on the TENAA’s images we saw earlier.

There is a chance we are seeing two different devices – Mate S, Mate 7S, Mate 8 – or just market-variations of one and the same phone – the Mate S.

The Mate S is rumored to pack a 6″ Quad HD Force Touch display and run on either the most powerful and still upcoming Kirin 950 chip or the already available Kirin 935 SoC. The handset is also reported to pack a 20.7MP main camera and an 8MP selfie shooter, 3 or 4 GB RAM, a fingerprint sensor, LTE Cat.6 connectivity, a massive 4,500 mAh battery, and a brand new Emotion 4.0 UI on top of Android Lollipop.

Note that we can’t verify the authenticity of these photos, so you should take them with a grain of salt. We’ve seen the Honor 7 before marked as a MOBILE PHONE, so it sounds like a good sign to us, but the position of the front camera and the rear logo speak otherwise.

The official announcement should happen on September 2 in Berlin.

Thank you, Khaled Almoghrabi for sending these…

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It would be fair to say that Samsung infuriated an entire continent a couple of weeks ago, when it unveiled the new Galaxy Note5 and announced that it won’t be available in Europe, at least not this year. A few of our own editors have called it a bluff here at the office, and they may well be right.

One of our readers has been digging around customs and certification sites as has stumbled upon an SM-N920F version of the flagship phablet. In the past the “F” suffix has been reserved for the European version of Samsung’s phones, for example the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S5. Alternatively, the “F” could indicate the global variant once the Asian and US carrier-specific models are excluded – effectively the same thing.

Either way, the said SM-N920F version has been spotted on Bluetooth.org – the authority that certifies new devices as compliant to the connectivity standard. Meanwhile, import database listing in India shows that parts for the same variant (specifically front camera assembly) have entered the country, coming from Korea. So, by now we’ve established that an European version exists.

The icing on the cake comes from an article in Korean media focused on the device’s price, which is lower than previous generations in its home country. What’s interesting to us, however, is that it does mention an August 28 European launch date.

Whether the lack or postponement of a European launch was a marketing stunt on Samsung’s part, or the Korean news sites have it wrong, remains to be seen.

Thanks to Dennis Soleymani for the tip!

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The new Motorola smartwatch is closing in, online shops have already started listing the second generation, both sizes too. One is a 46.5mm (essentially the same as the current model). Size hasn’t been listed for the other one, but since it’s cheaper we can assume it’s smaller.

The 46.5mm Moto 360 2nd gen with cognac leather band runs for SEK 3,800 ($460/€400), while the smaller one with dark or light stainless steel strap is SEK 2,900 ($350/€305). The big one is set to ship on September 8 and the watches will arrive in a few days. This means an IFA announcement and near immediate launch.

That sounds pricy, but it’s basically how much the current Motorola watch costs, it’s just that electronics are more expensive in Sweden.

In case you haven’t heard, the second generation Moto 360 will keep the flat tire design, but add lugs for the wrist strap and move the crown button to the 2 o’clock position (similar to the Huawei Watch). The different sizes will come with different batteries too – 375mAh for the big one (up from 320mAh for the current model) and 270mAh for the small one.

Thanks for the tip, Kuzy!

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