Meizu has traditionally strayed away from Qualcomm chipsets, instead splitting its lineup between Mediatek and Samsung offerings. The MX line has been relying on Exynos-branded Samsung-made silicon from its conception, but the MX4 defected to Mediatek camp and the MX5 continued that trend.

Given that the MX4 Pro, which is the only one, actually to carry the Pro moniker, relied on the Exynos 5430 SoC, one could speculate that the MX5 Pro could be powered by a Samsung chipset as well. Well that’s only half true, it seems.

From what we’ve been hearing there won’t be an MX5 Pro, as the company is apparently in development of another device in its place. It’s supposedly bigger and better, and what would be more befitting of an upcoming high-end smartphone than the current performance king, the Samsung-made Exynos 7420?

A report originating in China states that Meizu’s next generation top model will indeed be powered by the same chipset, featured in the Galaxy S6/S6 edge, and, for all we know, in the yet-to-be-announced Galaxy note 5 and S6 edge+. It’s not just the chipset it will borrow, but allegedly also the dual-glass design. And with a price tag, quoted to be above $480, it’s also getting pretty close to Samsung’s current flagship.

The usual reminder is due here as well – this is so far nothing but a rumor and it should be taken with a pinch of salt until it gets substantiated by more reliable data.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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The Apple online store is one of the biggest online stores in the business, not only housing company’s own products but also accessories from various other brands. In which case, you’d be surprised to know that the store page does not exist anymore.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t buy stuff anymore from Apple online. Instead of having a dedicated store page with all the products on it, Apple has instead provided a buy button on all its product pages. This means now if you’re on the iPhone page, you can hit the buy button at the top and purchase from there instead of being sent to the store page.

As for the accessories, they are now listed under the respective categories, so if you scroll down the main iPhone category page you will find the link to purchase the iPhone accessories at the bottom.

Apple has also changed the top navigation bar that lacks the Store button on the left. Instead there is a new Bag button on the right that is available site-wide and lets you access your cart contents. There is also a new Music section now that houses iTunes, Apple Music, and…

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The rumors on the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 have been rocking between microSD support and lack thereof in the past weeks. While obviously that’s already been decided by Samsung, we have no way of knowing it yet and we’re still relying on word of mouth at that point.

So this latest report, coming from Taiwan, claims that the dual-SIM version of the upcoming high-end phablet will indeed support microSD storage expansion. The feature will be implemented in the now increasingly popular way where the microSD card shares a slot with the second SIM – not the best solution if you actually need to use both SIM cards, but single-SIM users will be able to get the coveted memory expansion.

One possible caveat is that the dual-SIM versions of flagships have been reserved to certain markets and notoriously difficult to come by elsewhere, so you may need to resort to non-official channels to acquire one. It is a viable option though, if you absolutely must have that 128GB music collection on you at all times.

Of course, good as it may sound, all this is nothing but a rumor. Had there been a photo of the card tray, we’d be more inclined to believe it, but as it stands now, the best option is to just wait out the 6 days until the official announcement on August 13.

Source (in…

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From the brush pens of Asian calligraphers to the goose quills of Charles Dickens to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fountain pens to the S Pen of the Samsung Galaxy Note. The company is looking and the history of writing utensils and some of their greatest users to stir up excitement for its upcoming flagship (coming next week!).

Last year Samsung partnered with fountain pen masters Montblanc for an improved writing experience with the S Pen – both with software that simulates different styles real-world pens but with an actual Montblanc-manufactured stylus.

The company is mum on what it has in store for the fifth generation, saying only “It is exciting to consider how it will continue to evolve and improve as time goes…

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The Passport Silver Edition – which was announced by BlackBerry earlier this week – is now available for purchase in the US from Amazon. The online retailer is selling the device for $549, and you can get one shipped as soon as tomorrow.

What’s worth mentioning here is that the handset – which also brings a stainless steel frame aside from the new color – is already available for purchase in the country from BlackBerry, which is not only selling it at the same price but also offering some free accessories worth $130 for a limited time – there’s no such offer on Amazon.

Keep in mind that the model Amazon is selling is only compatible with GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile, which means that it won’t work with carriers like Sprint, Verizon, Boost, or Virgin.

Source |…

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US officials have revealed that Russian hackers managed to compromise the Pentagon’s Joint Staff unclassified email system last month. Calling it a “sophisticated cyberattack,” they said the intrusion occurred around July 25, following which the system was shut down and taken off line.

The attack, which affected around 4,000 civilian and military employees of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apparently used an automated system that quickly collected large amounts of data, and then distributed it to thousands of accounts on the Internet. It is being suspected that the attack was co-ordinated via encrypted accounts on social media.

While it isn’t yet clear whether the Russian government was behind the cyber-attack, officials say that the scope of the intrusion indicates that “It was clearly the work of a state actor.” As for the data that was compromised, they say it didn’t include any classified information. Meanwhile, the system is still offline, although it’s expected to be back up in a few days, likely before the end of this…

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Xiaomi is set to take the wraps off the next iteration of its mobile operating system based on Android on August 13. But at that event we apparently might see a new smartphone being announced alongside MIUI 7.

New rumors are popping up in China saying that the long-awaited Redmi Note 2 will finally become official on that occasion. Furthermore, a leading Chinese online retailer has mentioned August 16 as the possible date on which pre-orders for the new handset are due to start.

And finally, we have the image above. This is purported to be an internal screengrab from Xiaomi’s online store, showing the price of the 32GB version of the upcoming Redmi Note 2 as CNY 799. That’s about $128 or €117 at the current exchange rates.

But there’s surely going to be an even cheaper model with 16GB of storage. And speculation has it that this will be offered for just CNY 699 ($112, €103). That price point would make it a tough competitor for Meizu’s recently unveiled m2 note.

As for specs, past mumblings spoke about the Redmi Note 2 sporting a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie cam, 2GB of RAM, and a 3,020 mAh battery. It could be powered by MediaTek’s MT6795 SoC with a 2 GHz octa-core CPU.

Source 1 (in Chinese) • Source 2 (in Chinese) |…

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Pebble opened the pre-order books for its top-end Time Steel smartwatch. The wearable device is set to begin shipping in six to eight weeks.

Available in three different finishes, the smartwatch is priced at $249 for a variant with genuine leather band. Opting for a version with stainless steel bracelet will set you back an extra $50.

On a side note, Pebble began shipping the Time Steel to Kickstarter backers. Early adopters should begin receiving tracking numbers from today onwards.

As you probably know by now, the Pebble Time Steel is a more premium version of the regular Time. You can check out our review of the latter over here.

Source…

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In the Android world, there are small tablets, medium-sized tablets, big tablets, and then we have Samsung’s Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 and Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2. Compared to every other tablet out there, they are positively huge.

However, they may not be Samsung’s biggest tablets for long. It turns out that the Korean company is already working on a much bigger device, one sporting an 18.4-inch touchscreen.

What you see in the image above is the fact that such a huge tablet has entered India for testing and evaluation purposes. After it’s gone through those tests and finished its evaluations, it’s going to be destroyed. This will probably prevent more leaks for a while, even if this is actually going to turn into a real product.

That’s a big if, though. With such a huge screen, this would be very much into niche territory, and a rather small niche at that. Still, for some commercial settings even this size could work. Which might be the reason for Samsung to think about releasing it.

Oddly enough, the value of each unit of this tablet has been set at just INR 32,371 in the import documents, which means about $507 or €464. That’s a bit less than we were expecting given that its huge display surely can’t be cheap. Then again, this number may just represent how much it costs Samsung to produce each unit, in which case it makes more sense.

Source (in French) |…

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Microsoft has a competitor for Google Translate, and today it’s launched it as an app for both iOS and Android. Furthermore, the Microsoft Translator mobile app comes with built-in support for both the Apple Watch as well as Android Wear smartwatches.

So using it you can translate stuff by just speaking to your watch, never needing to take out your phone. Of course you can also use the app on your handset or tablet too if you so wish.

Microsoft Translator currently supports instant translations between 50 languages. You can use it with your watch for spoken translations, or with your phone or tablet when you need to translate typed text. It works either way.

You’re able to pin your most frequently used translations and settings for faster access through your smartwatch. You can also browse your history if you want to.

Microsoft Translator is powered by the technology that’s used in Bing and Skype. It’s available today for free from the iTunes App Store and the Google Play…

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