Acer might not have unveiled any new smartphones in the past three months or so, but the Taiwanese company is definitely working on more such offerings for the future.

In fact, one of them just got benchmarked – by someone with access to a prototype, undoubtedly. And, as always, this means we get a neat list of the phone's most important specs.

Clearly what stands out here is the Acer S59's front-facing camera. It will have 13 MP resolution, which means it will compete head-to-head with the units we've seen in the Asus Zenfone Selfie, the HTC Desire Eye, and the Micromax Canvas Selfie. All three of those sport the same resolution for their selfie snappers, but they also share another feature: a front-facing flash.

The Acer S59's benchmark doesn't reveal such a thing, but that doesn't mean it's not going to be in there in production units. Anyway, Acer will clearly label this one as a selfie lover's dream phone. It will also be very good for video selfies (if those even exist), since the front-facing camera will apparently be capable of 4K video recording.

Other specs aren't as exciting though. The S59 will have a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, MediaTek's MT6753 SoC on board (with a 1.3 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU), 2GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in storage, and a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash. The prototypes currently run Android 5.1 Lollipop, so there's no reason to think production versions will come with anything else.

It's still unclear when Acer will launch the S59, or what it will be called – since S59 is clearly either a codename or a model number.

Source |…

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Pebble has announced that the production of its Time Steel smartwatch is set to start this week, and the device will begin shipping to backers later this month.

"Shipments to the first Pebble Time Steel backers will begin the last week of July," the company said on its Kickstarter page. "Backers at the end of the Time Steel line should receive tracking numbers by the end of August."

Although the smartwatch is expected to ship with both leather and steel bands, limited availability will result in some backers receiving their metal bands a little later in separate shipments, Pebble said.

The announcement comes just a few weeks after the company opened pre-orders for its Time…

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As we approach its rumored unveiling next month, the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is in the news more and more. Today we've already seen some information as to whether there will be an edge version of the new Note, as well as its front camera's resolution.

And now it's time to talk about the phablet's RAM. According to a new report, it is "confirmed" to sport 4GB of RAM, the LPDDR4 type (just like the one you'll see inside the OnePlus 2, incidentally).

As this is still a rumor, you should probably not take it for granted, but it's one more confirmation of that amount. So there's a high likelihood that Samsung will indeed cram 4GB of RAM in there.

Also "confirmed" is the fact that the Note 5 will use Samsung's own Exynos 7422 chipset, the company's first to be a true single-chip solution. This means one package will incorporate the octa-core CPU, the GPU, the RAM, the storage, as well as the Shannon 333 LTE modem.

Also previously rumored for the Galaxy Note 5 was a 5.67-inch Super AMOLED QHD touchscreen. Support for wireless charging should be built-in…

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Microsoft is hard at work spreading the word on its shortly launching Windows 10. This, of source means hitting every possible venue it can get and what better candidate than the annual electronics convention in Berlin.

The company has confirmed it will host an event called "Windows 10 Lights up New Devices" on September 4 at 3PM local time featuring Nick Parker, Vice President of the OEM division.

As it appears though the event is unlikely to host any Lumia or Surface device announcements. According to the message for the event Parker will demonstrate a breadth of new Windows 10 devices, including tablets, 2-in-1s, premium notebooks, gaming devices and all-in-ones that will light up the Windows 10 experience for customers. We guess we can always hope for a "one more thing" surprise though.

Alternatively we might get a second Microsoft event at the IFA entirely dedicated to new Lumia phones. Fingers crossed!…

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Over a week after there were reports that Google will soon launch a Lava-manufactured Android One smartphone in India, the local vendor's Iris X5 4G smartphone has appeared in the GFX Benchmark database. This fuels speculations that this is the device that will be unveiled by the search giant.

The listing reveals that the handset is powered by a MediaTek MT6735 SoC with a quad-core 1.3GHz processor and a Mali-T720 GPU, and sports a 4.6-inch 1280 x 720 pixel display. It comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal memory. In terms of camera, it features a 12MP rear unit and a 7MP front shooter. The device runs Android 5.1 out-of-the-box.

Some of the details like chipset, RAM, and display are quite close to what has already been revealed in earlier reports, so it looks like the Iris X5 4G is the upcoming second-gen Android One smartphone. Whatever the case, we'll get to know soon, as the announcement is expected to happen…

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Xiaomi is ready to introduce some new devices and it has begun its teasing campaign. There are four mysterious pictures at company's official Weibo account, which say it has something new in the pipeline.

What we know for sure is the event will happen on July 16 in China. If the teasers mean something to you, feel free to speculate in our comments below.

All pictures share a PK logo, a cryptic picture and a slogan. The first one, which looks like a smartphone frame means tradition. The second one with the three frames says "The art of craft has reached a whole new…

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The Gear 2 may be a bit obsolete now, a year has after its initial release in 2014. But, it is still a decently capable smartwatch that offers quite a lot of exclusive functionality – like its Tizen OS and camera.

A4C currently has the Gear 2 on sale for $169.95, good $130 down from the original retail price. The deal gets even better if you apply the "CHEAP50" promo code at checkout, which slashes an additional $50. This brings the tag down to $119.95 – still not exactly lunch money, nor quite the steal AT&T was offering on the LG G Watch E in April, but quite a deal nonetheless. It is available in black and brown gold color, on fun orange one.

As far as bells and whistles go, the Gear 2 still has them all and add some. The 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display sits atop a Snapdragon 400 SoC and 4GB of storage.

Additional features include a heartrate sensor, IR Blaster and a 2MP camera, capable of capturing 1080p video. The 300 mAh battery gets you through about 3 days of normal usage, which is definitely an advantage over most of its current rivals.

Source |…

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If you have checked the news lately, then surely you have heard all the rumors and speculations about the next Samsung Galaxy Note device incoming fast. Various leaks are still popping up with possible specs and news of and edges sibling.

The latest such info comes from Samsung's own website. It is from a FAQ page about the front camera of the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge and how OIS is the cause of the floating lens effect, not any factory fault. If you look closely, however, you might notice that the title of the said page also lists two other model numbers – n925 and n920f.

These are said to belong to the upcoming Galaxy Note 5, as well as its curved screen sibling, whose existence is still debated. It now seems that the Note 5 Edge will be a thing.

The said support page also indicates that the next Note device will borrow its front camera form the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge – a 5MP one.

As far as we currently know, the Note 5 will feature a 5.67-inch QHD Super AMOLED display and an in-house Exynos 7422 SoC, a reworked version of the already familiar 7420 inside the Galaxy S6, but with built-in cellular modems this time. Storage should be set at 32GB although, there will probably be more options available.

The presence of a microSD card slot is till in question and so is the possibility of a removable battery – seeing how the Note will take a lot of design ques from the Galaxy S6. Glass back, or not, the Galaxy Note 5 will probably measure 153.4 x 77.3 x 10.2mm, but those 10.2mm include the camera hump, as revealed by recent 3D render.

We get a few more numbers for the Note 5 – a 16MP primary camera with OIS and 2160p video recording (not that you would've guessed otherwise). The phablet has also been said to come with a 4,100mAh battery and Lollipop 5.1.1 out of the box.

Source | Via (in…

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ZTE revealed that it managed to ship around 26 million smartphones in the first half of the this year. Out those nearly 39% were high-end handsets, the company said.

In addition, the company – whose smartphone shipments grew by more than 50% last year – also revealed that its shipments in the US market were up 41% in H1 2015. However, the Chinese company has cut its shipments forecast for the year from 80 million to 60 million units.

The revelation comes just weeks after there were reports that China's number two smartphone player Xiaomi shipped more than 35 million smartphones in the first half of…

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