The One Max, which was released by HTC back in October 2013, has started receiving the Android 5.0 Lollipop update.

Weighing in at around 760MB, the over-the-air (OTA) update is currently rolling out in select Asian and European countries, including Taiwan, France, Italy, Poland, and Czech Republic.

For those who aren't in the know, according to a previously leaked schedule, the One Max was expected to start receiving the update back in March this…

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A few days ago, there were rumours that the Blackberry's first Android-powered smartphone – codenamed Venice – might arrive in November. However, a new report is suggesting that the Venice might not run Android at all.

As per the report, the Canadian company's debut Android phone will instead be called Prague. Aimed at emerging markets, it will be a low-end, all-touch device, with form factor similar to that of the BlackBerry Z3 (shown in the image above). The handset is expected to be released in August this year, the report notes.

Needless to say, none of this has been officially confirmed by the company, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Via 1 | Via…

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The Galaxy J7 and J5 – which have been part of various leaks over the past few weeks – have been officially announced by Samsung in China, where they will go on sale this week.

Specs-wise, the J7 is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor, and sports a 5.5-inch display with 720 x 1280 pixels. On the other hand, the J5 is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor, and sports a 5-inch 720p display.

They measure 152.2 x 79.1 x 7.9mm and 142 x 73 x 8.5mm, and pack in a 3000 mAh and 2600 mAh battery, respectively.

The rest of the specs are identical: 1.5 GB RAM, 16 GB expandable storage space, and 13 MP rear and 5 MP front cameras. In addition, they offer LTE and dual SIM capabilities, run Android 5.1 Lollipop, and come in black, white, and gold colour options.

It's worth mentioning that these are the South Korean company's first smartphones that come with front-facing LED flash. As for the price, while the J7 carries a price tag of 1,798 CNY ($290), the J5 will set you back 1,398 CNY ($225). It isn't yet clear if and when the handsets will be available outside of China.

Source 1 (translated) | Source 2 (translated) | Via | Image…

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After having made its way to the US already, Alcatel's OneTouch Idol 3 is now headed to Canada too, in its 5.5-inch iteration.

Alcatel has officially announced that the Idol 3 will land in Canada on June 30. Over there you'll be able to purchase one from no less than three carriers: Bell, Telus, and Videotron. All of them will have the handset available both online and in stores.

That's quite the launch compared to the US, where Alcatel resorted to using its own official store (powered by Amazon) to offer the Idol 3.

Unfortunately pricing information for Canada hasn't been announced yet, but keeping in mind that the normal price of the phone in the US is $249.99, it should probably retail for around CAD 300 or so unlocked.

The Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, an 8 MP selfie cam, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, and a 2,910 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop. It's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset, which has an octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU clocked at up to 1.5…

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Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri (pictured below) seems to have finally given up on saying that his company will not return to the smartphone market. Following one denial last year and another in April of this year, Suri now says the company is in fact planning on putting its name on new smartphones starting in 2016.

There is a catch, however. Nokia will use the same strategy for its re-entry in the smartphone space as it did for creating the N1 tablet. Namely, while the Finns will design the devices and the company's name will be used, Nokia won't actually be producing the handsets.

That task will be fulfilled by "suitable partners" Suri is hoping to find from this point on. That said, given how much brand recognition Nokia still has, this should not be an issue. Foxconn, which is the licensee for the N1 tablet, could be one interested party.

Nokia can't even do this licensing dance before the second half of next year because of the terms of the deal through which it sold its mobile division to Microsoft in 2013.

Since the N1 tablet runs Android, we assume future Nokia-branded phones will go the same route. While Microsoft hasn't been able to grab any significant smartphone market share after acquiring Nokia's mobile business, maybe Nokia itself will once again rise in that space even without any production capacity of its own.

Source (in…

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Acer probably isn't a name you instantly associate with smartphones, but it's been churning out Android devices left and right for many years now. And it turns out the Taiwanese company is currently working on a new phablet.

It will be called Liquid Z630, and most of its specs have been leaked by a benchmark database. This obviously means someone with a prototype took the time to run said benchmark on it.

So, the Liquid Z630 is unashamedly a midranger. It sports a 5.5-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, an 8 MP selfie snapper too, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in storage, Bluetooth, a compass, GPS, Wi-Fi, and a gyroscope. It runs Android 5.1 Lollipop.

At the helm we find MediaTek's MT6735 chipset, boasting a 1.3 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU and ARM Mali-T720 GPU. Since the SoC supports 4G LTE connectivity, we assume the Acer Liquid Z630 will come with that too.

These are all the details we have for now, but we obviously expect this phone to be pretty cheap, considering the specs.

Via (in…

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Yesterday OnePlus revealed the first piece of the puzzle regarding its next device, namely the chipset it will use. Unsurprisingly, the company went with the latest iteration of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 for the OnePlus 2. However, it assured us then that thanks to using an improved version of the SoC, along with some heavy cooling material inside the case, the OnePlus 2 will not suffer any overheating issues.

Today OnePlus feels the need to clarify some of that, apparently because some rumors about its chipset choice have made its staff "mad" for whatever reason.

So, it turns out that while the company may indeed be putting thermal gel and graphite on the SoC, one of the main reasons you'll see less heat generated by the S810 in the OnePlus 2 will have to do with underclocking. Namely, the four high performance Cortex-A57 cores will be limited to 1.8 GHz, which is 200 MHz or 10% less than the CPU can handle.

It's still unclear how much thermal throttling we'll see in this Snapdragon 810 v2.1 employed in the OnePlus 2, and thus how much time the Cortex-A57 cores will actually be able to spend running at 1.8 GHz all at the same time, even in intensive tasks. But perhaps an announcement about this is due for tomorrow, since it seems like every day OnePlus has something new to share in this period.

Moving on, a recent rumor said the OnePlus 2 would be priced from $322 in China. Now though the company is clearly stating that "the price of the 2 will certainly be higher than $322". In the best case scenario, that means its starting price (for the lower internal storage version) might be $349. Then again, we could be looking at a minimum level of $399 or even more.

OnePlus explains this with the cost of the aforementioned Snapdragon 810 chipset, which apparently goes for around 60% more than the Snapdragon 801 used in last year's OnePlus One. If this is true, it's a pretty strange move for Qualcomm to charge so much for a part that's more well known right now for its overheating problems than for its actual…

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Samsung detailed the UK availability of the long-awaited exclusive color options of the Galaxy S6 lineup. Both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge are currently available worldwide in White Pearl, Black Sapphire and Gold Platinum. But both were promised an exclusive paintjob since the official announcement – Blue Topaz for the Galaxy S6 and Green Emerald for the S6 edge.

Samsung officially launched the special flavored editions on May 18, but those come in limited stock and availability.

Today Samsung detailed the UK release of those two exclusive colors – both will be available for purchase on July 1. UK users will be able to get the Green Emerald Galaxy S6 edge from all major retailers and carriers, but the Blue Topaz Galaxy S6 will be available exclusively through Samsung Experience Stores and Carphone Warehouse.

The Carphone Warehouse's exclusivity on the Blue Topaz edition ends on August 12, when more retailers should be able to get stock of the beautiful…

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Thanks to devices like the Fujitsu Arrows NX F-04G and the vivo X5 Pro, iris recognition seems to be becoming trendy once again. In fact, the technology was quite a buzzword last year and rumors were floating around of the LG G3 and Galaxy S5, flagships at the time, making use of the extra security feature.

Obviously, this didn't come to pass, but, the rumors have been rekindled and industry sources now claim that both major Korean players are already working on their respective solutions for bringing iris recognition to their handsets. Rumors even go beyond, claiming that we could see such tech as early as next year's lineup.

None of this is officially confirmed, but it could, be true, as the aforementioned Fujitsu did make a lot of headlines, solely because of employing the new tech. Both Samsung and LG have to stay trendy and relevant on the extremely dynamic mobile market and if iris recognition is the next gimmick to start a craze, neither can afford to be late to the show.

As far as practicality and usability goes, we are not quite sure if those are currently the main reason for working on iris recognition for mobile devices. Security might be, but only to some extent. It is doubtful whether the new sensor will do a better job at protecting our privacy than the fingerprint readers, which only recently appeared on smartphones in a wave of their own. Let's just admit it – we want to look and feel as cool as possible when using our shiny new phones an iris recognition seems like a perfect new toy to play with. Frankly, however, there is nothing really wrong with this mindset, as it opens the way for even wilder innovations and awesome tech.

Source (in Korean)|…

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