Huawei G Play Mini becomes official in Italy

Today Huawei has made a new smartphone official in Italy. It's called G Play Mini for whatever reason, and it's already available to purchase for €229 ($254) without a carrier contract.

The Huawei G Play Mini is rather intriguing, because it has the exact same specs as the Honor 4C which got official in China yesterday, but the design is slightly different. This is most obvious in the upper part of the front side of the two devices.

Why the company chose to pair the internals of the Honor 4C with another design and name instead of simply releasing that in Italy is still a mystery.

Anyway, if you're interested in the Huawei G Play Mini, know that it has a 5-inch 720p IPS touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 5 MP selfie snapper, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable internal storage, and a 2,550 mAh battery.

It's powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 620 chipset, which sports a 1.2 GHz octa-core CPU, and it has dual-SIM support (though no 4G LTE).

The G Play Mini could be making it to other European countries soon, now that it's gone official in Italy, but there's no information about time frames yet.

Source (in…

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Vivo X5 Pro will come with eye recognition tech

For the past couple of weeks or so Vivo has been teasing its next smartphone, the X5 Pro. Alongside the company's teases, we've also seen a purported render of the phone getting leaked, and now it's time for a new teaser, as you can see on the left.

This time around we're thankfully treated to more than just the contour of the X5 Pro's rounded corners.

In fact, in the Weibo post that accompanies this image, Vivo is talking about this smartphone employing eye recognition technology, or Eye ID. This seems to work through iris scanning, which Vivo claims is going to be more secure than any other authentication method, as the information its sensor sees "can't be copied".

The technology will be used both for securing the phone itself, but apparently you may be able to secure specific apps too.

No more details are available at the moment, yet the X5 Pro could get its official unveiling on May 7, according to some past rumors. If that's true, then we've got little over a week to go until the big day.

The handset will sport a metal build, 2.5D curved glass on the front, a 3,500 mAh battery, a USB Type C connector, and the ability to take 32 MP pictures with its front camera. That is likely to be achieved through some software trickery, and not with a 32 MP sensor, mind you. As for the main snapper, it should come with phase detection autofocus. And at the helm of all this could sit a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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Watch the Microsoft Build event live here

Microsoft's annual BUILD conference is just minutes away and we will be keeping a close eye on the announcements and especially the all-important keynote presentation. It is set to start at 3:30PM GMT and, naturally, Microsoft has promised a live stream, which we will provide as soon as possible, so you can tag along and listen in to the future on Windows.

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And even though Microsoft's BUILD event are mostly geared towards software, we expect to hear quite a few things about hardware as well. Microsoft made it clear that new Lumia flagships will probably be held off until Windows 10 becomes official, but new details on future devices are not out of the question.

There are also other things to look forward to, like information on HoloLens, the Internet of things and many, many more, so be sure to tune in for the…

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via IFTTT

Watch the Microsoft Build event live here

Microsoft's annual BUILD conference is just minutes away and we will be keeping a close eye on the announcements and especially the all-important keynote presentation. It is set to start at 3:30PM GMT and, naturally, Microsoft has promised a live stream, which we will provide as soon as possible, so you can tag along and listen in to the future on Windows.

var CDown = function() {
this.state=0;// if initialized
this.counts=[];// array holding countdown date objects and id to print to {d:new Date(2013,11,18,18,54,36), id:"countbox1"}
this.interval=null;// setInterval object
}

CDown.prototype = {
init: function(){
this.state=1;
var self=this;
this.interval=window.setInterval(function(){self.tick();}, 1000);
},
add: function(date,id){
this.counts.push({d:date,id:id});
this.tick();
if(this.state==0) this.init();
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expire: function(idxs){
for(var x in idxs) {

var now = new Date();

if( ((now.getTime() – this.counts[idxs[x]].d.getTime()) / 60000) < 59 )
this.display(this.counts[idxs[x]], "Now!");
else
this.display(this.counts[idxs[x]], "Over");

this.counts.splice(idxs[x], 1);
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d=Math.floor(work/86400);//days
work=work%86400;

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work=work%3600;

m=Math.floor(work/60);//minutes
work=work%60;

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tick: function(){
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if(this.counts)
for(var idx=0,n=this.counts.length; idx

And even though Microsoft's BUILD event are mostly geared towards software, we expect to hear quite a few things about hardware as well. Microsoft made it clear that new Lumia flagships will probably be held off until Windows 10 becomes official, but new details on future devices are not out of the question.

There are also other things to look forward to, like information on HoloLens, the Internet of things and many, many more, so be sure to tune in for the…

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LG announces a Q1 2015 operating profit of $277M

The accountants are in their quarterly spotlight, and LG's team has reported the company's results for Q1 2015. The numbers show a steady performance of the company as a whole, with the mobile division boasting its highest Q1 revenue since LG debuted on the Android market in 2010.

Smartphone sales reached $3.27B, a 5% YOY increase, brought about by a 26% increase in smartphone shipments to 15.4M. LG has a 66% YOY growth in North American sales to brag about, coupled with a 57% growth in its homeland over Q4 2014, largely fueled by the release of the G Flex2. Year-on-year however, the Korean sales are down 25%.

For the upcoming quarter LG is predicting continuous growth of the smartphone market, with a focus on LTE. LG plans to strengthen its positions in the premium segment with the G4, alongside new mass-market devices. The company does acknowledge the fierce competition it's about to face on said markets, though.

Meanwhile, LG Home Entertainment Company reports a $4.03B revenue, down 5% YОY and 18% QОQ, largely due to seasonality and currency rate movements in emerging markets. The Home Appliance and Air Solution subsidiary is 9% up in operating profit year-on-year, reaching $208M.

The newly opened in July 2013 LG Vehicle Components Company, which specializes in car infotainment and electric car engineering, has posted its first quarterly results. The division reports a modest $2.18M loss, but the company plans to persevere and expand its sales in the car infotainment and vehicle engineering segments in the long…

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T-Mobile USA launches an LTE-enabled Alcatel Pop Astro 

Did you wake up this morning feeling like you want a Moto E (2015), but made by Alcatel? You're in luck! T-Mobile USA just revealed the Alcatel One Touch Pop Astro, which is available at $180 on pre-paid and at $150 ($6.24 a month really) on contract.

The phone is built around a 4.5" qHD screen and runs Android 4.4 KitKat on a quad-core 1.5HGz processor with 1GB of RAM (MediaTek MT6732 chipset). It has LTE connectivity with HD voice, Voice over LTE, plus Wi-Fi calling. Those are rare (though not unheard of) in this price range.

Alcatel One Touch Pop Astro

The Alcatel Pop Astro also comes with a 5MP camera, 0.3MP selfie snapper. You get only 4GB of storage out of the box, plus whatever you add in the microSD card slot (up to 32GB). The phone has a 2,000mAh battery that promises 11 hours of talk…

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HTC One M8 to receive 5.1 Lollipop with Sense 7 in August

HTC pressed the launch button on the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the One (M8) at the end of January. The update to 5.1 Lollipop has been scheduled to August 2015.

@JKMcCloskey Hey James, the HTC One M8 will have a Software Update for Android Version 5.1 and Sense 7 in August 2015 :)— HTC UK (@HTC_UK) April 29, 2015

According to HTC's UK Twitter account has revealed that the update will also bring the latest Sense UI. Sense v7 launched with the HTC One M9 and is a relatively minor step forward. One of the welcome improvements is that you can change the grip app switcher to stock Lollipop style. App reshuffling, some new widgets, BlinkFeed updates and other changes are also part of the update.

Other perks like themes were added to the M8 and M7 generation with an update to the BlinkFeed…

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Model numbers for “Noble” Note 5 and “Zen” Galaxy S6 uncovered

Two Samsung IMEI numbers have surfaced that point to two new Galaxy models. Their model numbers are SM-G928S and SM-N920F and the rumor mill has decoded them as the "Zen" Galaxy S6 Plus and "Noble" Galaxy Note 5 respectively.

The SM-G928 appears to be a variation on the Galaxy S6 (G920), but it's unclear what will change from the current model. The final letters reveal regional versions, F for Europe, A and V for AT&T and Verizon, S and K for SK Telecom and KT.

The SM-N920F we couldn’t find and its name does coincide with what the next Note should be – the Galaxy Note 4 is the N910. Unfortunately that doesn’t give us much, neither does the "Noble" codename.

The letters indicate a European version, plus one for each carrier except KT.

Source | Via (in…

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Samsung reports a $5.5B operating profit for Q1 2015

Samsung Electronics has released its financial results for Q1 2015 and they mark improved profits quarter-on-quarter despite a sales drop of 11% over Q4 2014. While the Device Solutions (DS) and IT and Mobile (IM) divisions show only marginal decrease in sales, Consumer Electronics (CE) is the black sheep with sales down 28%.

The explanation for the low figures in CE is the weak seasonality and the strong dollar which led to decreased demand in Europe and emerging markets. Little improvement is expected on that front in Q2 due to continued exchange rate impact.

IT and Mobile reports improved earnings, brought about by lower marketing expenses. Decreased shipments of tablets and feature phones have lead to a slight decline in revenue. Meanwhile, smartphone shipments have increased, fueled largely by mid-to-low-end products. The word "stagnate" is mentioned in the Q2 forecast for smartphone and tablet demand.

The semiconductor division is doing well, and is not influenced by seasonality. Increased sales of DRAM and SSD/UFS products are reported. The Q2 forecast is for even better figures, driven by the demand for the recently released Galaxy S6 flagship and SSD data centers.

Display Panel subsidiary reports increased shipments of premium OLED products and solid performance on the LCD front despite decreased shipments. The Q2 2015 outlook focuses on OLED shipment expansion and increased sales of LCD TV panels due to China labor day. The new production line however means increased costs…

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Nokia N1 to finally escape China, Taiwan gets it first

The Nokia N1 tablet, which was launched back in January this year and was only available in China (where it has been selling like hotcakes), will finally be made available in other markets.

The Finnish company (the partthat wasn't sold off to Microsoft) introduced the Android tablet in Taiwan, where it will be available for purchase starting next month, and will set you back TWD 8,190 ($269).

The N1 is expected to be made available in other Asian countries, although it isn't yet known when. Also, it is least likely that the slate will be launched all over the world, especially in the…

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