Samsung's Tizen-based Z1 smartphone, which went on sale in India back in January this year, has received a fresh over-the-air (OTA) update.

Sized at 17.3MB, the update carries build number Z130HDDU0BOD7, and brings along several bug fixes, improvements, as well as a new WhatsApp shortcut (details in the image above). The update is reportedly only available in India at the moment.

This is the second update that the Z1 has received in less than a month – the last update carrying build number Z130HDDU0BOC7 was primarily a bug-fix or performance…

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According to a report in Re/code, Nokia plans to go back to manufacturing mobile phone in 2016. The company is said to be “quietly plotting a return” to the market it once dominated.

Nokia Technologies is reportedly driving the move back to mobile phones. The division is in charge of managing Nokia’s large portfolio of over 10,000 patents – it released the N1 Android tablet in China earlier this year, as well as the Z Launcher for Android.

The Finnish manufacturer will follow a similar approach to the phone market as it did with the N1 tablet. It will design the devices, but let another company handle their manufacturing and marketing.

Nokia recently acquired the networking equipment manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent. The company is also said to be contemplating a sale of its HERE maps division.

Source…

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On April 23 Xiaomi is holding an event in New Delhi during which it's going to unveil a "Global Mi Phone". This is according to the Chinese company itself, which has already started to tease its upcoming offering.

Some rumors have claimed we'd see the Redmi Note 2 getting official on this occasion, but another source now tells us it will be all about the Mi4i. This makes sense when you look back at those teasers we told you about earlier today, and see the prominent use of the lowercase "i" in them.

The Mi4i is supposedly going to be a cheaper version of the Mi4, Xiaomi's flagship from last year. To keep the price down, the Mi4i will reportedly have a plastic construction, unlike the original handset which opted for metal and glass.

Also, some specs will be downgraded as you may have imagined. The touchscreen should still be a 5-inch 1080p panel, but the chipset is expected to be Qualcomm's midrange Snapdragon 615 (with octa-core CPU) instead of the Snapdragon 801.

The Mi4i will have 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 13 MP rear camera, and a 5 MP selfie shooter. Dual-SIM dual-standby support will be baked in, as will be many more LTE bands than what we saw in the original Mi4. This is going to make the Mi4i more interesting for more markets, naturally.

The price of this handset is said to be close to CNY 1,300, which right now is $209 or €195. On the other hand, another source says it may go down to as little as $161, though that's slightly less plausible given the specs. Whatever the case, we'll find out for sure this Thursday.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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Samsung will release the two Galaxy Tab A tablets in the US market on May 1. Both the Galaxy Tab A 9.7 and the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 were first introduced at an event in Russia last month, and since then we've heard that at least one of them is headed to Germany in May.

And now the US officially joins the list of countries in which they will be available. Both tablets are supposed to go up for pre-order at Samsung's online store and major retailers later today.

As for pricing, if you're interested in the smaller Galaxy Tab A 8.0 you'll have to shell out $229.99, while the bigger Tab A 9.7 will set you back $299.99. As you may have gathered, the former comes with an 8-inch touchscreen, while the latter has a 9.7-inch display.

Both tablets will be available in white, Smoky Titanium, and Smoky Blue. A special edition 9.7-inch Galaxy Tab A in Smoky Titanium will be bundled with an S Pen stylus for $349.99, and this will be out on May 17.

The prices are affordable because on the inside these are midrange tablets at best. Their distinctive feature is the 4:3 aspect ratio used by their displays.

Both have the same 1,024×768 resolution, and and they both sport a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM, a 5 MP rear camera and a 2 MP selfie unit, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and they run Android 5.0 Lollipop. The Tab A 8.0 has a 4,200 mAh battery, while the 9.7-incher comes with a 6,000 mAh cell.

Source |…

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The LG G Flex 2 with its distinctive curved appearance is headed to AT&T in the next few days. The carrier officially announced the news today, though it's been quite a while since LG unveiled the G Flex 2 in the first place.

Irrespective of why AT&T has waited this long to launch this smartphone, you should know that it will become available on April 24 – online and at select stores operated by the carrier.

As for pricing, if you have nothing against signing a new two-year contract with AT&T, then you'll pay $299.99 for the G Flex 2. The price without a contract is $708.99.

Of course you can also use the Next installment plans to get the phone. In this case, you shell out nothing upfront, then followed by either 30 monthly payments of $23.64, 24 monthly installments of $29.55, or 20 monthly payments of $35.45.

As you may already know, the curved display and body are the G Flex 2's unique selling points, but it's a high-end smartphone nevertheless. It comes with the 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with dual-LED flash, a 2 MP front snapper, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, and a 3,000 mAh battery.

It's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 chipset, which has a CPU featuring four Cortex-A57 cores going up to 2 GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores topping out at 1.5…

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The rumored update to Android Wear that was supposed to bring with it Wi-Fi support has now been made official by Google. It will be rolling out to all existing smartwatches running the wearable platform, starting with the new LG Watch Urbane. The new software should have reached all devices within the next few weeks.

Wi-Fi support isn't everything that's new here. Apps now get the ability to be always-on and keep your watch's display on all the time. Previously such functionality was limited to the screen that shows you what time it is.

From this point on, however, developers can take advantage of this feature, so their apps stay visible for as long as needed. Interestingly, the screen of the watch will only be full color when you're actively looking at it, in a bid to save power.

Moving on, gesture support is now built into Android Wear. So you can flick your wrist to scroll through your notifications. Apps and contacts are just a touch away from the watch face – you only need to tap the screen and you'll be able to start apps and send messages at once.

And if you want to send an emoji, you simply have to draw it on your smartwatch. Google will recognize it and send it along to your intended recipient.

As for the Wi-Fi functionality, this means watches that have the necessary hardware will work with your smartphone even when the two aren't paired via Bluetooth. Your watch only needs to be connected to a Wi-Fi network with Internet access, and your handset needs to have an active data connection – and all your notifications will keep showing up on your…

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OnePlus had started the rollout of the much awaited Android 5.0 Lollipop based Cyanogen OS 12 system update for the One last week. Few lucky folks managed to download the CM OS 12 and many kept waiting for the OTA update.

Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus shared on Twitter that the OTA update was paused to add a new ‘OK OnePlus’ voice activation feature in the update. The new OK OnePlus is quite similar to the Ok Google voice search feature and it will even work when the phone is in sleep mode.

OTA rollout was paused due to new "OK OnePlus" feature being added. Should resume mid week.— Carl Pei (@getpeid) April 20, 2015

The OK OnePlus was announced last year when the phone was launched and was supposed to be integrated through an OTA system update. However, that never happened. Now OnePlus will add that with the CM OS 12 OTA update and start seeding it again.

Those who have manually installed the CM OS 12 update might have to repeat the process next week in order to get the new voice activation…

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Sony Xperia Z4 was announced in Japan today and it's an incremental upgrade with the Snapdragon 810 chip being the key change.

As it turns out the lack of fanfare for the Xperia Z4 launch in Japan was intentional, as the phone will remain as an exclusive for its homeland. Instead Sony will be premiering a proper flagship smartphone later this year, supposedly this May.

There are no details on the alleged flagship phone, but if previous rumors are to be trusted we'll be seeing a screen resolution bump. Sony recently promised to focus on the user experience instead of only hardware upgrades, so we should expect improved Android OS and proprietary apps.

So, as the rumor has it, Sony Xperia Z4 is not the flagship you've been waiting for. Be patient and stay tuned for the end of May, when Sony will reportedly introduce its international and more advanced flagship smartphone.

Source |…

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The Apple Watch pre-orders are in full swing, but the delivery date for new orders keeps slipping back. The principal of Think Big Analytics, Carl Howe, estimates that Apple has sold 3 million units already and now that Quanta has gotten the hang of building watches Howe thinks the company will produce 2 million a month in May and June.

However, Howe says, this will not be enough to match demand. The most affordable Apple Watch Sport will sell the most units, having moved an estimated 1.8 million already. The Apple Watch comes in second with 1.2 million while the expensive Watch Edition is at around 40,000.

Considering that these three differ mainly on their external case, the margins on the Watch and Watch Edition are much higher than on the Sport. So much so that the estimated revenue (of around $2 billion total) is dominated by the Watch, then the Sport and the Edition is a close third.

Yes, the Watch Edition units have premium gold exterior, but not enough to make up for a significant part of the $10,000 price tag. The wrist bands will earn a good deal of money too and they are a must have as the $550 Watch and $10,000 Watch Edition come with the same plastic strap as the $350 Watch…

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LG has been sharing teasers of its upcoming flagship G4 set to go official on April 28. While the phone is still under wraps, LG Korea confirmed that the G4 will hit the stores on May 31 or at least in the company's home market.

Earlier today, LG announced it will offer free screen replacement and free 64GB microSD card for all those who pre-order the G4 in Korea. As you might know LG is also running a LG G4 trial program in few countries to let a select group of people try out the phone before it officially launches.

LG G4 is set to arrive with a 5.5″ True HD IPS display of QHD resolution and made from Corning Gorilla Glass 4, sporting the Snapdragon 808 chipset, it will pack 3GB of RAM with 32GB on-board storage. The company has been harping about the 16MP rear snapper with f/1.8 aperture for clicking wide-angle…

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