Galaxy S6 Edge exclusivity guaranteed by low yield

Samsung is only days away from unveiling its next-gen flagship Galaxy S6 alongside its special little brother, the Galaxy S6 Edge, and we're ready to talk availability. A source from a Samsung-partnering carrier in Europe has shared their knowledge, but chosen to stay anonymous.

For starters, quantities of the edge variant will be limited. This will come as a result of low yields of the dual-curved display. It is to be expected with any new technology, but with the Note Edge already out, you'd think Samsung should have gotten the hang of it by now.

That said, the source reports that the edge flavor is a whole third of all S6 devices, which is in fact a huge number, compared to Note Edge/Note 4 proportions. Still, with all the hype around the Galaxy S6 Edge, we may actually witness a markedly higher demand in this case.

Buyers will naturally need to be willing to pay a premium, though. The source confirms the numbers we reported earlier, meaning an unsubsidized price of €749, €849, and €949 for the 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB versions, respectively. That's €100 over the vanilla models with same storage capacity.

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Apple ordered to pay $533 million for infringing Smartflash’s patents

A US court has ordered Apple to pay $532.9 million in damages after the company was found guilty of infringing three patents owned by Texas-based patent licensing company Smartflash. The patents are related to digital rights management (DRM), data storage, and payment systems.

Smartflash sued Apple alleging that the latter’s iTunes software used these patents without permission, something which the Cupertino-based company rejected by claiming that the patents were invalid.

The patent licensing company also said the iPhone maker intentionally did so given that its executives were already given a briefing on the technology, something which happened more than ten years ago. While Smartflash was seeking damages of $852 million, the iPhone maker said the patents were only worth $4.5 million.

“Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented,” said an Apple spokesperson. The company is now planning to appeal the…

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Samsung keeps tipping Galaxy S6 features in unconventional way

With MWC 2015 just around the corner the hype around Samsung and its new flagship device is at an all-time high. Rumors have been abundant ant kind of hard to actually keep track of, but one thing is for sure they are all stacking up that all important fan enthusiasm. The Korean giant is definitely not skipping on all the fun and has more than readily jumped on the rumor train.

We already reported on a few over-the top teaser banners released on Samsung's Norawy website. While these are obviously meant to humor some of the more ridiculous speculations about the new Galaxy there is also a big chance that they hold a grain of truth. After the original three "official rumors" Samsung has opted to provide eager fans with two more.

One of the new banners states – "It has been rumored that the new Galaxy will feature a larger display". That comes on top of what appears to be a schematic blueprint for an extendable display. Looking closer at the numbers on screen we do notice 5.6 written on the device display. This however is probably nothing more than a humorous joke, as current information puts the display of the Galaxy S6 at 5 to 5.1 inches, just a tad smaller than its predecessor. And frankly anything larger would significantly lessen the gap between the Galaxy and Note series, which is very unlikely.

The second banner, actually fifth counting the original three, talks of "an all-glass Samsung Galaxy." As most of you surely know there has been a lot of talk about the supposedly metal body of the new flagship and how it is going to cope with signal interference. One widely discussed possibility is of an all glass back, which Samsung is obviously referencing in the rumor. A more recent leak states that a clever antenna design might be the remedy for the issue.

Samsung seems to have really picked up on the whole rumor avalanche and is now strategically joining in to fuel the flames. This is definitely a clever PR stunt, but the real question is whether there is truth behind the mockery. We are sure to find out on March 1 at the official Barcelona event and until then all we can do is guesswork. If you missed the previous three Samsung rumors you can read about them in our previos…

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Microsoft Lumia 1330, 640 headed to AT&T

Slides from AdDuplex show three Lumias coming from Microsoft – the 4" RM-1099, the 5" Lumia 640 and the 5.7" Lumia 1330. The Lumia 640 and 1330 will be headed to AT&T in the US, but have plenty of other versions for a worldwide release.

Note that AdDuplex is an analytic firm that keeps a very close eye on the Windows Phone market and also what phones are upcoming.

The Microsoft Lumia 640 showed up in Brazil earlier. It's slated to cost $275 and will bring a 5" 720p screen, the standard Snapdragon 400 chipset with 1GB RAM, an 8.7GB main camera and 0.9MP selfie camera. It will have premium connectivity with optional dual-SIM, LTE and NFC.

The Microsoft Lumia 1330/1335 will have a 5.7" HD OLED display and a 13.1MP camera with Zeiss optics, plus a 5MP selfie shooter. It will have LTE-Advanced (Cat. 4, 150Mbps), but still the same Snapdragon 400 chipset – 32-bit, quad Cortex-A7 – with 1GB.

Very little is known about the RM-1099, aside from the 4" screen with the 480 x 800px resolution. It will have a dual-SIM option, but it's not clear where it will be positioned in relation to the Lumia 435.

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Huawei’s Honor Holly available for purchase in Germany for $113

A couple of days ago, we reported that the Huawei Honor Holly, which was launched in India last year, is all set to go on sale in the UK next month with a price tag of £74.99 ($117). As it turns out, the device is already available in Germany.

German consumer electronics chain MediaMarkt has the smartphone in stock for €99 ($113), although there's a shipping charge of €2 ($2.3) associated with it.

Specs-wise, the Honor Holly is powered by the MediaTek MT6582 chipset, which sports a 1.3 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU and a Mali-400MP2 GPU. It features a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8MP rear camera with LED flash, and a 2MP front shooter.

The device comes with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable built-in storage, and packs in a 2,000 mAh battery. It runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box.
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Chase Bank says it has activated over 1 million Apple Pay accounts

Chase Bank has revealed that more than one million of its customers are using their debit/credit cards with Apple's mobile payments service Apple Pay, which launched in the US in late October last year.

It was also revealed that the bank's customers who use Apple Pay are on an average nine years younger and earn 21% more money than its other customers. Around 69% of the transactions they make are credit-based, the bank said.

Recently, Bank of America revealed that nearly 800,000 of its customers have started using Apple's new payment method. The total number of financial institutions that support Apple Pay has now crossed…

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LG announces global rollout of its latest curved smartphone G Flex 2

LG has announced the global rollout of its second curved Android smartphone the G Flex 2, which was unveiled last month at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The company said major carriers in the US, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Germany and the UK will be among the first to offer the smartphone, adding that key markets in North and South America, Europe, and Asia will announce the start of sales in the weeks following MWC, which ends on March 5.

If you aren't already aware, the G Flex 2 is already available for purchase in the company's home country of South Korea, where it launched late last month. The device is up for pre-order in the UK, and will go on sale in Singapore starting March 14. Over in the US, the smartphone will be available through Sprint on March 13.
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Android and iOS together account for 96.3% of smartphone market

Android and iOS combined accounted for a whopping 96.3% of all smartphone shipments worldwide in 2014, up from 93.8% in the prior year, according to a latest report from the market research firm IDC.

Individually, Google's mobile operating system captured 81.5% of the market, up from 78.7% in 2013, while Apple's mobile OS claimed 14.8%, down slightly from 15.1% the year prior.

"Many of the same drivers were in play for Android and iOS to tighten their grip on the market," said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team. "A combination of strong end-user demand, refreshed product portfolios, and the availability of low-cost devices – particularly for Android – drove volumes higher."

As for the rest of the players in the market, Microsoft's Windows Phone had the smallest year-over-year increase among the leading operating systems, growing just 4.2%, while BlackBerry saw its year-on-year growth decline by 69.8%.
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Sony Xperia Z4 tablet with 2K display leaks out

Unannounced Sony Xperia Z4 tablet with 2K display leaked out. The slate made a premature appearance in Sony’s Xperia Lounge Android application and was quickly taken down.

The sole leaked image of the device reveals Xperia Z3-like design with rounded metal edges. Considering Sony’s track record, we are all but certain that the device will carry IP rating for water and dust resistance.

Aside the 2K display, there is no word on the specs of the Xperia Z4 tablet. The diagonal of the screen will likely be in the 10″ ballpark.

The leaked Xperia Lounge screenshot suggests that the tablet will make its official debut next week during MWC in Barcelona. We will be covering the event live, so be sure to tune in to find out all about Sony’s latest hardware.

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Leaked HTC One (M9) promo videos go live

Hot on the heels of the leaked press renders earlier today, a series of HTC One (M9) promo videos also made the rounds on the web. In line with past leaks, the videos leave nothing to imagination.

The first from trio of clips showcase the design of the upcoming smartphone, as well a number of its hardware highlights. Key features of HTC One (M9) include metal body with two-tone finish, UltraPixel front-facing camera, 20MP main snapper, and BoomSound speakers with Dolby Surround.

The remaining two videos focused on the Sense-d Android 5.0 of the device and its brand new camera. HTC has added a number of improvements to its latest custom UI like improved BlinkFeed and the ability to create your own theme among others.

HTC One (M9) will debut this Sunday, on March 1 in Barcelona. Be sure to tune in to find out everything about the Taiwanese manufacturer’s new flagship.

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