While flagship phones are the attention-grabbers, the midrange is the bread and butter, in both old and emerging markets. ZTE doesn’t have to be reminded of that, having long tapped markets such as China and India. And we’re not talking…

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Here's some very good news for people who own a Galaxy S5 and hate Google's Interruptions system in Android 5.0 Lollipop. Samsung has just released a new software update for the S5 which makes Interruptions go away and brings back the trusty old Silent mode.

Interruptions was clearly thought of by Google's engineers as a superior alternative for the Silent mode that's been on every phone in the world for years. However, it turns out some people really hate the fact that the 'No Interruptions' setting silences alarms too. What's more, Interruptions isn't really easy to understand at first, which adds to the confusion.

Silent mode in new Lollipop firmware for Samsung Galaxy S5

Thankfully though, Samsung has been listening to its customers, and with the latest Lollipop firmware for the Galaxy S5 it's replaced Interruptions with Silent mode – as is obvious from the screenshots above.

They portray the Android 5.0 software for the G900F variant of the Galaxy S5, the main Snapdragon-based international model. The new build is G900FXXU1BOB7, and the underlying system is still Android 5.0.

For now, the new update is only out for unlocked devices meant for the UK, but it will surely spread throughout Europe pretty soon. If you are in the UK and have bought your handset SIM-free from an official source, make sure to check for the update in Settings – or, alternatively, use Samsung's Kies desktop software.

Thanks for the tip, Mirko!

Source (in…

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Samsung seems to be doing a unified push for the Galaxy S6 campaign, the "Six Appeal." First, a shadowy image of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge appeared from T-Mobile, glowing in the carrier's trademark magenta color. Now AT&T has joined with an almost identical image with a blue hue.

This image has "Spring 2015" written on the bottom, unlike the T-Mobile picture, which had nothing. Earlier we saw cases for the new flagship that will ship on March 15 and Spring begins on March 21 this year, so this may not be far off. Still, AT&T could launch the Galaxy S6 Edge at any time over the next three months.

While the launch date is still not certain, the Samsung team is probably already packing their bags for Barcelona where they will unveil the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge (perhaps other stuff too) on March…

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T-Mobile provided us with the clearest look of the Galaxy S6 yesterday and one can just make out the hardware Home key. Samsung has to keep it, because it houses the fingerprint sensor, but this time it looks taller than usual.

That gave rise to the speculation that it will not be a swipe sensor like the Galaxy S5 and Note 4, but instead will work with a stationary finger. We've already seen such an implementation from Meizu on the MX4 Pro, which also features a taller Home key.

Some makes have chosen to move the fingerprint sensor to the back instead, there's plenty of room for a tall sensor there. On the front, the drive for thinner bezels leave less room for tall buttons.

Samsung recently bought LoopPay, an Apple Pay competitor, so we expect the Samsung Galaxy S6 to be even more focused on fingerprint-protected payments.

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The Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Snapdragon 800-powered Galaxy S4 LTE-A got a limited release in Europe (Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic), but has now expanded to Scandinavia – Sweden, Norway, Finland. Austria is getting it too.

All these countries are receiving the same update, Android 5.0.1. You can check for an OTA update from the About screen in the settings menu. Bear in mind it's a large update (over 1GB) so best to be on Wi-Fi when you download it.

If you live outside those countries and are okay with flashing, you can download the update file from the source link. Make sure to backup your stuff and proceed at your own risk. And keep in mind that this is only for the Samsung I9506 Galaxy S4 LTE-A.

The I9500 (Exynos) was updated to Lollipop earlier. As for the I9505 (Snapdragon 600), only its Google Play edition was updated, while the TouchWiz version is still waiting. The update seems to be in the works…

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Several screenshots allegedly taken on an Xperia Z4 Dual give us a peek at the new UI coming from Sony and confirm that the flagship will have a dual-SIM version. One screenshot shows a Qualcomm MSM8994 chipset, aka Snapdragon 810, and Android 5.0.2.

The interface sticks very close to Material Design though Sony still made some modifications.

Alleged Sony Xperia Z4 Dual screenshots

The Sony Xperia Z4 and Z4 dual are supposed to have a 5.2" 1080p or QHD screen, Snapdragon 810 chipset with 3GB of RAM, 21MP camera, waterproof body and stereo speakers. With such a concentration of leaks, we would be very surprised not to see the Xperia Z4 at the MWC in Barcelona (the Xperia Z4 Compact, Z4 Ultra and Z4 Tablet should also be unveiled sooner or later).

Source (in Chinese) |…

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Asus has confirmed that the Zenfone 2 will go on sale in India in Q2, 2015. The confirmation was made by a company executive at the EeeBook X205 launch event, where they also said that most of the products that the company announced during CES last month will also be available in the country.

As for the the Zenfone Zoom, the device will hit the market just after Zenfone 2's launch, which means sometime in Q3 this year.

According to Asus India country head Peter Chang, the company is also planning to postpone the launch of the ZenWatch, which was announced at IFA 2014. The device, which was earlier scheduled to launch in Q1, will hit the market after the launch of the Zenfone 2, Zenfone Zoom and Windows 8.1 based…

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Samsung's Norway website seems intent on spilling some of the beans regarding the upcoming Galaxy S6, slated to launch on March 1 in Barcelona.

The website asks "Is this the next Galaxy?", followed by three rumors. The first one is "One feature that we might see is forward-facing stereo speakers." The second one is "The new Galaxy is expected to be durable." And the third one is "Samsung Galaxy display is supposed to reach onto 3 sides."

What makes these features likely to be present is that they seem quite plausible and secondly, Samsung wouldn't mention them if it wasn't going to include them. The third one in particular refers to the curved edge screen, which we are pretty sure at this point will be present from all the teasers.

This makes us fairly certain that the stereo speakers and the rugged/water resistant body hinted by the website will also make it to the final product. So that's couple more reason to look forward to it, then.

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There are very few smartphones with 512MB of RAM these days and most of them are members of the Lumia lineup. Windows Phone has always been a very light operating system, which allows Microsoft the luxury.

Microsoft has recently unveiled the affordable Lumia 435 and Lumia 532. Both phones feature low-end specs, but they both come with 1GB of RAM. This leaves Lumia 530 and 630/635 the last of the 512MB RAM kind. Microsoft has recently confirmed all WP8 smartphones, including those with 512MB RAM will get the Windows 10 update though.

It seems Microsoft has decided the Lumia 635 deserves a specs bump too. Just yesterday we spotted the Lumia 635 with 1GB on Telenor Hungary. And today Microsoft updated the official specs page and it now says "RAM: 512 MB or 1 GB". Microsoft states that the RAM varies in selected markets, but it's still unclear which countries will get the better model.

Note than the Lumia 635 with 1GB RAM has lesser battery life than the one with 512MB – the standby time has decreased from 25 days down to 19 days.

It's odd Microsoft updating the Lumia 635 eight months after its release, but Windows 10 might be the reason for the change of heart. Microsoft said it is working on a special version of the Windows 10 update, which will be able to run on devices with 512MB of RAM. Apparently the company needs to disable some features and do further tweaking on each Lumia with less RAM and we guess it may want to spare some work in the future by bumping the RAM on some phones.

Nokia Lumia 635 is the LTE-enabled flavor of the Lumia 630 and it comes with 4.5" FWVGA display and a quad-core processor. It sold very well during the holiday season thanks to all those great promo deals Microsoft has launched over various carriers and retailers. We've recently previewed the Windows 10 for Phones on a Lumia 630 and you may want to check it out right here.

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Case manufacturers have long been an abundant source of leaks for expected devices and lately this seems to be truer than ever. Most of what we know about the physical appearance of the Galaxy S6 and the HTC One (M9), currently the two most highly-anticipated devices has come from various case manufacturers, who are among the first in the industry with charts and dimensions for upcoming models.

In much the same fashion a new case leak allegedly holds new information about Huawei's next flagship device. Rumors state that the thin translucent case from the photos is designed to fit the Huawei P8.

If this is true then the small hunk of plastic reveals quite a bit about the future device. First of all the P8 should be impressively thin. On the right side of the case we find holes for what are undoubtedly the volume rockers and tight underneath that – the power button, so nothing extraordinary here.

What is truly interesting is the back side of the transparent bumper. It has two very distinct holes. One small in the far upper-left corner and one significantly bigger right in the center. Now this could be indicative of a lot of things and could very well mean nothing, but usually such a large space is left uncovered to accommodate something and not simply as a design element. One possible variant might be that the Huawei P8 will come with a dual-camera setup. Another option is a biometric sensor, perhaps a fingerprint scanner and heart-rate monitor.

As far as we know from previous leaks the P8 will be powered by Huawei’s latest Kirin 930 chipset, which is the first to be made using a 16nm process. It will sport a 5.2″ Full HD screen as well as dual cameras from the Honor 6 Plus (the device might even get an upgrade to dual-13MP main cameras), and will pack a 2,600mAh battery. It will come with double sided gorilla glass 3 protection and a ceramic uni-body design. At 6mm, it is said to be thinner than the iPhone 6, which is 6.9mm thick.

According to that very same rumor the device should be priced at RMB2,999($480) and be unveiled at a special event in London on April 15. The leaked specs did mention a fingerprint sensor, but it is not really visible in the accompanying image, especially where the case has left a whole to accommodate it.

There are, of course, countless possible reasons for the discrepancy, but until Huawei clears the smoke on the flagship on March 1, take it all with a bit of…

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