Xiaomi’s European rollout of the Mi 5 and Mi 4s will begin with Poland

The Xiaomi Mi 5 has been getting a lot of attention ever since its launch at MWC 2016 and quite justifiably so. The device is a true flagship offer with a slew of advanced features and little to no notable compromises all with a starting prices as low as $300.

Sadly, availability has outside eastern markets has always been a major problem for the Chinese OEM. However, this might change soon enough, as VP Hugo Barra seems to be making good on his long-standing promise to expand market reach of the brand to Europe.

The first step in this expansion was hinted during the unveiling of the Mi 5 and Mi 4s and now news has surfaced on the Polish version of the Xiaomi website, providing proof that the company is working on international availability.

The web page informs that the Xiaomi Mi 5 and Mi 4s will be coming to the Polish market soon. The memo also comes with a promise for additional info on timing and pricing shortly, as well as a list of the exact models that will be on offer. It appears all three variants of the flagship Mi 5 will be outed in Poland.

All three have a 5.15-inch FullHD display and a Snapdragon 820 SoC, but the entry-level one with a clock speed of 1.8 GHz, 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM. The 64GB has the same amount of memory and a processor speed of 2.15GHz. The Pro simply adds another gig of RAM and a 3D ceramic back cover.

All the other impressive features of the Mi 5 are shared across the range, including the innovative 16MP camera with 4-axis OIS, 600 Mbps 4G+ connectivity, Full-featured NFC and many other goodies.

We will keep a close eye on the Polish website for any further details on pricing and availability. It is, however, clear that entering into new markets will bring the retail price of any handset up. Hopefully, it won’t be too much of a premium.

Thanks for the tip Mateusz.

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Opera Mini v15 now optimizes videos too, supports microSD cards

Even though data plans keep growing bigger and bigger, Opera Mini’s data saving modes still have a place. The latest update, version 15, can help you watch videos even on spotty connections with less buffering (and, of course, less data used).

The Video Boost mode is available on High savings mode and it works on both mobile data and Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi support in High is new and is intended for use at the fringes of connectivity (e.g. if your hotel room is too far from the router). In the settings you’ll also see a counter of how many videos have been optimized.

Note in case you missed it: High mode is Opera Turbo, the old-school Mini compression is now called Extreme mode.

Other changes in this version include microSD support (requires Android 4.4.4+). You can save files to the external storage and also upload files from there too. Opera Mini takes this opportunity to offer additional savings – you can shrink photos before uploading them (three different sizes).

Fast scrolling is now available too and the mini-browser changes the status bar color “to match the environment.” The app can be downloaded or updated from Google Play store.

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Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro to have removable battery, FCC filing confirms

In one of the more unexpected turns of events, the yet-to-be-announced Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro will have a removable battery. This intriguing bit has been revealed by the US Federal Communications Commission, in one specific document, which details the certification label placement.

Often imprinted on the back itself, or an entry in the settings menu of the device (digital label), in the case of the Galaxy A9 Pro it’s very much a physical paper label glued on the inside of the battery compartment.

This gives a hint as to the reason the Pro version is 10g heavier than the plain A9 (2016), needing some additional reinforcement otherwise provided by the rear panel itself. The TENAA certification, which gave us a glimpse at the phone’s looks, also said that it would be 0.5mm thicker so it all makes sense now.

What doesn’t quite add up is the fact that the Chinese authority’s photos do show a glass-looking back panel, and it will be interesting to see how Samsung has pulled that off. Or it could be glossy plastic, but then that wouldn’t quite be up to the A-series standards.

Of course, there’s the usual technical data in the papers, which you can sift through by following the Source link below.

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Samsung announces the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge in India

Samsung just announced the flagship Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge in India, at an event in New Delhi.

The phones are being launched in 32GB dual SIM variant with the Exynos 8890 chipset. The Galaxy S7 is priced at INR 48,900 ($725) and the Galaxy S7 edge at INR 56,900 ($844).

Pre-bookings for both start today until March 17. Those who pre-book will get a free Gear VR with their purchase.

You can read our hands-on of both the devices…

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Deal: 128GB Samsung microSD card on Amazon for $40

Just in time for that Galaxy S7 you’ve been waiting for: Amazon is selling the 128GB microSD card for just $40. Considering this card is originally upwards of almost $100, this is quite the deal.

As of recently, Amazon raised its minimum purchase price for non-Prime members who want free shipping. So the normal amount of $35 was replaced with $49. Or, if you have Amazon Prime already, you can also get the legendary, free, two-day shipping.

Samsung’s smaller microSD cards are also quite cheap at $18 for the 64GB size or if you’re really cheap, you can get the 32GB card for just $10.

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T-Mobile document leaks buy-one-get-one deal for Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are just days away from launch at this point. Those who pre-ordered their devices will be receiving them soon, well, if they haven’t already.

Lately, T-Mobile has been known for pulling crazy stunts or being really ‘out there’ but this one might take the cake for deals on new phones.

TmoNews was tipped, most likely by a T-Mobile employee, with a screen capture of a document regarding a deal for the Galaxy S 7 and S7 edge, two phones that aren’t even officially released yet.

The deal says that customers who purchase two Galaxy S7/S7edge devices can get their second device for free. Before you flip out, there are a couple of things you need to do in order to actually qualify for this deal:

Both devices must be purchased on Equipment Installment Plans (aka. NOT a leased device) and the deal requires you to add at least one new line of service. It is not certain if the entire cost of the device will be refunded to you on a pre-paid visa card, but we can assume that you get the value of the phone upfront on the card, but you are required to pay for the free device on a monthly basis.

Unfortunately, this promotion wouldn’t be available to T-Mobile employees, but to be quite honest, I’m sure they have better deals than BOGO on the latest smartphone.

The highly-anticipated Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are to be officially released this Friday, we’ll have to wait to see what how T-Mobile announces this deal to customers.

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Live Photos and Split View support added to Google Photos on iOS

Anyone who has used Google Photos on both Android and iOS separately can tell you it iOS users are slower to get new features. This time, these features don’t even apply to Android users.

The Google Photos app for iOS has been updated to support Live Photos for the newest iPhones. The new app update also brings native resolution support for the iPad Pro, as well as Split View for viewing photos while doing something else? I guess?

The update also brings navigation improvements “so you can spend less time flipping hamburger menus” as well as performance tweaks and a new memory management feature which reduces the amount of cache used on devise with low available storage.

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Google Fi no longer requires an invitation to sign up

Project Fi is Google’s first venture into the mobile service space. It teamed up with Sprint and T-Mobile in the US to form an MVNO network exclusive to the Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, and Nexus 5X. The only way you could sign up for a Project Fi account was by either buying a Nexus device through Project Fi’s website, or signing up for an invitation with your Gmail account and waiting a couple of months for your invitation to roll in.

Today, Android’s blog announced its official goodbye to invites for the Fi Network. The post briefly outlines what the venture has taught Google about customers who use Project Fi such as traveling abroad, using SIM cards in other devices, and the success of relying on Public Wi-Fi.

Project Fi is a US cellular network that piggy-backs its service from both Sprint and T-Mobile networks depending on which provides a more reliable connection. The network also takes advantage of public Wi-Fi networks to fill any dead coverage with a Wi-Fi only connection.

Plans start at $20 per month as a base, then add $10 for every 1GB used in your cycle, if you use 2 GB in the month, you will be charged $20 for the base fee and $20 more for the data you used. If you only use 1GB and a quarter, you’ll only be charged $12.50 for your data for that month.

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Facebook Messenger for Android finally receives Material Design makeover

Later today, a new version of Facebook Messenger for Android will start rolling out through the Play Store. This will finally adhere to Google’s Material Design guidelines, now almost two years old. Still, the Messenger app is ahead of the actual Facebook app in this regard, belive it or not.

Various Material Design elements have been in testing by the Messenger team over the past few months, and have been spotted in a number of beta versions of the app. The company has also enabled them for some users, but not for others, in what’s known as A/B testing. But now the new design is going out to everyone.

The rollout itself might take a few days to complete, as is always the case with such things. You can get an idea of what Facebook Messenger will look like after the update by glancing at the screenshots above.

Facebook says the redesign has been a painstakingly hard process, especially since the app is such an essential part of the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the…

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Upcoming Samsung SM-T585 tablet gets benchmarked, has specs revealed

A new Samsung tablet is in the works, folks. This has been revealed because the Samsung SM-T585 has been benchmarked using GFXBench by someone in possession of a prototype. This has thankfully revealed the device’s most important specs.

Thus, the SM-T585 comes with a 10-inch 1,920×1,200 touchscreen, Samsung’s Exynos 7870 chipset (boasting a 1.7 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU and Mali-T830 GPU), 2GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in storage, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 2 MP selfie snapper, and pretty much all the usual connectivity options (sans NFC though).

The Exynos 7870 SoC was made official recently, and so far we’ve only seen it powering one variation of the upcoming Galaxy J7 (2016). Because its model number ends in “5”, and given Samsung’s past naming conventions, the SM-T585 should be the LTE-capable iteration of the Wi-Fi-only SM-T580. If so, then expect to see support for LTE Cat.6, since that’s built into the chipset.

It’s still very much unclear what branding Samsung will choose for this tablet. We might be looking at the 10-inch Galaxy Tab 5, or a new Galaxy Tab E or Galaxy Tab A model. Either way, it will run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow from day one.

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