MWC has come and gone and Huawei hasn’t yet unveiled its next flagship smartphone, the P9. When the Chinese company sent out invites for a March 9 event in Berlin a couple of days ago, we assumed this would be when the P9 would finally get official. But now it turns out that may not be the case.

According to a report from China, Huawei will not be unveiling the P9 on March 9. Unnamed company officials have confirmed that the phone exists and is being worked on, but the project has apparently suffered some delays. These have to do with the need to improve some technical issues related to the much-leaked dual camera setup on the P9’s back. Because of this, the release of the handset is reportedly delayed by a whole month.

An exact date (either for the presentation or the start of sales) hasn’t been mentioned, but we should all rest assured that the P9 will be out “in the coming months”. The same source claims the P9 will not have 6GB of RAM, as previously rumored, nor a brand-new Kirin chipset – thus it’s likely to use the same Kirin 950 found inside the Mate 8 phablet.

Moving on, some new renders allegedly depicting the Huawei P9 have been leaked, as you can see. Though they confirm that dual camera setup once more, they are different than the last two batches – gone is the laser autofocus this time around, and the fingerprint sensor on the back is now round, and it was shown to be more squared in the past. Furthermore, the positions of the front-facing camera and proximity sensor are changed too.

So now the actual design of the P9 has gotten quite unclear, with two differing perspectives both being claimed to be leaked renders of the real thing. Hopefully you’ve had a healthy serving of salt nearby for this one.

An additional P9-related tidbit is that the FCC has certified a Huawei EVA-L09, and this could be one of the model numbers for the top of the line device. If so, then at least one of its four versions will feature a 2,900 mAh battery, as FCC docs have revealed. The cheapest hardware iteration for the P9 is said to cost CNY 1,888 ($289 or €264), while the most expensive one is bound to go for CNY 4,088 ($627 or €571).

Source 1 (in Chinese) • Source 2 (in Chinese) • Source 3 | Via 1 • Via 2 • Via 3 (in…

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Verizon isn’t always the fastest US carrier when it comes to releasing Android updates for the handsets it sells, in fact it’s usually one of the slowest. But that’s not the case for the Samsung Galaxy Note5 as it turns out.

Big Red is already rolling out the update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow for Samsung’s premium phablet, just a couple of weeks after the new software was first released anywhere in the world. That’s some fast turnaround indeed.

Aside from all the goodies that Google’s packed into Marshmallow, the update also brings with it certain improvements to Live Broadcast and Wi-Fi Calling for HD Voice users. The Amazon Appstore will no longer be preinstalled (thus dropping the number of app stores on the device to ‘just’ two).

As always, this one is bound to be a staged rollout, so it might take a few days for it to reach your particular Note5 unit. If you’re impatient, you can always force your handset to manually check for the new software by going to Settings > About phone.

If, on the other hand, you own an HTC One (M8) bought from Verizon, you are mere days away from seeing Marshmallow on your device too. HTC VP Mo Versi has announced that the rollout will begin on March 7, which is this coming Monday.

Source 1 • Source 2 | Via 1 • Via…

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If you pre-order the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge from certain retailers you have been promised free stuff, most often – the Gear VR headset ($99 value) with a bunch of compatible games. Samsung Promotions official website is now live and allows you to claim your freebies.

You must choose the retailer where you pre-ordered your Galaxy S7 or S7 edge and then you can learn what’s your prize.

AT&T, Metro PCS, Sam’s Club, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Walmart, Verizon’s Retail, pre-orders will receive Gear VR bundled with some compatible games. First they need to claim their prize via the Samsung Promotions website, otherwise they will not get any free stuff.

By the way, T-Mobile is throwing a 12-months free Netflix subscription in addition to the Gear VR bundle.

Users who pre-ordered at BestBuy, Costco, Sprint, and Target will get their Gear VR bundle delivered directly to their home without any further verification.

Verizon Online is the only retailer to allow you to choose between the Gear VR with six games bundle of the dark gray model or the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch (sold for $300 separately).

All who pre-order the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge between February 23 and March 18 are eligible for some free hardware. The supplies are limited though, so if those matter to you, consider placing an order sooner rather than later. The same goes for claiming the free stuff.

Samsung Promotions •…

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Huawei has been selling the Honor 5X in the UK for quite a while now. You can opt to buy the phone from its maker’s official online store for £189.99. Yet if you choose a third party online retailer and do the deed this weekend, you can save £40.

That’s quite a lot given the already pretty small price of the Honor 5X. The deal is offered by Clove, and you can take advantage of it by using the promo code MAR5X16 when you go through checkout. This will lower the price of the device all the way down to £149, making the Honor 5X even better value for money than it already was.

The one caveat is that you need to buy the handset before 11:59 pm on March 6 – that’s this Sunday, so you basically need to act at some point during this weekend.

The unit you’re buying is SIM-free. The Honor 5X has a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 13 MP main camera with LED flash, a 5 MP selfie snapper, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 616 SoC (with a 1.5 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU), 2GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, LTE, and a 3,000 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop underneath Huawei’s EMUI…

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A very short while ago we told you about the fact that HTC won’t be selling its next flagship smartphone as the One M10 (like everyone anticipated), instead opting to go with the much simpler moniker of HTC 10. And now, to complement the new name, two well-known leaksters have unleashed a torrent of new images of the device. First off, Evan Blass gives us full press renders for the upcoming handset.

Now in case you’re wondering how these renders would translate into real-life images of the HTC 10, wonder no more. Three live shots of the phone have been shared by @onleaks. Here they are for your viewing pleasure (make sure you click on the thumbnails to get the full-size pictures).

HTC 10 live images

Along with these, @onleaks has also revealed some “prototype specs” for the HTC 10. It’s supposedly coming with a 5.15-inch QHD touchscreen, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset on board, 4GB of RAM, a 12 MP main camera, and a USB Type-C port.

None of these are surprising, of course, as we’ve heard about the 10 sporting these exact innards many times before. The 12 MP camera on the back should be of the UltraPixel variety, meaning it will be incredibly similar to the solution Samsung’s chosen for its Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. Camera comparisons between the HTC 10 and the S7 will thus be very interesting indeed, especially as HTC itself has already claimed that its phone’s camera will be “very compelling”.

HTC has already started teasing the handset, with an image and a video so far, but the company should probably just set an announcement date already, now that these leaked renders and pictures are out. At this rate, we assume a full spec list will be revealed pretty soon, so HTC might not want to drag things along any…

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HTC has already outed both a teaser image and a teaser video for its upcoming flagship smartphone, and we assume more such things are to follow before the official unveiling (which doesn’t have a set date yet, or at least not one that has been leaked).

In the meantime, however, leaker extraordinaire Evan Blass (also known as @evleaks) has something to say about this device’s name. According to him, it will be marketed as the HTC 10, and not HTC One M10 as everyone has so far assumed.

You heard it here first:”HTC 10″— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 4, 2016

The latter (now probably debunked) option seemed logical enough, seeing as how the smartphone is going to be the successor to the One M9 from last year, which itself came after the One (M8). But it looks like HTC may have finally grown tired of the One brand (and its overuse), while the “M” made little sense from the beginning (it got there because the company at one point decided to use its handsets’ codenames as actual names).

HTC’s teasers have incorporated the hashtag “powerof10”, which, in retrospect, may have been a hint at the name – notice how it’s not “powerofM10” or “powerofOneM10”.

The HTC 10 has been rumored to sport a 5.1-inch QHD AMOLED touchscreen, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 16 / 32 / 64GB of built-in storage, a fingerprint scanner, and a “very compelling” camera. It should run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow from day…

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Lava Iris Fuel F2 was announced and launched immediately in India. It’s an entry level handset running on Android Lollipop and priced at INR 4,444 or $66. Although it’s a successor of the Fuel F1, the F2 is a less capable device.

The Lava Iris Fuel F2 has a 5″ FWVGA display and is powered by a quad-core 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 processor with 512MB RAM. The Fuel F2 packs a 5MP rear camera with an LED flash, a front 0.3MP snapper, and a 3,000 mAh battery.

The Lava Iris Fuel F2 is a dual-SIM device, and it can tap to 3G networks. There is 8GB storage expandable via a microSD slot (up to 32GB).

The phone is available exclusively through eBay India, and you can get it right now in black or white for INR 4,444 ($66).

eBay •…

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The latest Samsung flagships – the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge – are both beautiful and waterproof with IP68 certification. And both have their microUSB port exposed, which is something only Sony did before.

It turns out Samsung has installed an additional failsafe on the USB port to prevent water damage. It’s called moisture detection, and it won’t allow you to charge the phone until the charging port is dry.

If you pull the Galaxy S7 or S7 edge out of the water, you won’t be able to charge it right away. Users report a message about moisture detected in the charging slot. It may take an hour, or even a few hours for the port to dry up, and until then you won’t be able to charge your phone. This is very thoughtful otherwise, there is a chance you may end up killing your phone.

There is this one user that reported his Galaxy S7 couldn’t fast charge after his USB port was usable again post water submersion, which sounds bad. Normal charging was OK, but fast charging was impossible – there’s no way to confirm if that’s an actual bug at this point though.

And while we are on the pool subject, you may find this video about Galaxy S7 edge pool test rather enjoyable.

Thank you, Jason, for the tip!

Source 1 (XDA) • Source…

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Microsoft promised to update all compatible Lumia smartphones to Windows 10 Mobile, but the new firmware is still nowhere to be found. There is no official release date either; it’s just coming soon.

A Vodafone Italy rep has compiled a list of upcoming updates for the carrier phones and published it on the carrier’s official Twitter account. It suggests a bunch of Lumia smartphones will be getting the Windows 10 Mobile sometime next week.

According to the list Lumia 535, Lumia 635, Lumia 735, Lumia 830, Lumia 930, and Lumia 1520 will get an OTA firmware with Windows 10 Mobile between March 7 and March 13. If this is true, this means the global rollout of those updates should happen very soon.

Unfortunately, there is no official confirmation on this dates and Microsoft is still mum on the subject. The Vodafone list is as much of an official source as we have at this point.

Source |…

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Oculus founder Palmer Luckey was asked during an interview when the will they be adding Mac support to the Rift. His answer was simple, when Apple releases a good computer.

Other than being the burn of the year so far, it’s also true. Luckey’s reasoning is that the current Macs simply do not have the graphical power to run something as intensive as VR on the Rift. Even the most powerful Mac Pro, with dual AMD FirePro D700 GPU, falls short of a single NVIDIA GTX 970, which is the minimum requirement to support Rift on the PC. Apple never prioritized gaming on the Mac and all the current machines are non-user upgradable now so you can’t just install a more powerful graphics card like you could with the older Mac Pros. Even if Oculus added software support for OS X none of the machines will be able to handle it.

Apple has shown an interest in VR recently but without the hardware support to match it’s…

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