The rumor mill has been overflowing with info on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5, mixed in with some whispers about the HTC One M10, Xiaomi Mi 5 and Lumia 650.

MWC 2016 is only a few days away now and we are about to see the next wave of flagships, hence the large influx of rumors, leaks and speculations. It is crazy, the industry has been preparing for what’s coming for a long time and each player is hoping to improve their standing once all phones have seen the light of day.

We now have live shots of the Galaxy S7, its edged sibling, as well as renders and plenty of other new info to go around, like word of a 3,600 mAh battery in the S7 edge, water resistance and an Always On display. The LG G5 has also been hitting the rumor mill hard. We now have a more in-depth overview of the performance its Snapdragon 820 chip with 4GB of RAM delivers, as well as another Always ON realization.

The HTC One M10 has also had a major presence in the news section this week. Despite missing the MWC stage, we are already unearthing info about the handset, like renders of its hybrid One M9 and One A9 design, or its camera setup, featuring a new UltraPixel front shooter and last, but not least, the suggested April 11 release date.

A few other articles did manage to slip by this week, but even they are straight out of the rumor mill. They put a few other devices on the radar, like the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro and the alleged Lumia 650 and provide extra info on others, like the iPhone 5se and the 2016 Motorola Moto X and Moto G. The only actual announcement to gather any significant interest was courtesy of Qualcomm, who introduced a set of three new interesting chipsets that show a lot of promise.

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Samsung Galaxy S7 leaks in its first live shot
The photo comes out of Vietnam, looks quite believable and brings along confirmation of most of the expected specs on the flagship.

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge shows up in a live image too
It’s been revealed mere hours after the non-edge Galaxy S7 first smiled for the camera.

Samsung Galaxy S7 photographed in Gold
We’ve seen it in Black, now for a brighter hue.

Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro spotted on GFXBench with 4GB of RAM and a 16MP camera
The smartphone with an SM-A9100 model name is listed at 5.5 inches, but that last bit seems unlikely.

Apple iPhone 5se to come in Pink, in addition to Silver and Space Gray
The 4-inch smartphone tipped to share the tint of the 6th-gen iPod touch.

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge flaunts its curves in a new render
Pictured in silver, the smartphone unsurprisingly looks a lot like the old model.

First Xiaomi Mi 5 camera samples surface online
The shots reveal an impressive level of detail and hint at awesome focusing abilities.

Galaxy S7 will have Always On Display, trademark filing implies
The Korean smartphone maker is interested in trademarking the term, probably for use in its next flagship’s marketing materials.

LG G5 visits Geekbench packing Snapdragon 820 and 4GB of RAM
One of the G5 variations destined for the company’s native South Korea has been tested recently.

LG confirms Always ON feature for LG G5, still teasing us
LG teases its latest flagship’s newest feature. LG’s G5 could have an Always ON screen for notifications.

Live images of an alleged Microsoft Lumia 650 XL raise all sorts of questions
Photographed next to a Lumia 1520, the unannounced smartphone looks a…

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Well, you’ve had a week to think about it and the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) got a warm reception, stealing the spotlight from its bigger Galaxy A7 (2016) sibling (which got a tentatively positive response).

The Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) got 63% Hot votes. It also garners more interest when we compare specs page visits – the A5 (2016) is in the Top 10, slightly above the old A5.

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) is slightly behind that (right outside the Top 10) and the voting was more evenly split – the A7 (2016) got 57% Hot votes.

There are two more phones in the A 2016 series – the smallest of the bunch, the Galaxy A3 (2016), and the biggest, the Galaxy A9 (2016). Both of them stray from the current ideals of screen size though and are less popular than their siblings, 5 and…

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Not much has happened this week in our traditional Top 10 trending chart, at least in the top half, that is. Positions 1 to 6 have stood still, and the chart-toppers have been the same for while now, save for Vibe K4 Note’s brief two-week stint in number 1.

So the list goes like this. The Galaxy J7 rules again, followed by its usual sidekick – the J5. The K4 Note we mentioned completes the podium.

Samsung’s soon-to-be-replaced flagship Galaxy S6 sits in 4th, Galaxy J2 rests in fifth and long-time champion Grand Prime now long past its prime is still in 6th. The iPhone 5s is the only Apple smartphone in this edition, and it too keeps its 8th spot from last week.

What about 7th, we hear you ask. Well, it’s one of the new entries, and that’s the Galaxy A5 (2016). The older model has also made the chart, in 10th, and the two combined have scored more hits than the J5 in 2nd, but it doesn’t quite work like that. The third new entry, at 9th, is the Oppo F1, the company’s reasonably priced offering that aims to look like its premium bros.

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Samsung Galaxy J7
RANK: 1WAS: 1

specs review

Samsung Galaxy J5
RANK: 2WAS: 2

specs review

Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
RANK: 3WAS: 3

specs gallery

Samsung Galaxy S6
RANK: 4WAS: 4

specs review

Samsung Galaxy J2
RANK: 5WAS: 5

specs review

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
RANK: 6WAS: 6

specs review

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
RANK: 7NEW IN

specs review

Apple iPhone 5s
RANK: 8WAS: 8

specs review

Oppo F1
RANK: 9NEW IN

specs review

Samsung Galaxy A5
RANK: 10NEW IN

specs…

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Telegram has released an update on iOS and Android that brings with it several cool new features that users should love.

One of the features is improvement to voice messages. You can now just pick up and place the phone to your ear to activate voice recording and then bring it down for it to stop recording. Then you can choose to send or delete that clip. There is also a new waveform design for the voice notes.

Secret Chats also get an update. They now get all the features from standard chats, such as GIFs, replies, captions, sticker set previews, inline bots, and optional link previews.

Also, you can now choose precisely who can add you to groups, so you don’t end up on groups you don’t want.

Lastly, there is also a new image editor, with rotate, fade, tint and curves tools.

iOS •…

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When you’re as big as Apple, you get used to staffing a strong legal department pretty quick. Copyright claims and lawsuits have become such a mundane part of the tech business that we honestly can’t even remember a time when Cupertino and Samsung weren’t at each other’s throats over some legal claim. Plus, suing a gigantic corporation is often a viable way to earn a few bucks and many have even turned it into a questionable, but still quite profitable business model.

Still, there is always the honest case of being mistreated as a little player on the market and asking for some justice, which is precisely what Immersion out of California claims to be doing with its recent lawsuit against Apple and its Force Touch and 3D Touch technology.

The claim revolves around three patents awarded to Immersion. The first is titled “Haptic feedback system with stored effects ” and seems to describe software that shows previews after a light press and actions after a firm one. That does sound quite familiar to Apple’s “Peek and Pop”, but we definitely won’t pass judgment.

The second and third patents are “Method and Apparatus for Providing Tactile Sensations” and “Interactivity Model for Shared Feedback on Mobile Devices”, which Immersion ties to Apple’s haptic feedback on touch. But that sounds like a bit more vague of a claim.

Currently Immersion is pursuing legal actions against Apple seeking reparations for damages, but has also filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC), requesting a sales injunction on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus within the US, which sounds like the more troubling…

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A rather intriguing phenomenon has been circulating reddit and it has to do with a recently discovered vulnerability affecting most current iPhones. It appears that if you set the date on a 64-bit iOS device to January 1 1970 and then restart it, you get a vicious boot loop. Worse yet, simply restoring the unit through DFU can’t fix the issues and you will most likely end up on a trip to the nearest Apple Store.

Digging a bit deeper into the problem, it seems it relates to UNIX time, which is basically a standardized counter for the number of seconds since January 1 1970. It plays a pretty important role in the tech realm and from what we can gather, rewinding the clock so far back on the affected Apple devices, plus any potential timezone offset or other transformation to obtain a date and time metric results in a corrupt result that prevents the OS from booting. The bug was allegedly discovered by chance, as it so happens that iOS allows you to go as far back as 1970 withing the date setting, but doing so requires a lot of scrolling.

As for the affected devices, it seems the odd behavior is only exhibited by 64-bit versions of iOS, which would go as far back as the A7 chip and iOS 7. In model terms that should mean any iPhone 5s an newer models, as well as potentially iPad Air and iPad Mini 2 tablets, running on at least iOS 7. Besides being a curiosity that we definitely urge you not to try on your device, unless you really feel like sending it in for repair, the bug actually has quite a lot of damage potential if it falls into the wrong hands.

Consider this, most current devices, including the affected Apple tech, rely on NTP servers to automatically set their time and date. If a hacker were to theoretically spoof responses and pose as such a server on a Wi-Fi network, he could potentially kill every current iPhone or iPad on the same network.

That does sound scary, but fear not, as there is a fix. It is a hardware one, but simply entails disconnecting the battery, waiting a bit and connecting it back up, which resets the corrupt settings. Sadly, that usually requires an Apple technician, unless you want to open the unit up yourself and void your warranty. Depleting the battery fully has also worked for some users, but it takes time and effort.

Apple has been notified about the issue and all that remains is to see when and how it gets addressed. In the mean time, again, please resist the urge to try it for yourself, now that you know what is going to happen.

Source |…

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In case you were wondering, no, there is no typo in the title, it is ZOPO, not the much better know Oppo brand. As far as Chinese manufacturers go, ZOPO is definitely no household name, but the relatively small company has brought us some interesting offers in the past and just like the ZOPO TOUCH that made its debut ant MWC 2015, the new Speed 8 handset planned for this year deserves a mention.

The #MWC16 is upon us. Be ready to discover the new #ZOPO Speed 8… http://pic.twitter.com/849qvnr4wT— ZOPO Mobile (@ZopoMobileBrand) February 13, 2016

Today Oppo send out its invitation to the unveiling of their new flagship, which will take place at the Barcelona venue on February 24 at 10:30AM. As evident by the poster, it will be hosted by MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, if that just happens to spike your interest in any way.

Other than that, no new info has been shared about the Speed 8 and its specs, but we already have a pretty good idea what to expect, based on previous rumors. The handset is going to employ Mediatek’s powerful Helio X20 SoC, actually making it one of the first devices on the market to experiment with the deca-core setup. Other alleged specs include 4GB of RAM, a 2K display and a fingerprint reader, mounted on the back.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source…

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It has definitely been a while since HP’s last appearance on the mobile scene and even longer since the company dipped its foot in Windows Mobile territory. However, 2016 might actually mark a return to said market, as suggested by a mysterious Windows 10 handset, that has been popping up in various rumors since the end of last year.

Originally dubbed the HP “Falcon” a new leak, courtesy of reputable source Evan Blass, claims that the device will actually come out as the HP Elite x3. This is a slightly perplexing title choice, as a quick search reveals that the HP Elite x2, pictured below, is actually a 2-in-1 device released back in 2012 – quite a different cup of tea.

Windows 10 Mobile-powered HP Falcon is coming to market as the HP Elite x3.— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 12, 2016

In any case, it appears that @evleaks is referring to the same smartphone that was initially spotted in a GFXBench listing back in December 2015. According to said source, it will tun on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 820 SoC and have a quite spacious 5.8-inch 2560 x 1440 pixel display – an impressive setup, especially within the Windows realm. Oddly enough, the same benchmark reported only 1GB of RAM, but that seems like a mistake, when considering the rest of the specs, like the 64GB of storage, for instance. The suggested camera setup also looks impressive on paper, with a 20MP shooter on the back and a 12MP one on the front.

Besides the name change, Evan also mentioned that the device looks “pretty smart — except, maybe, for the odd pattern of speaker grille holes.”, which is cryptic at best, but does spark hopes that the HP Elite x3 will come with an elegant exterior.

It is also worth noting that another industry source reported that the HP Elite x3 could actually be announced at MWC 2016, which could explain why we are starting to hear more and more about it. Here’s to hoping the high-end Windows phone does become reality at the Barcelona venue in a few…

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Apple has revealed that its Apple Music service now has more than 11 million paying subscribers. The revelation was made by company executives Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi in a recent interview.

That number was at around 10 million last month, meaning the Cupertino-based company added a million new Apple Music paying subscribers in the past one month.

Aside from Apple Music, stats on various other Apple Internet services were revealed. For example, iCloud has 782 million users; the company processes a whopping 200,000 iMessages per second; and 750 million worth of iTunes and the App Store purchases per…

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Apple has launched a USB-C charge cable replacement program that will see the company providing replacements for the cables that were included with MacBook computers through June 2015.

The iPhone maker says the cables in question have a design issue that may cause them to fail. “As a result, your MacBook may not charge or only charge intermittently when it’s connected to a power adapter with an affected cable,” the Cupertino-based company explained.

The replacement program also covers Apple USB-C charge cables that were sold as a standalone accessory. Eligible customers will get a new, redesigned USB-C charge cable (see image above) for free. For more details on the program, head to the Source link…

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