Samsung reinvented itself last year and that gave the A-series a chance for a coup. It took the great new design from the S-phones and parred it down to a mid-range price.

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According to recent reports, HTC has chosen to unveil its next flagship smartphone, the One M10, at a dedicated event and not at MWC in Barcelona at the end of this month. That may be wise, seeing has how both the LG G5 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 are set to become official at MWC.

Recently we’ve seen a list of specs for the One M10 getting leaked, and today we are treated to what is alleged to be the first live image of the device.

As you can see, the HTC logo is nowhere to be found on the front of the M10, and neither is the much-dreaded black bar that housed it in past One M series handsets. Under the screen we do however see a fingerprint scanner, which could double as a Home button.

The power and volume buttons are on the right side of the phone, with the former being nicely ridged so you’ll easily be able to tell which is which even if you’re not looking. Interestingly, there doesn’t seem to be a second front-facing speaker underneath the display, so perhaps the much-loved BoomSound speakers aren’t going to be making a comeback in this model.

The One M10 seems to employ a full metal construction, like its predecessors. Previously rumored specs had it coming with a 5.1-inch QHD AMOLED touchscreen, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a microSD card slot, and a 12 MP UltraPixel rear camera with laser autofocus and optical image stabilization. It shall run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with HTC Sense 8…

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If you’re in the UK and want to buy an Apple Watch, now’s probably the time to do it. And make sure you choose either Currys or PC World as your supplier for Apple’s first smartwatch.

Why? Because both of those retailers are now offering the Apple Watch models with discounts ranging from £50 to £120. Those are quite the savings, especially for an Apple-made device.

Let’s exemplify. The 38mm Apple Watch Sport with a black or white strap is normally priced at £299, but it can now be yours for just £249. The 42mm stainless steel Apple Watch with the milanese loop band has a recommended retail price of £559, but is now offered for a mere £439.

There are many more options to pick from, of course, with all iterations receiving a discount in the aforementioned range. It’s unclear how long the new, reduced pricing will last, so make sure you act fast if you want to pick up a cheaper Apple…

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It is hardly surprising that Apple cashed-in big last holiday season, but it is interesting to note that according to Canalys, the company’s smartwatch did particularly well, shipping 12 million units. Canalys estimates that this constitutes around two-thirds of all shipments – impressive volume indeed.

In this chart, Cupertino is followed closely by Samsung with the Gear S2, which returned to the runner-up spot after releasing its improved designs. Pebble occupies the third spot and Huawei is forth. The latter is quite an impressive achievement form the Chinese OEM, which managed to top the likes of LG, despite having only one smartwatch to date.

But statistics get even more interesting in the realm of bands, which would also include wearables without an OS and third-party app support. Here the Fitbit reigns supreme, followed closely by Xiaomi’s Mi Bands, which sold just as well as the Apple watch at 13 million units during 2015. What this means is that the Fitbit actually outsold the Apple Watch in pure volume, possibly hinting that users still tend to go for more fitness-oriented wearables and let’s not forget – cheaper ones.

Analyst Daniel Matte commented on the matter saying:

Software increasingly belongs on the wrist, and this is the direction the market is going . As the next step along this path, the Fitbit Blaze is the right product for the company to develop. It is competitively priced and is still being squarely focused on fitness.

Canalyst’s numbers also estimate that Fitbit, Apple and Garmin together contributed to an astounding growth of over 60% sequentially to the entire wearable device…

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As Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, most retailers and carriers are starting to make their special offers for the occasion known. Such is Verizon’s case today, for example.

The carrier is offering you the following arrangement: if you buy a Motorola Droid Turbo 2 or Maxx 2, you can get a second unit for 50% off. You can in fact ‘mix and match’ the two models, so you can purchase two of the same, or one of each if you so desire. If you choose one Turbo 2 and one Maxx 2, then the cheaper of the two will be the one receiving the 50% discount. New device payment activation is required for both phones.

This deal will remain available until February 25, so there’s still plenty of time to take advantage of it if you want to.

Source |…

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There are numerous reports Apple will be unveiling a new iPhone model this March, together with the new iPad lineup and MacBook refresh. There are quite a few unbelievers there, but this recent report may help many understand why the possibility is more than real.

According to Mixpanel’s report on the iPhone models about 19% of all iPhone owners are still holding on to their beloved iPhone 5s. The iPhone 5 accounts for about 8% of the users while the iPhone 5c and iPhone 4s are 5.4% and 4.2% of all active iPhones.

These numbers confirm that one-third of the active iPhones users are loving their 4″ display and aren’t exchanging it for a bigger one. If you add the iPhone 4s and older 3.5″ models, we get a number close to 40% of users not using larger model iPhone.

Sure, there are lots of reasons for people not upgrading their iPhones, but one of the most common explanations is because of the new bigger screen size. Many people are seeking an upgrade, Apple just isn’t presenting them the device they want.

These numbers can be easily translated into a demand for a smaller iPhone and then those rumors about an upcoming smaller iPhone 5se begin to make sense. We are sure Apple also acknowledges these shares and what’s a better way to make those people upgrade if not an iPhone 5s spiritual successor – like an enhanced edition such as the iPhone 5se is rumored to be?

Source |…

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The Galaxy S7 is just around the corner (February 21 announcement confirmed) and it’s fair to say that Samsung will have little to surprise us with on the keynote. Specs and looks have been leaked time and time again to the tiniest detail, and the smartphone just can’t come soon enough for us to actually put it through its paces.

In the meantime, reports keep coming in on the S7’s performance and it’s hard not to be impressed with its alleged 2-day battery life. And now we’re being treated to some GeekBench scores of what is likely a near final unit bound for US carrier T-Mobile.

The Galaxy S7 in question is powered by the Snapdragon 820 (Exynos 8890 versions should also supposedly exist) and posts some pretty high numbers. The single-core result in particular is mightily impressive at around 2,300 points, while the Huawei Mate 8 we reviewed recently only managed about 1,600 with one of its Cortex-72 cores.

Mind you, today’s numbers are much higher than initial reports suggested, meaning Samsung and Qualcomm held back on performance in early designs. Today’s figures are virtually the same as what Qualcomm’s reference units were able to put out, which leads us to believe this is the Snapdragon 820 in its final form. That said, a single one of the Kryo cores inside Qualcomm’s top chip is still behind (if only slightly) one of Apple’s Twister cores in the A9 SoC found in the latest iPhone 6s.

All four cores in the S820, on the other hand, easily top Apple’s CPU, which only has a pair of Twisters. That said, T-Mobile’s Galaxy S7 is still no match for the Mate 8 in the multi-core test. We’ll be anticipating the Exynos 8890 to see how all of this year’s flagship chips measure up.

And if you believe none of this is actually relevant in the real life anymore, when high-end chips have surpassed the average user’s needs, you may be half-right. But there are those that will take any performance improvement they can get – even better if paired with excellent battery life.

Source |…

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Samsung dropped the support for Galaxy S II a long time ago and officially the phone is stuck on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (up from 2.3 Gingerbread) forever.

But the Galaxy S II is one of the most popular Samsung smartphones ever, and it has been seeing various third-party ROMs throughout the years. Cyanogen, the most popular ROM maker out there, has granted the Galaxy S II support for KitKat and Lollipop.

As of yesterday, the Cyanogen team released the first nightly build of CyanogenMod 13 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Being a nightly ROM means there will be bugs and the OS is probably not stable enough for everyday usage.

We are sure the fans still keeping their Galaxy S II units will be happy with the Marshmallow news. If you are interested in updating your Galaxy S II beyond Jelly Bean, Cyanogen is your best option right now.

Source |…

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The Galaxy S7 is coming and with February 21 already marked on the calendar, eager fans simply can’t get enough of rumors, leaks and hints about Samsung’s upcoming flagship offers. When it comes to next-get, the Korean giant won’t simply limit itself to improved performance, battery life is in for a solid improvement as well. By all accounts, it is going to be a major one, as evident by the recently cited 17 hours of video playback at full brightness.

A newly leaked pair of screenshots from what the dual-SIM variant of the Galaxy S7 show two days of uptime on a single charge. According to the post, courtesy of Eldar Murtazin, who has been the source of other S7 insights in the past, the score was achieved with an average usage pattern, which includes display brightness at 75% and LTE always on.

We can’t really be certain if improvement on such a scale is to be expected, but it does fall in line with a lot of the other improvements the handset will bring to the Samsung table. For one, there is the previously suggested…

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Sony plans to update quite a few with the latest available Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS. It has been working on those updates for the entire Xperia Z5 series for quite some time, and they have been recently finalized.

It was in just a matter of days for Sony to begin seeding those Marshmallow treats and the Xperia Z5 users are now receiving the new firmware over the air. Xperia Z5 Compact and Z5 Premium will be getting the same update any moment now, if not already.

The first country to get the Marshmallow upgrade is Turkey, but we expect more markets to follow suit any time now.

Yesterday Sony confirmed yet another smartphone to receive a Marshmallow update – the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua. Concept Marshmallow builds have been available for the Xperia Z3 series, which means the Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact final updates should be upon us, too.

Thank you, Ahmet Nuh, for the…

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