As scheduled, the BlackBerry Priv is now available for purchase from T-Mobile in the United States. The Android-powered device is in stock at the magenta carrier’s online as well as physical stores.

As for the price, you can purchase it on the carrier’s standard leasing program, paying $0 down followed by $30 each month for two years. Alternatively, you can also opt for T-Mobile’s JUMP! On Demand program, where-in you’ll have to pay $34 a month for 18 months.

Purchasing the Priv outright from T-Mobile will set you back $719.99. However, before you go ahead with this option, keep in mind that BlackBerry is officially selling the unlocked unit for $699 in the…

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A new Transport SDK will bring integration for partners to use Waze’s maps. Even though Waze is owned by Google, the map experience is completely different on either navigation app. This new SDK for Waze will let app-developers access maps with helpful crowd-sourced traffic information.

The new SDK will provide more optimized routes for delivering packages or picking up passengers. Waze lists benefits for partners, users, and other Waze users. Partners can benefit by being able to get better routes to reach more customers in the same time.

Users can wait less time for a ride, and enjoy a quicker route while the Waze community benefits from more drivers actively using the app. Waze is crowd-sourced so it relies on its regular users for its latest information on accidents, weather, road closures, and police traps.

Waze believes its SDK is capable of supporting a business or company in any country where Waze has a presence, just as long as Waze finds it feasible to partner up with it.

Lyft states that riders can expect the shorter wait times, quicker routes and more efficient carpool rides in the next coming weeks. Both iOS and Android Lyft apps will be updated for drivers to take advantage of the new integration, including a button that seamlessly returns from navigating maps back to Lyft to pick up another customer.

Source (Waze) | Source (Lyft)|…

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Many owners of the LG G4 have complained about a bootloop issue, but so far without receiving any assistance whatsoever from the Korean smartphone maker. Well, that’s finally changed.

LG has now acknowledged the bootloop issue, and after a thorough investigation has concluded that a hardware problem is to blame. Specifically, the bootloops are caused by a “loose contact between components”.

The company has vowed to fix the problem for affected devices, with no additional cost for its customers of course. It turns out that the G4 units experiencing this are not from one particular retail partner – they can be among those sold by carriers, or third-parties.

LG advises people who own handsets affected by the issue to contact the carrier they purchased it from (if that’s the case) or a nearby LG service center to make the necessary arrangements for repair. It’s also apologized for having previously wrongly diagnosed this issue for certain…

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Last we heard anything about it, the upcoming Microsoft Lumia 650 was supposedly delayed until mid-February (from its initial launch time frame of early next month). Now though, as you wait for it to finally become official after a huge number of leaks, you can already pre-order one if you so wish.

It turns out that UK-based online retailer MobileFun has the yet-unannounced handset up for pre-order. It’s priced at £199, SIM-free and unlocked of course.

Unfortunately the company doesn’t mention a shipping date for the Lumia 650, but we assume it can’t happen much later than the aforementioned mid-February time frame.

The listing comes with a full spec list as you’d expect, so the phone’s innards have been confirmed yet again. It has a 5-inch 720p IPS touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 1.1 GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 2,000 mAh battery. It runs Windows 10 Mobile, naturally. It weighs…

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The second-generation Apple Watch is planned to enter mass production in the second quarter of the year. The information comes from sources in the upstream supply chain, cited by DigiTimes. According to the sources, Quanta Computer is going to be the sole manufacturer of the smartwatch.

Originally, Apple considered splitting some of the production efforts to Foxconn Electronics but decided to keep all of the orders with Quanta. The reason is that Apple doesn’t anticipate high enough sales volumes for the second-generation Apple Watch.

Reportedly, the company has reduced its shipment forecast twice – once in the fourth quarter in 2015 and now, in 2016. Nevertheless, the company still hold over 50% of the smartwatch market at the end of…

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The mobile market has definitely changed a lot in the past few years and while many big-name players might not appreciate the influx of new brands and increasingly more affordable offers, there seems to be no end in sight for the ongoing smartphone revolution. Nowadays, you really don’t have to break the bank to get solid smartphone experience and you can buy a perfectly usable device for as little as $100.

We largely have MediaTek to thank for enabling most of these amazingly priced offers with its affordable solutions and judging from the latest addition to its silicon lineup, the next wave of low-end handsets might be more impressive than ever, now with LTE support for as little as $50!

The MT6738 is the cheapest of the new trio. It uses four ARM Cortex-A53 chips, clocked at 1.5 GHz and a Mali T860 MP1 GPU. Screen resolution support is capped at 720P, but there is support for up to 4GB of RAM and a 13MP camera, Of course, the biggest upgrade is the Cat.6 LTE support.

The MT6750 ramps things up with a total of eight Cortex-A53 cores, four running at 1.5 GHz and the other at 1.0 GHz. The GPU is the more powerful Mali T860 MP2, but resolution is still capped at regular HD. The camera support, however, is bumped up to 16MP.

Last, but not least, is the MT6750T. Its specs look practically identical to the none “T” model, except that maximum resolution is set at FullHD. Considering the GPU should be the same Mali T860 MP2, we can only assume it will be working at a higher clock-rate. The aforementioned trio of chips will be in production after the Chinese New Year, so if things move along as planned, they should start appearing in ultra-budget LTE handsets this summer.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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HTC has brought back its Holiday discount program, just for a day (ends on January 26 at 11:59 PT time). And yes, it is US-only again.

Here’s the spread:

30% off for purchases over $650
20% off over $500
10% off over $150

There’s a cap of $2,000 on your purchase (before shipping and taxes). It’s more or less the same discount as before except the 20% and 10% thresholds have shifted.

Note: the UA HealthBox is not part of this promotion. Also, while the A9 technically costs $499.99 it’s counted as “over $500” for the purposes of the promotion (you see the discount in the cart).

Still, an HTC One A9 goes down to $400 (from $500), the One M9 to $455 (from $650). The Nexus 9 isn’t a great deal – only the 32GB Wi-Fi version is in stock (and then only the white one) and you only qualify for 10% off (last time HTC did this promo, the 20% threshold was at $400 instead).

Source |…

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With MWC 2016 around the corner, the rumor mill is already exploding with info on the next wave of flagship offers, like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the LG G5. We are quite confident that the aforementioned pair will make a debut appearance soon, but there are still quite a few major flagships to wait on, one notable example being HTC.

Last we heard, the Taiwanese OEM was the center of attention with its the One X9. That is all fine and dandy, but what about the flagship “M” family? Well, to cite Evan Blass, who has proven himself a worthy source of mobile info in the past, the HTC One M10, codename “Perfume” is still alive!

It’s ALIVE http://pic.twitter.com/J8zLLKh6zo— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 25, 2016

The only other piece of information @evleaks shared on Twitter is a rather cryptic side note that One A9 fans should find the One M10 appealing as well. This, most likely means that the new flagship will have a similar design to its slim, metal unibody sibling. It could also suggest a similar stripped-down approach to the OEM’s own Sense UI.

If you like the A9, you’ll love the M10.— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 26, 2016

From the looks of things, it appears the HTC One M10 definitely won’t make it in time for MWC, so we will just have to wait on it after the event. Another rumor talks of a March release, so the wait shouldn’t be too long. The One M10 is allegedly going to feature a fingerprint scanner, a 23 MP rear camera, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 at the helm, and a 3,000 mAh battery. In a first for HTC, it will also be IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. Evan Blass has also promised more info on the handset in the future, so we will be sure to keep an eye on his Twitter feed.

Source 1 | Source…

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It’s officially official folks, Xiaomi’s second launch for 2016 will be the Xiaomi Mi 5 and that’s happening on February 24. This has been confirmed by a Xiaomi co-founder and now by Global VP Hugo Barra and India Head Manu Kumar Jain.

Both of them are promising “everything you imagined, and more,” but don’t give out any details on the phone itself. Leaked slides point to a 2-hour long presentation, so we will hear plenty about it, come February 24.

For now, we have rumors to go on – four versions total (half with curved screen, half with flat), a Snapdragon 820 chipset, 16MP camera and other goodies.

Source 1 2 |…

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In late 2014 the UK lost Phones 4U, a well-known phone retailer. Now Dixons Carphone (a merger between Dixons and Carphone Warehouse from 2014) will close 11% of its UK stores, totaling 134 stores.

That’s not bad news though. The company says it has been doing this on a small scale for a while now and that experience makes it confident that the impact on sales and employee numbers will either be positive or at worst neutral.

Here’s the plan – PC World and Currys will merge into a single store, which will have a Carphone Warehouse section inside.

Dixons Carphone will have to spend around £50 million on refitting the stores, plus £70 million on exit costs. It does expect £20 million in recurring cost savings.

Source |…

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