The Samsung Gear S2 will be launched in India tomorrow – January 21. The South Korean company has sent out invitations for the launch event that will be held in the city of Gurgaon, near the country’s capital of New Delhi.

Although the invite doesn’t mention Gear S2 explicitly, the image it contains speaks for itself. This comes just days after there were reports that the smartwatch will be launched in the country this month.

While reports also mentioned that Samsung’s virtual reality headset – the Gear VR – will also be launched along with the Gear S2, the invite at-least doesn’t contain any such…

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Unveiled at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0 has passed through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, suggesting an imminent launch of the tablet in the country.

Specs-wise, the device is powered by a Kirin 930 SoC and sports a 10.1-inch (1200 x 1920 pixel resolution) IPS display. It comes in 2GB/3GB RAM options and 16GB/64GB internal memory options, and packs in a 6,660 mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the tablet features a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. Measuring 239.8 x 172.8 x 7.4mm and weighing in at 500g, it runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box. The 2GB/16GB model comes in silver color, while the 3GB/64GB variant comes in gold – both are available in WiFi + LTE and WiFi-only versions.

Prices begin at $349 and go all the way up to $469.

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The Apple Watch Hermès edition will go on sale online starting January 22, according a report from fashion news site Fashionista. On sale since October last year, the collection has only been available at select Apple retail stores and Hermes’ luxury boutiques until now.

For those who aren’t in the know, the Hermès Apple Watch edition is a result of Apple’s partnership with French fashion house Hermès.

It features specially designed leather straps – there are three variants: the Single Tour, Double Tour, and Cuff, costing $1,100, $1,250, and $1,500, respectively. In addition, the wearable also sports an exclusive Hermès watch face.

The report says the complete Hermès collection will be available for purchase on Apple.com and Hermes.com beginning this Friday.

Via 1…

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Verizon is introducing a new way to make money at the potential inconvenience to consumers. It is going to offer sponsored data at the expense of marketers and companies who want to advertise.

An ad or link would have a little bee next to it signifying that it is sponsored and has already been paid for, the user can then click the content, view, or consume it in any way.

Basically, Company X can post an ad with content like videos or articles which will not be deducted from the subscriber’s data bucket upon viewing the content. It will be billed at Company X’s own expense. While this isn’t really a benefit for the customer, nor an inconvenience, it’s just a way for Verizon to make more money off its large subscriber base.

Net Neutrality supporters have been bugging T-Mobile about services like Music Freedom and Binge On. The difference with the two is that T-Mobile’s services actually provide benefit to the customer while Verizon’s FreeBee data only makes Verizon more money.

When you think about it, this is much like what T-Mobile is already doing, except it is explicitly charging the companies for flagging content as free data. The way that Verizon wrote the press release sounds like it is taking advantage of its customers to a certain extent. I may be sounding harsh and this might not even be Verizon’s intention at all, but this could end up badly for Verizon or its consumers.

The only way FreeBee could be successful for Verizon is if these ads are unobtrusive and don’t put preference of other content over what the subscriber is actually looking for. It really boils down to what marketers want and what Verizon can offer to them.

If Verizon can respect what is obtrusive and annoying to the subscriber, I guess it’s not THAT bad. Once Verizon crosses a line, it becomes a slippery slope and customers could become irritated.

This program is actually in beta-testing, so the only content providers right now are Hearst Magazines, AOL, and GAMEDAY. These are initial test runs to see how well the program performs before proceeding.

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Not long ago, the official pricing for the Oculus Rift VR headset was revealed. It will cost $599. On the other hand, another highly anticipated entry into the VR space comes from Valve and HTC. This will go up for pre-order on February 29, and it’s been rumored to set you back a whopping $1,500.

So you may be wondering where Sony’s upcoming PlayStation VR headset (codenamed Morpheus) will be in terms of pricing. While we still have nothing official from Sony on that, no less than three different online retailers from Switzerland have listed it already.

Oddly though, each of them has a different price for the device. They range from CHF 499 to 552.45. At the current exchange rates, that would be $497 to 550, or €455 to 504. If these prices even somewhat reflect Sony’s plans (and aren’t just random guesses by retailers eager to get some clicks and perhaps some pre-orders), then we assume the PlayStation VR will go for $499 in the States and probably €499 in the Eurozone.

On the other hand, in a recent report originating in Taiwan about the HTC Vive, the PlayStation VR was said to cost $1,125 – so do take all of this with a pinch of salt. If Sony is close to finally releasing Morpheus into the wild, then hopefully it will reveal pricing details soon.

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The Ascend Mate7 isn’t the only Huawei device in the process of receiving a beta build of Android 6.0 Marshmallow soon. The Chinese company’s Honor sub-brand wants in on that beta action too.

So if you’re from the UK and own the Honor 6 Plus, Honor 6, or Honor 4X, you can now sign up to become a beta tester for the Marshmallow update for your device. This follows a similar campaign that was outed for the Honor 7 last month. To try your luck at getting selected for this, you have to fill out the form here.

You need to supply your handset’s IMEI number (dial *#06# to get it), as well as its current firmware version. This has to be a specific one noted in the document linked above, otherwise you won’t be able to participate.

Of course you should keep in mind that such beta builds can be filled with bugs, and make sure you back up your data before you…

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On Friday, Microsoft will issue a worldwide voluntary recall of the chargers and charging cables shipped with its Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro 3 tablets. Affected are the tablets that were sold in the US before March 2015, and in Europe before July 15 of last year.

According to the statement which Microsoft will release in a few days, if those power cords are “sharply or repeatedly bent” or “tightly wrapped” they are prone to overheat, which can turn them into a fire hazard.

A Microsoft spokesperson had this to say about the matter: “As a result of damage caused by AC power cords being wound too tightly, twisted or pinched over an extended period of time, a very small proportion of Surface Pro customers have reported issues with their AC power cord. We will be releasing details of how customers can obtain a free replacement cable shortly”.

As of Friday, the company will set up a specialized website where affected owners of the Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro 3 tablets can claim their free replacement charger and cable. They will be advised to recycle or dispose of the faulty cables.

The recall will not target the Surface Pro 4 or non-Pro Surface tablets.

Source 1 • Source 2 |…

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Today Apple has commenced the rollout of the update to iOS 9.2.1 for all supported iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch units out there. The general release starts today following a beta version of iOS 9.2.1, which went out to eager testers last month. In the meantime, an iOS 9.3 beta has been outed as well for those who are part of Apple’s beta testing program.

As its version number implies, iOS 9.2.1 is not a big release. It doesn’t come with new features, it only focuses on bug fixes, performance improvements, and reliability enhancements.

Included is a fix for an issue that could prevent the completion of an app’s installation when using an MDM server. For now it’s unclear if the battery indicator bug that we’ve reported on yesterday is also fixed in iOS 9.2.1. Surely though some other unnamed improvements are in…

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Facebook has been accessible through Tor-enabled browsers since 2014, but starting today the social network is making another step in protecting your privacy. That’s because the Facebook app for Android supports Tor now too.

To use the app through Tor, you first need to install the Orbot proxy app on your device. After you do that, if you go to Settings inside the Facebook app, you’ll see the option highlighted in the screenshot below.

Turn that on, and you’ll be connected to Facebook via Tor. The feature will apparently be rolling out over the next few days to users of Facebook’s Android app, so you may not see it…

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We’ve got a new episode in the seemingly neverending Apple v. Samsung patent spat. This time around there isn’t a big sum of money that Samsung has to pay Apple or anything like that.

US District Judge Lucy Koh has granted Apple a motion for permanent injunction against Samsung devices found to have patent-infringing technology. Translated from legalese, that essentially means that Samsung is now banned from selling these handsets in the US.

That sounds very bad, until you look at the list in question and realize that none of these smartphones have actually been on sale anywhere for quite a while, since they’re all very old. We’re talking about the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, and Stratosphere. The most recent device in there seems to be the Galaxy S3 from 2012.

So this ruling does favor Apple in the ongoing patent war with Samsung, but it is in the end completely pointless. The Korean company will suffer absolutely no losses from not being able to sell handsets it hasn’t been selling anymore anyway. A Samsung spokesperson said that “while this will not impact American consumers, it is another example of Apple abusing the judicial system to create bad legal precedent which can harm consumer choice for generations to come”. Apple representatives have remained mum on the decision.

This could be impactful in other ways, however. In the future such sales bans could be decided by judges in an easier manner than before, with this precedent having been set – especially when talking about complex devices such as smartphones, many different aspects of which can be patented.

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