Following the announcement of a long term search partnership with AOL last June, Microsoft has shared that AOL’s search is now powered by its Bing search engine. The Redmond, Washington-based company made the announcement in an official blog post.

“As of Jan. 1, Bing powers AOL’s web, mobile, and tablet search, providing paid search ads and algorithmic organic search results to AOL’s properties worldwide,” the software giant said in the post.

Microsoft said last year that Bing claims over 20% of the US desktop search market, and now the company revealed that the search engine powers nearly one-third of US PC web searches.

“Partnering with Bing allows us to provide great search results and capabilities, across all screens, to our global audiences, as well as providing our brands valuable business insights and intelligence,” says Tim Lemmon, Head of AOL’s Search Business. “We’re looking forward to working together with the Bing team and bringing our audience to the Bing…

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Lenovo has just pulled the wraps off the Vibe S1 Lite, a toned-down version of the existing Vibe S1. The focus has remained on selfies but a few key specs have been changed.

For starters, the Vibe S1 Lite has a 5-inch FullHD IPS display, quite like the non-Lite model. The new smartphone, however, is powered by the Mediatek MT6753 chipset, as opposed to the MT6752, promising global LTE coverage, but a lower CPU clock speed (1.3GHz vs. 1.7GHz). There’s 2GB of RAM on board, as well as 16GB of storage, expandable via microSD cards up to 32GB.

It’s the front cam that is the headline feature, using an 8MP Sony sensor with large 1.4 micron photosites. There’s a flash to help in low-light situations – a feature gaining in popularity, but still somewhat rare. The 5-element lens is fixed-focus though. The primary camera looks good on paper too with a 13MP sensor, phase detection autofocus, and a dual-LED flash.

Lenovo Vibe S1 Lite

The Lenovo Vibe S1 Lite measures 145 x 71 x 8.6mm and weighs 129g, so while it’s a bit tall for a 5-incher, it’s certainly on the light side of average. It packs a 2,700mAh battery, which Lenovo promises is good for a day.

As already mentioned, the Vibe S1 Lite supports Cat. 4 LTE over some 10 bands on top of the quad-band 2G/3G. There’s Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS with A-GPS, and an FM radio receiver. The smartphone runs android 5.1 Lollipop.

Lenovo has put a $199 price tag on the Vibe S1 Lite, and it should hit the stores “early this…

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Yesterday, Amazon UK and France pulled the Lumia 950 XL from its online stores. While the actual reason is not known, both UK and France have begun selling the Lumia 950 XL again.

While the black model on the UK site is back for sale, the white model remains out of stock. The French site of the retailer, strangely, shows the “Noir” model in stock but shows pictures of the white model. Maybe I’m lost in translation, but either way, the phones are back on the virtual shelves.

We’re not sure exactly why Amazon, among some other retailers, kept pulling the new Lumia phones from their online stores. The first couple of times were due to unusually high return rates, deeming horrible battery life to be the culprit.

This time around, Amazon UK notified its users that the complication was either of three things: inventory issues, description error, or the way an item was shipped.

For all we know, the black models and white models may have been labeled wrong and customers were getting the white model when they ordered the black one. (This didn’t actually happen, it’s just an example) We hope this is a learning experience for Microsoft or whoever is to…

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Yesterday, Microsoft announced that the Surface Book will soon land in 10 new markets, including Australia, Austria, New Zealand, as well as certain European and Asian countries. And now, it is available for pre-order in many of the aforementioned regions.

Those living in France, Germany, New Zealand, and the UK can now pre-order the hybrid device from their respective local Microsoft Store website- shipments begin 28 January in New Zealand and 18 February in other regions. Prices start at £1,299 in the UK, €1,649 in Germany and France, and NZD 2,749 in New Zealand.

However, if you’re in Australia, you’ll be glad to know that the Surface Book is already available for purchase in your country for AUD 2,299.

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LeTV’s pre-CES press conference is scheduled to be held today in Las Vegas, and just ahead of it, the Chinese company has teased a smartphone that will be announced at the event. The teaser image was posted by the company’s VP on Weibo (China’s Twitter).

Besides revealing narrow bezels and off-screen capacitive buttons, the image in question also shows the phone’s dialer app with keys 8, 2, and 0 highlighted, suggesting that the handset is powered by a Snapdragon 820 chipset.

Going by the rumors we’ve heard so far, the teased device should be the LeTV Max Pro. It is said to be SD820-powered and sport a 5.5-inch (2560×1440 pixel resolution) display. Other rumored specs include 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory, 21MP/4MP camera combo, and Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

There have also been reports that the handset will feature an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor as well as iris…

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A very common theme for CES this year seems to be “The Internet of Things” or IoT. With the introduction of smart modules that can be implanted into everyday objects around the home and workplace, the possibilities are endless.

But that is beside the point. The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced a new energy efficient type of Wi-Fi connection that comparable to Bluetooth. It is to be superior in range and travel through walls much better than current Wi-Fi technologies thanks to using the 900MHz band (existing Wi-Fi technologies use 2.4GHz and 5GHz). These conditions are ideal for the IoT that everyone is talking about.

Don’t expect to see any devices with this new Wi-Fi until 2018, though. This is when the Wi-Fi Alliance plans to begin certifying devices for HaLow (pronounced like “halo”).

HaLow is designed to be embedded in devices that transmit small amounts of data like fitness trackers, appliances, and a plethora of “things” that make up the IoT.

Over the next few years (assuming this becomes reality) either of two things can happen: Manufacturers don’t care for HaLow and continue to use an already existing technology called Bluetooth LE (LE stands for ‘low energy’), or HaLow will be integrated into existing Wi-Fi technologies, to only require a single Wi-Fi chip. This would knock the requirement of designing gadgets with two different wireless chips, one for Wi-Fi and another for Bluetooth.

Can we estimate that the new Wi-Fi standard will coincide with an increasing adoption of connected ‘things’? This may be a possible outcome. But it is too early to tell.

The IoT is an interesting idea that is still in the beginning stages of becoming a common consumer industry. We will have to wait and see if people really want to interface ‘things’ with other ‘things’.

Source |…

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Asus first announced the Zenfone Zoom at last year’s CES, and then 11 months passed without the device being on sale anywhere. The company finally released the phone in its home market of Taiwan in December, and now it’s almost ready to make it available in the US.

Asus has revealed that the Zenfone Zoom will be out in the US in early February. You’ll be able to purchase one unlocked for $399. That’s a decent price considering what you’re getting in terms of specs.

The Zenfone Zoom (ZX551ML) has a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, Intel’s Atom Z3590 chipset (with a 2.5 GHz quad-core CPU), 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage, 4G LTE, a 5 MP front-facing camera, and a 3,000 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The main attraction is clearly its rear camera, which has 13 MP resolution, f/2.7-f/4.8 aperture, dual-LED flash, laser autofocus, 3x optical zoom, and optical image stabilization.

Source |…

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As we get closer to the reported February 21 unveiling date, more and more details about Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge are beginning to leak.

Today some new information has come to light courtesy of Evan Blass (also known as @evleaks). He says the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge will be waterproof, thus adding a much-requested feature that used to be present in the S5 from 2014. Not only that, but they will adhere to the IP67 standard, which means they will also be dustproof.

Furthermore, they will both have larger batteries than their predecessors, which will hopefully improve their running time on one charge. The S7 is said to sport a 3,000 mAh cell, while the S7 edge will apparently get a 3,600 mAh battery (that’s up from 2,550 mAh and 2,600 mAh, respectively, in the S6 and S6 edge). Unfortunately, the new batteries will not be user-replaceable. On the other hand, the S7 will fully recharge wirelessly in just 2 hours, and the S7 edge in 2.2 hours.

The S7 will allegedly have a 5.1-inch QHD touchscreen, while the edge version will keep the resolution but sport a 5.5-inch display. Both models will get something called “Always On Display” functionality, with glanceable information on the screen at all times (something that’s been done by Nokia with its Windows Phones ages ago). This is made possible by the fact that AMOLED displays don’t consume any energy for showing black pixels – thus, if the screen is mostly black, then the power impact of such a feature is negligible.

The S7 and S7 edge will have microSD card slots, once again getting back a feature that disappeared in the S6 even if it was present in the S5.

As previously rumored, at least one version of each S7 device will employ Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 SoC, which will reportedly come with an LTE Cat.9 modem built-in. 4GB of RAM will be in both phones, along with 32 or 64GB of storage.

The selfie camera will be 5MP as in the S6, but the main cameras in the S7 duo will have 12MP resolution, down from 16MP in their predecessors. However, this will be a new Samsung Britecell sensor, which will be 1/2″ in size, and pairing that with the rumored f/1.7 lens aperture should result in very good low-light shots. The rear camera’s lens will probably be flush with the device (for both…

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Today LG has unveiled its new K line of smartphones. This is meant to be the successor to the L series from a while back, as it also features affordable devices with certain premium-like traits.

The first two handsets in the K series are the K10 and K7, both of which have been made official by the Korean company on this occasion.

The K10 (pictured above) has a 5.3-inch 720p touchscreen, a 2,300 mAh battery, Android 5.1 Lollipop on board, and three color versions: white, indigo, and gold. The rest of the specs will vary based on which country you buy the K10 from, as well as whether you get the LTE-capable model or the one that’s 3G-only.

The LTE-enabled iteration of the LG K10 comes with a 13MP rear camera, while the 3G model has to make do with an 8MP main unit. In terms of front-facing snapper you can get either 8 MP or 5 MP resolution, depending on market. RAM amount can be 1GB, 1.5GB, or 2GB, while the internal storage is either 8GB or 16GB.

There are four CPU options, three of which will be found on the LTE K10: 1.2 GHz or 1.3 GHz quad-core, as well as 1.14 GHz octa-core. The 3G K10 will have a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor.

Moving on, the already leaked LG K7 (pictured below) comes with a 5-inch 854×480 touchscreen, a 2,125 mAh battery, a 5 MP selfie shooter, and Android 5.1 Lollipop. Everything else is once again different based on where the phone is sold, and whether you buy the LTE model or the 3G one.

The LTE K7 has a 1.1 GHz quad-core CPU, while the 3G iteration sports a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. The main camera is either 8 MP or 5 MP depending on market, RAM can be 1.5GB or 1GB, and the built-in storage is 8GB or 16GB. The LTE model will only be available in the “Titan” hue, while the 3G version will be offered in white, black, and gold.

Both K series devices have LG’s new “glossy pebble” design language, which employs a “curved, modern finish aimed at a younger audience”. They both have 2.5D curved glass on top of their displays, and they will both be showcased at CES this week. Pricing and availability details haven’t been announced…

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With a fresh start in 2016, Samsung wasted no time in reaffirming its SSD dominance, this time with an updated portable SSD solution. Dubbed the Portable SSD T3, the easily-pocketable gadget will make a debut ad CES as the direct successor to last year’s T1 model.

The unit has gotten a bit bigger and heavier, but comes with an array of improvements, like vertical NAND (V-NAND) memory, capable of read and write speeds of up to 450 MB/s. But perhaps the biggest upgrade is the capacity – the T3 is available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB as well as the whopping 2TB of storage.

Other notable features of the Portable SSD T3 include a USC Type-C connector with support for USB 3.1 (backwards compatible with USB 2.0, of course). This allows for easy connection to full-size PCs and laptops, as well as mobile phones and other portable tech. Speaking of which, Samsung also offers an Android app to monitor storage and also make use of password-based AES 256-bit hardware encryption.

As for pricing and availability, the T3 will go on sale next month in Korea, China, the US and a few EU markets. Pricing is still unknown, but considering the 1TB T1 model launched at $600 and SanDisk is currently selling a 2TB portable SSD for about $800, we can definitely say that the Portable SSD T3 won’t come…

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