The Beatles coming to streaming services on Christmas Eve

Ever wish you could just listen to your favorite Beatles tracks on your favorite music streaming service, one you pay for every month but somehow conspicuously lacks music from the biggest band in the world? Well, it’s finally coming this Christmas to everyone who has been nice this year. Or happens to have a Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Tidal, Amazon Prime Music, and any other music service subscription.

Billboard has revealed that the Beatles music will finally be available for streaming on all the major music streaming services. The ones that won’t be getting it include Pandora, which doesn’t do direct deals with music owners, and Rdio, which is now dead.

Until then you can continue streaming it on YouTube and pretending the audio quality isn’t terrible.

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New leak suggests LG G5 will feature dual rear camera setup

LG’s upcoming G5 flagship smartphone, which has been the subject of some rumors and leaks until now, will come with a dual camera set-up (16MP + 8MP) at the back. This was revealed in a new leak, which came courtesy of a Reddit user who also shared the following image that apparently shows the device’s body partially obscured by a black box.

A number of other specs were also revealed, including 5.3-inch Quad HD display, SD820 SoC with 3GB RAM, 8MP front camera, as well as a SIM and microSD slot. In addition, the leakster said that the device will also have a color spectrum and a heart rate sensor fitted in the camera assembly, as well as a fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button.

Other features that were revealed include a USB-C port, bottom firing speaker, as well as IR blaster on top. There was no word on the launch time frame though – recent reports have suggested that will happen in February.

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HTC One X9 to go official tomorrow, teaser indicates

The HTC One X9, which recently appeared in leaked live photos, could be unveiled tomorrow – December 24. The Taiwanese company has posted a teaser image (shown below) on its Weibo account that indicates the same.

Things like the letter ‘X’ in the middle of the device as well as those highlighted capacitive buttons clearly suggest that the star of the December 24 event is going to be the One X9.

As far as specs are concerned, pretty much everything about the device is already known, as it has already been certified by China’s TENAA. The listing revealed that the handset is powered by a 2.2 GHz octa-core processor (should be MediaTek MT6795 SoC), and sports a 5.5-inch 1080p display. RAM is 2GB, while internal memory is 16GB, although expandable.

In terms of camera, the handset will feature a 13 MP main camera with OIS, and a 5MP front shooter. Measuring 153.2×75.9×7.99 mm, and weighing in at 174 g, the One X9 runs Android 5.0.2 out-of-the-box and packs in a 3,000 mAh battery. It is expected to cost somewhere between $366-$457 in HTC’s home country of…

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Google offering 75% off on Play Store movie rental

Google is currently running a promotion where-in the company is offering Play Store users 75% off the store price of any one movie rental. It’s a limited time offer that ends January 4.

Keep in mind that the promotion is only available in select countries, including the US, UK, Australia, India, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan. Also, it’s worth stressing that the discount – which gets applied at checkout – is only valid for a single movie rental per user.

Aside from this offer, Google is also running many other promotions (head to the Via link below) for Play Store users. For example, it’s offering 3 months of Play Music subscription for just $1, although the deal is only valid for new subscribers.

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Google allegedly working on yet another messaging service, this time with chatbots

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Google is working on yet another mobile messaging service, with the twist this time being the inclusion of chatbots.

The way this works is, you can message your friends the way you currently do but there are also chatbots that can answer your queries. The bots will use Google’s web search expertise to find answers for your questions. It’s like using Google Now or Siri, but you type instead of speaking and it will supposedly be more conversational. Google will probably allow developers to build their own chatbots to include within the service. Not much else is known about the service at this point.

Google hasn’t had much success in the messaging and social arena. Most people didn’t take kindly to the rebranding of Google Talk to Hangouts and the service has since had trouble finding favor among users. Competitors, in the form of Facebook with its Messenger and WhatsApp services, and Apple with its exclusive iMessage service, are doing a lot better in comparison. This is Google’s way to yet again try and get back into the messaging space and at the same time earn revenue by directing users to specific…

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Mediatek Helio X20 posts record scores on GeekBench

Next-years crop of flagship chipsets has been undergoing some vigorous testing over the past couple of months, and aside from the occasional leak, we’ve also been treated to credible benchmark results of the Snapdragon 820. Mediatek’s high-end SoC Helio X20 (a.k.a. MT6797) hasn’t been in the spotlight as much, but has just shown up on GeekBench posting some seriously good numbers.

The multi-score result north of the 7,000 mark is far and away the highest score we’ve seen posted by a mobile chipset and in an actual listing on the benchmark’s website. The Tri-cluster 10-core CPU architecture of the SoC, consisting of 2 Cortex-A72 cores and double quad-core Cortex-A53 is responsible for the record-breaking figures.

However, a single Cortex-A72 isn’t up to the standards of Apple’s current Twister cores in the A9 chip, or Qualcomm’s upcoming Kryo cores. The Helio X20’s single-core performance is rated at a little over 2,000 units, while the above two can push upwards of 2,300-2,400.

All that said, a previous chipset comparison had next-year’s Exynos 8890 posting a mind-blowing 7,400 points, while the Helio X20 was trailing at 6,500. So until all of these SoC’s end up in production devices, which we can test, the above numbers are nothing but a general indication of the direction the industry is headed.

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Acer sells 70,000 Liquid Leap Active units in a day in US

Acer recently debuted its Liquid Leap Active wearable in the US, and the company has announced that it sold 70,000 units of the device in just 24 hours. The Taiwanese firm also managed to sell a total of 30,000 interchangeable bands during the same time.

The said number of units were sold via TV shopping network HSN in a 24-hour promotion on December 13. The promotion saw the company offering two Liquid Leap Active wearables or one wearable with three interchangeable bands for a total of $99.95.

Unveiled back in June at Computex Taipei, the wearable device allows users to track their daily activities and exercise, as well as record their sleep time. It also notifies users about incoming calls, texts, and social media messages, as well as provides meeting…

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Marshmallow update for HTC One M9 (unlocked) ready for US rollout

In line with what was promised earlier this month, HTC has announced that the unlocked units of its One M9 smartphone in the US will start receiving the Android 6.0 update shortly. The announcement was made by the company’s US VP of Product Management Mo Versi on Twitter.

Happy Holidays! Updates to the Unlocked A9 6.0.1 and Unlocked M9 6.0 will be able to be downloaded within next 24 hours! Enjoy :-)— Mo Versi (@moversi) December 23, 2015

It is, however, currently not known when unlocked M9 units outside the US will start receiving the update. For those who aren’t already aware, the One M8 Marshmallow update started rolling out in the US earlier this month.

In addition, Versi also announced that the company’s latest One A9 smartphone will receive the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow update during the same…

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Google confirms it’s testing passwordless logins

Google has confirmed that it’s testing a new, password-less login system that allows users to sign in to their Google account with just their phones. The functionality was first revealed by a Reddit user who received an invite to test it. He also posted the following screenshots:

It is apparent from the screenshots that in order to use the feature, you should first have a compatible smartphone that needs to be set-up. Once that is done, the feature is enabled, meaning thereon whenever you try to sign in to your Google account on any other computer or device, you just have to enter your email address and ask the system to let you in.

A notification seeking your permission to approve the login will be sent to your phone. Once approved, the sign in attempt will be successful. Of course, you would still be able to use your password to login the old fashioned way.

“We’ve invited a small group of users to help test a new way to sign in to their Google accounts, no password required. ‘Pizza’, ‘password’ and ‘123456’—your days are numbered,” a Google spokesperson said, adding that the feature is being tested on both Android and…

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Huawei begins selling Honor smartphones through brick-and-mortar stores in India

Until now, Huawei’s Honor brand of smartphones have only been available through online retailers in India. However, that’s changing as the company has announced that customers will now also be able to purchase the devices through brick-and-mortar stores.

The Chinese company has entered into a partnership will Zopper, which is basically a hyperlocal marketplace that lets users search products, check their offline prices, and order them from nearby stores. The partnership will see the Honor brand reaching out to a total of 267 outlets in select Indian cities, including Delhi NCR, Chennai, Vellore, Pondicherry, and Bangalore.

“We are very encouraged with the response we have received for our Honor smartphones in India, including the Honor 4X, Honor 6 Plus and Honor 7,” said Allen Wang, President of Consumer Business Group, Huawei India.

“To reinforce our commitment towards our customers in India, and allow a higher level of access to Honor smartphones, we have decided to introduce Honor smartphones in the offline sales channel, which starts with the tie-up with Zopper, which allow customers to choose the retailer offering the best price for a product.”

It’s worth mentioning that the prices of the Honor devices will remain the same, whether you purchase them online or…

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