One of the most anticipated movies of the year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, launched only a day ago, is already available on Google Play, Windows Store, and iTunes, although only for pre-order as of now.

As for the price, while Apple and Google are offering the HD version for $20, Microsoft is selling it for $15. The price of the SD version, on the other hand, is identical across all the three stores: approximately $15.

There’s no word on the actual availability dates though. However, considering that the movie has just released, it’d be safe to assume that pre-orders won’t be available anytime soon, not this year at the very least.

Google Play | iTunes | Microsoft…

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You might not know about LeTV, but if you have heard about the Chinese OEM that means that its aggressive social campaigns are starting to show results. After experiencing a lot of success with pre-orders and then initial sales of its fourth handset offer – the LeTV Le 1s on the home turf, the young and ambitious company has been working hard to enter the vast India market and trying its hand at a lot of viral marketing in the process.

Prior to launching its products, or as the company refers to them “Super Products” in India in early 2016, it has decided to celebrate fan attention and excitement and organize a few meetups across the country.

Letv, before the official announcement of its launch in India, had already touched a milestone million number of likes for its Facebook page in a record time of just 60 days. To celebrate this milestone number, Le Meetup is being organized by the company to meet with its #SuperFans and bloggers community up close and give them a hands on experience with the brand’s Le #SuperProducts.

The events have actually been in the works for quite some time with a lot of input from the LeTV community, called LeMe (yes the Le puns never seem to stop) regarding locations. The chosen destinations and dates are:

Bengaluru – December 26
New Delhi – December 30
New Delhi – January 9
Hyderabad – to be announced

LeTV has promised a Q&A session at said event, as well as a hands-on experience with its products, as well as giveaways. In order to attend, you have to register in the LeMe community at the source link below, introduce yourself as a “SuperFan” and then register for one of the above meetings. LeTV has separate signup sheets set up for “Key Opinion Leaders (established tech bloggers and YouTubers)”, which you can also use if you feel like you meet the bill.

Source |…

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The Surface Pro 3 hybrid might have gotten outshined by the OEM’s new Surface Pro 4 , but it is still a pretty capable device for getting work done on the go and for the remainder of the weekend is a real steal.

Normally priced at $899, the 128GB, Intel Core i3 model can now be picked up for just $599. That is a huge $300 discount, which is quite a bit of spending cash left over for more holiday gifts. The optional Type Cover, which is more or less essential for using the Surface at maximum productivity is also on sale and can be purchased for $70, instead of the regular $129. The lower-end 64GB Surface 3 is also on sale with a $100 discount, which brings its price down to just $399.

The Microsoft Band 2 comes with a slashed price as well. Normally selling for $249.99, through Sunday, you can get it for just $199. The Band 2 offers several features, including continuous heart rate monitoring, notification alerts, as well as eleven sensors capable of tracking activities like running, weightlifting, exercising, rowing, and biking.

The Microsoft Store has a lot of other deals up as well on things like the Xbox One, quite a few laptops, accessories and more. Most things are also eligible for free shipping within the…

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Nearly one-third of the total photos uploaded to Flickr this year were captured using iPhones, making Apple the top Flickr camera in 2015. This was revealed by the photo sharing service in its Year in Review data for the year.

Apple overtook Cannon, whose share dropped to around 20% in 2015.

The first five spots in Flicker’s this year’s Top Cameras list were bagged by Apple’s phones, including the iPhone 6, 5s, 5, 4s, 4, and 6 Plus. Some Samsung phones also made it to the list, although not in the top 10 – Galaxy S4 (11), S5 (13), and S III (19). Overall share of Samsung’s handsets stood at 3.8%.

The full report, which also has many other interesting stats like camera brand pairings, can be accessed by heading to the Source link…

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BlackBerry’s saga in the mobile realm has been a long and arduous one, but unlike many other industry titans of old, the Canadian giant has managed to hold on to its business, adapting as best it can. After a prolonged period of steady decline it now appears that the company’s damage control and course correction are finally starting to work with a new rising hope of returning to profitability.

The good news became evident after Q3 financial results were published, showing a 13 percent rise is stocks and shrinking overall losses. This has been achieved through strategic marketing and investment in both software and hardware sales, part of which can definitely be attributed to the OEM’s well-received bold step into the Android realm with the BlackBerry Priv handset.

But even before the Priv hit shelves, BlackBerry had already put into action a new and improved licensing strategy for its rich software suite to combat steeply declining revenue form legacy system access fees and this time around, the measures seem to be showing results. Morningstar analyst Brian Colello commented on the matter saying:

BlackBerry hit a software number that investors have been looking for them to hit for quite some time . I think the investment in security, in software, is the right move.

Financial figures also back this statement. Apart from the aforementioned raise in stocks, the Ontario-based company also shrunk losses to 3 cents a share for a total on $15 million, besting analyst predictions of as much as $14 cents per share. Software revenue more than doubled in the quarter and so did device revenue form $201 million to $214 million, mostly thanks to the Priv.

The air of optimism is definitely present, so much so, that chief executive John Chen has predicted a return to sustainable profitability in fiscal 2017. He even stated that the company could potentially break even from prior losses in this quarter, but this was postponed in favor of strategic software and hardware investments.

As for the Priv, the bold experiment definitely proved successful, accounting for a lot of the aforementioned device revenue growth. Sales figures actually show that BlackBerry sold less devices during the quarter – 700,000, as opposed to the prior 800,000, but average selling price has jumped from $240 to $315, making for the overall increase in income. When asked about the future of BlackBerry’s device business, Chen confirmed that a move to Android is indeed a possibility and does save a lot of production costs.

We’re planning on other Android phones, but it all hinges on how we do with the Priv .

However, abandoning hardware entirely is still a possibility, if it turns out to be the better course of action, despite the OEM’s best desire to stay in the device business.

I’ve said that if we cannot make money we’re going to get out of the phone business, and I mean hardware. We have tons of software that absolutely could run, not only on Android phones, but Apple and Windows phones too . We will remain in the phone business one way or the other

Source 1 | Source…

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This weekend, Verizon is offering deals for subscribers looking to upgrade to a new phone. You can get up to a $300 gift card for your trade-in toward a Samsung Galaxy device (depending on your trade-in-value)(honestly, you may be better off selling the device on your own).

You can also get a free memory upgrade on any of the newest Samsung Galaxy Devices when activating a payment plan. You can get either the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, or the Note 5 with 64GB for the price of the 32GB model.

Lastly, you can receive a free 32GB microSD card with the purchase of a Motorola Droid Turbo 2, doubling your memory.

The first deal offering up to $300 toward a phone can be combined with either deal.

The free memory upgrade discount will be applied immediately and does not require reimbursement.

Both these deals are offered only this weekend for the purchase of the respective eligible devices and activating them on a device payment plan.

Source | Source 2 |…

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PayPal is currently running a promotion that allows you to save $3 on any Google Play purchase (including games, movies, books, and apps) of $5 or more made through the payment company’s service.

The offer will be automatically applied when you use PayPal as a payment option during checkout. Savings will be listed in your PayPal email receipt and PayPal account transaction details, the company says.

The promotion is valid until January 1 2016, and is only available to PayPal users in Canada, although Google Play terms and conditions say the offer is open to PayPal users in the United States as…

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ZTE has really been trying hard to step up its game with the high-end Axon series, employing powerful hardware and premium materials and built quality into the handsets. The device family already has quite a few offers in its ranks, like the core Axon model and modifications like the Axon Elite, Axon Lux and Axon Pro, all with a display size of 5.5 inches, as well as an Axon mini at 5.2 inches.

Now the lineup has grown bigger in every sense of the word with the announcement of the Axon MAX, with its huge 6.0-inch FHD AMOLED display. Like the rest of its Axon siblings, the Axon MAX is designed with premium looks in mind and boasts a thin and slick body, measuring 160 x 80 x 7.5mm and made from aircraft-grade aluminum-titanium alloy.

It is powered by Qualcomm’s new mid-range octa-core offer – the Snapdragon 617, paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, expendable through a microSD slot, housed within the second SIM tray of the dual-SIM device. The camera setup looks quite impressive with a 16MP shooter on the back with phase detection autofocus and a 13MP selfies shooter.

The Axon MAX is powered by a quite large 4140 mAh battery, which also supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 standard and promises a snappy top-up from zero to 60% in only 30 minutes. Other interesting specs highlights include a USB type-C port, dedicated AK4961 24-bit ADC for superior audio and a rear-mounted fingerprint reader.

The Axon MAX is already up for order in China for CNY 2,799 (about $431). Color options are currently limited to Gold and sales on the local market should begin later this month, with no word on international availability yet.

Along with the new handset, ZTE also announced its “Global VIP Passport” post-sales service. It is aimed at high-profile business users and offers an interesting mix of secure data-backup, protection and restore services, handset repair and replacement, as well as preferential ZTE rates on flights worldwide.

Source 1 (in Chinese) | Source 2 |…

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HTC CEO Cher Wang has claimed that the company has made “a very, very big technological breakthrough” with their Vive VR headset. She made the claim while speaking at the Vive Unbound developers forum in China yesterday.

The revelation came in the wake of the announcement that the headset’s launch is being delayed from December this year to April 2016. Commenting on the delay while speaking to Engadget, she said, “We shouldn’t make our users swap their systems later just so we could meet the December shipping date.” Pre-orders for the device will begin in February.

Although Wang didn’t provide any details on the big advancement, she did say that it will be shown off at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January next month. She also said that aside from consumers, many major car brands, including Audi, will be installing Vives in their flagship stores for providing virtual reality test drive experience to…

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Huawei has confirmed that the gold colored Nexus 6P smartphone, which is officially called Nexus 6P Special Edition, will be available for purchase in India starting next week – December 21. The device will be a Flipkart exclusive in the country.

“The Huawei Nexus 6P has been well received by the Indian audience and keeping in mind the niche target group, we have introduced the Gold color Special Edition of the smartphone,” said Huawei India Consumer Device Business Group President Allen Wang.

Launched recently in Japan, the handset will be available in 64GB memory configuration in India, and carry a price tag of INR 43,999 (around $665), which is around INR 1,000 ($15) more than the regular 64GB Nexus…

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