Cam Bunton, Editor at NewGeekGuide – Cam has been passionate about tech since his dad bought the family’s first Commodore AMIGA back in the late 80’s. He’s been in the tech industry (writing and making videos) since 2010, and joined NewGeekGuide as the resident video producer and product reviewer in 2015. He sometimes writes news and reviews for 9to5Mac too.
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Today must be HTC 10 (formerly known as HTC One M10) rumors day. Soon after it seemingly became clear that HTC was ditching its ‘One’ flagship moniker, Steve Hemmerstoffer (aka @OnLeaks) posted a handful of real-life images of a working HTC 10 prototype.
It’s the first time we’ve seen the phone from almost all angles, and gives us a much more complete image of HTC’s next flagship smartphone.
OnePlus has announced on its forums that the next update for the OnePlus 2 is rolling out incrementally from today. Customers using the “2016 flagship killer” will be receiving OxygenOS 2.2.1 as an OTA update at some point over the coming days or weeks. Sadly, it’s not the Marshmallow-powered update, but it does come with some handy new features.
Verizon is proving to be no slouch when it comes to rolling out Android Marshmallow updates to its customers. Having only recently been made available for the international unlocked Galaxy Note 5, Android Marshmallow is now being rolled out to Verizon-locked models.
Update: It looks as though Steve Hemmerstoffer received a tip also seemingly showing ‘HTC 10’ in a device’s ‘Phone Identity’ settings menu. On its own, it’s hardly definitive, but when two of the most reliable leaksters online agree on something, it’s definitely worth taking note.
HTC’s next flagship is coming, and the Taiwanese company hasn’t been holding back the teasers. Instead, it’s ramping up its social media campaign to hype the #powerof10, first showing off the shiny chamfered edges, then telling us how much it was obsessing over the design. We all assumed this meant the HTC One M10 was coming. But if a tweet from the oft-reliable leakster Evan Blass is accurate, HTC might be about to ditch the ‘One’ moniker as well as the ‘M’ prefix on the model number.
Before the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge was launched last month, rumors suggested Samsung was looking at launching its own upgrade/lease program so that customers could upgrade their phone every 12 months. Over the past day or so, there appears to be a gathering rumor online suggesting that it will launch on March 11th, or that it’s only just launched in the UK. I can report with certainty that the upgrade program is live, and has been since pre-orders began.
How do I know? Because I used it to pre-order my very own S7 Edge. Here’s how it works…
HTC has never been shy about how serious it takes its smartphone design. When the HTC One M7 launched a few years ago, it was easily the best-looking and best-made Android smartphone available. Since then, it’s spent its time slowly improving on that original form factor. Some might say too slowly. While the M9 featured the same dedication to craftsmanship, its spec list wasn’t anywhere near close to competing with last year’s flagships. This year, that is rumored to be changing.
Over the past couple of years, TENAA has been a great source for finding out about devices before they’re launched. Like the FCC in the US, handsets have to pass through TENAA to be certified for release in China. If some recent additions are anything to go by, Oppo is set to release a couple of new R-series Android smartphones. The Oppo R9 and R9 Plus popped up on TENAA’s site recently and feature a modern, premium all-metal design and some decent specs.
A couple of days back, it came to light that Samsung had opted not to include Qualcomm’s latest fast-charging technology in the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge. This decision was made despite the fact that US, China and Japan’s models are equipped with the Snapdragon 820 processor, which we know is capable of supporting Quick-Charge 3.0. Sony, likewise it seems, has opted not to include Quick Charge 3.0 support in any of its new Xperia X phones.
If you’ve ever travelled abroad with your smartphone, there’s a chance you’ve been stung by a hefty roaming bill because you’ve used data in another country. Depending on which carrier you’re with, that could cost you hundreds of dollars just for doing regular, everyday stuff. And you can forget about using your device as a hotspot.
That’s where Skyroam comes in. It’s an affordable mobile hotspot you can take with you to countries in Europe, Africa, South Pacific, Middle East, Asia or The Americas and pay only one single flat rate per day for (sort of) unlimited usage.
WhatsApp has started rolling out a new document uploading feature to its Android app users. This new attachment option has been showing up for a number of WhatsApp users (including myself) and allows you to upload PDFs. It’d be surprising if this wasn’t expanded to include other document formats in the future.
Nova Launcher is one of the best launchers available for Android on the Play Store. It lets you customize virtually every part of your smartphone user interface. While the free version is great, the premium ‘Prime’ version offers far more fine-tuning capabilities and normally costs $5. For a limited time, Nova Launcher is now available for just $0.99.
Nova Launcher Prime
Unlock the following extras by purchasing Nova Launcher Prime
• Gestures – Swipe, pinch, double tap and more on the home screen to open your favorite apps
• Unread Counts – Never miss a message. Unread count badges for Hangouts, SMS, Gmail and more using the TeslaUnread plugin
• Custom Drawer Groups – Create new tabs or folders in the app drawer
• Hide Apps – Keep a clean app drawer by hiding never used apps
• Icon Swipes – Set custom actions for swiping on app shortcuts or folders
• More scroll effects – Such as Wipe, Accordion, and Throw
It’s worth noting that Nova Launcher Prime isn’t an app download in itself, rather, it acts as a license to unlock the listed features in the free Nova Launcher app. What that means in simple terms, is that you need to download and install the free version before you can head to the Play Store and pay for the Prime version.
Spinning off Photos in to its own app and service is arguably one of the best decisions Google has ever made. It’s a fantastic tool for storing your photos, it’s easily searchable and sometimes makes its own automatic moments of magic. It’s safe to say, I don’t love any of its services as much as I love Photos. But now it’s getting better.
It’s become increasingly obvious in recent times that if you want to look for high-powered smartphones in the Android market at competitive prices, you have to look towards China. Xiaomi made a splash at MWC with the launch of its high-end Mi 5 that costs half what an S7 Edge might cost. Meanwhile, in China, Vivo has launched the Xplay 5 and Xplay 5 Elite, the latter of which boasts an enormous 6GB RAM.
Following on from the recent leak seemingly showing the Huawei P9 prototype encased in an identity-protecting plastic shell, the upcoming flagship smartphone has appeared again. This time, the smartphone is completely uncovered, showing a device which takes some of the design influences of last year, and adds some of today’s most high end features…
We’ve read a lot about Google’s machine-learning projects over the past 12 months. Perhaps most intriguing was the Deepmind project which created works of art using neural networks. Or, perhaps a more accurate description is, that the DeepDream algorithm would turn existing pictures in to the stuff of nightmares. By distorting shapes in to animal heads and psychedelic patterns and colors, the finished product was almost terrifying.
As it turns out, Google put on an auction at a trendy San Francisco venue and sold some of its larger pieces for as much as $8,000.
For some people, having a regular model of a gadget isn’t enough. They have to get that one extra special model. In recent years, that has often meant coating a smartphone in previous metals or jewels (or both). This year, that could mean a 24K gold Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge from London-based Truly Exquisite…
Update: You can now order the BlackBerry PRIV from Verizon Wireless for $30.00 per month with $0 down, or pay the full $720 retail price.
According to several Verizon staff members commenting in CrackBerry‘s forums, the carrier is preparing for a retail launch next week. It has seemingly been confirmed that the device will go on sale on March 11, with pre-orders opening on March 3.
When Alcatel OneTouch (now just Alcatel) launched the 5.5-inch Idol 3 last year, I think it’s fair to say many of us tech reviewers were pleasantly surprised. For a device costing under $300 it had an array of high end features, including a crisp, colorful big screen, great stereo sound and fantastic battery life. Of course, it also helped that the software was clean and almost stock Android.
Now that Samsung, LG, Sony and Alcatel have announced their flagship phones for 2016, its competition won’t be far behind. HTC is expected to announce the One M10 soon and Huawei will unveil the P9. While new phones are exciting, perhaps even better news is that last year’s best phones are now available at lower prices, and they’re still great smartphones.
While last week’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge announcement will undoubtedly be the highlight of Samsung’s year, it seems the company is still showing interest in the tablet market. Evan Blass leaked a set of press renders for upcoming 2016 models of the Galaxy Tab A and Galaxy Tab E.
On the night Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an OSCAR (for his work in The Revenant), Samsung launched a celebrity-studded Galaxy S7 ad campaign featuring William H Macy and Lil Wayne among others. Titled ‘Why?’ the Galaxy ad highlights the features that make the new S-series smartphones special.
The ability to pay almost anywhere with Samsung Pay, take great low-light shots with the new camera as well as its waterproof nature, long battery life and VR support, all seemingly add up to a perfect smartphone for the featured celebrities’ wish lists.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCubGgMkms]
Compared to Samsung’s historically cringeworthy attacks on Apple’s smartphones, this one seems a lot more subtle and is — dare I say it — actually funny and entertaining. Not only does it portray Samsung not taking itself as seriously as in previous years, it also shows the well-known stars doing the same.
Unlike last year, Huawei’s presence at MWC in 2016 was slightly muted. At least it was for the Android fans among us. The company launched a 2-in-1 Windows tablet/laptop crossover and nothing Android or Chrome-based. But there’s good reason for the Chinese manufacturer’s lack of Google-powered products. If rumors are to be believed, Huawei is preparing to launch its next P-series smartphones at some point in the near future.
Earlier this week, Acer announced the all-new Liquid Jade 2. The new Android Marshmallow-powered smartphone features fairly high-end specs for what looks to be a mid-ranger.
As conferences go, MWC felt relatively subdued this year, at least from an Android perspective. Huawei decided to sit this year out and launch a Windows tablet, Sony had a quiet event and HTC just sent out a press release for its new Desire series. While press events weren’t jam-packed in to a crazy schedule, there was still some exciting and fun stuff happening in Barcelona this week.
