Counterclockwise: Jolla, Nokia N1, Nexus and HTC One GPE

The end of the year is coming and we've seen pretty much all devices that will be unveiled this year. Let's go back in time with Counterclockwise, our (almost) weekly trip back memory lane, and see what announcements late November has seen over the years. Symbian stays, so does Maemo Back in November 2009 there was some concern about the fate of the...

Sprint offers the Galaxy S5 and iPhone 6 for $5/month

In an attempt to keep existing customers from switching to a rival carrier, Sprint is launching a Loyalty program with quite a few perks. The most notable of them is a large discount of the Samsung Galaxy S5 or iPhone 6 16GB. Now, they're offered for $5/month without down payment, while previously Sprint offered each for $20/month over the course...

Jolla celebrates tablet's success with price cut for its phone

Just a couple of days ago, Jolla announced its first ever tablet - with a crowdfunding campaign attached. The goal was to raise $380,000, but response from the public has been great. And now the $1 million mark has already been crossed, with many days still remaining in the campaign. To show its fans how happy it is with this outcome, Jolla thought...

OnePlus One India launch teaser campaign starts

The OnePlus One is going to enter India pretty soon. We've known for a while now that this would eventually happen, with the Chinese smartphone maker startup having apparently seen a lot of interest from the subcontinent. OnePlus has posted a contest to its forums, and the 100 winners of that will get the first ever India-specific invites for the...

Huawei Ascend Mate 2 will receive Lollipop next year

The Huawei Ascend Mate 2 has been sold by Huawei in the US in unlocked form since June. A while ago, the Chinese company announced that the phablet would not be updated to future Android versions, which created a backlash in the online community. Now it seems that Huawei took the negative feedback it received into account, and has changed its mind,...

Apple iPad mini 3 review: A touch of gold

The iPad Air 2 may have stolen all the spotlight, but that's not because of poor marketing planning. Apple did little to change the third generation of the iPad mini so it got little stage time. But it's not our job to decide which product gets the most fanfare...Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_ipad_mini_3-review-1169.p...

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 gets a stability-oriented update

Following a firmware update focused on improving battery life, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 owners are now treated with another one targeting performance and stability. Users in Germany and Greece are reporting their smartphones are prompted to install the latest Galaxy Note 4 firmware with build number N910FXXU1ANK4, which weighs 137MB. The update is built...

Xiaomi to relaunch Redmi Note in India next month

Xiaomi has started teasing its next India sale of its phablet, the Redmi Note, via Mi India's facebook page, and will reportedly start selling the device on December 2. The company has also started a contest on Facebook, giving people a chance to win a Redmi Note. To participate in the contest, which runs till Nov 21st, 9PM, all you have to do is...

Lollipop update for HTC One and One (M8) GPE delayed again

The Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the HTC One GPE and One (M8) GPE was supposed to arrive today, but according to the VP of Product Management at HTC there has been another delay. Mo Versi says Google has requested another software version, so there's more work to be done. Mo has promised to let people know when HTC gets the OK from Google. There's...

HTC Desire Eye and Desire 820 start selling in the USA SIM-free

The HTC Desire Eye and Desire 820 are now available for purchase in the USA. Expansys USA is offering to phones for $519.99 and $359.99, respectively. The Desire Eye is available in Corral Red and Blue, while the Desire 820 is listed in Milky-way Gray and Santorini White. NewEgg is also selling the Desire 820 for $377.90. Up until now, the Desire...

Motorola offers optional extended warranty for Nexus 6

Motorola is offering extended warranty package for Nexus 6. Priced at $129.99, Moto Care protects the Android 5.0 Lollipop phablet from accidental damage for a period of two years. Users can purchase Moto Care for the Nexus 6 within 30 days of buying the device. Curiously, the offer is valid only for handsets purchased from Motorola's online store....

European pre-orders of Honor 3C by Huawei kick off

The budget-friendly Honor 3C by Huawei is now available to pre-order in Europe. The dual-SIM smartphone is priced at £109.99 (about $170).The handset will begin shipping to customers this coming Monday, on November 24. Specifications of Honor 3C by Huawei include 5" 720p display, HiSilicon Kirin 910 chipset, and heavily customized Android 4.2. An...

Sprint's Samsung Galaxy S5 finally receives Android 4.4.4

More than two months later than T-Mobile's version, Sprint's Samsung Galaxy S5 is now finally in the process of getting updated to Android 4.4.4 KitKat. This is the last version of the OS bearing that name, so we assume the next new software Sprint's S5 will get will be Android 5.0 Lollipop. The Android 4.4.4 update is currently rolling out in batches,...

Xiaomi wants to be world No.1 in smartphones in 10 years

Xiaomi has had an amazing run so far. The company, founded in April 2010, launched its first smartphone in August 2011. And around three years later, it became the world's No.3 smartphone maker by sales volumes. And it achieved this despite only selling its wares in a handful of Asian countries. That context is necessary to understand why Xiaomi CEO...

Sprint lowers Nexus 6 price, refunds those who paid more

Sprint started selling the Motorola Nexus 6 last week, but for some reason its price was higher than that asked by AT&T for the exact same device. While AT&T has been charging $249.99 for the handset when bought with a new two-year contract, for the same thing Sprint used to want $299.99. Starting yesterday, however, that has been lowered...

HTC Desire 820s hits 1.26 million pre-registrations in China

News outlet Focus Taiwan reports HTC China has has boasted 1.26 million per-registrations for the Desire 820s. In fact, HTC China says registrations keep piling up at a steady pace. While a pre-order signup doesn't guarantee a purchase since they're cost-free, it's impressive that the device is getting this much attention in a such competitive market....

Samsung Galaxy S5 Plus is now on sale in Europe

Samsung Galaxy S5 Plus was unveiled a month ago without much fanfare. It's an updated version of the Galaxy S5 flagship that keeps everything the same but promotes the chipset to Snapdragon 805. The new chip offers better quad-core Krait 450 processor and new generation GPU - Adreno 420. The Samsung Galaxy S5 Plus also comes with faster LTE connectivity....

Corning unveils new, tougher Gorilla Glass 4

Corning has unveiled the sequel to its popular Gorilla Glass. Version 4 is better at falling - it survives 80% of drops from 1m (3.3ft) on a rough surface meant to emulate the jaggedy surfaces encountered in daily use. Corning claims Gorilla Glass 4 is twice as tough as unnamed competing products. The product information sheet (PDF) compares the new...

Tizen OS 2.3 screenshots reaveal a fresh new look

New screenshots of Samsung's Tizen 2.3 have surfaced, courtesy of Tizen Indonesia. The latest version of Tizen OS looks a lot more colorful than before with updated icons. Samsung has also used bold color choices throughout the user interface. Unsurprisingly, blue is still the main color of choice, but in addition there's also a lot of extra throughout...

WSJ: why Apple's iPhone sapphire plans fell through

Did you know that Apple uses one fourth of the world's supply of sapphire, just to protect the cameras and fingerprint readers of its iPhones? This statistic gives you some insight in how monumental the task of covering the new large screens would have been. That's not even half of it though - a Wall Street Journal article reveals that GT Advanced...

HTC rolls out Eye Experience suite in India for the One (M8)

Following the Eye Experience update rollout in the US and Europe, HTC has started slowly seeding the update in Asia as well. We get reports from India that the Eye Experience software update weighs under 300MB and bumps the firmware version to 3.35.720.1. The HTC Eye Experience package enhances Android 4.4.4 KitKat and focuses on improving the camera...

Apple drops the "FREE" button of App Store apps and games

Apple dropped the "free" moniker from the apps and games in the App Store. Effective immediately, the "FREE" button on the apps and games that don't require payment will make way to a "GET" replacement. The move acknowledges the in-app purchases that many of the free apps and games often contain. Of course, the button applies to the content that is...

Nexus 9 LTE will arrive on T-Mobile in the US in early December

T-Mobile announced that it will begin offering the LTE-capable HTC Nexus 9 in early December. The 64-bit Tegra K1-packing slate will be available with $0 down and 24 monthly payments of $24.99. Outright pricing of the LTE Nexus 9 is not mentioned, though a quick calculation of the monthly installments reveals that the Big Magenta will be asking $600...

Samsung will make a foldable smartphone display in 2015

Flexible displays are slowly but surely making their way into our lives - and mobile devices. The first step has been represented by panels bent during the production process, like those in the LG G Flex, Samsung Galaxy Round, and Galaxy Note Edge. The next step, however, will be represented by displays that can be "folded in half", according to a...

Android One phones will run Lollipop by end of January

This year Google launched the Android One initiative, which has so far been comprised of three smartphones: the Micromax Canvas A1, the Karbonn Sparkle V, and the Spice Dream Uno. These all have the exact same innards, which were specified by Google, and their unique selling point is supposed to be the fact that Google itself will handle OS updates....

Lollipop update for Samsung Galaxy Note 3 showcased too

Earlier we showed you the first leaked screenshots depicting what the Android 5.0 Lollipop update would look like on the HTC One (M8), and now it's Samsung's turn. From the Korean smartphone maker we've already had leaks showing us not one, but two builds of Lollipop for the Galaxy S5. This time, though, we're focusing on the Galaxy Note 3. This device...

Nokia Lumia 830 review: Shining bright

Nokia Lumia 830 is probably the last smartphone to wear the iconic Nokia logo, five letters with so much history behind. And while it might not be a model as iconic as the original 808 PureView or the Lumia 1020, the Nokia Lumia 830 is destined to go down...Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_830-review-1168.p...

Lollipop with Sense 6 for the HTC One (M8) gets pictured

HTC is due to upgrade the One Google Play Edition smartphones to Android 5.0 Lollipop this week - on Friday, the latest news claims. But what about the HTC Sense-infused version of the One (M8)? We already know the Taiwanese company will bring it the latest Android version by early February, yet if you've been wondering what that would look like,...

Display Mate crowns Galaxy Note 4 display Best of the Best

A couple of months ago Display Mate proclaimed the Apple iPhone 6 display as the "best-performing LCD", it has done more testing and now the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 earns the "best of the best" title. As part of a shootout it went up against the iPhone 6 Plus and four tablets, including the Super AMOLED-packing Galaxy Tab S and the iPad Air 2. Display...

Front panel of unknown WP smartphone leaks, is it the 1030?

The latest leak coming from China shows off a mysterious front panel of what appears to be a yet unannounced Windows Phone device. According to the source, the panel measures around 5" and could be meant as the front of the latest flagship to have the Windows Phone moniker on it. Could it be the Lumia 940 or perhaps a Lumia 1030? Panel of unknown...

Motorola Nexus 6 hits Germany with a base price of €599

The Motorola Nexus 6 retail expansion continues in Europe and the latest country where the phone starts selling is Germany. There, pre-orders of the device are now available at Media Markt and Amazon Germany. The 32GB version of the phone sales for €599 and is available only in Midnight Blue at Media Markt, while Amazon offers both color versions...

HTC One (M8) and One (M7) GPE to get Lollipop this Friday

Last week, HTC promised the Android 5.0. Lollipop update for the Google Play Edition One (M8) and One (M7) would be coming early this week. Sadly, due to delays and unforeseen bugs, the update launch date has been pushed to this Friday. Mo Versi, HTC's VP of Product Management, has responded on Twitter answering questions regarding the latest Lollipop...

Meizu MX4 Pro is official with Samsung Exynos 5430 chipset

At a dedicated launch party in China today, Meizu officially revealed the MX4 Pro. The phone is built around a 5.5" Sharp-made display boasting 2560 x 1536 pixel resolution. It features very narrow bezels, measuring just 2.8mm wide and boasts a pixel density of 542ppi. Under the hood of the Meizu MX4 Pro operates a Samsung Exynos 5430 chipset with...

Jolla announces Tablet, starts a crowd-funding campaign for it

Jolla is also looking to make a tablet following Nokia's announcement yesterday. It's not a ready product though - Jolla is proud that it's "powered by people," which includes an IndieGoGo campaign. The campaign started today and is already 68% to its $380,000 goal (at the time of writing). The Jolla Tablet is priced at $200 and with a $10 discount...

Microsoft Lumia 535 on pre-order in Germany for €120

The Microsoft Lumia 535 is the first post-Nokia brand phone and it's available for pre-order in Germany. The 535 is a 5" version of the entry-level Lumia 530 with some additional improvements. There's no LTE despite what final 5 digit suggests, but a 5" IPS screen with qHD resolution (220ppi) and Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It's powered by the same...

Next iPhone to allegedly have a two-lens camera system

The next iPhone camera is going to be a doozy. According to John Gruber, Apple is working on a dual lens camera system for the rear camera of the next iPhone, which he heard "from a birdie of a birdie". "The specific thing I heard is that next years camera might be the biggest camera jump ever. I don't even know what sense this makes, but I've heard...

More than 50 million Lumia devices have been activated to date

Microsoft revealed that there are more than 50 million Lumia devices activated to date. The Redmond-based tech giant revealed the stat during a press event in Germany. The number includes all Windows Phone products since the inception of the Lumia product range as part of Nokia's portfolio of devices in 2011. There is no word on how many Lumia devices...

Apple Watch display resolution revealed in WatchKit SDK

Apple released the highly anticipated WatchKit SDK to developers. The Apple Watch app development suite is available alongside iOS 8.2 Beta to registered app creators. As expected, WatchKit reveals quite a few juicy bits about the upcoming Apple Watch, headed by its display resolution. As it turns out, the duo of 38mm and 42mm Apple wearables will...

Micromax unveils Yu brand powered by CyanogenMod

Today in India, Micromax has launched a new smartphone brand: Yu. The devices that will be sold under this name will be offered online only, emulating Xiaomi's business model. The Yu phones will run Android, but their software will come from Cyanogen, Inc., the company behind the preinstalled ROM for the OnePlus One (and the Oppo N1 CyanogenMod Edition...

Nokia is licensing its brand to Foxconn for the N1 tablet

Earlier today Nokia (the 'old' Nokia, the part that wasn't sold to Microsoft) announced its first ever Android tablet, the N1. As it turns out, however, that product will be made by Foxconn, and Nokia is merely licensing its name to be used here. We should apparently expect more such deals in the future, but there's a twist. Unlike Polaroid or Kodak,...

Nexus 6 pre-orders start in the UK, shipping by December 1

The Motorola Nexus 6 has gone up for pre-order in the UK today, weeks after the same happened in the US. The 6-inch phablet is thus firmly on its way to Europe. You can pre-order the handset from a few different places, and the earliest "ship by" date says December 1 - so you're probably not going to be playing with your brand new Nexus 6 in November....

HTC One (M8) for Windows comes to T-Mobile USA tomorrow

The HTC One (M8) for Windows is going to be available to T-Mobile USA customers starting on November 19 - tomorrow. The information was confirmed by the carrier itself over on Twitter when answering a customer question. So far the HTC One (M8) for Windows was available for AT&T after originally launching on Verizon. Initially T-Mobile was supposed...

Microsoft accepts Opera Mobile Store as default for Nokia phones

Microsoft and Opera have signed a contract, which will make the Opera Mobile Store the default app store for Nokia feature phones, those running Symbian as well as Nokia X devices. The change will happen in the beginning of 2015 and people who are still using Series 40, Series 60, Symbian, Asha and Nokia X devices will be redirected from the Nokia...

Nokia N1 already handled, photos inside

The Nokia N1 is still very much fresh out of the oven and while we still recover from the surprise move by Nokia, which we thought would not be making or branding mobile devices for quite some time ahead, the first Nokia N1 hands-on has surfaced in China. The slate looks great on product images but it certainly doesn't lose its appeal on the live...

Samsung plans to cut phone portfolio by 30% in 2015

Samsung head of investor relations, Robert Yi, has revealed during a presentation in New York that the company plans to cut the number of smartphone models it produces by 25% to 30% in 2015. With this step, Samsung hopes to fight the falling profits that were recorded in the last financial quarter. Naturally, Samsung investors aren't happy with the...

Nokia launches N1 Android Tablet running Lollipop

In a rather surprising move, Nokia has launched a new Android tablet. Called the Nokia N1, the device is 7.9-inch tablet running Android 5.0 Lollipop and Nokia Z Launcher on top. Here are the complete specs of the device: 7.9-inch, 2048x1536 (4:3) IPS LCD with Gorilla Glass 3 and fully laminated zero air gap display 64-bit 2.3GHz Intel Atom Z3580...

Intel will merge its mobile computing and PC businesses

Intel will merge its smartphone and tablet operations with its PC division. Combining the two businesses will complete in early 2015 and aims to make the tech giant's operations more efficient in today's dynamic marketplace. The chip maker has been losing money in its efforts to break into the smartphone and tablet realm, which is dominated by Qualcomm....

Samsung and Apple reach a chip manufacturing agreement

Apple and Samsung have reached a chip manufacturing agreement. Worth billions of dollars, the deal will make Samsung the primary supplier of application processors for Apple from 2016 onwards. The deal will see the Korean giant manufacture 80% of the application processors needed by Apple. The remainder of the production will be handled by the Taiwan-based...

More details about Tizen-based Samsung SM-Z130H leak

Samsung is working on a low-end smartphone running Tizen, which it will launch in India at some point in the future. The device, known so far just by its model number (SM-Z130H), is actually codenamed Kiran, internally at Samsung. After the canceled Samsung Z project, the Korean company has focused on the low-end of the marketplace for its Tizen-based...

iOS 8.1.1 now rolling out, has fixes for iPhone 4s and iPad 2

Apple has just started pushing out the update to iOS 8.1.1 to all supported devices. Every Apple device that supports iOS 8 and iOS 8.1 will get the iOS 8.1.1 update. Depending on the model of the product you're applying it to, the size will vary - but it will be around 64MB. According to Apple, the update "includes bug fixes, increased stability...