HTC confirms March 1 unveiling of its upcoming flagship

HTC UK confirmed in a Tweet that "the new HTC One", likely to be called the HTC One M9, will be unveiled on March 1st. The company has also started advertising the announcement on television during today's round of European Champions League games. Last month, HTC sent out invites for its MWC 2015 event scheduled for March 1 in Barcelona. However, it didn't say what exactly the event would focus on, even though it was fairly reasonable to expect that the Taiwanese company would unveil its next generation flagship. Rumored specs of HTC One M9 include 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC, 5" 1080p display, 20.7MP camera, and Android 5.0. You can take a look at an overview of the phone's rumored features over here. Source |...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_confirms_march_1_unveiling_of_its_upcoming_flagship-news-11230.php

BenQ F52 packs Snapdragon 810 SoC and Android 5.0

The Taiwanese manufacturer BenQ partnered up with Cheetah Mobile to unveil the F52 smartphone with Android 5.0 Lollipop. The handset will be on display during the upcoming MWC in Barcelona. BenQ F52 packs 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC with octa-core CPU. A 5.2" 1080p display, 13MP main camera, and 8MP front-facing snapper are also among the known specifications. The full list is yet to be known As you can see in the image above, the device's Android 5.0 Lollipop build will be heavily customized. Preloaded apps will include Clean Master, GP Security and GP Battery Doctor. Two more devices by BenQ will debut alongside the F52 - the B50 and B502. They are likely to be mid-range offerings. Source |...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/benq_f52_packs_snapdragon_810_soc_and_android_50-news-11231.php

Apple sets initial Watch orders at more than 5 million units

According to "people familiar with the matter", Apple has already placed orders to its Asian suppliers for 5 to 6 million units of its first smartwatch. And all of those are for the initial run, with the aforementioned suppliers expected to produce these units during the first quarter of this year, ahead of the Apple Watch's April launch. Such a big number of units ordered can only mean one thing: Apple is betting big on the Watch, and it's incredibly confident that it will succeed in the wearable space. If it manages to sell 5 to 6 million watches, even in a few months, Apple seems poised to battle it out with Samsung for the title of the company that sells the most smartwatches. For comparison's sake, consider that Pebble has only sold 1 million devices until December 31, 2014 - since its inception. And during all of last year, only around 720,000 Android Wear smartwatches were shipped. So if Apple hasn't overestimated demand for the Watch, then it seems certain that this product will make a big splash in the market. Half of its initial production run is going to be made up of the entry-level Apple Watch Sport offering, which will be the cheapest of the bunch, starting at $349. Around a third of the production output will consist of the midrange Apple Watch model, while orders for the premium Apple Watch Edition with its 18k gold casing should make up the rest. And then in the second quarter, we may see up to 1 million Apple Watch Edition units being made each month, apparently fueled by crazy demand for this version in China. The Apple Watch is being assembled by Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, which has started mass production of the wearable earlier this year, in order to be prepared for the April...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_sets_initial_watch_orders_at_more_than_5_million_units-news-11229.php

LG Nexus 5 spotted running Android 5.1 in a benchmark

Android 5.1 got an odd half official introduction a couple of weeks ago, when Google let slip that some new Android One handsets were running this version from day one. Today the software giant took its low-cost phone initiative to the Philippines, and sure enough the devices launched there run Android 5.1 too. Yet we still haven't seen even a short press release on the matter. Or any updates to Android 5.1 for the Nexus line. That's surprising, since the Nexus devices usually get such new Android versions first. Regardless, the good news is that Google seems to be testing Android 5.1 on at least one Nexus, namely the LG-made Nexus 5. One such phone was spotted at Geekbench running the absolute latest iteration of Android, as you can see from the screenshot above. So it's pretty clear that Android 5.1 will see a wider release, possibly starting with the Nexus smartphones and tablets. What's still a mystery is when to expect the updates to this version to start rolling out. As Android 5.1 is already up and running on the Android One platform, it's probably only a matter of weeks before we see it on the Nexus line. As for any other devices, how fast they get it will depend on the companies that made them and how quickly they move. Source | Via (in...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_nexus_5_spotted_running_android_51_in_a_benchmark-news-11228.php

Apple Pay may be having problems with China regulations

As most of you surely know Apple's own NFC-based payment system has been steadily expanding all throughout the US thanks to the enormous efforts of the Cupertino giant. And while the new system is still seeing a lot of distrust from major retailers Tim Cook continues to push the payment method even abroad. Deals have already been struck with major banks and payment gateways to bring the service to Canada and Europe, but Apple also has its sights set on the huge Chinese market. The US tech giant was hoping to achieve this formidable expansion through a partnership with UnionPay. However, MarketWatch now reports that negotiations between the two sides have been slow and unfruitful and that government regulations and security concerns may prevent Apple from reaching the final deal, initially planned for March 2015. Sources go on to speculate Apple is "struggling with its relationship with UnionPay" mostly because of the nature of the NFC chips inside Apple's products, which reportedly don't meet regulatory standards. The requirement that China-based data center handle requests from the country's mainland is also said to be a problem with the negotiations. Last year there was also a lot of talk about a possible partnership between Apple and China's own Alibaba. This was viewed as a potential path to introducing Apple Pay in China, through an integration with the company's own Alipay system. This however does not solve the problem as UnionPay controls the NFC payment system in the country so there is no going around the regulations. Alipay's mobile app does currently support authentication of payments with Apple Touch ID, but for now this is as close as the Cupertino company has...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_pay_may_be_having_problems_with_china_regulations-news-11227.php

Windows 10 for phones preview: First look

Microsoft officially announced Windows 10 last September but it took until the end of last month to get more details about it and finally get to try it. Number 9 was skipped and Microsoft is wants...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/windows_10_for_phones-review-1208.php