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Latest version of Android Wear being beta tested on the Huawei Watch

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Even when the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition launched in November, Google’s guidance for when current watches would be updated to the latest version of Android Wear was a vague in the “coming months“. This morning, one Huawei Watch user in a beta tester program received a test build of Wear 1.4 running Android 6.0.1.


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Huawei reports 35% revenue growth in 2015 following strong smartphone sales

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Following some very strong quarterly results, Huawei today revealed that 2015 was a resounding success. Although it was a little light on details, the company (as reported by WSJ) saw its full-year revenue for 2015 rise to 390 billion yuan (roughly $60.1 billion USD). That’s up more than 35% on the full calendar year previous…


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BlackBerry PRIV could be making its way to T-Mobile on January 26

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The BlackBerry PRIV has officially been on the market now for a couple of months, and is seen by many as the device which will make or break the Canadian smartphone-maker. While the first ever Android-powered BlackBerry has been available from AT&T and Verizon for a little while now, the US’ #3 carrier T-Mobile, is yet to start selling the device through its own official retail chains. That could all be about to change according to a leaked roadmap obtained by PhoneArena.

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The calendar details retail launches and events T-Mobile staff need to be aware of and prepare for. The January roadmap clearly indicates that employees should be preparing for a ‘BlackBerry Venice Launch’ on January 26.

Having dealt with leaks from T-Mobile like this a lot in the past, I can say it certainly looks like the genuine article, and there’s little to suggest it’s not legitimate. But with every leak comes the usual note of caution. Plans can — and often do — change. T-Mo has been known to change things up because of leaks, or because they’re simply not ready when they thought they would be.

With T-Mobile’s recent comments on BlackBerry, it’s clear the company has a lot of time for the former smartphone giant and plans to offer its products. Following a very public fallout, the two firms finally made up when the carrier officially started selling the BlackBerry Classic a few months back. Now it seems T-Mo is willing to offer more of the manufacturer’s wares on its store shelves.

 

5 Android smartphone makers to watch in 2016

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In 2015, the smartphone or, more specifically, the Android smartphone market reached tipping point. What you can get for your money now compared to 12 months ago is pretty astounding. It started with the sub $300 Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 in March, and ended with the $100 BLU phone equipped with a full HD screen. With 2016 almost here, we’re right in the thick of a race to the bottom, and the price drops are being driven primarily by Chinese companies.

If 2016 is the going to be the year of anything, it’ll be the year more western consumers will be handing over their hard-earned cash for something designed and made in China. These are the companies to watch:


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Review: Dell Chromebook 13 (2015) is probably the best Chromebook around, but it’s not cheap [Video]

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Looking at the Chromebook market, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s just the modern iteration of the netbook age. Small, cheap, underpowered plastic laptops that offer very little to anyone wanting a higher-end experience in a portable and affordable package. Dell changed that with the Chromebook 13. Now you can get a premium Chrome OS laptop without spending silly money on a Pixel. The Dell Chromebook 13 starts at $429 for the base model, and climbs to $899 for the top-tier. In the UK, it ranges from £484 to £856


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LG adds funky-looking hub to its SmartThinQ home automation system

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As home automation devices proliferate, most tech companies seem to have decided that wirelessly connecting them up to a central hub is the best way to enable us to keep them all under control. Apple’s HomeKit platform uses the Apple TV as its central box, and Samsung has its SmartThings Hub.

LG is now following suit, pre-announcing the SmartThinQ Hub it plans to formally launch at CES. Interestingly, the device – which looks similar to the Amazon Echo – has a built-in display, which the company says can display alerts as well as allow direct control of devices without using your smartphone.

LG SmartThinQ Hub serves as a gateway to smart sensors and connected appliances in the home but is more than that, with the ability to display reminders from personal calendars and stream music from its built-in speaker. The elegantly designed SmartThinQ Hub includes a 3.5-inch color LCD display and connects to a smartphone app to facilitate two way communication with smart appliances and smart sensors in the home.

LG also offers SmartThinQ sensors, which aim to turn dumb appliances into smart ones by using things like vibration to allow a washing-machine to signal when a wash is complete.

The company hasn’t yet announced a price, but Samsung’s SmartThings Hub costs $99, so is likely to be in the same kind of range.

Play an augmented reality game on your Android Wear watch with Tilt

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Virtual reality is cool, but augmented reality is more practical in day-to-day usage. Microsoft’s HoloLens and Magic Leap are currently the most well-known examples of AR. There are productivity use cases for it, but there are also many fun gaming applications. One developer made an app that turns an Android Wear watch when viewed through a camera into a game.


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9to5Toys Lunch Break: Galaxy Tab A $150, Sharp 55″ 4K UHDTV $600, Nexus 6 $300, more

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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: TwitterRSS FeedFacebookGoogle+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:
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Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7-Inch Tablet (16 GB): $150 shipped (Reg. $300) | eBay

Daily Deals: Sharp AQUOS 55-inch Smart 4K Ultra HDTV $600, Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse $79more

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New Google Nexus 6 64GB by Motorola: $300 shipped (Reg. $600) | Amazon

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Refurbished Samsung Gear Fit Watch: $50 shipped (Reg. $100) | eBay

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Samsung 850 EVO 2.5-inch Internal Solid-State Drives: 250GB $65 (Reg. $90), 500GB $140 (Reg. $150+)

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Write-Off Week™: Last chance to write off biz expenses w/ best deals on office equipment, tech, supplies, more
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Starbucks $15 gift card for $10: save 30% on your favorite drinks!

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

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HP Officejet Pro 8610 e-All-in-One Inkjet Printer w/ AirPrint $50 shipped (Reg. $100)

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

 

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Macbook Air 11.6″ Core i5 4GB/128GB w/.edu: $700 shipped ($750 without .edu or less)

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

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Thimble’s DIY robot subscription service launches on Kickstarter to great success

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Here are the Holiday Best Sellers from Amazon’s record-breaking year

Hitachi’s new tech could double your smartphone’s battery capacity without increasing size

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Hitachi Maxell has developed a new lithium-ion battery which could increase a portable product’s capacity without increasing its battery’s thickness. In fact, it has twice the capacity of its current technology, thanks to a newly developed silicon-based material used as the battery’s negative electrode.

The new technology, named ULSiON, uses a composite material made by coating the surface of its Silicon-based layer with carbon. Although typical silicon-based negative electrode layers tend to expand and contract, causing swollen batteries, the new technology reduces that risk significantly by using fine silicon particles.

Using the ULSiON technology, Hitachi will be able to make batteries that are really small, but don’t sacrifice capacity.

“(By using the new material,) we will realize compact lithium-ion batteries that have a width of 13mm or less and an energy density twice as high as that of the existing product of the same size,” the company said.

In practice, this could mean smartphone makers can continue to make slim devices with small, but powerful batteries. Perhaps more importantly, the ability to make small batteries with high capacity is ideal for the rising demand for wearable technology. Smartwatches with 2-day battery life could potentially be much smaller and thinner. Or even better, smartwatches could retain their current thickness and have 4-5 day battery life.

Hitachi expects that the ULSiON-based Li-on batteries will be used in compact devices, like wearables. It also expects demand for this technology to be in high since space is a premium, but long battery life is ideal, and current batteries don’t quite cut it.

Hitachi Maxell will show off its new battery tech at the 2nd Wearable Expo in Tokyo between January 13-15.

Samsung Galaxy S7 dimensions seemingly revealed in new schematics leak

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Yesterday, a report stated Samsung would look to make the regular and ‘Edge’ versions of the Galaxy S7 in two different sizes. While the Galaxy S7 would features a 5.2-inch screen, it’s reported that the S7 Edge will have a larger 5.5-inch display with curved secondary screens on either side of the screen. A leaked schematic — created by Shai Mizrachi and published afterwards by Android Authority — reveals a little more detail, and shows the size differences more clearly.

In the leak, the S7 and S7 Edge are shown alongside the current Galaxy S6 and, perhaps of most interest, is that the S7 has the same dimensions as the S6, despite having a larger screen. This would indicate that Samsung has worked a little on trimming down the bezel further. It’s also interesting to note, the S7 appears to have curves near the edges on the back, similar to the Galaxy Note 5, presumably to make it more comfortable to hold.

As for the difference between S7 and S7 Edge dimensions, the schematic indicates we’ll see a 2.5mm difference in width and 8mm difference in height.

There are a couple of other tidbits worth noting. Firstly, the metal frame shown in the top-down view suggests Sammy is changing the design somewhat. The S7, as previously mentioned, has bigger curves on the back, while the S7 Edge has them on the front. What’s more, the camera protrusion appears much smaller on the upcoming models, while the IR blaster seems to have been removed completely.

Otherwise, it’s very much the same from Samsung. As previously rumored, the design doesn’t look as though it’ll change much from this year’s form factor.

 

PSA: Google’s ‘Ubiquity’ Internet of Things dev summit will take place in January

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The Internet of Things will become an increasingly big deal as all consumer technology becomes connected to the web, and by extension one another. Google has several technologies including Brillo and Weave that take advantage of this ubiquitous computing trend. Announced at Google I/O earlier this year, Google is hosting a developer summit for developers focused around those topics. They announced the speaker list and opened registration today.


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9to5Toys Lunch Break: Google Nexus 6 (64GB) $300, refurb Samsung Gear Fit $50, more

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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: TwitterRSS FeedFacebookGoogle+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

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New Google Nexus 6 64GB by Motorola: $300 shipped (Reg. $600) | Amazon

Samsung-Gear-Fit

Refurbished Samsung Gear Fit Watch: $50 shipped (Reg. $100) | eBay

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Beats Headphones: Solo2 On-Ear $100 (Reg. $200), Powerbeats2 In-Ear $85 (Reg. $150)

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Write-Off Week™: Last chance to write off biz expenses w/ best deals on office equipment, tech, supplies, more

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iTunes is hosting a rare sale on HD movies, including $5 titles + heavily discounted bundles

Hundreds of iOS/Mac games & apps are on sale for the holidays, these are the best ones you can’t afford to miss

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Starbucks $15 gift card for $10: save 30% on your favorite drinks!

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

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Macbook Air 11.6″ Core i5 4GB/128GB w/.edu: $750 shipped ($250 off, $700 without .edu or less)

Apple 12-inch MacBook w/ Retina display 1.2GHz/8GB/512GB: $1,440 shipped (Reg. $1,599)

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

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Google Chromecast v1: $20 shipped (Orig. $35)

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

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ShiftWear sneakers use flexible displays to showcase custom artwork on your shoes

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The new iOS-connected Hamwells e-Shower recycles your water with eyes on saving energy

This is Google Glass: Enterprise Edition in the flesh [Gallery]

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Earlier this year, we told you across several exclusive reports that new Google Glass hardware was on the way, namely a device Google has been working on for more than a year aimed at the workplace. Now, several months later (and with many interesting reports about Google’s mysterious Project Aura having surfaced since), we have our first look at the device in the flesh…


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Google search data shows what people in each state searched for most in 2015

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The Google searches people make can reveal a great deal about their interests and concerns. When that data is aggregated, it can reveal general trends in society. For a long time, Google used such trend data to monitor for flu outbreaks for instance. Estately, a real estate blog, mined Google Trends to reveal what terms people in each state search for the most this year.
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Android’s Do Not Disturb ‘until next alarm’ option has randomly disappeared

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When Google released Android 6.0 Marshmallow, it removed one of the most useful Do Not Disturb features, and that was the ‘until next alarm’ option. For those unfamiliar, it allows you to turn off all notifications until your morning alarm goes off and saves you being woken up at a ridiculous time. With 6.0.1, the feature returned, but recently it seems to have vanished again.

A thread on Reddit deals with the issue and claims that even users who aren’t running Android Marshmallow have experienced it. Some claim to have seen it disappear from the options while looking at them. I’ve tried to set Do Not Disturb myself, and like the complainants, I don’t see the ‘until next alarm’ option anymore.

Thankfully, there is a sort-of fix: change your phone’s date to before or after the holidays. If, for instance, you change your phone’s date to January 1st 2016, it seems to reappear, suggesting this is a really weird bug, or Google was trying to make sure you spent less time looking at your phone during the holiday period. You’ll get the same result if you change your phone’s date to before December 25th, according to Android Police.

If you don’t want to mess with your phone’s date, the option should return automatically in the new year, once the phone’s date changes to January 1st on its own.

Letv expanding in to India with powerful, Quad HD Le Max phablet

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We’ve seen a huge rise in the number of affordable smartphones come to market with premium design and specifications over the past 12-18 months. It’s no coincidence that this has lead to a rise in the number of relatively unknown Chinese manufacturers push out of their national borders to sell their branded products overseas. Companies like Huawei, OnePlus and Xiaomi have all launched competitive smartphones at budget-friendly prices. Following in their trail is Letv, a company which has just announced its intention to launch a high-end smartphone in India for the first time.


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Unreleased Oppo A35 passes through TENAA certification, features octa-core chip, 5-inch screen, metal body, more

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With Samsung having launched its Galaxy A-series phones for 2016 and BLU launching the first sub-$100 1080p smartphone at the end of this year, it looks as though the trend of releasing premium-looking smartphones at affordable prices is set to continue in to 2016. One company known for releasing great, affordable smartphones is Oppo, and the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is about to launch its next small, powerful and budget-friendly smartphone…


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HTC One X9 officially announced, features all-metal body, full HD 5.5-inch display, 3000mAh battery, more

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HTC has finally launched the long-rumored One X9 in China, and it boasts some pretty decent specs in a package which costs 2399 Yuan, or roughly $370 USD when converted. There’s very little revealed about the device that we didn’t already know, and we’re unsure if/when the phone will be launched in the US or other international markets.

Like the One A9, the latest smartphone from HTC features an all-metal body, but with a separate pill-shaped panel housing the camera on the back. The manufacturer claims it takes over 300 hours of work and more than 50 individual processes to make the unibody metal chassis. The company is  also keen to boast the return of capacitive buttons on the front panel, which avoids the virtual buttons onscreen taking up valuable display real estate.

Other key specifications include:

  • 5.5-inch full HD display
  • Front facing stereo BoomSound speakers
  • 64-bit MediaTek octa-core Helio X10 processor
  • 3GB RAM
  • 32GB storage (expandable to 2TB via MicroSD)
  • 13MP rear camera with OIS
  • 5MP front camera
  • 3000mAh battery
  • Bluetooth 4.1
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
  • Dimensions: 153.9 x 75.9 x 7.99 mm
  • Weight: 170 grams (approx)

The HTC One X9 was leaked a number of times prior to today’s launch. Most recently, it showed up in a hands-on video and in a TENAA listing. Most of the details shown off in those, and in a more detailed pre-release overview, gave us a good idea of what to expect from the newly announced mid-tier phablet.

With the One X9 and One A9 both featuring premium all-metal build, and being obvious mid-tier devices, it’s clear HTC is moving away from its insistence on releasing plastic devices in the mid-range market. Whether or not this means the death of the Desire range is yet to be seen. It seems an obvious move given the rise of cheaper metal alternatives from manufacturers like Huawei, Xiaomi and BLU.