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Sony ‘Xperia PP10’ and ‘Smart Ear’ accessory leak before Sony event tomorrow

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Not more than a couple days after saying that his fans “criticized [themselves] out of any leaks for a while,” (in reference to hateful comments about the LG G5) Evan Blass is on fire once again. Now, he has shared images of a mysterious Sony “Xperia PP10” smartphone (he says that might not be its launch name), as well as Moto Hint-like accessory called the Sony Smart Ear…


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Opinion: Can the LG G5’s ‘modular’ features breathe new life into the smartphone market?

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When looking at the landscape of Android flagship smartphones, I rarely find it easy to pinpoint a single manufacturer that, in one way or another, has consistently been able to meaningfully innovate one year after the other. More often than not, the OEMs have a go at things that are then removed the following year, or that in some way fail to broadly introduce a proper trend, like for instance the first attempts at fingerprint sensors or stereoscopic cameras…


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LG sends out invites for its Mobile World Congress event on February 21st

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Mobile World Congress is still more than a month away, but that’s not keeping LG from sending out invitations to its upcoming press event in Barcelona. The company’s keynote is scheduled for February 21st, according to the invite, at 14:00 local time. Beyond that, though, there’s not much to learn here. The invite shows what looks to be a jack-in-the-box along with the slogan “Play begins.”…
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Security-focused Blackphone 2 now available for pre-order, shipping next month – but no price yet

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The security-focused Blackphone 2, announced at Mobile World Congress back in March, is now available for pre-order, shipping sometime next month. With the company now focused on bulk sales to enterprise rather than to consumers, the webpage doesn’t reveal pricing, which likely depends on volume. The existing model came in at $629.

While Android wouldn’t necessarily be the obvious starting point for a smartphone whose selling-point is privacy, the company says that the combination of its Android-based Silent OS and own-brand apps ensures that data is secured and communications are encrypted … 
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Huawei’s profits climb by a third to $46B, expects 20% revenue rise this year

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Huawei, the second largest telecoms manufacturer in the world, saw its profits rise 33% last year, reports Reuters.

Global revenue rose 21 percent from a year ago to 288.2 billion yuan ($46.51 billion) in 2014 for Huawei and is expected to jump another 20 percent this year, the Shenzhen-based company said.

The growth has been mostly driven by LTE expansion within China, its home market being responsible for the bulk of its sales.

The company announced an Android Wear smartwatch at Mobile World Congress earlier this month (where we got a hands-on). No pricing was given, though the company has denied suggestions that it would be as high as $1000.

Image credit: Forbes Conrad/Bloomberg

HTC One M9 shows up on B&H website for $649, available March 25th

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There’s definitely nothing completely conclusive about this, but the upcoming HTC One M9 flagship showed up on online retailer B&H’s website (via PhoneArena), sporting a price tag of $649 and an “available for purchase” date of Wednesday, March 25th. Since earlier this morning, both of these tidbits have been stripped from the page, and replaced with “Price not available yet” and “Coming soon” placeholders…
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LG G4 to be ‘radically different,’ phone more powerful than the G series in the works

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A couple reports out of Korea today highlight some of LG’s plans for the relatively near future, including a statement (via Korea Times) from the company’s mobile chief Cho Jun-ho suggesting that the upcoming LG G4 is going to be “radically different” than its predecessor. The device will reportedly feature a “metal-mixtured” body and sport the company’s LG UX 4.0, which Cho says will be announced sometime before the new phone.

Also, LG also reportedly has a completely new device series in the works (via Korea Herald), featuring more powerful specs than the current top-of-the-line G series…
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Androidify characters are back again in Google’s ‘Selfie Slam’ ad (Video)

Android: Selfie Slam - YouTube 2015-03-03 09-06-21

It’s only been a couple weeks since the last time Google shared an Androidify ad, but now the company is back this week with yet another basketball-themed advertisement. As we noted yesterday, Google has been heavily pushing the “Be together. Not the same.” mantra at Mobile World Congress, and now that continues with a quick and cute ad uploaded on the official day one (yesterday) of the conference.

Here’s the ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwSrL97kQSU

And here’s the last Androidify ad, also with a basketball theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5oxLdzdebI

Google pushing ‘Be together. Not the same.’ at MWC, shares ‘Young Together’ Android ad

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Google made its Mobile World Congress presence clearly known this morning in the form of a Sundar Pichai interview (which included some really interesting tidbits), but that’s not the extent of the company’s involvement this year. The Mountain View, California company is very much pushing its “Be together. Not the same.” mantra at MWC in many of ways (like they did at CES 2015 with the pins), and those Androidify characters are popping up left and right…


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This is the Huawei Watch, an extremely elegant and attractive Android Wear entry

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As was expected (thanks to an advertisement spotted in the Barcelona Airport), Huawei came out this year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain to announce its first entry into the Android Wear race: the Huawei Watch.

A first impression of the device might quickly lead you to believe that this is one of the most—if not the most—attractive Android Wear devices to launch, and based on what Huawei’s shown us, this thing might just be worthy of such a judgment…


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Sony announces Xperia Z4 tablet w/ 10.1-inch 2K display & mid-range Xperia M4 smartphone

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Sony this morning announced their latest entry into the tablet market with a super-slim device called the Xperia Z4 Tablet, as well as an update to the mid-range Xperia M smartphone series, the Xperia M4. The former claims to be the world’s slimmest 10-inch tablet, packs a 2K-resolution display, and has the Snapdragon 810 (the chip in many of this year’s flagship smartphones) built inside. The Xperia M4 is a “no compromises” smartphone that packs waterproofing with some decent spec bumps.


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Sundar Pichai talks MVNO, Android Pay, Project Titan, more at Mobile World Congress

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Google SVP Sundar Pichai sat down with Bloomberg’s Brad Stone at the Mobile World Congress today in Barcelona, Spain, and as happens often, he had some pretty interesting things to say. Among other topics, the Chrome and Android lead at Google talked about the company’s goals for improving the world’s Internet connectivity through various projects (including the company’s MVNO plans), Google’s further mobile payment ambitions with Android Pay, how Android will tie into virtual reality, and more…
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Samsung announces Galaxy S6 and S6 edge w/ new glass & metal designs, available April 10

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Samsung today has officially unveiled the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge at its event in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress. The devices feature a new design as well as all sorts of updated specifications under the hood. Gone is the classic all-plastic look and feel and in is a mixture of glass and metal.

Check out our hands-on and comparison video below:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8E4LrEKgkY]


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Alcatel’s Idol 3 series announced, great budget smartphones for 2015 (Video)

idol3Alcatel has just taken the wraps off of its new Idol 3 series of budget smartphones, as well as its Hero 2+ flagship. The Idol 3 series consists of two variants, one that comes in at 4.7-inches and another at 5.5-inches. The 4.7-inch Idol 3 is powered by a quad-core CPU clocked at 1.2GHz paired with Android 5.0 Lollipop and a 13MP rear-facing camera. The battery comes in at 2000mAh, while the screen packs a 1280×720 resolution.


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Watch Samsung’s Unpacked 2015 Galaxy S6 event here (Livestream)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVk3ZWrhHxc

Samsung is expected to unveil the 0ft-rumored Galaxy S6 in just a little bit during its 2015 Unpacked event at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The device has been the subject of speculation for months now, with the company expected to totally refresh the design of the phone with either an all-metal or all-glass deign. The Galaxy S6 is expected to also expected to come in an Edge variant, as well, with a display similar to that on the Galaxy Note Edge.

You can watch Samsung unveil it’s latest flagship from the comfort of your own home with the live stream above and stay tuned for continued coverage of Mobile World Congress.


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HTC One M9 announced in 4 colors, 20MP sapphire camera, more – available this month

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One of the worst-kept tech secrets in recent memory, the HTC One M9 was finally announced today on stage by CEO Peter Chou at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. None of the specs were much of a surprise though the 20 megapixel sapphire camera and new configurable DotView cover will make some headlines. Under the hood is Qualcom’s new flagship 810 processor which HTC calls the fastest mobile processor in the world.

As for the appearance, I’m not sure I’m a fan of the Dual-Tone finish tweeted below but that beats the Pink version of the M9 IMHO.

[tweet https://twitter.com/htc/status/572052425693138944]

Me? I’ll skip the Sense 7 and will take a GPE if/when it comes out thank you very much.

Huge gallery and hands-on video below. We’ll have more HTC updates as they happen.
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Latest sketchy image of Samsung Galaxy S6 – a claimed Sprint promo

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A pupported Sprint promo image for Samsung’s Galaxy S6, set to be revealed on Sunday evening, was posted to a Reddit thread. The main thread link is to a Sprint pre-registration page, but a claimed Sprint employee posted the above image.

The images appear in line with earlier claimed leaks, but it’s of course not uncommon for fake images to be based on earlier ones. As Gizmodo notes, there is also inconsistent use of upper/lower case for ‘Edge’ in the image, suggesting it should be viewed with some caution … 
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HTC teases ‘bigger boom’ for upcoming HTC One M9

HTC Ireland on Twitter: %22Get your hands on bigger boom #ComingSoon #6days #MWC15 https:::t.co:UTpE5tAY4E%22 2015-02-23 10-24-31

The teases keep rolling in as HTC, Samsung, and others compete for the spotlight this week going into the Mobile World Congress. We’ve already seen several HTC One M9 leaks from @upleaks, including the device’s purported specs and another today that revealed the device’s three color variations. Now the HTC Ireland Twitter account has come out with a video that looks to be teasing the device’s speakers.

Not long ago a system dump of the device revealed the apps that will be packed with HTC’s Sense 7, making it clear that software-wise, the next HTC One isn’t going to be much of a departure from its predecessor. The below tease tells us that we’re six days away from the announcement of the device, but a recent tweet from the Taiwanese company’s UK Twitter account originally revealed that the “new HTC One” will be announced March 1st.

HTC One M9 purportedly coming in both ‘Dark Gunmetal’ & ‘Gold’ color variants

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Purported HTC One M9 renders <a href="http://9to5google.com/2015/01/28/evleaks-htc-one-hima-render-m9/">via Evleaks</a>

The next HTC One is right around the corner, but more and more details continue to stream out as the device’s March 1st reveal date gets closer. Most recently, a system dump of the software shipping on the HTC One M9—codenamed “Hima”—leaked out, giving us an idea of what HTC’s Sense 7 software is going to look like (spoiler: not much different than Sense 6). Today, the same source of that information has come out to share the color variants of the device.


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