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The Oppo Find 9  is currently  rumored  to be made official sometime in H1 this year. Inline with that, a new rumor out of the company's home country of China is suggesting that the unveiling will take place in March. rumor back in November had said exactly that. Aside from the unveiling month, the new rumor also  confirms  several of the phone's key specs, including two different variants powered by Snapdragon 835 and 653 SoC with 6GB/128GB and 4GB/64GB memory configuration, respectively. The Find 9 is said to sport a 5.5-inch QHD display, 21MP/16MP camera combo, a large 4,100mAh battery, and offer support for new VOOC flash charging. It's starting price is said to be RMB 3,999 (around $580).

Verizon has started pushing out new updates to several phones on its network - the list includes  the Samsung Galaxy S5 ,  Note 4 , and  Note Edge , as well as  the LG G4 . The updates bring Android security fixes for January. No other changes are included - at least that's what the respective software update pages on Verizon's website say. As is usually the case with OTA roll outs, it may take some time before the update notification pops up on your device's screen.

If you are in the market for a microSD card, you'll be glad to know that the 256GB SanDisk Ultra UHS-I microSDXC memory card is currently going for $119.95. Online retailer Amazon has the card listed on its website at that price, down from the $179.95 tag it usually carriers there. The deal reportedly ends January 31, so those planning to avail need to act fast.

The latest bit of online gossip by the popular leakster Roland Quandt has it that MobiCom-Debitel is looking to form long-term partnership with HMD Global, bringing the  Nokia 6  to Germany in the forthcoming months. It will be following the Nokia 150 featurephone that is already available on the German market. Nokia 6 is still available exclusively in China with over 1.4 million registrations. There was also a rumor about a white Nokia 6 but  HMD Global denied such information  and assured the device is currently only officially sold in only one country and a single color. There’s no official confirmation yet from Mobilcom-Debitel, but we'll be keeping an ear on the ground.

Samsung SDI will provide  the batteries for the Galaxy S8  and a new report suggests they will have larger capacities than the S7 batteries. The  Galaxy S8  will have a 3,250mAh battery and the  Galaxy S8 Plus  a 3,750mAh one according to the report. That’s up from S7’s 3,000mAh and S7 edge’s 3,600mAh battery. Those batteries will have to feed larger screens - 5.8” and 6.2” according to the latest info - though the Snapdragon 835 is reportedly more battery efficient than the 820 chipset it replaces. The rumor mill expects the Galaxy S8 duo to go on sale  on April 21  for €800 and €900 respectively.

Oppo has launched yet another selfie-focused smartphone in India, this time it's the  A57 . The A57 has a 16 megapixel camera at the front with f2.0 aperture and Oppo's Beautify 4.0 software for visual enhancements. Other features include palm shutter that takes takes a picture after you hold your hand in front of the camera and a bokeh effect for blurring the background. Apart from that the A57 has a 13 megapixel rear camera with f2.2 aperture, 5.2-inch 720p IPS LCD, Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB expandable storage, 2900mAh battery, and Android 6.0 with ColorOS 3.0. The phone is priced at INR 14,990 ($220) and will go on sale on February 3.

The Moto Mods platform that Lenovo introduced alongside the Moto Z line is certainly an intriguing concept. But like most proprietary tech solutions, it can only ever be as good as its third-party support. In an effort to address this, the Chinese OEM is currently holding the "Transform the Smartphone Challenge" along with IndieGoGo to source and crowd-fund interesting new Moto Mods. "The Ultimate Moto Z Mod" is one of the entries in the contest and it definitely looks promising. In its current state it is little more than a wireless charging coil, that plugs into the phones USB port and happens to be shaped to fit as a magnetic back plate. In fact, at only 3mm, it is only a bit thicker than Moto's own Style backs and those don't offer any additional functionality. When complete, the Ultimate Moto Z Mod promises to do away with the cable and incorporate the proper Moto Z pogo pins. Also, an improved version is coming to add an IR blaster to the handset. In...

With leaks poring in from an astounding number of industry sources, it is not uncommon to get glimpses of upcoming devices really early in their development cycle. However, few actually manage to linger in the rumor mill for almost a whole year, like the  Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 . Most sources seem to agree that the delay was somehow related to the unfortunate  Galaxy Note7  saga. But now that is finally put to rest and the Tab S3 appears closer to a release than ever. The device already received its  Wi-Fi certification , as well as a  Bluetooth  one. Now, we can add FCC to the listl. Actually, two distinct models were certified by the authority. The SM-T820, which is a Wi-Fi only version and the SM-T825 - with 3G and 4G connectivity added to the mix. We are not quire sure how this relates to one of the  earlier Tab S3 leaks , which mentions two distinct screen size variations as well - one at 9.7 inches and another at 8 inches. The FCC document ...

You can now download the carrier-branded Android 7.0 Nougat firmware for the Samsung  Galaxy S7  and  S7 Edge  thanks to Vodafone. The carrier released the firmware for the flagship pair in France and Germany days ago but if you know your way around side-loading the new OS onto your Marshmallow-stuck Galaxy S7 model, you can. Android 7.0 brings a host of major improvements to the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge like Nougat's faster app installs, Blue Light filter for the display, the ability to adjust the screen resolution to conserve battery, and other, under the hood tweaks and optimizations. You can find a downloadable firmware over at the source below.

The Redmi Pro was an experiment by Xiaomi - it used a China-made OLED display and a dual-camera. Now its successor is on the horizon and a screen snap that (allegedly) shows its specs. The  Xiaomi Redmi Pro 2  drops the dual camera but its single digital eye on the back uses a better sensor - the 12MP Sony IMX 362. This is a 1/2.55” sensor with large 1.4µm pixels and Dual Pixel autofocus. That’s a good deal better than the 1µm pixels that the Mi Note and Mi Mix got. Other changes include a larger battery, 4,500mAh (up from the already ample 4,050mAh), and a version with 6GB of RAM. That one is tied to 128GB of storage and will cost CNY 1,800 ($260/€245). The base version is 4GB/64GB and should be priced CNY 1,600 ($230/€220). For comparison, the original Redmi Pro with 128GB storage (and 4GB of RAM)  cost CNY 2,000 .

A twitter account that’s dedicated to reporting on new WhatsApp beta builds has tweeted of a new feature that its allegedly uncovered.  @WABetaInfo  tweeted a couple of screenshots of a newly spotted feature in version 2.17.3.28 for iOS and version 2.16.399 for Android. Users in a group chat would be able to broadcast their live location to the others on the group chat.     37 likes The feature is disabled by default, but if the leaked screenshots are true (which they pretty much do) then there will finally be an alternative way to share live location with iOS and Android users. Given that many people use WhatsApp on a global scale, it’d be much easier to share a constant location with a friend that you might be meeting in the next hour or so if both of you don't use iOS. iOS users have had this feature for years baked into iMessage, though not in the exact same way: In iMessage, users can request or begin sending...

If you recall,  not too long ago , a  number of renders  leaked of successor (to be named) of the  Sony Xperia XA . The easiest way to tell is the positioning of the front-facing camera, as well as the USB-C port, and those corners with the funky design at around 01:36. Paired with some interesting music, the video by  TechLover HD  is about 2 minutes long and shows the purported Sony handset which carries the model number 'G3121'. The video shows a prototype of the aforementioned model in various angles, and a few menu screens that show its model number, Android version, and its January 5 security patch. With a live video leak like this, it’s only a matter of time before Sony officially announces more information about the Xperia XA successor. This is expected to happen at MWC in about a month or so from today. Xperia XA successor leak of renders The video title also mentions that the handset has a 23MP camera. Which is briefly seen in the ...

Back in November China's TENAA certified the upcoming  LeEco Le X850  for sale in the country, though it still hasn't launched. And now it looks like the same handset (or a slightly different version of it) was put through the paces of GFXBench, which as usual has resulted in a pretty complete listing of its specs on the benchmark's website. The phone's model number is said to be X85x, and the second "x" could obviously stand for "0". Then again, GFXBench also calls it X10 as if that may be its name, so it's unclear what's going on here. Finally note that there are some small differences between the specs outed by TENAA for the X850 and what GFXBench lists for the X10/X85x. The Chinese regulatory authority spoke of a device with a 5.7-inch QHD screen, Snapdragon 821 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, dual 13 MP rear cameras, and a 16 MP selfie snapper. GFXBench says it has a 5.5-inch QHD display, the Snapdragon 820 at the helm, ...

TCL, which now makes BlackBerry-branded devices,  showed us its next handset back at CES , but didn't tell us anything about it. The full unveiling will thankfully happen in less than a month,  on February 25  at MWC in Barcelona. That's when we should finally find out what it's going to be called -  Mercury ,  DTEK70 , or something else. Until then, here's a new rumor about its cameras. It's said to feature the Sony IMX378 sensor on the rear, which is the same one used by Google for its  Pixel  and  Pixel XL  handsets, which take some of the best shots of any smartphones out there. So expect the Mercury's main snapper to have 12 MP resolution and support for 4K video recording. On the front, taking care of your selfies, will be either Samsung's S5K4H8 sensor or OmniVision's OV8856, in both cases with 8 MP resolution and 1.12um pixels. This camera will record 1080p videos at 30fps. Past leaks talked about the Mercury coming with a ...

Samsung and LG have been competing for decades now, and the two companies are always trying to one up each other in whatever way possible. This year, both will put out impressive new flagship smartphones, both of those with minimal bezels as countless rumors have told us so far. However, in the battle between  Samsung's Galaxy S8  and  LG's G6 , the former has managed to best the latter in at least two areas. First, there's the chipset, which is rumored to be Snapdragon 835 for Samsung yet only last year's Snapdragon 821 for the LG - and that's a direct consequence of  Samsung 'hoarding' all available SD835 units  at launch. Another area where the Galaxy S8 will beat the LG G6 at the spec game is display resolution and size, though in both cases only just. The latter was already obvious from  yesterday's huge leak about the S8 , which once again confirmed that the smaller model will have a 5.8-inch screen, while the larger model will come with a 6....

Thursday and Friday brought a lot of news from the Galaxy S8 rumor stack including a leaked  live-image and a full list of alleged specs , including  a strange resolution  that ends up being higher than the LG G6’s. But anyway, the following is an image of what is believed to be an official render of the Samsung Galaxy S8. Now, if you compare the render to the live image we saw on Thursday, they coincide pretty well. The proportions of the camera module next to the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor look spot-on in the image. If we look at the front of the render, and then look back at the  supposed front-glass panel  for the Galaxy S8, the two aren’t consistent with the leaks we are getting. So either this is fake, or that glass is. More will reveal itself in the coming weeks. We are still looking at a March 29 Unpacked event, as well as an April 21 official sale date. Check out the full list of  recently-leaked specs here .

Samsung has started rolling out a new update to its  Galaxy J2 Prime  and  Galaxy Grand Neo  (a.k.a Galaxy Grand Lite) smartphones. Arriving as software version G532GDXU1AQA4 for the former and I9060CUBS0AQA1 for the latter, the update brings Android security patches for the month of January. As is usually the case with OTA roll outs, it may take some time before the update notification pops up on your device's screen. Meanwhile, if you feel impatient, you can manually check for the update by heading to your handset's  Settings  menu.

Looks like  the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro  may get the Nougat update soon. The device running the latest Android version (version 7.1.1) has been spotted on the GFXBench benchmarking website, indicating that the update is being tested by the company. This comes just over a month after the global variant of the phone  started receiving  the Marshmallow update. Sadly, there's currently no information on when exactly the Nougat update will be rolled out. Here's hoping that testing goes smoothly and the update arrives sooner rather than later.

The Motorola  Moto G5  and  G5 Plus  are seemingly set for a Barcelona unveiling next month, but oddly it's been just the Plus version that's been  the star in recent rumors . Well, it's the non-Plus that's stopped by the FCC, for a change. Moto G4 The US telecom regulator has given it the green light, and even if it's typically not the most prolific source of intel, sifting through the papers you could still find a few interesting bits. For one, the G5 will support NFC - a first for the G-series (if you don't count certain regional versions of the Moto G4 Play, as pointed out in the comments).     FCC documentation excerpts The other thing, revealed by the FCC filing, is battery capacity - listed at 3,000mAh, it's slightly less than the floating 3,100mAh number for the Plus. The phone will come with a fast charger capable of outputting 14.4W at either 9V/1.6A or 12V/1.2A, as well as 5V/1.6A. You'd also be intrigued to find out that t...

At $159, Apple's AirPods aren't exactly cheap, yet they're quite the bargain when you consider the wireless earbuds options. If only they could come in a color to match your Black iPhone 7, Jet or otherwise. Well, now they can, sort of, courtesy of a company called BlackPods. Jackpot! BlackPods (apparently both the name of the company and the end product) will take your ordinary shiny white AirPods, subject them to a 'three-phase approach' that yields a 'luxurious scratch-resistant finish', all for the nominal fee of $99. Alternatively, you can buy the AirPods straight from BlackPods and get the BlackPods for $249 - sounds like $9 worth of savings. That is, if you don't already own a pair. Mind you, there's a waiting list you need to join at this point, so you can't order the BlackPods right away. It makes perfect sense though - Apple itself won't ship a pair of AirPods for another 6 weeks if you order today. Also, there's a pret...