SwiftKey for iOS brings new languages, emoji predictions in its new update

The popular third-party iOS keyboard SwiftKey received a major update. Version 1.2 of the application is currently available in the Apple App Store.

The list of new features included in the update is rather extensive. One of the biggest highlights is the long-awaited access to more than 800 emoji via a dedicated button. Emoji suggestions have also arrived on board.

Keyboard click sounds, support for 11 new languages, and SwiftKey Flow for the iPad version round up the list of new features. Naturally, some bug fixes and improvements have also taken place in version 1.2.

Have you tried the new SwiftKey for iOS yet?

Galaxy S6 gets rendered in cases based on actual dimensions and is just getting better and better

Just a couple of hours or so after a leak showed us the alleged schematics of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S6, now we get some new renders of the device.

These are showing it inside cases designed by Verus, a company which claims that the following images are based on the actual size measurements of the highly anticipated smartphone.

  

So while the design shown here for the handset may not be a 100% accurate representation of the final product, the dimensions and proportions should be. We also assume the curves are accurately portrayed.

Asus enters the mobile accessory market with ZenPower 9600 power bank

Asus has unveiled ZenPower 9600, a 9600mAh power bank capable of charging most smartphones 3-5 times. The device, which has a metal finish and squarish edges, contains three 3200mAh battery cells. This compares to Xiaomi’s 10,400 mAh power bank which contains four 2600mAH cells, making Asus’ offering lighter and more compact.

Compared to Xiaomi’s 9 layers of protection, Asus’ new portable battery charger comes with 11 layers of protection, and includes four LED indicators, full size USB outputs, and a micro USB input.

As you can see in the image above, you can also protect the device using a rubber case, available various colors, including black, silver, red, and cyan. There is no word on the price yet.

Sony SmartWatch 3 with a metal band goes on sale in the UK

Just as promised, the Sony SmartWatch 3 with a metal band starts selling in the UK from today.

Clove UK is the first store to offer the smartwatch. The price of the regular SmartWatch 3 is around the £180 ballpark, but its metal counterpart is slightly more expensive at. £ 215. Sony’s UK store as well asAmazon UK still haven’t listed

Good news for ipad users because this time paper app for ipad is free this time

The Paper app for iPad, made by the folks at FiftyThree, has today gone 100% free. Previously, you were able to install the app without paying, but you had to shell out $0.99 for each of the following tools: Draw, Sketch, Outline, Write, Color, and Mixer.

From today on these become free, which essentially means you can use the whole app for free. The decision to stop charging for the tools in the app probably means FiftyThree now expects to make enough money to stay afloat simply from sales of its Pencil stylus.

Lollipop update for Xperia Z2 and Z3 coming soon

Sony has regularly been criticized for its support policies, leaving behind mid-range models and taking its time with flagship updates. The entire Xperia Z lineup has been promised the Lollipop update, though, and the company is slowly delivering.

Vodafone Australia has confirmed that the Android 5.0 update for the Xperia Z3 and Z2 is nearing, with the carrier awaiting the software for testing later this month. That would likely push the actual release to March for Vodafone branded devices.

Gionee prepares an ultra-slim phone for MWC 2015

Gionee has officially announced it is preparing to launch a new, ultra-slim smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in March. More specifically, the yet unnamed phone will be launched at Hall 8 on March 2015.

"The race to make the slimmest smartphone was getting out of hand. Going so slim is actually not benefiting user experience without the performance to back it up," said by Oliver Sha, head of global marketing of Gionee. It'll be nice to see what the company has in store, but it's clear that Gionee isn't the only one wanting to carry the crown of thinnest phone manufacturer.

The company's thinnest smartphone is the Elife S5.1 measuring just 5.2mm thick, but it was decrowned by the Oppo R5 at 4.9mm. Subsequently, Vivo came out with the 4.8mm X5 Max, but in the end the Coolpad Ivvi K1 Mini with its 4.7mm profile is currnetly on top.

It wouldn't be surprising to see Gionee's latest smartphone to carry a MediaTek chipset and either a 720p or 1080p display. Either way, we're in for a lightweight phone with a non-removable battery. Here's hoping the later is larger than Elife S5.1's 2050 mAh unit.

HTC One (M9) leaked again, this time in a Dot View case

The HTC One (M9) is due to be officially announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in the beginning of March. Still, we're only a few leaks away from being able to draw a complete picture of the upcoming flagship.

This next piece of the puzzle is brought to us by an HTC employee, who chose (or was he encouraged?) to share live images of a Dot View case on Chinese social site Weibo. HTC's official case, photographed from the back, confirms the large camera lens, that's been also visible in numerous previous leaks.

  

The front raises a few questions, though. A recent supposedly official image showed the selfie camera placed along the central axis of the phone. The pictured Dot View case, however, has the cutout on the front slightly to the right.

ZTE announces Blade S6 Lux in China

You might remember that ZTE recently unveiled a budget-oriented handset with dual-SIM LTE connectivity. It is dubbed the Blade S6 and should be available from AliExpress globally for around $250 and also through Amazon and eBay in select markets.

Today the Chinese manufacturer put a little twist to the story, announcing two devices for their home market. The handset will bear the names ZTE Blade S6 and Blade S6 Lux.

Samsung Galaxy S6 schematics show a protruding camera

Newly leaked schematics of the Samsung Galaxy S6 have appeared and are telling a bit of a different story from the initial ones we stumbled upon not too long ago. Apparently, the Galaxy S6 will have a protruding camera module, which isn't ideal as this might make it wobble when placed on a flat surface.

Meizu M1 gets 100,000 orders in just one minute

The flash sale model is really taking off in the mobile world, at least in Asia. Pioneered by Xiaomi just a few years ago, it's now employed by many more companies. One of them is Meizu, which recently announced the M1 smartphone.

It went up for pre-order in China, with 100,000 units being made available. And people managed to order all of those in only 60 seconds.

Unlike what the term "pre-order" generally means in China, in this case it seems that money has changed hands, and those 100,000 M1 units will be shipped to the people who ordered them, at some point in the future.

It's not surprising that the Meizu M1 has proven to be this successful. After all it costs just CNY 699, which is around $111 or €97 right now. For that amount of cash you get a 5-inch 1,280x768 touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, as well as a 5 MP front snapper.

At the helm we can find the MediaTek MT6732 chipset, which comes with a 1.5 GHz quad-core CPU, aided by 1GB of RAM. Internal storage is 8GB, expandable via microSD, and a 2,500 mAh battery completes the package.

HTC One for Sprint, Dev version now receiving Lollipop

The Samsung Galaxy S5 isn't the only smartphone sold by Sprint that is to be updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop starting today. It's joined by the original HTC One from 2013, which follows in the footsteps of its successor.

Sprint has been pushing the newest version of Android to its One units since this morning. The rollout is an over-the-air affair, so your phone will notify you once it's ready to download and install.

As always in these cases, keep in mind that these rollouts are usually staggered, which means it may take a few days or so for the update to reach all the devices out there.

The HTC One Developer Edition is also getting the new software. This model is in the process of being upgraded to Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, with Sense 6 on top. After applying its update, you'll have ROM version 7.17.1540.7. The download you'll need to perform comes in at around 702MB.

If you own either of these handsets and are impatient to see the new bits on your device, you can obviously head to Settings and manually check if it's available - who knows, maybe you'll get lucky.

Samsung’s SUHD TVs launching in South Korea this month, pricing starts at $5,000

Nearly a month after unveiling it at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Samsung has announced that it will be launching its SUHD TV series in South Korea this month. The premium range of Tizen-powered TVs will be available in four sizes – 55-inches, 65-inches, 78-inches, and 88-inches – with prices ranging from $5,000 to $7,250.

BT confirms EE acquisition in $19 billion deal

Confirming rumours that had been circulating late last year, the British telecommunications giant BT has announced that it has agreed to acquire the UK’s leading mobile carrier EE, effectively putting itself back into mobile services. The deal is worth $19 billion (£12.5 billion), with BT paying EE owners Deutsche Telekom and Orange in cash and shares.

The deal means that BT will have access to EE’s 31 million customers of which around 24.5 million are direct mobile customers, while nearly 834,000 are fixed broadband customers. The latter also has the largest 4G customer base of any operator in Europe.

Following the purchase, Deutsche Telekom will hold a 12% stake in BT and will be entitled to appoint one non-executive member of the BT Board of Directors. Orange will hold a 4% stake in BT.

20,000 Lenovo A6000 phones sold in 3 seconds

Lenovo conducted its second flash sale of the A6000 and it was as an unmitigated success. The affordable LTE-enabled smartphone went up for sale of Flipkart in India and 20,000 units were snatched in a matter of three seconds.

This is becoming a norm for this particular handset as last Wednesday (January 28) the initial flash sale event saw 10,000 phone sales in just two seconds. The particular sales model seem to be so effective that Lenovo has already announced its intention to have a third round on February 11.

Willing customers, who have missed the narrow window to get their hands on the A6000 need to register for the shopping frenzy. The manufacturer did not reveal how many units will be going on sale next week, but judging from the avalanche of sales the number of available units should be ramped-up even higher.

Samsung Ghana launches Galaxy A series onto Ghanaian market

Electronics giant, Samsung has introduced onto the Ghanaian market the latest addition to its galaxy family, the Galaxy A Series.

The company, known for top of the range devices – the Galaxy S series and the Galaxy Note series – unveiled the latest addition at an impressive event in Accra last Friday.

Galaxy A series, which comes in two variants - Galaxy A3 and the Galaxy A5 –packs the latest in technology when it comes to smartphones.

Ghana set to abolish mobile phone tax

The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) has welcomed Ghana’s commitment to abolish pricey import duties on smartphones.

The Ghanian government has announced these first steps in a drive to enable affordable internet access through policy reform. A4AI said the step, confirmed in the 2015 Budget presented, was a key recommendation developed by A4AI-Ghana Multi-stakeholder coalition established earlier this year.

VLC for Android splits into two, now available in both stable and beta form

Nearly three years after VideoLAN launched a beta version of the famous VLC media player for Android, the app is now available as a stable version in the Play Store.

What’s worth noting is that the beta version of the app is also available in Google Play as a separate listing, suggesting that any new features or improvements will be pushed out to the app first before being pulled over to the stable version.

Apparently, the stable version of the app also packs in support for Android TV, a feature the companypreviewed just last month.

Samsung Gear VR to be available Best Buy stores starting February 8

Samsung will be selling the Galaxy VR headset through 100 Best Buy outlets across America. This will be the first time the Gear VR is sold offline, which was until now only sold through Samsung, AT&T, and Best Buy online stores.

Best Buy stores will also be getting demo units so people can try out the device before purchasing them. Other than that, it also lets the company get feedback on the product, and if it gets enough positive response it will expand it to more Best Buy stores, and vice-versa.

The 3-minute demos include being able to watch a movie or video clip, a game, and 360 photos in virtual reality. Powering the Gear VR will be the Galaxy Note 4 as usual, since the device does not have a display of its own.

The Gear VR will be available for $199 but as mentioned, you will also need the Galaxy Note 4 to make use of it.

Universal Microsoft Office apps arrive on Windows 10 Technical Preview

Microsoft rolled out universal Office apps for Windows 10 Technical Preview. The trio includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The touch-optimized applications are available for desktops, notebooks, and tablets with Windows 10 installed. The Redmond giant will open up the apps’ preview to smartphones in the weeks ahead.

Windows 10 Technical Preview users can seek out the apps in the Windows Store Beta. If you happen to be one of those users, feel free to drop us a line with your thoughts on the apps in the comments.

Google Search will soon include tweets

According to a report in Bloomberg, Google Search will soon include tweets. Google and Twitter have apparently reached and agreement, which will include the social network’s posts in its search results.

The feature is allegedly set to launch in the first half of this year. Tweets will appear in Google Search as soon as they are posted. Google will automatically receive content generated by Twitter’s 280+ million users.

Microsoft acquires Sunrise Calendar for $100 million

Microsoft has acquired the popular Sunrise Calendar application for a reported amount of $100 million dollars.

Sunrise is a free calendar application for iOS and Android. It featured an attractive interface design and synced with a wide variety of services such as Google calendar, iCloud, Microsoft Exchange and even Facebook for your events. The app also has other clever features, such as LinkedIn integration, weather forecast for your location, built-in Google Maps navigation for going to events, and timezone support.

It remains to be seen what Microsoft does with its latest acquisition as neither companies have announced their plans yet.

HTC One (M9) leaks out dressed in gold

Live photos of the upcoming HTC One (M9) made the rounds online yet again. This time around, the upcoming flagship from the Taiwanese manufacturer posed for the camera in gold color scheme.

Right in line with past leaks, the live photos once again allow us to catch a glimpse of the large squarish cutout for the handset’s camera. The latter is said to be a 20.7MP unit, coupled with a 4MP UltraPixelfront-facing snapper.

Samsung refutes Canalys report, says still on top in India

In an interesting turn of events, Samsung has dismissed the Canalys report that said Micromax has overtaken the South Korean company as the leading smartphone manufacturer in India. The tech giant has said that it’s still the number one player in the market, citing a GfK India report, which it said is based on the company’s actual sales.

"In the entire year 2014, we continued to lead the market with innovative and exciting offerings. Our volume market share in the smartphone market in the year was 35.7%, which is more than double than that of the next player, while our value share was 40.2%, which is more than four times the next player," said Asim Warsi, Vice President of Marketing for Samsung’s Mobile business in India.

Lollipop update coming to Sprint's Galaxy S5 today

Just a day after HTC confirmed that the Sprint HTC One (M7) will start receiving the Android 5.0 update today, it looks like the carrier's Galaxy S5 will get the update too.

According to Samsung's official support page, the S5 Lollipop update will roll out today, bumping the device to software version G900PVPU1AOA6, and will also include an enhanced Voice over Wi-Fi user interface, as well as the removal of the Lumen tool bar.

The news also comes just days after the Verizon Samsung Galaxy S5 started receiving the Android 5.0 update.