Using the Galaxy A5 and A3, Samsung breaks Guinness World Record for most selfies taken in a day

Samsung has set a new world record for the highest number of selfies taken in 24 hours. Following the launch of it’s Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 handsets in the South African cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town, the South Korean company invited people to use the two devices and take selfies.

A total of 12,803 selfies were taken with the company’s Galaxy A series devices, which was 3,000 more than the previous record. During the attempt, the tech giant also gave away 100 Galaxy A3 and A5′s, as well as several selfie sticks, to participants. You can check out the entire album of selfies here.

Announced back in October last year, both the A5 and A3 sport a premium all-metal unibody with a 5MP front-facing unit. As for the main camera, the former has a 13MP unit, while the latter features a 8MP unit.

Twitter blames ios8 for loosing 4 million users in Q4

While reporting its Q4 earnings, Twitter revealed that it added 4 million new monthly active users (MAUs) in the quarter, bringing the total number to 288 million, which was clearly short of the 292 million figure expected by analysts. But Twitter is not to blame for that, or so say its executives, who are claiming that the company lost 4 million users due to Apple’s roll-out of iOS 8.

The company says that it lost 3 million of those users after Apple rolled out iOS8, effectively changing the way the Shared Links feature in the Safari web browser works.

For those who are not in the know, the Shared Links feature was added to the mobile web browser in iOS 7, allowing you to see links shared by people you follow. While earlier the feature allowed Safari to automatically request information from Twitter’s servers, that changed with iOS 8 wherein the information is fetched only when you actually open up Shared Links.

As for the remaining 1 million users Twitter lost, they couldn’t get their passwords to work because of an encryption problem related to the microblogging service’s integration with iOS, CEO Dick Costollo said.

Galaxy S6 case leak confirm a double-edged S Edge exists

With MWC 2015 right around the corner the hype is on for new handset releases all over the place. Naturally Samsung is in the spotlight and the rumor mill has been overflowing with bits and pieces of the new Galaxy S6 flagship.

Stories have been ranging all the way from hardware specs, like a supposed withdraw form Snapdragon SoCs and optional 4GB of RAM all the way to quirky concepts like advanced case designs and Gear VR compatibility.

Perhaps the most prominent debate about the new device has been centered around its screen and Edge variant. Today comes with another leaked render that seems to showcase a double-edged variant of the device, supposedly called the Galaxy S Edge. The shot is said to be one of many, but Cnet Korea has provided only a single teaser to protect the identity of the source.

Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A I9506 gets Android 5.0 Lollipop

if you bought a Samsung Galaxy S4 I9506 – aka S4 LTE-A or S4 LTE+ - you may have been feeling a little left out of the Lollipop update bonanza.

This version of the phone has a Snapdragon 800 chipset, just like the Galaxy Note 3 and an update over the Snapdragon 600 in the I9505. Most of its siblings got Android 5.0 – the Google Play Edition and Exynos versions of the Galaxy S4, the Galaxy Note 3 as well.

Anyway, the update is finally available – for SIM-free devices in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, plus Vodafone handsets in Germany and the Czech Republic. The China Unicom version of the Galaxy S4 LTE-A G9006 is being updated too.

The firmware is a heavy one – 1.2GB for the European phones. The exact version those phones are receiving is Android 5.0.1, build I9506XXUDOA6, while the China Unicom software is Android 5.0, build G9006WZNU1BOA4.

You can download these files to manually flash your Galaxy S4 LTE-A though that's for advanced users (make sure to back up your data first!). Hit the source link for download links, but proceed at your own risk – it's safer to wait for the OTA update to arrive in your region.

This only leaves the TouchWiz version of the Snapdragon 600-based Galaxy S4 with no Lollipop.

Meizu sold 1.5 million smartphones in January

The Chinese smartphone manufacturer Meizu shipped a record 1.5 million smartphones last month. Jack Wong, the company’s CEO announced the achievement on the social network Weibo.

Sales of the company have jumped 50% on a monthly basis. Back in December last year, Jack Wong announced that the manufacturer is shipping a million devices monthly.

Meizu’s stellar sales should hardly catch anyone by surprise. In addition to offering the impressive, high-end Meizu MX4 and MX4 Pro, the company took on Xiaomi by launching the budget-friendly, well-equipped Meizu m1and m1 note.

The freshly announced Meizu m1 got 100,000 pre-orders in just a minute yesterday. Therefore, we can certainly expect Meizu to do even better throughout 2015.

Samsung might lose its leadership position

Motorola, which shipped over 10 million smartphones last quarter, up a whopping 118% compared to the same period of 2013, has said that Samsung might lose its position as the world's top smartphone vendor, just like Nokia and BlackBerry.

During an interview with Forbes, Motorola COO Rick Osterloh said, "Every seven years, the person who’s been on top of the market has gone away," adding that "we are going through one of those fascinating shifts where people are starting to realize that you don’t need to pay $600 for a top-tier phone to get a top-tier experience."

He also said that the Lenovo-owned company, which focused on just 10 countries in North America, Europe and Latin America while being owned by Google, has its presence in around 50 countries now, and has plans to enter 10 or 15 more countries this year.

The company is also expected to return to profitability in four to six quarters.

T-Mobile's HTC One (M8) update rolling out on Monday

HTC has announced that the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for T-Mobile's HTC One (M8) will roll out starting next week.

Mo Versi, HTC's VP of Product Management, tweeted the news saying that the company has received the technical approval for the update, which will be rolling out over-the-air starting Monday.

The announcement came on the same day when Sprint's version of the HTC One (M8) started receivingthe Lollipop update.

Win 10 preview for phones tiped to release next week so watch out guys

Just a couple of days ago, some screenshots of Windows 10 Technical Preview for Phones werespotted in the wild, and now it looks like the first preview build will be available to Windows Insiders soon.

According to an NPU report, the build (8.15.12495.44) will be released on Monday, February 9 at 9 am PST.

"This build is currently being tested by Microsoft employees and if no major bugs are found it will be released for Windows Insiders on Monday morning," the report said, adding that "not all the phones will get the first preview build, but more phones will be supported in the upcoming updates."

A point worth mentioning is that the news came in the form of an anonymous tip, and NPU itself is sceptical about its authenticity, so you are advised to take it with a healthy pinch of salt.

Good news to Indonesians because Spice brings Android One to Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka

Spice has launched Android One series in Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. In Indonesia, the phone will be sold under the brand name Nexian Journey One.

The Android One phone being launched in these countries is essentially the same device launched in India and Bangladesh. Only difference is that it now comes with Android 5.1 Lollipop pre-installed.

The phone will be priced less than 1.5 million Indonesian rupiah.

Incase you are buying a phone this weekend here is a top 10 trending phones of the week to look out for

Major manufacturers are prepping for the MWC, finalizing the flagships that will shape the smartphone market for the rest of the year. As a result, the past week didn't witness major official launches but there was still plenty of movement in our chart.

The Top 10 trending phones chart is a recap list of the devices that gathered the most hits throughout the week. In other words, the chart represents the interests of the majority of you, our visitors, and is an indication of what currently interests you.