If you feel like you're missing out on the Galaxy Note 7 software experience (short of the S Pen) and you have an S7 and S7 edge, you're going to have to wait your turn. Just like those waiting for new, non-explosive Galaxy Note 7 units. Weibo rumors are talking about the Grace UX that's on the Note 7 with Android Marshmallow coming to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge with the Android Nougat update for each side. The Always On Display that the Note 7 has would also get transferred over, too. That could be just in a few months or so, at least for unlocked units, based on previous update cycles. ...

The beta beat bumps on. After several rounds of beta testing leading up to release-grade iOS 10 getting dished up — for some, they got broken plates — for all the good iPhone users out there, we now see both developers and the public getting the first beta of iOS 10.1. Devs got the update yesterday while the public beta is out today. We have the link to register for that beta if you're not on it, but want to be. Tim Cook told Barbra Streizsand that a software update that would prevent Siri from mispronouncing her name would be sent out on September 30. Just another thing to keep an eye ...

BlackBerry CEO John Chen promised that two Android smartphones would come before the company's fiscal year went out. He made the promise in the midst of collapsing investor confidence in Waterloo's money-losing hardware unit. Chen has repeated his belief that he could sell 5 million smartphones in a year. We may see what happens when the company's second quarter ends on September 28. The Motley Fool and plenty of analysts are thinking that BBRY will lose money for the next three years if it doesn't cut rope and sail from hardware. They believe that a ShopBlackBerry sale going through the ...

The deadline to file for a refund for a recalled phone in South Korea was on Monday. The government said that the deadline came too early. The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards has yet to approve Samsung's recall plan moving forward as it tries to whittle down risks of a battery exploding in someone's hands. It wants to chaebol to spend more time publicizing consumers' options. "We need more measures to actively inform consumers. It appears that consumers are not active in seeking an exchange or a refund," said the agency's Nam Taek-joo. The only choice left for consumers at this ...

Choosing a wireless communications service provider stateside based on which of the “big four” offers the best unlimited data deals isn’t easy, given all the ifs and buts, the fine print and restrictions, various strings attached, artificial throttling, or DirecTV obligations you have to consider before making your decision. But one thing’s been made abundantly clear by Verizon’s head honchos in recent months, with T-Mobile One and Sprint Unlimited Freedom launches apparently changing very little of the market leader’s philosophy. According to Big Red CFO Fran Shammo… yet ...

As value-focused China-based Android device manufacturers like LeEco, Xiaomi or Meizu (too) carefully devise their proper US expansion plans, domestic unlocked phone specialist BLU continues its uncontested rise to fame. Granted, sub-$400 competition stateside has been heated up by recent Moto, Honor, ZTE or OnePlus releases, but if you only have 150 or 200 bucks to spend, it’s hard to find better gadgets, at least on paper, than the Vivo 5R or Life One X2. The latter model has literally just seen daylight as an incremental upgrade over last year’s “top selling and reviewed” Life ...

Amazon has been building the world’s most popular e-book readers for nearly a decade now, beloved low-cost Fire tablets since 2011, also dabbling in smartphone manufacturing at one point, and achieving unexpected mainstream success with Echo and Tap intelligent speakers. What the Seattle-based e-commerce giant is yet to try its hand at are smartwatches or any other type of wearable devices, though that doesn’t mean you can’t talk to Alexa on your wrist. Remember the Indiegogo-funded CoWatch? Well, the Google and Android veterans behind it only needed $288K in pledges and five months ...

Despite an estimated $1 billion initial recall cost, $26 billion of market value lost just like that as of last week, and numerous PR blunders bound to translate into even more “heartbreaking” damages, especially as far as public perception goes, Samsung could ultimately survive the Galaxy Note 7 explosion fiasco. The Korean tech giant is starting to prove it has what it takes to overcome possibly the most difficult moment in its recent history, kicking off exchanges all around the world, somehow even rebooting sales here and there, and finally ensuring original Note 7 owners are well ...

AnTuTu is widely recognized as one of the most fickle, least trustworthy mobile device performance testing tools, and yet, everyone keeps paying attention to its reports, especially prior to and shortly after various flagship model releases. Even OEMs will sometimes flaunt unusually high benchmarking scores as ultimate evidence of their products’ imposing raw speed, as seems to be the case for the Xiaomi Mi 5s. This bad boy has practically been confirmed for a September 27 announcement a couple of days back, and its makers now also practically corroborate persistent Snapdragon 821 ...

The HTC 10 has an IP53 rating that guarantees that the phone will be protected from dust getting into its vital components and for spraying water for up to five minutes. The way devices get tested for that rating is vigorous and, while not government-regulated, is pretty important to the International Electrotechnical Commission. HTC, said to make this year's Google Nexus Pixel smartphones, apparently has been able to go for the same Ingress Protection rating, according to a tip sent to Android Police. What does this practically mean? Well, we wouldn't encourage you to use your HTC 10, ...

Samsung is on the steep decline from the height of its recall of every sold Galaxy Note 7 unit with a potential of containing an explosive battery. Even as official new sales dates are a bit far off, carriers in the US have started selling brand new Note 7 phones in addition to handling exchanges. For AT&T, the games have only just begun as it has notified customers who have purchased a Note 7 prior to September 15 that new units are available for their exchange. Users are also getting an OTA update that will automatically download and install. Data charges for this update will be ...

Our first taste of what the Google Assistant can do for us in our everyday lives is within the Google Allo messaging app that got released today. Now, you can get your undergarments scrunched up about all the chat apps that Google has floated out, but we'll save the debate for another post. What got released today for both Android and iOS seems to be an attempt to become what Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Line, iMessage and [insert your app of choice here] have become — cuter, more versatile and smarter. While that includes the usual pack of stickers or the doodly-doos on your pictures, ...

Usually, when we bring you Samsung Pay-centric news, they’re about the fast-growing digital wallet’s latest wave of expansions or adopter-incentivizing deals. Then there’s the occasional security threat, and today, an uncommonly important app update. If you’ll choose to elevate the mobile payment service to its freshest version, 2.3, cloud sync functionality and iris authentication awaits. The latter add-on however depends on what Galaxy model you’re rocking, with just the one actually supporting a second biometric recognition method, alongside fingerprints. Yes, we’re talking ...