A report from the Telegraph says that Google is finally getting ready to bring Android Pay to Britain next month. They are citing “industry sources”, but don’t go into further detail about it right now. It had been rumored about them waiting until Google I/O to launch Android Pay in the region, but if this report is correct then it could be coming sooner.
When LG announced the LG G5 last week at Mobile World Congress, we received official confirmation that it would be rocking the new Snapdragon 820. While this is true for some markets, it seems it won’t be true for others. It’s been revealed that the LG G5 for Latin America (and possibly other regions too) will have the Snapdragon 652 instead of the 820.
A new report from Strategy Analytics says Samsung LSI (which is the division in charge of the company’s Exynos SoC) now ranks in the top 5 of the global smartphone application processor market. The company actually ranks 4th, beating out Spreadtrum, thanks to the 50 million units shipped in 2015 in products like the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5.
Xiaomi will be holding the company’s first flash sale for the Mi 5 on March 1st. To help gauge how much interest the device will have, they setup a registration page. While not officially pre-sales, it does show that over 16 million people have some interest in purchasing it. We doubt they’ll actually have that many units to ship, but it’s clear they will sell out quickly.
A few months ago it was reported that Jay-Z was spotted leaving the office of Samsung Research America. He was allegedly in talks with Samsung about an acquisition of his music streaming service, but things didn’t seem to pan out. Now, the New York Post cites multiple sources who say Jay-Z & Samsung have reignited those talks and Samsung could be preparing something big with it.
Before making a whole bunch of “Z” devices, Sony, or rather Sony Ericsson, was focused on bringing up some really good and affordable devices. In 2011, Sony released about a dozen mid-range devices that are still quite popular, and not only on XDA.
If you have one of these in your pockets, we have some really exciting news for you – prepare for some marshmallows, as CyanogenMod 13.0 is up and running!
Bringing the latest version of Android to an older device is a challenging task. There are some hardware limitations like storage or RAM and often an old kernel source that makes the porting a pain. A group of developers known as LegacyXperia has put these limitations in the bin and brought impressive builds of CyanogenMod for the following devices:
The list of bugs is very short and contains such things as the FM Radio, ANT+, HDMI and 720p video recording. These things are not deal breakers, so you can use the CyanogenMod 13 as your new daily driver. There is only one requirement that needs to be met – your device must have a fast SD card put in the slot. A class 10 or higher is required. We must admit that seeing the support for such old devices is definitely a pleasure to watch. Some newer devices are left behind while Sony’s development stage is thriving.
If you are interested in development and you have some ideas how to fix things, you can use team’s GitHub and Gerrit to make code contributions. In other scenarios, head over to the development thread to get the latest build for your rocking Xperia phone.
XDA TV Host Jordan reviewed the ASUS Zenfone 2 in June. Since then ASUS had added pieces and parts to the ZenFone 2 to created new special models. Today we are looking at the ASUS ZenFone Zoom, the ASUS ZenFone 2 with an optical zoom.
After spending a couple weeks with the device, Jordan gives you his full review of the ASUS ZenFone Zoom. Check out this video to see what his thoughts are!
Be sure to check out other great XDA TV Videos.
More ZenFone Links:
Check out Jordan’s Tech Channel and Jordan’s Vlogging YouTube Channel