The smart assistant battlefield is quickly expanding to the future of cars

AI has been a major buzzword for well over a decade now, so picking it out as a distinct 2016 phenomenon wouldn't be justifiably be any measure. However, there is no denying that the field has really been flourishing as of late, hence the influx of increasingly better and smarter personal assistants and automation platforms. Cortana, Siri, Google Now, Assistant and Home, Amazon Echo and the Alexa platform - one of the next major tech battlefields is already busy trekking rapidly through the obligatory proprietary development stage. But now that our computers, phones and homes are...

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New rumor says Oppo Find 9 WILL arrive in H1 this year

After whether or not the Oppo Find 9 will ever arrive, it seems the next big question is: whether we'll see it launching in H1 2017, or not? Back in November last year, there was first a rumor that said the device will be made official in March 2017. This was followed by a couple of sources (a Chinese analyst and an employee of Qualcomm's Chinese arm) saying that won't happen. Now, according to a new rumor out of China, the device WILL INDEED arrive in the first half of this year. Oppo Find 9 concept render A company executive revealed this at a recent OPPO shopping guide...

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Blue Coral Samsung Galaxy S7 edge to officially launch in Europe soon

The Blue Coral color variant of Samsung's Galaxy S7 edge smartphone - which was made official by the South Korean company back in November last year - will soon be officially available in Europe. The device is listed on the tech giant's Netherlands website. You can't, however, officially order it at the moment as the listing currently says "Available soon." Some third party retailers seem have it in stock though. The model landed in India last month, where it carries a price tag of around $755. Aside from India, the new color option is also available in Singapore, Taiwan, South...

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CES 2017: BlackBerry Mercury hands-on

BlackBerry is nothing short of a legend in the mobile realm. The brand easily matches the popularity of other titans, such as Motorola or Nokia and is still synonymous with quality and enhanced security. The latter has been the staple of the Canadian company's existence, mostly as a trusted enterprise communication solutions provider over the last few years.

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Vodafone India announces SuperHour unlimited data packs

Mobile data has become such an integral part of the smartphone experience that most users and developers and service providers, for that matter, can't really imagine modern digital interactions and activities without it. Hence, it is rather disappointing to learn that getting a proper data plan from most carriers, even on the biggest markets is still mostly a drag. Vodafone India is looking to sweeten the deal for its prepaid customers. Users can now purchase a "SuperHour" pack for unlimited mobile data over the course of an hour. And the best part is, it only costs INR 16 or just around...

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Samsung Galaxy S5 on Sprint gets December security update

Sprint has started rolling out a new update to Samsung Galaxy S5 units on its network. Arriving as build version G900PVPU3CPL2 and weighing in at around 237MB, the update includes Android security fixes for the month of December. The carrier is yet to update the Galaxy S5 software update page on its website, so it's currently difficult to say what else (if at all) is included in the update, although going by its size, it'd be reasonable to say that some other improvements and usual bug fixes are included as well. Thanks for the tip, Jason!!! Via 1 2

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ZTE Z986DL and Z986U clear Bluetooth SIG

Two new ZTE smartphones have been certified by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The listing reveals that the devices carry a model number of Z986DL and Z986U, respectively. Sadly, the listing doesn't reveal anything else about these handsets. But given that they have started collecting the necessary certifications, we expect to hear more on them in days or probably weeks to come. Source

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Google is pulling the plug on the Hangouts API and third-party app support

For all the amazing work and achievements Google can credit itself in the tech realm as a whole, there is one area which has seemingly and rather inexplicably always eluded the online giant. Social efforts in all shapes and forms, including messengers and the infamous Google+ have always been a weakpoint in the chain and the current situation isn't really that much better. Allo and Duo seem to be center-stage in the IM package Google is currently trying to push to end users. Thus, Hangouts' faith is still quite uncertain and while Google is sticking to its promise not to retire it,...

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Nokia E1 leaked specs and release details

HMD Global device passed certifications last week and now we know more about the device. It is indeed the entry-level Nokia Android Phone, going under the name Nokia E1. On Friday, a new leak revealed more about the specifications of the device. HMD will equip Nokia E1 with 1.4 GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 425 CPU with Adreno 308. The RAM will be 2GB with 16 GB internal storage. There is no information if the device will sport a microSD slot but with that kind of storage it looks likely. The display will be 720p with 5.2 or 5.3-inch diagonal but the technology is still unclear. The...

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