LG G5 arrives in the US in early April with free second battery and charging cradle

LG has announced that its recently unveiled G5 flagship smartphone is going to land in the US sometime in early April. Oddly enough the company hasn't revealed the actual release date for the handset, but that could very well be April 8 - because the G5 is launching on that day in both Canada and the UK.

You'll find the G5 in stock at such carriers and retailers as AT&T, Best Buy, B&H, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon. Prices are still not known though.

Emulating a promotion that we've seen run many times for last year's G4 and V10, LG will give people who buy a G5 in the US a free second battery and charging cradle. This offer will be available for a limited time, but the company hasn't said exactly how long you'll have to take advantage of it.

At the same time as the phone, LG will also release the G5 Friends in the US. These are the modular accessories that were presented at MWC last month. Some of these help 'transform' the G5 into things like a "DSLR style camera" or a mobile virtual reality viewer.

Huawei Watch starts at $269.99 today only

Huawei's first foray into the smartwatch world, the aptly named Huawei Watch, is now seeing its first decent price cut ever. The device normally starts at $349, but you can now pick one up from Amazon for as low as $269.99. You do have to act fast, however, as this deal is only valid today.

The cheapest version is represented by a silver stainless steel watch with a leather strap. If you want a stainless steel link band instead, you'll have to pay $279.99 ($120 less than usual). The silver model with a stainless steel mesh bracelet now costs $314.99, down from $399.99. If you get the black watch with a black link band you'll shell out $319.99 ($130 off), while the gold-plated watch with brown leather band goes for $589.99, $110 less than before.

The Huawei Watch comes with a 1.4-inch 400x400 AMOLED touchscreen, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset (with a 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU), 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, IP67 certified water and dust resistance, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a heart rate monitor, and a 300 mAh battery.

Apple announces March 21 event, new 4-inch iPhone and 9.7-inch iPad Pro expected

Apple has finally made the date of its spring event official. It's going to happen on March 21, so the rumors we've heard so far about the date being either March 15 or March 22 were off, but not by a whole lot.

The event invite, which you can see below, is as vague as possible, in typical Apple fashion. We shall however be 'looped in' on that occasion, as you can see.

Apple is expected to announce both a new 4-inch iPhone and a 9.7-inch iPad Pro. The former will probably be called iPhone 5se or just iPhone SE, and will be incredibly similar in looks to the iPhone 5s from 2013. The internals will be updated, however, with rumors mentioning the A9 chip, as well as the camera system from the iPhone 6. It will also have NFC and Apple Pay support.

The next 9.7-inch Apple tablet will reportedly ditch the Air branding and instead be introduced as a smaller variation of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. That makes sense considering that it's been rumored to borrow most of the standout features of that bigger model. The 9.7-inch device shall also have a Smart Connector, quad-speakers, but in a first for an Apple tablet is also apparently going to sport a LED flash for its main camera.

The Apple Watch could get some refreshed accessories, but we don't expect an entirely new model to be announced this month. We should also see new iterations for MacBook hardware, in both the Air and Pro lines (perhaps even a Retina MacBook Air). There's always the possibility of new software-related stuff to come too.

Sony Xperia Z5 Compact is now being updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Sony has started rolling out the update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow for the Xperia Z5 Compact. This follows in the footsteps of the earlier update for the Xperia Z5.

The new software for the smaller Z5 seems to be currently out in Europe only, with reports of people getting it coming in from Finland as well as the UK. Now that it's finally making its way to devices, the update is bound to reach more and more territories in the near future.

In the UK, you're looking at a 1.1GB download, with the software version being 32.1.A.1.163 once the update is installed. As you'd expect, the new release packs in all the goodies that Google has included into Marshmallow - things such as the new permissions system, Doze Mode for better standby battery life, and Direct Share. Sony has included a new camera interface, as well as the Xperia Messaging app with new stickers. Obviously, we expect some bug fixes to be in too.

Android N features overview

Google dropped the Android N build on us out of nowhere last night. This is the first time the company has released the developer preview so early in the development process. Google’s reasoning is that by releasing it to developers early it will be able to incorporate the feedback into the final build when it is released this summer, and that it will also be able to provide the final build to OEMs early so they can begin working on their builds earlier than usual. Basically, Android gets better, and everybody gets it early.

Well, that’s the plan anyway. We will see how that goes. But for now, let’s see what Google has for us in the new build.

Right off the bat we see that the build is only compatible with the Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Nexus 9, and Pixel C. This doesn’t necessarily mean the final build won’t be on the popular Nexus 5, but we wouldn’t recommend holding your breath for it, as the phone is pretty long in the tooth now.

If you have one of the aforementioned devices, congratulations, you can install the developer preview on your device, which you can get from here. You will also be glad to know that this year onwards the updates to the developer preview will be pushed over the air, just like for stable builds. Once you have it installed, here are some things you can look forward to.

Improved notifications

We have covered some of the notification changes in our previous posts, but now that we have the official version from Android, we are in a better position to comment.

One of the changes is the presence of quick shortcuts when you pull down the notification shade once. Other OEMs have always done this but Google required you to pull down twice to access the toggles, which is not the case anymore.

If you do pull down twice, you will see yet another change, where you can now edit the toggles and the grid is now paginated, which means you have a second page for the less frequently used toggles. This way you can have more toggles without the grid being too long.

Another cool new feature Google is adding to Android N is the ability to reply to messages from notifications. This is something iOS does and it can be very convenient. Say you get a WhatsApp message. The notification might appear on the top of the screen, but you still have to go to the app to reply. With the RemoteInput notification API, you will be able to reply quickly to the message from the notification shade itself without leaving the app you are currently in. Support for the feature will depend upon the developers but hopefully we see all the IM app add support for it quickly (isn’t that the whole point of releasing this preview?)

Split-screen multitasking

Windows does it. iOS does it. Samsung has been doing it since the days dinosaurs walked the Earth. Now, stock Android does it as well. Google has finally added support for split-screen multitasking in Android N.

To use this feature, you have to press the overview (or multitasking) button and then drag one of the windows to the top of the screen to pin it there and then choose from the other apps to fill the rest of the screen. Alternatively, you can just swipe up from the overview key to set the current app to half the screen and then choose from the other apps (h/t Android Police).

This feature currently only works with some apps, mostly Google’s own, and apps will have to add support for it.

Honestly, it’s not the most useful feature on smartphones, but can be very useful on tablets such as the Pixel C. So much so that Google is offering a $150 discount on it for developers to try it out.

Improved Doze and Project Svelte

Doze on Marshmallow would suspend background activities when it detected the device was stationary for a while. To its credit, it did work, unlike the disaster that was Project Volta. With Android N, Google has improved Doze further, and it can now suspend background activities when the display is off, even if the device isn’t stationary. This can be useful when you are out and about with the phone in your pocket. You still aren’t using the device but normally Doze on Marshmallow wouldn’t kick in because it thinks you might be using the device. With the updated Doze, you can expect further savings on battery.

Project Svelte has been improved and now works to reduce background activity by dropping three implicit broadcasts. First is CONNECTIVITY_ACTION, which apps used to wake up when there was a change in network activity, such as shift from data to Wi-Fi. In Android N, apps will no longer wake up altogether when there is a network change. ACTION_NEW_PICTURE and ACTION_NEW_VIDEO broadcasts have also been dropped, which means apps that request these won’t start in the background every time you launched your camera app. These sound like minor things but can have a big impact on battery life over the course of the day and it’s good to see Google cracking down on unnecessary background app wakes.

Improved Settings app

The Settings app also sees some major changes. All the menu items on the main screen now have a description below, so the battery menu, for example, will show the remaining battery and the storage menu will show the remaining storage, etc. If you go one level deeper you also get a new hamburger menu on the top left to jump to other menu options.

The settings menu also has a few new options, such as the data saver, which reduces data consumption for background apps when you’re using network data instead of Wi-Fi. If you go to the System UI Tuner, you will also find an option to use a dark theme, something a lot of people want. There is also a Night mode, which turns your display warmer, so it’s easier on the eyes when you use it at night. It can be turned on manually or set to enable automatically at a certain time.

This was just a basic overview of all the new stuff. There are many more subtle changes in the first build. We will keep you updated if we find any more cool stuff or let us know if you come across any.

Sprint's Samsung Galaxy S6 starts receiving Marshmallow update

Following T-Mobile, Sprint has also started rolling out the Marshmallow update to Samsung Galaxy S6 units on its network. Carrying a build number of G920PVPU3CPB6, the update bumps the Android version to 6.0.1..

Weighing in at 1235.87MB, the update brings along the the usual Marshmallow goodies, including Doze, Google Now on Tap, and redesigned app permissions. In addition, it also includes other tweaks like an updated TouchWiz interface and a new vibration pattern concept.

The update has just started rolling out, so it may take some time before it hits your device. If you haven't received the OTA notification yet, and are feeling impatient, you can also manually check for the update by heading to your handset's Settings menu.

There's currently no confirmation on whether or not Sprint's Samsung Galaxy S6 edge has also started receiving the update.

HTC One A9 now available for £269 in the UK

The HTC One A9 is an attractive phone, but costly. A seller in the UK is offering new units with manufacturer warranty for £270.

That's a sweet deal, considering the same handset costs £400 from HTC's official site. We found a slightly better deal at Amazon, £360, but that's still £100 off. Some retailers and carriers actually have the nerve to ask for over £400 for the SIM-free unit.

P.S. The HTC 10 - the One M9 successor - is coming soon (April 19) and will sport a design heavily inspired by the A9 but with much better specs.

Microsoft Surface 3 gets new price cut in US

If you recall, Microsoft was last month selling the Surface 3 at discounted rates, allowing you to save up to $150 depending on the model. In case you missed that deal, you'll be glad to know that the tablet has again received a price cut in the country.

This time, however, the discount is available on Amazon, where the 64GB Wi-Fi model is listed at as low as $385, while the 128GB Wi-Fi variant is listed at $475. A quick look at the Microsoft Store reveals that the models are officially available for $499 and $599, respectively.

Keep in mind that the price cuts mentioned above are for the Windows 10-powered versions of the tablet. Discounts are also available on the Windows 8.1 variants - head to the Sourcelink below to learn more about the deals.

Deal: white, black, or gold Galaxy S6 edge with 128GB storage for $480

If you aren’t trying to get the very latest and greatest Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, you can check out the deal below for a Galaxy S6 edge well-equipped with 128GB of storage. You can purchase an S6 edge for $480 with free shipping from eBay.

The S6 edge originally retailed at $699 for the Verizon base 32GB model and every increment of memory was another $100 slapped onto the price tag. This brought the 128GB model up to $899. The deal today brings the phone down to just over half off the original retail price.

These are indeed Verizon units, but thanks to an FCC agreement, all of Verizon’s phones are GSM unlocked from the factory. So you should be able to use this phone overseas or locally with another GSM network like T-Mobile or AT&T.

eBay is also running a promotion good through tonight which can get you 10% back in eBay Bucks reward cash instead of the normal 2%.

Redmi 3 with fingerprint scanner spotted on TENAA

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 doesn't feature a fingerprint scanner, but it looks like we'll soon see a variant that comes loaded with one. A phone with specs identical to the Redmi 3 was spotted listed on TENAA's website - what's worth noting is that it apparently comes with a rear finger print scanner.

Other key specifications that the listing reveals include a 1.5 GHz octa-core CPU, 5-inch display with 720p resolution, and 2GB/16GB memory configuration. The phone, which weighs the same as the Redmi 3, has a 3,000mAh battery, compared to the 4,100mAh battery the latter packs in.

As for the price, rumors say the handset will carry a tag of RMB 799, which translates into around $122 at current exchange rates. The Redmi 3, for comparison, was launched at a price of RMB 699 (around $105).

AT&T Galaxy Note5 getting February security update

Just a couple of weeks after Samsung announced that it has begun pushing out the latest Android security update to its "major flagship models," the AT&T Galaxy Note 5 has started receiving the update.

While the carrier's support page only says that the update includes some security and performance-related enhancements, screenshot shared by a Note5 user clearly shows the device's security patch level to be February 1 after the update is installed - it weighs in at around 50MB.

The update has just begun rolling out, so it may take some time before its hits your device. However, if you are feeling impatient, you can also manually check for the update by heading to your handset's Settings menu.

Lumia 650's US availability details to be announced soon

Announced by Microsoft last month, the Lumia 650 went on pre-order across Europe the day it was made official - it's now available for purchase in most European countries. Sadly, there has been no official information on when it will go on sale in the US.

That was, however, until now as the Redmond, Washington-based company has said that it'll be revealing the device's US availability info soon - "later this week" to be precise.

Previous rumors had suggested that the Windows 10-powered mid-range handset, which carries a $200 price tag, will be launched in the United States sometime in April this year. Among carriers, Cricket is currently confirmed to be carrying it.