New Asus ZenFone 2 update focuses on system stability

After the Zenfone Zoom and Zenfone 2 Laser, Asus has now started rolling out an update to its ZenFone 2 (ZE551ML) smartphone. The update is aimed at improving system stability, although no official release notes have been posted yet.

Rolling out over the air, the update - which weighs in at around 103MB - may take some time before it hits your handset. However, if you are feeling impatient, you can manually check for it by heading to the Settings menu on your handset.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow is now available for T-Mobile's LG V10 too

T-Mobile is in a sharing mood today when it comes to Android 6.0 Marshmallow updates. It'sstarted rolling those out to the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge earlier, and now it's time for the LG V10 to taste the new treat.

The update for the V10 is now headed to those devices sold by the magenta carrier, just asannounced last week. It's also available to download and install through the LG Bridge app for Windows PC and Mac users. Once you get it installed and connect your phone to your computer, the update will show up, as seen in the screenshot below.

After applying the update you'll be on software version H90120E. Of course you can also wait for the over-the-air rollout of the update to reach your V10, so as to not have to tether your handset to a computer in order to install it. That, however, may require some patience on your part, as there's no telling how many days the full rollout will take to complete.

Like all other Marshmallow updates, this one too should bring you new features such as Now On Tap, Doze Mode and App Standby for better battery life, the new permissions system, and more.

Massive new Meizu Pro 6 leak brings us live images, spec details, benchmark results

The HTC 10 isn't the only smartphone that's due to become official this week. In fact, Meizu will unveil the Pro 6 on April 13, which is this Wednesday. The phone has been leaked a few times already, and last week we even got the first official image showing it.

Today in anticipation of the launch we have the biggest Pro 6-related leak ever. It contains the high-res live images you can see below (make sure you click the thumbnails for the full size shots), as well as full specifications and the score it managed to achieve in the AnTuTu benchmark.

Meizu Pro 6

The Meizu Pro 6 will come with a 1080p touchscreen (a 5.2" Super AMOLED panel with 3D Touch-like capabilities), a 21 MP rear camera with 10-LED flash and laser autofocus, a 5 MP selfie unit, and MediaTek's MT6797T (Helio X25) chipset at the helm, sporting a deca-core CPU with two Cortex-A72 cores clocked at up to 2.5 GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 2 GHz, and another four Cortex-A53 cores that only go up to 1.4 GHz. The GPU is ARM's Mali-T880MP4, while RAM is 4GB.

The handset comes with dual-SIM support, though no microSD card slot apparently. Its internal storage is 32GB. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow underneath the latest iteration of Meizu's own Flyme OS. The '3D Touch' feature only works with the native applications, and, according to the source of this leak, isn't implemented as well as in Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

The Meizu Pro 6 managed to score 91,165 points in the AnTuTu benchmark, which is better than the Pro 5's average score of 86,322. Then again, it's miles behind the Xiaomi Mi 5's impressive 136,875, or the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge's 134,599. The Pro 6 is closest to theHuawei Mate 8, which scored an average of 91,157 points during its AnTuTu runs.

T-Mobile rolls out Marshmallow update for the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge

Today seems to be a day filled with updates for different Samsung phones. First the S7 duo got new software to improve stability and touch, then Verizon rolled out Marshmallow to theGalaxy S6 edge+ and a minor update to the Note5, and now it's T-Mobile's turn.

The magenta carrier is sending out the update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow to the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge units it's sold. Both of these are pretty large, the required downloads coming in at around 1.3GB each. So do make sure you use Wi-Fi to grab the new release once that update notification hits your particular device.

Obviously, you can expect to see all of Google's additions to Android in the 6.0 version (including such things as Now On Tap, Doze Mode, and the new permissions system). Unfortunately T-Mobile's changelogs aren't helpful in any way, so it's impossible to tell what Samsung and the carrier may have added on top of those.

As always, if you're the impatient type and haven't yet received the update notification, you can try and force your luck by going to Settings > About device > Software update and manually initiating a check.

LG G5 SE is real and it will fit inside the G5's Quick Cover case

Last week word got out that "LG G5 SE" was trademarked by LG in its native South Korea, a move which naturally made us think the company would use that name for an upcoming smartphone. However, we assumed it would be a smaller model, thus emulating Apple's strategy with the new iPhone SE.

It turns out that's not going to be the case - because, while the G5 SE is real (and coming soon), it will intriguingly share dimensions with the plain G5.

The revelation comes from the packaging of the official LG-made Quick Cover case for the G5. This has arrived in stock at one UK-based retailer, and as you can see it's compatible with two LG phones: the G5, yes, but also the G5 SE.

That clearly rules out the G5 SE being some kind of smaller flagship handset from the Korean company. Its dimensions should be very close to those of the G5, if not identical, for it to be able to fit inside the same case that's tailor-built for the G5. So the differences between the two could have to do with design, materials used (the SE might, for example, be made out of plastic), or hardware innards (with the SE possibly turning out to be lower-end than the G5).

Since this case is about to go on sale everywhere the G5 already has, everyone will soon know about LG's G5 SE - so the company may as well unveil it sooner rather than later.

Verizon Galaxy S6 edge+ gets Marshmallow, Note5 receives minor update

Verizon has started rolling out updates to Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5devices on its network. While the update to the former brings Marshmallow, the Note5 update is a minor one that is aimed at fixing connectivity issues that cropped up after the handsetreceived Android 6.0 last month.

Aside from the usual Marshmallow goodies, including Doze, Google Now on Tap, and redesigned app permissions, the Galaxy S6 edge+ update also includes Wi-Fi calling support, as well as some camera and Edge panel improvements. It bumps the software version to MMB29K.G928VVRU2BPC2.

The updates, which are being rolled out over-the-air, may take some time before they hit your handset. However, if you're feeling impatient, you can check for them manually by heading to the Settings menu on your phone.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge software update improves touch and stability

Samsung is pushing a firmware update for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. According to the changelog, the user experience is improved thanks to better palm rejection and overall better touch handling.

Additionally, Samsung has added a feature that tries to correct shapes that appear distorted in skewed photos. It's an added option in the camera settings. Lastly, the changelog lists the traditionally improved stability and bug fixes.

The software build number is XXU1APD1 and the update is 156MB in size. Expect the update for your phone to be come available in the next week or two.

HTC 10 promo video leaks ahead of announcement

The HTC 10 is getting unveiled tomorrow, but why wait? You can watch a leaked promo video right now. The video doesn't show what we didn't already know (the design of the 10 has leaked many times before), still it gets up close and personal with the aluminum unibody of the upcoming flagship.

Recent teasers promise great battery life, amazing camera (perhaps including an OIS-enabled selfie camera) and more. The announcement will be tomorrow, but it's going to get very late if you live east of the Atlantic so you may have to wait until Wednesday for the official deets.

Q1 2016 likely to be LG's best quarter in two years

LG has released the official earnings guidance for the January-March quarter, and the numbers reveal that Q1 2016 could well be the best quarter for the South Korean company in the last couple of years.

As per the guidance, the company's operating profit for the quarter jumped 66% to 505 billion KRW ($441 million). This is the company's best since Q2 2014 and is well above the 408 billion figure analysts suggested. The forecasted revenue for Q1 2016, however, was 13.4 trillion KRW, down 4.5% year-on-year.

The boost in last quarter's earnings is being attributed to growth in sales of products manufactured by LG's appliances division, as well as high-end products like organic LED TVs. The company's mobile business, however, is expected to be in red for the third quarter in a row.

As for the next quarter, all eyes are now on the company's latest flagship smartphone - the G5, which was launched late last month. If the device turns out be a success, analysts are expecting a record quarterly operating profit of more than 600 billion KRW for Q2 2016.

The complete Q1 2016 financial report will be released later this month.

Huawei Watch with black leather strap plus stainless steel mesh band - all for $300

Planning to purchase a Huawei Watch with stainless steel mesh band? Here is some good news, you can currently get the combination at discounted rates from Newegg. The online retailer is running a promo that gets you a Huawei Watch with black leather strap and stainless steel mesh band, all for $300.

Rest assured, the mesh band is the original one from Huawei that otherwise carries a price tag of $99. So, that's a good $100 savings for you. A quick look at Amazon and Google reveals that the mesh band Huawei Watch model is still priced at $400 there.

The free mesh band is a limited time offer from Newegg. So, if you are interested in taking advantage of the deal, you might want to act fast - hit the Source link below.

Dropbox announces Facebook Messenger integration

If you're one of those Facebook Messenger fans who use the Dropbox cloud-storage service for storing your photos, videos, and other files, here's some good news: now you can share your Dropbox files directly from the messaging app.

To use the new feature, just tap the More button in Messenger, and you’ll see Dropbox as an available source. Select that option, and you'll be able to share any Dropbox file without having to leave the Messenger app - this is assuming that you already have the Dropbox app installed on your device.

"Videos and images—including animated GIFs—will be displayed directly in your chats," Dropbox said in a blog post. "For everything else, tapping Open will bring recipients to the Dropbox mobile app, where they can preview and save files."

The new feature is available on both iOS and Android.

Voice Access App: Use voice to control everything on your Android Phone

Google is happy to announce new features coming to Android which greatly improves the way that visually or otherwise impaired users can interact with their devices. For the first time, users can navigate their devices by only using their voices.

This feature is available today and all you need to do is download a small app that enables the Voice Access engine that is otherwise baked into Android. We were able to install Voice Access on our Galaxy S7 edge and use our voices to tell the phone what to do, where to go, and what to type.

You can sign up to be a tester for this app (which won’t let you download the app immediately) or if you are impatient like us, you can side load the app (thanks APK Mirror!).

To activate Voice Access, you need to manually enable it in the Accessibility Settings first. Then, you can tap the Voice Access notification so your device can begin accepting voice commands. Every element on every screen is assigned a number. You can speak a number to simulate tapping that button. You can also ask the device to “type” something, go “back”, open “recent apps”, and you can also say things like “next” or “finish” and the device will click on the button that matches the text.

Along with these new voice features, Google is releasing a tool that helps app developers design their apps with those impaired users in mind. Such as increasing the contrast of grey text on a white background by changing the text to black instead. There is also an improved version of TalkBack for users with visual disabilities.