Indian startup CREO launches its first phone, the Mark 1

CREO, a Bangalore, India based startup, has launched its first smartphone in the Indian market, the CREO Mark 1. The Mark 1 is a flagship device for the company, and as such comes with all the hardware bells and whistles, but the main focus for the company is the software.

The phone comes with what the company calls FUEL OS, which is based on Android. It comes with features such as Sense, a universal search engine that can find anything on the phone and can be evoked by a double tap on the home button, Echo, which is a voicemail service of sorts that can work with any carrier, Retriever, which sends an email to you if another SIM is inserted in your device, smart forwarding to forward calls from one SIM to another one it is unreachable, notification manager, and segregated SMS inbox for messages from people and businesses, with quick reply and copy OTP functions.

But CREO's claim to fame is the 'A New Phone Every Month' initiative, where the company will push out updates to the phone every month that will add functionality to it. And the updates will be based on community feedback and what the users want, and you will be informed of all the changes before you install the update.

Coming to the hardware, the Mark 1 has Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the front and back and a metal frame in Gunmetal Black. On the front is a 5.5-inch QHD display and powering it is a MediaTek Helio X10 with 3GB RAM and 3100mAh battery. The phone also packs a 21 megapixel Sony IMX230 sensor on the back with PDAF, 4K video and 120fps slow-motion capture. On the front is an 8 megapixel shooter with features such as 3D Photos, Live Photo mode, and Beautify.

The company has set up a countrywide service network of 106 centers in 96 cities (set to increase to 300 centers in 150 cities in the coming months) and pick up and drop service in 15 cities. You can also chat with the customer service by typing "CREO Support" in the aforementioned Sense.

The CREO Mark 1 will be available on the company's website and Flipkart for INR 19,999 ($300).

HTC still undecided about HTC 10's India launch, will clear the air soon

Yesterday, we told you about the HTC 10 Lifestyle, an SD652-powered variant of the Taiwanese company's flagship smartphone HTC 10. Given that the former was listed on the company's India website instead of the latter, we took it as a confirmation of sorts that the latter won't be officially available in India.

However, turns out we'll have to wait for sometime before this is officially confirmed, as an HTC spokesperson has said that the HTC 10 Lifestyle listing - and the absence of the HTC 10 - should not be taken as a confirmation that the SD820-powered flagship won't be available in the country.

He also added that an announcement in this regard will be made soon, although no specific time-frame was given. So for those who were disappointed with the news yesterday, there still seems to be some hope - fingers crossed.

SD820-powered ZUK Z2 Pro tipped to launch next week

Lenovo-backed ZUK will launch a new smartphone next week - April 21 to be precise. This was revealed by the Chinese company's CEO Chang Cheng on Weibo (China's Twitter). While he didn't reveal the name of the handset, reports say it'll be the Z2 Pro.

Meanwhile, a new ZUK phone - dubbed Z2121, and alleged to be the Z2 Pro - was spotted on AnTuTu, revealing some of its key specs. The benchmark listing reveals that the device is powered by Snapdragon 820 SoC, and sports a full HD display.

It comes in 3GB as well as 4GB RAM options, while the internal memory is listed as 32GB. The camera department is handled by a 13MP rear unit and an 8MP front shooter. The phone runs Android 6.0.1 out of the box.

If you recall, there have already been rumors about a ZUK Z2 featuring a rotating camera (render shown below).

There's currently no information on whether or not the Z2 and Z2 Pro are the same handsets.

Samsung accidentally reveals version number for Android N

Google might have released a developer preview of its upcoming Android OS (currently known as Android N), but the company is yet to officially reveal what exactly will the OS be called, and what version number will it carry.

While there have already been some rumors about its official name, looks like now we have a confirmation of sorts as far as Android N's version number is concerned.

In the release notes of its MultiWindow feature SDK, Samsung - one of the search giant's high-profile Android partners - has revealed that Android N will be version 7.0. "This version has been released with Android N(7.0) compatibility," the release notes say.

So, no surprises here, as the version number is inline with previous versions - for example, Lollipop from 2014 was 5.0 and Marshmallow from 2015 was 6.0. However, we'll still have to wait for official confirmation from Google, which will reveal these details as well as more about the new OS at its I/O conference next month.

Verizon Moto X 2014 starts receiving latest Android security update

Verizon has started rolling out a new update to Motorola Moto X (2nd gen) devices on its network. As per the release notes, the update brings along the latest Android security patch.

Aside from the Android security patch, nothing else seems to be included in the update. As the roll-out has just begun, it may take some time for the update to hit your device. However, if you're feeling impatient, you can also manually check for the update by heading to theSettings menu on your device.

Deal: Trade-in your Lumia 920/925/1020 and get $150 discount on Lumia 950/950 XL

Microsoft is currently running a promo that allows Lumia 920, 925, and 1020 users to trade-in their phone and get a good $150 discount on the Redmond, Washington-based company'sLumia 950 and 950 XL Windows 10 flagship smartphones.

In case you don't know, although the software giant has officially started Windows 10 Mobile roll-out for older devices, the three Lumia's mentioned here are not in the list, meaning they won't be getting the update. Probably, that's why Microsoft has come up with this promo.

Anyway, in case you're interested in taking advantage of the deal, you can do so both online as well as at the company's physical stores. The promo runs through June 30 - for more details, head to the Source link below.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (32GB, Verizon unlocked) selling for $300

The 32GB Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has received a price cut in the United States, where eBay seller Qualitycellz is currently offering the Verizon unlocked model (N910V) for $299.99. For comparison, Amazon is selling the same model for $350, while Newegg has it listed for $365.

While the deal is available on both White and Black colored variants, only the former is available at the moment (the latter is being shown as 'out of stock'). The seller says the device is available in limited quantity - 115 units have been sold as of writing.

There's no information on when the promo ends. So, if you want to take advantage of the deal, you may want to act fast.

Google Photos for Android gets updated with manual backup feature

Google has started rolling out an update to its Photos app on Android that brings a couple of new features, including the ability to manually back up photos. The update bumps the app version to 1.18.

"Save what you want, when you want with manual backup," the Google Photos team wrote in a Google+ post. To use the feature, first select the photos you want to backup, then tap the three dot over flow menu, and finally choose the "Back up now" option.

In addition, the update also brings along the ability to search photos by emoji. The updated app can be downloaded from the Play Store - hit the Source 2 link below.

T-Mobile unboxes the HTC 10 at 10,000 feet

While AT&T may want to have nothing to do with the new HTC 10, T-Mobile seems more than happy to offer its customers a chance to buy the Taiwanese company's latest flagship smartphone. T-Mobile is going to start taking orders for the HTC 10 soon, but until that happens the 'un-carrier' decided to do an unboxing of the new device.

This isn't your usual unboxing, though. Far from it. In fact, it's following the same idea as the one T-Mobile did for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge - that is, make it extreme.Samsung's phones were unboxed underwater, so in TMo's logic it makes perfect sense to unbox the HTC 10 at no less than 10,000 feet.

A helicopter, the HTC 10 in its box, and 10,000 feet of altitude above Las Vegas. Those are the three main elements in this video, which presents a different style of unboxing. Clearly T-Mobile knows a thing or two about making the sometimes dull unboxing procedure feel exciting.

Facebook's Messenger Platform is now open for bots

The likes of Skype, Telegram, and Kik aren't alone in their recent embrace of bots. It definitely looks like bots are going to be the new addition to every messaging platform out there, and today Facebook has unveiled bots for its Messenger app.

The development of bots will be made easy through the release of the new Facebook Messenger Platform beta, which was announced today at the social network's F8 conference.

Chatbots let businesses interact with you through Facebook Messenger, offering customer support, e-commerce features, guidance, content, and interactive experiences. For example, you can order flowers just by having a 'chat' with a bot in Messenger. Or a news outlet can send you customized updates throughout the day, skipping the content you're not interested in. An airline can send you check-in and gate information, your boarding pass, and many other bits of info while you're traveling, and you can reply asking for additional stuff. The possibilities here really are endless, especially if creating bots is as easy as possible, and if they're smart enough to emulate human conversations. Judging by what Facebook promises, they definitely should be - blending AI with natural language processing and actual human help.

One current limitation of the Messenger Platform is that you can't add a credit card to Messenger and then have that be automatically used for payments to the businesses you're talking to. That could obviously come in the future, though.

A new search bar that will show up in Messenger will help you find bots. Of course Facebook Messenger is pretty late to the bot party, but that's probably irrelevant because its reach is far bigger than any of its non-Facebook owned competitors. Messenger now has over 900 million active users. That said, it's still unclear when the new bot functionality will reach every single one of those.

HTC 10 is already $100 cheaper in the US and Canada with promo code

Mere hours ago, HTC launched its latest flagship, the smartphone called 10. And it went up for pre-order immediately, in a move that's not often seen in the mobile world. You're able to pre-order the device from HTC's various online stores for different regions across the world.

In the US, the price for an unlocked HTC 10 was $699.99. We say "was" because you can already get it $100 cheaper through a promo code that's just surfaced. So go to HTC's store, add the 10 to your cart, and then enter the promo code HTC1008. You'll see the handset's price magically turning into $599.99. That's much more palatable than the amount previously asked, of course, and it makes it much more competitive with the likes of the Galaxy S7.

The promo code price reduction is available in Canada too, but the code itself is different. After you visit HTC's Canadian storefront and add the phone to your cart, make sure you use the promo code HTCCA1008. This will bring the price down from CAD 999 to CAD 899.

There's no telling how long this promo code will be usable, so if you're interested in the HTC 10 perhaps it's best to order one with the code as soon as possible. HTC will start shipping the pre-orders in North America in early May.

Guess the phone: Which high-end phone did we snap this photo with?

Today, we got to spend some quality time with a high-end smartphone, which has already been announced, but is yet to launch on the market. And we're not going to tell you which one it is. Instead, we'll let you ponder on it for a while.

Guess the phone that took this shot

The piece of evidence we're ready to give you is a camera sample. Its full native resolution is 13MP - and as you can see, its image quality is quite high. We have not resized it but we've stripped it of all identifiable information.

The other bit that you need to know to make the hunt more interesting is that the photo originates from a high-end phone, which doesn't come from a Chinese brand. And no, we're clearly not referring to the HTC 10 - that would have been way too obvious.

Try disregarding the subjects of the photo as using them for clues might take you in the wrong direction. Instead, just focus on the tips we gave you above.

Hit us up in the comments with your thoughts on which smartphone that might be and whether you like the image quality as much as we do. The big reveal will take place sometime tomorrow and we'll update this article.