Acer Liquid M330 with Windows 10 Mobile is out in the US for $99

Last September at IFA Acer announced the Liquid M330 smartphone running Windows 10 Mobile. The phone then became available in certain markets a couple of months later, as an entry-level offering for those who want to experience Microsoft's latest mobile operating system on the cheap.

And starting today you can do just that even if you live in the US. That's because Microsoft's online store is now offering up the Acer Liquid M330 for sale to eager buyers.

It's priced at $99, unlocked and contract-free of course. It only seems to be available in grey/black. It comes with a 4.5-inch 854x480 touchscreen, a pair of 5 MP cameras (one on the front, one on the back), Qualcomm's Snapdragon 210 chipset (with a 1.1 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU), 1GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable storage, LTE, and a 2,000 mAh battery.

LeEco has reportedly sold one million Le 2, Le 2 Pro, and Le Max 2 units in two hours

Last week Chinese up-and-comer LeEco announced a trio of new smartphones, the Le 2, Le 2 Pro, and Le Max 2. And according to a report out of the country, today the first flash sale for the three handsets took place in China, with a whopping one million total units up for grabs.

With such a huge number of devices in stock you'd expect this to take longer than your average flash sale, but no. LeEco apparently sold all of its 1 million-strong inventory in a mere two hours. The exact breakup of sales isn't known, so it's unclear how many of those were Le 2 handsets, for example (which is the cheapest of the three), and how many Le Max 2 flagship units were available.

Still, if true, this is a very big accomplishment from a company that has only recently entered the smartphone business. Then again, LeEco's new phones offer great specs at very good prices, along with the all-important full metal body (with quirks such as the lack of a 3.5mm headset jack though). So maybe its success isn't that surprising after all.

It will be interesting to find out when LeEco plans on offering its products internationally, and whether it can replicate its success in China overseas.

Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition is now available for $369.99

Back in February, Meizu and Ubuntu announced the latest product of their long-running cooperation - the Ubuntu-powered version of the Meizu PRO 5. And now this smartphone has finally gone on sale.

You can pick one up from JD's English website, if you agree to shell out $369.99. Sure, Meizu may have already announced the Pro 6, which acts as a successor of sorts to the PRO 5 (despite being smaller), but that model only runs Android for now (and there hasn't yet been word of an Ubuntu version).

So if you'd like to purchase what is still the most powerful Ubuntu phone ever, then the Meizu PRO 5 is it. The Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition comes with a 5.7-inch 1080p AMOLED touchscreen, a 21 MP rear camera, a 5 MP front snapper, Samsung's Exynos 7420 chipset at the helm (with an octa-core CPU clocked at up to 2.1 GHz), 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, dual-SIM slots, 4G, and a 3,050 mAh battery.

Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact receives Marshmallow update too

Earlier this month, Sony finally started to send out the update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow for the devices in the Xperia Z3 family, with one notable exception - the Z3 Tablet Compact. Back then the company didn't say anything about the Marshmallow release for the slate, which understandably angered its owners. But all's well that ends well, as they say. Today the rollout of the new Android iteration has started for the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact as well.

The new build coming your way over-the-air has the version number 23.5.A.0.570. It's currently making its way to both LTE-capable variations of the tablet (model numbers SGP621 and SGP641), and also to those with Wi-Fi-only connectivity (SGP611, SGP612).

Obviously it might take some time before the rollout is complete and the update reaches all Z3 Tablet Compact units out there. What's more, it's probably phased depending on market and carrier, so where you bought your tablet could influence how soon you see Marshmallow running on it.

BlackBerry Priv gets Android 6.0 Marshmallow

For the few of you that have one, BlackBerry has released the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the Priv. This is for devices sold in the US and Canada (STV100-1) as well as the UK and France (STV100-4). For carrier devices (STV100-2 and 3), the update will launch May 3.

The update brings the usual Marshmallow goodies, including Doze, which improves battery life. BlackBerry added additional security to the phone and says it works with carriers so they can provide monthly security updates.

The Hub is more secure with S/MIME email signing and encryption. It also supports Slack (a workplace chat app that has grown in popularity), Skype, as well as social network Pinterest.

The physical keyboard now supports swipe input too (a first on a hardware keyboard). BlackBerry Priv's on-screen keyboard does swipe input too.

The camera now features 24fps modes for 1080p and 720p, plus a 120fps slow-motion mode. The autofocus is slightly faster, but image quality is largely unchanged.

Marshmallow starts hitting LG Class (a.k.a Zero)

LG has started pushing out the Marshmallow update to its Class smartphone (which is more widely known as the LG Zero). Currently rolling out in South Korea, it's quite a big update that brings Android 6.0 and a host of changes to the UI.

The update optimizes the device's stand-by endurance by limiting data consumption when the phone is left unused for a long time. The Knock Code feature has been improved as well.

While app-related security has been enhanced, users will be now also be able to temporarily block notifications and sounds of some or all apps. Moving on, the update also brings automatic brightness control, as well as some reminders-related tweaks. Managing Google settings has been made easier as well.

Post update, you will also notice that the LG Q+ and Bridge apps have been renamed to LG Memo Capture+ and AirDrive, respectively.

The One lives on - HTC One S9 is official with a 5-inch FullHD display and Helio X10 SoC

HTC went out and threw a curve ball by launching a smartphone no one was expecting. A couple of weeks after we were treated to the proper flagship HTC 10, we now have the One S9.

A unit less than the current top-end number, the new smartphone also gets to keep the One moniker, joining the One M9, A9, E9, X9, with a plus here and there and a Supreme Camera on top.

As a member of the previous generation it also has similar styling to the M9 - the bold chamfer on the 10's back is nowhere to be found. In fact, it's very much impossible to tell the S9 apart from the M9 by looking at two devices' backs. It's on the front where changes have been made, most notably the speaker meshes have been replaced by slits.

The display, on the other hand, is the same 5-inch FullHD Super LCD unit, with unspecified Gorilla Glass layer on top. Inside, there's a Mediatek Helio X10 powering things, its 2GHZ octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU paired with 2GB or RAM.

Internal storage is rather scant at 16GB, 9.24GB available to the user, HTC says. There is a microSD slot for expansion, though, and even if the company keeps saying its phones support up to 2TB, we're yet to see cards beyond 200GB.

You get a 13MP primary camera on the back, not the One M9's 21MP shooter. Looking at the specsheet, the f/2.0 aperture, 28mm equivalent focal length, and OIS, it sounds a lot like the setup of the One A9. The front-facing camera is the UltraPixel flavor, again straight from the A9 - 4MP, 2 μm pixels, f/2.0 aperture, 26.8mm equivalent focal length.

At 144.6 x 69.7 x 10.1 mm, the body of the One S9 measures almost precisely the same as the M9, except for an increase in thickness by half a millimeter. We're unsure who's the culprit, as battery capacity is the same at 2,840mAh. On the hardware front you're also getting BoomSound speakers, and the proper kind too - stereo. What you'd be missing out on though, is fingerprint recognition.

The HTC One S9 comes with a full host of connectivity options including nine LTE bands with Cat.4 speeds, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4.1 and GPS/GLONASS/Beidou support. It launches with Android Marshmallow on board, with the due HTC Sense enhancements.

It all sounds like a pretty great midranger on paper, but we're not sure its price is doing it any favors. Listed at €499 in Germany, it may have a hard time competing with equally capable, but substantially more affordable offerings. Barring carrier deals and potential price cuts down the line, that is.

ZTE Axon 2 leaked by TENAA, Snapdragon 820 confirmed

TENAA has issued an approval for the ZTE Axon 2, which is listed under the codename A2017. From the images submitted to TENAA, the phone looks like similar to its predecessor with a few slight differences. The dual camera setup is gone and below the camera there's a fingerprint scanner. At the front, ZTE has kept the dual grill design on the top and bottom, which is Axon's main design accent.

In terms of specs, the ZTE Axon 2 comes with a 5.5" QHD OLED panel and has a Snapdragon 820 chipset between the sheets of the metal unibody. There's 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, expandable via additional 128GB.

The main camera is 20MP coupled with dual-LED flash, while the secondary one is 8MP. The phone will definitely feel solid with a weight of 175 grams. It measures 154×77×9.8 mm. Charging happens via a USB Type-C port.

With TENAA's approval now in the bag, the ZTE Axon 2 shouldn't take too long to become official.

Motorola launches Moto 360 Sport in India

Motorola has launched the Moto 360 Sport in India. The Sport is a variant of the second generation Moto 360 with a handful of changes.

One of the differences is the AnyLight display, which works as normal LCD indoors and outdoors uses ambient light to illuminate itself, making it perfectly visible under direct sunlight and also saving some power. The Sport also has integrated GPS, so you don't need to carry your phone with you to track your movements. A heart rate sensor is included just like on the regular Moto 360 but the strap is made of silicon and is sweat-resistant.

The Moto 360 Sport is priced at INR 19,999 ($300) and is available in black exclusively on Flipkart.

Hangouts for iOS updated with sharing extension, low-power mode functionality

Google has started rolling out a new update to the iOS version of its Hangouts instant messaging app. The update bumps the version to 9.0 and brings a couple of new features including the ability to share stuff from other iOS apps.

The update allows users to share text, links, pictures and video with their Hangouts contacts without leaving the app they are currently using like Safari, Chrome, or Photos. You can choose the Google account you want to use and the contacts you want to share the stuff with.

In addition, the app will now also respond to iOS 9’s Low Power Mode by automatically turning off any ongoing video communication when the device enters the mode.

YouTube's mobile app updated with redesigned Home, new recommendation system

Google has pushed out a new update to its YouTube mobile apps that throws a new coat of paint on Home as well as brings along a new recommendation system. The update is available for both Android and iPhone.

"Starting today, when you open the YouTube app on your iPhone or Android phone, you’ll experience a redesigned Home, with a clean and simple format that invites you to discover and enjoy," the Mountain View, California-based company said in a blog post.

As for the new recommendation system, it's based on deep neural network technology, and aimed at showing more relevant personalized recommendations - you'll, for example, see more recent content as well as stuff from the creators you like.

'Project Infinite' from Dropbox brings on-demand file sync to desktop

Dropbox is working on something called Project Infinite, which should make working with large number of files a lot easier, even if you don't have the space for them on your hard drive.

Currently, Dropbox on desktop works by syncing all the files between your desktop and cloud storage, which can take up a lot of space on your hard drive. With Project Infinite, you can see all the files in your cloud account within the Dropbox folder on your PC or Mac, but the files won't actually be saved on your computer. These files will show up with a cloud icon next to them, whereas the synced files will show a green tick as they currently do. When you want to access the file, just double click on it, and the file will be downloaded and opened. This way, it will only take space on your hard drive when you want it.

This is similar to how things work within the mobile app, but with Project Infinite it is now coming to the desktop. This will work within the current Dropbox desktop client on Windows (10/8/7) as well as OS X.