BlackBerry starts taking applications for the Priv Marshmallow beta program

As rumored last week, BlackBerry has today started taking applications for a new Beta Program for the Priv's Marshmallow update. Essentially this means that you can sign up to beta test the Android 6.0 Marshmallow software for the Priv before it goes out to everyone who owns the Canadian smartphone maker's first Android device. You'll then receive an over-the-air update with the beta build.

The sign-up page is here. People will be accepted into the program in batches, and it looks like the first one has already been filled. You can however put yourself on the waiting list, and when a new batch of testers are let in you'll hopefully be among them. Registrations will be open for about two weeks.

The final release of Marshmallow for the Priv should make its way to handsets across the world either in late April or in early May. If you're accepted into the beta test, you can report bugs through an integrated app that's in the firmware for just that purpose. We assume that those who beta test will also get the over-the-air update to the final Marshmallow build when that is out, but that hasn't been made clear by BlackBerry at this point.

Apple unlikely to recover from falling iPhone sales in 2016

Apple analyst from KGI Ming-Chi Kuo, who has definitely proven a trustworthy source of information and predictions, forecasts year-on-year iPhone shipments will continue to fall in 2016. The total iPhone shipments for the year will likely fall below 200 million units ending up missing market expectations.

Furthermore, Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that Apple won't be able to recover from its peak iPhone times and as a result the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will see lower sales than its predecessors. The decline in sales for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is a result of the rise of replacement demand from emerging markets not being fast enough to cover the low demand from developed markets.

In spite of the reports and rumors of the next iPhone 7 bringing new features to the table like adual-camera setup, KGI is pesimistic on Apple being able to recover.

Additionally, KGI is skeptical that the iPhone SE achieved 3.4 million pre-orders in China, as the company wasn't able to back that number with solid evidence. We'll see if this prediction will hold true once Apple's 2016 financial report comes out.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is selling better than expected with 10 million units moved in March

It would appear Samsung has done its sales magic yet again. Despite a pronounced slowdown in the high-end market, its Galaxy S7 duo has managed to exceed sales expectations.

The figures are far from final, but according to Jay Yoo, industry analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, Samsung has already exceeded the initial 7 million unit estimate and has managed to ship around 9.5 million S7 phones. This has mandated some major forecast recalculations, which has naturally attributed for a raise in share value - 2.4% on Wednesday in an 18-week high.

It appears that the similarities with the Galaxy S6 line were not a deterring factor, as the prevailing opinion went, but rather a logical foundation, on which Samsung managed to construct two very appealing devices. The lack of major redesign has also helped lower production costs, so that will probably help boost profits as well.

Panasonic announces Lumix GX85

Panasonic has launched a new compact mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, the LUMIX DMC-GX85.

The GX85 has a 16 megapixel Digital Live MOS sensor without a low pass filter, which improves the detail by 10% over Panasonic’s previous 16 megapixel sensors. The camera also includes in-body 5-axis image stabilization. The shutter mechanism employs a new electromagnetic drive to reduce the shutter shock and sound. The contrast based AF system works with Panasonic’s Depth from Defocus to get autofocus time as low as 0.07 seconds.

The GX85 can also record 4K (UHD) video at 30 or 24fps and 1080p video at 60fps with full-time AF.

The GX85 has a 2764k dot electronic viewfinder with 1.39x magnification and 100% field of view. The 3.0-inch 1040k dot touchscreen can tilt up and down. The camera also includes Wi-Fi for wireless connectivity with smartphones.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85 is priced at $799.99 with a 12-32 kit lens, and will be available end of May in black and silver.

iPhone SE's durability gets tested in another video, see it swim, tumble, bend, and drop onto a sidewalk

Love watching torture-test videos of the newest smartphones? Then you'll definitely enjoy this one. Coming just a few days after the first such video for the iPhone SE is a new one, with a slightly different focus. While last week we've shown you how Apple's latest 4-inch device has managed to withstand scratching, burning, and bending, this time around it faces an almost entirely new set of challenges.

The common thing between the two videos is the bend test, though today's showing is a lot more scientific. We don't just get a 'pass' or 'fail' evaluation, but we find out that the iPhone SE bends when 160 pounds of pressure is applied to it, which is 10 pounds less than the iPhone 6s and 20 pounds less than the iPhone 6s Plus. The SE reaches catastrophic failure at 178 pounds.

You can also see it being submerged, and losing audio immediately under five feet of water. It got bricked in less than a minute, which is a lot sooner than the bigger iPhone 6s (which survived for 30 minutes), and the 6s Plus (dead after around ten minutes).

The iPhone SE is then put through the paces of a "tumblebot", and it faces the pavement on a sidewalk - several times, no less. In the end, it's received a 5.5 score for breakability, placing it in between the iPhone 6s (with a score of 4) and the 6s Plus (with 6.5).

Microsoft is testing Outlook Premium subscription for $3.99 per month

Microsoft is testing a new service called Outlook Premium. Currently, you can only get it if you receive an invite (if you want one, you can request it here).

Outlook Premium gives you five personalized email addresses (using a custom domain of your choosing), an ad-free inbox, and improved calendar sharing. For those who have invites, it's free for the first year. Following that, Outlook Premium is priced at $3.99 per month.

This may also be launched as a free add-on for Office 365 subscribers at some point in the future, after the testing phase has concluded. Yet if you're interested in Outlook Premium alone, and don't need an Office 365 subscription, it looks like you'll need to be okay with spending $3.99 per month for it.

Then again, it's possible that the price point will change when the service becomes publicly accessible. When that might happen is unknown, by the way. Also unclear is if Microsoft will be adding more features to the Premium tier before making it official. And let's not forget that since it's little more than an experiment right now, Outlook Premium may actually be scrapped by Microsoft without ever getting a wider launch. Only time will tell.

Meizu Pro 6 leaks in a new pair of photos

The Meizu Pro 6 has really been getting a lot of publicity lately. The whole iPhone 7 resemblance was more or less an attention-grabber, but even beyond that the handset has had its fair share of leaks.

The latest batch of leaked photos offers a glimpse at both the front and the back of the phone and once again reaffirms the significant design similarities between the Pro 6 and its predecessor - the Pro 5. The shots in question seem to come from a shoot we already caught a glimpse of a few days back, making it quite a bit more believable.

Overall, the images don't really offer much in the way of new information, but we already have a pretty good idea what to expect. The Meizu Pro 6 is shaping up as a true powerhouse packing 6GB of RAM and a 3D touch display. And, as per a recently leaked manufacturer road map, the Pro 6 should be rocking a 5.7-inch QHD panel, fast UFS3.0 storage, as well as NFC 3.0 and a big 3,500 mAh battery.

The document in question also points to a Samsung Exynos 8890 chip and price range for the flagship, starting at CNY 2799 ($430) for a 32GB one, going through CNY 3099 ($480) for 64GB and all the way up to CNY 3499 ($540) for the top-tier 128GB variant.

New Meizu m3 note leak reveals launch price

Meizu definitely has a solid midrange smartphone lin-up and the upcoming m3 note will add even more substance to it. A recent leaked teaser image shows that Meizu plans to price the m3 note at just $170 (CNY 1,099).

If this turns out to be true, then the company will not only be highly competitive against the likes of rivals in the Xiaomi, Lenovo and LeTV camp, but also it's very own Meizu Metal line-up. The Metal rocks a similar price in China and the upcoming metal 2 is believed to follow suite.

The m3 note should offer an all-new alloy body 3500 instead of a plastic one and a 5.5" 1080p display. Under the hood, the phone is rumored to sport a Helio X10 chipset with 2 or 3GB RAM (storage dependent), and a 3,500 mAh battery.

We'll know what the Meizu m3 note holds for sure once it gets officially revealed. One of the key upgrades over the m2 note is the new shiny metal chassis, probably following the footsteps of the Meizu m1 metal and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 on April 6.

ZenFone 3 and ZenFone 3 Deluxe surface in possible renders

Asus struck gold with the ZenFone 2, which despite its naming disaster and veritable model chaos managed to deliver big in the value department with powerful hardware and an affordable price point. Naturally, fans have been waiting anxiously for the Taiwanese giant's next step since and by all accounts, it should come in the shape of the ZenFone 3.

We have already heard quite a bit about the handset, including some TENAA listings, talk of afingerprint reader and a suggested May or June release frame. However, the Zenfone 3 is still quite illusive and we're not even sure whether it will come alone or in the company of a Deluxe version.

The latter is shaping up as a plausible possibility, especially after a pair of devices, bearing the ZenFone 3 moniker was spotted on the reddot 21 design website. Considering the source, there is quite a bit of focus on aesthetics. The Zenfone 3 is said to bear a 2.5D glass finish on both the front and the back, with a thin decorative layer underneath to bring that signature metallic spin texture. The design is complete by a metal frame.

Тhe render and short description also provide some insight into the hardware for the ZenFone 3. The main camera is now square in shape, accompanied by what appears to be a dual-tone LED flash and laser autofocus. Also, there seems to be an LG-style button on the back, which is likely the home of the aforementioned fingerprint reader. In the text, there is also mention of a USB Type C port and some rather interesting cosmetic changes to the new Smart Flip Cover, like glowing edges:

Optional Smart Flip Cover is available to deliver a more intuitive user experience. With advanced fluorescent material leveraging the brightness of the screen, the edge of the cover illuminates corresponding to UI settings. With Smart Flip Cover, users receive notices in a new and clever way.

But things get truly interesting when we move on the the ZenFone 3 Deluxe listing on the same website. The provided render seems to show a radically different phone with a physical home button on the front.

Sadly, the sole perspective does not offer a clear view of the back of the handset, but the accompanying text goes on to explain that the ZenFone 3 Deluxe will be the first ever full metal smartphone. That is to say, it will not require any inserts or other utilities for the internal radios to work, which we find a little bit hard to believe. Also, the fact that the title of the page says "Zenfon 3 Deluxe series" doesn't instill much confidence in the leak either, so, take it with a pinch of salt.

iPad Pro 9.7" teardown show tightly packed components, low repairability

The time for the iPad Pro 9.7 teardown is upon us, thanks to the professional disassemblers at iFixit. What everyone expected to be an iteration of the iPad Air 2, turned out to be a scaled down version of the 12.9" iPad Pro and as such every millimeter inside the alloy body is put to good use.

The iPad Pro 9.7" is hard to open and requires a lot of patience and heating, but once open you can see just how cramped the inside is. The largest component, naturally, is the battery. In this iPad Pro it has a rating of 27.91 Whr (7,306mAh), which is slightly better than the iPad Air 2's 27.62 Whr.

Sadly, for those who want to repair their iPad Pro 9.7" on their own turf, it's not that easy. iFixit gives the slate a repairability score of 2/10 (10 being the easiest to repair).

The fused front panel is one of the components that will be most expensive to fix and carries the risk of damaging the LCD during opening. Additionally, there are "gobs of adhesive", which hold the components inside resulting in more difficult repairs.

BBM adds message retraction, timed messages to free version

BlackBerry has updated its BlackBerry Messenger client across Android, iOS, and BlackBerry 10 with some useful new features.

The main new feature here is message retraction. You can now retract messages after sending them, or even edit them. This can be useful if you sent something by mistake and don't wish the other person to see it. This works in one on one chats as well as group chats.

BBM also supports timed messages now, where the messages disappear after a certain time once the recipient has seen them. Previously both features were only available via a paid add-on.

Other additions made free include ability to mute group chats, scrolling through pictures sent over chats and groups, ability to save images captured within the app, larger videos on iOS, redesigned UI on iOS, check multiple messages to delete, forward, or retract, forwarding messages from one chat to another, and Android 6.0 support.

Leaked render shows off Huawei P9's back

The Huawei P9 - which is scheduled to be unveiled on April 6 - has been the subject ofseveral image leaks so far. Now, a new image, which apparently looks like a press render, has leaked clearly showing off the back of the smartphone.

The image clearly shows a dual rear camera setup, which has already been officially confirmed by the Chinese company, as well as a finger print scanner. In addition, the image also re-confirms that the handset comes with a Leica co-developed camera.

As for the specs, from what all has been rumored so far, the phone is powered by a Kirin 950 SoC and sports a 5.2-inch 1080p screen. It has 3GB/32GB memory configuration, and features a 5MP front shooter and a 12MP dual rear camera setup with support for OIS. There's a 3,000mAh battery to keep the lights on.