AT&T is returning its Nexus 6 units to Motorola due to a bug

AT&T's Nexus 6 units are apparently affected by a software bug. This is so bad that the carrier is now telling its stores to return their initial shipments of the smartphone to Motorola in order for it to fix said software glitch.

The info reportedly comes from multiple sources, one of which even shared the screenshot you can see below, which is purported to be from an AT&T system.

The bug renders a black screen and keeps the Nexus 6 from connecting to the network when it's powered on, thus essentially making it pretty much useless. Luckily, there have been no reports of early owners of the AT&T Nexus 6 to go through this, and Motorola has already identified "the root cause" of the issue. Obviously though, if you have an AT&T Nexus 6 and have had this happen to you, you should contact the carrier immediately.

Shipments with good software are being prepared by the manufacturer, and new inventory availability for AT&T stores will be communicated within the next few days. Again, only "initial shipments" of the Nexus 6 for AT&T have the bug.

It doesn't seem like the bug has made it to any other variations of the first Nexus phablet. AT&T's iteration is a bit special when compared to most, since it comes with a special boot animation and it even features the carrier's logo on its back.

White BlackBerry Passport goes up for pre-order

BlackBerry quietly put a white-color Passport up for pre-order in Canada. The eye-grabbing new color option will begin shipping to customers early next month, on December 7.

The newcomer is priced at CAD $699 (about $622 USD). The price tag currently carries a CAD $100 premium over the black version of BlackBerry’s flagship smartphone. The black model carries a Black Friday promo pricing through November 30.

Furthermore, a crafty web surfer who poked around BlackBerry’s official online store revealed a rather stunning looking red/black Passport coming our way. The third color option will reportedly be available in limited quantities on Black Friday.

Sprint offers the Galaxy S5 and iPhone 6 for $5/month

In an attempt to keep existing customers from switching to a rival carrier, Sprint is launching a Loyalty program with quite a few perks. The most notable of them is a large discount of the Samsung Galaxy S5 or iPhone 6 16GB. Now, they're offered for $5/month without down payment, while previously Sprint offered each for $20/month over the course of a two-year commitment.

If you take part of the loyalty program and decide to benefit from the discounts, you'll save $360 for the period of the contract. Additionally, you can add a new line and get it for 12 months free with unlimited talk, messaging and data just by paying off the remainder of the current month.

Finally, Sprint offers 20% off on selected mobile phone accessories. If you're a Sprint customer for some time now, you should've received an email inviting you to take advantage of the current promotions

SwiftKey gets updated with better performance, more languages

SwiftKey, the popular predictive keyboard, has just received a significant update that includes performance boosts as well as additional languages. Performance has always been a pain point of SwiftKey, with many reporting lag when typing and particularly when opening and closing the keyboard. This latest update includes faster response time when typing as well as reduced time for the opening and closing of the keyboard.In addition to these performance enhancements, SwiftKey now supports 12 more languages including Bengali, Nepali, Punjabi and more. All in all, this is a great update for SwiftKey that not only opens it up to more folks, but also improves it for those already using it. Check out the Play Store to see if you’ve received the update yet. If you don’t have SwiftKey, follow the link below and try it out for yourself!

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 for AT&T now receiving its Android 4.4.4 update

The Samsung Galaxy S5 for Sprint has just received the green light to get its Android 4.4.4 KitKat update, but it looks like that’s not the only Samsung-branded smartphone getting new software.

As it turns out, the AT&T-branded Galaxy Note 3 is now also receiving its official update to Android 4.4.4. This means that you’ll be upgraded from Android 4.4.2 (if you’re still on official releases) and, as usual, the update will be sent out over the air (OTA). So, while some folks are already picking up the new software on their handsets out there in the wild, these things happen in waves, so stay tuned over the next few days to make sure the new version lands on your own handset.

The update itself measures in at 459MB, and there are a few new features and tweaks to use with the new version, as noted by Android Police. With the update, owners will find Kid Mode, Knox 2.0, SideSync 3.0 and a virtual tour mode within the camera app. What’s more, AT&T has made some changes to the pre-installed software on the handset, reportedly making Uber one of the apps that can’t be uninstalled from here on out.

Stay tuned for the new software, and if you do get to upgrade, let us know in the comments what you think!

Via: Android Police

Source: Samsung

Android 5.0 for HTC One Google Play edition delayed

f you’ve got an HTC One (M8) or One (M7) Google Play edition device and you’re waiting patiently for your update to Android 5.0, well, you can stop waiting now.

HTC’s Mo Versi has revealed on Twitter that the HTC One GPe Android 5.0 update has been “delayed,” explaining that Google wanted “one more SW spin.” Versi hasn’t offered a new timeframe in which the update may be released, but he promises that he’ll let us know when Google approves the software.

Is it disappointing that HTC One (M8) and One (M7) GPe users won’t get to enjoy a tasty new Lollipop this weekend? Certainly, but delays like this happy, and we’re glad that HTC is at least keeping us informed about what’s going on. And because HTC has been spot-on with updates in the past and we’re now just waiting for Google’s approval of this update, we’re betting that it won’t be too much longer before you HTC GPe folk are on Android 5.0.

Sources: @moversi (1), (2)

Huawei Ascend Mate2 is going to be updated to Android 5.0 in early 2015

In June, Huawei released the Ascend Mate2 with 4G LTE functionality for GSM carriers. It was certainly a big step for the manufacturer, especially with a budget device with plenty of worthwhile internals and features. Unfortunately, by the end of October, the excitement may have wavered a bit.

At the end of October, it was revealed by Huawei that the Ascend Mate2 would not actually see an update to KitKat after launching with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean on board. While Huawei did confirm that the hardware of the Ascend Mate2 warranted an update to KitKat, the company noted that there were other factors in that particular decision and that they’d be focused on making their “next device” even better.

Turns out, customer feedback has won the day, and even earned a big bonus.

On Friday, November 21, Huawei confirmed via its official blog that the Ascend Mate2 will indeed be receiving an update, but it won’t be to Android 4.4 KitKat. Instead, Huawei has opted to leap a version number and go right for Android 5.0 Lollipop. The author of the blog post notes that the reason this update is coming is due to customer feedback and that the manufacturer takes this feedback very seriously. As a result, the Ascend Mate2 will be updated to the latest variant of Android.

Huawei Device is pleased to announce that Android Lollipop will be available for the Ascend Mate2 in the first half of next year. In light of your feedback, we have reassessed our upgrade strategy. We take our customers’ feedback seriously and want to ensure they have the best experience possible with the Mate2. The Mate2 upgrade will go from the current JellyBean directly to Lollipop.