LG Lucid 3 VS876 for Verizon gets leaked

evleaks has leaked yet another smartphone, this time the LG LG Lucid 3 (VS876) for Verizon. evleaks did not leak the specifications of the phone, we think it could be one of the F-Series phones that LG announced at MWC this year, specifically the F90. This means it could have a 4.7-inch, qHD IPS display, 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 5 megapixel front camera, Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8226 with 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, 1GB of RAM and Android 4.4 KitKat.

Android-powered Samsung G9098 flip phone headed to China

There are flip smartphones we never hear about due to their very limited availability. Samsung has such gadgets for some Asian markets with the most notable one being the Galaxy Golden. It was released last November with dual Super AMOLED displays and Snapdragon 400 SoC.

It seems Samsung is prepping a successor of the Galaxy Golden - the SM-G9098. The device has been already certified by the Chinese TENAA regulatory and should go official very soon.

While we are yet to learn the G9098 official name, we can give you most of its key specs and features thanks to the TENAA's docs and images. The G9098 features two 3.67" WVGA displays and runs on a quad-core 2.3GHz processor coupled with 2GB of RAM.

 

Samsung G9098

There is nothing mentioned on the processor's model, but a quad-core CPU @ 2.3GHz can mean only one thing - Snapdragon 800 chipset, right? The rest of the revealed specs are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS plus GSM with HSPA and TD-SCDMA connectivity, and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

  

Samsung G9098

The pictures of the G9098 spill the beans on even more details - the phone will come two SIM beds (3G networks support available only on the primary SIM), a microSD expansion slot and a 13MP rear camera with a LED flash.

There is nothing official on the flip G9098 yet, but we bet the official announcement should be upon us. This one most probably won't make it outside China. But honestly, we are not sure many people would have liked it anyway - even if you can live with the uninspiring screens it still is quite bulky - 16mm thick and weighs 174g.

Vodafone UK gets exclusive rights to Galaxy S5 gold color option

Vodafone UK has announced that it has acquired exclusive rights to the gold color option for the Samsung Galaxy S5. The phone was announced in four color options, the others being black, white and blue but it seems if you're in the UK and want to get the phone through a carrier then Vodafone UK is your only option.

Vodafone will have all four colors in stock and will put the phone up for pre-order starting March 28. The Galaxy S5 will go on sale worldwide (150 countries, to be precise) on April 1

Alleged spec details of Google and LG’s Android smartwatch leak out

With recent wearable product announcements from Sony, Samsung, LG, Huawei and more, it feels like just about everyone in the mobile space is selling a wearable device or rumored to be working on one. Google is no exception, as the rumor mill has suggested that the company is currently prepping a smartwatch in collaboration with LG. Details on the device itself have been fairly light so far, but that’s changing today thanks to a purported handful of specs that’ve been posted online.A tweet from @evleaks claims that the Google and LG smartwatch will feature a 1.65-inch 280×280 IPS LCD display, slightly larger and lower-res than Samsung’s Gear 2, along with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of built-in storage. Previous leaks have suggested that the watch will be powered by Android and will place a heavy focus on Google Now.Google recently announced plans to release a software development kit that would make it easy to get Android working on wearables, and so it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to hear that the company may be prepping a wearable of its own. What will be interesting is finding out exactly what this thing looks like, as we’ve yet to see Google release any wristwear of its own, and the only recent wearable that we’ve seen from LG isits LifeBand fitness tracker. The good news is that Google is expected to introduce us to its smartwatch in June, so it won’t be much longer before the mystery comes to an end.

Google Wallet Tap & Pay to cease working on pre-KitKat devices come April 14

In Android 4.4, Google introduced a new method of paying with Google Wallet known as Host Card Emulation, or HCE. It allows Google to bypass carrier rules that prevent an app from accessing something as integral as an NFC secure element. Instead, it would use just NFC safely. This means that Wallet users were no longer limited to Sprint or Nexus devices; even carrier branded devices updated to KitKat could now pay with Google Wallet Tap & Pay.Unfortunately, it seems that Google isn’t keen on using the old method for much longer. The company announced that hardware running any version of Android earlier than KitKat will no longer be able to use Tap & Pay after April 14. This means devices stuck on Android 4.3, like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and many Sprint phones, will lose Tap & Pay functionality.Luckily, I think so few people actually use Tap & Pay that it won’t be a big issue. Most devices that can use it in the first place are already running KitKat anyway. And with Motorola, Samsung, HTC and LG phones getting updated to KitKat left and right, the number of people that are able to use this feature is growing every day.It’s unfortunate that Google has to limit an already limited service, but it’s really not a big deal. All other Wallet functionality, like sending money and storing loyalty cards, will continue working for everyone. Are you going to be affected by this new decision? Leave a comment!

ASUS to quit production and sales of dual boot devices due to pressure from Google and Microsoft

ASUS isn’t the only manufacturer that’s been cranking out dual-booting devices with both Windows and Android, but it has been pushing them pretty intently. There are already a few on sale, but unfortunately, it looks like that’s about to come to an end. ASUS is halting sales of dual-booting devices and will not be making any more due to pressure from both Google and Microsoft, according to the Wall Street JournaBecause of Microsoft’s many patent disputes with Google and its partners, Microsoft is allegedly no longer acknowledging dual-boot devices. Since Windows is not open source or open for manufacturers to freely use, this becomes a problem for ASUS. Google may also be unhappy about this type of product, and since getting Google services on Android hardware requires Google’s certification, this may also be part of the problem.While it’s really a shame that an whole device category goes out the window because two companies don’t much like each other, I’m not sure that we’re missing all that much. I never saw the benefit of combining the two operating systems onto one device. I wonder if other manufacturers will be hit with the same problem. Share your thoughts on this issue in the comments!

Google Play Store 4.6.16 becoming available with batch app installing

We’re always happy to see new updates and we’re now seeing the rollout of a new update from Google for the Play Store. This update bumps it up to version 4.6.16 and includes some nice features that should make the experience a whole lot better. One of our personal favorites is the ability to batch install apps. This should make life a whole lot easier whenever you’re loading all of your apps onto a new phone.Another notable feature is that of new password options. Previously, there was an on/off toggle dealing with requiring passwords for purchases. That’s been replaced by three options: all purchases, every thirty minutes, or never. While most of us probably won’t notice this a whole lot, it should be good for parents with kids who often use their phones.A few other updates were also thrown in such as some revised wording, ridding the settings overflow button and instead moving it to the slide-in menu, and after all these years, we finally have an option to manually check for updates to the Google Play Store. Nothing mind-blowing in this update, but it’s continued work towards a better Play Store.Let us know when you see the update.Via: Android Central