Swedish carrier Telia lists the HTC One (M8) mini

ags: HTC, Android, Rumors

Last year's HTC flagship line-up consisted of the One, One mini and One Max, so it's only logical after the One (M8) the rest of the phones to have their respective successors. And it only took a few days after HTC officially announced the M8, for rumors about the One (M8) mini to start piling up.

Firstly, Swedish carrier Telia listed the One (M8) mini on its blog referring to it as packing support for HD voice. Later, it was removed with a Telia employee explaining the listing as an error. Of course, there's a chance that this is actually the case, but it's more likely that someone put the listing far earlier than they are supposed to.

Meanwhile, the famous evleaks account has confirmed the existence of the One (M8) mini in a tweet, saying "One (M8) mini: check." Sadly, no specifications were shared in the tweet.

Apart from having its name confirmed, there isn't much else at this point regarding the One (M8) mini. We'll keep you in the loop as soon as new info comes in.

BlackBerry's revenue plummets 64% as BB OS 10 struggles

To say that BlackBerry has hit a rough patch would be an understatement: they just suffered a 64% decrease in revenue, which is now clocked in at $976 million.

The once mighty Canadian tech-manufacturer has reported $423 million in losses for Q4 2014, which translates to an 80 cents drop per share.

The biggest factor for BlackBerry's poor market performance is the lack of significant BlackBerry 10 adoption from new users.

In order for the company to stay afloat, they will employ a new management team and implement a lot of cost cuts, so expect jobs to start being slashed throughout the corporation. To bring in revenue, BlackBerry will make government and corporate clients their focus, while also honing in on emerging markets with their low-end offerings.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen predicts that the company will be profitable in 2016, and for cash flow to be positive within the next four quarters.

They were able to sell 3.4 million smartphones during the last quarter, but less than a third of these units ran OS 10.

The company is also looking to other methods of generating revenue outside of hardware sales. BBM enjoys a user base of 85 million people, and Chen has revealed some plans of making some money off of them: through sticker sales and sponsored posts.

On the hardware side, BlackBerry is primed to release the Q20, and the Z3. The Z3 is a low-end offering that'll debut in Indonesia. The Q20, or “BlackBerry Classic” is a successor to the Q10, which is aimed at the corporate user.

It's tough to have a positive outlook for BlackBerry. Years ago, the company enjoyed unrivaled market dominance, and then they devolved into a purely corporate solution. However, even that can't be said of them anymore, with iOS and Android devices becoming more and more prominent in the workplace, there are fewer places where BlackBerries are relevant anymore.

LG G2 mini shows up in European stores, costs €350

Tags: LG, Android

We were somewhat disappointed by the LG G2 mini specs - a lower mid-range phone flaunting a flagship name - but the (relatively) compact gadget has gone on store shelves in Europe at a rather steep price.

Several German retailers - Amazon Germany, MediaMarkt and Saturn - have priced the G2 mini at €350. Amazon Spain has it at the same price. The phone should be available in a couple of days on March 31, just in time for an April launch.

Note that there are three versions of the LG G2 mini, this one is the Snapdragon-powered LTE version. “Snapdragon” shouldn’t excite users here as it’s only a quad Cortex-A7 CPU with Adreno 305 GPU.

Considering a Moto G has a better screen (4.5”, but 720p over qHD), the same chipset and the 16GB version costs €200 (it lacks LTE though), LG will have a tough sell on its hands.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that these first retailers have upped the price significantly for 

Alleged image of rugged Motorola Moto G Forte leaks out on Twitter

Alleged image of a rugged Moto G version made the rounds on Twitter, courtesy of @evleaks. Dubbed Moto G Forte, the smartphone is reportedly bound for markets in Latin America.

The image reveals a slightly bulked up Moto G derivative. There is no word on exactly how rugged the upcoming handset will be. We won’t be surprised if it features some degree of water resistance, as the side buttons shown in the leaked photo look sealed.

Specifications and details on the release of the Moto G Forte are yet to be revealed. We doubt it will be a long wait before the device goes official.

Android 4.4.3 features leaked

eports and change-logs for the upcoming Android 4.4.3 release suggest that the latest iteration of Google's mobile OS will focus solely on bug fixes. So don't go expecting a refreshed UI or any major new features.

There's no date set for when the fixes are going to come in, but the source that reported the news provided a screen capture from a Nexus 5 rocking Android 4.4.3

Below is a list of some of the fixes that will be included in the update:

•Frequent data connection dropout fix

•mm-qcamera-daemon crash and optimization fixes

•Camera focus in regular and HDR modes fixes

•Power Manager display wakelock fix

•Multiple Bluetooth fixes

•Fix for a random reboot

•App shortcuts sometimes got removed from launcher after update

•USB debugging security fix

•App shortcuts security fix

•Wi-Fi auto-connect fix

•Other camera fixes

•MMS, Email/Exchange, Calendar, People/Dialer/Contacts, DSP, IPv6, VPN fixes

•Stuck in activation screen fix

•Missed call LED fix

•Subtitle fixes

•Data usage graph fix

•Internet telephony fix

•FCC compliance fix

•Miscellaneous fixes

Are you excited about any of these upcoming fixes

New HTC One teardown reveals it's a pain to repair, just like the last One

While most people would be happy to have a new HTC One (M8) to play with, our friends at iFixit aren't "most people," and they're back doing what they do best: reducing gadgets to component confetti. Having said the necessary prayers and got to work, iFixit was delighted to find screws holding the main body together -- an omen of repairability, perhaps? The situation quickly "turned ugly," as a mass of tape and copper shielding had to be removed, only to expose a glue-fixed motherboard. Other components and the battery were found to be glued just as liberally, and having finally reached the display, iFixit accidentally cut the digitizer cable, essentially breaking it. It'll probably be of no surprise, given the narrative, that the new HTC One scored a measly two out of ten on the repairability scale, due to teardown difficulty and risk of damage. It's an improvement, at least, overthe old HTC One's score -- iFixit didn't have the super-secret tool, mind -- but it's probably best you keep your M8 out of trouble all the same.

ZTE's giant Nubia X6 has 13MP cameras on the front and back

If you believe that China gets all the good phones, this won't change your mind. ZTE's premium Nubia brand has just launched the X6, a handset-cum-tablet with a 6.44-inch, 1080p screen. As with Oppo's Find 7, ZTE lavished it with top-notch specs, including a Snapdragon 801 chip, 3GB max RAM, up to 128GB storage and a 4,250 mAh battery. The kicker, though, is the pair of 13-megapixel cameras -- a rare setup for a non-monkey phone. The front shooter matches the back pixel-for-pixel, putting many smartphones' main cameras to shame with backside illumination, video auto-focus and an f/2.2 lens. The front camera ups the ante with an f/2.0 lens, optical image stabilization and dual flashes. Alas, if you were looking to wrap your (presumably large) mitts around one in the US or Europe, the Nubia X6 will likely stay put in China. It's now up for pre-order at $HK 5,010, or around $640 for the top model.