BlackBerry 10.2.1 to Bring Along New BBM Emoticons

Following the official release of the BlackBerry 10.2 OS upgrade several weeks ago, owners of BlackBerry 10 devices are bound to receive some appealing enhancements as part of the next platform upgrade, currently said to be BlackBerry 10.2.1. The operating system iteration has leaked online recently and it appears to be offering some new BBM emoticons, in addition to various other improvements. As n4bb notes, some of the most notable new additions to the list include rainbow, cheerful clap, pondering, high five, moon, martini, and fingers crossed. All in all, it appears that BlackBerry 10.2.1 will come to devices as a fairly large update, although it might not be marketed as a major release in the end. Those who would like to get...

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Moto G Emerges at More Retailers, Full Specs Confirmed

Tomorrow, mobile phone maker Motorola will make official yet another Android-based smartphone, namely the Moto G, a mid-range device that has emerged online quite a few times before. Prior to its official unveiling, however, the smartphone made it to the websites of various retailers out there, and it looks like its full specs list has been confirmed. Yesterday, we spotted the device listed at Amazon UK, but it seems that UK retailer Tesco also had it on its website briefly, and that German retailer Phone House made a similar move, as the Unwired reports. In addition to confirming the near release of the smartphone, said listings also offered a glimpse at the full hardware specs list that Moto G will arrive on shelves with. Just as...

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Intel Announces “Thunderbolt Ready” Program to Promote the 20 GB/s Interface

Thunderbolt is a scalable interface (currently at 20 Gbps bandwidth) based on the DisplayPort 1.2 protocol but, sadly, rather underused. Intel wants to change that though. To that end, it has started a new program that will promote the technology. Called “Thunderbolt Ready,” it is an initiative that allows owners of motherboards to add Thunderbolt 2 (20 Gbps). All it takes is for said motherboard to have a GPIO header (general purpose input/output header). From now on, you can check for a “Thunderbolt Ready” logo on your PC if this strikes your fancy. Even if you have Thunderbolt, it might be limited to 10 Gbps (as if that's not a lot already) so you might want to add a Thunderbolt card anyway. Since USB 3.0 can match Thunderbolt...

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Lenovo Vibe Z Goes Official with 5.5-Inch Full HD Display and Dual-SIM Support

The Chinese handset maker Lenovo announced a few high-end Android smartphones a few months ago, during IFA 2013 trade fair. The Vibe X and S5000 were the company's highlights back in September, but now is the time for new products to be launched. Thus, Lenovo has just come forward with a new announcement that confirms the upcoming release of a new Android smartphone, the Vibe Z. Lenovo Vibe Z is a dual-SIM smartphone that appeared for the first time in late September at an event that introduced the Vibe X in China. According to Engadget, the Vibe Z will soon be available for pre-order in China for a price that will be announced in the coming days. No word on pricing options or whether or not it will be released in other countries...

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BlackBerry 10.2.1 Allows Direct APK Installs, Has No Google Play Support

One of the features that the BlackBerry 10.2.1 operating system flavor has been rumored to pack is support for the Google Play Store, but it seems that this is not the case. In fact, following a flurry of reports on the matter, BlackBerry stepped up and shed some light on the matter, stating clearly that no such feature was planned for the platform. “We can confirm that there is no planned support for Google Play on BlackBerry,” a BlackBerry spokesperson said, n4bb reports. “BlackBerry World remains the primary source for trusted and curated BlackBerry applications and we continue to support open standards and open source tools so BlackBerry developers can continue to create apps on any of the development platforms we support.” The...

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