Android 4.4 KitKat now seeding to Korean LG G2

We have some good news for the LG G2 users. The Android 4.4 KitKat update for the Korean unit has been finalized and is already seeding to the the smartphone in its home market. If you live in Korea and you own an LG G2, the new firmware is already waiting for you to get it. You just need to use the official LG Update Tool on your computer instead of the over-the-air service on your phone.

In the beginning of November we also saw a leaked roadmap of the French carrier SFR. It showed us the SFR users with LG G2 will be getting Android KitKat in November or December this year. There is still nothing official though, but December is upon us, so we guess the SFR G2 owners will get to experience the latest Android build soon enough.

Finally, the guys over Mobile Syrup have received some interesting info straight from LG Canada. According to their information, the Canadian G2 smartphones will be getting Android 4.4 KitKat in late Q1, 2014 (that's late March).

It seems the LG G2 around the world will be skipping Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and that's not bad given that it has helped it get Android 4.4 KitKat so soon after its release.

A hat tip to our anonymous tipster!

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3

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Xolo unveils Q500, a dual-SIM Android phone

Xolo unveiled a new addition to its smartphone lineup. The Xolo Q500 is an affordable, compact dual-SIM Android phone, which has a 4" screen and measures 118.5 x 63 x 10.7mm.

The screen has WVGA resolution for 233ppi pixel density. The Q500 is powered by a Snapdragon MSM8225Q S4 Play chipset with four Cortex-A5 cores running at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM and Adreno 203 GPU. The phone runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

On the connectivity side, the Xolo Q500 offers two SIM cards with 3G with HSPA (7.2Mbps downlink, 5.76Mbps uplink). There's also Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS and FM radio.

The Xolo Q500 has a 5MP camera on the back that can shoot 720p videos and a VGA camera on the back.

A cool software trick lets you snap a photo with Hindi text that will be automatically translated into English. You can have the phone read the translation out loud too. This feature is called X-TransPic and will be available on other Snapdragon-based Xolo phones.

The Q500 packs 4GB of storage that can be expanded with a microSD card (up to 32GB). The battery has 1,450mAh capacity.

The Xolo Q500 is priced INR 7,999 ($130) and is available right now in India.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 goes free on BestBuy

BestBuy is now offering the Samsung Galaxy S4 for free with a 2-year contract on Verizon, AT&T and Sprint. More specifically, it's the Snapdragon 600 version of the phone with 16GB of on-board storage.

Available in black and white, BestBuy also offers its own exclusive Arctic Blue model for no upfront fee. Additionally, the Galaxy S4 Active is also eligible for a free grab with a 2-year contract on AT&T in either blue or brown.

Normally, the phone costs $249.99 on Verizon and $199.99 on AT&T, but with this deal you can save the hassle of reaching for your wallets thanks to this Black Friday deal.

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Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 3 in red and rose gold

Samsung Argentina has unveiled two new colors of the Galaxy Note 3 flagship. Currently the phablet is selling in black, white and pink, but it seems Samsung will be adding more options to the pallete.

The red Galaxy Note 3 is rumored to hit the shelves in the first week of January, while the rose gold edition will launch two weeks later. Both version will be available globally, but some carriers and retails may get some exclusivity deals for a month or two.

Here are some official images of the new flavors.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in red and rose gold

There is still no official info on when those new colors will be hitting Argentina and the rest of the world.

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Android 4.3 update for S4 and S III gets to Europe

Some users are seeing their Samsung Galaxy S4 and S III receiving the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update in Europe.

The update was first rolled-out but was shortly found to be infested by a lot of bugs and was since pulled. Not after AT&T resumed seeding the fixed version of the update. And now the update has started making its way to other regions.

The update brings improvements to performance, the Galaxy S4 gets Galaxy Gear and Knox support along with Group Play 2.5 and more.

Users that have installed the buggy 4.3 update should shortly receive a small patch update through Samsung Kies. And the Galaxy S4 should receive Android KitKat soon as well so this isn't the last one.

Source | Via

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Red and white gold flavors of Galaxy Note 3 coming in January

Samsung is prepping to launch two new colors of the Galaxy Note 3 flagship, according to inside sources. Currently the phablet is selling in black, white and pink, but it seems Samsung will be adding more options to the pallete.

The red Galaxy Note 3 is rumored to hit the shelves in the first week of January, while the white gold edition will launch two weeks later. Both version will be available globally, but some carriers and retails may get some exclusivity deals for a month or two.

The images you are seeing below are just renders made by the guys over at Android Authority and are for illustrative purposes only.

We still don't know what this white gold version is supposed to look like. The champagne which the rendered image suggests isn't quite what white gold looks like but who knows. Anyway, January is just a month away, so we'll find out soon enough.

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5.5-incher from Huawei leaks with octa-core processor

Leaked images of a Huawei smartphone going by the G750 codename have surfaced. The smartphone is running on MediaTek's new true octa-core MT6592 chipset.

MediaTek has been high on praise for its new chipset, which it claims is the first "true octa-core" solution, being capable of running all eight cores simultaneously. This is in contrast to chipsets like Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa SoC, which runs either its four faster cores or four slower cores depending on processing needs.

The new SoC from MediaTek also has the ability to support 4K video playback and cameras that do up to 16MP stills and fullHD recording,.

But going back to the G750, the device is expected to sport a 5.5-inch screen of a rather disappointing 720p resolution, alongside 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory. According to the about screen, Android 4.2.2 is the OS version.

The G750 shares many of the internals leaked from Huawei's unannounced Glory 4 handset, so it's possible that we're seeing that same device under a new name here.

Source (Chinese) | Via

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