HTC takes 30 percent off $650 purchases, 20 percent off $500 today only

HTC’s already customary Hot Deals are back with a vengeance this Tuesday, allowing you to buy essentially anything your heart desires from the Taiwanese manufacturer’s US e-store at a nice, discounted price.

The only requirement is to exceed a $650 value on the total bill for a 30 percent markdown, $500 if you’ll settle for a 20 percent deduction, or a measly $150 that takes 15 percent off.

Say you want the Android 6.0 Marshmallow-powered One A9 smartphone and Re Camera. Separately and outside this promotion, the two devices cost $499 and $199 respectively. Bundled together, they’re roughly 700 bucks, which HTC will knock off to just $490 through 11:59 PT on January 26.

HTC One M10 ‘Perfume’ is apparently on its way to AT&T with A9-similar design

It was only a few days ago that mobile tipster extraordinaire @evleaks casually tweeted the purported ETA of the HTC One Watch, aka “Halfbeak”, in response to queries for One M10 intel, and already, new information on the flagship smartphone codenamed Perfume is out.

Nothing too juicy or exciting, just written confirmation said handheld is headed for AT&T (among other carriers, we presume), and a cryptic phrase possibly suggesting the M10 will highly resemble the One A9.

In what way, you ask? Well, it could be software, hardware, exterior design or any combination of the three, or it could merely be aesthetics, as HTC decides to once again put off that long overdue and badly needed major high-end redesign.

OPPO breaks into top ten smartphone brands, with 50 million unit sales in 2015

Several former household names of the mobile phone business, including BlackBerry, HTC and Sony, have slipped out of the “major league” in the past couple of years, with Nokia (temporarily) gone from the industry, and Microsoft incapable of leaving a mark.

Naturally, a number of device manufacturers previously deemed a part of the smartphone landscape’s second tier used the free fall of the above listed giants to their advantage, improving their global brand awareness and sales figures primarily with an emphasis on reasonable quality-price ratios.

Huawei impressively managed to exceed 100 million unit shipments for the first time in 2015, Xiaomi continued its (slow) rise to the peak despite falling short of ambitious objectives, while OPPO reportedly climbed over Vivo, ZTE, plus Sony, Microsoft, HTC and BlackBerry to make the worldwide top ten.

LG bets on two 2016 flagship phones after ‘challenging’ 2015 and 60M sales

Following a phenomenal half a decade or so for many smartphone manufacturers, market saturation caused by lack of innovation and too few upgrade incentives made it much trickier for even Apple and Samsung to turn a profit and post sales growth in 2015.

Of course, there was also your occasional overperformer based in China that knew how to cater to increasingly cash-strapped audiences, while companies like Xiaomi or LG reported bright spots and not-so-bright ones in their end-of-year financial records.

Ultra-low-cost Huawei Honor 5X launches in multiple European markets on February 4

When Huawei announced plans for the US expansion of the budget-focused Honor sub-brand, it wasn’t immediately clear if certain North America-only phones would be designed, or if the love would be spread to the old continent as well.

But at least the Honor 5X is headed for Europe in addition to the United States, at an as-yet undisclosed price. It can’t be more than €250 and £250, though, and there’s reason to hope for a tag as low as €/£200.

Second-gen Apple Watch now said to enter mass production in Q2

It’s hard to say what the ideal release cycle might be for smartwatches these early days in their evolution, but apparently, Apple aims to follow its traditional 12-month upgrade window after all.

According to notoriously fickle “sources from the upstream supply chain” quoted by Digitimes, the “second-generation” Apple Watch should only enter mass production in the year’s second quarter, thus having no chance to see daylight as soon as March. Unless, of course, we’re talking a March announcement and subsequent commercial launch in April or May.

NETGEAR NIGHTHAWK X8 REVIEW

The router is an oft-overlooked part of a home computing setup. A slow network has the power to bring even the highest-end PC to a crawl, and troubleshooting a wireless network is a vague and frustrating process.
Sure, there are routers like Google’s OnHub that make the process easy, and provide excellent coverage, but in particular for gaming, there’s a thin line between optimum performance and crushing defeat. Netgear’s Nighthawk line has always gone above and beyond in network performance, and the new X8 is no exception.