Mihăiță Bamburic

Microsoft announced in early October that the Windows 10 Mobile rollout for existing Windows Phone 8.1 devices would kick off in December. But, with less than two weeks to go before the end of the year, the software giant now says that the much-awaited software upgrades will not be available until later than expected.

Microsoft expects Windows 10 Mobile software upgrades to be made available starting "early next year" for "select existing Windows 8 and 8.1 phones". That is, assuming everything goes according to plan.

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Apple Watch will be the most popular smartwatch in 2015, according to a new forecast from IDC. The firm expects shipments of the device to reach 13 million units, which would give it a market share of 61.3 percent. IDC says that 21.3 million smartwatches will be shipped this year.

Shipments of Android Wear devices will reach 3.2 million units, giving the operating system a market share of 15.2 percent. Pebble is expected to come in third place, with 1.8 million units shipped and a market share of 8.6 percent.

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Microsoft added support for offline storage in OneDrive for Android in September, announcing that it plans to also bring the feature to iOS and Windows smartphones later down the road. But, knowing that a few months have passed already, when exactly will this happen?

Microsoft has provided an update, revealing that offline support in OneDrive will make its way to iOS before the end of December. As far as its own platform is concerned, offline support in OneDrive will only be offered on Windows 10 Mobile, but not anytime soon.

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Even though CES 2016 is not for another month, LG today announced some of the products that it will showcase at the upcoming consumer electronics trade show. Among them is Gram 15, which is claimed to be the "lightest 15-inch laptop in the world".

But just how light is it? LG says that Gram 15 only weighs 980 grams, or 2.16 lbs. To put things into perspective, it is considerably lighter than Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, and more than twice as light as the 15-inch version of aforementioned laptop.

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Samsung has finally introduced the 128 GB model in its Pro Plus line of high-end microSD cards, half a year after launching the 32 GB and 64 GB versions. The latest entry promises transfer speeds of up to 95 MB/s for reads and 90 MB/s for writes.

The high transfer speeds make it a great option for professionals and demanding consumers alike, with Samsung also claiming that it should satisfy the needs of those who record lots of 4K video.

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Believe it or not, if you want to get your hands on a OnePlus smartphone you still need to have an invite ready. The OnePlus 2 "flagship killer" may be readily available to just about anyone willing to shell out between $349 and $399 on it, but its younger sibling, the more affordable OnePlus X which was introduced last month, can only be purchased with an invite.

In other words, it is much easier to buy a flagship-grade smartphone, that costs at least $100 more, than it is to get a mid-ranger. Quite puzzling, isn't it? That said, if you are interested in OnePlus X, and don't have an invite, it is now possible to purchase the device without any of the usual drama on Tuesdays.

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Shortly after taking the wraps off Redmi Note 3, Chinese maker Xiaomi has added a new device to its phablet line. Called Redmi Note Prime, it targets consumers on a budget, featuring a price tag of just $127.

So what do you get for the money? Redmi Note Prime has all the right features that shoppers in this segment could ask for: a big screen, quad-core processor, a decent amount of RAM, expandable storage, 4G LTE, dual-SIM support, high-resolution cameras, and a pretty large battery inside.

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If an email app doesn't support multiple providers, chances are lots of potential users will not bother with it. Or they will seek alternative offerings that do. So, unsurprisingly, major players like Microsoft and Google now welcome those who have embraced rival services to Outlook and Gmail, respectively, even though they would much rather prefer they switch to their own products.

Yahoo has followed suit, adding AOL Mail, Hotmail and Outlook.com to the list of email providers supported in its Yahoo Mail app for Android and iOS. But, as you can probably tell, there was one major service missing from the list -- Gmail. Now, there is an update that rectifies this.

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While GoPro appears to be focused solely on action cameras, the company wants to expand its horizons by entering the drone market. At this year's Code Conference, CEO Nick Woodman announced that a quadcopter is in the works. It is expected to be released in the first half of 2016.

GoPro has not revealed much else about the upcoming drone, only suggesting that it will be priced to appeal to consumers -- but, considering how expensive some of GoPro's action cameras are, that does not mean much. Now we also know what it will be called -- Karma.

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While the browser is likely to remain the most-popular and convenient way of managing a WordPress site from a PC, Automattic, the company behind the hugely-successful content management system, also wants to give users a more focused tool for the job. So, in late-November, it announced dedicated apps for Windows, OS X and Linux.

The idea behind the PC apps is to make it easier for users to focus on their content, by getting rid of the distractions that come with working inside a tabbed browser environment. The OS X app launched first, arriving at the time of the announcement, and now it is Windows users turn to get a dedicated WordPress.com app.

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Apple must believe that all good things come in threes, because it just released new updates for its three major operating systems, bringing iOS 9.2, OS X 10.11.2 El Capitan and watchOS 2.1 to its users.

The updates are quite extensive, packing lots of bug fixes, performance and stability improvements, and new functionality. Most changes are brought by iOS 9.2 and watch OS 2.1, while OS X 10.11.2 El Capitan is more focused in the areas it is designed to improve upon.

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Battery cases have proven to be very popular with iPhone users, as they protect the device and greatly improve battery life without having to sacrifice much in terms of usability. Even though there are lots of options to choose from, even for Plus-sized models, Apple is now adding its own interpretation to the fold.

Unlike other accessory makers which focus on both the standard and the Plus models, with its first iPhone battery case, called Smart Battery Case, Apple is now only targeting iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s users. Is it worth considering?

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When you look at which smartphones are most-popular with the Windows Phone crowd, you will not see many mid-range or high-end offerings making the top 10. That is because low-end devices, like Lumia 520, dominate the charts, a trend that is unlikely to change with the launch of Windows 10 Mobile.

This makes Microsoft's new Lumia 550 the most important Windows 10 Mobile device for the foreseeable future. Officially available starting today, it is first being released in Europe, with other major markets across the globe to follow shortly.

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When GoPro introduced the Session action camera in its Hero4 line, it made the mistake of offering the new model at the same price point as the much more capable Silver. So, naturally, consumers wanting a $400 GoPro have pretty much ignored it.

That is, until GoPro announced in late-September that it would slash $100 off its price. But, even $299.99 seems to have been too high a price in consumers' eyes, as Hero4 Session just received another price cut.

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Windows Phone's market share took a huge hit last quarter, dropping to a ridiculously low 1.7 percent. Things could improve following the introduction of Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL and other Windows 10 Mobile smartphones, but, in the long run, the platform is not expected to regain much of the ground it lost to Android and iOS.

Windows Phone's market share for 2015 is expected to be around the 2.2 percent mark, according to an IDC forecast, which would be a major decline compared to last year, when its market share was 2.7 percent. But, that's not the real bad news. By the end of 2019, Windows on smartphones is expected to only see a slight bump to 2.3 percent.

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