Are you a tough guy or gal who loves traversing the open terrains or who works in a heavy-duty industry like construction? Do you require a smartphone that can take a beating and keep on taking Instagram pictures? If so then you might want to check out the new Cat B15 smartphone built by tractor manufacturer Caterpillar that’s been specifically designed to be “a tough, rugged phone that means business.”

To show just how tough the B15 is, Catepillar has posted a video of the new device being dropped from 35 feet into the air into a pool of water and then being pulled out and run over by one of Caterpillar’s Cat 277D Multi Terrain Loaders.

From an aesthetics perspective, the Cat B15 obviously isn’t as pleasing to the eyes as an iPhone 5s or an HTC One (M8) as it features a very thick frame with awkward-looking corners that make it look like it won’t fit very comfortably in your pocket. That said, if you’re buying the B15 you don’t care if it looks pretty or feels comfortable in your hand — you want it to survive lots of wear and tear.

Specs for the device include a 4-inch touch display, a 5-megapixel camera, a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 2,000 mAh battery and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean — in other words, the device’s specs are pretty dated.

You can watch a video of Caterpillar’s torture test for the phone below.

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One day the well of iPhone 6 mockup images will dry up, but today is not that day. Nowhereelse.fr shared another set of photos on Twitter this Thursday, giving us a fresh look at what could be the future of the Apple smartphone. The first set comes courtesy of Inner Exile, a China-based smartphone case retailer. The iPhone 6 mockup appearing in the four photos provided by Inner Exile appears to be a silver iPhone, strikingly similar to the photo that we covered earlier this week. This time around, we get a closer look at the phone from multiple angles, showcasing the reworked button placement, the curved body and the larger display.

The second image, which can be seen above the article, appears to give us another look at the space gray iPhone 6 mockup, which first appeared online just a few days ago. It’s apparent just how thin the iPhone 6 will be based on the leaked schematics that have led to these mockups.

Based on previous reports, we won’t see the iPhone 6 in person until this fall, but with the countless mockups and renders that have flooded the Internet recently, it’s probably safe to assume that someone has managed to create a nearly identical clone. We’re still waiting to see physical mockups of the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch phone side by side.

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One day the well of iPhone 6 mockup images will dry up, but today is not that day. Nowhereelse.fr shared another set of photos on Twitter this Thursday, giving us a fresh look at what could be the future of the Apple smartphone. The first set comes courtesy of Inner Exile, a China-based smartphone case retailer. The iPhone 6 mockup appearing in the four photos provided by Inner Exile appears to be a silver iPhone, strikingly similar to the photo that we covered earlier this week. This time around, we get a closer look at the phone from multiple angles, showcasing the reworked button placement, the curved body and the larger display.

The second image, which can be seen above the article, appears to give us another look at the space gray iPhone 6 mockup, which first appeared online just a few days ago. It’s apparent just how thin the iPhone 6 will be based on the leaked schematics that have led to these mockups.

Based on previous reports, we won’t see the iPhone 6 in person until this fall, but with the countless mockups and renders that have flooded the Internet recently, it’s probably safe to assume that someone has managed to create a nearly identical clone. We’re still waiting to see physical mockups of the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch phone side by side.

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Gee, what a shock: Your Snapchat snaps don’t really “disappear forever” after all. The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday announced that it had reached a settlement with Snapchat in which it said that Snapchat’s marketing claim that any pictures sent over its app would “disappear forever” was simply misleading. One issue, says the FTC, is that Snapchat’s “disappear forever” promise is one that it simply cannot keep, especially when there are several third-party applications out there let you capture and keep any pictures and videos sent over the app.

But that’s not all: The FTC also says that “Snapchat stored video snaps unencrypted on the recipient’s device in a location outside the app’s ‘sandbox,’ meaning that the videos remained accessible to recipients who simply connected their device to a computer and accessed the video messages through the device’s file directory,” which means that even if you discount third-party apps, Snapchat should have known that it couldn’t promise all of your snaps would be completely erased.

As part of the settlement, Snapchat will need to change how it markets its service so that it no longer misrepresents “the extent to which it maintains the privacy, security, or confidentiality of users’ information,” the FTC says.

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After another dismal year of console sales, Nintendo is finally looking to broach uncharted territory in order to give its floundering business a much needed boost. Bloomberg reports that Nintendo is preparing to launch new consoles in emerging markets as early as next year, potentially capitalizing on China’s recently lifted ban on game consoles. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, China’s game industry could generate $10 billion in sales in 2015.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in an interview that the consoles released in emerging markets would be entirely new products, as opposed to budget rehashes of the Wii U and 3DS. “We want to make new things, with new thinking rather than a cheaper version of what we currently have,” Iwata said. “The product and price balance must be made from scratch.”

As Nintendo struggles to reclaim the audience that made the Wii a smash hit in 2006, many critics and analysts have suggested that Nintendo should look into mobile gaming to supplement its home console business. Iwata has heard these suggestions, but believes that “the smartphone market is probably more competitive than the console business,” and after 30 years in the console business, transitioning to mobile would be very difficult.

Of course, just because Nintendo doesn’t plan to develop full mobile titles doesn’t mean the company is unaware of the potential for second screen functionality. Nintendo will be releasing a Mario Kart TV companion app for Mario Kart 8, allowing players to watch videos and track their progress on their mobile devices.

With fresh hardware for emerging markets and a long-awaited dive into mobile apps, Nintendo is finally showing signs of life. Hopefully these new strategies, along with the release of Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, will give the company a chance to recover.

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After another dismal year of console sales, Nintendo is finally looking to broach uncharted territory in order to give its floundering business a much needed boost. Bloomberg reports that Nintendo is preparing to launch new consoles in emerging markets as early as next year, potentially capitalizing on China’s recently lifted ban on game consoles. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, China’s game industry could generate $10 billion in sales in 2015.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in an interview that the consoles released in emerging markets would be entirely new products, as opposed to budget rehashes of the Wii U and 3DS. “We want to make new things, with new thinking rather than a cheaper version of what we currently have,” Iwata said. “The product and price balance must be made from scratch.”

As Nintendo struggles to reclaim the audience that made the Wii a smash hit in 2006, many critics and analysts have suggested that Nintendo should look into mobile gaming to supplement its home console business. Iwata has heard these suggestions, but believes that “the smartphone market is probably more competitive than the console business,” and after 30 years in the console business, transitioning to mobile would be very difficult.

Of course, just because Nintendo doesn’t plan to develop full mobile titles doesn’t mean the company is unaware of the potential for second screen functionality. Nintendo will be releasing a Mario Kart TV companion app for Mario Kart 8, allowing players to watch videos and track their progress on their mobile devices.

With fresh hardware for emerging markets and a long-awaited dive into mobile apps, Nintendo is finally showing signs of life. Hopefully these new strategies, along with the release of Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, will give the company a chance to recover.

Read more here: Boy Genius Report

The HTC One (M8) is a great phone. In fact, we recently called it the best Android phone in the world. While the design is the most obvious plus for the M8, HTC’s new and improved front-facing BoomSound speakers mark another area where HTC’s flagship phone shames rival handsets. As good as BoomSound is on the M8, however, Sprint’s special Harman Kardon edition promises sound that is somehow even better. Does it deliver? Sprint sent us one a couple of weeks ago so we could find out for ourselves.

Here’s the short answer: Yes, the sound on Sprint’s HTC One (M8) Harman Kardon edition is better than the sound on the standard version of the phone.

Sprint’s tweaked M8 features sound that has been tuned by the audio experts at Harman Kardon, who certainly has a reputation that precedes them. This special version features the same amplified speakers and BoomSound cavities as the standard model, but the sound is much fuller and the clarity is improved.

Even better, Sprint’s Harman Kardon edition M8 ships with a set of Harman Kardon AE-S earbuds at no additional cost. These bass-heavy buds deliver sound like no other headphones we have ever seen ship with a smartphone. Combined with HK’s tuning, this smartphone is an audiophile’s dream.

The AE earbuds normally retail separately for about $80.

Sadly, there is a trade-off with this special version of the HTC One (M8): Unless you’re a fan of black and gold, the look of this phone is a little jarring.

HTC and Sprint have a history of making very poor design decisions when they get together. The worst by a landslide was the EVO 4G, but depending on your taste, the M8 Harman Kardon edition could be a close second.

The back is dark black aluminum with a brushed finish that attracts fingerprints like nobody’s business. Then, the metal inserts on the front are bright gold. Sadly, I wasn’t quite able to capture just how gold they are in the images here.

Some people might be into the look, and for them, the HTC One (M8) Harman Kardon edition smartphone is a fantastic option. If you left your love of black and gold back in the 1980s though, this phone is a tough pill to swallow.

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Samsung has yet to release an Android 4.4 KitKat update for many of its devices that should be compatible with Google’s latest mobile operating system version, but SamMobile has obtained a leaked internal document that lists the KitKat rollout schedule for some Samsung smartphones. Interestingly, the document reveals that the international version of the Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300 model) will not get KitKat anytime soon, as Samsung is experiencing problems – the Sprint Galaxy S3 model has already been upgraded to KitKat though, with other LTE versions of the phone supposed to get it this month.

The Galaxy Note 2 LTE model will also be updated to KitKat in May, followed by the Galaxy S4 Mini, Galaxy 4 Mini LTE, Galaxy Note 3 Neo, Galaxy Grand 2, Galaxy Mega 5.8 and Galaxy Mega 6.3 in June.

As for the GT-I9300, Samsung’s documentation says that the phone’s update has been canceled due to “unsolved problems.” According to a different screenshot sent in by the same tipster, the international Galaxy S3 model may have a TouchWiz problem, “which is stopping the device from loading system apps,” rather than a RAM problem – the GT-I9300 only has 1GB of RAM, while the U.S. models come with 2GB of RAM.

Screenshots of the leaked internal Samsung documents follow below.

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Apple has not entered the megapixel camera war that other smartphone makers are engaged in and has instead preferred to improve picture quality in its iPhones without increasing the number of megapixels of the main camera. In the future, Apple may further ignore megapixels, a new patent application discovered by AppleInsider reveals, as the company has found a way to offer iPhone users a super-resolution camera mode without actually needing to increase megapixel count in future iPhone versions.

The patent, titled “Super-resolution based on optical image stabilization,” reveals that with help of an optical image stabilization (OIS) camera and an image processing engine, the iPhone would be able to stitch multiple images together and create high-resolution pictures.

“[This patent describes] a system and method for creating a super-resolution image using an image capturing device,” Apple wrote in the patent’s abstract. “In one embodiment, an electronic image sensor captures a reference optical sample through an optical path. Thereafter, an optical image stabilization (OIS) processor to adjust the optical path to the electronic image sensor by a known amount. A second optical sample is then captured along the adjusted optical path, such that the second optical sample is offset from the first optical sample by no more than a sub-pixel offset. The OIS processor may reiterate this process to capture a plurality of optical samples at a plurality of offsets. The optical samples may be combined to create a super-resolution image.”

iPhone users will be able to choose between taking regular pictures or select a “Super resolution mode” menu that would allow them to capture photos that exceed the camera’s megapixels.

It’s not clear when such a camera feature will be available on an iPhone, as inventions described in patents and patent applications do not always make it into upcoming devices.

Some rumors said that the iPhone 6 will have an 8-megapixel camera just like its predecessors, but that it would pack OIS support. However, a more recent report said that this year’s iPhone would not have an OIS rear camera. Without an OIS camera that would ensure the smooth and automatic movement of the camera’s lens, a super-resolution feature as described in this patent application would not be possible.

Oppo has its own way of capturing high-resolution images, that far exceed a phone’s capabilities. The Find 7 can take 50-megapixel shots with a 13-megapixel camera.

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One new flagship Android phone that’s been flying under the radar so far has been the LG G3, which isn’t too surprising since last year’s LG G2 was met with an underwhelming response. However, many of the leaks we’ve seen on the upcoming G3 have given us hope that LG is really going to step up its game for its new flagship phone by building a device that takes a lot of cues from its highly acclaimed Nexus 5.

GSMArena has obtained some leaked photos of the G3 that show us a shiny gold version of the device that looks very enticing. LG has changed a couple of things from a design perspective that make the G3 look nicer than the G2 overall and the most notable one is the flatter version of the rear navigation button that LG tried to unsuccessfully tout as an important differentiator for the G2. And although it’s tough to tell definitively from the picture, the new device appears to have a metal case, which would be a welcome change from the plastic LG typically uses on its devices.

That said, we’ve seen leaked pictures of the G3 that show it with both plastic and metal rear casings so it’s entirely possible that LG will release two versions of the device much as Samsung has been rumored to release both the plastic Galaxy S5 and a metal Galaxy S5 Prime.

You can see one of the gold LG G3 leaked pictures posted below and you can head over to GSMArena to check out more.

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