A new leak from Hungary details the Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2, the successor of its popular dual-SIM Android-powered phone.
It has a 4" WVGA screen (480 x 800) and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It's powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor with 768MB RAM, though the exact chipset isn't clear. Anyway, the phone has a 5MP camera, 4GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot and a 1,500mAh battery.
The Galaxy Ace 3 has virtually the same specs and it has a dual-SIM version (LTE version too, but that's single-SIM only). The Galaxy Duos 2, as the name suggests, comes only in dual-SIM flavor.
The Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 was unveiled in Hungary but it will reportedly be available in a few days in India too at INR10990 ($175 / €130). Also note that the phone is very different than the Galaxy S II Duos for China Telecom.
If you're rocking a Samsung device which hasn't yet been upgraded to Android 4.3 you might want to count your blessings, as it appears the Korean firm is still having issues with the latest version of Jelly Bean.
Samsung has admitted to TechRadar there is a new issue, which we were tipped off about. Our tipster highlighted that since the Android 4.3 update on his Galaxy S4, Outlook no longer syncs with the Samsung Kies desktop software or the handset.
It appears that this problem isn't restricted to just S4 handsets, with many Samsung owners reporting similar issues over on the Android Central and XDA forums.
What does this mean for users? Well anyone who relies on Outlook for contacts, calendars and email will be unable to sync these details with their Samsung handset - if it's running Android 4.3 that is.
Fix coming in "near future"
We contacted Samsung to try and find out more, and a spokesperson for the firm told us: "In the near future, an improved Kies tool which will also support 'Outlook sync' will be released.
"This new version of Kies 3.0 will be available in due course from www.samsung.com."
Unfortunately Samsung was unable to tell us an exact date for the new Kies tools, but it's yet another embarrassing turn of events for the Korean firm, so surely it won't be too far off.
Are you having issues with your Samsung post-Android 4.3 update? Let us know in the comments below, on Facebook or via Twitter.
Apple stores will offer gift cards on Black Friday instead of the discounts expected by shoppers.
The day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday, is a day of blissful debauchery for eager shoppers, who swarm retail stores in the wee hours of the morning and all through the day in search of unprecedented once-a-year deals.
But unlike years past, Apple won't offer discounts this time. Instead, shoppers will receive Apple Store gift cards with select purchases.
The coupons are available to shoppers both in Apple's retail stores and online, including in regions outside the US. In fact, Australian shoppers can see them now.
Raw deals
We won't know the exact values of the coupons being offered outside Australia until the promotion goes live in other regions, but shoppers down under who buy any MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or iMac will get an AU$150 ($136, £83) gift card.
The iPad Air, on the other hand, comes with an AU$75 ($68, £41) gift card, while the iPad mini, iPad 2 and iPod touch come with a mere AU$50 ($46, £27).
Even further down the ladder is the iPod nano, which comes with just AU$25 ($23, £13).
Gift cards also come with third-party products like the Olloclip, Parrot AR.Drone, the Fitbit Flex, and Beats headphones.
Apple no doubt figures it will make out just fine tomorrow anyway, what with the hordes of shoppers who will inevitably appear with cash in hand ready to make a purchase.
Hopefully Apple Stores survive the ire of those mobs of shoppers when employees try to hand them gift cards instead of discounts.
Of course, if you really want a discounted Apple product, plenty of other retailers will no doubt be offering the deals Black Friday shoppers expect.
Check out the first glimpse of the Huawei G750 (credit: MyDriver)
It seems Huawei has some Android tricks up its sleeves, one of them being the newly leaked eight-core Huawei G750.
The previously unheard of device reportedly packs MediaTek's powerful new octa-core processor, according to the photos and info that leaked on the Chinese site MyDrivers.
However, it's unclear whether the G750 is merely the codename or model number for the Huawei Honor 4/Glory 4, which are also rumored to be powered by the new MediaTek chip, or a separate device entirely.
Bragging rights
MediaTek has been vocal about its new 1.7 GHz MT6592 System on a Chip (SoC), which it claims is the "world's first true octa-core mobile platform."
The Taiwanese chip maker says in addition to the eight-core chip's raw processing power, it has the advantage of being fully scalable and consuming less battery power than the quad-core processors that are currently popular in various flagship smartphones.
Other than that juicy tidbit, based on the specs pictured in this leak it seems the Huawei G750 will sport a big but disappointing 720p 5.5-inch display, 2GB of memory, 32GB of storage, and 13- and 5-megapixel cameras.
It will also reportedly come with the slightly outdated Android 4.2.2 and be available on China's three big carriers, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom.
There's some powerful, albeit nonsensical, imagery on the Revolution teaser site
Geeksphone said "Happy Thanksgiving" today with the announcement of a new, reportedly higher-end Firefox OS device, the Revolution.
There's a catch, though: the mysterious new smartphone isn't technically running Firefox OS.
According to CNET, the Geeksphone Revolution actually runs Boot2Gecko, an identical Mozilla OS with a different name, because the Firefox OS brand is apparently unavailable to telecoms companies not associated with specific carriers.
Regardless, the Revolution has one very interesting feature: the hardware is capable of running either B2G/Firefox OS or Android.
Split personality
Geeksphone said when customers order the Revolution they'll be able to choose whether they want Mozilla's OS or Android.
The Spanish company dealt in Android phones before throwing its support behind Firefox OS.
Besides that literally no details about the new hybrid phone are known, but Geeksphone's new teaser website at geeksphone.com/revolution teases "a creation with a powerful heart" (is that an amoeba? Nope, looks like a processor!) and recommends we "stay tuned."
(The meaning behind the site's prominent imagery of a very pregnant woman is not quite clear.)
"We are...confident that we will surprise everyone by its very high performance," Geeksphone co-founder Javier Aguera said in a statement. "And it's very competitively priced."
Join the Revolution
Despite the apparent restrictions, Geeksphone is fully behind Mozilla's web-powered OS initiatives. It was one of the earliest supporters of Firefox OS, releasing two phones, the Keon and the Peak, to developers earlier this year.
An upgraded Peak model, the Peak+, is also reportedly in the works, though customers who ordered the Peak+ already can switch to the Revolution at no additional cost. It sounds like the Revolution will drop first.
As CNET noted, the Norwegian company Telenor today launched another Firefox OS device, the Alcatel One Touch Fire, which will be available in regions including Serbia, Hungary, and Montenegro by Christmas.
No word yet on whether the low end One Touch Fire will hit the US or UK, but as always we'll keep an eye out.
Huawei, LG, ZTE, and Sony are also committed to Firefox OS to varying degrees.
Nokia put two Asha 50x phones on sale – the 502 Dual SIM and the 503. The two are based on the Asha 501 design, but add a transparent outer layer on the back (while being every bit as colorful underneath).
The Nokia Asha 502 Dual SIM improves the phone's photography skills by bumping the camera to 5MP and adding an LED flash. The video recording is still at the abysmal QVGA@15fps, though.
As the name suggests, it comes only in dual-SIM. Unlike the 501, this model has only 2G connectivity, but Wi-Fi is still available and so is WhatsApp. Note that the Asha 502 has a slightly smaller battery.
The Nokia Asha 503 comes in single- and dual-SIM versions. It also brings back the 3.5G connectivity from the 501, while keeping the improved camera. The battery is back to the original 1,200mAh capacity too.
Both the Asha 502 and the 503 have 3" QVGA screens (240 x 320) protected by Gorilla Glass 2, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, microSD card slots. They also feature social networking integration (Facebook, Twitter, Sina Weibo, LINE, WeChat) and Nokia's data compressing Xpress Browser.
The Nokia Asha 502 Dual SIM and Asha 503 are available right now in select IMEA (India, Middle East and Africa) and Asia Pacific regions.
HTC offers a mean flagship, in the form of the HTC One. But the firm knows that a lot of the mobile market now lies in the budget sector, and this is where the HTC Desire 500 is pitched. It might not have the super low price of the ZTE Blade V, but even so, the price is hardly going to make your eyes water.
This puts the Desire 500 in direct competition with the Sony Xperia M and the Nokia Lumia 625, and just a little more costly than the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini. It's also worth considering the cheaper Moto G here, which sports a deceptively low price for its feature set.
So has HTC equipped the Desire 500 with the necessary weapons to beat an increasingly difficult market?
It packs Qualcomm's Snapdragon 200 processor, backed up with 1GB RAM. This means that the Desire 500 might not pack the biggest punch, but the 1.2GHz quad-core chip is hardly a slouch.
While the Desire 500 does boast a 4.3-inch screen, it's unfortunately only 480 x 800, meaning a rather low 217ppi.
This is all packed into a 131.8 x 66.9 x 9.9mm plastic chassis, leading to a low 123g weight, and a rather inconspicuous footprint in your pocket. The HTC Desire 500 is ideal then, if you like wearing skinny jeans.
HTC also has also provided the Desire 500 with Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (so no dual band surfing), as well as NFC, GPS and 3G. Unfortunately, there is no 4G.
Design wise, the HTC Desire 500 is very visually reminiscent of the HTC One S. So much so, in fact, that we found it a little difficult to tell them apart.
The plastic casing wraps around the screen, causing us some difficulty when it came to removing it.
We passed it around to a few friends, and eventually they all realized that just pulling gently below the screen would ease it off.
A massive hint for this was that the screen doesn't sit flush within the casing. This is a minor niggle, but made the Desire 500 feel a lot less premium than it could have done.
Sat behind the screen is an 1800mAh battery, which is removable. We're getting ever-more skeptical about the need for a removable battery, but it is a nice touch for intense users.
The microSD slot (supporting up to 64GB) and microSIM port are also hidden in behind the wrap around case.
The Desire 500 is by no means an unattractive device. Our review model was white and red, but we did also get a chance to play with a white-and-blue one (which we preferred), and there is an all-black version.
We can't work out why HTC hasn't done a black and red version, as it's a color scheme we were big fans of on the HTC Sensation XE.
The red wraps around the edge of the Desire 500, as well as providing highlights to the camera and the HTC branding on the back.
Speaking of cameras, the Desire 500 doesn't come packing the same UltraPixel technology that we have seen adorning the entire One range. Instead, the HTC Desire 500 comes with an 8MP sensor, as well as a 1.6MP snapper on the front. Thankfully, there is an LED flash on the rear as well.
In the way of buttons, the Desire 500 comes with two soft keys, sat just below the screen. We felt that this made the handset look a little odd, given the massive gap between the back and home buttons.
Long pressing the home button doubles up as the menu key, but we can't see why HTC wouldn't just put in a dedicated menu button.
For physical keys, the power/lock button is placed in the upper left corner of the HTC Desire 500.
The volume keys are sat on the right hand side, integrated into the red band. This is a great design touch, especially as the small break in the band allows you to easily differentiate between the two buttons, without the need for a rocker.
We found that we were able to hit all the buttons easily one handed, a consequence of the smaller 4.3-inch screen.
HTC has also provided the Desire 500 with the obligatory 3.5mm headphone port (in the top right corner), and the microUSB in the centre of the base.
Overall we're impressed with the design of the HTC Desire 500. It is light, and the 4.3-inch screen means that it sits very nicely in the hand.
The screen not sitting flat with the casing is disappointing, as is the slight unbalanced feel of only having two buttons, but not enough to stop us taking another look.
MediaTek has been vocal about its new 1.7 GHz MT6592 System on a Chip (SoC), which it claims is the "world's first 
