Hot on the heels of its Android app grabbing more than 1 billion downloads, Facebook Messenger has now passed 700 million monthly active users. The previous such milestone was reached in March, when Messenger had 600 million monthly active users. And before that, in November of last year, the app boasted 500 million monthly active users.

The information comes straight from Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, who revealed the new figure at an investor meeting. The discrepancy in the numbers (compared to the 1 billion installs on Android alone) obviously comes from the fact that not all the people who installed Facebook Messenger are using it on a monthly basis. Read more »

After a few leaks and some teasing, Samsung made the limited edition Iron Man themed Galaxy S6 edge official back in May. It went on sale last month in the company’s native South Korea, and now it’s also become available in China.

That’s where one person paid a whopping $91,635 for one such smartphone. The individual shelled out that amount following an auction for the unit, which was held by JD.com, one of China’s biggest online retailers. The auction went up to $91,635 after 92,429 bids. Read more »

Huawei announced its first smartwatch at MWC at the beginning of March, and back then the Chinese company only mentioned a rough release time frame of ‘around the middle of the year’. And here we are now, almost at that point, wondering when the Huawei Watch will be out in stores. It turns out that won’t happen as soon as many would have liked.

According to a report from Chinese media, Huawei has decided to delay the availability of the wearable until September or October. This apparently is because of certain “incompatibility issues with Android Wear”. Read more »

Apple’s “one more thing…” moment at today’s developer conference was all about its much rumored music streaming service. It’s called Apple Music, and it has finally been made official. Apple Music is an on demand streaming offering, but it also comes with Beats One, a live radio station that’s being broadcast worldwide 24/7 from three cities – New York, Los Angeles, and London.

Apple Music features Connect, which is a way for artists to upload music, videos, and photos directly to their fans. This is supposed to make Apple Music stand out from its competitors by creating a more direct connection between artists and listeners, just like the name “Connect” implies. And through Connect, you can ‘follow’ artists a la Twitter, to be notified when they post new things. Read more »

At its developer conference today, Apple has announced that its payment service is indeed headed to the UK, just like the rumors said it was. Apple Pay will become available in the UK next month.

Apple is also making progress with Apple Pay’s adoption in the US, with more than 1 million retail locations expected to accept the solution by July. And in the fall, Discover will bring Apple Pay to its members. Read more »

If you’re in Spain and love Real Madrid, this might be pretty interesting. There’s a new tablet out over there, and it’s one that comes with a whole lot of Real Madrid branding. Microsoft’s name is also associated with it, though apparently it isn’t a Microsoft product – instead, it’s made by an unnamed Spanish OEM but Microsoft and Real Madrid are the “featured brands”.

This confusing explanation aside, the Real Madrid tablet is now up for grabs starting at €199, in three different designs. Unfortunately for Real Madrid fans who live elsewhere, its release is so far confined to Spain. Read more »

Today Facebook started rolling out its Lite app for Android across Asia. The app first surfaced without an official announcement back in January, and so far it’s only been available in eight countries in Asia and Africa.

In the coming weeks, however, you should be able to install it wherever you are in Asia. It will also arrive in more places in Africa, as well as parts of Latin America and Europe in the near future. Read more »

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Samsung go the iPhone-bashing route in its ads, but now the Korean company is back at it. A couple of new commercials have been posted to its official YouTube channel, and they both basically compare the Galaxy S6 edge to the iPhone 6.

You can probably imagine which device is better in Samsung’s perspective. Not all 6s are created equal, it appears, as in this case 6 > 6. Read more »

Now that it’s finally available for Android as well, Periscope is getting a new update for iOS. With version 1.1, which is already up for grabs from the iTunes App Store, Twitter’s live video streaming app gains an important new feature.

Namely, Periscope now lets you explore broadcasts from around the world on a zoomable map. Additionally, replays are instantly available, without the need to wait for them to upload after a broadcast finishes. Read more »

Just a few days ago we told you about Oppo’s deal with FC Barcelona, which means the Chinese smartphone maker will be the Catalan football club’s sponsor for three years. And now Oppo is in the mood to celebrate the tie-up with FC Barcelona, since it’s decided to give away an R7.

To win the smartphone, all you need to do is go to the special website for the competition and click on the big green “Support” button. That will then open a widget which will guide you through the rest of the process. It looks like you might need to do some sharing over social media and whatnot. Read more »

Today Apple has announced a few important details if you’re craving its first wearable. First off, all Apple Watch orders placed through May will be shipped to customers within the next two weeks, as the company is trying to clear its backlog. The sole exception to this is the 42 mm Watch in Space Black Stainless Steel with Space Black Link Bracelet. It’s unclear when orders of this particular model will ship.

In around two weeks from today, Apple will also finally start selling the Watch in its physical stores. You probably shouldn’t expect all versions of the wearable to be available in all stores, however. The company says “some models” will be making it to Apple retail locations, though. Read more »

Last month Verizon’s version of the LG G Pad 8.3 got its Lollipop update, and starting today the exact same thing will happen for the LG G Pad 10.1 sold by the carrier. Obviously though, as we’re dealing with an over-the-air update, it might take a few days before the notification pops up on all units.

Big Red has been offering the G Pad 10.1 LTE since November of last year. After applying the Lollipop update, the tablet will run Android 5.0.2 and software version VK70022A. Read more »

The second generation Moto X, the one launched in 2014, is now the subject of an interesting deal over in India. You can purchase the device from Flipkart, the country’s biggest online retailer, for just INR 21,999.

This currently amounts to approximately $343 or €305. But what’s most important is that it’s 26% less than the normal price of the device for India, which is INR 29,999 ($468 or €415). Read more »

Now that LG has launched the new Watch Urbane (which we’ve just reviewed), the Korean company seems to be ready to simply let the G Watch R go. Its previous wearable has started disappearing from retailers, and it looks effectively like it’s been discontinued at this point.

Asked about the situation, LG officials have apparently confirmed that the G Watch R is being wound down. Existing stocks will be sold, of course, but production may have already stopped. Read more »

If at some point you’ve bought a Beats Pill XL speaker, you might want to send it back to Apple (which now owns Beats as you may know). That’s because the company known more for its iPhones and Macs has had to issue a voluntary recall of all Beats Pill XL units ever sold across the US and Canada.

The reason for that has to do with the fact that the speaker’s battery can overheat, thus posing a fire hazard. All color versions of the wireless speaker are affected, as you’d imagine (the internals are obviously the same). Read more »