Samsung Pay went official with the unveil of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge and recent report in Korean media suggests the company will employ unusual tactics to promote its usage. Unlike its competitors, Samsung will not charge any fees for transactions made with Pay in South Korea.

The step is taken towards increasing the awareness of the Samsung Pay service and the company will virtually make no profit from transactions. The credit card companies that Samsung has partnered with won’t be charged either. Read more »

While most handset makers are reducing the pre-installed ‘bloatware’ on the Android devices, Google has added the social traffic and navigation app – Waze in the basket of Google Mobile Services (GMS). Now handset makers will be able to pre-install the Waze app as part of the GMS bundle on the newly sold Android devices.

Waze provides smart navigation solution to its users thanks to the crowd-sourced data collected by those very users. The data includes traffic conditions, road obstacles, or even police traps and is seeded to users in real time through the app. Read more »

Today the new version of the all-important Google Play services framework was announced through the official Android developers blog. This new version is a major update, hence the version number 7.0 and brings about numerous new features, APIs and optimizations to existing features, which will allow both developers and users to make the most of their applications, mobile hardware and the services Google provides.

For anybody not exactly sure what Google play services is or what it does – it is probably best known as the app that helps you seamlessly update your other applications through the Play store. It is actually far more powerful than a simple update delivery system. It is actually a whole framework, or collection of functions or API’s which allow developers to easily access various hardware features on your device, as well as remote Google features, such as maps, authentication and others within their applications. Read more »

Qualcomm has introduced a new breakthrough in the fingerprint scanning technology called Snapdragon Sense ID.

Unlike the competitive solutions, the new tech relies on ultrasonic 3D scanning and works through all kind of surfaces such as glass, sapphire, metal, aluminum and plastic. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge were announced today in Barcelona. They both feature a new mobile service for payments called Samsung Pay and yes, you’ve guessed it right, is a competitor to Apple Pay.

Samsung Pay works with NFC and a newly developed technology called MST – Magnetic Secure Transmission. The MST will allow the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge owners to use their phones on most of the existing terminals and merchants won’t need to upgrade their payment solution. Read more »

Google announced Android for Work device program. The initiative will allow Android users to utilize the same device for business and personal use by making the search giant’s mobile OS secure and easily manageable.

The new platform unsurprisingly works best with Android 5.0 Lollipop devices due to the platform’s built-in support for work profiles. Read more »

Google’s innovative Inbox by Gmail will soon be available to business customers. Next month, The search giant will begin offering the solution to a “small group Google Apps customers.”

Administrators of Google Apps for Work will need to apply for an invitation to the program. Read more »

Uber has announced a partnership with a map-based mobile safety app – SafetiPin to focus on the passenger safety and launch a pilot project starting February 25 and will stretch for 5 months in New Delhi, India

Mobile security app SafetiPin’s trained security auditors will work with Uber designated partner-drivers to capture night conditions with camera phones mounted on vehicles. These security auditors will also collect location data based on nine parameters – openness, visibility, luminance, walk path, crowd, security, gender diversity and location density, to derive the safety score. Read more »

Google Play Store has introduced a new promotional offer on hit Hollywood movies in HD for $5 each. Buying a digital copy from Google Play Store will let you download and watch them any where, any time.

The list of hit HD titles include Inception, 2001: Space Odyssey, The Matrix, Napolean Dynamite, The Amazing Spiderman, The Hangover, and many more. Read more »

The Google Play store for Android is about to receive an updated search bar. The new setup was teased by a Google UI engineer and is due to arrive in the near future.

The new search bar once again sits on top of the application and feature the “Google play” sign. Read more »

Uber has announced that it’s launching an on-demand food-delivery service in the Spanish city of Barcelona. Dubbed UberEATS, the service will get you the best meals from the best local restaurants in under 10 minutes, the company claims.

The announcement marks the first time that the San Francisco-based company has launched a meal delivery service outside of its home country – the service is already available in Los Angeles, but under the name UberFRESH. Read more »

With Valentine’s Day almost upon us, Microsoft decided to release a couple of new promotional videos for Cortana, its very own virtual personal assistant. As you’d expect given the Valentine’s Day theme, the ads are all about love. The Lumia 635 smartphone is featured in them too, though oddly with a Microsoft logo replacing Nokia’s.

In the first video, one man is happy that despite having broken up with his girlfriend around Valentine’s, which isn’t fun, he’s quickly managed to find someone new. Not only that, but he’s apparently blown away by how well she knows him. Read more »

Less than a week ago Google announced that its Helpouts platform will enable live-chatting with salespersons at the Play Store. Now in Malaysia Samsung announced that its Galaxy Live app will offer 24/7 live chats with customer care.

The app has been available for a while in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan and New Zealand and has over 3 million downloads. Read more »

Uber has launched its services in Birmingham, making it the fourth British city after London, Manchester and Leeds where the ride-sharing service is now available.

A ride from Birmingham New Street Station to Selly Oak will cost you £5-7 ($7.7-10.7), while that from the Bullring to Edgbaston and City Centre to Birmingham Airport will cost £4-6 ($6.2-9.2) and £14-17 ($21.5-26.1), respectively. As a gesture of goodwill, the company is also offering up to £15 ($23) off on first ride in the city. Read more »

Facebook and Reliance Communications have launched the Internet.org application in India. Through this app, Reliance users will be able to access 38 sites for free from their phones, i.e., without incurring data charges.

The list of sites includes Aaj Tak, AccuWeather, BBC News, Bing Search, Cleartrip, Daily Bhaskar, Dictionary.com, ESPN Cricinfo, Facebook,Hungama Music, IBNLive, India Today, Maharashtra Times, NDTV, OLX, Times of India, Wikipedia, wikiHow, and many more. Read more »