The third quarter of the year is one of the worst in recent Samsung history, but the bad news isn’t over. New data emerged that its ChatOn service is losing ground. According to Korea media citing Samsung officials, the company plans to restructure unprofitable businesses and ChatOn is one of them.

As a result, the chat service will be shut down in certain markets, where it isn’t profitable. Exactly which these regions are and how much ChatOn is costing Samsung isn’t revealed. Read more »

After repeatedly bashing the MacBook Air in its Surface 3 commercials, Microsoft released yet another ad that takes a swing at Apple. The holiday themed video puts Nokia Lumia 830 side by side with Apple iPhone 6 Plus in a battle of virtual assistants.

The clip consists of showcasing Cortana’s unique features via rhetorical questions towards Siri. Read more »

With the holiday shopping season set to kick into high gear, Sony decided to sweeten up the Z3 family of Android devices even further. Going forward the company will bundle three free movies with Sony Xperia Z3, Z3 Compact, and Z3 Tablet Compact.

The trio of free movies will include “Ghostbusters,” “Captain Phillips,” and “The Amazing Spider Man 2.” Read more »

PayPal released an official app for the Pebble smartwatch lineup. The application is now available to install on the original Pebble and the Pebble Steel.

PayPal for Pebble allows users to check-in to pay or settle through a payment code with all merchants that accept the payment method. Read more »

The makers of the popular instant messaging app Viber announced Public Chats. Dubbed social entertainment channel by its makers, the feature allows users to share conversations and content on mobile devices.

Public Chats will include live discussions with personalities and various celebrities. Read more »

In a move that sounds like an April Fool’s joke, Snapchat has launched a new feature called Snapcash that will let you send money to your friends by adding a dollar sign and entering an amount in your pictures. Yeah, it’s totally legit.

Snapchat has joined forces with Square, makers of the popular Square Cash, to let you add your debit card to the app and then send money to your friends. As mentioned before, it’s as simple as adding a dollar sign and the amount in your messages and sending it to your friends and the money is transferred from your bank account to theirs. The payment part is handled by Square, who has more expertise in this matter than Snapchat. Read more »

Apple Pay, the mobile payment system that Tim Cook said will change the way we pay for things forever is starting to gain traction in the US. The service has only been available for a month but already accounts for 50% of the tap-to-pay transactions at McDonalds – the fast food chain supports the service in 14,000 restaurants now.

Grocery chain Whole Foods has also seen plenty of Apple Pay action – more than 150,000 transactions already. Walgreens hasn’t given any specific numbers but has also revealed that mobile payments doubled since Apple Pay came to be. Read more »

The YouTube app for iOS and Android has been updated with a new music homepage, which feeds you an endless YouTube Mix based on your favorite music videos.

The new section also contains recommended music playlists based on what you’re into and playlists of trending music across YouTube. Read more »

Samsung has announced a new technology called Flow. Well, new would be a bit misleading since it is similar to Continuity that Apple launched with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite.

Flow has three basic features. The Transfer feature lets you push content between your Samsung devices. You can send a document or a web page from your phone to your tablet, start navigating on your phone and then push it to your Gear S, start watching a movie on a tablet and then push it to your Samsung television, etc. You can also start a video call on one device and then continue it on another. Read more »

The Hands-free feature available in the Motorola Moto X, which reads out loud your notifications, is most probably coming to the Nexus series with the Android 5.0 Lollipop update.

Apparently some users have found the Hands-free option in their Settings menu right after updating to Lollipop, only to disappear as soon as you close the menu. Read more »

Going forward you will know when people have read your WhatsApp messages. An stealthy update to the popular messenger brought the nifty feature onboard.

The new trick is as simple as its gets. Read more »

Dropbox and Microsoft have announced that they’ve teamed up to make your mobile productivity experience better on iOS and Android. Soon the Dropbox app will work with Microsoft’s Office apps for the aforementioned platforms, and viceversa.

You’ll be able to edit Office files from the Dropbox app as well as sync changes across your devices. All edits will be automatically saved to your Dropbox. Read more »

Google appears to have a cross-platform local file sharing service on the way. Dubbed Copresence, the upcoming offering will reportedly be a cross between Apple AirDrop and Android Beam.

Copresence will allow iOS and Android users to exchange a plethora of information that includes files, messages, photos, and directions among others. Read more »

BlackBerry’s Messenger app has received an update today, which brings with it two new features. Timed Messages allows you to set a timer when sending a message. When that expires, the message you sent will disappear from the BBM chat.

With Message Retraction, you can ‘take back’ something you sent – after the fact. The message disappears from the chat for the person you sent it to as soon as you retract it. Read more »

Today Google has announced a new update for its Play Movies & TV app for Android. The new version of the app will roll out over the next week, and will bring with it a couple of important new features.

First off, like all of the recently updated apps made by Google, Play Movies & TV will get a do-over inspired by the company’s own Material Design guidelines. Read more »