Sony’s original SmartWatch 3 that comes with a silicone wristband has now become cheaper by a cool $50. That’s only true if you buy yours from Verizon, though. Sure, the carrier may not be the first retailer you think of when considering a wearable purchase, but right now it does have the best price for the SmartWatch 3.

You can grab one for just $199.99, which compares pretty favorably to the normal selling price of $249.99. You should know however that there’s no indication of whether this is a limited time deal or not. Read more »

After quite a few months since Google first unveiled its Material Design guidelines, Facebook has decided to follow them somewhat. The world’s biggest social network is now testing a slightly enhanced look for its Android app, one that has been infused with a few Material Design elements.

As you can see, a big blue floating action button is present. Once you tap that a few options show up, which were previously available to you through a floating blue bar at the bottom of the screen. This bundled the “Take a photo” and “Upload a photo” items together, while “Where I am” used to be known as “Check in”. The old “Status” option from the floating bar is now replaced with “Write a post”. Read more »

Google’s previous Android ad employed cute animals, but the latest installment in the company’s “Be Together. Not The Same” campaign for its mobile OS is really different from that. No animals to be seen here, well, at least not as many animals.

This ad is called “Handshake” and it really is all about the handshake. Or fist bump. Or plenty of other ways in which people greet each other nowadays. 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 »

One of the earliest virtual reality headsets – the View-Master – is getting a 21st century makeover. Mattel has partnered with Google to create the new View-Master, which is based on Google Cardboard and will offer a kid-friendly, immersive experiences.

The new product comes with a modernized version the fairly recognizable shape and has even kept reels. Read more »

Microsoft introduced a new type of desktop background in Windows 10 for phones – the wallpaper now spreads over the background space, while the tiles become transparent so you can enjoy the picture behind them.

While this new options was welcomed by lots of people, some of the users still preferred the Windows Phone 8.1 way where the image you’ve selected was displayed on the tiles instead of behind. It was quite a cool and unique feature. 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 »

The Samsung Gear app has received an update, bumping it to version 2.2.15011799. Although there isn’t any changelog associated with it, Sammobile is reporting that the update likely brings along fixes for issues related to Android Lollipop compatibility.

Earlier, the app was failing to automatically reconnect to a paired smartwatch after losing connection; the report confirms that the issue has been fixed. Read more »

Android Lollipop experiences less application crashes when compared to Apple’s iOS 8, according to a latest report from app performance management company Crittercism. While app crash rate on Lollipop is 2%, that on iOS 8 is 2.2%.

Not only this, the data also reveals that even iOS 7 is better than iOS 8 in terms of app crashes, having only a 1.9% rate. On the other hand, Lollipop is better than the previous Android versions, with both KitKat and Ice Cream Sandwich having an application crash rate of 2.6%. Read more »

Apple brought two-step authentication to FaceTime and iMessage. The Cupertino giant has been using the feature for iTunes and iCloud accounts since 2013.

Going forward, iMessage and FaceTime users will need to enter a second security code after their user name and password. Read more »

Apple officially doubled the size limit for iOS applications. Going forward, App Store package submissions can carry a maximum size of 4GB.

The new iOS app size limit marks a serous jump from the previously allowed 2GB. Read more »

Sony is apparently getting ready to launch a new SmartBand, to either complement or succeed the SWR10 in its lineup of wearable accessories. A Sony SmartBand with the model number SWR12 has recently passed through the FCC’s rigorous testing, which is how we know about it.

Compared to the original SWR10, the new SWR12 seems to add just one feature, though it may be a very important one. The new SmartBand will have a built-in heart rate sensor, it turns out. Read more »

Today HTC has decided to issue an update to its Zoe app. This has been available in the Google Play Store for non-HTC Android devices since last summer. The update, which is already up for grabs in Google’s app store, brings with it support for Android 5.0 Lollipop, as well as the Motorola Nexus 6 and the HTC Nexus 9.

So if you own one of those you can now use Zoe, HTC’s social network wannabe based around video highlights. Or if you have another device that runs Lollipop already. This isn’t the only new feature, however. Read more »

Facebook has added a new feature today, and it’s already rolling out to accounts in the US. Basically, you can now add a “legacy contact” in the Security section of your account. This will be the digital ‘heir’ to your Facebook presence after you die.

Once someone lets Facebook know that you’ve passed away, the company will ‘memorialize’ the account and starting at this point the legacy contact will be able to do certain things with it. Read more »

After yesterday’s map data update, Nokia’s Here team has some more news for us today – namely, that the Here maps app for Android has now left the beta state. As of the latest update to the app, which is already live in the Google Play Store, the beta tag has been put to rest.

So it looks like Nokia now feels very confident about the stability and performance of its app on Google’s mobile operating system. The update brings with it some new things, naturally. Read more »