UK banks and stores lined up for Android Pay launch in a few months

Android Pay will launch in the UK in a few months and Google has already lined up many local financial institutions. Pay will support MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards from the following banks:

With an Android Pay enabled phone you'll be able to ride the tube or fill up the car, get coffee or do the shopping, check in a hotel and so on.

Android Pay in the US now gets 1.5 million new registrations a month. Best Buy, Ticketmaster and many more support the system.

The Apple iPad Pro 9.7 has only 2GB of RAM

Apple made the 9.7-inch iPad Pro selling point for the device abundantly clear - it is apparently intended as a PC replacement. This did sound like kind of a stretch from the get go, considering the existence of the larger and more productivity-friendly 12.9-inch version of the same basic product. But as the smoke cleared, people started poking even more holes in the whole plan.

Yesterday, it became clear that the A9X chip powering the new iPad is underclocked and works at around 2.16 GHz, compared to the one inside the 12.9-inch model, that clocks in at 2.24GHz. But if that wasn't enough, today a few Geekbench screenshots have surfaced, showing that the new iPad Pro only has 2GB of RAM available, compared to 4GB in the 12.9-inch model.

Discussing such performance metrics has always been a taboo topic in the Apple realm and Cupertino will surely reaffirm its stance that iOS will run just as well on both devices. However, when you are going to toss around lofty statements of going after PC -rade productivity, this might be more of a valid discussion.

Android 6.0.1 update hitting Moto X Play units in Canada and India

Motorola's Moto X Play smartphone has started receiving the Android 6.0.1 update in Canada and India. The update includes the latest Android security patch as well as the new emoji pack.

In addition, the update also brings along the ability to launch the camera by double-pressing the power button and turn off and on the sound of the camera shutter. Finally, it also includes some stability-related improvements. The update weighs in at around 388MB.

In case you missed, the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update rolled out in India back in January, and in Canada back in December.

Verizon Galaxy Note Edge getting March security update

Verizon has started rolling out the March security update to Samsung Galaxy Note Edge units on its network. The update, which the carrier says only includes the latest Android security patch, bumps the device's software version to LRX22C.N915VVRU2BPA4.

Given that the update has just started rolling out, it may take some time before it hits your phone, so be patient. However, if you're feeling impatient, you can also manually check for the update by heading to the Settings menu on your device.

This comes less than a week after Verizon started rolling out the update to both Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge units on its network.

The iPhone 5s has apparently been discontinued

Looks like Apple has stopped selling the iPhone 5s as the device is no longer listed on the Cupertino-based company's official website. A quick looks reveals that the phone has been replaced by the newly-launched iPhone SE.

While we are yet to hear an official confirmation on this, the discontinuation shouldn't really come as a big surprise given that the iPhone SE not only looks almost exactly like the 5s, it is of course comparatively more powerful as well.

Released back in 2013, the iPhone 5s was powered by the Apple A7 chipset and sported a 4.0 inch (640 x 1136 pixel resolution display). It featured 8MP rear and 1.2MP front unit, and was available in 1GB RAM and 16/32/64 GB internal memory configuration.

Third party retailer such as Amazon are, however, still selling it.

Google offering free phone calls to Belgium and Turkey in light of recent events

Google has tweeted a few hours ago that it was going to make all calls to Belgium and Turkey free in response to the recent bombing in Brussels and the ongoing attacks of violence going on in Turkey.

Google says that all calls to Belgium and Turkey will be free through hangouts via the desktop page or respective platform’s (iOS or Android) hangouts app. Calls to landlines in either Turkey or Belgium will be free and all calls to Belgium’s major wireless carrier subscribers: Lycamobile, Mobistar, Proximus, and Telenet will be free as well.

Google has also been pushing out Google Now cards with transit information and direct links to the Government Crisis Centre for locals as well as posted the same information for related Google searches.

Thanks, for looking out Google!

BlackBerry Priv's UK price drops to £529.99

BlackBerry is all about the price cuts these days, it seems. Following the Passport's price drop in the US earlier, now we find out that the Priv has become cheaper to purchase over in the UK.

That's great news, because its original SIM-free price, £559, was a bit much. On the other hand, don't expect miracles just yet - the drop isn't a big one.

That said, you can now buy a BlackBerry Priv in the UK for only £529.99, still in SIM-free and unlocked form. It's now being listed at that price both at Clove and Amazon.

The Priv runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, and it comes with a 5.4-inch QHD touchscreen, an 18 MP rear camera with OIS and dual-tone LED flash, a 2 MP selfie cam, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808 at the helm, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, and a 3,410 mAh battery. Its main claim to fame is the sliding full physical QWERTY keyboard.

Google Search US English voice updated to sound less robotic

Google is updating the voice behind the Search for US English. The new voice is noticeably better, as it is smoother and there is less gaps between words.

The change appears to be in the server-side part of the Google Text-to-Speech engine, since there aren't any updates for the Google TTS and Google app in the Play Store.

LG 360 Cam on pre-order in the US at $200

The LG 360 Cam, the compact photo sphere imager, will cost £200 in the UK, which according to the Transatlantic exchange rate means the US price will be $200.

Sure enough, B&H is taking pre-orders at just that price. No shipping date is listed, but the LG G5 ships out on April 1.

You still have a chance to score a free LG 360 Cam if you buy an LG G5 from T-Mobile by April 5.

Xiaomi unveils curved 65" Mi TV 3S with 4K Samsung screen

5.9mm thickness, metal body, 3,840 x 2,160px resolution, 65" screen size. No, I didn't drop the decimal point, this is Xiaomi's new Mi TV 3S curved television.

The screen is sourced from Samsung and promises 4,000:1 contrast, 176° viewing angle, 78% NTSC color gamut coverage.

The TV is powered by Android, running on an MStar 6A928 chipset. You may not have heard of it, but it has four Cortex-A17 CPU cores, a Mali-T760MP4 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Storage is limited, 8GB, but you get one USB 3.0 port to hook up an external drive, plus one USB 2.0. Or you could use Wi-Fi ac or Ethernet to connect to your NAS.

The chipset supports H.265 decoding up to 4K @ 60fps along with Dolby and DTS audio. Xiaomi is throwing in a free Mi TV bar too with an "independent 6-piece sound system" (2x dome tweeter + 4x 2.5" woofers).

The Xiaomi Mi TV 3S will retail for CNY 9,000 - $1,385 or €1,235.

There's a 43" flat version too. This one has a 1080p screen from LG or AUO. The chipset is older - Cortex-A9 and Mali-450 based - with 1080p @ 60fps decoding (H.265).

This one is CNY 1,800 - $277 or €250 (yes, the price difference is huge, but so is the difference in size and resolution).

Both the 65" and 43" TVs will launch in China on March 31.

Google to pull the plug on its Chrome app launcher

Google has announced that the Chrome app launcher - which the company claims makes Chrome apps easy to open outside the browser - will soon be removed from all major platforms, including Windows, Mac, and Linux.

As for the reason, the search giant cited little usage of the product, or in other words, the launcher has been a complete flop show. It will, however, continue to exist on Chrome OS, Google said.

The complete removal process will take several months. "Beginning in a few weeks, Chrome will no longer enable the launcher when users first install a Chrome app. Anyone who currently has the launcher will receive a notice informing them that the launcher will be going away. In July, existing instances of the launcher will be removed," the company detailed in a blog post.

LG G5 CAM Plus module to cost $70 in US

While we already know how much it costs in the UK, we now have information on how muchthe LG G5 CAM Plus module will set you back in the United States. The G5 "friend" has been listed by retailer B&H photo on its website for $69.99.

That, if you recall, is less than the $85 price tag LG Korean officially revealed for the device last week. Over in the UK, the accessory is priced at £69.

What's worth mentioning here is that B&H is currently not selling the device - it's available to pre-order. Alternatively, you can also register to get notified when the module is in stock.

In case you don't already know, the CAM Plus is a camera grip that adds 1,100mAh battery and hardware controls including a hardware shutter key, a video button, and zoom dial.