Report says Samsung Pay is most-used mobile payments app in South Korea

With an average usage of 41 times per user, Samsung Pay was the top mobile payments app last month in South Korea, according to a local app ranker WiseApp.

It's worth mentioning that the research only took into account Android phone users as iOS usage is said to be pretty low in South Korea. Samsung Pay has a total of 2.59 million users in the country.

The service - which is currently available in the US, South Korea, and China, and due to arrivein Singapore this quarter - had a total of 5 million users globally in February.

Full deployment of Droid Turbo 2 Marshmallow update begins

Motorola has announced that the company has started "full deployment" of the Droid Turbo 2Marshmallow update. The announcement - as usual - came in the form of a Google+ post from the company's senior director of software product management David Schuster.

But, didn't the roll-out start early last month, you might ask. Well, that's a valid question, which unfortunately Schuster didn't answer in his post directly, although we assume that the term "full deployment" means that not all Droid Turbo 2 units received the update at that time.

So yeah, this seems to be (and we really hope it is) the final roll-out. Head to the Source links below to access release notes and the update page on Verizon's official website.

Microsoft says will continue supporting Windows 10 Mobile "for many years," new devices coming

Microsoft's sales numbers might suggest that its Windows 10 Mobile platform is taking its last breaths, but the Redmond, Washington-based company seems to be in no mood to retreat.

In an email sent out to several company executives and partners, the executive vice president of Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group Terry Myerson has made it clear that the company is committed to the OS platform and is also working on new mobile devices.

Here's an excerpt from the email:

I understand that you are hearing concerns from certain partners about Microsoft's commitment to the mobile space.

Let me be very clear: We are committed to deliver Windows 10 on mobile devices with small screen running ARM processors.

We are currently in development of our next generation products and I wanted to reconfirm our commitment to Windows 10 Mobile. We believe in this product's value to business customers and it is our intention to support the Windows 10 Mobile platform for many years. We have a device roadmap to support that from Microsoft as well as our OEM partners who will also be selling an expanded lineup of phone devices based on this platform.

Microsoft has been long-rumored to be working on a device dubbed Surface Phone. In fact, the company has dropped several hints in the past effectively confirming a Surface branded phone is indeed in the making, with CMO Chris Capossella even calling it a "breakthrough device."

Moto X (2016) gets benchmarked with Snapdragon 820 and 4GB of RAM

This year's Motorola flagship smartphone is clearly already in development, and now it looks like someone in possession of a prototype decided to run Geekbench on it. Hence, the benchmark's online database now lists the Motorola XT1650.

What's most likely hiding behind that model number is the successor to the Moto X Style / Moto X Pure Edition from 2015 - this year's Moto X iteration.

The handset rocks 4GB of RAM and it's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 SoC, as you'd expect from a high-end offering. The prototype in question unsurprisingly runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

The scores it's received are in line with what we've seen for other handsets sporting the Snapdragon 820, so no surprises there. The phone could become official on June 9, at an event that's already been confirmed by Lenovo's CEO. It may even launch running Android N, since Google is reportedly going to release its new OS iteration sooner this year.

Oppo Find 9 now rumored to be unveiled in June with 4K display

Oppo has launched quite a few smartphones in the past year or so, but none can truthfully be called top of the line in terms of specs. The last Oppo flagship was the Find 7, which was released in May 2014. So, understandably, January 2015 is when information about the Chinese company working on the Find 9, its would-be successor, first got out.

Yet 2015 came to an end without the Find 9 ever getting official. Towards the end of the year we heard that the mythical smartphone would only surface in 2016, so now there's a new rumor out of China talking about it.

Apparently the Oppo Find 9 will finally be announced in June, with availability following soon after that. As this is an unconfirmed rumor at the moment, do take it with a pinch of salt.

The Find 9 may allegedly cost as much as CNY 3,998, which at the current exchange rates means $615 or €545. It could even sport a 4K-capable display, along with 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 SoC running things. The new and improved Super VOOC fast charging should be in too, as well as a camera with SmartSensor image stabilization.

Acer Liquid M330 with Windows 10 Mobile is out in the US for $99

Last September at IFA Acer announced the Liquid M330 smartphone running Windows 10 Mobile. The phone then became available in certain markets a couple of months later, as an entry-level offering for those who want to experience Microsoft's latest mobile operating system on the cheap.

And starting today you can do just that even if you live in the US. That's because Microsoft's online store is now offering up the Acer Liquid M330 for sale to eager buyers.

It's priced at $99, unlocked and contract-free of course. It only seems to be available in grey/black. It comes with a 4.5-inch 854x480 touchscreen, a pair of 5 MP cameras (one on the front, one on the back), Qualcomm's Snapdragon 210 chipset (with a 1.1 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU), 1GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable storage, LTE, and a 2,000 mAh battery.

LeEco has reportedly sold one million Le 2, Le 2 Pro, and Le Max 2 units in two hours

Last week Chinese up-and-comer LeEco announced a trio of new smartphones, the Le 2, Le 2 Pro, and Le Max 2. And according to a report out of the country, today the first flash sale for the three handsets took place in China, with a whopping one million total units up for grabs.

With such a huge number of devices in stock you'd expect this to take longer than your average flash sale, but no. LeEco apparently sold all of its 1 million-strong inventory in a mere two hours. The exact breakup of sales isn't known, so it's unclear how many of those were Le 2 handsets, for example (which is the cheapest of the three), and how many Le Max 2 flagship units were available.

Still, if true, this is a very big accomplishment from a company that has only recently entered the smartphone business. Then again, LeEco's new phones offer great specs at very good prices, along with the all-important full metal body (with quirks such as the lack of a 3.5mm headset jack though). So maybe its success isn't that surprising after all.

It will be interesting to find out when LeEco plans on offering its products internationally, and whether it can replicate its success in China overseas.

Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition is now available for $369.99

Back in February, Meizu and Ubuntu announced the latest product of their long-running cooperation - the Ubuntu-powered version of the Meizu PRO 5. And now this smartphone has finally gone on sale.

You can pick one up from JD's English website, if you agree to shell out $369.99. Sure, Meizu may have already announced the Pro 6, which acts as a successor of sorts to the PRO 5 (despite being smaller), but that model only runs Android for now (and there hasn't yet been word of an Ubuntu version).

So if you'd like to purchase what is still the most powerful Ubuntu phone ever, then the Meizu PRO 5 is it. The Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition comes with a 5.7-inch 1080p AMOLED touchscreen, a 21 MP rear camera, a 5 MP front snapper, Samsung's Exynos 7420 chipset at the helm (with an octa-core CPU clocked at up to 2.1 GHz), 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, dual-SIM slots, 4G, and a 3,050 mAh battery.

Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact receives Marshmallow update too

Earlier this month, Sony finally started to send out the update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow for the devices in the Xperia Z3 family, with one notable exception - the Z3 Tablet Compact. Back then the company didn't say anything about the Marshmallow release for the slate, which understandably angered its owners. But all's well that ends well, as they say. Today the rollout of the new Android iteration has started for the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact as well.

The new build coming your way over-the-air has the version number 23.5.A.0.570. It's currently making its way to both LTE-capable variations of the tablet (model numbers SGP621 and SGP641), and also to those with Wi-Fi-only connectivity (SGP611, SGP612).

Obviously it might take some time before the rollout is complete and the update reaches all Z3 Tablet Compact units out there. What's more, it's probably phased depending on market and carrier, so where you bought your tablet could influence how soon you see Marshmallow running on it.

BlackBerry Priv gets Android 6.0 Marshmallow

For the few of you that have one, BlackBerry has released the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the Priv. This is for devices sold in the US and Canada (STV100-1) as well as the UK and France (STV100-4). For carrier devices (STV100-2 and 3), the update will launch May 3.

The update brings the usual Marshmallow goodies, including Doze, which improves battery life. BlackBerry added additional security to the phone and says it works with carriers so they can provide monthly security updates.

The Hub is more secure with S/MIME email signing and encryption. It also supports Slack (a workplace chat app that has grown in popularity), Skype, as well as social network Pinterest.

The physical keyboard now supports swipe input too (a first on a hardware keyboard). BlackBerry Priv's on-screen keyboard does swipe input too.

The camera now features 24fps modes for 1080p and 720p, plus a 120fps slow-motion mode. The autofocus is slightly faster, but image quality is largely unchanged.

Marshmallow starts hitting LG Class (a.k.a Zero)

LG has started pushing out the Marshmallow update to its Class smartphone (which is more widely known as the LG Zero). Currently rolling out in South Korea, it's quite a big update that brings Android 6.0 and a host of changes to the UI.

The update optimizes the device's stand-by endurance by limiting data consumption when the phone is left unused for a long time. The Knock Code feature has been improved as well.

While app-related security has been enhanced, users will be now also be able to temporarily block notifications and sounds of some or all apps. Moving on, the update also brings automatic brightness control, as well as some reminders-related tweaks. Managing Google settings has been made easier as well.

Post update, you will also notice that the LG Q+ and Bridge apps have been renamed to LG Memo Capture+ and AirDrive, respectively.

The One lives on - HTC One S9 is official with a 5-inch FullHD display and Helio X10 SoC

HTC went out and threw a curve ball by launching a smartphone no one was expecting. A couple of weeks after we were treated to the proper flagship HTC 10, we now have the One S9.

A unit less than the current top-end number, the new smartphone also gets to keep the One moniker, joining the One M9, A9, E9, X9, with a plus here and there and a Supreme Camera on top.

As a member of the previous generation it also has similar styling to the M9 - the bold chamfer on the 10's back is nowhere to be found. In fact, it's very much impossible to tell the S9 apart from the M9 by looking at two devices' backs. It's on the front where changes have been made, most notably the speaker meshes have been replaced by slits.

The display, on the other hand, is the same 5-inch FullHD Super LCD unit, with unspecified Gorilla Glass layer on top. Inside, there's a Mediatek Helio X10 powering things, its 2GHZ octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU paired with 2GB or RAM.

Internal storage is rather scant at 16GB, 9.24GB available to the user, HTC says. There is a microSD slot for expansion, though, and even if the company keeps saying its phones support up to 2TB, we're yet to see cards beyond 200GB.

You get a 13MP primary camera on the back, not the One M9's 21MP shooter. Looking at the specsheet, the f/2.0 aperture, 28mm equivalent focal length, and OIS, it sounds a lot like the setup of the One A9. The front-facing camera is the UltraPixel flavor, again straight from the A9 - 4MP, 2 μm pixels, f/2.0 aperture, 26.8mm equivalent focal length.

At 144.6 x 69.7 x 10.1 mm, the body of the One S9 measures almost precisely the same as the M9, except for an increase in thickness by half a millimeter. We're unsure who's the culprit, as battery capacity is the same at 2,840mAh. On the hardware front you're also getting BoomSound speakers, and the proper kind too - stereo. What you'd be missing out on though, is fingerprint recognition.

The HTC One S9 comes with a full host of connectivity options including nine LTE bands with Cat.4 speeds, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4.1 and GPS/GLONASS/Beidou support. It launches with Android Marshmallow on board, with the due HTC Sense enhancements.

It all sounds like a pretty great midranger on paper, but we're not sure its price is doing it any favors. Listed at €499 in Germany, it may have a hard time competing with equally capable, but substantially more affordable offerings. Barring carrier deals and potential price cuts down the line, that is.