Apple Pay is shaping up to be a top priority for Cupertino. Ever since it first saw the light of day, about a year ago, the US giant has been going through hoops to spread the platform and enforce it, along with its steep commissions on to banks and often distrustful retailers alike.

And if there is one thing Apple is undoubtedly brilliant at, it is pushing products, so quite naturally, after a lot of hard work and grinding Apple Pay is now growing in popularity in the US, as well as abroad. But, while getting support in the UK and Canada hasn’t really proven to be such a major challenge, China has remained tightly sealed off to the payment service, at least up until now that is.

A new report suggests that Apple might have finally managed to permeate the vast Chinese market and is now closer to releasing Apple Pay there than ever. Apparently Cupertino has already registered an entity within the Shanghai free-trade zone that will be charged with coordinating Apple Pay. It is called Apple Technology Service Shanghai Ltd. and was registered on June 10, as the Shanghai government’s company-registration database confirms.

Its official business operations description includes – “consulting, services and system integration in the field of payments”, which is all the evidence we need to prove that Apple is making progress. To give you a little backstory on the matter – operating a payment service within China must be sanctioned by the government and approved by the central bank. Apple had initially planned to push a partnership with UnionPay – which governs all NFC payments within the country, but negotiations between the two sides have been slow and unfruitful and government regulations and security concerns prevented Apple from reaching the final deal, initially planned for March 2015.

Since then, Apple has also been trying to forge a partnership with China’s own Alibaba. This was viewed as a potential path to introducing Apple Pay in China, through an integration with the company’s own Alipay system. This however does not solve the problem as UnionPay controls the NFC payment system in the country so there is no going around the regulations.

The founding of this new $13.4 million capital subsidiary, however, is a clear indication that Apple has managed to somehow move things along, meaning that it might finally have access to China’s vast market, with over 400 million digital payment users on Alipay alone. Recently, Alibaba rival Tencent Holdings Ltd has also been gaining ground in the e-payment niche with its vastly popular WeChat messenger, which is another viable path that Cupertino could be using to expand.

Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long for an official statement from Apple to clear the air.

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Microsoft’s Insider Program for Windows 10 has proven to be a great success so far. Not only has it become an invaluable source of feedback to power the company’s new open development cycle, but it allows the tech community to get the inside track on the latest changes and developments inside the OS.

The new Insider release is now out (Build 10547) and it brings a number of improvements, most of which in response to user-request.

App updates

A number of core Windows 10 apps have received improvements in the latest build. These include Groove, Maps, Calendar and Mail, but also the Windows Xbox app. The latter is now even more engaging with the addition of ‘game progress comparison’. Overall, we are really starting to see Microsoft’s vision of cross-platform gaming and a game-centric community taking shape and we can’t wait for the project to evolve even further.

A spacious Start Menu

It turns out a lot of Windows users were feeling slightly constrained by the 512 elements limitation in the Start area. Microsoft has raised that to a whopping 2048 with a new forth column in the latest build, so you can now horde apps to your heart’s content.

Cortana is now untethered

This is an issues we did actually have here at the office. Cortana is undoubtedly great and is perhaps the most lively and personality-rich assistant out of the bunch we currently have and keeping her around is quite fun. Sadly, if you happen to be on a Windows 10 PC that you wish to use with an offline account, instead of your Microsoft one, Cortana is left dead in the water. And if you try to tell her your credentials, Windows just assumes you no longer want to be so disconnected and requires you to switch to your online account.

Well, apparently a lot of users weren’t all too happy about this and Microsoft has indeed delivered a solution in the latest version, where Cortana can work without logging you in. However, bear in mind that she does still need internet to look things up for you and won’t nearly be that personal if she doesn’t get access to your shared online “Notebook”.

Improved gestures in tablet mode

The task view in Windows 10 tablet mode is now a lot easier to operate. From it you can snap apps to left and right and replace a previously snapped app with another. Also a simple swipe down will now closes an app.

New diverse emojis

Adding more diverse emoji color options has already been discussed quite a few times within the Windows 10 community and they are also making a debut in Build 10547. Now the default keyboard has a color selection button in the bottom left corner that toggles all compatible emote icons. This does, in fact look to be quite convenient, perhaps even more so than Apple’s approach, which involves selecting a variation for each typed emoji.

Just like with any other Windows build, there are also a lot more fixes and improvements under the hood, but the above few is what definitely meets the eye upon first inspection. Furthermore, we are truly happy to see Microsoft’s newly adopted open development process working out so productively and unlike most previous Windows version, this time around the platform is truly alive and evolving.

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Over a month after Maxis announced that it will soon start selling the OnePlus 2 smartphone in Malaysia, it has been revealed that the carrier will launch the device on September 22, i.e. coming Tuesday.

As for the price, the 64 GB Sandstone Black variant will carry a price tag of RM1,788 or $423 (tax included). Those on the carrier’s Zerolution plan will be able to purchase it for RM104 ($25) per month.

It’s worth mentioning that the handset, which was made official back in July this year and is currently available in limited quantities, will only be made available to those who have received a special invite from its website.

In addition to the carrier’s brick-and-mortar stores, you’ll also be able to place orders for the device on the Maxis Online Store, something which you can do starting 10:00 AM on September 22, with deliveries beginning on September…

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