HTC has just announced the Butterfly 3 smartphone to succeed last year’s flagship in polycarbonate attire, the Butterfly 2. And before you asked – yes, it is essentially the same phone as the J Butterfly which has been official in Japan since May.

So the new HTC Butterfly 3 comes with a 5.2-inch QHD LCD display, Snapdragon 810 chipset, and 3GB of RAM. Internal storage is quoted at 32GB and could be expanded by up to 2TB via microSD – theoretically, that is, as we’re yet to see a card beyond 200GB.

It’s all about imaging with this one, rocking a 20.2MP primary camera on the back, with a secondary sensor to capture distance information. This results in what HTC calls a Duo setup, allowing for post-shot autofocusing and a few other creative effects. The lens is a Sapphire crystal-protected f/2.2 27.8mm-equivalent, and has a dual-tone dual-LED flash to help in the dark. Naturally, it supports 4K video recording.

On the front you’ll find a 13MP selfie shooter, again with a BSI sensor. The lens has a faster f/2.0 aperture, though it’s a smidge narrower 28.2mm equivalent. The front cam can shoot videos up to 1080p.

The smartphone measures 150.99 x 72.99 x 9.99mm, according to HTC’s specsheet, but we’d go ahead and drop those 9s for a much neater 151 x 73 x 10mm. It weighs 161g, while packing a 2,700mAh battery, but most importantly carries an IP57 rating for dust and water protection.

The HTC Butterfly 3 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with Sense 7 on top. It will be launched in Taiwan on October 20, priced at TWD 19,900, or roughly $600. Global availability and pricing is yet to be…

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After long and arduous development, the ambitious Samsung Pay service is now showing a lot of promise. Despite still being in its infancy, the phone-based payment platform is already off to a flying start on the OEM’s home Korean market, with over $30 million worth of transactions for a single month since its launch.

All seems to have went well with this beta rollout and Samsung Pay is now officially live in the US as well. The service has already undergone beta testing in the US as well and the Korean giant is now spreading the word and trying to tempt users to give the platform a try. Samsung’s latest ad highlights just how easy using Samsung Pay is, the main focus being the industry-leading combination of NFC and MTS-based technology. The video is done in a very lighthearted and wholesome tone, but it does take a few stabs at competitors.

For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, here’s the short version: When Samsung set out to create its mobile-based payment solution it wanted to go one step beyond competitors such as Apple Pay and Android Pay. Instead of relying solely on NFC and potentially requiring additional hardware from merchants, like the latter two, Samsung Pay also supports MST-based transactions, or in other words, uses a technology that imitates a card swiping through the payment terminal via magnetic waves. This new concept was a great technological challenge, but, in the end, Samsung achieved an almost magical result – paying with a phone at almost any conventional terminal.

This definitely gives the platform an edge over its competitors and so do future plans for implementation of online payments (PayPal style) into the system as well. This could make Samsung Pay incredibly popular in the US as a universal payment tool. But, before you get too excited and start tossing your credit cards in the drawer, Samsung Pay still has some important limitations. First, you need a compatible Samsung device that has the MST hardware to use Pay. Currently, these are the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 edge, Note5 and S6 edge+. Then, you need a compatible card, from a supported bank.

These currently include VISA, MasterCard and AMERICAN EXPRESS, issued by a supported bank. This list is sure to grow in the future with more credit and debit cards, as well as merchant cards and vouchers all with the ultimate goal of getting rid of those clunky plastic cards. To sweeten the deal even more and facilitate a quick US expansion, Samsung is also offering a free gift to early Pay adopters. If you download and activate the app on a supported carrier and with a supported card before October 11, you can choose between a free wireless charger or a flip case. More details can be found at the second source link.

Source 1 | Source 2 |…

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Coincidentally or not, HTC decided to host an event of its own mere hours before Google unveils the next pair of Nexus phones. That timing in itself sets the stage for some quick-to-be-forgotten announcements and from the looks of things HTC itself hasn’t prepared anything really groundbreaking to begin with.

The company debuted a new variant of the One M9+, dubbed the “Supreme Camera”. It is a camera update for the existing model, with nothing else really changed. The phone is now equipped with a 21MP camera with OIS and laser auto focus. The phone still retains its signature dual-lens design, but the upper bit is no longer a secondary camera, but a laser AF system instead. Together with phase detection, it is said to deliver focus speeds as fast as 0.1 seconds.

Other that the camera upgrade the specs on the new One M9+ variant are unchanged. It still has a 5.2-inch QHD display, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of onboard storage and runs on the octa-core MediaTek MT6795T Helio X10 SoC. The 2,840 mAh battery is also present and so are the front-facing BoomSound stereo speakers and the fingerprint scanner inside the home button.

The big accent with the new One M9+ is understandably the camera and HTC is expected to launch the device along with an upgraded camera app. Speaking of which, the device should be available in Taiwan starting October 6 with a price tag of about…

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