Developers at Google I/O got a glimpse of the next major version of Android known only as M for now. There are six major improvements that mostly focus on how apps work and interact with each other. Android's wireless payment system also got a big boost, in part thanks to unified fingerprint sensor support.

App permissions

Android M is moving to an iOS-style permissions. You don't get asked about all permissions lumped together at install time, instead the app will ask for each permission the first time you use it.

You can go into the Settings screen to view what permissions an app is using and revoke or allow them. You can also view all apps that use a certain permission.

Custom Chrome tabs

So many apps today have a web component that forces you to jump between a browser and the app or as web view embedded into the app.

The Chrome team proposes a different solution – style Chrome to look like a part of the app. The app can launch a custom Chrome tab, style it and add buttons to make it feel almost like a native part of the app.

App links

What if an app needs to interact with something other than a browser? Android M adds a secure way for apps to verify that when they send a request (e.g. open Twitter and show this tweet), the receiving app that handles the request is legit. The OS will verify it cryptographically with the web server, which will thwart malicious apps.

Android Pay

Google has been trying to make mobile payments work for years now, Android Pay is the latest iteration. It will leverage a phone's NFC hardware to stand between the store and your credit card.

The store – or even apps that sell things – will never see the details of your credit card as Pay keeps that private. The service will work with major cards, US carriers (AT&T, T-Mo, VZW) as well as a variety of stores: McDonald's, Subway, Best Buy, Coca Cola, Pepsi, you name it.

Fingerprint sensors

Some vendors are already leveraging fingerprint sensors to secure payments, now Google is making that functionality an official part of Android.

Android M will abstract away the different kinds of sensors, presenting apps with a consistent API, which is bound to make life easier for developers.

Power & charging

Project Volta was the first step and with M Google is pushing ahead with improving battery life with Doze. Phones running the new OS will use their motion sensors to detect when the phone is just laying around and doze off.

Dozing makes apps check with servers and run background activities less often. The longer the phone has been dozing, the less often apps get to do stuff. Still, phones can quickly wake up when needed.

The result is that a Nexus 9 lasted twice as long running Android M than it did on Lollipop.

Another part of battery life is quick charging. Google is adopting the USB Type C standard for its new power delivery modes, which can charge a phone much faster (3x to 5x).

And since Type C is bi-directional you can even make the phone send power down the cable – imagine phones with huge batteries being used as battery packs.

Google Now on Tap

Google Now is also getting smarter with the new "on tap" functionality. It has improved natural language understanding, so you can ask it questions in a natural way – "his", "it", "this", the system is smart enough to figure out what you mean.

A quick demo showed Now on Tap answering "What's his real name?" while the phone was playing Skrillex. Google's knowledge graph provided the answer, Now on Tap made the connection (his ->…

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Samsung has been working on flexible displays for quite some time now and the Galaxy Note Edge and S6 edge are a definite testament to its huge success. But, flexible is one thing, while foldable opens up a whole new array of challenges and possibilities.

Samsung has been working hard tackling the latter and we have already seen some impressive prototypes in action. Now, according to some industry sources, the time might have finally come to reap the benefits from all the hard work. If said rumors are true, Samsung might be on the verge of creating the world's first foldable-display phone. The project in question is codenamed 'V' or 'Valley' and that is pretty much all we know about it so far.

It is reportedly in very early stages and could be scraped at any moment, if it hits a snag. But, the valley metaphor is quite indicative of what the Korean tech giant is trying to achieve. It is still unclear whether Samsung is aiming for one fluent screen all the way, or rather two intertwined, but still flexible screens. Either way, there has been a lot of talk about advancements in this area, so, perhaps, the story isn't all that…

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Google's annual I/O conference is about to begin shortly and up first is the all-important keynote presentation. We will be covering the speech live as it goes, but, you can also tag along for yourself. We have embedded the player for you below.

Just as a quick reminder, we are expecting to hear about the next Android version, codenamed Android M, as well as, possibly some new device announcements. If rumors are true, we might have a two new Nexus phones – one from LG and one from Huawei. There is a sea of other things we are hoping to hear about during the keynote, like project ARA and the future of IoT. You can also check our previous article for a full rundown of our…

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The LG G4 is only now making its way to store shelves, but that in no way means that the company is not hard at work on the successor. Aiming to one-up rivals in the biometrics department now that fingerprint scanning is becoming a mainstream feature, the G5 is said to bring iris recognition to the table.

Indication of that comes from reports in Korean publications, which state that LG has teamed up with local biometrics specialist Irience to implement the feature in the future smartphone. The development is at a pretty advanced stage too, with the hardware module already completed.

More work remains to be done on the software side of things, but the estimate is that two to three months from now the tech will be ready. At this point the engineers are focused on increasing the scanning range from the current 30cm to a more usable arms-length 50cm.

LG hasn't yet joined the fingerprint bandwagon and might as well skip the feature altogether and offer iris recognition instead. Now, we'll need to wait and see whether that will happen in the mysterious second company flagship for 2015, expected this fall, or the G4 successor a year from now. Meanwhile, the security-obsessed among you can grab the recently announced Vivo X5Pro, where such a feature is already present.

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Apple Pay has had a rather turbulent upraising, ever since it was announced back in September 2014. Cupertino's NFC-based wireless payment service has hit more than a few snags in the short time it has been around, ranging from technical and hardware problems to user and retailer distrust. But whether the tech giant wants to admit it or not, it has been working extra hard to shove the platform into use any way it can and by all means necessary. One testament to this dedication is the huge saga Apple has been tackling ferociously to push the payment system into China, as well as the US and Canada.

Industry sources now hint at yet another major effort to boost the popularity to Apple Pay. Rumors state that Cupertino is preparing a rewards program to compliment Apple Pay, which should be announced at this year's WWDC on June 8. The idea is that Apple Pay users will get the benefit of various perks when they use the NFC payment system instead of more traditional methods. Currently, the only real incentive to opt for ApplePay was convenience and even though that has proven to be enough of an incentive for a lot of people, Apple wants to give current and prospective users more reasons to switch to Apple Pay.

Some could argue that this is also a strategic move against competitors like Google Wallet and Samsung, which recently acquired LoopPay, both presumably headed in the same direction. An NFC payment war could, indeed, be looming, but both of these services are currently limited to Android, whereas Apple Pay naturally requires iOS and we don't really see anybody opting for one or the other because of payment methods quite yet.

It is not yet clear what kind of perks Apple will offer. Perhaps some reward point system will be put into place, or a much simpler and straight-forward discount plan. It is also important to see what vendors take part in the initiative. All of this and more is most probably going to be addressed at WWDC. We might even see the rewards program get officially announced, but, it is expected that it won't start to function before the roll-out of iOS 9 later this fall.

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It's been too long since the last Lumia flagship, but rumors hint at what's to come. The info allegedly comes from sources close to Microsoft who say that the Lumia 940 will have an 830-like design. The phones are based on an aluminum frame, the back is polycarbonate.

The Lumia 940 will have a 5.2" QHD screen (1,440 x 2,560px), but there will be an XL version too. The Microsoft Lumia 940 XL will have a bigger 5.7" screen. The batteries should be 3,000mAh and 3,300mAh respectively.

Both will bring a 20MP PureView camera (and not 25MP), plus a 5MP selfie camera. The two will have 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, but the chipsets may be different. The 5.2" model at least will use a hexa-core processor, most likely a Snapdragon 808 like the LG G4. The big 5.7" model will pack an octa-core, probably a Snapdragon 810.

Additional info about the Lumia 940 duo indicates a USB Type C connector, which may be used for the Continuity feature, which can switch between touch mode and desktop mode. Type C connectors can carry data, video and power simultaneously, making the setup simpler.

A Lumia 840 is also in the works, already in testing.

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The Meizu m1 note 2, which was little more than a rumor until a live image surfaced a few days ago, is now all but confirmed by the Chinese company itself. In a newly released teaser image, an outline of the upcoming smartphone shows the relocated power button on the left side, below the volume rocker.

At this stage little more is known about the smartphone, which is to replace the existing m1 note 5.5-inch phablet. Previous intel suggests that in place of the capacitive home button on the current model, a brand new physical button will be employed, but there's still no confirmation whether it will house a fingerprint sensor. Perhaps the feature will be reserved for the sequel to the high-end MX4 model.

The new handset will boot Android Lollipop and that's about all the info, that's trickled out of Meizu's design labs. The price is rumored to remain unchanged from the present model's CNY999 (about $160). With a launch date set for less than a week from now on June 2, all the mysteries will be cleared in due time.

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Lenovo showcased a new technology called Smart Cast that will allow the smartphone to project the phone's screen on to any surface.

The technology makes use of a laser projector, a first on any smartphone, that can project normally on a wall as we have seen before on certain smartphones. But you can also twist the projector module and have the phone project on a flat horizontal surface, like a table.

The phone can then project its display contents on the surface and you can interact with the projection as if it's the display itself. It can do things like project the keyboard on the table for you to type on, or the entire screen so you can play a game like Fruit Ninja.

No device has been announced with this feature yet but they would be coming out in the near future….

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Android 5.1 Lollipop will bring new camera interface and features to Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. The new firmware is expected to arrive on the duo of flagship smartphones in June.

With Android 5.1, the already capable 16MP camera of Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge will receive support for capturing images in RAW format. The snapper will also get simplified pro mode and shutter speed control.

Another slight tweak in the camera UI will let users control exposure levels by simply dragging their finger up or down. In a way, this mimics the functionality offered by Apple in the iPhone camera app.

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