Just a week after Walmart launched a new mobile payments service Walmart Pay, there are reports that retailer Target is also working on a home grown mobile wallet, which is said to be in the “early stages” of development.

The service – which would let customers pay using a mobile app – could be launched as soon as next year, although what’s worth mentioning is that Target “has not committed to launch the product,” the report notes.

While in-store testing hasn’t yet begun, the Minneapolis-based retailer has already partnered with credit card companies for the service, which, the report said, would use QR code technology rather than the near-field communication technology (NFC).

If you aren’t in the know, many big retailers including Target, Walmart, and BestBuy are already backing Merchant Customer Exchange’s contact-less payment system, CurrentC. When reached out for comment, a Target spokesperson just said the company is also exploring additional mobile wallet…

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The Huawei P9 flagship – which has been the subject of only a few rumors thus far – is expected to be launched in the month of March next year, according to a latest rumor out of the company’s home country of China.

It’s worth mentioning that the handset’s predecessor – the Huawei P8 (shown above) – was launched in April this year, and the company has just released a flagship smartphone (the Mate 8), so the rumored March 2016 launch time frame for the P9 does make sense.

As for the specs, from what is known until now, the Huawei P9 will be powered by a Kirin 950 SoC and sport a 5.2-inch display. The smartphone will have 4GB of RAM, and feature a fingerprint sensor as well as a dual camera set-up on its back.

Via…

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Asus is already working on the ZenFone 3, according to some unnamed “Taiwan-based supply chain makers”. However, don’t expect the next generation ZenFone to be out anytime soon.

If these sources are to be believed, then the new iteration in the series will only launch in May or June. On the other hand, the wait might be worthwhile. That’s because the ZenFone 3 is apparently going to be the first device in the line to sport a fingerprint scanner. This fact has already been confirmed by Asus CEO Jerry Shen back in March.

So far we’ve seen fingerprint sensors in high-end phones as well as some mid-rangers, but in the future these are likely to become much more prevalent. Because of increased orders, the price of a fingerprint sensor could fall to $5 in 2016. That drop in costs is probably one of the reasons for its inclusion in the ZenFone 3. Fingerprint scanners are expected to be featured in 50% of smartphones in the future, up from around 30% nowadays.

Asus will allegedly ship 20 million devices in 2015, and will aim for at least 30 million next year. In 2016, the company will expand sales of its handsets to new markets in Asia and Africa, after having so far been quite successful in Taiwan, India, Brazil, Russia, and Southeast…

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Microsoft has given the Band 2 a decent price cut in the UK. The company is now selling the device for £170, which is £30 less than its regular price of £200. It’s, however, a limited time offer, valid until January 3.

The Band 2 was launched just last month in the UK, and this isn’t the first price cut the wearable has received in the country – just last week, Amazon UK was selling it for £190. However, a quick look at the retailer’s website now reveals that it’s also offering the same £30 discount.

For those who aren’t already aware, the Band 2 offers several features, including continuous heart rate monitoring, notification alerts, as well as eleven sensors capable of tracking activities like running, weightlifting, exercising, rowing, and biking. The device comes in small, medium and large sizes.

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If you’ve been craving an iPhone 6s but haven’t so far picked one up, Best Buy is now running a very good promo. Just in time for the holidays, you can buy a 16GB iPhone 6s model for only $1. You do however have to get it with a contract from either Verizon or Sprint.

Still, the on-contract price of this handset is normally $199, so this $198 price cut isn’t something to take lightly. All four colors of the phone are available, and the deal is valid until Sunday both online and in-store. And if you trade-in an iPhone 5 or newer model when you buy the 6s, the retailer will even throw in a $200 gift card.

The iPhone 6 is also available for the same $1 price, but it’s unclear why anyone would prefer it over its successor.

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The Huawei Mate 8 was announced back in November for the Chinese market with promises for more details to come at CES. Today brings great new for US availability of the Mate 8 – the handset has already been certified by the FCC, which means its release on the US market is imminent and should follow shortly after the expo.

The documents in question don’t really detail much about the hardware of the unit, bearing the model number NXT-L09, but we can only expect specs to match up with the already announced Chinese version.

Packing an in-house Kirin 950 SoC, with four high-power Cortex-A72 cores, clocked at up to 2.3 GHz and an additional four power-saving Cortex-A53 ones, working at 1.8 GHz, the Huawei Mate 8 also offers a Mali T880MP4 GPU, pushing pixels on a spacious 6.0-inch FHD IPS display.

Memory options include 3GB/32GB, 4GB/64GB, and 4GB/128GB variants. The camera setup consists of Sony’s latest IMX298 16MP sensor at the back and an 8MP shooter on the front and a 4000 mAh battery is powering the show. The OEM’s industry-leading fingerprint tech is also on board.

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Want an iPhone not designed in California and with a few tweaks unlikely to come out of Apple’s Cupertino offices? Meet the Vivo X6.

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Samsung was the top smartphone vendor in the world in Q3 2015, followed by rival Apple, according to a latest report from research firm Digitimes Research. While the South Korean company captured 25.6% market share in the quarter, the iPhone maker’s share stood at 14.5%.

Huawei, Lenovo, and LG, rounded up the top 5 with 7.4%, 4.8%, and 4.5% market share, respectively. China’s Xiaomi came in at the sixth spot with 3.8% market share, while Sony and Microsoft were at number 11 and 12, with 2% and 1.7% share, respectively.

Of the top-15 smartphone vendors mentioned in the report, nine are from China, two each from the US and South Korea, and one from Japan and Taiwan.

Overall, a total of 331.9 million smartphones were shipped globally last quarter, which translates into an year-on-year increase of 7.7% and a q-o-q increase of 10.5%. The report also forecasted a shipment of 396.8 million units in Q4, which would the take total 2015 shipments number to 1.326 billion, an y-o-y increase of…

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It’s official – Samsung Pay is set to launch in China, as earlier reports suggested. The company announced today its cooperation with the country’s bank card organization China UnionPay mere hours after Apple did just the same, marking the day as a milestone in mobile payments history in the country.

The mandatory sweet talk from both parties had China UnionPay stress its commitment to providing consumers with convenient services, while Samsung reiterated the security, widespread support and ease of use of the service.

No specific launch date has been stated, but the promise is that the rollout will come “as soon as early 2016” – a wording suspiciously identical to that found in Apple’s press release. Both services are undergoing testing and are awaiting regulator approval. Judging by the interval between announcements don’t be surprised if you see them launching within a couple of hours from each other as well.

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Huawei has announced that it has shipped more than 100 million smartphones this year. The announcement was made by the Chinese company through its official Weibo account today. With this, Huawei has joined companies like Samsung and Apple in the 100 million club.

This comes nearly five months after the company, which is the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, said that it’s ahead of schedule on smartphone shipments, and will hit the 100 million milestone before the year ends.

Huawei recently launched its Mate 8 flagship in China, and the device is apparently selling well there. Next year will be an important year for the company as it is expected to start selling its handsets in the United States in 2016 – an announcement related to its US plans will be made at the upcoming CES show in January.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, the Mate 8 and Honor 5X will be the first Huawei handsets that will be launched in the US. The company will also launch a smartwatch in the country sometime next year.

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