The launch of Apple Pay late last year helped give the mobile payments effort a strong boost, with Apple promoting its service as extremely easy to use. However, six percent of purchases are reportedly made using stolen credit cards, which is a whopping 60 percent higher than regular credit cards.

Apple hoped for simplicity with Apple Pay, but security researchers believe Apple should require users to prove their identities when signing up. There is a fine line between providing a safe and secure service over one that is difficult to use - and Apple must now try to find that balance, in an effort to fight fraud.

"The issuers were probably so eager to be involved that they kind of forgot best practices and sidestepped some procedures they normally would've had [in order] to accept Apple Pay," said Michelle Evans, senior analyst for consumer finance at the Euromonitor market research firm, in a statement published by the Washington Post.

Leap Motion has teamed up with Razer for its OSVR headsets, where it will supply its motion-tracking technology directly into the Open Source Virtual Reality headset.

Razer's upcoming Hacker Development Kit (HDK) headset for OSVR will be made available later this year, where developers will have the option of buying one with the faceplate that feature's Leap Motion's gesture-tracking hardware and software baked inside. Developers who opt for this will receive a bundle that includes the ability to create apps and experiences that will use Leap Motion's hand-tracking technology.

Leap Motion's CEO, Michael Buckwald, has said that this partnership is just the first it will have with VR headset makers. Buckwald was coy on which other partners it is working with, but teased that Leap Motion's long-term goal is to have their technology in as many of the leading VR headsets as possible. Buckwald said: "The peripheral [the Leap Motion controller as a standalone device] is still our biggest business but VR is our priority now. We can be in at the ground floor and help shape what it means to have input and help shape what the [VR] operating systems look like".

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is only a year away now, and while we've seen Superman's new look, the new Batman and even Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor hasn't been unveiled, until now.

Jesse Eisenberg goes bald for the role of Lex Luthor, Superman's arch nemesis, with the director of the movie, Zack Snyder, explaining with Entertainment Weekly: "He's not any of the Lexes that you've seen, that's for sure other than him being a captain of industry and one person to the world and another person to himself. And bald, of course".

We don't have much to go on right now, apart from the single image of the evil genius that Eisenberg is playing. As a huge Superman fan, I'm positively ecstatic about how this is shaping up so far.

We just got back from a briefing of the Knights Landing platform at Intel Jones Farm. This new platform compacts a large number of cores into a small package that consisted of 1U blades.

Here is the basic Knights Landing (KNL) information screen. Knights Landing will be based on 14nm process node and have a TDP of ~300watts. The number of cores shown on the slide shows over 60 cores, we assume there will be several different SKU's with different core counts and other spec's.

The KNL core itself is based on Silvermount, these cores have full Xeon capability and features which have been modified to meet the new design platform. The system itself will have both Windows and Lunix capability with very little code modification to applications if any. While running a Windows OS on this platform you can see all the logical processors in the task manager which shows the OS actually sees all the cores unlike Knights Corner which was a PCIe coprocessor.

A super hot report has arrived today, where it's being alleged that Samsung will acquire AMD. The deal would see the South Korean giant acquire the chipmaker, merging AMD with one of its subsidiaries to better fight Qualcomm and Intel.

The report states that Samsung wants AMD's CPU and GPU properties, where it would use AMD's IP to expand its growth and to battle against the likes of Intel and Qualcomm. The report also hints that Samsung thought of acquiring AMD back in 2007, where in 2007, Samsung's Head of Telecommunications said: "it is necessary to consider the AMD acquisition in order to secure a new growth engine".

If Samsung were to acquire AMD, we could see some great things come from it. We could see the Radeon IP used in Samsung's mobile offerings, giving them a big injection of performance. Samsung's fabrication could get right into things, shifting AMD's technology into smaller processes much quicker than TSMC offers AMD at the moment. We could see some big changes in the GPU department and its competitiveness against NVIDIA, too.

Free-to-play PC game Halo Online will launch as a closed beta in Russia only, giving gamers the chance to experience the multiplayer-only gaming experience. The game will be available to Russian gamers this spring, and runs a heavily customized Halo 3 game engine.

It's unknown if gamers in North America and Europe will get a chance to test Halo Online, with the following statement published online: "Right now our focus is on learning as much as we can from the closed beta period in Russia. Theoretically, any expansion outside of Russia would have to go through region-specific changes to address player expectations."

A full Q&A is available online regarding Halo Online.

The newest version of the Ford S-Max vehicle has an intelligent speed limiter that is able to read traffic signs and adjust the throttle. Using a custom traffic sign recognition system, the brake pedal doesn't need to be used to slow down the vehicle - with electronic signals sent to control engine torque.

The Ford S-Max will be available this August, and should be implemented in Ford vehicles worldwide. Drivers can adjust the system so they are able to drive up to 5 mph over the speed limit.

"There's a plan for speed restrictions to be beamed to your car's computer systems and controlled from there, rather than requiring street sign visual recognition systems," said Paul Newton, automotive industry analyst at IHS, in a statement published by BBC. "This would be part of an extension of the networks that will connect vehicles, allowing cars to warn those behind them if they are slowing down, which is all part of a move toward autonomous vehicles that drive themselves."

Facebook Messenger surpassed 500 million monthly active users four months ago, and now has more than 600 million monthly active users, CNBC reported.

Even though some users weren't happy when Facebook broke off Messenger on mobile devices, forcing users to download the Messenger app separately, it helped boost usage figures. More social networking users are migrating from PCs to smartphones and tablets, opening the door to expansive Messenger adoption.

Facebook doesn't want Messenger just to be a text and voice communication tool for users - it could embrace the Internet of Things (IoT) and be used as a platform for additional services. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to speak more about Messenger during the F8 Developer Conference.

Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford said Borderlands 2 has sold "well over 12 million units," and continues to rack up impressive sales figures.

The game was originally released in 2012 and became 2K's bestselling game ever in 2014, with more than 9 million units sold. There is a lot to be happy for, as The Handsome Collection will likely help boost sales even more, available for the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 game consoles.

"We announced [The Handsome Collection] after the Xbox One launched," Pitchford said. "And a lot of people that had upgraded, they really wanted the Pre-Sequel on that platform... so, we got a lot of people telling us 'Please bring this to next-gen!,' and our publishing partner, 2K games thought it was probably worth doing. We were too busy, we didn't have the resources to do the upgrade.

The fitness and healthcare sectors will help drive the wearables market into an estimated $2 billion market by 2019, according to Juniper Research, but questions remain.

There is great potential for doctors and medical patients embracing wearable devices able to consistently monitor physical data - but privacy concerns and unstable regulation must be addressed. Medical devices have mandated standards they must follow while collecting and storing data, though wearables don't currently follow the same standards.

In its "Smart Wireless Devices: CE, Enterprise, Fitness, Healthcare, Patients, 2015-2019", Juniper Research also found a use for smart glasses and other wearables in the workplace.