Samsung Pay’s first month in South Korea saw some impressive numbers

We already know that Samsung Pay is off to a relatively successful start in South Korea, as the service reportedly logged 10,000 credit and check card registrations on its launch day. But now that the payment service has been available for a full month, just how well has it been doing? According to Samsung, Samsung Pay has accumulated more than $30 million in transaction volume through Sunday, September 20th. It’s also racked up over 1.5 million total transactions to date, with approximately 60 percent of those taking place on the Galaxy Note 5 alone.

The payment service also saw approximately 36 percent active users in its first month with roughly 10 percent using Samsung Pay daily.

See also: Samsung exec discusses initial Samsung Pay results22639

Samsung Pay is making its way to the United States on Monday, September 28th, with the service rolling out to the U.K., Spain and China sometime soon. Right now it’s only available on select Samsung devices like the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+ and Note 5, and will also be available on the Gear S2 smartwatch in select countries after it launches in October. There are also rumors of the service possibly making its way to less expensive Galaxy phones in the future, but we have yet to hear anything official regarding that rumor.

Here’s how to get the Galaxy Note 5’s Screen Off Memo feature on your Note 3, Note 4 and Note Edge

Samsung made some big improvements to its Note line with the Galaxy Note 5. The Exynos 7420 processor is super powerful, the 16MP rear camera can take some great shots, and overall, the phone just feels much more premium than Note devices have in the past. But one of the most notable features that’s new to the Note 5 is called Screen Off Memo, which allows you to jot down a quick note when the screen is off. Simply eject the S Pen from the device, begin writing on the screen, and press the save button – it really couldn’t be any more simple than that.

Don’t miss: Samsung Galaxy Note 5 – 5 tips and tricks!86844

Wouldn’t it be great if you could use Screen Off Memo on an older Note device? Thanks to a certain XDA member, you can!

The feature can be installed on your Galaxy Note 3, Note 4 or Note Edge via a simple .apk. For a full list of instructions on how to download and install the .apk on your device, head to this link. The developer says that you can also install it on your Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, or Galaxy S6 Edge+, but these devices don’t have an S Pen that can be used to automatically launch the app.

If you own one of these older Note devices and are willing to test this out, be sure to let us know how it goes in the comment section below!

Report: Samsung’s future VR solutions might not require a phone at all

Virtual reality is really just starting to gain momentum among consumers and interest is expected to expand dramatically next year as commercial products from HTC, Sony, and Oculus hit store shelves. It is becoming increasingly obvious that VR is “the next big thing”. With that in mind, a new rumor out of South Korea suggests that Samsung will be making a bigger push into VR next year with a stand-alone solution.

Samsung, through partnership with Oculus, has already brought the world two versions of its Gear VR headset but the requirement of select Samsung phones certainly limits the devices’ appeal. The new report doesn’t give us any real details about what to expect from Samsung, other than we could be looking at dedicated headsets that no longer use a phone’s brains and display to operate. Whether such a device would still use the Gear VR branding remains unclear. It’s also uncertain if Samsung would take an Oculus-like approach an require a PC, or if the headset would be completely self-contained.

A self-contained experience that uses mobile chips and other tech would allow Samsung to keep pricing down and would also expand mainstream appeal, as anyone could buy one without the need for a Samsung phone or a high-end PC. It could potentially give Tizen another home outside of the Gear watch family. Of course, that’s all really just speculation on our part.

The Oculus Connect 2 event is scheduled to start tomorrow and last until the 25th, and during that time we could hear at least a little about Samsung’s plans. After all, Oculus and Samsung are partners and so it would make sense that any future plans would continue to be tied to Oculus technology to at least some degree.What do you think, if Samsung could produce a completely stand-alone VR solution, would you be interested? How much would you be willing to pay for such a product? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Monument Valley maker ustwo’s foray into VR is called Land’s End, launching on October 30

ustwo, the developers behind the widely popular Monument Valley, have just announced that their foray into the virtual reality space will commence next month. Land’s End, which was first announced over one year ago, is a new virtual reality adventure game that will make its way exclusively to the Samsung Gear VR on Friday, October 30th.

Attached below is the game’s first trailer, released by ustwo just this morning. There really aren’t too many details about this game so far, though the trailer’s description on YouTube reads that it will provide “an adventure through spectacular landscapes to awaken a lost civilization.” In the game, according to Engadget, you’ll encounter a puzzle every few minutes, which will require you to levitate blocks or join dots using nothing but head movements to advance to the next area. Puzzles will get more difficult as the game progresses, but not to the point where it becomes frustrating.

Be sure to check out the trailer attached below for a better look at Land’s End.

Similar to Monument Valley, Land’s End will only provide about an hour’s worth of gameplay in total. No pricing information has been disclosed quite yet, but we’ll be sure to let you know once we get the details. Judging from the trailer, what are your thoughts? Is Land’s End setting out to be the Monument Valley of VR? Tell us what you think in the comments below.