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While Apple might be biding its time for its own huge March event past MWC 2016, it might not exactly be sitting still as far as expanding its products goes. A trio of leaks and sightings have revealed which countries Apple Pay will be hitting next. Earlier hinted for an "early 2016" launch, it seems that Apple Pay will really be rolling out in China on February 18. And although no date or even month has been given, France and Canada might soon join that so far exclusive list as well.

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Mobile payment systems, even with giants like Google, Apple, and Samsung behind them, haven't completely taken the country by storm. The inconvenience of whipping out and using your smartphone sometimes outweighs the benefits and security of the new payment method offers. There might, however, be a new use case that could make the benefits outweigh inconvenience: getting money from ATMs. At least three banks, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase, have more or less confirmed that they will be rolling out later this year machines that can accept wireless, mobile payments like Android Pay or Apple Pay.

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When LG revealed that it was indeed preparing a payment system to take on Samsung and Apple, it was said that it would be different. And by different, it apparently meant it would be different from wireless, mobile payment systems and, conversely, similar to physical payment cards. At least to some extent. Leaked photos from a Korean news site revealed what is supposed to be the LG Pay "White Card", a credit card like plastic that can actually contain multiple cards and then be used normally like any other card.

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The mobile payment wars are definitely on. Although it has actually been in existence for quite a while now, Apple's formal entry into that budding market gave it an air of legitimacy and, to some extent, urgency. Samsung, of course, is trying to leave its mark there as well, especially in the ripe market that is the US. Today, it is again trying to widen the gap with its competitors by announcing the addition of 50 popular merchant gift cards to its Samsung Pay platform.

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The arrival of Android Pay meant that Google Wallet's existence has become redundant. But rather than retire an already existing, not to mention already used, brand, Google decided to give Wallet a different raison d'etre. It has repurposed it to become a peer to peer money transfer platform, something that, to be honest, could have also been part of Android Pay anyway. Now Google is expanding its capabilities and ease of use even more by allowing people to send money to anyone who has a mobile phone number.

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One of the side effects of making mobile payment more mainstream is that soon there will be too many players in the market than you can count. While there are of course some heavyweights like Apple Pay and Android Pay or even Samsung Pay, there will always be some who want a large share of the pie. Take for example JPMorgan Chase, whose new, somewhat aptly named Chase Pay platform promises that holy grail of mobile payment systems: convenience to customers at now extra cost to merchants.

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With Apple Pay and the recently launched Android Pay, the mobile payment market is already getting crowded. Come Monday next week, it will we become even more so when Samsung finally launches its delayed Samsung Pay in the US. But in order to boost confidence it what many might think of as "yet another payment system", Samsung is proudly sharing how its service has been a wild success in South Korea, to the tune of about $30 million in total transactions in just the first month alone.

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PayPal has just launched a new feature aiming to both simplify and quicken online payments from person to person. Dubbed PayPal.me, the service provides users with a personalized URL that they can provide to people who need to send them a payment. Both parties still need to have their own PayPal accounts, but those making a payment no longer have to log in, navigate to the payment menu, and enter someone's email address. They can simply visit a PayPal.me link, sign in, choose the amount to pay, and hit send.

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Mt. Gox. That's a name you probably never imagined, or wished, hearing again after all this time. Good thing that this is more about its CEO Mark Karpelès. Sadly, it might actually still be linked with the scandal that rocked the Bitcoin world early last year. In Japan, Karpelès was arrested on the grounds that he allegedly manipulated the company's computer systems to add $1 million to his balance, at a time when Mt. Gox has filed for bankruptcy because of its inability to pay back its customers.

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When you say your app is free of malware but does exactly the opposite, you aren't just lying, you could also be committing a crime. That is exactly what Prized app developers Equiliv Investments and Ryan Ramminger learned the hard way when they were slapped with an FTC complaint because their app actually used infected smartphones to help the developers mine for cryptocurrency like Dogecoin. The defendants wisely decided to settle out of court, which included a monetary judgment of $50,000, which is no small amount for someone desperately hunting for digital currency.

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It's not all that often that technology "firsts" come out of China, but here is an interesting one. A technology company has built the world's first ATM to rely on facial recognition technology for security. The machine is described as only letting users withdraw money from their accounts if a scan of their face matches with the data stored on their bank card. It's certainly a unique twist on preventing banking fraud, but it's still far from being proven foolproof.

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Almost all mobile payment systems, perhaps except for Samsung, have one critical flaw. Most of them require the use of new NFC-enabled terminals to work. But what if you only have access to ye olde magnetic stripe PoS? What if you're stuck with old fashioned swiping systems but still want to benefit from the conveniences of the modern world. Enter Wocket, advertised to be the only wallet you'll ever need. Why? Because it can absorb all the cards you have in your wallet right now and even have spare room for physical cash.

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