Latest Blog Entries
Isis’ NFC payments go live in Austin and Salt Lake City: 3 carriers, 9 phones, 1 long way to go (video)
Posted On 22 Oct 2012 By Jon Fingas. Under: Uncategorized.
To say that the launch of Isis has felt drawn out would be a mild understatement. The alliance first signaled its intentions two years ago, detailed its first markets one year ago and faced a last-minute delay. All the ducks are finally in a row, how...
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Isis’ NFC payments go live in Austin and Salt Lake City: 3 carriers, 9 phones, 1 long way to go (video)
Posted On 22 Oct 2012 By Jon Fingas. Under: Uncategorized.
To say that the launch of Isis has felt drawn out would be a mild understatement. The alliance first signaled its intentions two years ago, detailed its first markets one year ago and faced a last-minute delay. All the ducks are finally in a row, how...
No Comments
PayPal Here goes on sale at AT&T stores: like a one-stop shop for account hiccups
Posted On 20 Oct 2012 By Jon Fingas. Under: Uncategorized.
PayPal Here, despite all its focus on in-store transactions, hasn't really been available to buy in a US store -- that's been the domain of the seemingly ubiquitous Square reader. eBay's payment wing has at last established that retail beachhead thro...
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Chinese online retail giant 360buy spreads worldwide, may keep Amazon on its toes
Posted On 19 Oct 2012 By Jon Fingas. Under: Uncategorized.
Many of us who live in North America and Europe consider Amazon synonymous with online retail -- yet we forget that the company barely even registers in some parts of the world. That misconception is about to be cleared up now that one of China's lar...
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Chinese online retail giant 360buy spreads worldwide, may keep Amazon on its toes
Posted On 19 Oct 2012 By Jon Fingas. Under: Uncategorized.
Many of us who live in North America and Europe consider Amazon synonymous with online retail -- yet we forget that the company barely even registers in some parts of the world. That misconception is about to be cleared up now that one of China's lar...
No Comments
Apple files patent application for fingerprint sensor that can be transparent or opaque
Posted On 12 Oct 2012 By Nicole Lee. Under: Uncategorized.
While Apple has flirted with biometric-based patents before, we've yet to see them implemented in real-world technology. That hasn't stopped it from filing yet another one though, as the latest application reveals a fingerprint sensor apparently embe...
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Amazon patents online haggling system that keeps buyers, sellers on the up and up
Posted On 09 Oct 2012 By Jon Fingas. Under: Uncategorized.
Haggling is so popular that it's virtually mandatory in some parts of the world, and yet it's rarely an option in the online space outside of informal auctions. If Amazon ever puts its newly granted patent into practice, however, we could soon be tr...
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The API Hub: Jeff Bezos-Backed Mashape Launches To The Public With 430 APIs In Tow
Posted On 30 Jul 2012 By Rip Empson. Under: Uncategorized.
Augusto Marietti, Marco Palladino and Mike Zonca founded Mashape in November 2010 to create a unified, all-in-one marketplace where one could go to find, sell, distribute, and hack on APIs, believing that APIs would become an essential part of the conversation for developers. Though it wasn't an easy road, last September Mashape raised $1.6 million from NEA, Charles River Ventures, Jeff Bezos, and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors -- to name a few.
Mashape has been in private beta since, testing its model and "building out the supply-side," says Marietti. Today, the startup is finally throwing back the curtains, officially opening to the public, with new features and inventory in stock.No Comments
The API Hub: Jeff Bezos-Backed Mashape Launches To The Public With 430 APIs In Tow
Posted On 30 Jul 2012 By Rip Empson. Under: Uncategorized.
Augusto Marietti, Marco Palladino and Mike Zonca founded Mashape in November 2010 to create a unified, all-in-one marketplace where one could go to find, sell, distribute, and hack on APIs, believing that APIs would become an essential part of the conversation for developers. Though it wasn't an easy road, last September Mashape raised $1.6 million from NEA, Charles River Ventures, Jeff Bezos, and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors -- to name a few.
Mashape has been in private beta since, testing its model and "building out the supply-side," says Marietti. Today, the startup is finally throwing back the curtains, officially opening to the public, with new features and inventory in stock.No Comments
Visa Europe, Not Square’s Investor Visa Inc, Puts Brakes On iZettle As mPowa Expands To Android
Posted On 30 Jul 2012 By Ingrid Lunden. Under: Uncategorized.
A bit of a setback today for mobile payments and specifically iZettle -- the startup modelled as a kind of "European Square" for merchants to take card payments on their phones. The company today had to shut off accepting Visa cards in three of the markets where it has been running pilots -- Denmark, Finland and Norway -- over what appears to be a problem with how it authenticated users on its platform, using an electronic signature instead of a PIN. The problem came to light when users started to receive emails from iZettle with the news (we have one from a reader below) and comes at a time when competition is heating up among point-of-sale mobile payments players, with mPowa, who you might better know as Square's hand nemesis, now extending its payment services to Android; and Square reportedly getting a $200 million investment on a $3.2 billion valuation.
iZettle's CEO Jakob de Geer describes the need to shut down Visa acceptance as "disappointing", "annoying," and "puzzling," but also notes that he thinks it's just a short-term problem: "I’m pretty confident that we’ll find a way forward," he told TechCrunch. "You have to regroup and adapt; that’s part of the game part of being in a disruptive space." For its part, a Visa Europe spokesperson tells TechCrunch that the problem arose over Visa's "standard acceptance device requirements:":No Comments
