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Up next: Angry Birds, the cookbook and movie

LONDON--When you sell Angry Birds, the casual game that's spread like wildfire from the iPhone to Android to Windows to the Web, what do you do for an encore?

You expand beyond games--as far afield as books and movies. At least that's the plan detailed by Peter Vesterbacka, whose title as leader of Rovio Mobile is "mighty eagle," the name of the game's all-powerful pig-blitzing character.

First came Angry Birds stuffed toys and T-shirts. They've been successful for the company, with 3 million toys and more than 1 million shirts sold so far, Vesterbacka … Read more

The 404 829: Where money is the root of all evil (podcast)

Say what you want about Vin Diesel's current choice of movie roles, but we have to give the guy credit for his performance in "Boiler Room." One of Jeff's friends found a peculiar flyer referencing the movie at a job fair at Rutgers University, so we spend the first few minutes of today's show chatting about that, then move onto the strange phenomenon of Opera Software receiving e-mails from Oprah fans who can't spell her name right.

We're also excited about today's Google press conference, where it announced a new mobile payment system featuring NFC technology. Stay tuned for more!

The 404 Digest for Episode 829

Oprah e-mails sent to the Opera browser company. Tricked! Botox mom was lying all along! Google Press conference-- Google Wallet. Obama says hi on someone's phone. Stormy video voice mail from Rich in Cleveland.

Episode 829 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Google unveils mobile payments, coupon service

Google today introduced Google Wallet and Google Offers at an event in New York City.

The company says it plans to bring all parts of the retail experience together to make "tomorrow's best shopping experience," said Google Vice President of Commerce for Stephanie Tilenius.

The services will combine coupons and discounts and payments at the time people buy things through their phone.

Together the services will work like this: Coupons for items you buy regularly will pop up on your phone, or an item that the store you're shopping at is out of will pop up … Read more

Google Wallet, Offers make debut (live blog)

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET reporters. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here. To get the key points from today's announcement, you can check out a summary of what got announced, in our story here.

NEW YORK--At a press event here today, Google is taking the wraps off plans to turn smartphones into mobile wallets.… Read more

Mobile payments: Can Google put all the pieces together?

At a press conference scheduled for today in New York City, Google is expected to lay out the beginning of something mobile-technology experts have been foretelling for years: using mobile phones to pay for almost everything via near-field communications chips, or NFC.

NFC is a chip technology that, when placed in two different devices, lets small amounts of data be sent over very short distances between them. This can include data such as credit card information, train ticket info, and a coupon bar code.

We already have credit cards with NFC chips inside, and some figure moving away from credit cards to paying with a phone is the next step. Rumors have swirled that Apple has been hatching a plan to turn the iPhone into a mobile credit card via iTunes for over a year. Amazon.com is reported to be considering such a service, as have some credit card and wireless companies.

But talking about NFC and actually making a usable service for consumers happen with phones are two different things. Different companies in different industries need to work closely together for it to work in a straightforward manner for mobile phone users. That includes phone makers, mobile software companies, wireless service providers, banks, retailers, and makers of payment terminals.

That challenge -- as much of a management issue as it is a technological issue -- helps explain why no one has done it on a wide scale yet.

Google is perhaps best-positioned right now for instituting a mobile-payments system for several reasons: First, Google already makes one of the two phones in the world with NFC chips inside, the Nexus S (Nokia makes the other, the C7) and is likely to make more. Second, Google also has its own software, Android, which it can configure to the advantage of NFC chips in a phone. Thanks to Android, Google enjoys relationships with carriers too. Reports indicate it's planning to launch the NFC service for "select" phones on Sprint.

Retailers are a different story. They need to be able to accept a… Read more

Google to dub its mobile-payments service 'Google Wallet'?

It appears that one of Google's mobile-wallet partners has stolen some of the Web giant's thunder ahead of tomorrow's planned announcement.

Google, which is widely expected to unveil a long-rumored mobile-payments system on Thursday, will dub the service "Google Wallet," according to what appears to be an internal memo from The Container Store. According to the memo, which was published by Thisismynext.com, the Web giant plans to launch Google Wallet near the end of summer:

...this summer Google will launch a test of "contactless" payment through a mobile device--so customers will be … Read more

Report: Google to unveil mobile-payments service

Google appears to be ready to outline its plan to turn smartphones into mobile wallets.

The Web giant is expected to unveil a mobile payments system on Thursday that will operate on select Android-based Sprint phones, according to a Bloomberg report that cited unidentified sources familiar with the matter. Google reportedly plans to introduce the service initially in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

A Google representative declined to comment on the report.

The service, which will reportedly tap near-field communications technology, would allow users to pay for retail purchases by holding the devices up … Read more

Square vies with NFC for mobile payments

Start-up Square is looking to offer consumers and retailers its own unique mobile payments system through revamped versions of its iPhone/iPad app and its Android app.

Set up as a potential alternative to the much-touted but still emerging near-field communication (NFC) technology, Square's system would still let you pay for goods and services using your mobile phone without the need for cash or a credit card. But instead of having you tap your phone against an NFC-enabled register or terminal, Square's system would let "check into" a store through your phone, pick up your items, … Read more

Survey: Young more eager to pay via mobile phone

The mobile and banking industries have been all abuzz lately about offering consumers the ability to pay for items through their cell phones. But how do consumers actually feel about this?

Survey results released yesterday by MasterCard tried to gauge how comfortable people would be using their cell phones to pay for items on the go at stores, restaurants, and other retail outlets. And like many surveys focused on new technologies, this one showed a fairly big gap in feelings between the young and the not-as-young.

Among those 18 to 34 years old, 63 percent said they would be at … Read more