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In the midst of an evolution on steroids, the MP3 player just never seems to be comfortable in its own skin. While still suffering an identity crisis with the telephonic aspects of its personality, it's now changing once again to include digital radio, as shown recently by such stalwarts as iRiver and Cowon.

Now, Dutch company Freecom is entering the fray as well with its "MusicPal" player. which promises to deliver 5,000 radio stations as well as MP3 streams wirelessly from a PC or a Mac. It's too big to be carried around, but not … Read more

I've written before on PayPal's reliance on open source, but came across this article that takes it one step farther. Not content to admit to deriving benefits from open source, PayPal's Matthew Mengerink (VP, Core Technologies, PayPal) lists four things that any IT department can do to derive maximum benefit from open source:

PayPal transacts more than US$1,500 every second of every day, with millions of people around the world relying on the robustness of its system.

It comes as a surprise to many people that PayPal runs such a large financial services company on an open source platform, but that's precisely how we're able to deal with the two competing demands our business model places on us: security and innovation.… Read more

If you use Yahoo Mail you should be seeing a significant reduction in the number of e-mail scams purporting to be from eBay and PayPal very soon.

Yahoo will be upgrading its system beginning on Thursday with technology--dubbed "DomainKeys"--designed to block phishing spam and other fraudulent e-mails that look like they come from eBay and PayPal but don't. The system works by verifying the domain of the sender of the e-mail, allowing ISPs to block messages they deem illegitimate.

The upgrade is expected to be accomplished globally over the next several weeks.

Typically, the phishing scams … Read more

We're all about blue-sky thinking here at Crave, and this is some of the bluest we've seen. From the drawing board of Dutch inventor John Bakker comes the personal air and land vehicle (PAL-V), a cross between a Carver One three-wheeler and an autogyro that can be driven and flown at speeds as high as 200 kmh (125 mph).

While on the road, the gasoline- or biodiesel-powered machine relies on the same Dynamic Vehicle Control (DVC) system that enables the Carver to tilt when cornering. For flight, it uses the DVC combined with a gyrocopter rotor blade, which … Read more

The old way was to spend a lot of money on limited software and hardware. The new way, as PayPal's CTO (Scott Thompson) of three years found, is to scale out with lots of low-cost hardware and software. Open source enables this, and to marvelously good effect, as Thompson describes:

PayPal runs thousands of Linux-based, single-rack-unit servers, which host the company's Web-presentation layer, middleware and user interface. Thompson says he quickly saw the economic, operational and development advantages of open source and [Red Hat Enterprise] Linux technology. He now sees no other way to do it.… Read more

The days of PayPal's dominance over casual payments online are changing rapidly. A little over a year ago, Google unveiled its Checkout service, which has become an increasingly popular way to purchase items from various online retailers using a single account. Today, Amazon.com is unveiling its own payment program that lets Amazon.com users purchase items or services using their Amazon.com account credentials and billing information.

The new program is called "Flexible Payment Service", or FPS, and is launching with an invite-only API for developers who want to integrate the new payment service. What does … Read more

Category: Productivity

PayPal was one of the first services to enable people to exchange money online. Popularized--and later purchased--by eBay, PayPal is one of the most widely recognized payment systems on the Internet. It's used in online auctions and stores as a way to control and manage payments.

PayPal has survived over the years by charging fees to its sellers. Buyers in online auctions and those making donations via the service aren't charged these fees.

One of the reasons people choose to use PayPal over other services is its buyer protection and anonymization services, which offer some protection … Read more

PayPal launched on Friday its security key fob, a little device designed to thwart password-stealing bad guys who are out to pilfer your online payment account.

PayPal, owned by online auction behemoth eBay, says its PayPal Security Key will generate a new security code every 30 seconds, which people will enter along with their log-in and password for their eBay and PayPal accounts.

PayPal, which initially announced in January plans to increase security via a password-generating key fob, will charge $5 to PayPal and eBay account holders in the U.S. The plan will be expanded internationally.

Various versions of … Read more

Google is hosting a party at the eBay Live customer event in Boston on Thursday night for eBay sellers who are angry that eBay has forbidden merchants from offering Google Checkout as an online payment option.

The "Let Freedom Ring" Google party will be held in the Old South Meeting House in Boston, which was a key meeting place for participants in the American Revolution.

eBay and its PayPal unit added Google Checkout to its banned transaction provider list last summer, claiming that the service, which was launched in June 2006, did not have a proven track record … Read more