payments

As if making money magically disappear from your bank account wasn't easy enough, DeviceFidelity's new In2Pay case, which will let iPhone users make contactless transactions on Visa's payWave system, will turn you into the Dumbledore of mobile payment.

The case is being developed by DeviceFidelity and will let your iPhone play nice with the company's existing In2Pay microSD card, which gets placed in the protective case. You'll just wave your iPhone at any Visa payWave terminal, which can already be found at some 32,000 retailers, and voila, you've made your transaction. It will … Read more

Here's another one of Facebook's gradual moves into the e-commerce world: The company announced Thursday a "strategic relationship" with eBay-owned payment system PayPal to make its technology available for the purchase of self-service ads as well as the Facebook Credits currency.

"We want to give the people who use Facebook, as well as advertisers and developers, a fast and trusted way to pay across our service," Dan Levy, director of payment operations at Facebook, said in a release. "As our business has grown, offering local methods of payment has become increasingly important for … Read more

On Tuesday, I was enlisted to help out with an event in conjunction with the New York arm of the "Social Media Week" conference-fest--called "Digital Divas," the cocktail affair was organized by a handful of women involved in various niches of technology and digital media. Yes, dudes were allowed too.

As the event grew closer, we decided that we wanted some kind of innovative way for guests to donate to support Doctors Without Borders' relief efforts in Haiti. So after some brainstorming we thought about using Square, the new mobile-payment company co-founded by Twitter Chairman Jack Dorsey. … Read more

Quite a bit of hype surrounds Square, the mobile payment processing service founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. But mobile payment processing is hardly a new concept, as companies like Symbol (now owned by Motorola) have long offering a wide array of devices.

The big deal is not the concept, but the fact that you can turn your iPhone or other mobile device into an on-demand payment processing service.

I spoke to Tom Patterson, chief security officer of MagTek, a provider of electronic devices for the secure transfer of payment data, to understand the implications of this new wave of … Read more

news analysis Following months of speculation, The New York Times announced Wednesday that it plans to begin charging for access to its Web site, with a flat fee required for frequent online readers of the legendary publication. This comes more than two years after the Times did away with TimesSelect, a subscription program that put much of its archives as well as popular opinion columns behind a pay wall.

The media, as usual, has jumped on the bandwagon of predictions, declarations of success, and premature doom-mongering. There's been a slow clap from Columbia Journalism Review's Ryan Chittum, as … Read more

Looks like Facebook will be throwing another big "F8" developer conference in the spring, after taking 2009 off. According to a sparse post on the company's developer blog, the event will be held April 21 and 22 in San Francisco. No more details are currently available.

"F8 has always been about empowering a community of developers to hack, to build and to delight users," the post reads. "We're looking forward to continuing this tradition at our third F8 in San Francisco on April 21-22, 2010. Please save the date!"

This is a … Read more

Hot on the heels of Friendster's recent face-lift, the onetime social-networking pioneer has found a buyer.

MOL Global, a Malaysian online payment company, has agreed to purchase Friendster, the companies announced late Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not revealed, but rumors last week said a likely asking price would start around $100 million.

"This combination is a natural progression of our relationship and will be an industry-changing event," Richard Kimber, chief executive officer at Friendster, said in a statement. "The new combined entity gives Friendster the kind of financial backing, retail distribution, and e-commerce infrastructure … Read more

Small business is front and center for Square, the new mobile-payments company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Previously in a quasi-stealth mode (OK, more like San Francisco's worst-kept secret), Square has now launched in beta, is accepting e-mail requests for preliminary accounts, and has put up a basic Web site to explain the company's premise.

The Square hardware is a small, inexpensive card reader that plugs into the audio jack of a compatible device, including a mobile phone (it's starting with the iPhone and currently has job postings up for BlackBerry and Android engineers). It processes … Read more

The simple concept of having virtual-good payments in games sent directly to your cell phone bill has gotten a lot of buzz--and stirred up a lot of rivalry. One of the start-ups looking to pull this off, Boku, announced Monday that it has signed on a dozen new gaming partners, both a few based on the Facebook platform and some others that are either Web-based or desktop downloads.

The partner companies are Waves, Cie Studios, Cyberstep, GameDuell, IGG, King.com, NHN USA, Ntreev, Outspark, PerfectWorld, Snap Interactive, and Zoosk. Most of them aren't household names: they're game manufacturers, … Read more