PaymentSystems
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Square CEO hints at Windows Phone app, says Starbucks funding will go toward 'international efforts'
As you probably have heard -- it's created quite some buzz, after all -- Starbucks just announced a partnership with Square to accept mobile payments via the Pay with the Square app. That's huge news for Square, which currently processes transactions for some 75,000 merchants, as the coffee retailer is one of the largest national chains to integrate with the payment service. At a breakfast in New York today, Square CEO and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz fielded questions about the partnership's importance. While most of the talk centered on the rollout that will bring Square payments to 7,000 Starbucks stores ahead of the holiday season, the discussion also touched upon other areas of expansion for the mobile payments company. Currently, the Pay with Square app is only available on iOS and Android. Asked whether a Windows Phone app is in the making, Dorsey said, "We will definitely build for where the users are, and we're excited about the Windows Phone interface." Take that as you will. Starbucks will start accepting Square payments ahead of the holiday season, and Dorsey said the coffee retailer's $25 million investment will be used for hiring and to expand "international efforts." Starbucks, which has 18,000 stores in 60 countries, would certainly be a natural partner in any overseas plans.
T-Mobile hails Direct Carrier Billing to fulfill your digital shopping desires
T-Mobile doesn't seem too wild about playing with Google Wallet, but for its part, the Bellevue-based carrier keeps dipping its toes into the mobile payment pond. As you're probably aware, its customers have been able to apply Android Market purchases to their wireless bills for a couple years, and later this month, they'll be able to do the same with digital content such as music, movies, and videos. Shopping online without needing a credit card is an obvious benefit, and the company is hoping its two-step authentication process will keep customers feeling secure. All Magenta subscribers will see the option at the time of checkout on T-Mobile's partner websites -- regardless of the device they connect with -- and they'll receive an itemized statement of purchases with their monthly bills. The feature can be disabled if you'd rather not participate, and if you're not sold yet, read the full story in the PR just past the break.
Live from the Google Wallet press event!
Okay, so we're not totally sure Google will be unveiling its Google Wallet contactless payment system, but we're rather certain that whatever the company has to unveil will have something to do with paying for things using a wallet that doesn't contain physical money yet features some sort of Google branding. Would you like to know more? Join us for the full liveblog experience at the times below: 06:00 - Hawaii 09:00 - Pacific 10:00 - Mountain 11:00 - Central 12:00 - Eastern 17:00 - London 18:00 - Paris 20:00 - Moscow 00:00 - Perth 00:00 - Shenzhen 01:00 - Tokyo (May 27th) 02:00 - Sydney (May 27th)
