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VeriFone retreats from mobile payments, says acquiring users 'fundamentally unprofitable'
After joining the mobile payment bandwagon last spring with Sail, VeriFone is ready to scale back its efforts in the venture. "Our experience through 2012 with tens of thousands of these micro-merchants tells us that the standalone economics of micro-merchant acquiring are fundamentally unprofitable," the firm's CEO, Doug Bergeron, said in a quarterly conference call. According to the head honcho, the cost of wrangling up new business users through ads and the like "will never justify the razor thin-margins produced by merchants with infrequent volumes and extremely high attrition." As a result of those costs and the risks of fraud associated with payments, the outfit will be handing off the user recruitment side of Sail to banks and "merchant acquirers," and plans to sell some of the platform's related assets. Despite the company's retreat from mobile payments, Bergeron considers the only way others could survive in the space is to provide merchants with auxiliary services, such as digital wallets, which competitors such as Square have begun to dabble in. VeriFone may have soured on mobile payments, but it's highly likely we'll see others give it the old college try as well.
VeriFone outs Sail mobile payment system, gives Square the evil eye
VeriFone has decided that calling out claimed security holes and focusing on enterprise-level payment options aren't enough to take on Square. Sail goes more directly for Square's jugular, using its own plug-in dongle to handle major credit card payments in your local coffee shop or a mid-sized outlet. The VeriFone party trick comes through having multiple payment options, where shopkeeps can either choose to pay a flat 2.7 percent cut of every sale, or shell out a $10 monthly fee to lower the transactional take to 1.95 percent. Programming interfaces will let you hook in deals from social networks, too. And as you might expect, the company is still keen to tie Sail to its traditional payment systems, opening the door to NFC readers as well as other payment hardware that isn't quite as mobile. Stores with iPhones will be the only ones using the free Sail mobile apps and readers at first, but Android- and iPad-toting entrepreneurs will have their alternative to Square or PayPal Here as soon as the end of May.
IKAROS gets first burst of solar propulsion, wants more
Photons, man, it's all about the photons. Japan's solar sail-equipped IKAROS probe has recorded its first propulsion derived from the force of sunlight rays hitting its tender surface. The force generated is a truly minuscule 1.12 millinewtons, but that can go a long way (literally) in a frictionless environment like space. The kite's sails also soak up Sol's emitted light to generate electricity, making the most out of the one resource available to it. So now that we've figured out how to do all that, shall we get started on colonizing Mars or what?
HP and ASU demo bendable, unbreakable electronic displays
Well, what do you know? Nearly four years after Arizona State University opened its very own flexible display center comes this, a prototype device that's purportedly easy to manufactur, easy on the environment and practically as strong as Thor. HP and ASU have teamed up to demonstrate the fresh e-displays, which are constructed almost entirely of plastic and consume far less power than traditional computer monitors. The "unbreakable displays" were crafted using self-aligned imprint lithography (SAIL) technology invented in HP Labs, and while we'd love to see this in a pliable laptop at CES 2009, we suspect it'll be a few years yet before these slither out to the commercial realm.Update: HP Labs pinged us with this tidbit on the image above. "This image from the Flexible Display Center at ASU represents what the flexible display, a paper-like computer display made entirely of plastic, could look like in the future."
New details on the future of user content in PotBS emerge
Many people have wanted to get involved and enjoy Pirates of the Burning Sea's user-submitted content system, but as things currently work, the turnaround time between submitting a flag or sail design and actually being able to purchase it in game has left something to be desired. Thankfully, Flying Lab Software realized that this situation needs fixing, and have announced that User Content 2.0 is on the way.This re-haul of the user content submission process changes the way that player's designs are voted on and approved. Other players will be shown two different designs at a time, and will have to choose which one they think is better/more appropriate to the time. After a design receives a certain amount of winning votes, it goes off to be approved by FLS. To be able to submit more designs, players need to spend some time in the voting process, so there's incentive to do the sorting work. Some other changes to how you can show off your work in the forums are also detailed in the User Content 2.0 announcement.We haven't been told when exactly the new system will be in place, but for now the old process is still in use. Don't forget that if you're that little bit more adventurous, you can submit a 3D ship model as well, and if this intrigues you then check out the Shipwright Discussion forum -- you'll be in good company.
Zelda Week: Set sail for Lego
While you're boating around in Phantom Hourglass, it's always nice to look back at other seafaring moments, even if the sailing in The Wind Waker wasn't really your thing. You know what makes everything better, though? Lego. This awesome Wind Waker diorama isn't new, but it's still imminently suitable for our celebration of Phantom Hourglass, and it's always impressive. We can't help but admire people who are not only talented enough to recreate awesome scenes with simple materials -- even those designed for such a purpose -- but those who take the time to do it, as well.
