SmartphonePayment
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99Bill smartphone card reader pushes mobile payments for China, pretends it's never heard of Square
Jostling for attention among a crowd of China-focused smartphone card readers, 99Bill's card reader has now been officially revealed. It plugs into your headphone jack and communicates with apps on both iOS and Android. The familiar-looking reader supports both passcode and signature security -- China matches several European countries where passcode cards are the more common option. The company has already hooked up with three insurance companies, but it's keeping quiet on the rates it'll charge per transaction and any further expansion plans. 99Bills lays down why it should be your go-to choice for smartphone payments in mainland China right after the break.
Square adds customer loyalty and printable receipts to the mobile payment mix
In case you haven't been paying attention, Square, the company that allows vendors to accept payments from various mobile devices, is starting to become a big deal. Now reporting days with over $11 million in transactions, the kids in San Francisco are looking to solve the pains of small business owners while driving repeat usage with a new opt-in customer loyalty system. Coming in the form of a software update, version 2.2 will empower merchants to track repeat visitors and offer sweet incentives to their regulars. For consumers, you'll be capable of seeing these discounts from within the Card Case app, along with letting your awesome presence be known to the shopkeeper -- so, don't be surprised when some owners come grovelin' at your feet. Not to become too futuristic, Square is also going old school with new features such as wireless control of cash drawers and receipt printing. After all, it's hard to look to the future without knowing from where you came.
AT&T and Intuit square up to... Square (video)
Better watch your back, Jack. Smartphone-payment player Intuit has formed an unholy alliance with AT&T to produce Intuit GoPayment for AT&T (these guys love the sound of their own names) in the hope of muscling in on Square's burgeoning smartphone mobile payments game. Time and money-poor small business people just need to insert the reader into the headphone socket of their phone (or tablet) and fire up the app. The partnership is offering faster deposits, no monthly service charge (mind that 2.7 percent commission per use, though) and the backing of a massive telecoms corporation. The service also forwards email receipts to customers and integrates with Quickbooks to save a further job when it's the end of quarter. The partnership thinks that mobile transactions will be in the trillions and, understandably, want in on that action. After the break you can watch an informative video and read all the gory details in the joint press release.
Square updates Card Case, enables hands-free payment on the iPhone
Those of you living in a city graced by Square's Card Case have been gleefully opening tabs and making plastic-free payments at select merchants since May. Starting today, iPhone users will now save precious seconds of shopping time as opening tabs has been automated -- as soon as you're close enough to designated establishments, tabs open themselves courtesy of new geo-fencing APIs exposed in iOS 5. For those who are unfamiliar, the previous iPhone and Android apps required users to manually open those tabs from within the vicinity of a Square-approved merchant. After that, users complete purchases as before by simply confirming their name to a store clerk. That's one more step in society's never-ending quest for frictionless payments, but those with an evil twin or a stalking doppelgänger might want to think twice before joining the Square revolution.
