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Fitbit's first smartwatch can now make payments in the UK
Convenient contactless and mobile payment options are a dime a dozen these days, but that isn't discouraging Fitbit from throwing its keys into the bowl. After launching in the US and elsewhere during recent weeks, Fitbit Pay is now live in the UK, if not with a few catches. For starters you're going to need one of Fitbit's new £300 Ionic smartwatches, the company's first wearable that isn't geared solely towards activity tracking. Then there's the fact that at launch, it only supports Starling Bank, one of the UK's relatively new, branchless outfits that digs into your payment data to help you better manage your money from your mobile.
Timex's new watch collection includes contactless payment straps
Barclaycard's various bPay accessories give previously inert objects the ability to make contactless payments, regardless of where you bank. Last year saw the introduction of the bPay Loop, a contactless card alternative that clings to watch straps. Understandably, though, you might not want to ruin the aesthetics of your neat dress watch with a brash rubber sidekick, but Barclaycard and Timex have now teamed up for a more elegant solution.
Android Pay helps Brits keep track of their Tube spending
It might have been late to the party, but Google is determined to make Android Pay the de facto payment solution for non-iPhone users in the UK. An update going out "this week" will add some deeper integrations with Transport for London (TfL), including incomplete journey notifications -- so you'll know when you forgot to tap out -- and daily travel summaries, complete with station names and bus numbers. Together, they should help you track your spending habits and spot when something strange has occurred, warranting further investigation and possibly a refund from TfL.
Android Pay Day offers UK discounts for mobile payments
Now that Android Pay is available in the UK, Google wants to make sure people are actually using it. The company has come up with a promotion called Android Pay Day, which offers discounts every month on the Tuesday before your next pay slip. The scheme kicks off today with two deals; firstly, in Starbucks, you can get two-for-one on Frappucinos; the second is a £5 voucher (ANDROIDPAY5 for new users, ANDROIDPAY2.5 for existing customers) that you can redeem inside the Deliveroo app, provided you select Android Pay as your payment method at checkout.
Google launches Android Pay in the UK
As promised, Google has brought Android Pay to the UK. The app is now live in the Google Play Store, meaning anyone with a compatible credit or debit card can link their bank account and start making payments. The Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA and Nationwide Building Society are all on board at launch, however it might take a little while before your particular bank is up and running. Oh, and don't expect Barclays to support Android Pay any time soon. It's a little preoccupied with its own Android app.
London taxis set to accept contactless payments in 2016
London's cabbies have moved one step closer to accepting credit cards and contactless payments inside their vehicles. It's about time, right? After launching a consultation earlier this year, Transport for London (TfL) and London's Mayor Boris Johnson have agreed to move the proposals forward with a planned introduction next autumn. There's still one roadblock -- the TfL Board has to approve the plans in February -- but if they're given the go-ahead, all taxi drivers will be required to accept these payments from October.
Barclays helps put contactless payments in a £150 jacket
Want a stylish way to make contactless payments in the UK, but can't afford an Apple Watch? Scottish knitwear brand Lyle & Scott has developed a jacket with Barclays' bPay technology in the cuff. For £150, you'll get a snazzy coat and the ability to make payments (now up to £30) by waving your hand over supported readers. Barclays has been pushing mobile payments for some time, but its latest hardware isn't particularly fashionable. There's a sticker you can slap on your phone, a key fob or a black wristband that offers only one of the benefits associated with fully featured wearables. With Lyle & Scott's "Contactless Jacket," however, the chip is always out of sight -- the downside being, of course, that you always have to wear it to make a payment. If you're smitten with the idea of garment-based payments, but don't like Lyle & Scott's sense of fashion, you could always sew a bPay sticker into your existing outwear. Sure beats shelling out £150 for a new jacket..
You can now spend up to £30 on contactless cards in the UK
More than ever before, the UK is embracing cashless payment methods such as debit and credit cards, phones and online banking. Some of that boom can be attributed to contactless payments, a technology that lets you pay with a card, fob, smartphone or wearable just by waving it in front of a reader. No signature or pin code required. The only problem, until now, has been the £20 limit on individual transactions. It meant contactless was fine for smaller purchases, but useless for anything substantial like a family supermarket shop. But thankfully, that limit is being increased today to £30.
HSBC and First Direct now support Apple Pay in the UK
Apple Pay's UK launch was spoiled earlier this month by lacklustre support from some of the nation's most popular banks. HSBC and First Direct were among the notable omissions, but today they're stepping up and giving customers the option to link their debit and credit cards. That means you can start using your iPhone or Apple Watch for contactless payments in Starbucks, Nando's and the London Underground, as well as inside apps like Domino's and Just Eat. Lloyds, meanwhile, has promised to support Apple Pay this autumn, but we're still waiting on dates from Barclays, Halifax, M&S, TSB and Bank of Scotland.
Lenovo bringing contactless payments to certain NFC-enabled ThinkPads in 2013
Select ThinkPad owners may be making online purchases simply by tapping a compatible credit card to an embedded NFC reader before 2013 is through. Lenovo reps confirmed that the tech would be coming to a yet-to-be-announced array of NFC-enabled ThinkPad tablets or Ultrabooks sometime this year -- processing partnerships are still in the works, so we don't have any details to share there, but if all goes to plan, you could be submitting your card details securely and with ease very soon. The company shared the news during today's Expand conference in San Francisco, shortly after unveiling two new ThinkPad models, including the T431s Ultrabook. Lenovo hasn't confirmed whether that model will offer tap-to-pay support, too, but we certainly wouldn't rule it out. We've seen contactless payments in plenty of smartphones, of course, but widespread tablet and laptop implementation has yet to arrive. Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here!
Visa lets iPhone-toting NatWest and RBS customers pay with NFC cases, join the future
Two can play at the UK-banks-with-NFC-payments game. RBS (and by extension, NatWest) is partnering with Visa Europe to roll out TouchPay, a mobile payment system based around an iCarte case for the iPhone 4 and 4S -- sorry, early iPhone 5 owners. In tandem with a native app, the service allows paying for goods at British shops by tapping the phone at a Visa-capable NFC terminal without needing the short-range wireless built-in. Any purchases under £20 ($32) can even skip the PIN code, if you're just in that much of a hurry to get a Pret À Manger sandwich. Only 1,000 of the 9,000 who pre-registered for TouchPay are getting into Visa's wallet-free initiative at this stage, although all NatWest and RBS customers with one of Apple's semi-recent smartphones can participate once a trial run is over. We're just wondering if and when Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 8 owners get in on the action.
Isis mobile payment system primed for September launch, supported devices revealed
You've known it was coming, but Isis has been so quiet on the mobile payments front in the past few months that you might've forgotten the score. Now, the joint venture backed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon has announced that it'll debut its system in Austin and Salt Lake City next month. At least part of the delay is attributed to its shift in strategy, when Isis shelved its plans to process payments through the carriers themselves and instead work with MasterCard and Visa. Isis representatives have declined to elaborate on future expansion plans. Coinciding with the recent update that enabled Isis support for T-Mobile's Galaxy S II, MasterCard has come clean with a list of devices that'll receive similar treatment. Specifically, those in the US can expect the Droid Incredible 4G LTE, One X, Amaze 4G, Galaxy S III to gain Isis support. Naturally, the possibility remains open for other devices as well, and if you'd like to see the complete list of candidates, make sure to check out the PDF below.
Samsung and Visa pull the starting trigger on Olympic payment collaboration
Well, it's been no secret that Samsung was hoping to cash in on this summer's Olympic fever. In fact, we all but knew its latest and greatest smartphone was going to be the handset-maker's Olympic Games Phone. Today, however, the union has been made official via an announcement with Visa. Trialists and Athletes sponsored by the brands will have access to a special edition "showcase device" with Visa's payWave payment application onboard. The collaboration is, of course, a drive to push the penetration of contactless payments in both the UK and the world stage. Payments under £20 won't need a passcode, and users will also be able to check their balance and purchase history from the app. It's estimated there'll be about 140,000 contactless terminals in the country by the time the Olympic tanks roll in, so plenty of places to pick up that official merch for the family back home.
Moneto's $30 Android mobile payment kit goes on sale, brings contactless payments to six Samsungs
Not everyone's smartphone has NFC, and of those that do, an even smaller subset have official Google Wallet support. It would seem Mountain View's complacency is Moneto's gain, as the outfit's recently put up for sale its $30 NFC-enabled microSD card -- enabling plebes everywhere sans contactless circuitry to sashay their way into mobile payment heaven. That card is also stuffed with 1GB of storage for your exploits and those plunking down three Hamiltons are also privy to a $10 credit thrown in. There's one caveat, however, as per its website the service currently only works on variants of the Galaxy S (including carrier permutations like the Vibrant, Fascinate and Galaxy S 4G). Support for an additional forty devices is inbound but before committing, we'd peep the latest compatibility info from the horse's mouth in the more coverage link we've included below.
Developers get Google Wallet on original Nexus S, squares wiping your phone with $10
Previously the exclusive phone-swiping domain of Sprint's Nexus S 4G, it now seems possible to get the wonders of Google wallet on its decidedly 3G predecessor. However, it's not an operation for the faint-hearted. If the words Cyanogen, full wipe, flash and kernel resemble white noise, it's probably worth waiting for an official release. See how the forum members at XDA Developers got their NFC wallet fix at the link below. [Thanks, John]
HTC, LG, Motorola, RIM, Samsung and Sony Ericsson to add Isis NFC tech in future phones
Stacking the lineup against Google Wallet, manufacturers HTC, LG, Motorola, RIM, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have been drafted by team Isis, agreeing to implement its NFC technology standard into future phone offerings. By garnering multi-manufacturer support, the joint AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon venture is pulling a power move against Mountain View's offering -- currently only functional on Sprint's Nexus S 4G (although that's almost certainly bound to change). Finally gearing up for battle, the crew recently pumped $100 million into the initiative, helping to win support from the aforementioned hardware heavy hitters. For those who aren't ready to buy a new phone just to jump on the NFC bandwagon, Isis says it's working with DeviceFidelity to add the functionality to older models as well. The more devices that have the technology, the better the chance we'll be ditching our leather wallets for the mobile variety. Or so they say. Check out the full PR after the break.
Engadget giveaway: win one of five Nexus S 4G phones with $1,000 Google Wallet credit!
We're pretty excited about Google Wallet, but the service is currently only available for Nexus S 4G phone owners, leaving most of you waiting for broader implementation. Well, how would you like to skip the line, getting to test it out on a Nexus S 4G of your very own? Google has supplied us with five phones to give away -- the company is even throwing in $1,000 (yes, one THOUSAND dollars) of prepaid credit to help fund those first few dozen taps. There's one catch: you'll need to use your Nexus S 4G with a Sprint plan, though the carrier is throwing in one month of demo service to get you started. Check out our in-depth preview for a detailed look at the service, and simply leave a comment after the break to be entered to win -- after checking that you meet the entry requirements, of course.
Polyamorous Google Wallet adds Visa to its arsenal
To the delight of shopaholics everywhere, Visa has announced that it's jumped on the Google Wallet bandwagon -- giving card users access to the snazzy, new NFC payment system. Much like MasterCard's announcement last week, the licensing agreement will allow Visa users to link their credit, debit and prepaid cards to Google's offering for fast mobile payments in places that accept the service. The credit card company has dabbled in mobile payments before through payWave, but with plans to integrate into GW, we'll surely be seeing more of it in the near future. As momentum over the NFC-powered mobile phones grows, it will be interesting to see if the Real Housewives can part with their phones long enough for their assistants to pay for those Manolos. Check out the full PR after the break.
A week with Google Wallet (video)
Contactless payments have been something of a curiosity in the credit card industry. MasterCard's PayPass has been around for the better part of a decade, but merchants and banks alike seem hesitant to adopt the technology required to make the system work, and inconsistent implementation adds to the confusion -- particularly for customers. Google's new mobile phone-based Wallet service has the potential to transform the technology from its current status as a transaction turkey, to a future as a checkout champion. But will it work? We spent a week with a Wallet-enabled Nexus S 4G, using the device to pay whenever we encountered a MasterCard PayPass terminal. Unfortunately, that wasn't often enough, limiting us to just a handful of transactions in the first week. Still, with Google just beginning to roll out the service and only a limited selection of launch partners ready to go, it's impossible to deliver a complete verdict just yet. Jump past the break for an inside look at Google Wallet, including a video of the service in action, and a brief look at what the world of contactless payments may look like in the future.%Gallery-130759%
iPhone 4 gets upgraded for NFC payments the hard way
Softbank customers in Japan can simply get an NFC sticker to add some contact-less payments to their iPhone 4, but most folks don't have it quite so easy just yet. There are some alternatives while you wait for Apple to hop on the NFC bandwagon, however, like this solution from Unplggd's Vivian Kim. It uses one of the smaller NFC-equipped credit cards now available from some banks, which is apparently just small enough to fit under the back cover of an iPhone 4 (a clear one, in this case, to show off your cleverness). And, yes, it apparently still works just fine under there -- even if you add a case on top of it.
