After clicking on the money symbol, all you have to do is enter in an amount and select the source from which the money will come from — it can even be a credit or debit card. After that, all you do is click “Attach” and then you’ll be able to type an email message and send off your money through the internet pipes to your friend or family member.

The below shows the process in a bit more detail, as well as how you can receive money — you don’t even need a Gmail address in order to receive a Google Wallet payment from someone with Gmail. If you receive a payment, all you do is click on “Claim Money” and you’ll be able to boost your checking account that much more.

This is most likely Google’s answer to competing with PayPal, which currently dominates the online money market. Google is looking to take away some of that market share with the ability to easily send payments to other people, something that PayPal users have been able to do for quite some time. However, it’ll take a little more effort on Google’s part to make a huge dent in PayPal. PayPal is integrated into hundreds of online retail websites, as well as eBay, so if Google wants to gain attention and take a chunk away from PayPal, they’ll have to get Google Wallet integrated into other services.

Nonetheless, the Gmail attachment feature for Google Wallet will be rolling out within the next couple of months, and it’ll only be available for users who are 18 years old or older. Also, each transaction sent through Gmail will still cost a 2.9% fee for each payment you send on through ($0.30 minimum).

Just like Passbook, Samsung Wallet offers location-based push notifications that alert users when they can use the various items that are stored in their Wallet account. Plus, the app provides real-time updates for various things like membership points and flight changes to boarding passes, and the app can display bar codes to be scanned.

Samsung already has a handful of US partners on board, including Walgreens, MLB, Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, and Lufthansa. The app’s interface looks freakishly similar to Apple’s own Passbook app, which isn’t too surprising, although we’re sure that Samsung included some of their own flavorings into the app.

Currently, Samsung Wallet does not support payments, but it does support NFC, and it’s likely that the company will partner up with a credit card company to offer NFC payments in the future at some point. The beta API is now available for developers, with a launch date set for March 7. Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy S IV on March 14, so the company’s Wallet could be ready in time for the new smartphone.

[via The Next Web]

MasterPass will support NFC, QR codes, and tags on a number of mobile devices at the checkout line in stores. Whereas MasterCard’s PayPass only supported NFC, thus restricting many mobile devices that don’t have NFC from using the service. However, with this MasterPass extension, more mobile devices can join in on the fun using other forms of communication.

MasterPass also includes new functionality that allows shoppers to scan a product barcode while in the store aisle and make the purchase right there within the store’s app. Banks, merchants, and partners can offer their own branded wallets in the MasterPass app as well, and they will include cards other than MasterCard.

Of course, this is essentially MasterCard’s answer to Google’s Wallet service and PayPal. The ability to display QR codes makes it easier for more smartphones to act as a digital wallet, even devices that don’t have NFC on board. MasterPass is expected to launch sometime next month in Australia and Canada, with launches in the US and UK following shortly after.

This information is tied to elements of interest in The Fancy in its supposed edge over the still very much larger competing group Pinterest. One of these elements is their forward-thinking percentage cut they take of all sales pushed through their site – 10% – and their massive valuation and funding rounds from late last year. Last we checked, the company was valued at $100 million USD and were able to get a $10 million dollar funding round led by the conglomerate behind Gucci, PPR.

Other investors in the company behind The Fancy are Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Apple is very much in a position to start working with online sales of physical goods at the moment as they’ve just announced a new “PassBook” virtual wallet element for their upcoming mobile operating system iOS 6. A connection between a virtual wallet on the iPhone and an entertaining visual system such as The Fancy would be a massive step forward for Apple in the online shopping universe.

Another interesting element in this story is the fact that an Apple Store in New York City and The Fancy’s designated DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) agent Michael Silverman both reside in the same building. 401 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10014 is where you’ll find them both. Certainly just a coincidence, but interesting enough nonetheless.

One more bit of coincidence occurring today comes from TechCrunch writer Ingrid Lunden who points to the featured image on The Fancy today – an iPhone. This would be fabulously exciting if it weren’t for the fact that Apple products (and accessories from 3rd party groups) weren’t exceedingly popular on The Fancy on the regular.

And a third – this is Tim Cook’s Fancy account. It’s currently set to private, but he certainly has used it before. Right after he and the CEO of The Fancy met last year.

Stay tuned as Apple continues to set fires under the seats of companies left and right – even if this all turns out to be a rumor.

This is where a new startup that launched this week called Wallaby comes in. Wallaby combines all of your existing credit cards on one card and then decides which of your card accounts to route transactions to based on where you get the most frequent flyer miles or cash back bonuses at the given moment. The first thing is you have to do is register all your physical cards with Wallaby, and the company gives you a single physical card to use everywhere.

When you register with Wallaby, you don’t have to worry about which card is the best, you simply swipe the card and pay as normal and Wallaby chooses which card to use automatically. Another example is if you go to a restaurant for lunch, and one of your cards has a special double cash back for the specific restaurant; Wallaby will automatically use the best card with no input from you. The first 5000 users to the beta Wallaby service will get a free card for 12 months and after the free year, Wallaby will cost $50 per year. This sounds like an interesting service to me.

[via TechCrunch]