That means tomorrow, the new software development kit will be available for Android developers and it promises to make it easier for the developers to accept in-app payments via Android. Developers on the iOS platform had access to a similar SDK about two months ago. PayPal had promised Android developers that they would get their own version of the SDK soon when the iOS version launched.

The new PayPal Android SDK supports Android version 2.2 and up. The new Android payment solution will allow developers to accept payments via PayPal and via credit cards. PayPal believes that giving users the option to pay quickly and easily via their PayPal account or by scanning a credit card will lure more customers into paying developers for their work.

PayPal says that offering two forms of payment via the SDK “removes payment friction so developers can focus on creating amazing experiences.” With more and more apps watching that are supported by in-app purchases, easy payment systems are a necessity for developers.

PayPal says that it is also offering security features that will allow developers to “significantly reduce” fraud they encounter with payments. The one downside to this new SDK is that it likely means an increasing number of freemium applications. Getting an interesting game or app for free only to realize that you have to spend money in the game to make it playable frustrates everyone.

SOURCE: TheNextWeb

Speaking at the Interop IT conference, Barrett was quite positive that passwords will die sometime this year, even going as far as putting an image of a tombstone up on the screen that gave an “R.I.P.” to passwords. He says that passwords “are starting to fail us,” and that there are better, more secure ways to easily log into accounts in a secure manner.

On top of PayPal, Barrett is the president of the Fast IdentityOnline Alliance (FIDO), which is an organization that aims to change online authentication with an open standard that’s both secure and convenient to use. Barrett thinks that fingerprint scanners will be the wave of the future, and he even brought up rumors about the next iPhone coming equipped with a fingerprint scanner, as well as a handful of other new smartphones.

We can certainly see where Barrett is coming from. Passwords can be really easy to crack, especially if people use the same password for all of their accounts, which is inexcusable, but it makes sense, as many people don’t want to take the time to remember 20 different complex passwords. Two-factor authentication has been making the rounds, requiring users to log in using a password as well confirming their identity through a hardware device, but it’s inconvenient. Barrett thinks that biometrics is not only convenient, but also much more secure than passwords.

However, he noted that passwords simply won’t go away after biometrics are introduced. It’ll certainly take a while before a new standard can completely take over, especially considering that passwords have been the standard for so many years. So while we could see smartphones with integrated fingerprint scanners, it could be a few years before a new security standard takes over full-time.

VIA: Macworld

The value of Bitcoins has skyrocketed, with its current value being around $140 last time I checked (but considering how quickly its value changes, it may be different now). If Bitcoins were able to be converted into real cash, the U.S. Treasury Department would apply certain money-laundering rules to regulate the exchange of the currency. The regulations would treat Bitcoins in a similar fashion as regular money-order transactions.

Donahoe says that by implementing Bitcoin into PayPal, the company would be able to persuade more retailers to use PayPal’s payment system in their retail stores. PayPal and eBay are already attempting to persuade more physical stores to implement PayPal into their payments system. eBay plans on pushing into the offline market this summer by bringing lifesize touchscreen store windows to New York, giving shoppers a new way of offline shopping.

While PayPal is considering adding Bitcoins as a payment option, nothing is set in stone yet. Many other companies have entertained the thought of accepting Bitcoins as payments. Western Union and MoneyGram International are currently figuring out ways to allow customers to transfer money worldwide with the virtual currency. If PayPal does allow customers to pay for things using Bitcoins, that would open a whole new and exciting chapter for the virtual currency.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

eBay knows that a majority of transactions are still being done offline, so in order for eBay to grab more revenue, it needs to venture off the internet and into brick-and-mortar stores. It has already begun to do this by implementing PayPal, its payment transaction subsidiary, into over 250,000 retail stores all around the world. It hopes to expand PayPal into over 2 million stores by the end of this year.

The company is focusing most of its efforts into mobile this year. It expects to see at least $20 billion in mobile commerce alone this year. Donahoe stated, “Mobile is clearly changing how consumers shop and pay”. He says that eBay has to focus on its efforts on smartphones, tablets, and in-store devices because consumers are not just using one screen to access their information, but many. eBay acquired Duff Research recently, which it will be using to help improve its mobile services.

Many companies, like eBay, have also redirected their focus onto developing better mobile platforms. Facebook is a good example. Instead of focusing on just creating a better desktop performance for users, Facebook put most of its efforts into developing its mobile Android launcher, Facebook Home. The IDC reported that around 722 million smartphones and 128 million tablets shipped last year alone, so it’s no surprise that businesses are seeing the important role mobile devices play in the world of advertising and commerce.

[via TechCrunch]

Alternatively, those without an existing PayPal account will be able to set up a new one directly from their TV, using LG’s MagicRemote to gesture through the menus. From that point on, the account can be optionally left logged-in, remembering payment and shipping details for each subsequent purchase.

According to LG and PayPal, the possibilities for integrated payments are far broader than just buying the odd on-demand movie or smart TV app. Instead, they see a more complex and engaging advertising strategy evolving, where smart TV viewers can buy physical products without putting down their remote, or donate to charity campaigns with a single click.

In addition to the three markets where PayPal on smart TV has already been switched on, the service will arrive on 2013 LG models in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Australia starting this month. Broader availability will follow on after that.

PayPal members will be able to go up to a Coinstar kiosk and deposit money into their PayPal account, or withdrawal money as well. Users will also be able to transfer money to another PayPal account. This is great news, since PayPal is online-only, and it allows users to make transactions if they’re not near a computer or don’t have their phone on them.

Of course, though, Coinstar will charge PayPal users fees for using its services, just like any ATM would. Coinstar’s standard coin-counting fee of 9.8% will apply when adding coins to a PayPal account. When deposting or withdrawing paper money, a $3 fee applies for transactions up to $300, and a $6 fee applies for transactions over $300.

Customers will also be limited to adding up to $500 per month. As of right now, PayPal functionality at Coinstar kiosks has begun rolling out several locations across California, Texas, and Ohio, with more locations to be added throughout the year. As for a complete rollout to all Coinstar kiosks, it’s not yet said if that will happen or not, but it seems the company has seen a positive response so far with the few locations they already have available.

These groups include the FIDO Alliance and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). The FIDO Alliance has been formed with Lenovo and PayPal as well as Nok Nok Labs, Agnito and Validity. DARPA on the other hand is the research and development arm of the Defense Department. Regardless of where these two groups are coming from or who they are made up of, they are looking to do something different with the standard password method of security.

DARPA is working on the Active Authentication program which is currently described as being in its second phase. In this phase they are said to be looking for research that “sets out to establish behavioral biometrics based on discernible cognitive processes and the observable ways that users naturally interact with their environment while using their computing devices.” More to the point here, research that will allow them to develop a solution that uses multiple points including physical aspects such as fingerprints, how you interact with technology such as a keystroke pattern or mouse movement and even data to include how you use language and how you construct sentences.

Looking at the FIDO Alliance and we see where things may come into play for the more average user. Things appear to still be shaping up here though. In fact, it was said that as the FIDO Alliance attracts new member-organizations they will include new solutions. Some of the ideas mentioned at this point include USB tokens, one time passwords and the use of Near Field Communications (NFC). With that, while it seems like we still have some time before we can stop worrying about regular passwords, it is nice to see these issues being discussed and worked on.

[via The Verge]

The updated design, which you can see in the image above, is very Web 2.0-ish, with a streamlined, easier to digest interface that categorizes things in a logical, simple way. Bits of information are displayed in their own sections right on the main account screen, including notifications, recent activity, and balance.

Unlike the current design, which requires hunting through tabs and menus, the new design features drop-menus with relevant items, such as coupons, banking information and cards, and credit. The three main functions – Account Summary, Activity, and Settings – are located as tabs in the upper menu, which toggles the screen between the three categories.

Performing the most common tasks done on PayPal is also streamlined in the new layout via shortcuts on the right-hand side of the account screen. Shortcuts are available for requesting money, sending money, adding money, and withdrawing money. There’s no mention of when the new design will go into effect, but the curious can check it out here.

[via PayPal]

The attacks costs all the companies involved a large sum of money, and it cost PayPal alone over $5.5 million. Both Weatherhead and Rhodes were found guilty of conducting various DDoS attacks between August 2010 and January 2011, and the sentences are said to be the first convictions for DDoS attacks in the UK.

Co-conspirators Peter Gibson and Jake Birchall also face sentences, although Gibson was sentenced to six months in jail, with a two-year suspension, while Birchall will face the judge on February 1. The hacking group called the attack “Operation Payback” and targeted various payment sites that had withdrawn support from Wikileaks.

Anonymous ended up launching DDoS attacks against PayPal, MasterCard, Swiss bank PostFinance, Visa, and Amazon. The financial impact other websites were not disclosed, although it’s said that Weatherhead once bragged online at having caused almost $1.6 million in damage to MasterCard.

[via BBC News]

If legitimate users were caught by the fraud filters proving that you weren’t a scammer involved significant amounts of time and paperwork. PayPal has recently announced that it will be rolling out a major overhaul to its system over the next several months. The company isn’t offering much in the way of details on what exactly it will be doing.

PayPal senior director of communications Anuj Nayar promises, “these are aggressive changes.” Nayar wouldn’t go into specifics reports CNN, but did note that transparency will be a major focus. He promises that PayPal will be clearer about how people can get their frozen funds and explaining why the freeze actions were taken.

Anyone who dealt with PayPal in a frozen fund situation knows that typically the only information you’re given is that fraud was suspected. PayPal freezes funds and accounts for 21 days if they think there’s a fraud risk. PayPal can also extend that for up to 180 days. Often one of the requests by PayPal to be able to unlock the frozen funds would include several months worth of sales records. However not all legitimate sellers keep sales records.

[via CNN]

Be you switch on your PS3 and jump online to buy up all sorts of games, you should know that you can’t use PayPal to pay for purchases on the console. Instead, you’ll need to head over to the Sony Entertainment Network website and use PayPal to add funds to your wallet from there. At the moment, the PayPal option isn’t appearing for us, so it may be that Sony is rolling out this functionality to users in waves.

Just the same, it seems that others can’t get PayPal payments to work. While Joystiq sees the option to add funds using PayPal, it says that each attempt to do so has failed. So, while some aren’t having any issues using PayPal with their PlayStation Network account, it would appear that the feature has launched with a few kinks left to iron out.

At any rate, once the service is up and running, we imagine quite a few gamers will be pleased as punch. Using PayPal is certainly much faster than heading out to the store to pick up a prepaid card, and this is a feature that US consumers have wanted for a while. Are you having any issues getting your PlayStation Network account to play nice with PayPal?

[via VG247]

PayPal announced today that 23 large national retailers have begun participating in PayPal Now, and the service is now available at 18,000 retail locations around the United States. PayPal Now officially launched back in May of 2012 to extend PayPal’s payment platform into physical stores. Shoppers simply enter their phone number and a pin code during checkout instead of swiping their credit or debit card.

The service is definitely useful for people who forget their wallets, or for those who just prefer to keep all of their transaction under one roof. There are also opportunities to earn digital coupons and loyalty points by choosing this method of payment, so there’s definitely an incentive to use the new platform other than convenience.

Square is obviously PayPal’s biggest competitor, with its own plans in the retail realm that includes a major partnership with Starbucks. It’ll be interesting to see where the mobile payment industry goes from here. Google Wallet is making the rounds, and while it’s not yet a well-known avenue for payments, it just could be a matter of time before we see it take off.

The cards are called the PayPal My Cash Card and allow users to load their PayPal account using cash rather than having to mess with bank transfers. The cards will be sold at pharmacies and discount stores around the country including CVS, Rite Aid, Fred’s, Dollar General, Family Dollar, and others are coming soon. The cards will be available in 30,000 locations across the United States.

PayPal plans to double that reach by 2013 to 60,000 retailers. To activate the card, the buyer would purchase the dollar amount they want to load with a card available in fixed amounts such as $20, $50, $100, and higher. Cards are available all the way up to $500 in value.

The user would purchase the card, pay the dollar amount at the retail location, and then go to PayPal and enter a pin number provided on the back of the card to access the money immediately in their PayPal account. Users can create a PayPal account during this process. PayPal charges $3.95 activation fee and users can load up to $500 per day to a maximum of $4000 per month. No credit check is required for the cards but users do have to provide a name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number to verify identity.

[via TechCrunch]

The company shared an infographic today that breaks everything down. The infographic tells us that “US mobile transacted volume grew 133%” over last year’s biggest mobile shopping day. We can also plainly see that this is just the latest in a string of big Sundays for eBay, as December 9 managed to top December 2 and November 25, which round out the top three biggest mobile days of 2012 for the company.

eBay wasn’t the only one to experience massive mobile shopping volume on Sunday, as it was a big day for PayPal too. December 9 was PayPal’s second biggest shopping day of the year, coming in behind Sunday, December 2. On that day, PayPal’s “global mobile payment volume grew 221%” year-over-year, so it sounds like executives had a lot to smile about on Monday morning.

eBay also said that 1 out of every 3 purchases made on the website involve a mobile touch point, whether people are making purchases with their phone or simply checking out listings. While Sunday was undoubtedly a great day for eBay and PayPal, there’s a chance that December 9 will be topped by another day by the time 2012 is over – after all, the holiday shopping season isn’t over yet, and it’s bound to get even more frantic as we barrel toward the end of the month.

EBay saw a 133-percent increase in mobile payments over their 2011 figures. PayPal saw a bigger jump, with a 173-percent increase over last year’s figure. The most active time period for mobile payments was between noon and 1pm Pacific time (3pm and 4pm Eastern time). This is in line with the spike in mobile usage that has happened over the last couple years.

For PayPal, the cities that clocked the most mobile payments includes Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and New York, in order by quantity. Mobile payments from Thanksgiving 2010 to 2011 increased 511-percent. If the numbers are any indication, shoppers are embracing the convenience of shopping from the comfort of their home.

This time span lines up with when Instagram traffic reached its peek today. The photo-filter app experienced its biggest day ever today, with in excess of 10 million photos being shared over a 24-hour period. At the height of its traffic, 226 Thanksgiving images were shared per second. This trumped the 800,000 shared during Hurricane Sandy.

[via Venture Beat]

PayPal says that it is currently investigating the claims of a breach, but so far the company hasn’t found any evidence that it has been hacked. SEE: quote below. That isn’t all Anonymous has been up to though, as the BBC reports that Symantec is looking into claims that it has been hacked as well. Over the weekend, sites belonging to NBC, Lady Gaga, and the Australian government were compromised in an apparent protest for Guy Fawkes Day.

“It appears that the exploit was not directed at PayPal after all, it was directed at a company called ZPanel. The original story that started this and was retweeted by some of the Anonymous Twitter handles has now been updated.” – PayPal Spokesperson

Guy Fawkes, who attempted to blow up the House of Lords in an effort to kill King James I back in 1605, has become something of a legend within Anonymous, thanks to 2005′s V for Vendetta. “Members” of the group often wear Guy Fawkes masks that were used in the movie when they appear publicly, and indeed, a few of the websites displayed the famous Gunpowder Treason rhyme after being compromised. “Remember, remember the fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot,” the rhyme commands. “I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.”

A number of the sites that were reportedly compromised in this Guy Fawkes protest are now back to normal, but you can bet that Anonymous is pleased with the attention it has received this fifth of November. Even though PayPal hasn’t confirmed that it was hacked, it might not be a bad idea to switch up your password if you happen to be a customer. Knowing Anonymous, this won’t be the last we hear of the hacktivist group today, so keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more details.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer told us that 4 million Windows users have upgraded to Windows 8 since it launched last week, and today the company release the Windows Phone 8 SDK for eager developers. Twitter outed its Windows 8 app a few months ahead of launch, while Microsoft confirmed that apps like PayPal and Dropbox will be hitting the new operating system shortly. Microsoft also responded to complaints about Office 2013 on Surface, so if you’ve got one of the company’s new slates, you might want to hold off on using Office until these problems are fixed.

The fourth generation iPad has been benchmarked, showing a 1.4GHz A6X processor and 1GB of RAM, and one analyst was spotted predicting massive sales for the iPad line up. Apple delayed the roll out of its new iTunes overhaul today, while Google said it will be pushing developers to make extraordinary app experiences for Android tablets. Hurricane Sandy knocked out a number of big sites like Gawker and The Huffington Post over the weekend, and Modern Warfare 4 was outed by one excited voice actor.

Shortly after announcing that Disney had purchased LucasFilm, George Lucas talked about the deal and the future of Star Wars in a new interview, and today the Pentagon clarified that it will still be using BlackBerry phones in addition to iPhone and Android handsets. Grand Theft Auto V has been confirmed for a Spring 2013 release, and we received quarterly reports from both MetroPCS and ASUS today, the latter of which did particularly well in its third quarter.

Before we go, we want to remind you that our reviews for the iPad Mini and the fourth generation iPad went live not too long ago, so check those out if you’re interesting in buying one! That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy the rest of your night folks!

Adjusted net income landed at $718 million, equaling out to 55 cents per share – actually slightly better than the 54 cents per share analysts projected. That’s also a 14% increase year-over-year, which is something for eBay to smile about. Non-adjusted net income was at $597 million or 45 cents per share, which indicates a 22% increase over the same period last year.

PayPal isn’t looking too bad coming out of quarter 3 either, posting a 14% gain year-over-year gain in its number of active accounts, which was at 117.4 million as of September 30. eBay managed to pull in a cool $1.367 billion in revenue from PayPal in its third quarter, so we’re going to go ahead and assume that the company is happy with that 23% revenue jump year-over-year. Looking forward, the company has some pretty big expectations for both quarter 4 and the year overall.

Specifically speaking, eBay expects to take in a bit more in quarter 4, projecting net revenues between $3.85 billion and $4 billion, which would put adjusted earnings per share at 66 cents to 69 cents. eBay is expecting increased revenues for quarter 4 because of the holiday shopping season, so hitting that mark certainly isn’t out of the question. For all of 2012, eBay is expecting to pull in $13.95 billion to $14.1 billion and an adjusted earnings per share of $2.32 – $2.35. That definitely isn’t bad, and you can bet we’ll be watching to see if the company can meet its own expectations.

This is arguably one of the most deliberate moves we’ve seen a company make in order to protect itself from its users, and it shows that they know they’re making decisions that could get them sued by their fellow users. Obviously, they know that most users are too lazy to actually mail something nowadays. Then again, Sony is also guilty of this.

You have until November 1 to opt out, and the letter “must state that you do not agree to this Agreement to Arbitrate and must include your name, address, phone number, and the email address(es) used to log in to the PayPal account(s) to which the opt-out applies. You must sign the Opt-Out Notice for it to be effective.”

So, if you use PayPal on a regular basis (like I do), we would strongly recommend that you read over the updated PayPal policy. And if you’re not willing to ditch PayPal, then it’s probably in your best interest to mail in an opt-out letter. For your convenience, a letter template is already available for you, thanks to Engadget’s Darren Murph.

[via Darren Murph]

Twitter has taken away Tumblr Friend Finder functionality, and the inexpensive T-Mobile Concord has launched to bring 4G to budget-minded consumers. It was recently discovered that the SMS security hole known to plague iPhones doesn’t affect other devices running a different OS like Android or BlackBerry, and LG has apparently started working on the screen that may end up gracing the iPhone 5. Speaking of the iPhone, it seems that production on the next model has slowed thanks to a shortage of supplies.

The FCC has approved Verizon’s bid to buy up additional 4G LTE spectrum, and the Xbox 360 will be offering users election coverage starting next week, complete with live streams of the three debates that are planned. A large percentage of consumers are saying that they don’t need 4G LTE service, despite the fact that carriers are advertising it like mad. There’s a new OS X Mountain Lion update on the scene, and it’s bringing some software fixes with it, while today we received word that Facebook’s storage requirements grow by 500TB each and every day.

Sony Mobile has announced that it will be laying off 1,000 employees by March 2014, and the jury that is deciding the Apple and Samsung patent case decided to put in a little bit of overtime today. Paypal will be teaming up with Discover to bring its service to a ton of retail locations, Nissan will be giving prospective buyers of its 2013 Pathfinder a virtual tour of the car with a little help from Kinect, and Amazon has a new event coming up next month, where we’re thinking it will announce a brand new Kindle Fire. It just so happens that we’ll be at that event, so if there is a new Kindle Fire announced, you’ll be able to read all about it here at SlashGear.

Finally tonight, we have a brand new hands-on with the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. Enjoy the rest of your evening everyone, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow night for Friday’s edition of the Wrap-Up!

Starting in 2013, Discover will work with PayPal to enable participating merchant locations to accept PayPal via the merchants PayPal payments via an existing relationship with Discover. What this means is that consumers will be able to use their PayPal account at retail merchant locations just as they do online for online destinations.

Discover says that merchants wanting to accept PayPal won’t have to install or upgrade any of their existing point-of-sale hardware or software. Consumers will be alerted that they can use PayPal in the retail locations with signage in the stores. Many people out there use PayPal for shopping online, and receive money via PayPal from auctions and other things.

Being able to walk into a retail store and use their PayPal account, just as they would a normal credit card is a big win for PayPal users. PayPal claims that using your account off-line in a retail store will offer the same speed, simplicity, and security that users enjoy online. I wonder whether buyers and sellers will run into the same issues on physical purchases as online buyers and sellers have with PayPal from time to time. I think many eBay sellers have had PayPal take money from their account based on bogus accusations from buyers. I wonder whether this will be an issue with retail transactions.

So, what does card.io do? Its technology allows app developers to capture credit card information using the cameras on a smartphone, making it easier for consumers to enter their card information. Hearing that, it’s pretty easy to understand why PayPal wanted to add card.io to its portfolio. PayPal says that card.io’s current technology will remain available to developers, so if you’re using card.io’s tech in one of your apps at the moment, you can breathe a sigh of relief – PayPal will not be forcing card.io to discontinue its current offerings.

“We first met with the team at card.io when we were working on integrating their technology into the PayPal Here mobile app,” Ferguson writes. “While working with them, we were simply blown away by the creativity and drive of their employees. They are a passionate and independent team that likes solving large, complex problems and we wanted them to join our team.”

Ferguson didn’t disclose the amount the company paid for card.io, nor did he say when the card.io team is expected to make the trip to San Jose (though we imagine that will take place pretty soon). For more information on PayPal, check out the story timeline below!

Featured: In our category of featured articles, we have a story that takes a critical look at the iPad and Microsoft Surface – no, not a critical look at the two products, but rather at the comparisons that everyone is expectedly making between the two. But s it an appropriate comparison? Surface vs iPad coparisons inevitable but foolish in the end.

Xbox 720, D-Link, & PayPal: It’s time to wrap up this edition of the evening wrap-up, which we do by taking a look at three more stories that made waves today. Here’s a good one – Xbox 720 plans legal takedown expanded. And it’s not the most exciting product reveal, but – D-Link cloud router 1200 and 2000 revealed. And finally, good news if you have a strong hacking skill set – PayPal increases bug bounty pay rates.

“It’s clearly an effective way to increase researchers attention on Internet-based services and therefore find more potential issues,” wrote PayPal chief information security officer Michael Barrett in a blog post. PayPal, however, does not publicly announce minimum or maximum bounty payments. Gooel, though offers up to $20,000 for anyone who finds a highly critical bug, and Mozilla pays a generous $3,000 for every bug that it deems important.

It is surely no coincidence that the increased bug bounty payoff comes as PayPal has wildly expanded its product and service offerings. In just the first half of this year, PayPal has added the ability to pay for purchases in store, it launched a mobile credit card reader, and it added functionality for near field communication (NFC) contactless mobile money transferring.

[via GigaOM]

This update is only available today for those of you out there that physically picked up the game from the store, strangely enough. You’ll have to wait three more days to get access if you downloaded the game like I did. Once you’re there, you’ll find that some people have already bid items up to $200 USD and more. Right now it seems like items are being set on the market at around $30 with buyouts set at $250 USD – if you’re good to go with a few thousand bucks, you can trick your character out right now!

Your account is connected to your Battle.NET account, of course, where Blizzard takes a 15 percent cut when you transfer your funds out to PayPal. You’ll have to use PayPal, yes, and each time you do a transaction you’ll be paying $1.00 as well. These costs work on all items outside of gems, mats, recipes, and dyes, which will cost you an additional 15 percent transaction fee. Blizzard will be cashing in on this situation very, very quickly, this in stark contrast to how eBay cashed in on Diablo II and 3rd party unofficial transactions.

Let us know if you plan on picking anything up right here at the start of this virtual, and yet real, economy!

Initial setup is a one-time thing, TiVo promises, consisting of linking your PayPal account with your TiVo account. The interactive shopping content will be shown in TiVo ads and Showcase campaigns, both to direct TiVo subscribers and MSO customers such as RCN, Suddenlink and others.

“This integration creates a new opportunity for advertisers and brands to connect with TiVo users and to turn their 30-second spots and interactive TiVo ad placements into actionable purchasing opportunities through a one-time account link” the two companies say, which sounds a bit heavy on the marketing hyperbole but could make a big difference to the home shopping experience.

The holy grail for businesses has always been a seamless way of transitioning viewers from seeing an advert to a place where they can actually buy the product or service, and being able to do it directly from the remote seems like a pretty bump-free route.

Neither company has said which firms are signed up for the interactive shopping adverts, and we’ll presumably hear more later on in the year when the service launches.

Among the partnerships PayPal secured are with Verifone and Equinox Payments. You may not have heard of them, but chances are you’ve swiped a credit card through one of their systems. “In-store payments are a natural extension of what we’ve done. As mobile has become important, retailers have gotten interested in how they can use mobile as a connective tissue [to] the consumer,” PayPal retail vice president Don Kingsborough was quoted as saying in a VentureBeat interview.

PayPal launched a flagship partnership with The Home Depot eariler this year, which allows customers to pay for their purchases by simply signing into their PayPal account on the same touchscreen display that you normally use to sign your name or enter a debit card PIN. JCPenneys, Office Depot, and Jamba Juice are also specific retailers that have come on board to accept PayPal payments.

[via VentureBeat]

The company isn’t ignoring the mobile front. They’ve announced a new version of their Android and iOS app that will directly interface with retail kiosks, and help to automatically authenticate a customer’s account when shopping online. An API will be provided for prospective merchants and developers. The app isn’t available yet, but will be displayed at CTIA in New Orleans, going on now. The first partners for this initiative are Barnes & Noble and American Airlines.

MasterCard will have plenty of competition as it introduces this comprehensive payment system. PayPal is approaching the same idea from the opposite direction with debit and credit cards tied to users’ accounts, and Google’s Wallet app and service have been trying to corner the market for NFC-based payments in the US. Perhaps the biggest player on the horizon is ISIS, a consortium from Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon that aims to set up a nationwide phone-based NFC system. Some of these carriers are already blocking Google Wallet from the Google Play Store – it’ll be interesting to see what they think of MasterCard’s move.

WePay’s differentiating niche is mainly to appeal to online sellers who may not be as sophisticated. It aimed to take away the red tape by not requiring users to provide bank account or credit card information, and literally making collecting money as easy as sending an email to someone else, whether or not they had a WePay account. It also joined the fray earlier this year when every alternative payment processor was making big changes to their platforms.

In February, it added the ability for merchants to invoice customers with the click of a button. It has shifted its strategy from targeting users who want to send money to one another, to a solution for small online businesses that want an easy and low-fee way to collect funds for purchases. Of course, with such a huge conglomerate like PayPal, there will always be the residual market of users who have been banned or for some other reason cannot have a PayPal account. WePay is also going to try to appeal to that audience.

[via VentureBeat]

Of course, with that explosion comes an increasing amount of competition. Square’s biggest competitor is now PayPal. With PayPal’s new mobile credit card reader that can deposit any in-person transaction directly into a user’s PayPal account, the differentiation that Square offered has been harshly limited. And PayPal isn’t the only one. A slew of new mobile payment startups have launched in the last few months.

Square does still offer benefits above and beyond PayPal. For example, it recently confirmed that any credit card swipe performed before 5:00 PM on a business day will be deposited into the user’s bank account on the next business day. PayPal and other services can take 2-3 days or even longer. Square also landed a potentially huge deal in New York City, where it is currently running a pilot test to become the preferred provider of credit card payments in New York taxi cabs.

[via Bloomberg]

The online auction business eBay reported this week that their first-quarter profit rose an impressive 20% on continued strength in its payments business – this not including PayPal. At the same time, their smaller online-payments segment which does include PayPal had revenue growth of 32% – an impressive jump indeed. Revenue growth in eBay’s marketplaces segment – also known as their largest division, was found to have 11% growth this quarter. Gross merchandise volume grew 12%, this excluding the vehicle piece of the equation in eBay’s report for one reason or another.

In the end, eBay’s total profit grew to $570 million this quarter, this up from $476 million last year at this same time. While these numbers might have nothing on a company so massive as Google with their $10.56 billion in earnings for Q1, eBay certainly isn’t going anywhere when it comes to the business they do, and do well.

How often do you use eBay? How about PayPal?

Previously, PayPal users could choose either a free “Website Standard” account, or a premium “Website Pro” account that offered more advanced features but required users to have some programming knowledge to be able to deeply integrate PayPal into their online business. Now, PayPal has dropped the “Website” moniker since it now exists in the physical world thanks to its expansion into credit card readers and mobile payment technologies.

The new tiered structure includes a $5/month Advanced account, which allows users to incorporate PayPal payments within their own hosted website, and the $30/month Pro account lets businesses accept credit card payments over the phone and gives them the flexibility to create customized PayPal-powered checkout pages. PayPal Here, the new mobile credit card reader that allows users to accept physical cards at a point of purchase, is available free to all accounts. Of course, PayPal makes money on this by raking in commission fees for all sales, but they are far less than what it would cost to install traditional credit card terminals.

[via VentureBeat]

Marcus knows his stuff when it comes to mobile payment technology. He owned a company called Zong, which specializes in authorizing customers to bill payments to their mobile carrier. PayPal acquired Zong last July, and as part of that deal Marcus began pioneering a lot of big changes for the site. For starters, PayPal now has a physical card-reading solution that lets customers accept credit card payments directly into their PayPal account in a physical, retail point-of-sale.

PayPal also now supports things like mobile check desposits and near field communifcation (NFC) support for contactless payments between account holders. “With David [Marcus] at the helm, we will have an even deeper commitment at PayPal, and across eBay Inc., to be a leading technology-driven and customer-focused product innovation company,” said Ebay CEO John Danahoe in an official blog post this morning.

[via VentureBeat]

Namely, Alyssa Cutright, formerly PayPal’s VP of products for North America, will become Square’s global VP. The news comes right after PayPal launched its PayPal here platform, allowing any small business or even an individual person to accept credit card payments in person, with virtually no overhead. It’s the latest in what has been a whirlwind of mobile product innovations for PayPal in just the last couple months.

As for concerns about whether or not Cutright will be taking trade secrets to her new employer, “Although Alyssa held a product role with PayPal, she was not involved in the creation or launch of PayPal Here,” according to a PayPal spokesperson quoted by VentureBeat. Square is a one-trick pony right now, and what it needs to do is spread its wings. The mobile payment space now encompasses contactless smartphone payments, app-integrated retail and restaurant point-of-sale systems, and alternative payment account log-ins at the store register. Just offering one platform isn’t enough anymore.

[via VentureBeat]

That’s right – billions. There are five billion mobile phone users in the world, and right now very few of them use their phone to pay for things, much less at a brick-and-mortar store. Mastercard has been pushing forward with its mobile payment efforts, and even though they haven’t been as glamorous as some of the recent new services, they’ve been doing a very good job.

Mastercard is focusing in particular in areas where traditional banking is less common than it in in deveoped parts of the world, like Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Only a small portion of the populations there have bank accounts but a growing amoung have mobile phones. Case in point, a venture called Wanda, which has provided mobile payment solutions to more than 87 million customers in Latin America alone. In total, the company says it can expect to enroll more than 2.5 billion under-served consumers with its mobile products.

[viaForbes]

PayPal Here will work both as a credit card swiping combination and has a “Scan Card” feature which will allow you to take payments by scanning a credit card’s number if the dongle is not something you’ve got handy. Once you’ve scanned a card in one way or another, you’ll need only to type in the user’s Zip code and CVV and you’ll instantly be in the money. This new app also allows users to accept checks, and debit cards as well.

Above: Dwight Schrute demonstrates the power of the Pyramid

As PayPal notes, this app (and the dongle if you do so choose to use it) will allow you to work with “any form of payment short of barter.” The app will allow small business owners to work with inventory, send invoices, accept payments, and charge money to clients. Both the card reader dongle and the app itself are encrypted so that you’ll be able to stay secure even if you lose them, and the whole system will be going live this week.

PayPal is planning on giving out both the dongle and the app for free, but will be charging a flat rate of 2.7 percent for each transaction. PayPal will also have merchants working with its free debit card if they do so choose, this giving them 1 percent cash back with each transaction, this effectively making their rate 1.7 percent. This launch begins in the USA, Hong Kong, and Australia today, the rest of the world getting in on the fun “soon.”

PayPal has made a lot of advancements in a very short period of time. In just the last several months, the company has launched Near Field Communication (NFC) contactless payment exchange between phones, it enabled users to deposit checks via a mobile app, and it rolled out the ability to pay at the retail point-of-sale at virually all Home Depot locations.

PayPal has been sitting around as the primary leader in alternative payments for years, but in 2012 it is poised to face a lot of competition. The advancement of NFC technology will allow other third-party payment providers to really make a splash. As a result, PayPal is doing exactly what it needs to do – stay ahead of the curve. And it truly is doing just that. The idea of using your PayPal account to not only pay for but also accept payments outside of digital transactions would have seemed foreign just a couple years ago, but now it’s becoming exceedingly commonplace.

[via VentureBeat]

That is, it is going to start accepting credit card payments from anyone, allowing someone to get money from a client or customer on the spot, through a system that’s similar to Square. Square currently has a monopoly on the market of accepting credit card payments through smartphones, via a dongle that users can get for free. But now PayPal wants to get into that space, according to media reports.

PayPal has been sitting around as the primary leader in alternative payments for years, but in 2012 it is poised to face a lot of competition. The advancement of NFC technology will allow other third-party payment providers to really make a splash. As a result, PayPal is doing exactly what it needs to do – stay ahead of the curve. And it truly is doing just that. The idea of using your PayPal account to not only pay for but also accept payments outside of digital transactions would have seemed foreign just a couple years ago, but now it’s becoming exceedingly commonplace.

[via GigaOM]

Reuters was first to blow the whistle, based on developer feedback including one supposedly threatening email sent to the coders behind social gaming app Papaya. “They told people that if they used other payment services they would be breaking the terms of use,” Si Shen, founder and chief executive of Papaya, said. “Whether it’s right or wrong, we have to follow the rules.”

Google’s warning, so it was claimed, was that Papaya needed to ditch PayPal and Zong and instead adopt Play In-app Billing, giving the developers thirty days to make the changes.

However, a Google spokesperson told both TechCrunch and The Verge that in fact its policies on in-app payments were unchanged from the original rules of March 2011. Those mandate that in-app purchasing be done through Google’s own system, with the spokesperson saying that it was likely just serendipitous timing that saw Papaya get a warning. “If [a developer] had been in breach of that, and we had only just noticed, that’s when we would send out a letter.”

If purchases within apps are for non-app-related goods or content – such as a hotel booking, or some sort of online shopping order – then developers are free to use their payment provider of choice, the spokesperson explained. However, if they are offering new app content, then they must use Play In-app Billing, complete with its 30-percent tithe to Google.

It’s still getting off the ground, but Tabbedout is currently available in around 400 establishments throughout the country, many of which are in and around the Austin area. Previously, it only allowed users to pay with a debit or credit card. The addition of PayPal functionality, though, takes it beyond a simple convenience to an entirely new way to pay. Who would have thought you could pay for a beer without cash or a credit card?

PayPal’s expansion into the world of physical point-of-sale has been strong already this year. Last month, it expanded a pilot program with Home Depot to bring PayPal integration to virtually all of the retailer’s locations. The company may be feeling the pressure from the emerging Near Field Communication (NFC) standards like Google Wallet and Isis, which enable customers to pay for retail purchases by tapping their phones, which will soon be able to link to funding sources other than credit cards or bank account. Advancements in mobile payment technology are sure to be a big part of the market this year, and PayPal wants to stay on top of that.

[via GigaOM]