Who knew that credit card processing would be the new hotness for smartphones? The Square mobile payment system has been making waves by letting small businesses receive credit card payment directly on their smartphones. Now, mophie and Intuit are looking to get in on the same action with their Complete Card Solution for iPhone. It's a $179 package that includes both mophie's card-swiping phone case and the 3.0 version of Intuit's GoPayment app. After a quick application users are said to be approved (or, erm, declined) within 15 minutes and can immediately start accepting payments.
A single account can also cover up to 50 users, meaning an entire sales team could be equipped with these devices. But this case, which encrypts every credit card number before it gets to the phone, will only work with the iPhone 3G/S.
As you remember, few weeks ago iTunes Store was hacked and the top list of the Books category had been filled with a bunch of obscure books. That was achieved by a number of unauthorized charges that were made on accounts of several iTunes users, who eventually lost few hundred dollars. In turn Apple deleted developers who were found to use the fraudulent purchases.
These days Apple added new layer of security which now require every user to enter the security code of their credit card each time they register a new device or computer with their account, according to Different District blog. So if earlier malicious user just needed to guess a password for the account in order to receive and/or resell the acquired information to fraudulent buyers, after Apple’s security innovation it will require more efforts to do that.
Yesterday AT&T suddenly entirely stopped accepting iPhone 4 preorders. The company said that it was the busiest online sales day in its history.
Meanwhile AT&T's site started to show old information on iPhone 3GS prices, that was actual before iPhone 4 was announced. Some people also claimed they were shown info that wasn't theirs on AT&T's and Apple's site (the latter sometimes pulls information from AT&T's site to verify shipping address). Read the rest of this entry »
Apple just announced that iTunes users now have the ability to gift apps to one another. The process is quite simple, like gifting a song - all you have to do is click the 'gift app' button. You must use your credit card on the account and cannot use gift cards or any other types of promotional payment to gift apps.
If you want to use this feature you have to sign into your iTunes account and accept the new terms policy.
We're back on reporting about the apps and gadgets presented on the MWSF 2010. Now we'll talk about iV Plus - the solution to turn your iPhone into remote; FloTV - the service to watch TV in the USA; Square Up service to pay for everything you need only with your credit card and iPhone; and Wissair's USB DisplayDock Set will get the screen from your laptop to the HDTV-set wirelessly.
U-Socket turned to be out a very interesting solution, but FastMac was found to offer something more. The thing on the pictures below is called The iV Plus. It helps to manage a set of your home devices and consists of IR Remote, Battery Pack, Flash LED and case that wraps around the iPhone. FastMac will also provide free Universal Remote software to work with this creation. The iV Plus will be shipped expectedly in the second quarter of 2010 for $130.
From now on sausages are not the only substitutes for human fingers; Electrorack presented an interesting rack enclosure for Xserves; Shake allows you to listen music without earphones; U-Socket solves a problem of USB-rechargable devices.
As you remember few days ago we wrote about sausages as the best substitutes of human fingers for iPhones. Well now it is not. Two companies at once presented their capacitive capable gloves that allow you to use iPhone even when it's cold. iTouch Gloves offered high end leather gloves (start with $99.95, on the left side) and Telefingers offered thinner, less stylish and cheaper solution (for only $15, on the right side).
That really looks like oversized Mac Pro, but indeed this is a rack enclosure for Xserves and RAID configuration presented by Electrorack. The latter also offers a variety of other server racking solutions. Read the rest of this entry »
Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, launched the new service named Square (still in beta) that allows you to make or take payments using your iPhone.
All this happens through an accessory able to process credit cards that is connected to the the device.
User just need to enter the amount, the security code and the signature directly on the touchscreen. There are no charges of any kind, except a U.S. cent on every transition, which is donated to charity.
The system is able to display a bill with lots of information: the map, the amount, the number of times that we used this system of payments in that particular store, and much more.
The system is currently being tested in the US. Maybe one day we will all use it everywhere.
Agile Web Solutions is offering 1Password Pro free until December 1st for iPhone and iPod touch users.
1Password will securely store your important information and can automatically log you into websites with a single tap. There's no need to remember the username, password, or even the website address.
1Password Pro is normally $7.99 and can be installed from the AppStore (link).
Feature List:
(pro) Special easy switching mode allows you to quickly copy-and-paste usernames and passwords to Mobile Safari.
(pro) Support for copying multiple field values (for example, both username and password) from 1Password to Mobile Safari.
(pro) Folders for better organization (in this version a desktop application required - sold separately)
(pro) Features coming soon: Favorites, MobileMe/WebDAV syncing, and more.
Securely store your website names and passwords so you never forget them again
Save important information like credit cards and membership numbers
Jot down other notes too sensitive for stickies or bar napkins
Synchronize it all with 1Password for Mac via Wi-Fi (sold separately, available at http://1password.com)
Automatically log into Web sites on iPhone and iPod touch to avoid remembering and typing usernames and passwords
Hardware-accelerated AES encryption and Auto-Lock keep your data protected even if your iPhone is lost or stolen
All cryptographic operations are performed using standard iPhone libraries to ensure there are no security gaps or backdoors
Two-layer defense with Unlock Code and Master Password to combine security and convenience
Data Backup & Restore option available on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Apple today posted two new iPhone commercials to its ad gallery and also began airing them on prime-time television. Here is a list of applications, that are used in these videos:
To create an iTunes App Store account without a credit card please follow the steps below.
Note: In order to create an account without a credit card, you must make sure you are in the App Store, not the iTunes Store.
Pick your country from the pop-up menu at the bottom of the iTunes Store homepage.
If your country also has an iTunes Store, you'll need to navigate to the App Store by clicking on the "App Store" link from the menu on the left. If not, proceed to step 3.