Hasta La Gadget!

SumUp, one of the myriad of European mobile card reader startups taking advantage of Square’s continued absence in the region to build out a business, is adding support for American Express. Its mobile card reader system already accepts MasterCard and Visa payments but today the startup said it has signed a deal with American Express to process Amex card payments in all “major regions” in which it operates. Its merchants will be able to start accepting Amex in Q2.

SumUp now operates in 10 European countries. It confirmed to TechCrunch Amex payments will be supported in eight of its markets initially — namely: Germany, France, the UK, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria. The two markets where negotiations are ongoing, with a view to also adding Amex support in future, are Belgium and Portugal.

SumUp also confirmed its per-transaction fee remains the same, with no premium for merchants to process Amex. Merchants using SumUp to process a transaction are charged a flat 2.75% per transaction fee.

With the addition of American Express, SumUp said it will be able to accept “more types of cards in more regions than any other mobile point-of-sale technology provider worldwide”. SumUp Co-founder Stefan Jeschonnek said Amex support is a “big deal” for it, and for the tens of thousands of merchants in Europe who use its technology.  ”SumUp is about enabling small businesses to grow and for our merchants being able to accept card payments from all the major brands is a big deal,” he added.

Commenting on the tie-up in a statement, Werner Decker, Senior Vice President, American Express, said: “We see SumUp as a smart and convenient way for small businesses to further enable commerce by accepting card payments.”

SumUp added that American Express will also be included as a payment option in its forthcoming consumer payment app — called SumUp Pay — which it demoed at Finovate Europe last week. The app will allow consumers to link their credit card to it and pre-authorise payments with trusted merchants. The payment process does not involve a physical card reader — rather the buyer’s phone is identified as it enters the store, using geofencing technology, and the merchant can then process the payment when the buyer confirms what they want to order.

As yet, there’s no confirmed launch date for SumUp pay.

SumUp’s Amex release follows below.

SumUp to accept American Express

SumUp broadens range of payment options for merchants in major European markets

 

London – 21^th February 2013: SumUp, the company that enables merchants to take debit and credit card payments with their smartphones, has signed a deal with American Express that will allow it to process American Express card payments in all major regions in which it operates. The deal means that SumUp merchants will soon be able to take payments from American Express Card members.

In December 2012, SumUp extended its service to merchants giving it a presence in ten European countries.  SumUp’s ability to process American Express payments means that it will accept more types of cards in more regions than any other mobile point-of-sale technology provider worldwide.

Any small business using SumUp will soon be able to accept card payments from all the major card brands for an affordable and transparent fee and without any monthly costs.

Daniel Klein, CEO of SumUp, commented: “It’s extremely frustrating for a merchant when they miss out on making a sale because they can’t accept the type of card a customer wants to use. The only person it’s more frustrating for is the customer who goes away empty-handed. That’s why we’re delighted that we will be able to process American Express card payments on behalf of our merchants and to the advantage of American Express’ thriving and deeply loyal customer base.”

– ENDS –

About SumUp

SumUp is the easiest way for small businesses and sole traders to accept credit and debit card payments securely, even on-the-go.

Using only a free, supremely portable card reader and an app available for iPhone, iPad and Android, artisans, taxi drivers, cafes, restaurants, shops and many other merchants are now able to accept credit and debit card payments anytime, anywhere.

SumUp only takes a fee of 2.75% per transaction made using the SumUp card reader, meaning that businesses no longer have to worry about additional costs, expensive terminals or high monthly fees. The transaction fee is the same for American Express, Visa and MasterCard. SumUp is Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) compliant and PCI-DSS certified, ensuring that payments are processed in accordance with the highest security standards.

The company was founded in 2011 and already has over 140 employees, and major offices in Berlin, London, Dublin, Madrid, Milan and Amsterdam. SumUp has been available in the UK, Germany, Ireland and Austria since August 2012, in the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy since November 2012, and in France, Portugal, and Belgium since December 2012.

Website: www.sumup.co.uk

“Hietama-chan” by Takara Tomy Arts is not just a colorful egg. They are 3 brothers and 3 sisters supporting you to save energy from inside of your refrigerator.
When you open your fridge, Hietama-chan starts telling you “You’re wasting of energy!” or “Please close the door soon!” Some people, especially kids and husbands, need these reminders to be quick when the refrigerator door is open!
If multiple egg brothers and sisters get together, they sing …

Apples and oranges watches. Today’s bumper pack of patent applications from Cupertino included this nugget, outlining a small flexible screen that’s paired with a “bi-stable spring.” In normal lexicon, we’re talking about one of those slap bracelets that go from completely straight to wrap-around in an instant. Interestingly enough, Apple isn’t the only tech company sniffing around these bracelets as a possible holster for their tech — Nokia mused on slightly similar notions back in March 2012.

This is an application, so most of what today’s filing tells us is certainly not set in stone, but new ideas include a “kinetic energy gathering component” within the band — like the trickle charge feature found on watches — to pump energy back into the device. One example embodiment of the idea includes a touchscreen interface that will allow music browsing, phone call reviews and even text input through a “simple virtual keyboard.” The concept also mentions AMOLED screen tech, as those deactivated (so, black) pixels would assist in eking out battery life in a device where space is definitely at a premium. The filing also suggests that the device could house an end-detection sensor, allowing the wearable to configure itself to each user, regardless of differing wrist measurements, and deactivate sections of the flexible display that aren’t on show. This particular application was made in August 2011 — a fair while before the recent increase in iWatch murmurings. As is the case with Apple’s patent contributions, however, we’ll wait to see whether the patent is granted and whether these ideas will ever crystallize into a genuine product. In the meantime, maybe it’s time to buy up some snap bracelets on eBay: they might just be making a comeback.

Filed under: Wearables, Apple

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Source: USPTO

This one’s a little puzzling. Japanese carrier Emobile has announced a new phone from Huawei, the memorably-named GL07S. The confusing part is that it looks almost identical to the black-colored Ascend P2, with the same three-line menu button differentiating it from another handset leak. It’s hard to say just yet, but Huawei might be readying two devices like it did during CES, where it unveiled the P2’s predecessor alongside an even thinner S model. This Japan-bound offering measures up a 8.6mm thick, which while certainly no porker, is a bit more than those promises of a 6.5mm smartphone. However, there’s still enough here to intrigue us, with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 13-megapixel camera, 32GB of built-in storage and a 2,350mAh battery rounding out a pretty respectable spec sheet. It’s also going to be an important phone for the relatively small phone network too — it’s their first LTE smartphone.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: Techblog.gr (Greek)

Source: Emobile (Japanese)

You may not know about TestFlight if you’re used to running apps rather than building them, but odds are that you know its effects when over 300,000 iOS apps have reached testers that hopefully caught bugs in advance. That makes the launch of a private Android beta something of an event, as it gives developers the same simple feedback and provisioning for pre-release apps. Coders who split their time between both Android and iOS also get a truly cross-platform management console as part of the expansion. There’s no set date for when the beta expires, but TestFlight eventually plans to offer its utility directly through the Google Play Store — and might just keep the Android app train rolling smoothly.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: TestFlight (1), (2)