Hasta La Gadget!

Just as the air begins to chill, NTT DoCoMo has announced its forthcoming lineup for release in November and December, including nine smartphones, four feature phones and a tablet. As the Japanese populace would no doubt demand, all of the bigger smartphones — from the 4.7-inch Arrows V F-04E through to the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II — come with 1,280 x 720 displays, a healthy degree of water- and dust-proofing, plus decent quad-core credentials. The new Aquos Phone Zeta SH-02E stands out for its low-power 4.9-inch IGZO panel and 16-megapixel camera, while the Arrows Tab F-05E 10-inch tablet packs a 1,980 x 1,200 display and what sounds like the latest 1.7GHz iteration of Tegra 3 (as seen in the HTC One X+). It’s also interesting to a see a Korean-style variant of the Galaxy S III (the Alpha SC-03E) packing a souped-up 1.6GHz Exynos chip and 2GB RAM. In related news, NTT has also announced that it’s partnering with Mastercard PayPass and will offer the contactless payment system for Japanese customers travelling abroad by fall next year — and indeed all the new smartphones are NFC-equipped. Click the first source link below for the full run-down.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

NTT DoCoMo unveils winter lineup, pushes big displays, LTE, quad-cores and NFC payments originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lower Manhattan, Pearl Street, the Financial District. A Starbucks with broad windows, great for people watching. Sipping my $5 flavored coffee, I watched a homeless man sit on the sidewalk. I liked him immediately: his sharp gaze and thoughtful expression. When I left, I squatted down next to him and put five bucks in his jar, contributing the cost of my first-world coffee to the man’s case for survival.

We talked. He knew his tech, this man of no possessions, describing his favorite productivity gadgets of the past decade, scorning Apple for form over function. He had been living on the street day and night for two years. My five dollars was “huge,” he said. I knew that was true only microcosmically. He liked cigars. That’s where the cash would go.

Meanwhile, Starbucks had recently cut a deal with Square, one of the hottest startup stories of the season, so that people with five dollars to spend on coffee needn’t pull out a wallet and ponder their privilege.

Continue reading Editorial: Square gets the attention, but credit cards rule

Filed under: Tablets, Wireless, Software

Editorial: Square gets the attention, but credit cards rule originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MasterCard has been in the cashless payment game for quite a while, and now it’s hoping to get more developers on the PayPass bandwagon with its freshly unveiled user interface software development kit. By leveraging the SDK, programmers will be able to bake the firm’s NFC payment system, which is compatible with over 70 handsets, into their own Android or BlackBerry OS 7 apps. The kit is free to license and includes API code libraries, documentation, a developer guide, sample code, a white-label reference application and a testing suite. Once apps are created with the SDK, they’ll have to go through MasterCard’s approval process before they go live. Yearning to code PayPass-enabled smartphone software? Check out the press release below for more details.

Continue reading MasterCard announces PayPass User Interface SDK, lets devs roll their own NFC payment-enabled apps

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

MasterCard announces PayPass User Interface SDK, lets devs roll their own NFC payment-enabled apps originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 07:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Isis mobile payment system primed for September launch, supported devices revealed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 20:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, BitInstant is insistent that it will launch a BitCoin debit card, but MasterCard is claiming it will not be part of the plans. After a mock up of the plastic made the rounds featuring the company’s logo, the financial powerhouse felt it necessary to reach out to us, clarifying its non-involvement.

“MasterCard has no relationship with BitInstant. There are issuers who allow the conversion of Bitcoins to US dollars and other currencies, delivered on prepaid cards. However, we’re not aware of this particular programme from BitInstant.”

Of course, if you read the transcript of Charlie Shrem’s chat announcing the plans, he never actually names MasterCard. The logo was likely meant as a placeholder — one that some outlets took a little too literally.

Interestingly, this doesn’t actually mean that MasterCard won’t be involved… just that the company isn’t at this point in the process. BitInstant released its own statement, just hours after the card house contacted us, saying that it has been working with MasterCard affiliates, but had yet to submit to the financial firm directly.

“The card program is moving forward and the arrangement with MasterCard will be handled in due time at the proper stage of the process by the partners who work directly with that company.”

So, what have we learned today? Not a whole heck of a lot actually, other than the fact that putting out a debit card is a complicated business. You’ll just have to stay tuned to see how this shakes out.

Filed under: Internet

MasterCard denies BitCoin card rumors, BitInstant says it’s still on track originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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