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Filed under: Business, iPhone

Twitter's Jack Dorsey working on a pay-by-iPhone system

Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of Twitter, is rumored to be working on a new project that will let you use your iPhone to pay for things without a credit card. This system, code named "Squirrel," might end up being called Square and using SquareUp.com as its primary domain. Square payments have both a software and a hardware side: there's an app to enter the amount of the payment and sign for it, and a dongle that attaches to the iPhone and reads your card.

Square basically turns your iPhone into a pay station. You swipe your card, have the employee enter the amount to charge, and sign with your finger. From there, the cost of your purchase goes straight into the store's bank account, minus a little bit off the top for Square.

The info on Jack's new business was pieced together by Engadget and Mashable, with some help from Coolhunting (who wrote about the Square payment system before anyone knew Jack was involved).

The only rumor I've seen that doesn't make sense here is Mashable's assertion that Jack's new company is called Self Edge NYC. Self Edge is actually an upscale denim shop that started in San Francisco, and it looks they'll be accepting Square payments. Self Edge is listed and linked on the SquareUp website.

Filed under: Business, Finance, Internet, Web services, Beta, web 2.0

Freshbooks tries out Amazon's FPS

freshbooks uses amazons payment serviceFreshbooks is on of a short list of companies invited to try out Amazon's Flexible Payment Service that competes with the likes of PayPal and Google's Checkout.

Toronto based Freshbooks provides an online invoicing and time tracking application. With the integration of the new Amazon payment system, their list of payment options for customers grows to 12. This payment service not only gives a greater variety of payment options, but gives customers a greater sense of trust since many people have already used, and currently use Amazon to buy products online.

Amazon's FPS helps developers get through the complex issues surrounding payments online, just as its S3 Simple Storage Solution does for on demand web storage.

Filed under: Finance, Internet, Web services

Amazon to take on PayPal and Google Checkout

Amazon CheckoutTechCrunch is reporting that Amazon plans to launch an online payment system soon that will compete with Google Checkout and eBay's PayPal.

Amazon's existing checkout system for its retail site is one of the more sophisticated on the web. The company also allows third parties to sell new and used goods through Amazon's Marketplace and Auction services. But this will be the first time Amazon makes its payment system available for independent sellers to include on their own websites.

Apparently the service will work much like Google Checkout. When you find an item you would like to pay for, you click a button on the web site and you'll be redirected to an Amazon page to complete the transaction.

The beauty of these services is that you can submit your personal information to just one site and pay for goods purchased online at hundreds of websites. And while competition is generally a good thing, if this market gets too crowded, frequent online shoppers will wind up having to sign up for accounts with dozens of checkout services, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Filed under: Business, Finance, Internet, Productivity, Web services

Keep track of bills with billQ

billq online billing managementWhat's worse then bills? Getting more bills with interest charges and the possibility for bad credit! If bills seem to get lost, fall under your desk, get eaten by animals, or just plain slip your mind, why not try out billQ. It's a web based application that tracks bills. billQ keeps you notified of how much you have to pay, and when you have to pay it.

billQ is a free web based application, that requires registration with only an email address and user name. Think it's not secure? Think again. billQ requires no sharing of information, account numbers or any real name for a company who's bill you are tracking payment for. Setting up a bill to track simply requires a name, amount, and a date. From there, you can give it a one-time, or a recurring payment status. To make things easier, billQ has added in billing groups. Members can be set up for a special group, and have the ability to view the changes made to a bill. Which can come in handy if payments are being rotated and shared for a particular service. Bill information is easily edited once inputted, and reminders are sent out to Email or SMS. For added convenience for Mac OSX users, billQ has developed a widget where you can quickly view all incoming bills, mark a bill as paid, and track bills. billQ seems like a great little application that helps you stay on top of those ugly bills.

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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