payments

Small business is front and center for Square, the new mobile-payments company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Previously in a quasi-stealth mode (OK, more like San Francisco's worst-kept secret), Square has now launched in beta, is accepting e-mail requests for preliminary accounts, and has put up a basic Web site to explain the company's premise.

The Square hardware is a small, inexpensive card reader that plugs into the audio jack of a compatible device, including a mobile phone (it's starting with the iPhone and currently has job postings up for BlackBerry and Android engineers). It processes … Read more

The simple concept of having virtual-good payments in games sent directly to your cell phone bill has gotten a lot of buzz--and stirred up a lot of rivalry. One of the start-ups looking to pull this off, Boku, announced Monday that it has signed on a dozen new gaming partners, both a few based on the Facebook platform and some others that are either Web-based or desktop downloads.

The partner companies are Waves, Cie Studios, Cyberstep, GameDuell, IGG, King.com, NHN USA, Ntreev, Outspark, PerfectWorld, Snap Interactive, and Zoosk. Most of them aren't household names: they're game manufacturers, … Read more

PayPal is preparing to launch a new payment system that simplifies the process of buying products from within an online application, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

According to the report, the new service will be called PayPal X. It will allow users to sign in to their PayPal accounts and purchase products from within a respective application.

The service, which has reportedly been in limited testing, is eBay's best hope for capitalizing on the burgeoning in-app payment market, which has witnessed Facebook emerge as one of PayPal's strongest competitors.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook's … Read more

A simple phrase and pin code may be all you need the next time you pay for that book or CD at Amazon.

The online retailer on Thursday debuted a new feature called Amazon PayPhrase, designed to let busy shoppers store their name, address, and payment information in a single phrase and pin code. Instead of entering all that data at the online checkout counter, you type your phrase and pin number when it's time to cough up the cash.

PayPhrase doesn't just work at Amazon--it can be used at any online retailer that lets you pay via … Read more

The heated mobile-payment wars are expanding...beyond mobile. Zong, one of the start-ups hoping to capture the market for online micropayments billed to a mobile phone, announced Thursday the debut of "Zong Plus," which lets members link credit or debit cards to their Zong accounts.

It's another move that pits Zong against Boku, a competitor that launched right around the same time with broader global reach--last month, it announced its expansion to subscription-based services in addition to on-demand micropayments.

At launch, Zong Plus is compatible with Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express accounts,

"Today you've … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Two of the biggest rumors about big, upcoming Facebook products--an ad network and a payment transaction platform--won't be making a big splash anytime soon, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in a talk on Wednesday afternoon at the Web 2.0 Summit.

"We're asked it all the time," Sandberg said on the question of whether Facebook would be launching an ad network for external Web sites using the Facebook Connect universal-login product. "We focus on building products for users and we think about the monetization later. And I'm not saying that in a … Read more

Well, we finally have a glimpse at "Square," the new mobile payments venture coming from Twitter co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey. As expected, it's a little hardware add-on that can turn an iPhone into a credit card reader.

The funny part: Details about the small-business-oriented project have been on the Web for months. It was just that nobody had put two and two together until some eagle-eyed folks at Engadget realized that a URL on a screenshot of the "Square iPhone Payments Venture" first reported by Coolhunting matched a domain registered to Dorsey.

Dorsey, who … Read more

Excel Invoice Manager Platinum provides a comprehensive invoice creator and tracker. The program's familiar layout makes it a snap to manage.

We felt instantly comfortable with this program's interface, since it was built using Microsoft Excel. Its rows and columns don't look like a spreadsheet, yet they are filled and manipulated the same way. Invoice Manager provides ample space to create customer profiles and enter this information into your invoices. Also, you can customize the look of your invoices by inserting your company logo, which gives them a professional touch. In addition, you can easily populate your … Read more

Express Invoice is a tool for creating invoices and managing bills for small businesses. Its simple layout and helpful options make it a great program for keeping an eye on finances.

We found the program to be instantly inviting, with its functions clearly labeled and helpful onscreen instructions popping up along the way to express what data needed to be placed where. We were able to quickly populate a customer database with all billing information, build our warehouse of sale items from scratch, and apply both of these aspects toward creating an invoice. We were pleased with the professional and … Read more