cards

Financial services giant MasterCard and mobile carrier Deutsche Telekom announced this morning that they would partner to accelerate adoption of mobile payments, which allow consumers to use their mobile phones to pay for goods and services.

MasterCard sees business opportunity in Deutsche Telekom's 93 million mobile customers in Europe.

The companies plan to begin in Poland and Germany, Deutsche Telekom's home country. The effort will begin with mobile phone tags and cards, with a "mobile wallet" service to follow. (The mobile wallet will be open to MasterCard's partners, such as banks and other financial institutions.)… Read more

Spellsword is an excellent and almost blindingly fast-paced arena-combat arcade game with addictive RPG elements, super-cute 16-bit fantasy art, and often hypnotic chiptune sound.

At first glance, Spellsword shares some similarities with another great game, Super Crate Box: Both have you dodging enemies and chasing powerups around a satisfyingly cramped playscreen--but Spellsword adds a couple of twists, with a mini RPG-style purchasing system (you collect "rupees," which you can then use between levels to buy equipment and make your powers more effective) and a unique take on power-ups with "spell cards." As you bounce around the (… Read more

A hacker claiming to have broken into networks of dozens of banks and stolen customer data, has released as proof a file that contains names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers in plain text, but no credit card numbers.

"I penetrated over 79 large banks, I've been targetting these banks since 3 months," read a tweet from the Twitter account of Reckz0r. "Actually, I didn't hacked VISA & Mastercard, I hacked the banks, #Chase..etc."

A Pastebin post from today has a link to a downloadable file on the AnonFiles.com site that appears … Read more

Credit card processor Global Payments said today that in the course of investigating the theft of 1.5 million credit card numbers, it has discovered that hackers may also have stolen consumer data from servers.

"Our ongoing investigation recently revealed potential unauthorized access to personal information collected from a subset of merchant applicants," the company said in a statement on its Web site.

"It is unclear whether the intruders looked at or took any personal information from the company's systems; however, the company will notify potentially-affected individuals in the coming days with helpful information and make … Read more

In an international hacking case, a Dutch man appeared in U.S. federal court today and pled not guilty to stealing at least 44,000 credit card numbers, according to the Associated Press.

Apparently, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

David Benjamin Schrooten, aka "Fortezza," is being targeted by federal prosecutors for allegedly hacking into computers and stealing massive amounts of credit card numbers. Once he obtained the numbers, he allegedly sold them in bulk quantities via different Web sites. The 44,000 is reportedly from just one sale.

Police caught onto Schrooten's alleged heist … Read more

Business owners looking to turn their mobile devices into credit card machines can now purchase the Square Card Reader at Walgreens, Staples, and FedEx stores across the U.S., according to a Market Wire press release.

The card reader enables anyone with a mobile device, like a smartphone or a tablet, to accept credit card payments.

Square, the company that makes the Square Card Reader, announced today that the technology is now sold in more than 7,000 Walgreens stores, 1,500 Staples stores, and 1,500 FedEx Office stores, making the product available at more than 20,000 retail … Read more

Those of you shopping for iTunes gift cards can grab them at a healthy discount at Best Buy.

The retail outlet is offering the full range of iTunes gift cards for 15 percent off the usual price. So a $15 card is selling for $12.75, a $25 card for $21.25, a $50 card for $42.50, and a $100 card for $85.

Buyers can opt to purchase online so the code is delivered via e-mail or pick up a card at their local Best Buy store. No returns or refunds are allowed on the iTunes gift cards, but … Read more

An Apple design did indeed prevail in a standardization struggle over a design for next-generation SIM cards, the tiny chips that let mobile phones identify themselves to wireless networks.

Apple had been duking it against Nokia, Research in Motion, and Motorola over the design of a fourth-generation, smaller SIM (subscriber identity module) card. On Friday, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) settled on the design for this fourth form factor (4FF) SIM card, but it didn't say whose design won.

In an interview today, SIM card maker Giesecke & Devrient said Apple's design, unchanged since last year, is … Read more

Those hoping for a chance to dine with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will have to settle for an Apple gift card instead.

Computer memory maker Crucial today made a significant change to the grand prize in the Mac-centric contest it launched earlier this month. Instead of offering a dinner with Wozniak in San Francisco, the company said that "due to unforeseen circumstances," the new prize has been changed to a $10,000 Apple gift card.

"We apologize to our customers for the change in the grand prize, and hope entrants will understand that we were trying to … Read more