square

Online-payment company PayPal and Japanese telecom and Internet firm Softbank announced this evening a joint venture, PayPal Japan, meant to create "the premier digital wallet for online, mobile, and offline transactions" in the Asian country -- one of the world's largest economies.

As a first step, the companies said Japan would be the fifth nation to get PayPal Here, a Square-like service that lets small businesses accept credit and debit card transactions -- and PayPal payments -- through a smartphone.

PayPal Here was unveiled in March, in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong. A week … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--If a new player in mobile payment has its way, PayAnywhere will soon be everywhere.

If you've heard of Square, then you pretty much already know everything you need to about PayAnywhere's point-of-sale product for mobile devices, which I saw for the first time at CTIA. The service consists of three parts: a credit card reader you can attach to a mobile device, a mobile app interface for customers and for merchants to manage, and a processing platform to tie it all together and offer analytics.… Read more

Hedge fund manager Philip Falcone is expected to eventually step aside as the public face of LightSquared in an effort to keep the foundering wireless broadband effort from defaulting on debt, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The move is expected to prompt the company's lenders to approve a debt extension that would keep the company from having to file for bankruptcy protection, people familiar with the matter told the Journal. The holders of LightSquared's $1.6 billion in debt have given Falcone until 10 a.m. Monday to strike a deal for restructuring Harbinger's 96 percent equity … Read more

Square has once again hit the road to woo investors and raise some cash, according to a new report.

According to All Things Digital, citing unnamed sources, the payments company is attempting to raise new capital at valuation as high as $4 billion. The publication didn't say how much cash Square wants to raise, but if the ATD report is correct, the startup's valuation has skyrocketed in the last year.

Back in June, Square raised $100 million on a $1 billion valuation. In November, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson gave Square even more cash, though the company did … Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Like most people, I hate waiting in line.

But with all the advances in technology, we haven't really been able to get rid of the old-fashioned queue. From fun roller coasters to mundane drug stores, I often find myself wasting time standing in line. And it bugs me to no end.

So it was music to my ears when I heard that mobile startup PayDragon had a novel approach to mobile payments: one that focused on getting people out of lines and directly to their products.

In this case, PayDragon has worked with a few food … Read more

Think twice next time you're planning to tweet about what a great time you're having on your vacation, thousands of miles from your empty, vulnerable home.

A survey of 50 convicted burglars in the U.K. suggests the tools used by today's modern criminals include more than just a black ski mask and crowbar. Seventy-eight percent said they'd used Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and other social-media sites to target properties.

Also notable, nearly three-quarters of thieves have stepped into the 21st century and take advantage of Google Street View to case joints that might be worth robbing.

The home of Israel Hyman in Arizona was burglarized a few years ago, shortly after he tweeted road trip status updates like "preparing to head out of town," "another 10 hours of driving ahead" and later, "made it to Kansas City" to his 2,000 followers.

Bloggers like myself rarely worry about this sort of thing since I write every CNET post from home and have everything delivered to me via Amazon Prime. In case I didn't make it clear, I never leave my house. Never. I'm way too far behind on polishing my gun collection to go out. And you know what else I like? Booby traps -- they really put the fun in home ownership.… Read more

A year ago, hedge fund manager Philip Falcone's LightSquared offered the Federal Communications Commission a huge opportunity to satisfy some of its most lofty wireless broadband goals. Today, the company is facing possible bankruptcy and only the slimmest chance of actually building its network, leaving policy makers in Washington focusing on alternatives.

Earlier this week, Falcone, whose hedge fund Harbinger Capital is the largest stakeholder in LightSquared, told Reuters that bankruptcy protection is one of several options he is considering as he tries to keep the company alive. LightSquared, which has been battling the GPS industry over claims that … Read more

Tired of splitting checks when eating out? Venmo greatly simplifies making payments to your friends using your Android or iOS device, for free.

It originally began as a text-message-based payment startup, but Venmo has been gaining steady traction among smartphone users looking for payment utilities without the use of NFC chips and external card readers and sliders. The mobile app allows its users to send money to their contacts without the hassle of dealing with differing indivudal bank or credit card services. 

The result is a seamless and universally accessible payment experience that … Read more

One of Google Wallet's co-founding engineers has left the Web giant for a job at mobile-payments processor Square.

Rob von Behren, who had worked at Google for more than eight years and on the NFC-based Google Wallet since 2009, recently changed his LinkedIn profile to indicate his new employment at Square. In an e-mail statement to NFC Times, which first noticed and reported the move, von Behren said the departure was unexpected.

"When I left the Google Wallet project in January, I fully expected to stop working in payments but to remain at Google," he told NFC … Read more