The Rise in Awareness of Contactless Payments

Contactless payments seem to have slipped into people’s awareness rather than having been launched with a fanfare in the way that chip-and-PIN payments were. Admittedly chip-and-PIN payments required a significant change in the behaviour of both merchants and consumers (from swiping and signing to dipping and entering PIN) and offered equally significant gains to both in terms of preventing fraud. Contactless payments, by contrast, were essentially a gain in terms of convenience.

The rollout of contactless began in the UK in 2007, albeit restricted to seven London postcodes and a small number of merchants in these areas [1]. Once the solution was confirmed as running smoothly, both in terms of the technology on the cards and in terms of the new requirements for the terminals; card-issuing banks and retailers began to implement the technology across the UK.

At first contactless transactions were limited to a maximum value of £10, which was in line with their intended use as a replacement for cash for low-value, high-volume transactions. This was where they found their initial foothold in the UK market with McDonalds and Pret a Manger both being early-adopters. Barclaycard made use of contactless technology to enhance its product offering. As well as starting to issue standard contactless cards, it also began to issue Barclays OnePulse, a combination payment and London Transport Travel card (Oyster card). This highlighted the convenience both of paying with just one touch and of reducing the number of cards held in consumers’ wallets.

In 2010 the limit for contactless transactions was raised again to £15 and their acceptance by both consumers and merchants steadily increased.

The turning point for the mainstream acceptance of contactless arguably came in 2012. As sponsors of the Olympics, Visa was eager to showcase their most innovative technologies in the “cashless games” and contactless became the star of the show. The speed and convenience of contactless payments became the centrepiece of a mainstream advertising campaign featuring international sprinting superstar Usain Bolt. At the same time, merchants who had hitherto ignored contactless began to reassess their strategy. As well as reaching out to sectors which had traditionally been cash-only (such as London taxis), contactless began to filter into areas which had long accepted cards (such as supermarkets) as a means of speeding up transactions (and thereby reducing queues).

There was a second milestone reached in 2012. London Transport initiated a plan to accept contactless cards in place of Oyster cards [2]. This began with upgrading touchpads on buses to accept contactless payment. At the moment, there are limitations to this in that those who use contactless will pay full fare for each journey rather than benefitting from the fare cap applied to Oyster payments, however plans are in place to correct this.

Moving into 2013, contactless payments seem well-placed to become a fully-fledged mainstream technology. Its speed and convenience have huge appeal to both merchants and consumers.

Sources:
[1] http://www.contactless.info/
[2] http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/26416.aspx
This post was supplied on behalf of First Data Merchant Solutions, the payment processing partners.

Official Unveiling Announced For Xbox720

After months of silence, Microsoft does now seem to brass tacks. The manufacturer announced the official unveiling date for the Xbox 720. Within one month, Microsoft officially airs the curtain on the Xbox 720. The countdown for the great battle consoles has officially begun - and the Xbox 720 is right at the front. Two months after unveiling the PS4 Microsoft claimed the spotlight for themselves. The manufacturer currently sent invitations to the big Xbox show in Redmond, which is going to happen on 21 May 2013. The full program for the manufacturer promises 19 days later following E3. While only selected journalists traveling to the event in Redmond, you follow the event live on the Internet via xbox.com, Xbox Live or on the U.S. television channel Spike TV. Xbox Live icon and Microsoft employee Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb on his blog promises a glimpse of the next generation of games, television and entertainment. HD-DVD to Blu-ray - in the DVD format war to follow, which raged until early 2008, Microsoft fought on the losing side.

Theoretically, the Redmond IT giant could still mount with a Blu-ray drive in the Xbox 360's successor - and does it well also. But Microsoft needs to pull the trigger royalties to the Blu-ray consortium. Sony belongs to the group of companies that developed the Blu-ray. But Microsoft wants with its new console in the living room, because that is the most lucrative place for sale of entertainment content. To achieve this goal, the movie playback is essential. Without Blu-ray drive of the Xbox 360's successor has a competitive disadvantage. Streaming movies is an alternative in the U.S., in Europe, it looks different. In other countries it's usually cheaper to rent a Blu-ray from the video store. And the quality is also better. Confirm recent reports on alleged hardware specifications of the Xbox 720 that Microsoft's new console, the hip drive with the blue laser on board. But it can only to to install games or movies. Play back of the disc does not seem to work it seems. Numerous technical information haunt the next Microsoft console already through the net. Many suggest that the DADDELKISTE from Redmond, similar to the Playstation 4, puts on a PC-like hardware architecture. It now also suggests a job ad from Microsoft. Their security team is looking for a software developer to work on the security systems of the Xbox.

Applicants should have experience in dealing with x86 chipsets loud display. X86 refers to a variety of microprocessors in personal computers and are now in the Playstation for 4 years. It stands to reason that the Xbox 720 followed this trend. From an industry source close COMPUTER GAMES PICTURE first received information start the Xbox 720; Accordingly, the console appears here in November 2013 in two different price options. Upon completion of an Xbox Live Gold subscription, you get the source DADDELKISTE loud already for 299 Euros, but are bound for an unspecified time in the Premium Service. Opt for a membership, the console will cost you probably 499 Euros. Microsoft apparently wants to establish its subscription service as standard and is therefore going with a low price. Rumor "Forza 5" together with "Ryse" and two other tracks forms the core of the Xbox 720 launch banns. Even last year, pointed out an advertisement from Microsoft to work on the new offshoot of the racing game series. As the brand "Forza" is one of the major Microsoft exclusive titles, the publication of a new part to the start of the Xbox 720 is very likely. You may expect an almost photo-realistic racing spectacle that all predecessors in scope and provides output in the shade - and makes Sony's "Club Drive" powerful competition. So the Xbox 720 must be permanently connected to the Internet to function.

Remunerated in an exclusive partnership that already rumored to be made before the round: According to an insider Electronic Arts and Microsoft form the counterpart to Blizzard, Sony, and EA games offer at least temporarily exclusive to the Xbox 720th A step that would be useful and a significant challenge to Sony. Meanwhile, technical details about the upcoming console generation on everyone's lips. Well presented for a website that previously revealed the inner workings of the Xbox 720 and PS4, the graphics card the next Microsoft console in detail. Accordingly, the clocked with 800 MHz processing unit does not have its own memory, the so-called VRAM, but relies on the new technology of super-fast Esram. The Xbox 720 is in probably 32 megabytes and theoretically allows a maximum throughput of 102.4 gigabytes per second. In combination with the main memory of the console, apparently composed of eight gigabytes of DDR3 RAM and allows a data throughput of 68 gigabytes per second, the graphics unit total reaches a throughput of more than 170 gigabytes per second.

The report says the card uses standard DirectX 11.1 graphics and supports an advanced form of antialiasing. Thanks to a store gentle compression process, the graphics card to the Xbox 720 thus eliminating aliasing, without losing too much processing power. In a previous report, the website also revealed technical data to other components of the Xbox 720 Thus, Microsoft's new console comes with an eight-core processor from AMD so. Each of these cores is clocked at 1.6 GHz, and can be processed independently the two instructions simultaneously. The Xbox 720 has, according to report in addition to a hard drive, a Blu-ray drive on board and connects via Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable to the Internet. The data appear plausible and largely coincide with earlier rumors. A statement is made by Microsoft.

New Share Button On Sony PS4

With the Share button on the Sony PS4 game controllers breaks new ground. In this case the invention was a quick shot. Thanks Share Button Share gamer moments of the game by pressing a button with friends. The Share button is one of the biggest innovations of the Playstation 4 controller. It owes its origin, according to a media report the idea of Sony Santa Monica developer Nathan Gary. They proposed the idea during a meeting before - and landed a direct hit. After they had agreed on the hardware of the PS4, They spent months planning the social functions of the console. When Gary then proposed to build in an extra button to connect to social networks, everyone was thrilled. According to Yoshida, you got the idea act directly implemented into practice. This is the next evolution of the Playstation gamepads: the DualShock controller 4. On the front there is a touchpad, as you know from laptops.

With the Share button upload video games up to the Internet. Even live broadcasts, which are engaged by your friends should be possible via the Share button and streaming. Admittedly, it is not necessarily a flood of information unleashed on the official Sony Playstation website. But at least the manufacturer since the unveiling in February for the first time provides new details on the PS4. So it is possible in the future to test every game in the Playstation Store previously via Gaikai free. A special demo is no longer necessary. The free sample go through streaming and download without waiting vonstatten and let yourself start out from the online store. As a further decision support on-screen videos are from friends who have already bought the game. According to Sony when needed easily via a pressure on the share button to allow your friends to follow your game live in the stream. Increases someone on your invitation, he may - with the prior permission - take over a join button control in your game, give advice or rich helpful items such as health packs. He does not play this same game on his console in parallel. Sony is targeting to make any PS4 game via Remote Play on PS Vita. Considering the fact that this works with the PS3 only in a few selected titles, enormous progress. Via smartphone and tablet wants to follow in the footsteps of social networks and keep gamers via app permanently game-related events with friends up to date Sony. How to record successes and outstanding achievements of colleagues automatically documented with a video or a screenshot and displayed on your "Wall". Despite official presentation of the PS4 is a myth. Specific details for the Sony console iron reserves for itself. Also, in a recent interview with a magazine Sony vice-president Michael Denny differs skillfully with all questions relating to general answers.

Only when it comes to selling price can be drawn from his remarks vague conclusions. So Denny makes it clear that they wanted to appeal to the widest range of players and we've learned from the difficult start of the PS3. He could not name a specific price, but his words could already draw a conclusion. Accordingly, Sony aims to achieve a favorable selling price, in which players have the opportunity strike. It would have to come into direct competition for the Wii U, which already has with their price 350-399 Euro struggle to find buyers. Since the PS4 with its multimedia capabilities has a significant value on board, a price around 400 Euros seems realistic and appealing to all audiences. According to the report of which you may have in the future more than ever, because Sony increases the current limit of 100 friends. Your account, as suggested in advance, subject only to a player, not to the console. Optionally, you link your playstation with your Facebook account, but are then probably forced to use your real name in the Playstation Network. The spectator mode is apparently firmly integrated into the Playstation 4, so that game developers do not need to install it separately in each title.

 A pressure on the Share button starts the mode. While friends watch you when you play, you send a long press on the Share button in the comments and take screenshots. Also streaming of games on the PS Vita is apparently an integral part of the PS4 hardware. This probably means that you can transfer any game on the handheld. To see the game at the same time on the TV screen and the display of the Vita. Since the Vita has fewer shoulder buttons than a normal controller, Sony automatically sets the appropriate functions to other keys. Developers to edit the assignment if necessary. The action buttons on the new DualShock controller are not as similar to previous models, but digital - game developers have made little use of the opportunities of the pressure sensitive buttons. The light bar on the gamepad lights according to the report available in blue, green, red, pink, marking the Player. The innovative touch pad control unit has a resolution of 1920x900 pixels and is thus able to register very fine movements. Sony revealed that connecting the new Playstation Eye camera via USB, but an in-house format plug to the console. The company introduced an app for iOS and Android, which allows go buy the Playstation Store and download the purchased software directly. Come on home, place so go away.

Google Adsense in Super leader board!

Google launches a new size of advertising to improve engagement. After the earlier introduction of a 300x600 format last November was success, Google is going to test the 970x90, standard adopted by the IAB and known as "Super leader board." Google announced yesterday in their blog post that they are testing the a new advertising format. Based on a banner, image, or text, 970x90, this format is an adaptation of the recommendations of the Interactive advertising bureau (IAB), which has recently included in its portfolio. The format, known as "Super leader board" at the IAB, it is wider than traditional banners of 728x90. Which can display up to four text ads, says the giant, or an interactive image. According to Google the main textual advertisement will be appear in the new 970x90 format and their new Super leader

board service can display up to four text ads organized in columns, but as for other formats the number of ads per unit may vary according to the impressions. At first, as advertisers do not be adapted, the pictures will be displayed 728x90. "Over time, they are planning to adapt the inventory of images and rich media for the 970x90 size more and every one can view more advertisements displayed full visual format.

WhatsApp Messenger app has 200 million users!

Some of you may have never heard about WhatsApp and is having a strong user base like Twitter. b According to the words of its creator, the mobile application WhatsApp is used by more than 200 000 000 active users per month and 8000000000 Incoming messages per day and 12,000,000,000 Outgoing messages every day.

WhatsApp is an application-Chat Messenger available on most mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Symbian. Every Smartphone can use the app to communicate with another phone brand and different OS as the application uses the Data package phone.

It therefore saves SMS charges. The exchange of messages can be done in pairs or groups and can send text, photos, videos and audio. The startup was founded in 2009 has raised $ 8 million in funding and has 50 employees only. With numbers like that mentioned above, it's a safe bet that it will attract new investors without much difficulty. Especially since the company charges $ 0.99 per year to its users on iOS and soon on other platforms to avoid displaying advertisements.