PAYPAL TO OFFER MOBILE PAYMENT SYSTEM

Paypal has plans to implement new payment features primarily for (but not limited to) mobile. On the to-do list are things like QR / barcode scans, hyper local deals, fast checkout via NFC, etc. The company is adamant that it's not "just shoving a credit card on a phone," but rather planning to change the whole shopping experience (just like every other mobile payment company). We'll know more when PayPal releases more details in early October, and when it launches the pilot product sometime later this year.

GOOGLE SUED BY PAYPAL FOR STEALING TRADE SECRETS

On the same day Google unveiled its new mobile payments system, Google Wallet, eBay and its online payment arm PayPal filed a lawsuit against Google and two of its executives for stealing trade secrets relating to mobile payments.

Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, both of whom were heavily involved in the development of the Google Wallet service, were named in the suit. Beider and Tilenius were formerly PayPal employees who left the company to join Google and help build Google Wallet. Both executives were with PayPal for the better part of a decade, and Bedier was most recently vice president of platform, mobile and new ventures.

The suit accuses Bedier of having “misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers,” and it alleges that Tilenius broke a contractual agreement with eBay by recruiting Bedier once moving to Google.

RUMOR: XBOX 360 UPDATE COMING MAY 19TH

An internal document leaked to Joystiq looks to confirm that the big Xbox 360 spring update will hit on May 19th. However, it'll come in six "separate groups" to "ensure a high quality deployment," so you might not get it until the end of the month, and everyone will have to wait until May 27th to get Avatar Kinect. What else is new? Well, there'll be the slightly larger disc format and support for PayPal, opening the door to a bold new world of personal finance information able to be hacked from your console.

RUMOR: GOOGLE BUILDING ITS OWN NFC PAYMENT SYSTEM

Can't say we're surprised to hear this at all, but Bloomberg BusinessWeek says Google's working on its own NFC-based mobile payments system. That makes perfect sense, given that Eric Schmidt has been enthusiastically extolling the virtues of NFC since just before Google launched the Nexus S -- which, of course, features an NFC chip. BusinessWeek says the system might launch as early as this year, although we think Google's got plenty of infrastructure work to do first -- and it's facing plenty of competition from the likes of Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, who are launching their own Isis payment system, as well as direct device competition from RIM and Apple. Should get interesting -- we'll see if we hear anything at CES this week. [Engadget]

ROVIO (ANGRY BIRDS DEVELOPER) CREATING OWN BILLING SYSTEM

Rovio, the makers of Angry Birds, is developing its own in-game, carrier billing payment system. Bad Piggy Bank will launch next year on Elisa, a Finnish carrier. The new system will allow users to upgrade to an ad-free version of Angry Birds as well as make in-game purchases, like the Mighty Eagle.

Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka at a press conference said they would offer the system to other developers and take a share of the revenue. Vesterbacka went on to say he hopes it will provide consumers, especially in areas with less credit card penetration, an option for buying in-app content without having to register. Rovio is creating this in house payment system out of frustration with Android's payment system, which prompted Rovio to offer Angry Birds with ads for free on Android.

With Rovio’s clout, it might be able to get another option on the table for consumers and developers. It would, however, put them in competition with application markets like Apple’s App Store, which takes a cut of in-app purchases, as well third-party payment services like PayPal, Boku and Zong, which are also trying to enable in-app payments. [GigaOM]

PAYPAL UPDATES iPHONE APP

Tucked away in an annoucement for a slew of other things like a new micropayments product and an apps platform for business, Paypal had an interesting nugget. A new version of its popular iPhone app that allows users to find businesses near their immediate location that accept PayPal as a form of payment. Launching in San Francisco initially, the feature encourages merchants to attract nearby customers to their stores by posting deals and promotions to the app as an incentive for customers to visit their businesses.

Customers can search by category and location, and find and select stores, services, or special offers. Users can pick up the goods or services in person, but pay the merchant using their PayPal app. Users can also use tags from Bling Nation, a startup that has partnered with PayPal to use the startup’s mobile payment chips to deduct funds from a PayPal account.

One of the big selling points around using PayPal for merchants is the ability to offer deals as an incentive to drive buyers to a store or restaurant. Whether it be Groupon-like daily deals or just ordinary coupons, there’s no doubt that deals do help drive online to offline sales. [TechCrunch]