GOOGLE WALLET SIGNS UP SEVEN MORE RETAILERS

Google recently announced that its Google Wallet NFC mobile payment service now accepts a host of new retail locations, including American Eagle Outfitters, Foot Locker, Jamba Juice, Guess, The Container Store, Toys”R”Us and OfficeMax. Previously, the payments were only accepted in a handful of Walgreens and Subway sandwich stores in San Francisco and New York. In addition, Google says its Offers service, which provides discounts at each location, is also available in a number of the aforementioned retail outlets. Users can purchase a smoothie from Jamba Juice for $2 or take 15% off at Macy’s, for example. Unfortunately, Google Wallet is still only available to owners of Sprint’s Nexus S 4G.

GOOGLE LAUNCHES GOOGLE WALLET

Putting to bed months of rumors, Google on Thursday announced an "open" NFC-based mobile payments ecosystem that lets users pay for items by tapping their phone against a payment reader.

"Your phone will be your wallet. Just tap, pay, and save," said Stephanie Tilenius, Google's VP of Commerce, announcing the platform at the Google Partner event in New York.
'Google Wallet' is a free Android app that securely stores multiple credit cards, or a Google prepaid card linked to your credit card (one that Google provides). When opened on an NFC-enabled smartphone, you can tap your phone against a supported payment reader and the item you want to purchase is instantly charged to your credit card.

Field tests are already in place in New York and San Francisco, but when it launches commercially this summer Google Wallet will work on Sprint's Nexus S 4G, MasterCard credit cards issued by Citi, and at retailers equipped with Mastercard's PayPass terminals. The transactions will be processed by First Data, an Atlanta-based company.

Retailers who've signed up include Walgreens, Subway, Toys "R" Us, American Eagle Outfitters, and Macy's.

At the event Osama Bedier, a former PayPal exec and currently Google's VP of Payments, demonstrated the end-to-end consumer experience with a skit about buying denim shorts for his daughter.

First, Bedier opened the Google Wallet app on his Nexus S and agreed to the Terms and Conditions. He then attached his Google Wallet to a Google account, entered a PIN number to open the wallet, and filled out a form to link his Citi credit card account to the app.
Then Bedier stepped into American Eagle Outfitters store (use your imagination), where Beth McCormick, senior director of customer systems at AEO, joined the stage and handed him a pair of American Eagle's MIDI shorts. Bedier brought the shorts to a PayPass terminal, tapped his smartphone against it, signed his name, and "left" the store.

Bedier called this "Single Tap" but in reality, it's more of a tap-sign transaction.

TIVO'S EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER BREACHED

Epsilon, Tivo's email service provider, has been hacked. The breach apparently has compromised the security of some users names and email addresses. A rigorous investigation has concluded that no other personal data was exposed, however it's not just TiVo that's affected -- other big names, such as JPMorgan Chase, Citi, US Bank, Kroger, and Walgreens have also affected by the breach.

If you have subscribed to any of those company's email lists, you may want to consider using a spam filter.

WALGREENS OFFERING ANDROID TABLET FOR $100 WITH VIDEO

Kmart was the first to offer a cheap Android powered tablet.  Now, Walgreens is jumping on the bandwagon by launching the Maylong M-150 in their stores for a single US Benjamin.   The Maylong runs Android and is similar to an iPad in design and interface.  It has a 7-inch resistive touchscreen with an 800 x 480 resolution, a 400MHz VIA VM8505+ processor, built-in WiFi, an unspecified amount of built-in flash memory, and a microSD card slot or expansion.  In addition it has Internet Explorer built in for web browsing and access to the App Market. Video of the Maylong M-150 is below [Engadget]