How Do You Take on Paypal?

PayPal has a mobile app. Venmo thinks it has an app that works better for peer-to-peer payments. And Paypal expects its mobile payment app to be used for $2 billion worth of purchases in 2011.

You might not think that making a payment app "social" will be enough to carve out new space in mobile payments, but Venmo expects to try. First of all, Venmo will make it easy for users to review their history of payments. Second, Venmo will allow users to share the history with other people.

When you go to pay someone in Venmo's app, it automatically assumes that you want to share your payments (the what, not the how much) with the world on its site and your Facebook account. The social aspects of Venmo are its major differences from PayPal.

In some ways, its an analogy to "check in."

Venmo: Fighting the good fight against the online payment giants

Verizon Wireless Starts Mobile Vending Machine Payments Business

Verizon Wireless and USA Technologies are teaming up to enable mobile payments at vending machines nationwide. Some will consider this application a form of machine-to-machine communications or the "Internet of things."

Others will say it is more a way for Verizon Wireless to insert itself into the mobile payments value chain. Either way, the deal is a sign that both M2M mobile revenues and mobile payments are viewed as a practical, achievable new revenue stream for some mobile service providers.

Verizon Wireless aims to corner mobile payments industry

Apple Hints That It Will Release Turn-By-Turn Navigation On The iPhone

"Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years," the company says. See http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27location_qa.html.

That suggests Apple is building its own turn-by-turn navigation system and service. That presumably will have some implications for the navigation service offered by Garmin, for example, representing about $10 billion in annual revenue.

Apple also would level the playing field with Android devices and Google Maps, whose turn-by-turn navigation application, available for free use on some Android devices and mobile networks, has proven a significant draw for some users.

Apple Hints That It Will Release Turn-By-Turn Navigation On The iPhone

Google Makes Google Apps Easier for Small Business to Buy

Google has created what it calls the "Flexible Plan," a new $5 per user per month pricing option which requires no contractual commitment, designed to be easier for small businesses to buy and use.

With this plan, businesses can add or remove users as necessary and will automatically be billed for the proper amount, Google says. The current pricing option of $50 per user per year with a one-year commitment, will become the "Annual Plan."

Google also is eliminating upfront payments for new customers to make it easier for them to manage their cash flow. Whether they choose the Flexible or Annual Plan, customers will pay at the end of each month. Google also will offer direct debit in the United States, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain to make payment even easier.

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Helping small businesses start and manage Google Apps for Business

High Teen Computer Use Might Have a Downside

A study of Canadian teenagers by epidemiology PhD candidate Valerie Carson has found that high computer use was associated with approximately 50 per cent increased engagement with "smoking, drunkenness, non-use of seatbelts, cannabis and illicit drug use, and unprotected sex." High television use was also associated with a modestly increased engagement in these activities.

The study might suggest that "seeing people engaged in a behavior is a way of learning that behavior," says Carson. "Since adolescents are exposed to considerable screen time – over 4.5 hours on average each day – they're constantly seeing images of behaviours they can then potentially adopt."

Teens who spend time online not dorks after all – study • The Register

Smart Phones $80 to $100, Globally, in 2012?

James Bruce, lead mobile strategist at ARM, says smart phones now are getting so affordable, at the low end, that they will push feature phones to the side. Vendors are already showing U.S. carriers smart phones at $70 per unit.

Bruce believes this will translate to low-end smartphones with price tags of $80 to $100 in 2012, for consumers worldwide.

Light Reading Mobile - 4G/LTE

How Will Comcast Compete, in the Future?