Loopt, one of the early location-based services, is announcing that it has been bought by Green Dot Corp., a provider of retailer pre-paid cards which will use Loopt to develop mobile wallet and payment services. Green Dot is paying $43.4 million for Loopt. Read more »
NationBuilder, a startup that’s created an online community organizing platform that can be used by anyone to build a campaign around a cause, announced today that it has raised $6.25 million led by Andreessen Horowitz and a bunch of Facebook Mafia members. Read more »
Payment start-up Clover is trying to radically cut down the time and steps it takes to check-out at retail sites from mobile devices, making it about as simple as an iTunes transaction. Clover today is releasing SDKs for native iOS and Android apps and mobile websites. Read more »
Payments using near field communication or NFC have barely off the ground in the U.S. but it is headed toward a bright future, according to research firm Juniper, which forecast that NFC transactions will triple to $74 billion by 2015. Read more »
TheComplete.me, a new social dating service formed by former Match.com executives, is looking to leverage social networking and hyper-personalization and self expression to create a network that’s akin to the Pinterest of dating. It opened up in beta today. Read more »
Quality assurance is not one of the more glamourous positions in the tech world but it may be just the stepping stone necessary to bring in a new generation of programmers. That’s the thinking behind a new White House initiative called SummerQAmp. Read more »
American Express is partnering with Twitter and letting its members link a merchant coupon to their card by tweeting out a hashtag from a retailer. When a member goes to use the card that’s been synced to their Twitter account, their discount is automatically redeemed. Read more »
DARPA and NASA are sponsoring a challenge run by the MIT Space Systems Laboratory, TopCoder, and Aurora Flight Sciences that will invite coders to write a computer program that enables a satellite to dock with a space object that is tumbling in geosynchronous orbit. Read more »
While early critics may have scoffed, gamification start-up Badgeville just kept growing adding more clients and evolving from a gamification provider to a broader behavior platform utilizing games, reputation and social networking. Now, it’s releasing what it says is the first mobile gamification SDK for developers. Read more »
PayPal is making its debut in restaurants and bars with a new partnership with Tabbedout, which lets people pay their tabs using an app. Tabbedout users will able to add PayPal as a payment option alongside existing options for credit and debit cards. Read more »
Mobile ad provider Jumptap said data gathered through its ad network indicates that the Kindle Fire has grown to 33 percent of tablet traffic in January, up from 20 percent in December and 4 percent in November when it launched. Read more »
Isis, the mobile payment joint-venture between Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, has been lining up an array of partners across payment networks, handset manufacturers and banks. Today, it’s announcing that it has partnered with big point-of-sale payment systems providers VeriFone, Ingenico, VivoTech and Equinox Payments. Read more »
After trying to become a social network, the team behind Fab.com pivoted a year ago toward their current model as a design site because it was something the founders were passionate about. It’s another reminder that passion matters and can be what determines success. Read more »
Walmart, Target and other retailers are working together on their own next generation payment system that will compete against the likes of Google Wallet, Isis, PayPal and many others. While it will add more confusion, it makes some sense for retailers to pursue their own system. Read more »
The market for app discovery has gotten increasingly crowded with all kinds of competitors and yet, the rush to solve the problem continues. The latest example is App-o-Day, a new free app of the day service from former Outfit7 CEO Andrej Nabergoj. Read more »
LevelUp, a loyalty program that built its own Starbucks-style payment system, is now doing $1 million in transactions a month. It’s growing by marrying payments with loyalty and deals. And it’s showing that there will be more payment options that Google Wallet and Isis. Read more »
The U.S. is now a smartphone nation, with 53 percent of all adult cell phone owners claiming ownership of a smartphone, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Smartphone ownership is most represented among college grads, younger and more affluent adults. Read more »
Facebook showed off a new suite of premium ads that enables brands to create more engaging stories for users and finally brings marketing to Facebook’s mobile properties. It’s part of a broad effort to generate revenue for the social network as it prepares to go public. Read more »
Mobify is betting that companies want to optimize their websites for tablet use in the same way many have modified their sites for smartphones. The company is releasing a tablet optimization product that makes it easy for a site to convert to a more tablet-friendly design. Read more »
Seamless, a favorite resource for connecting restaurants and delivery-dependent diners, built its business helping companies order meals for its workers. But the company is now trying to become a much more consumer-focused business, and it’s looking to its own data to try to accelerate the transformation. Read more »
American Express last year launched its Serve payment system taking on PayPal head on. Now, it’s following PayPal’s move to enable personal payments through Facebook with the launch of a Serve Facebook app, that allows users to pay each other back for free without leaving Facebook. Read more »
CardSpring last month launches an application platform that allows developers to create applications that can work with credit cards. Now, it’s getting a boost with the help of payment processor First Data, which is using CardSpring’s API as the basis for an offer platform for retailers. Read more »
Facebook is gearing up to take advantage of the mobile web and put itself at the head of a growing web app ecosystem. Today, it announced a set of initiatives that should help standardize mobile web browsers and enable better payments in mobile web apps. Read more »
Mobile payment joint venture Isis — the product of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile — announced that Chase, CapitalOne and BarclayCard will place their credit, debit and pre-paid cards on the Isis wallet when it launches this summer. The card issuers cover 100 million card holders in the U.S. Read more »
Lemon, a personal spending tracker service, has proven pretty popular with 1 million users signing up in less than four months. Now, the company is looking to go beyond just receipt storage into Mint territory with an update that helps categorize and total up spending. Read more »
Though the App Store is still ahead of rival Android Market in discovery features, Apple clearly sees a need to ramp up and improve the way it helps consumers pick through its growing collection of apps. That’s what’s behind the acquisition of app discovery engine Chomp. Read more »
Pricetector, which launched a price adjustment service called Savvy.com in November, is rebranding under the name Eyeona, as it looks to become an even more useful tool to both consumers and retailers. Eyeona’s goal is to help retailers build a stronger relationship with consumers. Read more »
With new products from a variety of players like Google and Isis comes a potentially confusing year as the term “mobile wallet” gets thrown around repeatedly. What exactly is the “mobile wallet”? Here are some important definitions for those looking to make a move in the space. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Geoloqi, a Portland Ore. start-up, said it’s ready to take location-based services to the next level with a new developer SDK that makes incorporating location services easy. The location platform enables real-time tracking, geo-fencing, messaging and analytics while remaining very efficient on battery usage. Read more »
Twilio, the cloud communications platform, is arming app makers with the ability to add Voice over IP features to their iOS apps. With a new Twilio Client for iOS, the company is making it easy for any app with connectivity to incorporate Skype-like functionality. Read more »
Fancy, a self-expression social site, is launching a new demand-driven commerce model today that will let vendors and retailers sign up to be a seller on any item fancied on the site. They will be able to conduct the transaction right on Fancy. Read more »
Boku up until now has been known for enabling carrier billing for online goods. But the San Francisco payment start-up is leaping into the physical world with the launch of a new white label offering for carriers that will include in-store payments. Read more »
Independent mobile app store GetJar is looking to virtual currency to get users to come and keep downloading and interacting at GetJar’s app marketplace. The company today is introducing GetJar Gold virtual currency which will be awarded to users for downloading Android apps. Read more »
Zipmark, which leverages the existing check-processing infrastructure to create a digital payment system, is opening up its platform to developers. It’s also poised to release an iPhone app next month, enabling consumers to pay bills and make transactions from their phone. Read more »
Striiv, a mobile device that tracks movement and provides fun motivation like a personal trainer, has released some statistics on how users are actually engaging with the pocket gadget. Users check their Striiv 29 times a day on average and a majority check-in every day. Read more »
Exclusive: Ingk Labs, an IP accelerator in New York City, has purchased payment platform ORCA Inc. and will use it to power a new PayPal competitor called Payz. Ingk Labs is ramping its efforts to rescue and accelerate IP and put it to work in start-ups. Read more »
Analytics firm Distimo said that, of the top 110 apps that appear in both Android Market and Amazon Appstore, 42 of them make more money on Amazon than on Android Market. That’s a strong showing for Amazon’s Appstore, which got a boost from the Kindle Fire. Read more »
Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will not be able to support mobile advertising at launch, RIM said. That means Android developers who make free apps will have even less incentive to bring their apps to the PlayBook through the Android App Player. Read more »
Facebook, which is still planning its mobile advertising strategy, could generate $1.2 billion in its first year in six markets alone. That’s according to MobileSquared, a mobile research firm, which believes Facebook could become one of the two biggest companies in mobile advertising next to Google. Read more »
Memrise, a TechStars Boston graduate, has raised $1.05 million for its gamified approach to memorizing languages. The company supports six languages officially and has more than a million words created by its community. It’s now looking to expand beyond languages and will launch mobile apps soon. Read more »
