Cards

Will the Google Play store soon get its own gift cards?

The folks over at Android Central today published photos of what they claim are Google Play gift cards. The Android site, which received the photos from an unidentified source, shows two cards that can be redeemed for $10 or $25 in the marketplace.

The alleged cards themselves are black with the Google Play logo. At the bottom, the card indicates that it can be redeemed for "music, movies, books, apps, and more."

It would only make sense for Google to offer up gift cards that can be … Read more

Wrapp, the Facebook app that lets people give freebie gift cards to their friends, is hoping to gain traction with back-to-school shoppers.

The company, which is shaking up e-commerce on Facebook, continues to grow, bringing some more big name-brands to attract new gifters, the company announced today. These brands include Dockers, Levis, Office Depot, Rovio's Angry Birds online shop, Zappos, and Roots.

Wrapp's business model combines targeted marketing with social metrics. As CNET wrote earlier this year:

"Wrapp will look at the person you're thinking of, figure out where they are and how valuable they are … Read more

Paying someone to do design work can become expensive. That's not to say that designers aren't always worth their cost, but if funds are tight, it might be time to look toward another solution.

MakeBadge.com offers free tools for creating badges or business cards with its easy-to-use online editor. You can even import your logo or other graphics, free of charge. Here's how to get started:

First you'll want to head over to MakeBadge.com. Once there, you can get started on your business cards or badges right away -- the editor loads and … Read more

As Google announced its major upgrade for Google Wallet yesterday -- in which shoppers could use any type of major credit card to load up their smartphone -- American Express confirmed today that it didn't agree to such a deal.

"We want to make sure Google's mobile wallet product meets the standards we set for our card members in terms of the transparency and clarity about transaction detail," American Express' VP of social media communications Brad Minor told CNET in an e-mail. "And right now, American Express does not have an agreement with Google for … Read more

One of the many drawbacks to using Google Wallet as a true wallet replacement was the inability to add a Visa, American Express, or Discover card as a payment option. You were either limited to using a prepaid card Google provided you with, adding money to it each time you wanted to use it. Or, you had to own a MasterCard.

But, with the update Google just released, users can now add any debit or credit card to their Google Wallet account, and use it to make purchases with their NFC equipped Android device.

The update takes all of the … Read more

This Wednesday's top stories are sharing the love of data (but not the love of sharing data):

It began with Verizon, and now AT&T has joined the data-sharing movement. Starting in August, new AT&T customers will be signing up for "Mobile Share" plans. All have unlimited voice and text, but you pick how much data you need, and up to 10 devices can share from that bucket of data. Generally speaking, AT&T and Verizon's plan prices are pretty similar in the lower data tiers. Depending on your needs, one can … Read more

Kickstarter, the crowd-funding portal, has a lot of interesting "projects" that are seeking backing, but it isn't always easy to tell how unique or exceptional they truly are.

Take the just-launched ChargeCard. It's a USB-charging cable for iOS devices that's in the shape of a business card. The ChargeCard looks cool but I seem to remember seeing other devices kind of like it. So I dashed off an e-mail to Noah Dentzel, one of the two guys behind the project (Adam Miller is the other), asking him how it was different -- or better -- than I product I'd found on eBay . The product I'd dug up had a built-in rechargeable battery while the ChargeCard was just a cable. … Read more

PayPal announced today it has agreed to acquire Card.io, a company whose technology allows credit card information to be captured by a smartphone's camera.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

The acquisition is an apparent move to bolster its position against mobile-payments upstart Square, which revealed in March that it was processing $4 billion a year in payments. Square, which recently announced plans for international expansion, also offers an accessory that connects to mobile devices and lets people swipe their cards to pay for purchases.

The San Francisco-based startup attracted PayPal's interest when the two companies … Read more

Lexar, one of the top-shelf makers of flash memory cards, said today it will support the new XQD format with new models that will go on sale in the third quarter.

For the mainstream flash card market, SD dominates when it comes to price and usage in cameras, video cameras, and devices including tablets and PCs. But though bulkier, CompactFlash, maintains a foothold in the higher-end market such as professional SLR cameras.

As CompactFlash aged, though, Sony, Nikon, and Lexar rival SanDisk came up with XQD as a faster, smaller successor to CompactFlash. One big selling point is fast transfer speed -- 2.5Gbps initially with 5Gbps planned with an upgrade to its underlying data-transfer technology, called PCI. The first big XQD use was Nikon's top-end D4 SLR, and Sony offers XQD cards, but so far there hasn't been much evidence of enthusiasm beyond that.

SanDisk hasn't announced XQD support, and Lexar had been noncommittal. No more.

"We are committed to offering innovative and industry-leading photography solutions, which is why we're working with Nikon to offer and co-market XQD memory cards. We view the XQD standard as one of the most logical ways to increase interface speed beyond that of existing CompactFlash technology," said Wes Brewer, Lexar's vice president of products and technology, in a statement. … Read more