Square launches new contactless chip reader in Canada for $59

Square founder and CEO Jack Dorsey leads a roundtable of Canadian entrepreneurs during the launch of the Square readerBy Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Toronto- Payments innovagtor Square held an event this morning in downtown Toronto where they launched a new contactless reaer for local businesses to take debit and credit payments. Designed in part by hardware engineers from Toronto's North York office, now allows businesses to acceot various ways to pay including Interact as well as Apple Pay, Android Pay and Fitbit Play.

The new reader allows customers to tap their cards, mobile devices or wearables to make a payment securely in seconds.

Click to read more ...

Android Pay prepares for its British Invasion

Android Pay is fast gaining ground and is aiming to unveil its services in the U.K. which is usually a good test bed for the rest of Europe as well as other countries in the world. Android Pay uses secure applications as well as NFC to enable touchless mobile payments.

Google has announced that it is to launch its Android Pay mobile payment service in the UK within the “next few months.” Supporting banks will include Bank of Scotland, First Direct,Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA and Nationwide Building Society, “with new banks being added all the time,” according to Google. Android Pay is not available in Canada at this time.

Pebble Time to get its own contactless payment via accessory watchbands

Pagaré is a watch strap that connects to the Pebble’s smart accessory port. The watchband takes advantage of Pebble's smart accessory port to create a hardware extension that adds extra functionality to the device. Thanks to its built-in NFC, an accompanying app Pagaré will enable Pebble smartwatch the ability to conduct mobile payments. You can pay for stuff with Pebble using the Pagaré NFC Smartstrap.

Pagaré is designed to be both simple to manage and simple to use. Just add the Pagaré app to your Pebble Timeline, scan in your cards and you are ready to start making transactions. Contactless payments are possible at millions of retail locations worldwide. When you see the contactless symbol at the point of sale, just hold your wrist near the terminal and your transaction is complete! Pagaré is being introduced to early birds on Kickstarter for $49.

Samsung Pay mobile payments system now available in the US

Samsung's mobile payments system, Samsung Pay, is now live across the US. Using a built-in app as well as thier fingerprint sensor, the service allows users to pay for purchases via NFC and contactless payments terminal.  The service is available only to Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge + and Note 5 devices on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and  US Cellular provided they're tied up with Visa, MasterCard or American Express accounts. 

Source: Engadget