Category: Featured News

U.S. Bank has announced that it is starting a trial in Portland and in Salt Lake City.

FlexPerks Visa cardholders in Portland, Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah are being offered a new opportunity from U.S. Bank, in which they can try out a new mobile payments opportunity based on NFC technology.

This opportunity to try the mobile payments product is specific to individuals who have an iPhone 4 or 4S.

Though neither of these devices is enabled with NFC technology, customers who sign up for the program will be shipped a special case created by DeviceFidelity that will allow them to use their iPhones in order to make a purchase at the checkout counter of participating merchants. U.S. Bank explained that its introduction of the service is to be considered a beta release for account holders with the new FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature card (and an appropriate model of the iPhone).

The NFC technology mobile payments service will be rolled out more broadly later in 2013.

The DeviceFidelity case will provide multiple benefits to the iPhone 4 and 4S device users who receive it. It will not only enable them with NFC technology – a capability that is absent in all Apple smartphone models – but it also contains an additional battery in order to extend the length of the charge of the device.

This is not only convenient in addition to the NFC technology chip, but it also provides the user with the added peace of mind of knowing that they have better odds of completing their purchase transactions without running out of power.

According to the U.S. Bank Payment Services chief innovation officer, Dominic Venturo, “We have incorporated all of the feedback we have received from prior pilots and our customer research into this latest offering and we are excited to offer U.S. Bank Go Mobile in these two markets.”

Though DeviceFidelity is among the more obvious partners in this venture, as it is the provider of the NFC technology cases, there are others involved in this project, as well. For example, Visa will be providing its PayWave tech in order to receive the contactless payments at the checkout counters of the participating merchants. Moreover Datacard Group will be securely issuing and provisioning the accounts.

Sesame Street has just unveiled the first of multiple apps that will be released for children.

Today’s toddlers are using smartphones even before they know how to read, but Big Bird and the Sesame Street gang are now working together with augmented reality technology to help to close that gap with a fun and fascinating mobile experience for kids.

Preschoolers will be able to use the devices to help to recognize the sounds of written words.

This augmented reality innovation is a joint effort between the Sesame Workshop and Qualcom. Their “Big Bird’s Words” app was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show, where the beloved yellow character took center stage.

The augmented reality app is designed for children to use on their parents’ smartphones.

It allows kids to use augmented reality technology in order to discover words in the real world so that Big Bird can help to sound them out. When the child aims the device at the word, he or she can then listen as the Sesame Street character gives them a hint by providing the sound of the first letter and the sound of the word as a whole. For instance, when a child points at the word “Milk”, Big Bird would help out by saying “You found the word Milk! It starts with the letter M.”

The Big Bird’s Words app is expected to become available to the public in mid 2013. Though the augmented reality application won’t be available for a few months, it will be the first of at least two releases by Sesame Street, aimed at preschoolers. Another app that can be expected following the initial release will be “Abby’s Fairy Rock”, which will feature that far newer, but highly beloved character.

According to the Dave Glauber, form the Content Lab at the Sesame Workshop, during his keynote, “We know that kids are entering kindergarten with a vocabulary gap.” It was during this speech that the augmented reality smartphone app was first presented by Qualcomm. Glauber proceeded to explain that “With this app we can introduce kids to words wherever they are and give them an understanding of what those words mean.”