Square system for card payments via mobile device

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There’s no debating that credit and debit cards are convenient, but typically the only places that you can use them are in businesses, or via the phone or internet. In 2009 the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, set out to change that. He released a beta version of Square, a system that allowed mobile devices to receive card payments. A small card reader plugged into the device’s headphone port, and an app handled all the 1s and 0s. Two years later, Square is out of its debugging phase and available for general use.

The card reader is sent to users free of charge, and there are reportedly no activation, gateway, monthly, early termination or hidden fees, nor is a contract required to use the service. What there are are transaction fees – 2.75 percent + 15 cents for swiped transactions, and 3.5 percent + 15 cents for keyed-in transactions. These fees stay the same regardless of the amount of transaction, and are taken off as the transaction occurs, so no fee schedule is involved. The user pays nothing at all if they don’t use the service.

Article Source and Further Reading:
http://www.gizmag.com/square-system-lets-mobile-devices-take-card-payments/17769/

The anytime, interuptable universal intelligence test for people and computers

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Researchers have developed an "anytime" universal intelligence test – a test that can be interrupted at any time and continued later, but that gives a more accurate idea of the intelligence of the test subject. The test, developed by researchers working in Spain and Australia, can be applied to any subject, whether biological or not, at any point in its development (child or adult), for any system now or in the future, and with any level of intelligence or speed, making it ideal for evaluating the progress of artificial intelligence systems.

The principal researcher is José Hernández-Oralloof the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), who along with colleague David L. Dowe of the Monash University, Clayton (Australia), have suggested the use of mathematical and computational concepts in order to encompass all these conditions. The study has been published in the journal Artificial Intelligence and forms part of the "Anytime Universal Intelligence" project, in which other scientists from the UPV and the Complutense University of Madrid are taking part.

Further Reading:
http://www.gizmag.com/anytime-interuptable-universal-intelligence-test-people-computers/17718/

Google showcases tablet-centric Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS

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There's no mistaking it: 2011 is the year of the tablet PC. There's something like a hundred of these things coming out in the next 12 months, following the trailblazing success of Apple's iPad. A significant number of them will be running Google's Android operating system and at CES it became abundantly clear why Google has been telling developers not to make Android 2.x tablets: because Android 3.0 has been in the works, specifically designed for tablets as opposed to smartphones. And while it's certain to suffer from a lot of the same device fragmentation issues that have plagued Android smartphones, there's no denying that 3.0 looks fantastic in these preview videos.

The tablet PC market is shaping up to look a lot like the smartphone market of the last few years; Apple has paved the way to mass-market success with its slick and highly functional iPad, and Google is preparing to join the battle late with a custom-designed, open operating system that will be used on a plethora of different devices.

Article Source:
http://www.gizmag.com/android-3-0-honeycomb-tablet-os/17522/