PayPal, the online payments and money transfers specialist, was first introduced to be partnering Xbox Live back in May, when an update for the console brought the company plus more to the system. The email in question was sent out to employees at the company asking them to test the new service, signaling November 15th as the date for the new system menu. It had previously just been expected at some point this fall.

Features for the imminent new dashboard update have also been listed by Microsoft which includes improved controller experience, and voice control. They believe their new dashboard will offer ‘all the entertainment you want, with the people you care about, made easy.’ A demo of the new layout in action can be viewed below. It also reveals how Microsoft intends to bring more interaction into the living room using the Xbox 360.

According to Jose Pinero, Xbox Live’s Senior Director, the company believes ‘making sure we’ve got great content for both audiences in a combined platform is a big challenge.’ In a recent article we brought our readers, we asked whether or not they thought the Xbox 360 would be better with Steam support. The majority of the voters think that it would indeed be better.

What do you think of the new dashboard? Are you looking forward to the update?

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Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWeb is reporting that PayPal have announced at the MobileBeat 2011 event, it was going to support NFC on mobile devices. The company demonstrated its take on the technology with a new NFC enabled widget, which will let consumers make payments by simply tapping two phones together.

The company said the new widget will arrive later on in the summer, and the technology is growing pace as organizations such as banks, credit card companies, and Google are bringing out NFC solutions for their customers. Presently a lot of the programs have yet to be released, but it’s no surprise a company like PayPal is getting in on the action.

The app looks great and in a video demo which you can see below, a PayPal user can send or receive money via the widget. Once a user has initiated the request both then just tap their devices together until they buzz, and completes the money transfer. To fully complete the transaction users do have to enter a password or PIN number.

This works mainly like the Bump mobile application works, except the technology is different. Bump uses sensors on both Android and iPhones, while NFC uses a special chip inside the handset itself. At present there aren’t many devices supporting the technology. The demo showed the Samsung Nexus S but there are more handsets on their way with NFC including the BlackBerry Bold 9900.

PayPal has made other moves into the mobile world recently with the purchase of Zong. This is a mobile payments company that specializes in carrier billing, and allowed users to pay for digital goods such as in-app purchases. NFC is more associated with the payment of physical products, so it looks like PayPal are covering all angles.

The new iPhone could only be a matter of weeks away now, and many potential owners of the handset would like to see the NFC technology find its way into it. Would you like to see NFC in the iPhone 5?

More About: Android, apple, NFC, PayPal

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PayPal UK offer a service that allows users to make and receive online payments in a safe and secure way. Their site even uses the slogan ‘The safer, easier way to pay.’ The hacker, who is as of yet unknown began tweeting and retweeting messages that questioned the security of the company in the most extreme way it seems.

The first tweet came at 8:20pm last night, it read ‘our security is so great, look at our Twitter feed and see.’ The hacker then began retweeting messages from other users that were congratulating them on the hack and messages that expressed negativity toward PayPal UK. The profile description of the company had also been edited to read ‘The official Twitter account of the fail team at PayPal UK.’

According to The Inquirer the hacker also took advantage of their position and used it to promote an anti-PayPal website called PayPalSucks.com. It’s a site that questions the payment processes that the company uses and acts as a complaints site for those that are not satisfied with the service. Some of the negative responses and complaints about the company were fairly abusive to say the least.

The last messages that were tweeted by the hacker read ‘All your PayPal accounts are now frozen while we clean up this mess,’ and ‘Shop safely without PayPal.’ Once the company had resumed control of their account the posted message explaining that their Twitter account had been hacked and reassuring customers that their personal data is still safe as it was just the Twitter account that was attacked not PayPal itself.

Although this is not the first Twitter account that has been attacked, it seems it is a first time that a company has been deliberately targeted and humiliated in such an extreme way. Could this be the start of a trend where groups of hackers express their feelings by attacking the companies directly in this manner? What are your views on such extreme protesting?

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The new Xbox 360 system update will allow you to link a PayPal account to your Xbox Live account, this will allow another method of secure payment for Microsoft Points, Xbox Live subscriptions and more.

We are reliably informed that the update will be rolled out gradually to all Xbox Live users, the process started today and will continue throughout the next two weeks or so. Like all updates when it hits your console you will receive a notification and the update will then download and install itself on your 360.

The support for PayPal is not the only new feature which this update will bring, once installed your Xbox 360 will be more environmentally friendly as a new auto-standby feature will kick into action if your console is idle for more than an hour, as default this option will be turned on, however you can change the setting in the system settings page.

We are also led to believe that a new disc format will be supported which will allow more capacity on a disc and also combat piracy, MajorNelson’s blog entry didn’t talk much about this, but he did thank the preview program participants.

Are you happy about all of the new changes?

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According to the information obtained by Joystiq, the update will be rolling out starting from Thursday May 19th, and will continue on until May 30th across all regions. The update seems to be a direct counter attack to recent attacks by hackers on the Sony PlayStation 3, as the report states that the update will bring a brand new disc format known as XGD3, which is an anti-piracy measure designed to beef up security on the console.

Furthermore, we’re also hearing that the new update will add support for Paypal for all Xbox 360 users when buying content from the Xbox 360 Marketplace. The company are obviously aware of the damage that hackers have done to PS3 users, i.e obtaining credit card information and subsequently publishing details online, so the introduction of Paypal will be a welcome addition for users we feel.

Dare we say it, but should similar credit card security protection have been used to secure PS3 credit card info by a trusted company such as Paypal? You could argue that if they did already have such measures in place, it would have made life much more difficult for hackers to obtain.

The PlayStation Network is still offline as we speak, as Sony has now stated that they hope to get the service back online by May 31st. Xbox 360 users on the other hand can look forward to this security update soon. Let us know your thoughts on this.

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The service which boasts $21 billion in payments over the second quarter of 2010 left thousands, maybe millions of users unable to use the online payment scheme who blamed a network hardware failure as the reason for the downtime.

Although the problem is thought to be solved, users residing in the UK are thought to be still having problems connecting to the service, PC Pro report.

Are you still affected by the PayPal outage?

Source: IT Pro Portal

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According to WirelessGround Blog writer Mont Cessna, the information had been leaked onto PayPal’s blog, but has since been deleted. Google has not made an official statement, but you can be sure that one will come soon – we just don’t know when.

Apple is king when it comes to apps, but they also offer PayPal as a payment option, which some believe has helped them. There are those who do not want to keep handing out their credit/debit card details to more services – such as Android Market – so using their current PayPal account could be the perfect option.

Google’s Android Market has come a long way in a short amount of time, and with the range of handsets on the market now, it is only a matter of time before the Apple will feel them breathing down the back of their neck.

Would you use PayPal to pay for your Android apps?

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Seems a tiny bit strange, but the way this works is that when you receive your cheque, you can take a photo of the front and back then send this to PayPal to deposit it in your account, all according to PayPal exec Laura Chambers.

It is not clear whether or not this service will be made readily available to all smartphones with iOs, Android and BlackBerry OS, as the only phone to be mentioned was indeed Apple’s iPhone.

This service is already taking place and accepted by some banks, but this addition to the PayPal arsenal strengthens an already strong grip on the market.

One thing to note though, I am already sceptical about paying for things without directly handing cash over to whoever it may be, online transactions are already done by some with caution, but taking photos of cheques and sending them in to be cashed will take some getting used to.

Are you a PayPal customer that would use this service?

Source: Gizmodo

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