Archive for category: Tech News

Smart watches have been attempted before. Sony tried one. Motorola’s MOTOACTV gave it a go with a health twist. Recently Waterloo-based Pebble broke through ice and gained mass popularity. Rumours are pointing towards Apple cashing in on the craze with the “iWatch.” Samsung is not one to stand still and they’ve now confirmed they too will begin production of a smart watch.

Bloomberg is reporting that Lee Young Hee, EVP of Samsung Mobile, said “We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long. We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”

There was no hint of when the Samsung’s smarwatch will be available, or at what cost. In addition, one would think that a product like this would fall under the Galaxy naming scheme and be called something like the “Galaxy Watch.” If it’s released this year I’d imagine the design being a really small Galaxy S4 with the ability to be paired with your smartphone to answer calls, receive text messages, view your calendar events, reading your email, integrated S Health, and act as a music player.

Lee noted that “the issue here is who will first commercialize it so consumers can use it meaningfully.”

Source: Bloomberg
Via: PocketNow
Image Credit: Behance

Square launched their Mobile Card Reader in Canada on October 24th. This was their first market outside the of U.S. and a welcomed addition to the mobile scene as any individual or business owners could easily and securely start accepting payments from their device (iPhone, iPad, or Android).

Square has finally released a some Canadian stats. In an email to us Square stated that the combined number of signups for both the U.S. and Canada total 3 million. Clearly more activations are in the States, but comparing to four months after their October 2010 launch, Square is “seeing more activations in Canada at this time than we did in the U.S., with an adoption rate that is 25% higher per capita.”

Back in November Square declared they were processing $10 billion a year in mobile transactions. Considering Canada was only live for a month our contribution wasn’t that high. However, now a few months in surely we’ve reached a respectable number. Unfortunately, Square didn’t comment on where the total transaction numbers are now, but did say that the average transaction size (Gross Payment Value) in Canada is $120, compared to $70 in the States. The users of Square in Canada are typically “services and retailers,” such as accounting, legal services, and consulting, while in the United States it’s individuals and food trucks/carts.

We reached out to Square for more insight into what’s next. We can expect Square Wallet to arrive this year, but they’re not committing to a specific time. In addition, Square is “always looking for new ways to make commerce easy, but we have nothing to announce” regarding a BlackBerry or Windows Phone app.