Amazon Flexible Payments Service Launches

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

As predicted, Amazon launched a new payments web service today called Amazon Flexible Payments Service, or FPS. It will compete with Paypal and Google Checkout.

FPS, Amazon says, "is the first payments service designed from the ground up specifically for developers" and "unmatched flexibility in how they can structure payment instructions." Payments can be made by credit cards, bank account debits, and Amazon Payments balance transfers.

The most important feature: people can pay using the same login credentials and payment information they already have on file with Amazon. That means people don't need to have their credit card and other personal information stored at yet more ecommerce sites. For payments over $10, Amazon will charge 2.9% + $0.30. This matches PayPal but is higher than Google, which is eating fees to gain market share (Google charges 2% + $0.20).

This may quickly become Amazon's most popular, and most profitable, web service. Anyone can now leverage their tens of millions of customers and provide a very simple payment option.

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Use GMail or Yahoo! Mail? Change Bookmarks for Better Security

from Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

This is Robert Graham posing with the GMail website open on his laptop.

Rob demonstrated to a live audience how he can successfully hack into web based email programs like GMail, Yahoo Mail! or Hotmail using the IP Address and user name (login) without requiring any password.

Let's not go in the very technical details but he used some sniffing tools called Ferret (to copy the GMail cookies to his computers) and Hamster (to use the cookies in his browser). [Details at ZDNet, TG Daily]

What can you do to prevent someone else from reading your GMail or Yahoo Mail ?

Rob's method works when you are using the HTTP mode to access your email (http://www.gmail.com/). Therefore the trick is to always use Secure Login.

Here's what you can do to safeguard your email in public wi-fi hotspots - use https:// instead of http:// - the entire session will be encrypted and the cloning cookies method will fail:

For GMail: https://mail.google.com/mail/

For iGoogle: https://www.google.com/ig

For basic HTML version of GMail - https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html

Alternatively, you can install the CustomizeGoogle extension of Firefox that will always force the SSL mode in GMail incase you forget to manually type the https:// GMail URLs.

Highly recommended also because Customize Google will also encrypt your Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Web History and Google Calendar session incase these Google services share the same cookie with GMail.

For Yahoo! Mail - Check the Secure Mode link that's available just beneath the "Sign In" button.

Related: Recover Yahoo! or GMail Passwords

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Second Life (finally) gets a direct competitor: Multiverse

from GigaOM by Wagner James Au

The brainchild of several ex-Netscape execs, the Mountain View start-up Multiverse, as the name suggests, isn't a single online world, but a platform for creating games and other 3D experiences with the company's development tools, which are then run on its servers. (Like Dark Horizons, a sci-fi MMORPG pictured here.) Version 1.0 was just rolled out yesterday, and though it's too early to know how it'll fare, one thing is official: after 4 years of being the only user-created 3D online world on the commercial market, Second Life now has competition.

The system and revenue model is markedly different from SL, however: instead of fostering user-created content in a single world, Multiverse is a network of worlds accessible by the client software. It comes with e-commerce tools built into the system, so developer's can earn an income, while Multiverse makes money by taking a 10% cut of that revenue.

I haven't yet had a chance to check it out first hand (the client is cantankerous with my Vista machine), but I'll be keeping a close eye on its progress. Multiverse's advisory board includes Avatar director James Cameron and some other Hollywood heavyweights, so you have to think movie-to-MMO tie-ins are planned. (Indeed, a Multiverse version of the cult TV show Firefly was announced last year.) What's more, famed MMO academic Ed Castronova is already using Multiverse to develop the education-oriented MMO Arden.

My writing career has been tied up in Second Life on one level or another since 2003, so you might think I'd consider Multiverse a threat to my livelihood. Actually, I'm relieved. There are some truly impressive and popular mini-MMOs built within SL, like City of Lost Angels and Midgar, but they've largely succeeded in spite of Second Life, which is still far from ideal as a platform for game development. It's never healthy for any one company to dominate a space for so long, and an active competition to attract and retain new users and developers can only benefit us all.

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Intel accelerates 45nm plans, hitting the market Q4 '07

from Engadget by Paul Miller Echoes of "take that, haters!" could be heard on Intel corporate Facebook accounts this morning as the company steals some thunder from AMD's recently announced roadmap and fancy fresh antitrust lawsuit. Intel will be launching new four core 45nm Intel Core Extreme "Penryn" processors in Q4 2007, a few months ahead of schedule. The top of the line proc is likely to hit 3.33GHz, run a 1333MHz system bus and hold 12MB of L2 cache. Only about 2-3% of Intel's chips will go 45nm in 2007, but that number should double by around Q2 2008, and it seems Intel needed to accelerate things to head off competition from AMD's upcoming Phenom processors. Prices and other precise launch dates are still a mystery at this point. [Via Silicon Investor]

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Meizu M8 gets unwelcome price hike, dodgy release details

from Engadget by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Sure hope you weren't counting on getting your palms around Meizu's oh-so-familiar M8 anytime soon, as it now looks like the handset may not even be available to purchase until mid-next year. Granted, the 667MHz CPU, 128MB of RAM, GSM connectivity, 3.4-inch VGA touchscreen, video output, and built-in Bluetooth 2.0 / WiFi sure are appealing, but those still willing to wait this one out will apparently be paying even more than previously expected. The latest on the street pegs the forthcoming 8GB iteration at around $400, but if money ain't a thang, you may as well continue on pinching those pennies for the 16GB (and potentially 3G-enabled) flavor. [Via MeizuMe]

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