You won’t need your wallet to go shopping on UK high streets in 2016, according to a new report by PayPal.

Yup, in four year’s time, UK shoppers will be able to use their mobile phones to pay for things with digital money rather than cash or cards.

If fact, it’s already being done. The report follows the launch of Pizza Express’s iPhone app, which allows diners in the UK to pay their bill at their table using their smartphone. Read More »

For those keeping track at home, the value of a Facebook fan can vary wildly— depending on who you’re asking. It has been put as high as $136 a head, to $3.60 (as I blogged last year) or well according to some it is zilch.

I like Jim Edwards from Business Insider’s take on it. He said calculating the ‘value’ of a Facebook fan to an advertiser has become the social media equivalent of asking “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”

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Two of world’s biggest corporations have launched a joint web-venture that will allow users to search store-specific promotions across Walmart’s 3,500+ US retail locations through a customizable Facebook app.

Walmart’s 9.4m Facebook fans will be able to search the store nearest them and find deals on everything from LED TVs to Halloween candy. Promotions will be at store-level, so local events will dictate “rollback alerts” sent to app users, from football matches to inclement weather. Read More »

Here’s some research that throws up a dilemma: consumers are more likely to be interested in brands that have good apps. But it’s really hard for app makers to make their apps ‘discoverable’.

GetJar: infographic

The research was carried out by an app store called GetJar, so is suitably pro-app and pro-Android app, to boot.

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Is it that time already? Yesterday, Gartner said that mobile application revenue will nearly triple in 2011, to $15.1bn ($5.2bn last year) and much of that growth will come from 18 billion app downloads 60,000 of which are designed for the Apple iPad, which has seen sales beat expectations.

The iPad, almost a year old now, had racked up sales of almost 15 million (14.8 million by the end of 2010) and about 7.33 million of those sales came in December. That growth is set to rocket this year as this infographic shows. Read More »

I wish I were a student again so I could impress people with my rolling skills. I had none, but that could all change for a new generation now that Apple has given the go ahead to the “roll your own” app.

Apple is usually so picky about which apps get the go ahead, nothing smutty or 18-rated, but clearly rolling up is hunky dory down in Cupertino, California. Read More »

Things are reported to becoming together for News Corporation’s app based newspaper, which is to simply be called The Daily, as a string of staff are hired to write content and a budget of around $30 million has been assigned.

The project is expected to launch before the end of the year and Rupert Murdoch is said to be personally heavily involved in the development of The Daily, which at one time was rumoured was going to be named The Daily Planet. Read More »

The Guardian , which launched its paid for iPhone and iPod Touch app last year, is launching a new version with an increased price.

Launched originally in December with a £2.39 price tag, Guardian News & Media is replacing the one-off charge with a six monthly or annual subscription. Read More »

News International is continuing to push its paid content strategy with the announcement of a paid for Apple iPhone app for its celeb gossip column Bizarre.

The app is priced at £1.19 a month for the iPhone and Android phones and, thereafter, a small fee within the app”. Read More »

Jason Schwartzman demonstrates The New Yorker iPad app in a spot directed by Roman Coppola.