Visa has announced a number of enhancements to the Authorize.Net Developer Center, a resource that enables “independent developers to create applications supporting electronic payments and related services for major payment networks including VisaNet.” The Developer Center builds on Authorize.Net’s existing platform, which Visa acquired as part of the purchase of CyberSource earlier this year. Besides an improved developer program, what’s new here is a PCI-friendly card acceptance technique called the Direct Post Method. “Because customer billing data posts directly to Authorize.Net without touching the merchant server, the merchant can retain control over the receipting experience without incurring PCI DSS overhead.”

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Ixaris has announced the launch of Ixaris Opn (pronounced “open”), an application development platform that helps developers create payment applications for financial institutions and specialized market segments. With a long history of partnering with global payment networks such as Visa, MasterCard and Swift, Ixaris will offer financial institutions the means to offer payment services through a publicly-accessible application development and operating platform. Ixaris Opn avoids cumbersome integration with banks’ own IT systems, thereby freeing them to bring new payment services to market. The development community can use the platform to create customized payment apps that can incorporate mainstream payment networks…

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Telargo’s Delivery manager is the first complete Android based delivery management application. Watch it in action on Google Nexus One phone.

It allows the user to optimize, verify, track, navigate to and report the statuses of a complete range of daily trip orders in real time.What looks to be a fancy user interface application is running on extensive Telargo system, that allows trip orders to be scheduled, optimized and tracked in the most demanding real time situations.

Some of the benefits of Delivery Manager for Android

1. Workflow support
2. Real time trip order execution
3. Integrated CRM data
4. Navigation
5. Proof of delivery signature capture
6. Bar code scanning

The Android based Delivery manager is running as an upgrade of the Telargo On-board hardware. A reliable and robust Telargo technology has been proven in some of the world’s most demanding environments, subject to the outages of GPS signal due to high buildings (Hong Kong, New York), tunnels (Alpine regions ) and weather influences (Dubai, Sumatra).

More about Telargo at: telargo.com

Startup application development company SimpLabs has released their first iPhone title Diet2Go, a free weight-loss application which introduces an innovative approach to managing your weight. After choosing your plan from a large database, you can adjust your meal schedule and have meal reminders integrated directly into your iPhone calendar.

The application offers additional weight-loss tips and tricks, as well as recommendations and success-estimates based on your physical characteristics, activity levels, and food preferences. The diets are created exclusively for this application, are updated weekly, and offer a wide range of weight-loss plans to suit all preferences. The Diet2Go plan manager is a successful dieting tool that will guide you through weight loss day by day, meal by meal.

Application highlights:

• The largest and constantly growing collection of diet plans for every lifestyle, taste, and preference
• Weight-loss estimates based on your physical characteristics and activity levels
• The Diet2Go plan manager that will guide you through your personal weight-loss plan day by day, meal by meal
• Meal reminders integrated into your phone’s calendar
• Lots of weight-loss Tips & Tricks
• Automatic diet updating
• New diet plans every week
• Supports imperial and metric units
• Twitter and Facebook integration
• Simple and intuitive user interface

Minimum Requirements:

• iPhone or iPod touch
• OS 3.1 or higher

Pricing and Availability:
Diet2Go is free and available exclusively through the App Store in the Healthcare & Fitness category.

MOBIQPONS Launches Free Environment-friendly Mobile Coupons Application for Blackberry Storm – MobiQpons announced the release and availability of its “Coupons for Shopping -MobiQpons” application for Blackberry Storm via Blackberry App World. This is in addition to its applications for iPhone and Android smart phones

MobiQpons Inc. today announced that its Mobile Coupons application “Coupons for Shopping -MobiQpons ” is now available for consumers to download from its website http://mobiqpons.com/

Save Money with Mobile Coupons – The new mobile coupon program can transform the average joe into a savvy shopper by saving time and money.

Looking for ways to save money during tight times, but don’t want to spend the time searching through the newspaper looking for coupons? Well you’re in luck… The future of coupons has arrived in an easy, organized application that can be downloaded straight from your Smartphone.

Target has announced the first ever scannable coupon program for mobile phones. The program will send coupons to your mobile device that can be scanned at checkout. The opt-in program will provide Target shoppers with a customized webpage on their mobile phones, with all offers scannable at checkout via a single barcode.

Target is the first to venture into the coupon program, but there will be many to follow. Coupons will benefit businesses and customers alike–promoting spending while saving money for consumers. In addition, the convenience and “Green” factor of digital coupons, particularly mobile coupons, make them especially appealing to consumers today.

Gartner, Inc. has identified 10 mobile technologies that will evolve significantly through 2011 in ways that will impact short-term mobile strategies and policies. Investments in mobile applications and technologies will increase through 2011 as organizations emerge from the recession and ramp up both business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) mobile spending.

“We are highlighting these 10 mobile technologies that should be on every organization’s radar screen,” said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “These mobile technologies were selected because they will evolve in ways that affect corporate strategies, significant numbers of customers or employees will adopt or expect them, or they will address particular mobile challenges that organizations will face through 2011.”

The 10 mobile technologies to watch in 2010 and 2011 include:

Bluetooth (3 and 4)
Two new Bluetooth versions will emerge by 2011: Bluetooth 3 will introduce 802.11 as a bearer for faster data transmission, and Bluetooth 4 will introduce a new low-energy (LE) mode that will enable communication with external peripherals and sensors. Both versions will include other technical improvements to improve battery life and security. Gartner believes that Bluetooth 3 will facilitate corporate and consumer functions demanding large bandwidth (e.g., downloading images and videos from handsets). Bluetooth LE will enable a range of new sensor-based business models in industries such as fitness, healthcare and environmental control and will be used by handset and PC peripherals to enable new functions, such as PCs that autolock when users move away from them.

The Mobile Web
By 2011, over 85 percent of handsets shipped globally will include some form of browser. In mature markets, such as Western Europe and Japan, approximately 60 percent of handsets shipped will be smartphones with sophisticated browsing capability and the ability to render conventional HTML sites in some manner. The growth in smartphones with relatively large and high-resolution screens will encourage greater numbers of people to access conventional websites on mobile devices, and will make it possible to deliver some B2C applications using conventional Web tools without adaptation. In mature markets, the mobile Web, along with associated Web adaptation tools, will be a leading technology for B2C mobile applications through 2012, and should be part of every organization’s B2C technology portfolio.

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Gartner, Inc. has revealed its key predictions on the use of social software and collaboration in the enterprise. These predictions focus on offerings ranging from team collaboration to dynamic social networking applications that offer rich profiles and activity streams.

“A lot has happened in a year within the social software and collaboration space. The growing use of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook by business users has resulted in serious enterprise dialogue about procuring social software platforms for the business,” said Mark R. Gilbert, research vice president at Gartner and co-chair of the Portals, Content and Collaboration (PCC) Summit. “Success in social software and collaboration will be characterized by a concerted and collaborative effort between IT and the business.”

Gartner offers five key predictions for social software:

By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users.

Greater availability of social networking services both inside and outside the firewall, coupled with changing demographics and work styles will lead 20 percent of users to make a social network the hub of their business communications. During the next several years, most companies will be building out internal social networks and/or allowing business use of personal social network accounts. Social networking will prove to be more effective than e-mail for certain business activities such as status updates and expertise location.
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Gartner, Inc. has highlighted the key predictions that herald long-term changes in approach for IT organizations and the people they serve for 2010 and beyond. Gartner’s top predictions for 2010 showcase the trends and events that will change the nature of business today and beyond.

These predictions were selected from across Gartner’s research areas as the most compelling and critical predictions. The trends and topics they address this year speak to the changing balance of power and focus in IT. Gartner analysts said last year’s themes of shifting ownership and revenue flows continue, becoming more pronounced and more sharply focused. As the macro-economic environment adjusts to a new balance between supply, consumer demand and regulation, the focus of this year’s top predictions has expanded to encompass shifts in the way that users interact with IT.

“As organizations make plans to navigate the economic recovery and prepare for the return to growth, our predictions for 2010 focus on the impact of critical changes in the balance of control and power in IT,” said Brian Gammage, vice president and research fellow at Gartner. “With greater financial and regulatory oversight for all IT investment decisions, few organizations will be unaffected.”

“For many organizations, the economic and budgetary challenges of 2009 drove important changes in the general governance of IT investment decisions, accelerating the trend toward greater accountability and transparency,” said Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and chief Gartner fellow. “With a strong emphasis on business-case justifications, chief financial officers (CFOs) assumed a more active role. Although most organizations enter 2010 preparing for a return to growth, this financial oversight is unlikely to be lifted anytime soon. For IT leaders, greater fluency in the language of business has become a requirement.”

Gartner’s top predictions are intended to compel readers to action and to position themselves to take advantage of coming changes, not to be damaged by them. Gartner’s top predictions for 2010 and beyond include:

By 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets. Several interrelated trends are driving the movement toward decreased IT hardware assets, such as virtualization, cloud-enabled services, and employees running personal desktops and notebook systems on corporate networks.
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Mobile manufacturers Apple has revealed that its new Apple iPad device will be going on sale in UK stores from late April, a few weeks later than previously suggested by the American giants.  – Mobile phones users will have the ability to purchase both Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi and 3G accessible iPads towards the end of next month, with the latter version likely to cost significantly more with the option of connecting to 3G services on public transport where there are very few Wi-Fi hotspots.

Competition to secure the ranging for the Apple iPad is expected to be fierce, with Orange a potential frontrunner at present. While the Apple iPad does not allow for mobile phone calls, its expansive 10” touch screen provides users with the ability to view web pages, video and digitised newspapers and magazines – making it a leading mobile working device.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, said: “The iPad is something completely new. We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

The sheer mass of mobile accessories related to the Apple iPad will make this a very unique and interesting device to use. With over 150,000 applications available from the Apple App Store and completely remodelled iWork software the ability to create word documents, spreadsheets and presentations on the move has never been easier.