Google integrates Google Wallet with Gmail for sending and receiving money

Jordan Kahn

Following its I/O keynote address today, Google just announced on its commerce blog that it will soon be integrating Google send_money-Google-wallet-GmailWallet features into Gmail to allow users to send and receive money. The feature will be available to those with a Google Wallet account and will initially be available to users 18 and older in the US:

Google Wallet is now integrated with Gmail, so you can quickly and securely send money to friends and family directly within Gmail — even if they don’t have a Gmail address. It’s free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet balance, and low fees apply to send money using your linked credit or debit card.

Google will be adding a new $ icon next to the paperclip icon for attachements that will allow users to “attach money” to messages in Gmail by simply entering the amount and clicking send.

Google noted that the feature will first only be available on the desktop, but that users can also send money through wallet.google.com on mobile devices.

Look for the feature to start rolling out in the coming weeks but earlier access will be granted to those that receive money from others using the feature. You can learn more about sending money with Gmail here.

Google announces Google Play game services coming to Android, iOS & web today

Jordan Kahn

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We knew from leaks in the weeks leading up to I/O that Google was planning some gaming related announcements and today the company has officially announced the service in a press release ahead of its Google I/O keynote taking place now. Not only will the service allow Android developers to build in real-time multiplayer, social features, achievements, and leaderboards while storing game saves and settings in the cloud, the SDK for Google Play game services will also be available to iOS and web developers.

Google noted a few titles for Android have already been updated with the feature including World of Goo, Super Stickman Golf 2, Beach Buggy Blitz, Kingdom Rush, Eternity Warriors 2, and Osmos.

Not surprisingly, the cross-platform gaming service will also build in Google+ integration to track high scores, achievements and more:

-Achievements that increase engagement and promote different styles of play.

-Social and public leaderboards that seamlessly use Google+ circles to track high scores across friends and across the world.

-Cloud saves that provide a simple and streamlined storage API to store game saves and settings. Now players never have to replay Level 1 again.

-Real-time multiplayer for easy addition of cooperative or competitive game play on Android devices. Using G+ Circles a game can have up to 4 simultaneous friends or auto-matched players in a game session together with support for additional players coming soon.

Google’s full press release below: Read more

Feature

Live notes, observations from Google’s I/O 2013 keynote

Mark Gurman

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We’re live on the scene from Google’s 2013 I/O keynote, and although the event will be streamed online, we will be providing  live commentary and photos on this page. Among other things, we’re expecting talk of a new Google Maps web interface and perhaps the debut of a Google-made Spotify competitor. The event starts at 9AM Pacific/ Noon Eastern time…

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Google developer website confirms Android 4.3 on deck for I/O later today?

Jordan Kahn

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Although we were already expecting only a minor update to Android at I/O based on Google’s Sundar Pinchai’s comments earlier this week, multiple sites are reporting that Google’s Android developer website has revealed Android 4.3 is indeed on deck for later today. TheVerge posted the screen grab above showing mentions of “security enhancements in Android 4.3″ straight from a search result for the Android developer website. We’ll note that these are clearly quite easy to fake, but we’ll know in just a couple short hours whether or not 4.3 will actually be Google’s big Android announcement at its I/O keynote today.  Read more

Samsung says Galaxy S4 now its fastest selling smartphone ever, plans to hit 10M sold by end of May

Jordan Kahn

Samsung-Galaxy-S4-IFA-GPC-2013

Samsung has apparently announced that the Galaxy S4 is now the company’s fastest selling smartphone ever in an official statement from “an executive at the company” posted by Chosun.com. While we don’t get any specific sales numbers by region or carrier, the company reportedly said that it had shipped around four million units of the device to partners worldwide by the end of April, just five days after launching the device:

“As of the end of April, we supplied four million Galaxy S4 handsets to telecommunication operators around the world,” an executive at the company said on Friday.

In comparison, it took the previous generation Galaxy S3 around 21 days to accomplish the same.

The statement continued by noting that Samsung had reached 6 million devices sold by last Friday and plans to “break the 10-million mark by as early as the end of this month.” Read more