Winners of PayPal BattleHack in Toronto announced

Team Members: (from left) Ernst Riemer, Maya Kenedy, Jonathan LeBlanc, head of developer advocacy at PayPal and Braintree, Alex Christodoulou, and Christopher Larsen

The recently concluded PayPal BattleHack in Toronto saw a defending champion team take the reign again with their new mobile app. Team Not Me, who won under the team name Angry Kittens last year for Security Blanket app, won for the mobile app Not Me. This year’s winning app is designed to recognize if someone tries to access your personal information with your permission. It’ll notify you if there is suspicious activity via email or text message. The app integrates Braintree’s SDK and lets users pay for the protection service via PayPal or credit card. The winning team will be headed to the PayPal Battle Hack World Finals in San Jose California in November to compete for the US$100,000 grand prize.

Second place went to the While I Brush smart toothbrush holder. It comes with a built-in display that shows a video while you brush your teeth. It’s mean to improve oral health and teach people how to brush more effectively for the recommended amount of time. Meanwhile, third place goes to OpenMD. It helps doctors easily collaborate on patient cases while getting vitals and other medical feedback while the patient is at home. It can also be used to work with different wearable devices.

PayPal begins trading on NASDAQ as split with eBay becomes official

PayPal has parted ways with parent company eBay and is now trading on NASDAQ (Nasdaq : PYPL). The online payments pioneer, which is now expanding to micro-payments, peer-to-peer payments as well as mobile solutions and is out to expand.

In 2014, PayPal processed $235 billion in total payment volume and generated more than $8 billion in revenues. Also last year, PayPal processed $46 billion in mobile payment volume.  The company serves more than 169 million active customer accounts in 203 markets around the world.

Click to read more ...

PayPal’s purchase protection extends to digital goods in the US

Now here’s one feature from PayPal we hope would cross the border. PayPal is now offering buyers protection beyond tangible goods and is moving into the digital space in the US. The online payments system now adds purchase protection to goods such as apps, digital albums, games, e-books, services, and tickets. With purchase protection, buyers can file claims if they get a product significantly different from what was advertised or if the product wasn’t delivered to them at all. Sellers who want to dispute these claims would have to show proof of delivery for PayPal to rule in their favor. The policy change will take effect in the US starting July 1^st.

Source: PayPal | Via: Android Police

PayPal's digital gifts store adds 13 retailers

The PayPal Digital Gifts Store has just added 13 exciting new gift card retailers and restaurants to its offering, allowing people to shop for a variety of gift cards online and quickly pay with PayPal. The PayPal Digital Gifts store makes it easy to send thoughtful gifts in an instant.  

The new merchants include Facebook, Indigo, Spafinder, Jack Astor’s, REDS Wine Tavern, Far Niente, Scaddabush Italian Kitchen + Bar and others that can be found in the PayPal Digital Gifts Store, click here for more info.