Crowdfunding is basically a way to raise funds for a project using a group of individuals as opposed to a more traditional venture capitalist arrangement. Instead of one person or a few people funding your project with a lot of money, a lot of individuals fund your project with a small amount of money. The crowd part of the term comes from the fact that a ‘group of individuals’ are each giving you a small amount of money. The concept is great because it allows... read more»

As they increase security with ecommerce, National Australia Bank (NAB) has withdrawn support for any portable magnetic stripe only reader device that connects to mobile phones, iPhones, iPads and other portable devices. Visa International, MasterCard International and NAB agree that these magnetic stripe readers do not align with the significant industry investment in Europay Mastercard and Visa (EMV) security for Visa and Mastercard products, and card acceptance devices... read more»

Back on 8 August 2012, Facebook announced it was beta testing its new mobile ads for apps of which the repercussions are only just starting to filter out.  In their developer blog post, they said that developers of apps can “grow their business with an ad unit that helps them reach and reengage their users.”1  To explain it, Kim-Mai Cutler of Techcrunch said “These ads send users to the iOS app store, where they can download promoted apps. They’re... read more»

A mobile commerce platform (Branding Brand) showed substantial increases in shopping from smartphones. The data was collected over a 35-day period from November 21 through to December 25, 2012. The Branding Brand Mobile Commerce Index is a compilation of 84 mobile sites developed by Branding Brand for retailers across a variety of industries including apparel, health and beauty, and home goods. The Index is the largest collection of data on commerce sites specifically... read more»

What exactly is a QR Code I hear you ask. A QR Code (or Quick Response Code) is a type of two-dimensional barcode and was first designed for the automotive industry in Japan by the Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994. The code consists of black modules (square dots) arranged in a square pattern on a white background. Various types of information can be encoded. So your next question might be “So what! Why should i be interested in QR Codes?”. With the simplicity... read more»