Tech&Web

Google experiments with a way to pay without taking out your phone

Calling all South Bay residents: we are piloting a new payment app and would love your feedback!

First, some background. Since we launched Android Pay, we've averaged 1.5 million new registrations each month in the US alone and there are now over 2 million locations that accept tap and pay. But we’re not stopping there—we're busy working to bring the convenience of Android Pay to more countries and a growing list of stores and apps.

At the same time, we also wanted to explore what the future of mobile payments could look like. Imagine if you could rush through a drive-thru without reaching for your wallet, or pick up a hot dog at the ballpark without fumbling to pass coins or your credit card to the cashier. This prompted us to build a pilot app called Hands Free that we’re now in the early stages of testing. It lets you pay in stores quickly, easily, and completely hands-free.

While the pilot is still in early stages, we’ve come to a point where we're ready to invite people in the South Bay to test Hands Free with us. Hands Free is currently available onAndroid and iOS devices and is rolling out to a small number of McDonald’s, Papa John’s, and local eateries in the area.

Once you’ve installed and set up the app, Hands Free uses Bluetooth low energy, Wi-Fi, and location services on your phone to detect whether you’re near a participating store. When you’re ready to pay, you can simply tell the cashier, “I’ll pay with Google.” The cashier will ask for your initials and use the picture you added to your Hands Free profile to confirm your identity.

At select stores, we’re also in the early stages of experimenting with visual identification so that you can breeze through checkout even faster. This process uses an in-store camera to automatically confirm your identity based on your Hands Free profile picture. All images captured by the Hands Free camera are deleted immediately.

To learn more about the Hands Free pilot, please visit the Hands Free website.

We’ll continue to improve the technology behind Hands Free, and we’re excited to hear your feedback. As an added thank you for testing Hands Free, we’re offering up to $5 off your first Hands Free purchase at participating stores.

PSEB to Help 80 IT Companies to Acquire Free Certifications

The Pakistan Software Export Board has been given the go ahead and funding to help IT companies in Pakistan get internationally certified. With the project titled ‘Enhancing IT Exports Through Industry Support Programs’, PSEB is aiming to boost Pakistan’s IT exports from 2 billion PKR per annum to 10 billion PKR per annum by 2025.

Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform, in its Central Development Working Party (CDWP) meeting, chaired by Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal, gave the nod to PSEB to start the project.

The 265 million PKR plan, which has been formulated in close collaboration with the industry, will see 30 IT companies being assisted in getting Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certifications and 50 IT companies being helped to get ISO27001/20000 certifications. 76% of the costs will be borne by the government while the remaining will be filled by the IT industry.

Currently, there aren’t a lot of companies with international certifications, which is concerning since IT services are among Pakistan’s specialties. These certifications will open up a lot of new doors as well as make our industry more competitive in the international market.

We should mention that initially the project was submitted with a cost of 709 million PKR and having the following components:

• CMMI Certification Program
• ISO 27000 and ISO 20000 Certification Program
• Internship Program
• Marketing/Branding of IT Industry Program
• Project Management Unit

In response, the Ministry of IT submitted a modified plan having only two components i-e CMMI Certification Program and ISO 27000 and ISO 20000 Certification Program. Furthermore, the project costs was reduced to 265 million PKR.

PSEB has done such projects in the past. With the help of the board, 23 companies have successfully acquired CMMI-Level 2 to CMMI-Level 5 certifications including NetSol and Digital Processing Systems. 11 companies have acquired ISO27001 certification including Systems Pvt Ltd and iEngineering. And 110 companies have acquired ISO9001 certifications. To build IT human resource capital, more than 5400 interns have also been placed in the industry by PSEB till date.

If you want to know more about how the companies will be selected, when the project will start and other details, keep visiting Enternetpedia.blogspot.com as we’ll post updates as soon as we get them.

3.2 Billion People Across the World Now Online – But is That Enough?

End 2015 and we have 3.2 billion people (i.e roughly 43%) connected to the online world. Though it is a figure worth celebrating over, tech analysts still find it far from the ideal target of 60% . According to Facebook’s second annual, ‘State of Connectivity,’ report released last Sunday, 200 million people were connected to the internet by the end of 2015. The report attributes the rise to, ‘more affordable data and rising global incomes.’ But this figure largely consists of the developed country as developing countries are still far more lacking in internet connectivity.

Though Far from Target, There is Hope

In Pakistan, it was only thanks to the availability of 3G/4G that we saw an impressive rise of broadband penetration from 2.07% in 2014 to 12% in 2015. Though a great uptake, it is still very minimal considering the country’s population. The same problem is faced by other developing countries especially in the African region which ranks the worst in terms of global connectivity. According to a UN report in November, 2015, although the target for 2020 cannot be easily achieved, it is still commendable for 167 countries to improve their information and communication technology rankings thanks to the availability of mobile-cellular signal. Infact, the number of people connected to mobiles doubles those connected to the internet – i.e nearly 7.1 billion people (95% of the population) are covered with cellular technology.

Lack of Education and Income Limits the Ability to Be Online

Despite being a, ‘global’ phenomena, the Internet is still largely English and this may seem to have an impact on the overall connectivity. Literacy plays a significant role in ensuring empowerment through online technology and experts fear that even if all the necessary infrastructure is provided, the billions of people will still not be able to connect if they are not equipped with basic literacy requirements. Some reports even reveals the usage of internet in women of developing countries were considerably less as compared to men. Since most underdeveloped and developed countries are still struggling with fair and equal education for all, it is estimated that only a 53% of people may be connected to the internet by 2020 – not a very hopeful figure according to experts.

There is a Lot More to Be Done if We Really Want to be Part of the Tech Age

Keeping international scenarios aside, there is still a lot more to be done in Pakistan. From educating people about basic internet connectivity to ensuring a profitable business model in the IT industry, we have a long way to go. Luckily, Pakistan has the scope for immense growth, only if we are able to overcome fundamental hindrances of taxation, quality crisis, educational crisis and ofcourse have a serious approach towards the world as a global village.