Bailey Reutzel

Coinstar Inc. is changing its name to reflect the growing number of services that its ubiquitous kiosks provide — a move that in many ways mirrors how the company's flagship coin counters have evolved to become a diversified payments player.

Users of the currency exchange Ripple Network can now make payments in any currency directly to all Bitcoin users, including 8,500 Bitcoin merchants, through a partnership with BitStamp.net.BitStamp.net allows the Ripple Network to convert currencies into bitcoins by accepting payments in any currency and paying merchants in bitcoins. The offering, called Bitcoin Bridge, was announced at the Bitcoin London conference July 2.

Don Mattrick, who has led development of the Xbox video game console for six years as Microsoft's president of interactive entertainment, is leaving the company to become CEO of social media game developer Zynga.

Square Inc. has ended its gift card service, according to a report from Reuters, about half a year after launching the program.

Birch Coffee has used Square's mobile card reader for its delivery service for about two years, and was one of the first to switch to the new Square Market e-commerce site ahead its launch.

MasterCard has begun offering U.S. merchants and developers Simplify Commerce, a product of MasterCard labs, the Purchase, N.Y. card network's research and development lab.

Space travel and tourism are achievable dreams for the near future, and PayPal aims to reach the final frontier before its rivals do.

Payoneer, a global payments company, entered partnerships in Latin America with three of the region's largest freelance marketplaces, Nubelo, Workana and Adtriboo.

After a March acquisition, Pond5, an online marketplace for stock media, found its operations in more than two dozen countries with different payment methods in each. To restructure the checkout process and consolidate payment methods, Pond5 chose to work with Adyen.

Bank of America, which is testing the use of QR codes for payment at five merchants and uses the same technology at the teller line, reports success in using the codes to enroll customers in its mobile banking app.

First Trade Union Bank has unveiled FT Pay, a mobile payment and loyalty app powered by LevelUp. The relationship represents LevelUp's first foray into the traditional banking industry with a technology it has typically sold under its own brand.

With its newest update, Lemon Wallet is offering a 15-day free trial of its paid Wallet Plus service, a marketing scheme to whet consumers' appetites for the payments-capable mobile wallet it plans to roll out in the next couple of weeks.

Vocalink, a London-based payments provider, is launching a new company called Zapp, which enables consumers to make real-time payments with their mobile device by linking their mobile phone number to a bank account.

Banks may believe they can provide the best mobile wallet experience — but most have done very little to create their own product.

By warning the Bitcoin Foundation to cease and desist from allegedly acting as an unlicensed money transmitter, California may be either targeting the wrong group or trying to ensnare others.

Check, formerly PageOnce, is adding an expedited payment service to its mobile app.

Many Bitcoin startups face the expensive and daunting task of obtaining multiple state money transmitter licenses. But these businesses could drum up enough support to create a more streamlined and affordable licensing process.

Wendy's International Inc. is beefing up the payment functions of its My Wendy's mobile app, which furthers the company's strategy and plays on other quick service retailer's success with mobile payments.

Amazon.com Inc. added a new payments system called the Amazon Birthday Gift, which allows users to send Amazon.com gift cards with birthday messages to friends on Facebook and allow other friends to contribute more to the card's balance.

BuyReply, an Australian startup, is going back to the basics in allowing consumers to purchase items from television and magazine advertisements by sending just an email or a text message — no special hardware or software required.