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For your ears only
Shoppers may be accustomed to cameras following their every move — whether for security or to track purchases — and Walmart is thinking about doing the same with microphones.
Walmart explains in a patent, granted last week, its idea for a listening system to detect the rustling of bags or register beeps,

Blockchain-based farming
IBM is teaming up with Hello Tractor in a blockchain project designed for farmers in Africa,
The pilot, called Digital Wallet, is a cloud-based service designed to provide data on crop production through AI and blockchain, the article says.
Digital Wallet relies on a digital ledger and machine learning to track data on weather and tractor use to predict crop yields and equipment repairs. It can also help build credit profiles for farmers, TechCrunch says.
Airborne Amazon
Despite its drone delivery plans fading from the spotlight, Amazon still relies heavily on the skies for shipments. Its Prime Air service, launched in 2016 with 40 jets, is now called Amazon Air and boasts a total of 50 aircraft,
Those planes will be supported by a gateway operation opening next year in Wilmington, Ohio; a regional air hub at Fort Worth Alliance airport and an Air Hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International airport, the article said. The air hubs will open in 2021, according to Engadget.
These projects demonstrate that despite Amazon's increasing presence in
From the Web
Forbes | Sat December 22, 2018 - According to Deloitte’s annual retail holiday sales forecast, there is expected to be up to a 22% jump in online sales compared to last year. Additionally, online sales are expected to reach up to approximately £100 billion during the holiday season.
CBS News | Sat December 22, 2018 - Authorities in Clinton uncover an international organization behind major credit card theft and have arrested three, alleged hackers. Clinton Police say they've stopped the hackers before they could take off with thousands of dollars and card numbers.
Daily News Egypt | Sun December 23, 2018 - Banque du Caire has completed the process of connecting with the Tahweel network by launching the withdrawal and deposit service for mobile wallet clients, Cairo Cash, and all mobile wallet and mobile operator clients through the bank’s automated teller machines (ATMs), according to the bank’s chairperson and CEO, Tarek Fayed.
More from PaymentsSource
Facebook’s payments ambitions have made banks wary for years, despite many false starts. But now it looks as if Facebook is pivoting to develop a remittance business, starting with a cryptocurrency project in India.
Google Payment, a company owned by Alphabet Inc., obtained an e-money license in Lithuania, joining a growing number of fintech firms that have secured permission from the Baltic nation to offer financial services across the European Union.
Hostilities toward the legal U.S. cannabis industry are softening considerably, with signs of further removing cash and digital workarounds from a market that has long been shunned by traditional payment cards.
Former McKinsey & Company associate partner Liz Oakes has been named Mastercard's executive vice president of market development for the New Payments Platforms division.