New Mobile Phone Technology Stops Card Fraud Cold

BRENTWOOD, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new Israeli technology brought to the U.S. by Secure Identity Systems (SIS) thwarts credit and debit card fraud, and potentially stops ID thieves in the act. This in turn helps banks better protect customers, stem losses due to fraud, and attract new depositors with free identity protection services.
The technology, dubbed mConfirm, uses any mobile phone to match the location of a consumer and their payment card. If the locations don’t match, the transaction is flagged and risk systems alerted, so that action can be taken immediately. Already proven highly successful at Visa CAL, a major Israeli credit card issuer and processor, mConfirm significantly improves fraud detection and reduces false alert rates without slowing down the transaction process.

“mConfirm turns any mobile phone into a front-line defense in the war against identity fraud,” says Bryan Ansley, CEO of Secure Identity Systems. “The instant a payment card is swiped, mConfirm pinpoints the location of the card holder’s mobile phone. If they’re not in the same place, and the activity doesn’t match the consumer’s usual buying patterns, we know the transaction is fraudulent, and we stop it. There’s never been a faster or more accurate way to put the brakes on credit and debit card fraudsters.”
The mConfirm technology, which is being provided to U.S. banks exclusively by SIS and offered to consumers free of charge, does not require GPS-enabled phones or changes to existing card processing systems. The system uses two factors—location-based behavior analysis and cellular phone location analysis—to develop a fraud risk score, which is the chance a transaction is fraudulent. The system works with some of the most popular commercially available cell phones and domestic wireless networks, including Apple iPhone, RIM Blackberry, LG, AT&T, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and even prepaid services.

ASUS P320 Featured at CeBIT 2008

Revolutionary Graphic User Interface for Fashion and Function Combine For a Unique Handheld Experience
Taipei, Taiwan, March 3, 2008 – The latest range of handhelds from ASUS was made to captivate the user´s attention not merely by their mesmerizing good looks but also their total experience when in use. Designer cuts, touch screen capability, high speed downloads, and unique and user-friendly interfaces built upon Windows Mobile software are all present in this new lineup.
"We hear over and over again that people want just one phone for their life, and that is what we aim to deliver with the Windows Mobile platform," said Scott Horn, General Manager, Mobile Communications Business, Microsoft Corp. "With this latest, innovative range of Windows Mobile smartphones from ASUS, there is something for everybody; whether for work or for play, these stylish devices will put the power of true mobility in the hands of consumers everywhere."
"ASUS´ handhelds have been well received in North America and Asia Pacific regions, and continue to grow in popularity worldwide. With ASUS´ push into the European mobile market well underway, ASUS looks poised to achieve great success in this high end market segment." Said H C Hung, Head of ASUSTeK´s Handheld Business Unit. "The new ASUS P320 with its trendy and compact outlook looks set to be extremely popular. These new phones and more in the new ASUS range will definitely provide our European consumers with a wide variety of innovative handhelds choices for the future."
ASUS P320–Experience the ´Mini´ with the ´Most´ A compact PDA phone housed in a range of trendy shades and smooth curves, the ASUS P320 is definitely an eye-catcher. As the smallest Windows Mobile GPS PDA phone, this super compact PDA phone brings handheld design to a new level of ´sleek´. Not just a pretty face, it also comes with the ´smarts´ – an intuitive interface design that makes it even more attractive.

Mobile Ticketing Goes Mainstream

HAMPSHIRE, UNITED KINDOM--(Marketwire - March 5, 2008) - New research has estimated that over 2.6 billion mobile tickets will be delivered to just over 208 million mobile phone users by 2011. This is one of the key statistics from a landmark study by Juniper Research. The report found clear evidence that the sector is gearing up for major launches over the next few years. Early trials, mainly led by mobile network operators, are now migrating into commercial services that are controlled by the ticketing issuers themselves.

Benefits for the ticketing issuers include reduced cost, better security to help the fight against fraud and improved environmental footprint by reducing paper. Early use of mobile barcode technology will be gradually complimented by the emergence of NFC (Near Field Communications), in particular for the transportation ticketing sector where there are already commercial deployments in the Far East and important trials in Western Europe and North America.

Most encouraging for the sector is the wide adoption by some of the major organisations that control the issuance of tickets, such as Ticketmaster, British Airways and Tickets.com. This is coupled with the involvement of the key operators and technology providers such as O2, NTT, DoCoMo, Vodafone, Nokia and Samsung.

Juniper Research illustrates the current and near-future status of mobile ticketing with analysis and interviews from representatives of some of the leading organisations in the growing mobile ticket industry.

Key findings from the report include:


-- Savings for the airline industry of $500 million each year by
migrating to mobile boarding passes
-- A total of almost $87 billion worth of mobile ticketing transactions
by 2011
-- NFC will start to create traction from 2009 onwards.

Overview of Russia’s Mobile Market

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Russia - Mobile, Mobile Content & Applications Overview & Statistics to their offering.

Russia’s has the largest mobile market in Europe. The rapidly growing sector is dominated by three major service providers (MTS, VimpelCom and MegaFon) which have expanded nationally through acquisitions of smaller regional service providers. Mobile Virtual Network Operators have also launched services. Competition in the key markets of Moscow and St Petersburg is fierce, due to higher ARPU and MOU levels. Mobile SIM card penetration has surpassed 100% although actual mobile user penetration is lower. Both new subscriber growth and declining ARPU levels have stabilised although MOU levels are on the rise, partly attributed to improved marketing. Future mobile growth will continue to be driven by voice in the short to medium term until availability and penetration of recently launched UMTS/3G services is high enough to sufficiently offer affordable and desirable mobile data and content services on a sufficient scale. This report provides a concise overview of Russia’s mobile market, covering regulatory developments, the major mobile operators, technologies used and mobile data, content and applications provided in addition to offering a variety of financial and operational statistics.

GyPSii Launches iPhone Platform

GyPSii takes social networking mobile for Apple iPhone

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GyPSii, the world’s leading geo-location and social networking service provider for mobile phones and Internet devices, is now available on the iPhone – Apple’s market-leading high-end mobile device. The iPhone has shipped more than five million units worldwide since its launch in 2007.

The new web-based GyPSii iPhone application integrates its multiple services into a single interface, making it easy for users to enjoy a wide range of new and exciting location-based features and services, along with social networking – all using the fluid, intuitive touch-screen user interface of the iPhone.

GyPSii also confirmed that it would produce a “native” version of its application using Apple’s Software Developer Kit (SDK) which is scheduled to be launched later this week, providing seamless access for all Apple users, from the desktop, to the iPhone.

GyPSii CEO, Dan Harple, said he didn’t want iPhone users who were keen social networkers to have to wait any longer for the only social networking platform specifically designed for location-enabled mobile phones to be available for their handset.

“We’ll work with the SDK as soon as it becomes available,” he said, “and then we will be uniquely offering both web and native versions of our application for iPhone users.”

GyPSii is taking advantage of its extensible product architecture enabling use of technologies (like Apple’s Safari) to make its advanced, geo-location features possible on the iPhone. In supporting these advances in web technology, GyPSii delivers an optimal location-based experience on a mobile device, or on a desktop computer, or even via a set-top box.

Some of the new GyPSii for iPhone features enabled include:

Improved UI: The application provides users a desk-top-like web experience that is easier to activate, navigate and use via Apple’s intuitive touch-screen.
Expanded People/Places layout: GyPSii users can have easy access to complete information on their favourite people and places that appear on the iPhone. Users simply choose their favourite People or Places, bringing up all relevant information such as proximity, details and their position on a map, all on one continuous screen. Users can also access one click dialling to phone People and Places.
Integrated directions from the mapping interface. Users can navigate to and from their favourite People and Places.
Improved location based search: Users can search by proximity using new easy to use categories for both People and Places.
Seamless user interface menus which take advantage of the progressive touch screen interface that comes with the iPhone.
Commenting on the launch of GyPSii for iPhone, GyPSii CEO Dan Harple said, “With the iPhone, Apple created a game-changing handset that revolutionized the mobile device market. We are doing the same with our geo-location technologies to connect people and content to places, events, and social networks in exciting and never-before-seen ways.”

iPhone owners can use GyPSii to create and share experiences; photos, videos, audio and other content in real-time with friends, family and other network members, wherever they are in the world. Users can also search and locate people and places, as well access directions, maps and information on Points-of-Interest (POIs) - both in their immediate area and worldwide as well.

“With GyPSii on your iPhone, it becomes your mobile personal digital life recorder,” continued Harple. “You can record and share every aspect of your life as it happens with your friends, family and your online community – all via your mobile. GyPSii for iPhone makes social networking dynamic, mobile, and real-time. We’ve integrated with the deep feature set on the iPhone, with the result being an entirely new way to communicate.”

GyPSii for iPhone puts the application within reach of more than five million iPhone users worldwide, and advances GyPSii’s global strategy to be the market-leading geo-location and social networking services platform running on the broadest range of high-end and mass-market consumer mobile devices. This commitment is device-independent, with the company working to develop new mobile technologies that are faster, easier to use, and available on more devices. GyPSii is already available on other market-leading mobile phones and platforms – including BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile-powered devices.

The addition of the iPhone to GyPSii’s list of compatible handsets follows hard on the heels of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where the combination of Location-based services with mobile technologies, and the award-winning GyPSii application in particular, seized widespread industry attention.

"Initiatives like GyPSii may ultimately reach a status comparable with existing social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace," said ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte.

Praising his development team for their achievement leading up to the launch of GyPSii, CEO Dan Harple said: “Our mission is to enhance every person’s mobile experience; blending their lifestyle and how they share their lives with each other and their chosen social networks. Our first iPhone release version brings us one step closer to that goal, and adds further to our momentum.”