PayPal today announced PayPal Here, the world’s first global mobile payments solution that allows small businesses to accept almost any form of payment. The new service includes a free app and fully encrypted thumb-sized card reader, which turns any iPhone, and soon Android smartphone, into a mobile payment solution. With PayPal Here, small businesses, service providers and casual sellers can send invoices or accept debit and credit cards, checks and PayPal using one simple product. The updated PayPal app for iPhone is available in the iOS App Store globally starting today.

U2 rocker bono is about to make $1 billion, thanks to his 2009 investment in Facebook. Bono’s investment company Elevation Partners bought $210 million worth of shares in the social networking site almost two years ago. This week, the site has been valued at $65 billion, meaning that Bono and his company’s share of the business is now valued at a whopping $975 million. U2 are already one of the world’s highest-earning groups, pulling in more than $736 million on their recent 360 Tour. To put his possible wealth into perspective – currently Sir Paul McCartney, is the richest rock star in the world with a wealth estimated at $600 to $750 million.

Wish you were a high roller? Have the satisfaction of burning through a fat roll of hundred-dollar bills – without putting a big dent in your bank account. Extravagance to the max!

China, already the world’s second largest bullion consumer, has installed the country’s first gold vending machine in a busy shopping district in Beijing. Shoppers in the popular Wangfujing Street can insert cash or use a bank card to withdraw gold bars or coins of various weights based on market prices. Each withdrawal is capped at 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) or one million yuan (about $156,500) worth of gold.

Gold vending machines already exist in Britain, the United States, the Middle East and Europe. The machine was launched Saturday by the Beijing Agricultural Commercial Bank and a gold trading company, the report said. They plan to install an unspecified number of machines in secure locations such as gold shops and upmarket private clubs. Gold is often used as a hedge against inflation and the machines could prove popular among Chinese consumers looking for a convenient way to safeguard their cash amid rising prices. Chinese consumer demand for gold soared 27 percent year-on-year to 579.5 tonnes in 2010. India, the world’s top consumer, saw a 66 percent increase to 963.1 tonnes.

Source: AFPrelaxnews

When the SS Gairsoppa was torpedoed by a German U-boat 70 years ago, it took its huge silver cargo to a watery grave. Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration’s divers are working to recover what may be the biggest shipwreck haul ever, valued at some $210 million. The British ship was carrying some 219 tons of silver when it sank in 1941 in the North Atlantic some 300 miles (490 kilometers) off the Irish coast. Valued then at 600,000 pounds, the silver today is worth about $210 million, which would make it history’s largest recovery of precious metals lost at sea.

“We’ve accomplished the first phase of this project — the location and identification of the target shipwreck — and now we’re hard at work planning for the recovery phase,” Odyssey senior project manager Andrew Craig said in a statement. “Given the orientation and condition of the shipwreck, we are extremely confident that our planned salvage operation will be well suited for the recovery of this silver cargo.” Recovery is expected to begin next spring. The British government awarded Odyssey an exclusive salvage contract for the cargo, and under the agreement Odyssey will retain 80 percent of the silver bullion salvaged from the wreck.

The 412-foot (125-meter) Gairsoppa had been sailing from India back to Britain in February 1941 bearing a cargo of silver, pig iron and tea, and was in a convoy of ships when a storm hit. Running low on fuel, the Gairsoppa broke off from the convoy and set a course for Galway, Ireland. It never made it, succumbing to a German torpedo in the contested waters of the North Atlantic. Of the 85 people on board, only one survived. The Gairsoppa came to rest nearly 15,400 feet (4,700 meters) below the surface, where for decades it was lost to the world. Odyssey is a world leader in deep-ocean exploration and has numerous shipwreck hunting projects in process around the globe. In May 2007, it announced it had found half a million silver coins and hundreds of gold objects from a ship they code-named the “Black Swan,” which went down in 1804 in the Atlantic off the Strait of Gibraltar. UNESCO estimates there are some three million shipwrecks worldwide, with billions of dollars in sunken treasures that can be recovered from the depths of the ocean.

Source: AFP