The combined digital kiosk of eight French newspapers is adopting Google’s OnePass to facilitate all its customer payments beside iOS.

Google Wallet officially launched this week with payment partners Citi and MasterCard on board and three other credit card networks (Visa, Discover and American Express) waiting in the wings. Version 1.0 is pretty much what Google (NSDQ: GOOG) said it would be when it announced the service last May.

Brief news on several acquisitions from companies looking to expand in payment provision, Lat America, gaming and the daily deals space…

Here’s a significant bit of news that advances mobile operators’ master plan to become central players not just in provisioning data networks, but to have a hand in how people are using them to consume goods and services…

There aren’t a lot of phones on the market which can serve as digital currency, but PayPal demonstrated Wednesday how its users will be able to make payments to each other with their NFC-equipped phones through a new Android widget.

The early contender for the all-hype-no-action award so far in 2011 has been mobile payments, and while it still won’t be available until later this year, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) at least laid out a plausible plan Thursday for how we’ll soon be able to buy overpriced smoothies with our phones. …

Our look at some of the big stories in mobile today: Balsillie takes on marketing at RIM; (NSDQ: RIMM) a new mobile gaming forum breaks ground; HTC reports strong results but gets a downgrade from analysts; and an ex-Admob exec joins a new mobile voucher startup.

It’s still very early days for mobile payments, but with operators, handset makers and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) jumping on the NFC bandwagon, the larger field is getting crowded with speculators looking to strike gold, in particular by pinning hopes (and investment) on to entrepreneurs with strong track records. Yesterday, Paydiant,…

Glu Mobile (NSDQ: GLUU) reported today that Q3 revenues fell again in the third quarter, and will likely continue to slide in the fourth quarter as it prepares to launch at least five new game titles by year end. The new titles are expected to reposition the company, which has…

Both Sprint (NYSE: S) and AT&T (NYSE: T) have announced two new mobile payments services this week that aren’t anything alike. Sprint’s mobile wallet links a phone to your various credit card accounts to make online purchases using a PIN number. Meanwhile, AT&T is trialling a service that will let…

Lots of about next-generation payment platforms today, and it’s only beginning to ramp up. Most of the news surrounded PayPal’s developer conference today in San Francisco and its three designated themes: local, social and mobile. PayPal said today it is launching a new digital goods payment platform that will make…

There’s plenty of reasons why replacing your wallet with a cellphone is still a ways off, but now there’s an all new one: regulation. According to Consumers Union, mobile payments may not be safe, and is working with regulators to implement protective standards, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Yet another micro-transactions and payment platform has raised a significant wad of money. This time it is PlaySpan, which has received $18 million in a third round from Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) Ventures and Softbank Bodhi Fund, and existing investors Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures, STIC, and others. The Santa Clara,…

... Zero. Yes, zero, according to a study by the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California Annenberg School For Communication And Journalism. We already know thanks to several other surveys that consumers aren’t exactly rushing to pay for social networking online, but the Annenberg School’s…

Ben Elowitz (@elowitz) is co-founder and CEO of Wetpaint, a platform for social web sites, and author of the Digital Quarters blog. Prior to Wetpaint, Elowitz co-founded Blue Nile, the online retailer of luxury goods. He is also an angel investor in various media and e-commerce companies. Earlier this month,…

Mobile payment provider Zong of Palo Alto, Calif. has spun off from its Swiss parent Echovox and has raised $15 million to help pay for its rapid growth, which includes expanding into as many as two countries per month. The second round of capital was led by Matrix Partners. The…

Paris-based Hi-media, a publicly held company that operates an ad network, a publishing business and a payments platform around the world, has opened a San Francisco office to expand its micropayments business to the U.S. Release. The office will be headed by Pooj Preena, Hi-media USA CEO, who previously helped…

Donations by text message have now exceeded $22 million to the Red Cross alone for the Haiti earthquake relief effort. Update: Tallies are being kept by two primary organizations, both Denver-based mGive and Bellevue, Wash.-based Mobile Giving Foundation, which offer competing services to various non-profits. Together, they are helping more…

Remove the barriers to giving, and people will give. That seems to be the lesson many charities are learning in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday. Within 36 hours, mobile donations to relief efforts for Haiti have topped $7 million, according to the Mobile Giving Foundation. The…