Join WTIA in Achieving Civic Goals
Washington’s high technology trade association, the WTIA, held its own version of an NFL pre-season “OTA” in May and like the Organized Team Activity in football, it was a “full contact,” or more accurately, a FullConTech team-oriented event.
A highlight of the 2017 FullConTech “training camp” was a Civic Playbook packed goal-line to end-zone with nearly 140 […]
The Robert Half Career City Index, a ranking and comparison of 25 U.S. cities across several indicators selected to measure the different aspects that relate to career development, has joined with The Economist to score the #1 place to work in America. The overall top scorer on the career cross table is (drum roll, please) Seattle.
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The City of Seattle joined women everywhere in standing up for gender equality on International Women’s Day. The City stands with women everywhere who persevere, improve our world and fight for a better tomorrow. Read Mayor Murray and the City Council’s proclamation for International Women’s Day.
City of Seattle PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS,
International Women’s […]
Imagine if there were only 352,271 people left on earth. Like the elephant’s trumpeting cry, that critical number would signal a clarion call for action. Such a finding is the latest measure of the population of the world’s elephants in Africa, as monitored by Seattle’s Vulcan Technology.
The Seattle firm led by founder Paul Allen is developing solutions to track Africa’s pachyderms and […]
Amazon showcased its first-ever, branded air cargo plane during Seattle’s Seafair Air Show, Aug 5-7. The Boeing 767-300, operated by Amazon’s air cargo provider Atlas Air, flew above of thousands of Seattle residents including many Amazon employees.
“Creating an air transportation network is expanding our capacity to ensure great delivery speeds for our Prime members for […]
The game is immersive, based on augmented reality. But the stock surge of Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo is all too real. Nintendo North America, which is headquartered in Redmond, saw its stock soar nearly 25 percent Monday after the release of “Pokémon Go,” which directs its users to explore their physical surroundings to find, catch and train Pokémon characters.
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New HD “Big Screen” video platform delivers exclusive Sounders FC content on-demand to desktops, laptops, and tablets
Seattle Sounders FC is the most recent MLS team to partner with DeskSite, officially launching the Sounders FC DeskSite, a new, interactive video app that proactively delivers premium, high-definition video content on-demand to fans – for free.
“And the winner of the Seattle Web Fest Award for Best [Dramatic, Comedic, Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror/Thriller] Web Series goes to … [insert digital SFX of drum roll and the collective holding of breath].”
Forget the Hollywood paparazzi! The Seattle Web Fest 2016 cast a brilliant array of illuminated pixels on a world-class lineup of episodic Web series and […]
If it were basketball, it would be The Dream Team, if chess, the grandmaster elite. The biggest names in the pantheon of U.S.-China technology met in Seattle this September 23rd in a diplomatic and technocratic sign of respect to the visiting president of China, Xi Jinping.
Captured in the photo above, in the front row, from left to right, are […]
University of Puget Sound has been named among the Top 20 American “Best Colleges for Getting a Job in Tech,” by MSN’s IT Insider technology section.
The Tacoma-based liberal arts college, which is home to a popular mathematics and computer science department, rated highly on several academic and career-readiness factors, and […]
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Oct 12 2017
Give Yourself a Higher Pay Grade
Paperless Billing, Cardless Cash Create Easier Ways to Pay
With all of the payment options competing for a share of your electronic wallet these days, it’s easy to feel your pay grade, or “how to pay” grade, slipping under a steep learning curve. Android Pay. Apple Pay. Samsung Pay. Amazon Pay. PayPal. Venmo. Mint.
Two Seattle-based offerings are seeking to build on the positive relationships they have established with their customers with payment services that are super simple and designed to win consumer trust along with their transactions.
HomeStreet Bank has announced a Cardless Cash feature that allows customers to securely withdraw money from an ATM using only their smartphone. Designed to increase convenience and prevent card skimming, customers can use the HomeStreet Bank mobile app (iPhone | Android) to withdraw cash from participating ATMs. As a user, you simply tap the Cardless Cash button in the HomeStreet Bank mobile app and select the amount. A ‘QR’ code appears on the HomeStreet Bank ATM. Your smart phone scans the QR code and dispenses the cash. There is no need to carry an ATM or debit card to use the machine.
“Cardless Cash is the next evolution of mobile banking,” said Mark Mason, CEO and President of Seattle-HQ’d HomeStreet Bank. “As one of the first banks to offer the service, our customers are reaping the benefits of added convenience and security.”
Seattle’s doxo has rapidly grown to become the leader in consumer-friendly, one-stop online and mobile bill paying convenience, having just surpassed the 30,000 mark of payable billers within its network—more than any other bill paying service nationwide.
“Passing 30,000 payable billers is an important milestone for the company, especially after we surpassed two million users in May,” commented doxo CEO and Co-Founder Steve Shivers. “The most compelling service we provide to our users is the ability to pay all of their bills from a single, secure, mobile-friendly account. We’ve also developed unique and proprietary systems necessary to map the entire billing industry—an industry that represents over 50% of all consumer household spending.”
doxo allows payers to use any combination of credit, debit and bank cads and accounts to pay their bills. There is no need for a stored-value account.
The award-winning doxo mobile app lets you organize, manage and track all your payable accounts in one place. doxo also includes a bevy of money management features letting you link your email accounts for easy organizing and archiving in the program. You can also take snapshots of your receipts and upload them to your very own virtual file cabinet on doxo. A convenience fee can apply to some credit card transactions.
A doxo Speed Bump
Since doxo uses its 2.5 million members to crowdsource where they pay their bills, the company has sometimes encountered confusion when municipal utilities discover their name and logo on the doxo Website for bill pay purposes without knowing it. Such a speed bump is the virtual equivalent of having a product go viral and annoying the seller.
“We allow companies to claim their business profile and add their own FAQs and other content. They can then monitor everything on their own dashboard. They can even launch their own eBilllng program if they are like the 60% of service providers who cannot be paid online via desktop or mobile.” — doxo CEO Steve Shivers
Recurring payments make up over 50% of a household budget in these United States. Is it any wonder that Jeff Bezos is an investor in the company?
Among the major pay platforms, Apple was inclined to delay the debut of Apple Pay inside of its iMessage app, originally scheduled for the release of iOS 11, until later this Fall. The big, and pretty obvious, difference between Android Pay and Apple Pay is that Apple’s service cannot be used on Android phones or watches; it is only available on iPhones and Apple Watch devices. Otherwise, it works much in the same way that Google’s service does, as both use NFC hardware to pay for items at POS terminals. Samsung Pay is available on a number of recent Samsung-based smartphones, along with its Gear S2 and Gear S3 smartwatches. The biggest difference is that Samsung Pay, in addition to supporting NFC-based terminals, can also use Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology.
The race between banks, credit unions, mobile platforms and paperless, electronic bill paying services, as well as P2P friend and family money swapping services, will likely be won not by the swift, nor even by thrift, but by the trustworthiness of the partner in the transaction.
Once again, Seattle is pointing to the easiest way to pay! [24×7]
