PalPal supports Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover cards, and you can also link PayPal to your bank account to make direct payments. Spotify says: “If not having a credit card has been holding you back from subscribing, now is a great time to upgrade”.

Unfortunately the PayPal service is only available to UK users at the time of writing. The company says it’ll be adding more countries in the near future. Premium subscriptions cost £10 per month and enable mobile access, removal of advertising, exclusive content and higher quality audio.

source-http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/27569/spotify-adds-paypal-payment-option

As well as the Business Edition, the only other product in the simplified range is “Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student”.

The new Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition gets the familiar Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, all updated with Service Pack 2) while including new tools “to provide a more complete productivity package for the enterprise”.

These include Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition, “Document Connection for Mac” and more than 200 business-related templates and clip art.

The new Business Edition has an estimated retail price of £439.99 (it’s $400 in the States) or £269.99 for the upgrade.

source-http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/27185/office-2008-mac-business-edition

Google’s “Hot Trends”, which lists the fastest rising searches on the web at any given hour, now ranks such trends in a top 100 within search results.

When users search Google.com and the query matches one of the top 100 fastest-rising search terms, Google shows a graph at the bottom of page, with links to further info.

“We hope it will help you keep up with everything there’s to know about the latest trends online”, says Google.

Commentators, meanwhile are suggesting it’s an attempt to stay real-time relevant in the face of competition from Twitter.

source-http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/27537/google-makes-real-time-move-hot-trends

But now everyone can grab the bare-bones security package from Microsoft’s website. It’s a replacement from the company’s paid-for OneCare package that never met with great success, being trumped by McAfee, Symantec and other companies whose products are preloaded on new computers.

Other companies, like AVG and Avast!, provide free antivirus software, and it’s these that will likely be most hurt by Microsoft’s move. Although some have accused McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro of producing bloated software that consumes system resources, it’s difficult to fault them on the strength of their protection.

Security Essentials is free, available now, and works on XP, Vista and Windows 7. There’s a link to download it below.

source-http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/27512/microsoft-free-antivirus-now-available

The service was announced earlier in the year, but hasn’t been available until now. To use it, you’ll need two active subscriptions – one for Xbox Live Gold membership, costing £40 per year, and one for Sky Player – £15 per month, which is £180 for a year. Is on-demand TV on your Xbox worth £220 per year to you?

Along with Sky Player, it’s expected that the already-announced Facebook and Twitter integration (which also require Xbox Live Gold) will be included in the update. We’ll bring you more news of the Dashboard refresh when it’s officially announced.

source-http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/27502/sky-player-coming-to-xbox-360-in-october

As previously reported on Pocket-lint, Google wrote in a blog post back in July: “We plan to start extending the Google Wave preview beyond developers on September 30th. This will take place on wave.google.com rather than the separate ’sandbox’ instance we are currently using, and we plan to involve about 100,000 users”.

If you want to be one of those 100,000, then it’s probably a good idea to head over to wave.google.com pretty sharpish, and volunteer to sell your soul by clicking the “Let me know when it’s ready” box and volunteering to do as much as they ask you to in terms of reporting bugs.

We’ll let you know when Wave goes live, and we’ll keep you informed of its progress, so keep an eye on Pocket-lint or our RSS feed.

source-http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/27498/google-wave-approaches-public-beta

Microsoft has released its free computer security package to the public.

From 29 September, Windows users will be able to download the software from Microsoft’s Security Essentials website.

The free software gives basic protection against viruses, trojans, rootkits, and spyware.

The Essentials software is Microsoft’s second try at making an own-brand security package.

Prior to release a beta version of Security Essentials software, codenamed Morro, has been available to users in the US, China, Brazil, and Israel.

Microsoft said the software would be available to anyone who wanted to use it and downloading it would not involve registering with the software firm or having a limit on the amount of time it could be used for.

“Consumers have told us that they want the protection of real-time security software, but that they are confused by trials and renewals and concerned about performance and as a result, too many are unprotected” said Amy Barzdukas, general manager for consumer security at Microsoft in a statement.

The only restriction on use is that it has to be installed on a “genuine” Windows PC – one whose copy of its operating system has been verified by Microsoft.

In the free software market Microsoft faces competition from many others including AVG, Alwil Avast, Avira Antivir and Comodo.

The free software runs on Windows XP, Vista and will also be available for Windows 7 when it is released in late October.

Updates will be provided automatically to those who install the software.

Prior to working on Security Essentials, Microsoft offered its Windows Live OneCare paid security software but this failed to win a significant user base in the highly competitive consumer market. This software was withdrawn in mid-2009.

source-http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8279109.stm

But under its deal, confirmed by Vodafone this morning, the company will not get its hands on the phone until the start of next year. To try and prevent customers defecting in the meantime, Vodafone has already opened online pre-registration for the device.

Orange on Monday took advantage of a two-year break clause in O2’s contract with Apple to grab the device for the UK market and its very public announcement injected a sense of urgency into Vodafone’s ongoing negotiations with the Californian company. Its deal is understood to have been finally signed off last night.

T-Mobile, in contrast, seems to have gone cool on the idea of stocking the device, while its decision to import unlocked phones from other European countries and sell them to customers considering defecting to O2 is believed to have annoyed Apple.

The addition of the UK and Ireland brings the number of countries in which Vodafone supplies the iPhone to 13. The company had long maintained that it wanted to get its hands on the device, but it dropped out of the original race to secure an exclusive deal because of the high demands being made by the Californian technology company.

In order to secure exclusive rights to the device in the UK, O2 had to agree to share some of the revenues it makes from its customers with the company. The percentage being demanded was too high for Vodafone, which instead decided to focus its attentions on a closer relationship with RIM, maker of the Blackberry email device. But the first phone to emerge from that partnership – the Blackberry Storm – was blasted by critics because of its difficult to use touchscreen. On hisTwitter feed, gadget lover Stephen Fry called the phone “shockingly bad” and “embarrassingly awful”. A new and much improved version of the device is due out shortly.

But under its new deal Vodafone will not have to pass any ongoing revenues over to Apple. Neither will Orange under the deal it has signed. As a result, both companies will have far greater pricing flexibility which should lead to reduced prices for customers, though they will still have to sign up to a long-term contract.

But the fact that Apple has invoked the two-year break clause in its five-year deal with O2 means its original partner has also been able to renegotiate its contract. As a result, O2, the UK’s largest mobile phone network, is expected to retaliate in any price war. O2 insiders maintain that the company had been preparing for an end to its exclusive hold for some time. It has already grabbed another hotly awaited handset, the Palm Pre, under an exclusive deal for the Christmas market and it will be released next month.

“The big winners here are Apple and consumers interested in the iPhone,” said Neil McHugh, managing director of mobile phone price comparison site Rightmobilephone.co.uk, “Now that O2’s monopoly has finally been toppled and with the iPhone now available on three different networks, we should be able to see a much more competitive market, which is only a good thing for consumers.”

“Other handset manufacturers will also be alerted to the wider spread of availability of the iPhone on multiple networks, the next 12 months will be a very interesting time in the mobile industry and ultimately the consumer should benefit.”

source-http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/29/vodafone-iphone-apple-orange

As well as Android devices, Mike Rayfield, Nvidia’s GM of mobile business, has told JKOnTheRun that netbooks, or “smartbooks” running Google’s Chrome OS are currently in discussion.

Google’s Chrome OS is “a lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks” while Nvidia’s Tegra is a system-on-a-chip processor used in the likes of the Zune HD.

When the new OS was announced back in July, it was suggested the first Chrome-based hardware could be expected in early 2010.

source-http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/27452/nvidia-google-chrome-os-hardware

The reduction here in the UK will come a little later – from 2 October – and will also see a new hardware bundle from Nintendo, with the company now pushing its new Wii MotionPlus add-on and the compatible Wii Sports Resort game over the older option with Wii Sports.

A statement we’ve received from a Nintendo spokesperson reads:

“We will be reducing the trade price of Wii to retailers from 2nd October 2009. In the UK and Republic of Ireland we are also introducing a new configuration of Wii hardware from 2nd October 2009 which will replace the current offering and will include the Wii console and Wii Sports with the new Wii Sports Resort game and Wii MotionPlus accessory. This will be available to retailers at the newly reduced trade price”.

“The ultimate price to consumers is, of course, determined by the retailers. Our aim has always been to expand the gaming population and there are still many more people out there who have not yet experienced the fun of video games. This compelling offer will hopefully make Wii more accessible to everyone”.

What is not clear at this stage is how much that trade price reduction will be. In the US the Wii has been reduced from $249.99 to $199.99.

source-http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/27455/nintendo-wii-price-cut-confirmed-uk