At Snapdragon Summit 2026 in Maui, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon outlined plans for AI agents on Snapdragon devices that could eventually make purchases on users' behalf, drawing on habits and preferences. He demonstrated a scenario where smart glasses prompt a wearer to rebuy sunscreen and lip balm she'd previously purchased at a store, requiring her approval before the transaction goes through. Amon said Qualcomm is building authentication and security technology so agents operate with user consent rather than autonomously.
cnet.com
· 2026-09-23
Google Wallet payment failures often stem from disabled NFC settings, incomplete card setup, or phone cases interfering with the NFC antenna. Users can troubleshoot by checking Payment Setup in the app, confirming NFC is enabled in phone settings, and testing whether removing a case resolves tap-to-pay problems. Unlike Apple Wallet, Google Wallet doesn't require opening the app since it defaults to a preset card.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-19
A venture called San Francisco Onion Futures Company is selling private, transferable contracts for future delivery of yellow onions, priced between $3 and $12 per onion for delivery up to six months ahead. Payments are processed via Stripe, and buyers in San Francisco, Toronto, Seattle, and Chicago receive physical onion delivery arranged in the first week of the contract month.
onionfutures.com
· 2026-09-19
Google has rolled out new infrastructure aimed at supporting agentic commerce, where AI agents complete purchases on behalf of users. A payments infrastructure veteran notes that the underlying payment systems for this technology remain unresolved, echoing a recurring pattern where new commerce tech launches on rails not built for it.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-18
India's National Payments Corporation announced that starting October 15, merchants will pay a 0.4% fee on UPI transactions exceeding ₹2,000, capped at ₹300 for payments of ₹75,000 or more. Consumers will still use UPI for free, and small merchants earning up to ₹100,000 monthly through UPI, along with transactions of ₹2,000 or less, are exempt. Certain sectors like railways, telecom, insurance and fuel will instead pay a flat ₹5 fee on larger transactions.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-15
Crypto firms building stablecoin payment systems are introducing dispute-resolution and reversal mechanisms similar to chargebacks used in traditional banking. This marks a shift from the original crypto ethos of irreversible, permissionless transactions toward systems that rely on third-party intermediaries to resolve fraud and errors.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-09-14
Workflow orchestration startup Temporal announced a $550M Series E funding round valuing the company at $12.55 billion. The round was co-led by Lightspeed, Wellington Management, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, and Tiger Global, with participation from T. Rowe Price, SV Angel, and returning backers including a16z, Sequoia, and Index. The company says the capital will help it support increasingly long-running AI agents and complex enterprise systems that require durable execution.
temporal.io
· 2026-09-14
PayPal's chief executive is moving forward with an internal restructuring strategy after a proposed $50 billion acquisition of the company failed to materialize. The plan reportedly includes incentives tied to performance, with the CEO eligible for a $25 million bonus if the turnaround convinces investors of its merit.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-11
An Entrepreneur contributor writing from experience scaling a regulated payments company argues that surpassing roughly 100,000 customers does not mark the end of hard problems but the start of new, more dangerous ones. Early shortcuts in engineering, treasury, compliance and onboarding that worked at small scale begin to buckle under volume, often without warning until systems are already strained.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-11
Circular has released two new smart rings, the Ring 3 Pro and Ring 3 Slim, combining health tracking features with NFC-based contactless payment support and haptic feedback. The move puts Circular ahead of rival Oura in offering payment functionality directly on a smart ring.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-09-08
A software developer recounts that their business partner used an AI coding assistant to build an entire payments backend module in a single day, then submitted a 5,236-line pull request without testing it. The developer found the endpoints didn't actually work and that documentation was riddled with obvious AI-generated filler, while missing critical details like where to obtain API keys.
ycj.bearblog.dev
· 2026-09-08
Circular unveiled its Series 3 smart ring at IFA, adding NFC payments compatible with Visa and MasterCard alongside a returning vibration motor for silent alerts. The lineup splits into the fully-featured Ring 3 Pro, with ECG and haptics, and the slimmer, lighter Ring 3 Slim that drops those features. Battery life nearly doubles to 12 days, and both models ship with a 700mAh charging case.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-03
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