Most of us hate going to the bank and it looks like PayPal’s iPhone application has solved a pain point for anyone the needs to deposit a check without the hassle.
“We knew that this would be popular but we had no idea just how much pent up demand there was for a quick, easy way to deal with checks,” writes Senior Director of PayPal Mobile Laura Chambers on her blog post announcing the news.
PayPal brought in mobile check capture in its latest version 2.7 of its iPhone application. Deposting a check via iPhone is as easy as clicking on the “Add Money From Checks” option in the Tools sections of the app. Users just need to take a picture of the check, front and back, and the funds will be automatically deposited into their PayPal account.
This service has been offered for at least a year by traditional banking institutions such as Chase, USAA and State Farm, all of which offer a similar application to quickly and easily deposit checks.
Handy as it may be, depositing check through PayPal could take time. The company requests that you hold onto the physical check for 15 days to ensure that it has cleared and been deposited.
Banks are turning more and more to encouraging customers to use self-service. Since the passage of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act of 2003, which gives banks the ability to exchange checks via electronic imagery, they have been looking fow ways to pass that on to consumers in a self-service model.
Furthermore, there is big cost savings to be had by allowing consumers more control over these kinds of operations. Research from the analyst firm Javelin Strategy and Research suggests that banks could save $8.3 billion in operating costs.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.