amex

Foursquare checks in to more revenue with credit card specials

Money in the bank. That's the motivation behind a new Foursquare initiative that lets members link their Visa and MasterCard credit or debit cards and redeem money-back specials from participating merchants.

Foursquare, a company banking on check-ins to power its Explore discovery feature, aims to encourage more of its 30 million members to tell the application where they are with the additional freebies. The places-centric social network also hopes to cash in from the program. The company pockets a fee for every credit redemption it processes.

Today's announcement marks the first significant expansion to the startup's credit … Read more

Shop on Twitter with a hashtag

Tuesday's CNET Update is a Twitter #shopaholic:

The social media giants are testing new ways to get you to shop on their networks. Facebook is rolling out a "Buy Tickets" button for event page owners. And Twitter partnered with American Express to let card holders shop by tweeting a hashtag.

Also in today's tech news roundup:

- Apple CEO Tim Cook said OLED displays are "awful." Of course, that's what Apple's biggest competition uses.

- Intel confirmed that it will unveil an Internet-based TV service and box later this year. And the … Read more

Twitter, Amex enabling shopping, 140 characters at a time

Twitter and American Express today launched a partnership that will allow Amex card holders to make certain purchases simply by tweeting.

According to an Amex Web page, the arrangement works like this. Amex cardholders first sync their card with Twitter. Then, when they come across products that are eligible to purchase under the plan -- products that American Express will promote through a Twitter feed -- they simply send out a tweet that includes a special hashtag. Amex will then send them an @-reply with a confirming hashtag. Finally, the buyer has to send out a second tweet with the … Read more

'Dyle' in to watch live TV on your phone

You don't need any accessories to catch up on Friday's top tech stories:

A new service called Dyle picks up live, local TV signals to watch on your mobile device. The first with this service is the MetroPCS Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G. But if you rather not drop $460 right now for a phone, iOS users may have another option this fall when Dyle attachments are expected to go on sale.

No price has been set, but the attachments could cost, at most, $150. And the service from then on is free. Would you pay for an … Read more

Spend $25 at a local business, get $25 back from American Express

Big week ahead, fellow cheapskates! And I'm kicking it off with my annual guest appearance on CNET's Holiday Help Desk, which airs live today at 12 p.m. PT/3 p.m. ET. The big topic, of course, is Black Friday, and if you think you know what I'm going to say about it, think again. Hope you'll tune in!

That said, let's table Black Friday for a moment and talk Sweet Saturday. On November 26, American Express is sponsoring an event called Small Business Saturday. The upshot: Spend at least $25 at any … Read more

Amex, Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest customer details sold on eBay

Over 1 million American Express, Royal Bank of Scotland, and NatWest customers' details have been sold on eBay.

The details were stored on a server, bought for just over 35 British pounds ($64) by Andrew Chapman, an IT manager from Oxford, England, last week. Chapman told CNET News sister site ZDNet UK on Tuesday that the server, a network attached storage (NAS) box, contained unencrypted backups of CDs.

"A professional organization holding this kind of data should have tested the disks to make sure (the information) was destroyed," said Chapman.

The computer had been used by data-archiving firm Graphic Data to store the details on behalf of RBS, of which NatWest is a subsidiary. Details included names, addresses, bank account numbers, telephone numbers and customer signatures.

RBS said on Tuesday that it was in the process of investigating the incident. … Read more