LG Electronics is embracing Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology to offer a swipe payment system to users of LG smartphones.

The company will build the functionality into smartphones intended for the European market in 2012. It will allow users to make payments using their smartphones at a check-out.

"The point-of-sale technology, which will be targeted at small and medium-sized businesses and will involve NFC or near field communications and cloud computing, is currently in beta testing," Jin-Yong Kim, vice president for business solutions at LG's Home Entertainment division, said.

Frost & Sullivan has predicted that there will be 860 million NFC-enabled mobile phones in use by 2015, and that NFC will be the technology embraced to drive mobile payment systems.

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Kaspersky has re-assured users of its security software that the availability of source code for some of its past products on file sharing sites does not pose a threat.

The source code for early 2008 versions of the Kaspersky security suite was showing up on more file sharing sites and networks over the past few days. The code was originally taken by an employee who tried to auction it off online.

The incomplete dump of the code actually leaked in November but has only just become a popular thing to trade online recently. The easy availability of the code means that Kaspersky competitors can look over it and possibly make improvements to their own products based on it.

The company does not think that the code is of any use to authors of malware, however. The code is outdated and incomplete, and the core features of the software have been radically changed since it was in use.

"Kaspersky Lab reiterates that this incident cannot harm users of its products, solutions and services in any way. The stolen source code is related to one of the previous product lineups, and since then the company has renewed all key protection technologies," a statement reads.

"The stolen code represents a very small part of the modern product source code, and is not related to protection functionality. It also contains fragments of an obsolete version of the Kaspersky anti-virus engine, which has been radically redesigned and updated since the source code was stolen."

The ex-employee responsible for the leak was given a three year suspended sentence by a Moscow district court.

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Verizon has finally revealed prices for multiple services relating to the upcoming iPhone 4 launch.

Pre-orders for the smartphone start on Thursday and will launch later in the month.

Verizon says a basic voice plan will cost $40 and include 450 minutes.

Unlimited texts will cost $20 per month, and the iPhone unlimited data plan will cost $30.

Overall, most users will be paying over $100 per month with fees and taxes for their new iPhone on Verizon.

Additionally, the carrier says owners will "be able to use the iPhone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for an extra $20 per month."

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Berenberg Bank analyst Adnaan Ahmad has written an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop this week, telling the companies they must join forces in the phone market, or disappear.

Ahmad says that Elop should immediately make a deal to have exclusive access to Windows Phone 7, and commit to a date for a product shipment.

Elop admitted last week that Nokia "must build, catalyze and/or join a competitive ecosystem" in order to adapt to the fast moving smartphone industry. Nokia has notably lagged.

Continued the analyst (via Bloomberg):

Nokia is no longer in denial. Microsoft also faces very big strategic challenges as smartphones and tablets attack your highly profitable installed base business.

Nokia, despite being the world's top phone maker, has practically no share in the United States and access to Windows Phone 7 will finally give it an American presence.

Finally, Ahmad takes a brutal shot at Nokia's latest mobile OS, MeeGo, saying "it's the biggest joke in the tech industry right now, and will put you even further behind Apple and Google."

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Sony has revealed today that the company is pushing developers to bring games formerly released on UMD to the upcoming NGP (PSP2), porting the games to the new memory cards designed for the system.

Furthermore, Sony is asking developers to add their existing games to the PlayStation Network as digital downloads, so new owners can purchase them.

If you purchased a game from the PlayStation Network, you can re-download that game for free on the new device, however, if you owned the game on UMD, you are out of luck.

The company did say it will not be releasing any external UMD accessories, so it appears that Sony is finally leaving the dead format in the past.

New to the NGP are dual micro-analog sticks, giving gamers a feature they begged for on the original PSP.

The device has a massive 5-inch multi-touch OLED screen with 960×544 resolution, a multi-touch panel on the back and will run on a quad-core ARM cortex processor.

Sony has added tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS controls, standard and front-side cameras, GPS, an electric compass, Wi-Fi and 3G support.

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Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., has revealed all the details of "The Daily" iPad newspaper, months after rumors began swirling about the possibility of the digital paper.

You have two options to purchase The Daily, either 99 cents per week, or a discounted $40 for the whole year.

The newspaper was completely built "from scratch," which Murdoch explains:

Simply put, the iPad demands that we completely reimagine our craft. What we are losing today are the opportunities for true news discovery. The magic of newspapers, and of the best blogs, lies in surprise and the deft touch of a great editor.

The paper will have around 100 pages per day of original news,life, entertainment, opinion and sports news. Each day will bring new original video content, and some articles will be "read aloud" to users.

All photos will have 360 degree viewing angles, and most charts will be interactive and clickable.

Each day will have new crossword and Sudoku puzzles, access to local weather and sports scores, in-app comments (including audio comments), and the ability to save articles or send to friends via social networking sites.

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Google unveiled their web version of the popular Android Market today, live now at market.android.com.

The site should help Android device owners find their apps easier, in the same manner that iTunes gives iOS users a chance to look up apps online before downloading to their devices.

Until today, Android users had to find and download their apps from their smartphones and tablets, or read reviews from third-party sites.

If the app is paid, you can purchase it online via the website and send it to your device, directly.

Because the Market is attached to your Google account, when you log in you can see all your purchased/downloaded apps.

Google does note that the store may have some first-day early bugs, which users should expect to be ironed out by the end of the week.

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