MasterCard has announced a new digital payment service called PayPass Wallet Services.

It’ll enable MasterCard’s banking partners to create their own digital wallets for online shopping - with consumers able to add any credit, debit and prepaid cards - and will also offer in-store NFC payments using compatible mobile phones. In addition, retailers will be able to include MasterCard’s check-out, fraud detection and authentication services into their own internet-connected transaction systems.

International payment service PayPal has launched a new service called PayPal Here, which allows small businesses to accept almost any form of payment. It includes a free app and free triangular card reader, turning any iPhone into a mobile payment device. An Android version is due in April.

The service has launched with a number of merchants in the United States, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong; general availability in those countries will follow next month.

Geoff Varrall of RTT writes:

About 15,000 years ago some indigenous Northern Australians decided that they needed a more efficient way of talking to each other than just shouting a lot.

And blowing into a long cylindrical tube proved to be just what was needed and seriously useful fun – the dawn of the didgeridoo.

Trumpets and bagpipes were invented at about the same time. The ancient Greeks used the trumpet in battlefield communication to devastating effect.

The way you can tell that your didgeridoo is better than everyone else’s didgeridoo is to blow into it and see how far the sound goes.

The forthcoming PlayStation Vita gaming device will be supplied with a Vodafone SIM card in selected countries when it launches next February.

A new partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe means that Vodafone will be the ‘preferred provider’ of 3G connectivity for the 3G+WiFi version of the PS Vita in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

BlackBerry’s BBM Music app has left beta in Canada, the United States and Australia. There’s still no news about UK availability or pricing, although RIM has confirmed the service is destined to arrive here.

BBM Music uses the BlackBerry Messenger service to let customers share music with friends.