Visa Inc. has announced plans to introduce a 'digital wallet' in the United States and Canada this autumn. The service will store details for Visa and non-Visa accounts, offering NFC payments through the Visa payWave application.

Other payment options, including online transactions, retailer discounts and person-to-person money transfers, will also be available.

Google has launched a new music streaming service, although it's only available as a beta version for US-based customers at the moment.

Music Beta by Google lets consumers upload their personal music collection and then stream it to their Android phone, Android tablet or computer.

Mobile payments company Square, which offers a plug-in card reader that enables iPhone and Android users to accept credit card payments, has received a "strategic investment" from Visa.

Square, currently only available in the USA, recently announced that it was processing more than a million dollars per day.

The Nielsen Company has revealed recent research about mobile applications in the USA.

Its survey of mobile app downloaders - people who've downloaded an app in the past 30 days - shows that 74% of these people either have an Android device or an Apple iPhone.

Two new calling services for Facebook's voice chat feature have been announced today by mobile network operators.

In the USA, T-Mobile has created a new brand called Bobsled and a PC-based application for Facebook. It enables any Facebook users to call their Facebook friends free from a PC and to send voice messages to their friends. And here in the UK, virtual network giffgaff has created a free Facebook chat app for the iPhone.