iBreva, a Palo Alto-based startup, has deployed its mobile phone-based payment system at Bianchini’s Market in Portola Valley, CA. I was shopping for groceries today when I noticed the terminal - a touchscreen device with a wide slot below into which you insert your mobile phone to complete the payment. Here's a press release announcing the new service from earlier this year. At registration time, you link your phone to your checking account and payments are made by ACH debit. Basically, iBreva appears to be a pre-NFC solution that requires (as does Pay by Touch for its fingerprint-based approach) deployment of new POS reader infrastructure - but avoids any requirement for consumers having to have new mobile phone handsets with NFC chips.

Becky Yerak writes for the Chicago Tribune about the push to deploy card accepting vending machines - and how both fitness and financial experts are concerned about consumers finding it easier to buy more from the machines. It's a combination of more snacks and higher credit card debt that has them concerned.

Mike Hoeft writes for the Green Bay Press-Gazette about remote check deposit services now being offered by many banks. "Remote deposit gives commercial customers a virtual branch inside their businesses, since checks are electronically sent from desktops instead of requiring trips to a bank to make deposits." ""It's nice because now I don't have to run to the bank anymore," said Bob Eiting, controller at Miron Construction. "I can work until 7 p.m., run the checks through, print out a report and I have credit on my statement the next morning."