tech:

taffy

CMU Students Build Fingerprint-Based Payment System

PayTango

Four Carnegie Mellon University seniors have developed PayTango, a fingerprint-based identification and payment system.

PayTango pilot-tested its terminals in partnership with CMU’s Dining Services at one campus location in February. The company expanded to three dining locations in March and opened enrollment to all students signed up for a university meal plan or one of the flexible dollar programs.

PayTango is expanding to gyms, which could replace membership cards with the fingerprint technology. Within the next year, the PayTango team also hopes to launch on other college campuses and at a variety of retailers.

With majors ranging from information systems and human-computer interaction to industrial design, Brian Groudan , Kelly Lau-Kee , Umang Patel and Christian Reyes combined their expertise to launch PayTango, as an alternative to digging through backpacks, pockets and purses for their student identification and debit cards.

Brian Groudan: We believe you should be able to walk into any establishment and prove who you are without carrying anything — no apps, no cards.  

PayTango’s registration process takes about 20 seconds, says the PayTango team. Users place two fingers on the terminal’s fingerpad, swipe the card they want to register and type in a phone number. Any card with a magnetic stripe can be registered in the system, including credit, debit, gift, loyalty and identification cards.

On repeat visits, users place their fingers on the fingerpad to make a payment. The service is paid for through contracts with merchants, making it free for users.

PayTango is part of CMU’s Greenlighting Startups initiative, designed to speed CMU faculty and student innovations from the research lab to the marketplace.

The PayTango team applied to, and was accepted, at the Y Combinator startup accelerator in Mountain View, Calif.

[Image courtesy: PayTango]

Just in

Apple sued in a landmark iPhone monopoly lawsuit — CNN

The US Justice Department and more than a dozen states filed a blockbuster antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, accusing the giant company of illegally monopolizing the smartphone market, writes Brian Fung, Hannah Rabinowitz and Evan Perez.

Google is bringing satellite messaging to Android 15 — The Verge

Google’s second developer preview for Android 15 has arrived, bringing long-awaited support for satellite connectivity alongside several improvements to contactless payments, multi-language recognition, volume consistency, and interaction with PDFs via apps, writes Jess Weatherbed. 

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is paid more than the heads of Meta, Pinterest, and Snap — combined — QZ

Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman has been blasted by Redditors and in media reports over his recently-revealed, super-sized pay package of $193 million in 2023, writes Laura Bratton. 

British AI pioneer Mustafa Suleyman joins Microsoft — BBC

Microsoft has announced British Artificial Intelligence pioneer Mustafa Suleyman will lead its newly-formed division, Microsoft AI, according to the BBC report. 

UnitedHealth Group has paid more than $2 billion to providers following cyberattack — CNBC

UnitedHealth Group said Monday that it’s paid out more than $2 billion to help health-care providers who have been affected by the cyberattack on subsidiary Change Healthcare, writes Ashley Capoot.