Square's been venturing beyond those tiny credit card swipers as of late. Last week, the company introduced its nifty $299 Stand POS system for iOS, and now it appears to be branching out to individuals, with a to-be-announced service called Square Cash. There's not much info to share at this point -- TechCrunch recently discovered a dedicated landing page for the new service, which looks to be invite only at this point. There does seem to be an option to request an invitation, but the button isn't properly linked, so we weren't able to make our way to the proper form in order to take a closer look.

A handful of help articles do shed some light on the service, though. To send money, you'll simply send an email to your recipient with the dollar amount in the subject line and "pay@square.com" in the cc field. Once your friend or associate receives the email, they'll type in the debit card account number of their choosing and Square will fund the associated checking account within 48 hours. Each payment costs just 50 cents to send, and there's no cost to receive -- it's not quite clear whether or not you can use a credit card to fund the transfer, but with fees of less than $1, we imagine you'll need to use a checking account. Square has yet to formally introduce the service, but we're guessing an announcement will be coming soon.

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Square Cash, Sending Square Cash

Responding to an invitation or checking in for a flight soon won't require any typing at all, assuming you're using Gmail to manage your inbox. When the situation calls for it, new quick action buttons will pop up in an email, letting you accomplish simple tasks without reaching for the keyboard. For event RSVPs, you can even mark your attendance from the main inbox view -- a preview with all the key details will pop up, letting you respond with a simple Yes, Maybe or No. On the air travel front, flight confirmation emails will now display your flight status in real time, along with a check-in box, which will boot you directly over to the carrier's site. As you've probably guessed, Google will be rolling out these new features gradually, so if they haven't already appeared in your browser, you're certainly not alone.

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Source: Gmail Blog

As tightly integrated as Google's many services can be, the company has been dancing around a glaring omission: why couldn't we add times mentioned in Gmail messages as Google Calendar events? Logic is at last taking hold in Mountain View, however. Starting this week for those using US English, Google is rolling out a Gmail web update that automatically underlines dates and times; click on one and it will pop up a box to quickly add a calendar event scheduled for that time, with an option to edit basic details first. It's such a simple addition, but it could mean the world for those of us waiting for Gmail to catch up with our native email apps.

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Source: Official Gmail Blog

When Microsoft took Outlook.com public, it also took on the rather daunting task of moving 300 million-plus Hotmail accounts over to the more modern infrastructure without drawing our wrath. However you feel about the new interface, that transition is at last complete: Outlook.com is now the sole front end for the over 400 million people who use Microsoft's free email services. Both Hotmail.com addresses and Hotmail Plus accounts will keep working despite the switch, the company says.

To mark the occasion, Microsoft is launching two significant upgrades. It's adding tighter SkyDrive integration that lets users attach files directly from their SkyDrive accounts, including optimized photo attachments. Those who rely on email aliases will also like that Microsoft has finally let us choose an SMTP server to send messages from non-Outlook addresses without revealing the true source -- we won't have to put up with "on behalf of" tags any longer. Both features are rolling out today.

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Source: Outlook Blog

Finally got off the reservation list for Mailbox? Now there's another app trying to sway your Gmail loyalty that's just arrived for iPad: Evomail. It brings "frictionless" support for Google's mail client, including quick access to labels, trash and archives, full Gmail search, push notifications and social network sharing for Twitter or Facebook. While launching strictly on the iPad, the developers told us that versions for iPhone, then Android would follow, but that it'd only support Google's mail service "at the moment." If you think it might serve your Gmail needs better than, er, the free-of-charge Gmail app, it's $2.99 at the source.

Filed under: Tablets, Software

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Source: Evomail (iTunes)