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Having thoroughly figured out how to cover giant events from ground level, they are now exploring ultra-cheap alternatives to the hundreds of thousands of dollar news choppers used for aerial reporting of big events like protest marches and police clashes. In the process, the video bloggers are discovering both how far low-cost consumer technology has come and how much farther it needs to go.

Built-in Wi-Fi allows control from an iPhone or Android phone. The Wi-Fi also beams back moderate-resolution (640-by-480-pixel) video to the phone

Introduced in 2010, the one-pound styrofoam craft has four rotors and a plethora of sensors to keep it stable and navigable. In some ways, it resembles an iPhone, with accelerometers and a gyroscope to measure movement and location, for example. Parrot says that it can fly 50 feet high, up to 11 miles per hour and stay aloft for about 12 minutes on a charge.

Shapiro tracked down a European hobbyist group that had written its own software, called Javadrone, from scratch “and did a much better job of it.” Pool first used the AR Drone, which he’s dubbed the Occucopter, in December to cover a New York City rally for immigrant rights, but he said that the video from that attempt was unusable. He also made a test-run at Occupy Albany. Pool expects his first coverage with the new software and high-quality video will be at the Occupy Congress action on January 17 in Washington, DC.

the AR Done isn’t in his long-term plans due to its clear limitations. “You need perfect weather. It just doesn’t weigh enough,” said Shapiro.

Pool and Shapiro are already thinking bigger for their projects, and developing better tech to eventually provide to other live stream journalists. “The most important thing is the zeppelin,” said Pool. Basically a big balloon, it will be able to lift a lot of gear with just a little power for the rotors that steer it. And the slow speed is a benefit: It holds the camera steady and won’t suddenly go out of control. In fact, they are trying to build copters that work more like zeppelins.

“All it needs to do is hover and take a proper picture.” Instead of relying on constant commands from the ground, the zeppelin and copter will dial in periodically for updates.

While the aforementioned offers have expired, merchants can set up new Foursquare check-in deals via Amex's "Go Social" self-service center for SMBs.

Here's how the Amex-Foursquare marriage works for consumers: Sync Amex card with Foursquare account online. Check in at a location. Tap a "redeem offer" button. Pay with Amex card. Get a Foursquare push notification about the money-back reward (see image) within moments after the card is swiped by the merchant.

Swipely has begun working with 150 merchants in Boston, its launch market. The start-up offers consumers the chance to sync a credit card to its loyalty program. From there, whenever they spend money at a participating merchant, they can receive a reward or discount. Swipely supplies local businesses with point-of-sale signage and materials to promote the program.

Angus Davis, Swipely CEO, said his product should attract consumers and businesses alike because of its usability. There's no need for a smartphone app, much less a printed voucher, he said, in order for shoppers to get rewarded for retail store visits.

"Consumers don't have to change the way they behave in order to check in," Davis said. "Nor do they have to change the way they pay by scanning a QR code [or] using newfangled technology. Our program employs technology that everyone already has and uses."

He added, "For the local merchant, the program doesn't require any changes in the store. They don't have to upgrade hardware, install software, implement any special cards, or re-train their staff."

The 33-year-old CEO said his company would expand to New York, San Francisco, and other major cities in the first half of the upcoming year. "I do think that 2012 is a very ripe time for disruption," Davis said, "especially as the payment space interacts with Main Street merchants."

Other noteworthy developments as digital wallets came into focus during 2011: March/April:Groupon and LivingSocial launch "GrouponNow" and "Instant Deals", respectively, which allow consumers to buy time-sensitive offers with one click on their smart phones. To use the mobile commerce feature, users need to input their credit cards into their daily deals accounts. May 9: Scvngr struck a partnership with American Express to make redeeming LevelUp deals easier for consumers. Amex members who buy the deals need only use their cards while making a purchase to get the discount. As is the case with Swipely, it's not necessary to show the store clerk a paper voucher, barcode, or message on a mobile screen. May 26: Google introduced Google Wallet, which lets consumers pay for Google Offers and other items through their Google account. The Wallet mobile app works with credit card users for Citi, MasterCard, and First Data. Aug. 1: Verizon partnered with Amex to serve as the mobile carrier's digital wallet platform. The telecom was one of the first in its competitive space to create its own digital wallet.

IBM sees the Internet of things as a source of growth, and it recognizes that the best way to capitalize is to make it easy to adopt. Keeping the underlying framework open-source will undoubtedly improve competition and encourage startups, much as the growth of the public Internet led to an explosion of newly public companies. Let's hope that the growth of this new industry isn't hampered by patents, but we should also be wary of any new bubbles that might inflate.

Square Setup: For many merchants, Square has been the dream alternative to PayPal. By allowing customers to swipe physical cards with nothing more than a dongle on the merchant’s iPhone, it’s changing the way that many companies do business. Just snag a dongle, install the app, tie it to your bank account and you’re done. Onboarding with Square is supremely simple. Pros: Supremely easy to use. Flat 2.75% fee on any swiped transaction. Goes to 3.5% + 15¢ per transaction if the card is entered manually. Next-day deposits directly to your bank account. Cons: Square is intended as a business tool, rather than a peer-to-peer platform. Your friends will need to swipe a card to give you cash.

Clover Pay Setup: Clover came out of the gates with a killer team and a mobile app that’s top-notch. If you can get an invitation to the somewhat-closed beta you can be set up on Clover in a matter of minutes. Pros: Super-simple process for requesting and making payments. Numerous methods for requesting and sending, including face-to-face, by email or over SMS. Fee-free for non-commercial use. Cons: Low limits on funding your account via credit cards, as well as withdrawal to PayPal. $2000 monthly cap on ACH funding or withdrawal. Adoption seems to be slower than other services.

Who Should You Use? That’s the real point here, right? You want to know what option is best. Unfortunately, there’s not any one that rises completely above the others. Dwolla and Clover are my two choices for the most promising, but PayPal’s ubiquity keeps it as a necessary thorn in my side. The real answer has a lot more to do with how you plan on using the service.

If ubiquity is important to you, there’s only once choice and that’s PayPal. But if you’re willing to give up a bit of convenience, then Dwolla’s $0.25 per transaction and bank-account-augmentation are compelling features. I have big hopes for Clover, mainly because it’s a great team and a beautiful app. But I’ve yet to talk to anyone who’s actually used the service.

Finally, there’s an elephant in the room here…and in the image at the top of this post. Google Wallet. Unfortunately there are a lot of factors that prevent Google Wallet from being a be-all, end-all solution. The primary problem? It’s locked to Android right now. And even then it’s locked to only a select few Android phones. It’s a big promise, but one that will take a lot of time to come to fruition.

The end result is that there probably isn’t one “great” choice, just yet. But we’re moving in the right direction and that’s important. For me, it’s a combination of (begrudgingly) using PayPal when I have to and reverting to Dwolla when I can. Maybe your situation will be different, but hopefully this has helped you gain some insight.

With more phones and more options opening every day for mobile and peer to peer payments, the waters are getting a bit muddied. At the request of some of TNW’s Twitter followers, we thought we’d put together a list of the leading options, including the pros and cons of each. Expect this post to be updated as the landscape changes.

Jumio was co-founded by Daniel Mattes, who sold his latest company, Jajah, to Telefonica for $207 million. Mattes is called the “Bill Gates of the Alps” in some parts.

solitude is a catalyst to innovation. As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck observed, introversion fosters creativity by “concentrating the mind on the tasks in hand, and preventing the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work.

Culturally, we’re often so dazzled by charisma that we overlook the quiet part of the creative process

“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible,” Picasso said

Virtually all American workers now spend time on teams and some 70 percent inhabit open-plan offices, in which no one has “a room of one’s own.” During the last decades, the average amount of space allotted to each employee shrank 300 square feet, from 500 square feet in the 1970s to 200 square feet in 2010.