Snapchat shutters SnapCash; Overwatch gets Nerf prototype; another SpaceX satellite launches

Snapchat Shutters SnapCash Feature

Venice’s Snap Inc. will end its Snapcash payment feature on the Snapchat app, Techcrunch reports. The peer-to-peer payment will go out of service on Aug. 30, due mostly to competition from other payment apps like Venmo Inc. and Zelle, as well as concerns of misuse. According to Snap, its payment feature has roughly 7 million monthly users, all of whom will be notified of its extinction via in-app notification or support email in the upcoming weeks.

Overwatch Weapons Get Physical Upgrade

Santa Monica’s Activision Blizzard Inc. will team up with Hasbro Inc. to bring replica weapons of Blizzard’s popular “Overwatch” video game to life, Digital Trends reports. Don’t be lulled into submission by the Nerf design, though — one of the first prototypes displayed at San Diego Comic Con was a shotgun capable of firing foam darts at 90 feet per second. The weapons will be released on a yet undisclosed date in 2019.

SpaceX Launches Communication Satellite

Another Space Exploration Technologies Corp. payload was launched July 22, this time launching the Telstar 19 Vantage Satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Fla. Socaltech reports that the satellite will provide satellite communications between regions in Brazil, the Andes, South America, the Caribbean, Northern Canada and the North Atlantic. The company’s next launch is scheduled for July 25 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California.

Tech reporter Samson Amore can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8335. Follow him on Twitter @samsonamore.