On the heels of announcing a payments partnership with Facebook, PlaySpan is making another announcement regarding the startup’s UltimatePay payments product. PlaySpan is launching UltimatePay Mobile, a virtual currency and micropayments monetization widget for smartphone platforms. The initial private beta launch will support Android phones and Nokia phones with WebRuntime installed.

UltimatePay is a ‘Monetization as a Service’ platform for apps, games, videos and digital goods. Based on the user’s location, the payments platform draws from over 85 different payment options. Because of its vast variety of payment options (which include PayPal, pre-paid cards, and a number of credit cards), UltimatePay is designed for a global audience.

UltimatePay Mobile gives smartphone developers a way to deliver a one-click payment experience to mobile gamers, and provide a comprehensive payments offering. The platform allows players to view their balance and transaction history, while allowing them to purchase items in-app without ever having to leave the game.

Of course, PlaySpan isn’t the first startup or company to bring in-app payments to Android phones; PayPal, Boku and Zong all offer in-app payments libraries to developers.

PlaySpan, which recently raised $18 million in new funding, already has a number of partnerships with a number of gaming and media companies, including Ubisoft, Sanrio and others. Perhaps the company can leverage some of these relationships to offer UltimatePay in publisher’s mobile games.

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After a Summer spent in “Lockdown”, Facebook apparently got quite a bit of work done. They’ve already had a number of events just in the past few weeks. And now they’re having another one.

We’ve just been alerted about an invite-only press event taking place next Monday, November 15 at 9:30 AM in San Francisco. At the bottom of the invite, it notes that “This special event is in advance of Mark Zuckerberg’s conversation on 11/16 at Web 2.0 Summit.”

So what will Facebook be talking about? Who knows. The invite has chat bubbles on it, but as we’ve learned in the past, these often have nothing to do with the event.

After Facebook’s last event, in which they unveiled some big updates to their Places product including Deals, we asked Zuckerberg if the company had any other big things to launch this year. He indicated that more was on the way, but at least one more big thing was coming soon.

Is this the big thing or a smaller thing? Tune in Monday to find out.

Update: Actually, looking at their icon again, you’ll notice it is their Inbox icon (at least on the iPhone) and not their chat icon. Could this be the unveiling of the new Facebook mail product — Project Titan? Let the speculation begin!

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While social commerce network Lockerz has been flying under the radar, the startup has quietly been able to raise an impressive amount of funding and accumulated nearly 18 million members after being open to the public for under two years. Lockerz has raised a total of $30 million, most recently nabbing $18 million from Kleiner Perkins newly launched sFund. Both John Doerr and Bing Gordon sit on Lockerz board of directors.

The Lockerz social commerce platform revolves around the idea that influencers within a social network can become brand and content advocates and affect the behavior of their friends. Lockerz is primarily targeted towards men and women ages 13 to 30, attempting to build a community of trendsetters and tastemakers who love to shop, play and connect on the Web.

Lockerz provides incentives like the ability to earn discounts on brands to encourage users to share content on the site. Members earn “Pointz” by watching videos, listening to music and inviting friends; pointz can then be used lower the prices of merchandise on the site. Users can also earn “Decalz” for sharing (similar to badges). New boutiques launch every Tuesday and feature brands such as 7 for All Mankind, Alex & Ani, Splendid, Rock & Republic, Matt Bernson, Quiksilver, Nintendo, and Xbox 360.

Founded by Kathy Savitt, a former Amazon and American Eagle Outfitters exec; Lockerz eventually wants to be the go-to commerce homepage for teens and young adults. One interesting part of the startup’s social growth is that it has no connection to Facebook. Savitt says that they are looking into connecting with Facebook, perhaps through a Facebook app, but that growth seems to be doing just fine with out the social network.

Lockerz started with 50 college kids that were friends and family of Savitt and her two daughters, and grew to 17.5 million users in less than one year. The site gets a little under 1 million unique visits per month (according to Google Analytics).

Social commerce is certainly hot these days, with social networks and commerce sites all throwing their hat in the ring with various products and acquisitions. But Lockerz has been able to gain a viral following from a subset of users, which is impressive. It should be interesting to see if the startup can continue its ascent.

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The necessity of getting tested for STDs is often avoided as much from embarrassment as from fear of the outcome. Like buying condoms at the store, it’s a situation where your private life is suddenly exposed, and even though it’s not something to be ashamed of, it’s something you’d rather keep to yourself. People shy from going to the clinic or hospital, even when it’s a serious matter for themselves or others, because of this natural tendency to eschew public scrutiny.

A project at St. George’s University in London aims to prevent this problem by making STD testing as private as pregnancy testing. They’re doing so by developing a mobile phone-compatible chip that would be capable of returning results within 15 minutes.

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