vangogh
09-20-2011, 03:30 PM
This is one of those technologies that's coming and within a few years will likely be fairly common. The idea being that instead of using credit cards, we'll use out phones to pay for things.
Google is among the early players with Google Wallet (http://youtu.be/DsaJMhcLm_A) ( <-- 2 minute video explaining and showing how it works). Don't expect to be using this right away though. It's going to be available on one phone through Sprint and it's going to require merchants to start using the technology as well.
The basic idea is that their's an app on your phone connected to a credit card. To pay you pull out your phone and tap it or wave it near the payment terminal. The app instantly loads and I think you then need to approve the purchase and maybe choose which card to use. The technology used to transfer the information is Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is supposed to be completely secure.
A few months back when they first announced this I remember one issue being that if you lost your phone you would need to cancel your credit card to prevent someone from using your Google Wallet. I'm not sure if that's still true or if Google has provided a better solution. Again this is still pretty new and should probably be seen more as a test case than something we'll all be using in practice just yet. In time though I suspect NFC will be very common.
So would you trust Google to handle your money? How about another company like Apple or Microsoft or maybe PayPal. Before long they'll all probably have similar products. Could you see yourself trusting the idea of using your phone to pay or will you stick with cards and cash?
Google is among the early players with Google Wallet (http://youtu.be/DsaJMhcLm_A) ( <-- 2 minute video explaining and showing how it works). Don't expect to be using this right away though. It's going to be available on one phone through Sprint and it's going to require merchants to start using the technology as well.
The basic idea is that their's an app on your phone connected to a credit card. To pay you pull out your phone and tap it or wave it near the payment terminal. The app instantly loads and I think you then need to approve the purchase and maybe choose which card to use. The technology used to transfer the information is Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is supposed to be completely secure.
A few months back when they first announced this I remember one issue being that if you lost your phone you would need to cancel your credit card to prevent someone from using your Google Wallet. I'm not sure if that's still true or if Google has provided a better solution. Again this is still pretty new and should probably be seen more as a test case than something we'll all be using in practice just yet. In time though I suspect NFC will be very common.
So would you trust Google to handle your money? How about another company like Apple or Microsoft or maybe PayPal. Before long they'll all probably have similar products. Could you see yourself trusting the idea of using your phone to pay or will you stick with cards and cash?