Your Next Wallet Is Calling

[The Straight Story]

Your Next Wallet Is Calling

"Contactless" hardware lets phones and gadgets pay with a tap, but the coming plethora of apps that use it may confuse users.



Soon you'll be able to pay for goods in U.S. stores simply by waving a cell phone over a reader, or connect with other gadgets by tapping a phone against them.

But there's a catch. Although new near-field communication (NFC) wireless chips will make it possible for gadgets with the technology to work with each other, the software applications being developed for these devices may not play so nicely together, making it potentially confusing for users.

Last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced that the next version of the Android operating system for smart phones will support NFC technology. Such phones would also be able to transfer information—a credit card number or contact info, for instance—over a short distance. Nokia has said that most of the smart phones it releases next year will also feature the technology.

The technology is already common in Japan, and has been under development elsewhere for years. In the U.S., banks and payment networks like Visa and Mastercard have over the past five years handed out credit cards and key fobs that can be waved over a reader in a store to pay for goods or services.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/26796/?p1=MstRcnt&a=f

[tabbycat31]

1. I would still pay the old fashioned way

I don't trust the security of these things. What if I leave my phone somehwere?

[IDemo]

2. This should make the hackers delirious with joy

I'll stick with my Dumb Phone™, sans camera and wallet.

[hobbit709]

4. Same here

I use my phone to make and receive calls. Only about 10 people even have the number. I don't even have it turned on most of the time.

[notesdev]

6. Yeah seriously

lets people steal money from your wallet remotely, who wouldn't want that?

Oh wait, we have a device for that already, it's called a bank.

[spin]

3. Technology is great. The problem is that it can be hacked ...

A number of credit card companies now issue credit cards with embedded RFIDs (radio frequency ID tags), with promises of enhanced security and speedy transactions.

But on today's episode of Boing Boing tv, hacker and inventor Pablos Holman shows Xeni how you can use about $8 worth of gear bought on eBay to read personal data from those credit cards -- cardholder name, credit card number, and whatever else your bank embeds in this manner.

Fears over data leaks from RFID-enabled cards aren't new, and some argue they're overblown -- but this demo shows just how cheap and easy the "sniffing" can be.

Watch the video at:
http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/03/19/how-to-hack-an-rfide.html

(Note: you will learn a new use for tin foil.)

[liberal N proud]

5. This would usher in a new form of pick pockets

If all you have to do is tap the devices together, it would be as simple as identifying where the target is carrying their smart phone and bumping into them with your phone at the right spot.

The more these devices are allowed to do, the more vulnerable they are.

And I consider myself a gadget guy, but there is a limit.

[NightWatcher]

7. I just want a wallet or case that I can shield my chip-embeds from hackers

passport, twic card, no telling what else I have might be scanned without even knowing it. I like my toys but I want to be the one controlling what I broadcast to the world