With the great NFC race looming, Google is axing support for QR Codes in their Places service. QR codes made a noble play for the hearts and minds of nerds, but honestly, I hope this is the first step towards their complete and utter annihilation. More »
Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 is still catching up to the competition in terms of apps and basic features, but when it comes to mobile payments it might not be left in the dust — Bloomberg has two anonymous sources who say that Microsoft will outfit the next version of Windows Phone 7 with software support for near-field communications, and bake NFC tech into WP7 smartphones as early as this year. As we heard earlier this week, Google’s reportedly working on a similar plan, complete with partnerships in the credit card space, RIM may or may not be arguing with carriers over its Bank of America trial, and the general consensus around the water cooler is that Apple won’t be pursuing contactless payments this year. Yes, it’s an exciting time to work in industries that rely solely on money changing hands.
Windows Phone 7 getting NFC payments in next update? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’re seeing NFC chips showing up and tickling the innards of more and more mobile devices, but at this rate it’s going to be ages before we see some proper market penetration. Gemalto may have just jump-started that process with a new NFC on a SIM card design that’s certified by MasterCard PayPass. It’s similar to the company’s Zuckerberg on a SIM project we heard about last month, but this time it’s wirelessly paying for a drink and not wirelessly telling your friends how much you just had to drink. This means near-field wireless payments could be brought to nearly every GSM phone on the planet, also allowing for secure on-device transactions, like adding more minutes to a pre-paid phone. This is said to be the beginning of a “mass commercial roll out,” giving us reason to hope that soon forgetting our wallets at home will be a feature and not a bug.
Gemalto bringing NFC payments to phones of any intelligence with MasterCard PayPass SIM originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google's flagship NFC phone, the Nexus S.
Google wants to do away with your wallet.
The Mountain View, California, company is working on a partnership with credit industry giants MasterCard and Citigroup that would allow you to make real-world purchases at stores using your smartphone, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
If the partnership materializes, buying groceries may require little more than a wave of your smartphone across an installed card reader at the checkout counter.
The partnership would allow for cardholders to pay for retail items after activating an app on Android NFC-enabled smartphones. The phones could then be swiped liked credit cards across card readers enabled with near field communication, or NFC, at participating retailers.
As Wired’s Epicenter blog reported earlier Monday morning, Google will begin testing the mobile payments service in key markets — New York and San Francisco — within the next four months. Other test markets include Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C., according to a report from Bloomberg.
Google would pay for the installation of thousands of NFC terminals in the major cities. The terminals will be built by VeriFone Systems, a manufacturer of point-of-sale electronic payment technologies.
As with many other Google experiments, the push into mobile payments would serve as a loss-leader for the company’s advertising business, sources told the Journal.
Google would be able to offer retailers more data about customers and purchasing habits, while tailoring its ad targeting and promotional offerings to smartphone users. The company isn’t expected to take a cut of the transactions.
The mobile payments initiative faces some challenges. Currently, only one NFC-enabled smartphone is on the market — Google’s Nexus S (above). Samsung’s successor to its popular Galaxy S smartphone, the Galaxy S II, boasts NFC capability, but isn’t slated for release until the summer of 2011.
Also, it’s been difficult to imagine a major disruption of a massive industry like that of the credit industry that’s already established. One big reason: companies like Visa rely on trunks — shared lines that provide network access to a series of endpoints rather than providing them individually — and leased lines to provide retailers with reliable credit card terminal service.
One attractive option to companies like Google and other mobile-payment startups would be to cut out the credit card companies completely. Instead of using the card companies’ private networks, mobile payment could be made over a given smartphone carrier network.
But any attempt to circumvent the credit card companies’ private networks over 3G or 4G access runs into the problem of network reliability. A wealth of frustrated customers unable to pay for a meal because of spotty network service is less than ideal for any mobile-payment initiative.
That’s most likely the reason why Google is teaming up with the major credit card companies, instead of trying to bypass them. And Google isn’t alone in doing so. Joint mobile payment venture ISIS — which finds AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile partnering up with Discover Financial Services — is Google’s main competition in the mobile payments arena. ISIS is reported to begin testing its payments network this year, according to Bloomberg.
Google did not respond to our requests for comment.
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Ever since the Nexus S and its nifty little NFC chip hit the market, there’s been speculation that El Goog was planning a foray into the mobile payment arena currently occupied by the likes of Charge Anywhere. Now, it looks like that plan may be in high gear, as the Wall Street Journal reports that Google’s secretly partnered with MasterCard and Citigroup to test out just such a system. According to the publication, the early demo pairs “one current model and many coming models of Android phones” with existing Citigroup-sponsored credit and debit cards, and is using the phones’ NFC chips with those VeriFone readers we recently heard about.
What’s more, a newly-published patent application from the crew in Mountain View may hint at the software behind such things. The application describes a service that sets up Google as a third-party broker who receives the shopping cart info of customers placing orders via a device (including those of the mobile variety), allows them to select shipping and other options, and provides the total order cost. It then collects payment, coordinates shipment, and forwards order information to the seller to complete the transaction. So companies can have Google handle all their payment-taking needs in return for getting a sneak peek at what folks are buying — something that the WSJ’s sources say might be a component of the setup Google’s testing right now — as opposed to other third-party services, like Paypal, that only obtain and exchange payment info with merchants. Looks like Alma Whitten (Google’s Director of Privacy) has her work cut out assuaging the concerns such a system will inevitably create in an increasingly privacy-minded populace.
Sean Hollister contributed to this report.
WSJ: Google teams with MasterCard and Citigroup for NFC payments, also files patent app originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Processing mobile payments via an external dongle? That’s so early 2011. Charge Anywhere has a less troublesome idea, and if you’re the lucky owner of a Google Nexus S, you could soon be accepting cold, hard virtual cash via NFC. For those already familiar with the space, you’ll know that this very company already has applications out for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices, but all of those obviously require a credit card swiping mechanism to be connected. According to CNET, the latest version will include support for the NFC module embedded within the Nexus S, enabling it to be a full-on mobile payment terminal with no additional hardware required. Both MasterCard PayPass and Visa Blink payments could be ingested, but don’t go searching for the update in the Android Market; the company’s done with the new build, but it won’t be let loose to the public until it’s ran past larger customers first. We don’t get the impression that the NFC-compatible version will run any more than the $9.99 per month, but it’s obviously a wait-and-see affair for now.
Charge Anywhere update turns Nexus S into full-on mobile payment terminal originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Nexus S 4G will include Google Voice integration
Sprint users have something to be happy about today: A new 4G handset, the Nexus S 4G, and integrated Google Voice for all phone models.
The Nexus S 4G will be the first 4G device to come stocked with Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
The 4G model shares most of the same features as the original 3G Nexus S, including a 4-inch Super AMOLED Contour Display, a 5-megapixel back facing camera, forward-facing VGA camera, and 16 GB of onboard storage.
It can act as a 3G or 4G WiFi hotspot for up to six devices.
The Nexus S 4G also incorporates NFC technology and is powered by a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor, which is said to provide “3-D-like graphics” and support “HD-like multimedia content.”
Google’s flagship phone, the Nexus S, was first released back in December for T-Mobile. It was the first smartphone to ship with Android 2.3.
Google also announced today that Sprint subscribers now have the option to use their mobile number as their Google Voice number or replace their Sprint number with their Google Voice number. This allows calls to ring on multiple devices — such as your home phone, mobile, or computer (using Gmail) — simultaneously. Very useful if you find yourself flitting between the office, the car, and the house and don’t want to miss an important call.
The integration with Google Voice also means that Google Voice will replace Sprint voicemail, providing users with voicemail message transcriptions that can be emailed, texted, or viewed online. International calls will also follow Google Voice rates rather than Sprint’s.
Google Voice number-porting has been available for a few months, but it looks like the partnership with Sprint will make access to the service and its features much more hassle-free.
The Sprint Nexus S will be available this spring for $200 with a two-year contract, and Google Voice integration will roll out “soon.”
Introducing Nexus S 4G for Sprint and Sprint integrates Google Voice [Google Voice Blog via Android Community]
The first phone to ship with Android 2.3 has been kicking around for a solid quarter now, which means it’s just about time to roast it here on How Would You Change. The Nexus S didn’t provide the same system shock as did the Nexus One, but bringing a curved display, Gingerbread and an embedded NFC chip to US airwaves definitely made an impact. ‘Course, we’re still waiting for a version to ship with support for AT&T’s 3G bands, but we’re confident that quite a few T-Mobilers have bit the bullet by this point. You’ve heard our thoughts on the matter, and now it’s your turn — if you were in control of dictating the second-ever Nexus phone, how would you have done things differently? Would you have stuck with HTC rather than heading over to Samsung? Shipped it on a different carrier from day-one? Thrown in a white version just to rub things in? Get creative down in comments below — there’s no telling how your nuggets of wisdom will shape the inevitable Nexus T 2.
How would you change Samsung’s Nexus S? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ve already heard a fair bit about RIM’s plans for NFC-based mobile payments, but it’s starting to look like some of those plans don’t quite line up with what the carriers have in mind. As the Wall Street Journal reports, there’s a brewing dispute between RIM and a number of carriers including AT&T, T-Mobile and Rogers over just how NFC payment-related data, or “credentials,” are stored, and who actually controls that data. For its part, RIM unsurprisingly wants to store the data in a secure area of the phone itself, which would obviously tie folks to their BlackBerry more than ever, while the carriers are pushing to have that data simply stored on the phone’s SIM card, which would let customers move from one phone to another more easily. While things apparently haven’t gotten that heated just yet, it does certainly seem like there’s a bit of a fight in store — according to the Wall Street Journal, RIM is already reaching out to banks on its own in an effort to strike some deals, while Canadian carriers have apparently been telling RIM in a “gentle” way that “you won’t be doing this.”
Carriers at odds with RIM over NFC payment data originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Opening doors with wireless RFID cardkeys is old hat at this point, but opening those doors with a smartphone is rather more intriguing. Doing so without permission of the people who put the locks on the doors, well, that brings things up to a whole new level of awesomeness. That’s what Caribou does, a little Android app that remotely connects to a server managing the locks at a supposedly secure location. The app then diddles the ports and security settings of that server until it finds the magic phrase and, in a couple of seconds, it’s open sesame time. Doors are unlocked remotely and then, 30 seconds later, automatically locked again. How thoughtful.
We first saw this demonstrated a few days ago but weren’t entirely convinced of its legitimacy. But now, after exchanging a few e-mails with Michael Gough, who discovered the exploit, and Ian Robertson, who wrote the app, we’re convinced. They’re actually working with US-CERT on this issue so that appropriate measures will be taken but, in the short-term, if you have a system like this and it’s sitting out there, IP open to the internet and being caressed by every passing breeze, you might want to think about pulling that in behind your firewall. Lots more info at both source links below, though you can see it working for yourself right here in a video after the break, running on an HTC Incredible.
Caribou Android app opens doors over the internet, needs neither permission nor keys (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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