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What boondock Walmart do you go to? All of my Walmarts have Chip & PIN working. And no plastic covering up the slot. All registers even self checkout has working chip and PIN. If you try to swipe a chipped card it beeps and says Insert Card.

A major metropolitan area. Thanks for the assumption, but the reality is that major cities DO have merchants with no clue about security.
 
So as an Android user, specifically the Note 4, what's the best case scenario to try out something similar to Apple Pay? Google Wallet? Works the same way too? I think I had a Google Wallet card years ago, but I lost it. Or do I need to turn on nfc on my phone and do the tap to pay function? Samsung needs to get a properitary app since some people also use their apps over Google Apps.
 
So as an Android user, specifically the Note 4, what's the best case scenario to try out something similar to Apple Pay? Google Wallet? Works the same way too? I think I had a Google Wallet card years ago, but I lost it. Or do I need to turn on nfc on my phone and do the tap to pay function? Samsung needs to get a properitary app since some people also use their apps over Google Apps.

Yes Google Wallet is best. Now, you can use Softcard though it stinks really. Unless you have Wells Fargo, the only way to use Softcard is running every transaction through an AMEX serve account. So I would use Google Wallet.
 
Re self checkout, here in Switzerland it is possible after hours to pay and pump, this feature has been around so long that most of the terminals still accept payment with printed notes. Either a single pump is designated for this service or there is a central payment console that can authorize most pumps in the larger stations. I thought this type of unattended out of hours payment system also existed in Germany.

Hmm, well, most well trafficked gas stations over here are open 24/7, so that'd be less of a pressing reason to have that here.

Maybe we have those terminals too and I never looked out for them so I didn't notice them.
Who knows.

I'll pay more attention in future and see how common they are here.

Maybe it's also a matter of region, although I wouldn't suspect the North of Hessen to be particularly slow to adopt this.

Glassed Silver:mac
 
So as an Android user, specifically the Note 4, what's the best case scenario to try out something similar to Apple Pay? Google Wallet? Works the same way too? I think I had a Google Wallet card years ago, but I lost it. Or do I need to turn on nfc on my phone and do the tap to pay function? Samsung needs to get a properitary app since some people also use their apps over Google Apps.

I just enabled Google Wallet on an original Moto X tonight, after I updated it to Kit Kat.

Open GW, use the menu to go to Settings. Should see a Tap and Pay block which you can click to set things up.

Since I already had a credit card registered with Google to pay for things on the Play Store and on the web, it enabled that instantly.

When I went back out to the main GW page, though, it had "Tap and Pay" disabled in red, saying I needed to go turn on NFC. So I did that, and now it says "Ready to go".

PS. Mods, feel free to move this to Alternatives.

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Back on topic, someone already mentioned that here in New Jersey, drivers are not allowed to pump their own gas. So of all the States, NJ is probably one where NFC payments are unlikely to take off at all for gas purchases. Few would be willing to hand their phone to a gas station attendant.
 
S(he) is referring to the fact that in Oregon (and NJ, still?) you are not allowed (by law) to touch the pump or pump your own gas... which would appear to mean that you will have to hand your iPhone to the Gas Pumping Professional so (s)he can execute the ApplePay transaction for you.

Or, the attendant holds up a "Square"-like NFC point of sale device and you do the same thing with that as you would anywhere else. I'm not sure about the specifics of the laws, but it would seem counterproductive to require everyone go to NFC-based cards and payments by the end of this year (although gas stations and restaurants have a little longer) and still require the "hand your card to the waitress/attendant and hope they don't do something bad with it" bit. So, I would be surprised (only moderately so; sometimes laws miss the obvious) if they were allowed to continue requiring you to hand them your card for them to swipe instead of needing to gear up with portable NFC scanners.

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Snopes or not, petrol stations in Australia state that mobile phones are not to be used around pumps.

Let me describe the process.

Someone starts a "sounds true" email chain and sends it to everyone's grandmother and crazy uncle. Electricity can start fires; mobile electronics of all sorts have electricity just jumping around inside them; gas stations have gas fumes; ergo, cell phones are likely to cause Hindenburg-scale disasters if allowed within fuming distance of a gas station. "Word" gets around about this horrible "fact". It gets play on the echo-chamber "news" stations who have too many hours to fill to have checked facts monopolizing their airtime. A lawmaker watches such a show, maybe gets a few emails or hand-written letters quoting this horrible email they just got, and decides he must do something about it. The lawmaker drafts a law, and gets enough like-minded colleagues to go along with it that it becomes law.

At no phase of this does the fact have to be true. In fact, "truthiness" is far more likely to follow this path to legal requirement than actual scientifically-proven facts.

The fact that a gas station is required to post that you can not use your cell phone has absolutely relevance to the actual truth. The facts are that that is an urban legend which has no basis in reality, and which would require horribly inefficient and dangerous cellphones to ever be even remotely true, caused a lot of municipalities and well-meaning businesses to do stupid things to counter an imagined "problem". Don't further the stupidity.
 
It could happen with Apple tying in to such devices as EZPASS and the such; or creating their own transponder system. Add ApplePay to CarPlay to EZPay (my word for the transponder) and it would open up so many opportunities for tolls roads and service stations.

Such a system would here in the DC area prevent us from being sued by the new robber barons like TransUrban that operate private toll roads on the behalf of the state. If the transponder did not read, you get a notice on your iPhone - so you can save yourself from being sued for thousands of dollars like some are in Virginia.

Exactly. As a side note, NFC is a subset of RFID (which EZPay et al use) limited to short-range (10cm) communications. So, they are already very tightly related, and likely could use some of the same chipsets for implementation.

A downside is that many autos need the EZPay device in a specific area because they are too EM shielded elsewhere. Might just be a device power issue, but if you had to hold your iPhone up next to the rearview mirror for it to all work that would be unfortunate.

That said, I'd love to be traveling somewhere outside my home area and be able to use the "fast lane" no-stop toll reader instead of having to stop and dig for change.
 
That's why credit cards > debit cards on so many levels. I used to be a debit card user, and I have seen the light.


To be fair, debit cards have generally gotten a lot better in the past decade or so. For instance, on my debit card (from a local credit union, which alas has not allowed Apple Pay yet) those pre-authorizations are listed as "pending" and do not stop me from clearing every last penny from the account if I wanted to before they finalize (at which point I would be overdrafted, of course). Similarly, there are 0-liability fraud protections (as opposed to the $50 or unlimited fraud liability of old) with similar activity-monitoring as with my credit card (ex, using it at a seedy gas station in South Chicago I immediately got a call to verify that I hadn't had my card stolen).

Still not on par with the better credit cards as far as protections go, and definitely not as far as cash-back rewards go (although they have rolling discount offers all over town that often beat the 1.5% my card provides if they happen to match what I am looking for). And, as I mentioned, the debit card isn't on Apple Pay while the CC is, so that's another reason why the CC gets more use (and the fact that paying the CC back from the checking account is literally three clicks on my phone). But, worlds better than what I'd had with the old Bank of America debit card before BofA pissed us off several years back.
 
Or, the attendant holds up a "Square"-like NFC point of sale device and you do the same thing with that as you would anywhere else. I'm not sure about the specifics of the laws, but it would seem counterproductive to require everyone go to NFC-based cards and payments by the end of this year (although gas stations and restaurants have a little longer) and still require the "hand your card to the waitress/attendant and hope they don't do something bad with it" bit. So, I would be surprised (only moderately so; sometimes laws miss the obvious) if they were allowed to continue requiring you to hand them your card for them to swipe instead of needing to gear up with portable NFC scanners.

Never try to "make sense" of Oregon's gas pump law. It is a skill-free make-work program for ne'er-do-wells couched in the name of "safety" (because tragic gas pumping accidents plague the rest of the nation). And don't fall into the trap of thinking that it is some sort of nostalgic throwback to the days of "Full Service" gas stations and "Gas Jockeys" joyfully filling your tank, checking your oil and cleaning your windscreen.
 
Or, the attendant holds up a "Square"-like NFC point of sale device and you do the same thing with that as you would anywhere else. I'm not sure about the specifics of the laws, but it would seem counterproductive to require everyone go to NFC-based cards and payments by the end of this year (although gas stations and restaurants have a little longer) and still require the "hand your card to the waitress/attendant and hope they don't do something bad with it" bit.

Note that what's coming this Fall is not a law, nor even a hard requirement.

It's a policy change from Visa, assigning liability to the merchant if they take a fraudulent swipe from a card that also had a chip. In other words, it's meant to encourage merchants to install chip readers.

The change also does not require installing NFC, although there are auditing incentives if the merchant does so.

So there's nothing that says a gas station with attendants must take NFC, although you're right that it could be attractive to some customers.

The fact that a gas station is required to post that you can not use your cell phone has absolutely relevance to the actual truth. The facts are that that is an urban legend which has no basis in reality, and which would require horribly inefficient and dangerous cellphones to ever be even remotely true, ...

People dismiss the idea by talking about RF and other non-fire-starting things.

Yet any cell phone with a brush vibrator motor (which is probably most of them) already has a piece that causes tiny sparks when it's buzzing.

However, it would require a perfect storm of leaked fumes around the vibrator motor, of just the right mixture, and an incoming text or call. Possible, but a million to one shot. Historically speaking, static electricity from a sweater is more likely to cause a fire.
 
Tiger8 writes...Chevron is the biggest oil company and the second most valuable company after apple, so yea this is news worthy

I think you will find if you look on the world atlas other countries exist beyond the U.S. Chevron is currently the ninth out of ten largest oil companies globally. Saudi Aramco is number 1.
 
Yet any cell phone with a brush vibrator motor (which is probably most of them) already has a piece that causes tiny sparks when it's buzzing.

Maybe 10 years ago that would've been true... Many have switched to Linear Resonant Actuators, because they are much more responsive (less latency), for things like haptic feedback, versus a simple vibration that uses an eccentric rotating mass, that must be spun up/down.

(We were doing prototypes on haptic feedback, so we had a team from TI come in and show us the current state of the art, where they mentioned the different ways to do vibration, and what was common before and now)
 
Yes Google Wallet is best. Now, you can use Softcard though it stinks really. Unless you have Wells Fargo, the only way to use Softcard is running every transaction through an AMEX serve account. So I would use Google Wallet.
It would be really frusterating if this were only a hit or miss proposition for over the course of a year.



htc one m8 hülle
 
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Maybe 10 years ago that would've been true... Many have switched to Linear Resonant Actuators, because they are much more responsive (less latency), for things like haptic feedback, versus a simple vibration that uses an eccentric rotating mass, that must be spun up/down.

In general, I don't write anything unless I've researched it or have personal knowledge.

However, in this case, I only checked on Apple, and it turns out they're sort of an anomaly. I should've checked more on everyone else.

Most major phone manufacturers (Samsung, LG, Nokia) have indeed switched to using Linear Resonant Actuators (LRA) years ago. Others (HTC, Sony) still tend to use old DC motors with an Eccentric Rotating Mass (ERM).

Apple is a bit weird. They've experimented with LRA with some carrier models, but stuck with old style ERMs for the 5, 5C, 5S. Phones in red below used a motor:

iphones_vibrator.png

It's not until the iPhone 6 that it looks like they finally have switched to using an LRA.

iphone6_vibrator.png

Regards.
 
Yes but from experience Apple Pay at AMPM works fine as long as its a debit.

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Walmart and some Home Depots have functioning Chip & PIN macbines. Walgreens, and Target are supposed to turn on chip card support in Spring.
Some Walmarts, I saw that there was a promise to the Obama Administration that they would all have them by November, but when I checked in on mine, the POS terminals were positively ancient and had no chip and Pin slot and of course no NFC. Littleton, CO, USA.
 
Some Walmarts, I saw that there was a promise to the Obama Administration that they would all have them by November, but when I checked in on mine, the POS terminals were positively ancient and had no chip and Pin slot and of course no NFC. Littleton, CO, USA.

Did you look at the bottom? Does the screen prompt "Insert or Slide Card" or just "Slide card"? On the older Ingenico terminals it's hard to notice the chip slot.
 
Walmart

Did you look at the bottom? Does the screen prompt "Insert or Slide Card" or just "Slide card"? On the older Ingenico terminals it's hard to notice the chip slot.
I didn't take a picture but I found one that looked like the terminal and attached it. Again they looked ancient.

It wasn't like Sears or Target or Seven-Eleven where they obviously have newer terminals just have turned off NFC and perhaps Chip and Pin/ EMV
 

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I didn't take a picture but I found one that looked like the terminal and attached it. Again they looked ancient.

It wasn't like Sears or Target or Seven-Eleven where they obviously have newer terminals just have turned off NFC and perhaps Chip and Pin/ EMV

That terminal does not look like standard Walmart issue. This is the oldest model of terminal that Walmart uses, the Ingenico i6550. There is an EMV chip slot hidden at the bottom, but it is active.

Source: I worked for Walmart.
 

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I'll give it another go

That terminal does not look like standard Walmart issue. This is the oldest model of terminal that Walmart uses, the Ingenico i6550. There is an EMV chip slot hidden at the bottom, but it is active.

Source: I worked for Walmart.

Thanks for the info. I will definitely try it again because I am very eager to get my first EMV Chip and Pin transaction in the US. I have been successful a number of times in Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Germany.


I didn't realize that terminals that old might have it.
 
Thanks for the info. I will definitely try it again because I am very eager to get my first EMV Chip and Pin transaction in the US. I have been successful a number of times in Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Germany.


I didn't realize that terminals that old might have it.

Yes the good news is that they are actively replacing these ancient terminals with ones with a color LCD, and built in (disabled) NFC, and a more pronounced EMV slot.

Reason being, CurrentC requires a color LCD to show the QR code. Hopefully if they get their heads out of their currentc butt, all they have to do is push an update to all registers to enable NFC.
 
Chip and PIN success at Walmart

Yes the good news is that they are actively replacing these ancient terminals with ones with a color LCD, and built in (disabled) NFC, and a more pronounced EMV slot.

Reason being, CurrentC requires a color LCD to show the QR code. Hopefully if they get their heads out of their currentc butt, all they have to do is push an update to all registers to enable NFC.
DontWalkHand,
I successfully used a Chip and Pin card at Walmart. I went to a different one that had the modern Ingenico terminal. Thanks for your input!

Strange thing is when I used the Chip and Pin slot, it did not ask for a PIN. It just said do not remove card and was flashing that. I was all set to enter my PIN. Nonetheless, I would prefer Apple Pay but am very happy to at least have Chip and Pin.

I would like to see other Current C members at least enable Chip and PIN, i.e. Target, Michaels and other data breach victims. Plus 7-11, Conoco, etc.
 
DontWalkHand,
I successfully used a Chip and Pin card at Walmart. I went to a different one that had the modern Ingenico terminal. Thanks for your input!

Strange thing is when I used the Chip and Pin slot, it did not ask for a PIN. It just said do not remove card and was flashing that. I was all set to enter my PIN. Nonetheless, I would prefer Apple Pay but am very happy to at least have Chip and Pin.

I would like to see other Current C members at least enable Chip and PIN, i.e. Target, Michaels and other data breach victims. Plus 7-11, Conoco, etc.

Target is turning it on "in Spring" so probably around August or so.

The rest have until October to turn it on as it is the deadline. Some exceptions are gas pumps and likely most restaurants have til a little later.
 
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