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I love the idea. I have tried to use "CardStar", a great app that holds all your store rewards cards for companies such as Duane Reade and BestBuy. The only issue is some store scanners cannot read/scan the bar code from the iPhone screen, but they can enter the numbers. Saves the effort of carrying around a dozen cards. NFC would be a better implementation.

Question about Starbucks. I set up the account, and entered my CC info. Yet it seems you have to buy a Starbucks gift card and enter the info in order to use it. Why not charge the CC# entered into the application instead of having to add a third step, or am I missing something?




Do you need to confirm the payment on your iPhone? What is the radius of NFC?



"Minority Report"

Since the iPhone NFC isn't real yet or known publicly hard to say. I would imagine you would have to confirm on the iPhone. As I see them used now with NFC credit cards, you touch your card to the credit card reader and then have to confirm your transaction.

The radius of NFC is listed around 4 feet. However, I think for current systems like credit cards it is much less. Not sure if this is due to the small size of a credit card and how far it can broadcast or a limit set up for NFC payments. Certainly an issue if used in an iPhone because I wouldn't want to be standing in line and get prompted (note not automatically charged) 2 or 3 times while waiting for the people in front of me to check out.

NFC does rely on "handshakes" so the iPhone is only one part of this equation. The NFC "reader" used in a check out line could be limited (I think) to only request information in a smaller radius (like 1 foot or 6 inches), where as advertising signs might reach out to 4 feet.

Certainly privacy is an issue and if Apple does it right where you can turn on/off NFC, maybe even limit what it is used for (payments only/ads only/personal only) along with prompts it could bring about a change in NFC usage. It has been around for years now but isn't very widely used.
 
Department of Defense

Several posters endorse the end of cash. They envision smart cards, smart phones, smart dongles and whatever, pumping electronic money through the retail system.

I want to know how the cashless society protects consumers from tec-adept thieves.

Recently, some skimmer in my area was able to put a credit card skimmer inside a few gas pumps. The skimmer is like 20th century tec. A radio receiver/transmitter would be so easy to conceal.
 
Those dont work, Ive tried them in upwards of 5 different places that actually had them and the cashier always said "it will be declined" if I do that. Only McDonalds has had a working one. Those readers are the most unreliable pieces of crap out there.
 
NFC will be great once it takes off. No more carrying small change in your pocket for picking up a newspaper/beer/coffee/etc, train/flight tickets delivered to your phone - scan the phone to go through, hotel room key delivered to your phone. No more late checking in, just turn up at the hotel, straight to your room as your room key is already on your phone. They are already trialing that in Sweden.

I don't know why people are concerned about security. I would be more worried about losing my wallet with cards in it than losing my phone. At least with the phone there is a layer of security already there whereas with the wallet the thief can already go on a shopping spree.
 
i like the concept a lot and would love to use it!

so im going to have to buy the iphone 5 to be able to use it? I havent even had my iphone 4 for 6 months yet! :confused: hahaha
 
No thank you.

Before I left my Bank and joined a Credit Union, the Bank tried to send me a card with an RFID chip in it. I called them up and made them send me one without. Have a magnetic strip is bad enough. NO RFID!

If I can't turn off this "feature", I won't be upgrading my iPhone. But I can't image they'd not let me turn it off.

Also, cash is still king. I love paying for stuff with cash. No address/zip needed.
 
my opinon on using NFC-enabled phones for mobile payments.

What's the point... whether you get out your credit card or your phone it still requires about the same amount of "effort." It's not like a credit card takes up a whole lot of room in your wallet. Maybe it will be "safer" because it's easier to lose a card than your phone... but I dunno. Plus we will still need to use credit cards anyways because a) it will take years before NFC is well established and b) I'm not about to hand my iPhone to the 16 year old waiter at Denny's (or where ever. I'm not picking on Denny's)

I'm not saying that NFC will revolutionize anything, but there are some little benefits.
-Credit card: reach into back pocket, open wallet, slide card out, swipe card, put back in wallet, etc.
-Magnetic cards get damaged after too many swipes
-Credit cards sometimes ask for a ZIP code, debit cards ask for your PIN, etc.

These kinds of things are used in many places in Asia (Japan, Hong Kong) for quick payments at convenience stores, vending machines, and public transit systems. It really shaves off a few seconds...Add that up in the hundreds of people that use a given service each day and it's a good thing.
 
call be oldschool but i'll just stick with money. at least im not shocked looking at my bill later on lol
 
I have some serious problems with this technology.
Way too intrusive.
Hope it has an OFF button!
....and even then will you really know it is not giving out you personal info behind your back.
This could be monitoring where you shop, visit etc........scary!
 
NFC - iPhone - Global markets - T-Mumble

Well, well... So DT is saying they are gonna launch/support NFC on the iPhone this year... That means we should thank goodness that T-Mumble-US will have NOTHING!

Now that T-Mumble US is just a fading memory in the mind of DT , they couldn't care less if T-Mumble US finds ANOTHER WAY to hose it's customers and laugh all the way to the bank...

Truly an idiotic company and marketing organization... Maybe they should go down with Nokisoft...
 
I think more evidence that the IPhone 5 will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary - upgraded A5, larger screen, NFC, better camera. Most of the enahancement in the iPhone has been in the software department, not hardware.

NFC is a nice concept, but the infrastructure to support it is inconsistent at best, there are serious privacy concerns and it's going to take a culture shift. I'm actually OK to not be an early adopter on NFC.
 
It's an opt-in system and you have to authorize vendors. There are time-proven safeguards and security procedures.

That's why you don't hear horror stories from Japan and South Korea about NFC contactless payment systems, even though those countries have been using them since about 2005.

Note that these particular NFC systems have an operating range of a couple of inches, not several feet. If I walk right by a Clipper Card terminal at the local Caltrain station, nothing happens. I have to pull out my wallet (the Clipper Card is inside) and hover it over the sensor about an inch away for it to tag on/tag off.

It's not like someone can set up a white panel van across the street and start draining accounts dry.

The Japanese call it "osaifu keitai" which literally means "wallet phone." Losing your phone is just as inconvenient as losing your wallet. However, using an "osaifu keitai" is much more convenient than pulling out a wallet and digging through a dozen discrete slabs of plastic, trying to find the one for the train/bus/coffee chain/etc.

The hygiene-minded Japanese also think contactless payment systems are cleaner than swiping a card through some slot and typing a PIN on some icky keypad.

How often do you think the numeric keypads on a ticket vending machine or ATM are sanitized? Yeah, I thought so.
 
Perhaps Apple will want a 30% cut of all transactions carried out using the iPhone :D
 
How often do you think the numeric keypads on a ticket vending machine or ATM are sanitized? Yeah, I thought so.

An even crazier thought is that at one point the American Chemical Society estimated roughly 90% of paper money in use in the USA had trace amounts of cocaine on it.
 
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I love my iPhone because it makes my life simpler and less cluttered...

... But how would I benefit from NFC? I still would carry my wallet and credit cards for places that don't support it.
 
It's neat I guess, but it doesn't negate me from still needing to carry a wallet with other cards (student ID, driver license, cash, credit card for emergency, etc.) so what's the point? Literally, this means I can carry one less little plastic debit card...and that's only when ALL vendors support this feature.
 
I'll pass



I don't like this at all. I wouldn't feel comfortable paying for something on NFC enabled phone. It's just way too risky.
 
NFC is like old news in places like Hong Kong where the Octopus Card has been used since 1997 (smart cards), you can load money to pay for anything from groceries, parking meter and McDonald's but more importantly it's used on all the main public transport system.

It may not be quite the same as loading money onto your phone but I sure as hell not want to load up more than £50 any one time incase I lose it.
 
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