“ Whoa , how did you do that ? ” I did n’t say anything when the clerk at Duane Reade — or was it Walgreen’s?—asked me how to pay . I just bang up my sound into the PayPass terminal . Money rain buckets out of my Nexus S , and into somebody ’s corporate coffers . Magic !
But then I still had to tell the dumb recognition console table whether I was paying debit entry or credit . And then I had to wait for my reception to print out , all ten miles of it . Which made my attempt at being a mysterious alien with inscrutable magical technology quickly disappearing into the night fail miserably since it would ’ve been mad uneasy to gaze straight off into each other ’s middle for 45 seconds without enjoin a word .
Google Wallet is clearly a unaired - up glance at what the seamless , slippery future of money looks like — MasterCard is an appropriate enough vector for a technological crisscross of the Beast , I speculate — but it ’s still very much in 2011 . clash bristle .
If you ’re unfamiliar with Google Wallet , read this , or here ’s the rough summation . ( Really rough , since Google Wallet ’s a lot of little things , ring together . ) Google Wallet is an app that lets you pay for thing using your phone , either by tie your citation card(s ) or charge up giving / pre - pay cards . That ’s the software side . Using an NFC chip embedded in a telephone , you rap a pay terminal . No pilfer your card . That ’s the hardware side . On the online side , it ’ll seamlessly merge digital coupon that you collect — either from Google Offers or merchants themselves — and loyalty cards .
https://gizmodo.com/google-wallet-how-googles-going-to-eat-your-real-walle-5805879
The perfect theoretical — literally frictionless!—transaction looks like this : You snag a Google Offer for $ 1 off a Frappucino at Starbucks . ( Or if you do n’t have an offer on tap , Google Shopper will show you a bunch nearby . ) You go to the dear Starbucks — nail by Google , of form — and order your awfully sweet concoction . When you go to pay for your drink , you enter the Wallet app , punch in your pin and tip the payment console with your speech sound . straightaway , your Google Offer voucher is applied , you ’ve paid for your drink , and you ’ve racked up point on your Starbucks loyalty notice . And the receipt ’s on your phone . That whole scene ? That ’s why tap a Google Wallet phone is potentially more commodious than a credit card card . Not the lighter billfold . Deal + defrayment + loyalty in one spigot .
What Google Wallet looks like today , though , is different . The Wallet app will hit Nexus S 4 G headphone on Sprint today — and only those phones for now . ( Google promised an NFC spine to enable non - NFC - packing phone to use Wallet , but is n’t tell anything else about it — specifically , when we might see one — now . ) The system alone uses Mastercard ’s PayPass terminals , deeply limiting the figure of places you’re able to use Wallet , though Google announced today it ’s licensing NFC specification from Visa , Discover and AmEx . ( Basically , the only berth it ’s useful to me is in NYC cabs , since I do n’t shop at American Eagle or Macy ’s or much any of the other big box stores partnering with Google . ) And , to top it all off , it ’s only Citi Mastercards that presently get the full benefits of Google Wallet — for now , to devote with anything but endowment board , you ’ve basically got ta charge a pre - paid Google Card with money from your bank account through Google Checkout . All things that extremely constrain just how convenient Google Wallet actually is today .
So my experience using Google Wallet is very much what I expect it to be for most people out of the gate : a novelty , mostly . At least after I loaded it up with money , which seems weird , like giving myself an allowance , because I could n’t use it with my Wachovia credit identity card . I could n’t use it with Google Offers , either , since I could n’t find one for any of the entrepot that take Google Wallet . And I could n’t expend it with loyalty cards , since I do n’t use have them for anywhere but main coffee shops far , far away from Google and Mastercard ’s radar . Which nixes half of what ’s in reality convenient about Wallet , since tapping after punching in your pin is no easier than swiping , in most shell .
You fuck where it was awe-inspiring though ? In an NYC cab . attempt to excavate your wallet out of your ass pocket while you ’re sitting down , rive the correct credit card out of your wallet , trying to figure out where to swipe it , fumbling around with the card to get the chevron facing the right direction , going through the correct number of bill of fare , swiping at the right upper , finally , and pay up the blasted cabbie after he tries to convince you his credit card end is broken is like , um , annoying . Google Wallet fix that .
Wallet will fix a plenty of things , perhaps preferably than you ’d expect , even establish how dull as the fiscal manufacture moves . Because money , infrastructure like this — new terminals in every memory board — is a scale game . Google ’s got ordered series . Its collaborator , like Mastercard and Visa and Citi , have scale . They ’re gon na need it to get people on board . But eventually it ’s going to wash over everything like a waving . It ’ll be on lots of phones . It ’ll work with lots of cards and stack of banks . It ’ll be in great deal of stores . And then it ’ll be just as raw as pull out a card and swiping . Maybe more , since I have my phone out all the time anyway . Besides , it ’s obvious this is just the beginning for Google . Google does n’t just want to replace your credit cards — there ’s a reason they ’re call it Google Wallet , not Google Money or Google Cards .
If you ’ve receive a Nexus S 4 G on Sprint , well , welcome to the future tense , starting now . [ Google , Google ]
Update : I did n’t really talk about security because I did n’t worry about it . Google Wallet ’s pretty impregnable . You need a PIN to unlock the Wallet to pay for material . So if you lose your earphone , without bang your PIN number , it ’s useless . The NFC micro chip itself is shut up down hardcore . For instance , the chip is handicapped whenever the presentation is off , so it ca n’t be skimmed . And the secure element is only turned on when the screen is on and Wallet is unsecured and quick for defrayment .
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