back to article Paris Metro brings a bit of style to NFC

The Paris Metro will be getting new payment cards next year, cards which pave the way to board-by-bonk phones by being compatible with the NFC standard. Not that the Paris transport authority, the STIF, is saying much about the technical capabilities of the new card. The French are much more interested in the fact that it was …

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  1. Pete the not so great
    Paris Hilton

    Board by bonk?

    Now there's a U-for-mism if I ever heard one!

    Paris H. - well how could I not?

  2. xyz Silver badge
    Coat

    Paris...STIF...fnar,fnar

    I had to be the first

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wooo, I'm going to turn my monitor 90 degrees into Portrait orientation, to bring energy to my desk. Yeah!

  4. Steve Evans

    A bit of style?

    That'll be the first on the Paris Metro then... It's like being driven round in an old tin can from the 1920s!

    1. DJ 2
      Coat

      The oldest trains only date from the 70's and they are being replaced. Can't wait to wave my phone over the reader so the pickpockets can see what to steal and what not to steal.

      the one with nothing in the pockets.

  5. ScissorHands
    Trollface

    If only France had gotten the N9

    They got the Lumia which doesn't have NFC. But who am I kidding, who would build an app for the N9, even though the UI code is dead easy and the core logic is Linux gcc?

    As for punters evaluating who to relieve of their phones: put it in a sock, NFC is contactless enough.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    So how is this different from London Undergrounds oyster card?

    Which is also a smartcard and has been around for almost 10 years and can be embedded in phones? I hate the break the news to our french neightbours but they're a bit behind the curve on this one.

    1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

      This is not the first contactless card used in Paris. The existing Navigo cards are similar to the RFID Oyster, but use a different application (Calypso rather than MiFare).

      By adopting an "NFC" standard, the new card provides a migration path to allow pay-by-phone if that's deemed useful (the jury's out), but I can't help thinking that the real motivation is that credit and debit cards will also be moving to NFC in the coming years, and this would allow simpler payment terminals that could take either Navigo or Credit/Debit cards.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Headline

    > Philippe Starck designs last Navigo card

    Who is Philippe Starck?

    Why won't there be any further designs?

  8. ElReg!comments!Pierre
    Coat

    Vee Ownz Joo

    So,

    -Haute Couture

    -Haute Cuisine

    -Fine wines

    -G spot

    -and now, designer commute cards

    (but still Le Président is a classless chav)

  9. Wombling_Free
    FAIL

    Philippe Starck?

    He's the guy who designed the 'golden turd' for Asahi in Tokyo. (I'm not being rude, that's what the locals call it)

    so...

    ...it will be very expensive.

    ...and won't actually, like, you know, BE USEFUL or WORK, will it?

    Case in point: Have you ever tried using Starck's martian juicer? Really? Do it one day, it is superb fun to see how such a simple design can fail in so many hilarious ways.

  10. TeeCee Gold badge
    WTF?

    It's a bloody card!

    It's rectangular, like all the others.

    It's got a chip in one end, like all the others.

    It's got some logos and some identification details on it, like all the others.

    Presumably the only "designer" bit here involves choosing the colour scheme and deciding which edge is "up".

    Philippe Starck must be pissing himself with laughter as he banks the hefty fee he got for that job......

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