Olympic Phone touch-payment details revealed Samsung's "Olympic" Galaxy S3 is being posted out to athletes and game officials next week, complete with pay-by-bonk functionality and a customised interface for those who need to know how great Samsung is. The details came out at NFC Payments Europe, attended and reported by the chaps at NFC Times who got Visa to talk about …
"the most interesting aspect is the mechanism designed to allow pay-by-bonk to be used when spending more than £20, which is going to be essential if one's buying a decent round of drinks"
Or a Crappy Meal
Or just about anything else if you are a family.
It's to stop folks thinking about how much they are constantly being ripped off as soon as they pass the security checks.
"I mean, they have a special Olympic website and everything."
But you can bet there's a couple of lever arch folders full of contracts about what they can and can't put their name on. Stamping the ugly logo on credit cards: yes. Branding some bank software: no.
Did you know that suppliers can't tell anyone that they did work for the Olympics until 2024, unless they've got some official sponsor badge. Remember how we were told this would be a boost for business, showing off what Britain could do? Well, it won't, because the suppliers can't make any PR out of it until long after it's passed.
"Visa recognises that the passcode could (potentially) be vulnerable to key-listener malware on the Android handset"
Clearly that's possible on ANY smartphone platform, but congratulation on jumping aboard the Android malware myth bandwagon.
For that you get the Shitpeas Bandwagon jumper of the week award.
Perhaps they should make it just slightly more complicated, maybe by getting Network Rail and News Intl involved as partners in some way. Then the general populace might collectively realise just how out-moded the old way is of opening a wallet and taking out a twenty pound note to buy twenty pounds worth of gear.
I wouldn't mind contactless payments for the bus or for parking, but other than that, not really. And even parking now can be done with an SMS in many places.
Swindon had a "cash card" pilot in the late 90s called Mondex and it sank. OK, you couldn't just "bonk" it, but it wasn't much slower. You just inserted the card and the money was taken (i.e. no PIN).
as long as they train the staff to know whats going on its all good, i was in co-op this weekend and the utterly thick checkout dolly laughed at me when i bonked my card on the reader, she goes Oh it doesnt work like that you have ot insert it, i told her to read the sign stuck more or less to her forehead* which said PayWave. recieved the obligatory dirty look and Eventually she found the button to turn the pay by bonk sensor on and my life continued...
loosest link in the chain and all that...
That way no one can buy a round using my phone without me knowing.
how long will it be before there are portable readers that can be used in crowded places (like the Olympic park and the tube) to syphon 'Loads-a-money' from unsuspecting punters without their knowing until it is too late.
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