PayPal enables cash-by-slap

Sounds like another failure in the making

Let me sum up the indicators :

- the exact time

- the rough location

- the force of the bump as measured by the accelerometer

- various other clues

Time is maybe the indicator with the most probability of exactitude, except that there is no guarantee that the two phones have the exact same time. So it'll be the exact same time within a given number of many milliseconds.

The location is charted probably following triangulation. Without other reference, you could be giving your cash to anybody in a 10-yard radius.

The force of the bump. Okay, one question : how accurate are those accelerometers ? Two random phones have what probability of containing similarly-accurate accelerometers ? Is this really needed ?

Frankly, I'd be more inspired by a solution that said "place the two phones together within 3 inches of each other and then authorize the transaction manually - the phones will sense their closest neighbor and, when authorized, complete the transfer".

In that kind of solution, there is no timestamp, no hazardous evaluation of location, no worry about someone else butting in. It's just the phone that is closest to yours, detected by BlueTooth or something similar. That would be just about as reliable and fool-proof as you can get.

Think it through

The timing, force, location and so on let it identify the two phones involved in the transaction, but then it will still rely on the users putting in PINs and authorizing it.

So surely it's going to show something on both phones' screens to show those are the ones in the transaction. In other words, people will bump the phones together with both screens visible to both people, so they can see that it's working. If you don't see the other person's screen display the right information then don't authorise the transaction.

In other news..

.. an iPhone user was clubbed over the head with his phone, thus emptying his bank account.

London. An unsuspecting iPhone user received a nasty surprise when his iPhone was used to empty his bank account. The thief, who had identified his victim by the tell-tale white earphones, grabbed his victim's phone and proceeded to knock him over the head until he had stated his PIN number. After starting the App, the victim was subjected to several more knocks to activate the transaction whilst the attacker stated "Robbery? There's an App for that".

The victim was left bleeding in the gutter, sans iPhone which was found in an adjacent street as it has run out of battery. The iPhone suffered no damage in the process, despite not having a screen protector fitted as they are no longer sold in Apple shops.

Up until now, no clue to the identity of the assailant exists other than that he used another stolen iPhone for the transaction. The Western Union payment following the robbery could, as always, not be traced.

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Does the bump speed and impact make any difference? If so, if its for a large sum of cash - do you just beat the living shit out of the recipient with your phone?

"But I was just paying him officer"

Brilliant!

Oh come on my luddite friends, think about this in reality - nobody will use this when there is real cash around, but stag nights in the pub, time to put another £20 into the kitty - *bang* done. Compared with going out to find a cashpoint, or using one in the pub with a £1.75 fee, and you're a bit tipsy, perfect storm. And iPhone cretins will be the perfect launch audience. I expect it'll have pretty animations of coins flying from one phone to the other too.

The article says you have to verify the transaction, so this is really just a gimmick to make the 'ok, what's your paypal account email?' stage disappear - boink, authorise, done. And as it's the devices handling the proxying, you need never reveal your account name, I guess?

...Oh Dear...

To all those of you who are questioning the "Bump" mechanism - this was not developed by PayPal, and is something invented and maintained by some other geeks...

As for cash - I know that I don't always have cash on me, and unfortunately, my friends sometimes forget their PDQ machines (damn them for their incompetence!), so they can't accept my Visa Debit card payments...if only there was some other payment mechanism?

Oh, bank transfers - "Give me your account number and sort code" (said in a Nigerian accent)...and then wait...although if we're lucky, there will be "fast payments" enabled between the two banks...

And NFC in general - OMG, my Barclaycard already has an RFID coil in it (which interferes with my Oyster card - YEAH!), I'm waay ahead of the game...oh wait, there needs to be technology to actually accept my NFC payment, and then the retailer needs to adopt this technology - but I'm sure that Barclaycard won't charge retailers any more for it, because they don't charge for payments anyway, right?

:)