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PayPal Demos Auto-Debit Gumball Machine

Posted by samzenpus on from the candy-card dept.

ForgedArtificer writes "At their recent developers conference in San Diego, CA, PayPal unveiled a proof-of-concept gumball machine that would instantly pay for a gumball through a PayPal account using a smart phone and a QR code, sending a confirmation of the purchase through Twitter. Ok, maybe we all don't really care if we can get a gumball without a quarter, but the possibilities for this technology are endless."

6 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Banking regulations. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How is PayPal *not* a bank again? O.o

  2. My credit card doesn't run out of batteries by igreaterthanu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My smart phone does. This will never be able to replace other forms of money until they get that one sorted.

    --
    I dream of a nation where a man is not judged by his skin color but by an number assigned by a credit rating agency.
    1. Re:My credit card doesn't run out of batteries by ziggyzaggy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      your credit card can't make 25 cent payments. I believe we'll go to a cashless society, all electronic money. That way the banking cartel can get a cut of every transaction no matter how small, and the government can tax, monitor and control all transactions no matter how small. If they consider you a pestilent person, they will cut off your ability to buy and sell.

  3. A: Because it disrupts the flow of a message by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Q: Why is starting a comment in the Subject: line incredibly irritating?

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  4. ...endless stupidity by holophrastic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So let's see. The gumball is a simple sphere that cost a penny to produce, and was produced in a batch of thousands. The gumball machine -- read dispensor -- cost ten dollars to produce, adn was produced in a batch of hundreds. The consumer is standing not twelve inches away from a needless and insignificant candy treat.

    The perfect solution is not:

    a more expensive dispensor, more competant consumer, a mobile phone, a fancy barcode -- read smart phone -- a web-site -- read web browser -- a privacy policy -- actually four -- Internet infrastructure, cellular infrastructure, a phone plan, a data plan, customer service, tech support, a collections agency, anti-fraud measures, and a PIN.

    The perfect solution is a hammer. The quarter was already a nuissance. This is just stupid.

    Oh yeah, and a bank account. How silly of me.

  5. Why is Twitter involved? by Animats · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why run this through Twitter? If the server wants to send an SMS message, it should just send an SMS message using an SMS gateway. Why package it as a "tweet?"

    (I suspect why. So they can spam you. It's illegal to send unsolicited commercial SMS messages in the US. If PayPal makes you "follow" them on Twitter to get transaction confirmations, they can then send you ads, too.)