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Google Wallet Launches With $10 Credit
Following up on our digital wallet discussion yesterday, CWmike writes "Google officially launched its Google Wallet application today for NFC-ready Sprint Nexus S 4G phone users. The application launches initially for Citi MasterCard credit card holders, but Google also said today that Visa, Discover and American Express will be able to add their cards to future versions of Google Wallet. The application, first announced in May, was described in an official blog post. Visa said in a separate statement that it has licensed Google to use Visa's PayWave technology, used in 'hundreds of thousands' of terminals worldwide. But Visa didn't describe a timeline for when that function would be enabled. Google said it will allow users to add any bank card to a Google Prepaid Card and they will receive $10 to try the service."
Reviews of the service are popping up, and many seem to say the same thing; when it works, it's great, but your real wallet isn't going anywhere.
All 100,000,000,000 Americans will be setting up Google Wallets accounts and donating their $10 to support the great American government in its time of need.
now they know what kind of porn i buy.
So, if my physical wallet isn't going anywhere because I still need it for all the cards, cash and stuff I need to carry that I can't put on my phone, and I still need actual cards for merchants who don't have the right tech at their registers, what exactly does Google Wallet do for me? I can't think of a time when I'd have my phone and wouldn't have my wallet on me, so it's not convenience. About all it seems to do is enable Google to watch what I purchase. Sorry, I'm going to need something of benefit to me first.
Have they been sued by PayPal yet? No case? They'll find one.
I simply do not trust Google with anything personal and I will not use this service.
Unfortunately, to receive the $10 credit, you have to have the NFC chip implanted either in the forehead or the back of the hand....
This is a good attempt to help the government pursue getting rid of physical currency. Coinage has always been a problem as the metal to produce the coins becomes more expensive than the coins themselves. Paper money has been difficult to track and monitor. It would be much easier to control and eliminate black markets if there was no paper money. Also, inflation and the money supply would be easier to manipulate (which is changed to facilitate government debt in wartime or during recessions).
As currency becomes more virtual, we can stray further from real (tangible) value like actual physical commodities (gold, silver, etc.). Public ignorance will help provide faith for virtual currency, which will be faith in corporate profit and eventually faith in government debt (like with our current paper/metal currency). This can help support more greed and corruption as debt fuels investments while inflation reduces debt. Since, by decoupling currency from tangible commodities we can inflate the currency infinitely. However, the only potential problem is people whose faith is finite.
I heard an interview on the radio last month about this and the techie was gushing about how in a few years we won't carry physical wallets anymore. Which seems to miss the point that we carry other cards besides credit cards in wallets. My health card, membership cards, library card are all still in there, plus cash for places which don't take cards. Obviously my wallet isn't going anywhere.
Meanwhile, why would I use Google Wallet? Most stores don't support it and, in my area, they probably won't for several years. And if I'm out and about I'm going to have both a phone and a wallet on me. I don't see th benefit of paying for something with my phone.
It's bad enough that the hoe is my wife (my bitch charges for sex. In fact, she charges the same price to all her customers. I do not get a discount but at least i DON'T GET sloppy seconds). Damn my bitch does not take google wallet.
Some people have such specific fetishes that they pay to have a film produced. Take the story of Scat Swapping School Swallow , for example. In 2004, a movie about pooping back and forth was proposed on Something Awful to someone with connections to a Brazilian porn studio specializing in requests. By June, the film was complete, and it was being distributed under the name "swap.avi". A year later, other films were referencing it.
Please mod the parent post up so we don't have 500 posts with the GP's sentiment.
Put yourself in the shoes of someone in 1992:
What's the point of email? I can't email my grandma, she doesn't have a computer or internet access. I can call her anytime on my phone. Blah blah etc etc.
So you have to have a NFC-ready Sprint Nexus S 4G phone and a Citi MasterCard? That sounds like a very narrowly defined target audience to me. I wonder what their marketing department told them about those people.
Google already owns everything about me and knows all there is to know, so why not?
I'm kinda serious here -- unless you basically boycott the Internet and hide whenever the Streetview car comes, there's no way you've never contributed to Google's vast knowledge base. It's just a fact of modern life that Google knows as much about you as you're willing to give, which for most people including me is basically everything.
And the sky hasn't fallen. Google is tech company run by tech people; they're not selling your personal info to the Chinese, or cracking into the Pentagon, and in fact they have a vested interest in making sure that people feel safe and secure when using their products. If massive scandals started appearing where Google was doing vastly improper things with people's data, people would stop using their services. So far that hasn't happened.
If you don't trust Google, you pretty much can't trust Facebook (duh), Microsoft (puppet of the MAN), the Linux Kernel Team (Honeypot #1!), Slashdot (moar like Slashvertisingdot right?), any other search engine, email (non-encrypted asynchronous communication stored in plain text at both ends? No thanks!), any chat program (the NSA listens in!).
You pretty much can't be on the Internet.
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
library card, NO
driver's license, NO
cash, NO
postage stamps, NO
receipt from store, NO
business cards, NO
employer-provided keycard, NO
foreign currency, NO
insurance card, NO
rolling papers, NO
So I do without all those things, and some more I didn't think of, and switch to electronic versions of credit cards and ... I guess just credit cards. Oh shit, my battery is down, I'm out of the service area, I got wet, I'm on an airplane, etc.
And not to mention, I don't do online banking because it's a huge security hole. And they charge more.
...and thus, a second rate citizen in google's eyes. To be clear, once I started PAYING for a google service, I lost functionality with a fuzzy promise date of "soon" ( for the past 6 months ).
I don't think I'll be jumping on board this particular bandwagon, thanks.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Google haven't revoked the DigiNotar CA on android... Until they start taking security seriously or allowing users to make there own security decisions, I won't be using android for anything money related. And before anyone craps on about how unlikely a hack is... Answer this. Why did they revoke it for chrome?
"Thanks for submitting your information. We will email you once Google Wallet is released.
In the meantime, consider purchasing a Nexus S and applying for a Citi MasterCard(R) to use with Google Wallet once it is released. "
There's already Bitcoin wallets for Android, which can be used to send/receive payments directly between phones (or merchants) with QR Codes.
Luke-Jr
I am the manager of a small business in Manhattan, and because of Google Wallet I am getting a brand new Credit Card Machine - for free. No catch, no extension or contract with the Merchant Services company I do business with. Apparently Google is really pushing this really hard, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are paying the Merchant Services companies some money for each store they put a terminal in (the guy seemed extremely intent on giving me my new free machine).
I went here:
http://www.google.com/wallet/get.html
Clicked on "get google wallet" and nothing happens.
Another option that is being added and will be made available in later versions are Bitcoins. We will offer Bitcoin users the option to make Bitcoin transfers directly into their Google Wallet at the current market exchange rate. At this point we are not planning on keeping a separate Bitcoin balance but aim to make the interaction with the wallet as easy and transparent as possible.
I'd just like to point out:
There are roughly 14,000 McDonald's in the USA.
Virtually all of them take credit and debit cards and have 3 - 5 card readers.
Virtually all of those card readers can take Visa PayWave, as well as the similar technology from AmEx, MasterCard and Discover.
So all "hundreds of thousands" means is they got maybe a half-dozen large chains to put the silly things in around the world. Statistically speaking, nobody accepts them.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
I don't see the need. The process of swiping your credit card through the reader and signing on the little screen is the fastest part of the checkout process in most stores. Getting to the front of the line, and either getting all the merchandise scanned or ordering something, takes much longer. Also, I want to see the amount being charged before I authorize the charge. And you have to haul out some brick-sized smartphone when a little card could do the job.
I could see this for transit systems, but for routine shopping, why bother?
How is this in any way a good thing for a vendor? I have to wonder what Visa / Mastercard are doing with NFC / contactless payments while all this is going on. I would have thought it would be vastly preferable for stores (and consumers) to have a single payment processor. It means lower transaction fees and the existing infrastructure more or less works like it does now with only small modifications.
On a practical point, it seems plain dumb to have to wave around a $500 phone just to pay for some groceries. It's not hard to envisage scenarios where this could be a terrible idea - e.g. thieves following people into the carpark and mugging them for it.
It's very simple, people. The true future solution is to eradicate point-of-sale transactions. Billing data will NOT be transferred at the point of sale. Instead, a simple transaction ID will be shared: via a QR code, or a number that is simplified because it's combined with GPS data for specificity, or any other such system whereby the two parties can separately but simultaneously conduct the transaction via the Internet. The goal is to have my phone present me with the invoice, which I then make payment on from the phone interface. The merchant receives instant authorization of the payment and I walk away from the counter.