yudansha
TheGreatOne
Post the cool, new tech stuff you find. 
This is very new! I just found it today:
Japanese turn cell phones into wallets
TOKYO (AP) - As it is, you don't leave home without it. In a world of cashless payment, why not simply make your cell phone a wallet?
Japan has long been phasing out the hassle of coins and bills with microchip-laden "smart cards," which let people make electronic payments for everything from lunch to the daily commute.
But even smart cards could be on their way out, their plastic presence overtaken by virtual-wallet technology now available in the everyday cell phone.
Other countries, led by South Korea, already have so-called mobile commerce payment schemes in place that let people punch keys on their cell phones so that the devices trigger transactions.
But a series of phones going on sale this summer in Japan, for use on NTT DoCoMo's wireless network, are the world's first with an embedded computer chip that you can fill up with electronic cash.
To pay, you simply wave your cell phone within a few centimetres of a special display found in stores, restaurants and vending machines around Japan. A fairy-like tinkling sound means your purchase is being deducted from the embedded chip using radio-frequency ID technology.
It's instantaneous.
Unlike infrared or other mobile payment schemes that require clicks on the handset, you don't even need to open your clamshell-shaped phone.
It's an idea that makes sense, given that almost every Japanese has a cell phone and relies on it so much that being stranded in the street without one almost causes panic. There are 81.5 million cell phones in the country of 127 million people.
For the wallet phone tech to really take off, stores, theatres and restaurants that accept electronic payments need to become more widespread. They total around 9,000 in Japan so far and the number is quickly growing.
Computer experts have suggested hackers could develop a way to pickpocket cell phone wallets merely by getting close to people's handsets. That hasn't happened - yet.
Another concern is a telecom company - or a government - could find out too much about your spending proclivities and your physical movements. But other features on Japan's richly endowed cell phones offer marketers plenty of information on consuming habits as it is: almost all phones have e-mail and Internet connections for restaurant searches, ringtone downloads, news and weather.
One Japanese airline lets passengers use the wallet phone to speed up check-ins at airports and next year you'll be able to use the phones to begin paying for train rides and video rentals.
Later this year, Japanese credit-card company JCB Corp. plans to offer a service that will let corporate clients use chip-embedded phones as electronic keys to get into office buildings.
And if you lose your wallet phone?
Well, DoCoMo can lock it. Which means no one else can use it for calls. And no one else would be able to add more money to the cash-dispensing chip.
But whatever money is stored on the phone is like a virtual wad of cash.
This is very new! I just found it today:
Japanese turn cell phones into wallets
TOKYO (AP) - As it is, you don't leave home without it. In a world of cashless payment, why not simply make your cell phone a wallet?
NTT DoCoMo's new wallet cell phone makes a e tinkling sound when the vending machine recognizes a purchase of a cup of coffee. (AP /Shizuo Kambayashi)
Japan has long been phasing out the hassle of coins and bills with microchip-laden "smart cards," which let people make electronic payments for everything from lunch to the daily commute.
But even smart cards could be on their way out, their plastic presence overtaken by virtual-wallet technology now available in the everyday cell phone.
Other countries, led by South Korea, already have so-called mobile commerce payment schemes in place that let people punch keys on their cell phones so that the devices trigger transactions.
But a series of phones going on sale this summer in Japan, for use on NTT DoCoMo's wireless network, are the world's first with an embedded computer chip that you can fill up with electronic cash.
To pay, you simply wave your cell phone within a few centimetres of a special display found in stores, restaurants and vending machines around Japan. A fairy-like tinkling sound means your purchase is being deducted from the embedded chip using radio-frequency ID technology.
It's instantaneous.
Unlike infrared or other mobile payment schemes that require clicks on the handset, you don't even need to open your clamshell-shaped phone.
It's an idea that makes sense, given that almost every Japanese has a cell phone and relies on it so much that being stranded in the street without one almost causes panic. There are 81.5 million cell phones in the country of 127 million people.
For the wallet phone tech to really take off, stores, theatres and restaurants that accept electronic payments need to become more widespread. They total around 9,000 in Japan so far and the number is quickly growing.
Computer experts have suggested hackers could develop a way to pickpocket cell phone wallets merely by getting close to people's handsets. That hasn't happened - yet.
Another concern is a telecom company - or a government - could find out too much about your spending proclivities and your physical movements. But other features on Japan's richly endowed cell phones offer marketers plenty of information on consuming habits as it is: almost all phones have e-mail and Internet connections for restaurant searches, ringtone downloads, news and weather.
One Japanese airline lets passengers use the wallet phone to speed up check-ins at airports and next year you'll be able to use the phones to begin paying for train rides and video rentals.
Later this year, Japanese credit-card company JCB Corp. plans to offer a service that will let corporate clients use chip-embedded phones as electronic keys to get into office buildings.
And if you lose your wallet phone?
Well, DoCoMo can lock it. Which means no one else can use it for calls. And no one else would be able to add more money to the cash-dispensing chip.
But whatever money is stored on the phone is like a virtual wad of cash.
