“Apple doesn’t discuss future product plans, but it appears likely that the company is aggressively pursuing the development of technologies that replace IDs, passwords and credit cards,” Mike Elgan reports for Computerworld.
“Two years ago, Apple was in the news for patenting a range of biometric ID tools for the iPhone, such as a voice recognition system, a retinal scanner that uses the phone’s camera or, most likely, a system that uses the screen to scan fingerprints,” Elgan reports. “Last year, Apple hired an expert in Near Field Communication, or NFC, to head up the company’s Mobile Commerce department. NFC is technology that enables the transfer of data over distances of just a few inches — a model that’s far more secure and reliable than, say, Bluetooth. Other inside sources have been quoted as saying that Apple plans to build NFC into the iPhone 5. Apple has also recently advertised three job openings related to payment platforms and short-range wireless data transfers. And Apple has been granted NFC-related patents.”
Elgan reports, “Of course, it could be a while before you can use an iPhone as a universal debit card. It could take Apple some time to establish the partnerships and programs necessary to get every gas station and grocery store to support iTunes. But the password-killing ID card functionality could exist on Apple systems as early as this year, or most likely next year… I believe that it will soon be possible to live without passwords or credit cards. If Apple builds in these capabilities, you can be sure Google will. And if Apple and Google do it, so will all of their competitors.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Something else for google to copy.
Weird: MW = own
Smells like big brother to me
It’ll take a while before businesses get on board? No way. Here’s Apple: “We want this to be everywhere because we believe it will be good for our customers. So today we are announcing free hardware to any business who wants an iPass Reader. We want this to be everywhere so we will be taking just 1% of any transaction, far below the going rate that any of the big 4 credit card companies charge…”
BOOM goes the dynamite!
Make is so, young Paduwan!
Nerd – do you have any idea how business works?
“If Apple builds in these capabilities, you can be sure Google will.”
Google is the new Mafia$oft.
@jdi ~ Huh? Pretty sure I do. Thanks. Give away the razor charge for the blades, a. B) 1% could work with their own data center, I’m thinking. It doesn’t have to make much on it’s own, aka the iTunes model. Break even is fine because it sells phones.
So, yeah. I do. Someone wake up on the wring side of the bed today?
Hmm. No passwords? So how reliable will the retina and fingerprint scans be. How about a multi-authentication where passwords are used in conjunction with the purposes ID methods
. . . and severed fingers littered the land.
@Jacob626,
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With a retina display, 100% accurate.
@Nerd Beautiful:
Totally agree, great call! I can see it happening within the next few years.
You are Beautiful!
666 is nigh
agree jdi. Apple seems to be treading in google-ish territory. Bodes well for bottom lines. For privacy – not so much.
@cb1
Actually not. Passwords and physical IDs can be extremely insecure. If a password can be cracked, well who knows.
And if you don’t think that nearly everything we do isn’t being tracked (on some level) now, have another cup of joe and wake the F up.
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Example.
I don’t have kids (that I know of… hardy har har). Never wanted any. Some friends were visiting recently with their 2 kids. I let them play with my iPad (painting apps, some Dr. Seuss book apps, etc.) and streamed a couple of kiddie videos (OMFG what crap!) from Netflix so the “adults” could talk. Pretty soon, I’m getting junk email and seeing browser ads with kid-centric offers. WTF? Why me?
“Smells like big brother to me”
Time to get your own room….
Soon Android/Chrome users will have to stare into the ‘oo’ of Google every time they go online. If Google does not recognize who you are, you are nobody.
I just came across this statement made about 2000 years ago:
“He required everyone — great and small, rich and poor, slave and free — to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. Wisdom is needed to understand this. Let the one who has understanding solve the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.” Revelations 13:16-18
Coincidence? I think not.
@ditchdoc68 – Coincidence? Yes, actually. Sorry, but many people have been using a cashless economy for years both here and abroad, and even in the centuries we’ve been using cash, what do those numbers on our paper bills represent? Can you hand someone a piece of paper with no numbers on it and receive goods or services for it? Your mythical rapture is nowhere in sight. Besides, doesn’t the Bible say that no one will predict its coming? That means, if you keep predicting its arrival, it will never happen. So do good work, live life to the fullest and be happy.
On topic: Is anyone else getting tired of people proclaiming “X will kill Y!”? Because I sure am.
Television did not kill radio… or movie theaters, for that matter. Debit cards have not killed paper checks or currency. The iPod did not kill other MP3 players. I still see them all the time at the gym. In fact, the first things I can think of that have actually been “killed” by newer technologies are 8-track tapes, audio cassettes, and VHS, which really are just delivery systems. But the industries that used those systems are still around. How would circumvention of using a credit card as a debit card eliminate credit cards? How will NFC eliminate passwords needed to access my college’s website or my school district’s intranet?
Multiple systems, multiple industries, multiple companies, products, services which overlap can and will be available to people unless the benefits of one so totally overshadow another that the vast majority of users see the benefits and stop using the less useful version. That’s awfully rare, but it makes for sensational headlines.
People in other countries have been using NFC technology for years. Nokia has offered it in Finland for some time. I remember seeing a piece on Nokia about five or six years ago showing how nearly everyone in Finland had cell phones (before we in the U.S. did) and used their NFC for even trivial purchases like bottles of pop from pop machines. They just waved their phones in front of a spot on the machines, typed in their PIN numbers, and a bottle popped out and their bank accounts were charged for the bottle. Simple. Safe. Incredibly time efficient. Personally, I’m looking forward to it.
March of last year, Wired did an excellent article about the future of currency. You can find it here: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_futureofmoney/
@silverhawk
@Cubert
Do you know that Google already has NFC capabilities built into the Nexus S?
@ditchdoc68,
You know, the first full Apple computer sold for $666 (and 66 cents).
@ the end & ditchdoc68
Not all of the prophesies leading up to that one have been fullfilled as if yet, while they certaintly don’t need to come to pass in order. There’s still a few that do need to happen first. Besides it’s useless to try and predict the end time. Just ask the Jo-Ho’s(jehovah’s witnesses) they’ve been at since 1877
the end time?
You guys need to give your heads a shake.
Delusional religions are the cause of so much groundless fear.
‘end time’ = delusional rubbish.
@Derek in Milan
Amen!
And with retinal scans here comes a black market for eyeballs 😮
Just a thought, Stuff is coming faster than you might think. Recently I used a digital boarding pass on two different airlines. You get a digital download that stays in your iPhone, When you go to board, you show the Square UPC code to the scanner. It said “Good to go” both times….. PS.. i had a printed copy of a boarding pass both times…. just in case.
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Just a thought,
en