The Future Is Here: Paying Without Cash, Credit Or Debit Cards: David Pogue, The New York Times tech guru, offers an article today titled Pay By Voice, So Long Wallet; and it relays the future of paying for items in stores sans any type of credit or debit cards – and cash? That is not allowed either!
Right now the big thing in payment technology is actually an app and small credit/debit card scanning device you can fit on an iPhone or iPad and that lets merchants swipe a customer’s credit or debit card to quickly and easily pay for the items being purchased. And you may be thinking “Yes, but isn’t that the same thing we already do when we use cash registers?” And the answer to that is not quite because if you have an iPad or iPhone with a cellular connection all you need to do is use an app and the small scanning attachment* and that makes it easy for anyone to take payments via credit or debit cards from almost anywhere. So this new technology impacts not just merchants in stores but anyone selling items anywhere because they can quickly and easily accept credit or debit card payments – thus vendors at fairs, parades and concerts can quickly and easily accept payment for items as can the clerk at your favorite coffee shop and the local high school kids making money by babysitting or mowing lawns.
And as impressive as the iPhone and iPad credit/debit card swiping system is – just wait because on the horizon is something even more impressive! Imagine buying those same items – coffee at your local coffee shop, a t-shirt at a concert or hotdog at the ballgame and not even having to present a debit or credit card at all but instead simply being able to pay by saying your name! Not only is that technology coming, but in fact it is already here! The company Square, which was one of the first to offer the previously mentioned pay with a credit or debit card via the swiping/iPad/iPhone system, now has developed a way to use an iPad or iPhone to allow people who also have iPads or iPhones to pay for items without them even having to take out a credit or debit card or even take their iPads or iPhones out of their pockets or backpacks! This new system is called Pay With Square and if a coffee shop or vendor or any sort had the proper equipment (an iPad and the appropriate Pay With Square app) and the customer is signed up for the service – than the customer can indeed pay by simply walking up to the clerk at the coffee shop or t-shirt vendor at the concert and simply saying his or her name!
Cool stuff! And here’s the link to the Pogue article which relays all the details:
Registering To Vote Via Facebook: ABC News & CNN both offer articles today regarding the fact that the State of Washington has just become the first state to allow its residents who are U.S. citizens, to register to vote via Facebook! Washington is actually the twelfth state to allow residents to vote online but it is the first to allow residents, who are registered Facebook users – to register to vote via Facebook. The State of Washington, in conjunction with Microsoft and Facebook, has set up this new way for people to register to vote to try and entice younger people to register to vote – this is an issue because less than 10% of state residents between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in the last general election and state officials hope that offering those young people the option to register to vote via their Facebook accounts will increase the number of registered voters in that age group.
Here’s the link to the ABC News article which is titled Register to Vote? There’s an App for That:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/voter-registration-theres-an-app-for-that/
And one to the CNN article, titled Washington state to become first to offer voter registration on Facebook:
Linda R.
*Depending upon which app you use there is a fee which usually costs 2-3% of the price of the sale of the item(s).
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