Filed under: Cellphones

Neither mobile banking apps nor mobile payment technologies are anything new, but the depth of Visa’s newfound commitment to anything and everything mobile here is pretty unique. The company has announced a slew of initiatives to make it as frighteningly easy as possible for cardholders to do cool things with their accounts right from their phones starting with the launch of the Nokia 6212 Classic next month, which will serve up NFC-based contactless payments, cardholder-to-cardholder transfers, and realtime account alerts (subject to issuing bank availability). Meanwhile, they’ve wasted no time jumping on the Android bandwagon, revealing that they’ve hooked up with Chase to offer an Android app that delivers notifications, merchant “offers,” and a location-based search of nearby retailers that accept Visa cards (which is pretty much all of them in our experience). If the Chase trial pans out, Visa plans to shop the Android app around to other issuing banks. Finally, there’s also a new web-based mobile money transfer pilot going down that’s scheduled to kick off around the end of the year involving several banks and “as many as” 6,000 cardholders; what are the odds that those 6,000 are going to be transferring much money among each other, though?

[Via CNET]

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Filed under: Handhelds

Every so often, a gizmo crosses our path that truly makes us question the thought process of its creator(s). This particular Friday, that gizmo is the Blinger. This so-called “portable ATM” apparently enables users to whip out an oversized, one-trick-pony of a device and instantly send cash for wares, check your current level of fundage, calculate currency conversions and wonder why on earth they haven’t invented this thing called “online banking.” Oh, wait.

[Via InventorSpot]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Chances are, you had forgotten all about Sony and NXP’s little initiative to cooperate on a NFC (near-field communications) standard, but the two seem to have finally worked out all the kinks and are ready to move forward. The joint venture, dubbed Moversa, will seek to “drive global adoption of contactless smart card applications in mobile phones,” and it’s already planning to develop, produce and market a Universal Secure Access Module (U-SAM) that “incorporates both MIFARE and FeliCa operating systems and applications.” Essentially, the duo is hoping to accelerate the adoption of integrated contactless support, which would enable users to make payments (among other things) easily via their handset. If you’re curious about availability, we’re hearing that samples should be shipped out in mid-2008, but commercial deployments aren’t scheduled to happen until the end of next year.

[Via Yahoo / Reuters]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

Just when you thought those Nigerian scammers were simply running out of avenues to coerce you into cashing some counterfeit check for $4.98 billion, along comes this. Western Union is apparently buddying up with 35 or so cellphone operators to “develop a system that would allow consumers to transfer money from country to country via their mobile phones.” Reportedly, the outfit has successfully tested the service in a number of US cities, and if everything goes as planned, it could launch in Q2 of 2008. Notably, it still sounds like an actual human will be a part of the process, as the system will purportedly “connect the user to a company operator to complete the transaction.” Quite frankly, we appreciate the convenience of such a service, but don’t you go falling for any sappy stories of long-lost cousins needing your help to funnel in millions as you ride to work, alright?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!