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Point and click payments

Now we're talking. Pay using your cellphone, not by receiving or sending SMS, but by clicking a few keys and pointing it to a receiver.

The whole idea of convergenge is certainly moving on. But it it not TV sets and computers that merge, it is cell phones and just about everything else we want to do while moving around. Now the time has come to merge debit cards with cell phones.

So why not make the phone a full-fledged wallet? "We are conditioned to think that a credit card is a plastic rectangle," said Cho Eun-sang, a senior manager at Harex Infotech, among the first companies to develop the technology. "But it is actually the data on the strip at the back, and data can be stored anywhere." Instead of handing over credit or debit cards that get swiped, users type their passcode on the phone keypad, point the device at a special receiver on a checkout counter and press a key. It's as simple as operating a TV remote. The phone shoots the card data in an infrared beam or radio waves. No signature is necessary. For small payments at vending machines, the passcode isn't even required. Transmissions are encrypted and secure, and subscribers who lose their phones can get them disabled within seconds by informing the credit-card company.

This is great. I would certainly love a handheld device that managed all my communication, all my scheduling, all my connectivity and all my payments. For starters.

Cell Phones Now Debit Cards in S. Korea

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