Mobile Payment: Question for MCX guys - What Happens When You Get Hacked And the Bad Guys Empty My Checking Account?

Every few weeks, you hear about this or that retailer getting hacked and millions of credit cards are stolen.  Okay, when that happens, we talk to our bank and change the numbers on the credit card or, worse, have charges reversed if we happen to be unlucky enough to have been a victim of credit card fraud. 

With the consumer-unfriendly CurrentC being developed by good folks at Walmart, Target, CVS, and a few others and slated for 2015, there is one question that has been bugging me beyond these retailers asking for very personal questions like social security numbers and sharing with each other our buying habits that has not been asked.

What happens when, not if, one or more of these retailers and "third parties" they will inevitably blame when the CurrentC system is hacked to our bank accounts?  Do we need new bank account numbers?  Change banks? 

And will will put the stolen money back in when they're emptied by these hackers?  Does anyone know? 

CurrencyC: The Mobile Payment System Supported by CVS Hacked Already

MCX, the retailer group that wants everything but your first-born from you, that is offering their own mobile payment system as an alternative to other forms of payment systems like NFC, is still months if not a whole year away from offering the dubious service.  The system, CurrenyC, is still in beta.  Neverthless, it's never too early to get hacked right?

That's exactly what happened when it informed beta testers and folks interested in the system that there was unauthorized access to their e-mails.  (Source:  Macrumors)

Given the bad press that CurrencyC is getting, I'm going to go ahead and make this prediction:  we're going to see some defections just ahead of the Christmas shopping season starts.

Mobile Payment: Retailers, Here's How To Have A Great Christmas This Year

With all the back and forth over NFC payment (I know there is a lot of attention on Apple Pay but it is more than that - it's NFC implementations like Google Wallet), here is how a retailer can do well this Christmas shopping season.  Open up a couple of checkouts just for shoppers who want to pay with the NFC-enabled mobile devices.

That's right.  It's that simple.  While many in the Apple camp like to boast about how wealthy the iPhone demographic is, Android users savvy enough to use Google Wallet probably are not doing too badly themselves.  In general, those who are likely to take up new tech features probably are smart and wealthier.  If I'm right, this is how retailers not beholden to the Merchant Customer Exchange that forbid its members from offering NFC payment options to potential customers can race ahead of the competition. 

Already, Android and iPhone fans are calling for an united front to boycott CVS and Rite Aid and there are dozens more companies that we can put the financial hurt on this Holidays season.  Savvy retailers who do offer NFC can make it easier for us and use this opportunity to capture our hard-earned money.

Offer us an exclusive checkout lane or two along with your deals, and we'd gladly spend our money at your stores.

GTA Bit Off More Than It Could Chew In Deal With Apple, And Apple Picked the Wrong Partner

Source:  Bloomberg.

The Bloomberg post does shed some light on the failed venture between Apple and bankrupted GT Advanced.  While all such deals carry risks, the amount of risk GTA took on was more than it bargained for.  I believe the part that in the post where Apple told GTA that it required the same terms from other supplies.  GTA simply was not the right company or had the right people to follow through.

It does sound like I'm placing the bulk of the blame on GTA but I think it's Apple that picked the wrong partner for sapphire covers that was obviously meant for the iPhones.  Had this deal worked out, it would have been a selling point for Apple that would further set the iPhone apart from competing devices. 

Having said that, there are few companies out there that can take on this kind of risk and Apple is obviously one of them. 

Yosemite's New Spotlight Features Are Awesome And Should Worry Search Guys

Here is a reference post from Appleinsider that is worth looking at on the new and improved Spotlight that comes with OS X 10.10, Yosemite.  I've been using it since it came out last week and I'm loving how fast and powerful it is.

In fact, it kinda made me wonder how inefficient I was before.

Calculator, currency conversions, movie times, and search results as well as easy to understand privacy settings for us paranoid folks.  All done the Apple way which means everything is presented beautifully and easy to use.

I would love to see this translate over the iOS, particularly on the iPad.

What would really make take Spotlight up another level is for Apple to merge Siri with Spotlight on the Mac soon.  What are missing are results likesports scores, weather, and other inquires that we don't quite need to go to the search engines to find.

And yes, while some of the search results do come from search engines, Apple is slowly peeling away the layers of search one result at a time to deprive Google in particular of valuable search revenues.  If users can find what they need in Spotlight without having to go to the Web, that means there will be less tracking for Google and ad revenues.

What's that Chinese saying?  Death by a thousand cuts?  Well, Apple won't quite kill off traditional search this way.  But it is making search engines less and less relevant for a sizable amount of inquiries.

Discovery of NFC Makes Sense: Perfect Use As a Wireless Secured Cash(less) Register

Source:  Macrumors.

iFixit does a teardown of pretty much every Apple hardware that comes out.  And what they found surprised them but it makes sense for Apple to include it?  NFC in the new iPad Air 2.

Consider the importance of Apple Pay as a money printing scheme to pad Apple's Everest-like pile of cash, the iPad Air 2 and probably a future updated iPad mini sporting NFC makes it very important as a means for the tablets to serve as digital payment readers.

Consider this.  You're at a restaurant and the server comes and takes down your order with the iPad.  Then at the end of the mean, the server comes back and makes contact with your iPhone for you to make your payment.

No need for them to take your phone to the back for them to do God knows what with it like they do now the credit card.  And they can't anyway.  And it would be cumbersome for you to have to go to their register to make the payment.

The only thing that matters now is when Apple will enable the NFC on the iPads to serve Apple Pay in this capacity.  And if this works with iPads, there is no reason for Apple to allow retailers to use iPhones as registers too.

This would help tech-savvy businesses expand their payment options for their customers and serve to expand the number of locations that accept Apple Pay.

Apple Pay: Pizza Guys Don't Want My Biz

I like that I can use Apple Pay because of the added security.  Let's just say the temptation for extracurricular activities with customer credit card information won't be there if the tokenized numbers can only be used once.  So, I'm more than happy to go out of my way (within reason) to use Apple Pay.  So, finding out today that pizzas won't be on the menu for lunch today because the major pizza chains, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa Johns all do not accept Apple Pay. 

In fact, forget that not only are they not official Apple partners, it does not appear any of their cash registers accept NFC payments at all.  At least not the ones I frequent. 

Moreover, Pizza Hut does not think much about Apple Pay at all and even has "concerns" about it.  The "concern" happens to be that Apple Pay only works for apps and not the larger Web in general - meaning you cannot use it through an old-fashion browser.  It's a good point but it can hardly be called a concern.  Apple likely wants to control how Apple Pay is used and may eventually open it up for general browser use.  But since most mobile users conduct their businesses through apps anyway, it is baffling what PH is worried about.

I see Apple Pay users go where the convenience leads.  While people have different tastes regarding their food, I can see convenience and security being factored into many iPhone users' purchasing decisions. 

I think the real reason for PH not joining up with Apple Pay as an official partner (NFC-enabled registers aside) is access to customer information and being able to track users disguised as loyalty programs.  Apple supposedly is fast-tracking that feature and will try to offer it before the Holidays.  When that happens, I'm sure more retailers will start to set aside their "concerns" about not being able to track you and me and join up.

Note:  We ended up going to Whole Foods for pizza.  When it comes down to convenience and security, I'll those those over an extra couple of bucks anyway.

Source:  Inquisitr.