Last week, the Internet got a blurry look at Google's next flagship Android smartphone, the Nexus S. Google's CEO Eric Schmidt announced yesterday that the smartphone will come pre-loaded with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The coming update will let future Android smartphones essentially become credit cards.
Schmidt was on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit to show off the Nexus S and its "near-field communication" chip which acts as an owners electronic money. Schmidt thinks that in the future, smartphones with built-in NFC chips will replace credit cards all together because they will be more secure.
What's creepy however is how the company sees mobile e-commerce. Google envisions your NFC-equipped smartphone to always be talking to scanners in stores and restaurants — constantly sending info back and forth related to your preferences, giving you discounts, suggesting you new products, etc. I'd love for my wallet to lose some weight so I'm all for electronic payments, but I don't want my phone aggregating my private shopping habits and then sending it out. There better be a switch to turn that off! LINK
Via New York Times
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