Intel out to add NFC payment tech to Ultrabooks
Tap your card on your laptop to pay
Intel wants to build contactless payment tech into Ultrabooks.
The chip giant today announced a partnership with MasterCard to work on bringing the credit card company's tap-to-pay PayPass system to PCs.
The idea is clear: order something on the web then pay for it by tapping your PayPass-enabled credit card or NFC-equipped smartphone on the logo-marked area on the laptop's wrist rest.
Intel's security chip tech makes sure the purchases is all above board.
No need to key your card's details in - so nothing for keyboard or screen watchers to lock on to - and no need to rely on card data saved by the merchant that could be exposed in a hack.
Alas, neither Intel or MasterCard said when all this might happen. ®
COMMENTS
Sounds foolproof...
What could possibly go wrong?
[/sarcasm]
Normally...
... people'd fsck around with external (cardbus/usb/what-have-you) readers, manufacturers would notice the demand, and, well, the thing gets built into the machine for convenience's sake. It seems they're instead trying to do a "build it and they will come"; this isn't the first try with that particular technology, and it does make me wonder. Who keeps pushing manufacturers to try something that generates very little demand in and of itself?
<hat type="tin foil">It's the stuff conspiracy theories are made of, I tells you, it is.</hat>
