According to the tech press, one of the “missing features” in the iPhone 5 was the lack of “near-field communications”, or NFC, technology. The promise of such tech is that it allows you to turn a phone into a programmable contactless card, and wave it at readers to make payments all day long.
As Matt Drance writes, there was never really any doubt that Apple would not introduce the tech in the iPhone, because although it’s a promising technology, it doesn’t actually have any use. At least, not today. And so Apple is waiting until it does have some practical applications before moving to roll-out.
In the meantime, one Wired reporter is finding out that it’s perfectly possible to make payments with your iPhone today, NFC be damned. Well, not perfectly possible; but doable with a little graft.
Christina Bonnington is living walletless for a month:
You never realize how handy cash is until you don’t have any.
I learned this lesson one day last week when, overcome by hunger, I wandered into the Wired kitchen to grab a bagel for breakfast. I reached into my pocket and suddenly remembered I couldn’t pay for it. See, I’ve decided to spend a month living without a wallet, using my smartphone and various apps to pay for everything. We’re pretty wired here at Wired, but the kitchen still demands cash. Luddites.
Dejected, I went back to my desk and, facing a deadline and unable to venture out into the world, grabbed the first thing that came to hand: a granola bar that’s been sitting in the bottom of my backpack since CES. This culinary disaster was the one setback in what’s been an otherwise flawless week without a wallet, and it taught me a valuable lesson: Be prepared.
We’ll see if she can pull it off.
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