Starting this week New Yorkers with iPhones will be able to pay for subways, trains and taxis using Visa’s paywave program.
Users just slip their iPhones into a special case that contains a secure memory card. While it’s Apple only for now, this technology could be ported to any phone with a memory card slot in the near future.
This is different from the near field technology which has become popular in Europe and Asia. Concerns about the security of this kind of wireless data transmission have prevented it from being widely adopted in the U.S. so far.
For New Yorkers in tight pants this is a big step towards that magical day when we will literally have to carry only one object with us when leaving the house.
