Google Wallet Gets Significant Update, Support For All Credit/Debit Cards

[evilsatan]

Google paints its Wallet services as the future of shopping transactions, and using the power of NFC, or Near Field Communication, it has certainly shown much promise. The lack of a few important features is largely attributable to its infant state, but today, the Big G has given Wallet a pretty big update, offering support for all major credit and debit cards.

Hitherto, Wallet has only supported Citibank and MasterCard, and although the service has the incentive of $10 (free money, fancy that?), users with an incompatible bank card (the majority of people) had little use for Google Wallet. Now though, Wallet works with the likes of Visa, Discover and American Express credit or debit cards, and the new-found compliance with a broader range of card providers is all thanks to the new manner in which Google Wallet handles and processes card information.



Robin Dua, production manager of Google Wallet, noted of how Google had to re-jig its technical approach to storing cards in order to reach the majority of the market, and the Google Wallet app now stores payment cards "on highly secure Google servers," as opposed to a local vault within your device.

A wallet ID, or virtual card number, is instead stored in a safe compartment of your NFC device, and will be consulted whenever you make a purchase. Google then instantaneously charges your selected credit or debit card.



As well as the more efficient transactions, there’s now a remote wipe function which, as the name implies, will allow you to reset the wallet app and obliterate all private and financial data at will. If you find yourself panicking because you’ve lost your phone, all you need do is log into the service’s online management site, and you can (sort of) put your mind at rest.



The service is now very accessible for anybody looking to the future beyond the plastic, but obviously there’s still a way to go before it becomes the takeover feature Google would like it to be. For instance, only eight devices are listed as compatible, and most of those are Sprint-only, so the web’s largest company has quite a bit of headway to make before it becomes a big hit.

Source

[beerman]

I installed this on my One X today using the older version Paul O'Brien patched. Hit a few problems with adding the google prepay card but after changing my product code in the build.prop I got the card added. Off to try it tomorrow at a McDonalds or Greggs

Paul O'B is on holiday at the moment but said he'd patch this version in a few days.

[JonEp]

How to you associate the RFID ?

I read in Modaco you can buy batteries with the RFID embedded if your phone doesn't have one but always wondered how you tell your phone about it.

[beerman]

Eh? The One X has NFC built in.

[JonEp]

Sorry m8 I have the Ascend G300 and it doesn't and was just wondering what the process of enabling the chip was in software.

I take it it becomes an option if a chip is present.

[beerman]

It popped up telling me it wasn't switched on when first opened it and took me to my phone settings where the option is. Not sure how the aftermarket NFC chips get switched on or if google wallet will even use them.

[Mobius]

How to you associate the RFID ?

I read in Modaco you can buy batteries with the RFID embedded if your phone doesn't have one but always wondered how you tell your phone about it.

It's not the NFC chip thats built into the battery just the antenna to get the antenna as close to the reader as possible. The nfc chip is usually built into the phone but I'm sure I've read about sd cards and sims having the tech built in.

[Mobileman]

i wont be using nfc until more security is introduced getting your card details is apparemtly fairly easy and google wallet has already been hacked hasnt it from what i read ? this will be massive for fraudsters as it will be much harder to pin point the area of where details are stolen, so instead of dodgy card terminal in shop XYZ you could have team of people grabbing details all over the city of where xyz is based and much more diffcult for them to get caught.

[beerman]

i wont be using nfc until more security is introduced getting your card details is apparemtly fairly easy and google wallet has already been hacked hasnt it from what i read ? this will be massive for fraudsters as it will be much harder to pin point the area of where details are stolen, so instead of dodgy card terminal in shop XYZ you could have team of people grabbing details all over the city of where xyz is based and much more diffcult for them to get caught.

They are welcome to the $10 google gave me for registering their prepaid card, as for signing my actual credit/debit card up with it, fook off

I will however be topping up the google prepaid card once Wallet is released over here. Just because I want to look cool and trendy when buying my coffee in the morning

[Mobileman]

They are welcome to the $10 google gave me for registering their prepaid card, as for signing my actual credit/debit card up with it, fook off

I will however be topping up the google prepaid card once Wallet is released over here. Just because I want to look cool and trendy when buying my coffee in the morning

Linky for the prepaid card offer ? good idea to using that and not my cards as you say

[beerman]

It's an automatic thing, you just need to add it once in the app. Google give you a free $10 to use. At the moment you can only top up with a US card but you can get around that with a prepaid US card like this but paying $39 for $25 card value is why I'm holding off until it's released officially over here.

If you want the prepatched APK (root required as it can't be installed in the conventional way) so it works in the UK it's here

As I said previously it didn't like my One X so I had to change my model and device code to a htc jewel in the build.prop

[Rick Sanchez]

What phones support this currently?

[beerman]

Any rooted phone with NFC with the above APK.

I'm yet to try it in a shop but it's all set up for me and ready to go. Others in the thread are being successful in McDonalds and Greggs (over £3 in greggs)

[Mobius]

i wont be using nfc until more security is introduced getting your card details is apparemtly fairly easy and google wallet has already been hacked hasnt it from what i read ? this will be massive for fraudsters as it will be much harder to pin point the area of where details are stolen, so instead of dodgy card terminal in shop XYZ you could have team of people grabbing details all over the city of where xyz is based and much more diffcult for them to get caught.

New version of google wallet stores temporary virtual card numbers on the device and keeps your real info server side ala paypal. Slightly more comfortable with contactless payments via phone rather than on a card. At least you can switch off the nfc on your phone when not in use.

[beerman]

Tried this today in Cafe Nero. 2 coffees for £5 which Google converted to $7.76. This works out at $1.552 for each pound. Interestingly it now says I have $2.18 left on my prepaid card. Where did the other 6 cents go?

[beerman]

Confirmed working in Subway too

Got 3 cookies for $1.55. I only have 59c left so might have to change my android device id an try and see if it resets to $10. Apparently google give you $10 per device so I'll let you know how it goes.

[liveseytowers]

I've downloaded the APK but I can't copy it into the System/App folder. How did you guys copy it into that folder?

Scrap that, i've copied it there now. But now how do I install the APK? I run it and I just get install failed...

[beerman]

You don't need to install it, just reboot your phone, as long as you've matched the permissions to whatever else is that dir (think perms you need is 644) then it'll just show up in your app list after the reboot.

Edit: just checked on my phone, perms should be rw-r--r--

[liveseytowers]

I must be doing something wrong, i've downloaded the .apk, put i in system\app , set the permissions to rw-r--r-- which is the same as everything else but its not showing up. Arse