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ING Direct now has an iPhone app that makes it possible to transfer money from one customer account to another by tapping phones. No need to trade account numbers. This type of tech has also been used to exchange contact information, photos and music between cell phones, but money is a first.
ING Direct is not the only bank getting creative with high tech. "Near-to-field" communication from phone to phone is all the buzz right now. Let's just hope security standards catch up with the technology.
How it works: As social and digital news site Mashable explains, the phone-bump technology lets a cell phone recognize and map the tapping motion of a bump. A signal is then sent to cloud servers that match it with a simultaneous bump that has occurred in the same place. Information can then be exchanged. What streamlines the process is not having to type in and verify account numbers.
Other banks may be at work on similar offerings, but for now, the phone bump is limited to ING Direct banking customers with an online account and an iPhone. And both users have to be logged in to their account to send and receive money. Just think, splitting a dinner bill could became far less of a hassle, and the wait staff will hate you a little less for it.
Bank Lets Customers Pay Friends By Bumping iPhones [Mashable]
—Maggie Shader
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