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Good point. This is going back a couple of steps in some regards. Assuming every store in the country already had this, I still wouldn't bite. I've had so many instances where my phone (Nexus s) died in the middle of the day, it is not funny. Credit card + 2x20 dollar bills in my wallet work wonders.

That said, I'm a big fan of Visa's blink. Instant payment can be done through ways other than a smartphone.

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NFC payments can still work when your phone is out of battery. The reader can still read it (just like your credit card has no power). Google Wallet, of course, wouldn't work.

I thought there was some intelligent circuitry in place to prevent some threat scenarios. Specifically, I'm thinking of "butt sniffing". At Google IO, I thought we were told that you can't use the NFC function when the screen is locked. Am I mistaken? (I might be ... because the Google folks keep talking about a sticker for phones that don't have NFC ... I don't get it ... an explanation would be appreciated).

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