Geode from iCache (2012) | Hacker News Reader

Geode from iCache (2012)

kickstarter.com

40 pointsjlas21 comments

Compared to Coin, the Geode project had a similar vision albeit with greater aspirations. Here is an article about the aftermath: http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130331/PC05/13033992....

their card looks better (chip access), but the whole case thing doesn't make sense, It looks massive in the picture. My initial reaction with coin was that its counter intuitive, NFC or just mobile (square/paypal) are clearly the future. However, the coin card seems like a brilliant move now, they're entering the market through the path where everyone is familiar with the form factor and the technology isn't overwhelming.

NFC is clearly not the future.

Square/PayPal (also not the future with their current products) are not incompatible wit Coin. In fact, Coin fits well into the current ecosystem.

wow, at least they shipped something, even though it's really shady and generally worthless, they actually created a product as opposed just posting an update of "out of money, sorry" or completely disappearing

They shipped something to some people, and nothing to others. They shipped me an initially defective pair of cases, said they'd happily replace them, took them back and shut down the company without ever replacing them. These guys took a lot of people's money and left them with nothing to show for it. I've been extremely hesitant to Kickstarter anything since.

If I understand this correctly, wouldn't the following steps effectively mimic this technology?

1. Get Paypal.

2. Verify Paypal Account.

3. Get Paypal Debit Card.

4. Setup several CCs in Paypal.

5. Maintain $0 balance in Paypal.

6. Setup backup source of funding for Debit Card.

7. Make an app that simply logs into Paypal to set the backup source of funding to another card at the touch of a button.

8. Get an NFC sticker and put it on the Paypal debit card.

This would allow you to carry 1 card but use any of your cards and, as well, help you keep track of your card's physical proximity with an NFC enabled device. Please let me know if I am grossly misunderstanding or missing something!

The problem is that the MID/MCC of the store you shop at won't be passed-through to your real credit card (as PayPal's the one charging that card, not the store). You wouldn't get category-specific rewards (5% on groceries, 3% on gas, etc), which is one reason people carry multiple cards on them in the first place.

I got one of these, it was brutal.

Switching cards was something like a 30 second process, which meant that instead of taking a card out, you had to open up the app, wait for it to load, wait an extra 10 seconds for it to connect to the Geode, then use the painfully-slow app. All to not carry a card in your wallet.

And on top of it - the two times I tried it at restaurants the card itself didn't work.

Here's the deal: Kickstarter projects that depend on a specific form factor of the iPhone will fail. If they actually manage to ship, they're inevitably going to take longer to ship than they intend to, and—by the time they do—Apple will have released a new device that:

* has a new connector

* has a new form factor

* or, who the hell knows...

...that renders the Kickstarter project's goal irrelevant or unusable.

I am surprised no one has mentioned Loop yet, it is a step in the right direction regarding Mobile Wallets: kickstarter.com/projects/loop/pay-with-loop

This is a neat concept; transmitting credit card data to existing point of sale terminals via a magnetic field. This mimics the effect of swiping a card, essentially hacking the traditional system.

That's badass, but seems tricky at a sit-down restaurant-- I wouldn't want to have to give my phone to the waiter and explain to him how to use it. Also wonder if this works with the square dongle.

Exactly. It's also quite ugly and now bulking up your keychain. Coin fits into my money clip and (theoretically) can be handed to others to use.

how is loop doing? I see it was over funded

I got one of these. It was so so so bad. I got sent a replacement just in case mine was faulty and it was just as broken but in different ways. The quality control seemed poor at the very least. I hope coin succeeds here and manages to come out with a v2 with a cheap that can be programmed (with bank support, obviously)

s/cheap/chip

There's also http://getprotean.com/.

What's the rest of the story, since the funding went well (how did they fail)?

http://www.zdnet.com/icache-geodes-spectacular-crash-and-bur...

tl;dr: Quality(?) issues; then iPhone 5 with Passbook, new form factor, and lightning connector.

Did anyone else wonder why the heck someone would be using an ancient AMD architecture?

Wonder if there are any trademark implications of their name choice.

I'm wondering what you're referring to by "AMD architecture"?

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