Got an Android phone with NFC and ticked off you can’t use it anywhere for mobile payments? Blame Apple. According to one industry watcher, the Cupertino-based tech company is responsible for setting back the emerging NFC market by two years in the United States.
It appears Google may have finally figured out a way to win at the virtual Wallet game. When Google debuted its mobile contactless payment system for devices equipped with NFC, proponents cheered. However, that applause quickly turned to woeful boos as no carrier other than Sprint (whom ironically has been shut out from the new Nexus) showed support for this wondrous mobile payment system.
In case you forgot or were unaware, today is the day Google discontinues its prepaid cards. Before Google Wallet supported credit and debit cards, the Google prepaid card was the only way to add funds for many people. Now that the majority of cards are accepted, Google is doing away with the prepaid cards. However, there may be many of you who still have a remaining balance (especially that free credit balance). Google doesn’t want you to lose out on those funds so it’s allowing users to request a refund online.
Google has been rolling out a slew of minor updates across a multitude of apps. If you’re using any of the following apps, you’ll want to check for an update in the Play Store:
For some reason, Google has allowed every carrier (other than Sprint) to block access to downloading Google Wallet from the Play Store. I realize the carriers are behind this whole charade but I ultimately blame Google for not offering us another method of downloading the .apk. Thankfully the Android community is not bound by the same back door deals as Google, and are not afraid to offer up the .apk for us to download.
