smartcards

[James A. Donald]

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On 30 Jan 2050 at 32:210, Steve Thompson wrote:
> I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned cell-phones as a
> digital cash platform.[....]
>
> The problem is that phone software is (to my knowledge) all 
> closed-source and running on proprietary hardware.  What's
> the liklihood of manufacturers opening up their phones for
> third-party code?

An open platform would be a combined cell phone and palm top
computer.  Lots of people are trying to move this -- so far
without wide acceptance.

Paypal's original vision was that people would use palm pilots
with IR.   If phones developed palm pilot capabilities, this
vision would become more useful.  I think combining the palm
pilot with the cell phone is more feasible once we develop a
good voice controlled computer, after the fashion of startrek,
which may be some time off. 

    --digsig
         James A. Donald
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