Cellphones as Credit Cards? Americans Must Wait Leslie Berlin, NY Times

It is almost certain that mobile-phone payments will eventually come to the United States. After all, the technology promises something for everyone involved: Credit-card companies would have a new way to attract and keep customers and would save money by no longer sending cards through the mail. Carriers would enjoy another source of revenue. Retailers would benefit from a faster checkout process, and may find that people buy more when they pay with their phones.

The risk of account fraud from mobile payments is “small,” according to Kevin Fu, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who in 2006 uncovered several security holes in credit cards that are waved rather than swiped…..Mr. Fu is more concerned about privacy. He says that it may be possible to get personal information, like a person’s name, from credit-card account data on a mobile phone. Nonetheless, he predicts that with time, “these N.F.C. phones will become one of the best ways to do mobile payments.”

Mobile Search Guide – Mobile Maven

A guide to mobile search and search optimization with the following sections:
-Why Does Mobile Search Matter?
-How is Mobile Search Different?
-Optimizing for Mobile Search
-Advertising on Mobile Search
-Tracking Mobile Search

Brazilians Wax Lyrical about Satnav Knickers – Katy Guest, The Independant, London

The “Find Me If You Can” range of underwear is the brainchild of lingerie designer Lucia Lorio. The racy set consists of a lace bodice, bikini bottom and a faux (of course) pearl collar, with a GPS tracking device neatly nestled at the waist. Or rather glued on somewhere under the armpit. But it has feminists up in arms. Claudia Burghardt, who purports to be a feminist leader in Berlin, said: “It is nothing more than a chastity belt for insecure men!” But Ms Lorio believes she is missing the point. Even if a woman gives her partner the password to her £500 tracking system, she explains, “she can always turn it off”. This seems to be missing another point: that, even if a woman does give her partner the password to her sat-nav knickers, she can always take them off and leave them in the office.

Hmm…where will local go next?