DIGITAL WALLETS

摘要

Anthropologists know there are three things most of us now carry with us wherever we go: our keys, our wallets and our cellphones. Digital wallets could fold the last two into a single item - and perhaps eradicate cash altogether. Could it change how we spend too? A digital wallet is a chip inside your phone that uses wireless "near-field communications" technology. Pre-charged with money or able to request a sum from your bank later, the wallet hands over payment when you swipe it over a retailer's card reader. Cellphone users in Japan have used them for years, but the technology is only now emerging in a big way elsewhere.