chief executive Eric Schmidt announced the successor to the Nexus One smartphone during an on-stage chat at a Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The new Google mobile phone is imbedded with a with a near-field communication chip for financial transactions, that makes it a virtual wallet so people can “tap and pay”. It runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. Eric was carrying this unannounced touch-screen smartphone in his jacket pocket.
The near-field chips store personal data that can be transmitted to data reader applications such as shop checkout stand by tapping a handset on a pad. A tap-and-pay component should complement increasingly common location-based features that let merchants alert smartphone users to bargains available at nearby shops. Secure chips in handsets are claimed to thwart fraud better than credit cards. Google will rely on an online payments processor to handle the mechanics of purchases made using the chips in the new phones.
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“You will be able to take these mobile devices that will be able to do commerce. Essentially, bump for everything and eventually replace credit cards. In the industry it is referred to as tap-and-pay.”, he said.
The Android 2.3 Gingerbread supports WebM video playback, Near Field Communication, improved copy–paste functionalities and improved social networking features. It is believed to have features such as Android Market music store, Media streaming from PC library, revamped UI, bigger screens with up to Wide XGA (1366×768) resolution, new 3D Games, new Marketplace area for gaming, video calls, WebP image files and Google TV. [via]
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