Almost a year ago, Google held a press conference to announce Google Wallet, an ambitious, multi-faceted plan for a cash-free future in which mobile phones would replace hard currency.
Google Wallet’s no-hacking-required hack from last week has reportedly been resolved. Now the only person you can blame for being broke is yourself.
That’s twice. In two days. Yesterday, security firm Zvelo discovered a potential exploit against rooted phones. Today, tech blog TheSmartphoneChamp discovered how to accomplish the same feat on non-rooted phones. This is not good.
The security PIN system that Google Wallet users have to enter to verify transactions has been compromised. Thankfully, the chances of your wallet being used against you is relatively low — assuming you haven’t rooted your phone, that is.
With a little help from xda-developers, Ausdroid has managed to get Google Wallet working on a Nexus S. Sure, you can only spend $US10, but it’s your first chance to try the service out before it arrives locally… which I’ll readily admit could be never. So perhaps your only chance.
Even though it’s unclear when Google Wallet will officially debut, Google decided to jump back to 1998 to give George a lesson in why wallets are a thing of the past. You can hear Larry Page’s cruel laughter in the background.
