News by: Robert Nazarian 31st October 2013
Major change in Kitkat is NFC payments that could finally be the kick in
the butt that Google Wallet needs. Kit Kat brings support for Host Card
Emulation (HCE), which means any Android NFC device could be used for
mobile payments without needing access to a secure element. With HCE any
app can emulate an ISO/IEC 7816 smart card that use the contactless
ISO/IEC 14443-4 (ISO-DEP) protocol for transmission.
What does all of this mean in a nutshell? This means it can work on
any device on any mobile carrier. Not only that, third party apps can
manage payment information in the cloud or on the device. Of course,
devices will need Android 4.4 for this to work, and it remains to be
seen how long it will take for most of the popular devices to get the
update. It will take some time, but it could just be what the doctor
ordered for Google Wallet to finally succeed.
news source: talkandroid.com
