

Owe Someone Money? Just Bump (YC S09) Your Phones - comatose_kid
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/owe-someone-money-just-bump-your-phones/

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callmeed
Can I have some special kudos for thinking of this when the API was announced?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1010581>

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jmintz
Yes, I mentally gave you kudos at the time if that helps. ;)

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kolya3
Isn't this the original idea that got Paypal's founders their initial VC
investment - transferring cash from one Palm Pilot to another? If memory
serves me right they scrapped it early on because the tangential website
transaction feature was becoming popular.

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mey
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confinity>

Palm Pilot IR transfer system.

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mschaecher
This should be an interesting battle between PayPal and Square. PayPal has the
brand and Goliath sized resources.

Square has backwards compatibility with how credit cards are currently used
and a fast, innovative team.

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ajg1977
What could possibly go wrong..

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cschneid
The bump part seems unnecessary in fact. "Select somebody from your contact
list,then bump their phone". The bump just ensures... what exactly?

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lotharbot
You "bump" another phone if you _don't_ have their contact info already. The
app automatically sets them as the recipient of your paypal transaction
(presumably without you having to save their information -- which allows
"business" type transactions without filling up your contact list.)

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cschneid
Ok, I misread the process then, I can believe that.

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s3graham
Looks like it could catch on because the gimmick seems genuinely fun, but
"Christine" has some serious man-hands.

