A popular feature that has entered the world of smartphones and tablets is mobile payments, or near-field communication (NFC), and Intel is now showing off such technology in Ultrabooks.
At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2012, a mobile payment-enabled Ultrabook was demonstrated using Mastercard's PayPass. Up until now, PayPass was mainly used at certain retailers where shoppers could tap their credit card against a sensor for complete payment.
Now, this technology has been brought to Ultrabooks. At IDF 2012, a mobile payment-enabled Toshiba Satellite U925T was set up for demo purposes. I decided to give the system a try for myself, which I've documented in the following photos.
The PayPass NFC swipe really just save you from having to enter your PayPass password (for non NFC-enabled Ultrabooks, you'll just have to type your password in. Billing, shipping and credit card information is usually pre-saved in most e-tailer sites). Intel mentioned that the system is safe, since the e-tailer doesn't receive your credit card number -- just verification from MasterCard.
According to Intel, the Toshiba U925t is the only Ultrabook to offer built-in NFC technology. However, this will change in the near future, as more Ultrabooks will start featuring the new tool.
