Comment by Eric_WVGG 4 days ago
sincere, non-trolling question: Why?
You clearly saw some value in the convenience. Smartphone and smartwatch NFC offers that convenience everywhere. Even setting up palm authentication feels like unnecessary work.
I used Amazon One at my workplace all the time, but I only used it at the self-checkout line since I'd rarely get more than a few items, and the lines are shorter at this crowded neighborhood WF. There, I would scan all my items and use my palm to both log in to Prime and pay. Given that I would be scanning my own items, I much preferred it to phone or watch, as I didn't have to fish them out after scanning.
I am surprised nobody has mentioned the real joy of checkout at Whole Foods, which is that there is no annoying, incessant voice asking every self-checkout shopper, "Have you scanned your rewards card yet?" and "Please complete the transaction on the pin pad." It must be sheer torture working all day with those going off constantly.
In theory, but not in practice. The devil is in the details. Yes, Apple wallet and Google wallet allows to store loyalty cards. And those cards can be summoned using respectively VAS and SmartTap.
But... while all payment terminals are compatible to VAS and SmartTap, very few have the firmware and a POS that can make sense of it. So, in practice, beside Walgreens and maybe CSV, it is not much adopted.
Prime discounts were automatically applied if you use the credit card on your Amazon account I thought
I like to go running with nothing on me besides a house key, and it's useful to be able to stop by Whole Foods after the run and buy a snack without a phone, watch, or wallet.
I've consciously reduced my pocket contents from car keys+wallet+phone to driver's license+phone. I'd love to be able to get rid of the phone sometimes.
Most of my lunch hours, I take nothing more than a five dollar bill.
A slice of cheese pizza is $2, and a bottle of water is $1. Then I sit in the park and watch life happen in front of me.
Very therapeutic.
Wear an NFC ring on your finger.
Unlike your palmprint, you can get a new ring with a new private key if yours is compromised.
It all boils down to the tradeoff between convenience and security. I don't think it is particularly easy to replicate a living hand with all the blood vessels. And it is not particularly easy to get a NFC ring with a secure element compatible with payment terminals.
I thought that the engineering team at Amazon did a great job with Amazon One. I wish someone could pick up the tech and carry on.
Yeah 25 years ago people said stuff like that about fingerprint scanners, and then they got hacked by literal gummy bears:
https://www.theregister.com/2002/05/16/gummi_bears_defeat_fi...
For 2020's-era palm scanners you don't have to replicate a 3D hand -- just like a video chat doesn't replicate my 3D face. You just have to emit photons (some of them infrared, yes) in the correct pattern. The hack won't look like a 3D-printed hand, it'll look like a display panel that works beyond visible wavelengths. It'll probably be some device developed for a totally unrelated market, and then one day "whoops, all those palm scanners are 0wn3d" (natürlich auf Deutsch) will be a talk title at CCC.
But all this is academic. The real problem with biometrics is that when your password is a body part, you can't change your password.
Convenience?
Set up once with the CC with rewards for groceries, hover hand 2 seconds, done.
Apple Pay in the phone or watch are super convenient as well, but they take just a tad bit more of time between selecting the menus in the touch screen for pay options, and then selecting the matching CC.
I save like 30s? Possibly. Is this tech overkill? Most likely.
I used it at Whole Foods cause it did my prime code and charged me at the same time without digging my phone out of my pocket but also my Whole Foods has bad reception so it’s annoying to use