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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ibexx who wrote (30779)	8/11/1998 9:49:00 PM
From: Night Writer	Respond to of 97611

Ibexx, I think this article may add some detail to the SET story your posted. Looks Compaq is headed in the right direction with E commerce. Hope the Banks have them in mind. Also very interesting is the Bio ID interest Compaq has shown. Finger prints for transaction identification may well be the future. They can't be stolen like pin numbers. They can used with a smart card to verify ownership of that card. If the smart card is stolen it is useless to the thief. NW Cash from your computer? Looking to turn PCs into "home ATMs," Bank of America and Visa test an expanded smart card program in San Francisco. By Tripp Reynolds moneydaily.com It's a quote machine, a portfolio manager, a communications box, a fax, an arcade game, and someday, your computer could become a "home ATM." Bank of America and Visa International are testing new technology that allows PCs to dispense digital cash to stored-value smart cards. The test, involving about 300 Visa and BofA employees in San Francisco, could be good news for online banking customers and those who like to shop on the Web. But one nagging question remains unanswered: Once you have digital cash, where do you spend it? Two of the three items you would need to create a home ATM are based on tried-and-true technology - a computer hooked to the Internet, and a stored-value smart card. But it's the third piece, a smart-card reader that fits into a PC's disk drive, that's crucial. BofA (NYSE: BAC) and Visa began distributing the new readers to employees involved in the test this month. Here's how it works: An employee places his smart card into the reader, and then inserts the reader into a PC's disk drive. Once the hardware is in place, the employee can log in to his online bank account and download a sum of money onto the Visa Cash smart card. Bank of America officials won't say how long they plan to keep the program in the testing phase, but wide distribution of the technology won't come for at least six months, according to Bette Wasserman vice president and manager of smart card programs at BofA. While those who bank over the Internet have always been able to check account balances and track payments, they have been unable to retrieve cash. If the new system is successful, online banking customers will be able to download cash to their smart card whenever a computer with an Internet connection is handy. As it stands now, most people who use a smart card --a fairly limited universe, to be sure -- must visit a bank to charge up their cards. Proponents of the new technology say it will allow online shoppers should have an easier time making anonymous purchases. Most payments over the Internet are made with credit cards, a nerve wracking experience at best. You enter your card number, address and phone number, hit the send button and hope whomever receives the information will put it to legitimate use. With the home ATM system, if you were to spot a product on the Internet you wanted to buy, but felt uncomfortable giving out your credit card information, you could use your smart card to make the purchase with cash. You don't have to give out any personal information about yourself during the payment exchange. But what can you buy with this digital cash? Unfortunately, not much. The entire smart card program -- itself in the testing stage -- is available in only a few locations. (For a full rundown, see the new technologies area of the Visa International Web site at visa.com Only a handful of brick-and-mortar stores accept virtual methods of payment. While pickings on the Internet are slightly better, don't expect to make it through the day without whipping out a greenback anytime soon.