Image via CrunchBase

There's no reason that almost everything in your wallet can't be handled by your smartphone.

In some circles, the notion of a smartphone acting like a credit or debit card is fascinating, and you see story upon story about mobile payment-enabled smartphones and the potential rise of PayPal, the telcos, and such as the new payment processors. Who cares? Even if Visa and MasterCard were somehow to let go of that billion-dollar processing business, you're merely replacing one financial processor with another.

The fact that a smartphone could act as a card is an inconsequential change. You still have to carry a wallet, and as long as that's the case, a simple plastic card remains easier to use, given that the technology for reading them is universal and all the proposed mobile alternatives require new, often separate, readers and work only with certain vendors -- you'll still be carrying plastic for the other banks' and merchants' systems. As a friend recently said, payments can't get more mobile than they already are.

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Mobile banking will change your life

Manage your finances while you wait in line at the grocery store

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Mobile banking is poised to change people’s lives in ways most of us never thought a bank could.

No, it won’t bake a birthday cake, make a run to the dry cleaner or pick your kids up at soccer practice. But it does hold the promise to put your financial life on a more manageable path than even online banking has managed to do.

It will help remind you when bills are due, how your checking-account balance is looking, and — if this is what you want — could eventually eliminate the need to set foot in a bank ever again.

“We have really seen a complete revolution in customer behavior since we launched mobile banking,” said Arah Erickson, senior vice president of the mobile-banking unit of Wells Fargo(WFC 32.57, -0.18, -0.55%). “Customers are expecting to be able to get things done on their mobile devices when they want to, where they want to and how they want to.”

Image via Wikipedia

Google is looking to beef up its NFC team as the search giant plans to put a major focus on this technology with its mobile products.

According to Phone Arena, Google is looking for a Technical Account Manager who is familiar with NFC.

This individual must have:

At least 5 years of hands-on experience in Internet products and technologies, and knowledge of one or more of the following: NFC/RFID technologies, different chipset ISO specifications, integration with POS readers & systems and payment processing, technical implementation of merchant loyalty, coupon or incentive programs.

The move comes as Google is making a major move with NFC technologies and Android. The latest version of the software, Gingerbread, has read support and it will be getting full NFC support in the future.