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Written: April 28, 2017
My new MacBook Pro laptop has a nifty feature that at first I thought was a gimmick – the fingerprint scanner. Throughout my work day I may be on the phone, or leave the room, then when I return my screen has been locked for security purposes and I must authenticate to get back to work. With a simple press of my right index finger my identity is validated and I’m back to work on the laptop, quite convenient for me saving time and effort of typing a password on the keyboard and pressing the Return key.
MacBook Pro
My youngest son has been urging me to turn this fingerprint scanning feature on with my Galaxy Note 4 smart phone, so yesterday I finally agreed and started the process. I basically had to swipe my finger across the Home button for 10 strokes, and click the Done prompt to get things all setup.
Fingerprint scan setup. Source: Androidcentral.com
My phone screen locks way faster and more often than my laptop screen does, so now I get to save even more time and effort to unlock the phone quickly with a stroke of my finger. All is well, but wait. Within several minutes of turning on this new fangled feature I started receiving emails that three of my credit cards saved on my phone for Android Pay had been disconnected. Uh oh, I hadn’t consciously removed those credit cards, or had I?
It turns out that Android Pay on my phone wants to be ultra-secure, so when the the security mechanism on my phone was changed from a password to a fingerprint scan it decided to be overly cautious and remove the cards. It was a simple matter for me to launch the Android Pay app and re-add my three cards, they really weren’t deleted from the device just disabled until I added them back again. So within a minute or so I had all three of my credit cards working again in Android Pay. I use Android Pay every week and it’s so convenient to not carry my wallet every place that I need to shop, I just wish that the retailers would update their POS terminals to accept Android Pay and it’s competitor Apple Pay.
Android Pay
Many companies accept Android Pay (McDonalds, Jamba Juice, Apple, New Seasons) and even banks are starting to accept it. So I’m hopeful that in my lifetime I will no longer have to carry a wallet, rather just a fully charged smart phone with all of my cards connected to Android Pay.
Tags: Android Pay, fingerprint, Galaxy Note 4, MacBook Pro
I pretty much love all things related to Google because they are often free and quite useful to running my business and personal tasks, such is the case with Android Pay, a way to make purchases at retail locations using your Android phone, keeping your wallet at home or in the car. What is Android Pay? Fair question.
To use Android Pay requires that you have an Android phone equipped with something called NFC, Near Field Communications. The NFC is a type of secure, wireless system used on both your phone and the retailer credit card equipment. Next time that you visit your retailer look at their credit card terminal for this wave symbol:
Yes, that symbol looks a lot like a WiFi signal, but don’t be confused because it really stands for NFC.
Next, check if your Android phone supports NFC. On my phone I swipe down from the top, then click the icon in the upper right-hand corner to find the NFC logo, clicking the NFC logo to turn it on or off:
Install the free Android Pay app at the Play store, add some of your credit cards by snapping a photo of the front side, then start using Android Pay. There are over one million stores in the US that now offer Android Pay, so expect the numbers to keep increasing because it’s a winner. In my area I use Android Pay at:
To use Android Pay I double-check that NFC is turned on, click the Android Pay app, then place my phone on top of the credit card terminal. An email receipt is automatically sent to your phone by text message, so when you get home there are no more paper receipts and it’s quite easy to see where you’ve been shopping and what the amounts are.
I’m still waiting for Wells Fargo Bank to add NFC to their ATM machines, and the state of Oregon to allow the use of cell phone ID, then I can just about live without my wallet and only use my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phone with Android Pay.
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