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I love IC cards. They had them on all transport where I live, but a few years ago they changed to QR codes.. Now it's a fiddle with an app, then try to get the
by TheChaplain 1y ago
I love IC cards. They had them on all transport where I live, but a few years ago they changed to QR codes..
Now it's a fiddle with an app, then try to get the right angle on a smudgy reader. Getting onboard takes much longer and it feels like technology sent us 2 steps back instead of forward.
IC cards are better, and if they could be integrated in the phone then it would be even better and faster for everyone.
- mschild 1y agoWould printing out the QR code and putting it into your wallet work or is it a changing one?
- lmz 1y agoI think the most annoying part is the external QR reader (on faregates?). I've rarely had a good experience with those whether using a QR on paper or from a phone screen.
- xorcist 1y agoPrinting out the QR code and giving out to all your friends? I think most QR systems include some sort of rolling timestamp to combat that.
- 0xCMP 1y agoiOS supports ICs fine. It has supported Suica since 2017 when I used it instead of the physical card. Forcing use of an app and QR codes does seem like a significant step back, although I guess it makes paper tickets much easier to implement with the same scanner.
- lxgr 1y agoAndroid, however, does not support them at all unfortunately (at least on phones not targeted to the Japanese market).
- notpushkin 1y agoI’ve read elsewhere in this thread that for Pixel you can flash a Japanese version of the system image and it will enable IC support. Definitely trying it out later.
- lmm 1y agoThe IC card companies got too greedy unfortunately - along with phones not supporting NFC-F if they're not designed for the Japanese market, the readers are also expensive. With various subways starting to introduce credit card contactless payment I suspect it's only a matter of time before IC cards go away.
- notpushkin 1y agoI thought transport companies are the ones doing IC cards? (True for Japanese IC cards, except Pasmo)
- lmm 1y ago> I thought transport companies are the ones doing IC cards? Well, a number of smaller transport companies are turning away from IC cards citing the cost of the equipment. I don't know at which point in the stack the greed is coming in - whether it's the IC committees, Sony with the underlying technology, some other player or all of them at once - but it's happening. JR East can probably sustain Suica for decades but you'll notice they've been making a hard push into traditional credit cards and banking; they've seen which way the wind is blowing.
- oivey 1y agoAt least in Japan, they all work from your phone already.
- anArbitraryOne 1y agoThey even work when the phone is off
- notpushkin 1y agoIs the card stored on the NFC chip? Or are you talking about these NFC-enabled SIM cards?
- anArbitraryOne 1y agoNever tried it without the sim, so I assume it is stored on the NFC chip, but really have no idea
- numpad0 1y agoIt's about fees and control. Whether it's EMV(Europay Mastercard Visa) or JR East, they take 3% commission on every single sales + realtime sales data for your competitors to abuse. So alternative choices gets occasionally chosen to replace them, I think often as bargaining chips and a backup plan.
- lxgr 1y agoOP is talking about QR codes, not EMV open-loop systems.