 There are about a million mobile payments apps promising to revolutionize the way I buy things, and I've tried just about all of them. Google Wallet, Level Up, ISIS, Square Wallet, PayPal, and others let you purchase your daily cup of coffee wirelessly over Bluetooth or NFC, but they're all kind of useless because they don't work everywhere. I'm Ellis Hamburger with The Verge, and this is Loop. Loop's hardware lets you pay wirelessly at over 90% of existing credit card terminals in the US without retailers having to do anything. Is this the mobile payments service I've been asking for? Loop is a magnetic conductor that emulates the swiping of a magnetic strip credit card. At launch, Loop comes inside a Mophie-like charge case for your phone or a square plastic fob you can hook on a keychain or just keep in your pocket. After loading your cards into the Loop app using a supplied reader, you can hold the charge case or fob up to a credit card reader, press a button, and the reader accepts the transaction as if you'd swipe your credit card. It's kind of amazing. Loop transfers magnetic pulses that emulate the swiping of the max drive card. Those are the same magnetic pulses organized the same way as the data on the max drive, and the terminal reads it just like the magnetic strip. And therefore, we are compatible with any max drive reader today. Expecting the retail to change, expecting a new network to arise, is somewhat optimistic. Given the history of point of sale, where equipment life cycles are on the average seven years, we are not going to see a major change. I took a Loop charge case and Loop fob around town to see if terminals could read it, and of course to see if cashiers would actually let me use it. I gave a cashier at the local deli my fob and asked her to hold it against her credit card reader and press the button on its side. She was pretty skeptical at first, but she tried it and it worked. Loop worked at a bodega too, though the cashier was equally confused. It even worked in both taxicabs I tried. Worked better in fact, since I didn't even have to convince anyone to let me touch my gadget to their credit card machine. Both Loop devices, however, were foiled by subway ticketing machines and ATMs that require you stick a card in to trigger a switch, which in turn reads the card. I'm incredibly impressed by the Loop technology, but not by its first two form factors. The Loop fob is the more reliable of the two, but it can only transmit one card at a time, and at nearly an inch thick, it's more annoying to carry around than a few credit cards. The Loop charge case is the more logical form factor since it also charges your phone and doesn't require you to carry around anything extra. But its build quality leaves a lot to be desired. Its plastic body feels much less sturdy than a Mophie, and it's also fatter than a Mophie even though it's shorter. The charge case connects to your phone using Bluetooth where you can pick which card you want to transmit at any time inside the Loop wallet app, so it feels a bit more advanced than the fob. Neither Loop form factor is right for me. After all, aren't mobile payments about killing the wallet and limiting the crap you're carrying around? But Loop most closely approximates a future where payment tech is truly integrated into our phones and works everywhere. Embedding this technology in a handset is very easy. The core cost relating to the magnetic transmission is well under $1. Indeed, if the phone is already embedding wireless charging, we can reuse a lot of the components used in wireless charging. Loop shows that even when your tech works on most readers, trying to rely on one mobile payment service is still too cumbersome. With a big marketing push from Samsung or another top phone maker, Loop could become well known enough that I wouldn't need to explain it to every cashier I run into. But for now, pretty often I just wanted to pull out my credit card, swipe, and be done with it. Even if mobile payment services are smarter, are they actually easier to use than a credit card? The answer is still no.
 There are about a million mobile payments apps promising to revolutionize the way I
 buy things, and I've tried just about all of them.
 Google Wallet, Level Up, ISIS, Square Wallet, PayPal, and others let you purchase your daily
 cup of coffee wirelessly over Bluetooth or NFC, but they're all kind of useless because
 they don't work everywhere.
 I'm Ellis Hamburger with The Verge, and this is Loop.
 Loop's hardware lets you pay wirelessly at over 90% of existing credit card terminals
 in the US without retailers having to do anything.
 Is this the mobile payments service I've been asking for?
 Loop is a magnetic conductor that emulates the swiping of a magnetic strip credit card.
 At launch, Loop comes inside a Mophie-like charge case for your phone or a square plastic
 fob you can hook on a keychain or just keep in your pocket.
 After loading your cards into the Loop app using a supplied reader, you can hold the
 charge case or fob up to a credit card reader, press a button, and the reader accepts the
 transaction as if you'd swipe your credit card.
 It's kind of amazing.
 Loop transfers magnetic pulses that emulate the swiping of the max drive card.
 Those are the same magnetic pulses organized the same way as the data on the max drive,
 and the terminal reads it just like the magnetic strip.
 And therefore, we are compatible with any max drive reader today.
 Expecting the retail to change, expecting a new network to arise, is somewhat optimistic.
 Given the history of point of sale, where equipment life cycles are on the average seven
 years, we are not going to see a major change.
 I took a Loop charge case and Loop fob around town to see if terminals could read it, and
 of course to see if cashiers would actually let me use it.
 I gave a cashier at the local deli my fob and asked her to hold it against her credit
 card reader and press the button on its side.
 She was pretty skeptical at first, but she tried it and it worked.
 Loop worked at a bodega too, though the cashier was equally confused.
 It even worked in both taxicabs I tried.
 Worked better in fact, since I didn't even have to convince anyone to let me touch my
 gadget to their credit card machine.
 Both Loop devices, however, were foiled by subway ticketing machines and ATMs that require
 you stick a card in to trigger a switch, which in turn reads the card.
 I'm incredibly impressed by the Loop technology, but not by its first two form factors.
 The Loop fob is the more reliable of the two, but it can only transmit one card at a time,
 and at nearly an inch thick, it's more annoying to carry around than a few credit cards.
 The Loop charge case is the more logical form factor since it also charges your phone and
 doesn't require you to carry around anything extra.
 But its build quality leaves a lot to be desired.
 Its plastic body feels much less sturdy than a Mophie, and it's also fatter than a Mophie
 even though it's shorter.
 The charge case connects to your phone using Bluetooth where you can pick which card you
 want to transmit at any time inside the Loop wallet app, so it feels a bit more advanced
 than the fob.
 Neither Loop form factor is right for me.
 After all, aren't mobile payments about killing the wallet and limiting the crap you're carrying
 around?
 But Loop most closely approximates a future where payment tech is truly integrated into
 our phones and works everywhere.
 Embedding this technology in a handset is very easy.
 The core cost relating to the magnetic transmission is well under $1.
 Indeed, if the phone is already embedding wireless charging, we can reuse a lot of the
 components used in wireless charging.
 Loop shows that even when your tech works on most readers, trying to rely on one mobile
 payment service is still too cumbersome.
 With a big marketing push from Samsung or another top phone maker, Loop could become
 well known enough that I wouldn't need to explain it to every cashier I run into.
 But for now, pretty often I just wanted to pull out my credit card, swipe, and be done
 with it.
 Even if mobile payment services are smarter, are they actually easier to use than a credit
 card?
 The answer is still no.