Gadgetory

but it's Michael Fisher with pocketnow.com this week sprint announced their version of the Galaxy Nexus from Samsung which will launch on April 22nd and it's going to launch with the ability to use Google Wallet something that was announced in May of last year the app was released in September of last year but still the feature is unavailable on the Verizon Wireless version of the Galaxy Nexus but that doesn't mean it's impossible to run on the Verizon Wireless version we'll show you how to install it then we'll take it for a test drive over the course of a week let you know what it's like in real world use stay tuned it's pocket now so for this project the first thing we're going to need is a computer now we're using a MacBook Air but you can use a PC or a Linux box any computer will do will also need a USB cable and the Galaxy Nexus itself in this case a 4G LTE version from Verizon Wireless in the United States the first thing we want to do is jump into settings check our Android version make sure it is either version 4.2 3 or dot 4 if you have any other version at this moment this simple hack will not be supported the next thing we're going to do is drop into xda-developers into this forum thread we'll drop the link in there for you in the video description we're gonna save the apk for a Google Wallet to our computer save it in a directory of your choosing and should download it relatively quickly and then we'll plug our USB cable into the computer and then into the Galaxy Nexus using a file manager we're just gonna drag and drop the apk onto the Galaxy Nexus and then we're gonna use a file manager I use Astro you can use whatever you like go ahead and locate that apk file on the Galaxy Nexus and tap on it to run if you're using Astro it'll ask you if you want to browse the file open the app manager just go ahead and hit install Android is going to do its usual thing and ask you for your permission to install it showing you all the permissions that the app is going to have go ahead and press install once the application finishes installing you can go ahead and press open and presto Google Wallet is running on your Verizon Wireless Galaxy Nexus of course that's not all there is to it you've got to agree to an encyclopedia long Terms of Service Agreement obviously we always recommend you read the whole thing but nobody ever does that click I agree when you're ready and then the application will ask you what Google account you want to associate the Wallet account with if you have more than one you can select it with the radio buttons or you can add a new account at this stage if you like you'll be prompted with another permission request giving Google Wallet access to your Google Checkout accounts and then you'll have to set a new pin code make sure it's something you remember because you'll use this every time you use Google Wallet right now you only have the option of adding a handful of specialty gift cards to your account or a Citi MasterCard Google while the application tells you that other options are coming soon of course it's said that for a long time so don't hold your breath the most useful portion of the application is the Google prepaid card which you can load with money and use like a debit card and as an incentive for using wallet Google has loaded it already with ten dollars for us they'll do the same for you as well any new customer to Google Wallet gets ten free dollars so that's pretty awesome finally you'll be given a quick tutorial on how to use Google Wallet and then it's off to the races well I don't know about you but I can't stand money burning a hole in my pocket so we got Google Wallet installed we got ten free Google bucks let's go spend him in my first venue for a Google Wallet purchase was CVS I chose CVS because they're a nationwide chain and I knew they already had the pay pass system installed which Google Wallet needs to operate I immediately went to the health food section and got myself some healthy edamame beans okay I got candy went to the self checkout aisle scanned my items that I made sure my phone was unlocked and tapped it to the pay pass pad the phone prompted me to enter my pin code which I promptly did then it told me to tap the phone again to the pad to finish the payment I tapped it again there was a pleasant sound and the payment was completed easy as that the Google Wallet app then gave me a transaction report immediately following the transaction showing me how much I had spent I could even display the approximate location of the transaction if I'd wanted to feeling buoyed by my success at the CVS I decided to try another nationwide chain and went to Rite Aid having apparently not had enough health food and with an eye towards saving some more money I decided to snap up some discount surplus Easter M&Ms because I do what I want now Rite Aid is where I learned that the NFC payment pads can be a little temperamental this one here rejected my first attempt at a transaction ultimately I had to turn the phone around for it to register a second tab but it ultimately went through just fine now by this time I was pretty loaded down with candy so it was time to do the next logical thing and get a haircut now there was a wait at the barber shop so while I was sitting there waiting I decided it would be a good time to replenish my funds I noticed though that the Google Wallet app does not appear in the recently used apps on the Galaxy Nexus for some reason so I had to manually go back into the app launcher and launch the app that way not really a terrible annoyance just a little bug that I thought worth mentioning as I said I only had just under six dollars of free Google money remaining so I tapped ad funds and in the time it took me to enter my debit card information I had added $30 to my Google Wallet account I immediately received a push notification to that effect and presto I was instantly armed with more electronic money once my wait was over my usual barber did a great job as he usually does and he agreed to help me demonstrate one of the limitations of Google Wallet in that it's not accepted in many places yeah I had to pay him in cash as a matter of fact I was surprised at just how many places didn't have the necessary pin pads now you can't expect a lot of small businesses and local establishments to possess the necessary equipment but I was floored by how many large nationwide brands with hundreds of stores across the country some even across the world didn't have the necessary equipment to use the NFC payment system fortunately as anyone who's ever wanted delicious really unhealthy food knows McDonald's will always be there for you and this lemonade was sorely needed after a long day of using my phone to pay for things all around town so yeah that was one week with Google Wallet on the verizon Galaxy Nexus but really I didn't even need a day less than a day really to realize how awesome it feels to make purchases with your phone we get we've been doing it for years over-the-air with Amazon apps and eBay absent all that kind of stuff but there's just something about physically tapping your phone to a PayPass pad in a store and watching it respond and knowing that money is being transferred there that makes me feel like I'm living in the future again and after eight years of using smartphones it's not easy to make me feel that way again but this is a very very cool thing that said can we fully recommend doing this no even though it works perfectly in my experience Verizon does not officially support it so you will have one fewer person to go crying to if something does go wrong and some people in the industry are making the claim that Google Wallet is inherently unsafe in itself because of the nature of Android we're not gonna get into that discussion here but suffice to say it is still an open question more important for me at least is this issue of adoption as I mentioned Google Wallet has been out for almost eight months and it's still relatively rare to see stores out there that support the PayPass NFC pad system now a lot of factors contribute to that and really is anybody's guess whether or not Google Wallet is gonna pan out for Google or fail like any number of their other projects have Wow I hope it does succeed because really this is a very very cool product and it's one I'm really excited about I have to say that stores that support it right now are so rare that it's really not worth the hassle to set it up unless you're a geek or you know unless you're the mayor of your local CVS on Foursquare but by all means if you want to make the effort and you're a tinkerer and you want to feel the rush of living like a Jetson for a minute go for it it's a lot of fun did I miss something of course I did that usually happens leave me a note let me know what I missed did you like something sometimes that happens too and it's pretty cool when it does give us a thumbs up or leave another comment if you liked what you saw here today visit us at our website wwlp.com and stay tuned for our next video which will be coming to you just as soon as we can make it thanks for watching I'm Michael Fisher with pocketnow.com we'll see you next time