by 
Fans of near-field communication technology were bummed to discover that Apple still didn’t embrace wireless payments for the iPhone 5, but other companies are racing to fill the NFC gap with solutions of their own.
U.S. Bank has announced a beta of its new Go Mobile payment service, which combines an NFC-enabled case with the company’s mobile app to allow FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature cardmembers to pay for purchases just by tapping their iPhone at the register.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Google has been dabbling in the same technology with their Wallet service on Android devices, and a handful of companies have been racing to do the same on iOS since Apple has yet to embrace near-field communication (NFC).
Go Mobile works with a mobile payment chip embedded in a specialty case for the iPhone 4 or 4S (sadly, no iPhone 5 yet). The chip sends and receives wireless communication from a supported register pad, and works with the app to send money from your account to the retailer.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Bank Go Mobile trial appears to be quite limited — you’ll need to live in Salt Lake City, Utah or Portland, Oregon to participate, on top of the other restrictions outlined above. Here’s hoping the service will roll out to other regions and payment options soon…
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
