By Greg Mills

My Bump and pay by phone article that run on Monday had some factual errors that I must correct. I got an email from a nice Lady from Bump Technologies with interesting insight into the "Bump" App I briefly described (http://itunes.apple.com/app/bump/id305479724?mt=8) , as well as interesting information she had regarding pay by smart phone that I must pass this on to you, my readers.  

My assumption that the contact information traded between iPhones is done locally turns out to be wrong. It happens in the cloud! My assumption was that iPhones or Androids used Bluetooth to trade contacts. Here is the information Sadie Bascom sent me: 

I did however want to offer a correction in a couple of places regarding the Bump app. Firstly, regarding this quote "Then comes Apple with a new Bump to Pay concept." PayPal is responsible for the Bump to pay app, not Apple. They integrated Bump Technologies' API to allow for their already existing app to become "bumpable." See the link to the app on iTunes; however, it is also available on Android devices. (See http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paypal/id283646709?mt=8 .)

Secondly, in response to this quote: "The two phones used bluetooth to trade contact info automatically. I guess you have to be careful who you “bump” into anymore" Bump doesn't use Bluetooth to communicate between devices at all. There are two parts to Bump: the app running on your device and a smart matching algorithm running on our servers in the cloud. The app on your phone uses the phone's sensors to literally "feel" the bump, and it sends that info up to the cloud. The matching algorithm listens to the bumps from phones around the world and pairs up phones that felt the same bump. Then we just route information between the two phones in each pair. This is done via wifi.  See the web site for Bump Technologies at http://www.bu.mp  -- Best, Sadie Bascom Bump Evangelist. 

Well, it just goes to show you, one never know who you are going to "Bump" into on the Web!  

While PayPay is doing their pay by smartphone thing, I think I read somewhere that Apple is also working on their spin on that concept. When I am mis-informed I invite my readers to let me know so we can correct false information.  

(Greg Mills is currently a Faux Artist in Kansas City. Formerly a new product R&D man for the paint sundry market, he holds 11 US patents. He's working on a solar energy startup using a patent pending process of turning waste dual pane glass into thermal solar panels used to heat water. Married, with one daughter still at home, Greg writes for intellectual web sites and Mac related issues. See Greg's web sites at http://www.gregmills.info . He can be emailed at gregmills@mac.com )