VERIZON BLOCKS GOOGLE WALLET ON UPCOMING GALAXY NEXUS

Despite the Galaxy Nexus’s NFC chip, Verizon is blocking the Google Wallet payment system from the handset.

Verizon is shutting it out because of — you guessed it — money. The carrier is an invested partner in Isis, a competing mobile payment system. As is so often the case when software makers, hardware makers, and wireless providers collide, the wireless providers are having the last say.

If this is enough to make you hold out for an unconfirmed AT&T or T-Mobile Galaxy Nexus, think again. Those two carriers are partnering with Verizon on the Isis system. The only US holdout is Sprint, who also happens to offer the only official support for Google Wallet with their Nexus S 4G.

SPECIAL STICKER WILL ALLOW NFC-LESS ANDROID PHONES TO USE GOOGLE WALLET

Though it hasn’t been officially announced, during the Q&A session at the Google Wallet press event, Google mentioned it would be releasing a special sticker that will act as an NFC chip and will let NFC chip-less phones work with Google Wallet. This is a good move on Google’s part as the company said most Android phones in the future will support NFC technology but that’s a year away at least.

The sticker would have just one set of credit card information attached to it. So, unlike the way Google Wallet with a built-in NFC chip works, you would not be able to attach different loyalty accounts, use Offers, and so on. It would basically be just a way for you to make purchases with your smartphone.