More stuff from CES 2007. visa announced plans to gradually roll-out its mobile payment system. The credit card network hopes customers will use their smartphone or PDA to pay. And also any other gadget that has the necessary Near Field Communications (NFC) chip embedded.

My only experience with NFC chips is gaming. In some of the newer arcades over here, you load money into a card and just run over the sensor to start playing. And a jet-setting friend tells me it's how Singaporeans pay for mass transit.

The Nokia 6131, also shown during CES, is a phone that works with Visa's service.

Cramming a camera, music player, office software, and wallet into your gadget sounds pretty convenient. But if it's easy to pay, so is racking up huge bills. And even if vendors have to confirm the transaction before it's completed, how does the system protect against misplaced/stolen virtual wallets?