Although it’s been around for the past four years, the ‘wallet phone’ has only been available in Japan. However, thanks to new technology that now makes the cell phone compatible with global standards, the Japanese will actually start to share their stroke of genius with us; let’s hope that this puts the US 99 years behind Japan in technology rather than 100 years.

The ‘wallet phone’ is exactly what it sounds like, except it’s not really a wallet where you can store stray coins and your driver’s license. When you see 'wallet', think money; the phone has a tiny computer chip called FeliCa that allows the owner to buy products and services with just a wave near a reader-device at a store register or vending machine. Similar innovations do exist in the US, such as the Visa payWave that doesn’t require any swiping of a credit card. But Japan’s product is a wallet and a phone; and the fact that it’s a phone makes it ten times cooler.

What would be even cooler? A 'wallet phone' with campus cash; or an iPhone 'wallet phone' with campus cash. If we could only live to see the day.