Dear Aunt TUAW, My wallet is full to bursting -- and not with cash. (Don't try pulling a Soupy Sales on this nephew.) I've got too many shopper cards, library cards, etc. Help me empty my wallet of cards -- and if you don't mind, fill it with cash instead. Your loving nephew, Fnulnu Dear Fnulnu, (And, yes, Auntie knows what that stands for.) Auntie isn't about to send you money, so she's skipping the filling-with-cash part. Cheeky! She does, however sympathize about the shopper cards. All of us now carry more and more IDs around that stretch our wallets to their limits and our patience as well. She's reminded of a great scene from Neil Gaiman's American Gods, where the hero tried to argue with a ticket agent that an expired driver's license was worthless for driving but perfectly valid for identification purposes. Good book. Auntie is most familiar with Read More

All those loyalty cards you have dangling off your keychain or plumping your wallet? Gone. In their place, smartphone users will have free apps like Key Ring or Cardstar on their cellphones. And if you’re the type who likes to search for bargains and clip coupons in the Sunday circular, these apps throw you a high-tech bone. Starting this week, Cardstar and Key Ring will include such things inside the app itself, so you can tap a button and have a coupon delivered to your cellphone. No snipping, no ink-stained hands. No worries about leaving the coupons behind on the kitchen counter. There are a few bumps along the way to this shopping utopia, and we’ll get to those in a minute. But as more supermarkets join the trend — as seems almost certain — and as the software developers fix some minor flaws, these apps could become essential to shopping. Read More