Publications and prepaid phone and transit cards would continue to be exempt from the price limit.

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Moreover, the success of the original card design has spawned imitators from grocery club cards to transit cards to hotel key cards.

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Areas that tend to gum up the works: asset sales, perks (such as tax-free public transit cards), tax-free transactions, outside partnership income and deferred compensation.

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Digital-only purists would still get something out of the deal, as the update could also bring person-to-person money transfers and support for mass transit cards.

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Creating an Android app named "UltraReset" and using it in tandem with an NFC-enabled Android phone (a Nexus S, in this case), security researchers Corey Benninger and Max Sobell were able to reset and reuse -- free of charge -- transit access cards in both San Francisco's MUNI system and New Jersey's PATH system.

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Applications include contactless transactions such as payment and transit ticketing, keys, data transfers including electronic business cards, and access to online digital content.

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