Venmo, PayPal & Circle users get new ways to pay this week - USA TODAY

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You've no doubt heard that using your smartphone to pay for stuff was going to replace our traditional world of checks, debit and credit cards and of course cash.

Experts have been saying this for several years, and while mobile pay is growing, really, how long has it been since you left home without your credit card?

It probably hasn't happened this year. And it's unlikely to occur next year either.

Yet small advances did get unveiled this week to bring mobile payments a little closer to your world.

— Venmo, the popular mobile payment app, used by mostly Millennials to pay each other back and split pizza checks and rent bills, is expanding. The company said it will now go beyond person to person payments to traditional retail as well--anywhere that accepts PayPal, which owns Venmo.

This is PayPal's move to bring Venmo mainstream.

— Speaking of PayPal, now you can use the service to pay friends directly within the Facebook Messenger app, similar to how Venmo works. 

—Meanwhile, Circle, a mobile pay startup, looks to take on PayPal and Venmo with new rules that make it easier to pay.

The old way: Go to PayPal, get paid, then get access to the funds within a few days.

The new way: Get paid instantly via the Circle app, without paying a fee. 

This is a start in the right direction. We shouldn't have to wait to be paid back. But Circle only works with debit cards and bank accounts, not credit cards, which so many of us use, if for no other reason than for racking up all those loyalty airline miles and free hotel room nights.

The beauty of mobile payment is that it's faster than anything beyond exchanging cash, and according to the financial firms, just as secure.

Unlike the new microchip credit cards, which get inserted and sit there as the seconds click away before being approved, you hold the phone over the card reader, and generally get approved within moments.

Huge merchants like Best Buy, Macy's and McDonald's now accept payments via the smartphone. But many giants still don't, like Target, CVS and Kroger.

This year, mobile payments was supposed to get a big boost from Apple, which has said it will add the ability to pay individual friends via a text, like Venmo, within its new iOS11 operating system for iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch. 

But while the OS was released in September, mobile pay was delayed, and here we are four weeks later and it's yet to come out. Apple declined to comment when we asked for an update.

Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, notes that mobile pay is not an easy thing to pull off.

"It's not like finding a new way to share a photo. You're dealing with money, criminals, fraud, regulations and a lot more complexity. The day we launched the Circle service, we were suddenly under 24/7 attack by criminals. And that's a different thing."

At the same token, he says mobile pay is in its infancy now, will start to see broader adoption next year, and predicts that within five years, we'll ditch our plastic bank cards altogether.

I think it will be even sooner. I have no coins in my pocket now. I don't even carry a traditional wallet anymore. Three years ago, that wasn't the case. 

And finally, this week credit card giant MasterCard said it would say goodbye to signatures on purchases by April.

As the company noted, with biometrics, chips and tokens, who needs a John Hancock anymore? 

Welcome to the future. 

In other tech news this week: 

— Amazon accepted bids from many cities for its new, second corporate headquarters and a promise of 50,000 new jobs. The company is expected to make its decision in 2018. Cities in the running include Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Tucson and Washington, DC. 

— Cord cutting woes continue for broadband providers. Verizon said it lost 18,000 video customers during the July to September quarter, following recent announced dips from AT&T (down 90,000) and Comcast's forecast that it would lose as many as 150,000 subscribers. Consumers are ditching expensive cable packages for a la carte streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. 

—The Google Pixel XL phones went on sale Thursday, the Internet giant's sequel to last year's models, with faster camera lenses and higher price tags. USA TODAY's Edward C. Baig calls the new Pixels a "strong upgrade over Google's first foray into producing its own phones." Meanwhile, we took the Pixel XL and iPhone 8 Plus out on an early morning mobilecam shootout to see which one had the best camera. Our verdict here. 

—Microsoft updated the Windows 10 operating system, with better security and 3D features. 

Your tech week in audio

—What will Apple do with Amazing Stories? The iPhone maker has signed up with Steven Spielberg to revive his 1980s NBC anthology series for Apple--but where will we it? On iTunes? Apple Music? We weigh in. 

—The Canon 6D Mark II review. It's an inexpensive way to get most of the features of the Canon 5D Mark IV DSLR. Is it worth it? 

—Adobe Lightroom makes huge changes. The beloved software for photographers got a massive upgrade this week, taking away many beloved features and breaking it up into a "Classic," version and a new bare-boned version. Meanwhile, I explain why the Lightroom app is my favorite go-to photo editor for smartphones. 

— Google Pixel 2 review. My thoughts on the new phone, and specifically, how it compares to the iPhone 8 Plus as a camera. 

— Mobile pay: Today's newsletter, as an audio podcast. 

—Bonus: weekend edition, your tech week. 

Subscribe to the #TalkingTech newsletter, usat.ly/2qaIVVQ, the #TalkingTech podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Tunein and wherever else you like to hear great online audio and follow Jefferson Graham on Twitter, @jeffersongraham.