Samsung’s Android dominance is going from strength to strength, and although it’s great to see the Korean electronics giant’s rise, we can’t help wonder if they are making more enemies than friends.

Take their latest in-house mobile payment platform, Samsung Wallet, for example. The icon looks a lot like Passbook on iOS, as does the general UI, and the name is the same as Google’s own payment system.

Like Passbook on iOS, the Samsung Wallet app can be used for paying for movie tickets, hotel and flights, they have even teamed up with some major partners including Walgreens, Expedia and Lufthansa. What I don’t quite understand though is why Samsung couldn’t have worked with Google to bring their ideas to Google Wallet?

Android is already fragmented due to the number of devices running different versions of the OS, various screen sizes, and third party Eco-systems. Do we now need competing payment options too?

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The idea is beautiful in its simplicity. The case has a built-in fingerprint reader to protect your security and the kit comes with a credit card reader attachment. You use that to register your various credit cards and you use the iPhone’s camera to take pictures of all the barcodes for your loyalty cards. When you want to collect those points, you set the loyalty card and its barcode is displayed via the embedded e-ink display on the back.

When you want to pay for something, you choose the credit card via the app and the included universal credit card gets temporarily programmed to clone that card, both via the magnetic strip and the chip. You hand over the card and proceed with the transaction as normal. Yes, the Geode is a little bulkier than your typical iPhone case, but it’s a heck of a lot more functional too.

They’re expecting to starting shipping the Geode (which works with the iPhone 4 and 4S) in May or June with a retail price of $199, but if you give at least a $159 backing on the Kickstarter page, you’ll get a Geode for “free.”

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Seriously? Are there really going to be random moments over the course of the day where you absolutely must shave your beard? I guess there are some guys out there with wicked four o’clock shadows, but even then, I’m not sure they’d be all that interested in the Carzor.

It’s a razor that’s credit card sized so that you can slip it into your wallet. We hope that the blades of the razor are suitably covered, less you come back with a completely mangled wallet. To make matters even more unique, the Carzor can optionally be scented with mint, sandalwood, lemon, ocean or orange strips. These are supposed to freshen you up.

You might have a fun time trying to explain this to the TSA agent when traveling too. That, and you really don’t want to accidentally pronounce Carzor as karzy either. In any case, it’s $17.

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