by Omar Gallaga




The new iPhone app from USAA allows you to deposit by taking a picture of a check with the device's camera. (USAA / Via YouTube)



When I found out that USAA, a bank my wife uses, had a new Deposit@Mobile feature allowing you to deposit checks via an iPhone camera, I was incredibly excited.

Then I found out she only has a credit card with them, not a checking or savings account. Plus, she has no iPhone. Excitement dimmed. I really wanted to try it out and tell you about it.

Luckily, it is for situations exactly like this that we have Internet video: the YouTube clip above (from the company itself) walks you through the deposit-via-iPhone feature, which is nothing short of amazing. What else will we soon be able to do by camera phone? Will getting your picture taken at the DMV be a thing of the past? Perhaps you'll be able to qualify as a beauty pageant contestant with just a few keystrokes on your phone. Three words: whole-body teleporation!

It's stuff like this that makes me giddy about the future.

Edited, Aug. 13, to add: USAA tells me today that checks totaling $1.5 million have been deposited by customers via the iPhone app since it was released Tuesday.