A picture is worth a thousand dollars.

I have an account with USAA only because my dad was in the service. They are a great insurance company and supposedly a good bank. Thing is, they don't have any branches. So to deposit checks I would have had to mail them to Texas. This iPhone app released over the summer is one of the best uses of the iPhone's camera I have ever seen. All you need to do is take a photo of your check and, voila, it is deposited into your account. After all, that's what the bank does anyway. Then the iPhone app sends it right to USAA. No tellers. No ATM. No banks. Of course checks are a ridiculously antiquated form of money transfer. Funny how a modern piece of technology can make them convenient once again. For a day or two.