Visa and Mastercard (no obvious link) have launched contactless low value payments (ie. payments below £10). You won't have to sign or type in a PIN for these transactions - you just wave your card over the reader (a little like Oyster cards).
This is doubtless a very quick and convenient way to pay for things. As a consumer, you're protected against fraud in the same ways as you ever were (protection is performed by your bank, so it depends on how friendly your bank is as to how easily you get your money back). In principle, everyone wins.
My only concern: Why make this RFID? Just because Chip and Pin is horribly slow doesn't mean that contact based payments need to take as long. By forcing a contact, you avoid any "drive by" fraud or any other type of RFID tomfoolery. Is this yet more blind faith in RFID technology?