NFC news roundup
Posted by Seth Planck
September 25th, 2011 at 10:15 PM Filed Under Latest News
NFC news roundup
Its been a busy couple of weeks in NFC and odds are you have probably missed some of the good bits if you don’t hang out on NFC Rumors all day everyday. So we thought we’d catalogue some of the more interesting stories that have crept up in the last two weeks and organize a little.
NFC Marketing
NFC marketing used to be a small category of news, but it is building. We expect that in the future it will rival NFC phones in the amount of stories that are generated by NFC marketing because it is such a diverse subject.
- First NFC digital billboard to launch in Times Square
- Kimtag research finds social networking and marketing NFC tags scans get a 22% per month bump
- Poken and Standard Register Healthcare announce NFC products and services platform pokenHEALTH
- Tapit closes exclusivity deal with JCDecaux in Australia for marketing on its “outside street furniture” or what we like to call NFC billboards
- Tapit forms Australian NFC agency out of home advertising network with JCDecaux
- NFC social check-ins come of age with RewardAble marketing platform
- Sony Ericsson Nozomi wonder phone to sport NFC and then some?
- All Samsung Wave phones to get the Bada 2.0 upgrade, great news for NFC phones
- Nokia 700 NFC phone unlocked and SIM free hits UK for £279.95
- NFC Rumor: T-Mobile to launch 5 more NFC phones this year
- Nokia 700 & Nokia 701 Symbian Belle NFC phones now shipping
- AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II, NFC will be turned on [Exclusive]
- Sprint to launch more than 5 NFC smartphones by Q1 2012
- Samsung Wave 578 hitting Orange UK with NFC payments, “coming soon page” fills in the blanks
- Samsung SHV-E120L NFC phone outed, dropping down in Korea this month
- BlackBerry Bold 9790 NFC phone photographed, could launch before the end of the year
- Casio launches the RFID & NFC version of its popular, tough DT-X8 hand held terminal for warehouses
- Wax lyrical information leaker publishes NFC Samsung Nexus Prime details to Twitter in a poem
- Acer launches Liquid Express NFC phone, pledges allegiance to NFC
- Will the iPhone 5 have NFC? We will know October 4th
- Get your AT&T NFC Samsung Galaxy S II for $199 which launches on October 2nd
- T-Mobile will hock you a BlackBerry Curve 9360 for $79 September 28th
- Orange, France getting NFC Samsung Galaxy S II in October which will be the first NFC Android device to be sold in Europe, will head to the UK soon
- LG LU6200 NFC phone to be LG’s hero NFC smartphone?
- Google Wallet is live but don’t get your NFC Samsung Nexus S 4G from Sprint
- Sonim launches XP1301 CORE NFC rugged NFC phone at NFC World Congress
- BlackBerry Curve Touch 9380 NFC phone snapped in the wild again and coming to Telus very soon
Software
With the Microsoft announcement, it was easy to miss the near field communication goodness that is now supported in Flash. Microsoft have stolen the show in NFC software over the last couple of weeks but there have been other stories.
- NXP helped develop NFC drivers for Windows 8 that enables the OS to ”Tap to pair/ Tap to share” – expect to see more NFC tablets en route
- First Windows NFC development app hits from Wireless Sensor Technologies, partners with UPM RFID to boot
- See Windows 8 NFC under the hood in Build Windows NFC session videosNFC development problems NXP/ Microsoft/RIM [Exclusive]
- Adobe Flash Player 11 & AIR 3 now support NFC for pairing and potentially payments
- NFC Fruit Ninja game joins Angry Birds Magic and is preinstalled on Nokia NFC phones
- Microsoft shows off Windows 8 OS with NFC support and an NFC tablet at the BUILD conference
- Microsoft “Build Windows” developer sessions Windows 8 NFC
- Need NFC in Windows today but don’t want to wait for Windows 8?
Studies and reports
There is always a good supply of reports in the NFC Rumors office. However, it’s actually been a little quieter as of late, but there are still four for you to take a look at.
- Smart Card Alliance complete NFC industry overview with its ”The Mobile Payments and NFC Landscape: A U.S. Perspective” White Paper
- A NPD Group study suggests that consumers are not managing smartphone security as NFC payments arrive
- Goode Intelligence new report suggests that the biometric industry set for massive growth thanks to NFC
- Study finds NFC mobile wallet concept appeals to 39% of Canadians
Payments
You mean near field communication does payments? Really? Yep, NFC payments – the subject that is more NFC than NFC. There is always news in this subject and here it is.
- KT launches iCarte NFC iPhone case in Korea, backs it up with the Olleh Touch NFC mobile wallet
- Fiserv gets ready for NFC, produces personalized EMV cards for now
- Canadian BMO Bank announces PayPass NFC stickers for phones
- America’s Isis crisis in NFC mobile payments
- MasterCard talks up security in NFC payments
- PayPal gearing up for NFC mobile wallet, Accumulate wants run the security detail
- Google Wallet ad shows the masses what NFC can do for payments
- Can PayPal rule the world without NFC? Can PayPal survive without NFC in the offline world?
- Monitise snags a UK virtual payment cards patent
- Google Wallet is live on Sprint, Google Nexus S 4G owners can now get their NFC mobile wallet on
- Google lands Visa, American Express and Discover Card for Google Wallet
- ViVOtech hires ex-Verifone & Ingenico NFC pioneer for VP of Operations, as NFC talent acquisition is set to explode
- MasterCard talks up NFC and mobile payments
Tags
NFC tags are yet to hit critical mass. If you watch the tag news carefully you can see how the nascent industry is shaping up.
- Gentag announces that it has been awarded a patent for its NFC skin tags
- NFC tags just evolved as NXP Semiconductors announces improved sensitivity NFC tags that can be smaller with the same read distances
- UPM RFID launches new NFC tags after NXP NFC tag announcement
Hardware
Whether it is industrial, consumer based or for business there is always a gadget, component or piece of hardware being announced these days in near field communications. Here are the last few.
- SK Telecom announces worlds first NFC on USIM SIM cards, adds NFC to phones
- STMicroelectronics supports NFC in Windows 8
- Tyfone licenses SideTap MicroSD & NFC secure element card technologies to Taiwan memory manufacturer AboMem
- Windows 8 devices such as laptops could incorporate Cirque’s NFC GlidePoint so your trackpad is your NFC antenna
- Neotion and Alcineo brings NFC payments for VOD and pay TV
Devices and Accessories
If it’s not a phone and it’s not hardware its a device or an accessory. Here’s our roundup.
- Intel Medfield Android Tablet shows NFC by mistake? Or was it a “Microsoft aren’t the only ones with an NFC tablet moment”?
- NFC Watch coming to market in 2012? Bizarre press release leaves us in the dark, but with plenty of stories
- NFC pairs the Nokia BH-505 Bluetooth headset to your NFC phone and joins Nokia’s growing collection of NFC-enabled headsets
Access Control
A growing subject matter and industry. We have seen NXo make announcements, Lockitron and the mighty ASSA ABLOY group. Here are the headlines from the past couple of weeks.
- HID Global partners with BlackBerry, NFC smartphones now open doors
- HID Global launches NFC key program at Arizona State University for access control allowing students to carry digital keys on NFC smartphones
- Yale NFC door locks caught on video
Misc.
Yeah, we couldn’t fit these in other categories. Interesting nonetheless.
- Collis launches mobile test center at NFC World Congress
- Does Google want to become a MVNO (mobile virtual network operator)?
- GlobalPlatform launches its compliance trademark