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Time Added to the Hourglass: XPERIA Ion uses NFC to Save Consumers Time
Posted by Cole Jones
February 08th, 2012 at 3:53 PM Filed Under Latest News
Time Added to the Hourglass: XPERIA Ion uses NFC to Save Consumers Time
Let’s chat it up about the Sony Xperia Ion, the LTE version of the Xperia S, available on the AT&T 4G network. Earlier this year in January, following CES we did a piece on Sony’s NFC speakers for Xperia NFC smartphones, which you can find here. With 4G compatibility, the phone can be used on GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ where LTE is not available on AT&T. The device is part of the new generation of NXT series (next generation) smartphones and displays a 4.6-inch 720p HD Bravia Engine screen. A 12MP camera that goes from having the device off to snapping a picture in 1.5 seconds by holding down on the dual-stage camera shutter button and 1.5 GHZ dual core processor with Android Gingerbread this quarter to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich during the second quarter. In holding the device, we notice the Sony Ericsson’s signature human curvature back (metal, not plastic like the XPERIA S) that allows users to grip the XPERIA Ion comfortably in their hands.
WIMA NFC Monaco 2012 calls for papers to be submitted
Posted by Seth Planck
January 05th, 2012 at 12:52 PM Filed Under NFC Briefs
WIMA NFC Monaco 2012 calls for papers to be submitted for its 2012 6th Global NFC Applications Products & Services Congress
As we mentioned in our last post WIMA Monaco is getting closer and here is the opportunity to present in front of delegates at the conference or have your paper published in the conference programme. WIMA generally attracts attendees and speakers from every facet of the burgeoning NFC ecosystem. This year there is also opportunities for Near Field Communication solution providers to make a joint presentation with an end user partner.
HTC Stunning NFC phone is just incredible, HTC Incredible S to be accurate
RumorPosted by Seth Planck
August 14th, 2011 at 2:48 PM Filed Under Latest News, Videos
HTC Stunning NFC phone is just incredible, well a HTC Incredible S with an NFC chip to be accurate
The HTC Stunning is actually the HTC Incredible S. When is beautiful amazing? Most of the time, but not in the case of the HTC Stunning which was announced this week by HTC as it partnered with China UnionPay to bring NFC payments to Chinese consumers. We thought we had a new phone in the offering but alas the HTC Stunning is, in fact, an HTC Incredible S touting an NFC chip. It’s not that there is anything wrong with the HTC Incredible S, it’s just we have a penchant for new shiny phones that come laden with NFC rockstar goodness. It turns out that the “Stunning” was a slight mistranslation from Chinese to English for the word Incredible, and we fell for it hook, line and sinker. Oh well, you live, you learn. Sarah Perez over at TechCrunch spotted the HTC Incredible S mistranslation and saved us all from embarrassing ourselves further!
Nonetheless this may mean that we could expect to see the HTC Incredible S turn up in other parts of the world showing off its new NFC chip set in the next few months which doesn’t suck one little bit. We’ll be keeping our ears firmly fixed to the ground for that rumor to start circulating. HTC, like us, seems to think that mobile payments will become an essential feature in smartphones and the HTC Incredible S with an NFC chip stuffed inside may be the first signs of all new HTC NFC superphones to come. There are already whispers out there that HTC has an Ice Cream Sandwich NFC phone slated for the fall and we should forget that HTC just this last week trademarked CLOSECONNECT for its NFC apps and we doubt that the company would have trademarked that name just for a HTC Incredible S with an NFC chip.
NFC Nokia N5 goes comes through the FCC, could this be the Nokia Cindy?
RumorPosted by Seth Planck
July 21st, 2011 at 6:53 PM Filed Under Rumor, Videos
NFC Nokia N5 goes comes through the FCC, could this be the Nokia Cindy?
Another day, another Nokia phone clears the FCC – today it was the turn of the RM-701 which is suspected to be the Nokia N5. This time spotted by Wireless Goodness, the FCC documentation clearly shows that this phone is an NFC phone, but that leaves us a little puzzled because a leaked document that was floating about on June 29th displayed the (Nokia 701) as the Nokia Helen, which was not an NFC phone as you can see in the images below. However, the Nokia 600 (Code name Nokia Cindy) looks to be a more likely, which has been leaked and identified as an NFC phone. The Nokia N5 is set to run Symbian Anna which is not the latest version of the operating system, better known as Belle, and can be found on the upcoming Nokia Zeta.
NFC Nokia N5 rumored specifications
Like the Nokia Zeta which already passed through the FCC the other day (see here) the N5 is said to have an attractive price. The Nokia N5 appears to be aimed at the young’uns and also has the claim of being an NFC phone, but we think it may be of the non-secure element flavor. It features an in built FM radio and antenna and also boasts a 1GHz thinker. As with the Nokia Zeta, the Nokia N5 also comes adorned with a 5 megapixel camera and the same 3.2 inch nHD AMOLED display. Nokia has even mentioned some apps that will ship with the Nokia N5, including Skype, Shazam, YouTube and VLingo. The specs we have so far show another interesting slate coming out of Espoo featuring NFC sweetness that could be just around the corner.
Europe’s Margento is all about contactless mobile payments
Posted by Seth Planck
July 11th, 2011 at 6:06 PM Filed Under Featured, Galleries, Latest News, Videos
Europe’s Margento is all about contactless mobile payments
Here at NFC Rumors we have a passion for all contactless technology – after all, that is what the C in our NFC name stands for. If it enables convergence and streamlines life, especially if it is secure and enhances user experience. Whether that be payments, speakers, routers, door locks, social networking check-ins… the list goes on. We thought we knew the players in the contactless mobile payments industry, and just this weekend we were blindsided by a company who has existed since 1991 and has been conducting contactless mobile payments since 2008! Meet Margento – yup, you read it correctly “Margento” and not Magento, which is the open source e-commerce company eBay just swallowed up. The M in Margento is for mobile and the argento part is a long story but is related to the latin word “Argentum” which means silver in Latin and is associated with banking and transactions from way back when, but we digress.
Okay, back on track. Someone contacted us from Margento a few days ago to say, “Hey, we exist and we do payments – why aren’t you writing about us?” Well, that’s not an exact quote but you get the point. In fact, it appears very few have written about Margento, and they are a somewhat unknown white label provider familiar only to their partners. By the time you have finished reading this article, you are going to wonder how no one has brought this technology to the U.S. So, we did a little research and were amazed at what we found. We were so impressed we got together with somebody from the company to learn a little more, and now we have the skinny for you. [Largest introduction to a post eveeeeer.]
Skip past the break for lots more information and videos
Google to get Punchd in the wallet region, now said to be kicking some loyalty program ass
RumorPosted by Seth Planck
July 10th, 2011 at 6:08 PM Filed Under Latest News, Rumor, Videos
Google may acquire Punchd, the loyalty punch card on your phone startup, to add to Google Wallet or Google Offers, said to be paying for up to $10 million
This is just a rumor at the moment, but Google is said to potentially be acquiring Punchd Inc. for somewhere in the region of $10 million for its Google Wallet. Punchd is a San Francisco phone based loyalty card company that specializes in old style punch card loyalty programs right on your Android or iOS phone.
About Punchd and why Google may want to purchase it for its Google Wallet or Google Offers apps
Punchd is part of the venture capitalist Dave McClure’s 500 startups, which is an internet startup seed fund and incubator based in Google’s hometown of Mountain View. Punchd is run by three developers: Xander Pollock, Niket Desal and Reed Morse; all whom are expected to remain with the project inside the Googleplex if the acquisition takes place, according to sources who shared this news with TechCrunch. Centered around the principle of buy [add number here] get one free, Punchd is a simple loyalty program that rewards consumers for being loyal to a business. This would obviously fit well with Google Wallet and Google Offers.
Mockumentary Viral Video from Barclaycard
Posted by Seth Planck
July 04th, 2011 at 12:16 PM Filed Under Latest News, Videos
Barclaycard has released what it calls a mockumentary video that charts the history of payments, from the barter system all the way through to NFC. The video is really an amusing way of educating UK folk on the benefits of using its NFC Quick Tap application and service that was launched with Orange in May.
Education is always the biggest barrier to adoption with any new technology. We can see that in Moore’s technology adoption life cycle below, we are currently crossing the chasm with much work to be done before we reach the early majority. NFC is still treated with some suspicion by the general public. So Barclaycard’s choice to use humor, or in this case a mockumentary, to attract people to learn more is a solid marketing move, especially with the Brits as they respond better to “humour” than they do to hard core feature and benefit presentations. The video charts the payment methods used from the stone-age right up until today with a fella buying a coffee with Quick Pay.
Zoosh wants to be more than just payments, Zoosh wants to be a verb
Posted by Seth Planck
July 03rd, 2011 at 11:00 PM Filed Under Latest News
Zoosh wants to be more than just payments, Zoosh wants to be a verb
We thought we had Zoosh pegged in our last post about Naratte. Turns out, although accurate, our last post didn’t even hit the tip of the iceberg of the capabilities Zoosh has. We interviewed both Bret Paulson and Byron Alsberg and came away with our heads spinning with potential ideas and a few more facts that weren’t in the public domain before. Ready to learn more about Naratte and Zoosh? Good let’s get on with it…
Everything you need to know about Zoosh transactions
If you read the press release from Naratte this last week you may have been impressed or you may have been confused, but one thing we know for sure is there were questions unanswered. That’s mainly because press releases are not really the realm of a lot of technical data and they certainly don’t try to break down data enough for us everyday folk to consume and comprehend. Let’s start with the big issue that any technology that deals with financial transactions has to get past – security. Strange as it seems, technically being safe is not enough for a new technology to be accepted; it has to be viewed as safe in the hearts and minds of the consumer to work and gain acceptance. This is a challenge Zoosh, like NFC, faces.
We had a niggling concern when we wrote our last post about how secure Naratte’s Zoosh is, but not anymore
The first point we need to convey is that your data is not stored on the phone. We repeat your data is not stored on the phone when you use any Zoosh app, on any platform. Byron Alsberg, the company’s CTO, educated us on Naratte’s approach and it makes a lot of sense. The security is token based, which means you are given a cryptographic token (a code) by your credit card company that represents your account on your phone linked with your pin number. If anything changes within that configuration, a flag as big as a stars and stripes on a used car lot goes up immediately. This token is useless to anyone who isn’t you, as to change the configuration requires personal knowledge you setup with your card provider. If you want to learn more about token based security, check out Wikipedia’s page on the subject.
Will Apple include NFC in the iPhone 5 and iPad 3?
Feature RumorPosted by Seth Planck
July 03rd, 2011 at 9:33 PM Filed Under Featured, Rumor
Will Apple include NFC in the iPhone 5 and iPad 3?
A couple of days ago we speculated that Apple may be including NFC in the iPhone 5 and iPad 3. The lack of credible, reliable rumors and evidence to support our leap of faith has bothered us ever since. For around a year now pundits have been speculating about whether Apple will be including NFC in the iPhone 5 and more recently in the iPad 3. For the second half of last year the press thought it was a certainty that Apple was launching an NFC iPhone 5, but early this year reports started circulating that Apple would not be supporting NFC until the iPhone 6. We wanted to look at all the rumors that have circulated regarding Apple’s plans for NFC in the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 to see whether any clues that would allow us to get a clearer picture of whether or not an NFC iPhone 5 or NFC iPad 3 is on the cards.
Rumors that have suggested there will be no NFC in the iPhone 5 or iPad 3
Most Apple NFC iPhone 5 and NFC iPad 3 neigh sayers, have reported between March and May this year. The information has either come third party through Apple or large scale manufacturing suppliers. If this is misinformation, it has worked. Many industry people now think there will be no NFC iPhone 5 until next year. The NFC iPad 3 rumors are too new, but it is presumable that if the iPhone 5 doesn’t get NFC nor would the iPad 3 if indeed it is due to be released at the same time. We have tracked the main reports that suggest that the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 will not have NFC and they appear to emanate from just three sources.
Berstein Analysts: “Apple’s next iPhone, said to be called the 4S, will not have the mobile payment support through NFC (near field communication).” – May 16th, 2011
Yankee Group Study projects $1 trillion in mobile transactions by 2015
Posted by Seth Planck
July 02nd, 2011 at 11:50 PM Filed Under Latest News
Yankee Group Study projects $1 trillion in mobile transactions by 2015
The Yankee Group are the latest research firm to publish a study on the projected worth of $1 trillion in mobile transactions by 2015. Each study seems to find a higher number than the next and the Yankee Group is topping all others, this week at least, by concluding from the results of their study that mobile transactions will exceed $1 trillion in value by the within the magic time frame between now and 2015. Bear in mind, projections are just that – a guesstimate based on public opinion and trends in economic key metrics. Sometimes they can be eerily accurate and other times way off. We suggest when viewing figures from any research that projects the value of an industry years into the future that you take the information as an interesting guess based on what we have for facts right now and not as an exact science of what the situation will actually represent in 2015. $1 trillion in mobile transactions by 2015 shows that the emerging industry is probably feeling bullish about adoption.
Key study findings that lead to the projection of a $1 trillion in mobile transactions by 2015
Headlines like “Yankee Group Study projects $1 trillion in mobile transactions by 2015″ focus on the conclusions analysts reach. It makes for better news and attracts readership. However, the fact is that many key metric indicators go into financial projections and this latest research is no exception. So let’s look at some of the other information the study discovered.
Biometric mobile phone security to be worth $161 million in revenue by 2015
FeaturePosted by Seth Planck
July 02nd, 2011 at 6:23 PM Filed Under Featured, Latest News
Biometric mobile phone security to be worth $161 million in revenue by 2015
Latest forecasts show that biometric mobile phone security products and services will generate just over $30 million in 2011.
Biometric mobile phone security is a subject close to our hearts here at NFC Rumors. We love and hate the technology in equal measures. On one hand, it affords us to be able to protect our sensitive data stored on our ever more powerful NFC smartphones. On the other hand, it will likely be used to track our movements and is in fact a severe privacy concern. Biometric technology could enable a big brother society where we are constantly watched and scanned by governments and marketing companies. If we were politicians (which we are not) we would call for the use of such technology to be regulated, legislated and constricted to certain use cases, with full transparency on those uses and storage of biometric data. But nonetheless, biometric mobile phone security is a positive use for the technology and a new study has been published to show how pervasive it is likely to become by 2015.
Biometric mobile phone security industry projections
The one thing all analysts appear to agree on is that NFC and the mobile wallet are here to stay, but this latest research conducted by Goode Intelligence focuses on biometric mobile phone security. The headline findings of the report is that the biometric mobile phone security market could be worth $161 million by 2015, and to be honest those figures are low for such a huge shift in technology and personal security. This year, biometric mobile phone technology will earn the industry around $30 million dollars and whereas an increase of over $130 million is great growth by 2015 for an emerging industry, it isn’t even close to related new technologies like NFC.
10 ways you can secure your mobile wallet
FeaturePosted by Seth Planck
July 02nd, 2011 at 4:05 PM Filed Under Featured, Latest News
10 ways you can secure your mobile wallet
Today, we take a look at 10 ways you can secure your mobile wallet. With technological progression, there tends to be a new set of risks that come along to match. Mobile wallets seem to follow this pattern and many people are anxious about using their phone as their payment system in their everyday transactions. However, with the technology available mobile payments have the potential to be the most secure payment system we have ever had. We at NFC Rumors hear from our readers everyday that they have concerns, and with just a few simple steps those concerns can be negated; although, the emerging contactless industry will have to provide a few upgrades to make this reality. So, without further ado here are our 10 ways you can secure your mobile wallet.
10 ways you can secure your mobile wallet
Our 10 ways you can secure your mobile wallet list is broken down into two sections. The first half of the 10 ways you can secure your mobile wallet are piratical things you can to to protect your sensitive data. The second half of our 10 ways you can secure your mobile wallet is geared more towards how smart phone manufacturers and our financial institutions can protect us.
1. Add a pin to your lock screen.
This should be your first line of defense and out of our 10 ways you can secure your mobile wallet should be the first tactic you use. It may be able to be hacked and disabled by someone with the know how but it buys you time to realize your phone has gone missing and disable your account. This one simple action could be all you need to secure your mobile wallet out of our 10 ways you can secure your mobile wallet, but is certainly not the only step you should take. It is also important to make this pin different to every other pin you use on your phone.
iPad 3 and iPhone 5 ready for production in August, NFC?
Feature RumorPosted by Seth Planck
July 01st, 2011 at 7:59 PM Filed Under Featured, Latest News, Rumor
iPad 3 and iPhone 5 ready for production in August, could this mean an NFC iWallet is in the cards?
iPad 3 and iPhone 5 upstream suppliers are beginning to prepare materials to be ready for production to start in August. Another day, another set of Apple rumors start to circulate. There have been rumbles that Apple could release its iPad 3 this year, but the rumors have been vague at best. But now it appears that may be changing. At this time there is really no product other than the Samsung Galaxy Tab that even comes close to Apple’s current iPad 2 offering, which makes it surprising that the company would launch a new iPad 3 slate only 6 months after the last.
Something is not right with Apple’s refresh schedule this year for the iPad 3 and iPhone 5
When we look at Apple’s refresh rate for any product this would probably be one of the shortest run cycles of any product in the company’s portfolio. Although stranger things have happened. After all no one expected the iPhone 4 to be in service for a year and three months before being usurped by the new iPhone 5, as Apple has traditionally refreshed in June or July of each year with its iPhone products.
So, assuming that the rumors are true – what would make Apple want to not receive its full ROI of a product that presumably cost a lot of time and money to develop? The only conclusion is that Apple needs to own a certain market, and that it will need the combined market saturation of both the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 to dominate whatever this mystery market is. It would also allow us to assume that the current iPhone or iPad does not have the capability to run with whatever Apple has in store. Hmmm, in store… iPhone 5, iPad 3, in store…
HTC Desire could get NFC compatibility with upcoming Gingerbread update
RumorPosted by Seth Planck
July 01st, 2011 at 4:22 PM Filed Under Latest News, Rumor
Over the last couple of months there has been flip-flop news about whether or not the HTC Desire would get Google’s Gingerbread OS which includes NFC compatibility. Yesterday the company confirmed on its Facebook page that it would indeed be upgrading its HTC Desire to run on Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
This is the quote from the company “Hi all- We’re excited to share that we are testing our build of Gingerbread for HTC Desire and will start doing quality assurance for it this week. When we have an update on availability we’ll post another announcement. Thanks for your support!”
HTC is testing Gingerbread on its Desire smartphone at the moment and should be releasing the update over the air within the next few weeks.
HTC Desire Gingerbread rollout date not announced
First released in April of last year the HTC Desire is starting to age, and it was feared that the device would not have enough memory to run on Android 2.3. The company had said it would not be updating the HTC Desire on the 15th of June but changed its mind within an hour and we have been waiting for an update ever since. The smartphone features a 3.7 inch display and zips along with a 1GHz processor and has 512 MB of RAM. The HTC desire ships with Android 2.1, or Eclair, and has a 5 mega pixel shooter with flash and geotagging capability.
PayPal President believes that by 2015 digital wallet currency will be accepted everywhere in the U.S.
Posted by Seth Planck
July 01st, 2011 at 1:11 PM Filed Under Latest News, Videos
PayPal is pushing the concept of the digital wallet hard. In a blog post from PayPal’s President Scott Thompson, the company claimed it had been supplying digital wallets for the last ten years and that every PayPal account was in fact a digital wallet. Further still, the company has predicted that by 2015 cash will be dead and we will all use digital wallets throughout the United States for all of our transactions.
“We believe that by 2015 digital currency will be accepted everywhere in the U.S. – from your local corner store to Walmart. We will no longer need to carry a wallet,” said Scott Thompson, PayPal’s President. “As the trend toward digital currency continues to gain momentum, we are focused on delivering solutions that are not just new and different, but better than what is currently the norm today,” Thompson added.
PayPal reaches 100 million active accounts and calls them digital wallets
One hundred million accounts is nothing to be sniffed at, but whether they constitute digital wallets is still up for debate. PayPal has long been a major force in the online e-commerce transaction space, but until recently offline purchases have been the domain of more traditional forms of payment. The popular current meaning for a digital wallet, or mobile wallet as many are calling it, is based on a cell phone and is concentrated on people being able to make purchases on and offline using their phones.
In the blog posted yesterday Thompson said, “Today, I couldn’t be more pleased to announce that PayPal now has more than 100 million active accounts. That’s 100 million people around the world who have already trusted PayPal with their digital wallets.”
ViVotech gets a funding lifeline, now they have to redefine their business model
Posted by Seth Planck
June 30th, 2011 at 9:06 PM Filed Under Latest News
ViVotech gets a funding lifeline, now they have to redefine their business model
ViVotech gets a funding lifeline – it announced on Monday that it has secured a series C funding round worth $24 million dollars from old and new investors. The new investors include Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, SingTel and Innov8. Previous angels also invested more capital in the 10-year-old startup including Alloy Ventures, Citi Ventures, Draper Fisher, Jurveston, First Data, Motorola Mobility and Nokia Growth Partners. The company launched in 2001, is yet to make a profit and thus far has received $90 million in funding. However, with the acceleration of adoption and interest in NFC this year, ViVotech may be primed to come into its own. That interest, coupled with ViVotech being named one of the launch partners in the Google Wallet mobile wallet product, must have convinced investors that it was worth ensuring ViVotech gets a funding lifeline. Well that and for the protection of old investments, as no return comes from a dead company.
ViVotech has some big players rooting for them as they receive their funding lifeline
Speaking about ViVotech’s funding lifeline, Chu Swee-Yeok, CEO of EDBI said, “ViVOtech has emerged as the clear leader in this field, with its unique end-to-end NFC-based mobile commerce solutions that are successfully gaining traction with its customers globally. With our investment, ViVOtech will be able to leverage EDBI’s extensive industry networks and understanding of Asia to capitalize on opportunities created by the vibrant mobile commerce industry in the Asia Pacific region. We also look forward to the setting up of ViVOtech’s Global Centre of Excellence in Singapore to commercialize innovative mobile commerce applications for the international markets.”
Verifone to launch NFC and credit card reading tablet accessory
FeaturePosted by Seth Planck
June 30th, 2011 at 4:38 PM Filed Under Latest News
Verifone to launch NFC and credit card reading tablet accessory
NFC and credit card reading tablet accessory was announced by Verifone, with trials starting some time this year. The idea is that having a tablet option to act as an NFC POS terminal makes it easier for retailers to accept debit and credit cards. To us this completely makes sense with higher value purchases that require a more hands on and consultative approach. The new gizmo is called the Payware Mobile Enterprise for Tablets and will allow any slate to process transactions right on the spot.
Verifone’s NFC & credit card reading tablet accessory is really just a bigger brother to its Payware Mobile accessory
In January 2010 Verifone launched a similar device for the iPhone that also would swipe a credit card and interact with a company’s accounting backend. The new credit card reading tablet accessory adds support for NFC payments, which will allow tap and pay convenience for customers and reduced process time for retailers. Currently the only NFC-enabled phone on the market is the Google Nexus S, but far more are expected to emerge by the year’s end. The Verifone NFC and credit card reading tablet accessory aesthetically looks like a sleeve / case that houses either an Ipad or any Android honeycomb or newer slate.
PayPal Canada mobile wallet survey finds 34% of Canadians would rather pay by phone
Posted by Seth Planck
June 30th, 2011 at 2:33 PM Filed Under Latest News
PayPal Canada mobile wallet survey finds 34% of Canadians polled would rather pay by phone
A PayPal Canada mobile wallet survey found 34% of Canadians polled would rather pay by phone than carry actual cash. PayPal Canada contracted Leger Marketing to conduct a survey of 1,512, well, Canadians to see how they felt about mobile wallets. The fact that this poll found 34% of Canadians surveyed would rather pay by phone than carry a pocket full of coins shows a dramatic change. Compared with other surveys in the UK and US, the PayPal Canada mobile wallet survey shows a huge up swing in the percentage of a population who are ready to embrace mobile payments and dump the paper and metal.
The PayPal Canada mobile wallet survey also found that more than half of Canadians are comfortable with the thought of never handling cash again
Cash has been with us for hundreds of years. It is supposed to represent a chunk of gold buried in a national reserve vault, but those days are long past. When we worry about security of our cell phones acting as our mobile wallet, the irony is that cash is the most insecure form of payment EVER! If it is stolen a thief can use it anywhere, at any time. You cannot cancel cash, you cannot close the cash account, cash is not secure. However cash does have one redeeming quality and that is that it is only worth what is printed on it. If someone does steal $20, they can only spend $20 and not wipe you out, but most digital wallets require a pin to be inserted when purchases get over a certain amount or when the mobile wallet has been used a particular amount of times anyway, so even cash’s ace in the whole has been built into a mobile wallet. The PayPal Canada mobile wallet survey found that nearly six out of ten or 56% of Canadians seems to be comfortable with this idea.
Samsung Galaxy S II launch imminent in Canada on Bell, SaskTel & Virgin Mobile
RumorPosted by Seth Planck
June 30th, 2011 at 10:46 AM Filed Under Latest News, Rumor
Samsung Galaxy S II launch imminent in Canada on Bell, SaskTel & Virgin Mobile
Yes, you saw it correctly, the Samsung Galaxy S II superphone has release dates in Canada and they aren’t far off, which leads us to wonder. Don’t you love those days when you walk outside, smell the clean air and revel in the fact that the crime rate is minuscule, or that healthcare is free and good? Or, perhaps do you prefer the days when the Samsung Galaxy S II is going to be launched imminently and you know the Yanks won’t even get a look in? You know, the days when you know it’s good to be Canadian. We wish we could feel that, but we are in the States and can only look north green with envy, barricade ourselves in our homes with guns protecting our $700 bottle of pills. Only the bloody British can laugh at us all.
Samsung Galaxy S II Launching for as little as $79.99 in Canada
Canada may be America’s hat, but that appears to be only because that is where the brains are. We want to know how the Canadians have wrangled this year’s most anticipated phone before America even has credible rumors of a release and then have managed to get it for $80. Yup, SaskTel will let you walk away with a Samsung Galaxy S II for $79.99 and won’t even call the police. Well, as long you sign a 3 year contract that is. No official launch date as yet, just that the phone will be available in the coming weeks.
NFC Murder Mystery using NFC smartposters, Proxama dunnit!
Posted by Seth Planck
June 29th, 2011 at 10:06 PM Filed Under Latest News
NFC Murder Mystery using NFC smartposters
No need to ask who dunnit, we’ll just straight out tell you. It was Proxama in the UK who, with the Nokia C7, Proxama developed an NFC Murder Mystery event based game to showcase the sheer amount of potential uses NFC could be tailored to. Of course, you and I saw Google IO and the NFC capabilities in games, but that still didn’t show how games could be constructed for offline scenarios like Proxama’s NFC Murder Mystery, which it demoed at the Norfolk Network birthday party. For those who live outside of the UK, Norfolk is a County in East Anglia which is east of London and north of neighboring County Suffolk, full of country farm houses and mansions and perfect for NFC Murder Mystery.
Proxama are a solutions company who have become synonymous with NFC, rewards and payments after working on some high profile gigs for BT and MasterCard. However, the British company is certainly not limited to financial experiences and have worked on projects as diverse and wide in scope as payments and ticketing, retail experiences utilizing NFC, and information and service discovery apps where you can interact with companies you deal with by securely logging into your account. The company says on its website that it has been working with NFC since 2005, and although the technology is quite a few years older than that, it pretty much sets them apart in the end user solution developer arena. But we are not here to talk about that; we are here to find out about the NFC Murder Mystery game that sounds a lot like Clue…
VingCard NFC room key system for hotels launched
Posted by Seth Planck
June 29th, 2011 at 3:43 PM Filed Under Latest News
VingCard NFC room key system for hotels launched
VingCard NFC room key system for hotels has been launched. We always knew NFC could open doors and the Chinese company seems to have grasped the door handle with both hands.VingCard’s parent company, Assa Abloy, had been part of a trial testing the VingCard technology in the Clarion Hotel Stockholm. Hotel guests received NFC phones with a special code embedded that allowed access to their rooms after they had checked in with the systems NFC check-in facility, which basically means no checking in at the front desk.
VingCard NFC room key system for hotels allows you to manage your stay online, no lining up at the front desk anymore.
How VingCard NFC room key system for hotels works
The VingCard NFC room key system for hotels works using a Vincard’s Visionline centralized server which manages the property’s check-in and access policies. Service managers can add, remove or update access to any room in the hotel. Hotel rooms as normal are booked online and guests are then sent a secure digital room key.
Leak shows Nokia Cindy & Nokia Zeta NFC phones in the works
Feature RumorPosted by Seth Planck
June 29th, 2011 at 1:54 PM Filed Under Featured, Latest News, Rumor
Leak shows Nokia Cindy & Nokia Zeta NFC phones in the works
Spy shots and a feature listing has leaked out of Espoo showing Nokia has some new eye candy of the NFC variety in store for us, in the form of the Nokia Cindy & the Nokia Zeta. The Nokia machine appears to be on a roll with some nice pieces of hardware at the moment packing some NFC goodness. The images of the product were unearthed by the folks over at GSM Arena while the leaked spec sheet come courtesy of FlashFly. We here at NFC Rumors can’t quite understand why Nokia would dump MeeGo and Symbian completely to bump up Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS, but we will enjoy what appears to be some classy death throw NFC handsets before Nokia is swallowed by the dark side.
Nokia Zeta (700) NFC phone
The Nokia Zeta appears to be a replacement for the C6-01. It will pack NFC capabilities, although we do not know whether it will come with a secure chip or be more like the N9 and forgo the extra protection. Running on Symbian Belle, the successor to Symbian Anna which looks a lot like the MeeGo UI that was recently announced in combination with the NFC Nokia N9. The NFC-enabled Nokia Zeta packs a 5 mega pixel shooter with an LED flash and skips along on a 1GHz CPU. The Nokia Zeta is no bertha either measuring in at 10mm thick, or what we like to call 1cm and weighs 80g.
Augme AD LIFE v4.0 NFC capable Mobile Marketing platform
Posted by Seth Planck
June 28th, 2011 at 11:11 PM Filed Under Latest News, Press Release
Augme AD LIFE v4.0 NFC capable Mobile Marketing platform
Today, Augme launched the next iteration of its NFC capable Mobile Marketing platform AD LIFE v4.0. The new NFC capable Mobile Marketing platform has “The recipe for mobile marketing success extends well beyond strategy and creative applications,” stated Anthony Iacovone, Chief Innovative Officer of Augme Technologies, Inc.
NFC capable Mobile Marketing platform measures the effectiveness of marketing
When you are a marketer, you live, breathe and die metrics. How can I measure the effectiveness of this campaign? How can I see how much this creative content was shared? How can I work out the return on investment for my client? The list goes on. Sales are black and white – you either sold this many widgets or you didn’t. Marketing, on the other hand, is far more subjective and dependent on the needs of a campaign. Some campaign goals are for branding, collecting followers or education. But at the end of the day, most end up needing to positively impact sales. Different campaigns require different metrics, and revenue very often is not representative of measuring a campaign’s success. In an increasingly technological world, judging your effectiveness, conversion rates and the sales your marketing is directly or indirectly accountable for is getting harder.
Hicel launches NFC business cards
Posted by Seth Planck
June 28th, 2011 at 12:44 PM Filed Under Latest News
Hicel launches NFC business cards
NFC business cards have been shown a few times over the last six months by multiple organizations, but as yet have not become widely available. A Korean company called Hicel has launched their NFC business cards and we must say they have approached the application of embedding the tag and antenna in an innovative way.
About NFC business cards
While fitting into the NFC-Forum’s category of smart posters, NFC business cards require a little more finesse in their development than other applications of NFC tags while embedding within another media. The challenges are based on the small size of a business card and the diversity of designs and materials that need to be accommodated.
CSI Virtual MasterCard app allows you to create Virtual MasterCard accounts in iOS, Android and BlackBerry
RumorPosted by Seth Planck
June 27th, 2011 at 11:05 PM Filed Under Latest News, Rumor
CSI Virtual MasterCard app allows you to create Virtual MasterCard accounts in iOS, Android and BlackBerry
Quite a bit of buzz hit today about the CSI Enterprises’ CSI Virtual MasterCard app that is due to be released in July for iOS, Android and BlackBerry. As excitement reverberated around the web, rumors started to circulate about the company knowing of NFC features that could be built into the upcoming iPhone 5 and of an NFC-enabled BlackBerry that would emerge before the 9900.
CSI Virtual MasterCard app creates virtual card numbers with attributes you can set.
We wanted to look a little further in to the story before we posted, and we found out it may not be a mobile wallet like we are coming to think of one, like say Google Wallet. In fact, after reading through the company’s website it soon became clear that the CSI Virtual MasterCard is a really clever way to make your own virtual credit card number to use with a specific company or for a particular PO and a way to give the CSI Virtual MasterCard unique attributes. For example, you pay your business electric bill with a CSI Virtual MasterCard number, you can give this specific bill a card number of its own and can set rules of how your utility provider can use the card details you provide. You could only allow payments up to $500 to be processed or even set up a CSI Virtual MasterCard number for a team member for expenses and set a budget for the card. Each CSI Virtual MasterCard is simply an extension of your main account, and extending the service to mobile devices means you can create new CSI MasterCard numbers on the fly.