Privacy Goes Public: Sharing Privacy for a Discount

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Privacy Goes Public: Sharing Privacy for a Discount

First things first – let’s get a little public with this privacy issue, shall we? For most people privacy starts where personal freedom ends. Yet there are many more complexities to the word, from personal snooping to sharing data online. Our focus today – sharing data and privacy. Consumers are concerned with privacy. True. But does that mean they are not willing to share it? False. Face it – as we continue to increase our social status as a global society, the more information we will inevitably share. Disturbing, right? It’s nothing new though. Who doesn’t own a loyalty card for a local grocery or retail store? Your data is held here and collected under your profile so they can ensure they offer products that fit your needs according to your shopping habits. Can we say “Facebook”? If you own a debit card, your bank knows your spending and buying patterns. Heck, they may know your habits better than you do. So, what is all the privacy fuss about?

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Commonwealth Bank makes Kaching NFC mobile wallet official

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Commonwealth Bank makes Kaching NFC mobile wallet official

We already knew that Commonwealth Bank in Australia was trialling the Kaching NFC mobile wallet app for the iPhone, but the financial institution has now gone live with its app for all customers. You have to hand it to Australia, they struggled to find the value chain and ownership model for NFC just like the rest of the world, aside from perhaps Japan. There were endless, fruitless NFC mobile wallet trials too.

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Who wants a half price Verizon Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone?

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Within the space of a few hours the Samsung Galaxy Nexus for Verizon has lost half of its purchase price

We knew the Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone wouldn’t last at the premium price of $299 for very long, but even we didn’t think its price would be cut in half within a few hours of launch on Verizon. It has though, and Amazon are currently retailing the Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone for a very tempting $149.99. That gets you the Android Ice Cream Sandwich touting, Face Unlock biometric boasting, Android Beam slinging pure Google experience phone.

Source: Amazon

Via: BGR

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Taggle social NFC retail shopping is here for consumers and retailers

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Taggles social retail apps use NFC and barcodes to create a social shopping experience all based on Amazon’s web services

Word of mouth marketing has always been the most powerful form of marketing that has ever existed. If you add to the a viral expansion loop model some NFC, a massive database of UPC product codes, some social sharing abilities and shopping you end up with Taggle. Taggle is a new shopping service that allows consumers to scan bar codes, QR codes or read NFC tags associated with retail purchases and either review them or give them a star rating. Users of the mobile apps don’t even need to sign up for an account. Once a product has been scanned, the social bit happens and users can share their buys on Facebook and Twitter.

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Thinaire gets Halls to cough up for NFC marketing campaign

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Thinaire gets Halls to cough up for NFC marketing campaign

NFC marketing firm Thinaire got the gig to help Halls media and planning agency, Horizon Media, to launch an NFC marketing campaign in Chicago. You’ll remember Thinaire, the firm that created a digital billboard in Times New Square. That particular billboard had NFC tags placed underneath that allowed consumers to interact with ads with their Android NFC phones as they passed by. Well, it’s a different month and now there is another campaign for Thinaire to get their teeth stuck into.

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Tapit picks up Unilever and takes NFC billboards inside a University

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Tapit picks up Unilever and takes NFC billboards inside a University

Tapit adds Unilever and Lipton Ice Tea to the string of projects that the firm can tuck into its back pocket. One of the real success stories of NFC marketing is Australia’s Tapit. They only launched this year, have won a Red Herring Award, and have closed an exclusive contract with JCDecaux. They have also teamed up with Clear Channel in Singapore, and now they add Unilever to that growing list of projects that they are involved in.

Tapit have proven themselves to be effective communicators, or what we like to call brand whores here at NFC Rumors. They unashamedly create news on a near daily basis and have upped their profile massively using good old marketing and PR tactics. We have mentioned before that we here at NFC Rumors have a passion for marketing and so we consider this – If you are hiring an NFC marketing company, would you feel better taking on a firm that creates massive marketing presence for itself by using the tactics you are paying them for? Of course you would, and that’s why we think Tapit is probably one of the most visible NFC marketing firms globally.

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Bolser and UPM RFID partner for small business NFC-Hub NFC marketing

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 Bolser and UPM RFID partner for small business NFC-Hub NFC marketing

Digital agency Bolser and UPM RFID have struck a deal to have UPM provide NFC inlays via the NFC-Hub.com e-commerce store and include the company’s subsequent NFC marketing tools and services. The UK site, NFC Hub, was first launched in July and provides small businesses with low cost marketing solutions that encapsulate what Bolser calls innovative and and effective strategies and tools for small businesses and individuals looking to compete with larger players.

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Samsung confirms Verizon as US carrier for Galaxy Nexus then retracts

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Samsung confirms Verizon as US carrier for Galaxy Nexus then retracts Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the most indecisive device we have ever come across. First it was being announced in New York, then that was canceled. It was eventually announced last night in Hong Kong. Then on Facebook today Samsung confirmed that the Galaxy Nexus [...]

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ThingLink Labs launches printable online interactive images with NFC tags

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ThingLink Labs launches printable online interactive images with NFC tags and a little help from UPM RFID

ThingLink have announced that you can now print online interactive image links to an NFC tag that the company calls a “Rich Media Note.”

NFC tags that link to online printable interactive images is a twist on the firm’s current service. Let us give you the history. ThingLink is a service that allows website owners to embed tags into images and then provides analytics for how those images are used within a user’s websites. The launch project for ThingLink Labs is Rich Media Notes, a printable version of ThingLink images with Near Field Communications / NFC enabled Rich Media Tags that are readable by enabled smartphones and devices.

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Nokia 603 Symbian Belle NFC phone gets official

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Nokia 603 Symbian Belle NFC phone gets official

Nokia has officially unleashed the Nokia 603 Symbian Belle NFC phone. Last week we reported the rumored specifications and images, but Nokia has now unveiled the Nokia 603 which is coming in at a very affordable price point of around $274 or 200 Euro. Nokia are once again focusing on NFC capabilities built straight into the Nokia 603. Nokia said in its press release that “The Nokia 603 is designed to appeal to first time smartphone users and those upgrading from older products, particularly existing users of Nokia smartphones who will welcome a device that offers all the latest technology and features in a package that is still uniquely Nokia.”

“The Nokia 603 continues the renewal of our smartphone range with products that are uniquely matched to the needs of people around the world,” said Tuula Rytila, Senior Vice President of Nokia. “Whatever the price-point, our aim is to ensure all Nokia smartphones are crafted for use, have Nokia’s trusted quality, are better connected, and contain unexpected surprises like the ability to tap to pair and share with NFC.”

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Who put the green in NFC? Tapit did in Australia

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Who put the green in NFC? Tapit did in Australia

Tapit set out to prove that NFC was green in Australia and ran an NFC marketing campaign for an environmental recycling company. NFC is green, it’s just a fact that the technology negates the use and need for paper goods, and that some NFC tags are recyclable with a quick wave on a phone to add different data on board. NFC tags don’t even need to be “recycled” to be recycled. NFC Rumors did an article about one aspect of the green potential for NFC and we concentrated on the simple process of getting rid of paper receipts. We were shocked at how much paper it would save. You can see the post here, or check out our infographic here that has the information summarized. However, when you take into

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NFC marketing comes out of thinaire with the NFC billboard

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NFC marketing comes out of thinaire, marketing WILL never be the same

We posted about the thinaire NFC billboard last week and you, our readers, were inspired. We received a lot of visits and shares to the post and we could tell from emails we received how innovative you felt the NFC marketing campaign was. We love NFC marketing – its potentials are colossal and we expect to see NFC marketing rule supremely over out-of-home and print marketing in the coming years.

For the first time marketing has become a two way engagement between consumer and company. A true conversation can now happen between brands and their fans and word of mouth marketing truly is coming of age with a viral aspect that has never existed before.

The world’s first NFC billboard was impressive but it is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what thinaire has to offer. We were shown a glimpse of what thinaire aims to roll out and how far its plans extend and evolve. To be frank, it is at a level of sophistication we thought NFC marketing would go in a couple of years and the firm has the full system today, which goes a far way beyond the NFC billboard we all thought was visionary. More on that in upcoming posts, but for now we want to show you more about the NFC billboard.

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Nokia N9 NFC phone starts shipping, fails to say where

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Nokia N9 NFC phone starts shipping, fails to say where

Nokia has finally started shipping its Nokia N9 NFC smartphone around the world. In a press release today Nokia confirmed that the Nokia N9 will be in consumers’ hands imminently, but failed to say which markets would see the Nokia N9 and which carriers would be selling the first and last Nokia Meego device.

“Since we announced the Nokia N9 in June this year, the feedback that it has gotten from discerning and avid smartphone users across the world has been nothing short of fantastic,” said Ilari Nurmi, Vice President of Marketing at Nokia. “With the innovations in industrial design, user interface, and the Qt developer experience, the Nokia N9 sets the bar for how natural technology can feel, and represents the first in a number of products from Nokia that will be brought to life in similar fashion.”

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Adobe Flash Player 11 & AIR 3 now supports NFC, Devs go wild

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Adobe Flash Player 11 & AIR 3 now support NFC for pairing and potentially payments

We knew that the new version of Adobe Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 would finally getting Flash on to the iPad and iPhone, but what we didn’t know until recently was Adobe has built in some NFC goodness too! Games and video playback can benefit from NFC. Switching from an iPad to a PC or from a phone to a tablet, saving game play where you left off or handing a video over at the exact moment you stopped watching on one device, so it starts playing on the next device all becomes reality by allowing NFC and Flash work together. Adobe hasn’t really elaborated much on exactly what functions will be available or whether its support for NFC includes emulation, peer-to-peer and, of course, read / write.

From what we can tell based on one small paragraph of text which refers to NFC support, AIR 3 allows developers to use existing code libraries with deep native hardware and OS capabilities. As well as the usual slew of sensors including gyroscopes, magnetometers, light sensors, etc.), multiple screens, native in-app payments, haptic/vibration control, device status, the new development Adobe Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 will add NFC (Near Field Communications) to that list. Check out the videos below to see it in action.

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NFC social check-ins come of age with RewardAble marketing platform

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NFC social check-ins come of age with RewardAble marketing platform

Has the NFC social check-in just come of age with RewardAble and its NFC loyalty marketing platform? Betapond has announced today that it has built an NFC social check-in platform it likes to call RewardAble. RewardAble is a social media check-in marketing platform that enables brands and retailers to grow participation through instant rewards for consumers for who check-in on Facebook or Foursquare on their NFC smartphone. Betapond is Ireland’s only Facebook Preferred Developer. RewardAble is a stand-alone subsidiary of Betapond, which was announced at a Innovation in Entertainment Showcase event in Sony Pictures Hollywood.  The company is using a viral expansion loop marketing model that rewards participants when they check-in and share their location with friends on social networks. By using NFC at check-in places, the process of taking part in the RewardAble platform is frictionless.

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Google Wallet is live but don’t get your NFC Samsung Nexus S 4G from Sprint

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Google Wallet is live but don’t get your NFC Samsung Nexus S 4G from Sprint

Yes we know, we know, the Google Wallet with Google Offers conjoined is all very exciting. All very exciting if you own a Samsung Nexus S 4G that is, especially because Google is pre-loading the Google Wallet with $10 for free! Alas the NFC wonder that is Google Wallet only works with the Samsung Nexus S 4G because that’s the only phone that is on Sprint and houses a Secure Element which is where your secure apps (like Google Wallet) live. So if you have gotten giddy at the thought of waving your NFC phone around like Harry Potter and magically making money disappear from your bank account, you will need the aforementioned phone. In the press release yesterday, Sprint recommended that you go give them $99.99 and they promised they’d send back $50 in a mail-in-rebate. We have to tell you that Sprint’s deal sucks and you can do a lot better on that Google Wallet capable phone if you take a quick look around online. What’s that? You don’t have the time? Well, it’s a good job we went and did it for you then. Before we get to the deals let’s take a quick recap of Samsung Nexus S 4G specification. We hope you are paying attention because we will be asking questions later.

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Google Wallet is live

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Google Wallet is live on Sprint, Google Nexus S 4G owners can now get their NFC mobile wallet on

It’s official, Google Wallet has launched! We reported earlier today that Google Wallet was likely to go live today and it has. The press release winged its way out of Sprint’s HQ at nearly 4.30PM this afternoon announcing that America finally has an NFC mobile wallet, and it is Google Wallet that has got to market first. At the moment the only folks who can use the Google Wallet will be Sprint subscribers who have the Google Nexus S 4G in their pockets. More NFC phones are expected within the next couple of months, which will likely include the much rumored Google Nexus Prime and other Ice Cream Sandwich devices. They are likely to come fitted with the all important NFC antenna and secure element that is required for NFC payments.

“Sprint is thrilled to be the first U.S. carrier to offer Google Wallet,” said Fared Adib, Vice President of Product at Sprint. “Nexus S 4G is the first to receive new versions of Android software, and today’s upgrade puts the near-field communications, or NFC, chip in the phone to work so customers can have a secure virtual wallet on their phone. NFC capabilities on smartphones open the door to a new level of convenience and security.”

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Nokia 700 & Nokia 701 Symbian Belle NFC phones now shipping

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Nokia 700 & Nokia 701 Symbian Belle NFC phones now shipping

Nokia announced that it has started shipping two of its new NFC phones this week. The news came from Twitter a couple of days ago and confirmed that the Nokia 700 and Nokia 701 NFC phones have started shipping, although the tweet didn’t go into where the phones are being shipped to in a global sense.

“Now shipping: #Nokia 700 and Nokia 701 with #Belle! Check with your nearest retailer for more info,” is exactly what Nokia tweeted regarding the two NFC phones.

When the Nokia 700 and Nokia 701 NFC phones were announced with their sibling the Nokia 600, which also boasts NFC, the company said that the 700 and 701 would be heading Stateside. We aren’t sure whether that means that the phone has an MNO deal just yet. At the announcement, Nokia also intimated that the all three Symbian Belle phones would be released during the third quarter which is now coming to an end considering we are half way through September. All we can do is curse Twitter and its 140 character limit.

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Acer launches Liquid Express NFC phone, pledges allegiance to NFC

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Acer launches Liquid Express NFC phone, pledges allegiance to NFC

The days of being geeks with a penchant for an obscure communications protocol are far behind us, and even Acer is now getting in on the act by launching the Android Liquid Express NFC phone in Europe. Yes, we can now add Acer to the growing list of companies who intend to launch an NFC phone. The Acer Liquid Express will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread to deliver its NFC love to consumers. Acer recently had a shake up in its top brass and have committed to the industrial design and aesthetically pleasing standards of Apple. The introduction of an Acer NFC phone over in Europe will only further fuel the NFC adoption that is currently taking place in countries like the UK and France all over the continent.

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Kimtag finds Social Network NFC tags scans get a 22% per month bump [Updated]

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Kimtag research finds social networking and marketing NFC tags scans get a 22% per month bump

Kimtag provides a free and valuable service – it helps people generate NFC tags and QR codes and then gives those same people statistics on the hits they get from those tags and codes. The service is a no fuss, no muss, simple and yet valuable service that is free to use. They also sell NFC tags so you can get everything you need in one place. Because Kimtag loves its statistics, it monitors them on an aggregated and meta perspective. After following 10,000 of its uses, it has seen a massive uplift in scans of those NFC tags. The research was carried out over a six month period and saw the growth in people scanning NFC tags and visiting what Kimtag calls its connection page, which would be the target page where the NFC tag pushes users.

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Samsung Wave 578 hitting Orange UK soon with NFC payments

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Samsung Wave 578 hitting Orange UK with NFC payments, “coming soon page” fills in the blanks

Well, it’s only been waiting to shine in the light since February this year, but finally we are seeing signs of the Samsung Wave 578 NFC phone actually coming to market soon with NFC payments tagging along for the ride. The UK has bared the Samsung Tocco Lite for long enough and now is ready for a slight upgrade on their budget NFC phone choices. Orange UK has now slung up a “coming soon” page that shows off some of the specifications of the Samsung Wave 578, which now joins the growing posse of Wave NFC phones that are all sporting Bada 2.0. However, unlike its brethren, the Samsung Wave 578 will be a fully capable NFC payments phone which may give us a clue that Orange is getting ready to get into the NFC mobile wallet business in earnest  by supporting another Barclaycard “Quick Tap” NFC phone.

“We are spearheading the third biggest revolution in the mobile arena, after mobile voice services and the explosion in mobile data. Mobile contactless services will change people’s daily lives. We’re very pleased that partners like Samsung are helping us to accelerate these plans.” Anne Bouverot, Executive Vice President of Orange’s Mobile Services, said at the device’s launch party.

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Nokia 700 NFC phone SIM free hits UK for £279.95

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Nokia 700 NFC phone unlocked and SIM free hits UK for £279.95

You will probably be able to get the Nokia 700 NFC phone for free with a ball and chain contract. If you’re not the sort of person who likes to be strapped to a contract dished out by your phone provider, you can get the Nokia 700 NFC phone unlocked, unleashed and SIM free for £279.95 from Mobile Fun.

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Fall into NFC: Google adds five new markets to Google Offers

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Fall into NFC: Google adds five new markets to Google Offers

This is another post in our Fall into NFC articles that highlight the unprecedented amount of announcements and launches of NFC related products and services that are rumored to happen this autumn. Google has today unleashed another five cities in its Google Offers application that is part of the Google Wallet experience and at this time represents Google’s primary revenue generation engine for its Google Wallet. Google Wallet is due to be released any week now and is set to be the first NFC mobile wallet to be available in the United States. We also reported exclusively yesterday that Google has a major announcement to make regarding its Google Wallet that isn’t about NFC payments within the next couple of weeks. El Goog’s move into the nascent NFC mobile wallet space isn’t what you would call an easy one. Isis and joint ventures are blocking access to the Mountain View company and PayPal is suing them over information obtained from ex-PayPal employees that the internet payments giant classifies as trade secrets.

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NFC Marketing trifecta, NFC World Alliance

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NFC Marketing trifecta formed as Proxama, Tapit and BlueBite come together for an NFC World Alliance

The newly formed NFC World Alliance will cover the Asia-Pacific region, America’s region and the EMEA region for NFC marketing

An Englishman, an Australian and an American… Oh you’ve heard that one. Rather than a joke you may be interested in some NFC marketing news then. Well, Proxama, the English power house that helped Nokia, BlueBite, the American mobile marketers who you will remember were part of the New York VH1 show NFC marketing campaign, and the new kid on the block, Australian firm Tapit, have got together to form an NFC marketing alliance. The three companies are calling this collaboration the NFC World Alliance, and arguably these three companies are the biggest NFC marketing players in their respective markets. By forging a collaboration, they have now made up the first premier NFC marketing trifecta on the face of the Earth.

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Nokia N9 launching in Australia on three mobile networks this October

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Nokia N9 NFC phone launching in Australia on three mobile networks this October

Australia is going to get the Nokia N9 NFC phone next month (October) on three – count them, three – mobile network operators. Optus, Telsta and Vodafone have all signed up to bring another NFC phone down under. The Nokia N9 was denied the option of heading to the States, the UK and Germany but Australia has got lucky and will receive its Nokia N9 slabs of MeeGo goodness next month and Nokia has even put up a page to let you sign up to find out the exact date it will be in your area. The old Nokia is in its death throws before it shuts up shop and reopens as a Windows Phone only house, but the gang from Espoo want to go out with a bang and the Nokia N9 definitely qualifies in that arena of quirky coolness.

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