Kovio raises a cool $15 million for NFC printing, NFC barcodes arrive

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Kovio raises a cool $15 million for NFC printing to produce NFC barcodes

You may or may not be aware, but printed electronics is a massive business and Kovio has announced it has raised enough capital to start printing NFC barcodes. This news first broke in June, but with today’s NFC tag announcements we thought we would revisit an up and coming technology. The humble barcode has been with us for many years. It first help digitize retailers’ stock and formed the basis of stock-based ordering (automatically ordering when stock gets low). NFC tags have long been thought to eventually take the place of barcodes, until today when Kovio announced that it had managed to produce NFC barcodes that will revolutionize retail for both merchants and consumers. Many groups have attempted printing NFC circuits with inks and many have had poor yields from the technology. In some quarters, refining inks so that they are reliable and can be used for NFC has been the holy grail, and from Kovio’s announcement it sounds like they have cracked it.

Funding for Kovio and its NFC printing that it uses to produce NFC barcodes

The majority of the Kovio funding has come from Tyco who have an obvious vested interest in retail packaging.  ”As the market opportunity for mobile interactive platforms evolve, the funding will enable Kovio and Tyco Retail Solutions to deliver solutions that take advantage of the emerging infrastructure of Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled devices and printed silicon capabilities. Current investors Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures, Northgate Capital, Harris & Harris, Flagship Ventures and Pangaea Ventures also participated in the round,” the company said.

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First NFC digital billboard to launch in Times Square

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First NFC digital billboard to launch in Times Square

Today we see the next step in NFC marketing as Radiant Outdoor and the NFC Bootcamp put on a show in New York’s Times Square that will be a first in NFC. Yes, we are talking about the first NFC digital billboard, but you already knew that because you read the title. We knew you would because we know most of you range in age from your twenties to your late forties and sneak a peak at NFC Rumors from work and we know you can read! Welcome to the NFC fan club.

NFC marketing is taking off in a multitude of ways. We have seen collaborations, analytics that blow web based stats away and exclusive representation deals being signed.  NFC is set to change the fundamentals of marketing and any marketer who doesn’t embrace the new parody that is interactive offline / online marketing could get left behind in the next couple of years. We have said it before and we will say it again, NFC Rumors loves marketing. The only thing we like better than marketing is coffee and NFC marketing, in that order, for real. We’re not joking, honest!

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NFC self-service terminals to become more accessible in Europe

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APSIS4All NFC self-service terminals to become more accessible in Europe

A new European Union funded project called APSIS4All is getting underway to make self-service terminals like public transport ticket vending machines or public information kiosks and ATM’s more prevalent and accessible in six European countries using NFC technology at its core.

The new European project will be aimed at helping disabled people and pensioners, or people over 65 years of age, starting in Barcelona from September this year and then moving to provide NFC ticket vending machines in Paderborn, Germany in January of next year. The European Commission is contributing €3.41 million to the three year project, which is half of the required budget.

European Commission news is like London buses when it comes to NFC, nothing for months and then two turn up at the same time. It was only yesterday all our troubles seemed so far away, and then the feisty MNO Three UK spoke up to be counted and attempted to have the UK NFC joint venture prevented from doing business, disbanded or made to write sorry letters to everyone in Blighty, and ordered to write a hundred lines on the black board – “I must not nefariously try to get rid of competitors using unethical business practices, cripple new markets that would help the economy, or attempt to negate and abuse British consumers’ rights.”

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Diebold NFC ATM seeks bio-forms for biometric authentication VMWare helps

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Diebold NFC ATM seeks bio-forms for biometric authentication VMWare helps

We may well be heading to a cashless society where popping down to the cash machine becomes a thing of the past, but that’s a few years off from happening, if it happens at all. In the meantime, while NFC finds its feet and biometrics are increasingly being partnered with contactless payment technology we should probably work on making our ATM’s capable of interacting with the new technology we are likely to find in our phones in the next couple of years. Imagine if you will, an NFC ATM with biometric authentication of board. The idea is that you would wave your phone across the ATM and then have your fingerprint scanned for further bio authentication. This not only adds more security in case someone gets hold of your phone, but further mitigates risk for financial institutions so everyone wins, don’t they? Maybe. We’ll discuss this issue in another post.

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Isis gets $100 million investment from Verizon, T-Mobile & AT&T

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Isis gets $10 million investment from Verizon, T-Mobile & AT&T as it plans to fight Google Wallet and prepares for the NFC wallet wars

Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA are planning to invest more than $100 million in the Isis joint venture, which allows customers to pay for goods and services with their NFC phones, people close to the matter told Bloomberg’s Business Week. The war chest capital injection sets up Isis to compete in the upcoming NFC wallet wars that will see Google Wallet, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, potentially Apple and Isis enter into the fray to duke it out to see who rules consumers’ bank accounts and payments. However, the amount of funding that Isis actually receives is said to be dependent on how many banks and merchants the joint venture can secure. The funding is private so is not public knowledge and full details may never be known. Many aspects of the Isis joint venture’s plans have been secretive so far with no word on issues that may impact consumers’ choices and the ability for competitors to compete on the three major networks.

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Patent wars – Are patent trolls Aiming at Google Wallet and NFC?

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Patent Wars – Are Patent Trolls Aiming at Google Wallet and NFC?

NFC may be at risk from tech giant battles and patent trolls and in this article we will highlight one potential. In most of the world, an individual or organization has the unequivocal right to register and protect their intellectual property. It’s how it should be and for a long time the system worked great. That was until the titans of the tech world decided to go mano-y-mano over the last few years. That was until patent trolling companies started buying patents just to sue for licensing fees and have since attempted to turn these tactics into a respectable form of doing business where they advertise for investors to pay legal fees for claims. Everyday we hear that companies who have developed unique and novel products and services are being targeted and accused of falling fowl of patents and are being pushed to extinction. In an economy that is looking ready to slide back into recession, we ask can this be allowed to continue unchecked, or is it time the system and laws were overhauled?

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BlackBerry Bold NFCGate: NFC experience very poor [EXCLUSIVE]

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BlackBerry Bold 9900 NFC software is half baked and has exceedingly bad performance

NFC Rumors has learned that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 has issues when it comes to its NFC capabilities. Our source who wishes to remain anonymous and who is close to the matter, told NFC Rumors that AT&T and Vodafone may be blocking NFC on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 for reasons other than or on top of the company’s individual joint venture plans. It was just yesterday that we reported that AT&T in the US and Vodafone in the UK were blocking NFC at the software level and that there was no apparent reason for the move. At the time, the evidence appeared to point at NFC wallet control as the reasoning behind the move but we have since learned the rabbit hole goes a whole lot deeper than that. We are about to completely reverse what we reported just yesterday. We have been told that mobile network operators have server concerns about the NFC performance of the BlackBerry Bold and Curve.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 NFC format and tag problems

Our source speaking about the BlackBerry Bold reported,”This would actually be protecting the consumer (and the NFC industry) from a really disappointing first experience with NFC.” So, what we can take from this is that the issue may be with the Blackberry Bold 9900, and the mobile network operators may, in fact, not want to have have an NFC phone with such poor capabilities defining what an NFC experience is. First impressions last, and it sounds as if the mobile network operators have higher standards than RIM in this area. Our source went on to explain further regarding the issues that could have contributed to the carrier’s decisions. As we remove our proverbial foot out of our mouths, it actually turns out that the carriers may well have been acting in the best interests of consumers after all.

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NFC tag everything, respect nothing. NFC tag prices coming down to a sub 5 cent price point

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NFC tag everything, respect nothing. NFC tag prices could be coming down to a sub 5 cent price point

A British startup named Additive Process Technologies, or APT for short, has invented a new manufacturing process for passive NFC tags that could see prices plummet on a per NFC tag basis. The promise has always been that NFC tags would become cheap and ubiquitous, but quite frankly, it just hasn’t happened. Currently, at best, you will pay around 30 cents per piece if you are buying in bulk. If you are an individual user, an NFC tag could cost you as much as four or five times more. The lofty goal of the cheapo NFC tag has evaded the industry and has set the budding NFC technology back until now. We were promised a 3 – 5 cent NFC tag a long time ago, and it appears that APT may deliver.

Get ready to NFC tag everything without having to remortgage your home

Passive NFC tags can be used in many ways. You can set up phone profiles for different environments, such as the car and home. You can label products with ingredient information and run interactive immersive marketing and engagement campaigns with the use of simple NFC tags embedded in smart posters. Restaurants and takeout joints could have NFC tagged menus and bus stops could have NFC timetables. The list goes on and is only limited by imagination to the impact that passive NFC tags could have, but they are currently expensive. The reason that NFC tags are pricey to the pocket is the chemicals and metals currently used to manufacture them and the complex process that is inherently linked. NFC tag companies have tried conductive inks and a whole manner of other approaches but without sufficient yields or reliability to go main stream.

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Smartphone Sales Grew 74 Percent year on year says Gartner

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If you thought smartphone sales had peaked, your were wrong – they, in fact, grew a whopping 74% year-on-year according to Gartner

Phew, just when you thought there was nothing left to speculate on, we find that Gartner has been at it again, giving us statistics to analyze, ponder and argue over as to their real world meanings. With more people in the world using mobile devices than those who have running water, you can imagine it’s big business. In big business, we see winners and losers and many industry insiders wait with either excitement or dread for these reports to hit the media. Gartner today reported that mobile device sales grew 16.5% compared to the second quarter last year. That’s 428.7 million units in the second quarter of 2011. Mobile devices in general are a mature market now and a 16.5% increase in a globally bad economy is certainly news for celebration if you happen to be a market winning mobile device manufacturer.

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Subway debuting NFC mobile payments and tying in Velti Mobile Marketing Platform

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Subway debuting NFC mobile payments and tying in Velti’s Mobile Marketing Platform

We all saw that Subway embraced NFC mobile payments when it became a launch partner for Google Wallet back in May. Since then, Subway hasn’t been resting back on its laurels and waiting for NFC technology and mobile payments to become mainstream. In fact, they haven’t been waiting to deploy a mobile marketing strategy either. Waiting is something the fast food chain doesn’t seem to have on its agenda for its company or its customers and that’s a good thing. Last week, Subway selected Velti to be its mobile marketing technology provider. Subway intends to use Velti’s mGage mobile marketing platform to consolidate its marketing efforts globally onto one single mobile platform.

“We see enormous potential in our mobile campaigns and look forward to delivering a more robust experience with Velti,” said Joost Zimmerman, Director of Digital Marketing at Subway. “Our goal is to utilize mobile marketing as a highly personal and direct way to reach our customers and give them access to SUBWAY® at any time, wherever they are.” We are not sure if Zimmerman actually verbalized the ®, but that was the quote so we left it in!

How will Subway use Velti mGage for NFC, mobile payments and mobile marketing?

Subway isn’t what you would describe as a small going concern. It has stores in 90 countries and 34,000 restaurants globally. Managing the marketing for that size of organization on a local and global basis, for different devices and platforms would be a logistical nightmare. Velti’s mGage platform will be used to launch transactional mobile marketing programs that allow consumers to order meals from their phones for pick up at the nearest Subway restaurant.

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Identive Group sells 1 million NFC tags to a major smartphone manufacturer

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Identive Group sells 1 million NFC tags

The Identive Group has been selected to provide a major smartphone manufacturer with 1 million NFC tags over the course of 6 months

The Identive Group has announced that has secured a contract to supply 1 million NFC tags to a leading NFC phone manufacturer over the next six months. We reported on the Identive Group Marketplace, NFC stickers and NFC tags a couple of weeks ago highlighting how the company is focusing on educating developers about NFC and its many potential uses. Although the Identive Group produced and the NFC stickers for Google’s IO event earlier this year, this announcement represents the first major contract awarded to the company for a mass deployment of custom NFC tags by an NFC smartphone manufacturer. The NFC tags will be placed in the NFC smartphone box so that when a customer purchases a phone from the manufacturer in question,  they will be able to test the functionality of NFC out. It is not known at this point whether the NFC tag will be write protected or which NFC Forum tag type will be used.

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NFC Samsung Galaxy S II rumors roundup

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NFC Samsung Galaxy S II rumors roundup

You can tell the launch of the NFC Samsung Galaxy S II is getting close here in the US because the fervor is rising and the rumors are flying around quicker than ever. Let’s start with AT&T. We previously reported that AT&T had a version of the Samsung Galaxy S II that came with a QWERTY slider and it turns out that isn’t the Galaxy S II. That phone will be heading to AT&T, but it isn’t going to carry the Samsung Galaxy S II moniker. We have very few other details about the phone apart from the strange fact that the images show that it is running honeycomb, so we are not sure what that is all about. However, there is going to be an NFC Samsung Galaxy S II launching here in the States!

NFC Samsung Galaxy S II on AT&T

After the biggest questions in the universe, such as “Why?” and, is the universe infinite? One of the biggest questions faced by human kind has been will there be an NFC Samsung Galaxy S II launching outside of Korea? And we have an answer to that question now, which is a resounding yes.

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An NFC payments month in Japan and why NFC payments will be adopted quickly elsewhere

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An NFC payments month in Japan and why NFC payments will be adopted quickly elsewhere

The sun isn’t the only thing that rises in Japan as NFC payments explode month on month. More and more research firms in the western world predict that mobile NFC payments will be slow to take off and businesses are said to be skeptical about the rate at which NFC will flourish as a payments method. Just this last week, PayPal’s CEO said his firm wasn’t launching any NFC mobile wallet or merchant programs anytime soon, and he thought that NFC payments would take time to become mainstream. We don’t work for research houses, but are subjected to as many figures and something is not gelling with a lot of the research and said attitudes of business leaders out there, so we thought we would take a closer look.

NFC payments in Japan

Japan has had its NFC payments infrastructure in place for a while now and so represents a likely model for the rest of the planet. Most research findings are projections because this is a new industry, but looking back on actual figures are less speculative and Japan is the only market that has history that is chartable. Let’s cast our minds all the way back to February this year, which seems like an eternity ago in the world of NFC payments, and to ComScore’s report on NFC payments in Japan.

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Gartner: Mass NFC mobile payments adoption won’t happen until 2014, US consumers not ready

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Gartner: Mass NFC mobile payments adoption won’t happen until 2014, US consumers not ready

The facts, statistics and projections are still flying around attempting to pin point when NFC mobile payments will be the subject of mass adoption. Projections vary wildly between research houses as to the how much, when and how NFC mobile payments will take off. Gartner has now released some more interesting figures for us to mull over that suggest NFC adoption may not happen as quickly as many industry insiders have expected or hoped for. So, let’s dig straight into the figures.

Gartner projections for global mobile payments

Mobile payments users are due to surpass 141.1 million in 2011, and whereas that is not a massive amount, it does represent an increase of 38.2% over 2010. This figure will be achieved thanks to growth from the 102.1 million mobile payment users who adopted the technology in 2010. In actual cash that represents $48.9 billion in 2010 which is set to grow to $86.1 billion in 2011. Overall that represents a growth factor of 75.9% and shows spend levels on a per user basis rising as mobile payments become more commonplace.

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1st NFC smart poster consumer marketing campaign for US

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1st NFC smart poster social media marketing campaign for US

Proxama deploys the first US NFC smart poster campaign for VH-1′s Basketball Wives

The US gets its first NFC smart poster campaign today, thanks to the folks over at Proxama. We have discovered a simple equation that seems to define NFC smart poster marketing so far: fun + interactive x marketing / contactless = Proxama. The company seems to be involved whenever there is an interesting marketing campaign in the offing and today is no exception, as the company announces its involvement in another NFC smart poster campaign for VH-1′s new show Basketball Wives. This isn’t the first NFC smart poster campaign that the UK outfit has been involved in. They were also the people behind the X-Men: First Class campaign in London, which saw 20 smart posters in and around London with NFC tags embedded that linked to the movie’s Facebook page.

Neil Garner, Founder and CEO of Proxama said, “I am delighted that Proxama has been chosen to be the NFC partner for this exciting project. It is very important that we are able to demonstrate to advertisers, businesses and consumers the potential that NFC offers which is why we are running this campaign in tandem with a leading handset manufacturer in Nokia and outdoor media specialists Hyperspace.”

NFC smart poster campaigns are in their infancy at the moment but show great promise as a medium to have physical marketing pieces that consumers can interact with. The nature of smart posters is frictionless and the medium allows for different calls to action to be embedded straight into objects such as cards, posters, window signage or anything else. Smart posters also allow for great analytics which are a very attractive concept for marketers. We have mentioned before that some of the NFC Rumors team are marketers, and what we are attracted to in smart posters is the opportunity to start engagement and conversations with consumers straight from an inanimate object that earns and provides the opportunity to allow permission based contact with end users in the future. Listing building hasn’t died, it’s simply evolved and you can expect to see a lot more utilization of this approach over the coming years. NFC smart posters are not limited to movie posters in malls, but will also appears on packaging for products you buy and use everyday.

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RewardLoop loyalty programs via QR and NFC POS adapter

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RewardLoop mobile loyalty programs via QR and NFC POS adapter

Today RewardLoop announced a mobile loyalty programs with a twist, it works off an adapter that sits between your POS terminal and receipt printer, so in essence creates an NFC POS adapter for QR code and NFC loyalty programs.

No new POS terminal required for RewardLoop loyalty programs
RewardLoop has released an NFC POS adapter for loyalty programs. The novel approach allows any business to set up a loyalty program with very little investment and low monthly fees. Merchants and retailers simply add loyalty products to their POS system and in turn add those products to each sale. When the receipt is printed, the adapter intercepts the printing data and adds a QR code at the bottom of the printed receipt. The QR code is a one time use, secure code that a customer can scan. The customer is then directed to RewardLoop’s cloud based system. After setting up an account, all a customer need do is scan QR codes from their receipts every time they make a purchase to collect points. The cloud based portion of RewardLoop also manages redemption securely and allows service and retail based businesses to concentrate on their business and not the management of a loyalty programs. The adapter also has the ability to connect to an NFC reader which will go live when NFC has more of a substantial hold on the market, RewardLoop said. RewardLoop’s turnkey mobile loyalty programs are ideal for independent and chain merchants alike, including coffee shops, restaurants, retailers, local service providers, and other high purchase volume / frequency categories.

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U.S. Bank launches NFC wristband from VITAband

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U.S. Bank launches NFC wristband from VITAband

U.S. Bank has got together with VITAband, Oberthur Technologies and FIS to offer customers a MasterCard PayPass NFC wristband. If you are one of those people who hate carrying cash around and tend to go out to events, you will love what U.S. Bank has for you. Now you can represent international style, class and panache on the go while sporting this rather fetching hydrocarbon encrusted NFC wrist bracelet that will allow you to make purchases under $50 like the billionaires do. You too can gleam with Hollywood gold (plastic) when volleying in tennis or abseiling into a store for a pack of gum. So, if you like to live on the edge, sign up today and you can attain our NFC wristband in hi-vis blue that screams “Mug me!” and can be seen from 50 meters away, and comes with an easy slip off feature to hand over your cash. Act now and we will offer you “buy one get mugged free!”

NFC wristband from U.S. Bank and VITAband has multiple uses

All joking aside, this move brings NFC payments stateside and the VITAband has more functionality than just payments. The VITAband also acts as a medical information repository in the event that you are found unconscious and need medical attention. Your emergency contact details and medical history is housed on the band itself. That would truly be the reason for its hi-vis coloration. Customers can load and reload funds onto the chip as needed via an online user account. Each band also carries a VITAnumber, a unique, eight digit numeric identifier that links the wearer to a customizable Emergency Response Profile, which houses the individual’s identity and critical medical information. As we mentioned before, the NFC wristband is also an NFC-enabled MasterCard PayPass contactless device which can be used to make payments up to $50 in value which makes it perfect for days out sailing or taking the kids to a theme park.

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NFC marketplace launches

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NFC marketplace launches

The Identive Group has launched an NFC marketplace that provides educational resources and NFC related products. Here at NFC Rumors we love any project that enables people to interact with and use NFC to its full potential and the Identive Group appears to share that same passion for the NFC technology. The NFC marketplace is highly geared towards developers and marketers, enabling them to develop and create campaigns and applications that are NFC based. Here are the main areas of products the NFC marketplace currently caters to.

NFC tags – The Identive NFC marketplace offers a selection of NFC Forum-compliant tags, including Google NFC tags type 1, 2 and 4, which are the core components of all NFC-based applications, from mobile payment to electronic ticketing.
NFC readers – NFC readers work with NFC tags to initiate transactions, services or other applications. Identive’s NFC readers are based on contactless technology standards and are available in both mobile and desktop form factors.
NFC software development kit – NFC SDKs enable application developers and system integrators to accelerate time to market of NFC readers and terminals that support device-to-tag and peer-to-peer applications such as event ticketing, retail loyalty, physical and logical access as well as vending, public transport and mobile payment.
Educational resources – Identive NFC will offer webinars, webcasts and educational materials about NFC technology and applications.
Have you wondered where to get the Google NFC tags? Look no further than the NFC marketplace

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Qualcomm adds to NFC iPhone 5 doubts

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Qualcomm adds to NFC iPhone 5 doubts

Qualcomm adds doubt to an NFC iPhone 5 by telling MobileBeat 2011 delegates that products featuring its mobile processors and software will not be seen until late 2011 or early 2012

It looks as if there is an ever dwindling possibility for an NFC iPhone 5 today. Raj Talluri, vice president of product management for Qualcomm has been speaking about mobile payments today at the MobileBeat 2011 conference. Firstly it is important to understand what it is Qualcomm does in respect to mobile phones. Qualcomm specializes in taking individual components that are built into phones like cameras, mp3 players, WiFi chips and so on and then they build them all onto one piece of silicon. This allows for minimal space to be taken up inside of our mobile phones which allows them to be super thin and energy efficient.

Qualcomm had been pegged as the supplier Apple would probably use for NFC components for an NFC iPhone 5

Super efficient all-in-one chips that do not take up too much space sounds like music to Apple’s ears. Qualcomm has been working on mobile financial transactions and the hardware and software that is required to fit in our mobile phones. NFC is part of that equation and it has been rumored that Apple has turned to Qualcomm to help them develop their NFC hardware platform.

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Zoosh wants to be more than just payments, Zoosh wants to be a verb

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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.

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Will Apple include NFC in the iPhone 5 and iPad 3?

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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

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Lockitron NFC door locks, obsessive compulsive people celebrate

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Would you like to lock and unlock your home with your phone, now you can with Lockitron NFC door locks

Lockitron NFC door locks, whatever will they think of next? If you are like us you probably don’t leave the house or office without carrying at least 1/2 pound of metal with you that you call keys. Keys for the car, keys for the house, keys for the office and keys you can’t remember what they unlocked but you are pretty sure they are important. We feel your pain. Well, it probably isn’t going to be that way for too much longer because NFC is here to unburden your pants and purses. Lockitron is a company that makes just such a solution and we have to say it looks very promising.

What are Lockitron NFC door locks

Essentially, the Lockitron system replaces your keys with your smartphone. The system basically has two ways in which it works; let’s explore the NFC way first. When you swipe your NFC-enabled smartphone over the sensor, the Lockitron box checks your access credentials to see if you are authenticated with its server and either unlocks the door or keeps you out. That is as easy as it gets, but there are a couple of caveats we will get to in a bit.

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CorFire and InComm to offer white label NFC mobile wallet

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CorFire and InComm to offer white label NFC mobile wallet to compete with Google Wallet and the Isis joint venture

Google Wallet has another competitor on the horizon as CorFire and InComm get together to offer a white label NFC mobile wallet service. The partnership will introduce technology that allows shoppers to get coupons and pay for purchases using their mobile phones. The partnership will allow merchants to issue white label NFC mobile wallet applications containing prepaid gift and bank cards and coupons under the retailers own brand (think a Target app that handles purchases and discounts). The model works by allowing customers to download the apps from the web, straight on to their NFC-enabled phone and use that app to pay at the register.

SK C&C USA is an Atlanta based distributor and processor of prepaid cards who owns a mobile-commerce subsidiary called CorFire. Its new partner InComm has operations in 225,000 stores including BestBuy and Walmart.

“If merchants don’t develop their own wallet, they’ll always be beholden to Google to reach their customers,” said Richard Crone, who heads Crone Consulting LLC, speaking about white label NFC mobile wallet

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Nokia N9 MeeGo NFC Smartphone

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Nokia N9 MeeGo NFC Smartphone

Nokia has shown the world its second NFC Smartphone, the Nokia N9, which is the company’s first MeeGo phone. In case you find yourself saying WhoGo? MeeGo is an open source smartphone platform that has been built in a collaborative effort between Intel and Nokia. Stephen Elop, the head honcho over at Nokia, promised that the company would deliver a MeeGo Smartphone by the end of the year and thus it has appeared.

We must say the Nokia N9, which is also known as the Lankku, slab is easy on the eyes and will come in a veritable amount of bright colors as well as a really quite lovely matte black. In fact, these colors are part of the polycarbonate shell, so even scratches and dings only result in the uncovering of more of the same color because the case is colored all the way through.

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Did you hear about Zoosh Payments, they’re ultrasonic, no NFC chip required

Posted by Seth Planck

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Did you hear about Zoosh near field Payments, they’re ultrasonic, no NFC chip required.10 out of 10 dogs heard the news first.

Sometimes we swear money flies out of our bank accounts so fast we can hear it break the sound barrier. Pretty soon it may be sound that that pulls and pushes money from our accounts if the Silicon Valley startup, Naratte get their way. Zoosh, developed by Naratte (means “learning” in Japanese”), uses ultrasonic sound as a communications medium to make transactions between devices. Its makers say it’s very interoperable and works across many technology platforms including between IOS and Android, not to mention feature phones and other devices like tablets. The technology can be used in three main ways: phone to POS system, phone to phone and phone to digital coupon. These ways of communicating are not too dissimilar to NFC’s peer to peer, tag emulation and reader / writer in concept.

Zoosh payments use your phone’s microphone and speakers to make transactions
How does Zoosh work?

It works by using your phone’s microphone and speaker to both listen and broadcast the information that the company’s algorithm encodes and decodes. Zoosh converts sound to digital transaction IDs that can be passed securely between devices. Zoosh technology can also be used for fast Bluetooth pairing by placing your phone within 1 foot of another device. What has allowed for this technology to be developed is the better speakers and microphones in our smartphones these days.

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