Sequent launches CCS and brings NFC capabilities to apps

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Sequent launches CCS and brings NFC capabilities to apps

The Sequent Software management team have formerly held positions within large corporate entities such as AT&T, Visa and VivoTech and been responsible for deployment of various NFC trials and technology. However, the firm has now released an NFC SDK, for lack of a better word, so that all app developers can add NFC to any apps. That CCS (Core Card Services) product includes the capabilities to add NFC payments, NFC ticketing, coupons and access control.

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BlackBerry NFC tag issues appear to be a thing of the past

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BlackBerry NFC tag issues appear to be a thing of the past

NFC tag issues have plagued the beleaguered BlackBerry NFC smartphones for some months now. You have probably heard the news that the Co-CEO’s over at RIM have stepped down from the firm today. Something that is ironical with that announcement is that BlackBerry issues with NFC appear to be a thing of the past and people are doing some great things with NFC tags these days, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Over at CES a couple of weeks ago we got to speak with one of BlackBerry’s NFC product managers who told us that he didn’t know of any problems reading NFC tags these days since the BlackBerry OS 7.1 update. He invited us to send over all manner of NFC tags and said that the firm would test them out in their labs. We may well hit up some of our friends at some NFC tag manufacturers and put that to the test as there are so many NFC tag types these days and it would be great if RIM tested them all in their labs.

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Yale demos NFC door locks solutions at CES for Android, iOS and BB

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Yale demos NFC door locks solutions at CES for Android, iOS and BB

We have reported on Yale and their NFC door locks before. However, we have now seen the locks in action and have far more details about how Yale (an ASSA ABLOY company) plans to bring their solutions to market. The Yale NFC door locks are an exciting prospect because they represent quality products for access control that are built for consumers. Yes, later this year we will be able to cost effectively buy NFC door locks for our homes, offices, and anywhere else we would like to secure and use access control facilities.

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WDC Helsinki 2012 launches NFC apps and UPM RFID NFC tag smart posters

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WDC Helsinki 2012 launches NFC apps and UPM RFID NFC tag smart posters

NFC is being used more and more in large scale events and WDC Helsinki 2012 is no exception. The World Design Capital (WDC) is chosen every two years and this time around Helsinki has been chosen along with other Finnish cities Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen and Lahti. The objective of the World Design Capital year is to improve the daily lives and environment of the residents and to develop public services and business activities through design.

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ZIK Parrot by Starck high-end NFC headphone prototype shown off at CES

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ZIK Parrot by Starck high-end NFC headphone prototype shown off at CES

Okay, the ZIK Parrot by Starck NFC headphones have been unveiled and we feel lucky enough to count ourselves among the first to see, and probably more relevantly hear them in action. Parrot contacted us before CES and told us that they had something to show us that we would be very interested to see. Turns out they weren’t just hyping. We have been in contact with Parrot for some time, and in that time the firm has hinted to us that they were indeed working on NFC speakers and NFC headphones. We knew whatever product the firm released would be high quality, but the innovation that Parrot showed off at CES surprised even us.

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Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) and an NFC New Year

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Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) and an NFC New Year

Our team over here at NFC Rumors want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who swings past the site and wish them a great holiday season. It has been our first year and we have grown massively during that time because of your support for what we do. Over this year we have met some really great people, had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in great innovation and have been supported by our visitors and the companies who have come to embody Near Field Communication. We love bringing you the latest NFC news, adding our own opinion and starting conversations about the opportunities and challenges that NFC brings with it.

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Verifone takes an NFC stock beating, perhaps unfairly

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Verifone takes an NFC stock beating, perhaps unfairly, due to unrealistic market expectations

We all know who Verifone is if we are interested in NFC mobile wallets and NFC payments. They are undoubtedly the largest player in the NFC point-of-sale business globally, and they are involved in most NFC payment projects on some level in the very complex ecosystem. However, Verifone has recently taken a painful beating on its stock price, which we can see between December 5th, when it traded at $44 a share, to December 14th, when it had fallen to just $35 per share. Ouch! Their fourth quarter earnings call wasn’t even until December 14th, so something is happening in the perception of Verifone’s viability to turn a profit. We are not going to go into P/E growth and other associated investment indicators in this post; we want to concentrate more on why this has happened to Verifone versus the reality of the situation. This perception that investors are adopting also has larger scale impacts on the rest of the NFC industry and Verifone may just be the fall guy that kicks off something grander in scale.

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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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NFC added to free Microsoft Tag platform boosts NFC marketing

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NFC added to free Microsoft Tag platform boosts NFC marketing

Microsoft Tag is one of those products that may have passed you by in the past. Today’s announcement that the firm will include NFC tag support in the app and web interface may have just let Microsoft Tag find its sea legs and become a relevant tool to be used by small businesses and marketers alike. The project has been about since 2009 and previously supported 2D barcodes and QR codes and didn’t really inspire.

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Where are all the NFC speakers this holiday season?

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Where are all the NFC speakers this holiday season?

NFC speakers are basically Bluetooth speakers that allow NFC to pair the devices. For the iPhone there is a plethora of speakers available, but the Apple products are yet to support NFC. One of the great advantages that NFC brings is the ability to touch and pair NFC smartphones with devices like routers, speakers, earphones, etc. We would have thought that manufacturers would have been clambering over one another to get NFC speakers to market this holiday season but, in fact, choices are very few and far between.

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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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A question of ownership of the secure element for NFC mobile wallets

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A question of ownership of the secure element with regards to NFC mobile wallets

A big question surrounding the wallet wars is concentrated around who owns the secure element. The focus is misplaced, if that is the place where MNOs and service providers are focusing their efforts. Yesterday we posted about Verizon’s statements about the Galaxy Nexus where they obviously either made an error in their statement or were intentionally attempting to mislead the media about why Google Wallet would not be allowed on the Galaxy Nexus.

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Aditux demos NFC payments iCarte solution and more

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Aditux demos NFC payments iCarte solution

We like covering Aditux because the firm is always up to something new. We imagine their dev labs being like that of a mad professor with projects going on all over the place. From Nokia apps, to NFC tag management and writing software, Aditux crosses industries and sectors developing innovative solutions that use NFC. We met up with the CEO of Aditux, Jayden Khakurel, to find out about their latest and greatest project that moves Aditux into the NFC payments sector, and to see what the firm had developed.

Aditux has been working with the iCarte iPhone case to develop some NFC payments software for both retailers and consumers. Obviously with Apple not including NFC in the iPhone 4S, this has given developers a great opportunity to write NFC mobile wallet apps without competing with Cupertino at this point. What we like about the Aditux wallet is the fact it isn’t reliant on the iCarte system but allows all current iOS users to conduct NFC payments now.

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Google and Apple will force MNOs to play nice with NFC mobile wallets

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Google and Apple will force MNOs to play nice with NFC mobile wallets says ABI Research

ABI Research has gone out on a limb by stating that Google Wallet and Apple will force mobile network operators to cooperate in the mobile wallet wars. ABI goes further to project that MNO market share will erode between 2012 and 2016 as Google and Apple claim loyal users. We hear similar sentiments daily about how MNOs will ultimately have to give way to a free market approach, as heavy weights show they can take consumers away from networks that don’t support a particular NFC mobile wallet that a consumer wants to use.

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White NFC smartphones hitting in time for the holidays

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White NFC smartphones hitting in time for the holidays

A new fad of white NFC smartphones seems to be hitting for the holidays. Of course, all have taken cues from Apple’s white iPhone, but this new push on white smartphones seems to pick on NFC smartphones for reasons that escape us. Nevertheless, more choice is more choice and some of the white NFC phones that are about to be launched do look pretty nice.

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BlackBerry London NFC smartphone BBX handset?

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BlackBerry London NFC smartphone BBX handset?

An image and some specs have surfaced supposedly showing the BlackBerry London BBX NFC smartphone which could be the first hero phone that will usher in RIM’s QNX based OS. The image shows a different design mantra from BlackBerry showing what appears to be similar to the Porsche Design P9981, which didn’t win too many fans. This NFC smartphone that has the code name of BlackBerry London is said to be released in June next year and could represent the Canadian firm’s effort to gain back market share.

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Apple adds even more NFC patents to its chest for payments and retail

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Apple adds even more NFC patents to its chest for payments and retail transactions

Apple has a plethora of patents relating to NFC and today adds another couple to the mix. The iPhone 4S arrived sans NFC, but Apple continues to pick up near field communication patents that relate to payments and retail experiences. It is almost a foregone conclusion that Apple will enter the NFC arena this next year. In fact, we have been tipped by a trusted source that Apple will in fact launch an iPhone 5 with NFC, and that the only reason we didn’t see it this last year was due to manufacturing problems that had nothing to do with NFC. However, that’s not really news at this point. In the world of tech that increasingly relies on patents for income possibilities, Apple has just scooped more power for its NFC war chest.

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The Sprint of things and NFC

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The Sprint of things and NFC

NFC Rumors headed over to the Sprint Open Solutions Conference in San Jose this last week to see what the carrier was up to in regards to NFC. After all, Sprint did partner with El Goog on the Google Wallet and has committed itself to an open NFC ecosystem where no NFC traffic will be blocked or encumbered for companies and consumers. AT&T, Verizon & T-Mobile can’t say the same, which is why we get on their cases most weeks here on the blog. Since the Google Wallet announcement Sprint has been quiet on NFC. No press releases, no announcements, no new NFC phones. So we wanted to find out what gives on the “Now Network” and to be frank, we were pleased with what we found out. The only thing that pleases us is consumer focused business practices when it comes to MNOs.

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HTC Edge quad-core NFC phone coming March or April

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HTC Edge quad-core NFC phone coming March or April

Images and specifications for the HTC Edge quad-core NFC smartphone have leaked online, and if the rumors are true this new phone will be a beast. We have been waiting for quad-core super phones for well over a year now and it looks as if it will be HTC that delivers in the form of the HTC Edge. There has now been a plethora of NFC smartphones announced and as of yet, most are rocking Android. The HTC Edge could well represent the next bump in usability for smartphones, and from what we are hearing, the quad-core wonder phone will support NFC from the get go. In fact, if the rumors are correct the specifications for the HTC Edge set a new premium standard for smartphones that even the rumored Samsung Galaxy S III does not compete with.

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Galaxy Nexus NFC phone questions left unanswered

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Galaxy Nexus NFC phone so much said, yet so many questions left unanswered

As we are sure you are aware, last night the Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC phone and Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) were unveiled and announced to the world. We learned a lot about the Android Beam, Face Unlock and features of the Galaxy Nexus but there were a lot of questions that people are eager to know about left unanswered. Let’s start with our favorite subject – NFC on the Galaxy Nexus.

Unanswered NFC questions about the Galaxy Nexus which is an NFC phone

First thing’s first, we didn’t find out whether the phone will ship with NFC turned on for all mobile network operators. We know that many have been blocking NFC because they fear the extra data that will be used by consumers. We exclusively learned that the reason that AT&T had the NFC turned of in the Samsung Galaxy S II was for this very reason. Will the Galaxy Nexus meet the same fate?

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NFC iPhone 5 rumors start up again, Steve Jobs uncompleted project

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The iPhone 4S hasn’t been released a week and already NFC iPhone 5 rumors are beginning to circulate. According to Ashok Kumar, who is an analyst at  Rodman & Renshaw, the iPhone 5 was Steve Jobs’ last project. Kumar also shared that Jobs didn’t work on the iPhone 4S at all, which was handed off to another team.

Ashok Kumar said that the iPhone 5 ”was the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design,” and he added, “This is a very large project that Steve dedicated all of his time to.

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Tomorrow’s Android 4 Events with NFC, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Motorola Droid Razr

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Tomorrow’s Android Ice Cream Sandwich Events with NFC sprinkles, a touch of Samsung Galaxy Nexus and a generous portion of Motorola Droid Razr – ready for your fill?

It seems as if we have been waiting forever for the Ice Cream Sandwich event. It was at Google IO in May of this year that the search engine giant started tormenting us with the sweet, sweet promises of Ice Cream Sandwich loaded with near field communication sprinkles. Since that date a lot has changed. NFC as an industry has changed, with new sticks in the mud like Isis and new potentials like Light Squared actually starting to get it together. Nokia has ruled supremely when it comes to NFC support and BlackBerry has limped into second place with NFC phones that can only read a few NFC tags. We have seen the iPhone launch with no near field communication support whatsoever and recently seen Apple sell 4 million devices in the first weekend. It’s a crazy world and progress always comes hard and slow.

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Motorola counts down to Motorola Spyder event but is it NFC? (Video)

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Motorola counts down to Motorola Spyder event but is it NFC?

Ice Cream Sandwich season is upon us and with it comes NFC smartphone announcements by the bucket load, and we are now wondering if the rumored Motorola Spyder / Droid HD / Motorola Razr HD or whatever it is called will be joining the NFC wunderphone ranks this week. Motorola has now placed a countdown timer on its page to the Motorola launch event that we presume will announce the Motorola Spyder. Interestingly that timer runs out just 7 hours before the Samsung Galaxy Nexus Ice Cream Sandwich is due to start over in Hong Kong, which again shows a concerted effort for announcements to come back to back and an NFC Ice Cream Sandwich phone from Motorola would enable a one-two punch to hit sales of the ever popular iPhone.

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Motorola ELITE SLIVER and Motorola ELITE FLIP NFC headsets announced

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Motorola ELITE SLIVER and Motorola ELITE FLIP NFC headsets announced with Siri like capabilities ahead of Motorola event

Here’s a turn up for the books as Motorola announces its new Motorola ELITE SLIVER and Motorola ELITE FLIP NFC headsets that have iPhone like Siri voice recognition capabilities ahead of its Ice Cream Sandwich event. The question in our minds is why is Motorola launching NFC headsets when it doesn’t have NFC smartphones? I think we can all guess the answer to that one. Now we are getting excited.

“Seamless integration of elegant design and new ground-breaking technology make Motorola ELITE SLIVER and Motorola ELITE FLIP, the obvious choices for consumers from the tech savvy to the fashion conscious,” said Yossi Cohen, Senior Vice President of Companion Products at Motorola Mobility. “In designing these headsets, we built custom software to deliver new user experiences. Multiple technology advancements such as NFC, HD Audio Plus featuring wideband audio and My MotoSpeak provide an additional layer of superior and innovative functionality.”

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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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