Hello NFC Transponders: Identive Group “Identifies” another way to Save Energy and Low-Cost

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According to 4-Traders, near field communication (NFC) products have been introduced by Identive Group, the radio frequency identification (RFID) provider, using Sony’s FeliCa Lite chip technology.

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Nintendo Wii U controller to rock NFC to enhance gaming

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Nintendo Wii U controller to rock NFC to enhance gaming

NFC got another boost today as Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, announced that the Wii U controller would feature NFC “function”. The Wii U controller is set to be compatible with both FeliCa for its home audience and MIFARE for the rest of the world. The President of Nintendo even acknowledged that NFC “is expected to be widely used around the world in the near future.”

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NFC to speed up currency exchange according to Currencies Direct

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NFC to speed up currency exchange due to added security according to Currencies Direct

Currency Exchange can be expensive and take a lot of time, but the question being asked is whether NFC mobile wallets will speed up that process. Currencies Direct, a UK based non-bank currency exchange firm, think it will and they don’t mind saying why. We here at NFC Rumors have focused on a somewhat related part of the NFC payments ecosystem called remittance payments. This is where migrant workers or even just friends can send money from one another via their NFC smartphones by using a mobile wallet. These remote payments are expected to grow to a staggering $22.5 billion dollars by 2014, and no doubt Currencies Direct aims to be part of that lucrative new ecosystem. The process is near instantaneous and has been being used with SMS technology for years in Africa with the M-Pesa service.

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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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Mobile World Congress NFC rumors leaking left, right and center

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Mobile World Congress NFC rumors leaking left, right and center

Mobile World Congress is coming up this next month, and rumors are rife over here at NFC Rumors about all kinds of announcements that are likely to be made. We have been so busy with our CES coverage that we have just been stacking them up, but we know you love some good rumors from industry insiders, so we thought we would let some fly. As usual our NFC rumors come from individuals on the inside of the industry. Yep, those in the know. They tell us what they can, but often have to leave out some details so they don’t identify themselves with specific knowledge that only a few know. So, think what will you of the rumors, and let’s just see which ones come to pass.

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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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Inside Secure supports new Kovio RF Barcode ready NFC tags

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Inside Secure supports new Kovio RF Barcode ready NFC tags

Inside Secure has announced that it now supports the Kovio RF Barcode ready NFC tags in its Open NFC protocol stack. Okay, that may be a bit of a clunky headline, so allow us to explain why this is big news and what it means for the adoption of NFC on the whole. The overall goal of NFC tags has been to allow them to become very cost effective, especially for retail usage. The concept that has been flying around over the last few years has been printed NFC tags that use printed silicon to achieve mass market penetration at a fraction of the cost of conventional NFC tags.

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Sprint Galaxy Nexus and LG Viper hands-on during private CES event

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Sprint Galaxy Nexus and LG Viper hands-on during private CES event

As you may or may not have heard over at CES, Sprint announced that it is going to carry the Galaxy Nexus and the LG Viper NFC smartphones. Well, photographs and details have been very thin on the ground. This is especially true of the LG Viper, which wasn’t even present at the LG booth at CES. What many people didn’t know is that Sprint held a private event over at CES and we were invited. The Galaxy Nexus and the LG Viper were there for some hands-on time and we had the opportunity to play a little.

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BlackBerry Tag deployed already in OS 7.1 update for NFC sharing

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BlackBerry Tag deployed already in OS 7.1 update with NFC goodness all round

You have probably heard of BlackBerry Tag and its NFC capabilities. We popped over to the Blackberry booth at CES to see Blackberry Tag in action so we could see improvements made to the way the OS deals with NFC. Although we couldn’t see how the new 7.1 OS deals with NFC tags, which was a major issue when the NFC capable BlackBerry smartphones launched, we did see its beaming or sharing features in action. We must say that BlackBerry Tag worked flawlessly in the demo we received from Annu Dawar, who is a Product Manager for Research in Motion.

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Google Nexus NFC tablet to cost just $199 and come with a 7″ display?

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Google Nexus NFC tablet to cost just $199 suggests rumors

We reported a couple of weeks ago about Eric Schmidt’s comment to an Italian newspaper that suggested that Google was prepping a Google Nexus NFC tablet that would sport Ice Cream Sandwich. Schmidt told the newspaper in an interview that ”[In the] next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality.” At that time we reached out to Google for clarification of what Eric meant when he made the comment and we hit the steely wall of silence from Google. Generally when we speak with Google we get responses pretty promptly with some pretty helpful information, so to not even get a no comment statement was a little odd.

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WIMA NFC Monaco 2012 calls for papers to be submitted

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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.

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UPM RFID collaborates with Freedom Shopping for RFID and NFC tags

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UPM RFID collaborates with Freedom Shopping for RFID and NFC tags

Okay, so here’s another UPM RFID announcement about another partnership which again sees the Finnish firm extend its dominance in the NFC tags arena. UPM RFID are no strangers to partnerships, and in fact have built their successful model based on enabling others and their innovations with a litany of NFC tags mounted on many different inlays. Today, UPM RFID announces that it has partnered with Freedom Shopping to deliver RFID and NFC tags via Freedom Shopping’s online store.

UPM is known for its open approach to opportunities where the firm actively engages in partners’ projects to help get them off the ground. We cover UPM pretty closely, because like NXP and other core NFC firms, you can feel the beat of the NFC industry through firms who enable projects from the ground up. So, for better or worse firms like UPM, NXP, VeriFone, Google, Isis, Microsoft, Nokia and a few others get our attention when they make announcements. Whether that’s good attention or not depends on the firms in question and what they are doing within the NFC space.

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Broadcom brings NFC and apps to 2 billion existing TVs

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Broadcom brings NFC and apps to 2 billion existing TVs by converting them to Smart TVs

This morning sees Broadcom make an exciting announcement that is likely to change the way we use TV and, of course, incorporates NFC. We have seen the Boxee Box, we have seen Apple TV and we have seen Google TV and the Roku box. Many consumers are abandoning the airwaves in preference to connected apps on Smart TVs, but as yet there has been no NFC incorporated. That is set to change with this morning’s announcement from Broadcom, who are probably one of the largest semiconductor firms in the US.

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NFC Taxis hit multiple US cities with NBC & VeriFone

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NFC Taxis hit multiple US cities with NBC & VeriFone as they partner for NFC based out-of-home marketing using NBC and Universal content

NBCUniversal has announced that along with VeriFone, it intends to advertise and interact with consumers in captive out-of-home locations starting with NFC taxis in multiple US cities. Consumers can expect to gain access to NBC’s news, information and entertainment programming in more than 12,000 taxi cabs as well as at thousands of gas stations which started a couple of days ago. NBC also plans to use NFC marketing on other digital out-of-home platforms in the future.

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VeriFone completes Point acquisition, NFC payments all around

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VeriFone completes Point acquisition solidifying the firm’s position in Northern Europe and also refinances some debt ready for NFC adoption by retailers

VeriFone appears to be growing larger and larger as today’s news announces that the firm has just completed its merger of Northern European payment gateway company Point. VeriFone has taken some stick lately when the expected NFC bonanza didn’t come in the 3rd quarter of last year. That fact is that NFC adoption by retailers is largely out of VeriFone’s hands as the wallet wars obstruct earlier deployment and therefore the need for NFC POS terminals. However, that isn’t preventing VeriFone from readying itself for the expected new NFC payments landscape as the firm continues to buy up competitors in strategic markets.

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KPMG finds 23 percent of Americans very willing to use their mobile phones as an NFC wallet

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KPMG study finds that 23 percent of Americans very willing to use their smartphones as an NFC mobile wallet

KPMG has released its findings from a new survey it has conducted which found that 23% of Americans are “very willing” to use their NFC smartphones as mobile wallets. That is a quantum shift from where we were last May, but there are still concerns and obstacles to overcome before ubiquity happens. In fact, ubiquity isn’t really expected to happen until 2014, 2015 and onwards. Welcome to the year of NFC adoption.

Last year was the year of NFC discovery and early adopters, and 2012 is getting set up as the year of adoption and devices. Let’s not kid ourselves – 2012 is going to be a rocky path for NFC as it starts to gain traction and becomes a household name; but we will start to see more and more NFC devices hit the market, carriers start to embrace the technology and services to match. By this time next year, millions of consumers will have NFC smartphones and be using them as mobile wallets to varying degrees.

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Want Ice Cream Sandwich & Android Beam on your Nexus S 4G?

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Sticky, sticky Ice Cream Sandwich & Android Beam on your Nexus S 4G

Waiting for Google to send out that magic Ice Cream Sandwich update for your Nexus S 4G can be hard, especially when you want the added Android Beam NFC capabilities now. As you will probably know by now, Google has chosen to update the GSM Nexus S before its Google Wallet-touting brethren. So, at this time Nexus S 4G owners are left waiting and lamenting about the update that hasn’t come. That doesn’t mean that Nexus S 4G owners can’t get their hands on Ice Cream Sandwich though. Yes, devs have been hard at work porting the ICS OS over to the Nexus S 4G. For those who don’t mind rooting their phone, that sweet sticky Ice Cream Sandwich update has arrived. As ever there are considerations you should take into account before attempting the update though.

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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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UPM RFID sells NFC tag and RFID tag to SMARTRAC closes in Q1 2012

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UPM RFID sells NFC tag and RFID tag to SMARTRAC closes in Q1 2012

The news UPM RFID is selling its NFC tag and RFID inlay business to SMARTRAC hit early this morning. Since then, we have been wondering about the industry impacts this sale could have. SMARTRAC manufactures RFID inlays for electronic passports (e-passports) and contactless credit cards (e-payment) as well as for RFID transponders for public transportation applications. This year has been an acquisition year for SMARTRAC, who has also purchased Neology Inc. and KSW Microtec AG.

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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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ISIS tries to run internationally before masters crawling domestically

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ISIS tries to run internationally before masters crawling domestically

ISIS has said in an interview with Bloomberg that it has held discussions to explore international opportunities for their particular NFC mobile wallet and trusted service manager services. ISIS, as you probably know by this point, is a joint venture between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile with one aim to control NFC mobile wallets and NFC payments for member mobile network operators subscribers. ISIS hasn’t launched anything at this point, and from the rumors we are hearing from industry insiders, they haven’t been able to put together a secure NFC mobile wallet despite putting pen to paper with C-Sam (a very capable NFC mobile wallet all by itself), Gemalto, and various other payment providers who include Visa, MasterCard, AMEX and Discover.

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Coke uses Clear Channel for NFC marketing campaign in Singapore

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Coke uses Clear Channel for NFC marketing campaign in Singapore

Coca-Cola has launched an NFC marketing campaign in Singapore with ClearChannel that uses NFC stickers to interact with consumers’ NFC smartphones. The Coke campaign reputedly runs on Mobile Life!, which is ClearChannel’s NFC enabled network.

The NFC marketing campaign’s aim is to push Coke brands in a Christmas push for sales. The NFC marketing campaign ads are being displayed on bus shelters in Singapore and users simply tap their NFC smartphones against the NFC hotspot to gain the ability to download Christmas themed wallpapers and a special Fanta ringtone that echoes the music in a Fanta TV commercial in Singapore. Marketing-Interactive reports that the campaign also includes QR codes for folks who don’t have an NFC smartphone as yet.

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Eric Schmidt hints at Google Nexus NFC tablet mid 2012

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Eric Schmidt hints at Google Nexus NFC tablet mid 2012

It’s great when Eric Schmidt does an interview, he knows just how to let things slip, and in a recent interview with Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, he mentioned a previously unheard of Google Nexus tablet. He added that this tablet would be of the highest quality. We bet it is an NFC tablet due to Google’s massive investment in the technology, but that is pure speculation. On the other hand, because this has been taken from a foreign translation it could merely mean that Google are going to push tablets made by manufacturing partners. Eric Schmidt said via Google translation that “in the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality.”

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Google Wallet on Verizon Galaxy Nexus root free so it is safe to use!

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Google Wallet on Verizon Galaxy Nexus root free so it is safe to use!

Over the weekend we let you know the clever devs over at XDA Developers had rooted and hacked Google Wallet on to the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. We also advised that Galaxy Nexus owners should hold off from hacking the Verizon Galaxy Nexus because rooting the device could expose some sensitive data that a thief could get hold of. Just a day later and XDA Developers has released a version of the Google Wallet APK that doesn’t require rooting the device, and so you can now install the NFC mobile wallet safely!

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Google Wallet already hacked to work on Verizon Galaxy Nexus

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Google Wallet already hacked to work on Verizon Galaxy Nexus

It has been a couple of days since the Galaxy Nexus has been launched on Verizon sans Google Wallet. Verizon is charging $299 for the latest Ice Cream Sandwich, NFC touting smartphone, and Amazon has already half priced it down to $149.99. The Free Press has written a letter to the FCC requesting that Verizon is investigated for not allowing Google Wallet on its network and for what the organization calls “blocking the app”. Well, the developers over at XDA-Developers have already hacked Google Wallet to work on the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon’s network. It’s been a busy week for the Galaxy Nexus. The news that the Galaxy Nexus can run Google Wallet, however, has been tempered by a report that some insecurities have been found in Google Wallet when running on a rooted NFC smartphone.

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