NFC Forum members show of NFC solutions in Frankfurt

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NFC Forum members show of NFC solutions in Frankfurt

The NFC Forum and some of its members are showing off some NFC solutions over in Frankfurt, Germany this next week. But why? At the end of the day, NFC is just another secure little protocol that has the added ability to work with tags just like its older brother, RFID. It is pretty cool in and of itself, but really nothing to get overly excited about. Strange that coming from us? Not really. We have never been enchanted by the actual technology as it is nothing new or remarkable outside of the fact that a radio frequency can power a small chip and antenna with nothing more than a radio field. NFC operates at 13.56 MHz. Data speeds range from 106 kbit/s to 848 kbit/s. NFC Tags only store small amounts of information, currently between 96 and 512 bytes of memory. Kind of a dry subject matter, eh? It isn’t that NFC isn’t an interesting technology, but it is hardly as bleeding edge as quantum computers and hadron colliders.

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Freescale and INSIDE Secure bring some NFC magic to utility meters

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Freescale and Inside bring some NFC magic to utility meters in reference design

Freescale Semiconductor and INSIDE Secure has announced a secure prepaid electricity / utility meter reference design with NFC baked straight in. The new product is aimed at OEMs so they can quickly and cost effectively deploy NFC utility meters to market. Using NFC in utility meters is a very obvious use case and a vast market to be tackled. Every home has at least one utility meter and most have more than that. The new design is based on the Freescale Kinetis MK30 microcontroller (MCU), which provides the first NFC-based prepaid meter with the ability to securely reload energy credit balances. INSIDE Secure provides the VaultIC 460 and NFC (MicroRead 3.4) chipset. Gone are the days in the UK are sotting 50 pence pieces into old electricity meters. A new solution could be for NFC payments to top up electricity when required.

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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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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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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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Ordering and paying for snacks in an Australian cinema using NFC

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MasterCard Commonwealth Bank and Hoyts partner for ordering and paying for snacks in Australian cinemas using NFC

MasterCard, Commonwealth Bank, and Hoyts cinemas have partnered to bring a new facility for cinema goers that allows an app, NFC tag or QR code to be used to order and pay for food or snacks in Sydney theaters. Australia has embraced NFC and smartphones quickly and, in fact, Google stats show that smartphone penetration in Oz outpaces everywhere else globally. It’s a pretty natural progression of NFC payments to see niche apps that allow you to purchase items and browse menus in different environments. Whether that be on a plane, at a theme park or even at a cinema (Americans, read movies).

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TazTag shows off the TazPad and NFC smart monitors at CES

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TazTag shows off the TazPad and NFC smart monitors at CES

It was last year at CES that a startup French firm called TazTag first showed of its TazPad NFC tablet concept. It wasn’t the firm’s first foray into NFC and, in fact, they were known in Europe for kiosks that supported NFC interactions and transactions. Since then, the TazPad production NFC tablet, with a helpful sprinkling of ZigBee, has been deployed to integrators and the orders just keep coming in according to executives at the firm. Of course, the fact that NFC can be read on both side of the device, its AuthenTec fingerprint scanner and its low price didn’t hurt its chances any. The fact that the TazPad was the first NFC tablet to hit the market globally also gave it a certain fame and a lot of coverage, including here on NFC Rumors.

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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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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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Japan Mobile NFC Consortium adopts international NFC Forum standards

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Japan Mobile NFC Consortium adopts international NFC Forum standards

NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank have created the “Japan Mobile NFC Consortium” which will help the three carriers coordinate and adopt an international NFC standard as set forward by the NFC Forum.

Japan was the first country to really embrace NFC in a big way. They chose the FeliCa protocol as the standard before the NFC Forum had put together the international technical documents of what was to become a ubiquitous set of standards for NFC. It is fair to say that Japan as a nation has the most advanced and contiguous NFC deployment and adoption on the face of the planet. However, as NFC gears up around the globe FeliCa isn’t the standard that has been chosen by most other nations. In fact, many NFC phones sold outside of Japan only have limited support for FeliCa. Everyone else is using the NFC type A and type B NFC tags and standards and now Japan has decided it makes sense to start converting to the same system everyone else is using.

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Etick brings the NFC mobile wallet to Iranian consumers with Irancell

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Etick brings the NFC mobile wallet to Iranian consumers with Irancell

NFC mobile wallet projects are taking off all over the Middle East, and Etick and Irancell are bringing some NFC goodness to Iranian consumers. Just in case you needed any more evidence that NFC mobile payments are gearing up to explode globally this next year, today we want to let you know about a project taking off in Iran. One of the great things about NFC is that it is crossing geographical, economic and cultural barriers. There are projects the world over that use that same NFC you want in your smartphone, and although NFC payments and NFC mobile wallets are a small part of the NFC puzzle, it appears to be the side of the tech that is capturing businesses’ and consumers’ imagination at the moment. The cry we are hearing at the moment is that NFC isn’t just about payments, however, we would be remiss if we didn’t recognize the power and place NFC mobile wallets have in this nascent industry.

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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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PayPal tests NFC mobile wallet at a couple of Swedish retailers

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PayPal tests NFC mobile wallet at a couple of Swedish retailers

We first reported in September about the PayPal NFC mobile wallet called PayPal Instore in Sweden, where the firm got together with startup Accumulate to test out some NFC retail therapy. PayPal have been vocally cautious about NFC payments, NFC mobile wallets and anything else with the “N” word involved. In fact, eBay CEO, John Donahoe, went as far as saying that NFC stands for “not for commerce” earlier this year. Some have gone as far to suggest that PayPal’s opposition is a corporate policy to play down the role NFC is due to pay in payments in the next year or so and more strangely stifle its own NFC mobile wallet efforts. However, that opposition hasn’t stopped PayPal launching an NFC app for peer-to-peer money transfers or from conducting NFC mobile wallet tests in Sweden.

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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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GSMA colludes with Mobile Network Operators over NFC mobile wallets

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GSMA colludes with Mobile Network Operators over NFC mobile wallets, they will lose the battle for control

The GSMA has released a document called the “NFC Handset APIs & Requirements”, which outlines their mandate to member mobile network operators globally on how NFC USIMs or UICC-based NFC services and secure elements should be treated. We were told by a GSMA executive at WIMA that the GSMA are always being accused of being an inside club for the mobile network operator community with little interest in consumer related issues, and this new document does little to dissuade anyone that this isn’t true. We feel aspects of the GSMA are in the interests of consumers and in favor of education, but there are certainly facets and elements that are not.

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CARTES North America to debate future of EMV and NFC payments

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CARTES North America to debate future of EMV and NFC payments

The European CARTES was arguably one of the biggest shows for NFC this year along with WIMA and a couple of other events. However, CARTES North America is now gearing up to bring its expo and conference state side in March and one big thing that will be debated is the future of EMV and NFC payments. If you are already in payments you will know the US chose not to embrace chip and PIN and EMV early on and now the focus is on “if not then, when?”

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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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San Francisco becomes the world’s largest NFC parking lot [Updated]

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San Francisco becomes the world’s largest NFC parking lot

Ugh, parking in a city, fumbling for change and then realizing you are running out of time on the meter and running back to the car to add more coins is such a drag. It is, in fact, one of the problems to which NFC has a solution and that’s not new news. There have been multiple projects around the globe that have used NFC to tackle this annoyance, but as yet, none have been as ambitious as the PayByPhone project in San Francisco that has announced it will be extending its trial with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), to encompass all 30,800 parking spaces.

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Seven barriers to the growth of NFC mobile payments?

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Seven barriers to the growth of NFC mobile payments?

BillingViews today published a report / presentation called “The Seven Barriers to Mobile Payment Adoption” that primarily focuses on NFC payments and adds a dash of QR codes for good measure. BillingViews describes itself as “the global home for billing expertise and intelligence in the communications and media industries.” We can’t say we are feeling the report and disagree with it on a few levels. We do agree that there are barriers, we are just a little at odds with some of BilliingViews’ seven reasons.

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ViaForensics finds Google Wallet security vulnerability with a rooted Android phone

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ViaForensics finds Google Wallet security vulnerability with a rooted Android NFC phone, Google plugs it tight within hours

It was bound to happen that someone would find a vulnerability in an NFC mobile wallet, however, as exploits go the Google Wallet faired pretty well. ViaForensics took a rooted Android phone that we can only assume was a Nexus S and was able to gain access to database tables which revealed some arguably sensitive data. They found that databases weren’t properly flushed after cards were deleted from the Google Wallet.

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