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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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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Intel announces NFC support in Ivy Bridge chips

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Intel announces NFC support in Ivy Bridge

We are here at CES and Intel has announced that all Ivy Bridge chips will support NFC. Ultrabooks have a massive presence at CES this year and Intel has thrown its weight fully behind NFC, and more specifically for payments in its Ivy Bridge chipset. NFC just got a boost beyond the reach of carriers and MNOs, which will no doubt spur a new line of innovation that extends beyond hardware and is very likely to change e-commerce forever. Intel announced that its Ivy Bridge chips will featured within 50 – 75 Ultrabooks hitting the market in 2012, and we can only expect this figure to grow as the year goes on.

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Google Wallet experience is not great and needs improving

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Google Wallet experience is not great and needs improving

We are going to come straight out and say we are fans of Google Wallet. We think it’s great for consumers and wonderful for NFC. Having a brand name like Google behind NFC has started to educate consumers to what NFC can actually do and how much the nascent technology is set to change the way we interact with the physical and online world. Of course, the alternative being Isis helps add some sparkle to Google’s offering considering most of the US will be trapped in a closed Isis environment.

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Verizon furious at Google for Galaxy Nexus / Google Wallet statement [Exclusive]

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Verizon furious at Google for Galaxy Nexus / Google Wallet statement

As you can probably imagine we have been reaching out far and wide to get some more information about what actually is going on with Verizon and its distinct dislike of Google Wallet. Our search revealed that Verizon execs are “livid” with Google for supposedly making a statement about whether or not Verizon intends to allow Google Wallet on the Galaxy Nexus. We have reported for sometime how contentious the issue of Google Wallet has been between Google and Verizon and now Verizon’s top brass is said to be spitting chips about Google going public about Google Wallet.

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How to make a better NFC antenna with New rFid Concept

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How to make a better NFC antenna with New rFid Concept

You may have never heard of the New rFid Concept NFC antenna system, but you will soon want it in your NFC smartphone. If you have an NFC smartphone you will no doubt have become frustrated at one point or another with the ability to read tags easily. This is especially true if you are attempting to read NFC tags through glass or on certain materials like metals. At best most NFC antennas will only pick up a signal at around a distance of 4cm and sometimes substantially less. There has to be a better way, right? Well, there is and French firm New rFid Concept have it ready to roll with an advanced NFC antenna that substantially increases the performance of NFC smartphones.

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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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SmartMetric brings miniature biometric fingerprint scanning to NFC payments

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SmartMetric brings miniature biometric fingerprint scanning to NFC payments

SmartMetric intends to bring miniaturized biometric fingerprint scanning to EMV and NFC payments. You may remember SmartMetric, the company who is suing both Visa and MasterCard. That suit was for infringing on the firm’s patents relating to biometric security based on payment cards. SmartMetric has now announced it is ready for market, but what isn’t clear from their announcement is whether the firm intends to bring that biometric technology to NFC smartphones. SmartMetric mentions mobile payments multiple times within their announcement, but never gives distinct use cases. We know from the suit filed that the firm has developed products that fit onto credit cards providing what it calls “100% verification” that provides enhanced security for payments.

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Proxama outs its MasterCard NFC mobile payment reference kit

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Proxama outs its MasterCard NFC mobile payment reference kit

British NFC marketing and development firm Proxama has released a MasterCard NFC mobile payment reference kit at CARTES this week. With many card issuers, banks and retailers with no solid NFC deployment plan aside from bringing in a big firm, there is very little in the way of testing equipment that can be used to demonstrate and review the viability of NFC in many businesses. Proxama has tackled this problem by releasing its kit to help companies play around with the firm’s own NFC mobile wallet to review NFC payments. Us techies who follow NFC are very use to the concepts and potentials, but a problem that NFC has faced is communicating those opportunities to potential industry stakeholders who have no clue what is involved in or possible with NFC payments.

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PC and Ultrabook NFC payments are coming thanks to Intel and Mastercard

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PC and Ultrabook NFC payments are coming thanks to Intel and Mastercard

Intel and MasterCard are teaming to bring contactless and NFC payments to its line of Ultrabooks and future generations of Intel based PCs. Back at the beginning of last month we glimpsed a Medfield NFC tablet from Intel, which gave us some clues that the monolithic processor manufacturer has Near Field Communication on its mind. Today, Intel and MasterCard have announced that they are partnering to bring PayPass secure payments initially to its Ultrabooks, which is a huge step forward for NFC. We already know that Windows 8 is coming loaded with support for NFC and now Intel appears to be bringing some hardware and security support to make payments using your NFC phone or contactless card a reality.

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Where is Google Wallet accepted? What is NFC payments experience like?

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Where is Google Wallet accepted? What is NFC payments experience like?

It’s been a month since Google launched the Google Wallet NFC mobile wallet officially. There have been a string of announcements since from Google about where the Google Wallet will be accepted, but sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all the NFC news that passes our way. So, we thought we’d let you know where Google Wallet can be used and we would also share the latest Google video that shows consumers using the Google Wallet for the first time during promotions in and around New York. We will warn you though – people have an emotional reaction to using the Google Wallet! Let’s start off with the Google Wallet video and take it from there.

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iDTRONIC SMART TAGS releases NFC stickers for phones

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iDTRONIC SMART TAGS releases NFC stickers for phones

iDTRONIC has released NFC stickers for mobile phones that work for multiple applications. NFC tags embedded in NFC stickers are becoming bigger business and the iDTRONIC NFC stickers are perfect for NFC payments, NFC ticketing, access control and loyalty programs, says the company. What makes the iDTRONIC NFC stickers interesting is that they can work on metal where traditional RFID tags cannot. Anyone with a mobile can place an iDTRONIC sticker on either a plastic or metal mobile phone to enable new services. “The iDTRONIC NFC Mobile Phone Sticker is corresponding to the ISO 14443 and ISO 18092 NFC standard, which allow usage in innovative applications,” the company stated in its release.

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Google Wallet updated for your NFC payment kicks

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Google Wallet updated for your NFC payment kicks It’s been out a few weeks and Google has already started updating its Google Wallet app. The latest and greatest version brings some fixes and new features so you can better see what you are spending. Google Wallet update list What’s in this version of Google Wallet: [...]

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Canadians not enthused by the thought of using Google Wallet or NFC payments

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Canadians not enthused by the thought of using Google Wallet or NFC payments It turns out Canadians are still not convinced about using Google Wallet or NFC payments in general. In a poll conducted on behalf of ITBusiness.ca Canadians generally elicited a lukewarm response to using Google Wallet or other NFC payments services and showed a distinct interest in [...]

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CSI globalVCard app launches for iOS and BlackBerry, NFC to come later

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CSI globalVCard app launches with support for its business virtual credit card app on iOS and BlackBerry devices, NFC to come later

Last month CSI Enterprises launched their CSI globalVCard virtual business credit card app for Android. This month the company is adding support for iOS and BlackBerry devices while promising NFC payments capabilities in a future update. Virtual credit cards are set to become a security product that allows both businesses and consumers to protect their real banking details as they create and use virtual cards which act as smaller sub accounts that users transfer money into and then use that account exclusively in NFC mobile wallets such as Google Wallet. However, for businesses, an application like the CSI globalVCard allows them to put money on employees’ virtual cards that businesses create for trackable expenses. The CSI globalVCard app for iPhones and iPads is already available in the app store, and CSI is promising that the BlackBerry app will be available by the end of October. At this time the CSI globalVCard app is not NFC enabled and the company has stated that this will change in a future update that will add PayPass support for NFC payments.

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Peet’s Coffee accepts MasterCard PayPass Google Wallet NFC payments

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Peet’s Coffee accepts MasterCard PayPass Google Wallet NFC payments Add another location where you can use Google Wallet. Peet’s Coffee & Tea announces that all of its stores will accept the MasterCard PayPass payments by the end of October. It has been a little slower than many folks had hoped for but Google Wallet is [...]

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MasterCard hits Twitter to answer your questions on NFC payments

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MasterCard hits Twitter to answer your questions on NFC payments MasterCard is hosting an NFC payments Q & A session on Twitter next week. We try to answer your NFC questions on NFC Rumors on a daily basis. But sometimes if you have the opportunity, it’s best to go straight to the source, and next [...]

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Want Google Wallet on the non 4G Nexus S? XDA Developers cracked it

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Want Google Wallet on the non 4G Nexus S? XDA Developers cracked it

I think we can all agree that today venumx over at XDA Developers gets the top person in NFC award after enabling Google Wallet in all Nexus S variants. Officially the only NFC phone that is capable of running Google Wallet is the Samsung Nexus S 4G on Sprint. All of the Google Nexus S variants have the necessary NFC chip and Secure Element, but because of Isis, Google hasn’t been able to provide the service on any other mobile network operator’s network. This has shrunk the potential user base of Google Wallet significantly and the three Isis joint venture mobile network operators have even been switching off NFC in other Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S II. They haven’t been switching off the feature because it doesn’t work, they have removed the NFC capability because they are not ready to monetize it with their own Isis NFC mobile wallet at this time, and they have feared exactly what has happened today.

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Now you can use Google Wallet at OfficeMax

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Now you can use Google Wallet at OfficeMax with MaxPerks loyalty program for NFC payments

OfficeMax is the latest retail chain to join the growing list of merchants who are accepting Google Wallet NFC payments. OfficeMax are also utilizing Google Wallet along with their MaxPerks Rewards loyalty program that will enable customers to pay, redeem coupons and reap the benefits of OfficeMax’s MaxPerks. The Google Wallet NFC payments are currently limited to greater New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. markets.

“OfficeMax is interested in using the very latest technology to deliver a faster, easier and personalized in-store shopping experience for our customers, and mobile payments with Google Wallet lets us do just that,” said Ryan Vero, Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer at OfficeMax. “It’s one of many recent mobile programs we’ve rolled out to help provide customers with a truly customized and engaging shopping experience.”

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Hoeft & Wessel offers NFC capability to its public transport ticketing

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Hoeft & Wessel revolutionizes e-Ticketing in public transport with NFC payments, Visa & MasterCard on the bus not under it

Hoeft & Wessel has announced that it is now offering NFC ticketing products to public transportation customers. Cast your mind back a little to when FirstGroup announced that they planned to deploy NFC in their buses throughout England and potentially the whole of the United Kingdom, the NFC POS supplier they intended to use was Hoeft & Wessel. The company says that long waiting times when buying tickets on buses and trains are now a thing of the past. Well, for those public transportation companies that use Hoeft & Wessel anyway. Hoeft & Wessel has announced that it will provide them with a new Almex NFC e-Ticketing system for convenient, contactless payment by credit card without prior registration.

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Google Wallet predicament NFC Rumors exclusive

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The Google Wallet predicament NFC Rumors exclusive

Although Google Wallet is out in the open and available to some, the details on how Google Wallet is building out have been shrouded in mystery. Well, that is until today. NFC Rumors has received  information from a source who is close to the matter who revealed some details Google and others would have preferred you didn’t know.

The Google Wallet roll out predicament

Google Wallet released last week to the general public with a specific Android update pushed to Sprint Nexus S 4G customers that enabled the Google Wallet and Secure Element for the first time. However, executives within Google are said to be releasing that they are going to have to spend some money to market the nascent NFC mobile wallet to attract more attention. As crazy as that may seem with all the media attention take up has been lower than expected. This is probably due to one phone that is capable of making these payments that is starting to age compared to other NFC phones that are making their way into the market.

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NFC news roundup

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NFC news roundup

Its been a busy couple of weeks in NFC and odds are you have probably missed some of the good bits if you don’t hang out on NFC Rumors all day everyday. So we thought we’d catalogue some of the more interesting stories that have crept up in the last two weeks and organize a little.

Marketing

NFC marketing used to be a small category of news, but it is building. We expect that in the future it will rival NFC phones in the amount of stories that are generated by NFC marketing because it is such a diverse subject.

• First NFC digital billboard to launch in Times Square
• Kimtag research finds social networking and marketing NFC tags scans get a 22% per month bump
• Poken and Standard Register Healthcare announce NFC products and services platform pokenHEALTH
• Tapit closes exclusivity deal with JCDecaux in Australia for NFC marketing on its “outside street furniture” or what we like to call NFC billboards
• Tapit forms Australian NFC agency out of home advertising network with JCDecaux
• NFC social check-ins come of age with RewardAble marketing platform

MasterCard talks up security in NFC payments

Posted by Seth Planck

September 23rd, 2011 at 10:46 AM Filed Under Latest News

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MasterCard talks up security in NFC payments

MasterCard has been talking about the security involved in NFC mobile wallets, initially with the Google Wallet and then on the grander scale of the PayPass system itself. Poll after poll has shown that consumers are worried about security when it comes to NFC payments, whether that comes in the form of an NFC mobile wallet or an EMV card. Consumers are right to be concerned about the security of a nascent payment method and they are right to seek education on safety systems that are applied to any payment forms. Peace of mind is a wonderful thing.

We have discussed before on NFC Rumors that NFC payments are probably more secure than any form of currency or payment that has come before. Does that mean NFC payments are infallible? No, but the point of security is to make it sufficiently difficult that no one would bother attempting to steal a few bucks from an account. Does it mean that consumers should be more protective of their NFC phones if they have them set up for payments? Absolutely, just as you wouldn’t leave cash laying out around strangers, the same would apply to you phone if it is the way in which you pay for goods and services. That is true if you use your phone for mobile banking also.

The fact is security with NFC payments doesn’t just fall to the card issuer or the NFC mobile wallet provider. We the consumers also have our responsibility to ensure security is kept tight. But let’s assume that you are security minded about your NFC phone and payment device. What is MasterCard doing to keep you secure, your transactions and your accounts secure on their end of things?

Source: MasterCard

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America’s Isis crisis in NFC mobile payments

Feature

Posted by Seth Planck

September 22nd, 2011 at 9:22 PM Filed Under Featured, Latest News

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America’s Isis crisis in NFC mobile payments

Since Google launched its Google Wallet earlier this week the Isis crew have been out in full force talking about Isis, which probably won’t get to market until in Salt Lake City and Austin until early-mid 2012, and that is  just in a couple of test cities at that. If you have never heard of Isis let us give you some back story. Isis is a joint venture formed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon where the three mobile network operators have come together to go into the NFC mobile payments business together, effectively controlling most of the market in the United States. Each mobile network operator intends to charge companies for having an NFC payments capable app stored on a subscriber’s phone and then Isis will act as a trusted service manager that provisions security apps being installed and acts as part of the payment process. If you would like to know more about what a trusted service manager is and does, check out our post here.

Source: PCMag

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