Cortus and SST show off low power SOC with NFC secure element uses

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Cortus and SST show off low power SOC with NFC secure element uses

Cortus and SST are showing off a new low power system on chip (SOC) at Embedded World 2012 that could change the industrial design of NFC in smartphones. We don’t need to tell you that everyone wants smaller smartphones with less power consumption. In an era of convergent capabilities and a focus on keeping everything small, competitive OEMs are forced to constantly improve the power consumption and the size solutions take up on a board.

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Galaxy Note has NFC onboard AT&T locks it, Ma’Bell’s Galaxy Note Fails

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Galaxy Note has NFC onboard AT&T locks it, Ma’Bell’s Galaxy Note Fails

Just a couple of weeks ago at CES, Samsung told NFC Rumors that the Galaxy Note did not have NFC capabilities. We took a spin around the Android OS and at the software level at least, this appeared to be confirmed. However, Samsung has now done its own tear down on the LTE device and what do we see? Yep, NFC is there. The IC can be clearly seen and the back cover sports an NFC antenna. This means Samsung was either not telling the full truth at CES or their show staff had no idea what was going on. Samsung Tomorrow reports that the specs of the torn down device exactly match the version heading to AT&T. So what gives?

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AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II rocking NFC after custom ROM

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AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II rocking NFC after custom ROM

As you may well know the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II has dormant NFC capabilities. They are only dormant because AT&T has had NFC locked off at the software level and that has frustrated many NFC fans in the States. All because of Isis, yada yada yada… We knew custom ROMs were available, but we had never thought to write a post about it until some of the UPM RFID team let us know they had managed to enable NFC in their Samsung Galaxy S II on AT&T. We still think it’s crazy that an NFC tag firm like UPM RFID had to go through installing a custom ROM in the first place to use an NFC smartphone, but that’s another discussion for another day. So, if you are one of the unfortunate souls who have an AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II know that you can enable NFC on your phone by following some instructions and downloading a couple of pieces of software.

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Samsung to launch retina resolution super NFC tablet in February?

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Samsung to launch retina resolution super NFC tablet in February?

Word on the street is that Samsung is prepping a retina resolution super NFC tablet in February that’s due to be released at Mobile World Congress that features impressive specifications. This is a rumor reported over at BGR today. We all know the rivalry between Apple and Samsung has reached fever pitch and there is no love lost. With that in mind, hearing that Samsung is planning on launching a super high resolution NFC tablet before the iPad 3 gets out of the gate is probably not too much of a shock to many. The specifications of this rumored tablet could set it apart from the upcoming iPad 3. The rumor suggests that the new NFC tablet from Samsung will be launched at Mobile World Congress and not at CES. Although that said we received invitations for the Samsung press conference at CES and we wonder if Samsung might give us a sneak peek.

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NXP creates NFC Android app for cultural art and tech show

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NXP creates NFC Android app for cultural art and tech show

NXP Semiconductors has teamed up with startup firm, U-Approach, and created an NFC android app that promotes cultural participation for the STRP Festival. The STRP Festival is one of Europe’s largest art and technology festivals, and this year visitors will have the ability to interact with exhibits using their NFC Android smartphone and the new app. After tapping their NFC smartphone against an exhibit, visitors can get detailed information about the exhibited artwork.

Frens Frijns, Director of the STRP Festival, commented, “As a cultural festival, we feature artistic and creative experiments with technology. We believe that the ‘Internet of Things’ is evolving into a ‘clickable world’. We are the first festival in the world to provide that experience in a way that helps people better understand the art while giving them the ability to share their own interpretation, introducing a new social dimension to art interpretation in the festival experience.”

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Samsung announces Secu-NFC Chip, combines NFC IC with Secure Element

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Samsung announces Secu-NFC Chip, combines NFC IC with Secure Element

It’s a busy week at CARTES and Samsung just outed its new Secu-NFC Chip, which will no doubt cause some stirring within the industry. The new Samsung Secu-NFC Chip combines an NFC controller and a secure element into one unit allowing various advantages over current ICs. The secure element is the storage area in an NFC phone where personal and sensitive data is securely stored. That storage area isn’t directly accessible through your NFC phone’s operating system and secure elements generally have tamper proof features that ensure the memory locks up if someone attempts to access personal information without proper authentication. What makes Samsung’s announcement notable is that their new SENHRN1, or Secu-NFC Chip, combines both the NFC chip and secure element into one efficient chip.

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Verizon Galaxy Nexus NFC phone launch date leaked

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Verizon Galaxy Nexus NFC phone launch date

If you have been waiting for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus NFC phone to launch, we can confirm that you won’t be waiting much longer. Our sources have let us know that consumers will be able to pick up a Verizon Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone on November 21st at their local Verizon store.

From what we are hearing NFC services will be available but don’t expect to see Google Wallet or any other form of payments available on the phone. Word is that Isis is way behind on its deployments and Verizon has been locked into a legal stranglehold where it cannot bring any other NFC mobile wallet on board other than services that are to be offered by Isis. It appears that Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile may not be feeling so hot to trot with the deal they signed with Isis after all.

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Samsung rumored to be developing new NFC products, NFC payments?

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Samsung rumored to be building new NFC products, NFC payments?

Samsung is building its own NFC chips and is developing new products, NFC Rumors has learned. It seems like we head off for a few days and the NFC environment goes crazy. We came back to an inbox full of news and, of course, rumors from some of our best sources. We all know that Samsung is slinging NFC into most phones they release from here on out. It is a great win for NFC and a greater win for the consumer that one of the most powerful phone manufacturers is enabling its devices on mass for the consumer. However, what you may not have known, and what we didn’t know until recently, is that Samsung isn’t stopping its NFC tirade there. They are said to be implementing NFC in products that are not phones. From what we have been told, it sounds like NFC payments. Let us tell you why.

Samsung NFC devices and services that use card emulation like NFC payments

Our sources take a risk by sharing information with NFC Rumors and we always appreciate it. However, sometimes because of the nature of the information they have to share they have to hold some back. This is the case with this NFC rumor. Too much information exposes them and often their jobs can be at stake when sharing what they share, so we can give our readers a heads up on what’s coming. We, of course, asked what this new mystery NFC service was and hit somewhat of a brick wall. However, both of our sources confirmed that the new products and services that Samsung are working on revolve around card emulation. Off the top of our heads, that makes these likely candidates – NFC payments, transportation or access control.

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Best Buy and Disney join the list for NFC payments USA

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Best Buy and Walt Disney parks added to the list of speakers at NFC Payments USA

NFC Payments USA is shaping up to be a big affair for industry stakeholders with the addition of Best Buy and Walt Disney parks to the list of speakers. They join AT&T, Samsung, PayPal, Fifth Third Bank, Citigroup, American Express, ING DIRECT, Isis, Nokia, U.S. Bank, TD Bank, Rogers Communications and MasterCard. The conference will bring together 150 NFC experts in one location for the first time in US to discuss how the nascent industry is going to map out the best strategies for successful roll out of NFC payment services.

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC phone & Ice Cream Sandwich launch event (Video)

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC phone & Ice Cream Sandwich launch event (Video) Just in case you missed the ICS event last night where the Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC phone was announced along with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), we thought we would post the video. The video features the specifications for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus [...]

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Has the real reason for NFC Samsung Galaxy Nexus delay emerged?

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Has the real reason for NFC Samsung Galaxy Nexus delay emerged?

Google and Samsung issued a joint statement informing members of the press that they were delaying the announcement of what is widely expected to be the Samsung Galaxy Nexus / Samsung Nexus Prime and the latest and greatest Android OS Ice Cream Sandwich. “Samsung and Google have decided to postpone the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event during the CTIA in San Diego, previously scheduled for Oct. 11,” The two companies canceled their “Unpacked” event and no further date has since been made public for the much anticipated launch.

Reason for delay was Samsung Galaxy Nexus patent problems and not the passing of Steve Jobs

In the statement released by both Samsung and Google, the reason for canceling the expected NFC Samsung Galaxy Nexus / Samsung Nexus Prime was stated as, “Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product.”

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AT&T hits out at Verizon iPhone 4S and other NFC Rumors Exclusives

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AT&T hits out at Verizon iPhone 4S and other Ma’ Bell NFC Rumors Exclusives

We have learned that AT&T intends to start a marketing war with Verizon surrounding the iPhone 4S. Our sources close to the matter assure us that AT&T is readying ads that communicate that all iPhones are not created equal, and that their iPhone 4S will have faster data speeds than the Verizon iPhone 4S. It isn’t that the two companies haven’t gone head to head before in marketing wars, but neither have they been in cahoots before with Isis. This latest bout of sparring will no doubt create a tense atmosphere in Isis NFC payment meetings as Verizon fights back for market share. We have another post on Verizon coming up later today, so look out for that.

AT&T’s reason for shutting off NFC in phones including the Samsung Galaxy S II

If you read NFC Rumors on a regular basis you will know we keep our eyes firmly fixed on Isis mobile network operators as we feel they are doing consumers and the NFC technology a disservice in the way they are conducting themselves.

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus “Nexus Prime” NFC phone specs outed

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus “Nexus Prime” NFC phone specs outed

We finally have the near full specs for the NFC Nexus Prime, or what we have now learned is to be called the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and they are a little lower than we would have liked, but still very impressive. BGR got this scoop this morning and now we finally have a near complete picture of what we should expect from the latest and greatest pure Google experience NFC phone. The great news is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus doesn’t have a 4.5-inch display; it is actually going to ship with a colossal 4.65-inch 1280 x 720-pixel Super AMOLED HD with curved glass. We saw the teaser the other day that suggested that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus would have a curved glass screen, but we certainly didn’t know it would stretch our an extra 0.15 inches which puts it in a class leader position.

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NFC Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE & Samsung Galaxy S II LTE announced

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NFC Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE & Samsung Galaxy S II LTE announced for Korean market

Samsung isn’t finished putting out NFC Samsung Galaxy S II handsets yet, and today it announced the Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE and Samsung Galaxy S II LTE for its native Korean market. So we will finally see the Samsung Galaxy S II surf the LTE waves in Korea at least. Okay, on with the Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE and Samsung Galaxy S II LTE details.

Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE NFC phone

So you want all the gory details? Good, let’s start with the star of the show – the Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE. Not content with the paltry 4.5-inch display found on the T-Mobile version of the superphone, Samsung decided the Super AMOLED HD display needed a little je ne sais quoi and slapped on a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED HD screen that puts out gorgeous images and video at 316 ppi, or 1280 x 720 for all you lateral thinkers.

The Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE NFC phone also features the trusty 1.5GHz dual-core processor found in some US versions and comes loaded with 16GB of internal storage. Keeping to the GS2 mantra it houses the same 8-megapixel shooter that will shoot 1080p HD video. Scooting along on Android 2.3, or Gingerbread as its called in the trenches, the phone obviously also supports near field communication through its built in NFC chipset.

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AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II, NFC will be turned on [Exclusive]

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AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II, NFC will be turned on [Exclusive]

AT&T has had a struggle on its hands over the last few weeks with regards to the NFC Samsung Galaxy S II. On one hand, AT&T could block the feature for the time being and not allow anyone to get any NFC goodness. This would allow them to maintain control over the NFC experience until Isis is ready to be deployed and it can produce greenbacks.

On the other hand, they know that it is a feature customers want. The risk AT&T faces with leaving NFC off is that if Big Red leaves NFC turned on in the Samsung Droid Prime, AT&T could lose customers. Decisions, decisions, what to do? Maniacal control, or giving consumers what they want without a monetization plan deployed? You can understand their dilemma. Well, lucky for us we have sources close to the matter that have let us know which way the wind is blowing inside Ma’Bell. From what we are hearing it is looking like the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy S II is very likely to have its NFC turned on at launch. Our sources for this rumor are solid, but we always caveat by saying this is a rumor at this point and seeing will be believing.

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Microsoft “Build Windows” developer sessions for Windows 8 NFC

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Microsoft “Build Windows” developer sessions Windows 8 NFC

Today Microsoft announced its support for NFC, or near field communications, in the upcoming next iteration of its Windows OS – Windows 8. Microsoft has worked extensively with NXP Semiconductors to build the NFC drivers for developers to incorporate into applications to push the NFC ecosystem further. To develop NFC applications on the Windows platform, developers will need to understand the APIs that Microsoft is providing. Getting to know your way around the new code is what Build is all about, and Microsoft are putting on two near field communications sessions within the next couple of days.

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Microsoft unveils Windows 8 with NFC support and an NFC tablet

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Microsoft shows off Windows 8 OS with NFC support and an NFC tablet at the BUILD conference

Microsoft have said since last year that they would design Windows 8 to work on tablets, netbooks and PCs, but what they forgot to mention is that the latest and greatest Windows OS would support NFC, which ties in with rumors we have reported on for the last week. Today at the BUILD conference the company showed off the new Windows 8 OS along with a few NFC tablets, notebooks and desktop computers all running the aforementioned preview version of the OS that features the new Metro-Style UI.

NFC tablets, NFC PC’s and NFC laptops are getting ready to hit the market.

BGR reported that Microsoft is giving out a “Samsung Windows Developer Preview PC”, which in actual fact is a Samsung NFC tablet, to 5,000 developers at the BUILD conference. It’s equipped with 4GB of RAM, a 64GB SD card, a microSD card slot, HDMI-out, NFC support, Ethernet and more. AT&T will also provide owners of the tablet with one year of free data service with 2GB of data per month. Be sure to check out the gallery below for shots of all the great hardware Microsoft showed off at BUILD.

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Samsung Wave 578 hitting Orange UK soon with NFC payments

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Samsung Wave 578 hitting Orange UK with NFC payments, “coming soon page” fills in the blanks

Well, it’s only been waiting to shine in the light since February this year, but finally we are seeing signs of the Samsung Wave 578 NFC phone actually coming to market soon with NFC payments tagging along for the ride. The UK has bared the Samsung Tocco Lite for long enough and now is ready for a slight upgrade on their budget NFC phone choices. Orange UK has now slung up a “coming soon” page that shows off some of the specifications of the Samsung Wave 578, which now joins the growing posse of Wave NFC phones that are all sporting Bada 2.0. However, unlike its brethren, the Samsung Wave 578 will be a fully capable NFC payments phone which may give us a clue that Orange is getting ready to get into the NFC mobile wallet business in earnest  by supporting another Barclaycard “Quick Tap” NFC phone.

“We are spearheading the third biggest revolution in the mobile arena, after mobile voice services and the explosion in mobile data. Mobile contactless services will change people’s daily lives. We’re very pleased that partners like Samsung are helping us to accelerate these plans.” Anne Bouverot, Executive Vice President of Orange’s Mobile Services, said at the device’s launch party.

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Study finds NFC mobile wallet concept appeals to 39% of Canadians

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Study finds NFC mobile wallet concept appeals to 39% of Canadians

A new study conducted by Hotspex and Technology Strategies International (TSI) of 1,000 Canadians has revealed that just over 1 in three respondents says that the concept of using an NFC mobile wallet appeals to them.

Not only did only 39% of consumers surveyed state that they find the concept of an NFC mobile wallet appealing, but only 27% would recommend the concept to a friend.  These results are somewhat lukewarm when it is considered that the infrastructure in Canada is embracing NFC payments and related technologies. However, it’s not all bad news because consumer feedback contained some interesting suggestions on how the mobile wallet concept could be improved to alleviate security issues and ensure acceptance in the Canadian marketplace.

“Most of the players in the mobile payments ecosystem are aware that consumer concerns around security are significant barriers to adoption,” says Christie Christelis, President of Technology Strategies International.

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All Samsung Wave phones to get the Bada 2.0 upgrade, great news for NFC phones

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All Samsung Wave phones to get the Bada 2.0 upgrade, great news for NFC phones

Worried that your Samsung NFC Wave phone won’t be quite as bad when the next gen Bada phones are boasting the Bada 2.0 upgrade? You need worry no more as Samsung has confirmed in a tweet that all previous Bada phones will be offered the Bada 2.0 upgrade sometime during the 4th quarter of this year. However, not all features of the Bada 2.0 upgrade will work on all phones. The Wave 525 and Wave 533, for example, just don’t have some of the hardware specifications to support some of the features that the Bada 2.0 upgrade supports. On the other hand, if you are the proud owner of a Wave I S8500 or a Wave II S8530 you are in luck and should receive all the features of the Bada 2.0 upgrade. Obviously if your Wave doesn’t have the hardware for NFC you won’t get that feature. The features should be rolling out across Europe first with the rest of the world to follow.

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AT&T throws up coming soon page for NFC Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-i777

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AT&T throws up coming soon page for NFC Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-i777

The NFC version of the Samsung Galaxy S II has been a long time coming to the United States and Canada. We heard a couple of weeks that AT&T would indeed be bring us an NFC version of the Samsung Galaxy S II this fall. Today we have spotted a coming soon page over at AT&T with the obligatory email capture form to let you know when there is more news. In our experience those forms let you know a week after we report the news here at NFC Rumors, but if you want to get on the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II mailing list click here.

Three of the four big carriers are getting their own version of the Samsung Galaxy S II, but only T-Mobile and AT&T’s version are expected to have NFC-capable hardware, although it is not clear at this time whether the nascent technology will be turned on at the phone’s launch as it may encourage consumers to use Google Wallet instead of Isis’ solution that won’t be market ready until 2012. We also have no idea yet whether the NFC version of the Samsung Galaxy S II will have a secure element. If it doesn’t, it will need a SIM card to enable payments and to store NFC based transaction apps which again will mean that Isis is your only hope of utilizing the Samsung Galaxy S II for NFC payments.

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HTC Holiday Android NFC phone caught in the wild testing AT&T’s LTE network

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HTC Holiday Android NFC phone caught in the wild testing AT&T’s LTE network, it’s fast!

The HTC Holiday NFC phone seems to get caught out in public more than a teenage pop star. Today it was seen out in the field in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas testing the new AT&T LTE network. The image we have was sent to BGR and we have to say it is not the normal blurrycam photos we are used to seeing. The word on the street is that the HTC Holiday, or HTC Waikiki, which is another potential name for the device, could be AT&T’s inaugural LTE device that launches its LTE network later this year.  From a network perspective, this image shows the HTC Holiday topping out at a crazy fast 29Mbps, which looks good for Ma’Bells network. Although, we have to remember it is an empty market at the moment that the testers have to themselves. Even based on that, it is faster than speeds we have seen on Verizon’s network. Let’s just hope that Light Squared and its even newer LTE network makes AT&T’s look slow with equipment that gets faster from deployment to deployment. The HTC Holiday / HTC Waikiki is an Android device that is rumored to be one of the first Ice Cream Sandwich devices along with the Verizon Droid Prime, which up until this point we have known as the Samsung Nexus Prime.

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50,000 Dutch Nurses use NFC phones on a daily basis

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Nedap enables 50,000 Dutch Nurses to use NFC phones on a daily basis

This last week Nedap passed a milestone that pretty no other organization can match when the number of nurses in the Netherlands that use NFC phones daily exceeded 50,000, reported M.O.R. When we think of NFC trials and services we imagine them happening within the last couple of years, however, Nedap have been deploying NFC phones to nurses for the past 10 years. The original field trial was put together with Nokia, Samsung and of course, Nedap, the Netherlands based security and identification specialist firm. The project has continued to a point that the team have trialled five generations of NFC phones. These NFC phones include the Nokia 3220-NFC, Nokia 6131-NFC, Nokia 6312-NFC, Samsung S5230-Star-NFC and currently now in use is the Samsung Star S2 and the Nokia C7. It’s amazing to think that OEMs are struggling to get NFC phones to market when Nokia and Samsung trail blazed NFC phones ten years ago.

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Open Mobile Summit tackles NFC this year

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Open Mobile Summit tackles NFC this year in San Francisco, the fun starts November 2nd

The big topics being covered this year at the Open Mobile summit will be NFC and 4G in North America, where Light Squared CEO, Sanjiv Ahuja, will give the keynote speech.

The Open Mobile Summit conference is coming up fast and the organizers have just confirmed that Light Squared CEO, Sanjiv Ahuja, will be giving the keynote speech tackling subjects like the company’s planned fully open LTE network and NFC. NFC is due to give mobile commerce a massive boost and newly created and expanding LTE 4G networks are providing data access that is turbo boosting mobile internet beyond what has been available before.  The convergence of fast data and mobile payments is changing the very structure of commerce and the way consumers interact with the world around them and in many ways goes hand in hand.

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Canadians can Pre-order you NFC Samsung Galaxy S II LTE on Rogers now

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Canadians can Pre-order their brand new sparkly NFC Samsung Galaxy S II LTE on Rogers now today

We reported that Canada folk would get their hands on an NFC Samsung Galaxy S II courtesy of Rogers and today the mobile network operator came through with a pre-order form for the legendary phone with a touch of LTE 4G goodness. However, we should warn you that they want you to put some skin in the game if you are going to order this beast and they want $40 up front. We posted the details straight from the Rogers site after the break.

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