Narian compares NFC to Barcodes with infographic

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Narian compares NFC to Barcodes with infographic

The NFC and Barcode battle still looms on, and Narian Technologies has been determined to settle the dispute once and for all with an insightful infographic. QR codes are finally being accepted everywhere with marketers barely putting out a piece of printed collateral without the aforementioned QR code winging its way along for the ride. However, NFC tags have many advantages that QR codes simply can’t attain. Narian builds a strong case for NFC in its infographic that points out the many advantages that NFC holds over barcodes of any description, but that doesn’t mean that barcodes are dead yet. Obviously we favor NFC tags, NFC devices and the ecosystem that is building around the technology. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t play devil’s advocate a little and point out some of the advantages that barcodes have over NFC. So, we will endeavor to give a balanced approach as we go through Narian Technologies’ infographic.

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Narian shows off NFC retail experience solutions at NRF show

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Narian shows off NFC retail experience solutions at NRF show

Yes, the NRF show has just finished up and Narian Technologies was on the floor showing off its full suite of non-payment NFC services that help retailers maximize profits cost effectively. If you are an NFC enthusiast and haven’t heard of Narian Technologies we only have one thing to say to you – Have you been living under a rock for the last year or so? Narian is far older than a year old though, and led by industry expert, Einar Rosenberg. When Narian isn’t helping the top names in NFC develop new products, services or simply giving consulting services, the firm is hard at work developing and deploying its own full suite of retail services that use NFC to prevent lost sales and maximize profit in retail situations.

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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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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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Nexus S Ice Cream Sandwich update on hold but will start again soon

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Nexus S Ice Cream Sandwich update on hold, Christmas Android Beaming Star Wars fight dreams dashed

If you are a Nexus S owner and were planning to use the NFC force this Christmas your hopes may have been dashed because Google has halted the Ice Cream Sandwich downloads for the time being. Well, you do still have NFC but not with some of the newer interfaces that Android Beam brings along for the ride in Ice Cream Sandwich. Over the weekend, Google started pumping out updates to GSM based Nexus S handsets that promised some sticky, sticky Ice Cream Sandwich goodness. However, some eager downloaders found that the download simply wouldn’t start installing. We are still hearing that some are able to download and install the Ice Cream Sandwich update although the majority haven’t seen ICS yet.

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Galaxy Nexus NFC phone set to hit Verizon for $199 on 8th December?

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Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone set to hit Verizon for $199 on 8th December?

When the Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone is going to be released and for how much has been a mystery. However, recent leaks may have finally found the answers to those questions. The much anticipated NFC smartphone was caught on a flash ad that was released early by mistake, and it showed the Galaxy Nexus priced at $199.99 on a two year contract. That ad was seen on Android Police, Phandroid and Droid Forums. It was also reported by Engadget, which suggests it’s a little more definite than a simple anomaly. That same ad linked to a page that was unavailable and the URL and the title to that page contained a date of the 29th of November, which we think may be when the Ice Cream Sandwich NFC smartphone may be given its official release date.

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

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

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

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Thinaire gets Halls to cough up for NFC marketing campaign

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Thinaire gets Halls to cough up for NFC marketing campaign

NFC marketing firm Thinaire got the gig to help Halls media and planning agency, Horizon Media, to launch an NFC marketing campaign in Chicago. You’ll remember Thinaire, the firm that created a digital billboard in Times New Square. That particular billboard had NFC tags placed underneath that allowed consumers to interact with ads with their Android NFC phones as they passed by. Well, it’s a different month and now there is another campaign for Thinaire to get their teeth stuck into.

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IEMR says mobile payments will hit $945 billion in 2015

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IEMR Global Mobile Payment Market Forecast 2009 – 2015 projects that mobile payments will hit $945 billion in 2015

By the time we reach 2015, IEMR expects that there will be 893 million mobile payments users that will generate a staggering $945 Billion in transactions. Those mobile transactions will use NFC, SMS, WAP, and USSD according to the research firm. IEMR expects these transactions to be used to make purchases for merchandise, digital products, ticketing, mobile money transfers, bill payments, and prepaid top-ups.

We are seeing evidence of programs being brought to market for all of those transaction types. For the world to get to nearly $1 trillion in transactions, there will need to be mass adoption and industry stakeholders will have to stop battling for control. The report is based on IEMR’s Global Consumer Telecommunications Survey which covers 50,000 mobile users in 50 markets globally, which is one of the biggest polls we have heard of here at NFC Rumors.

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Introducing NFC INDX: Free data for everyone

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Introducing NFC INDX: Free data for everyone

NFC INDX is a project we have taken on to provide NFC industry statistics to everyone, free of charge on an ongoing basis, but we need your help. Let us explain. NFC Rumors and NFC Data have a pretty tight relationship. In fact, we are working on a few initiatives together. Both of our groups have this crazy idea that we want to provide resources to the NFC community free of charge. If you are on the huge NFC Data email list, you will see the creative commons statement listed all over the place as you get your daily fill of NFC news, and if you are a regular here at NFC Rumors you will know we give away graphics and provide news everyday that encompasses the whole industry.

We all believe NFC is one of the biggest things that has happened to the tech world in quite sometime and both organizations appreciate that there are obstacles that need to be overcome. So while chatting one day over a month ago, we came up with a crazy idea of creating polls that start to build a picture of what consumers and businesses want to see happen in NFC. Research houses spend an inordinate amount of hours putting together huge reports that only large companies can afford, but in NFC there are lots of small companies building services and products for everyone. Don’t get us wrong, we feel that research houses of the ilk of the Yankee Group, ABI, Juniper and other reputable research houses are worth every penny you pay for them for their reports and competitive data. It’s just we can’t all afford deep analysis of the industry, and yet small companies and large ones alike need quality data from both businesses and consumers.

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Is Verizon big enough to buy the law it wants as it opposes net neutrality and NFC consumer protection

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Verizon opposes net neutrality, what does that mean for NFC?

Fair minded and “open ecosystem” friendly Verizon has decided it shouldn’t have to follow Net Neutrality rules, and so they have mounted an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit of the Federal Communications Commission’s December 2010 Report and Order (FCC 10-201). We can’t say we didn’t see this coming, and Big Red didn’t fail to disappoint when filing its appeal. Verizon refers to the FCC’s mandate to protect consumers and businesses from telecom providers and internet service providers from prioritizing traffic, allowing some, disallowing other traffic and charging others for access. Make no mistake – NFC is in danger of being abused.

That traffic includes NFC payment data that travels over the MNO networks in the form of SWP (single wire protocol). If you are new to NFC payments, think of SWP like you would an encrypted SMS message that conveys transactional details to payment networks like Visa and MasterCard. Should Verizon be successful in breaking any type of Net Neutrality influence and regulation of mobile network operators or telecom providers, it leaves it free to control NFC payments on its network as it chooses despite what is in consumers’ best interests. Net Neutrality was regulated for a reason, and that reason was to protect consumers and businesses from being gauged and controlled by mobile network operators. It now appears that Verizon could be too powerful to have to obey laws, and furthermore, may have the power to change laws as it pleases.

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MasterCard talks up security in NFC payments

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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?

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Consumers have smartphone security concerns but don’t install security apps as NFC payments arrive

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A NPD Group study suggests that consumers are not managing smartphone security as NFC payments arrive

NPD Group found that people are worried about security but do very little about it when it comes to smartphones – we wonder will it still be the same for NFC phones? Google Wallet just launched, but there are still people out there who are concerned about the security of NFC mobile wallets and NFC payments. A new report out today from the market research firm NPD Group reveals some concerning facts and figures about just how many people are taking action to protect their sensitive data housed on smartphones. The irony is that nearly 40% of all smartphone users are concerned about threats such as activity monitoring, hacking, and credit-card security, and viruses, while more than 33% are worried about harmful apps, malicious emails, and the potential for user-location tracking.

We think you will agree that there are significant amount of concerns surrounding the security of smartphones, we have also seen report after report that suggest people are also worried about NFC payments. So it is amazing that the report found that 82 percent of smartphone users have no security apps installed on their smartphones.

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Samsung Galaxy S II Hercules variant heading to T-Mobile US

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Samsung Galaxy S II Hercules variant heading to T-Mobile US and Telus

Breaking news this morning is that the Samsung Galaxy S II Hercules variant has been snapped and is definitely heading to T-Mobile. PocketNow and TMONews separately snagged images of the device that’s said to beat them all. It has also been confirmed that the Samsung Hercules is indeed a Samsung Galaxy S II variant. As it stands, we’ll not see any LTE for this beast and we’ll have to make do with HSPA+ and 42Mbps which isn’t too shabby at all. As you will see from the back shot in the images, the phone clearly states it’s a GSII variant.

Update on Samsung Galaxy S II Hercules specifications

Okay, for us here at NFC Rumors the concerning news is a lack of news. Not in any report that is surfacing this morning is there any mention of NFC. The rumors from back in May suggested the Samsung Galaxy S II Hercules would be an NFC phone and now that little detail appears to have dropped off the map. Of course, the Samsung Galaxy S II Hercules could always still ship with NFC but we will just have to wait and keep our ears to the ground for more details as and when they emerge.

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Apple wins patent for a display integrating an NFC antenna

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Apple wins patent for a display integrating an NFC antenna

Today Apple won a patent that allows the company to integrate NFC antennas into displays. In the last few days, the patent office has awarded Apple 14 new patents but the [tooltip color="green" text="Near Field Communications"] NFC [/tooltip] subject matter caught our eye. The patent documentation illustrated the technology in an iMac, but the granted patent allows for a greater scope of Apple devices that have screens to make use of this technology. If you have followed Apple for any time you will know that many patents the company is granted disappear and never make it into production product lines. However, we feel we may well see this technology deployed.

The details surrounding the Apple NFC antenna patent

This isn’t a new line of thought for Apple and in fact, they have been filing NFC patents like accountants on crack for the last few years. In April 2010, the company filed an NFC patent that detailed controlling all manner of devices using an NFC-enabled iPhone that could communicate and control everything from a TV, Xbox 360 and the Apple TV remote. In this patent, we see illustrations of embedded NFC tags and antennas in the corner of a TV. The new patent builds upon that first patent by getting specific on the uses of NFC antennas in screens.

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Post Office could take snail mail contactless in 2012 with NFC POS terminals

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Post Office could take snail mail contactless in 2012 with NFC POS terminals

The UK Post Office is considering whether or not to equip all 12,000 branches with contactless NFC POS terminals by October 2012. For those in other countries who are unaware of British Post Office, you should know that it always sits at the heart of every community, is very traditional and generally also sells a hodgepodge of stationary and provides services including foreign currency exchange, benefits payments and even provides insurance products and banking. Obviously postage and mailing packages is the core business of the Post Office, and it does this in collaboration with its sister service, the Royal Mail, which as part of the old public organization the General Post Office (GPO) acted as one service. It actually has an important place in British culture, often becoming a meeting point in many communities across the land. However, what is not usually associated with the Post Office is bleeding edge technology.

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Did you hear about Zoosh Payments, they’re ultrasonic, no NFC chip required

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Did you hear about Zoosh near field Payments, they’re ultrasonic, no NFC chip required.10 out of 10 dogs heard the news first.

Sometimes we swear money flies out of our bank accounts so fast we can hear it break the sound barrier. Pretty soon it may be sound that that pulls and pushes money from our accounts if the Silicon Valley startup, Naratte get their way. Zoosh, developed by Naratte (means “learning” in Japanese”), uses ultrasonic sound as a communications medium to make transactions between devices. Its makers say it’s very interoperable and works across many technology platforms including between IOS and Android, not to mention feature phones and other devices like tablets. The technology can be used in three main ways: phone to POS system, phone to phone and phone to digital coupon. These ways of communicating are not too dissimilar to NFC’s peer to peer, tag emulation and reader / writer in concept.

Zoosh payments use your phone’s microphone and speakers to make transactions
How does Zoosh work?

It works by using your phone’s microphone and speaker to both listen and broadcast the information that the company’s algorithm encodes and decodes. Zoosh converts sound to digital transaction IDs that can be passed securely between devices. Zoosh technology can also be used for fast Bluetooth pairing by placing your phone within 1 foot of another device. What has allowed for this technology to be developed is the better speakers and microphones in our smartphones these days.

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Broadcom views NFC key for revenue

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Broadcom views NFC key for revenue

Chip maker, Broadcom views NFC key for future revenue. Speaking to Reuters today at the Computex trade show in Taipei, Michael Hurlston, senior vice president for Broadcom’s wireless LAN business, indicated that incorporating near-field technology on to its (WLAN) WiFi, bluetooth combo chip was becoming a priority. He stopped short of giving a projected to market date but did give some background on Broadcom’s reasons for jumping on the NFC wagon.

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