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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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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Fukumi opens bricks and mortar NFC tag store with UPM RFID in Tokyo

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Fukumi opens bricks and mortar NFC tag store with UPM RFID in Tokyo

The Fukumi Corporation has opened the world’s first physical bricks and mortar NFC store in Tokyo. It was bound to happen and it probably isn’t too surprising that it happened in Tokyo, and that UPM RFID were involved. We all know that the humble NFC tag has a huge future ahead of it, embedded in products and for home users to write to and create some fancy actions that simply make life a little easier. However, where to get your NFC tag has thus far involved a search online with a one way information source. So, if you want to know what NFC tag is best for your project you have had no one to ask. With that said, there are Android apps like TapThatTag that help you refine your choices and choose the best NFC tag.

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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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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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BlackBerry NFC tag issues appear to be a thing of the past

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BlackBerry NFC tag issues appear to be a thing of the past

NFC tag issues have plagued the beleaguered BlackBerry NFC smartphones for some months now. You have probably heard the news that the Co-CEO’s over at RIM have stepped down from the firm today. Something that is ironical with that announcement is that BlackBerry issues with NFC appear to be a thing of the past and people are doing some great things with NFC tags these days, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Over at CES a couple of weeks ago we got to speak with one of BlackBerry’s NFC product managers who told us that he didn’t know of any problems reading NFC tags these days since the BlackBerry OS 7.1 update. He invited us to send over all manner of NFC tags and said that the firm would test them out in their labs. We may well hit up some of our friends at some NFC tag manufacturers and put that to the test as there are so many NFC tag types these days and it would be great if RIM tested them all in their labs.

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OpenWays launches NFC hotel key system without SWP carrier costs

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OpenWays launches NFC hotel key without SWP carrier costs with a little help from Nokia and NXP which can be added to existing hotel locks

OpenWays isn’t the first time we have seen an NFC hotel key system. If you remember VingCard, an ASSA ABLOY company launched a pilot in Stockholm last year. However, the emerging mobile network operator joint ventures and associated costs to firms that want to provision secure data over networks to secure elements has become costly at best. In essence, launching an NFC based company that needs to access a secure element has had costs added that prove too expensive for many firms to turn a profit.

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NFC Bootcamp free pre-event to feature Cellotape how NFC works tour

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NFC Bootcamp free pre-event to feature Cellotape how NFC works tour

NFC Bootcamp have arguably done more to educate folks on how to use NFC than any other group. That’s not to say there aren’t many other great teams educating people about how to add NFC features to products or start new businesses. However, NFC Bootcamp tours the US putting on organized training sessions that take developers and marketers from step one to the implementation and marketing of their NFC app, device or service. They are also platform agnostic, which allows for a 360 degree understanding of the industry, challenges and opportunities that are available. In short, NFC Bootcamp is a valuable resource for folks looking to build something meaningful in the nascent NFC market.

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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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Open NFC stack supports Android Ice Cream Sandwich

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Open NFC stack supports Android Ice Cream Sandwich

INSIDE Secure has had a busy week in supporting NFC based systems which now includes Android 4.0, or as we like to call it Ice Cream Sandwich, in its Open NFC stack. Google elected sometime ago to develop NFC based solutions with NXP, and so NXP chips and secure elements are supported straight off the bat. However, other semiconductor firms that have NFC based products need to add support for Ice Cream Sandwich and INSIDE Secure has done just that for devs with any hardware platform.

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NXP NFC electric motorcycle puts in an appearance at CES

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NXP NFC electric motorcycle puts in an appearance at CES

The NXP NFC enabled electric motorcycle was on display at CES. If you have never heard of or seen the NXP NFC enabled electric motorcycle before, now is your chance to learn how NXP has mixed and matched a few of its technologies to build a use case for NFC and other technologies that the firm is involved in. NXP Semiconductors business transcends NFC and is split into various business units. Every now and again NXP produces a cool project that has no other use than to feature how technologies can work together and, of course, this case features NFC.

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Inside Secure supports new Kovio RF Barcode ready NFC tags

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Inside Secure supports new Kovio RF Barcode ready NFC tags

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

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

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

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

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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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Cirque adds its GlidePoint NFC trackpads to laptops at NXP’s CES booth

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Cirque to show NFC laptop at CES NXP booth that uses an NFC antenna built into a trackpad

We have been following Cirque and their NFC products built into innovative form factors for sometime. The firm has built NFC antennas into screens and trackpads, but until now we haven’t seen an actual working prototype outside of a YouTube video – that looks set to change at this year’s CES. NFC has the ability to share information effortlessly, and building NFC antennas into screens and trackpads really starts to show how useful Near Field Communication is likely to be this next year when it is build into laptops, PCs and tablets.

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Shots of AT&T LTE Samsung Galaxy Note outed, said to feature NFC

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Shots of AT&T LTE Samsung Galaxy Note outed, no official word on NFC but tipsters show a board that is rumored to be from the Note with an NFC IC onboard

These are official leaked shots of the jumbo sized AT&T LTE Samsung Galaxy Note. Last week Sam Mobile reported that it had proof that the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note would harbor an NFC chip. A recent trend with NFC smartphone announcements is to not feature NFC at all. AT&T and other Isis members have attempted to keep the NFC ability just until Isis is ready to roll, and hence we see a lot of NFC smartphones launching and have to wait until they get tear downs to see whether NFC is actually onboard.

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Sprint LTE upgraded Galaxy Nexus ad shown and pulled

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Sprint LTE upgraded Galaxy Nexus ad shown and pulled

An ad has appeared on CNET that displayed a Sprint LTE Galaxy Nexus displayed proudly, touting some better specifications than its Big Red brethren. CES starts this next week and yesterday we received a clue about what Sprint may have in mind to show us at their press conference. The problem with the Galaxy Nexus is you have to sign up for a Verizon account to get it. If you want Google Wallet you have to pop over to XDA Developers and go through a few system changes to get it without Verizon’s permission. The whole launch of the Galaxy Nexus was a debacle at best, but it is now looking as if we may have a better choice coming our way. Although this ad was pulled pretty quickly, it was up for long enough to show some features that the Sprint Galaxy Nexus is likely to boast.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Privacy Goes Public: Sharing Privacy for a Discount

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Privacy Goes Public: Sharing Privacy for a Discount

First things first – let’s get a little public with this privacy issue, shall we? For most people privacy starts where personal freedom ends. Yet there are many more complexities to the word, from personal snooping to sharing data online. Our focus today – sharing data and privacy. Consumers are concerned with privacy. True. But does that mean they are not willing to share it? False. Face it – as we continue to increase our social status as a global society, the more information we will inevitably share. Disturbing, right? It’s nothing new though. Who doesn’t own a loyalty card for a local grocery or retail store? Your data is held here and collected under your profile so they can ensure they offer products that fit your needs according to your shopping habits. Can we say “Facebook”? If you own a debit card, your bank knows your spending and buying patterns. Heck, they may know your habits better than you do. So, what is all the privacy fuss about?

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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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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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