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All posts tagged "NFC"

Posts tagged "NFC"

  • You can now log in to Facebook using a special USB or NFC key

    By on 27 January, 2017

    Facebook just can't stop announcing things this week. With Facebook Stories revealed for its mobile app, and tweaks also heading to its Facebook Trending system, the company is now turning to a largely forgotten area -- privacy and security. This week, FB announced a number of new privacy tools that will be heading to user profiles on 28 January. The revamped Privacy Basics page will allow users to better understand privacy management of their account. It takes the form of an interactive FAQ, and will be available in 44 languages. Overall, there are 32 guides focusing on a number of privacy-minded...

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  • Mobile payments: BLE vs NFC isn’t a fair fight

    By on 7 March, 2014

    There’s a new kid on the block in the payments environment that promises to deliver even greater convenience and practicality. It’s called ‘Bluetooth Low Energy’, or BLE, and it’s based on technology which is over a decade old. Be that as it may, BLE promises to revolutionise the way consumers and retailers interact – but only if they have the latest smartphones and retailers have tablets as point-of-sale systems. Despite the fact that BLE opens up a whole new world of exciting possibilities, it is also highly unlikely to have any sort of widespread use any time soon; instead,...

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  • Forget NFC payments, iBeacon could change everything

    By on 10 December, 2013

    I’ve lost count how many (hardly-working, rickety) demos I've seen on how NFC is going to change commerce and payments as we know it. The problem with NFC, of course, is that it is a solution looking for a problem. It’s going to solve every possible payment problem in the world. Yet, when rolled out on an industrial scale -- as is the case on London’s Underground -- the issues with the technology become patently obvious. Bank cards in the same wallet as (the Tube’s) Oyster cards being charged for journeys, two or more cards being charged… But teething issues are...

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  • One quarter of mobile users will pay with NFC by 2017

    By on 30 May, 2012

    As a technology Near Field Communication (NFC) has been kicking around for a while now -- Nokia's 6131 was the first NFC-enabled phone and launched all the way back in 2006 -- but mass adoption has been slow. All that's about to change. According to a new report from tech analysis company Juniper Research, more than one in four mobile users in Western Europe and the US will make in-store payments using...

  • The future role of digital media and technology in retail

    By on 24 May, 2012

    Digital is fusing into our daily lives more and more. As a concept, it will soon disappear in a future where we reminisce about the good old days of offline and online. This fusion is already underway. The mobile evolution continues to provide increasing interaction with richer digital content. While enabling technologies (like NFC) let us to go one-step further and interact with real word objects. These new interactions are fueling not just a mobile, but also a digital revolution. As this fusion matures, our social profiles will become our passport to interact with the world, with digital media providing the...

  • The future of convergence: Next steps for the smart era

    By on 15 May, 2012

    Technological evolution has brought about many changes to human life and has served as a "big momentum for growth" for emerging market economies. That's according Suk-Chae Lee who was speaking at the Korea Communications Conference about our connected natures, the future of smart convergence and the new opportunities they provide. Lee is the CEO of KT Corporation, a South Korean integrated wired/wireless telecommunication service provider. "People are now living in world where they...

  • Phandroids, meet your dream bar accessory: KegDroid [Video]

    By on 30 April, 2012

    Hey, are you geek who loves beer? Do you ever wish you could combine the two aspects of your personality? Well one Googler named Paul Karff might just have the perfect product for you. It’s called the KegDroid and it lets you select and pour beer from a couple of Kegs using an Android tablet. Okay, that’s might actually complicate things a little and the lay-person might find all the wires and...

  • NFC is the future of African mobile money

    By on 10 November, 2011

    Mobile money has made more of an impact in Africa than a number of other emerging market regions. In fact, through services like Safricom’s M-Pesa, people on the continent have been using their mobile phones for financial transactions since long before Google brought out its wallet. But can emerging markets on the continent, and elsewhere, take mobile money beyond money transfers? This is, after all, how the whole mobile money market emerged with M-Pesa: People buying airtime from agents and using the airtime to pay for bills or send money other people across the country. A number of...

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  • Google Wallet goes live

    By on 20 September, 2011

    Ever imagined a future without the inconvenience of having to carry around cash, or credit cards, or any wallet at all? Google has brought that future one step closer with the official launch of its smartphone wallet service. The internet giant's latest mobile product has gone live, with owners of the Nexus S 4G from US carrier Sprint being the first able to pay for purchases with a simple tap of their phones. "With Google Wallet, you can tap, pay and save using your phone and near field communication (NFC)," said Osama Bedier, vice president of payments at Google. Wallet...

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  • 4 very different mobile payment services

    By on 13 June, 2011

    Mobile payments may be the next big tech gold rush, depending on who you listen to. For something getting so much hype, and with so many start-ups popping up in the field, it is a surprisingly vague term. There are at least a half dozen different approaches competing to become the de facto format. All of them share one thing: the use of mobile devices – mostly cell phones, but increasingly other devices such as tablets – to exchange money. But that's just about where the similarities end. Here are four different services with four very different routes to...

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  • Seven forms of tech paranoia

    By on 27 May, 2011

    It’s the digital equivalent of rocking up at school in your underwear. You type a DM on your phone and send it.Several minutes later, you break out into a cold sweat as you realise that you posted that message, the one that was definitely not meant for anyone else, as a tweet. You delete it, but you know that it’s too late, and that somewhere, there is a spinning desktop fan, and a bucket of manure, and the two are going to make contact sooner rather than later. Technology is meant to make our lives easier and more productive,...

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  • Reports: Google to announce smartphones will replace credit cards

    By on 25 May, 2011

    If one thought that Google would take a minute's rest after yet another highly successful I/O conference earlier this month where a slew of new Google products and developments – most notably Google Music – were announced and released, think again. According to "a source familiar with the matter", Google is expected to launch what just may be its most groundbreaking innovation yet – smartphones that we'll use like credit and debit cards. According to these sources, on Thursday, in a New York press conference the California-based internet giant has called to see its "latest innovations" -- but will not...

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  • No NFC for the iPhone 5, says Apple

    By on 16 March, 2011

    Following a report of Apple meeting with several UK wireless operators, sources have disclosed that Apple’s anticipated iPhone 5 will not include NFC technology, stating concerns of a lack of clear standards across the industry. This wouldn’t be the first time that Apple has shown its hesitance in adding new features to its product range. It took years for the company to include a front facing camera, essentially developing FaceTime as a compelling...