nfc

HTC Thunderbolt vs. Droid Bionic - Ask Maggie

Wireless subscribers looking for the fastest data network available have been waiting with bated breath for Verizon Wireless's first 4G smartphone. And now the HTC Thunderbolt is here. But one reader wants to know if he should wait for what might be an even snappier 4G phone on Verizon.

In this week's Ask Maggie column, I answer the age-old question of whether to buy now or wait. I also help another reader determine if he should compromise luxury phones for more affordable service fees. And I discuss whether I think we'll all be buying stuff with our … Read more

Report: Google planning mobile payment trial

Google plans to begin testing a mobile payment service within the next four months, according to a report today.

The company will pay for the installation of thousands of NFC (Near-Field Communication) short-range, wireless point-of-sale systems from VeriFone at stores in New York and San Francisco, Bloomberg reported, citing two unidentified sources familiar with the project. Users of phones with NFC chips in them could then make payments by holding the devices up to the specialized reader.

A Google representative said the company was not commenting on the report. Representatives from VeriFone did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.… Read more

Report: No NFC chips in next iPhone

If you were hoping to start using the next iPhone as a mobile wallet, the wait might be a bit longer.

A report posted this morning by The Independent says that Apple does not plan to include a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip in the next version of the iPhone. The reasoning there, according to The Independent's sources at "several of the largest mobile operators in the UK," is that the current NFC standards landscape is fragmented, and Apple plans to introduce its own system, which could take well into next year to be readied.

NFC allows … Read more

Mobile phone e-wallets get closer to reality

BARCELONA, Spain--Later this year you'll be able to pay for clothes, taxi fare, and dinner with your mobile phone and leave your credit cards and cash at home.

Visa is planning a commercial rollout in the U.S. in the second half of this year of a service for allowing allow people to turn their existing smartphones into electronic wallets. It uses Near Field Communication (NFC) short-range wireless technology and includes real-time anti-fraud alerts and other features designed to protect consumers from fraud, Bill Gajda, global head of Visa Mobile, told CNET in an interview at Mobile World Congress 2011 … Read more

T-Mobile: Mobile payments coming to U.S. in 2012

Using our mobile phones as wallets is closer to reality. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this morning, Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile USA, says it will unleash the capability to its customers this year.

The first customers to get the full payment system are those subscribers in Germany and Poland. The U.S., Netherlands, and Czech Republic will follow in 2012. Deutsche Telekom said it expected customers to use their phones in place of cash, and eventually in place of tickets for public transportation systems.

The payment system will be run and billed by the carrier, but it requires phones with NFC, or near-field communication, chips embedded inside. The chips allow data to be sent wirelessly over very short distances, around 4 inches. So when a customer waves his phone over a payment terminal, a transaction can be recorded.

But which handset manufacturers will get on board first? Beyond the Nexus S Android phone, few phones have the chips currently embedded. That's where reports from the press conference get really interesting. According to bloggers who were in the room, Deutsche Telekom executives handed out a slide deck that listed manufacturers it expects to launch NFC-equipped phones this year: Apple sometime this year, Samsung in the second quarter of the year, followed by RIM and LG during the third quarter. … Read more

LG readying mobile payment system in Europe

European consumers may finally be able to pay for items via their smartphones next year, through a system under development by LG Electronics.

LG's system would use a combination of near-field communication (NFC) and cloud computing to allow certain retailers in Europe to accept payments from customers using NFC-equipped smartphones. Scheduled to launch sometime in 2012, the system would also find its way into interactive TVs and security products sold by LG, Reuters reported this week.

"The point-of-sale technology, which will be targeted at small and medium-sized businesses..., is currently in beta testing," Jin-Yong Kim, vice president … Read more

U.K. mobile-payment system due this summer

Barclaycard, Orange, and T-Mobile have set an early summer date to launch their near-field communications payment system, in which people can make purchases by waving a mobile phone near a payment station.

Near-field communications (NFC) systems require a lot of technology to be developed and deployed at the same time. Most obviously to a user, they require payment stations and mobile phones with processors that can communicate wirelessly. Less obviously, a back-end infrastructure is required to link the local payment with the necessary computers for processing it.

NFC chips are a rarity in mobile phones today, but they're an … Read more

Report: Apple readies iPhone, iPad for mobile payments

Consumers may soon be able to pay for items on the go directly through their iPhones or iPads.

Apple is reportedly working to outfit the next generation of its smartphone and tablet with near-field communications (NFC) technology, which would let consumers use the devices to make mobile payments as an alternative to cash and credit cards, according to a story today by the Bloomberg news service.

Richard Doherty, director of the technology consulting firm Envisioneering Group, told Bloomberg that both the iPhone 5 from AT&T and the iPad 2 would likely include NFC chips, citing engineers working on … Read more

Next iPhone to enable remote computing?

Could the NFC chips rumored to be inside a future iPhone be used for more than just mobile payments?

That's what a source tells Apple blog Cult of Mac. The unnamed source asserts that Apple is researching ways to use near-field communication (NFC) for enabling remote computing.

According to Cult of Mac, here's how it would work:

If users wave a NFC-equipped iPhone at a NFC Mac (they need to be in close proximity to interact), the Mac will load all their applications, settings and data. It will be as though they are sitting at their own machine … Read more