TecTile

Samsung announces Galaxy S4-compatible TecTiles 2

Starting Friday, Samsung will sell the second version of its NFC stickers, called TecTiles 2.

The main difference between these tags and the first iteration, which launched almost a year ago? Unlike the originals, the second TecTiles generation works with the Samsung Galaxy S4 as well as Samsung's other NFC-ready phones.

TecTile stickers use a small NFC receiver that trigger your smartphone into completing certain tasks when you tap them.

You can program TecTiles to turn on Wi-Fi and turn off Bluetooth, for instance, set an alarm, or send a text to someone that you've arrived home or … Read more

Masters of a new domain

Today we're putting dots on everything!

Expect to see tons of new domain extensions crop up, like .app or .baby. Hundreds of companies, including Google, Amazon and Apple, have applied to oversee new domains. If there's more than one application for a word (Google and Johnson & Johnson are battling for .baby), then the two companies will have to duke it out or it'll go to an auction. There are also some controversial ones, like .sucks. You can really see how .sucks can, well, suck for brands. Hard to see a useful purpose for that domain aside … Read more

Samsung TecTiles: A wobbly stepping-stone to NFC

Let's face it: in today's world of electronic mobility, we do things within our phones, not with them.

We can forget them on the bus, drop them, flush them and even hurl them at housekeeping. (Hell, we can even blend them.) But that's the extent of our relationship with the things.

Almost everything we do with the smartphone is contained in that little screen. As objects, we abuse them. We don't really use them.

Samsung wants to use its corporate largesse to change that. The company says it has the most near-field communications-enabled devices in American … Read more

Samsung TecTiles a warmup act for mobile payments

Samsung may present its new TecTiles near-field communications (NFC) stickers-and-app combo as a campaign for consumers to do more with their phones, but in the long run, Samsung hopes for much more.

The electronics-maker told CNET that TecTiles should ultimately help serve Samsung its slice of the mobile payments pie. Its TecTiles app lets you program an NFC sticker to do various things when you tap a compatible phone to it, like turn on or off certain phone settings, or check in to a location on your social networks.

Yet, NFC, a technology that uses short-range communication similar to Bluetooth, … Read more

Samsung TecTiles: NFC stickers do cool stuff with your phone

Nick DiCarlo waved me over to a low table in a hotel meeting room, pointing me to rows of stickers affixed to card stock. Taking in my quizzical expression, Samsung's VP of product planning for mobile urged me to hold the Galaxy S III demo device in front of a sticker, one that happened to be attached to his business card. The phone buzzed, and a moment later, DiCarlo's contact information appeared on the screen, ready for me to save to my address book.

These TecTiles, as Samsung calls them, are no ordinary stickers. A tiny nub of … Read more