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Near field communication use growing outside smartphones by efwegbe erergeer
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Near field communication use growing outside smartphones |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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A growing number of smartphones have near field communication (NFC)capabilities to make mobile payments, but accessories andultrabooks also now increasingly have the same technology. DeviceFidelity is offering a protective case with NFC that allowsiPhone users to make contactless payments, and Barclaycard isoffering a sticker that attaches to a smartphone for users to makemobile payments. HP is offering an ultrabook with NFC for dataexchange with mobile devices. NFC is a wireless data transmission technology that enables theexchange of uniquely identifiable data with receivers over adistance of a few centimeters. In theory, NFC can be used forthings like tapping two phones together to exchange contactinformation or to slowly transfer files, said Jack Gold, principalanalyst at J.
Gold Associates. "Mostly it is being used for payment systems, with a special NFCreader device attached to a cash register or other retail kiosks,"Gold said. NFC can safely encrypt communications from the phone tothe reader at the store location, but there are ongoing concernsabout the encryption being broken. NFC will ultimately make its way into tablets, "smart" portabledevices and even wearable devices, Gold said.
NFC is more advancedthan technologies like RFID with two-way communicationcapabilities, interactive approvals and the ability to enablepayments through mobile applications, Gold said. A hindrance to wide use of NFC is the need to upgrade theinfrastructure with new readers at payment terminals or kiosks,which is not a cheap undertaking, Gold said. Applications on mobiledevices will also define NFC functionality, so the full scope ofthe technology has yet to be explored. NFC in smartphone cases DeviceFidelity offers protective cases with NFC for iPhone users tomake mobile payments, and the company has partnered with Visa andMasterCard. The company this month announced the In2Pay iCaisse4XNFC, which is a protective case and battery pack with an NFCantenna.
The case allows iPhone users to pay for products bytapping a smartphone to a reader. The case has microSD storage,which is necessary to initiate and authenticate user data fortransactions. As a bonus, the case has a battery pack to power theiPhone. DeviceFidelity sells directly to businesses, which will determinepricing for the case, said Stephanie Barrueto, marketing manager atthe company.
DeviceFidelity's Moneto mobile wallet will come withthe iCaisse4X NFC case later this year, Barrueto said. Moneto iscurrently available as a prepaid, US$79.95 MasterCard mobile wallet with a prepaid debit card, an iCaisse case for current and olderiPhone models, a microSD storage card, an iPhone app and $10pre-loaded on the card. Barclay PayTag Barclaycard in the U.K. has introduced PayTag, an NFC sticker thatcan be attached on the back of smartphones to make contactlesspayments. The NFC sticker communicates payment information to areceiver at a payment terminal, and using a PayTag is easy andsafe, the company said.
The technology is an "extension" of acustomer's Visa credit card account . The sticker is a third the size of traditional credit cards, andusers don't need to upgrade smartphones to use PayTag, Barclaycardsaid. Payments are limited to 15 (US$23) for now, but will riseto 20 in June, Barclaycard said. A number of U.K. vendorsincluding McDonalds, Boots, WH Smith and Tesco have signed up toaccept payments.
Buses in London will be on board by the end ofthis year and the subway network in London will accept payments bynext year. Barclays is also implementing NFC in a new initiative calledPayBand, a wristband that will be given to some attendees of theWireless Festival 2012 in London between July 6 and 8. Tapping theband will help users pay for food, cut through lines for fasterentry, access "luxury toilets" and get freebies, according to Barclaycard's PayBand website . NFC to stream music Research In Motion has announced a device called the BlackBerryMusic Gateway, which is a box that enables BlackBerry smartphonesor PlayBook tablets to stream music wirelessly to a stereo system.Using NFC or Bluetooth, a RIM handset or tablet establishes awireless connection with the Music Gateway, which is wired to astereo.
The BlackBerry tablet or handset is essentially a remotecontrol, with the ability to change tracks or volume and to play orpause. But BlackBerry mobile devices need to support NFC to use theMusic Gateway. RIM has listed the Music Gateway on its website for $49.99. PCWorld says the device will become available in June.
NFC in ultrabooks Hewlett-Packard in January announced the $1399 Envy 14 Spectreultrabook, which has an NFC chip to pull data from other mobiledevices such as handsets or tablets. A touch-to-shareimplementation of NFC allows users to transfer data such as the URL(uniform resource locator) of a map or website information from anNFC-enabled mobile phone to the ultrabook. HP conceded that NFCwon't be a major selling point for the ultrabook, but that it couldbecome an important complementary feature as users find ways toexploit the technology. The Envy 14 Spectre ultrabook has a 14-inchscreen, is 20 millimeters (0.79 inches) thick and weighs 1.8kilograms (about 4 pounds).
HP's upcoming Envy Spectre XT, whichhas a 13.3-inch screen and will become available in June startingat $999, does not have NFC. Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductorsfor IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh . Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com. I am a professional writer from Humidifier, which contains a great deal of information about drum sets wholesale , childrens drum sets, welcome to visit!
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