Archive for December 2010

Smart card and data security specialist Watchdata has produced its two millionth Simpass SIM+antenna NFC device, the company has announced. "This marks an exciting and a very fruitful beginning for Watchdata as we continue to... More

Monitise and Vivotech have partnered to offer banks in the United States an NFC payments solution that combines Vivotech's over-the-air (OTA) software and Monitise's Mobile Money technology. "The partnership means customers of participating banks will... More

Tech repair website iFixit has dismantled and photographed Samsung's Nexus S smartphone, the first Android device to run the new Gingerbread operating system and the first to include support for near field communication. For anyone... More

Orange will begin introducing NFC services "in the majority of countries in which it has a presence" in 2011, the mobile network operator has told mobile phone manufacturers at a meeting in Paris on 15... More

HTC chief executive Peter Chou has revealed that the world's fourth largest handset manufacturer has plans to add support for NFC functionality in its mobile phones. In a video interview with Mobile World Live, Chou... More

The Open Standard for Public Transport (OSPT) Alliance is proposing a new open ticketing standard to be called Cipurse that will "enable technology suppliers to develop and deliver interoperable transit fare collection solutions for cards, stickers, fobs, NFC mobile phones and other consumer devices." Singapore's Land Transport Authority is the first to agree to adopt the new standard. More

Oberthur Technologies has launched a new NFC add-on and an NFC SIM designed to support Mifare DESFire applications. The new NFC SIM Adaptor is aimed at payments, transport, retail and loyalty applications, says Oberthur. "Made... More

MicroSD and NFC solutions provider Tyfone has been granted a further US patent. The new patent is entitled "Asymmetric cryptography with user authentication" and has an effective filing date of July 15, 2005. It follows... More

Google has acquired a small Canadian firm named Zetawire that has applied for a patent covering a wide range of NFC applications, The 451 Group reports. The abstract for the company's "Secured Electronic Transaction System"... More

The aim is to ensure that users of the French Cityzi NFC service can use their mobile phone to make payments anywhere in the world that MasterCard PayPass is accepted, ahead of a planned national expansion of the Cityzi service.  More

Mobile payments provider Blaze Mobile has announced a new patent pending sticker that supports two way communication between the sticker and the mobile phone it is attached to. "Consumers can use the Blaze sticker to... More

Softbank Mobile has partnered with credit card issuers Credit Saison and Orient Corporation to test NFC on HTC Android smartphones equipped with a SIM+antenna solution and mobile wallet software. More

Broadcom has launched a new NFC type 1 tag solution, the BCM20203, that is designed to be embedded within a wide range of consumer electronics devices. "With the stabilization of global standards, NFC is now... More

The payments network's new compliance testing system means that Visa can now certify other devices and phones with built-in NFC functionality "in a heartbeat", the company's head of mobile product development has told NFC World.  More

Manufacturers of NFC devices can now submit their products to approved test houses and those that pass the required compliance tests will be able to place the NFC Forum Certification Mark on their hardware and packaging to prove that they conform to NFC standards. More

Turkish consumers can now buy an NFC add-on that comes with a built-in prepaid card account which they can use to make payments in stores and on public transport and to receive digital coupons. More

"All the functionality you need is in the Nexus S," NXP has told NFC World, and Google will be rolling out SDKs to support mobile payments and other NFC services on a step-by-step basis. More

Just a few days after the announcement of the Google Nexus S with in-built NFC and support for near field communication in the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, Google has launched its first NFC-based marketing... More

A short video on Google's Nexus S microsite showcases the phone's NFC capabilities and may hint at the direction of the search and advertising giant's first moves with the technology. In the film Android engineer... More

The Nexus S, the first Android phone to use the new Gingerbread version of the operating system and its built-in NFC functionality, will hit the shops in the US on 16 December and the UK on 20 December. For now, however, it looks as though the phones will only support tag reading applications — mobile payments capabilities will only be available later.  More