NFC news in brief

Miami-based NFC specialist Flomio has turned to crowdfunding to finance production of a plug-in device that will bring NFC to Apple's iPhone and iPad. The 'Flojack' is a lollipop-shaped NFC transceiver that plugs into an iOS device's headphone jack. The first Flojacks will ship in March 2013 if US$80,000 is raised on Kickstarter by 26 November.

The Isis pilot launch has been "softer than a goose down pillow", says GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham, who has been checking out the service in Austin, Texas and found that merchant awareness of the NFC payments system is currently quite low. "Despite being listed on the Isis web site, many local merchants had no clue they were now able to accept Isis payments, or even knew what the program was," says Higginbotham.

Capacitive touch technology specialist Cirque has introduced an evaluation kit for its GlidePoint NFC solution, which integrates an NFC antenna directly into the trackpad on a laptop or other personal computing device. "These kits provide all the necessary hardware and software for OEM companies to assess implementing multiple inputs, such as touch and NFC sensing, into their products," says the company.

Italian bank BNL, part of the BNP Paribas group, has begun an NFC payments pilot in Rome. 150 participants are being issued with Samsung Galaxy S III phones which hold a BNL MasterCard. The trial will run until March 2013 and a commercial launch is planned for 2014.

Peter Sprogis, a co-founder of NFC pioneer MoLo Rewards, is suing Google for allegedly infringing US Patent No. 7,298,271 with Google Wallet, patent attorney Leonid Kravets reports. The patent was issued in November 2007 and describes the use of RFID technology, in tag form or integrated into a mobile phone, to issue rewards to shoppers at the same time that they make a purchase.

Citibank Hungary has begun offering contactless stickers to holders of its Citi Life, Shell Citibank and Magyar Telekom Citibank cards. The MasterCard-branded stickers can be used at any merchant equipped to handle PayPass transactions.

Google has announced that US carrier MetroPCS, soon to merge with T-Mobile, is to add support for Google Wallet. The service will be available to MetroPCS customers with a Samsung Galaxy S III phone.

Isis NFC mobile wallet users in Salt Lake City will be able to ride free on all Utah Transit Authority (UTA) public bus, Trax light rail and Frontrunner commuter rail services when they use their Isis Mobile Wallet, the NFC venture — which launched today — has told NFC World.

The total value of NFC mobile payment transactions will increase from US$4bn in 2012 to pass $100bn in 2016 and US$191bn in 2017, according to a new forecast by ABI Research. 26% of NFC handsets will house a contactless ticketing application in five years time, the researchers add.

Contactless and NFC specialist On Track Innovations (OTI) reports that it has received an order valued at US$2m for NFC and contactless payment readers to be deployed in the US. 25% of the order is to be fulfilled this year with the rest to be delivered in 2013.

Isis is to launch its NFC-based payments system in two test markets on Monday, the US carrier-owned venture has confirmed. "Isis will be launching in Austin and Salt Lake City on October 22," says head of marketing Jaymee Johnson. "By year end, as many as 20 Isis Ready handsets are expected to be in market. We look forward to sharing more details on October 22."

Contactless ticketing and RFID specialist Confidex has unveiled a new generation of its Steelwave Micro rugged tags that comes with an NFC-compatible version designed for use in asset management applications. "The new Confidex Steelwave Micro II combines high mechanical quality as well as solid and consistent RF performance," says CEO Timo Lindström.

Indian mobile payments service Ara eTap, which was unveiled by Yeldi Softcom in July, has picked NXP and Identive to supply it with NFC payment tags. The service is due to launch "in the coming months".

Canada's first commercial NFC payments service is set to launch on 15 October, according to documents seen by Mobile Syrup. Rogers and CIBC bank's new "Suretap" service will launch with support for BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Curve 9360 NFC phones, the Canadian mobile news site reports.

A leaked internal document obtained by Android Central suggests the long-awaited launch of Isis' NFC pilots is now set to go ahead on 22 October. The service was originally due to go live this summer in Salt Lake City, Utah and Austin, Texas but has hit delays.

Chip maker Renesas has chosen Micropross to supply it with EMVCo and NFC Forum compliant test equipment. "We have a long time experience in the usage of Micropross solutions," says Renesas' Takashi Tsukamoto. "We have always been satisfied of those tools, from both a quality and support point of view, and it was natural to continue with Micropross for the validation of our NFC related products."

A leaked device service bulletin from US Cellular spotted by Android Police indicates that the US mobile network operator is about to add support for Google Wallet, beginning with the Samsung Galaxy S III. Other NFC phones are expected to be added to the US Cellular lineup in the future.

Lockitron maker Apigy has secured more than US$640,000 in pre-orders for a new version of its mobile phone operated door lock. The US$149 lock supports Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi and NFC and is due to begin shipping in March 2013.

A new Android app called FileBeam allows users to transfer files held on the Dropbox cloud storage service between two NFC devices. "Tap on a folder to expand it, select files (and even folders!), and then beam it on another NFC enabled device by tapping on it," say the developers.

NXP has now shipped 100m of its PN544 NFC controllers, the company reports. "The NFC market continues to evolve rapidly," says NXP's Michael Maader. "NFC is coming to many new tablets, laptops, speakers and headsets enabling secure payments, mobile ticketing, NFC tag use cases or the pairing of applications across multiple form-factors. All those devices and applications are creating the experiences end consumers are looking for."