Chip maker NXP has announced a new secure element platform which is form factor agnostic and incorporates the company’s next-generation SmartMX2 technology... More
Secure element
NXP unveils next-generation PN547 NFC controller
The new PN547 offers twice the read/write range of its existing PN544 controller chip, is half the size, uses half the power and communicates at five times the speed. More
TazTag unveils first Android phone with NFC and ZigBee
French Zigbee and NFC specialist Taztag is to unveil the first Android phone to include support for both NFC and Zigbee wireless communications at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week... More
EMVCo picks GlobalPlatform secure element compliance programme
EMVCo, the standards body collectively owned by American Express, JCB, MasterCard and Visa, has officially recognised the GlobalPlatform Compliance Program for validating secure elements as an integral part of its mobile payment certification process... More
Turkish payments group BKM joins NFC Forum
BKM, which acts as an NFC trusted service manager for member banks in Turkey, has joined the NFC Forum and revealed that four more banks are now ready to roll out NFC services. More
Watchdata unveils NFC on a SIM
“Our new Simpass-SC solution gives MNOs what they want right now — the most practical and quick-to-deploy form factor,” says the company’s Michael Yu. “We feel this will provide greater customer attraction and higher ROI for our MNO customers.” More
TI enters NFC phone chip market
The semiconductor giant has launched WiLink 8.0, a new family of all-in-one combo chips that include an integrated NFC controller chip and come “paired and pre-tested” with embedded secure element chips from both Infineon and NXP. More
Google Wallet boss: No more prepaid cards until we’ve dealt with hack
“To address an issue that could have allowed unauthorized use of an existing prepaid card balance if someone recovered a lost phone without a screen lock, tonight we temporarily disabled provisioning of prepaid cards,” says Google Wallet VP Osama Bedier. More
Researcher hacks Google Wallet PIN on rooted Android phone
Zvelo engineer Joshua Rubin has released details of a security vulnerability in rooted Android phones running Google Wallet... More
Inside Secure ships 17.4m NFC chips, mostly to RIM
The prospectus for Inside Secure’s IPO this month shows that the company made US$47m from the sale of NFC chips in 2011, that these were mainly delivered to RIM for use in BlackBerry NFC smartphones and that Inside believes it now has a share of close to 50% of the overall market for NFC chips for mobile phones. More
Leaked video confirms NFC for Windows Phone 8
Details of a video describing Windows Phone 8 features and confirming support for NFC have been reported by mobile gadget blog PocketNow... More
Fly and Tianyu pick MStar chip for new NFC phones
The Taiwanese semiconductor supplier’s NFC controller chip is to be used in an Android handset made by Tianyu for the Chinese market and a feature phone designed for B2B applications which is being introduced next month by a UK customer of handset maker Fly. More
DeviceFidelity begins shipping NFC microSDs direct to consumers
US iPhone users can now order a case containing an NFC microSD card online and use it to make payments with their mobile phone. An Android version will be added during the second quarter of 2012 and there are plans to make the technology available internationally from the end of the year. More
Inside updates Open NFC for ICS
Inside Secure has released a new version of its open source NFC protocol stack... More
GlobalPlatform and SIMalliance team up on NFC apps
GlobalPlatform and SIMalliance have announced they are to work together to create a standard way for mobile app developers to securely include calls to NFC secure elements from within their programs... More
GSM Association issues new NFC handset requirements
The mobile network operators’ association has published new specifications which could give carriers a major advantage over competing mobile wallet providers but, the GSMA says, the changes are due to technical rather than commercial reasons. More
Google Wallet finds its way onto the Verizon Galaxy Nexus
Just a few days after the launch of the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, Android enthusiasts have found a number of ways to get around the US carrier’s attempt to block Google Wallet from its version of the phone and users are now successfully making NFC payments. More
Intel signs NFC deal with Inside Secure
“We look forward to working with Inside to develop and bring to market a range of exciting connectivity solutions for mainstream consumer products that incorporate NFC features,” says the head of the semiconductor giant’s Mobile Wireless Group. More
Security researchers raise Google Wallet concerns
The amount of unencrypted data stored by the Google Wallet app “surpasses what we believe most consumers find acceptable,” says digital forensics specialist viaForensics in a report on the security of the search giant’s NFC wallet — but no access to the secure element was gained. More
Verizon and Google fire first shots in the mobile wallet wars
“Recent reports that Verizon is blocking Google Wallet on our devices are false,” says Verizon. “We are continuing our commercial discussions with Google on this issue.” More