Windows Phone 8 is to come with both NFC and a mobile wallet that Microsoft will deliver in partnership with mobile network operators, the company has revealed. More
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University of San Francisco to extend NFC campus card service
An NFC solution that integrates fully with the university’s existing campus card system to enable students to access rooms and make laundry payments has been hailed as “a first-rate experience for our students and our staff” and is now to be expanded. More
Chinese city to get NFC smart meters
Advanced energy-metering supplier Wasion Group is to begin deploying new NFC-enabled post-pay electricity meters in the city of Chongqing, China, from this month... More
Subaru picks NFC for Canadian car launch
Advertising agency DDB Canada has used NFC tags and QR codes to encourage consumers to interact with a street art installation designed for the launch of the car maker’s 2013 Subaru BRZ sports coupe. More
Welsh village picked for O2 Wallet payments demo
The village of Rhiwbina, where the 11,000 locals have been without access to a cash machine for the last two years, has been picked as the demo site for O2’s new mobile wallet service, which supports mobile remittances, price comparisons, offers and mobile commerce today and is due to include NFC “in time”. More
NFC Forum certifies Inside Secure’s NFC controller chip
NFC and contactless specialist Inside Secure has announced that its MicroRead solution has become the first NFC controller chip design to be certified by the NFC Forum... More
New Zealand NFC pilot partners report 100% positive consumer feedback
All the participants in a small four month mobile payments trial conducted by BNZ, Vodafone, Visa and Paymark in Auckland and Wellington said they were likely to recommend the service to friends and 14% said they would be willing to pay a small fee for the service. More
Samsung launches TecTiles NFC tags and programming application
Sets of five TecTiles can be ordered online or bought in store for US$14.99 from all four major US carriers and can be used to program a variety of NFC-initiated functions. “Most of the tag types you make will work on nearly all phones which have NFC hardware,” says Samsung. More
Leaked Sprint slides reveal NFC wallet designs
The slides suggest the US carrier, which has previously chosen to avoid Isis and partner with Google for NFC, is preparing to launch its own “Sprint Touch” mobile wallet service. More
Apple shows off Passbook mobile wallet
Video coverage of the launch of Apple’s first mobile wallet app shows how it will enable developers to build mobile barcode-based ticketing, stored value, loyalty card and coupon apps for today’s iPhones — and hints at how these apps could migrate to NFC in the future. More
Identive cuts non-NFC costs
Identive Group is to cut its global workforce by 11% as part of a cost reduction plan designed to save US$4m to $5m this year... More
Kista Science City to host NFC access control pilot
Staff, researchers and students are to pilot test a system that allows keys to doors, meeting rooms and video conferencing facilities to be sent over the air to participants’ NFC phones. More
Canadian NFC phones forecast
By 2016 almost 80% of the smartphones in Canada will be NFC-enabled, “providing a solid foundation for the uptake of mobile contactless payments”, according to Canadian Payments Forecast — 2012, a new report from TSI... More
Berg: 86% of POS terminals in North America will accept NFC payments by 2017
The US will have the world’s highest density of NFC point-of-sale terminals in five years time, the forecasters say, as the global installed base increases from 3.9m today to 43.4m in 2017. More
Jersey Mike’s loyalty launch shows regional differences in consumer acceptance of NFC
More than 200,000 of the sandwich chain’s customers have signed up for a loyalty program that offers both NFC tags and barcode-based ID. In southern California many outlets have seen almost half their customers choose to use the tags while those in other regions are only moving to mobile contactless as they become more familiar with the technology. More
Juniper: NFC payments to exceed US$180bn in 2017
NFC payments will be being made in store by more than one in four mobile phone users in the US and Western Europe in five years time, the forecaster predicts. More
Charity adds emotion to missing person posters with NFC
A poster campaign for British charity Missing People uses NFC tags to enable users to listen to a recording of a phone call made to the charity in order to “create an immediate emotional response to the advertisement and help the charity demonstrate what it’s like for those who don’t know how to make that first call.” More
Infineon adds protective diode for NFC antennas
Infineon Technologies has launched a new diode series designed to protect NFC antennas and front-end devices from transient voltage events... More
48% of Americans ready to use a mobile wallet
New market entrants are currently most popular amongst consumers ready to adopt mobile wallet technology, according to a survey conducted by Carlisle & Gallagher, with eight in 10 willing to use a PayPal wallet and six in 10 willing to consider a mobile wallet provided by Google or Apple. More
Orange launches Intel-based San Diego NFC phone
The Android NFC device will be available to Orange customers in the UK from 6 June, either on contract or for £200 (US$308) on pay-as-you-go. More