London buses now accept payments made using mobile network operator EE’s Cash on Tap NFC solution... More
Archive: News in brief
UK contactless transactions surge
The number of UK contactless payments has risen 18% in just one month to almost 20 million transactions in May 2014, Visa Europe has revealed... More
GameStop deploys BLE in stores
Video game retailer GameStop is deploying Shelfbucks beacons in test markets including Austin and College Station, Texas this month to deliver offers and relevant data to a shopper’s smartphone running a mobile app developed by BestFit Mobile... More
GSMA publishes mobile money paper
The GSMA has published a discussion paper on how increased smartphone adoption in the developing world will impact the global mobile money industry... More
BLE guides the blind at SFO
Visually-impaired travellers at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) are now being guided through terminals via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons supplied by Indoo.rs... More
Analysts report on Apple/Visa partnership
“We think a partnership between Apple and Visa would make strategic sense and believe an announcement could happen as early as this fall,” a team of Pacific Crest Securities analysts has concluded in a new report that follows reports suggesting that two are in talks on mobile payments... More
Facebook closes gifts business
Facebook is to close down its gifts service on August 12, Techcrunch reports... More
Amazon Wallet teams up with Blackhawk
Amazon is working with prepaid specialist Blackhawk Network on its new Amazon Wallet service, which lets Android and Fire users store gift cards and loyalty cards on their mobile phone... More
Square unveils EMV card reader
Mobile POS provider Square is to introduce a new card reader that can be used to process both EMV chip card and magnetic stripe card payments... More
Vodafone Italia pilots smart shopping posters
Vodafone Italia is working with high-end Italian food market chain Eataly on a pilot project that lets 2,500 staff tap their NFC phone or scan a QR code on a smart poster to order and pay for groceries that are then delivered to their home or office... More
Pepsi tests NFC for shopper marketing
Pepsi has tested a new NFC shopper marketing solution developed by logistics optimisation solutions provider Rehrig Pacific that uses NFC chips and QR codes on display trays to “increase the opportunity for consumer interaction, at the point of sale, without increased merchandising or delivery costs”... More
Interest in mobile payments grows
Some 53% of consumers globally report they have either used or are interested in redeeming offers and coupons with their phones, while 44% have used or are interested using their mobile device to pay for things in stores and restaurants, according to new research from Ovum... More
Amazon to enter mPOS market?
An Amazon Card Reader will be available from next month costing US$9.99, according to internal documents from office supplies retailer Staples obtained by 9to5Mac... More
Motherboard leak fuels iPhone NFC rumours
French website NoWhereElse has posted images from a source in China of what is believed to be the motherboard for Apple’s next iPhone, expected to be introduced in September... More
Xiaomi unveils $13 smart band
Chinese mobile device maker Xiaomi has launched the Mi Band, a CNY79 (US$13) wristband that features sensors for health and fitness tracking and can be used to unlock the wearer’s Xiaomi smartphone via BLE... More
PayPal goes Dutch on mobile payments
PayPal has partnered with MyOrder, the mobile ordering and payment system backed by the Netherlands’ Rabobank, to let customers “order and pay for food or drinks ahead of arriving at a cafe; to pay at the table in a restaurant without calling over the waiter, or pay for parking without searching for the closest meter”... More
Microsoft publishes WP8.1 NFC guide
Microsoft has published a guide to developing UICC-based card emulation apps for WP8.1 devices... More
Amazon Fire phone packs NXP chip
The NFC chip in Amazon’s new Fire phone is NXP’s 47803, an NFC controller and embedded secure element package based on the chipmaker’s PN547 controller, a teardown by iFixit of the online retail giant’s first smartphone has revealed... More
Jamba Juice gives away 1m NFC smoothies
One million free juices and smoothies have been given out free of charge by Jamba Juice to Isis NFC mobile wallet users since the ‘Million Free Juice or Smoothie Giveaway’ promotion launched in October 2013... More
Turkish Airlines offers travel benefits via BLE
“Visitors to Turkish Airlines’ Lounge Istanbul at Atatürk Airport will now be able to access the digital Sky Library on their own devices following the installation of iBeacons in the lounge,” Future Travel Experience reports... More