Medical staff can now use an NFC phone to check that vaccines, hormones and other biopharmaceutical products have been kept at the correct temperature throughout the supply chain, using a disposable temperature logging foil that can be attached to each individual item. More
Employees at chip maker STMicroelectronics’ Catania office in Italy can now order and pay for fresh food, groceries and personal hygiene products from their mobile phone and then collect their order from a unique “supermarket in a box” based in the office car park. More
Google is testing a service called Plaso “that allows people carrying Android phones to pay at retailers like Papa John’s and Panera Bread by saying their initials to employees at the cash register,” The Information reports, citing “four people who have been involved in or briefed about it.” The pilot has been live since “last fall”... More
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has published the first draft of a specification that will be used to introduce an electronic payments system that leverages both mobile payments and Aadhaar, India’s biometrics-based ID system... More
“Certification work” with Apple was all that was needed to add 200,000 vending and other self-service machines supplied over the last five years to the list of Apple Pay acceptance points, USA Technologies (USAT) has told NFC World+. More
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BBVA Compass cardholders in the US can now add their cards to Apple Pay as the bank has become the latest to join more than 60 banks in supporting the mobile payments service... More
Samsung is to require companies that manufacture accessories for the forthcoming Galaxy S6 mobile phone to include NFC-enabled authentication chips in their products, according to DDaily. More
JetBlue Airways is to become the first major US domestic carrier to accept Apple Pay for onboard purchases such as food and drink... More
Mobile payments platform provider Mozido has acquired Chinese cross-border payment gateway provider PayEase with the aim of introducing its mobile payments and retail marketing solutions into the Chinese market... More
Oil and gas company Shell has partnered with PayPal to roll out mobile payments at the pump across the “vast majority” of its 1,000 service stations in the UK. The move follows a successful trial in 2013 and will begin with a pilot involving selected Shell Drivers’ Club customers in April ahead of a nationwide rollout later in the year. More
The spending limit for contactless transactions is to be increased from £20 (US$30) to £30 (US$46) in September 2015, The UK Cards Association has told NFC World. The move follows the news last week that contactless card usage surged in the UK in 2014 to 319.2m transactions with total spend more than trebling to a record £2.32bn. More
PARTNER NEWS: An mPOS module that provides developers with “a complete hardware and software reference demonstrator for secure near field communication enabled mobile point of sale solutions” has been developed by NXP in partnership with Creditcall and ViewAt Technology. More
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UK rail passengers could soon have their tickets verified automatically as they walk through fare gates at a station, using a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-enabled mobile ticketing app due to be built by Bytemark. More
Three quarters (76%) of the UK’s “Generation Z” consumers — aged between 16 and 24 — say they would feel comfortable making a payment using biometric security, a survey conducted by Opinion Matters for Visa Europe has revealed, and 69% believe it would make their lives faster and easier... More
Four out of every 10 smart payment cards shipped in 2014 (40%) were contactless, representing a year-on-year growth of 35% with much of the increase driven by Europe and Asia, the Smart Payment Association’s annual review of the card payment market has revealed. A total of over 1.5bn smart payment cards were shipped globally last year. More
PARTNER NEWS: DCR’s truTap Mobile Wallet, powered by Carta Worldwide’s host card emulation (HCE) technology, has been named the “Gotta-Have Mobile App” in Paybefore’s annual awards for excellence in the worldwide prepaid, mobile and emerging payments industry. More
Chip maker NXP will focus on the “significant” Chinese market for mobile wallets, the firm’s CEO has said, as the company revealed a 40% increase in sales for its emerging ID business in a fourth quarter earnings call. More
Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group is to launch a smartwatch that includes NFC and mobile payments capabilities and works with both Android and Windows phones, CEO Nick Hayek has told Bloomberg... More
Ten contactless transactions took place in the UK every second in 2014, The UK Cards Association has revealed, and total spending on contactless cards more than trebled to reach a record £2.32bn. In total, 319.2m contactless transactions were conducted in 2014, up from 100.4m the year before. More
PARTNER NEWS: Fast growing mobile payments platform provider Mozido has made a US$2.5m investment in SimplyTapp, bringing the total amount raised in the host card emulation (HCE) specialist’s Series B financing round to US$10.1m. More