The high profile check-in service has its eyes fixed on the potential of near field communication, coverage of the company’s entry into the mobile rewards business this week has revealed. More
Foursquare adds merchant rewards, tests NFC
Google launches Las Vegas NFC service as ‘ultimate tourist guide’
The internet giant is offering visitors 10,000 free monorail tickets as it expands its NFC-enabled Google Places and Hotpot marketing system to a third US city. More
Google adds NFC section to Android Developers Guide
The Android Developers Guide now has a new section dedicated to near field communication technology... More
Alcatel-Lucent video shows Nexus S acting as POS terminal and payments device
Alcatel-Lucent‘s Touchatag team has produced a video demonstrating the use of a Google Nexus S as both a POS terminal and as a payments device... More
NXP adds NFC TagWriter app to Android Market
Semiconductor supplier NXP, manufacturer of the NFC chip used in the Google Nexus S, has made an NFC tag writing application available to download free of charge from Android Market... More
Touchatag NFC tag platform now available on Android phones
Touchatag, the NFC tag application platform developed by Alcatel-Lucent, is now available as a downloadable app for Android NFC phones from Android Market... More
Google chief outlines vision for NFC
Advertising is the key to the internet giant’s NFC strategy and Eric Schmidt provided delegates at the Mobile World Congress last week with clear examples of how the company expects to be able to take advantage of the technology. More
World’s leading mobile operators commit to NFC — with the SIM as the secure element and the operators in control
The GSMA has issued a statement outlining a commitment by leading global mobile network operators — many of whom have not previously been involved in NFC — to launch commercial services in 2012. “The operator community is focused on driving the standardised deployment of mobile NFC, using the SIM as the secure element to provide authentication, security and portability,” says the announcement. More
NXP and G&D confirm joint Android NFC secure element interface
NXP Semiconductors and Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) have confirmed that the two are working together on the development of Android NFC solutions for handset manufacturers, as uncovered earlier this week by mobile and NFC experts Dr Gerald Madlmayr and Christian Kantner... More
Google expands NFC Hotpot marketing service to Austin, Texas
Google has picked the city of Austin, Texas as the second location for its rollout of NFC-based marketing services... More
Samsung Galaxy S II will come with NFC — but only in some markets
The decision on whether or not the devices shipped into a particular country will be equipped with NFC will depend on “market requirement”, says Samsung. More
Uncovered: The hidden NFC potential of the Google Nexus S and the Nokia C7
Mobile and NFC experts Dr Gerald Madlmayr and Christian Kantner have taken apart both a Nokia C7 and a Google Nexus S to find out what’s inside and what kind of services it will be possible to offer via the handsets in the future — and to build a Nexus S that can operate in full card emulation mode. Here Dr Madlmayr explains what he and Kantner discovered… More
Inside Secure bids for share of Android NFC chip market
NFC and contactless chip specialist Inside Secure has begun the task of trying to convince the industry that NXP is not the only game in town when it comes to adding NFC functionality to Android mobile phones with the launch of version 4.2 of its open source NFC protocol stack. More
Japanese social network Mixi introduces NFC check-ins
Leading Japanese social network Mixi, which has more than 21 million members, has become the first social network to offer users the ability to check into locations using near field communication... More
Google adds more NFC features with Android 2.3.3
Google has released Android 2.3.3, an update to Android 2.3 Gingerbread specifically designed to add more NFC functionality to the operating system... More
Google poaches top payments exec Osama Bedier from PayPal
Osama Bedier, PayPal’s vice president of product development and a key player in the company’s move towards mobile payments, has joined Google... More
Nexus S video: Android’s hidden NFC tag writing abilities revealed
An NFC development house in Argentina has discovered hidden code in Android 2.3 Gingerbread that enables the Google Nexus S to write to NFC tags as well as read them. More
Apple planning to offer merchants low cost NFC payments terminals?
The Apple NFC rumour mill has swung into action again today, with new speculation that the company plans to include near field communication in both the next iPhone and the next iPad — and could be planning to offer heavily subsidized or even free NFC payments terminals to merchants in a bid to kickstart a mobile payments service... More
Schmidt: Mobile money is a key part of Google’s strategy for 2011
Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt has explained that mobile money is one of three key areas of focus for Google in 2011... More
More than 30 job openings now available at Isis NFC joint venture
Isis, the joint venture between mobile network operators AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile which is set to introduce a commercial NFC service in the US from 2012, has posted more than thirty job vacancies on its website... More