Arizona-based National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Phoenix Suns are to offer fans access to mobile payments and NFC ticketing from within their mobile app, via a partnership with Ticketmaster, that will see the team move to mobile-only ticketing at its Talking Stick Resort Arena from the start of the 2019/20 season in October... More
Parking payments specialist HonkMobile has unveiled a ‘virtual parking meter’ that uses Apple Pay’s new support for NFC tags to let iPhone users tap an NFC sticker to quickly make a payment via Apple Pay — without first needing to download an app or register for a service... More
iOS 13 NFC for Japanese Individual Number Cards — Ata Distance — “Individual Number Cards are supported by card readers that require a personal computer and additional software. NFC tag reading with a smartphone is much easier because it can work out of the box and an app. Android phones are supported but limited to select Aquos, Galaxy and Xperia smartphone models. iPhone NFC tag support in iOS 13 will considerably widen the user footprint.”
Google has announced a suite of upgrades for transportation operators, airlines and loyalty card issuers that extends the functionality of its Google Pay API for Passes — and revealed future plans to make Passes “available to your users on Google even if they haven’t installed the Google Pay app”... More
Apple’s update to its Core NFC framework for iOS 13 will include support for reading passports and ID documents, chip checker app maker Innovalor has confirmed to NFC World... More
PARTNER NEWS: Antelop Solutions has launched an integrated onboarding, authentication and mobile payments platform for Android and iOS devices that lets both traditional and challenger banks combine “best-in-class” end-to-end security with a user friendly, PSD2-compliant, mobile-first consumer experience... More
Commuters in the greater Paris region will be able to use their NFC mobile phone to store Navigo transit passes and T+ prepaid ticket books from September 2019... More
Google’s new plan to push Google Pay in India: cashback incentives in Android apps — Techcrunch — “The company has built an in-app engagement rewards platform that promises to help developers and businesses retain users and drive engagement on their apps, two sources familiar with the matter said… Sitting at the core of this new play is Google Pay, which will be used for transactions between businesses and users, thereby expanding the reach of Google’s payment service.”
Hungarian bank Erste has upgraded its Erste MobilePay application for Android phones to include NFC functionality, enabling customers to use their phones for contactless payment... More
Google to allow users to pay for Android apps using cash — Techcrunch — “Instead of charging an attached credit card, for instance, the user can instead opt to receive a payment code which they can use to pay for their purchase using cash at a nearby store. Once at the store, the user shows the payment code to the cashier and pays. Within 10 minutes after completing the transaction, the user will receive their purchase and an email with their proof of payment.”
Transit card issuer Octopus Cards Limited (OCL) has partnered with Hong Kong Taxi Council (HKTC) to provide local taxi drivers with the ability to use their NFC phone to accept payments for cab rides from Octopus card users... More
US wedding planning and list specialist Zola says using NFC in its bricks and mortar pop-up store in New York City has helped to bring the showroom to life and been well received by its customers who use it to build their wedding gift lists... More
Google Pay rolls out in Switzerland with support for Cornèrcard, Swiss Bankers, and more — Android Police — “Google Pay’s support documents speak of a rollout for customers of Cornèrcard, Bonuscard, Swiss Bankers, Revolut, and Boon… Today’s rollout makes Switzerland the 29th country [Google] Pay is available in.”
Amazon Pay launches person to person (P2P) payments through UPI for Android customers — Amazon — “Customers can use this functionality to settle bills/expenses with friends, lend/return money to family, pay rents, pay for services like house-help, newspaper bills, milk subscription and more. Customers can also make payments from their bank account to local stores nearby or to [an] Amazon delivery associate at [the] doorstep by scanning UPI QR codes using the Amazon app.”
Google has begun rolling out a new feature that scans a Gmail user’s inbox and then automatically adds any coupons, loyalty cards, airline boarding passes and movie tickets that it finds to their Google Pay wallet... More
PARTNER NEWS: Tasmania-based Old Kempton Distillery is using HID Global’s Trusted Tag technology to combat counterfeiting of its whiskies and gins — and to drive personalized and ongoing engagement with customers after they make a purchase... More
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has become the fifth university in the US to enable its students to load their campus card onto their iPhone or Apple Watch... More
NXP takes Melbourne Transit (Myki) mobile with Google Pay integration for trains, buses and trams — NXP — PARTNER NEWS — “NXP’s Mifare 2GO cloud service is the first to work with Google Pay to enable mobile ticketing in multiple transportation modes and scalability across all compatible Android NFC-enabled phones, giving citizens convenient and efficient travel options in smart cities.”
Mobile Myki — Public Transport Victoria — “Mobile Myki is a digital Myki on your Android phone. From Thursday 28 March 2019 it will be available on the Google Pay app… Mobile Myki uses all of the existing Myki gates and readers on Melbourne’s trams, at train stations and on Myki-enabled buses across Victoria. The new technology uses Google Pay on the Android operating system and allows passengers to purchase Full fare, Concession, Child and Senior Mykis using both Myki Money and Myki Pass.”
Air France, KLM, EasyJet, Lufthansa and Ryanair have all begun adding support for Google Pay, enabling flyers to save their boarding passes to the service when they use an airline’s app to buy a ticket... More