Smart label systems provider FlexStr8 has unveiled an NFC solution for the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) system that would allow users to print labels and give chemical handlers, emergency first responders and consumers access to important hazardous information by tapping their NFC devices against products... More
Thousands of visitors at last weekend’s Zona Picnic Club festival in the Colombian capital Bogota have become the first to use a mobile payment service developed by payment processor Paymentez and MasterCard to pay for food and drink at stalls throughout the event... More
Coffee chain Starbucks is processing nearly nine million mobile payments a week across its US locations, representing 20% of all in-store transactions, CEO Howard Schultz revealed during the company’s third quarter earnings call... More
Google has introduced an open format for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons that is designed to address the shortcomings of existing beacon services and is compatible with both Android and iOS devices. More
UK bakery chain Greggs has updated its app to include NFC for payments and rewards redemption using technology from POS provider Spire Payments and Eagle Eye... More
Ant Financial has released a new version of its Alipay app for iOS and Android, adding new Friends and Merchants tabs that provide support for peer-to-peer payments and for Koubei, the US$1bn mobile commerce joint venture between Ant Financial and Alibaba that was announced last month. More
French NFC device maker Famoco has secured €4m in a financing round led by Hi Inov... More
Users of New Zealand’s NFC mobile wallet Semble will be able to pay for public transport using the app through a partnership with prepaid transit card provider Snapper... More
Shipments of NFC-enabled handsets will increase to 756m in 2015, up from 444m last year, rising to 2.2bn by 2020, IHS Technology has forecast... More
Barclaycard has unveiled a second generation of its bPay wristbands and is to add contactless-enabled keyfobs and stickers to the range of bPay devices that will be made available for purchase on 1 July. More
Truck drivers from UK-based construction firm McGee Group can now log their daily vehicle inspections by tapping a tablet or smartphone against NFC tags mounted on their lorries, using a platform supplied by mobility solutions provider Mobilengine... More
PARTNER NEWS: NXP Semiconductors has unveiled a ‘plug and play’ NFC controller with integrated firmware and an NCI interface that is aimed at accelerating NFC adoption in the internet of things (IoT) by allowing hardware makers to rapidly build the technology into any device... More
Google is reported to be considering acquiring the Tesco-owned loyalty agency that is responsible for the development of the supermarket giant’s Clubcard rewards scheme... More
ING is to launch a mobile payments service based on host card emulation (HCE) in the Netherlands this summer following a final test with a group of the bank’s employees... More
US jeweller Galatea has unveiled Momento Gem and Momento Diamond, jewellery collections that come equipped with NFC, adding to the Momento Pearl range that was launched in December... More
Mobile location and proximity services provider Gimbal has begun licensing its Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon firmware to enable almost any device with BLE to act as a beacon — including ATMs, jukeboxes, access points, vending machines and more... More
Software provider Intelligent Environments has launched an emoji-only passcode system that lets consumers log into their bank’s mobile app using four emoji characters instead of traditional PINs... More
Some 13% of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners in the US have used Apple Pay and 11% are planning to do so, a survey conducted by Kantar Worldpanel has revealed... More
Google has demonstrated how its Android Pay mobile payments service will work for making in-store and in-app purchases, for payments made through a banking partner mobile app, and how users will be able to pay for items such as a Coca-Cola from a vending machine using just the points stored in a customer loyalty account. More
Chase Bank has added Touch ID authentication to its Chase Mobile app for iOS to let users log in to the service using their fingerprint... More