The Wireless Magnetic Communication technology being used for LG’s mobile payment service will allow consumers to pay with their phones in more places without having to change any of the point of sale terminals or re-educate merchants, technology provider Dynamics’ CEO has told NFC World. More
Fitness wristband maker Fitbit has acquired the wearable payment assets of connected device maker Coin in a move that will enable the company to add NFC payment capability to its future devices. More
A new joint venture that includes the US-based Mayo Clinic and Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute is developing an NFC-based diabetes monitoring system to replace the traditional glucometers that are currently used to monitor patients’ blood sugar levels. The system will also use phones to control insulin delivery, using disposable NFC insulin delivery systems. More
Google Wallet will be pre-installed on all Android phones supplied by Softcard partners AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless from “later this year”, Ariel Bardin, Google’s vice president of payments, has announced... More
NXP Semiconductors has filed a patent infringement suit against rival chip maker Marvell, claiming that the NFC chips supplied by Marvell to Microsoft for use in the Xbox One video gaming console infringe four of its patents... More
US quick-service restaurant chain Taco Bell has launched a mobile ordering and payment app that lets customers place their orders through a customisable menu and complete a payment using a stored Taco Bell card, credit card or debit card before arriving at the counter... More
A recently published Apple patent hints that the company is working on future CarPlay functionality that would allow users to lock and unlock car doors, start engines and perform other tasks using their iOS device and geofence technology... More
Leading merchant groups in the US have come together to call for the creation of an alternative set of open standards for tokenized payments that would be managed by an independent body such as ISO or ANSI — rather than by the payments industry. More
Messaging app Snapchat has applied to extend its trademark into two classes relating to payments, Techcrunch reports... More
The USPTO has published a patent application by three Intel engineers that describes an NFC antenna design which makes use of a cascaded coil concept to enable interactions to be performed without a user needing to precisely orientate their phone... More
“We see growing evidence Apple will adopt NFC as a core part of its mobile payments strategy,” a new report from investment firm Morgan Stanley says — and evidence suggests that NXP has already won the contract to supply NFC controller chips for the iPhone 6... More
A new Nintendo Figurine Platform and a range of NFC toys that makes use of the NFC functionality in the Wii U GamePad is to be unveiled at the E3 games show next month, company president Satoru Iwata has announced. A standalone device that will enable NFC toys to be used with the Nintendo 3DS handheld console will also be introduced and NFC payments for games are to added, initially in Japan, from this summer. More
Blaze Mobile is selling US patent number 8,630,905, an NFC payments patent entitled “Single Tap Transactions using a Secure Element” that dates back to 2007... More
Intel is to acquire Inside Secure‘s next generation NFC modem technology in a US$19.2m deal that will also see the existing NFC licensing agreement between the two companies being converted into “a broad and fully paid up license” and a number of Inside Secure employees moving to work for Intel... More
Intellectual property commercialisation firm France Brevets has filed patent infringement lawsuits against phone makers HTC and LG in the US and Germany, for using two NFC patents that were granted to Inside Secure in 2004 and 2010... More
Security chip specialist Inside Secure‘s mobile NFC division recorded sales of US$9.5m during Q2 2013, double its sales during the first quarter of the year, according to the company’s latest financial results... More
“The pace of innovation in the payments industry requires a new approach that ensures innovative payment methods can be tested, approved and commercialized quickly,” says Visa’s Jim McCarthy. More
The new technology involves placing multiple NFC chips on a single tag base that are individually triggered when a consumer places their mobile phone on the base and presses a button. “Think of it like an NFC keyboard,” says founder Joanna Rogerson. More
Chipmaker Broadcom says it expects to see NFC built into between 10% and 15% of all phones within the next year, with the rate higher for smartphones, PCWorld reports... More
