11 February, 2012
Published by by Androidizen in NFC
I thought you might like to see how easy it is to make a Foursquare NFC tag using Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0.3 this makes it so quick for your customers to make Foursquare checkinto your venue using their NFC enabled phone. Near Field Communication (NFC) will be huge this year, get your hotel, bar, restraunt, cafe or shop ahead of the pack.
5 February, 2012
Published by by Androidizen in NFC
The other day I got hold of a selection of NFC tags so I could have a play with them, I thought you might like a quick tour of the different types on the market.
5 February, 2012
Published by by Androidizen in NFC
This is bound to give the geek inside you a little jump for joy, here is an NFC tag being scanned at around 4cm, how cool is that. NFC really is a contactless system. You can stop slamming your phone on top of the readers now 
4 February, 2012
Published by by Androidizen in NFC
29 January, 2012
Published by by Androidizen in NFC
NFC or Near Field Communication to give it it’s full title, is a way for devices to exchange information with each other without having to plug in or even physically touch each other. Soon it will be used to create “Contactless” payments where you can simply place your credit, debit or even phone onto a pad and the retailer can charge you for your purchase in seconds.
NFC uses small chips sometimes called TAGS that have no power of their own but when scanned by an NFC reader a small electromagnetic charge brings the NFC tag to life and the data contained can be read back by the reading device. A device can be both a reader and able to write to NFC tags and TAGS themselves can be write once or written too many times over.
At the moment only the Samsung Galaxy S2 (with NFC), Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Huawei Sonic (with NFC) & HTC Ruby (with NFC) have NFC built in, most are capable of reading and writing to NFC TAGS but currently a bug in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.02 (The Operating System for the phone) prevent authoring of some tags. 4.03 is due soon and should fix things.
The great thing about NFC TAGS is they are relatively small, so far I have seen NFC placed into Stickers, Keyfobs, Wrist Straps & Posters over time the tags will get even smaller allowing for even more unique uses. Remember Sticker Tags are only at the start of their journey anything you can stick a tag on just became a Smart Object (Wikipedia: Internet of Things) capable of being scanned and offering data, the possibilities are endless.
Due to the small size of NFC TAGS Keyfobs and Wristbands make ideal use for Nightclubs and Restaurants, contained in the TAG could be the owners ID allowing staff to check age or ensure a checked in coat goes back to the right owner. hooked up to door entry systems it could help keep private areas sealed off or provide quicker access to staff instead of button entry or fumbling for a key.
