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Apple will help shape the future of NFC
Apple has come a long, long way in its attitude toward NFC. The company seemingly went out of its way to avoid the short-range wireless tech for years after others embraced it, but it quickly became one of the biggest users last year thanks to Apple Pay. And now, it's ready to guide the standard's future -- the company has joined the top ranks of the NFC Forum, giving it the same level of influence as the likes of Google, Intel and Samsung, among others. Clearly, Apple isn't having regrets about welcoming NFC with open arms.
Samsung Galaxy S 4 drops original TecTile support, requires new TecTile 2
Don't get too attached to that collection of TecTiles if you're upgrading to a Galaxy S 4. AnandTech has discovered that Samsung's newer phone includes an NFC chipset that can't read the older TecTiles, which rely on a less common tag type to register our taps instead of the NFC Forum's standards. Customers aren't being left in a bind, however. Samsung has confirmed that it's about to release a follow-up, TecTile 2, which adheres to the official format while supporting the company's older NFC-equipped phones. The fully modernized tags will be ready sometime in the "coming weeks." That doesn't offer much immediate relief for GS3-to-GS4 upgraders whose TecTile layouts have suddenly been reduced to decorations, but those buyers should at least get the replacements they seek before long.
Mobile Miscellany: week of March 4th, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, alongside smartphone leaks, admissions of data throttling and a power play at the NFC Forum, we're introducing a new, hand-picked selection of must-read mobile stories for the week. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of March 4th, 2013.
Bluetooth SIG, NFC Forum come together, right now, over pairing
Personally, we wish the NFC Forum and Bluetooth SIG behaved like the elder robots of Chapek 9, controlling the world from an underground bunker. Instead, the two industry bodies ensure interoperability and standards of their respective technologies. Now they've gotten 'round the table and hammered out the dryly titled "Bluetooth secure simple pairing using NFC," a guide for developers to ensure hassle-free hook-ups 'twixt smartphone and device. The paper includes breakdowns on ensuring the kit will team up pedometers, headsets, car dashboards and push content from your phone to your TV -- something we've been told we watch too much of, given our Futurama fantasies.
Sharp, HTC and ZTE learn the NFC Forum secret handshake
The NFC Forum just scored a few high profile allies in the form of Sharp, ZTE and HTC. The handset manufacturers were among a slew of companies to join up as members, with Sharp and ZTE hitting the Associate level and HTC signing on at the Implementer level. Now let the mobile hazing begin!
New NFC spec enables two-way communication, potentially makes Bump obsolete
The NFC Forum just released the latest update to the growing close-range standard and it includes a nice little treat called SNEP, which stands for Simple NDEF Exchange Protocol. (Side note: the NDEF in SNEP, stands for NFC Data Exchange Format -- it's like a matryoshka doll of abbreviations.) What makes SNEP exciting is that it allows for sending and receiving of data between two devices. This could be used to exchange contact information between phones (similar to Bump, but without the need for an app) or collect links to trailers from movie posters which could be played back on your TV at home. It's potentially exciting stuff, so long as manufacturers actually make use of it. Check out the PR after the break for a few more technical details.
NFC certification program announced just in time for Android 2.3 Gingerbread launch on Monday?
Call it coincidence if you want, but a December 7th press conference to launch the NFC Forum's new Certification Program likely has something to do with NFC read / write support built into Google's new Android 2.3 "Gingerbread." An OS that could be officially unveiled as early as today according to a cheeky blog post by Notion Ink that includes this bullet: "6th December is another big day for Android and you will find out how fast Notion Ink can work. (Eden is extremely compatible with 2.3)." Recall how gung-ho Eric Schmidt was on the topic of Near Field Communication while demonstrating it using a still unannounced Nexus S with an embedded NFC chip at the Web 2.0 Summit. That was way back on November 16th when Schmidt promised a Gingerbread release "in like the next few weeks." According to the NFC Forum, a device must be certified in order to display the official "N-Mark" (pictured) -- a symbol for NFC that tells you where to touch in order to initiate NFC services on your device. So, Google... anything you'd like to announce before Tuesday? P.S. Almost forgot that Google's Andy Rubin will be kicking off the D: Dive into Mobile event later today. We'll be there live just in case Andy feels like introducing something pungent and tasty during the opening session scheduled for 6:30pm San Francisco time.
NFC suffers identity crisis, becomes N-Mark, denies prior existence
Things just got strangely... interesting in the world of near-field communications. The NFC Forum, which just a few weeks ago issued a press release repeatedly using the term "NFC" and seemed quite fond of the logo to the left above, has apparently decided that "NFC" isn't particularly trademarkable. So, it will now be calling its suite of (ever dizzying) connectivity options "N-Mark," identified by the new, swoopier logo to the right. The latest addition to those head-spinning wireless standards? Sagem and Telenor are adding WiFi into the mix, creating a hybrid device to interact with the new SIMFi, allowing NFC (or whatever you want to call it) at rather greater than "near" ranges, running at 2.5GHz instead of the usual 13.56MHz. Confused? Just gaze at that new, blue logo and all will seem right as rain.
NFC goes peer-to-peer, won't help you download next week's Lost premiere
Near-field communication, or NFC, has been slowly but surely creeping its way toward mainstream adoption, and this latest announcement by the NFC Forum, rulers of the 13.56MHz frequency, should only help things to go more smoothly. It has announced the Logical Link Control Protocol (LLCP), enabling NFC-compliant devices to talk to each other. We're not talking massive transfers on a gigabyte scale here, rather things like contact infos, web addresses, and surely other types of secret message ("UR Cute!"). Along with LLCP comes the new NFC Signature Record Type Definition (RTD), which not only yet another acronym but also entails a new way of digitally signing those messages, theoretically preventing their being usurped and used for evil purposes -- like recess blackmail.
NFC Forum publishes two new specifications, most of us still waiting for even one
Though NFC hasn't quite reached the penetration level required to make it a ubiquitous and critical tool like, say, Bluetooth or WiFi, the NFC Forum is still pushing ahead to make the short-range communication standard ever better. Two new specifications have been published for inclusion in the NFC ecosystem of protocols this week: Generic Control RTD and Connection Handover. Generic Control RTD is simply a way for one NFC-enabled device to tell another to perform a particular action; Connection Handover is where it gets interesting, allowing NFC to be used to establish a connection over some other technology (like Bluetooth) with a more complicated pairing procedure. As the NFC Forum puts it, that gives you the best of both worlds -- the ease of use afforded by NFC along with the higher bandwidth of a more robust protocol -- which makes it easier to use NFC to initate transmission of larger files. That's cool, but seriously, can we just pay for our train fare to start?[Via Phone Scoop]
