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Cash, credit or cellphone? Plan offers new way to pay - 0 views

www.canada.com/...story.html 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 06 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Leave your wallets at home, people. You'll soon be able to pay by cellphone.
  • Canada's three big wireless service providers are hatching a system that promises to change the way people shop.
  • Bell Canada, Rogers Wireless and Telus Mobility said yesterday they have set up a mobile commerce company in Toronto to work on a network that would let consumers use their cellphones to pay for everything from vending machine munchies to transit trips.
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  • The jointly owned company, Wireless Payment Services, aims to standardize and commercialize an easy-to-use mobile phone payment system. The carriers declined to say how much they're spending on the initiative.
  • The announcement is the latest example of Canada's wireless providers joining forces to push potentially revolutionary technology.
  • It's also further evidence that cellphones are moving way beyond their traditional use and into music playing, gaming, Internet and other applications.
  • Consumers should expect to see some changes starting next summer.
  • Prepaid wireless users will be affected first. The aim is to allow them to use their phones to buy more account minutes instead of having to visit a merchant.
  • After that, the carriers want to gradually roll out the system at retail points of sale and service centres like ticketing outlets.
  • "What the user will be able to do, ultimately, is to tap or wave their mobile device in front of a point-of-sale terminal to pay," said Jeff Chorlton, president of Wireless Payment Services.
  • Payment will be withdrawn from the user's bank account or charged to a credit card.
  • "All of your payment methods could be contained on your cellphone," Chorlton said.
  • Many handset makers have begun trials to add a payment function to their cellphone product lines. Payment works through a short-range wireless technology called near-field communication. NFC lets users exchange information securely by bringing two electronic devices close together.
  • The technology could forever alter consumer lifestyles, predicts the NFC Forum, an industry group promoting the technology founded in 2004 by Nokia Corp., Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corp.
  • The Forum offers this future scenario on its website: "With Near Field Communication enabled devices, you will make your travel reservations on your PC and download your tickets to your mobile phone or PDA, just by bringing it next to the computer. Then you will check in for your trip by touching your hand-held device to the departure gate kiosk - no paper, no printing."
  • The system will allow retailers and other companies to save money, Chorlton said. "For some merchants, it could represent the roll-out of infrastructure at very low cost because the infrastructure largely exists through hand-held devices."
  • Mobile users in such places as Hong Kong and Finland are already using NFC technology to hop on a bus or buy some new threads. Canadians should take to wireless payment because they already frequently use cashless commerce like debit cards, said Dennis Kira, an e-commerce specialist at Concordia University.
  • "In my mind, the public in general is ready for it."
  • Canada has about 16 million mobile phone subscribers.
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Bluetooth group looks for technology allies - 12/13/2005 - Electronics Weekly - 0 views

www.electronicsweekly.com/...ooks-for-technology-allies.htm 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 06 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced it is to work with other wireless technologies looking at the possibility of combining technology, functionality or user interfaces.
  • Technologies being considered include Wi-Fi, near field communication (NFC) and ultra-wideband (UWB).
  • The organisation said it "believes co-operation is the best and fastest way to improve wireless solutions" and claims it has "taken the lead by working to bring all technologies under one wireless umbrella".
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  • The SIG has been working on combining Bluetooth and UWB since May this year and the specification is set for introduction in the first part of 2007 with prototyping following in the latter part of 2007.
  • NFC operates over very short distances - a few centimetres or less - and is optimised for secure communication between devices with minimal user configuration.
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Nokia announces Near Field Communication products - 0 views

www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 06 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • With the Nokia NFC (Near Field Communication) shell on their phone, consumers will be able to access a variety of services and exchange information with a simple touch gesture.
  • The Nokia NFC shell offers consumers access to browsing, and text message services simply by touching tags that contain service shortcuts. Consumers are also able to give their favorite service shortcuts to other users by touching another NFC-compatible device with their phone. In addition, the Nokia NFC shell comes with tags that can be used for creating own personal service shortcuts.
  • The NFC technology evolved from a combination of contactless identification (RFID) and interconnection technologies. NFC operates in the 13.56 MHz frequency range, over a distance of typically a few centimetres. NFC technology is standardized in ISO 18092, ISO 21481, ECMA (340, 352 and 356) and ETSI TS 102 190. NFC is also compatible to contactless smart card infrastructure based on ISO 14443 A, i.e. Philips MIFARE technology, as well as Sony's FeliCa card.
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  • The first mobile phone to work with the new Nokia NFC is the Nokia 3220 (pictured), a tri-band camera phone that is available in two versions: a GSM 900/1800/1900 primarily for the European and Asian markets, and a GSM 850/1800/1900 primarily for the Americas. The Nokia NFC shell is a functional cover developed for the Nokia 3220 phone. The Nokia NFC shell with four tags will be available during the first quarter of 2005 in Europe, and during the second quarter 2005 in the Americas and Asia.
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Trade Your Wallet for Wireless - 0 views

www.wired.com/...64778 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 06 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • People fed up with the proliferation of credit cards, IDs and key cards that fill their wallets to bulging may soon have an alternative. New technology could bundle such functions into just one item: your cell phone.
  • Near Field Communication technology, jointly developed by Sony and Royal Philips Electronics, lets wireless devices connect to other devices nearby and transfer data, from payment information to digital pictures. Samsung Electronics and Philips say they are developing cell phones with embedded NFC chips that could double as debit cards or electronic IDs. The companies plan to begin field trials toward the end of the year.
  • Such phones are already available in Japan and Korea, where users can charge their phones with virtual cash, then wave them near NFC-enabled machines to buy anything from a soda to lunch. But it remains to be seen how Americans will react to the devices, which are not yet available outside Asia, said wireless technology analyst Allen Nogee of In-Stat/MDR.
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  • "Americans seem to be more skeptical of new technology like this," Nogee said, largely because of security and privacy concerns.
  • However, Nogee said the systems seem to have adequate security measures -- like requiring personal identification numbers, so thieves could not make purchases -- and could provide consumers with added protections in some cases.
  • "In theory, merchants will have wireless devices they can bring to you," he said. "When you buy something in a restaurant, you have to give them your card. They go off with your card and could be writing down your number. With this, they'd bring a portable device to your table and (the transaction) would be encrypted."
  • But Nogee said some apprehension about privacy might be well-founded.
  • "A carrier, if they wanted to, could know exactly where you are any time of day, who you're calling, and now they can know what you're purchasing and where," Nogee said. "So if you tie all these things together, that's quite a lot of information available on you."
  • Payments are not the only potential use for the technology. Philips and Samsung have suggested NFC devices could also work as mobile transit passes for users who would swipe their phones to get access to public transportation, and as secure building-access keys and electronic business cards. The technology could also let users swap digital music, photos or other files between devices.
  • Don't go throwing away your wallet just yet, though. The companies have not set a date for when the phones will be for sale in the United States. And even if security and privacy worries are allayed, the technology will need to be widely usable for consumers to adopt it. That means NFC devices from different manufacturers must be interoperable and integrated to work with the credit card infrastructure.
  • To that end, Nokia, Philips and Sony formed the Near Field Communication Forum in March to promote implementation and standardization of NFC technology. Philips is also working with Visa to encourage support of the technology.
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Samsung phones to double as wallets * The Register - 0 views

www.theregister.co.uk/...samsun_philips_mobile 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 06 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Samsung mobile phones look set to double as m-wallets as the mobile phone manufacturer signs a Near Field Communication chip deal with Philips.
  • Through the use of Near Field Communication (NFC), Samsung mobile phones will be transformed into multi-functional devices from which users can conduct secure m-payment transactions, gain access to public transport and buildings or download event tickets, the company claims
  • "Joining forces with Philips for the further development of NFC-enabled devices is part of Samsung's commitment to change the way information and services are paid for, distributed and accessed by all consumers," said JK Shin, senior vice president of the research and development team at Samsung.
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  • NFC is a type of wireless technology that allows devices to exchange small amounts of data across short distances - approximately four inches. Devices with in-built NFC can facilitate m-payments, simply by holding the devices close to each other. Users with multiple NFC-enabled devices, such as laptops, handheld computers, digital cameras, or mobile phones, can store personal payment details on each machine and all NFC-enabled devices are able to interact, allowing for quick and easy exchanges of money between individuals.
  • Samsung is the second major mobile manufacturer to sign up with Philips; Nokia is aiming to release its range of NFC-enabled mobile phones by the end of 2004. By 2009, around half of the world's mobile phones will feature NFC chips, according to analysts.
  • Mobile phones will be the first of many consumer products to embrace NFC technology. It is likely that consumers will soon see TVs and PCs equipped with NFC chips, enabling consumers to view images on from their mobile phones on their TVs, for example.
  • In September 2002 Philips formed a strategic alliance with Sony to co-ordinate on the development of NFC technology. Philips uses NFC in its Mifare contactless smartcard and Sony has its own FeliCa contactless NFC smartcard. Together, the companies are better able to deal with issues such as security and future product development.
  • In March 2004 Philips, Sony and Nokia linked up to form the NFC Forum with the aim of promoting common standards of the technology and ensuring compatibility between devices and services. The forum will also encourage other companies to adopt the technology.
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PayPal tests NFC payments app - 0 views

www.mobilecommercedaily.com/...paypal-tests-nfc-payments-app 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 06 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • PayPal is testing an NFC mobile payments application at two stores in Sweden while it continues to look for ways to expand access to its payments services.
  • PayPal has been experimenting with NFC for a while and recently incorporated NFC into the latest version of its Android app to enable peer-to-peer payments with two mobile phone users tapping their phones together to transfer money between them. The NFC payments app test is running in conjunction with two Swedish retailers and the Swedish developer Accumulate over a five day period.
  • “There has been some confusion out there,” said Anuj Nayar, director of communications for PayPal, San Jose, CA. “We are not anti NFC.
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  • Offline payments The test is running for five days, during which time anyone who downloads the app from the Android store or Apple store in Sweden and enters their PayPal credentials can receive an NFC sticker when they arrive at one of the two stores so they can tap to pay for items in the store.
  • “Our wallet lives in the cloud and not on devices. There are plenty of ways to access your wallet in the cloud and NFC could be a great way to do that.”
  • “We think it is a very interesting technology and we are looking at ways to use it,” he said. “It is one of the technologies that we are looking at – we are not betting the bank on NFC.
  • PayPal parent company eBay has not been a big supporter of NFC – or near-field communications – technology. However, as a leader in the alternative payments space, it makes sense that PayPal would want to investigate NFC.
  • “While eBay maybe hasn’t been a big proponent, PayPal has been quite vocal about the opportunity,” said Drew Sievers, CEO of mFoundry, Larkspur, CA. “PayPal is the biggest jewel in the eBay empire, so their vision is, in my opinion, the most interesting driver for eBay corporate.
  • “PayPal’s publicly stated goal is to become as important a payment option offline as it is online,” he said. “NFC is a potentially disruptive technology that could offer fertile ground for PayPal’s offline payments endeavors.”
  • NFC has been embraced by numerous companies such as Google, Isis – which is a partnership of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile – and others. However, there are significant challenges facing these companies’ efforts to expand NFC as there are still a limited number of mobile phones available that support NFC.
  • However, PayPal – as an alternative payment solution – also faces the challenge of getting retailers to accept PayPal payments if it were to try for a broader NFC roll out.
  • “PayPal faces the same challenges with NFC as everyone else in the ecosystem: NFC-enabled phone penetration combined with merchant acceptance penetration,” Mr. Sievers said.
  • “In fact, they face an additional challenge since nearly every existing NFC-enabled merchant takes Visa, MC, Amex, and Discover, but those same points of sale don’t take PayPal yet,” he said.
  • “So PayPal has two things to sell: NFC acceptance and PayPal acceptance. That’s a tough sell.”
  • Long-term strategy While the NFC test is limited, it is another example of how PayPal is trying to bring its technology to bricks-and-mortar retailers. PayPal wants to get merchants to use PayPal and is looking for ways to embed PayPal in the shopping experience via applications, deals and a variety of other merchant services.
  • “EBay is recognizing that NFC is one of those things that would enable them to grow more in a physical retail environment rather than providing online or electronic transactions,” said John Devlin, London-based group director of AutoID and Smart Cards at ABI Research.
  • However, it is likely to be some time before PayPal would be able to deploy an NFC solution on any kind of scale. “This is something that they are thinking about on a medium to long-term basis,” Mr. Devlin said.
  • “In the next couple of years, NFC is really going to be used at the local or national market level rather than an international basis,” he said. “Once it becomes more widely available, that is when PayPal would be more actively interested in pushing ahead.
  • The sticker model of NFC – where an NFC sticker is placed on a mobile device to make it compatible with an NFC reader – is more of a limited solution.
  • “It is not able to plug into the handset and take advantage of all of the different smartphone functionality,” Mr. Devlin said. “It has advantages in that you can upgrade existing handsets quickly and easily but I don’t think anyone is really pushing ahead with stickers for a long-term consumer solution on a mass market level. This indicates that this is a trial rather than a precursor to a wider deployment.”
  • Proximity payments PayPal expects to do $3.5 billion in mobile payments this year using its existing payments solutions. The NFC mobile app test is another way that it is experimenting with new payments solutions as proximity payments grow “This is what we’ve always done – experiment and test and be open to partnerships to drive innovation,” Mr. Nayar said. “What we are going to start to see soon is the growth in proximity payments where you need to be in contact with a reader of some sort,” he said. “This can be done with Bluetooth, RFID and NFC is another way to do it.”
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Checks not in the mail PAGE 2 - 0 views

www.marketwatch.com/...-paper-checks-into-e-transfers 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 06 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Nonetheless, consumers should keep a close eye on bank statements to ensure everything is correct.
  • "Your bank can basically turn back any transaction within 60 days," said Rob Drozdowski, a regulatory specialist with America's Community Bankers, a trade association of community banks. "It's important to review your statements within 60 days and get back to your financial institutions with any issues."
  • Check regulations, which date back to the 1940s, set no time limit for the bank's reimbursement and don't mandate an investigation. If the bank refuses to investigate your claim on a standard check transaction, your only recourse is to sue.
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  • Consumer protections are in place Still, electronic funds transfers are governed by stronger consumer protections than those for regular check transactions. If, say, the wrong amount is billed, the bank must temporarily reimburse the consumer within 10 days while the bank investigates the situation, Hillebrand said.
  • But even absent errors, some find the switch to electronic scanning an unwelcome change. "I write the check so I can track it with the check number," Hicks said, but the check number didn't appear on her bank statement.
  • "If I wanted to pay everything (electronically), I could call on the phone to pay it, or give them a credit card," she said.
  • When making a purchase at a store, it's possible to stop the electronic check scan before it starts to pay by cash or credit card, but in the case of a mailed payment, the opportunity to opt-out varies by merchant.
  • "With paying bills, it's really up to the company to decide whether they offer an opt-out. In practice, our understanding is almost all companies are providing an opt-out as a customer service, but it's really their decision," said Michael Herd, spokesman for NACHA.
  • NACHA has proposed a rule requiring companies to offer opt-out. If and until that passes, the only option for unhappy consumers is to switch merchants. For her part, Hicks is seeking another phone company.
  • And recently, she tried to pay by check at a Wal-Mart store. The cashier wanted to scan the check, but Hicks said she wanted it processed as a regular check.
  • "They said we don't do that anymore. I said I don't shop here anymore."
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Three Ways NFC Technology Will Create a Brand New Form of Social Media Engagement | Soc... - 0 views

socialmediatoday.com/...w-form-social-media-engagement 3BT_NFC nfc technology branding social media engagement
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • As the number of smartphone users continues to grow at an incredible rate, the challenge facing many retail brands is to continue to find ways of utilising smartphone technologies to effectively connect and engage with consumers. In recent months many retail brands have focused on smartphone features that integrate with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, to not only create something new and unique as part of the consumer journey, but to also take advantage of the fact that through successfully integrating social media with the overall brand experience, the likelihood of fans and customers “sharing” branded content and increasing brand visibilty in the social space is also increased; something that more and more companies are continually striving to achieve across multiple social media and online PR campaigns. Interestingly, something that an increasing number of people are now starting to talk about when looking at the ways smartphones are shaping consumer and brand day-to-day lives, is Near Field Communication technologies (NFC) and the possibilities that they present.
  • In short, Near Field Communication technology enables smartphone users to gain instant access to digital data from another NFC enabled handset or NFC tag simply by placing or waving their phone next to the NFC tag. Much like scanning a QR code or connecting via Bluetooth, the tag then sends content automatically between the handset and the tag - be it a Foursquare-style check-in at a record store or access to an exclusive in-store promotion.
  • Although at first this may not seem all that different to what we have seen recently with the introduction of QR codes, the possibilities we are seeing for NFC technology are far greater. So much so, that we're not only seeing an increasing number of smartphone brands integrating the technology into their latest handsets, we are also starting to see large named brands such as Google, Visa and MasterCard getting involved at what is a very early stage.
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  • In light of this, below are three reasons as to why we will soon start to see NFC technologies appearing more and more:
  • 1. Real-life Facebook “Likes”
  • 2. Quick payments
  • 3. Ease of use
  • Although we are still very much in the early development stages with the use of this kind of technology, as the number of smartphones with NFC enabled technology continues to grow as well as the number of credit card companies jumping on board, it is surely only a matter of time before we start to see more and more people using their smartphones to pay for their morning coffee. Similarly to QR codes and location-based services, much of the success of NFC technology will depend on the adoption of big-name brands to not only raise consumer awareness but to ensure that the benefits for customers to use NFC as part of their browsing experience are unique, rewarding, relevant and appealing. Additionally, those brands working alongside a creative tech PR agency that are able to effectively integrate NFC smartphone technologies into their overall social media and marketing campaigns will almost certainly be at the forefront of a whole new type of real-world social media engagement.  
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How to pay with your iPhone | News | TechRadar [03Sep11] - 0 views

www.techradar.com/...o-pay-with-your-iphone-1008565 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • New technologies, apps and add-ons let smartphones both receive and make payments, and the next generation of phones in the coming years will go further than ever to letting your mobile replace your wallet.
  • Cash transactions are getting rarer with debit and credit cards being accepted nearly anywhere, but you still run into places that stubbornly remain cash-only, whether it's a lunch wagon, a little independent café, or even an artist selling paintings at a market.
  • Lately, several solutions have popped up for small businesses - or anyone, really - to accept card payments by attaching a card reader to their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, or other smartphone.
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  • Square, one of the most recognisable, is a small, square dongle that plugs into the headphone jack on an iOS or Android device, and lets the merchant swipe a customer's magnetic stripe card, converting their account data to an audio signal.
  • The corresponding app software encrypts it and sends it to Square's servers, which communicate with the card-processing companies to complete a transaction. The customer signs their name with a dash of their finger on the touchscreen, and they're able to have a receipt sent to them over email or SMS text message.
  • The main advantage to using the headphone jack rather than the iPhone's 30-pin dock connector is that the dock connector is only on iOS devices, while every mobile has a headphone jack. This meant Square could roll out its system to Android by simply writing compatible software.
  • But you won't see Square - or its many competitors, including the GoPayment, Intuit Credit Card Reader, Mophie Marketplace, VeriFone's PAYware Mobile, the MagTek iDynamo and others - in use at your local pub, since the UK, as well as all of Europe and most of Asia, has moved to using Chip and PIN.
  • Chip and PIN (also called EMV for Europay, MasterCard, Visa) is more secure, since magnetic stripes are more easily read and cloned by black-market devices, and signatures can be forged. The chips in these cards are much more difficult to clone, and even if a card is lost or stolen, it can't be used without the matching PIN. It's been standard in the UK since 2004, but it isn't widespread in the USA, with both banks and merchants reluctant to invest in the new hardware required.
  • But one iPhone-based card reader does support Chip and PIN transactions: the iZettle, a free EMV chip card reader with accompanying app that connects to an iPhone or iPad's 30-pin dock connector.
  • New company Card.io is even offering mobile developers a new way to accept card payments within their apps without needing a scanner at all. Users take a photo of their card and the account number is read and captured by the software.
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Accel, True Ventures And Softbank Plunk $4.75M Into Music Sharing App SoundTracking | T... - 0 views

techcrunch.com/...usic-sharing-app-soundtracking
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 08 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • With almost a million users and six million songs shared daily, Schematic Labs’ social music sharing app SoundTracking is today announcing that it has raised $4.75 million in Series A funding led by Accel Partners, True Ventures and Softbank Capital.
  • SoundTracking co-founder Steve Jang tells me that he plans on using the new funds for hiring and for furthering integration efforts with services like Spotify and Rdio, “We think connecting SoundTracking to consumption services helps take the music moments into your lean back consumption experience,” he says.
  • “We felt that people have music moments every day, and we wanted to build an app they could take out of their pocket to capture and share the soundtrack of their lives,” says Jang, “We want to continue to simplify that experience and make it more meaningful with the popular music consumption services and social networks.”
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  • Jang is passionate about the app’s community of users, who he insists view the posting of a “musical postcard” on SoundTracking as an emotional moment, “Our user community is still just in its early days. What we’re really most excited about is the engagement and reach of our music lovers who, given an app made for self-expression, seem to love to share emotions and personal moments on top of status updates and check-ins.”
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The Mobile Payments Capital of the U.S: Des Moines, Iowa? [07Nov11] - 0 views

www.readwriteweb.com/...tal_of_the_us_des_moines_i.php
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 07 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Des Moines is the home of mobile payments platform Dwolla. It is an interesting case study - local startup creating buzz within the community and getting retailers and consumers to actually use the platform. Dwolla has created a mobile payments ecosystem from the bottom up.
  • Within a 5-mile radius of Des Moines there are 500 to 700 business that are using mobile payments through Dwolla. The company works kind of like a payments version of Foursquare. You check at the register in the store using your phone and a pre-loaded Dwolla account.
  • it is likely that the company will be able to partner with banks and financial institutions in the near future to go straight from a bank account to the retailer.
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  • Dwolla sees itself more like Visa than PayPal. EBay may actually disagree with that considering that it is pushing very hard into the mobile wallets segment of the mobile payments industry and Dwolla operates in much the same way.
  • Dwolla wants to position itself as a go-to resource for financial institutions to create a mobile payments infrastructure in communities such as Des Moines. Square, with its recent Card Case update, is also playing in this space.
  • Consumers benefit from Dwolla because of the location and social features of the platform.
  • The benefit of Dwolla is that it is basically electronic cash. This is one of the truest "mobile wallets" concepts.
  • Proxi was released by Dwolla in August. It allows users to open the app and see what merchants are accepting mobile payments via Dwolla in their vicinity.
  • The company can position itself to be both the front end and back end of the payment process. As such, Google Wallet, Square, Intuit GoPayment (or any of the other dongle-based competitors) could theoretically tie into it as a backend.
8More

NFC Mobile Advertising Startup Tapit Raises Seed Funding | TechCrunch [29Aug11] - 0 views

techcrunch.com/...rtup-tapit-raises-seed-funding 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Tapit is a new mobile advertising startup, founded in March 2011, that enables content sharing and offer delivery simply by tapping an NFC-enabled phone anywhere the Tapit logo can be found.
  • The company has now raised a seed funding round from Sydney Angels in record time – just 22 days from the pitch until the round was subscribed for. This is the fastest investment to date for Sydney Angels, the not-for-profit membership organization for angels which typically invests in Sydney-based startups.
  • NFC (near field communication), a short-range wireless technology, is often associated with mobile payments and mobile wallets these days, as a new way to enable purchases at point-of-sale. But that’s only one of the many possible use cases for the technology, which can also support things like sharing files and media between devices, advertising, ticketless transactions and more. It can even be used to perform actions like those found in NTT DOCOMO’s nifty “tap to follow” offering that lets two Twitter users follow each other simply by tapping phones.
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  • With Tapit, however, the idea is to leverage NFC for use in marketing campaigns by working with agencies, brands, handset manufacturers and carriers. Its marketing services include mobile commerce, coupon distribution, ticketing, surveys and reviews, content delivery, competitions and social community building (e.g. tap here to “like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter).
  • Says Tapit CEO Jamie Conyngham, “the speed in which this round was closed is an endorsement of the Tapit team and the business models we have created around our unique NFC enabled technology. Everyone we meet loves the idea of Tapit, it’s addictive.”
  • NFC, indeed, would be a step up from the now-ubiquitous barcode scanning technology, which involves using smartphone apps to scan QR codes via the phone’s camera. Unfortunately, NFC generally requires an accompanying chip built into the phone itself. Due to this requirement, it’s currently being held back by the limited availability of supported handsets.
  • Still, analysts are bullish on NFC’s future, with ABI predicting over 35 million supported handsets by 2012 and Frost & Sullivan estimating around 868 million by 2015.
  • Terms of Tapit’s seed investment were not disclosed, but the Sydney Angels Sidecar Fund typically invests between $100K – $500K in its portfolio companies.
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A Coke Machine, A Dorm Room, A Gate: How NFC Will Be Adopted [11Nov11] - 0 views

www.readwriteweb.com/...oom_a_gate_how_nfc_will_be.php 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 11 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Whenever people think of near field communications, they think of mobile payments. Your phone becomes your wallet and spending money becomes as easy as tap, tap, tapping all day. Well, the era of your tap-able digital wallet is not here yet. It may never come. But that does not mean there are not some very interesting uses of NFC coming down the pipeline.
  • For instance, there was a Coca-Cola vending machine at ad:tech this week that was tied to Google Wallet. Tap, tap, tap away and take a Diet Coke Break. At Nokia World there as a gate that could be opened with a tap from your phone. A developer is working on NFC solutions to help his father who has Alzheimer's. NFC could be great as a monetary transfer solution, but there is so much more.
  • Groundswell To An NFC Enabled World
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  • A couple of months ago we wrote about a pilot program at Arizona State University gives students NFC-enabled phones that can be used to access dormitories and university buildings. At the time we said that this is the perfect place for the widespread use of NFC to start: universities have long been known to be the birthplace of behavior-changing trends.
  • Let's look at the NFC Coca Cola machine. This is actually the second time that we have run across one of these prototypes (note: we were not at ad:tech this week but found this story from Mobile Commerce Daily). The first time we saw one of these Coke machines was at a reception around mobile payments from MasterCard in New York City a couple of months ago. It functioned just like any other Coke machine, except it accepted money through NFC. Make your selection and tap on the receiver instead of digging through your pocket for change.
  • "The combination of mobile commerce and location technology moves our business from the point of sale to the point of thirst," said Wendy Clark, SVP of integrated marketing communications and capabilities Coca Cola according to Mobile Commerce Daily. "We have to place bets and we have to take risks if we want to feel innovation in the way that we market."
  • We may see groundswell coming from the big brands that are looking to change how they interact with customers. NFC is not going to be adopted because the big corporations like Google make partnerships with other big corporations in the mobile and financial worlds and all of a sudden we are going to change how we go about our day-to-day lives just because they tell us so. The act of buying a Coke is one of the simplest and most straightforward acts in all of society. If you see that your friend just paid for a Coke at a vending machine with her smartphone, you are much more likely to go, "hey, I wonder if I can do that to." Once you have your foot in the door, you are more likely to use that process again.
  • Adapting Technology To The Situation
  • During Nokia World in London I met a developer that wanted to explore NFC because his father has Alzheimer's and he wanted to figure out how the technology could help him give his father a way to manage his day-to-day life. For instance, setting timers on items around the house to keep his father from doing odd things at odd moments, like opening cabinets in the kitchen at 4:00 a.m. or leaving the house at the same time and wandering the neighborhood, not knowing where he is going. If his father has a watch with NFC in it, he could program those household functions to only respond to the NFC timer at certain times of the day.
  • Think of it: this is how NFC will evolve. Consumers are not going to be bludgeoned from on high by companies like Google, Sprint and MasterCard. It will start as a groundswell where developers see a problem, solve a problem. Big brands, like Coca Cola or Wal-Mart, will start instituting NFC solutions and people will become familiar with the technology first. It is one thing for Google to have a big demo, roll out a bunch of partners and say "this is the future." It is another for people to actually have the technology in their hands, using it to do a variety of activities.
  • Even the Google Wallet competitor, ISIS, thinks that competition is good for the realm. In an interview with CNET, ISIS CEO Michael Abbott said, "competition is what this space needs." Why would he say something like that? Because Abbott understands that people learn from other people and that the more solutions there are out there for people to see the technology in action, the more will ultimately adopt it. Competition drives innovation and better products in consumers' hands. In that way, the technology adapts to the situation, not the situation to the technology.
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Klip Video App Raises $8.5 Million - 0 views

www.businessinsider.com/p-video-app-8-million-series-b 1UE_NS
shared by Dan R.D. on 18 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • CNET reported that Klip was the fastest mobile video app to reach 100,000 downloads.  Founder Alain Rossmann believes Klip is creating new form of communication. "Mobile video is essentially emerging as a new communication medium," he tells us.  "Phones are in pockets all the time, they have incredibly good cameras and good networks, and all of those things create a dialogue among users that is really mediated through mobile video.
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BBC News - Secret net Tor asks users to sign up to cloud services - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...technology-15834476 1UE_NS
shared by Dan R.D. on 23 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • The Tor developers are calling on people to sign up to the service in order to run a bridge - a vital point of the secret network through which communications are routed. "By setting up a bridge, you donate bandwidth to the Tor network and help improve the safety and speed at which users can access the internet," the Tor project developers said in a blog.
  • "Setting up a Tor bridge on Amazon EC2 is simple and will only take you a couple of minutes," it promised.
  • Users wishing to take part in the bridging project, need to be subscribed to the Amazon service.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • It normally costs $30 (£19) a month. However, Amazon is currently offering a year's worth of free storage as part of a promotion, which Tor developers believe their users will qualify for.
  • Amachai Shulman, chief technology officer of data security firm Imperva believes that cloud services could have a big impact on Tor. "It creates more places and better places to hide," he said.
  • Tor is also used by people wanting to share images of child abuse. Hacktivist group Anonymous recently launched Operation Darknet which targets such abuse groups operating via the network. "There is an ugly face to Tor," said Mr Shulman. "Studies suggest that most of the bandwidth is taken by pirated content."
  • Imperva research estimates that there are currently "a few thousand" exit nodes on Tor - the points at which communications reveal themselves on the wider internet.
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NZ #NFC trial launched by BNZ and Vodafone - The Wall - Innovation and strategy in card... - 0 views

blogs.terrapinn.com/...fc-trial-launched-bnz-vodafone 3BT_NFC mobile payments
shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 25 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • iTnews is reporting this morning that the Bank of New Zealand has begun a Near Field Communications (NFC) payments trial, in partnership with Vodafone NZ and Visa.
  • The news comes quickly after the Commonwealth Bank announced its ‘Kaching’ iPhone app. Kaching will use a case over the phone to enable contactless payments, as well as allowing users to pay to mobile, Facebook and email.
  • CBA’s Kelly Bayer Rosmarin will present in Australia’s only dedicated NFC conference. To find out more about NFC in Australia and New Zealand, click here.
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10/04/18 Freemium Collapse - Ning: Failures, Lessons and Six Alternatives - 0 views

mashable.com/...ning-alternatives ning failure web2.0 socialmedia socialnetworking opportunities
shared by Dan R.D. on 24 Apr 10 - Cached
  • ust last month, we got word that CEO Gina Bianchini had left the company. On the heels of this news came a 40% workforce reduction and a dramatic announcement from the new CEO, Jason Rosenthal:
  • My main conclusion is that we need to double down on our premium services business. Our Premium Ning Networks[...] drive 75% of our monthly U.S. traffic, and those Network Creators need and will pay for many more services and features from us.
  • We will phase out our free service.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • There are dozens of ways to have a self-sustaining community. You can run your own ads on Ning-powered sites. You can sell swag through a Ning-powered store. You can get micropayments from your community and crowdsource the $25 per month you need to keep your network in business. But make no mistake: Even if you’re a nonprofit or a hobbyist, running any kind of website is a business. If you’re not able to pay a small fee for the resources you use, you might want to consider a free or inexpensive multi-author blog ins
  • Ning Alternatives
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10/4/19 Forget Social Networks; Enter Social Force Fields - 0 views

openintelligence.amplify.com/...orks-enter-social-force-fields business method forget social networks global hyperlinks opportunity local force fields
shared by D'coda Dcoda on 24 Apr 10 - Cached
  • A new phase in social media underway.
  • Force Field Analysis in Social Sciences analysis reflected on how things are accomplished or hindered by the way that people internalize external experiences in the process of their own psychological development.Now, suppose that an individual goes out and influences social situations in their community.  Also suppose that social media could amplify the persons exterior impact – this would likewise impact internal psychology, etc., setting up a form of polarity between two positions.  The greater the difference (diversity) in those positions, the greater the potential (energy state) of the outcome.The “Local Social” Force FieldSocial media is about to enter a new phase called “local social”.  The hyperlinks that bind the web will become the hyperlinks that bind a community.  The difference is that hyperlinks in “Global Social” environment converge down to specific information, Hyperlinks in Local Social will diverge up to diverse knowledge assets.Read more at www.ingenesist.com
  • D'coda Dcoda on 24 Apr 10
     
    A new phase in social media underway.
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How the Rise of Google's Chromebook Is Like the Rise of Multicellular Life - Technology... - 0 views

www.technologyreview.com/...26815 1UE_NS
shared by Dan R.D. on 27 May 11 - No Cached
  • For Google, the increasingly available broadband / fiber-optic / wireless network is oxygen. Smart phones are proof enough that thin clients can succeed in this early atmosphere, but it's not yet rich enough for them to become the technological equivalent of anything more complex than jellyfish. Which, not incidentally, ruled the seas of the early earth.
  • Denser, higher-bandwidth communications networks(more wi-fi hotspots; more numerous, smaller and faster cell towers) are the direct equivalent of a denser atmosphere. Google's Chromebook not only has the ability to take advantage of this ever-improving network, it also has the power to drive it, just as smartphone adoption has already forced cell carriers to invest heavily in their existing networks.
  • Dan R.D. on 27 May 11
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