NFC - Who uses this?
Thine Wonk
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I think one of the features I would like on my next smart phone is NFC. Is anyone here already using this? if so what do you most commonly use it for and is it a gimmick or a really useful feature.
How many tags do you have and where do you have them....
How many tags do you have and where do you have them....
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Having said that, if you're thinking of getting the Xperia S, you get some tags thrown in with that so might be useful. Not too sure what practical applications there are, though.
Android beam was introduced in ICS so perhaps there will be more opportunities to use NFC once ICS becomes widespread.
But for me, it was completely useless.
It's looking like this year could be a good one for NFC though - all the new high end Blackberries have it, quite a few of the new Android phones do too, and word is that it will be coming in WinPhone too. The next iPhone will probably have limited support too, though I'm expecting it to be limited to payments only.
In terms of applications - as wilt says there's Android Beam and the tags that Sony are putting out with the Xperia S. Blackberry have something that sounds similar to beam they are calling Tap & Share. There's probably going to be a pretty big push on the technology over the next few months from at least one of the big names.
As I said, from a tech point of view it's pretty cool but if I was getting a new phone now I'd see it as a "nice to have" rather than an essential. It could take off massively, or it could be just another passing fad - only time will tell.
Full disclosure time - at work we are currently putting together something using NFC to make moving photos around easier, so you could say I have a bit of a vested interest.... The above is pretty much how I see the current state of things though.
At the moment I can't work out whether it's a gimmick or whether it has some real practical uses, that's why I wondered if people had really good uses for it.
As for whether it's a gimmick or not, like I said time will tell. For my money it does have plenty of practical uses, whether any of those actually makes it into a must have feature is anyone's guess. A proper, landscape, hardware keyboard on a phone is a killer feature for me, sadly no-one seems to agree and I'm without my perfect phone. Who knows what the market will decide with NFC?
Didnt get any tags with my SIM free Xperia S
Once NFC is integrated into entry/access systems, public transport and maybe even a USB reader for website access (think fingerprint scanner) then i'm in.
As FamilyMan says once it's integrated into things other than payments and acts like an Oyster card or similar, then it will take off.
We are in a bit of a chicken and egg situation at the moment.
I've no idea what (if any) use it will be.
My current, soon to be old laptop has Bluetooth built in... But I can't remember ever using it.
Did the bus stop tag take you to a url?
Yes it took to a URL for that particular bus stop giving live updates.
It's actually very simple to set up. I have tags in my car, hallway and office - each of them programmed to enable/disable certain features and profiles.
Download an NFC programme; I use NFC Task Launcher and its step-by-step routine to programme the tags is very straightforward.
The ability to touch devices together rather than scan to find one another then connect is far simpler.
The tags are great arn't they, I have 4 in different places,all set up with various events.They work every time. I just wish someone would get their finger out and develop a tap and pay app that works on the Gs3 here in the uk.
I would love to be able to pay for things without having cash or cards with me, just my phone, but I still haven't found a way of doing that on my phone. It feels like having a CD player but no CDs to play on it.
Visa are launching an app for it soon, so i bet it picks up momentum then.
Specifically in December.
Beat me to it when i went to the loo!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ee.nfcwallet.uk&hl=en
With it limited to the latest phones it also needs to accommodate the new Nexus.