Nokia 6131 NFC phone

 

Nokia 6136

With Nokia 6131 NFC phone you can have your credit card, travel card and loyalty card in your phone and use it as a multi-purpose smart card. Use the Nokia 6131 NFC to pay for your purchases with speed and ease or access any mobile services, e.g. weather forecast and the latest news just by touching a tag. The Nokia 6131 NFC supports JSR 257 for 3rd party NFC application developers. Flip open the Nokia 6131 NFC with a unique one-touch push-to-open design for comfortable one-hand messaging, dialing and answering calls. The 6131 NFC features a brilliant 16.7-million “true color” main display and 262,144-color outer display, ideal for use with the 1.3-megapixel camera and playing music with the AAC/MP3 player and FM radio with Visual Radio technology.

Near future of near field

Your pants pockets may soon be obsolete.

Or a few of them, at least, if near-field communication (NFC) catches on. The technology would let you store a lot of what you keep in your wallet — most significantly credit cards and cash — on your cell phone.

Near-field communication is a simple technology that transfers small amounts of data via radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders. It’s similar to technology used in contactless credit cards such as MasterCard’s PayPass or Esso’s Speedpass. The difference is that NFC will follow industry-wide standards, which would allow devices universal access instead of just at specific stores or gas stations. A group called the NFC Forum — a partnership between Sony, NXP, Microsoft, Visa, MasterCard and more than 110 other companies and organizations — is in charge of setting NFC’s standards.

Justin Oberman, a New York-based new media consultant, heard about an NFC trial in New York City from a friend who worked at Citibank. There have been similar trials in different markets across the world to test the technology and gage consumer’s reactions. This particular trial was a partnership between Citibank, MasterCard, Cingular (now AT&T) and Nokia.

Enlarge ImageCellphones equipped with specialized RFID transponders may one day replace credit and bank cards. (Philips)

• A video demonstration of what NFC-enabled phones can do 

After signing up online, Citibank sent Mr. Oberman to an unveiling in Bryant Park. Clerks gave him a new phone. At another spot they took his SIM card from his old phone and put it in the new one and then sent text messages that linked to sites where Mr. Oberman could download software and register with his bank. Scattered around the tent they had set up were “smart” objects that worked with the phone. Tapping a movie poster accessed the movie’s trailer. Tapping the Citi display downloaded the bank’s commercial.

An NFC chip costs about $2 U.S. and can be attached to almost anything. Cellphones, however, are proving to be the device of choice. “We did a number of surveys and focus groups with customers basically investigating which options [they] would be comfortable with, interested in, to make a payment,” says Simon Pugh, MasterCard’s senior vice president of infrastructure and standards for advanced payments solutions. “Number one was the card, not surprisingly. But number two was the mobile phone.” Other options MasterCard investigated were keys, watches and handbags.

In May 2006 ABI Research predicted 50 per cent of cellphones — 500 million of them — would be NFC-enabled by 2010 because of its wide range of applications. But wireless operators have been hesitant to buy into the concept until clear revenue-generating models are established. In September 2006, ABI downgraded its prediction to 30 per cent by 2011. Last April they further downgraded their forecast to 20 per cent of the worldwide market by 2012 — 292 million handsets.

“We’re in a bit of a chicken and egg situation at the moment, to be honest,” says Mr. Pugh. “The mobile operators are deciding when to ask the manufactures to build commercial quantities of the products. The manufacturers are sitting, waiting for commercial orders. The banks are saying: ‘we’re keen on doing this but we don’t see them commercially available yet.’ So all of the entities are sort of circling waiting for someone to move.”

To cope with the problem MasterCard has followed a “cards first” strategy, using their contactless PayPass cards, in part, as a stepping stone to NFC phones. The technologies are very similar, but PayPass doubles as a traditional credit card. This gives consumers the option to treat it like a traditional credit card and test the new technology at their leisure. At the same time, it puts an infrastructure in place for NFC-enabled phones and familiarizes consumers with the concept.

“I think the biggest issue that they’ll have to overcome if they want to see broad acceptance is around security,” says Chris Ziegler, associate mobile editor for the technology blog Engadget. “A lot of people are concerned that it’s going to make it extremely easy to steal your credit card information.”

To deal with security concerns phone manufacturers offer customizable features that require users to authorize transactions by typing a PIN into their handsets. Credit card companies typically offer the same security and liability limits as they do with their other contactless products (PayPass, ExpressPay, etc.). And the encryption of the transmitted data itself is quite robust. But consumer fear sometimes has little to do with a technology’s actual specifications — it may be a PR battle rather than a technical one.

Next Generation Contact-free file transfer with Wireless USB

Wireless USB means you’ll be able to wirelessly download images and file.

The Wireless USB Promoter Gorup said this week that version 1.1 of the Wireless USB specification will include “touch and go” capabilities used by Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

Put simply, the spec will allow devices to be brought into close proximity with the host, allowing them to be instantly associated, without the need for manual setup.

The Wireless USB specification, version 1.0, is slowly rolling out as part of wireless devices. Both IOGEAR and Icron have announced their own Wireless USB hubs, although both are pricey: $395, in the case of the Icron hub.

The 1.1 spec will be finalized in the first half of 2008. Typically, products based upon a new specification revision require an additional six months or so before they’re brought to market.

In addition, the new spec will provide frequencies of above 6 GHz, and include provisions to enhance power efficiency for better battery life. The NFC protocols that the spec will support have been used in wireless payment applications, where a smartcard or a mobile phone is brought close to a receiver, and an encrypted data transmission is performed.

Wireless USB is, as the name suggests, a wireless version of the wired USB protocol, running over an ultrawideband radio. The specification is led by Intel, with many of the competing products shifting to trying to run high-def video and audio data between CE components.

“The Wireless USB 1.1 Specification builds on the key features – speed, ease of use, and security – that have made the 1.0 specification so successful,” said Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF president. “The Wireless USB Promoter Group will define new features that make a great specification even better to improve product offerings for manufacturers and ultimately enhance the end-user experience.”

Near Field Communication (NFC)

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a new, short-range wireless connectivity technology that evolved from a combination of existing contactless identification and interconnection technologies. Products with built-in NFC will dramatically simplify the way consumer devices interact with one another, helping people speed connections, receive and share information and even make fast and secure payments.

Operating at 13.56 MHz and transferring data at up to 424 Kbits/second, NFC provides intuitive, simple, and safe communication between electronic devices. NFC is both a “read” and “write” technology. Communication between two NFC-compatible devices occurs when they are brought within four centimeters of one another: a simple wave or touch can establish an NFC connection, which is then compatible with other known wireless technologies such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The underlying layers of NFC technology follow universally implemented ISO, ECMA, and ETSI standards. Because the transmission range is so short, NFC-enabled transactions are inherently secure. Also, physical proximity of the device to the reader gives users the reassurance of being in control of the process.

NFC can be used with a variety of devices, from mobile phones that enable payment or transfer information to digital cameras that send their photos to a TV set with just a touch. The possibilities are endless, and NFC is sure to take the complexities out of today’s increasingly sophisticated consumer devices and make them simpler to use.