nfc

Amex: Partnerships required for mobile payments

SAN DIEGO--No single company can catapult mobile payments into mainstream use, said American Express executive Dan Schulman, who called for more partnerships between the financial and wireless worlds.

"All of us need to play together," Schulman said today during his keynote address at the CTIA Enterprise & Applications show. "All of us have strengths and capabilities we bring to the table."

Schulman himself straddles both worlds. He is the group president of American Express' enterprise growth unit, which is responsible for mobile payments. Prior to that, he ran Virgin Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel's prepaid, … Read more

RIM introduces NFC-based BlackBerry Tag app

RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie unveiled BlackBerry Tag today at the GITEX conference in Dubai. BlackBerry Tag is an NFC-based app that will let BlackBerry customers share information simply by tapping their BlackBerrys together. You can also add friends directly to your BBM list this way.

This sounds a lot like Bump, an iOS and Android app that transfers information in a similar way. However, Bump uses your phone's sensors and a cloud-based algorithm for the connection, while BlackBerry Tag utilizes NFC, the proximity-based technology introduced with BlackBerry OS 7. Not many BlackBerry phones are equipped with NFC, however. They … Read more

Isis mobile-payment group lines up handset backers

The mobile-payments joint venture between three of the national wireless carriers has gotten the support of nearly all of the major handset manufacturers in its bid to enable consumers to make purchases by waving their phones.

Isis--which is made up of AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile USA--said today that HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola Mobility, Research In Motion, Samsung Electronics, and Sony Ericsson will ship devices using the joint venture's technology standard for near-field communication, which enables the tap-and-go payment capability. The alliance, however, is missing a key player in Apple.

A spokesman for Isis said the venture … Read more

Google opens Wallet

The owner of the Qwikster Twitter handle is banking on selling it to Netflix, Verizon unveils a $99 4G LTE capable smartphone, and Google Wallet finally launches with support only on Sprint's Nexus S 4G phone so far.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Google Wallet launches Qwikster Twitter account owner wants cash Dish Networks to unveil BlockBuster streaming $99 Verizon 4G LTE phone Researchers discover HTTPS security hole OS X Lion vulnerable to local users Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (HD) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS HD

Despite legal battle, Apple keeps Samsung inside iPhone

Despite a globe-spanning, bruising legal battle with Samsung, Apple has little choice but to keep getting key parts for its iPhone from the electronics maker, according to sources and a news report.

Those key parts include the iPhone 5's expected main processor, the A5, as well as system memory and flash memory--components that together make up the electronic core.

Sources who track the chip industry say that Apple must stick with Samsung for the time being. Some rumors had claimed that Apple would switch to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for a so-called "shrink" (smaller version) of the A5 for the iPhone 5.

That's simply not doable, sources tell CNET. TSMC has not perfected the advanced manufacturing processes needed to make an A5 for the iPhone and, maybe more importantly, it's prohibitively difficult to jump to a different manufacturer for the same chip design. … Read more

Google Wallet launching today? Signs point to yes

The pieces appear to be falling into place for the launch of Google Wallet today.

Last night, social-media blog TechCrunch posted an image purporting to be from Google Wallet partners, showing documentation on the service. That documentation says that "Google Wallet is launching September 19, 2011."

Then this morning, another blog, GigaOm, posted an image, taken by one of its reporters at a coffee shop in San Francisco, of a Google Wallet payment reader. The reader provides directions on it, saying users must "tap" their smartphone against the device in order to "pay by smartphone.&… Read more

NFC-equipped phones set to surge

It looks like life will get harder for people who live in Faraday cages to escape electromagnetic emissions, because wireless data-transfer technologies are booming in growth, according to a study released today.

Shipments of Bluetooth-equipped devices should double between 2011 and 2015, and Wi-Fi is growing fast as well even if it's not built into as many electronics products today. But the real explosion comes from NFC, or near-field communications, analyst firm IMS Research said today.

"The number of NFC-enabled mobile handset shipments is projected to increase from 40 million in 2011 to over 700 million in 2016,&… Read more

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile to pump cash into Isis venture

AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T- Mobile USA plan to invest an additional $100 million into their mobile payment joint venture, Isis, to help get the project off the ground more quickly, Bloomberg reported Monday.

According to Bloomberg's unnamed sources familiar with the joint venture, the investment is contingent on whether Isis, which was developed to turn cell phones into payment devices, could sign up additional banks and merchants.

A spokesman for Isis declined to comment on the rumors.

The joint venture, formed in November, has been somewhat slow to get off the ground. But the additional funding … Read more

Ice Cream Sandwich details, screenshots leaked

The folks at Android Police have taken the wrapper off Google's Ice Cream Sandwich.

The tech news site yesterday revealed several new details and a couple of screenshots of the upcoming edition of Android.

Showing Ice Cream Sandwich running on a Nexus S, the screenshots seen here are a bit dark but do point to changes in the user interface. As noted by Android Police, blue seems to be the theme color of the new OS, while the notification bar has gone through a major revamp.

Other screenshots published by tech site RootzWiki, as seen here, also show several … Read more

Visa sets deadlines on NFC efforts

Visa is planning to roll out dual-mode chips in its infrastructure in an effort to step up mobile payment adoption. Meanwhile, it's deploying a mix of carrots and sticks to get merchants on board.

Specifically, Visa is aiming to prepare payment infrastructure for NFC (near-field communication) mobile payments. Google has pushed NFC payments, and other mobile phone players are aiming to turn your smartphone into a wallet. Visa will support EMV and NFC. EMV, which stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, is a global standard for credit and debit payment cards. EMV has been popular abroad, but lags in … Read more