Google Wallet now available

Get ready to tap, pay, and save
Google Wallet, a mobile app that makes your phone your wallet, is now rolling out through a software update to Nexus S 4G by Google, available on Sprint. Set up Google Wallet with Citi MasterCard or the Google Prepaid Card in just a few minutes.

As a thanks for your early interest, we’ll give you $10 on the Google Prepaid Card if you activate it in Google Wallet by the end of the year. You can then reload the Google Prepaid Card using any of your plastic credit cards. Google Wallet will be automatically pushed to Nexus S 4G phones on Sprint as part of a software update. You can pay with Google Wallet at thousands of merchants across the United States. This is just the beginning for Google Wallet, so stay tuned.
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Tyfone’s NFC-on-microSD technology to go into volume production

Tyfone’s NFC-on-microSD technology to go into volume production

The US NFC specialist has signed a manufacturing and distribution deal with Taiwan's AboMem technology that will see the company's SideTap NFC-enabled microSD device become widely available for the first time.

SIDETAP: Set for mass availability

Tyfone has announced a deal with Taiwan-based AboMem Technology that will see the US NFC specialist's SideTap microSD-based NFC products being manufactured, distributed and serviced by AboMem.

The agreement is designed to combine AboMem's established manufacturing and distribution infrastructure with Tyfone's design and manufacturing expertise to bring SideTap fully to market for the first time.

Back in January 2009, Tyfone was the first company to announce an NFC-enabled MicroSD device, but its technology has not been put into volume production until now. Companies wishing to deploy SideTap microSD secure element solutions will be able to purchase devices directly from AboMem, while working with Tyfone on TSM software integration for identity provisioning and implementation of mobility services.

The deal also includes a distribution agreement that will see SideTap microSD cards — which include the necessary NFC circuitry and antenna, a secure element, and memory — being made available to consumers throughout China via AboMem's existing distribution network.

"AboMem has seen Tyfone evolve SideTap from the prototype phase into a market-ready solution, and is excited to take our relationship to the next level and look forward to achieving success in China and the rest of the world," comments AboMem chairman Aaron Yang.

"Tyfone's partnership with AboMem in China enables Tyfone to scale its business with a recognised leader in manufacturing memory products, and unleash its established distribution supply chain," adds Prabhakar Tadepalli, Tyfone's president of Asia Pacific and chief operating officer. "The support AboMem has provided Tyfone over the past several years for our vision for mobile commerce has been invaluable, and we look forward to our partnership and the opportunity to serve the world's largest consumer market."

Broadcom Unveils First NFC Chips, Smallest On the Market?

Broadcom, one of the biggest Wi-Fi chipmakers in the world, on Monday unveiled its first line of near-field communications (NFC) chips for smartphones.

The announcement comes on the heels of Google Wallet, a groundbreaking, if small-scale, step intended to popularize the use of phones to pay for items. NFC radios can transmit information between devices when held just a few inches apart; the technology has been used for mobile payments in Japan since 2004, but the rest of the world has been remarkably slower at aligning all the necessary players.

But more are betting on the mobile payments industry, which is expected to double to $670 billion by 2015 from $240 billion this year, according to Juniper Research.

Broadcom claims its first NFC chipset, BCM2079x, is 90 percent more energy-efficient and 40 percent smaller than any other NFC solution on the market, and was developed using 40 nm chip processing technology.

Interestingly, Broadcom has also said its chips can communicate with devices using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios, which are competing wireless communications technologies.

"Broadcom is committed to making NFC as ubiquitous as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are today," Craig Ochikubo, vice president and general manager of wireless personal area networks at Broadcom, said in a statement. "These solutions provide the features and performance that enable disruptive innovation that will reshape the mobile consumer experience. Our leadership and proficiency in wireless connectivity influenced the architecture of these new chips to meet the performance required by OEMs, allowing them to more easily add NFC to their designs."

Although several phones available in the U.S. today come with NFC chips, like the Samsung Nexus S, Samsung Galaxy S II, and BlackBerry Bold 9930/9900, applications are few and far between.

Last November, three of the nation's largest cell phone operators, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, made perhaps the biggest financial investments in mobile payments through Isis, a platform that will finally debut next year after experiencing a few blips this year.

For more, check out PCMag's hands-on with Google Wallet in the wild in San Francisco, and the slideshow of other mobile-payment technologies below.

nfc uses

Emerging NFC standards allow customers to quickly purchase products and transfer secure information by touching devices. NFC allows companies to reduce staffing, printing, and point of sale costs. Globally, 100 million people use mobile payment outside the U.S., but only 3.5 million use the technology in the U.S.

Near field communication, or NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in close proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States. Many smartphones currently on the market already contain embedded NFC chips that can send encrypted data a short distance ("near field") to a reader located, for instance, next to a retail cash register. Shoppers who have their credit card information stored in their NFC smartphones can pay for purchases by waving their smartphones near or tapping them on the reader, rather than bothering with the actual credit card. Co-invented by NXP Semiconductors and Sony in 2002, NFC technology is being added to a growing number of mobile handsets to enable mobile payments, as well as many other applications

The Near Field Communication Forum (NFC Forum) formed in 2004 promotes sharing, pairing, and transactions between NFC devices^[3] and develops and certifies device compliance with NFC standards. A smartphone or tablet with an NFC chip could make a credit card payment or serve as keycard or ID card. NFC devices can read NFC tags on a museum or retail display to get more information or an audio or video presentation. NFC can share a contact, photo, song, application, or video or pair Bluetooth devices.

An NFC-enabled mobile phone interacting with a "SmartPoster"