near-field communications

Harman International, in looking for a way to personalize the in-car experience, found that the most unique thing everyone carries is a phone. In its demonstration of a new dashboard electronics system, Harman pointed out that people are more likely to loan someone else their car keys than their phones.

At the 2012 Geneva auto show, Harman used Rinspeed's Dock+Go concept car to show off the new system. In the car we had a number of smartphones, each equipped with near field communications, belonging to a variety of different people (set up for the purposes of the demonstration). … Read more

Google has patched a hole in Google Wallet that could've allowed someone to access a user's funds simply by resetting the PIN and using a prepaid card.

The company said yesterday it has issued a fix that now prevents a prepaid card from being re-provisioned to another person. It has also restored the ability to issue new prepaid cards following a move on Monday to disable the use of such cards.

Osama Bedier, vice president of Google Wallet and Payments, said that he wasn't aware of any actual incidents of people abusing the prepaid cards or Wallet … Read more

Google has put the brakes on the use of its prepaid cards for Google Wallet after two hacks were discovered that could steal money from a user's account.

Osama Bedier, vice president for Google Wallet and Payments, wrote in a blog on Saturday that the company is taking this action temporarily until it can make a more long-term correction.

"To address an issue that could have allowed unauthorized use of an existing prepaid card balance if someone recovered a lost phone without a screen lock, tonight we temporarily disabled provisioning of prepaid cards," Bedier explained. "We … Read more

According to reports from tech industry site DigiTimes, smartphone makers are convinced that Apple will be adding near field communications, or NFC, to the next-generation iPhone, widely expected to be released in 2012.

The current smartphone market only has about 10 percent adoption of NFC technology, but according to Taiwan-based phone manufacturers, that number could rise to 50 percent by 2013.

Samsung, HTC, Nokia, and RIM all have NFC-enabled phones currently on the market. Rumors last spring had Apple adding the e-wallet technology to iOS and what is now the iPhone 4S. That, of course, did not come to fruition.… Read more

VeriFone, the world's largest electronic payment provider, announced today it had acquired privately held Global Bay Mobile Technologies, which makes apps that help mobile devices conduct financial transactions.

South Plainfield, N. J.-based Global Bay's infrastructure and software support are expected to strengthen VeriFone as it competes for a piece of the emerging mobile payments market.

By storing credit card and bank account information, cell phones equipped with the necessary near field communication technology can exchange information with other equipped phones as well NFC-based registers and terminals as a way of paying for goods and services wirelessly.

This … Read more

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:

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

Nokia is jumping even further onto the NFC bandwagon with plans to support the mobile payments technology in its latest Symbian phones and all future phones.

The Finish phone maker's current C7 handset and its new 700, 701, and 600 phones already include the NFC hardware and will fully support it by the first half of 2012, according to NFC World and other sources.

The company also plans to outfit all upcoming Symbian phones with the NFC chips as part of its aggressive move into the mobile payments market.

"From now on, all of our products will have … Read more

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