02
Apr
1

[Update: Winners!] Giveaway: Tons Of NFC Tags From AndyTags And Android Police

Posted by in Contests / Giveaways
Last Updated: April 11th, 2013

It's no secret that we're big fans of automation – and thus, NFC tags – around these parts. Tapping your device on a small tag to automatically adjust settings to accommodate any given situation is not only convenient, but honestly, it's downright awesome.

We've shared this love by giving away some tags in the past, and now we've teamed up with a [somewhat] newcomer to the scene to do it again: AndyTags.

Don't let the fact that AndyTags hasn't been around all that long fool you, though – it's offering up some nice-looking, customized tags in both MiFare and NTAG203 variants, along with keychains and unique Anti-Metal tags that have a special backing, allowing them to work on metal surfaces.

18
Jan
1

[Update: Winners] International Giveaway: Win One Of Ten Sets Of NFC Goodies From Tags For Droid And Android Police

Posted by in Contests / Giveaways
Last Updated: January 28th, 2013

At this point, most of you are likely familiar with NFC, what it does, and all the neat things you can do with it. And when you start writing your own commands to NFC tags, the possibilities are nearly endless. You could, for example, have a tag that silences your phone, disables GPS, and sets the screen brightness to 'auto' at night. Or have one for the car that enables Bluetooth and GPS, disables Wi-Fi, and then launches your favorite media player or navigation. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

This contest is now over.

The final results are listed below.

31
May
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[Update: Here Are The Winners!] Giveaway: Win One Of Ten Sets Of NFC Tags From TagsForDroid And Android Police

Posted by in Contests / Giveaways
Last Updated: June 7th, 2012

Last month, I took a look at just a few basic things you can do with NFC tags and a capable phone. The possibilities of things that you can do with NFC are only limited to your own ingenuity,  and we've teamed up with TagsForDroid to help you get started playing with this amazing and fun technology.

Before we get into the giveaway, though, here's another look at our demo from last month:

Like I said, those are just some of the more basic things that you can do with NFC. When combined with the power of Tasker, it really opens a whole new world of automation.

12
Apr
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Fun With NFC: Automating Simple Tasks With NFC Tags And An NFC Capable Phone

Posted by in Galaxy Nexus, Other Reviews

More and more devices are becoming available with NFC - but what does that actually mean? First and foremost, NFC stands for near field communication. Basically, when you get your device close enough to something equipped with NFC - like a tag or a mobile payment center - it invokes an action on your device. Google Wallet is a perfect example of NFC in mainstream use; simply touch your phone to the payment terminal and the rest is done for you.

There are more practical applications to using NFC than just Wallet, though. Another good example of this is a feature in Android 4.0 called Android Beam.