12
Jun
1

[International Book Giveaway] Win One Of Ten Copies Of 'Professional NFC Application Development For Android' From Wrox And Android Police

Posted by in Contests / Giveaways

For consumers, NFC is an extremely useful tool for making like easier. It can be used for everything from simple task automation to quick Bluetooth pairing and tap-to-pay transactions. For developers, it can be a way to bring new life to an application, create something different, or just simplify an existing offering. Of course, in order to incorporate any newly adopted technology into an application, the developer has to learn the ins and outs, as well as any limitations that could cause issues.

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If you're one such dev looking to learn how to use NFC in your app, we've teamed up with Wrox to offer 10 copies of Professional NFC Application Development for Android.

08
Jun
Google Wallet

Bloomberg Report: "Google Wallet Has Become A Money Pit," Some Expansion Projects Reconsidered Or Abandoned

Posted by in Google, News
Last Updated: June 9th, 2013

After two years on the market, Google Wallet has failed to gain any kind of meaningful foothold in the mobile payment world. That's the gist of a new report from Bloomberg Businessweek, slamming Google's mobile and NFC payment service as a "money pit" and unlikely to succeed against existing and upcoming competitors. Among the publication's chief complaints are $300 million in investments and acquisitions, and hundreds of developers on staff, all for less than 10 million downloads in the Google Play Store.

cracked wallet

One reason cited for the lack of users is obvious: in the US, Google Wallet's primary target market, Sprint is still the only major carrier that allows users to download the app.

28
Apr
nexusae0_tectile_thumb

Samsung Galaxy S4 Is Incompatible With Original TecTiles - TecTile 2 Coming Soon

Posted by in Accessories, News

Many things don't work well together: oil and water, drinking and driving, and as it turns out, Samsung's TecTiles and the Galaxy S4. Samsung is acknowledging that the current line of NFC tags cannot be read by its new flagship phone. In fact, even the official TecTile site's Buy Now link is now defunct.

The SGS4 incorporates a Broadcom BCM2079x chip which lacks support for some types of MIFARE tags from NXP Semiconductors, including TecTiles which are built with MIFARE Classic chips. Samsung is planning to launch TecTiles 2 to replace the older stickers. Here is their official statement given to Android Police:

Samsung is introducing TecTile 2, an update to the original TecTile NFC programmable tags, which will be available in the coming weeks.

20
Jan
sony-logo

Sony Announces Xperia Tablet Z – Quad-Core, 6.9mm Thick, And 10.1-Inch 1920x1200 Screen

Posted by in News, Sony, Xperia Tablet Z

Rumors have been bumping around the internet for a few days now, but Sony has finally put the speculation to rest. The Xperia Tablet Z has been announced, but only for the Japanese market at this point. The Xperia Tablet Z is the tablet counterpart to the recently announced Xperia Z phones, and it's running Android 4.1 at launch.

tablet-z tablet-z back

The Tablet Z has a 10.1-inch LCD screen at 1920x1200 with Sony's Bravia 2 post-processing engine. Inside, it's packing the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro at 1.5GHz per-core, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (with an SD card slot), and an NFC chip.

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.

08
Jan
2013-01-08_13h32_13

[CES 2013] Toshiba Introduces First Android TransferJet Adapter For The Fastest Close Range Data Transfer You Might Never Use

Posted by in Accessories, News

Have you heard of TransferJet? We won't begrudge you if you haven't. It's a fairly obscure bit of technology that hasn't managed to work its way into many consumer products, despite first launching to the public back in 2008. So, consider this whole article a bit of indulgent dreaming when we tell you about Toshiba's newly-announced micro-USB adapter that can add TransferJet capabilities to Android phones. What does that mean? Well, it means 560Mbps transfers between devices with a tap. To put it another way: you could easily send 250MB worth of data from one handset to another in the time it takes to read this sentence (or about 70MB/sec).

28
Dec
Note2-Official-11

[Deal Alert] Register Your Galaxy S III Or Note II With Samsung And Get A Free Flip Case And TecTile NFC Stickers (US Only) [Update: All Gone]

Posted by in Deals, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S III, News

The holidays aren't over yet, and Samsung is playing Santa today if you have a US Galaxy S III or Note II. Just register the device with Samsung and you will get a free flip case worth $40 and 6 NFC TecTiles worth another $15. Not bad for doing almost no work.

Samsung-giveaway-edit

All you have to do is install the Samsung Mobile Facebook app on your PC (yes, you have to use Facebook). Then just use the app to register your device and email address. You'll need the IMEI number, which can be obtained by dialing *#06#. An email should arrive in short order with links to claim your free cover and TecTiles.

09
Nov
top-android-apps-every-rooted-user-should-know-about-part-5-apps-34-41

Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About, Part 6: Apps 42-49

Posted by in App Reviews, Applications, Best Apps For Rooted Users Series

It's been quite a while since we've delved into the realm of root apps on Android, so let's get to it. If you're rooted and not taking advantage of it, why even bother? The Android development community is ready and waiting to help you master your device.

The apps on this list have been carefully selected as "must-have" apps for root users. Well, what are you waiting for? Read on for eight more great root apps.

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

24
Oct
tectile

Samsung Updates Its TecTile App To v3.0, Brings A Host Of New NFC-Writing Capabilities

Posted by in Applications, News, Samsung

I love NFC. In fact, I use it every single day and can't imagine going back to life without it. Since I'm running CyanogenMod 10 on both my tablet and phone, I take full advantage of the profiles feature, which allows custom settings for various situations like work, home, night, and more, each of which can be activated (and de-activated) via NFC.

Beginning now, Samsung owners with NFC-capable phones can utilize a very similar feature with the newly updated TecTile app. For those who may not know, TecTile is a Samsung proprietary application that lets users write and re-write activities to NFC tags.

22
Oct
ISIS_StarLogo_Horizon_RGB_webready

Isis Mobile Payments Start Today In Salt Lake City And Austin - Here's The Full Breakdown

Posted by in AT&T, News, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless

Isis launched its mobile payments platform in Salt Lake City, UT and Austin, TX today, in a limited, initial rollout that's probably best viewed as a tech test more than an NFC payments panacea. We've know for quite some time that these would be Isis' launch markets (after numerous delays), and we also had a basic idea of how the system would work: NFC. What wasn't so widely-known is the fact that Isis uses the SIM secure element method to store payment credentials.

isislaunch

This is in contrast to Google Wallet's method, where your virtual MasterCard (used as the medium through which your payments are processed) is stored in a secure element that is typically included as a part of the NFC chip.

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