28
Mar
11x0315n83verigoog

Google Teams Up With MasterCard and Citigroup To Bring NFC Payments To US

Posted by in Android OS, Gingerbread 2.3, News

The smartphone is slowly becoming the "all-in-one" gadget, however one big gap that still exists is the inability to easily make purchases directly through the device instead of using cash or credit cards. According to the WSJ  and "people familiar with the matter", Google is working with MasterCard and Citigroup to fill this void by using the still nascent NFC (near field  communication) technology to develop a new mobile payment service.

Customers using Citigroup cards will be able to activate an app developed specifically for NFC enabled Android smartphones. This app will allow users to pay for their purchases by waving their NFC enabled Android smartphone over a contact-less reader.

15
Mar
11x0315n83verigoog

Google Testing NFC Mobile Payment System In San Francisco And New York

Posted by in News

Bloomberg is reporting that Google intends to test out the still nascent NFC (near field  communication) technology by allowing shoppers in New York and San Francisco to pay for their purchases using only their mobile devices.

Apparently, Google is planning on buying thousands of special cash-register systems from VeriFone Systems Inc. and installing these at retail outlets in the two metros sometime in the next four months. Then customers with NFC enabled mobile devices can pay for their purchases by tapping in on these special registers.

The popularity of this project will largely depend on how fast hardware manufactures are able to develop mobile devices with the NFC technology.

09
Feb
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Android 2.3.3 Update To Gingerbread Brings New NFC Capabilities (Including Writing/Transmitting) And Other Enhancements

Posted by in Android OS, Gingerbread 2.3, News

When Gingerbread was launched back in December of last year, we learned that one of its main selling points was Near Field Communication (NFC) support, which allowed for NFC-enabled devices to communicate when placed near each other.

Using your Android phone as a credit card or sharing information by bringing 2 devices close to each other seemed like a dream come true until we found that NFC support in Gingerbread was actually quite limited - writing/transmitting was not possible and only a limited subset of reading APIs was available.

Today, Google announced a new Gingerbread update bearing version number 2.3.3. The update is concentrated mostly around NFC, introducing writing/transmitting APIs and support for a wider range of NFC standards.

09
Dec
google_decal

Google Starting Near Field Communication (NFC) Push In Portland, Oregon

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju)

Wondering how and when that newfangled Near Field Communication (NFC) techology in the Nexus S will be put to good use? Thanks to a new post on the Google Mobile Blog, we now know where the Goog is starting off: businesses. Specifically, they're looking to help businesses use the nifty tech to share some info about themselves to curious people passing by.

How does it work? Google is sending out kits, complete with window decals, to businesses around Portland. The businesses can set up the kit, set up an info page on Google Places, and slap the decal on the window; if somebody is walking by and is curious about a business, the idea is that they can just briefly hold their phone up to the decal and additional information about the establishment will be pulled up on the phone.

07
Dec
nfc

NFC In Gingerbread Is Crippled - It's One-Way-Only, And Not The Way We Want

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, Google, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung
Last Updated: February 9th, 2011

Update 2/9/11: Writing/transmitting via NFC is now possible thanks to the 2.3.3 update.

One thing that was very much anticipated in the Nexus S and Gingerbread in general was NFC (Near Field Communication) support, which is a feature we've never seen before on an Android device. In fact, the vast majority of us took it to mean that it will allow you to use your phone as a credit card, which would indeed be very exciting and insanely cool. Unfortunately, that's not the case here; rather, the technology will allow the Nexus S (and other NFC-capable Android phones) to act as a glorified barcode scanner of sorts.

06
Dec
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[Updated] Google Announces 2.3 Gingerbread! Here Is Everything You Need To Know

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News
Last Updated: December 10th, 2010

The moment we've been waiting for so many months - it's finally here! I can hardly contain my excitement as I'm writing this, but both Gingerbread and the Samsung Nexus S were officially announced 30 minutes ago. As expected, the new OS bears the version number 2.3 and brings updates to the SDK and the NDK as well SDK tools and the Eclipse ADT plugin.

As expected, a lot of the OS improvements are under-the-hood, which will result in better gaming, responsiveness, and overall Android experience.

New Features/Enhancements

OS/SDK/NDK

The new OS features and enhancements include:

  • enhancements for game development, including a new concurrent garbage collector, more native APIs, faster event distribution, updated video drivers, and new sensors (gyroscope) - this is amazing for developers; expect gaming to get a lot more responsive and versatile
  • lots and lots of attention in the above bullet point has been given to the NDK - the Native Development Kit.

15
Nov
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Eric Schmidt At Web 2.0 Summit: Gingerbread Coming "In The Next Few Weeks," Will Support NFC, Aim For Location And Payment Processing

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News

Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, was scheduled to appear at the Web 2.0 Summit today, and while some speculated that he might finally announce Gingerbread to the world, I had my doubts about whether he would actually announce the update rather than talking about it on some tangent. Unfortunately, the truth ended up being somewhere in the middle, with Eric only brushing up on a few things and then going off about the general strategy.

Here's what went down, in my favorite bullet point style:

  • Eric came out and was asked about Android right off the bat.
  • He then pulled out a device that he said he was carrying with him for a while, which by the looks of it was none other than the Nexus S.

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