By Neville Pattinson, Vice President for Government Affairs, Standards and Business Development at Gemalto It is safe to say that Americans live in a cyber world. With more than 91% of Americans using mobile phones, many of them smart phones, the desire to stay connected has turned into a necessity and is now expected. Health […]

The GlobalPlatform board of directors has appointed a strategic director from the GlobalPlatform membership to represent handset manufacturers in board decisions and provide industry advice on the organization’s mobile strategy through 2011 and beyond. Janne Uusilehto, director/head of Product Security for Nokia, takes up the voluntary consultative position with immediate effect. Drawing from his knowledge […]

TazTag has announced that production versions of its TazCard contactless mobile electronic wallet and TazBox NFC hotspot products will be on display at the 2011 International CES held in Las Vegas, Jan. 6-9. Based on the NFC SecuRead System-in-Package solution from INSIDE Secure, TazCard and TazBox are used to simplify the deployment of contactless applications […]

An anonymous source has revealed that Google is working on a new mobile payment service, according to businessweek.com. Google’s new project, which may make its debut as early as this year, will leverage NFC technology to enable customers to conduct contactless transactions by passing their cell phone over a reader at the point of sale, […]

China Unicom has announced the commercial launch of its Single-Card NFC solution application in Beijing. Utilizing Watchdata’s 13.56MHz NFC-enabled SIMpass SIM card, the new solution provides Beijing’s 22 million residents with mobile payment capabilities for Beijing Automated Fare Collection System (Beijing-AFCS). According to China Unicom, the Beijing-AFCS is the world largest transportation system, delivering smart […]

French contactless mobile services provider Connecthings has announced the deployment of NFC-enabled “Smart Mailboxes” in the 4th district of Paris. The solution uses NFC tags and QR codes to enable smart phones users to receive relevant information directly to their handset, such as time of post collection, nearby stamp vendors, postal codes and directions to […]

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has begun accepting proposals from tech firms to replace its SmarTrip fare system, according to tbd.com. The Metro, which provides rapid transit services to Washington D.C. and its suburbs, is looking for an open fare system that uses “contactless, chip-enabled debit and credit cards, federal ID cards, or […]

A recent survey by CONIX has revealed that financial institutions are looking to invest in new payment technology in 2011, according to PNT Marketing Services. “Banks being on more stable ground has set the stage for a period of strategic business redistribution in the industry,” said CONIX’s CEO, Mike Charles. “Even while banks have been […]

Samsung has revealed that its new updated bada 2.0 operating system will feature NFC support, according to samsunghub.com. The revamped bada OS will also feature an improved user interface, SDK support for Linux and Mac, HTML5 and 3rd party SNS integration, reports samsunghub.com. Bada 2.0 is expected to make its debut as early as the […]

Signbox has announced the UK release of its new NFC-enabled illuminated advertising poster, the Enlighten. According to Signbox, Enlighten uses NFC technology that enables customers to receive data on the subject of the advertisement directly to their smart phone by simply passing the phone over an NFC logo in the corner of the poster. That […]