Blackboard unveiled its Blackboard Mobile platform in Mexico and Latin America. Now available in Spanish, Blackboard Mobile enables students to access campus services via a smartphone or Web-enabled cell phone. The platform allows institutions to provide a mobile application for student users to access course catalogs and campus maps, e-mail professors and classmates, and receive […]

By Ed McKinley, Contributing Editor, AVISIAN Publications Los Angeles dazzles, New York overwhelms and Chicago gets the job done on broad shoulders. But don’t look to America’s urban behemoths for the latest in payments technology. Tiny La Junta, Colo.–until now known mainly for melons, corn and cattle–is becoming one of the nation’s first hotbeds of […]

A new product called RosettaStone has just been released, enabling bereaved to provide more information about departed loved ones on gravestones, according to slashgear.com. The device, which is a small polymer stick-on tag called a Data Tag, uses NFC technology to send images and texts to visitors’ smart phones when passed in front of the […]

Nokia has canceled plans to issue 6216 classic handsets with built-in NFC technology, according to electronista.com. The 6216 would have been Nokia’s first phone to feature a built-in NFC module that communicates with its SIM card using the Single Wire Protocol (SWP). Nokia has two other NFC-enabled phones that do not feature the SWP technology. […]

Recent patents filed by Apple suggest that the Apple iPhone 4 may come with built-in NFC technology, giving the devices the ability to function as door passes or unlock Macbooks, according to t3.com. Apple may also incorporate NFC into the iPod Touch, Macbooks, Macbook Pro, and possibly the new iPad. Although Bluetooth-based apps that lock […]

Technology columnist Nick Bilton, in a list detailing his hopes for features on the next generation of mobile phones, wrote of his looking for functional biometric sensors and various authentication capabilities on mobile phones, according to a New York Times article. Among the features Bilton wishes for biometric authentication on his next mobile phone is […]

At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, GSMA, Samsung, Telefonica and Visa, with Giesecke & Devrient, Ingenico, ITN International and La Caixa, collaborated across industries to give Congress attendees an opportunity to experience SIM-based NFC mobile payment. The participating companies provided more than 400 NFC handsets to guests for use at the Congress. The […]

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is behind on PIV issuance, according to an inspector general’s report. Only 7% of Homeland Security employees have been issued the credentials, 15,567 out of 250,000. The deadline for PIV issuance was October 2008, but agencies throughout government are behind, but the inspector general’s report takes Homeland Security to […]

Juniper research has released a report covering the highlights of this week’s Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. The report, which is available for free on Juniper’s Web site, is split up into the following sections: Flurry of launches to increase competition in the smart phone space Operators announce Apps Community GSMA embarks on LTE interconnection […]

Canadian mobile commerce company EnStream LP announced the launch of the Zoompass mobile application for Android powered phones. Zoompass enables users to send money quickly and securely to friends and family via smart phone, and takes advantage of the newest technologies of Android powered phones, such as running simultaneous applications. Zoompass users can also import […]