By 
Near Field Communications: it’s not the most common here in the states yet, but Google’s trying to promote it and it looks like a few app developers are anticipating its widespread use. One app called EnableTable enables a restaurant to entice their customers with deals and coupons to keep coming back. With each check, a user would wave their phone over the check book and it would pull in a coupon for their next visit. Not bad at all.
“Welcome Back Coupons arrive at the end of the meal and reward repeat business,” says EnableTable’s Kevin Gallagher. “The best way to build sustainable business is to recognize loyal customers and NFC technology accurately pinpoints loyal customers inside the restaurant.”
Then there’s Taglet, a Japanese app that is designed to help you get around the Nexus S’s current read-only limitation. Google and NXP says this limitation will be lifted with future updates, though, so I’m not sure how useful it’ll ultimately end up being. Here’s a video demo of it, regardless:
And we’re hearing third party outlets are dishing out SDKs to help you take advantage of the Nexus S’s – and hopefully future Android phones’ – NFC capabilities. If you’re an app developer and want to give that a shot, check out Mobifyer – looks cheap enough to get started without worry of the technology not taking off. [via NFC World]
Am I correct in understanding that the G2/DZ doesn’t have an NFC chip? :(
I thought the nexus s was the only android phone currently with the nfc chip built in. I could be wrong though.
How hard would it be for POS (point of sale) software companies to add QR codes for the bottom of a bill? Or for that matter, just include a coupon on the bottom of my printed receipt (no gee whiz technology required).
Sorry TED, I will NOT be scanning any caveman barcodes while on a hot date with my stripper girlfriend. All I gotta do is place my Nexus S on that bill and POOF, magic savings! I love this phone and I cant wait to see whats next for NFC.
unfortunately by the time this gets even slightly popular the only phone that has it will be obsolete. CES came and went and no one displayed anything with NFC. No other companies are picking up on it and Samsung themselves aren’t adding it to their latest phones.
I personally think it was just a gimmick on Samsung’s part to sucker people into getting the Nexus S.
That orange phone you’re seeing in the Taglet video is a Sharp phone(003SH on softbank, LYNX on DoCoMo and SH03 on AU) we have here in Japan that runs Froyo but has a Felica Sony NFC chip baked in like most feature phones here in Japan so we can use Suica for our trains and buses and Edy for E-money here… I
NFC is not a gimmick I promise you– It’s just that in the US, you guys haven’t seen it in action on a wide enough scale yet, but here in Japan, I can’t really do much without encountering it on a daily basis! If you go to McDonalds here with any phone with the Felica chip in it, you can tap on the cash register and it will auto load coupons into it for the next visit. I can use my Suica card as a point card at the gym I go to, and it also opens and closes my locker, and the facilities here…
Check it out…http://www.felicanetworks.co.jp/