Someone fill me on NFC. WTF are we talking about here?

No freakin Chicanos. Google hates Mexicans. It's a chip on your phone that alerts you to their presence and sets off an alarm. It's really starting to take off. Racists!

ok ok.. it's Near Field Communications.. it's a chip that let's your phone communicate securely with nearby readers... like those PAYPASS things you see at most gas pumps. So, if you have Google Wallet, you can register any number of credit cards and then just "swipe" your phone by a pad and pay for things. The plan is for it to not only handle purchases Like it does now, but also mass transit ticketing, sports tickets, loyalty cards, etc etc

It also ties into GPS to let special offers show up when you are near a specific spot or your Chiefs ticket popup when you reach teh stadium.. etc etc

The tech is in place and working but they need to get more info out about it and more end points on line.

Cool thanks.

Good deal - I agree with you on Apple btw. I was just making the point that the lack of widespread availability hurts NFC. You can have a phone with NFC, and a shop with NFC, and still not be able to use it.

Some level of standardization needs to happen. You'd think this would be a dream for most companies - the fights going to be over who controls the money. Google wants it, Apple will want it, and the carriers obviously want it.

I like Apple's idea, but I question if they can make it work.

If I'm going to make the point, I guess I should describe it. I think Apple's Passbook is a brilliant idea - it just fails in the implementation. QR codes are a sloppy way to do these things. Have you ever tried to use one at the airport on your phone? It's very hit or miss. Handing your phone to someone and trying to get it to scan is very awkward.

I understand why Apple did it though. The infrastructure for NFC + tickets just isn't there. You can't partner with people that don't have the hardware to support what you're doing. It's disappointing to see Apple stand back instead of forcing the market forward; they could have done NFC + QR. That'll come next, I'm sure.

But the idea itself is great. I'm sure I have up to a dozen or two contactless cards for various things. And it's such a pain in the ass keeping them around and up to date I normally just buy a new one. Tickets are the same way. Not so much here, but in Europe you don't typically get "season tickets", you get a "season ticket card".

I know this is an Apple thread, and I hope they're thinking about it. Because Apple has the power to make it happen. I hope Google is too - they should invest in helping companies deploy NFC, because they could make a killing and beat the market. I worry a bit that it's going to go the proprietary route ("get in with your S III!"), but I hope not.

btw.. here is another cool implementation of NFC http://www.samsung.com/us/microsite/tectile/ Even though it's made by Samsung it's not really proprietary. Here's Sony's version.. http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/product...ria-smarttags/

You are right that the biggest hurdle right now is getting NFC adoption rates to be higher... BUT considering that the hardware is just recently hitting the market here in the USA it's hard to say how fast or slow it will take based on current rates. We'll know a lot more this time next year.

In Japan and Europe they are pretty far ahead already.. for example.. 11,500 post offices in Europe already use the tech.

http://www.slashgear.com/mobile-nfc-...ices-31231134/

Oh and it isn't just Google Wallet. in Austin we also have ISIS although it is lagging far behind Google.. it is basically the same thing just a different app.. which is fine by me. I doubt most consumers care which app they use. In the end Isis is gonna have a TOUGH time keeping up with Google for usability though.

http://www.paywithisis.com/whatis.xhtml

ISIS is the carrier version - that's the name I couldn't think of earlier. It'll do fine as long as everyone not named Sprint keeps Google off their network. Unless Google than decides to make Wallet a requirement to run proprietary Google apps. We shall see.

Europe actually struggles too. But they standardize quicker than we do, so hopefully soon. There is no reason the Oyster card in London shouldn't be phone capable. Everywhere else, I have doubts...

In Italy, you have people on the trains that physically check your ticket. On the buses, they do random inspections. In Spain, I'm sure they make a killing off people buying the t10 and losing them (ie me). France, same thing. I've lost that damn skinny ticket so often, or it just doesn't work.

You can still do the random checks with cards - in London they do - but you have to have the technology. And they are all so unionized it's going to take awhile to change.

Even in Chile and Argentina, where you have contactless cards, you still have to go some place to put money on it. ****ing maddening. But they have jobs they have too keep for those reasons.

It's going to take a long time to get this out. And we'll run into the same problems here. Asia is a bit different...

Yep, I see no reason we can't have both. I think Google may start to push harder to get carriers to at least let people download it if they want to. It will all play out heavily over 2013.

I think the next big thing will be to see if Google can get one of the big ticket brokers on board. I know Ticketmaster is playing around with NFC now.. not sure if it will be Wallet or Isis or both. And as I pointed out, New Jersey is doing it now for busses. So, you know, Snooki is covered.

Sprint is unbelievably retched in Los Angeles. 3G at best but usually no internet connection. Continual dropped calls. If we didn't have the employee plan through a family member, I'd drop it in a heartbeat.

And I hate the iPhone 4s. It's ridiculously heavy in an Otterbox, the battery doesn't stay charged for more than 4 hours and I constantly delete emails by accident.

Big time buyer's remorse.

Am I the only one that doesn't like thin phones? The thinner they are the more prone they are to drop and its just awkward fiddling around with them. After I got the extended battery for my Evo I actually liked the thicker phone. I've played with the SII and it is annoyingly thin.

Just wait until they're the size of a microchip. Then you'll really hate them.

Cell phones should require some type of tool belt.

Before long it will be a button behind your ear.

I have heard this now from multiple sources. I never saw it in San Diego(all over that area) or Santa Monica.. but I never went inland from the Santa Monica/Venice area so I wasn't exactly the best test case.

They need to fix that shit. Not just because of the size of LA, but simply because it is so influential in the media.

iPhone 5 -- meh.

iOS 6 -- do want! Excited!