Panasonic has revealed the first model of its European smartphone assault, a 4.3-inch Android device with a qHD 960 x 540 OLED display, NFC and a slimline “D-shaped” cross-section. Currently unnamed, the new device will be the first of Panasonic’s new line-up in Europe, arriving in March 2012 and bringing some of the tidbits Japanese Panasonic device buyers have been enjoying for some time.
Verizon has issued a statement today denying claims that it is intentionally blocking support for the Google Wallet mobile payment app on the upcoming Galaxy Nexus. The response comes after a Google spokesperson confirmed yesterday that Verizon's Galaxy Nexus would not support the company's NFC-based payment app, spurring rumors that rivalry from Verizon's own NFC payment system was in play.
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Google Wallet will soon be heading to a vending machine near you. The NFC-enabled payment system lets you make purchases with a simple tap of your smartphone. It can also deliver coupons and rewards directly to your phone. Terminals with NFC support will be deployed to the vending machines starting in NYC, Chicago, D.C., and San Francisco.
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It looks like just about all the credit card firms are jumping into the digital wallet realm trying to make it easier for consumers to rack up credit card debt and pay with branded debit cards. Visa has announced a new digital wallet service that is set to launch early in 2012. The new service will be called V.me and will apparently be able to offer PayPal some competition.
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Tidbits on the HTC Edge, the rumored quadcore smartphone that could potentially catapult HTC back to the top-spot in Android devices, continue to emerge after yesterday’s leak. In addition to the NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor – running at 1.5GHz, supposedly, and paired with 1GB of RAM – the Edge will supposedly include NFC, according to BGR. That’s to go along with the 4.7-inch 720p HD S-LCD 2 display with optical lamination.
This week it was revealed by none other than NXP that they were the ones that have been in the Nexus S from Samsung powering its NFC component and will also be in the Galaxy Nexus, they therefore providing the NFC for both Google hero devices. This isn't a gigantic deal for those of you that just want your devices to work, not caring about what's deeply embedded in the devices to make them work so spectacularly, but for the Android need-to-know crowd out there, you'll need to know this: the same NXP PN65N solution used in the Nexus S will now be used on the Galaxy Nexus.
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Among the slew of new features announced today for the Galaxy Nexus smartphone and Android Ice Cream Sandwich is a native app called Android Beam. This feature uses the built-in NFC on the Galaxy Nexus to allow users to easily share files between two Ice Cream Sandwich devices by simply tapping them together.
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Google Wallet unveiled its first batch of retail partners last week, which included American Eagle Outfitters, The Container Store, Foot Locker, Guess, Jamba Juice, Macy's, OfficeMax, and Toys R Us. And today, the company has even more good news for the select few with the NFC-equipped Nexus S 4G, revealing that those retail partners will also begin offering coupons and rewards points exclusively through Google Wallet.
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Motorola today unveiled two new Bluetooth headsets called the Elite Silver and the Elite Flip. Both headsets pack NFC chips, which means pairing the headsets with NFC-equipped handsets is as easy as tapping the two together. They also work with Motorola's My MotoSpeak app so that users can compose and send text messages by voice as well as listen to incoming texts.
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Sonim has announced three new ultra-rugged mobile phones, including one that offers NFC support. The company claims to hold the Guinness World Record for the World's Toughest Phone and unveiled earlier this year its XP3300 Force that's hailed as the rugged mobile phone with the world's longest talk time.
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Never fear, Blackberry Tag isn't another fail-laced tablet or other device coming from RIM. Tag is a new tech that users of Blackberry smartphones will be able to use to trade and share data with other Blackberry users. Tag will be coming in BB7 and is the name of the NFC sharing tech RIM has been working on. It's worth noting that Tag is subject to network certifications. That would mean a chance that Tag is on some networks and not others.
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If you’ve got either an AT&T or a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II and were hoping to work with Google Wallet in the near future, you might well be in luck. Have a look under your battery cover and you’ll find the three sweetest words a mobile payments seeker can ever read: Near Field Communication. It’s not been highly publicized yet because plans aren’t publicly solid, but take a closer look in at least one public press release and you’ll see it, clear as day: NFC enabled.
