Apple is preparing to loosen its tight grip on the iPhone's NFC, with reports that the firm plans to give developers access to the secure wireless chip. First added to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus back in 2014, NFC - or Near Field Communications - was used for Apple Pay, the company's mobile payments system.
Yubico made a couple of exciting announcements concerning its YubiKey NEO authentication hardware today. The first is that the key is now compatible with iPhones, allowing users to employ two-factor authentication methods that don't need to rely on SMS verification codes. Yubico has also announced a new software development kit for the YubiKey NEO, which will hopefully translate to more developers supporting the device in their iOS apps.
The iPhone X Plus or the iPhone SE 2, both seem to be part of Apple's plans for 2018. But today's tips suggest that the smaller of these two units will be coming sooner than the larger. The iPhone SE 2, a device we've been waiting since basically right after the iPhone SE was released - it is probably well on its way, and it's more than likely going to continue to look utterly classic.
Microsoft has detailed Project Zanzibar, a research effort involving the development of a smart mat that takes physical toys and presents them on a display, combining real-world and digital play into a single experience. To put it simply, Microsoft says Project Zanzibar is a smart mat that can sense touch and physical items using NFC, in part. The technology could open the door to new types of gaming experiences.
Nintendo seems to have slowed its release of Amiibo figures — the small, NFC-powered toys that can unlock digital content in games when placed near the Nintendo Switch or 3DS — in recent years, but a newly discovered patent hints that the gaming could be applying the tech to new play mechanics. Specifically, Nintendo has filed a patent for a trading card game that uses Amiibo's NFC features.
VISA has introduced a new pair of NFC-equipped gloves designed specifically for people who will be attending the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang. These gloves look like ordinary winter gloves, with one big exception -- they have a VISA logo on them, which hints at the NFC tech embedded within. Rather than carrying a payment card or pulling out a phone, fans wearing these gloves can use a hand motion to make a payment.
With anything and everything becoming “smart” or, at the very least, getting connected to the Internet, there is no shortage of jokes about which thing will get smart next. Yes, that includes underwear. Don’t worry, this new “connected jersey” collab between the NBA and Nike isn’t yet at that level of absurdity. Because at the end of the day, the Nike NBA Jersey with NikeConnect is nothing but a fancy, and perhaps unnecessary, gimmick to quickly take you to your favorite team’s stats.
Both the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X have a new feature that Apple says doesn't come with any previous iPhone - for now. This feature is an opening up of the hardware that's already in quite a few iPhones from the past few years, a piece of hardware that allows Apple Pay to function. I'm speaking, of course, of the iPhone's NFC reader.
The iPhone 8 is what we expected to be the iPhone 7s - but just a little bit better. Or a whole lot better, if you're Apple making the case for skipping this year's expected "s". The iPhone X, on the other hand, has a few innovations that make it a monster compared to previous iPhone models - even compared to the iPhone 8. Or is it?
A company out of Wisconsin has announced that it will begin offering microchip implants to all of its employees beginning next month. We probably all knew this day was coming, but now Three Square Market (otherwise known as 32Market) has decided that it will be the one to usher us into the future. If you're thinking of the implications this has for Big Brother and the surveillance state after reading that headline up above, you certainly aren't alone.
This week Apple's Kevin Lynch stood on stage at WWDC 2017 and spoke about the next big update to the Apple Watch. This new update will bring Siri to the Apple Watch, at last. It'll be like having a digital assistant available all the time - from your wrist. This update also brings a stream of information from Siri - using machine learning to make the best guess at what you'll want next.
While Android Pay has been available in the US for several years now, our northern neighbors in Canada can now finally make use of the mobile payments system. Google officially began rolling out Android Pay in the country earlier this week, including support for a number of banks, shops, and restaurants. The good news is that it will work at almost of the tap-to-pay terminals across Canada, but there are a few big name banks to take note of that haven't offered support yet.