NFC

Jawbone is taking on mobile payments, with the fitness wearable firm partnering up with American Express to show Apple Pay and others how the cashless society should go. Based around a new flagship wristband, the Jawbone UP4, the payments system embeds NFC into the strap for frictionless transactions across any wireless-capable cash register where a regular American Express card could be used. I caught up with Jawbone and AMEX to find out why UP4 is special.

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Paying for things without getting your wallet out is uniquely satisfying. Doing so with a wearable is even more intriguing. Those who aren’t interested in a smartwatch may still be able to pay for goods digitally, as a new report suggests Jawbone and American Express will partner for a mobile payment solution. Though the talk only suggests your American Express card will work with a Jawbone band, they don’t say which one. The latest Jawbone product, UP3, has NFC built in, but won’t be part of this mobile payment method.

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Kitchen tech is big money, and Googling a recipe on your iPhone while you try to remember how many tablespoons are in a cup is no longer cutting it. Orange Chef believes it has the answer with Countertop, a new smart kitchen platform that bakes in NFC and Bluetooth. Building on last-year's Prep Pad connected scale with the ability to recognize appliances from Vitamix and Crock-Pot, Countertop not only suggests - and tweaks - recipes but walks you through making them. I caught up with CEO Santiago Merea for a DIY smoothie and some kitchen geekery.

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This year's BaselWorld in Switzerland has become the stage for many companies, watch makers or otherwise, to reveal their own take on the idea of smart devices on your wrist. Some have completely jumped on the smartwatch bandwagon while other cautiously remain on the periphery, like the new Swiss Horological Smartwatch group and their MotionX activity tracker platform. Jeweler Bulgari is making yet another twist, calling its concept device not a smartwatch but an "intelligent watch", one that practically keeps a safety vault on your wrist instead.

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Rather than combat smartwatches head-on, Swatch is aiming at a niche service offered with many platforms. Speaking to media at Swatch’s annual ‘Media Day’, CEO Nick Hayek confirmed the watchmaker had signed deals with three bank card associations to bring NFC to Swatch’s incoming lineup of watches for the purpose of mobile payments. NFC will also make its way to wearables across Swatch’s lineup, from the low-cost plastic variants to their top-end Omega brand. Swatch confirmed China UnionPay as a partner, but refused to name the Swiss bank and credit card company they’d also partnered with.

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For all their advertised benefits, these rising mobile payment systems are pretty much walled gardens of their own. But what if you wanted to use that fancy new wireless system to pay, not just a merchant, but a friend? There's a new app on Android that proposes to do just that and it even lets Apple Pay users join the game. But while Spot.me sounds like a really neat and social thing, it might actually be more trouble than it's worth from a security point of view.

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Apple Pay, Apple's new wireless, NFC payment method, is a clear step towards a future where customers no longer have to deal with pulling a card out of their wallet, typing PIN numbers, or signing receipts when making payments. We just tap/swipe our phones and we're done. But one lawmaker doesn't like that idea and still wants us to continue digging in our wallets at the register. Missouri's Joshua Peters (D) from the House of Representatives has proposed a law that requires a photo ID be shown by anyone making a smartphone-based payment.

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Sony has introduced a new pair of in-ear headphones, the MDR-AS600BT. As you might have guessed from the model name, these earbuds feature Bluetooth connectivity (hence the "BT" at the end), as well as NFC for even quicker pairing with mobile devices. The headphones seem targeted at ordinary usage but include some features that would go along well while out running or in the gym, or when commuting on the train everyday. The headphones will be available starting February 13.

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CES day four (technically day 3, but we’re counting Monday’s pre-event as a day anyway) brought a lot of fun little gadgets and toys. There was more VR, some point-and-shoot cameras, and even a printer that’s not a printer. More Internet of Things stuff was announced, and in case you weren’t sure, SD cards are NFC-capable, now. The car of the future drove into our hearts, and we got a quick look at the light bulb that might make you less cranky in the morning.

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Toshiba has rolled out a new type of memory card with a technology inside that we haven't seen before. The memory card is a SDHC card with integrated NFC functionality. The new memory card will be offered in three different capacities of 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB. The official unveil of the memory card was done at CES 2015 in Las Vegas this week.

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Apple Pay is wildly popular, with the secure form of mobile payment enjoying nothing but praise and adulation at every turn. On launch, Apple had some significant partnerships with the likes of Citibank and Chase. Mobile payment processors like Square are readying their hardware to support Apple Pay, and various startups are already doing just that. Now, Apple has announced they’ve got even more support, and 90% of the credit purchase by volume int he US can now be accomplished using Apple Pay.

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Magnets and consumer electronics do not usually mix well, except for a few, well engineered cases. That tenuous relationship between the two seems to be the cause of some reported problems with the Optical Image Stabilization feature on their iPhone 6 Plus, as well as NFC performance on both the iPhone 6 and its larger sibling. And the source of this problem might be that fancy metallic case or magnetic accessory that you have may have just purchased from some reseller off the net.

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