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Apple joins the NFC party, providing iOS developers the ability to read NFC tags

developer.ibm.com

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Re: Apple joins the NFC party, providing iOS developers the ability to read NFC tags

#61

Post by MBCook »

adambrenecki wrote: post #50
0x0 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there is any technical reason for requiring iPhone 7. I thought iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s also had some kind of NFC hardware present to support Apple Pay.

IIRC, because the payment terminals have their own power source, previous iPhone generations lacked the induction coils necessary to support passive NFC tags. Presumably they were added to the iPhone 7?

It could also be some kind of security thing where the 7 was designed to be able to have 3rd party access where the 6/6s would have required the secure enclave to do something risky.

Pure guess.

Re: Apple joins the NFC party, providing iOS developers the ability to read NFC tags

#64

Post by sriram_iyengar »

givinguflac wrote: post #13

Neat, but I've yet to see a single NFC use case that gets me anywhere near as excited as this author. Amiibo is a cool concept but obviously limited. I've used some writable tags for android settings changes and such years ago, but it just doesn't seem useful to me. Anyone know a killer use case I'm missing here?

We were working on a travel card TOP up problem using mobile phone and it required NFC parity on iOS and android.

Re: Apple joins the NFC party, providing iOS developers the ability to read NFC tags

#66

Post by wensheng »

abritinthebay wrote: post #60
giobox wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds me of the ridiculous excitement over iBeacons when Apple announced their proprietary NFC-like tech a few years ago. Virtually every iOS dev I know bought some cheap iBeacons thinking "wow this is so cool" and never ended up building anything useful. I wasn't immune either, as the abandoned iBeacon in my desk drawer attests to. There's undoubtedly great use cases for NFC on phones (payments, travel passes,…

Beacons a) aren't Apple exclusive b) are really cool. The trouble is that the category of features they solve can often also be solved by GPS, Network, or other similar technologies. There are a myriad of cool things that Bluetooth Beacons can do but none of them are particularly consumer must-haves.

Might be off-topic, but anyone know what other techs provide indoor distance tacking/localization other than BLE beacons? WIFI's accuracy is too low.

Re: Apple joins the NFC party, providing iOS developers the ability to read NFC tags

#67

Post by pfranz »

giobox wrote: post #49
givinguflac wrote: post #13

Neat, but I've yet to see a single NFC use case that gets me anywhere near as excited as this author. Amiibo is a cool concept but obviously limited. I've used some writable tags for android settings changes and such years ago, but it just doesn't seem useful to me. Anyone know a killer use case I'm missing here?

It reminds me of the ridiculous excitement over iBeacons when Apple announced their proprietary NFC-like tech a few years ago. Virtually every iOS dev I know bought some cheap iBeacons thinking "wow this is so cool" and never ended up building anything useful. I wasn't immune either, as the abandoned iBeacon in my desk drawer attests to. There's undoubtedly great use cases for NFC on phones (payments, travel passes,…

A lot of the coolness requires a critical mass. The idea is usually being a standard, being Apple supported, or being included in Android provides that...in practice, that hasn't been true.

I look enviously at other countries that have been using feature phones for banking and p2p banking. The video of a guy in China assembling his own iPhone shows QR codes at each booth used for payment. There's no reason Smart Phones or NFC could do those things better, but we still don't have it and it won't be happening in the U.S. in near future.

Re: Apple joins the NFC party, providing iOS developers the ability to read NFC tags

#68

Post by kalleboo »

maratc wrote: post #31
ben1040 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is this Android app that allows you to read your transit pass to check the balance. It's pretty handy with a Clipper Card, for example. http://codebutler.github.io/farebot/ That said Chicago seems to have the most convenient system along the lines of what you're talking about -- you can use plain old tap and pay at the terminal with Apple Pay or Android Pay.

Reading balance is not too exciting, as I said. There doesn't seem to be any Android apps to let your phone function as a transit pass. I understand why it would be cool to let your phone replace your transit pass (as it's cool to let your phone replace your credit card), but I don't understand why it's cool to let your phone replace a transit pass reader.

Japan-model Android phones ship with an app called "Osaifu-Keitai" which you can load up with a transit pass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaifu-Keitai

Re: Apple joins the NFC party, providing iOS developers the ability to read NFC tags

#69

Post by janekm »

pfranz wrote: post #67
giobox wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds me of the ridiculous excitement over iBeacons when Apple announced their proprietary NFC-like tech a few years ago. Virtually every iOS dev I know bought some cheap iBeacons thinking "wow this is so cool" and never ended up building anything useful. I wasn't immune either, as the abandoned iBeacon in my desk drawer attests to. There's undoubtedly great use cases for NFC on phones (payments, travel passes,…

A lot of the coolness requires a critical mass. The idea is usually being a standard, being Apple supported, or being included in Android provides that...in practice, that hasn't been true. I look enviously at other countries that have been using feature phones for banking and p2p banking. The video of a guy in China assembling his own iPhone shows QR codes at each booth used for payment. There's no reason Smart Phon…

Actually, interestingly, QR codes can be better for some payment scenarios than NFC. I live in China and I can go to my local corner shop, pick up a bottle from the fridge, and even if there's a queue at the register I can scan the code from a distance, pay and leave with a nod from the shop keeper.

QR codes are also used for exchanging contact information... when I give a talk in China, I put my Wechat QR code at the end so any member of the audience can scan it from the slide for follow-up conversations.

Re: Apple joins the NFC party, providing iOS developers the ability to read NFC tags

#70

Post by curryhowardiso »

This is potentially huge news - given that Apple just fought (and won) an antitrust/anti competition lawsuit in Australia in respect of not allowing Australian banks to use this NFC API!

http://registers.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/1197...

Edit: pulled the trigger on this comment too soon - it appears that the API will only support "reader mode" which is not what the main subject of the litigation was about - the banks wanted a 'total' (for want of a better word) public access API.

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