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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

#91

Post by sangnoir »

hvidgaard wrote: post #89
janekm wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

QR codes are cheaper, but NFC tags are more convenient. QR code are typically also all the same on a given label, where NFC can be programmed to have a unique id for each relatively simple.

QR codes support multiple devices at the same time, and have much larger range for reading (limited by the physical display size). Unique ID's can be built into the app reading the QR code for things like payment transactions. If I control the app reading the QR code (like WeChat), I can easily add state and add some "ping-back" behaviour to ID who/what/where the scan happened.

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

#92

Post by izacus »

brad0 wrote: post #46
jseliger wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most modern cameras have, for the last couple years, used NFC to quickly and easily transmit photos from the camera to the phone. From what I understand, on Android this works pretty effectively. On iOS, however, weak NFC implementation means that one must use a kind of janky WiFi transfer system. It works, but it's kind of difficult to use and not very elegant.

Are you sure it's transmitting over NFC? I thought NFC is quite a limited bandwidth connection. Maybe it's creating the initial connection over NFC and doing the actual transfer over wifi?

Android has a protocol called Android Beam where NFC is used to negotiate transfer which is then moved to either Bluetooth or WiFi Direct. That's probably what cameras are using.

Between phones you tap them together while a picture / video is open (which is admittedly less elegant than AirDrop... although significantly more reliable in my experience).

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

#93

Post by rollingpebbles »

rconti wrote: post #59
ben1040 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One nice thing is bluetooth pairing. I bought a pair of Bose QC35 headphones recently. There is an NFC tag embedded in the headphones. I just had to tap my phone to the headphones and hit an "accept" button on my phone, and they were paired. Similarly a friend has a box plugged into their stereo that's essentially just an A2DP receiver with RCA outputs, and has NFC on it for pairing. I wanted to play some music on hi…

Do you just tap, or do you have to launch an app first? I only ask because the bluetooth pairing process is already pretty painless (I have QC35 and an iPhone).

I have an iPhone 6S, QC35 and a MBP 13 mid-2012. The Mac won't stay paired after booting and sleeping once. Only fixed by rebooting (kext reloading, process killing, bluetooth debug menu don't work). Also, it's annoying that it won't charge and stay powered-on simultaneously. Finally, there's ground loop noise originating from the iPhone if charging the iPhone & QC35 from the same source with using the audio cable together.

ProTip: Apparently, the QC25 remote cable with buttons works on the QC35 too.

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

#94

Post by rollingpebbles »

threeseed wrote: post #16
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?

The biggest use case is probably for public transport. That's something where you are tapping on/off multiple times a day.

Replace transit passes and employee/residence/parking garage badges.

Interesting story: I was in London and had an Oyster card but forgot I had the Clipper card for the SF Bay Area too. On seemingly reading the Clipper card, the Tube gate turned orange and basically shutdown.

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

#95

Post by baobrain »

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?

I have yet to meet someone else that does this, but I use nfc tags to shut off my alarm in the mornings. It forces me to get out of bed to shut off my alarm.

Not very exciting but indispensable to me.

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

#96

Post by Andrenid »

zik wrote: post #44
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?

In Australia most over the counter payments are done with NFC cards. Some banks allow this to be done with a wave of your phone so you don't need to carry credit cards at all.

I just switched to this a week ago and loving it. I can go for walks and carry nothing but my phone, and still grab a coffee etc. My last week of spending has been done entirely via NFC payments.

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

#97

Post by Kipters »

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?

Yeah, makes sense

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

#98

Post by dilemma »

rosser wrote: post #20
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?

I suspect that the general lack of exciting things involving NFC might have a little bit to do with the fact that ~half the mobile audience couldn't do anything with them. That appears to have changed, so this consequence probably will too.

You mean 10% of mobile users couldn't use NFC.

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

#99

Post by hvidgaard »

sangnoir wrote: post #91
hvidgaard wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

QR codes are cheaper, but NFC tags are more convenient. QR code are typically also all the same on a given label, where NFC can be programmed to have a unique id for each relatively simple.

QR codes support multiple devices at the same time, and have much larger range for reading (limited by the physical display size). Unique ID's can be built into the app reading the QR code for things like payment transactions. If I control the app reading the QR code (like WeChat), I can easily add state and add some "ping-back" behaviour to ID who/what/where the scan happened.

I think you misunderstood. I never talked about ping back or anything like it. For that, both are exactly the same. I was purely talking about how it scales when you need to identify each item individually, for instance library books. But it wasn't exactly clearly communicated, my bad.

For inventory management, it's preferable that each item has its own unique code. So either you need to print a different QR code for every item, or you put on an NFC chip.

It is true that QR codes are supported on more devices, but that is because cameras and screens are ubiquitous with smart phones. An NFC reader is cheaper.

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

#100

Post by xor1 »

Started looking at the author's patents out of curiosity.

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=...

A computer receives user preferences. The computer receives a document, wherein the document includes an image. The computer determines that the image contains embedded text. The computer determines that the embedded text does not satisfy the received user preferences. The computer modifies the embedded text to satisfy user preferences.

Is this stuff actually enforceable? As in, could I, with adequate legal sources, actually get companies and individuals to pay me money for something as generic as "Text resizing within an embedded image", without actually implementing it (whether it be stand-alone code or within some sort of application)? Is Apple shelling out cash to IBM for the privilege of autoresizing labels?

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