Hasta La Gadget!

Yay for the UK, it’s now one step closer to catching up to the Japan of last decade. Mobile carrier Orange is today launching the UK’s first mobile phone contactless payment service, dubbed Quick Tap, for purchases up to £15. It works on MasterCard’s PayPass system and requires you to have a Barclays debit or credit card or, alternatively, a credit card from Orange itself. Gemalto is providing the SIM-based NFC compatibility, with Samsung’s entirely unrevolutionary Tocco Lite being the (admittedly affordable) launch handset. Then you just need to trust the Quick Pay app to be as secure as promised and you’ll be ready to go off and use your phone as a payment terminal at over 50,000 locations, including joints run by McDonald’s, Eat, Pret A Manger, Subway, and Wilkinson. A quick intro video and a more expansive press release follow after the break.

Continue reading Orange and Barclaycard launch ‘Quick Tap’ NFC mobile payments in the UK

Orange and Barclaycard launch ‘Quick Tap’ NFC mobile payments in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 May 2011 03:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lockitron. Even the name inspires a feeling of security. Security administered by giant Japanese robots, perhaps, but security nonetheless. Lockitron is a door lock that you can unlock with your cellphone.

It works like this. You replace either part or all of your door lock with Lockitron’s parts (depending on the kind of lock you have). Then, when you get home you fire up the app on your phone and hit the “unlock” button. That’s it. There is also a “lock” button for when you leave, and you can give access to a friend just by sending them an SMS with a code that lets them use their phone to open the door.

The Lockitron can also be used with an optional NFC (near field communication) add-on. This sticks onto the lock and when you wave your NFC-equipped phone in front of it it will open the door for you.

What’s not to like? If you have an NFC phone like the Nexus S, then you can now leave not only your wallet but your keys at home. Just make sure you don’t lose your cellphone, or you are royally screwed.

The Lockitron starts at $295, and is available now.

Lockitron product page [Lockitron]

See Also:

• Apple Adding NFC Contact-Less Payment to iPhone 5, Consultants …
• Remote Control Your Car With Your iPhone

We’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about the upcoming iPhone. Many questions have been thrown around like will it be called the iPhone 5 or the 4S, will it have near-field communication technology, will it be 4G, and will it be available on other carriers? Two research firms have come out with their take […]

Ready to get your bump on? You’d better be because Google’s planning to bring peer-to-peer NFC sharing to the Ice Cream Sandwich release of Android. Imagine it: 0-click contact, web page, and YouTube video sharing between your NFC-equipped Android smartphones and tablets. Just bring the devices together and voila, data shared without launching an application or navigating through the UI. Google plans to build this functionality into as many systems apps as it can while providing the API to developers to 0-click enable their third-party applications. Watch it go down phone-to-phone and phone-to-tablet (prototype) after the break. It’s the future, get used to it.

Continue reading Android 0-click NFC sharing demonstrated in Ice Cream Sandwich (video)

Android 0-click NFC sharing demonstrated in Ice Cream Sandwich (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 01:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon came together to create the Isis mobile payment system, they touted a standalone service, powered by Discover’s payment network, that would revolutionize the way we make small purchases on the move. Well, the revolution is still on schedule, apparently, but the big trio is now being said to have made a concession in reaching out to the incumbent leaders in this field, Visa and MasterCard. The Wall Street Journal cites multiple sources in reporting that Isis has turned into a less ambitious “mobile wallet” project that would seek to let you use your Visa or MasterCard account via your NFC-capable smartphone. As far as the consumer is concerned, it’s still the same swipe-to-buy proposition, but the move was apparently necessary for Isis “to avoid falling further behind” in the race to corner this developing market. We’d say it’s encouraging to see these guys showing a bit of swiftness — it’s about time the rest of the world caught up to Japan.

Isis mobile payment system to work with Visa and MasterCard, shelving plans for its own network originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 06:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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