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bushman4

macrumors 601
Mar 22, 2011
4,019
3,422
802.11ac is a likely feature as we've all ready seen a couple new Applebproducts carry it
As for the NFC, it's really hard to say
 

SactoGuy18

macrumors 601
Sep 11, 2006
4,339
1,502
Sacramento, CA USA
Remember what I said earlier:

1. There are rumors that Apple has signed a major deal for mobile payments with China UnionPay.

2. The Japanese and South Korean cellphone carriers want NFC on the iPhone 6 because NFC mobile payments are widely used in these two countries.

3. The group behind the (formerly named) ISIS mobile payment system wants Apple to put NFC on the newest iPhone models to expedite fast rollout of mobile payments in the USA.

Besides, nobody is interested in doing mobile payments using Bluetooth 4.0 (LE), since the range or Bluetooth 4.0 makes it highly vulnerable to potential hacking. NFC's extremely short range (only a few centimeters!) is a more viable (and definitely more mature) solution for mobile payments by cellphone.
 

MacSince1990

macrumors 65816
Oct 6, 2009
1,347
0
Am I the only one who's more excited for 802.11ac instead of NFC? :cool:

Don't much care about either. What do you need a network speed of... honestly 802.11b would be enough. All right, maybe g/n for range.

For a computer network I get it, but an iPhone? lol.
 

jlabute

macrumors regular
Jan 26, 2014
143
12
I like 802.11ac more than nfc

Wifi ac with the TC and beamforming technology you will be getting up to 1 Gb data transfer if you have that much on your provider
so yes i hope for both wifi ac and nfc..but if just one will be in, i choose wifi over nfc

NFC should be a simple addition to iOS and the hardware. I rarely use NFC at this time but who knows what sort of application could make it popular. Don't restrict hardware since it can be shut off in the OS. I've done the bump and exchange of pictures etc. I don't think developers should be restricted. I'd hope for ip67 waterproof dustproof rating too and HD audio. Hard to tell from just PCB layouts. Since WiFi is all through my city... 99.9% of the time I don't need data service through a carrier so bring on the WiFi performance. Too bad ISPs suck.
 

Skika

macrumors 68030
Mar 11, 2009
2,999
1,246
What? Are you high?

It doesn't take a masters in physics to realize that everything related with WIFI will get a boost, no?

OK like what? Internet speeds for most people aren't even close to that, also iPhone's nand flash isn't even capable of ac speeds.

So?
 

iSee

macrumors 68040
Oct 25, 2004
3,539
272
I could NFC happening. Especially if the "Mobile Wallet" rumors are true.

For an active device (powered, that is), NFC doesn't really have technical advantages over low energy bluetooth... which the iPhone already has.

And NFC-based payment systems don't seem to be successful enough to force Apple's hand.

As far as I can tell, it just doesn't make sense to ever add NFC to iPhones. So, I doubt this source.
 

Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Feb 5, 2009
5,427
4,399
It is the newest WiFi standard. Its much faster the 802.11n

But in reality, it won't matter. 802.11n can reach 300+Mbps, which is almost 40 mega BYTES of data. Almost no consumer provider can give us these WiFi speeds, and these are theoretical based on lots of factors.

I wish ac provided more real-world advantages over n, but until (at least in the US) broadband internet speeds pick up the pace, the improvement won't be realized.
 

69650

Suspended
Mar 23, 2006
3,367
1,876
England
Any signs of wireless inductive charging capability? That's one thing I would really like to see given the amount of time my iPhone sits on charge.
 

bushman4

macrumors 601
Mar 22, 2011
4,019
3,422
Visa this week has announced Visa Digital Solutions. Timing seems perfect for an alliance with Apple
 

iSee

macrumors 68040
Oct 25, 2004
3,539
272
I think the initial aim was to use Bluetooth LTE for mobile payments, however that technology seems to be for location based services. NFC is already in a huge % of card readers, chains very rarely update their hardware so having to change to bluetooth let readers would have been a huge stumbling block. Just after the 2012 Olympics Visa were pretty much begging Apple to bring out an NFC iPhone to push NFC usage. Since Apple have reportedly been in discussions with payment companies like Visa then I could see the likes of Visa only working with them if they use NFC as the means for mobile payments. This is likely the reason why NFC is almost certain to have NFC and why the 5 and 5s didn't.

I don't see it. NFC-based payment networks haven't been successful, so why would Apple try to prop them up (and give up a precious 1/10mm ;) or whatever of iPhone thickness to accommodate the antenna)?
 

Nismo73

macrumors 65816
Jan 4, 2013
1,157
970
So a 5s with touch ID would not be able to do mobile payments since it doesn't have NFC, or is it not going to matter???
 

Cougarcat

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2003
7,766
2,553
He didn't say anything about internet speeds.

He said that everything related to wifi will be faster, which is wrong. In fact, as another poster pointed out, it won't be faster at all due to the speed limitations of NAND flash. It will be good for improved battery life but that's it.
 

name99

macrumors 68020
Jun 21, 2004
2,185
1,996
HERE is why Apple added this

Am I the only one who's more excited for 802.11ac instead of NFC? :cool:

NFC has been added because it NOW (unlike three years ago, say) actually has a use case --- and that use case is not "wallets" and "payment schemes".

There is a pairing standard for BlueTooth whereby new BT devices can pair with a phone simply by NFC contact, so basically tapping the BT device against the phone.
http://www.ti.com/lit/an/sloa187/sloa187.pdf

The same thing is coming to WiFi (I don't know if it's yet officially part of the spec) to make it easier to connect "Internet of Things" devices without any UI mechanism to WiFi networks.

IMHO it is THIS that has persuaded Apple that it now finally makes sense to add NFC, because you can now do something useful with it.
 

name99

macrumors 68020
Jun 21, 2004
2,185
1,996
But in reality, it won't matter. 802.11n can reach 300+Mbps, which is almost 40 mega BYTES of data. Almost no consumer provider can give us these WiFi speeds, and these are theoretical based on lots of factors.

I wish ac provided more real-world advantages over n, but until (at least in the US) broadband internet speeds pick up the pace, the improvement won't be realized.

Look, if you're not an expert on these issues, you're not adding to the discussion by throwing out uniformed opinion.

(a) The fact that you have slow internet at your house does not change the fact that there are OTHER usage scenarios that can utilize higher bandwidth. One set set of these is public situations (for example conferences, workplaces) where base stations try to connect to every device as fast as possible, and where high internet bandwidth has been arranged.

(b) Adding to (a) there are features in 802.11ac that further improve the conference type situation by allowing multiple devices to communicate simultaneously with a single base station. These features (MU-MIMO) may or may not be part of the new iPhones, we don't know yet. (Broadcom announced some months ago that they will have an MU-MIMO phone chipset ready in a few months, but gave no more details. It is not inconceivable that Apple has arranged to be the first purchaser of that chipset.)

(c) Adding to (b) there are features in 802.11ac (in particular beam-forming) that allow you to maintain higher bandwidth at much larger distances (or through thicker walls) than 802.11n. There are plenty of people constantly whining about how 802.11 gives them lousy speeds in their basements or gardens or whatever, who will see improvements from 802.11ac.

Louis CK does a whole routine about how people who don't have a clue how cellphones work feel happy to complain about how lousy they are. But whenever 802.11ac comes up, we see something even weirder --- a chorus of people saying "I don't want it to get better, nothing should change, all the engineers are stupid for trying to improve WiFi".
I mean, seriously, WTF? What is driving these bizarre complaints?
 
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