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Apple Reportedly Integrating NFC Technology into iPhone 6

Iconoclysm said:
Virtually no other purpose for NFC is better served by NFC than BLE.
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Too bad 90% of cameras and other consumer electronics devices where quick file / image / business card transfer would be important don't support BLE, "only" NFC...

Anyone downplaying NFC should some day check out how damn nice and easy it is to, say, share an image between most (except for Apple's, that is) of today's consumer devices / phones, and how much harder it is to do the traditional way.
 
jamezr said:
Nice of them to get caught up with the rest of the industry....about 2 to 3 years behind everyone else...... Now they will add a new twist to NFC and call it innovation......
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Adding NFC to a phone, when not much people are using it worldwide, is not catching up. Actually that is what innovation is all about. Using an existing technology and improving on it.
 
apolloa said:
Audio is, I want to play my tunes on my speakers, right open bluetooth... pair... enter passcode...

OR: I want to play my tunes on my speakers, right, touch devices together done!
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... and transferring images from your NFC-enabled camera to your phone has never been simpler: no need to pair, no need to start any app, no PIN codes, just touch the devices together, and the transfer starts...
 
apolloa said:
Yes it will because it's an exciting developing market, smart phones have existed for years, way before the iPhone. Apple just seems to be following everyone else this time. Hence the boredom.

Bigger screens, got that, NFC got that, OIS camera got that and so on..
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Because current smart watches are still tethered to those oh so boring smart phones. They are just an extension of smart phones and what they can already do.
 
I feel like iBeacon + Touch ID would be better than NFC. And NFC is coming to the iPhone for like 2-3 years :rolleyes:
 
In Hong Kong, we have a payment system called the Octopus Card, where you can tap the payment machines for transportation, food etc. With NFC, we can check the value of the cards, or even use our phones to make payments. It is very convenient, but I doubt similar services are as popular in other parts of the world.
 
apolloa said:
Because people on here think they know exactly what Apple does, proudly proclaim something as crap, yet here is a rumour Apple will use that very same thing fans on here proclaimed as crap.
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This rumor has been around for yrs, one. Second, it doesn't matter what people on here think apple will do. You're acting as if users of other operating systems don't have opinions and what should or shouldn't be in their phones.

And I can predict if they do implement NFC many on here will all of a sudden proclaim NFC is the second coming and how wonderful it is for Apple to INVENT it and PATENT it. May sound stupid to you, but read the comments on here in a few months time IF Apple implement NFC.....
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I can predict that anyone who does say that will not be the same people who are saying it's crap. So what does that mean? It means some people want nfc and some dont. Now if someone in this thread proclaims it crap and then proclaims it as an apple invention if they do it, then you have a point. I guarantee you will not find one instance of that happening though. In your haste to belittle apple users, you implied that all apple users should like nfc or shouldn't. The reality is, like all users of operating systems, some want it some don't.

Try to contain the excitement and think it through next time.
 
jamezr said:
Nice of them to get caught up with the rest of the industry....about 2 to 3 years behind everyone else...... Now they will add a new twist to NFC and call it innovation......
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Yes, I'm sure the reason Apple didn't implement it before is that they didn't have enough engineering resources :)

Apple has this weird habit of waiting until there's a decent use for something before slapping it on a spec sheet... If they add a "new twist" to NFC which improves its use in some way, then that would be innovation.
 
Great move

Even 2 years ago the writing was on the wall that NFC was going to become one of the primary ways cards and phones will make purchases in the coming near future. All those tap and wave credit and debit cards use NFC, period.

Even if NFC only ever has one legitimate purpose, having 30% or so of the phones on the market simply not support it means there is a gaping hole and I don't think a lot of stores or financial institutions will tolerate an "Apple Only" solution when they have already invested millions making NFC work.

If Apple is innovative, then they will have figured out some other feature for NFC which is why they might include it in the iPhone. Most likely Apple is finding that Bluetooth paring of the plethora of add-on devices like fitness bands, audio devices and other accessories is becoming monotonous, so a tap to pair and play feature using NFC should solve that problem, and it was stupid for Apple not to have considered this 2 years ago when they started a big push to make iPhone integrate with all these add-on devices.
 
blackcrayon said:
Apple has this weird habit of waiting until there's a decent use for something before slapping it on a spec sheet...
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Decent use? Well, Apple may have not seen all those people happily transferring images from their dedicated cameras to their tablets / phones, between their phones etc.

I, who shoot a lot of pics, just love NFC. It greatly helps image transfer for quick reviews on the large / zoomable screen and/or quick Internet upload.
 
Sandstorm said:
One of the reasons slowing the successful and widespread use of NFC was the lack of it on the iPhone. I hope Apple finally adds NFC (it's great!), but I'm also a bit pissed off it will happen so late.

Personally I'm saddened that more and more Apple is now catching up, late, slow, neglecting (Mac Pro, now Mac Mini, Apple TV (outdated UI, no App Store)). Apple also overslept the streaming music revolution (think Spotify). I don't buy this BS about "getting it right". If Google can figure out NFC, Apple can too. And Apple also can put a current-gen processor in a Mac Mini and not neglect it for 2 years, even if they are working (I'm guessing) on a completely new thinner version (OMG, thinner, can you believe it).

Sorry for the rant, but I seriously start to lose my admiration for Apple.

PS - my brand new iPhone 5s hangs up and restarts at least once or twice a day. WTF! :mad:
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How can you say Google "got it right" if no one is using it? They obviously didn't get it right.
 
Iconoclysm said:
Bluetooth 4.0, Low Power LTE, high dpi smartphone screen, Thunderbolt, etc. They are sometimes first but nobody notices.
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The Toshiba G900... available for sale at about the same time as the original iPhone in mid 2007... was the first high DPI smartphone (WVGA with 312 PPI).

It also had a fingerprint sensor, 3G, Opera browser, and a front-facing camera for video calls.

Other "retina displays" that predate the 2010 iPhone 4 include the 2008 Sony Xperia X1 (312 PPI) and the 2009 Samsung Jet (301 PPI).

Since at least the Toshiba was advertised as "print quality", and Apple didn't want to be seen as not the first at doing it, they came up with the alternative marketing name "retina", which means the same thing.

derek said:
Ripping off anyone's NFC data from a card or device is TRIVIAL. Current magnetic stripe cards are, surprise, safer than NFC.
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NFC itself is simply a communication protocol, like Bluetooth. What the data looks like going over it, is up to the app.

In the case of payments, the data is encrypted. In the case of sharing website urls, there's no need.
 
Sandstorm said:
But how can a technology like NFC become widespread, if one of the leading platforms (iPhone) is not using it? This is not technology for the sake of technology. This is the old chicken and egg problem.

And to everyone screaming how stupid and worthless NFC is - let's see your comments after Apple adds NFC. Surely then you'll sing a different tune. Probably something along the lines of "finally doing it right" and so on. I'm getting sick of this *****.
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I think security is the biggest concern right now with NFC. I'd be surprised if they threw it in just for the sake of checking off a box. They certainly wouldn't actively support Google Wallet, so unless they have managed to ink some deals on a proprietary payment system I'm skeptical they would add NFC.
 
Dreamer2go said:
i had a Galaxy S4 before as my backup phone, and I never used NFC once.
Don't really feel like I'm missing out anything.
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See, this is what I think a lot of people miss: different phones for different people. I have had NFC as part of my Android phones for several years, and I use it nearly every day of my life. Google Wallet to pay for transactions (with the added security that the merchant never gets your actual CC number. Wallet provides them with a temporary MasterCard number), and I even use it as my TAP card for the Los Angeles subway system. Also beaming files quickly from one device to another wirelessly.

Most people in the US DON'T need NFC, so iPhone is great for them.
 
Forget it

NFC is some reheated leftovers from ancient RFID standards, a 'Bag of Hurt'. It's not 'skating to where the puck will be' material. Anything worth doing with NFC, Bluetooth LE will do better. Apple is going all-out on Bluetooth LE.
 
Rumor started by NFC backers

I bet this is yet another attempted by people invested in NFC to get the dying patient out of intensive care.

Have any of the problems that NFC has had all along been solved? Is there now a single worldwide NFC standard? Can I pay at my local supermarket with NFC or get on the NYC subway with it?

If the answers to those and many other similar questions is NO, then no Apple is not jumping on the NFC bandwagon no matter how desperately some of Apple's competitors wish it would.
 
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