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NFC enabled business cards
- bonzoesc 14y agoI should get some with my URL set to tel:27673855# . I'm sure there's a case to be made for NFC, but I'm not totally sold on the value of invisible things that cause phones and other electronics to do things.
- Zikes 14y agoOne of the primary features of NFC is the requirement that you be near (within inches of) the NFC tag in order for it to work. One useful application I've seen for this is a custom NFC tag someone placed in a homemade docking station to activate their phone's dock mode. Another was used in a homemade Gameklip[0]-type device to activate bluetooth and connect with the controller. [0] http://thegameklip.com/ http://thegameklip.com/
- bonzoesc 14y agoAnd what happens when they're hidden in a perfectly ordinary desk blotter in a hotel room in Silicon Valley?
- MartinCron 14y agoYou've got the first act to a corporate espionage story.
- hammock 14y agoBlackberry famously solved this problem with magnets (in the holster which activated holster/sleep mode)
- simba-hiiipower 14y agoi feel NFC holds a lot of promise in these types of applications; in that it seems like an ideal technology for developing 'trigger' cases, where you could set any number of actions based on NFC pairing.. Nokia showed off that very thing you described with their Lumia 920; where placing it on one of their NFC wireless charging docks automatically launches a predefined app (presumably some sort of dock mode, but you can set whatever you want). likewise, with one of their wireless speakers they showed NFC pairing used to rapidly connect (via Bluetooth) and start playing music without having to mess with anything on the phone [1]; i thought that was pretty neat.. [1] can't find the actual video of them demoing it, but this is it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4zx2xy6VjE&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4zx2xy6VjE&feature=playe...
- julianz 14y agoYep, I use a tag by my front door to turn on 3G and Bluetooth on my phone before I leave. It's great. The phone (Galaxy S3) needs to be turned on & unlocked and the centre of the back needs to be within about an inch of the tag to activate. It seems like a decent security tradeoff.
- mickeyp 14y agoI use an application that detects where I am and turns things off and on as required. Much better than waving your phone at a sticker.
- julien_c 14y agoCare to share which app?
- AdamGibbins 14y agoTasker https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch....
- julien_c 14y agoThanks - It's not the same as http://www.taskerapp.com/ http://www.taskerapp.com/, is it?
- at-fates-hands 14y ago> I'm not totally sold on the value of invisible things that cause phones and other electronics to do things. I'm not either and with good reason: "Black Hat speaker shows how NFC can be used for malicious attacks" http://www.siliconrepublic.com/strategy/item/28552-black-hat-speaker-shows-how http://www.siliconrepublic.com/strategy/item/28552-black-hat...
- pixelcort 14y agoFor read only data (such as business card data), what is the benefit of using NFC over RFID? I was under the impression that NFC is backwards compatible; can Android devices with NFC scan RFID tags?
- klinquist 14y agoNFC is a subset of RFID. There are many RFID frequency bands. Android devices can read most 13.56mhz tags... but none of the other bands.
- johnmurch 14y agoSo now my iphone 5 needs a nfc reader - anyone build one yet?
- fourmii 14y agoTether it to a Samsung S3...
- alexchamberlain 14y agoOr the better HTC One X... :oP
- mik4el 14y agoHahaha. Figure this: "Do you have a card?", "Not only have I got a card, I've got an NFC-enabled card. Put it against your phone and let magic happen." Awkward but hey I want one.
- ChuckMcM 14y agoAnd the inevitable pickup line, "Got a card?" "Sure rub your phone on my pants pocket"
- klinquist 14y agoI did this in Jan 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjUoSO__Bno http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjUoSO__Bno I also recently added an NFC tag to my iPhone 5: http://i.imgur.com/1pQxJ.jpg http://i.imgur.com/1pQxJ.jpg
- jve 14y agoCould you please link to this NFC tag - where can you buy it?
- evilduck 14y agoWhat's the benefit over just using a QR code on the back of your card? Every modern smartphone can scan QR codes. Only a small fraction can use NFC, and it surely increases the marginal cost of each card more than a double sided print.
- joeblau 14y agoNFC requires you to physically be at the location and QR codes don't. For example, you can take a pic of a QR code and upload the picture for anyone else to scan. NFC only works if you're near :).
- jimktrains2 14y agoPerhaps the amount of data?
- Leynos 14y agoFor reference, here's a QR code with a three line postal address, email address and mobile number: http://www.moongate.ro/products/qr_code-vcard/serve_card?c=KeWm77 http://www.moongate.ro/products/qr_code-vcard/serve_card?c=K... Not beyond the realms of what could be placed on a business card, a lot cheaper to make and certainly more useful for most phone users. On the other hand, the NFC card is a lot more attractive looking and has an extra "wow" factor. Of course, it would be useless to me as my phone doesn't have NFC, so I would be left keying the contact details into my phone by hand.
- jimktrains2 14y agoNow add in PGP key sigs (or the entire public key), website, SSL key sigs, bitcoin address, and other information I haven't thought of yet, oh, and wrap all of that inside a VCARD, it becomes quite large quite quickly. I'm not saying for the basic info a VCARD QR Code won't work, but for more info it breaks down.
- estel 14y agoWikipedia has some more information on it, but for realistically printable QR codes (version 10), you can probably store about a hundred bytes. Alternatively you could use Video QR: http://stephendnicholas.com/archives/310 http://stephendnicholas.com/archives/310 ;)
- metabrew 14y agoApparently the NFC opens a link to a QR code.
- BryanB55 14y agoHa very funny. My first thought was 'this sounds awfully a lot like a QR code'. Also, as an iPhone user I feel NFC is not used nearly enough. Maybe Android users feel differently but until NFC is brought to the iphone I just dont see this being that useful. I think NFC is great for things like payment. I actually used it for the first time in a new AMEX credit card that I got by just being able to tap the card on the register. It would be even cooler if someone would make it widely adopted on phones now. I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
- mcpherrinm 14y agoAs an Android user, I've used NFC primarily to share apps with other users. I just open the app, tap phones, and presto they've got the Play Store open with the app.
- nchlswu 14y agoI love the concept of this product, especially in the context of contact exchanges and "business card replacements." If implemented and adopted by the masses, something like this embraces the digital realm without forgetting the physical.
- csmatt 14y agoNo! Bad! You would only ever need one paper NFC card (for yourself). The whole idea is to store the info digitally. That's what NFC is for. In fact, even one paper business card is too many if your phone supports NFC.
- gcb 14y agogetting one card out of your wallet beats taking phone, unlocking, opening app ...and that's assuming your phone has battery.
- yock 14y agoWhich means that this would be a rather good choice for someone who just bought an iPhone 5.
- cgranade 14y agoAccording to TFA, you get one NFC card with a pack of plain-paper cards, so that you can give paper to someone without NFC and lend the NFC card to someone with a supporting phone.
- change 14y agoWhen there are enough NFC enabled phones out there to make this useful, the card owner will most likely have an NFC phone also. 2 NFC phones nearby will make this card a bit unnecessary.
- Zenst 14y agoGreat idea, though I hope there reading this and start selling NFC proof wallet holders for them. What with all these NFC pass's for this and that and now credit cards, you would think somebody would sell proper protective wallets for them to prevent the details being read by passers by and the like (there be kit that can read them from across the street for a while now, its radio based after all). Still, I'm impressed at the way there testing the market for them and promoting them, genuis.
- hrktb 14y agoThere is already plastic sleeves [1] with the same effect. The primary goal is to prevent interferences between all the NFC cards you'll have in your wallet (Yes, that's not a problem to have in the US for a few more years) [1]http://flux.bz/whatis.html http://flux.bz/whatis.html
- rshlo 14y agoThat's a nice idea and execution. But I really think about the role of paper business cards today. Is it still a necessity?
- EGreg 14y agoWhy not just have a phone with NFC instead of cards?
- rolleiflex 14y agoI just bought a pack of those cards a few days ago. There is a high likelihood that my cards have chips embedded. I will write a blog post testing them if that turns up true.
- cambo01 14y agoA friend of mine was doing them for posters to give feedback on them. Don't know how that's going to work.