Tag Archives: NFC
2013 Pro Bowl roster analysis: NFC
By Rosenthal, GreggThe Pro Bowl rosters are out! Gregg Rosenthal breaks down the NFC roster position-by-position.
Source: NFL
Seahawks clinch playoff spot with rout of 49ers
By Associated PressRussell Wilson threw four touchdown passes to move into second place for TD passes by a rookie, Marshawn Lynch scored twice, and the Seahawks clinched a spot in the NFC playoffs with a 42-13 rout of San Francisco on Sunday night.
Source: ESPN Headlines
Baltimore Ravens clinch AFC North; Giants ‘flat-lining’
By Rosenthal, GreggOne week ago after a blowout loss, the Baltimore Ravens put together their best performance of the season Sunday, making the New York Giants afterthoughts in the NFC playoff picture.
Source: NFL
Falcons clinch No. 1 seed; Johnson breaks mark
By Associated PressThe Atlanta Falcons have earned home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.
Source: ESPN Headlines
Note to Samsung: Santa and Smartphone Sex Videos Do Not Mix Well
By Kashmir Hill, Forbes StaffIn order to get smartphone buyers’ minds off of the iPhone, Samsung has been touting its phone’s NFC technology, which gives people the ability to pass data — including videos — from phone to phone just by bumping them together.
Source: Forbes Latest
A short history of NFC
To understand where the technology is going, it’s helpful to understand where it’s been. And a bit about how it works, too.
Source: Latest from Computerworld
Despite Apple, NFC is catching on — just not for payments quite yet
Near Field Communication will become widespread at some point, most observers agree, especially if Apple eventually puts NFC in an iPhone.
Source: Latest from Computerworld
Linksys EA6500 review: A user-friendly 802.11ac router with decent performance
Cisco arrived late to the 802.11ac party, but its Linksys EA6500 (it’s hard to say the entire name—the Linksys Video Pro AC1750 Smart Wi-Fi Router EA6500—in a single breath) is a very solid, easy-to-use dual-band router with one unique, gee-whiz feature.
This feature is called SimpleTap, and it uses near-field communication (NFC) technology to enable you to join NFC-enabled mobile devices to your network by tapping them with a provided plastic card. That simple physical action instantly provides the device with the router’s security credentials. Unlike with WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup), you never need to touch the router when using SimpleTap. It does, however, require you to install a Cisco app on the mobile device. But we call it a gee-whiz feature because relatively few mobile devices are NFC enabled (Samsung’s Galaxy S III smartphone being the most notable). The SimpleTap card is something of a security risk unless you lock it away, and the feature is easily disabled if you don’t want to use it.
The EA6500 remains easy for inexperienced users to set up even if you can’t take advantage of SimpleTap, although this entails installing software on a client PC and creating an online account with Cisco. Experienced users who don’t want to use this cloud-based solution can log directly into the router to perform its initial configuration without setting up an account, but they won’t be able to take advantage of Cisco’s Smart Wi-Fi cloud service. The Smart Wi-Fi cloud service allows you to manage the router remotely from anywhere you have Internet access. It also enables you to remotely access data stored on an attached USB device (the EA6500 has two USB 2.0 ports, so you can share both storage and a printer on your network. You don’t need Smart Wi-Fi to enable local clients to use connected USB devices.)
Linksys also offers a collection of Smart Wi-Fi apps. These run on the router and/or your mobile devices to provide evertyhing from parental controls (so you can control when your children can go online, where they can go, and what they can do while they’re there) to media aggregators, device monitors, and IP camera viewers. These apps are a far simpler alternative to jiggering port-forwarding, static routing, DMZ, and other settings, but Cisco doesn’t prevent more advanced users from configuring any of these settings manually.
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Source: PCWorld
Broadcom says chip integration will drive NFC adoption
Broadcom thinks it can make NFC a common smartphone feature by offering it in a chip with other wireless technologies, even if making payments with the technology doesn’t catch on for years.
On Tuesday, the communications chip company announced what it called the first chip with built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM radio and NFC (near-field communication), which it said should start appearing in handsets next year.
Getting NFC in the same chip it uses for the ubiquitous Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies will make it much easier and cheaper for smartphone makers to integrate the technology in their products, Broadcom executives said at a press event on Tuesday. The event was designed partly as a preview of the International Consumer Electronics Show next month, with demonstrations of technologies such as Miracast mobile-to-TV video streaming that Broadcom expects to see at CES.
Until now, vendors have had to buy a separate chip for NFC and work it into their internal designs, taking up extra space in the tight quarters of a phone’s circuitry. More integration also cuts power consumption, Broadcom says.
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Source: PCWorld
Broadcom chip integrates NFC, other wireless technologies
Broadcom Tuesday unveiled a single chip that combines Near Field Communication technology with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM radio.
Source: Latest from Computerworld
Samsung gives Galaxy S III free ‘Premium’ update, adds advanced features
Samsung Galaxy S III owners can expect a New Year‘s upgrade with enhancements to its camera and interface.
The Best Face creates composite shots.
The “Premium Suite” is a software update to Samsung’s TouchWiz interface for Android, adding support for split-screen apps and a Facebook lock screen ticker as part of the Android Jelly Bean update. It will arrive over the air or via the Samsung Kies sync app sometime between January 8 and 11, but Samsung says the update date will vary with country and carrier.
Several upgrades apply to the Samsung Galaxy S III 8-megapixel camera. The Low Light Shot mode will make it easier to shoot night photos. The new Best Face function takes five consecutive group shots and then lets you pick the best face for each person in the photo, creating a composite on the fly (so no one is blinking in the shot).
Paper Artist reproduces photos like sketches.
Another camera update, Easy Snap, is activated from the phone’s accessibility settings to enable the S III to tell you how many faces it detects in the camera preview. The new Paper Artist feature will render a photo like a pencil sketch. The device also supports automatic photo-sharing via NFC.
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Source: PCWorld
Vikings’ Zygi Wilf on Leslie Frazier: ‘He is our coach’
The Minnesota Vikings are 7-6 and very much alive in the NFC playoff derby. That’s more than most expected, leaving Vikings owner Zygi Wilf optimistic about the work of coach Leslie Frazier.
Source: NFL
Nokia launches Lumia 620, a budget-based Windows Phone 8
Nokia has announced the Lumia 620, its most affordable Windows Phone 8 device yet. With an estimated pricing of $250 contract-free, the Lumia 620 is the company’s budget Windows Phone 8 smartphone, although for just $50 more you might have better options.
The specs on the Lumia 620 are in line for a budget phone: it has a 3.8-inch display with 800-by-480 pixel resolution, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor. It has 512MB of RAM and 8GB of built-in storage (expandable up to 64GB via MicroSD), and 7GB free Microsoft SkyDrive storage.
Nokia said the 5-megapixel camera with flash on the Lumia 620 shares the same lenses with the higher-end Lumia 920 and 820. Meanwhile, the front-facing camera is a standard VGA sensor, and this phone also has NFC connectivity on board for accessories such as portable speakers and payment apps.
As with most Windows phones, the Lumia 620 comes in a range of colors, including lime green, orange, magenta, yellow, cyan, white and black. Nokia used a new dual-shot color technique that adds a second layer of colored, transparent or translucent polycarbonate on top of a base layer to produce secondary color blends and depth effects.
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Source: PCWorld