NFC which stands for Near Field Communications is a type of wireless communication between two devices which are closely near each other. NFC works based on the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology and is the easiest way to communicate between two devices. This technology which is rapidly spreading these days, was invented by Sony and Nokia in 2004, and right now integrated in many devices. This technology is used to share mac addresses and IPs without any cost and thus it spreads widely among people around the world.
Normally people think that the low range frequency of the NFC is a weakness, which is not. Actually it is one of the strong points in this technology. The low range enhances the security of this technology and makes it a good choice in e-payments and apps which used as the e-wallets. One of the other applications of the NFC is transferring pictures, music and other files among two NFC enabled devices.
See: How Does Google Wallet Work?
So How to use NFC?
It is better to know what NFC’s tags are. Tags are just thin papers which are used to save a small amount of essential data, such data that exists on the credit and debit cards. In fact, the capacity of data which is stored in the various cards is just 4096 bytes (4KB), something equivalent to some lines of text! For example as normally all the smartphones are connected to Internet, they can be used to save a link on them, a link to a website which all the data can be read from there. The data exchange speed is very high and it is just needed to put the phone in a specified location. For example for the payment, it is just needed to put the phone in front of the NFC enabled POS or Shake it in front of it. Or if you have an NFC tag, you just need to put it closely to the back of your handset. After your device contacts with the NFC enabled medium, based on the application, payment, file transfer, running an application, opening a website or any other actions, an appropriate message will appear on the screen. We will discuss more about applications of NFC tags on our next NFC articles in AW Center.
File Transfer between two devices with NFC
Your cellphone can act as a NFC tag too. Hence, you can transfer information between two devices by making both close to each other. Google put this feature in the Android to able the phones transfer information such as pictures, music, video and etc. by just touching devices together. Android Beam is designed to transfer small amount of data such as link or a contact number, to transfer much bigger files, it is better to use an ad hoc wireless connection, and the only thing which users need to do is put the phones close to each other, and that’s it.
See:
How to Enable Android Beam on Nexus 4
How to Enable NFC on Android
How to Share content with Android Beam
Personal Payment Experience
My personal experience on using NFC was with Master Card PayPass. To do the payment with your device, you just need to ask for the service in your bank. Next, you’re going to download the paypass application and set it up on your device which was easy. Finally, to do the payment you should check for the paypass logo at merchant location. Actually, it took me a while to find a place that supports this kind of payment. At first when I get my Nexus 7 device near the payment terminal nothing happened. Then I found that I should get the head of the device close to the terminals, as the NFC antenna is behind the camera and it doesn’t need to close the whole device to it. Next when the terminal found the device, it is going to beep, and I thought it’s finished so I took my device back. Unfortunately, nothing was done. You should hold your device near the terminal for at least 3 seconds to get recognized and then, when the payment is done which took near 4 to 5 seconds, the app gives you a confirmation. For the first time it wasn’t a pleasant experience as I struggled with it for 5 minutes, moreover I did this with my big nexus 7 device which I believe it is better to adopt this method of payment just on the phones and not the tablets.
List of some of Android Phones with support NFC
Google Nexus: Google Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus I9250, Nexus 4, Nexus 7
Samsung: Galaxy S4 I9500, Galaxy S4 I9505, Galaxy S4 Mini I9195, Galaxy Note II N7100, Galaxy Mega 6.3 I9200, Galaxy S4 zoom, Galaxy S3 I9305
HTC: HTC One, One X, HTC One X+, HTC One SV, HTC One XL, HTC One VX, HTC One X AT&T, HTC Evo 4G LTE, HTC One SV CDMA
Sony: Xperia Z, Xperia L, Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia SP, Xperia ZR, Xperia S, Xperia P, Xperia V, Xperia M, Xperia T, Xperia sola, Xperia SL, Xperia acro S, Xperia TX, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia ion HSPA
LG: Optimus G Pro, Optimus L7, Optimus L9 P760, Optimus G, Optimus Vu I, Optimus 4X HD
NFC: PadFone Infinity, PadFone 2
Huawei: Ascend P2, Ascend G600,
Let us know about your first impression with NFC
