What can you expect from Near Field Communication (NFC)

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a kind of wireless communication technology built upon the existing Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) standards. Research and development activities on NFC have been active since early 2000s.

The official NFC logo is as below. You might probably find it on NFC-enabled devices.

While RFID devices are generally expensive, NFC devices are much more cheaper, making it possible to be included as part of a handphone feature. In fact, the 1st NFC phone is Nokia 6131 launched in 2006, and the 1st Android NFC smartphone is Samsung Nexus S launched in 2010.

The characteristics of NFC are:

• 2 NFC devices can establish 2-way communication between them.
• Beside that, NFC devices can also establish 1-way communication to read, write or erase data stored in specific RFID based tags called NFC tags.
• NFC need very close contact between the devices or tag for the communication to occur. Normally, the gap between them must be within a few centimeters only.
• NFC communication set-up time is very fast, normally within 0.1 seconds. This make it attractive as data transfer is instant once the devices or tag are touched together.
• NFC communication is slow (about 424 kbps) compared with other wireless communication technology such as Bluetooth, WiFi, etc. However, this is good enough to transfer a small amount of data instantly. In addition, we can use NFC signal to initiate other faster data communications including Bluetooth pairing, WiFi connection, etc.

Today, as the amount of NFC-enabled devices available in the market has not reach its critical mass yet, this technology is still new for most of us. However, as more and more NFC-enabled handphones and other NFC-enabled devices roll-out to the market, we will have the chance to see it in action everywhere. It is estimated that, there will be over 500 million NFC-enabled handphones in use worldwide by 2015.

Industry players such as Google are working hard in making NFC to support electronic payment, electronic cash, electronic credit card, etc. for their Google Wallet. MasterCard is also working hard to make use of NFC for their PayPass contactless payment feature.

Right now, NFC tag has already shown its capability to do what the QR-code can do. This include storing of:

• Website URL
• Phone Number
• Email
• SMS message
• Any Plain Text
• Contact Information (vCard)
• Google Maps Location
• Google / Bing Search query
• Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn
• and more...

The advantages of using NFC tags than using QR codes including:

• QR code is printed and final. NFC tag can be rewritten (multiple re-use), or optionally made into read-only.
• QR code must be visible to the scanner. NFC tag can be hidden behind a label/poster/etc.
• NFC tag reading is faster than QR code reading.

And the disadvantages of using NFC tags than using QR codes including:

• QR code can be read from far, as long as it is visible. NFC need close contact to work.
• QR code can be in electronic form (a graphical image file) which can be easily transmitted and duplicated. You can also put it on a webpage and show it to all the browsers. NFC tag is physical.

Right now, we just have to stay tuned and wait for the day of NFC to come to our day-to-day live.

What can you do with QR Code

QR code (QR = Quick Response) is a kind of commonly used 2-dimensional barcode nowadays.

This is the QR code of my blog. I'm sure you have seen other QR codes elsewhere as well.

QR code is originally created by Denso Wave (a subsidiary of Toyota) to keep track of vehicle parts along the manufacturing process. It has been around since 1994. Today, it has been internationally adopted and used for many different purposes, especially in the Advertising and Promotion sector.

What makes QR code so interesting and commonly used?

• It can store much more information (as much as several thousands characters) than the traditional 1-dimensional barcode. 
• Other than alphanumeric, it can also store binary data, which can be unicode (such as Chinese characters), image, and almost anything that can be represented in binary data. And it directly supports Japanese encoding (Kanji and Kana).
• It has small printout size compared with 1-dimensional barcode.
• It has error correction capability, and still can be read without problem even when partially dirty or damaged.
• It can be read pretty fast, and from any angle (360 degree omni-directional capability).
• Other than black-and-white, it can also be printed in multiple colours.

QR code is readable by barcode scanner which support 2-dimensional barcode. Some airlines and cinemas have installed QR code readers at their check-in point and make use of QR code in their customers' self-printed tickets.

However, what make it so popular nowadays is that, there are plenty of QR code reading apps available for smartphones including iPhone, Android Phones, Windows Mobile Phones, etc. and most of the apps are free for download and use.

QR code is also easy to generate, because there are also plenty of software and web-based generator available. One of my favourite online QR code generator is QR Stuff.

You can encode the following into QR code:

• Website URL
• YouTube Video Link
• GPS Coordinate / Google Maps Location
• Twitter Profile / Status Update
• Facebook Profile / Like
• LinkedIn Profile / Share
• FourSquare Venue
• iTunes Link (music, album, artist, app, etc.)
• Any Plain Text
• Telephone Number
• SMS Message to a number
• Email Address
• Email Message to an address
• Contact Details (VCARD)
• Calendar Event (VCALENDAR)
• Wifi Login Information for Android device
• Paypal Buy Now Link
  

Feel free to visit to the QR Stuff website and generate your own QR codes for fun and perhaps profit.

HTC rolled out Android 2.3.5 and Sense UI 3.0 update to Incredible S in Malaysia and Singapore

The OTA (Over-The-Air) Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) together with HTC Sense UI 3.0 of HTC Incredible S smartphone has been made available to Malaysia and Singapore yesterday (29 December 2011) morning.

You can manually check for the update now, or wait for the automated update alert appear on your HTC Incredible S smartphone sooner or later.

Although this update will not cause any data or setting lost to your smartphone, it is always a wise choice to perform a backup using tools such as MyBackup (or the paid MyBackupPro) or Titanium Backup (or the paid Titanium Backup Pro) prior to the update, just in case...
After the update, you will get a new lock screen as the one in HTC EVO 3D. You can customize this lock screen in Personalize > Lock screen. The background can be either your Wallpaper, Photo Album, Friend Stream, Weather, Stocks, or Clock display. You can also assign the apps linking to the 4 quick launch icons there.

Using the phone becomes more fun with the 3D effects of HTC Sense UI 3.0. However, it is harder to get the carousel effect when fast swiping the home screen than in HTC EVO 3D.