Has anyone tried using Samsung NFC TecTiles?

[Christian Jacob]

I bought Samsung TecTiles for my Galaxy S2 and worked great. I just got my Nexus 4 and in hopes of reusing the TecTiles, I tried programming a tile and I get an error saying "Failed to format TecTile" Anyone else try using TecTiles with their Nexus 4 or non Samsung phone? Is this only functional for Samsung phones? I would hate for $15 to go down the drain. :-\

 

[minnemike]

Just googled this.... so I guess your question is if the N4 is MIFARE compliant.

Will TecTile tags work on all phones?
TecTiles are designed to work on Samsung Android smartphones that comply with MIFARE? technology, including Samsung Galaxy S3. Please see below for the latest list of compatible Samsung smartphones. TecTiles may work with other NFC-enabled Android smartphones that comply with MIFARE, but Samsung does not test other branded devices for compatibility or functionality and makes no representations or warranties whatsoever with respect to such use.

MIFARE is a trademark of NXP B.V.

And then I found this: Nexus 4 and 10 Incompatible With Mifare Classic NFC Tags | NFC Brief

Which basically says that MIFARE is no longer the developing industry standard and will not be forward supported by the Nexus.

 

[Christian Jacob]

Just googled this.... so I guess your question is if the N4 is MIFARE compliant.

Will TecTile tags work on all phones?
TecTiles are designed to work on Samsung Android smartphones that comply with MIFARE? technology, including Samsung Galaxy S3. Please see below for the latest list of compatible Samsung smartphones. TecTiles may work with other NFC-enabled Android smartphones that comply with MIFARE, but Samsung does not test other branded devices for compatibility or functionality and makes no representations or warranties whatsoever with respect to such use.

MIFARE is a trademark of NXP B.V.

Which basically says that MIFARE is no longer the developing industry standard and will not be forward supported by the Nexus.

Thanks for Clearing that up!

Apparently Nexus 4 is not compatible :'(

Nexus 4 and 10 Incompatible With Mifare Classic NFC Tags | NFC Brief

 

[minnemike]

I guess I should say there are newer MIFARE standards that work fine but the Classic tags variety are no longer supported.

 

[6tr6tr]

I guess I should say there are newer MYFARE standards that work fine but the Classic tags variety are no longer supported.

Can you recommend any tags that do work with the Nexus 4?

 

[minnemike]

Topaz, Mifare Ultralight C, Mifare S50 and the UPM Ntag

 

[minnemike]

Thanks for Clearing that up!

Apparently Nexus 4 is not compatible :'(

Nexus 4 and 10 Incompatible With Mifare Classic NFC Tags | NFC Brief

IF I were you, I would contact the software developer and see if they can offer you an upgrade to a newer tag standard if they offer it. Seems like a rip off to sell you something so recently that will not be forward supported and according to what I read, this is MIFARE's doing, not Nexus.

 

[ragnarokx]

These tags work, just not with Samsung's app. Use "NFC Task Launcher" from the Play Store.

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

[Mac58]

These tags work, just not with Samsung's app. Use "NFC Task Launcher" from the Play Store.

Sent from my Nexus 4

THIS . I posted a similar thread months ago and once directed to use this app it works seemlessly

 

[DogPsyche]

Can you recommend any tags that do work with the Nexus 4?

I'm using my old Sony Xperia ones with NFC Launcher. They work fine.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[WOP_Drive]

These worked great with my Nexus 4!

 

[squirrelproductions]

Now I'm totally confused. According to andytags.com,

Can NFC Mifare Classic Tags be used at all with the Nexus 4 and 10?
YES! And no. While Mifare Classic Chips can not be written to or fully read by the Nexus 4 or 10, their UID (a unique identification code) can be detected and read. So Mifare Classic Chips can be used with the Nexus 4 or 10 along with apps such as NFC ReTag or NFC Task Launcher which simply uses a tag's UID to trigger events/settings saved on the device. The down side to this is that because the tag can not be written to, if you have more than one of these types of NFC apps on your phone, tapping the tag will bring up a box to ask you what app you want to use. But if you only use one NFC app for all your Tag Events/Settings/etc., then this is not a problem and would allow you to make use of Mifare Classic tags for this purpose. (When using these apps and a writable tag, they can write a small code so that the phone knows automatically which app to trigger, so if using more than one app that is triggered by a blank tag, you might want to consider using the writable NTAG203 tags.)

Yet, there are a couple of Nexus 4 users who say that these tags work. How do these tags "work"?

Basically, my understanding is that I won't be able to "write" (e.g. vCards, URLs, etc.) to these tags, but there are NFC apps that will allow me to change settings (e.g. wifi on/off or GPS on, etc.) according to which tag is scanned. Is that right?

 

[Mac58]

Now I'm totally confused. According to andytags.com, Yet, there are a couple of Nexus 4 users who say that these tags work. How do these tags "work"?

Basically, my understanding is that I won't be able to "write" (e.g. vCards, URLs, etc.) to these tags, but there are NFC apps that will allow me to change settings (e.g. wifi on/off or GPS on, etc.) according to which tag is scanned. Is that right?

I understand that this can be a little confusing as I was in your shoes a few months ago, but here is a video demonstrating that it does indeed work.
Samsung tectiles work with Nexus 4 - YouTube
Hope this helps!

 

[squirrelproductions]

I understand that this can be a little confusing as I was in your shoes a few months ago, but here is a video demonstrating that it does indeed work.
Samsung tectiles work with Nexus 4 - YouTube
Hope this helps!

Thanks much for the video. I did little bit more digging and found the following thread where the developer for NFC Task Launcher states: "It's detecting they can't be written and mapping the actions locally. To allow for cross device portability the payload is also pushed to a cloud service we provide. This way any device can also use that tag." To which another poster responds, "OK i see what you're saying. I put the device into airplane mode but with nfc on and retested. It did not write.

However this begs the question....this whole cloud service thing is a huge security violation and does not seem to be documented anywhere. The play store permission list does not mention this use of the internet permission. This is a HUGE DEAL. You appear to be saving the information from thousands of tags in this cloud service...this could include passwords or other personal information."

Mac58, would you mind showing this scenario in your/another video: all connectivity disabled (i.e. wifi off, airplane mode on, etc.), "write" to tag, then try to read tag to verify if tag actually "written"? Thanks.

Personally, I don't know how I feel about a 3rd party storing this data. Besides potential security concerns, there's also reliability and continuity concerns. What happens down the road if the current developer cannot or does not wish to support the NFC Task Launcher cloud service; do all the tags that used to "work" with NFC Task Launcher become obsolete/useless? Is the use of NFC Task Launcher and the behind-the-scene cloud service the lesser of two evils when dealing with NFC tags that are NOT standards-compliant?

If this data was stored locally on the phone, I would feel that both my areas of concern would be allayed.

 

[Mac58]

Thanks much for the video. I did little bit more digging and found the following thread where the developer for NFC Task Launcher states: "It's detecting they can't be written and mapping the actions locally. To allow for cross device portability the payload is also pushed to a cloud service we provide. This way any device can also use that tag." To which another poster responds, "OK i see what you're saying. I put the device into airplane mode but with nfc on and retested. It did not write.

However this begs the question....this whole cloud service thing is a huge security violation and does not seem to be documented anywhere. The play store permission list does not mention this use of the internet permission. This is a HUGE DEAL. You appear to be saving the information from thousands of tags in this cloud service...this could include passwords or other personal information."

Mac58, would you mind showing this scenario in your/another video: all connectivity disabled (i.e. wifi off, airplane mode on, etc.), "write" to tag, then try to read tag to verify if tag actually "written"? Thanks.

Personally, I don't know how I feel about a 3rd party storing this data. Besides potential security concerns, there's also reliability and continuity concerns. What happens down the road if the current developer cannot or does not wish to support the NFC Task Launcher cloud service; do all the tags that used to "work" with NFC Task Launcher become obsolete/useless? Is the use of NFC Task Launcher and the behind-the-scene cloud service the lesser of two evils when dealing with NFC tags that are NOT standards-compliant?

If this data was stored locally on the phone, I would feel that both my areas of concern would be allayed.

Not a problem. Here is the video as you requested. I hope by disabling all connectivity, you meant besides NFC, because if NFC is not enabled it will not work as I demonstrate in the video. Hope it helps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH2BiqZu1NM&feature=youtube_gdata_player