NFC Uses & Apps

gmtom1

Well-known member
May 16, 2010
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So while I've been patiently waiting for the E4GLTE to ship, I've been reading up on NFC and uses for the NFC chip in it, other than Wallet. Found a pretty good thread over on XDA and I already ordered some NFC tags/stickers to use at home, in the office and in the car to automate some tasks that I was previously using tasker for, with limited success. The article below provides a good overview.

The tags/stickers are fairly reasonable - lowest price I found is $1/ea (non-bulk orders from a US-based company) and I'm going to buy the NFC Task launcher app as soon as I get my phone.

Resources:

Article on NFC from TechCrunch

Another good article from androidpolice.com

Automate your life w/ NFC article from Know Your Mobile

Dev site

Play store link (more videos available)

TagStand (source for NFC labels/tags & also the dev of NFC Task Launcher)

Good XDA Thread
 
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Nice! Now im planning to set one up in my truck to automatically turn bluetooth on! awesome! wonder how much it would cost to have my house door auto unlock with this!
 
Thanks for posting. Now I'm starting to think of the possibilities. I like the idea of having a tag in my car also.
 
I can see the convenience of a retailer or information to use these tags .... But I don't find it any easier using these tags as Task Managers ... A person can easily set up the same task with no extra work simply by using GPS or Car Speed or Location Indicators ... Without having to find a tag to sync it to ... Can someone enlighten me on how this is better in the real world.
 
I'm totally excited about NFC. I'm a long time Tasker user and I like the app but with NFC I'm expecting a lot finer control.

For example, my phone knows when I'm at home and it is after 10pm so it'll go into silent mode. Sometimes I'm not in bed and I want those notifications. Add NFC and my phone now knows that it is on my nightstand(where I want quiet), no nightstand I want the notifications, nightstand no notifications.

Simple, yes but I'm waiting on my stickers to show up then I'll start playing around with them.
 
I can see the convenience of a retailer or information to use these tags .... But I don't find it any easier using these tags as Task Managers ... A person can easily set up the same task with no extra work simply by using GPS or Car Speed or Location Indicators ... Without having to find a tag to sync it to ... Can someone enlighten me on how this is better in the real world.

The advantage is not having to rely on a GPS fix for tasker to trigger your tasks. If you put a NFC tag/sticker in your car dock, next to your bedside, on your office desk, there's no waiting for tasker to recognize you're in the trigger location for the action to fire. It's near instantaneous, which is huge when you're in the car and don't want to wait to start playing music, have bluetooth connect, etc. Watch the videos posted under the NFC Task Launcher app on the play store.
 
Home= WiFi
Truck= BlueTooth

Does anybody know the range of these things? Wonder if i air swipe my phone to turn bluetooth on, can i have it also turn it off with another "air swipe?"
 
Home= WiFi
Truck= BlueTooth

Does anybody know the range of these things? Wonder if i air swipe my phone to turn bluetooth on, can i have it also turn it off with another "air swipe?"

NFC, by definition is: Near Field Communications. The typical range for a credit card NFC reader is 3 - 10 cm if I recall correctly. This is one of the reasons they are supposed to be so secure (along with EMV standards and certificate authentication).

There is not much on the wiki about range: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Field_Communication

Here is a site that has a lot of the news around NFC: NFC World

I started to qoute specs and stuff, but it got a little off topic.

Hope this helps.
 
Home= WiFi
Truck= BlueTooth

Does anybody know the range of these things? Wonder if i air swipe my phone to turn bluetooth on, can i have it also turn it off with another "air swipe?"

Judging by the dev's videos, your phone needs to be within an inch of the tag, and you can program a "toggle" tag that will switch back and forth between 2 different task settings, such as getting in and out of the car.
 
The cool thing to me is the NFC door locks. Even the Yale lock company is getting into the fray.

I'm waiting for my new EVO 4G LTE as well, but you should be able to secure the NFC. I am not sure if it is by application or overall.

Sent from my PC36100 using Android Central Forums
 
NFC, by definition is: Near Field Communications. The typical range for a credit card NFC reader is 3 - 10 cm if I recall correctly. This is one of the reasons they are supposed to be so secure (along with EMV standards and certificate authentication).

There is not much on the wiki about range: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Field_Communication

Here is a site that has a lot of the news around NFC: NFC World

I started to qoute specs and stuff, but it got a little off topic.

Hope this helps.







Judging by the dev's videos, your phone needs to be within an inch of the tag, and you can program a "toggle" tag that will switch back and forth between 2 different task settings, such as getting in and out of the car.

Thanks for the info guys, appreciate it. :thumbup:




Check Me Out On The Google Play Store!!!

Sent From My Half Dead HTC Evo 3D, On The Now Network From Virgin Mobile?

 
Home= WiFi
Truck= BlueTooth

Does anybody know the range of these things? Wonder if i air swipe my phone to turn bluetooth on, can i have it also turn it off with another "air swipe?"

I think range depends somewhat on the tag as well. Some of the sources for tags talk about "extended" ranges of 8"
 
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I was excited about this, until I realized I had to buy an NFC card writer to actually program these.
 
This technology might be somewhat interesting, but it also looks like you have to turn on your phone and maybe even unlock it too, each time you want to read a tag.

In that case, it is just as easy to have a macro widget on the home screen that says "HOME CAR WORK" whatever. No expense, no tags hanging around, no misplaced tags, no wondering if it read the tag, etc. Maybe I am missing something, though...