Lumia 920 and 820: NFC

[jbwpcentral]

I know that nokia is trying to use nfc for various things, (Wallet, connecting to headphones or speakers..Etc) but is it possible to use it as a syncing tool. What i mean is have it connected to an nfc enabled dock and transfer music, videos, etc from the computer to the phone?

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

NFC is meant to just be the connection initiator AFAIK. After that other technologies like WiFi + Bluetooth kick in to deal with what the connection asked for. At least that's if I'm thinking right.

 

[crystal_planet]

This taken off another forum from a poster that uses NFC routinely:

"Many people are aware of NFC as the technology expected to power the future of smartphone payments. What many people don't realize is that NFC has a lot of other practical uses right now. I've been using it for some time now to great effect, mostly for automation purposes.

There are a few things you need to make use of NFC at the moment. For starters, you need an NFC device. I use the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Asus Nexus 7. There are a lot of other Android devices with NFC, as well as several NFC-enabled Blackberrys out there, and Windows Phone 8 will support NFC. However, most of what I talk about here is specific to Android. There may be similar Blackberry apps available, but I've never looked.

You will also need blank NFC tags. You can buy your own tags for a few dollars online. Most tags are re-writable, but be warned; there are different sizes of NFC tags, and if you go too cheap they may not be big enough to store anything of practical value. I'm no expert on the tags, but the ones I bought seem to work well. I bought 10 from eBay. They just look like small white stickers, about the size of a quarter.

The last thing you'll need are some apps to program and respond to the tags. There are a lot of them out there, but two I use the most are "NFC Task Launcher" and "Tasker". NFC task launcher can write the tags, and can issue some rudimentary phone commands. The app's real strength is the ability to set NFC tags to trigger Tasker tasks. If you've never used Tasker, it's an extremely powerful phone automation app. Tasker can respond to all kinds of inputs (eg plugging in headphones, receiving a particular SMS message, reaching a certain time, etc) and can respond however you wish. For example, in one of my tasks, when my phone receives a particular SMS message, it locks the phone under a password, silences it (so you can't tell when you receive messages), enables GPS, and texts back current GPS coordinates. Together, these two apps make a very powerful combination.

Some of my NFC tags are very simple. One in my wallet allows me to quickly add myself as a contact to NFC-enabled Blackberrys and Android phones (if they choose, I can't do it surreptitiously). If I had a business card, I might stick it to the back of that. You can also have them launch URLs automatically.

I have one on the side of my washing machine, so if I swipe my phone past it when I turn the machine on, it sets a timer for 59 minutes (the normal load time on my machine). Another one on my desk at work that turns off my ringer when I put my phone down. I've heard it suggested that you stick one to the inside of the light-switch plate in your front hall. When you leave the house, you can swipe past it and have it enable or disable wifi.

You can get much more complicated. I know some people have their work tags setup to change their wallpaper and ring-tones to something more appropriate for work, just in case. You can also set it so that if it's after 4 pm, it sends a text to your spouse that you're on your way home.

I have a tag in my car so that when I put my phone down where I normally leave it, it turns on bluetooth and connects to the car's handsfree, as well as my OBDII transmitter, turns on GPS, reads any incoming text messages aloud, and (just for fun) reads out the current date, time, and expected weather conditions for the day. If I plugged it into the car charger before I put it down, it also turns on my wireless hotspot (for potential passengers). When I get out of the car and swipe my phone past the tag again, it switches back to normal (disables bluetooth/GPS and stops reading texts aloud)."

 

[Mystictrust]

I know that nokia is trying to use nfc for various things, (Wallet, connecting to headphones or speakers..Etc) but is it possible to use it as a syncing tool. What i mean is have it connected to an nfc enabled dock and transfer music, videos, etc from the computer to the phone?

Nokia already has an NFC-enabled dock out there that also has integrated QI wireless charging, so place your Lumia 820/920 on (or closely around) the stand, it starts charging, and the phone NFC chip pairs with the dock and launches some app you've chosen it to, like the music app (their example).

Check out the Lumia 920 and go to accessories and it's in there somewhere.

 

[Probaholic1]

I think it's awesome that they have NFC I like this tech I use it all the time to shop, and haven't explored the other automated stuff. I want to figure out how to be able to start my car with this

 

[diaspar]

sounds pretty awesome

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[smoledman]

I want Microsoft/Nokia to demonstrate all the NFC capabilities the Lumia 920 has. They could easily spend 15-20 minutes just on that.

 

[SnailUK]

All the stuff Crystal_planet's post talks about looks awesome. If even half of that is possible, i'll be buying loads of blank NFC tags to do specific things at home/work/etc.

Even better there are some metro windows 8 style NFC tags on ebay, which look perfect for using with my future WP8.

 

[crystal_planet]

All the stuff Crystal_planet's post talks about looks awesome. If even half of that is possible, i'll be buying loads of blank NFC tags to do specific things at home/work/etc.

Even better there are some metro windows 8 style NFC tags on ebay, which look perfect for using with my future WP8.

Oh yes. The poster in question started this thread because like most people I thought NFC was just for payments - I had no idea the technology was so flexible.

In retrospect launching the iPhone 5 without it could prove to be a big mistake.

 

[ImmortalWarrior]

That's the great thing about it. NFC is hands free automated event triggers. You simply need a way to program responses to the the tags on the device. If Windows 8 doesn't have a way to do this immediately, I'm sure and application will quickly become available to do so.

Specifically, I really like the automated text messaging that the above quote described. Imagine setting up a Room for you and your family, each of their devices coded to respond to NFC tags in certain ways. My GF could see when I go into my car to head home from work via a Room message and vice versa. The possibilities are endless. With native code support, WP8 applications could be written to take advantage of this level of automation.

Now I just need a Qi wireless charger built into a dashboard mount for my device in the car.

 

[Villain]

I been using NFC on the blackberry bold 9900 for over a year now for multiple things. a lot of really awesome things can be done. I got an NFC sticker at my work desk, my door at home and car to adjust the settings for each.

 

[1jaxstate1]

...and now I want NFC. That seems too awesome.

I been using NFC on the blackberry bold 9900 for over a year now for multiple things. a lot of really awesome things can be done. I got an NFC sticker at my work desk, my door at home and car to adjust the settings for each.

 

[Villain]

...and now I want NFC. That seems too awesome.

yeah it's the simple things that people don't talk about that become the most useful

 

[palandri]

Oh yes. The poster in question started this thread because like most people I thought NFC was just for payments - I had no idea the technology was so flexible.

In retrospect launching the iPhone 5 without it could prove to be a big mistake.

That's an outstanding list you copied over here with all the other things NFC can do, and I am sure a lot of people will use it and get ideas from it. Myself, I like to do all those things manually.

 

[1jaxstate1]

The ability to cut wifi off and BT on when getting into my car, then cutting BT off and Wifi on when I'm at home or at work automatically would be worth it.

yeah it's the simple things that people don't talk about that become the most useful

Just when I thought I didn't want a upgrade.

 

[ncxcstud]

IW - I'd love a Qi wireless built into my dash or car console and one built into my desk at the church.

 

[jhoff80]

NFC does some great things that are mentioned here, but the answer to the original question is no.

It doesn't have the bandwidth for transferring music or videos. Now, what is possible is using NFC as a trigger for Bluetooth and Wifi connections, which is what Tap+Send will do, but syncing won't happen over NFC.

Also, I don't think it's possible, but I'd still really love to see the Wallet hub be able to learn RFID signals. Then I could transfer the signal for my company elevator pass to my phone, or transfer the signal for my subway pass to my phone, or even my Zipcar pass (in lieu of a dedicated app that we don't appear to be getting), and then I could really get rid of my wallet.

As these things are now, getting rid of a few credit cards just doesn't help me.

 

[maj71303]

This is great information for those who don't know that NFC has wider capabilities than just being as just tap for payment.

 

[ncxcstud]

NFC does some great things that are mentioned here, but the answer to the original question is no.

It doesn't have the bandwidth for transferring music or videos. Now, what is possible is using NFC as a trigger for Bluetooth and Wifi connections, which is what Tap+Send will do, but syncing won't happen over NFC.

Also, I don't think it's possible, but I'd still really love to see the Wallet hub be able to learn RFID signals. Then I could transfer the signal for my company elevator pass to my phone, or transfer the signal for my subway pass to my phone, or even my Zipcar pass (in lieu of a dedicated app that we don't appear to be getting), and then I could really get rid of my wallet.

As these things are now, getting rid of a few credit cards just doesn't help me.

You know. The amount of times I'd ever pay using my phone to 'tap' something is probably few and far between. But, I won't deny that as soon as I get a 920, setup the wallet app with my debit/credit card. I'm going to go to McDonalds (where I don't enjoy going to eat) and pay with my phone, just to do it and say that I did. haha.

 

[anon(5335877)]

You know. The amount of times I'd ever pay using my phone to 'tap' something is probably few and far between. But, I won't deny that as soon as I get a 920, setup the wallet app with my debit/credit card. I'm going to go to McDonalds (where I don't enjoy going to eat) and pay with my phone, just to do it and say that I did. haha.

Haha, right? I was planning to do that too. Probably not at McDonalds though (eww), I'll find somewhere else where they have those tap to pay things.