Near Field Communication on iPhone with iCarte
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Exploring the possibilities of NFC usage with an iCarte NFC accessory for an iPhone 4/4S. Presented at OzKFest, July 27th 2013
Andrew RoughanFollow
Senior Business Analyst at Clear2Pay
Near Field Communication on iPhone with iCarte
- Near Field Communication (NFC) on the iPhone with iCarte Andrew Roughan Sydney, Australia OzKfest 2013
- What is NFC? NFC is a short range wireless RFID technology that makes use of interacting electromagnetic radio fields instead of the typical direct radio transmissions used by technologies such as Bluetooth. It is meant for applications where a physical touch, or close to it, is required in order to maintain security. http://www.mobileburn.com/definition.jsp?term=NFC Examples of usage Mobile phone actions 6:30 McDonalds table games 1:48 Electronic Shelf Labels 1:00
- What are NFC Tags? NXP MIFARE Ultralight C functional diagram
- NFC options on the iPhone Flomio FloJack US$70 RRP Incipio Cashwrap US$70 RRP CalypsoCase EUR 129 RRP Wireless Dynamics iCarte US$159 RRP
- iCarte – a closer look Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Reader and Writer Contains a secure element that can be configured as credit, debit, pre-paid and loyalty cards, for secure contactless transactions. iCarte can also read NFC Smart Posters, download or upload electronic coupons, tickets or receipts. Attaches to the bottom connector of the iPhone Different models available for iPhone 3, 4/4S, & 5
- Commonwealth Bank iCarte Available to order through the ‘Kaching’ application ~AU$50 Black, White, or Pink colour choices for iPhone 4/4S cases Use with the Kaching application requires Commonwealth Bank Mastercard. Payments up to $100 can be made using PayPass. Once ‘personalised’ with the Kaching application, the iCarte cannot be used on another iPhone, or with another phone number* - therefore don’t buy a second hand used iCarte. Trying to use the iCarte on another iPhone may ‘lock’ the iCarte so it cannot be used with the original iPhone either. A Locked iCarte cannot be used for NFC / RFID *According to Netbank technical support
- iCarte – the good news You don’t need to personalise it for use with Kaching to be able to use it for NFC/RFID purposes. Available on eBay Australia. Recent sales range: AUD$10-$30 You don’t need to be a Commonwealth Bank customer for NFC/RFID capability. ‘NFC Tags’ application demo App store search for NFC
- Compatibility of NFC tags with iCarte Confirmed working: NTAG203 – worked with ‘NFC Tags’ application Not Working: Samsung TecTiles – based on NXP Mifare chip – Not working with ‘NFC Tags’ or ‘iCarte Reader Mifare’ applications
- NFC on iPhone Gimmick or Killer App? ‘NFC Tags’ App (iCarte): •Browse URL •Receive contact information ‘NFC Actions’ App (FloJack): •Browse URL •Compose Email •Compose SMS •Dial Number
- NFC on iPhone Questions?
Editor's Notes
- RFID: Radio Frequency Identification http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp5il7yhM4Y http://www.nfcworld.com/2013/07/15/324977/mcdonalds-adds-nfc-games-to-restaurant-tables/ http://www.jogtek.com/nfcesl.html
- http://www.nxp.com/products/identification_and_security/smart_card_ics/mifare_smart_card_ics/mifare_ultralight/series/MIFARE_ULTRALIGHT_C.html
- http://flomio.com/ http://9to5mac.com/2013/01/08/incipio-and-att-team-up-to-launch-nfc-enabled-isis-iphone-wallet/ http://www.calypsocrystal.com/ http://chipwave.co/collections/nfc-iphone-cases
- As an iPhone accessory attaching to the bottom connector of the iPhone, the iCarte turns the iPhone into an NFC phone as well as an RFID Reader / Writer. NFC and RFID tag information can be written and read by the iCarte and communicated to an iPhone. The iCarte also contains an embedded smart element which can be configured as a debit, credit, pre-paid or loyalty card, turning the iPhone into an electronic wallet. The iCarte is ideal for iPhone users who want to use their iPhone for fast and secure contactless payments, transit payments, loyalty rewards, checking balances, top-up, discovering new services from smart posters or kiosks and exchanging information with other NFC phones. Business iPhone users can use the iCarte for commercial applications such as asset tracking, document tracking, healthcare, security and access control.
- The bad news: Wireless Dynamics is reportedly asking for $2000 for the iCarte SDK. The iPhone sandbox does not allow easy access to the iPhone settings from an app. So location based phone configuration is not as easily accomplished as it is on Android-based NFC phones.
- I am a newcomer to the world of NFC. I am excited by the possibilities, but frustrated by the lack of standardisation. There will never be consumer acceptance until there is a common standard and ubiquity of inexpensive devices to use it. Perhaps there is now a standard for the tags, but the high cost of entry into a device for iPhone means a large % of consumers don't have any NFC capable device. Android's offerings are splintered as well (e.g. Samsung Galaxy S3 uses different solution to the S4). Commonwealth Bank has subsidised the iCarte in the Australian market, but it still costs $50 - and then it needs to be replaced if the customer changes phones, or their phone number. That is never going to be a popular solution. For simple applications, I don't see what the benefit of NFC is over a QR code so perhaps NFC is a solution looking for a problem. What excites me is the potential for an NFC tag to initiate multiple actions on my smartphone. Unfortunately, I have to unlock the phone, open the NFC reading application and initiate the read first, so there's still a tradeoff between cost of use and payback. Then the iPhone sandbox prevents the application from changing lots of settings that would really be useful to change with NFC (e.g. when leaving/arriving at a location).