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We are hearing more and more about NFC, and the momentum will keep on building especially since it was announced that the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 will both have NFC connectivity. 

So what is it? 

NFC, which stands stands for Near Field Communication, is a short-range wireless technology that allows a device, such as a smartphone, to interact and communicate with other objects that are also NFC-enabled or have NFC tags.

For example, the new Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 will be able to connect with NFC to a range of accessories, such as the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker. There’s no need for wires or doing anything technical – you just tap your phone on the speaker to pair them up. 

Beyond, pairing your smartphone with funky accessories, there are plenty of other potential applications for NFC. Every time a Londoner uses their ‘Oyster card’ to travel on the Tube or a bus, they are using RFID, NFC’s older brother. 

Among many others, NFC can also be used for:

• Cashless payments
• In advertising on ‘intelligent’ billboards
• As a way of tracking an asset
• Monitoring attendance
• Tickets
• Loyalty or membership cards

To find out more about NFC, we spoke to Derek Greene, the founder of track4services.com, a company based in the UK and Finland that has pioneered the use of NFC in areas ranging from public transport to advertising.

By happy coincidence, Derek started his work on NFC with Nokia, and has a long history with the company, so he should feel right at home here on Conversations.

What are the origins of NFC and how does it work?

It goes back to Michael Faraday, who made lots of discoveries on electricity. He realised that you could send energy over a radio wave.

You use it every day when you use your Oyster card. There is an emission from the Oyster card reader, the yellow plate on the tube or on the bus, which energises the antenna inside the Oyster card.

A forerunner of NFC is radio frequency identification (RFID) and that’s been in use for packaging and logistics for about 30 years but it has been incredibly expensive. For example, you can scan an entrance port to a warehouse and everything that goes through will be automatically read and there will be a big powerful gate emitting this energy.

Now, we all have a mobile phone and that is emitting the energy. So the tag can be fixed because the infrastructure is the phone.

How does NFC differ from Bluetooth?

Bluetooth, let’s face it, can reduce you to tears trying to get it to pair with another item. With NFC, it is always on; the security is provided by the fact you have to be near to something.

Bluetooth typically has a 10m range so you have to have a secure pairing, with passwords or a number. It’s got better but it has always been quite a difficult technology.

Another thing is that it tends to get crowded out – there’s lot of people with Bluetooth and if there’s lot of people around, it tends to stop working.

Will NFC drain your battery if it’s always on? And how closely do you have to hold your phone to connect via NFC?

NFC’s energy consumption is miniscule. It literally has no effect on day-to-day use.

Picture the size of the ping-pong ball – the NFC range is half of that. So you do have to physically touch it but in human terms it is very intuitive. You don’t need to do anything. You just see the NFC icon and you touch it. 

In which areas are you seeing NFC being used a lot?

The area with the biggest use of NFC for us is advertising. Billboards will have NFC tags and they are then associated with whatever is on the billboard.

The benefits to the advertising industry is that it is transforming what is a visual paper medium, out of the home, which is great for awareness, but is poor when it has to compete with the likes of Google because it doesn’t have a digital element.

Do you sense that NFC is really starting to take off now?

I don’t think take off is the right phrase but we are at least building the airplanes now. NFC is simple to use, but it is also easy to do it wrong.

I was the first agent to promote NFC in the UK. Nokia trained me up about 5 years ago but the market wasn’t right back then. The tags were very expensive and the phones didn’t materialise so we had a stop-start relationship, which was terrible in terms of trying to attract investment and get the commitments that people have to make.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Having NFC on our phones should make a big difference, right?

It is the convergence of technology on smartphones. Our phones are already crucial to our lives and now with NFC if you happen to see a NFC tag at a bus stop then you can touch it, and there’s no need to download the app or do anything.

For example, lots of young people have grown with their phones and won’t have any problems putting in long URLs manually but for other people it gets to a point where doing things like that becomes a hassle. 

NFC is going to be genuinely hassle-free. You touch it and it just works. It is very, very cool.

When it comes to following the latest business news or managing your finances and being ‘in the know’, you want information on your companies and your portfolio right now. Bloomberg, the most-trusted name in business and finance has provided the answer. The brand new, exclusive on Windows Phone Bloomberg Hub is the one-stop app for getting all your business and finance information in a single place.

The Bloomberg Hub for Nokia Lumia brings all the Bloomberg properties together to Nokia Lumia to keep market watchers current with personalized business and finance news, global market data and portfolio tracking tools.

Take a look at all the innovative features found in the Bloomberg Hub:

• Personalized news, portfolio tracking and breaking news alerts.
• Customized watchlists for stocks, mutual funds, bonds, ETF’s and more.
• Download your favorite Bloomberg TV and Radio shows to enjoy offline.
• Deep pin Live Tiles for stocks, bonds, indices, futures and currencies.

Coming from 35 news categories including Economy, Politics, Technology, Bloomberg brings the latest to your phone so you can be empowered to make your financial decisions with the latest insights.

Are you addicted to Bloomberg TV? The Bloomberg Hub app gives you on-demand video access to all the biggest stories right now. Plus, check out favorites including Charlie Rose, Bloomberg West or Sportfolio.  Also, the last days’ worth of top financial news clips can be watched just in case you missed something.

If you want to catch up with the news but only wants listen to audio, Bloomberg Radio is there for you, straight in the application with access to shows such as

• Bloomberg Surveillance with Tom Keene
• A Closer Look with Arthur Levitt
• The Final Word with Ken Prewitt

No matter how you want to consume your Bloomberg news or follow your portfolio, the Bloomberg app has you covered. The Bloomberg Hub application is a Nokia Lumia Exclusive and can be found in Marketplace.

What’s your favorite feature of the Bloomberg app?

Important notice: there might be a publishing delay (1-2 days) on Windows Phone Store. Just wait a bit until the Windows Phone Store page updates. Thanks for your patience.

Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well!

The newly announced Nokia Lumia 820 comes packed with some great features, a 4.3 inch ClearBlack OLED screen, an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics and wireless charging – thanks to the interchangeable shells.

These interchangeable shells play a big role in the look of the phone, and more importantly, certain functions of the phone. The brightly coloured shells are more than plastic covers; they activate the wireless charging function or protect your phone if you’re more of an active user. Each one is created to suit a person’s different needs without the need to change your phone.

“We’ve moved beyond just changing the colour of your phone. People can now decide how they want to use their phone, by doing something as simple as changing a shell to add a function.”

Explains Tuomas Reivo, Lead Designer on the Nokia Lumia 820.

Made from PC/ABS – a material that was developed to make the shells easy to clip on and off and remain strong at the same time – they allow for easy removal whenever needed. And the colours aren’t just painted on; they are inherent in the material. This means that if you were to scratch the shell you won’t be left with a noticeable mark, you’ll actually hardly notice it’s there. It keeps its colour for longer.

When you buy a Nokia Lumia 820 you’ll receive a standard shell in the box, made from the PC/ABS material. High gloss colours available are red, yellow, cyan, purple, and white. Matte colours are grey and black.

To take advantage of the wireless charging function you’ll need to purchase the Wireless Charging shell. With this connected to your Lumia 820, you can place your phone on a Nokia Wireless Charging Plate, Nokia Wireless Charging Stand, the Fatboy™ Recharge Pillow, or the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker. These are available in five matte colours: white, yellow, black, red and cyan – all matte and made from PC/ABS.

If you’re more heavy-handed with your phones, if you have a more active life-style or just want to make sure your phone is protected at any point, there is a ruggedised shell too.

Rather than using a solid, rigid, plastic case like you find on some other phones, this protective shell is built to protect all parts of the phone without making it too bulky. It’s the same width and same length as the other shells, but only a fraction thicker.

This softer shell is also made from PC/ABS but has another rubber-like material around the front and the edges. It covers the back, as you’d expect but also stretches around the front slightly to protect the edges of the screen and the corners – the most at risk area if you drop your phone. These will be available in matte yellow, green and orange with a black TPU trim.

The range of interchangeable shells will be available at launch of the Nokia Lumia 820.

What shells are you looking forward to using? Let us know in the comments, below.

When it comes to following the latest business news or managing your finances and being ‘in the know’, you want information on your companies and your portfolio right now. Bloomberg, the most-trusted name in business and finance has provided the answer. The brand new, exclusive on Windows Phone Bloomberg Hub is the one-stop app for getting all your business and finance information in a single place.

The Bloomberg Hub for Nokia Lumia brings all the Bloomberg properties together to Nokia Lumia to keep market watchers current with personalized business and finance news, global market data and portfolio tracking tools.

Take a look at all the innovative features found in the Bloomberg Hub:

• Personalized news, portfolio tracking and breaking news alerts.
• Customized watchlists for stocks, mutual funds, bonds, ETF’s and more.
• Download your favorite Bloomberg TV and Radio shows to enjoy offline.
• Deep pin Live Tiles for stocks, bonds, indices, futures and currencies.

Coming from 35 news categories including Economy, Politics, Technology, Bloomberg brings the latest to your phone so you can be empowered to make your financial decisions with the latest insights.

Are you addicted to Bloomberg TV? The Bloomberg Hub app gives you on-demand video access to all the biggest stories right now. Plus, check out favorites including Charlie Rose, Bloomberg West or Sportfolio.  Also, the last days’ worth of top financial news clips can be watched just in case you missed something.

If you want to catch up with the news but only wants listen to audio, Bloomberg Radio is there for you, straight in the application with access to shows such as

• Bloomberg Surveillance with Tom Keene
• A Closer Look with Arthur Levitt
• The Final Word with Ken Prewitt

No matter how you want to consume your Bloomberg news or follow your portfolio, the Bloomberg app has you covered. The Bloomberg Hub application is a Nokia Lumia Exclusive and can be found in Marketplace.

What’s your favorite feature of the Bloomberg app?

Important notice: there might be a publishing delay (1-2 days) on Windows Phone Store. Just wait a bit until the Windows Phone Store page updates. Thanks for your patience.

Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well!

Snowboarding might be all about stamina, balance and instinct, but the sport was born in a Eureka moment of inspired thinking. Way back in 1965, a big hearted guy called Sherman Poppen fastened two skis together and attached a rope at one end, so his daughter could glide down a hill in Muskegon, Michigan.

Named the snurfer, in homage to snow and surfing, the contraption sold over a million in the next decade. Snowboarding has changed a heck of a lot since then. What hasn’t changed is the way inspired thinking keeps making it more awesome.

Get on board

Take the board. Back in 1977, when Jake Burton started his company, he introduced the Backhill, a narrow board with single strap bindings. After experimenting with materials from surfboard foam cores to fiberglass, he eventually chose wood.

Fast forward thirty-five years and Burton is one of the world’s largest snowboard and snowboarding equipment manufacturers. It’s also one of Nokia’s partners, and together the companies have been thinking of ways to use mobile tech to benefit snowboarders.

Give me five!

The first real fruits of this collaboration began a couple of years back when Nokia introduced Push Snowboarding. This snowboarding tech is built around five key measurements: heart rate, rush, speed, orientation and pressure. By adding a sensor to a snowboarder’s kit, it’s possible to see what’s happening physically and mentally to snowboarders as they do their coolest tricks.

Harri Holmsten, ex pro snowboarder and Nokia partnership manager who worked on the project, is full of enthusiasm: “By using the smartphone, something we all carry around, as the core to this, we developed technology that lets snowboarders relive their ride in amazing detail once they’ve finished. It gives them a whole new perspective.”

Top shots

But Nokia and Burton’s collaboration doesn’t stop there. As a sponsor of the Burton Open Global Series (BOGS), one of the most progressive competitive snowboard series in the world, Nokia is working its tech magic to help snowboarders on an ongoing basis.

At the European Open earlier this year, Nokia rigged eighteen Nokia Lumia smartphones to a specially created rig. The aim? To record snowboarders’ trampoline jumps in a 180-degree bullet time shot. As you can see, not only did the resulting films look incredible, but they also provided an invaluable insight to boarders about how their tricks looked and what they could do to improve them.

The speed way

The most recent Burton event, the first annual Burton ‘High Fives’ in Wanaka, New Zealand, was a snowboarding show like no other. For the first time ever, it combined traditional snowboarding action with unique off-snow team challenges like riders knife throwing and car racing. Winners got to choose the order for halfpipe and slopestyle. 

Nokia also helped out by installing Lumia smartphones in race cars so team members could watch and help their team members drive.  And if that weren’t already cool enough, competitors got their hands on the just released Nokia x  Burton Insulator Case. Thanks to special layering, the case keeps your mobile warm in sub zero temperatures and can extend battery life up to 50%!   

As for the future, Harri says the companies have some exciting plans, which could well make mobile tech an integral part of snowboarding in the future. Big words, but if the past is anything to go by, mobile technology has a big part to play in an awesome sport becoming even more awesome.

Image credit: John Lemieux

We are hearing more and more about NFC, and the momentum will keep on building especially since it was announced that the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 will both have NFC connectivity. 

So what is it? 

NFC, which stands stands for Near Field Communication, is a short-range wireless technology that allows a device, such as a smartphone, to interact and communicate with other objects that are also NFC-enabled or have NFC tags.

For example, the new Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 will be able to connect with NFC to a range of accessories, such as the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker. There’s no need for wires or doing anything technical – you just tap your phone on the speaker to pair them up. 

Beyond, pairing your smartphone with funky accessories, there are plenty of other potential applications for NFC. Every time a Londoner uses their ‘Oyster card’ to travel on the Tube or a bus, they are using RFID, NFC’s older brother. 

Among many others, NFC can also be used for:

• Cashless payments
• In advertising on ‘intelligent’ billboards
• As a way of tracking an asset
• Monitoring attendance
• Tickets
• Loyalty or membership cards

To find out more about NFC, we spoke to Derek Greene, the founder of track4services.com, a company based in the UK and Finland that has pioneered the use of NFC in areas ranging from public transport to advertising.

By happy coincidence, Derek started his work on NFC with Nokia, and has a long history with the company, so he should feel right at home here on Conversations.

What are the origins of NFC and how does it work?

It goes back to Michael Faraday, who made lots of discoveries on electricity. He realised that you could send energy over a radio wave.

You use it every day when you use your Oyster card. There is an emission from the Oyster card reader, the yellow plate on the tube or on the bus, which energises the antenna inside the Oyster card.

A forerunner of NFC is radio frequency identification (RFID) and that’s been in use for packaging and logistics for about 30 years but it has been incredibly expensive. For example, you can scan an entrance port to a warehouse and everything that goes through will be automatically read and there will be a big powerful gate emitting this energy.

Now, we all have a mobile phone and that is emitting the energy. So the tag can be fixed because the infrastructure is the phone.

How does NFC differ from Bluetooth?

Bluetooth, let’s face it, can reduce you to tears trying to get it to pair with another item. With NFC, it is always on; the security is provided by the fact you have to be near to something.

Bluetooth typically has a 10m range so you have to have a secure pairing, with passwords or a number. It’s got better but it has always been quite a difficult technology.

Another thing is that it tends to get crowded out – there’s lot of people with Bluetooth and if there’s lot of people around, it tends to stop working.

Will NFC drain your battery if it’s always on? And how closely do you have to hold your phone to connect via NFC?

NFC’s energy consumption is miniscule. It literally has no effect on day-to-day use.

Picture the size of the ping-pong ball – the NFC range is half of that. So you do have to physically touch it but in human terms it is very intuitive. You don’t need to do anything. You just see the NFC icon and you touch it. 

In which areas are you seeing NFC being used a lot?

The area with the biggest use of NFC for us is advertising. Billboards will have NFC tags and they are then associated with whatever is on the billboard.

The benefits to the advertising industry is that it is transforming what is a visual paper medium, out of the home, which is great for awareness, but is poor when it has to compete with the likes of Google because it doesn’t have a digital element.

Do you sense that NFC is really starting to take off now?

I don’t think take off is the right phrase but we are at least building the airplanes now. NFC is simple to use, but it is also easy to do it wrong.

I was the first agent to promote NFC in the UK. Nokia trained me up about 5 years ago but the market wasn’t right back then. The tags were very expensive and the phones didn’t materialise so we had a stop-start relationship, which was terrible in terms of trying to attract investment and get the commitments that people have to make.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Having NFC on our phones should make a big difference, right?

It is the convergence of technology on smartphones. Our phones are already crucial to our lives and now with NFC if you happen to see a NFC tag at a bus stop then you can touch it, and there’s no need to download the app or do anything.

For example, lots of young people have grown with their phones and won’t have any problems putting in long URLs manually but for other people it gets to a point where doing things like that becomes a hassle. 

NFC is going to be genuinely hassle-free. You touch it and it just works. It is very, very cool.

The newly announced Nokia Lumia 820 comes packed with some great features, a 4.3 inch ClearBlack OLED screen, an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics and wireless charging – thanks to the interchangeable shells.

These interchangeable shells play a big role in the look of the phone, and more importantly, certain functions of the phone. The brightly coloured shells are more than plastic covers; they activate the wireless charging function or protect your phone if you’re more of an active user. Each one is created to suit a person’s different needs without the need to change your phone.

“We’ve moved beyond just changing the colour of your phone. People can now decide how they want to use their phone, by doing something as simple as changing a shell to add a function.”

Explains Tuomas Reivo, Lead Designer on the Nokia Lumia 820.

Made from PC/ABS – a material that was developed to make the shells easy to clip on and off and remain strong at the same time – they allow for easy removal whenever needed. And the colours aren’t just painted on; they are inherent in the material. This means that if you were to scratch the shell you won’t be left with a noticeable mark, you’ll actually hardly notice it’s there. It keeps its colour for longer.

When you buy a Nokia Lumia 820 you’ll receive a standard shell in the box, made from the PC/ABS material. High gloss colours available are red, yellow, cyan, purple, and white. Matte colours are grey and black.

To take advantage of the wireless charging function you’ll need to purchase the Wireless Charging shell. With this connected to your Lumia 820, you can place your phone on a Nokia Wireless Charging Plate, Nokia Wireless Charging Stand, the Fatboy™ Recharge Pillow, or the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker. These are available in five matte colours: white, yellow, black, red and cyan – all matte and made from PC/ABS.

If you’re more heavy-handed with your phones, if you have a more active life-style or just want to make sure your phone is protected at any point, there is a ruggedised shell too.

Rather than using a solid, rigid, plastic case like you find on some other phones, this protective shell is built to protect all parts of the phone without making it too bulky. It’s the same width and same length as the other shells, but only a fraction thicker.

This softer shell is also made from PC/ABS but has another rubber-like material around the front and the edges. It covers the back, as you’d expect but also stretches around the front slightly to protect the edges of the screen and the corners – the most at risk area if you drop your phone. These will be available in matte yellow, green and orange with a black TPU trim.

The range of interchangeable shells will be available at launch of the Nokia Lumia 820.

What shells are you looking forward to using? Let us know in the comments, below.

Bardzo nam się podobają Wasze propozycje. Jutro tak w skrócie poprawimy, powiększymy ale jednocześnie obniżymy no i przyspieszymy Pokażemy nową, fajną i nowatorską usługę Więcej już jutro. No dobra, mała wskazówka dla wiernych czytelników bloga;-) Powodzenia Toruń!

Bardzo nam się podobają Wasze propozycje. Jutro tak w skrócie poprawimy, powiększymy ale jednocześnie obniżymy no i przyspieszymy Pokażemy nową, fajną i nowatorską usługę Więcej już jutro. No dobra, mała wskazówka dla wiernych czytelników bloga;-) Powodzenia Toruń!

Until today we couldn’t think of any circumstances when mixing alcohol and technology was a good idea. Then we happened upon Bevshots. This incredible company does something we love, it makes the everyday amazing. How, you might ask? Simple. They take different drinks, cocktails, beers, spirits, you name it, crystallize them on a slide and photograph them under a polarized light microscope. The results are so impressive even the most discerning art critic amongst us would be hard-pressed not to raise a glass and say cheers to cool ideas.

Vodka

Dry Martini

Whiskey

Champagne

White Russian

Image credits: Bevshots