back to article Phone lacking NFC pay-by-bonk tech? It can go on a SIM

Inside Secure has finally announced the NFC SIM technology demonstrated a year ago, potentially adding ticketing and payments to any mobile phone, only without the other cool stuff NFC can do. The technology uses an RF booster, branded The PicoPulse, which uses handset power to push the Near Field Communications radio signal …

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  1. wowfood

    The PicoPulse

    Sounds like a pokémon

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And I need NFC why?

    It's chicken and egg, there nothing that uses it so people don't consider it a needed feature in a phone, and then as there is no general support in handsets no-one is working to fill a need.

    QR codes can do a lot of the work in the advertising sphere and you increase their range by simply printing them bigger. Pay by bonk, Meh, heck my Bank (and a few others) has not got around to issuing pay by NFC cards yet, I don't want to put my cash into the hands of someone else with the one exception of if it was Paypal, I have to use them for Ebay anyway so may as well use them.

    Seems like a technology looking for an application to me.

    1. Simon Buttress
      Boffin

      Re: And I need NFC why?

      And I need a laser why?

      While I am also slightly skeptical of NFC (or its close-range variants), I think there will be large demand for it once we sort out the applications. We're still at that stage where we know it's exciting but haven't quite figured out the best way to use it yet. Maybe switching the central heating on and off as we arrive/leave the house. Light switches becoming redundant as we pass from room to room, maybe reminding us that that parma ham in the fridge is nearing its sell by date. I don't know but I'm sure someone will crack it.

      Maybe I just love technology and the possibilities it allows us to dream up

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And I need NFC why?

      NFC is available in McDonalds, Burger King, Marks and Spencers and Sainsbury garages to name but a few. I have no doubt it will appear in other business areas soon enough.

      1. eSeM

        Re: And I need NFC why?

        ... and Tesco.

        I have had NFC capability on my phone for almost 2 years now yet I still can't find anyone that can provide me with a service that allows me to use it :(

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And I need NFC why?

      NFC on all phones coming into place around a year or more since I got it on my bank card. Why bother?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NFC - No Flippin' Chance

    I certainly wouldn't buy a phone with an NFC chip unless it can be permanently disabled. I'm getting pretty fed up with the credit card companies insisting I have one - luckily NatWest still issue them without, so I now only carry NatWest cards with me - the others are securely locked away at home. I've got 'till 2015 before the Natwest cards need to be renewed - hopefully NFC will have disappeared by then.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: NFC - No Flippin' Chance

      Anyone know how to disable the NFC function on a credit card? Is there a place where a strategic hole can be drilled to cut the antenna, like there is on some security badges?

    2. Silverburn

      Re: NFC - No Flippin' Chance

      +1. Too many potential security issues with NFC for it to be released in the wild properly, IMO.

      Put it this way...an NFC skimmer will be *a lot* easier to build and disguise than a traditional ATM card skimmer.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Disable NFC...

    There is a antenna that goes around the bottom half of the card.

    If you have a *spare* card, pop it in the microwave oven for 10 secs.

    The antenna will heat up and char the plastic.

    Use this as template for a strategic pop with a hole punch.

    Don't forget to test the card at Tesco to make sure you chopped the antenna properly.

    :)

    Anon for obvious reasons.

  5. JimmyPage Silver badge
    Meh

    Barclaycard

    Offered me an NFC sticker for my phone. It's just over 1mm thick, and I stuck it on the *inside* of the battery cover (why advertise the fact). Using it at McDonalds is a little like watching primitive tribesman worshipping a cigarette lighter ....

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To all the NFC naysayers

    Have you ever used it ? You need to be close ... I mean 2-3 cm close.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: To all the NFC naysayers

      Err... no... the card readers in Tesco/Pret/etc are LOW POWER readers, and hence LOW RANGE...

      Give it a bit more power and you can easily stretch the field out to 20cm, which may not sound like much, but a small hand held unit about the size of a thick paperback can see a whole lot of NFC cards in a slow walk down a crowded tube station platform, busy shopping centre, rush hour walk to work...

      Can I suggest a shielded envelope to put your NFC card in, or a shielded purse/wallet.

      Or if you're tight like me, a few squares of tin foil strategically place in your wallet...

      Anon, for obvious reasons...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: To all the NFC naysayers

      Pickpockets get closer than that to ply their trade, so I imagine passing a portable reader over the right spot would be childs play by comparison, once they're popular enough to make it worthwhile.

      Apart from an interest in the tech and other possible uses for it beyond payments, I struggle to see the point of this at all other than to make bankers and ad pimps somehow wealthier. OK, life is short, but not so short I can't afford to take the additional hit of an extra 9.2 seconds buying a can of drink using cash, over haemorrhaging a bit more location/purchase data for the substantially less than lofty purpose of offering me a 4.23% discount on my next can of Cuke when I fire up a browser, or a free second bag of complimentary inflight nuts if I book a holiday flight to Goa, based on the fact I bought a vindaloo in the Tippoo's Revenge on Brick Lane three times in the last month, so I must a) want to visit India and b) need a holiday because their data tells them I haven't one for 8 months 6 days 4 hours 23 minutes and 19 seconds.

      I love most tech 'just because', but I do wish we'd pull our heads out of our collective arses and start thinking about interesting and perhaps worthwhile uses for it that didn't involve analysing even the tiniest facial inflexion or bowel movement just to pimp another piece of soul sapping plastic. I say nay.

  7. TheProf
    Meh

    Used it once

    My local Oddbins (Liverpool) have these 'magic' readers. It took the salesperson 3 bonks to get the card read. It wasn't significantly faster than keying in a PIN. It would be a lot quicker with a stolen card I suppose.

  8. JaitcH
    WTF?

    Carrier NFC SIM costs too high?

    Canadian Rogers, notorious for gouging any type of it's customers charges CAD$50 for a SIM card!

    There should be enough profit there for NFC.

  9. johnnytruant

    payments, meh

    but I am quite interested in using NFC tags to control my phone. Stick a tag in my car cradle, have it activate my GPS and fire up Navigation; pop a tag by my front door, have it turn on/off wifi as I enter/leave the house; another one by my bed, turns off ringtones and makes sure alarms are active, etc. etc.

    1. James Prior
      Go

      Re: payments, meh

      Then you need a Sony Xperia S and some Sony Smart Tags - which do just that.

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