Tagged: apple

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NFC is not just mobile payment

NFC or Near Field Communication is the big buzz word at the moment and everybody is talking about it. The truth is that the technology is nothing new and it has been around for a long time. Nokia had an NFC enabled phone in 2007, it was called the Nokia 6131.

Google has made the term mainstream with their announcement of Google Wallet and most people think of NFC as a way to pay with their mobile device. But that is not all.

imageAt Razorfish globally we have been exploring NFC for a long time. Just look at the examples that we released in the past: The NFC gumball machine, BrandTable or Razorfish Digital Wallet.

We actually have a wall of NFC to showcase all kinds of uses for the technology right in our office.

So what else can you do with NFC apart from using it for payments?

There are already plenty of examples out there.

Below you can find 6 examples on how NFC can be used right now.

1. Use your NFC enabled phone as the key to your hotel room

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For the recent Olympics in London a Holiday Inn Hotel gave their VIP customers a Samsung Galaxy S3 as part of their 40 VIP rooms. The guests were able to check in and out of the hotel, as well as change the AC, control the TV, and unlock their rooms with the phone.

Using NFC in your phone as a key to open doors has been used in the Enterprise world as well. The phones were used to enable physical access systems in buildings and track employee time-clock check-ins and attendance, access staff parking areas or cafeterias and pay for services.

NFC tags could be placed inside meeting or conference rooms, and attendees could tap their compatible devices to silence them or to turn on Wi-Fi, for example.

2. Use it as your travel pass

Continue reading →

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Disney's Appmates – the future of iPad gaming

If you have kids and a tablet you know that your kids love them and you hardly get any time with it yourself.

Disney is going to release their Appmates toys next month and then you won’t get your tablet back at all from your kids.

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So what is Appmates? It seems to be a new iPad interface which lets the user (or small and big Kids) control a Cars-themed iPad games using the toys above.

The toy cars have special conductive pads that are recognized by the iPad and interpreted by the app.

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As you drive around the virtual environment of Radiator Springs, you’ll hear the character’s voice react to each bump or jostle. Mirrors inside the toy car will reflect light from the iPad through the toy’s headlights, and Mater’s siren as well.

Check out the video after the break

Continue reading →

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The biggest projected capacitive display in the world

and I want one.

I finally had the time to read about this “little” screen at SIGGRAPH, the article has been open in my browser for about 6 days.

And it was well worth the wait.

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A projected capacitive display is nothing new, multiple smartphones, including the iPhone has one, but having an 82 inch one is something very special.

check out the video below and dream about having one of these puppies in your living room some day.

http://www.viddler.com/embed/33ac8f58/?f=1&offset=0&autoplay=0&disablebranding=0

Right now this kind of screen is still really expensive ($120 000) and even the  CEO said that consumers will see this in the market as soon as it is more affordable.

I am saving my pennies now.

@maniac13

The Heist: An awesome puzzle game with a tangible reward

Two things I love: slick puzzle games and discounted software. MacHeist, providers of the biggest and best of the charity-contributing Mac software bundles is giving you both with their new iOS game, The Heist.

The Heist is a fantastic collection of increasingly difficult challenges, spread amongst four different puzzle types. The twist with this game is the promise of a real reward at the end. What is it? In their words: “You’ll have to beat The Heist to find out… but it’s fun, and it’s worth much more than the price of entry.”

OK, you’ve got me. Back to it, then.

The Heist is on the AppStore for 99c in the US and $1.19 in Australia.

You might want to check this out.

New Apple TV leaked (and yes we want one)

These leaked images of a full size 50 inch Apple Television (not the hockey puck but a full sized TV using gesture controls for the lounge) arrived in our inbox this morning. From what we can tell you will be able to install TV Channels in the same way you use apps on your iPhone.

You can click the images to see the full size pics.

Making stop-motion magic with the iPad

When a new bit of tech is released it’s always fun to see what crazy/creative new things people can do with it. Dentsu London, in collaboration with BERG have produced a short film exploring the idea of “Making future magic” using the iPad to “paint” 3D objects in the air and bring it all together with long-exposure photography.

Watch the video. They explain it better.

Wired iPad app sales to surpass print sales this month

Wired Magazine have reason to be extra excited about the release of the iPad this month. The iPad edition of Wired, which retails on the app store for $US4.99 has – as of June 7 – been purchased nearly 80,000 – the average monthly sales for the print edition. This is after just two weeks on the app store. This was tweeted by Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson on Sunday:

73,000 purchases of Wired iPad app in first nine days. Should beat newsstand sales of print mag (ave. mid 80s) this month.

He celebrated again during Steve Jobs’s keynote at WWDC10 on Monday with:

Can die happy now. Steve Jobs shows the Wired iPad app on stage at WWDC! http://twitpic.com/1utfrk

Obviously, with the iPad still being so new and shiny, app sales are likely to be much higher for the next few months, but even so, things look promising for the Wired app. In addition to getting all the articles (and ads) of the print version, there are extra animations, videos and sound clips sprinkled in there.

Personally, I think the Wired iPad app is amazing. After seeing the Wired app, the whole iPad thing made a LOT more sense. The iPad (to me) is a reading device. Reading blogs, articles, ebooks, magazines. It’s just so much easier than sitting at a desk or having the MacBook burn my lap on the couch. I’ll be happily throwing $6 a month into Condé Nast‘s pockets. Much better than the $13 is costs on newsstands in Australia.

Hopefully we’ll be seeing more creative use of the iPad from other magazine publishers.

Adobe responds to Steve Jobs' "Thoughts on Flash"

Kevin Lynch, CTO of Adobe responded to Steve Jobs’ ‘Thoughts on Flash‘ open letter (summary here) with a short blog post late last week.Kevin writes that if Apple tried to cooperate with Adobe a bit more, then they could “provide a terrific experience with Flash on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch”.

Kevin wrote:

However, as we posted last week, given the legal terms Apple has imposed on developers, we have already decided to shift our focus away from Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices for both Flash Player and AIR. We are working to bring Flash Player and AIR to all the other major participants in the mobile ecosystem, including Google, RIM, Palm (soon to be HP), Microsoft, Nokia and others.

Read the full thing here.