What is the business with NFC on the F6.

[hubsabubs]

I have a small understanding of what NFC is. The F6 supports it so I wanted to learn more about it. I know it's something a long the lines of wireless transfer as long as two phones are touching back to back, similar to that of a wireless charging station.. however for data transfers. At first glance I thought it was just an antenna booster like you used to see used back in the late 90's early 2000's that went on the inside of your battery cover. Then I discovered more about it.

So anyone used NFC yet on the F6 or knows something they can share about it with me? Has anyone tried out Android Beam yet on it?

I personally use a Bluetooth dongle to transfer files from pc to phone and vice versa also for using Bluetooth remote. However I might end up having to try this out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995015

 

[Rukbat]

NFC runs at 424kbps (not mbps - kbps), and that's the whole enchilada including headers, etc., but NOT including the 10 seconds to first pair up the devices, then the time it takes to establish the connection and which file you want to transfer, so saying that transferring files is going to be painful is well in the running for understatement of the century. Throughput - ignoring the initial 10 second pairing time - is probably going to be closer to 250kbps. Fopr a 200 byte credit card transaction? 10 seconds for 200 bytes is about 20 bytes/second. Not quite as fast as you can send smoke signals.

Samsung gets around this with S Beam by using NFC to establish the connection, then using Wifi Direct for the file transfer, so their commercials look as if NFC is actually usable. (And they don't show you the initial 30 seconds of setting things up to do the transfer.)

The big use for NFC, IMO, is going to be credit card terminals. Once they're NFC-capable, you just select the card you want to use from your CC app, touch the back of the phone to the indicated spot on the terminal, wait for the beep (about 10 seconds), press the "OK" button on the app and you've paid. (Or swipe your card - it's faster.)

Remember button hooks? They were used to pull the buttons on one side of the shoe through the button holes on the other side of the shoe. They're more useful today than NFC is. NFC with wifi? NFC with Bluetooth? Sure. Pure NFC? Why? You're adding a 10 second delay to everything you do. So it takes 2 seconds to transfer your CC info, but 12 seconds to pay.

Maybe it's time we all slowed down - life is getting too fast-paced. NFC is one way to do it. You can think up, compose, type and send a text faster than you can use NFC to pay for your purchase. NFC is a solution. The problem is that the only problem it solves is that we can do things too fast.

 

[hubsabubs]

Wow thank you see that's the knowledge I was looking to gain, so I shall stay with my 4.99$ dongle special and be able to send 20mbs in less than a minute. Why hype NFC up so much? Whats the difference in using NFC or Bluetooth file sharing. 6 and 1 half dozen of another I spose. I wish they would of made it practical and gave it the capability to charge wirelessly on a sold separately charging pad.

I think of using my Wii remotes with the skins and how nice it was to get a wireless charger that didn't require me taking them off. In essence charge our phone through its case.

 

[Rukbat]

If they took all the money they spent developing and hyping NFC and put it to wireless charging, every cellphone made since the summer of 2013 (if not earlier) would have a Qi receiver built in. (They only cost a few bucks retail, and the contacts the manufacturers put in the phones to connect to them have to cost something.) THAT would be an improvement. Add a data-only USB cable (plug it in to transfer data, but don't charge a battery that's at 95%) and you'd have something to advertise.

Go to McDonalds. Do they sell hamburgers? No, they sell the sizzle. So do cellphone manufacturers. Hey, we do NFC, isn't that great? What would have been greater is all of you getting together and designing a universal connector for data and charging that didn't have the strength of a thin shard of sand glass - the microUSB port. Push the plug in upside down once, don't pay attention, and you're in for a $100 repair. We used to test some military connectors by taking a connector after the cable was connected to it, tieing the cable to an overhead hook and jumping up on the connector. If even one wire came a little bit loose (and the smallest one I can remember had 24 wires), someone was in big trouble. If you swung that thing at a car, you'd have a huge repair bill. But look at a microUSB port wrong and it breaks.

American inginuity is now "how much money can you save during production?" As long as it outlasts the warranty (by even one day), it's good enough. Just put enough sizzle in it so that people will throw out the old sizzle they bought a few months ago.

I use wifi or USB to transfer my files (and I back up every single night). I don't need NFC to waste another 10 seconds swiping my credit card. (And don't get me started on scanning your purchaces in Sam's Club. What a monumental waste of time, when you get to checkout and the system doesn't recognize the transaction and you have to scan everything again. It makes the Obamacare site positively efficient and brilliant.)

 

[hubsabubs]

Something else that has befuddled me for years about smart phones and cars. Yeah I know they sell auxiliary cables for audio patching from your phone to your stereo, or the audio jack to tape deck conversion for older cars. The Bluetooth connection eats up battery life when paired to stereos in newer cars. Some cars you can plug the usb cable into and mount your SD Card and listen to music through you car stereo, but whenever you park the car and turn the key off you have to redo the entire setup again. Can also cause some stuff to error out or break, depending what was stored on the SD Card.

When will they just put a built in FM Tuner/Digital HD Radio into the damn phone, avoid all the wires, mounting/pairing, avoid all the mess and clutter and just simplify it. I remember the old Sony Bean Mp3 player from 2005. It was about the size of a fortune cookie if not smaller. Came packed with HD Radio and Digital Tuner, 1GB of storage and stored its own usb connector inside, no data cables. I used to play it through my car stereo just fine. Here we are almost 10 years later...

http://www.mobilemag.com/2005/08/18/sony-walkman-bean-mp3-player/

I mean damn, the F6 has a IR blaster of all things.. Which has already gotten me kicked out of a couple places. XD!

I agree completely about the cables. I remember a day when you could pop a charger into a phone and sit there and johnny cowboy the phone around and around above your head by the cord and bolo a cow or something with it. The cord wouldn't not come unplugged until you pushed 2 clips in on it that locked it into the phone. I am constantly having to reclose the micro usb port on my wife's phone, she lays in bed with it plugged in and it spreads the metal casing apart around the connection constantly, leaving a flimsy connection that won't charge most of the time.

 

[Rukbat]

but whenever you park the car and turn the key off you have to redo the entire setup again. Can also cause some stuff to error out or break, depending what was stored on the SD Card.

Not so much the SD card, but if you look at how electrically dirty the 12 volts is when you turn the car off (and even worse when you start the engine), you'd never turn the key on or off with your phone plugged into the car. I've never seen a phone blown by the surges from the auxiliary socket, but I have seen other equipment turned to junk.

I mean damn, the F6 has a IR blaster of all things.. Which has already gotten me kicked out of a couple places. XD!

Do tell. That sounds like fun.

The cord wouldn't not come unplugged until you pushed 2 clips in on it that locked it into the phone.

Sounds like the old Motorola short plug. I still use one for my 850 Bluetooth headset (still works after all these years) and my V551 "emergency spare" phone.

 

[GameTheory]

On my last phone I used NFC on my nightstand. As soon as I placed my phone on my nightstand it would be muted for the night so phone calls and notifications wouldn't wake me. Next morning I would swipe it again on the NFC tag and it would be unmuted. I got my nfc tags on ebay for like $3.

Anyways here's a couple videos that show things you can do with nfc and how to set them up...

Top 5 NFC Features: Explained! - YouTube

Use NFC Tags to Trigger Events with NFC Launcher - YouTube

 

[hubsabubs]

There seems to be some pretty cool legal things to do with it, and some pretty uncool illegal things to do with it.

 

[GameTheory]

Here's a couple videos that show things you can do with nfc and how to set them up...

Top 5 NFC Features: Explained! - YouTube

Use NFC Tags to Trigger Events with NFC Launcher - YouTube

Yes, I quoted myself lol.

Just wanted to let you guys know in case you're interested.

There's a couple of different NFC tags. Some are high capacity, but don't work with all phones. To make a long story short I played it safe and purchased a few of the universal kind that have a little less capacity, but work with all nfc phones.

These are the ones I purchased on eBay which are working great for me on the F6...

Round NFC Tag Sticker Mifare Ntag 203 Android RFID Label 13 56MHz All Phones 144 | eBay

I'm setting up my tags with the trigger app from play store...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jwsoft.nfcactionlauncher

There are also other apps you can use. I've been using trigger for a long time and has been reliable and it also has extra plugins and lets you set events without NFC if you want. I do recommend the pro version.

 

[hubsabubs]

Thank you GT this is something I'm gonna look into using.

 

[Mega Optimus]

What do these do?

 

[GameTheory]

What do these do?

Have a look at these videos...

Top 5 NFC Features: Explained! - YouTube

Use NFC Tags to Trigger Events with NFC Launcher - YouTube

 

[Maine Coon]

I don't know what the business w/NFC is, but so far it had brought me $360 w/Isis and WF promotion. I expect another $300 next month.

Long live NFC!

No other new and exciting technology was as good to me as NFC.

 

[beomagi]

Wow thank you see that's the knowledge I was looking to gain, so I shall stay with my 4.99$ dongle special and be able to send 20mbs in less than a minute. Why hype NFC up so much?

The F6 firmware apparently includes SAMBA like functionality. It's not as detailed as the dedicated SAMBA app, but it's good enough for sharing files from the phone. Good enough for over wifi.

System settings>Share and Connect>File Networking