NFC Tags are small round plastic discs that can be placed in different locations to allow you to automate tasks on your NFC enabled smartphone or tablet. After buying your tags, you personalise them to your tastes so that your smartphone or tablet gets smarter. Your NFC reader can also write to the tags, so there is no need for any special equipment to set them up.
NFC allows a smartphone to interact with the world around you. It allows you to store information or instructions on the tag so that the phone reacts in a specific way when it touches the tag.
Smartphones equipped with NFC can be paired with NFC tags or stickers which can be programmed by NFC apps to automate tasks. These programs can allow for a change of phone settings, a text to be created and sent, an app to be launched, or any number of commands to be executed, limited only by the NFC app and other apps on the smartphone. These applications are perhaps the most practical current uses for NFC since it does not rely on a company or manufacturer but can be utilized immediately by anyone anywhere with an NFC equipped smartphone and an NFC tag.
NFC stands for Near Field Communication. NFC is a set of standards that allow smartphones and other devices to communicate via radio signals when they are held in close proximity. NFC works similarly to RFID, although NFC has a much shorter range than RFID. NFC's range is about 4 inches, making it harder to eavesdrop on.
Devices with NFC hardware can establish communications with other NFC-equipped devices as well as NFC "tags". NFC tags are unpowered NFC chips that draw power from a nearby smartphone or other powered NFC device. They don't need their own battery or source of power. At their most basic, NFC tags could be used as a more convenient replacement for QR codes.
To establish an NFC connection, all you need to do is touch two NFC-equipped devices together. For example, if you had two NFC-equipped smartphones, you would touch them together back-to-back. If you had an NFC tag, you would touch the back of your NFC-equipped smartphone to the NFC tag.
NFC is included in a wide variety of devices, including Android devices like the Nexus 4, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, Galaxy S III and HTC One X. Android isn't the only platform that supports NFC - Windows Phone devices like Nokia's Lumia series and HTC Windows Phone 8X include NFC, as do many BlackBerry devices. However, none of Apple's iPhones include NFC hardware.
Source: www.howtogeek.com
There are two different types of tag that we sell. The older blue tags are compatible with the MIFARE 1K standard and can store 1 024 bytes of information. The newer green tags have a NTAG203 chip and have a capacity of 144 bytes.
The green tags (NTAG203) are compliant with the ISO/IEC 14443A standard, hence are widely compatible with virtually all NFC enabled devices. The blue tags (MIFARE) are only compatible with older generation devices, such as the Galaxy S III and Google Nexus 7.
They need to be touched to the back of the device to communicate, however they may work a very small distance away (< 2cm).
Before your new tag can be used for the first time, you need to format it. This can be done using your NFC enabled device and an appropriate read/write application like the one provided by NXP or the NFC Launcher.
Contact us for enquiries:
michael@droidtag.net