Nokia Oyster Card

Nokia took a major step closer to creating a mobile phone/oyster card as it launched the 6216 handset. It is the third Nokia handset with Near Field Communication (NFC) built in, but this one goes the extra step but putting the security protocols onto the SIM card.

So now, Orange can come out with a SIM card that allows your phone to behave just like your Oyster card or even a debit card. The phone could now pay for things on the underground/buses, vending machines, corner shops etc. If there was an over the air (OTA) way of topping up your phone then you would never be stuck getting on a bus with no credit – This is huge stuff in the world of contactless payments.

This technology could be used for creative ways – to trigger content but ‘touching’ the device on things. See the proof of concept below using an Iphone – check the very bulky NFC reader attached to the Iphone – If Nokia can roll out the NFC reader onto all handsets then this could be a major coup.

I need to check the tech but I would imagine that if two handsets ‘touched’ each other – you could pass on your business card or your social networking profiles – A way to share all your twitter/facebook/myspace names by touch would be just amazing.

Via Nokia Conversations

iPhone RFID: object-based media from timo on Vimeo.

An Internet Watered Down

John Pettengill from Razorfish gives a rundown on why the current way of making web sites = mobile sites is dead wrong. I totally agree with this – Different user experiences and scenarios lead into different requirements and tuned experiences.

Futher into the presentation John does focus a little on apps as the way to solve a lot of these problems – I slightly disagree with this at the moment as mobile websites are much more relevant then apps, mainly due to that fact that robust OTA app stores are only available on iphone.