[Tutorial] Make your own NFC tags (and why does NFC matter?)

04/11/2011

I saw this the other day and wanted to share with anyone who’s interested.  I’ve ordered a bunch of NFC tags from Sparkfun and will report back once I start playing with these tags.  I am going to put one at work, and some around the house, to make my phone do all the cool stuff by themselves!

Not exactly a tutorial, but here’s a page from ReadWriteWeb.

You know, NFC is really more than just for payments (like it’s all hyped up nowadays) – NFC is for other cool stuff too to make your life easier – check out some scenarios that Ron Hirson from Boku laid on on VentureBeat the other day:

• You’ve been out shopping all day; you used credit cards, PayPal/Serve, and direct mobile billing. Because your phone was synced with Quicken/Mint, your transactions across all of your accounts are posted in real-time, and you’re alerted that you are about to go over budget with a real-time message.
• You’re a huge foodie, and you discovered this awesome new taco truck that you think all of your friends should know about. When you pay with your phone, which is already connected to Facebook, you instantly get checked in and you get to tell your friends all about your delicious new find.
• You’re at a business dinner and you use your NFC enabled phone to pay for the meal. Because your phone knows that you’re at a restaurant, it immediately pulls up a tip calculator with your tab already factored in.  One tap to add the tip and you look like the smartest person in the room.
• You’re buying groceries and your phone automatically suggests that you use your Visa over your MasterCard because your Visa gives you 5% cash back on all food purchases.

Pretty cool right? I’m excited!