Fun with NFC

TecTiles
NFC (Near Field Communications) is starting to appear on more and more mobile devices thanks largely in part to Google's Nexus program. Other than use Android Beam to share just about anything by simply touching devices, and using Google Wallet to pay for good with your phone, what else can you do with NFC? Here are just a few examples of some of the utterly amazing things I'm doing with NFC tags.

Launch Apps:
Google TVThose who know me, know I have a couple Google TVs at home. One of the perks of Google TV is a sweet Android app that lets you control your TV from your phone or tablet. Using Task Launcher, I programmed an NFC tag to launch the Google TV Remote app on my phone and tablet and stuck the tag to my coffee table. Now I just tap my phone to the tag and bam! No more searching for a remote again! Bonus feature with the Android app is I can use my voice to search my TV .
Settings:

I also stuck a tag on the back of my Chromebook that when tapped places my phone into tethering mode so I have internet access when ever I need it. I placed one of these in my car too, so the Mrs. can browse Pinterest on her WiFi iPad when we go on road trips.
Family Communication: 
We have 5 pugs and three people in the house who might feed them. The pugs are also notorious liars. This makes it hard to tell whether or not they have actually been fed. So I programmed a tag to Tweet out that the dogs were fed and @mention everyone in the house. I placed this tag on the wall by the door to the garage everyone exits through so it's easy to just tap on the way out and the the tweet happens automagically. 
I picked up my original tags from Samsung, their Tectiles, but also recently bought a batch from TagStand. Both are good, the Samsung ones are a bit pricey (5 for $15).
If your phone or tablet has NFC you should pick up some tags and see what cool and creative things you can come up with. Have a sweet tag your using now? Leave a comment below!

Comments

  1. I was disappointed that the iPhone 5 did not include this technology. Makes me want to switch over to the dark side.

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  2. PS: You finally got the comment capability right on here!

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  3. Those are some col use cases, i need to get some.

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