Is it time to subscribe to a printer service from HP?

Ever since my dad brought home an...

What’s the best way of buying a phone today?

How did you buy your latest phone?...

MWC: What device highlights did you miss?

So, early last week I predicted that...

BlackBerry Tag will soon make good use of OS7’s NFC capabilities

I just got news through from the team at RIM confirming the imminent launch of BlackBerry Tag. The all new Bold, Torch and Curve models feature integrated NFC features — which haven’t really been exploited as yet.

The new ‘Tag’ function arrives with the upcoming BlackBerry OS 7 update and will enable users to tap-n-share multimedia content between their devices — I think this is a little like what we’ve previously seen with the likes of the HP Touchpad and Palm devices.

Here’s the overview from RIM:

During his keynote presentation at the GITEX conference in Dubai, Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) Co-CEO Jim Balsillie today unveiled a new way for BlackBerry® smartphone users to connect with one another and share multimedia content.

BlackBerry® Tag, which will be incorporated in the next BlackBerry® 7 OS update*, will allow users to share contact information, documents, URLs, photos and other multimedia content by simply tapping their BlackBerry smartphones together. BlackBerry Tag will also enable friends to instantly add one another as contacts on BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger).

“BlackBerry Tag is an exciting and innovative feature that makes sharing contact information and multimedia content effortless and seamless,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry Tag opens a new dimension to the BlackBerry platform that is powerful, simple and intuitive and we think it will be welcomed by both users and developers.”

BlackBerry Tag takes advantage of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology included in the recently launched BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900/9930 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350/9360/9370 smartphones, and these are the first BlackBerry smartphones that will support BlackBerry Tag.

RIM also announced plans to expose BlackBerry Tag through APIs on the BlackBerry platform, allowing software developers to take advantage of “tap to share” functionality from within their own applications.

We need to see more and more of this from RIM. This could potentially make my BlackBerry rather useful for swapping stuff quickly. Of course, I need the other folk around to want to buy BlackBerries *so* that I can use this. More please RIM!

I’m looking forward to the software update.

3 COMMENTS

  1. In theory, if they use proper NFC ISO standards, you should be able to interact with any NFC phone. But agree, it is a start and also a move towards the use of NFC tags and posters that I talked about at the Free Drinks evening. All rather exciting really. 

  2. Ewan I thought you were supposed to be the all seeing, all knowing eye of the mobile industry?

    Why then are you seemingly oblivious to the latest edition of Symbian, Belle, and it’s NFC capabilities, that clearly are better, and earlier, than anything else on the market?

    And why are you also blind to the N9 which has the same capabilities?

    This stuff is due to be in another 100-150 million Symbian phones, and goodness knows how many of the new S40 smartphones (may not be called S40) – I’d suspect lots.

    Dare I suggest you are unaware of this stuff purely because it’s Symbian, and Nokia?

    Surely not.

  3. Hey Alex — I don’t think I’m blind to it, per se… just supremely disinterested 😉
    I most certainly acknowledge that Nokia was super-early when it came to NFC adoption. The challenge is that market focus is — whether you agree with it or not — about a billion miles away from Symbian!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recently Published

Is it time to subscribe to a printer service from HP?

Ever since my dad brought home an HP LaserJet printer (version 3, if memory serves), I have been printing with an HP. Over the...

What’s the best way of buying a phone today?

How did you buy your latest phone? I'm asking because I'm thinking about what I should be doing. When I was living in Oman, I...

MWC: What device highlights did you miss?

So, early last week I predicted that next to nothing from Mobile World Congress would break through into the mainstream media. I was right,...

How Wireless Will Pave the Path to Neobank Profitability

I'm delighted to bring you an opinion piece from Rafa Plantier at Gigs.com. I think it's particularly relevant given the recent eSIM news from...

An end of an era: Vodafone UK turns off 3G services

I thought it was worthwhile highlighting this one from the Vodafone UK team. For so long - for what feels like years, seeing the...

Mobile World Congress: Did the mainstream media notice?

I resolved this year to make sure I wrote something - anything - about Mobile World Congress, the huge mobile industry trade show taking...