9to5mac has reported today that the upcoming iPhone 5 will have NFC support, and developers are already building apps.
Apparently, Apple iOS engineers are “heavy into NFC” and devs are “confident enough to bet the app development on.”
What remains unclear is who Apple will partner with for its payment systems, and the report has some speculation based on recent reports and interviews.
First comes from Ed McLaughlin, the boss of emerging payments at MasterCard: “The timeline is always as rapid as it makes sense for consumers. (In regards to mass NFC adoption) That’s a combination of having a critical mass of the merchants, which is what you’re seeing right now, and getting devices into the hands of consumers. I don’t know of a handset manufacturer that isn’t in process of making sure their stuff is PayPass ready.”
McLaughlin would not specifically say Apple, however except to say, “well, anytime someone with a major base moves forward, it advances what you’re doing. So of course [Apple is necessary in NFC reaching critical mass].”
While the exec was sidestepping the question a bit, it is very clear even to the casual observer that Apple and PayPass would certainly bring NFC to “critical mass” in the next couple of years.
Result for: engineer
Google has announced today the completion of their purchase of 111 Eighth Avenue in Chelsea, valuing the property at $1.9 billion.
The property is 2.9-million-square-feet and is the biggest deal in 2010 for a single building purchase in the U.S.
Google currently occupies 500,000 square feet in the building, and shares the space with Nike, Lifetime cable, WebMD and many telecoms.
The search giant is said to have won the contract because of its ability to close before the end of the year. The company has already put down a deposit in excess of $200 million.
111 used to be the headquarters for the Port Authority of NY and NJ.
Says Google of the deal:
Google New York started in a Starbucks on 86th Street with one person in 2000—a scrappy, highly-caffeinated sales “team.” After moving to a larger office in Times Square, in 2006 we relocated to our current home in Chelsea, at 111 Eighth Avenue—a former Port Authority building. In June of 2008, we took additional space in the Chelsea Market building at 75 Ninth Avenue. Now we have more than 2,000 Googlers working on a variety of projects in both sales and engineering—and we’re hiring across the board.
Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve closed a deal with the partnership of Taconic Investment Partners, Jamestown Properties and the New York State Common Retirement Fund to purchase 111 Eighth Avenue (also known as 76 Ninth Avenue). As part of the deal, we’ve retained Taconic Management Company to continue the leasing oversight services and management of the building on our behalf, providing the same level of customer service the building’s tenants have come to expect. We believe that this is a great real estate investment in a thriving neighborhood and a fantastic city.
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Result for: engineer
Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering at Google and head of the Android project has revealed an updated version of Google Maps this week, version 5.
GM5 will be released “in a matter of days,” and most Android users should be able to download it, free, at that point.
Coming with the Maps update will be the end of tiling, which Unwired explains “essentially involves stitching several flat images or maps together and can wreak havoc on map loading times.”
GM5 will use vectors, which brings the ability to see maps in 3D. For anyone who has used Google Earth on their Android device knows, Maps will now let you tilt and rotate any map with your fingers.
Equally as notably is the addition of offline caching, making those long trips to areas with data deadzones less scary. Besides keeping the map/route on file, the offline cache will also be able to reroute if you miss that exit and don’t have continuous data.
The update will be available for all Android devices with 2.2, and possibly for all with 2.1, as well.
