Near Field Communication (NFC) is a wireless standard which will enable cell phone waving payments at cash registers everywhere.
Unlike radio-frequency identification (RFID) and other existing contactless payment systems, NFC chips allow two-way information exchange by rolling an RF transmitter and reader into one five-millimeter package. That means the chip can also take in data, such as a receipt zapped to it by a cash register or a bus schedule from a tag embedded in a bus-stop sign.
The technology is expected to start hitting stores next spring both embedded in cell phones as well as in miniSD-card-size adapters from SanDisk which will be able to add NFC to any smartphone with a Symbian operating system.
Full details at Popular Science.
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