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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

The head of research and development for the online operation of huge UK-based supermarket and general merchandise chain Tesco has reportedly expressed doubts about the security of contactless payments and maturity of the technology.

Fifty employees of Visa Inc. and ANZ bank in Australia are testing microSD cards in Apple’s iPhone, Visa announced today.

About 25% to 30% of merchant locations in the United States will need to be covered by contactless terminals if service providers and mobile operators hope to get consumers interested in tapping their NFC phones for retail transactions, says POS terminal vendor VeriFone.

Frankfurt-based regional transit authority RMV said it plans to launch a joint mobile ticketing service with German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn, which could lead to nationwide NFC-based ticketing.

Bank of America plans to launch an expanded trial of contactless microSD cards–enabling customers in Atlanta, New York and San Francisco to tap to pay with BlackBerry smartphones using both MasterCard PayPass and Visa payWave applications, a bank spokeswoman confirmed to NFC Times.

Transport for London has made it official, announcing its planned move to accept contactless debit and credit cards for fares on buses in time for the Summer Olympics next year, and on the rest of its transit network by the end of 2012.

An update to Google’s latest Android operating system, Gingerbread, is now reportedly available, offering some added NFC functionality, though not yet card emulation.

BARCELONA — 2011 will be a "pivotal year for NFC," said the head of handset software for Research in Motion, in confirming that "many" of the company’s BlackBerry models will support NFC this year.

The NFC Forum is looking for a new executive director to replace Paula Berger, who resigned from the standards and trade group last month.

BARCELONA – The head of China-based telecom equipment maker ZTE told NFC Times the company will supply NFC-enabled phones in response to orders from mobile operators, but does not plan to include the technology in phones as a default feature.

BARCELONA – Smartphones that can pinpoint a person’s location, know his interests and tap to pay with NFC should "revolutionize electronic commerce as well as payments," said Google CEO Eri