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Apple Adopts Bluetooth 4.0. Could It Reject NFC?

Posted by timothy on from the shifting-sands-of-time dept.

siliconbits writes "Two months after Apple joined the Bluetooth special interest group board, the company launched the world's first truly mainstream Bluetooth 4.0 devices, namely the new Macbook Air & Mac Mini 2011 editions. The products came only one year after the official core specifications of Bluetooth 4.0 were adopted and it looks likely that Apple fast-tracked Bluetooth 4.0's adoption so that the forthcoming iPhone 5 can use this technology with at least one Apple product. This could mean that the manufacturer is considering giving up on NFC altogether, a technology embraced by all of its rivals."

2 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. This is a bad thing? by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When the Jobs Reality Distortion Field is turned off, usually Apple is found to be selling overpriced, underspec'd hardware. But the one time they get it right, we jump on them?

    Bluetooth supports cryptography. NFC does not.
    Bluetooth has a higher bitrate.
    Bluetooth has longer range.
    The power consumption is similar ... in fact, the only thing NFC seems to do better is that it takes less time to setup because (ta-da!) it has no security built into it.

    So tell me guys, given how much data is sitting on your iphone, android, blackberry, blueberry, and walla-walla-ding-dong phones, do you really want a transciever built into it that has no security capability at all... and one of its main functions is point-of-sale integration?

    Sorry guys, but this time at least, Apple did good.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
  2. NFC is unrelated by Kagetsuki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    NFC is an almost entirely unrelated technology. Granted BlueTooth and NFC share some common features, but NFC is for other things. We use it for digital payment here in Japan for example - that's something you don't want going over BlueTooth. NFC is also good for various physical hot-spot applications. NFC also allows for physical queuing - something some fast food restaurants use for example. BlueTooth on the other-hand handles headsets and other peripherals, as well as a variety of inter-device communications. My phone has both BlueTooth and NFC, as do most phones here in Japan. To have both makes perfect sense.