iPhone 6 NFC chip is restricted to Apple Pay
by Volker Weber
Apple finally added NFC to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but if you were hoping the company’s new NFC chip will allow you to pair speakers or integrated NFC tags into your favorite apps, however you won’t be able to do any of the when the iPhone 6 launches this week because Apple’s put its NFC chip on lockdown.
In an email to Cult of Mac, an Apple spokeswoman confirmed that NFC chip on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is only for use with Apple Pay.
This is, shall I say, disappointing.
Comments
In iOS 9 they will sell NFC for speaker pairing as a great invention :-)
Apple has Airdrop, Airplay, ... What do they need NFC for? ;-)
To Five their customers an option? ;) but that wouldn't be very Apple, would it?
@Ole:
...and in iOS10 you can finally write NFC-Tags for home automation tasks, which will be a great new feature embedded within "HomeKit" as an awesome brand new invention....
I could cry...
As mentioned, this is so you can do AMAZING things for the FIRST time EVER on iPhone 7.
Kids, remember that Apple uses other technologies where the rest of world would use NFC. Try it out. Bluetooth Pairing is not something, Apple has ever bothered with.
Oh and Bluetooth pairing - It's like my mouse and trackpad have alzheimer's. Hello Mouse, this is your main computer. You will be paired to this today, and tomorrow, and most of the time. But don't worry, you'll have forgotten me by tomorrow, and I'll tell you again.
This, shall I say, I don't have to understand...
Ich würde fast wetten, dass sie es in einem späteren Update heldenhaft freischalten, so à la "blah... we listened to our valued customers" und die Community wird sie wieder feiern... ;)
I suspect this should read "iPhone 6 NFC chip is restricted to Apple Pay for now."
I don't see any indication that this will be closed forever.
This is probably to reduce risk of Apple Pay manipulation. This would be great for bargaining in processing fee negotiations. They do get 0.25% processing fee out of the banks pockets.
If the next device generation gets NFC support, they probably will have a separate set of hardware, not connected to the secure element used for Apple Pay. Think of jailbroken phones and the impact of NFC hardware not entirely separated from ordinary apps with Apple Pay in place. A fraud fest.
