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Apple Pay Will Be the Only Use for Your Shiny New iPhone’s NFC

Although Near Field Communication (NFC) has plenty of uses, from sharing data to pairing and operating apps and household objects, the only function of NFC that you’re going to be able to utiliz...
Apple Pay Will Be the Only Use for Your Shiny New iPhone’s NFC
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Although Near Field Communication (NFC) has plenty of uses, from sharing data to pairing and operating apps and household objects, the only function of NFC that you’re going to be able to utilize with your shiny new iPhone 6 is Apple Pay.

    The company confirmed to Cult of Mac that the NFC chip in the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will only work with Apple Pay, Apple’s new payment solution. While this shouldn’t come as a shock, it’s still disappointing for those who had hoped Apple was finally adopting NFC on a larger scale.

    It’s not impossible that Apple would open things up a bit in the future – the chip itself is capable of performing other NFC functions other than operating Apple Pay – but for now that’s all it’ll be good for.

    Apple announced Apple Pay at their press event last week. It uses NFC to allow people to pay for goods and services with their new iPhones. American Express, MasterCard, and Visa are all on board and Apple has partnered with Citi, Bank of America, Capital One, Wells Fargo, and Chase. An impressive 220,000 retail locations have also signed on the participate in Apple Pay, including Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Walgreens, Subway, McDonald’s, Duane Reade, Whole Foods, Staples, Disney, PetCo, and Panera.

    It is missing the cooperation of a couple of big retailers, however – like Walmart and Best Buy.

    No word on whether or not you’ll have to be currently listening to the new U2 album in order to use the NFC.

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