Connecting the entire home has been an ongoing trend here at CES, and Sony has introduced an interesting concept to acheive that goal. Xperia SmartTags are NFC chips that you can stick throughout your home and program with different actions and settings. When you enter the room and tap your phone to the SmartTags, your phone will automatically adjust to the profile you created. Pretty cool concept. They'll be released in Q2 for about $25-$40 for four tags and will be compatible with all NFC-capable Xperia devices -- take a gander below the break to see what Sony has to say about them.
Reader comments
Hands-on with the NFC-powered Xperia SmartTags
this is really cool! i hope they make it compatible with other phones. I would love this on my nexus s... alas i doubt it will happen.
+1
it would be a shame for them to only make them work for one type of phone. all Android phones should get them.
Id use mine in a different way, here's how.
1...when I come home, place my phone on my coffee table by TV will turn on. I could have an app that lets me set which channel.
2...put it on my computer desk and my PC boots up while I jump in the shower. and app would even put in my password and launch whatever software or directory I wanted--like my browser or media player or software that syncs my phone to my computer.
3...in my car (with a ranger extender) as I approach, my car starts up. great way to warm up the engine on cold days. or turn on the head lights and start the engine in a dark deserted parking lot
4...put a tag on my wife's forehead, when she starts bitchin' and complainin' one tap and she falls asleep.
It'll come to everyone else somehow. I'm sure someone else could make an app that can read those chips.
That's actually a really cool idea. Put one just under the lip of your coffee table, or under the arm of your favourite seat. When you sit to watch TV, a quick swipe will turn your phone into a remote, and turn everything on for you. Another quick one on the way out will turn everything off.
already has about 1 year ago http://lifehacker.com/5790518/use-nfc-task-launcher-to-experiment-with-n...
just pick up a few NFC tags for $1-2 a pop
$25-$40 for 4!! are you kidding me?!!
you can buy NFC tags for about $2 for 1 (the 1000x rewritable ones), so you can do the maths
Isn't this not a new idea/practice? Can't you buy blank, programmable NFC tags by the dozens on the cheap, and get any one of a number of free apps to program them to do things like this?
Damn is that one slow phone or what?
This seems like a solution in search of a problem if you ask me. I don't change settings on my phone when I enter different rooms now, and I can't see me getting into the habit any time soon.
Now if only it came with a whale tail...
Personally, I would not tap my phone to an NFC chip every time I enter a different room of my house. With GPS-enabled devices becoming more and more accurate, I see location-based actions being more effective. The Razr already has a basic version with its "Smart Actions" software.
Sweet, NFC fragmentation. CAN'T WAIT!