Posted in: Mobile software

Android 2.3.3 announced, brings some new NFC capabilities along

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Hold your excitement, this is not the next Android version. The 2.3.3 is a minor feature update adding new NFC APIs for developers that we are going to see implemented in the NFC-enabled apps and devices later.

NFC (short for Near Field Communication) is a technology that’s been implemented in several mobile phones by Nokia through the years, but it seems it will only take off in 2011 as some new, and hopefully popular smartphones get support for it.

And that was the news for the regular Android user.

On the other side, the developers should be interested in some of the new APIs:

  • A comprehensive NFC reader/writer API that lets apps read and write to almost any standard NFC tag in use today
  • Advanced Intent dispatching that gives apps more control over how/when they are launched when an NFC tag comes into range
  • Some limited support for peer-to-peer connection with other NFC devices

According to Google , Android 2.3.3 should land on the most devices shipping with Gingerbread (2.3) or later. Make sure that the phones have to have NFC tech built-in to make use of any NFC functionality.

You can check the source or the version notes for more information. The new SDK is available for download right here.

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