NXP Semiconductors, co-inventor of NFC technology, has introduced a new toolkit for NFC tagging ICs with iOS support, which unlocks the potential to now connect billions of consumer and industrial products to the Internet of Things (IoT). With Apple’s announcement, earlier this summer, to support NFC read capabilities for NFC Forum-compliant tags, NXP’s portfolio of advanced NFC tagging chips can now be designed into solutions used with iOS 11 on iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X models. To accelerate and simplify development, NXP offers iOS developers a full tool suite of NFC hardware and software solutions - to explore the benefits in various markets including consumer electronics, smart home, food and beverage, fashion, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, gaming, toy industries and more.
NXP’s market-leading NFC Forum based solutions include certified IC tags for consistent and predictable NFC user experiences, reader ICs and reference designs, developer kits, mobile applications and software development tools for both iOS and Android platforms:
- NXP’s tag IC Portfolio: Includes passive smart tags (NTAG, ICODE) with innovative security and interactive functionalities, including energy harvesting (NTAG F, NTAG I²C plus) as well as sensing and logging tags (NTAG SmartSensor). It spans both the ISO 14443 and ISO 15693 protocols for maximum interoperability with reader infrastructures.
- NFC TagInfo by NXP: A mobile app for iOS that supports scanning tags and displaying information, and the iOS version also completes an NFC-NDEF action automatically. The iOS App is planned to be available in the App Store, and the Android version is available on Google Play.
- NTAG SmartSensor Starter Kit: supporting iOS development on macOS using LPCXpreso IDE, containing sample code for temperature logging and therapy adherence, example source code for iOS and macOS Apps.
- NXP TagXplorer: A software tool for programming tags with machines in Java runtime environments, including macOS and Windows, to fully leverage NXP’s innovative IC features.
- NXP TagWriter: A widely deployed Android-based mobile App to read and encode NFC tags.
- NFC App Developer Starter Kits: Includes NFC tags with NXP’s NFC Forum type 2, 4 and 5 ICs that support a wide variety of features and security levels. The kits are available by Identiv, Lab-ID, LUX-IDent, Smartrac and will be offered through their worldwide sales channels.
The iOS 11 toolkit is expected to be available in September 2017. For more information, click here.
