Well after watching the Google I/O's how to NFC segment I went and ordered some tags for us to start playing with here in the office. They just rocked up today and I was hoping the powers that be could provide the source code or examples etc for a simple venue checkin.Thanks in advance!
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NFC check-ins are Android intent powered. Just write something a url
of the format "http://m.foursquare.com/checkin?vid=%venueid%" to the
tag (via an app like TagWriter, available in the android market) and
the Android tag reader should do the rest!
~ak
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Akshay Patil / Foursquare Platform Evangelist
@akdotcom / @foursquareapi
For other Android intents you can surface, check out:
http://code.google.com/p/foursquared/wiki/FoursquareIntents
~ak
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Akshay Patil / Foursquare Platform Evangelist
@akdotcom / @foursquareapi
NFC is a short-range radio technology, and is similar to some of the
anti-theft tags used in shops (in the same way that a QR code is similar
to a barcode). NFC tags can hold data, and can be read by a device that
is sufficiently close. It requires special hardware in the reader, but
because it's radio-based, the tag itself can be embedded invisibly in
another object. You should also be aware that NFC tags can be rewritten
by anyone with the right hardware.* This hardware for writing tags
already exists in some phones like the Nexus S. Other examples of NFC
tags are some rapid transit cards (e.g. London's Oyster card) and some
building entry/access cards.
> Do you think they could make 'disposable' one-time use only (OT) tags
> so you could pick one near a venue entrance, scan it, and it will
> 'check you in'?
With the assistance of an app to ensure the code is only ever used once
(and you'd have to decide whether this is once per 4sq account or once
by anyone, ever) this is indeed possible. I think it would be easiest to
do this with QR codes rather than NFC tags.
Dave
* Yes, this is a generalisation to keep the explanation simple. Some
tags can be made permanently read-only, or they might have some crypto
that requires authentication with some keys before write access is granted.
We made a change to register the foursquare app to launch directly for
read NFC tags (rather than requiring the built in Tags app to publish
the intent). It *should* just continue working with the intent URLs I
mentioned earlier. What's the URL you've written to your tag?
~ak
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Akshay Patil / Foursquare Platform Evangelist
@akdotcom / @foursquareapi