VR-Zone

Today, Nokia Singapore held a event to announce their Symbian Belle smartphones - Nokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 603. The Nokia 700 and 701 are available now, while the Nokia 603 will be available next month. All three phones also feature Near Field Communication (NFC) technology that allows users to pair with NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as speakers, Bluetooth headphones and headsets; share content between devices, simply by tapping them.

The company also announced the launch of the new NFC Hub in Singapore, which allow businesses to adopt NFC technology in offering innovative services including ordering of NFC tags and posters to create custom NFC campaigns - social media engagement on Facebook, Twitter etc; sending business cards, opening a pre-defined web-page, launch application, sending text message etc. According to Nokia, it costs only S$5 for each NFC tag which include the programming and design of the collaterals.

Nokia has partnered ComfortDelGro to offer NFC-enabled option for the FastCall automated taxi booking services, which is available at over 400 locations in Singapore. The NFC-enabled service allows user to tap his or her phone and sms for a cab at the location. The service simply initiates the taxi booking via SMS to FastCall, and a SMS confirmation will be sent to the phone. Note that in order for any NFC service to work, user need to unlock their phone and choose to allow the NFC-service initiation. SMRT and National Heritage Board have also participated in the rolling out of NFC services. If you are at Bras Basah MRT station, look out for the iMobSMRT posters with the "Tap here, NFC" logos; you may also find these NFC-enabled posters around Bras Basah and Bugis area.