HTG Explains: What is NFC and What Can I Use It For?

NFC hardware is being included in more and more devices – particularly smartphones, but also some laptops. NFC could be the future of payments, security keys, and boarding passes. NFC is also an upgrade over clunky QR codes.
Many new phones have the hardware to do all of the things here today. However, many people with NFC-equipped smartphones haven’t used their NFC capabilities.

What is NFC?

NFC stands for Near Field Communication. NFC is a set of standards that allow smartphones and other devices to communicate via radio signals when they are held in close proximity. NFC works similarly to RFID, although NFC has a much shorter range than RFID. NFC’s range is about 4 inches, making it harder to eavesdrop on.
Devices with NFC hardware can establish communications with other NFC-equipped devices as well as NFC “tags.” NFC tags are unpowered NFC chips that draw power from a nearby smartphone or other powered NFC device. They don’t need their own battery or source of power. At their most basic, NFC tags could be used as a more convenient replacement for QR codes.
To establish an NFC connection, all you need to do is touch two NFC-equipped devices together. For example, if you had two NFC-equipped smartphones, you would touch them together back-to-back. If you had an NFC tag, you would touch the back of your NFC-equipped smartphone to the NFC tag.
NFC is included in a wide variety of devices, including Android devices like the Nexus 4, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, Galaxy S III and HTC One X. Android isn’t the only platform that supports NFC – Windows Phone devices like Nokia’s Lumia series and HTC Windows Phone 8X include NFC, as do many BlackBerry devices. However, none of Apple’s iPhones include NFC hardware.

Image Credit: Jason Tester Guerrilla Futures on Flickr

Mobile Payments

NFC payments work similarly to tap-to-pay contactless payment features like MasterCard’s PayPass, included on MasterCard credit cards. An NFC-equipped smartphone could be touched to (or waved over) an NFC-enabled payment terminal to pay for something, replacing the need for a credit card. This is exactly how Google Wallet works.
San Francisco has NFC parking meters, which allow people to pay for parking by tapping an NFC-equipped phone against the parking meter.

Image Credit: Sergio Uceda on Flickr

Wirelessly Transferring Data

Data can be transferred wirelessly between two NFC-equipped smartphone. Android phones have Android Beam, a feature that allows two smartphones to quickly share a web page, contact, photo, video, or other type of information. Touch two phones back-to-back and the content being viewed on one device will be sent to the other. File transfers are handled via Bluetooth once they’re initiated, but there’s no complex Bluetooth pairing process – just tap and the rest will happen automatically.
Similar sharing features are also found in BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

Image Credit: LAI Ryanne on Flickr

NFC Tags

Anyone can purchase NFC tags, which are fairly cheap. You can configure the action that occurs when your smartphone comes in contact with the NFC tag.
For example, let’s say you always put your smartphone into silent mode when you go to sleep. Instead of doing this manually each night, you could put an NFC tag on your bedside table. When you go to bed, you can place your smartphone onto the NFC tag and your smartphone will perform an action you can configure, such as automatically enabling silent mode.
You could also create an NFC tag that contains your Wi-Fi network’s SSID and passphrase. When people visit your home, they could touch their phones to the NFC tag and log on rather than keying in the Wi-Fi network’s details manually.
These are just a few examples – you can perform any action an app on your smartphone can execute.

Image Credit: Nathanael Burton on Flickr

More Possible Uses

NFC has a wide variety of other possible uses, including:

• Quickly Downloading Information: Many businesses, advertisements, and products have QR codes, which have to be scanned with a smartphone’s camera. NFC could function as a much-improved QR code – just tap or wave the smartphone over an NFC chip where the QR code would be to access the information.
• Transit & Boarding Passes: NFC-equipped smartphones could also replace transit passes on transit systems or boarding passes at the airport.
• Security Passes: An NFC-equipped smartphone could be tapped against a reader to access secure areas. Car manufacturers are even working on NFC-equipped car keys.

Image Credit: mac morrison on Flickr

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This is just a snapshot of what NFC is currently being used for. It’s a standard for near-field communication, and many more things could be built on top of this standard.

How to Create a Password Protected Folder without any Extra Software

There are a lot of methods that you can use to create a password protected folder, most of which require the use of some third party software. Using this neat method you can hide your folders with a quick batch script.
It’s important to note that this will not actually conceal your data from somebody that knows what they are doing.
Note: if you are a beginner you should be careful with this script.

Create Your Password Protected Folder

Before you get started you need to create a folder that will house your password protected folder, this is just an ordinary folder and can be located anywhere and named anything.

Navigate into your newly created folder and create a new Text Document. This can easily be done from the context menu.

Open the document, now paste the following code into the contents of the document:

cls 
@ECHO OFF 
title Folder Private 
if EXIST "HTG Locker" goto UNLOCK 
if NOT EXIST Private goto MDLOCKER 
:CONFIRM 
echo Are you sure you want to lock the folder(Y/N) 
set/p "cho=>" 
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK 
if %cho%==y goto LOCK 
if %cho%==n goto END 
if %cho%==N goto END 
echo Invalid choice. 
goto CONFIRM 
:LOCK 
ren Private "HTG Locker" 
attrib +h +s "HTG Locker" 
echo Folder locked 
goto End 
:UNLOCK 
echo Enter password to unlock folder 
set/p "pass=>" 
if NOT %pass%== PASSWORD_GOES_HERE goto FAIL 
attrib -h -s "HTG Locker" 
ren "HTG Locker" Private 
echo Folder Unlocked successfully 
goto End 
:FAIL 
echo Invalid password 
goto end 
:MDLOCKER 
md Private 
echo Private created successfully 
goto End 
:End

Change the PASSWORD_GOES_HERE text to the password you want to set. Now go ahead and save the file as locker.bat.

Once the file is saved as a batch file you can delete the original text file.

Now run your batch file by double clicking on it–the first time you run it, it will create a folder called Private. This is where you can store all your secret things. When you have finished adding all your stuff to the Private folder, run locker.bat again.

This time you will be asked if you sure that you want to lock the folder, press the “Y” key and hit enter to lock your folder.

You will see that your Private folder quickly disappears.

If you run the script yet again, you will prompted for a password.

If you enter the same password as you set in the script the Private folder will reappear if you enter the incorrect password the script will just Terminate.

Warning

Most people don’t know how to show system files, but anybody who has some experience will probably be able to quickly figure it out in the Folder Options.

Also, any ordinary user who unchecks the box will most probably be scared off by the warning message that appears.

The second way someone could comprise the folder is to open the batch file and read your password. It’s definitely not a really secure way to hide your files, but it is fun.
Attribution note: We found this script on dozens of different web sites going back many years. We have no idea who first created the script, so we’ve omitted any sort of attribution link. If you do have proof that you first created the script, contact us and we’ll adjust the article accordingly.

Adjusting Zoom Level on your Browser

Here is a quick guide on how to reset your browser zoom level to 100%.
Keyboard Shortcut (Ctrl + 0)
The quickest way to return your browser to the original zoom setting is to press and hold Ctrl while pressing 0 (for Apple, use the Command key and 0).
Internet Explorer

• click on the Tools icon in the upper right corner
• select Zoom from the menu, then select 100%

Firefox

• Press the Alt key to temporarily bring up the traditional Firefox menus
• At the top of the Firefox window, click the View menu'
• Select Zoom
• Select Reset

Chrome

• Click on the wrench icon in the upper right corner
• Set Zoom to 100%

Safari

• Click on the page icon in the upper right corner
• Select Zoom
• Select Actual Size