Mass adoption of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is still a distant dream, Paypal’s director of communications Anuj Nayar was quoted as saying by a website.

NFC is a short wave wireless technology which is expected to make the mobile wallet system a reality. Mobile wallets, once come into picture, would eliminate the need of credit/debit cards. But, for that not only the mobile phones should have the NFC capability but also the shopping outlets must have NFC enabled readers.

According to the PayPal executive, changing the merchant behaviour is a big challenge for the NFC service providers.

Recently, Google has launched its mobile payments platform – Google Wallet. Also, many significant companies such as HTC, LG, Motorola, RIM, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, are putting their weight behind NFC.

Credit Card companies are also making investment in NFC. Master Card is already partnering Google Wallet and the company believes it is going to be five to ten year effort, so even the participants in the NFC game are in it for the long haul.

Even Nokia has launched some smartphones with the NFC capability in India.

Even Paypal had joined the NFC fun by launching phone to phone money transfer App sometime back. Using this app in a NFC enabled phones one user initiates the money transfer by tapping an icon on the home screen of his Android phone while keeping the other phone close to it. When both the phones vibrate, a PIN has to be entered on the second device which will initiate money transfer.

Research In Motion (RIM), makers of Blackberry smartphones, has launched the BlackBerry(R) Client for Microsoft SharePoint. SharePoint is a multi-purpose platform allows for managing and provisioning of intranet portals, extranets and websites, document management and file management, collaboration spaces, social networking tools, enterprise search, business intelligence tooling, process/information integration, and third-party developed solutions.

The BlackBerry Client App provides integrated mobile experience for users, and is offered through BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which claims to offer better manageability and security.

“Our enterprise and government customers asked us to bring a highly refined mobile experience to SharePoint and we are delivering that today with the BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint,” said Alan Panezic, vice president, enterprise product management and marketing at RIM.

The app offers integration with core BlackBerry features and functions such as email, calendar, browser, and universal search. It also offers check-out, check-in, and versioning of files reflected on the SharePoint server.

Enterprise users can also edit Microsoft Office documents using Documents to Go (pre- installed on BlackBerry smartphones) to download, create, revise and upload documents.

User will also get access to Blogs, Wikis and Lists and the ability to update from a BlackBerry smartphone. You can also use content searches across multiple SharePoint sites from a BlackBerry smartphone.

In addition to user benefits, the complete solution also comes with many benefits for organizations and their IT departments. Application management and over-the-air provisioning of the Client app is made easy for IT departments with BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

The app uses ‘DataSmart efficiency’ of the BlackBerry solution that transmits more data with less monthly data plan usage, allowing organisations to consider smaller or more budget-friendly plans.

“A number of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies plan to roll out the BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint in the coming weeks” RIM said in a statement.

The BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint is available in over six languages and more than 25 countries including India.

Intel has announced the acquisition of Telmap, an Israeli company that provides location based services. This will help Intel to roll out location based services in the future.
“This move is a step towards expanding our mobile software services capabilities as Intel continues to grow in the area of software and services,” Peter Biddle, general manager of Intel’s AppUp developer program said in a post on the company’s blog. “We are all very excited to have such knowledgeable and respected experts join the company.”

The Intel executives have also voiced their desire for their company to become more than just a chip maker. Along with Nokia, Intel has also been actively engaged in the making of a mobile operating system called MeeGo as an alternative to iOS from Apple and Android from Google. Later Nokia decided to stop working on MeeGo and instead decided to concentrate its efforts on producing phone with Windows Phone 7.

“From a consumer perspective, Telmap helps bring to life our vision for integrated, uniform experiences across consumer devices,” he wrote. “Telmap has a tremendous amount of expertise around end-to-end mobile local search, mapping and navigation services. Telmap delivers great multi-platform consumer experiences every day, and we’re looking forward to combining that focus and excellence with Intel’s to significantly grow their business.”

About Telmap, the blog post says, “Telmap has a tremendous amount of expertise around end-to-end mobile local search, mapping and navigation services. With Telmap we can directly provide with location-based services spanning devices, operating systems and CPU architectures. This is a significant step towards the Intel AppUp services vision we spoke about yesterday.”

UTV Indiagames has created a cross-platform social game across mobile, online and TV featuring the lead character G.One played by Shah Rukh Khan in the upcoming movie Ra.One. The game will be episodic in nature, introducing new levels and a story that will keep progressing with the game. The movie is scheduled for release on 26th October 2011.

The game will be micro transaction enabled so that users can customise their own game experience. Reaching out to a wider section of casual gamers, the game is designed to simply ‘pick up and play’ with a theme that is attractive to global audiences.

Commenting on his character as G-One, Shah Rukh Khan , said, “With the many strategic firsts that Ra.One is bringing to the country, the first ever superhero social game on the most powerful medium today takes it to a whole new level. The game has been specially conceptualised to ensure that it reaches out to all the audiences that are eagerly awaiting to catch a glimpse of the superhero G.One. This is the perfect opportunity for gamers to get introduced and engage with G.One, understand his fantastic abilities and immerse themselves in the game and become superheroes!”

Speaking at the launch, Vishal Gondal, chief executive officer, UTV Indiagames, said, “The game has the potential to have a global appeal and we hope the sheer power and reach of social gaming will enable us to build a massive gaming franchise appeal, appealing to everyone across the country as well as increase the base of gamers in India”

The game will be launched across all the popular social networks like Facebook along with gaming platforms like Nokia Ovi, Android, Apple, and more. UTV Indiagames will also be launching a special version of the game for DTH subscribers.