The future of financial transactions appears set to change for good, thanks to new mobile applications and ‘Near Field Communications’ technology (NFC).

Due to the increasing popularity of mobile and web applications, financial institutions have been investing in new payment systems specifically for mobile devices.

Earlier this year, Orange rolled out their ‘Quick Tap’ contactless payment device, which uses NFC, for payments up to £15. Recently, several more commercial giants across the world have announced their own movement into this transactional hotspot, and the imminent arrival of their new payment facilities using NFC technology.

Google have announced a new ‘Wallet’ app, which is designed to make payments easier for consumers. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Bank in Australia has launched their ‘Ka-ching‘ app, which allows smart phone and iPhones to connect with cash registers and to make payments electronically. Payments are made by adding iCarte to the handset, which allows purchases up to $100 to be made by phone where MasterCard PayPass facilities are present.

Visa Europe launched two services this autumn to rival PayPal and Google. Their Mobile Person-to-Person service allows a registered user to transfer funds via a mobile phone to any Visa cardholder in Europe.

However, a recent poll of over 1,000 Britons by behaviour analysts Intersperience revealed that just 17% would consider using their mobile phones as a card payment device. 44% cited the lack of security software as their main concern, though the younger generation of respondents appear much less resistant.

It is going to be vital for confidence that all mobile and web application technology designed for financial transactions is designed to the highest calibre. REC prides itself on quality innovation and engineering to ensure the very best results in all fields of digital technology.

Major internet browsers see the synchronisation of web applications as the next step in outmanoeuvring their rivals.

Mozilla has announced a project called WebAPI, which is designed to make the same basic web applications available on a mobile browser, and to make them cross-compatible for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. This will be a major breakthrough for web applications, which have become increasingly popular, but which have lacked in functionality compared to software written for a specific native operating system.

Meanwhile, Google is working on a similar project to allow interaction between applications on the Chrome browser and Chrome OS. Android already have such a system in place, ‘Intents’, designed for communication between Android applications. This is to be developed to benefit web applications by developing and integration the types of actions that will enable multiple applications to communicate and integrate together. This is a development that is vital for Chrome OS to function as a browser-based operating system.

There are signs that the two big players are looking to merge projects together, which is excellent news for the field of web applications. If you’re in need of a web application developer, see what REC can offer.

The M2M Summit, an annual conference for leaders, experts, and decision-makers within the M2M sector, is to meet again on 15 September 2011, hosted by the German-based M2M Alliance. The growth in interest in M2M solutions is expected to raise the number of participants from 200 last year to nearer 500 in 2011. As a result of this demand, the event has been relocated to the larger RHEIN.MEDIO.ERFT in Köln-Bergheim.

The summit will include expert speakers, round-table discussions on wireless M2M growth, and practice-based workshops in the fields of intelligent mobility, remote services, smart energy and smart metering, and global M2M. The official partner country for the 2011 summit is Canada. The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade will join Canadian M2M specialists for business and networking opportunities.

The M2M Alliance is designed to combine and enhance the strengths of its members, to retain dynamism within the market, and to help influence technical development and political business strategy. The summit is free to attend for industry experts.

The deadline is fast approaching for the 2011 ARTEMIS initiative, which is designed to encourage proposals for collaborative research within and across Europe for embedded systems. The eligibility criteria demand a consortium across several member states, and support the involvement of universities to attract funding. The total grant package since 2008 has exceeded €20M for UK partners.

The Technology Strategy Board [TSB], who operates the scheme, has presented new initiatives to support UK research and development, including technology and innovation centres. The TSB may look to streamline their focus, away from the multifaceted strands of electronics, photonics and electric systems, and towards embedded systems as a technology that spans all of their current sectors. A group of embedded systems associates in session addressed the need for nurturing the next generation of embedded systems engineers.

Meanwhile, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP), one of Europe’s largest graduate recruitment programmes, also have an upcoming deadline for a technological scheme. Firms have until 15 September to apply with research and development projects that require both the involvement of a research institution, and the recruitment of a graduate, for which a percentage of the cost is available. [See REC’s list of industry and academic associations]

In the early twentieth century, studies in the field of education were suggesting that digital technology was offering the potential for young people to learn creatively in subjects that had otherwise not been associated with imaginative thinking. An Australian study found that children of primary age were skilled computer users, and could adapt to conceptually difficult challenges through technology.

Now, this young generation, perhaps better placed than any before them to investigate creative principles through digital technology, are moving through higher education and preparing for the world of employment, which moves the focus of the investigation along the educational chain.

In the summer of 2010, a report from the Council for Industry and Higher Education in the UK recommended that creative digital technologies should become a priority for UK universities, with the need to cultivate business opportunities in this expanding sector. It recommended that the UK should seek to prioritise digital technologies alongside the identified ‘Stem’ subjects, including maths and science, and invest in them accordingly.

Industry feedback suggested that digital industries require an interdisciplinary cross between scientific or engineering based subjects with artistic subjects. Such a combination requires a different academic approach and different funding mechanisms.

One year on, this fusion of the technological and artistic fields continues to emerge in practice as Intel have commissioned science fiction authors to create potential uses of the firm’s digital technology. ‘The Tomorrow Project’ has been designed to capture public imagination, and benefits from the predictive powers of creative specialists.

Through our collaborations and alliances, REC benefits from the creative and academic potential from institutions across Poland and in the UK. We are keen to align ourselves with cutting edge research and development, but also with creative and cultural heritage.

As a solutions provider, it is our job to think creatively about digital technology and then establish the ideas in practice.

A dispute has opened in Switzerland over regulations that would demand tougher environmental controls to cut carbon emissions. The Swiss Cleantech association, in favour of the move to cut carbon emissions by 20% over the next ten years, has clashed with the national Business Federation, which suggests that the imposition of such targets would restrict innovation and growth.

The Federation, economiesuisse, argues that Swiss progress in green technologies is falling behind that of other countries, but sees the remedy for the problem in maintaining a favourable and liberal environment for multinational firms. Their report revealed that large, prosperous firms were leading the way in filing for patents in green technologies. Cleantech, for their part, argue that the credibility of the Swiss green technology sector is considerably weaker without serious targets to force companies into making energy efficiency savings.

REC has grown to meet the ever increasing demand for environmentally friendly and energy efficient applications. Located in Central Europe, our forward-thinking personnel can offer cutting edge advancement in green technologies at a reduced cost.

A new research paper based on an M2M roundtable event held in Florida in March has offered some interesting insights on the current state of the industry [source]. It suggests that the indicators used to measure the present and future growth of the industry are inadequate due to a lack of clarity about what M2M should entail. It was generally agreed that ‘M2M’ should only refer to devices where voice is not included or where it is a peripheral component.

Mobile operators, it is also discerned, have an important role to play in facilitating the design, setup, operation, reliability, support, and retail elements of M2M. Some of the developing areas, such as eSystems and telematics, are business- and even lifesaving in their significance.

REC has a versatile role at the heart of these critical M2M and telematics systems. The eCall automotive device that we developed transmits encoded data through the voice channel. We have also provided international support for wireless modules. See our expertise in M2M and telematics.

A state regulator in California (CPUC) has made a strong statement of intent by approving regulation to safeguard the privacy and security of customer data generated by smart meters in the development of an energy smart grid for the state.

The data is to be used for conservation, the integration of renewable energy sources, and for future energy policies. Energy companies are prevented from disclosing customer’s usage data to third parties or from exploiting the information through incentives. Additionally, they are required to protect privacy, secure data from the smart meters, and make it all available to consumers online with regular updates.

The novelty of this regulation makes it susceptible to legal challenges or appeal, through the regulators are confident that it will serve as a national model. At a time when confidence in personal privacy is markedly low, this breakthrough will undoubtedly raise consumer confidence in the legitimate use of such systems and their presiding organisations.

REC has experience with embedded systems and M2M projects that include smart meters, similarly influenced by our interest in green technologies.

On Thursday 4 August 2011 the INFER Project team (which includes REC) hosted a workshop with contributions from Prof. Bogdan Gabrys, Dr João Gama(University of Porto, Portugal), Dr Rogerio de Lemos (University of Kent, UK) and Albert Bifet (University of Waikato, New Zealand).

The goal of the workshop was to bring together researchers and practitioners to discuss advances and challenges in designing and building adaptive prediction systems. The workshop featured 4 invited talks and a panel discussion.

02/08/2011. Today in Wroclaw, Krzysztof Kulinski, CEO of REC Solutions, and Seweryn Krajewski, Vice President of REC Solutions, signed a strategic partnership with George Slawek, Executive Director of the Eurocal Group, based in Palo Alto, California. The aim of the partnership is to leverage REC’s software engineering technology solutions with the Eurocal Group’s presence and expertise in Silicon Valley. Key industries to be served are: Web services, Social Media, Mobile, Location Based Services, Gaming, and Embedded Systems, including Automotive.