Hot journey trends for 2012

Personalized genealogy tours, Titanic centenary cruises, camping in British backyards and using Facebook to choose congenial seat-mates for long-haul flights are some of the hot travel trends tips for 2012.

International booking company Ticketmaster is already testing interactive seat maps for concert and sporting venues, linking them to Facebook and allow customers to check where friends are sitting.An app called Vocre can interpret what each speaker is saying, almost in real time and in nine languages.

There is already a popular app that translates Arabic. Airlines will begin rewarding common business flyers with electronic loyalty cards programmed to function as boarding passes that could be updated for each flight and used at routine check-in kiosks.

Not only can people visit the American Civil War or Crimean battlefields to see where their ancestors fought, they can also dress the part and join the exact regiments.

Expect lots of merchandise, as well as mini-cruises and flights over the area where the ship went down. Another emerging trend is customized tour planning, with website start-ups helping travelers develop individual itineraries by combing an eclectic mix of small-scale boutique tours and personal guides. You can visit this website for transportation facilities.

8 foods Americans like best

Americans are more satisfied with our own food than we are with pet food, athletic shoes and apparel, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, an ongoing, comprehensive survey of thousands of consumers about the products and services provided by more than 225 companies.

The ACSI has been asking consumers to rate their satisfaction with companies on a scale of 0 to 100 since 1995.

Tops in satisfaction this year, as it has been for the past 12 years, is condiment maker Heinz. Click on the photo above to find out how other food manufacturers - from candy maker Mars to soup giant Campbell - rate for customer satisfaction.

Why should we care?

ACSI founder Claes Fornell explains, "When there is little or no industry growth, the only way for many companies to expand is to take market share from competition. The best defense a company can have against competitive efforts to take market share is to have satisfied customers."

To measure customer satisfaction, ACSI asks three questions:

1. "Were you satisfied," measuring reaction to the overall experience

2. "How well did it meet your expectations," measuring satisfaction against expectations (a company that isn't well thought of that delivers better-than-expected service will do better on this question that a popular company that disappoints)

Read More: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/satisfaction-331921-companies-food.html

What is Pancreatic Cancer? Pancreatic Cancer Symptoms and Causes

What Is The Pancreas?

The pancreas is a 6-inch long organ located behind the stomach in the back of the abdomen. It is spongy and shaped somewhat like a fish, extended horizontally across the abdomen. The head of the pancreas is on the right side of the abdomen where the stomach is attached to the first part of the small intestine (the duodenum). The tail of the pancreas - its narrowest part - extends to the left side of the abdomen next to the spleen.

The pancreas contains exocrine and endocrine glands that create pancreatic juices, hormones, and insulin. Pancreatic juices, or enzymes, made by the exocrine glands are released into the intestines by way of a series of ducts in order to help digest fat, proteins, and carbohydrates. Over 95% of the pancreas is made up of exocrine glands and ducts. The endocrine cells are arranged in small clusters called islets of Langerhans, which release insulin and glucagon into the bloodstream. These two hormones manage levels of sugar in the blood. When they are not working properly, the result is often diabetes.

What Is Pancreatic Cancer?

Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by out-of-control cell growth, and pancreatic cancer occurs when this uncontrolled cell growth begins in the pancreas. Rather than developing into healthy, normal pancreas tissue, these abnormal cells continue dividing and form lumps or masses of tissue called tumors. Tumors then interfere with the main functions of the pancreas. If a tumor stays in one spot and demonstrates limited growth, it is generally considered to be benign.

More dangerous, or malignant, tumors form when the cancer cells migrate to other parts of the body through the blood or lymph systems. When a tumor successfully spreads to other parts of the body and grows, invading and destroying other healthy tissues, it is said to have metastasized. This process itself is called metastasis, and the result is a more serious condition that is very difficult to treat.

In the United States each year, over 30,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Europe sees more than 60,000 diagnoses each year. Because pancreatic cancer is usually diagnosed late into its development, the five-year survival rate after diagnosis is less than 5%.
How Is Pancreatic Cancer Classified?

Pancreatic cancer is categorized depending on whether it affects the exocrine or endocrine functions of the pancreas. There is an important distinction between the two broad types of pancreatic cancer because they have different risk factors, causes, symptoms, diagnostic tests, treatments, and prognoses.

Tumors that affect the exocrine functions are the most common type of pancreatic cancer. Sometimes these tumors or cysts are benign, called cystadenomas. However, it is more likely to find malignant tumors called adenocarcinomas, which account for 95% of exocrine pancreatic cancers. Adenocarcinomas typically start in gland cells in the ducts of the pancreas, but they can also arise from pancreatic enzyme cells (acinar cell carcinoma).

Other types of pancreatic cancers that are associated with exocrine functions include adenosquamous carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, and giant cell carcinomas, named for their appearances underneath a microscope. There is also a disease called ampullary cancer (carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater) that starts where the bile duct and pancreatic duct meet the duodenum of the small intestine.

Tumors that affect the endocrine functions of the pancreas are called neuroendocrine or islet cell tumors, but these are fairly uncommon. These tumors are named for the type of hormone-producing cell that is initially affected. For example: insulinomas (insulin), glucagonomas (glucagon), gastrinomas (gastrin), somatostatinomas (somatostatin), and VIPomas (vasoactive intestinal peptide or VIP). Functioning islet cell tumors still make hormones, while non-functioning ones do not. Most of these tumors are benign, but non-functioning tumors are more likely to be malignant, islet cell carcinomas.

source:www.medicalnewstoday.com

WebOS Future is Open Source -HP makes code available to developers

Today, HP concluded months of deliberation, u-turns and negotiations with the announcement that it will open source WebOS instead of keeping it in-house or selling it off to suitors like Amazon.



This is good news because it ends months of uncertainty which have severely tested the patience of developers and undermined businesses that had already committed to WebOS. The fact that no hardware plans have been announced is perhaps not as big an issue as it seems -if the open sourcing of the code works, then the hardware is likely to follow.



It still remains unlikely that WebOS will, at least in its current state, pose any real challenge to Windows or Android. Though sometimes, the power of the community in open-source environments can make the difference, so it is too early to write it off altogether.



Key to the future is not only the development of the code base and the hardware available to run it, but also the distribution for the software or apps developed in WebOS. With over 100 sizeable App Stores out there, the App Catalog needs some attention as well. Hopefully HP will, as part as its committment to continue investing in WebOS, not forget this, and give the WebOS App Catalog a long needed update to keep its appeal. 

Mobile World Congress 2012 -WIP Jam and Party

BARCELONA- With Christmas less than three weeks away, it can be easy to forget that the Mobile World Congress, the world´s largest trade event for the mobile sector, is also round the corner.

For the joy of mobile app developers everywhere, WIP is organizing the WIP Jam event for developers within the grounds of the Fira complex on the 1^st March 2012 (in Auditorium A, to be precise). This will be preceded by the WIP Party the previous evening at the Rock Museum in the Richard Rogers-designed Las Arenas (upstairs in the Rock Museum venue).

Both events are NOT TO BE MISSED. The WIP Jam event will have the successful formula of short presentations and many breakout sessions to talk about topical issues in mobile, facilitated by familiar faces in mobile development. The WIP Party will have free food and drinks and a Jameoke (for those up for some singing).

You can sign up to the WIP Party by clicking here  

Saffron protects brain cells

A key ingredient in the Saffron may potentially protect brain cells from diseases involving neuro-inflammation, such as multiple sclerosis.

Inflammation is a protective attempt by an organism to remove injurious stimuli such as pathogens, damaged cells or irritants and to initiate the healing process.

MS is characterized by inflamed brain (neurons) that have lost their protective insulation, known as myelin, The Journal of Immunology reports. Symptoms range from mild to severe and include visual disturbances, muscle spasms, loss of sensation, speech impediment, dizziness, depression, etc, according to a University of Alberta statement.

Chris Power, from the University of Alberta, who led the research, said: ‘We found there is a compound in Saffron, known as crocin, that exerts a protective effect in brain cell cultures and other models of MS. It prevented damage to cells that make myelin in the brain.’
‘This research highlights a potential treatment role for crocin in diseases involving chronic neuroinflammation - something that had not been recognized until now,’ concludes Power

Alternative Health news

source:www.greaterkashmir.com

Integrating NFC in mobile apps – implementation costs

In this guest post by Magnus Jern, he sums up the current opportunities and challenges of implementing NFC mobile solutions.

NFC has been around since 2003 but it´s not until now that technology and adoption are ready for commercial deployment. It is embedded in the latest Android handsets, including the Nexus S. RIM are including it in all their new devices and Apple want to equip the iPhone 5 with an NFC chip, despite rumours they would not. Nokia is launching a series of devices including NFC, starting with the C7 and most other handset manufacturers will include NFC in their devices within the next 2 years.

According to Wikipedia: “Near field communication, or NFC, is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4 cm or less. (…) This enables NFC targets to take very simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards that do not require batteries. NFC peer-to-peer communication is also possible, where both devices are powered.”

The technology is enabling new and exciting mobile interactions such as loyalty cards,  identification, travel tickets and micro-payments.

What is the cost of implementing NFC in your mobile applications?

The implementation of writing and reading data on the application side is fairly straight forward, just a few API calls that most developers will already be familiar with.

So the cost of implementing NFC in an application is very small compared to the cost of setting up the backend infrastructure that may be required to support it.  A typical NFC application, which reads an NFC chip once to authenticate that the user has been in a certain store or redeemed a voucher, could cost as little as 10-20.000 euros to implement, but NFC itself can be added to existing applications very cheaply.

So what’s next?

During the coming years we will see thousands of different applications including NFC. Some of those will be ground-breaking and others will quickly be forgotten. Banks, retailers, transportation businesses, fast food restaurants and events companies will all be experimenting with the possibilities. Watch this space.

Becoming Conan: the Jason Mamoa workout

Jason Momoa, star of the new Conan The Barbarian, built his medieval body with high-rep lifts and a super-strict diet. To build the body of a barbarian Jason had to train like a beast.

He may be reprising the role that first propelled Arnold Schwarzenegger to international stardom but actor Jason Momoa isn’t your stereotypical tough guy. In fact, he’s not even watched the classic 1982 fantasy film than began Arnie’s career. ‘No, I haven’t seen the original,’ he says. ‘Both my parents were painters in Iowa. I grew into this big action guy but I still feel like an artist.’



Not that anybody would know from looking at him. As the lead in Conan The Barbarian, a new movie take on the Robert E Howard character, Momoa is the perfect barbarian. His 1.93m frame is packed with over 100kg of lean, hard muscle.



For his larger-than-life role as Conan, Momoa worked with personal trainerEric Laciste, who has trained clients at Los Angeles’s 87eleven gym for more than a decade. It’s the facility that helped to get stuntmen ripped for action movies such as 300 and Fight Club.



As such, it’s about as far away from a typical commercial gym as you can get. ‘It’s this huge warehouse and just a bunch of fucking bad-asses crushing weights,’ says Momoa, who gained about 9kg of pure muscle during his time with Laciste, a feat all the more impressive considering he had already built an intimidating physique to play the warlord Khal Drogo in HBO’s Game of Thrones.



Lean times

Laciste’s plan was designed to allow Momoa to get stronger while staying lean. To achieve this the star trained six days a week, sometimes twice a day, using Laciste’s AR7 programme, which is built on high-rep sets and active rest (see how to achieve similar results below).



‘We worked out six hours a day,’ says Momoa. ‘It was pretty intense. I’d never trained at that level before, but it was really cool to transform my body.’ To support his workouts, he adopted a super-high-protein diet, eating boiled chicken breasts regularly at two-hour intervals. Momoa quickly fell into the routine. ‘At a certain point, you become a robot,’ he says. ‘It just became fuel.’



He definitely needed the extra muscle. Momoa did just about all his own stunts in Conan, most while carrying around as much as 18kg of gear. He broke a rib on the set and was nearly trampled to death during one scene. ‘I got bucked off a horse and almost died,’ he says. ‘I slid down his neck, and he went over my head. His ass almost crushed me.’



Next year Momoa will share the screen with Sylvester Stallone in the crime thriller Bullet To The Head. ‘I’m just a kid from Iowa, and now I’m playing Conan The Barbarian and fighting fucking Rocky!’ he says. ‘It’s a trip.'



Building Conan

To get in warrior shape for his role as Conan, Momoa used the AR7programme built around high reps and active rest, which had him holding the bar between sets. He completed 110 reps of each exercise, 330 reps in total, in about 30 minutes. Here’s a sample of what his leg workout looked like.



Exercises

Deadlift

Squat

Bodyweight jump squat



How you do it

For the deadlift and squat, select a weight that’s roughly 60 per cent of your one-rep max. Complete a set of seven reps on the deadlift, then rest while holding the bar for seven seconds before doing seven more reps. Rest seven more seconds, and so on. Then move to six-rep sets, then five-rep sets. Then move to the next exercise and repeat.



Session 1 Sets 7 Reps 7

Rest 7sec after each set, 90sec after completing all seven sets

Session 2 Sets 6 Reps 6

Rest 6sec after each set, 60sec after completing all six sets

Session 3 Sets 5 Reps 5

Rest 5sec after each set

TOP 10: Healthy drinks to help you loose weight

When it comes to weight loss, substituting healthy drinks for those sugary sodas and energy drinks can have a drastic effect on your weight loss goals. Most people don’t realize how many calories they take in each day from drinks alone. For instance, a caffe mocha with all the fixings can pack in over 500 calories! So as you can see, switching to healthier drinks and ditching the “junk drinks” will greatly reduce your daily caloric intake and in return start shredding those unwanted pounds. Check out this list of the top 10 healthy drinks that can help you reach your weight loss goals…

1. Vegetable Juice

   Vegetable juice is every bit as nutritious as fruit juice but with about half the calories. Most vegetable juices are also rich in fiber which can help make you feel full and in turn eat less.




2. Fruit Smoothies

   Mix-up a delicious batch of smoothies using your favorite fruits and a little bit of skim milk. Do not consume smoothies with added sugar, whipped cream, honey, or other sweeteners that can add hundreds of calories – in other words, don’t eat smoothies from your favorite local restaurant or ice-cream shop and think that you’re eating healthy because you’re not!



3. Fruit Juice

   Fruit juices have loads of vitamins and nutrients, but it’s important to make sure that there’s no added sugar…sorry Sunny D and Tang! Also remember that the pulpier, the better. Fruit juice with lots of pulp contains added fiber that can help you feel more full and eat less.
   
   
   



4. Black Coffee

   Coffee has plenty of positive health benefits and best of all, it contains no calories! Black coffee is rich in antioxidants that can help boost your mood, improve concentration, reduce the risk of diabetes and cancer, as well as many other benefits. Keep you coffee consumption at 4 cups or less per day – as with anything, moderation is the key.
   
   
   



5. Green Tea

   Like coffee, green tea has a plethora of positive health benefits and contains plenty of helpful antioxidants. It also helps to boost your metabolism if consumed on a daily basis, which can help to speed up your body’s fat-burning mechanism – as much as a 40% increase in some cases!
   
   
   



6. Milk

   The calcium in Low-fat or skim milk can help contribute to the breakdown of fat cells in your body. Too much milk, though, can pack on the pounds because it does contain a lot of calories, so stick to 3-4 small servings per day in order to benefit from milk’s weight loss benefits.
   
   
   



7. Protein Drinks

   Protein drinks, such as from powders or pre-mixed varieties, can have a great effect on your weight loss regiment, because lean muscle is very efficient at burning fat. In other words, the more muscle you have, the more fat your body will burn. Protein is a big part of this equation, because it’s the building block of muscle growth.
   
   
   



8. Fiber Drinks

   There’s many fiber-rich drinks on the market today, and they can be a great tool for any weight loss program. Fiber helps to make your body feel full, and it also has plenty of other positive health benefits as well.
   
   
   



9. Apple Cider Vinegar

   Sounds a little gross, and it may be too gross for some people to try, but apple cider vinegar is a sort-of “old school” health drink that was very popular in the ’70s as a weight loss tool. Although there aren’t any scientific studies that actually prove it works, many fitness gurus swear by it, saying that it greatly boosts your metabolism if taken regularly…Hey, it’s worth a try! 
   



10. Ice Water

    Probably the most powerful weight loss tool at your disposal, and also the cheapest, is plain old ice water (who’d a thunk!). Drinking plenty of water is great for your body because it helps you feel full, boosts your metabolism, and it contains zero calories. Furthermore, some studies suggest that drinking just two extra glasses of ice water per day can help boost your metabolism by as much as 30%. This equates to about 5 pounds of fat loss per year!

Henry Cavill - superman workout routine

Henry Cavill will be starring as Superman in the next film, Superman: Man of Steel. It is following the trend of Batman and Spiderman as yet another prequel movie telling the story of the early years, much in the way of Smallville.

He actually spent 5 months training intensively with cardiovascular workouts, bodyweight training and a lot of mixed martial arts training (MMA) which really amounts to a low of old school fitness training and boxing workouts. For a while he was working out 7 hours a day with this type of exercise. This really set him up well for the Superman training workouts which followed.

The weight training for this role sees him lifting weights for 2-3 hours a day. His workouts involve cycling through various different weight training exercises throughout that week to encourage all of his muscles to grow. Henry actually was already bulking up during the preparation for Immortals which vas also produced by the 300 team.

The 300 workout, which Cavill may or may not have done, uses a type of training called circuit training.

 Circuit training, in the simplest sense, is grouping together a bundle of challenging movements that work the entire body into a circuit. An exerciser would complete one movement, then move on to the next, and so on and so on until the circuit is complete. This circuit can then be redone a number of times, depending on how challenging a workout the exerciser wants.



In my own experience, I have found circuit training to be very effective and at the same time, very time-saving. An example of a challenging fat-loss based circuit, in my opinion, would choose an exercise for each major area of the body, and use those to circuit train.



So here's a list of common exercises:

Front Squat

Back Squat

Deadlift

Sprint

Lunge

Burpee

Bench Press

Cable Chest Press

Push Up

Shoulder Press

Dip

Row variations

Inverse Row

Pull up



From this list, I would make sure I understood proper form and could complete the movement safely, and then choose one exercise for each major muscle group. A very simple circuit could be sprints, pull ups and push ups. I would set a time or rep count (reps are harder with sprints), and complete the workout.



30 second sprint

30 seconds of pull ups

30 seconds of push ups

Repeat 5-8 times



This is just an example; there are plenty of other challenging combinations that could be useful. Remember, the most important thing when it comes to the Henry Cavill workout and every workout in general is form! Learn to do the exercise before you actually do it!

Joe Manganiello Workout and Diet Tips

Joe Manganiello is a new addition to the third season of True Blood. Manganiello, who plays the werewolf Alcide Herveaux, had to get ripped for his shirtless scenes to stay on par with Anna Paquin and Ryan Kwanten. Fortunately for him – thanks to his naturally muscular body and already-healthy diet, this was (relatively) easier than for most people.

Joe Manganiello Workout

When he started preparing for his True Blood role, Joe Manganiello weighed 240 pounds with 18% body fat. Therefore for him, ” it was about becoming more defined and cutting up the mass [he] already had,” said Manganiello in the August 2010 of Men’s Fitness. He worked out 6 days a week, twice a day! That’s twelve workouts a week!



For three of the days, he used a workout routine created by his physical trainer, Ron Matthews (who helped trained Hugh Jackman for X-Men, which is similar to Jackman’s Wolverine Workout), twice a day, three times per week. Manganiello also trained on his own three more times per week. He’d do his cardio in the mornings, and his strength training in the afternoon.



Here are some of Joe Manganiello’s workout tips, he revealed to the New York Post.



ARMS

To build those werewolf arms, Joe Manganiello worked his biceps and triceps from every angle and direction possible to stimulate different muscle fibers with each exercise.



In addition, instead of focusing on the middle of the muscle, which makes the arms bulky, he focused on the ends of the muscles to create separation and definition in his arm muscles.



TCW says: Alternate your curls with incline curls, standing curls, and decline curls. Each of these emphasize different portions of your biceps. For even more variety change your grip betweenstandard grip, hammer grip, offset-pinky grip (pinky is in contact with the head of dumbbell), and offset-thumb grip.

SHOULDERS

For shoulders, Manganiello used drop sets (or strip sets) in which he’d start off with heavyweights and do as many reps as possible. Then he’d lower the weight and do maximum reps. He would repeat this until he couldn’t do anymore.

CHEST

Manganiello liked supersets for his chest workout, which he paired with his biceps. With supersets, he could continue working out a second muscle group while resting a first muscle group. Not only does this cut your time in the gym, but it also leads to maximum fat burning. “Your heart rate isn’t resting at all. So after about 20 minutes, it feels like you’re doing sprints. It’s hands-on-your-knees, sweat-dripping-off-your-nose, can’t-catch-your-breath crazy,” says Matthews.

ABDOMINALS

Although Manganiello had a lot of muscle to start, he was lacking in the oblique and lower abdominal area. So Matthews had Manganiello doing a lot of twisting motion and hanging <` href="http://www.thecelebrityworkout.com/2011/08/true-blood-joe-manganiello-workout-and-diet-tips/#">legraises to work on his abs.

From fab to fat

Personal fitness trainer Drew Manning is making headlines for his unusual mission to go “from fit, to fat on purpose and in his six-month journey back to fitness, to show others how they can get fit. He has gained more than 70 pounds since his May 17, 2011 start date. In the video above he outlined his plans to post weekly video and blog updates on his progress, including his weekly weigh-ins, body measurements and photos as well as making note of how he is feeling.

He has gained the weight and returns to the losing phase, he plans to document as well, to give people the knowledge of what to eat and why and how and when to workout. Again, he will post blog entries so people can track his progress including his weight-ins, pictures and how he is feeling.

Drew Manning says that he wants to give people hope and inspire them by showing them it is possible to get in shape with the proper diet and nutrition and exercise routine.

His official Web site is Fit2Fat2Fit, and he also has an official Facebook page and a YouTube channel where he has posted numerous videos.

He said he had a lifelong passion for fitness and played sports and thus had no personal understanding of what it is like to be overweight. The journey will help him understand how hard it is both physically and emotionally.

His starting weight on May 17 was 193 pounds; his height is 6’2″ and that gives him a starting BMI of 24.8, within the normal range. In the video, he ends by consuming a plateful of doughnuts as his first step on the journey to becoming obese.

As of week 23, he was up to 263.4 pounds on his October 15, 2011 weigh-in, with a waist measurement of 47.5, and a BMI of 34 which puts him in the obese category.Click here to see the picture. You can see the week 23 video below.

Kellan Lutz's secret to getting a muscular body - 16 eggs a day

Twilight actor Kellan Lutz managed to pack on 25lbs of lean muscle to play the role of a Greek god in his upcoming movie.

The actor, seen here posing shirtless on the cover of the U.S. Men's Fitness magazine, piled on the weight to tip the scales at 220lbs - thanks to a high-protein diet and a rigorous workout regime.

Sharing his fitness tips with the publication, Lutz said he would eat 16 eggs a day in the lead-up to shooting and do insane outdoor exercise, that included throwing huge rocks around and doing countless push-ups

But Kellan insists he is no gym junkie despite his punishing fitness routine. In a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot for Men's Fitness, the 26-year-old actor says he likes to make up his workouts as he goes along. 'I don't really like the gym. I like to fool my body,' he said, referring to his spontaneous outdoor workout regimes. 'I run around the beach and then there's scaffolding so I can just do different pulls-ups there.'

'We did these [UFC fighter] Bas ­Rutten tapes, where it’s like, "OK, shadowbox! ­Defense! ­­Shadowbox! Drop to the ground!" Within 30 minutes, you’re dripping. And it’s Africa. So it’s hot as balls out there. We pushed each other to be the best we could be.' While still maintaining a beefy physique, 6ft1 Lutz shed a few pounds of muscle for his Men's Fitness cover, weight in at 195lbs compared to his 220lbs peak.

(bron: The Daily Mail / Men's Fitness)

NFC - The best enabler for the future mobile wallet?

There has been talk of NFC as a big driver of the mobile wallet since at least 2008, and the idea of using NFC has been toyed with by operators for some time. Anything that adds value to what a mobile phone can do is clearly going to be appealing to mobile operators (especially if it locks subscribers in or has a proprietary element to it), though the numbers of different stakeholders involved is still holding back NFC. Retailers, financial institutions, operators and manufacturers all have a role to play but also all have different vested interests in how it should be deployed.

The curious thing is that NFC is touted as the cornerstone of mobile transactions, mobile payments and mobile banking in the future. The reality is that NFC was never conceived for this kind of use case. Born out of RFID technology, some of the earlier uses were in tracking physical goods (from cows to library books!). This is relevant because security and encryption of NFC is a key blocker for further deployement of mobile payments (or other secure uses, like accessing buildings).

Even though NFC chips can only be read optimally at a distance of 20cm, the radio frequencies emitted can be captured a few metres away. I remember attending a panel discussion earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress where a  PayPal executive was asked what was stopping them from developing mobile payments with NFC. The answer was that it was simply not safe enough.

This could change though -if NTT DoCoMo was able to deploy over 100,000 "NFC keys" to their mobile subscribers allowing them to unlock the front door to their homes with their mobile phone back in 2008, then securing NFC transmissions further should be possible.

I believe though that from securing NFC communication for simple use cases like unlocking doors to that of making payments, there is still a long way to go. But then, at the same time, there are sceptics who still believe online use of credit cards is unsafe, so a great deal will be down to popular perception. Apple...please lead the way....